
Overview
Catalog
Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE — THE FINAL STRAW
Rain lashed the rooftop like a warning from the heavens. Derek Blackwood stood outside the emergency room, soaked to the skin, the cold doing little to numb the fire raging in his chest. Inside, a life was hanging in the balance—his foster father’s. The only man who had given him a semblance of family after years of being tossed from home to home like trash.
“Family only,” the nurse had said, barring his way. Family.
He clenched his fists. What a joke.
Behind him, a familiar voice sliced through the storm. “You should be used to rejection by now, Derek.”
He didn’t need to turn. That icy tone belonged to her—Tahlia. His wife.
Or the woman who once wore that title.
She stepped under the hospital awning, perfectly dry in her tailored coat, makeup flawless, eyes cold as glass. Her mother was right beside her, clinging to a crocodile-leather purse and moral superiority.
“I didn’t think you’d show,” Tahlia added, eyeing him like something that crawled out of the drain. “But I suppose even roaches show up for scraps.”
Derek said nothing. His silence was all he had left. Words had long since lost their power in his crumbling marriage.
“He’s not your father,” her mother snapped. “You were nothing but a charity case. If not for our family, you’d still be a filthy street boy.”
His jaw clenched. He’d learned not to answer women like her. The kind who smiled sweetly in public but spat venom behind closed doors. The kind who had slowly eroded the love between him and Tahlia until there was nothing left but duty—and disgust.
Tahlia’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it and smiled. “We’re done here. I’m heading to the gala with Cade. He actually belongs in high society. Unlike you.”
Cade. The celebrity she now flaunted like a trophy. The final nail in the coffin of their marriage.
“Your father’s dying,” Derek said quietly. “And you’re going to a party.”
“My real father, Derek. Not yours. Remember your place.”
She brushed past him with her mother, heels clicking on the polished floor, perfume lingering like poison.
He stood alone, throat tight. The nurse emerged, avoiding his eyes. “I’m sorry. Mr. Hawthorne didn’t make it.”
Just like that. The last good man in his life—gone.
Derek staggered back into the rain, rage and grief rising like bile. No inheritance. No family. No love. Just loss.
Until the black car pulled up.
He didn’t recognize the license plate, but the man who stepped out—tall, older, dressed in a charcoal suit and holding a briefcase—looked like something out of a corporate thriller.
“Mr. Blackwood?” the man asked.
Derek nodded warily.
“My name is Alaric Voss. I represent the Dawson Estate.”
Derek’s breath hitched.
“The what?”
The man smiled. “Your real name, Mr. Blackwood, is Derek Dawson. And your grandfather, Edwin Dawson, passed away last night. You’re the sole heir.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I have orders to take you to the family estate immediately,” Alaric said, handing him a sealed envelope with the Dawson family crest. “Everything will make sense once you see the will.”
Derek opened the envelope with trembling hands. The letter inside was handwritten, the signature at the bottom unmistakable:
Edwin Dawson, Founder & CEO, Dawson Conglomerate.
Blood roared in his ears. He was heir to one of the most powerful families in the world?
The nurse, the rejection, Tahlia’s insults—all of it blurred into silence as something in him shifted. This wasn’t some twisted joke. It was real. And if it was real…
Then the game had just changed.
For everyone.
Expand
Next Chapter
Download

Continue Reading on MegaNovel
Scan the code to download the app

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Comments
No Comments
Latest Chapter
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 26: The Silent Betrayal
The council chamber was too quiet. Derek could hear the ticking of the ancient clock fixed above the arched doorway, each second echoing like a hammer striking his chest.The round table before him gleamed with polish, though it felt more like a battlefield than a place of dialogue. Across from him sat men and women who carried dynasties in their names, their legacies stretching back centuries. They wore masks of calm, but Derek could feel the disdain beneath their words, their unspoken question: What right does he, the forgotten heir, have to sit among us?He did not flinch. He met their eyes one after another, cold, unblinking, letting silence become his ally.“You summoned us, Derek,” said Lord Harlan, the silver-haired head of one of the most powerful branches of the dynasty. His voice was smooth but carried a sting. “I trust you have something worthwhile. It’s not our custom to dance around with words.”“I don’t dance,” Derek said, his voice hard as stone. “I make moves. And toda
Last Updated : 2025-09-13
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 25: The Silent Betrayal
The night was thick with silence, broken only by the distant hum of the city that never really slept. Derek sat alone in his study, the dim light of the desk lamp spilling over stacks of documents, dossiers, and maps. Every line he read, every file he touched, only deepened the pit in his stomach. Enemies everywhere. Traitors closer than he thought. And now, the empire he had only just begun to reclaim was being hollowed from the inside.But what shook him most wasn’t the chaos outside. It was the quietness inside his own home. For days now, Serena had been… distant. She smiled less. She avoided his gaze when she thought he wouldn’t notice. There was a coldness in her touch that left Derek restless at night. He told himself she was tired, that the weight of their battles had finally settled on her fragile shoulders. But tonight, something told him otherwise.He closed the file and leaned back, eyes tracing the cracks in the ceiling. If betrayal comes, it won’t come with a roar. It wil
Last Updated : 2025-09-10
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 24 – Shadows in the Smoke
The blast still echoed through the walls of Dawson Tower as smoke poured into the boardroom. Alarms screamed overhead, red lights flashing like a heartbeat in crisis. Board members scrambled for the exits, their expensive suits and dignity abandoned in panic.But Derek Dawson did not move. His eyes were fixed on the side door, where a figure had slipped away seconds before the chaos.“Mason!” Derek barked.“I saw them,” Mason growled, drawing his firearm from under his jacket. “This way!”The two men pushed through the smoke, ignoring the shouts behind them. Tahlia’s voice rose above the din—“Derek, wait!”—but he didn’t turn back. If she was innocent, then someone had gone to great lengths to frame her. And if she was guilty, then the traitor who just vanished might be the proof he needed either way.The hallway outside was a warzone—flames licking from a ruptured vent, sprinklers hissing overhead, smoke blurring vision. Security personnel were already racing toward the blast zone, bu
Last Updated : 2025-09-09
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 23 – Whispers of Betrayal
The night in Dawson Tower was unusually quiet. Too quiet. Derek could feel it in his bones as he walked through the top-floor corridor, the leather soles of his shoes echoing against polished marble. Outside, the city glowed beneath the curtain of midnight, but inside the tower, there was a silence that pressed on his chest like an unseen weight.He paused by the glass wall, his reflection staring back at him—hard eyes, tired lines, but sharper than ever. A man who had once been discarded now stood at the helm of an empire. Yet power had a way of drawing shadows closer, and Derek knew tonight those shadows would whisper louder than ever.His phone buzzed in his pocket. A secure line. Only three people had the code.He answered. “Derek Dawson.”“Sir,” came the hushed voice of his head of security, Mason. “You need to hear this in person. It’s about the board meeting tomorrow. And about someone close to you.”Derek’s grip tightened on the phone. “Where are you?”“The sub-level archives.
Last Updated : 2025-09-07
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 22- SHATTERED CROWN
The boardroom smelled of power and betrayal.Derek sat at the head of the obsidian table, the walls lined with towering windows that offered a sweeping view of the city he had fought so hard to claim. Yet the room felt smaller, suffocating. Every gaze fixed on him carried a hidden weight—expectation, fear, or something far darker.“Gentlemen,” Derek’s voice cut through the thick silence, low and commanding, “we are here to secure the legacy my father built. But I must ask—whose loyalty lies with this dynasty, and whose loyalty has already been sold?”A ripple of unease moved through the room. One of the directors, a gray-haired man who had once clasped Derek’s shoulder in paternal encouragement, shifted uncomfortably. Derek noticed. He noticed everything.Before anyone could answer, the double doors at the end of the chamber banged open. A woman strode in with the confidence of someone who knew she belonged—even though she hadn’t been invited.It was Evelyn.Gasps broke out around the
Last Updated : 2025-09-07
THE FORGOTTEN HEIR Chapter 21: Echoes of Betrayal
The chill in the room was nothing compared to the frost settling over Derek’s heart.He stood motionless, fists clenched at his sides, as the private investigator laid the final photo on the mahogany table. It was grainy, but unmistakable — Alina, holding hands with Sebastian Harrow, the same man who had tried to bankrupt Dawson Holdings six months ago. The same man who Derek had once punched during a hostile board meeting for threatening his family’s legacy.Now, that snake was back — with Alina.“You’re telling me this was taken two days ago?” Derek asked, voice low and dangerous.“Yes, sir,” the investigator nodded. “Outside the Langford Hotel. They spent nearly three hours inside.”Three hours.Derek’s jaw tightened until pain bloomed up his temple. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. For a moment, the world tilted and spun, and all the control he had fought so hard to regain in the last few weeks unraveled like loose thread.Alina. The one woman who had sworn she’d never betray
Last Updated : 2025-07-29
You may also like
related novels
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.

Read books for free on the app