I Married the Richest Man Instead

I was known all throughout high society as the perfect, obedient daughter. Suitors lined up at my door in droves, yet I insisted on marrying Grayson Thatcher, whose family fortune had crumbled, all because of a promise we made when we were young.

I thought we would be partners building a life together, but he fell deeply in love with his childhood sweetheart, a girl who spent her days running wild.

The night before our wedding, he went street racing with her and they both got arrested, causing him to miss the ceremony entirely. The scandal made it everywhere.

On New Year's Eve, he left me to organize the family banquet alone while he ran off with his childhood sweetheart to some crowded plaza. To see a different display of fireworks, they set fire to balloons people had released into the sky and triggered a massive blaze.

Once again, I exhausted every connection I had to get him out of the mess.

I cleaned up 999 of his reckless mistakes and kept the Thatcher family's business afloat, making sure he could live without a care in the world. I thought that eventually, he would at least remember some small part of what we meant to each other.

Yet when I fell critically ill and needed a heart transplant, he took the only available donor heart and gave it to his childhood sweetheart instead.

That was the first time I broke down and demanded answers.

He stared at me, cold and unmoved.

"You have the nerve to ask me that? If you hadn't forced yourself on me, I would've gotten together with Maeve years ago. You're as stiff as an old lady. How could you ever compare to someone like her? She's full of life.

"I've let you play Mrs. Thatcher for over a decade. I was more than generous. Maeve is going to be my wife now. When she dies, we'll be buried together. You won't even get that much."

I died consumed by bitterness and rage. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the matchmaking event.

I picked up the marriage proposal the Thatchers had sent and tore it to pieces. Then, I reached for the one from the wealthiest family in the room and smiled.

"Dad, if I have to get married anyway, I might as well marry the man with the most money and power."

"But you two had an arranged engagement since childhood. Besides, the Thatchers saved my life once. If we break off the engagement now when they're down on their luck, what will people think of me? What will they think of our family?"

I listened to Dad's troubled murmuring. The pain of death still lingered in my body. I rubbed my aching head, about to speak, when a loud voice suddenly blared through a megaphone outside.

"Calla Finley, your fiancé raped me. Are you going to do something about this or not?"

Dad's expression changed instantly.

I