Return Of The Forgotten Heiress Novel by Ophelia Graves _ Novel





Return Of The Forgotten Heiress Chapter 01

The only thing my sister Natalia Faulkner left behind was a little boy named Kieran Martinez.
Three years ago, on the day she died of cancer, my adoptive parents called me—the imposter they had once cast out—and told me to come home.
They used every kindness they had ever shown me as a weapon.
Then they forced me into Nicholas Martinez’s home—the man who had hated me ever since Natalia married him instead of me.
Three years passed. I worked myself to the bone in the Martinez household, but Nicholas never hated me any less.
Now even Kieran—the child I had practically raised—despised me.
At a society gala in New York, he watched me being ordered around with trays of drinks, disgust written all over his face.
"How can someone as shameless as you still show your face here?"
I stood there, burning with humiliation—until a pair of polished dress shoes stopped in front of me.
I looked up and froze.
It was Sebastian Hewitt, the man I'd left behind when I returned to New York.
Somehow, he had clawed his way to the top and become one of the most powerful young men in New York.
His expression was cold. Distant. Unreadable. A woman stood at his side.
"So you vanished without a trace just to come back here and wait on people hand and foot?" he scoffed, looking down at me.
In that moment, I knew my life had just gotten worse.
But the day I was forced out of New York, both Sebastian and Nicholas had sworn they would marry no one but me.
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I never thought I would see Sebastian again at a glittering New York gala.
Three years ago, when I left him in Miami, he had been broke, exhausted, and fighting for every dollar.
We used to share a tiny one-room apartment. He used to tease me about the holes in my clothes, and I teased him about the worn-out flip-flops he refused to throw away.
Now here we were.
I was crouched on the floor picking up shattered glass, while he stood above me in a tailored suit, utterly out of reach.
When I noticed his gaze flick over my wine-stained dress, I lowered myself instinctively, wishing the ground would swallow me.
Unfortunately, he didn't take the hint. He stepped closer and crouched down in front of me, staring straight at my face.
I shouldn't have come for a bit of extra money.
"So this is why you left without a word back then?" he said. "Marianna, you're really pathetic."
He grabbed my hand, the one I was using to pick up shards, and turned it over in his palm, studying it. Then, he let out a cold laugh. "These hands are even more calloused than they were three years ago."
After three years of working as a live-in nanny for Nicholas and Kieran, my hands were cracked, worn, and barely recognizable.
I tried to pull back, but it was useless.
It had been three years. I'd almost forgotten what Sebastian looked like. I wanted to take another look, but my vision blurred.
I gave a bitter smile. I'd planned to find him after I repaid what I owed my family.
Now it didn't matter anymore.
The woman beside him looked familiar. She used to be my best friend, Emilia Swanson. Now we were worlds apart.
She wore a custom evening gown and barely glanced at me, but the contempt in her eyes was impossible to miss.
Her lips curved slightly as she spoke. "Sebby, do you know this waitress?"
He let out a soft laugh. "Know her? We used to be very close. Right, Marianna?"
His brief pause had already drawn attention. More and more eyes were turning our way. My wrist was turning red from struggling, and all I wanted was to break free and run.
But before I could, Nicholas showed up.
"Annie? What are you doing here?"
He walked over quickly, pulled me behind him, and looked at the stains on my dress. "What exactly are you doing?"
At that moment, Sebastian's expression darkened. His gaze dropped to the hand Nicholas had placed on my arm.
I froze, not knowing who to look at.
Sebastian's voice turned sharp. "Marianna, aren't you going to introduce who this is?"
Nicholas clearly sensed the hostility and instinctively tightened his hold on me. "Annie, you know him?"
I wanted to disappear.
I didn't want the scene to spiral out of control, so I turned to Nicholas, silently begging for help.
I'd spent three years in his house. The least he could do was smooth things over.
Nicholas paused for a second, then smiled faintly and pulled me closer. "You just can't stay out of trouble, can you? Apologize to Mr. Hewitt at once."
Lowering my head, I murmured, "I'm sorry, Mr. Hewitt."
Those words weren't just for Sebastian. They were also for the version of me who'd left him without a word three years ago.
But hearing them only made him angrier.
Emilia stepped forward, looping her arm through his. "Sebby, don't waste your energy on people who don't matter."
Once they left, the smile on Nicholas' face vanished.
He shot me a cold look. "Is my family so broke now that you have to come here and serve drinks? Or do you think I don't have as much money as the Hewitt family, so you're switching targets?"
The Martinez family's money belonged to Kieran. I'd never touched a cent of it.
I could only bring myself to repay the Faulkner family with money I'd earned on my own.
After all, I'd lived the life meant for Natalia for so many years. If it hadn't been for that, maybe she wouldn't have died so young.
I turned away and wiped the tears from my face.
"I earn my money with my own two hands. There's no shame in that, Mr. Martinez."

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