The Fake Ring and the Hidden Heiress

“Too late to play the feelings card! Don't say I didn't warn you. You don't come up with five hundred thousand, South Bay Village is where they'll bury you!”

She pulled out her phone and started calling in reinforcements, summoning every relative in the village to come intimidate me.

I looked at her, my voice cold.

“Five hundred thousand is pocket change. I can pay it. The question is whether you really dare take it.”

“While you've still got my phone, do yourself a favor and look up what the law does to people who pull this kind of stunt.”

“Screw your damn advice!”

Ella couldn't have cared less about the warning.

“You little tramp, all this big talk. Don't tell me you can't actually come up with the money?”

I nodded, done wasting my breath. “Fine. I'll pay. Don't come crying later.”

I took out my phone to transfer the money, and the screen lit up with an incoming call.

It was my father.

I was about to answer when Ella snatched the phone out of my hand.

She smirked, hit speakerphone.

“Hello?”

My father's voice came booming through the speaker.

“Roberta, when are you and my precious granddaughter coming home?”

Ella's tone was pure arrogance.

“So you're the little tramp's daddy?”

“Listen up, old man. Your daughter defiled my brother, and now we've got her. You have twenty minutes to come up with five hundred thousand. You don't? Come to South Bay Village and collect her body.”

“Oh, and that little bastard kid of hers? Every minute you're late, I snap one of her fingers.”

My father went quiet for a beat.

He'd probably never imagined that after all these years, someone would actually call him "old man" to his face and threaten him in the same breath.

“Just five hundred thousand?”

“How about I make it five million. Send me the account number. I'll have it wired right now.”

The only two things in this world my father would never let anyone touch were me and my daughter. Ella had just managed to hit both.

She had no idea how much menace was in his voice. She stayed just as flippant as before.

“Five million? Old man, if you actually have five million, I'll cut my own head off and you can use it as a piss pot!”

She hung up, turned to me with open contempt.

“So that's why you were carrying a bastard before you were even married. Turns out you've got a shameless blowhard for a father!”

“I'd love to see him pull five million out of thin air!”

Watching this unfold, I almost laughed.

“Jacob, you really do have a wonderful sister.”

“She must be terrified of you ever having a decent life. I've never met anyone with this big a death wish.”

Ella snorted.

“Waste less time trying to stir things up and worry more about yourself and that little bastard!”

Certain my father couldn't possibly have the money, she looked me up and down a few times, then lunged at me, yanking at my necklace and my watch.

“That old fool's obviously broke, so I'll take this junk as a down payment!”

She bounced the torn-off necklace and watch in her palm like they were nothing.

That was when the notification chimed.

Ella pulled out her phone, and what she saw made her fling it to the ground.

I looked down. The screen read: “Deposit received: $5,000,000.”