The Discarded Heir's Billionaire Vengeance

Chapter 1

It was almost ten o’clock at night. The dorm room at Kingston University smelled like instant noodles, dirty socks, and cheap soap. Four guys were laughing and talking loud when the heavy wooden door suddenly slammed open.

A classmate ran in, breathing hard, holding his phone up high like it was on fire.

“Guys! Open the Groove app right now! Liam Baxter is asking Maya Bell to be his girlfriend on live stream! The whole campus is watching!”

Three of the guys jumped off their beds so fast one almost fell. They pushed and crowded around the glowing phone, talking over each other.

Everyone knew Maya Bell. She was one of the prettiest girls in school. Always smiling. Always in the middle of a group. And everyone knew Liam Baxter even better. He was the richest student on campus. His family owned big companies. He drove a bright red sports car that cost more than most people’s houses. Just yesterday he parked that car right in front of the library just so people would stop and stare.

A rich guy asking a popular girl out on live stream? Of course nobody wanted to miss it.

Except one person.

In the far corner of the room, twenty-year-old Daniel Reed stayed lying on his thin mattress. He did not sit up. He did not even turn his head. He just kept staring at the dark ceiling with his hands locked together on his stomach.

Daniel was a business student. He was tall and had a nice face, but almost nobody cared. Around school he was just “the broke kid.” He wore the same faded blue jeans and plain gray t-shirt most days. The clothes were clean, but they were old and getting thin at the elbows. He grew up in an orphanage. No parents. No family. Every single dollar for school fees, food, and this tiny bed came from his own hard work. He cleaned floors at night. He worked long shifts at a small coffee shop. He carried heavy packages until his shoulders hurt. He never talked about how tired he was. He just kept going.

Six months ago he met Maya at that coffee shop.

It was raining hard that night. She came in looking worried about an assignment. Daniel made her coffee the way she liked it and helped her with the hard questions. After that she started coming more often. He walked her back to her dorm when it got dark so she would feel safe. He saved money from extra shifts to buy her small things. Slowly, she started smiling at him in a different way. One quiet night she said yes when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

There was only one rule.

“We have to keep it secret,” she told him softly, looking at him with big eyes. “People talk too much here. If everyone knows, someone will try to ruin it. It’s safer this way.”

Daniel believed her. He kept everything quiet. He never held her hand outside. He never told his roommates. Even when it hurt, he just kept working and hoping that one day she would stop being ashamed of him.

Now, lying in the dark corner, Daniel felt a heavy cold feeling growing in his chest. His hands were already shaking when he pulled out his old cracked phone. The screen had a long white line down the middle from the time he dropped it last month. He opened the Groove app and tapped on the live stream.

The video loaded.

A fancy restaurant with bright lights and gold chairs. Maya sat across from Liam. A huge bunch of red roses sat between them. The chat on the side of the screen was moving so fast the words almost blurred together.

“That’s the Sky Golden Hotel!”

“One plate costs ten thousand dollars!”

“Maya is so lucky!”

“She’s going to say yes for sure!”

Daniel’s throat felt tight. Ten thousand dollars for one meal. He had never held that much money in his whole life. The most he had ever spent on a date with Maya was forty-eight dollars. He remembered counting the coins twice before they left the dorm. Last month he bought her a small silver necklace for her birthday. It cost him almost two full weeks of extra night shifts. She smiled, said thank you, and put it straight in her bag. He never saw her wear it even once.

On the screen, Liam stood up. His dark suit looked perfect. He walked around the table, dropped down on one knee, and opened a small velvet box. A big diamond ring shone under the lights.

“Maya,” Liam said, smiling at the camera, “you are the most amazing girl on this campus. Will you be my girlfriend?”

Daniel stopped breathing for a second. A small, stupid part of him still hoped she would say no. He hoped she would remember the late nights at the coffee shop. He hoped she would think of the boy who always walked her home in the rain.

“Yes!” Maya said right away. Her eyes stayed locked on the diamond ring. “Yes, Liam! Of course I will!”

She did not even stop to think.

She let him slide the heavy ring onto her finger. Then she leaned forward and kissed him hard in front of thousands of people watching live.

One of Daniel’s roommates laughed and said, “Man, that poor guy who liked her must be crying somewhere right now.”

The others laughed too.

Daniel felt like someone had punched him right in the stomach.

For six whole months she told him she was too shy to hold his hand outside. She said people would talk. Now she was kissing another guy on a live stream like it was nothing.

His roommates kept cheering and hitting each other’s shoulders. None of them knew the quiet guy in the corner had just watched his girlfriend choose someone else.

Daniel stared at the screen until his eyes burned. Hot tears tried to come out, but he wiped them away hard with his sleeve. The sad look slowly left his face. Something colder and quieter took its place.

He sat up, grabbed his old jacket from the chair, and walked out of the room without saying a single word to anyone.

The night air outside felt cold against his skin. He walked with his head down and his hands deep in his pockets, moving toward the rich part of the city. He needed to see Maya face to face. He needed to hear her say the words herself.

After a long walk under the streetlights, he reached the bright glowing signs of the Sky Golden Hotel. His old phone was completely dead. He stopped under a streetlamp, looked at the black cracked screen for a moment, and quietly dropped the phone into a metal garbage can.

It felt like throwing away the last piece of the life he used to have.

He reached into a hidden pocket inside his jacket — a pocket he had not opened in three long years — and pulled out a heavy black phone with no brand name on it. Only a small silver eagle sat on the back.

He turned it on.

One message was waiting for him.

Young Master Reed. The three-year poverty test from your grandfather ended tonight at 10:00 p.m. Your family trust is now fully unlocked. Your balance is fifty billion dollars. Do you want us to freeze the Baxter family accounts right away?

Daniel stared at the glowing words for a long time. The gold doors of the hotel were only a short walk away. Inside those doors, Maya was still wearing another man’s ring and smiling for the cameras.

He typed a short reply with his thumb.

Not yet. I will handle this myself.

He put the black phone away, lifted his head, and kept walking toward the bright gold doors.

The broke student that everyone laughed at was about to step through those doors.

And nothing on campus would stay the same after tonight.