Burned by My Own Father, I Rose as a Billion-Dollar Heiress

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I took out a loan to open a restaurant, and to my surprise, business exploded overnight.

Once I had a steady livelihood, my boyfriend proposed. But before the ring even slid onto my finger, a fire burned my restaurant to the ground.

I wasn't just left with nothing. I owed the bank a million dollars.

The double blow was too much. Grief pulled me under, and I lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, everyone who should have been at my side was gone.

Carrying that grief, I went alone to find my fianc, only to end up outside his private room, listening through the door as he talked with his friends. "Holy crap. Celine Henson's restaurant was burned down by her own father?"

"Yeah. But the idea was mine."

"Cecily's business tanked while Celine was doing great for herself. I was worried Celine's success would crush her, so I suggested her father torch the place."

"What? Why would Celine's father listen to you?"

"You all only know Cecily's the family's adopted daughter. What you don't know is that she's actually the daughter of Celine's father's first love. Love the man, love his child, I guess."

"Damn, Celine really got the worst of it. Last night you were sleeping with Cecily behind her back, and her father was out setting fire to her restaurant."

"You people are ruthless."

...

Standing outside the door, I felt the blood in my veins go solid, my mind a blank sheet.

The conversation inside blurred until I couldn't make it out, nothing left in my ears but a roaring.

So it was my father who set fire to my restaurant. A thing I could not have imagined even on my deathbed.

Just because Cecily was his first love's daughter, he'd let that fondness spill over onto her and destroyed my life's work.

But I was the one who was good to him. When he was sick and in the hospital, I was the one who nursed him through the whole thing.

My money was his money. If I went broke, he'd have nothing to spend either.

And still he'd rather be poor than watch my restaurant keep thriving. Was he that afraid of bruising Cecily's pride?

My hands clenched into fists, a surge of blood rising and jamming in my throat.

Before I could cough it out, another bombshell landed.

"I'm starting to regret it a little. Wasn't this too cruel to Celine?"

His friend shot him a look. "You mean because Cecily's carrying your kid?"

The words set the whole room buzzing with confusion again.

"What? I thought you two only slept together last night. She got pregnant that fast?"

"Damn, maybe they'd already been at it for a while. You've got some nerve."

"But I think there's something wrong with you. Why would you do all this?"

Guy Gilbert took out his wallet, opened it, and looked at the photo of the two of us.

The next second, he slid another photo out from behind ours.

It was him and Cecily. In the picture, they were still in college.

"I didn't even like Cecily at first. But one afternoon, out of nowhere, she just walked right into my heart."

"She fought off some thugs for me. Saved me a few times."

"Seeing her covered in cuts and bruises, I ached for her, and I ached even more for the kind of life she'd had."

"From then on, whenever I said I was going to see Celine, the truth was I just wanted to see her."

"I never thought she'd become my one regret. But I couldn't just abandon Celine either. So the two of us started a relationship in secret, one that could never see the light of day."

The whole room went quiet in an instant. No one said a word.

"Her father knew too. He never stopped us. Sometimes he'd even quietly help cover for us."

Hearing that, my heart felt like it was being carved apart, sliced away one thin strip at a time by the sharpest knife.

Only my back pressed hard against the wall kept me from crumpling.

I'd always sensed my father favored Cecily a little more, but because of what she'd been through, I gave way at every turn.

Because I honestly believed I was the luckier one. I had a boyfriend as good as Guy, and I had family who cared.

I never imagined that overhearing his secret would show me it was all fake, the happiness I'd been so proud of.

If that was how it was, then I wanted none of it.

"Are you people trying to drive Celine to her death?"

"Exactly! Burning down her restaurant is like cutting off every last way out for her."

Guy tried to say something, but nothing came out.

I fled in a mess. The moment I got out the door, my manager called.

"Boss, the restaurant's burned down. What do we do now?"

"A few of the staff want their wages and want to leave..."

Whatever came after that was probably cruel, and the manager stopped there, sparing me the rest.

Something bleak spread through my chest, and even my voice came out rough.

"You tell them."

I fought to keep the sob down, refusing to let myself cry out loud.

"I'll get their wages into their hands soon. Tell them not to worry."

"Okay! And don't overthink this."

"Try to take it easy. You've got a long road ahead. You can build it all back up again."

I hung up and went to the burned-out restaurant.

A tear slid from my eye and struck the cold floor.

For that thriving place, I'd gone countless nights without sleep, reworking the design, studying the menu, refining the service.

Because I'm not rich. That one restaurant was all I had to make something of myself.

I never imagined a single fire set by my own father would burn away every hope I had.

That was when the phone rang.

"Celine, I heard you opened a seafood restaurant?"

"I'll come by and try it sometime..."

Hearing my childhood friend's voice, I couldn't hold the sob back.

"Celine, what's wrong? Is someone giving you trouble?"

Amos Sanchez tensed up at once.

"My restaurant it's gone."

"There was a fire last night. It burned everything to the ground."

The man who was always calm and clear-headed came undone in a moment and wept along with me.

Just then my father walked over, and the instant I saw him, my heart went cold.

I slowly hung up and turned a chill stare straight at him.

Guilty conscience, maybe, because he couldn't meet my eyes. He only spoke in that concerned tone.

"Ah. The restaurant's gone now, so try to let it go."

"Listen to me. Don't run a restaurant anymore. Just go find a job somewhere."

I looked coldly at my father's kind, gentle face. The words sounded like concern, but really they were for Cecily's sake.

Afraid that if I opened another restaurant it would make Cecily jealous, so he wanted me working a regular job.

Did he not know how hard it is for someone without a good degree to find work?

I'd swallowed so much hardship, worked myself half to death to save money, taken the risk of a loan to open that restaurant.

And I never thought he would, for the sake of an outsider, set fire to his own daughter's restaurant.

Leaving me trapped with no way forward, and no way to go to the police over it either.

I wanted so badly to ask him to his face why he'd done this to me. Then I remembered what Guy had said in that private room, and it stopped being strange at all.

So Cecily was his first love's daughter, and he loved her enough to give up on his own flesh and blood.

No wonder he'd treated the two of us so differently since we were children, and used the same cold cruelty on my mother too.

My mother left this world carrying that regret to the end, because he'd said he had no time to see her one last time. He had to go bring Cecily home.

I should have hated him back then.

"Why won't you look at me?"

Now that I knew what he really was, I had no patience left to spare him.

Faced with my sudden coldness, my father lost his composure.

His eyes darted and hid, that same old panic of his.

"Celine, why are you asking me that? It wasn't it wasn't me who set the fire at your restaurant."

I said nothing. I just closed in on him, cold and steady, backing him toward the restaurant door.

"You set that fire. Don't think I don't know."

It came out of me almost as a shout. No one alive could feel what I felt right then.

Because the person who'd destroyed me wasn't an enemy. It was my own father.

I couldn't accept it. I truly couldn't.

He froze, then lifted his head and looked at me with disbelief in his eyes, as though he'd never imagined I could know his secret.

My fists clenched hard, and the fury in my chest wouldn't let go.

"Dad, why would you do this to me?"

"I never understood your favoritism, not since I was little. I'm the one who's actually your daughter, but your heart always leaned toward her. You made me give in to her at every turn, forbade me from ever refusing her anything."

"She wanted my room, and you swapped it without so much as asking me. She ruined my homework, and before I could even scold her you'd jump in about how she had no parents, how pitiful she was, using my soft heart to help her dodge every consequence."

"I was naive enough to think you just felt sorry for where she came from. I never dreamed she was the daughter of your first love. The daughter of the woman who drove my mother to her grave."

"She's useless and helpless, so you burned down my restaurant to keep me from ever getting ahead. That's the only way she could feel at ease."

It came out of me almost as a shout, and the tears came down with every word.

His mouth opened. He wanted to explain something, but not one word would come.

I turned and walked toward the restaurant that had been burned to ash, my heart cut to pieces.

I thought of opening day, all of them standing at the door clapping and praising it, smiling as they wished my restaurant nothing but success.

I never imagined that inside they'd already been cursing it to die, praying it would never take off.

The human heart is the most sinister, treacherous thing in this world.

He came up behind me, looking at my back, and let out a sigh.

"Since you already know, can Dad just apologize to you?"

"If I hadn't burned your restaurant down, Cecily Finch would have been so jealous she'd have fallen into depression."

"She gets depressed, so you burn down my restaurant. Did you ever once think about me, losing everything? Did it cross your mind I might be crushed enough to kill myself?"

"You know I took out a loan to open that place!"

If he weren't my father, there was no way I'd let him off.

"Go. I don't want to see you."

But he didn't move to leave. There wasn't a trace of guilt on his face, only that torn look of a man with something more he wanted to say.

Looking at that face, I gave a cold laugh inside.

"Celine, there's something Dad wants to talk to you about."

I turned back and looked at him without a shred of feeling.

He hesitated, then chose to speak anyway.

"Cecily's leased a storefront to buy into one of those bubble-tea chains that's blowing up right now, but she's a little short on cash"

"So"

"So you came here to squeeze the last drop of blood out of me to help her?"

I cut him off and finished it for her.

No one knew how fiercely the anger was burning inside me.

"You destroyed my restaurant, you bankrupted me, and now I can't even pay my staff their wages. How favored does she have to be for you to stand here and ask me to help her?"

"I don't want to push this to the point of cutting family ties. Just go."

But right then, a voice reached our ears, disbelieving and guilt-stricken.

"Dad, is what my sister said true?"

"Did you really set fire to her restaurant when it was doing the best it ever had?"

The moment he saw Cecily, it was as if he were seeing his dead lover again, and he hurried over to stand at her side.

Guy glanced at me. Then he came over to comfort me.

"Celine, let it go, all right?"

"What's burned is burned. You can only accept it. He's your father, after all. Surely you're not going to cut him off over this."

"Why not?"

I turned my head and looked at him, and for reasons I couldn't name, I was so sick of that hypocritical face of his right now.

Cecily suddenly dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud.

"Sister, I'm sorry. I truly never thought Dad would do something like this for me!"

"I'm sorry. I've wronged you."

The guilt was in her voice, but I'd already seen straight through the smugness in her eyes and her mouth.

Guy and my father both rushed to lift her up, but she refused to rise.

Guy rounded on me at once. "Celine, that's enough."

"Isn't this whole thing your own doing, always so desperate to win? Besides, Cecily didn't burn your restaurant. How can you take it out on her?"

"Don't yell at my sister. She's already suffering enough."

"I'm just kneeling for a while. It won't kill me."

"If this helps calm her down, I'll kneel until my knees give out. It's worth it."

The meaning was clear: unless I told her to get up, she wouldn't dare.

My father had already seen it too, so without a second thought he slapped me across the face.

"Enough! If you have to hate someone, hate me!"

"None of this has anything to do with her. Do you really have to make a scene for every passerby to laugh at?"

That slap knocked away every last hope I had of family from him.

Cecily scrambled up and stepped in front of him. "Mom, what are you doing!"

"My sister is already suffering enough..."

"She's suffering? And you think I'm having an easy time?"

"Please don't do this. You're making me out to be some contemptible person."

I didn't expect it, but right then Cecily's morning sickness hit and she started retching.

My father froze for a moment, as if something had just dawned on him.

I let out a bitter laugh. "What else could you possibly be unhappy about?"

"From the day you came into my family, you successfully stole my father's love, and then my boyfriend."

"You used your so-called depression to push my father into burning my restaurant, you got my boyfriend into bed and carried his child. Tell me, what else is there left to be unhappy about?"

Guy flinched hard. He hadn't expected me to know that Cecily was carrying his baby.

In the end I couldn't bear to stay a moment longer, and I left with the most broken heart, quietly and alone.

I didn't go back to that suffocating house. I was ready to sever ties, right on schedule.

I stayed a night in a hotel, and I didn't sleep at all.

By the time dawn came, worn to the bone, I went to the bank to withdraw the money for my employees' wages.

But the fifteen thousand, the only money left in my account, was gone.

Just then, my father called.

"I took the money out of your account for Cecily to use. She's opening her bubble-tea shop, isn't she?"

"She needs money for the tables and chairs and everything..."

"Dad!!!"

I shouted into the phone, panic rising with it.

"That fifteen thousand was everything I had. I was going to use it to pay my employees."

"Why did you take my money without asking me?"

"Have you ever once thought about me..."

"What are you yelling for?"

"I only took fifteen thousand. Is that really worth getting this worked up over?"

"If you don't have money for wages, then go borrow it from your friends."

"Either way, Cecily's bubble-tea shop is going to open smoothly, no matter what."

He hung up before I could get another word out.

Right after that, Cecily called to gloat.

"Sister, well, well, well."

"Last night I just happened to mention I wanted to buy a tea set but didn't have the money, and that lowlife father of yours stole your money and gave it to me."

"And guess what I was doing right then? I was in bed with your fiance."

"Ha ha ha. I told you. Your mother drove my mother to her death, so I swore I'd tear your family apart until nothing was left standing."

"You know what? Your father really is useless. He couldn't even get the fire going. In the end I gave him a hand and splashed on plenty of accelerant..."

"South Harbor Street. Come on over. My bubble-tea shop opens today."

"Your father sold your house so I could open my shop."

I clenched my fists so hard they ached, and I carried a flood of hatred all the way to South Harbor Street.

Cecily stood at the door, greeting the lion dance troupe and their blessings.

She was smiling, radiant with happiness. So was my father.

It was in that exact moment that I chose to cut them off for good.

I took out my phone and called the police.

"Hello. I want to report a crime."

"Someone deliberately set fire to my restaurant..."

The call to the police was barely over, my phone just back in my hand, when I looked up and saw Guy had come too.

He'd brought his friends, and every one of them was circling Cecily.

"Cecily, you really pulled it off."

"Love and business, both winning at once, huh!"

"Hold on, though. Things between you two are still a mess. How's that going to end?"

That one line dropped, and Guy and Cecily went quiet.

The others traded glances, but nobody blamed the one who'd said it, because this was a reality they had to face.

After a moment, Guy let out a sigh.

"Once Cecily has the baby, I'll go back to Celine."

"I still know the difference between love and marriage."

"I'll say it straight. In this whole world, only Celine can truly love me the way I need. Nobody else."

Every eye turned to Cecily, waiting to see how she'd take it.

Cecily walked over and slid an arm around Guy's shoulder. "I'll respect your choice."

The mood didn't turn stiff at that. If anything it got livelier.

Someone put it to Guy, "Well, since you've already made up your mind, you should spend more time with Cecily until then."

"Right, right! You have no idea, Guy's got a huge appetite in that department, hahaha!"

"She's already pregnant and you still dare"

"All right, enough. That's just what you two want. Celine might not even take you back, Guy!"

Guy smiled, all confidence, certain no one understood me better than he did.

"She can't live without me. Otherwise she'd never have changed her college plans and stayed in the country."

"Wait, what? Which school did she apply to back then?"

"Oxford, top schools like that. She could've gotten in. But for me, and for her father, she chose to stay."

The words had barely landed before someone laughed and called me an idiot, laughed at me for putting myself through it.

They weren't wrong to laugh. I was mocking my old self too.

If it hadn't been for those two men, I would have accepted Oxford's offer.

It was my father who couldn't bear to let me go, afraid I'd be all alone once I left.

And Guy held me and cried the whole night, saying he was afraid some other man would want me once I was gone.

I was such a fool back then. I believed their lies.

Because the next thing Cecily said was, "It was because I couldn't get into a top school, so I locked myself up and wouldn't eat or drink. Her father was scared I'd do something to myself, so he wouldn't let Celine go to a top school either."

That line turned into a knife all over again, and it wouldn't stop until it had cut me to the bone.

My father came over and took Cecily's hand. "Come on in and help me with the guests. There are so many people."

The group went in together, talking and laughing, like a close, happy family.

Only I, from beginning to end, was the outsider.

And that was when the restaurant manager called.

"Celine, the staff are waiting on you for their wages."