Unmasking the Heiress by Sisi Yea

"Don't bother returning if you can't make Walter come home tonight, Evangeline!" It was New Year's Eve.

Every home was aglow, families embracing the joy of togetherness. Evangeline Rearden, however, was excluded from the glee. She raced her heavy motorcycle down Jetty Road, cutting through the biting cold wind on a mission to expose Walter's infidelity aboard a cruise ship.

The whole city buzzed with the news that her stay-away husband, Walter Gordon, has splurged on a cruise for his mistress, complete with a fireworks display.

Still ringing in her ears was the harsh ultimatum her mother-in-law, Aria Jones, delivered at the Gordon family's New Year's Eve feast.

"Evangeline, Walter is so averse to seeing you that he hasn't come home for the holidays in years! You're just warming the bench. If you can't give us a Gordon heir, call it quits early. Step aside and let a more fertile woman take your place as Mrs. Walter Gordon." Three years into their marriage, all Evangeline could think of was having Walter's baby.

The Gordons were on her case, and so was Cole Foster, her maternal grandfather. She had exhausted every trick in the book to cement her status as Mrs. Walter Gordon.

Walter was a different man outside-voracious and wild. At home, however, he had been distant and disinterested.

Forget intimacy. She could have paraded naked in front of him and not even earned a blink.

All the heartache had boiled down to one bitter truth: Walter did not love her. She had never been the one he wanted to marry.

The cruise ship Walter rented had been ablaze with lights as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, the air alive with celebration.

Evangeline stepped onto the cruise and swung open the door to the buzzing private room.

Walter, the seventh heir to Avalon City's elite Gordon family, had carved out his empire with Strata King Group at just 27 years old. In a mere three years, he shot to the top of the game, poised to take over the family's legacy. There he was, oozing laid-back charm in his sleek black suit, coaching a woman in a tiny black skirt on her pool shot.

Just then, a voice cut through the buzz, "Mr. Walter Gordon, it's late. Aren't you heading home?"

he shot back, and with a smooth move, he swept

not peel their eyes away, green with envy at

the magic touch, even after all these

a catch than he was three years ago? If you

turned a deep shade of red, gazing up at him with eyes full of

woman's face. It hit her

without a second thought. However, that was not just anyone it was Julia Rearden. Walter's ex-lover,

windblown hair and strutted across the threshold in

can just get married? She'll need my say-so

brazen enough to flirt with my husband tonight... Oh, it's the homecoming of the

home for New Year's. He's not even scared of his grandfather giving him a piece of his mind!" Three years had passed, but Julia's face still wore that same look of feigned innocence, her pretty

Evangeline, tripping over her words in

little welcome bash. It was my idea to shoot some pool, and, uh... Walter was just showing me the ropes.!" Evangeline's

buddies were her buddies too, that she was

on Julia's side, in a

each other as kids,

order

him, it was not

might not realize, but I've got the kind of pool game that could land me on the national

to learn, and I've barely sunk a few balls myself. You lived out in the sticks before you got hitched, and afterward, you were practically a shut-in, never venturing out. How could you be so good

on the game because you're too busy trying to snag your brother-in-law. No wonder you can't learn!" Her

girls who had been green with

Julia like that, and Julia seems