The Hidden Billionaire Heir They Threw Away

1: 1

When I was twenty-six, my birth parents brought me back into one of the country's great families.

On my very first day home, my mother told me,

"Lance Mason, I know the engagement to the Hardings was made with you. But Miss Harding has loved your brother for years now, her heart already set. Don't fight Aaron Floyd over this marriage. Mom will make it up to you, I promise."

My eldest sister rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide her contempt.

"The Hardings are a centuries-old reclusive dynasty. They prize manners and breeding above everything. You're crude. You'd never be worthy of Miss Harding. You'd only ruin the goodwill between our two families."

"Over the next couple of years, learn from Aaron how to carry yourself with people. You're a little slow, but with the Floyds behind you, and with Aaron and Sybilla Harding to lean on, marrying some girl from a second-tier family and taking a team-lead position at the company won't be a problem. Beyond that, don't get any ideas."

My fiancée gave a scornful little laugh, looking me up and down, taking in my plain clothes.

"My eldest sister married a leader in finance, heir to the Prescotts, one of the Four Great Families. If you expect me to marry some backwoods peasant, then the Floyd-Harding union is off. The two families will never work together again."

My father sat on the sofa, took a sip of tea, and studied me with a hard, watchful gaze, as if measuring whether I really meant to make trouble.

I let out a soft laugh.

I'd only come back to meet my family, then leave again. But they were acting as if I were an enemy at the gates, coaxing me one moment and threatening me the next.

Never mind. I'd seen the house. I'd met my parents.

I wasn't going to get tangled up in any of this.

The smile faded from my eyes, and I said calmly,

"Mom, Dad, don't worry. I won't fight my brother for the marriage."

"I'll go back to Dragon Cove tomorrow, and I won't come back."

1

The living room went silent all at once, nothing left but the sound of held breath.

Aaron was the first, his eyes reddening, and then he dropped to his knees in front of me with a thud.

"Brother, it's all my fault. I never should have taken your place, and I never should have let Sybilla fall in love with me."

"Mom, Dad, I won't put you in this position. I'll leave the Floyds right now. I'll give Sybilla back to him."

Mom and Dad rushed to pull him up, hearts breaking for him, while Sybilla threw her arms around him and held on tight, the ache in her eyes almost spilling over.

"Aaron, I won't let you go."

"I swore an oath. In this life I'll love only you, I'll marry no one but you. To me, no one else is worth a single hair on your head."

Then she glared at me, fury in her eyes.

"Lance, you're a good-for-nothing who grew up in the sticks. You really think you're fit for me?"

"I'll tell you the truth. If it weren't for Aaron, the Floyd-Harding betrothal would have been scrapped long ago."

"Keep dreaming about climbing above your station, it won't get you anywhere. Even if I don't marry Aaron, I would never marry a stupid country bumpkin like you. So give it up."

My mother, sure that I was using my departure to threaten them, wore the same look of disappointment.

"Lance, it wasn't Aaron's fault you were taken away all those years ago. Your father and I have carried the guilt for over twenty years. But you can't use it to force our hand."

"The Hardings really are a top family. But Sybilla loves Aaron. As my son, you can't very well force the girl to marry you, can you?"

"Don't worry, sweetheart, it isn't that Mom favors your brother. I only want to find someone who suits you."

As a mother, her reasoning wasn't wrong.

I dressed shabbily, I'd grown up in the countryside, and I truly didn't fit with an elite family like the Hardings.

They'd found their real son and closed the wound. Guaranteeing me a comfortable life was already more than generous.

If I fought for anything, I'd be the one who didn't know his place.

But what they didn't know was that I wasn't using family feeling to force anyone. I really was going back.

Because she didn't know that I was an invisible billionaire, that at eighteen I'd taken over every enterprise my adoptive father built, assets spanning the globe, reaching into Starlight Wellness, into investment, into tech research and development...

I'd only wanted a simple reunion with my family. I didn't want trouble, I didn't want to be entangled in any of it, which was why I'd come dressed so plainly.

I never imagined that in their eyes it would just look shabby, beneath them.

I laughed at myself. Whether they played favorites, I couldn't say. But which child they loved more was plain to see.