Shattered Ties, Billionaire's Secret Prize

My ten-year crush slams his hands onto my car door, trapping me in the dark garage.

He demands I hand over my corner office to the crying scholarship girl.

I press the ignition button and slam my foot on the gas.

I leave him eating my dust in the rearview mirror.

I sit entirely alone on my birthday.

A massive motorcycle engine roars through the freezing rain.

The underground racing king kicks his kickstand down.

He tosses a matte black helmet at my chest and pulls me onto his Ducati.

Chapter 1

I was Genevieve, Manhattan's most notorious wild child. I once totaled a five-million-dollar Bugatti in an illegal street race just to make my childhood best friend smile.

The internet lived for our narrative. "Genevieve is obsessed with Sebastian. She learned to race for him. She tamed her temper for him."

My dad, Robert, finally snapped. He shipped me off to a brutal reality show in rural Montana, forcing me to dig potatoes and shovel dirt for six grueling months to build character.

When I finally dragged myself back to the Upper East Side, covered in dirt, the punchline of the century was waiting for me. Sebastian had fallen in love with Daisy, the scholarship girl who swapped lives with me.

At my own welcome-home gala, Sebastian shielded her behind his broad shoulders. His jaw clenched, eyes icy. "Enough, Genevieve. It's her. I love Daisy."

Morgan, a ruthless gossip reporter, shoved a microphone right into my face. "Genevieve, all of New York knows you worship Sebastian. Now that he's moved on, are you as devastated as the rumors say?"

Cameras flashed. The internet collectively held its breath, waiting for the trademark Genevieve meltdown.

I pressed my lips together, but a sharp laugh slipped out anyway. "I worship him? Since when?"

The grand ballroom fell into a dead silence.

Morgan thrust the mic closer, practically hitting my chin. "Are you just lashing out from heartbreak?"

I offered a bright smile. "Just stating facts."

"Then how do you feel about Sebastian and Daisy's relationship"

"I'm thrilled for them." I plucked a flute of champagne from a passing tray and raised it toward the golden couple. "A match made in heaven. Truly."

Sebastian's expression darkened. He clearly had not prepared for this script. The old Genevieve would have shattered the crystal flute, screamed until her throat bled, and demanded to know why she wasn't enough.

Daisy shrank against him, her voice a fragile, trembling whisper. "Genevieve, please don't be angry. It's my fault"

"You're perfectly fine," I cut her off smoothly. Turning my back on the drama, I walked over to the dessert spread and grabbed a slice of red velvet cake.

My phone buzzed in my clutch. A text from an unsaved number glowed on the screen. "Enjoying the show?"

I swiped to delete it. I didn't need caller ID to know it was Damon. He was my actual boyfriend.

The man I had been secretly dating for three years behind everyone's backs. He knew exactly what this circus meant to me.

Across the room, Robert and Katherine noticed Daisy's teary eyes. They rushed over, pulling the scholarship girl into a protective embrace. "Oh, sweetheart, you've been through so much" Katherine cooed.

Robert patted Sebastian's shoulder with approving warmth. "Douglas and Shirley gave me the heads up. You take good care of our Daisy."

Only then did their eyes flick toward me.

"Genevieve," Katherine sighed, her tone heavy with disappointment. "Be the bigger person here. Daisy hasn't had your privileges. You know what her background is like"

Robert rubbed his temples. "Just go home. Don't make a scene tonight."

Daisy stepped forward, timidly reaching out to tug at the silk of my sleeve. "Genevieve, let's all go home together"

I yanked my arm away, smoothing the fabric. "Go ahead without me. I've got plans."

Sebastian blocked my path, squaring his broad shoulders in that arrogant, territorial way of his. "Where are you running off to now? Illegal street racing? Getting wasted? Grow up, Genevieve."

"Work." I tapped my phone screen, flashing my digital calendar right in his face. "I have a pitch meeting with an investor."

He let out a condescending scoff, like I had just told him a joke. "What investor is going to meet with you? You spent the last six months in the middle of nowhere"

"Digging potatoes?" I finished his sentence, meeting his gaze head-on. "I did a hell of a lot more than just play in the dirt."

Down in the dimly lit parking garage, the heavy thud of footsteps echoed behind me. Sebastian stepped in front of my car, blocking the driver's side door. "What's your game here, Genevieve?"

I hit the button on my key fob, the headlights flashing twice in the gloom. "I'm not playing games."

"Drop the act." He grabbed the edge of the car door, his grip white-knuckled, refusing to let me close it. "Don't pull this detached routine today, just to show up at my penthouse tomorrow, crying and begging to know why I chose her."

"Crying?" An exhausted laugh tore from my throat. "Sebastian, people grow up."

He froze. His grip on the metal loosened slightly as his eyes scanned my features, as if he was truly seeing me for the very first time.

Chapter 2

But he had been looking at this face for a decade. Ten years. I grew my hair out simply because he once casually mentioned he preferred girls with long hair.

I swallowed my pride and suffocated my fiery temper because my outbursts embarrassed him. Even when he wrapped his arm around his shiny new toy and told me to stop making a scene, all I did was stare at him with bloodshot eyes and ask why.

His response back then? He sighed. "You are always so immature."

"Daisy is perfect for you." I slid into the driver's seat and yanked the seatbelt across my chest. "She is sweet. Obedient. She treats you like the center of the universe. You two are a match made in heaven."

His face flushed with raw anger. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means," I pressed the ignition button, the engine roaring to life beneath me, "I'm exhausted."

"Chasing you for ten years? It got boring." I slammed my foot on the gas. In the rearview mirror, his figure shrank until he was nothing more than a blur in the parking garage.

I dialed the number I knew by heart. "Did you get enough of a show?" I asked.

A low, gravelly chuckle rumbled through the car's Bluetooth speakers. "This is barely the opening act, my Genevieve." "Sticking to the plan?" Damon asked.

"Yeah."

"Let them play house for a few days."

I ended the call, tossing the phone onto the passenger seat.

Later that night, I walked back into the family estate, only to find my childhood bedroom gutted. It had been transformed into Daisy's new music room. A massive grand piano sat exactly where my bed used to be.

Katherine grabbed my hand, her grip clammy and desperate. "Genevieve, you barely stay here anyway. Daisy loves to play, and this room gets the absolute best natural lighting"

I didn't say a word. I just pulled a stack of flattened cardboard boxes from the hallway closet and started packing up the remnants of my life. When I peeled my framed photos off the walls, the wallpaper underneath was faded.

Daisy hovered in the doorway, furiously wiping fake tears from her cheeks. "Genevieve, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to take your space"

"It's fine." I shoved a silver picture frame deep into the bottom of the box. "If you like it, it's yours."

Robert pinched the bridge of his nose. "Genevieve, there are plenty of guest suites on the third floor"

"Don't bother." I flashed him a polite, hollow smile. "My condo downtown is much more convenient."

Sebastian was there, too. He leaned against the doorframe, his brow furrowed in annoyance. "Genevieve, stop acting like some tragic martyr."

I hoisted the heavy box into my arms, my brows pulling together in genuine confusion. "I'm not acting like a martyr."

He choked on whatever he was about to say next.

Daisy immediately shrank back, her voice trembling. "Sebastian, please don't yell at her"

His tone melted into something sickly sweet. "Don't be scared, Daisy. I'm right here."

I watched them play their little damsel and protector routine, then silently carried my box down the sweeping mahogany staircase.

Katherine chased after me, her fingers digging into my elbow at the landing. "Genevieve, it's not that I don't love you. It's just Daisy has"

"I know." I turned to look at her. "As long as you are happy, Mom."

I had repeated that exact phrase countless times over the years. When I was little and she praised the neighbor's daughter for being so well-behaved, I said it. When she bragged about my cousin's straight A's, I said it.

I spent my entire life shrinking myself, suffocating my own personality just to fit perfectly into their pristine family portrait. I thought if I played the flawless, compliant daughter, they would eventually see me. But I finally understood something looking into Katherines guilty eyes. Their love wasn't something to be earned. It was transactional. And I was officially done paying the toll.

But everything was different now. I stared into Katherine's panicked, guilty eyes, and a dark, bitter laugh scraped against the back of my throat.

She always knew she was playing favorites. She just expected me to swallow the unfairness so she would not have to feel bad about it.

"Mom," I let out a soft laugh. "You really don't need to explain yourself. Because I'm not upset."

She froze, the excuses dying on her tongue.

"Because I finally realized something." I pulled my arm firmly from her grasp. "It's not that I'm not good enough. It's that your love is just too cheap."

When I turned around and walked down the rest of those stairs, my footsteps felt lighter than they had in a decade.

Chapter 3

The next morning, I swung by the family estate to grab the last of my things. That was when Daisy accidentally shattered the vintage Cartier emerald bangle Lucille had left me.

It was my grandmother's dying gift.

The heirloom splintered into three jagged pieces against the cold marble floor. The sharp crack echoed through the massive foyer.

Daisy dissolved into calculated tears. "Genevieve, I'm so sorry It slipped. I swear I didn't mean to"

Sebastian immediately pulled her behind his broad back, playing the gallant protector. "It's just a bracelet. Don't make a huge deal out of this, Genevieve."

Katherine hurried over, glancing at the shattered jade with a heavy sigh. "Genevieve, I'll just buy you a new one. Daisy didn't do it on purpose."

Robert frowned, waving a dismissive hand. "Enough. Let's drop it."

I didn't say a word. I just crouched down, picking up the jagged green shards one by one.

The fractured edges sliced deep into my fingertips. Drops of bright crimson welled up, dripping onto the pristine marble.

"It's fine," I said, my voice dead calm. I stood up, wiping the blood on my jeans. "Out with the old, in with the new. Just like people."

Before Daisy could even process the insult, I marched straight over to her prized antique grand piano. It had been Katherine's lavish gift to her just last month.

I grabbed the heavy wooden piano bench. I swung it down. Hard.

The discordant, violent crash of splintering wood and snapping piano keys filled the room.

Daisy let out a shriek and lunged forward. But I had already snatched the silver picture frame resting on the glossy lid. A perfect candid of her and Sebastian.

"This"I locked eyes with her and simply opened my bloodied fingers"was also a slip."

The glass exploded into a hundred pieces at her feet.

Sebastian took a threatening step toward me. I held up a hand, stopping him dead in his tracks. "What's the rush? I'm not done."

I turned to Robert and Katherine. Their faces drained of color. "Mom, Dad. For years, I ripped myself apart wondering if I was just inherently unlovable. Why you always looked at everyone else's kids with so much pride."

"Now I get it. You two simply don't deserve a good daughter."

I scooped my designer bag off the floor. As I brushed past Daisy, I leaned in close. "A knockoff will never be the real thing."

"Even living in this mansion, you're still just a pathetic parasite who has to lie and scheme just to get a scrap of affection."

I walked out the front doors with her hysterical sobbing echoing behind me.

I pulled out my phone and shot a text to Damon. "We can move to the next step."

His reply popped up instantly. "Been ready."

I looked up at the sky. The Manhattan skyline was choked with gray smog, a perfect reflection of my last decade in this toxic family. But the clouds were about to break.

On my actual birthday, the estate hosted a massive, over-the-top gala. The gold-foil invitations read: You are cordially invited to celebrate the homecoming of our long-lost daughter, Daisy.

It was not a birthday party for me. It was her official high-society debut. And they had guilt-tripped me into attending.

Daisy sat at a brand-new piano, draped in a custom haute couture gown, playing a flawless sonata to a room full of applause.

The old-money elites whispered over their champagne flutes. Now that is how an heiress should behave.

Someone murmured in the back, "Wait, isn't today Genevieve's birthday?"

Katherine overheard. A flash of panic crossed her face before she forced a stiff smile. "Oh, right Genevieve, come cut the cake."

A massive, three-tier pink fondant cake was wheeled out. Daisy had picked the design.

Pink. The one color I had loathed since childhood.

Sebastian scooped a small bite onto a silver fork and fed it directly to Daisy. "Is it sweet?"

Daisy nodded, her eyes curving into perfect little crescents. "So sweet. You have some too, Sebastian."

I dropped the cake knife onto the glass table with a sharp clatter. I looked at Robert and Katherine. "I lost my appetite."

As I turned and walked away from the glaring spotlight, I caught a whisper from the crowd. "Genevieve is so toxic. No wonder Sebastian chose Daisy."

A real smirk tugged at my lips. As if I gave a damn.

Chapter 4

Walking to the parking garage, the memory of my eighteenth birthday slammed into me. Sebastian had promised to celebrate with me. Instead, he had hopped a private jet to Miami with an Instagram model to watch the sunrise.

I had sat alone in a VIP lounge until 3:00 AM. My phone had buzzed with a picture of the ocean horizon. The caption read: "Stunning."

I had typed back with shaking fingers. "You promised you'd be here."

An hour later, he had replied with a single question mark.

Robert and Katherine had been in Europe on a business trip. I had sat at my kitchen island, lit a single wick on a convenience store cupcake, and cried until my ribs ached. No one had remembered me.

The parking garage was thick with shadows. Damon sat straddled on his black Ducati, one long leg planted on the concrete.

He caught my eye and tossed a matte black helmet straight at my chest. "Let's go. I'm getting you a real birthday cake."

I caught the helmet. I climbed onto the bike, wrapping my arms tight around his waist and burying my face against the hard leather of his jacket. For the first time in my life, someone remembered that today was supposed to be my day.

Three days later, the relentless buzzing of my intercom announced Sebastian's arrival at my condo. "Genevieve, we need to talk."

I opened the door and let him step inside. His eyes scanned my modest living room, his brow pulling into a tight, judgmental frown.

"Daisy wants a role at the family firm," he demanded, skipping the small talk entirely. "Make the arrangements."

"What position?"

"Yours." He didn't even blink. "Or at least an executive title on your exact level."

A sharp, incredulous laugh scraped my throat. "On what grounds?"

"She's a legitimate daughter of this family now." His frown deepened. "She needs the security."

"And what about me?"

"You're capable." He waved a hand like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You can hustle and build something else."

I stared at him. He looked like a complete stranger. "Sebastian, what exactly am I to you?"

"You are" He stuttered, the gears jamming in his head. "You're Genevieve."

"Right. A Genevieve you can just whistle for and dismiss whenever it suits you?"

His jaw clenched in anger. "Stop acting so crazy! Daisy"

"She's pitiful. She's had a hard life. She needs someone to take care of her," I fired back, cutting off his pathetic script. "I know. I've heard the same sob story a thousand times."

I asked, my voice dropping to a dead calm. "So I deserve to be stripped of everything? My bedroom, my grandmother's bracelet, and now my goddamn career?"

A heavy silence filled the room. Then, he finally spoke. "Genevieve, please. I'm begging you."

Ten years. He had never begged me for a single thing in a decade. And the first time he did, it was for another woman.

Katherine showed up at my door the next day. Her eyes were swollen and rimmed with red. "Genevieve, I need a massive favor."

"Name it."

"The Hamptons estate your father and I want to sign the deed over to Daisy." A fresh tear spilled down her cheek. "She says she feels unmoored. She just wants a home to call her own"

My lungs seized. It felt like a punch to the gut. The air vanished from the room.

That estate was my eighteenth birthday gift from Albert. He had handed me the keys and told me to never let anyone take my leverage.

"Mom, Grandpa left that to me."

"I know, honey." She reached out, her clammy fingers wrapping around my wrist. "But Daisy her life was an absolute nightmare before us. We have to make it up to her"

"So I have to pay her tab?" I ripped my arm out of her grip. "I have to gut my own life to compensate her?"

Katherine recoiled. "Genevieve, how did you get so cold-blooded?"

I locked onto her eyes. Every word tasted like ash in my mouth. "Mom. Where were you for the last six months, while I was breaking my back shoveling dirt in Montana?"

"I"

The heat flooded my vision, burning the back of my throat. "You were playing house with Daisy."

I forced a smile, though my face felt numb. "Every single day. She called you Mom, and you ate up every second of it."

Katherine's face drained of all color.

"She can have the estate." I pushed myself off the sofa and walked over to the window, turning my back on her. "But this is the absolute last time."

My voice did not shake. It was terrifyingly empty. "Don't ever come to me for another thing. We're done."

I heard the front door click shut behind her sobbing form. The second I was alone, I pulled out my phone and typed a message to Damon. "I'm at my breaking point."

Chapter 5

His reply popped up instantly. "I've got you."

I went back to the estate that afternoon to sign the deed over. I stood at the top of the sweeping mahogany staircase, typing out a text.

"Genevieve."

I glanced up. Daisy. She stepped right up next to me. A terrifying, calculated grin stretched across her face. "Watch me."

My brow furrowed. Then, she threw her entire weight backward.

A sickening, bone-rattling crash echoed through the foyer. She tumbled down the massive flight of stairs in a tangled mess of limbs.

Sebastian burst into the foyer at that exact second, stopping dead in his tracks at the brutal aftermath.

Daisy lay crumpled on the marble floor. Her voice was a breathless, fragile whisper. "Genevieve why did you push me? I just wanted to talk"

Sebastian spun around. His hand cracked across my face. The impact threw me to the floor.

A high-pitched ringing pierced my left ear. Blood flooded my mouth.

"Genevieve." His voice shook. It was a mix of blind rage and disbelief. "I never thought you could be this vicious."

Robert and Katherine rushed in. Total chaos. Daisy was sobbing.

Sebastian was shouting. I just sat on the cold floor, swiping a thumb across my split lip.

Katherine pointed a shaking finger at me. "Get out! You are no daughter of mine!"

I braced my hand against the wall and pushed myself up. The left side of my face pulsed with radiating heat. I locked eyes with Katherine.

"Mom. When I was ten, I spiked a 104-degree fever. You were busy taking Cooper to his piano lesson."

"Annette had to rush me to the ER. You didn't show up to a single parent-teacher conference in my entire life."

I wiped another drop of blood from my chin. "And now, for a manipulative con artist you've known for six months you are throwing me out?"

Katherine's face blanched.

Sebastian opened his mouth.

I cut him off. "Sebastian. I won't forget that slap." I swept my gaze over the three of them. "From this exact second forward, none of you will ever take another damn thing from me."

I turned my back on them. Daisy's fake, pathetic whimpers echoed behind me. I didn't look back.

The last spark of warmth in my chest flatlined into numbness. I pushed open the front doors and walked straight into a wall of blinding flashes. Reporters shoved microphones in my face.

"Genevieve! Did you just push Daisy down a flight of stairs?"

"Are you lashing out because Sebastian dumped you?"

"Is it true your family is officially disowning you?"

Camera shutters fired like machine guns. Daisy definitely tipped them off.

Then, the deafening roar of an engine ripped through the chaos. A matte black Lamborghini drifted into the driveway, slamming its brakes inches from the paparazzi.

The driver's side door swung up. Damon stepped out. The sleeves of his black button-down were rolled up to his forearms.

He strode right through the mob, wrapping a heavy, protective arm around my shoulders. He leveled a lethal glare at the cameras. "My girlfriend is exhausted. Back the hell up."

The press froze. Jaws dropped.

Someone finally stuttered out a question. "Damon? You and Genevieve"

Damon pulled me closer to his side and flashed a sharp smile at the lenses. "Let me make an official introduction. My fiance, Genevieve."

He flicked his wrist. Down the driveway, nine luxury supercars popped their trunks in absolute synchronization.

An ocean of deep red roses spilled out. On the hood of the center car, hundreds of blooms spelled out a massive "G."

"Three years." Damon looked down at me, his gaze softening into something fiercely protective. "We were keeping it private. But it seems some idiots got the impression my girl was unwanted."

Right on cue, the heavy oak doors of the estate swung open. Sebastian walked out, supporting a teary-eyed Daisy. They walked right into our sea of roses.

Chapter 6