Exiled Son Secret Powerful Billionaire Wife

For the first time in seven years, I returned to the Miller estate for Christmas Eve dinner.

When I saw my foster sister, Sophie, our eyes met, and the air between us went colda heavy, suffocating silence that neither of us knew how to break.

During the first course, my foster father, Henry, reached over and patted my shoulder. His hand felt heavy, like a ghost from a life Id tried to bury.

"Silas, having you move out back then it was a desperate situation. I hope you dont hold it against us."

He didn't wait for an answer. He took a sip of his wine and added, "But your timing is perfect. Sophie is getting married next week."

I knew exactly what he was doing. He was marking his territory, reminding me of the boundaries I had supposedly crossed nearly a decade ago.

I pressed my lips together, my thumb brushing against the cool metal on my left hand. I raised my glass toward Sophie. "Then let me be the first to say it. Congratulations, Sophie. I wish you a happy marriage."

Sophie didn't drink. Her gaze was locked on the diamond band glinting on my ring finger. She looked like shed seen a ghost.

My foster mother, Diane, let out a sharp, surprised breath. "Silas? Where did that ring come from?"

I looked around the table at the people who had raised me, then discarded me. A bitter, dry laugh escaped my throat. "I forgot to mention. Ive been married for seven years."

Henrys brow furrowed into deep, judgmental lines. "Seven years? You were barely twenty. What kind of nonsense is this?"

"We are your parents, Silaseven if not by blood," Diane chimed in, her voice shrill with a hurt that felt performed. "A marriage isn't a small thing. How could you not tell us?"

Seven years ago, they hadnt "asked" me to move out. They had cast me out into the cold because I was accused of having "vile intentions" toward their biological daughter. I was the stray dog theyd taken in, only to decide I had rabies the moment things got complicated.

I didn't tell them about my marriage because, for seven years, they hadn't existed to me. But they had raised me for fifteen years before the fall, and some part of methe part that still remembered the boy who just wanted to belongcouldn't quite bring itself to hate them completely.

I looked at Henry, my expression a mask of calm. "Im telling you now. In fact, I asked my wife to join us tonight. I wanted her to meet the family."

Diane, sensing the tension reaching a breaking point, tried to smooth it over. "Well, its Christmas. The fact that Silas came home is enough. Where is she, then? Your wife?"

I glanced at my watch. The Rolex was a gift from her. "She had a last-minute conference call. Shell be here in about two hours."

Throughout the meal, I felt Sophies eyes on me. It was a weight I refused to acknowledge. Finally, unable to handle being ignored, she pushed her chair back.

"Mom, Dad, the tailor finished the final adjustments on the gown. Bennett went to pick it up, but I should go meet him. Its a lot to carry."

She paused, her fingers drumming on the mahogany table right in front of me. She looked down at me, her eyes a swirling storm of confusion and something that looked dangerously like resentment.

"Silas, you haven't met your future brother-in-law yet. Why don't you come with me to pick him up?"

I wanted to say no. The "no" was right there on the tip of my tongue. But I felt Henry and Diane watching me, their eyes narrow with suspicion, waiting to see if Id fold, waiting to see if I still carried that old, pathetic torch for their daughter.

I stood up. I had to prove to themand maybe to myselfthat the boy who loved Sophie Miller was dead.

On the way to the garage, the winter air bit at my skin. Sophie broke the silence first.

"How have you been, Silas? Really?"

I didn't look at her. I watched the snow falling into the driveway. "Ive been fine."

She stumbled slightly, her pace faltering. She looked like she wanted to say a thousand things, but in the end, she just hurried to the car. She reached for the passenger door, swinging it open for me with a practiced, familiar grace.

I walked right past her and climbed into the back seat.

Sophies reflection in the rearview mirror showed a sharp frown. "Do you really have to be this cold?"

I turned my head to the window, watching the skeletal trees of the estate blur past. "Your fianc is waiting. Let's not keep him."

She let out a long, frustrated sigh and put the car in gear. "His name is Bennett. You should try being polite."

I didn't answer. We drove in a silence so thick it felt like physical pressure.

When we pulled up to the luxury bridal boutique downtown, the door was opened almost immediately by a man in a tailored charcoal overcoat. He looked like hed stepped out of a Ralph Lauren adpolished, wealthy, and perfectly coiffed.

"Sophie, babe, I told you Id handle the dress," he said, sliding into the passenger seat. He immediately took off his cashmere scarf and wrapped it around Sophies neck. "Its freezing. I can't have my bride-to-be catching a cold."

Sophies expression softened instantly. "I just wanted to see you."

They shared a nauseatingly sweet moment before the manBennettnoticed me in the back.

"Oh," he said, his smile not quite reaching his eyes.

"Bennett, this is Silas," Sophie introduced us, her voice tight. "My brother."

"Silas, this is Bennett Crawford."

I gave a polite nod. "Nice to meet you, Bennett."

Bennett didn't offer his hand. Instead, he leaned back, looking me up and down with a smirk that set my teeth on edge. "So, this is the legendary Silas? The foster brother who was let's say, fond of you, Sophie?"

The air in the car turned arctic.

"Wait, I didnt mean" I started, but Bennett cut me right off.

"Im just kidding, man. Relax," he said, though his eyes were sharp and mocking. "Unless you still have those uncleanthoughts about your sister?"

I felt a flash of heat in my chest, but I suppressed it. I simply lifted my left hand, letting the light catch my wedding band.

"Youve got the wrong idea, Bennett. Ive been married for a long time."

The drive back felt like an eternity.

I leaned my forehead against the cold glass of the window, my mind drifting back to a time before the silence. Twenty years ago, my parents had been killed in a mountain climbing accident while saving Henry Miller's life. The Millers had taken me in out of a sense of profound, heavy debt.

I remembered arriving at that massive, intimidating house as a child, screaming for my mother in the middle of the night. It was Sophietwo years older and infinitely braverwho had sat by my bed every night, whispering stories until the grief receded.

I had loved her with the clumsy, overwhelming intensity of a boy who had nothing else to hold onto. During puberty, I mistook that desperate gratitude for romance. I wanted the whole world to know she was mine because she was the only thing that made me feel like I wasn't an intruder in my own life.

Sophie hadn't pushed me away then. Shed just laugh, ruffling my hair. "Silas, youre always stuck to me. How are you ever going to find a wife if you're chasing your sister?"

"I don't want anyone else," Id tell her, with the terrifying sincerity of a fifteen-year-old. "Im only ever marrying you."

Shed smile then, her eyes bright and soft. "Its a deal, then."

Those whispered promises felt like a fever dream now.

When we reached the house, I got out of the car without a word and headed inside. Diane met me in the foyer, her eyes searching my face for cracks.

"Did you meet Bennett?" she whispered.

I nodded. "He seems successful. Theyre a good match."

She seemed to deflate with relief. She reached out, touching my arm. "Silas, listen. Even if you aren't ours by blood, we always wanted the best for you. Some things some mistakes from the past"

I gently removed her hand from my sleeve. "Diane. Dont. Theres no point in digging up the past tonight."

She let out a long breath, then pulled me toward the living room. "Youre right. Let's focus on the present. We have something for you."

She opened a velvet box on the coffee table. Inside was a Patek Philippeunderstated, elegant, and incredibly expensive.

I didn't refuse it. I knew Diane. In her world, guilt was managed through high-end retail. If this watch helped her sleep, Id take it. Despite the seven years of exile, I knew she had cared for me in her own limited way.

She took the watch out of the box, gesturing for me to hold out my arm so she could fit it. I pushed back my sleeve.

But before the metal could touch my skin, Bennetts voice sliced through the room.

"Mom?"

He was standing in the doorway, his face twisted in a scowl. "Sophie spent three months tracking down that specific vintage piece for me. Youre just going to give it to him?"

He walked over, his eyes cold as he looked at me. "My fiance bought that. I dont think it belongs on a strangers wrist."

Diane froze, caught between her husbands future son-in-law and the boy shed raised. I didn't make her choose. I took the watch, set it back in the velvet lining, and looked at Bennett with a thin smile.

"If your fiance bought it, I wouldn't dream of taking it."

Bennett stepped closer, his voice dropping to a hiss. "Good. At least you have some self-awareness. A charity case who got kicked out of the house shouldn't be wearing thirty-thousand-dollar watches anyway."

The room went deathly quiet.

It was the one thing no one was supposed to say out loud. The "incident" was the rot underneath the floorboards of the Miller family, and Bennett had just ripped up the wood.

But to his disappointment, I didn't flinch. Seven years is a long time to build up scar tissue.

Seeing that I wasn't riled, Bennett opened his mouth to dig deeper, but Henry cut him off with a sharp bark. "Its Christmas Eve. We aren't going to bicker over a watch."

With the patriarchs word final, Bennett just glared at me and subsided.

Henry looked around the room. "The sun is down. Everyone, let's head to the chapel."

The Millers had a private chapel on the edge of the estate, a tradition they took very seriously. As I stood up to follow, Bennett spoke again, his tone dripping with fake concern.

"Wait, Dad. Didn't Silas say he was married?"

He turned to me, a predatory glint in his eye. "Shouldn't we wait for his wife? It seems a bit rude to start the family tradition without the new 'family member,' doesn't it?"

Henry paused, considering. "Hes right. Silas, the first year of marriage is significant. She should be here for the memorial service. How far away is she?"

I checked my phone. No new messages. "She hasn't updated me. We should go ahead. I don't want to hold everyone up."

"Why the rush?" Bennett asked, tilting his head. "Are you worried she wont show? Or are you worried she doesn't actually exist?"

"The weather is bad," I said, my voice level. "Planes get delayed. I just don't want to waste everyone's time."

Bennett turned to Sophie. His voice was soft, but his eyes were fixed on me. "Babe, we don't mind waiting for Silas's wife, do we?"

Sophie looked at me, her expression unreadable. "Its her first time here. We should wait."

She paused, a flicker of somethingsadness? Bitterness?crossing her face. "Besides Id like to see the woman my brother chose."

The air grew heavy again. I started to protest, but Bennett talked over me.

"Come on, Silas. You look nervous. Did you just make her up so you wouldn't look pathetic coming back here alone?"

I frowned. "Why would I do that?"

Bennett laughed, a low, ugly sound. "Who knows? Maybe because youre still obsessed with your sister? Maybe you thought a fake wife would make us forget that you tried to drug her and force yourself on her seven years ago?"

He leaned in, making sure everyone heard the next part. "You got caught like a dog and thrown out. If I were you, Id be desperate to lie, too."

Looking at Bennetts sneering face, the humiliation Id buried seven years ago surged back up like bile.

Seven years ago, at the end of my nineteenth birthday party, I had cornered Sophie in the rose garden. I was shaking, unable to look her in the eye.

"Sophie, I know you think I'm just a kid," Id told her. "But I love you. Not like a brother. Let me take care of you. Please."

Sophie hadn't said anything. Her face was flushed deep redI thought it was from the wine, or from the heat of the moment. Shed looked at me for a long time before whispering, "Silas, is this a dream?"

Before I could answer, she had kissed me. She tasted like heavy liquor and desperation. I was terrified and thrilled all at once, responding with the clumsiness of someone who had never been touched like that.

Then, a hand had ripped us apart.

A stinging pain exploded across my face as Henrys palm connected with my cheek. I remember the ringing in my ears, the sight of Henrys face purple with rage, and the words "predator" and "assault" being hurled at me like stones.

The guests had gathered, whispering. To them, Sophie looked disheveled and dazedthe perfect image of a victim.

Henry had dragged her away that night. Diane had checked me into a hotel, telling me never to come back to the house. The rumors spread like wildfire. Online, I was branded a monster who had tried to violate his own foster sister.

The university expelled me. The internet vitriol was a suffocating blanket. I begged Sophie to tell them the truththat she had kissed mebut she stayed silent.

Finally, the Millers paid for a one-way ticket to Europe and told me to disappear. It was the price of their "mercy."

Now, looking at Bennett, I felt a strange wave of pity. He was marrying a woman who had let a boys life be destroyed rather than admit to a moment of drunken weakness.

Bennett mistook my silence for admission. "Do you have any idea how much shame you brought this family? If I were you, Id be too ashamed to breathe, let alone show my face here."

He stepped into my personal space. "Look at you. Youre a curse, Silas. I heard your parents died right after you were born. Maybe you were the one who killed them, too."

The world went white.

Before I even realized Id moved, my hand connected with Bennetts jaw. The crack echoed in the foyer.

Bennett stumbled back, a hand to his face, shock written in his eyes. The relatives immediately swarmed.

"What's happening?"

"Silas, for God's sake! You can't just hit people!"

Seeing the audience, Bennett immediately slumped, putting on the act of the wounded party.

Sophies eyes, usually so bright, turned sharp and cold. "Silas! No matter what happened, Bennett is your future brother-in-law. How could you lay a hand on him?"

I was done with the charade. I looked her dead in the eye. "Does being a 'brother-in-law' give him the right to insult my dead parents?"

I took a step toward her. "And lets be clear, Sophie. You aren't my sister. To me, youre just a stranger I used to know."

Sophie flinched. "If Bennett said something to upset you, Im sorry. I apologize for him." Her voice hardened. "But you used violence. You owe him an apology. Now."

I felt that old, familiar ache in my chest. If she had stood up for me seven years ago the way she was standing up for this man now, my life would be entirely different.

"Never," I said.

Sophies face fell. "Silas, what happened to you? Youve become so bitter."

She grabbed my wrist, her grip tight. "Im not asking. Im telling you. Apologize to Bennett."

She was holding me so tightly that if I pulled away, Id send her sprawling. I didn't want to hurt herit was a lingering instinct I hated.

But then, a slender, pale hand reached from behind me and firmly gripped Sophies wrist, forcing her to let go.

Then I heard the one voice that always made the world feel steady again.

"I think your fianc is the one who needs to apologize."