The Returned Heiress Who Never Fit In

Chapter 1 She Plays Dirty, I Pay the Price!

The day Stella Dawson was born, the family maid threw her away—just so her own daughter, born on the same day, could have a better life.

Eighteen years later, her family finally found her. But instead of guilt and compensation, what awaited her was something else entirely.

“You’re gorgeous!”

Stella stood in front of the mirror, dressed in a wedding gown. The fitted bodice hugged her slender waist, and the voluminous skirt made her look like a fairytale princess.

Even without makeup, her delicate features were striking.

The boutique manager helping her adjust the gown couldn’t help but praise her.

“Mr. Keene didn’t come with you? Men and women have different tastes when it comes to these things.”

Stella smiled politely. “He’s busy with work. Couldn’t get away.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her phone buzzed. She glanced at the caller ID before picking up. “Tess?”

“Stella, I just saw Lillian with Ethan!”

Stella’s expression froze.

The satisfaction on her face disappeared bit by bit, buried under the weight of Tessa Miller’s words. Her gaze turned cold.

Ethan Keene was her fiancé. Their wedding was in a week.

And just hearing Lillian Reed’s name made a flicker of disgust cross her eyes. Lillian—the maid’s daughter. The girl who stole her parents at birth and now had the nerve to come after her fiancé.

Stella shot a look at the boutique manager, who instantly understood and nodded.

With a simple hand gesture from the manager, the other employees quickly left the room.

Once they were gone, Stella glanced at her manicured nails and asked casually, “Where’d you see them?”

Tessa hesitated. “The hospital. OB-GYN department.”

eyebrow and chuckled. “Well,

man and a woman showing up together in the OB-GYN

but a two-faced manipulator, and Ethan’s a bastard. Call

gotten angry yet, but

time she pulls one of her stunts,

her own accord, claiming that since the real daughter of the Reed family was back, she had no right to stay. And yet here she was

been too kind these past two years? Or just

right before your wedding. What do

gaze darkened. “I’ll call you

sounded alarmed. “What are

“If someone’s selling a lie, how could I not buy

she ended the

mirror, looking at herself in the pristine white

trailed over the

in her hands. She tossed the shredded

gasped in shock, but seeing Stella’s

into her own

glanced at the

Ethan.

up, his cold voice came through. “Once you’re done trying on the dress, come

Two years.

been nothing but gentle and considerate toward

in attitude… was it

mocking smile flitted across Stella’s lips. She

Stella stepped into Ethan’s

by the floor-to-ceiling

His side profile

favored him, gifting him a face that was unmatched in all of

into the

to the couch and

call was gone. His expression turned

his

like she used to. Instead,

noticed the distance she put between them, and his expression grew even