You are mine, heiress!

Ailan:

"You don't have to wash the clothes of that good-for-nothing who only brings money into this house, though it's not enough for my son. I told him to marry an heiress or the daughter of a businessman. But my Walter never listens to me. He had to marry a simple worker with a good salary. When do mothers ever get listened to?"

Evelyn Patel said this to her staff when they asked her what she was doing with the clothes I had left in the laundry basket in my bathroom.

Evelyn, Walter's mother, had spoken to me like that before, but this time she did it in front of me and her son. Many people had warned me about the criticism she spread about me among our group of acquaintances, but I hadn't expected it to come from her directly. It was just a coincidence that I had felt unwell that morning and been unable to go to work.

Lately, I had been feeling very ill. My menstrual cycle was irregular, and I even had my period twice in the same month. Unfortunately, I woke up today with severe cramps. Walter hadn't come home last night. He said he was still away on business, so after calling work to say I wouldn't be coming in, I decided to stay in bed and rest.

I got out of bed because I was hungry, and no one had come to my room all morning. When I got to the kitchen, it was deserted. Eloísa, the Patels' cook, had probably gone shopping. After grabbing some cereal and yogurt and a cup of hot water with brown sugar to ease my cramps, I headed to the terrace near the window overlooking the living room.

After sitting for a while in my wicker chair and having breakfast at the terrace table, I heard my mother-in-law talking to the staff. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. I had known about her discontent for a long time, almost two years into my marriage to Walter. On more than one occasion, Evelyn Patel subtly expressed how much I annoyed her and made it clear that if I weren't the main financial contributor since my father-in-law died two years ago, she would have kicked me out of the house and forced her son to divorce me long ago.

You may wonder why I put up with this. I sometimes wonder that myself, but the reason is simple yet complicated.

To explain it, I must go back to my parents, who are responsible for my hiding my true identity from my husband. Perhaps that is the problem, coupled with the fact that my family taught me to fight for what I want. Being a Miller is no joke. Ever since I regretted marrying Walter, I have fought to keep our marriage going.

Contrary to what my mother-in-law, my husband, and most people who know me in London think, I don't come from a middle-class family in New York. In fact, I am the second daughter of one of the richest and most influential families in the multinational and holding company business world.

My parents are Yvaine and Norman Miller, the owners of the internationally renowned Miller Group. The group includes a chain of hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and several construction companies. I am the director of architecture and design of one of the construction companies, which is based in London.

For those who know them, my parents' love story is one of the greatest ever told. It has all the ingredients of a novel that any woman would not be able to put down, and that is why I wanted to have that kind of relationship with a man at least once in my life.

Long before they knew they loved each other, they had my brother, Roy William, and me, Ailan Caroline. A few years later, they had Amelia Paula, and three years after that, they had their youngest child, Marcus Philip.

Given my background, I expected something like this to happen in my romantic life. However, there were two reasons I couldn't find a partner who complemented me as my parents complemented each other in the world I grew up in. First, I wasn't sure any man who approached me wasn't doing so because of my surname and what it represented. Many of my college classmates asked me out solely because their parents did business with the Millers.

The second reason is more important because even if a brave man with good intentions was interested in me, there was little chance he would approach me due to my older brother Roy's, aka Arturo's, and my father's overprotective and pathological control. I adore my father, but he wouldn't let me or my sister grow up.

They even organized a "plan to defeat the enemy," as they called it, when I was a teenager so that I would be the only girl my age without a boyfriend in high school. My male classmates called me the Miller virgin.

I'm sure my father started preparing that plan as soon as he found out that one of his twins was a girl. I was the only girl at the prom with chaperones. The poor guy who took me to the dance fled in terror as soon as we entered the hall. I spent the entire humiliating night dancing with Roy, while he smiled happily at a job well done.

Given this scenario, there was only one thing left for me to do to live my life: get as far away as possible. Thanks to my mother, I was able to move to London despite the drama created by the Miller boys. The London construction company is the most important in the group. To go unnoticed and have a normal life, I hid my identity, known only to the company manager. I used only my middle name along with a very common last name in England and introduced myself as the new director of the architecture and design department. My father, humiliated by my mother, gave me a penthouse in an upscale area of London. My life as a normal girl began—or so I thought. It was from this decision that my life began to change, taking unexpected turns. A story unfolded that I never thought I would have, showing me that in life, there is no need to provoke anything. If it has to happen, it will happen.

Author's note: Thank you very much, dear readers, for your support. This book is part of my series on CEOs and surprise pregnancies. Each book is a complete, independent story. If you are interested in the other books in the series, I suggest reading them in the following order: first, The Night You Became the Mother of My Children; second, Promises Between Ice and Fire; third, The CEO's Hired Mistress; and finally, You Are Mine, Heiress! You can find all of the books on this platform. If they are not there, they will be published soon. Thank you very much! Best regards.