The Billionaire Heiress's Unforeseen Marriage

I am the sole heiress to a Texas oil empire. To protect me, my father adopted seven boys who were meant to be my future, and I was in love with their leader, Jax, my intended fiancé.

But it was all a lie. I overheard them confess they were only playing along to secure my fortune for Daisy-Mae, the girl Jax truly loved.

The humiliation was relentless. Daisy-Mae orchestrated a cattle stampede at our annual rodeo, nearly getting me killed, and Jax saved her first. He publicly shamed me at a charity gala, stealing my family's honor and a hospital wing dedication for her after freezing my funds.

The final blow came at my birthday party, where a doctored video was broadcast to hundreds of guests, painting me as a violent, unhinged monster and her as the innocent victim.

He did it all for her. Even when I was about to expose Daisy-Mae's plot, he confessed to her crimes to protect her, then offered to marry me as a bribe to buy my silence.

He thought he still had power over me.

But in front of everyone, I looked him in the eye and delivered the killing blow.

"I stopped loving you a long time ago, Jax."

Then I turned to the one man who had defended me, Sterling Prescott, and announced, "The man I'm going to marry is him."

Chapter 1

Scarlett POV:

"Dad, I've decided. I'm going to marry Sterling Prescott."

The words hung in the air of my father's study, thick and heavy as the Texas heat. The scent of old leather and his expensive cigar filled my lungs, a smell that had always meant safety. Now, it just felt suffocating.

Cormac O'Connell put down his crystal glass of whiskey, the ice clinking softly. His weathered face, carved from years of commanding the Golden Thorn Ranch and a vast oil empire, was a mask of confusion. "Scarlett, honey, what are you talking about? You love Jax. You've loved him since you were a girl."

He gestured vaguely towards the window, as if the seven men he'd adopted for me were standing right outside. "And if not Jax, there are six others out there who would walk through fire for you."

A bitter laugh almost escaped my lips. Walk through fire? They wouldn't even walk across the yard for me unless it served their own purpose.

My mind flashed back to last night. The memory was a shard of glass in my gut. I'd been heading to the stables to see my horse, Midnight, when I heard their voices drifting from the open window of the cowboys' bunkhouse. Laughter, low and cruel.

Wyatt Miller's voice was the clearest. "She's such a fool. Still thinks I jumped from the hayloft that time to impress her." He snorted. "I was just trying to scare her off so she'd stop following me around like a lost puppy."

Another voice, Colt's, chimed in. "Works like a charm. Just act like the biggest jerk you can be. She hates loud music, so I blast it. She hates dirt in the house, so I track it in. The more she hates me, the better. It keeps things fair for the rest of us."

Fair. The word twisted inside me.

"Fair for what?" I had whispered, my hand pressed against the rough wood of the bunkhouse wall.

"For Daisy-Mae," someone else said, and the tone shifted. "She's the only one who actually sees us, you know? Not just what we can do for the ranch. Jax is the only one not playing the game. He has to marry the princess so our sweet Daisy-Mae can keep her place here. Poor bastard."

The pieces of my life, the ones I thought were a beautiful mosaic of love and family, shattered into a million ugly fragments. Years ago, grieving my mother, my father adopted seven promising boys from foster care. They were meant to be my protectors, my future, the heirs to my empire. Jax Braxton, the smartest and wildest, insisted they also adopt his "sister," Daisy-Mae, the girl who'd been with him through it all.

All those years, every time I felt a spark of jealousy towards Daisy-Mae, they had ganged up on me, calling me petty and spoiled. They'd made me believe I was the problem. They had gaslighted me into thinking their coldness was a challenge, their indifference a test of my love.

A noise from the garden had pulled me from my frozen shock last night. I followed it, my heart a leaden weight in my chest, towards the old stables. And there, silhouetted against the pale moonlight, was a sight that burned itself onto the back of my eyes.

Jax had Daisy-Mae pinned against the stable wall, his hands tangled in her blonde hair, kissing her with a desperate, consuming passion I had only ever dreamed of receiving.

I heard his voice, a low growl meant only for her. "Even if I have to marry her, you know you're the only one for me. She'll get a ring and a title. But my heart, my love... that will always be yours. I'll never give her any of it."

Scarlett POV:

"They don't love me, Dad," I said, my voice flat and empty. The memory of Jax's words had scraped me hollow. "They never did. It was always for her."

I took a steadying breath, pushing down the last tremor of pain. There was no room for it anymore. "I have a second request."

My father watched me, his eyes full of a dawning, terrible understanding. "Anything, Scarlett."

"Freeze their funds. All seven of them. And hers," I said, the name Daisy-Mae feeling like poison on my tongue. "The O'Connell family doesn't support parasites. They are ranch hands, nothing more. They will earn their keep or they will leave."

He nodded slowly, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "It's done. And the day you marry Sterling, I'll have them all escorted off this ranch. I won't have them lingering, trying to stake a claim on what is yours."

It was a start. My chest felt a little less tight.

As I left the study, I nearly collided with Daisy-Mae at the top of the grand staircase. She was dressed in a pristine white sundress, her blonde hair in innocent-looking braids.

"Scarlett!" she chirped, linking her arm through mine. Her touch felt like a snake coiling around my skin. "I was just coming to find you. Will you take me to practice for the rodeo today? Please?"

I yanked my arm away from her as if I'd been burned. "Don't touch me."

The smile on her face flickered for a second before it was replaced by a look of profound, theatrical hurt. Her lower lip trembled. "Scarlett, what's wrong?"

Before I could answer, she took a clumsy step back, her heel catching on nothing at all, and tumbled dramatically down the last few steps of the staircase with a pained cry.

She landed in a heap at the bottom, just as Jax and Colt emerged from the dining room.

"Daisy-Mae!" Colt shouted, rushing to her side. He glared up at me, his face contorted with rage. "What the hell did you do to her? You pushed her, you vicious bitch!"

Jax was already kneeling, gently helping Daisy-Mae to her feet. She leaned against him, sobbing. "No, no, Colt, it was an accident. Scarlett didn't mean it. She's just... upset about something."

Her fake defense was more damning than any accusation. It painted me as the cruel, unstable heiress and her as the forgiving angel. The other cowboys, drawn by the commotion, now stared at me with open disgust.

Scarlett POV:

The Annual Golden Thorn Rodeo was more than just a party; it was a display of power. Oil barons, investors, and politicians from all over the state gathered under the hot Texas sun to watch our prize-winning livestock and our even more prized cowboys. My father always had me open the main event, a demonstration of horsemanship that was meant to assure our partners that the O'Connell heiress was as tough and capable as her father.

This year, I was riding Midnight, our new champion stallion, a beast of black muscle and fire. I could feel hundreds of eyes on me as I guided him through a complex series of patterns, the crowd applauding our every move. This was my element, my birthright.

I was nearing the grand finale, a full-speed gallop toward a line of barrels, when a high-pitched, almost inaudible whistle cut through the air. Midnight's ears flattened. His eyes rolled, white with panic. He was a trained champion, but this sound was unnatural, agonizing.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the source of the chaos. A prize bull in a nearby enclosure, a two-thousand-pound monster named Ares, was going berserk. He slammed his massive body against the steel gate, again and again, until with a scream of tortured metal, the lock gave way.

Panic erupted. The bull charged into the arena, its horns lowered, its rage absolute. It triggered a chain reaction, and a section of the cattle pens burst open. A wave of terrified steers surged forth, a river of horns and hooves thundering directly toward the VIP viewing stands.

My blood ran cold. I saw Daisy-Mae, who had been standing near the pens, let out a piercing scream and theatrically stumble to the ground, directly in the path of the stampede.

Jax, my protector, my guardian, the man whose sole job in that moment was to be my outrider, was supposed to be watching my back. Instead, his eyes were locked on her. Without a second of hesitation, he spurred his horse, abandoning me mid-performance and charging toward Daisy-Mae. He scooped her from the ground into his saddle, a gallant hero saving the damsel in distress, and galloped her to safety behind the barriers.

He never even looked back at me.

I was alone, caught between a raging bull and a stampede, with a dozen terrified investors trapped in the stands behind me. Adrenaline surged through me, hot and sharp. There was no time for heartbreak. I wrenched Midnight's head around, my voice a commanding shout that cut through the screams. "Hiyah!"

I became the woman my father raised me to be. I rode into the chaos, my stallion and I moving as one, turning the herd, pushing them away from the stands, my skill and courage the only things between order and bloody disaster.

I managed to divert the bulk of the herd, but Ares, the bull, was still a rogue element. He slammed into a wooden fence near me, sending a rail of splintered wood flying. I felt a searing, white-hot pain as a large splinter, sharp as a spear, tore through my arm.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Jax, having deposited his precious cargo, finally re-enter the arena to help contain the last of the chaos. He was a hundred yards away, his attention now on the business of being a cowboy. He hadn't even noticed I was hurt.