All Chapters of After Driving Away the Fake Heiress, The Family Went Bankrupt: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I looked up at Isabella, wearing the smuggest grin I had ever seen.I pulled out a tissue and took my time wiping the coffee off my hand.The smile on Isabella's face froze.She clearly hadn't expected that.In her head, I was supposed to be on the floor sobbing, or launching myself at her like some kind of feral animal. But that kind of move was amateur hour for anyone who'd grown up in Manhattan's elite circles."Did you hear me?" Isabella's voice shot up three notches. "I said get on your knees and clean it up!"I dropped the used tissue into the trash and finally looked up at her."You've been back from the sticks for all of five minutes and you're already throwing tantrums? Twenty years of the Connolly name in this city, and this is what crawled out of it? You're an embarrassment."Isabella's face went crimson."Who are you calling a hick?! You're the one who—"She didn't finish.Rapid heels clicked in the hallway outside, and Isabella's eyes went red, tears spilling down her face

Chapter 2

Isabella was still laughing with the card in her hand, drifting closer to dangle it in my face."Thanks, sis. I'll make sure to enjoy being a Connolly heiress on your behalf."Laugh while you can. I didn't even bother to look up, just kept watching the stock price fall.Isabella hooked her arm through Margaret's and turned, a sudden flush spreading across her cheeks, eyes full of barely-contained excitement."Mom, I came back today to see you and Dad, but I also have the most incredible news."She glanced toward the bedroom door. The half-open door swung wide from outside, and Corey Harrison walked in with his arms full of red roses.He was my fiancé. We'd been together for three years, and our wedding was two months away.The moment I saw him, something in me unclenched. He was here to help.I took a step forward without thinking.He walked straight past me and pressed the roses into Isabella's arms. Ninety-nine of them, the exact same count he'd used when he confessed to me three yea

Chapter 3

Corey didn't have long to enjoy himself. His phone rang, and he picked up. The arrogance on his face collapsed in under three seconds."What? The Connolly real estate projects all tanked? The eighty million we put in—"His voice was shaking.Isabella pulled away from him immediately, pointing at me. "It's her fault. It has to be. She's always been bad luck; she drags down everything around her."I looked at her. I wanted to slap her, but that would only make me angrier. "I told you," I said quietly. "Don't make me unhappy."Margaret jumped in: "Still throwing a tantrum at this point? You've been a liability in this house since day one. Should've been sent away years ago."Isabella clapped her hands. "Don't worry. Today I'm giving you back what's yours."She crossed to the front door and pulled it open. Two strangers stood in the hallway, a man and a woman. The man was gaunt, his eyes darting immediately to anything in the room that looked valuable. The woman was chewing something, her

Chapter 4

A beat-up pickup rattled down a potholed dirt road. Every bump sent the back of my head cracking against the window frame.My biological father was in the passenger seat, counting a stack of bills he'd shaken out of a crumpled envelope. Slow and methodical. Thirty thousand dollars.I was tied up in the back seat, blood from my wrists dripping onto the seat cover. I didn't flinch. I just stared at the back of those two heads.My biological mother must have felt it, because she spun around. The second her eyes met mine, guilt flickered across her face, gone in an instant and replaced by aggression. She reached across and slapped me, the crack of it filling the car."What are you looking at?! When you get to Crawford's place, I'm locking you up first to keep you from making trouble for yourself."I had a rag in my mouth and couldn't answer. My face burned, but it was nothing next to my wrists.Back at the Connolly estate.Isabella was stepping into my walk-in closet, flipping through rows

Chapter 5

The screaming on the phone was still going. Margaret's knees were trembling, but twenty years of knowing how to play the room forced her composure back into place.She licked her dry lips and made her voice as steady as she could manage. "Raymond, calm down. Just let me explain. Ivy left on her own. She was jealous of Isabella coming home, threw a fit, packed her things, and walked out. I couldn't stop her."Isabella picked up the thread instantly, wringing just enough hurt into her voice. "Dad, before she left she smashed the greenhouse. All the glass... I was scared, but I didn't want to worry you."Mother and daughter, seamless as clockwork.Three seconds of silence on the other end."She walked out on her own? Smashed the greenhouse?" He said the words back slowly, one at a time. "Margaret, you've had twenty years to come up with a story, and that's the best you could do?"Margaret's face twitched."There are a hundred and twenty-seven security cameras hidden throughout this estate

Chapter 6

The truck was still moving. My biological mother had her legs crossed, chatting at my biological father about her plans for my future."When we get there, lock her in the basement for three days. No food, no water. She doesn't start calling us Mom and Dad, she doesn't come out. If she cooperates, she marries. If she doesn't, we beat her until she does."I sat against the back seat and said nothing. I was waiting.A deafening roar split the sky above. Three heavy-duty helicopters swept in low, their rotors sending a wall of wind slamming into the truck. The vehicle rocked sideways, and my biological father grabbed the wheel and screamed, pumping the brakes.Too late.A dozen black armored SUVs burst in from every direction. The first one's bumper hit the pickup's front left wheel at sixty miles an hour, and the sound of twisting metal tore through everything. The truck lurched sideways two meters, sending both people in the front slamming their heads into the windshield.My biological m

Chapter 7

Two hours later. Connolly estate, main hall.Margaret was shoving gold bars into a suitcase, her hands shaking so hard the bars clanked together. Isabella was across the room stuffing jewelry into a Birkin, jade bangles, diamond necklaces, ruby brooches, anything she could grab."Hurry. Back door. Now." Margaret's voice was barely above a whisper.Isabella grabbed the bag and ran. She pulled open the back door.Six men in black were standing in a line, and the one in front had a pistol aimed directly at her forehead. Isabella screamed. The bag fell. Jewelry scattered across the floor.The guard stepped forward, and the barrel tracked her head as she stumbled backward into the center of the hall. Another team came in through the kitchen exit with Margaret, and both women were shoved into the middle of the main hall, no chair, no wall, nowhere to put themselves, just stranded in the open like cornered animals.A helicopter overhead. Then the front doors opened.Dad walked in. His eyes to

Chapter 8

The lawyers arrived faster than I'd expected. Eight of them, all in black, briefcases snapping open in unison down the length of the dining table.Dad dropped the divorce agreement in front of Margaret. "Sign."One word.Margaret forced herself up onto one elbow, squinting through the swelling, her eyes having nearly swollen shut, and scanned the document. Nothing. She kept nothing. All real estate stripped, all shares revoked, every claim on Connolly Group assets in any form permanently severed.She bit down on her bloody lip and shook her head. "I won't... Raymond... twenty years... you can't do this to me..."Dad settled into the couch, legs crossed, voice flat. "Fine. Don't sign. There are a hundred and twenty-seven security cameras in this estate. I'll have someone pull a copy of the footage and send it to the FBI tonight. Kidnapping. Unlawful restraint. Aggravated assault. That's fifteen to twenty years minimum." He counted on his fingers. "You're forty-six now. Sixty-six when yo

Chapter 9

One month later.The Harrison Group's total bankruptcy and liquidation was front-page news for three days running. The Harrison patriarch had a heart attack from the shock and still hadn't come out of the ICU.As for Corey's hands, Dad had his people stop short of breaking them entirely. In the end, they'd only snapped two fingers, a last nod to whatever goodwill had once existed with the generation above Corey. But it was enough.Nobody in New York would do business with a man who'd betrayed the Connolly family. Every company in the city added Corey Harrison's name to a blacklist, and with no income and no prospects, the once-polished face he'd traded on was now hidden under weeks of patchy stubble. He was digging through the trash cans behind fast food restaurants.One night he stole a stale sandwich a homeless man had stashed in a cardboard box. The man broke a bottle over Corey's head. Corey ended up crouched on the curb, pressing his hand over a bloody socket where his right eye h

Chapter 10

I was standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows on the top floor of the Connolly Group headquarters. Sixty-eighth floor. The entire New York skyline lay beneath me, thousands of pinprick lights scattered across the dark like a board game someone had knocked over, and I was the only one who knew how to put it back.Dad walked over with a mug of warm milk and set it beside me. "Still hot. Wait a couple minutes." His voice was careful, the way you'd talk to someone fragile, which was ridiculous given that this was the man who'd spent decades crushing competitors, and yet here he was, tiptoeing.I lifted my right hand and looked at my wrist. The wound had healed completely. The new skin was soft and pale pink, with a faint scar ring remaining around the edge. Dad had mentioned laser treatments to remove it, and I'd said no. Leave it. It reminded me who was worth trusting and who wasn't, and that mattered."Did you read the CFO's report?" Dad asked, eyes on the massive display wall behind us

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