The Secret Heiress: Bound By Deception

The family council

(Sophie)

I drove myself upstate to the family house on Saturday morning. My hands shook a little on the steering wheel, but not from nerves. From anger. Pure, white hot anger that had been building since I walked out of that conference room.

The Lawson estate sat on three hundred acres of rolling hills and old growth forest. I'd grown up here, running through these woods with James, learning to ride horses in the back paddock, having tea parties in the rose garden with my mother. It was home in a way the penthouse with Marcus had never been. Now it would be my home again, my sanctuary. The mansion was easily three times the size of the penthouse Marcus and I had shared, with rooms I hadn't even explored since childhood.

Mom was waiting on the front porch when I pulled up the circular drive. She must have been watching for my car. Her face was calm, but I could see the worry in her eyes. She knew something was wrong. Mothers always know.

"Sweetheart," she said, pulling me into a hug before I even made it up the steps. "You look tired."

I almost broke down right there. Almost let myself be her little girl again, crying into her shoulder about boys who didn't deserve my tears. But I wasn't little anymore, and this wasn't about some high school crush. This was about betrayal and business and the future of everything our family had built.

"Where are Dad and James?" I asked instead.

"In the study. They're both worried about you." She took my hand and squeezed it. "Whatever's happened, we'll handle it together."

The study hadn't changed since I was a kid. Same dark wood paneling, same leather chairs, same smell of old books and Dad's cologne. James was standing by the window looking out at the gardens, and Dad was behind his desk even though he'd officially retired five years ago. Some habits die hard.

"Sophie." Dad stood up when I walked in, his face serious. "Your mother said you needed to talk to all of us."

"I do." I sat down in the chair I'd always claimed as mine during family meetings. It felt smaller now, but maybe that was because I felt bigger. Stronger. "I got a divorced."

The silence that followed was so complete I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in the hallway.

James turned around first. "What did he do?"

Not what happened, or are you sure, or maybe you can work it out. What did he do. Because James had never liked Marcus, had never trusted him, and now he knew he'd been right all along.

"He's been having an affair with his ex girlfriend for our entire marriage," I said. The words came out flat and matter of fact. "I caught them together. In our bed."

Mom made a small sound of distress. Dad's face went dark. James looked ready to commit murder.

"I'm going to kill him," James said quietly.

"No, you're not." I held up a hand. "Because I'm going to destroy him myself."

"Sweetheart," Mom said, sitting down across from me. "I know you're hurt. I know you're angry. But revenge isn't the answer. It won't heal the pain he's caused you."

"This isn't about healing, Mom. This is about justice." I looked at each of them in turn. "Marcus married me because he thought I was nobody. A secretary with no connections, no family worth mentioning, no money of my own. He used me for information about the companies I worked at. He was planning to divorce me as soon as he got what he wanted."

"Which is?" Dad asked, though I could tell he already suspected.

"A contract with Lawson Enterprises."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

"He thinks Sophie Parker the secretary can get him access to our company," I continued. "He has no idea that I'm actually Sophie Lawson. He's going to walk into our boardroom on Monday expecting to charm his way into the biggest deal of his career, and instead he's going to come face to face with the woman he just finished calling pathetic and worthless."

James started laughing. Not happy laughter, but the kind of laughter that comes right before someone does something they'll probably regret. "Oh, this is perfect. This is absolutely perfect."

"It would be," Dad said slowly, "if we let it happen that way."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we could destroy him right now. Make some phone calls, spread the word about what he's done to you. By Monday morning, Marcus Sterling won't be able to get a meeting with a hot dog vendor, much less with Lawson Enterprises."

"But you don't want to do that," I said, reading his expression.

"I want to let you do it." Dad smiled, and it wasn't a particularly nice smile. "If that's what you want. The honor should be yours."

"Richard," Mom said warningly. "She's been through enough. She doesn't need to put herself through a confrontation with that man."

"Actually, I do." I looked at my mother, hoping she would understand. "I need to be the one to tell him. I need to see his face when he realizes what he's lost. What he threw away."

"Then you'll have it," James said. "Monday morning, ten o'clock. The Sterling Enterprises presentation to the Lawson Enterprises board of directors."

"He'll be expecting Sophie Parker to maybe put in a good word for him," I said. "Instead, he'll be facing Sophie Lawson, CEO and primary shareholder."

"What about the affair?" Mom asked. "What about what he's put you through personally?"

"What about it?" I shrugged. "I divorced him. I'm taking nothing from him in the settlement. And then I'm going to watch his company crumble when he doesn't get our contract."

"That seems almost too easy," James said. "A man who would treat you that way deserves worse."

"He'll get worse." I stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the gardens where I'd played as a child. Everything had seemed so simple then. Good and bad, right and wrong, love and hate. Now I knew better. "When word gets out that Marcus Sterling couldn't even keep his wife from divorcing him, when other companies see that Lawson Enterprises won't work with him, when his investors realize he's not the golden boy they thought he was. He'll get worse."

"And if he tries to retaliate?" Dad asked.

"How? He has nothing. No real assets, no political connections, no influence that doesn't come from other people believing he's successful." I turned back to face them. "Marcus Sterling is a house of cards, and I'm about to remove the foundation."

James walked over to Dad's desk and picked up a file folder. "Actually, speaking of foundations, I've been doing some research on your husband."

"Ex-husband," I corrected.

"Ex-husband," James agreed. "And what I found is interesting."

He opened the folder and spread out several documents. Bank statements, credit reports, business filings. All the financial details of Marcus Sterling's life laid out in black and white.

"He's broke," James said simply. "Not just cash-poor. Actually broke. The apartment is mortgaged beyond its value. His car is about to be repossessed. His company has exactly three employees, and he hasn't paid them in two months."

I stared at the papers. "But the lifestyle. The expensive dinners, the gifts, the country club membership."

"All on credit. All borrowed against future earnings that don't exist." James pointed to one particular document. "This is his business plan from six months ago. Everything was banking on landing one major client who would provide enough cash flow to keep him afloat."

"Lawson Enterprises," I said.

"Lawson Enterprises," he confirmed. "Without our contract, Marcus Sterling doesn't just lose a business opportunity. He loses everything."

I thought about Marcus in that conference room, so confident, so sure of himself. Calling me pathetic when he was the one living a lie. Calling me worthless when he was the one with nothing to offer.

"There's something else," James said, his voice getting serious. "Something you need to know before Monday."

The way he said it made my stomach drop. "What?"

"Marcus has been meeting with our competitors. Jackson Industries, Meridian Corp, even some overseas companies. He's been shopping around information about Lawson Enterprises, trying to find buyers."

"What kind of information?" Dad asked, his voice dangerous.

"The kind he thinks he has access to through his wife." James looked at me. "Client lists, project timelines, financial projections. He's been promising inside information in exchange for partnerships."

The room went quiet again. This wasn't just about a cheating husband anymore. This was about corporate espionage. This was about someone trying to steal from my family.

"How much does he actually know?" I asked.

"Nothing useful," James said. "Because you've been undercover, remember? You never brought work home, never discussed real business details with him. He thinks he has inside information, but what he actually has is whatever random gossip he picked up from you mentioning your secretarial jobs."

"But he's been selling that worthless information to our competitors," Dad said.

"And they've been paying him for it," James confirmed. "Not much, but enough to keep him afloat while he waited for the big score."

I felt something cold settle in my chest. Not anger this time. Something worse. Something final.

"So Marcus isn't just a cheating husband," I said slowly. "He's a corporate spy who's been trying to steal from my family for months."

"That's about the size of it," James said.

I looked around the room at my family. My real family. The people who loved me, who supported me, who would never betray me for money or power or anything else.

"Monday morning," I said. "Ten o'clock. I want the whole board there. I want security. And I want Marcus Sterling to understand exactly what he's lost."

"And after that?" Mom asked.

"After that, we let the lawyers handle the corporate espionage charges." I smiled, and for the first time since this whole nightmare started, it felt genuine. "I have a company to run."