I Refuse to Lose My Inheritance to My Stepfather—So I Married a Stranger With a Secret

You never really know someone — and Mila learnt that the hard way. The day she signed her marriage contract, she did not know her husband. Out of desperation, she had made a deal with a stranger. She’d pay him to pose as her husband so that she could secure her mother’s inheritance.

But the man she barely knew ended up shocking her, when she found out who he really was. This is her incredible story.

The lie that started it all.

Mila began her letter saying, “Nobody expects their life to implode over breakfast. I certainly didn’t. But ever since my mother died, my life had turned into a battle zone and my stepfather, Charles, had become enemy number one.

After the funeral, I learnt about the clause in my late mother’s will: no marriage, no company. Not just any company, but the company my mother had built from the ground up. The only thing of hers that I had of importance. My birthright.

My stepfather, ever the opportunist, took that clause and ran with it. He walked in the office one morning holding my mother’s wedding dress and told me he had arranged for me to marry Max Belmont. I had no idea who he was, but I knew that any man chosen by my stepfather is a man I didn’t want to even know.

So, in a panic, I opened the bathroom door, pointed to the stranger inside, and lied: ‘This is my fiancé.’ I didn’t know the stranger’s name at the time. I just knew he was my only shot. And to my utter disbelief, he played along.”

They secretly sealed the deal — or so they thought.

His name was Richard. He was gorgeous and had that mysterious vibe to him.

The next day I met Richard, at a café, and he was dressed in an apron, sweeping the floor. I wanted to apologize for catching him while he was working, but I needed to explain everything that happened yesterday. That’s when my stepfather walked in again, and he again tried to convince me to marry Max.

He was getting angry, loud and aggressive and that’s when Richard stepped between us, just in time. I proposed to Richard right there and he agreed. My stepfather vowed to make us regret it before he left.

He was just too good.

That didn’t stop me. I invited Richard to the office to sign the contract and I gave him his “salary” and a role in my company just to maintain appearances, and he did the unthinkable. Richard started outperforming everyone. Including me.

Still, I never asked myself to take a deeper look into this man. For some reason, I was too in awe of him to see what was really happening. He spoke so well, made me laugh, and he even humiliated Max.

One night, I forgot our marriage was just meant to be pretend and I kissed him. I tried to brush it off like it meant nothing. But it did. I was falling for a stranger.

The ring that didn’t add up.

And he was falling for me too. He proposed, for real. And I said yes. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful the ring was — sparkling, perfect, clearly worth a fortune. But where did Richard get a fortune? I only gave him a few thousand dollars as a “salary” to play my fake fiancé.

So I asked Peter, a friend of mine who’s a jewelry enthusiast, to examine it.

“I know jewelry, and that’s real. And very expensive,” Peter said

At that moment, I realized something big: Richard didn’t use the money I gave him to buy the ring. In fact, he probably never needed my money at all. Which begged the bigger, scarier question: Where did he get this ring?

The documents in his bag.

Around that time, the company wasn’t doing too well and needed to be audited, and I jokingly gave documents to Richard to complete because he was on my case. I had completely forgotten about them until he walked out one morning, leaving his bag behind. And as I went to pick it up, I opened it, and inside was the audit, completed to perfection.

But how does a barista know how to audit a multi-million dollar company? That’s when I really got scared because I truly didn’t know whom I had married.

His identity revealed.

I found out who he really was in a boardroom full of strangers who were trying to convince me to sell my company because it wasn’t doing so well. Richard walked in and announced that he was actually the owner of one of the biggest companies in our regions, and he had just signed as our biggest client.

I was devastated.

Not because my mother’s legacy had just been given a fighting chance, but because Richard Sanders wasn’t the man I had danced with, shared laughs with or kissed. He was someone who had been manipulating me all along. Had he chosen me because he loved me, or because he wanted to save my company just to add it to his list of achievements?

I tore up our marriage contract and walked away. That night, I cried myself to sleep.

Her family betrayed her.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, my stepsister and Max show up and try to corner me into signing over the company to them. And honestly, I was about to. I had already lost so much. I was tired of fighting that just left me broken.

Until Richard showed up and reminded me of a moment that I had forgotten: A few years ago, I had given a homeless man some money, except it wasn’t a homeless man. It was Richard. That day, he had been robbed and was sitting on the pavement, and I had assumed he was homeless. Since that day, he had never forgotten my kindness or my name.

The man who loved me reminded me of who I really was — the woman who once helped him when he had nothing. And I knew who he was, he had been showing me this whole time. The man that always showed up to save me.

The lie turned into reality.

So we got married, for real, this time. Even though we had first built our love on chaos, secrets, and survival, it turned out to be the realest thing I ever knew. We now laugh at how it all began.

My family and I also managed to put our differences aside and our relationship is realer than ever. We’re the greatest team.

I never thought that I’d find love after my mother’s passing, but now I have the strongest family, and I’m honestly so grateful.

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