Chapter One
It happened on a Wednesday. I saw Joseph Stone for who he is; a cheating scammer. Just yesterday, he held my chin, looked at me as though he was searching for his lost treasure in my eyes and says to me.
"I will never forget this day as long as I live."
Fast forward to some hours later, I caught him in bed with my own sister.
***
My name is Jane Stalling and many people do not know but I am the true heir of Stalling and Elliott Corporation. My mother died when I was ten years old and she willed the company and her estate to me. But because I was a minor when my mother died, I was able to have access to my inheritance till I was a full adult and had a husband. Of course, I only found out a few months ago because I was quite young to understand it when my mother's lawyer read it to us after the funeral.
My father married my step mother a year after my mother's death; after that, my life became a living hell. Her daughter, my step sister, was the worst. I remember the first day she walked into our house. She looked at me as if I was the stray and said to her mother.
"I want my room to be bigger than hers." She pointed at me with her sticky bony fingers. I have burned with hatred for her ever since.
"Give me that! It's mine." I would drag my pink teddy bear from her. It was one of the few possessions that my mother had given to me. But Helen would not let me go in peace. She would cry and throw tantrums till my father came to give me a smack on my behind and take what is mine to give her, leaving the orphan to cry in her heart about the injustice done to her. Helen could have all the toys in the world, but she always loved taking what was mine including Dayne, my high school boyfriend.
I made up my mind to never be weak and never cry because of my father's new family. I never considered myself to be part of the family again.
I graduated from Harvard Business school with a distinction in business management. I got back home and my father graced me with a management position at the tech company. My dad was already a board member and was the acting CEO of my mother's corporation but I didn't know it. They kept that as a secret from me and made me feel like it was a privilege for me to be given a job at my own company. My father even said that the position given to me was a test to see if I was ever worth leading in the future. It was not a guarantee.
So, it was difficult navigating my way around the world of tech because that was not near my major at all. But I never complained. I pulled a team together and they made the job way easier for me.
Two years after my graduation from Havard, I met with my mother's lawyer by chance and he revealed to me the things that were hidden from me. My mother had suspected that my father was unfaithful to her and was cheating on her with his secretary, Linda Woodsworth. She contacted her lawyer and changed her will to make me sole heir to her estate and her company too.
I was angry and I confronted my father and his family with this piece of information that I had gotten.
"Dad, how could you do this to me?" I challenged him in his living room. I had moved out of the mansion: my mansion, immediately I came back from Harvard.
"How dare you be rude and disrespectful to your own father!" Linda rose up and tried to slap me across my face, but I held her hand. She was shocked by my audacity.
"You try raising your hands at me again and I will make sure you are thrown out of this house like a dog, you cheap prostitute." I spat back at her.
"What has gotten into you!" My father rose up this time to face me.
"This." I threw the documents on his table.
"I was too young to remember this, but the will clearly stated that I am the owner of all this! Everything in here is mine and not yours."
"What are you talking about?" My father feigned ignorance.
"Oh, you want to pretend as if you do not know, right? I just found out that you've been making me slave away for what I should be master of." I confronted him. And for a moment, he was silent, shocked that I have found out his secret.
"Where did you get this from?"
"It doesn't matter where I got it from, dad." There was a hint of sarcasm with the way I stressed 'dad'. Yet, there was no backing down in his eyes. I could see that he still had some trick up his sleeve.
"And did you check the clause that your mother spelled out for you?"
"What clause are you talking about?" I didn't actually read the entire will but relied on all that mother's lawyer told me.
"You need to be married to be able to claim any right to your inheritance." He spat at me.
"What!" I exclaimed in disbelief.
"I am telling the truth. Check it yourself. I never denied you your right. But until you are married to a worthy man, you can never claim your inheritance as the heir of Stalling and Elliott Corporation. Now get out of my face!" He flung the papers back at me.
I picked them up and went through it carefully this time. He was not wrong at all. Mother's lawyer had put it in writing and with mother's signature, I found out that I can't claim any of my inheritance unless I am married.
But who am I deceiving? I hated the idea of marriage. Ever since my worst moments in high school, I vowed never to get married. I remained hostile to everyone I met in college and afterwards because I hated men. Men? They are the biggest scum on earth! I had vowed never to get married and be the strong and powerful woman that my mother wasn't. And what did he mean by worthy heir? Does it mean that I have to marry someone who matches the great Stallion name?
Now, I'm stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. If I wanted to escape from the shackles of my father's rotten family, I have to break my vow. I have to walk down the aisle with someone I'm sure I will never love. And I will have to do it fast.
"Fine!" I told my father.
"If getting married is what will take me away from here and get what is mine, consider it done!" I snapped and walked away.
"Jane!" My father called back to me. I used the last ounce of respect I had for him to listen to his words.
"You may be angry with your family, but never bite the hands that has fed you or you may never have hands anymore." I couldn't say if he was advising me or threatening me.
I walked away with pride on a hunt for the next dummy husband. Little did I know that my tale was just about to begin.