The Monte Cristo Heiress

My family, the Thompsons, was crumbling, and I was paraded before the powerful elite, the Ashworths, Albrights, and Cartwrights, supposedly to secure a lifeline through a strategic marriage.

My childhood friends-Caleb, Leo, and Julian-were the intended targets.

But at a humiliating dinner, they didn't just reject me; Julian, the one I'd always trusted, dropped a bomb: it was a bet, a game to see if he could "rehabilitate the fallen Ava Thompson."

Shattered, I fled, inventing a boyfriend, a lie that miraculously led me to Nate, a kind outsider who made me feel truly seen.