Bye Loser! Love, Daddy's Heiress - Chapter 5: Chapter 5

The flight home stretched endlessly, each minute dragging like hours. The woman stepping onto that plane bore no resemblance to the lovesick girl who'd left years ago, desperate to prove her worth. That naive version of me had died the instant Lothario's betrayal cut deeper than any knife.
Now I was Pearl Anderson again - daughter of Alexander Anderson, Europe's most formidable power broker. And I was done playing the victim.
The family estate stood frozen in time - imposing iron gates, gleaming marble columns, gardens stretching to the horizon. Before my heels even touched the driveway, the massive oak doors swung open to reveal him. My father.
Alexander Anderson commanded respect through presence alone. Silver threads now streaked his raven-black hair, his tailored suit hanging with military precision. But beneath that controlled exterior, I saw it - raw, undisguised relief.
I barely took one step before his arms engulfed me. "Pearl." That single word carried the weight of years, his usually steady voice cracking just enough for me to notice. "You should have come home sooner." And just like that, my carefully constructed walls crumbled.
I'd sworn never to return. I'd been determined to prove I could make it without the Anderson name or fortune. Yet as I buried my face in his shoulder, clutching his lapels like a lifeline, none of that mattered. For the first time in years, I allowed myself this weakness.
"I'm sorry," I choked out, tears staining his thousand-dollar suit.
His embrace tightened. "No. The apology is mine, Pearl." Drawing back, he cradled my face, those piercing blue eyes missing nothing. "I never should have let you leave. And I damn sure wouldn't have let that bastard make you suffer."
Lothario. Just his name turned my mouth bitter.
Father guided me inside, his jaw clenched tight enough to crack teeth. In his study, the floodgates opened. I confessed everything - how I'd poured my soul into loving Lothario, working double shifts to keep his failing business afloat when no one else believed in him. How I'd stood by him when Alessia walked away to pursue her career. How I'd watched him rise from nothing, foolishly believing we were building our future together.
And how he'd discarded me like yesterday's trash the moment Alessia came crawling back.
I told him about the accident. The baby we lost. The ultimate betrayal.
The silence that followed could have suffocated a lesser man.
Alexander's fingers drummed a slow rhythm on his mahogany desk before he snatched up his phone. "Dig up everything on Alessia Ricci," he commanded. "Every lie, every dirty secret, every exaggerated resume line. If she once jaywalked, I want documentation."
"Dad—" I started.
His glare cut me off. "This isn't vengeance, Pearl. It's justice. That woman abandoned him once, and now she's playing happy families at my daughter's expense?" His knuckles whitened around the phone. "Not on my watch."
For the first time in forever, I didn't feel hollow.
I felt... dangerous.
The weakling Lothario discarded was gone. That Pearl died when he publicly humiliated me, when he let his new fiancée mock me, when he treated me like some disposable nuisance.
Now? I'd been reborn. Harder. Smarter. Unbreakable.
Under Father's merciless tutelage, I transformed. He didn't baby me - Alexander Anderson had clawed his way to the top, and he expected nothing less from his own flesh and blood.
"Want power?" he'd asked during one of our late-night strategy sessions, those ice-blue eyes seeing straight through me. "Then take it."
So I did.
I became a corporate predator, mastering mergers, acquisitions, and boardroom warfare with terrifying efficiency. While the world pitied poor, jilted Pearl, I was honing myself into a weapon.
Months later, Father handed me control of a financial empire that could crush Lothario's precious business like a grape. "I won't announce you as my daughter," he said, steepling his fingers behind his desk.
I smirked. "Perfect. Let them wonder."
Because I wanted front-row seats when the panic set in.
Lothario and Alessia had built their castle on quicksand, and I couldn't wait to watch it sink. Let Alessia play pretend heiress. Let her bask in borrowed privilege.
I'd strip them bare - their wealth, their reputation, their carefully constructed fantasies.
I'd make Lothario regret ever crossing me.
And when I finished? There wouldn't be enough left of them to pick up the pieces.
Lothario's fatal error? Assuming I'd stay broken. That I'd spend forever weeping over him.
But that pathetic girl was gone.
I was Pearl Anderson.
And soon, the whole world would remember why that name commands fear.