They Wanted Family Drama And I Wanted A Property Deed Chapter 10
Thomas winked at me.
I looked down and took a sip of my coffee.
It finally clicked for Richard why Eleanor had been so calm when she said she was the biggest
creditor.
The Vances hadn’t just swooped in.
They’d already been in all the right places from the start.
Marla thought she could tear a chunk out of the Harts while they were in chaos. What she didn’t know was that the chunk she was after belonged to my adoptive parents.
That night, Marla met with the head of a rival company at a private club.
She smirked. “The Harts are a complete mess right now. That real heiress might be sharp, but she’s just a girl.”
The door to the private room burst open.
I walked in. Behind me came my lawyer, Richard, Catherine, Bennett, and Sophia.
I smiled at her.
“Aunt Marla, you can eat whatever you want. But contracts? Those you don’t steal. Your tab’s up.”
Marla ended up getting hauled in for investigation.
Marge was also charged with embezzlement and leaking corporate information.
Once the dust settled on the Hart Group crisis, Richard apologized to me for the first time. For real.
That day, he sat in his study. His shoulders looked a little hunched.
“Lena, I was wrong before.”
I sat across from him and didn’t say anything.
He smiled bitterly. “I kept telling myself that bringing you back, giving you money, giving you the
Hart name
–
that was enough. But I forgot. Those are the things you need the least.”
I looked at the cold coffee on the table between us. My voice was calm.
“What I needed was for you to treat me like a daughter from day one. Not like a problem that needed to be placed somewhere.”
Richard’s eyes turned red.
Catherine stood in the doorway, tears falling. But she didn’t rush to explain like she used to.
Bennett said quietly, “Lena, I’m sorry. I always thought Sophia was fragile, so I protected her first.
But I finally see you do get hurt. You just don’t let it control you.”
Sophia stepped forward too. Her voice was soft.
“I’m sorry too. I was so scared you’d come back and take everything, so I just kept playing the victim. But then I realized… you were never interested in taking anything. The love you have? It’s
way more than anything I was pretending to have.”
I looked at all of them lining up to confess. I sighed.
“What, are you Harts running a BOGO on apologies now?”
Bennett blinked, then cracked up.
Catherine laughed through her tears too.
The mood finally lightened.
I stood up. “Alright. We’ll settle the past slowly. And we’ll take the future one day at a time. Family
isn’t something you fix with one apology. But you’re willing to learn. I’ll think about continuing to
teach you.”
Richard immediately nodded. “I’ll learn. I swear.”
Catherine wiped her tears. “Me too.”
Bennett raised his hand. “I already learned how to order a hot latte. Half sweet. Oat milk.”
Sophia said quietly, “I learned how not to cry.”
I looked at her.
She quickly added, “At least most of the time.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
After that, the whole vibe of the Harts changed completely.
When relatives came to borrow money, Catherine would gently pull out a contract.
“Of course. Let’s just talk interest and collateral first. Keep things clean.”
When executives tried to talk in circles during meetings, Richard would frown and say, “No mone
mental gymnastics. Just give me the data.”
When someone was passive-aggressive with Bennett, his first reaction wasn’t to get mad. He’d pull out his phone and hit record.
“Say that again. My sister’s legal team is pretty bored these days.”
Sophia took the cake, though.
She went from being a delicate little flower to a master of boundaries with a side of sass.
Someone asked her, “Aren’t you afraid the real heiress will take your place?”
She smiled and shot back.
“Take what? My sister’s got her own house, her own money, her own lawyers. She doesn’t want this run-down Hart spot. I’m just hitching my wagon to hers. Saves me twenty years of struggle.”
I heard that and nearly did a spit take.
Six months later, the Hart Group was back on its feet. Richard proposed officially adding me to the
inheritance plan.
I glanced at the document. “Fine. But add one more thing.”
Richard looked nervous. “What?”
“Every major decision the Harts make goes through a forensic audit first. Then we talk family.”
Richard was silent for three seconds. Then he nodded. “Fair.”
Catherine smiled from the side. “Lena, your parents are coming this weekend, right? I want to learn
how to make honey-glazed brioche from Eleanor.”
I looked at her. “I thought you didn’t like to cook.”
She looked a little embarrassed. “I want to learn. You like it.”
