Hijacked: The Heiress's Bloody Return

Six years. Harper hijacked my body for six years. My eyes snapped open. Mine again. I thought the nightmare ended. I thought I could just hit rewind. Maddox scoffed.

The sound grated against my eardrums. "Amnesia? That your new angle?" My vision blurred, then locked onto his face. I lunged.

My fingers clamped around his throat. "Where's Harrison?!" A scream tore from my chest. "Where is he?! How the hell did I end up married to you?!" I had a baby on the way!

Six years ago, Harrison and I planned to walk down the aisle! Chapter 1 Maddox froze. The muscles in his jaw ticked.

His eyes darkened with cold mockery. "You finally dropping the act, Maeve?

Begging for my attention while panting over another man." He let out a harsh breath. "Pathetic." He had every right to say that.

For six long years, Harper had piloted my body, throwing herself at him like a desperate groupie. The climax of her obsession?

She had stripped down to barelythere lace, wrapping herself up like a cheap gift in his living room. Waiting for him to unlock the door.

Popping out with a sickeningly sweet, "Surprise!" Only to find herself staring down a dozen of Maddox’s coworkers in the foyer. "Who is that?

Trashy." "Heard she just had a kid out of wedlock. Didn't even wait a month before throwing herself at the boss." The disgusted whispers echoed around the room. "Zero shame.

Absolutely shameless." All the color drained from Harper’s face. She stared at Maddox, paralyzed. She had specifically texted him to come home alone.

Tears welled in my stolen eyes. "Why?" she choked out, looking utterly broken. Maddox just stared at her standing there in nothing but silk and humiliation.

Not a single muscle in his face moved. "I warned you to stop playing these games, Maeve.

This time, I’m the one walking away." I, Maeve, was supposed to be the untouchable first love in this twisted romance novel. And Maddox? He was the male lead.

I had stumbled across him in a cold alley, his knuckles busted and his face a bloody mess.

Instead of flinching at his dirtstained clothes or the dark purple mottling his skin, I just reached out my hand. "Hey. Are you okay?" He looked up.

The golden hour sun caught in my hair. And just like that, he anchored his entire existence to me. A silent, agonizing obsession that lasted over a decade. Too broken to approach.

Too dark to stand in the light. He stayed in the shadows, watching me fall for someone else. Watching me slip a ring onto another man's finger.

The next time we actually spoke, we were sitting across a boardroom table. I had beamed at him. "Maddox? Is that really you?" His chest heaved.

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the table, fighting to keep his mask from slipping. "Yeah." A single, raspy syllable.

His eyes devoured my smile, starved and desperate. Then, I slid the wedding invitation and a small box of candy across the mahogany wood. "Perfect timing. I'm getting married.

We'd love to have you there." I smiled warmly. "I remember you having a massive sweet tooth." A lie. I had no idea what he liked.

I just remembered the day Harrison won the state championship. I had passed out candy to the whole class to celebrate.

Maddox had clutched that cheap piece of candy in his palm like it was a lifeline. I hadn't noticed how all the blood rushed from his face when I handed him the invitation.

I didn't know he hated sweets. But because my hand offered it, he took it. Treasured it. Only for the final piece of candy to be a celebration of me marrying another man.

He stopped breathing. The silence stretched until it snapped. "Okay." That night, the ruthless CEO went back to his empty, sprawling mansion. He unwrapped that wedding candy.

Swallowed it down. Then he slipped beneath the freezing water of his bathtub and let it fill his lungs. Leaving behind a single note. Maeve.

If there is a next life, I pray I never meet you. A brutal, devastating end to a decade of unrequited love. Chapter 2 That ending shattered BookTok. "My poor boy!

She didn't even deserve him!" "So what if he was a little toxic? He just didn't know how to use his words!

He protected her from the shadows for years!" "The author did him so dirty. Making the FMC such a manipulative red flag.

Maddox loved her for a decade, and she just strung him along with another guy!" "I don't care! You can't kill him off!

Bring him back!" The absolute uproar from the readers literally triggered a glitch in this world, summoning Harper.

Her twisted ultimate fantasy was to play the savior—to be the only woman who could "fix" the dark, misunderstood billionaire. And her chosen meat suit for this sick game? My body.

After the hijacking, I slammed against the walls of a pitchblack void. My throat tore from phantom screams.

My chest caved in, suffocating on the sheer panic of losing my own limbs.

Harper just brushed off my agony. "I seriously don't get you," her voice echoed, dripping with disdain. "Maddox is literally perfect. Why are you throwing a tantrum?

If you hadn't gaslit him—jumping into bed with another guy before Maddox could figure out how to love you—he wouldn't have drowned himself.

Now I have to bust my ass fixing your mess." Her contempt branded me a cheater. A slut. The gaslighting dug so deep I almost choked on the guilt. Almost believed I was the villain.

But my memories clawed back. No matter how hard I scraped through my brain, Maddox was just some guy from high school. A ghost in the background. Our one and only interaction?

I stood by the gates, waiting for Harrison to pick me up. I saw some kids shoving Maddox around. I stepped up. I told them to back off. That was it.

One moment of basic human decency. At least not now.

Please, not now. "I'm pregnant!" I shrieked into the darkness, my phantom nails digging into my palms until they bled. "I'm about to get married!" It didn't matter.

Just twentyfour hours earlier, Harrison and I had finished painting the nursery.

He had scooped me up, burying his face in my neck. "You're finally marrying me, Maeve." I laughed, smacking his chest. "Idiot. Who else would I marry?

You're stuck with me." The very next day, under the blinding flash of a hundred cameras, Harper commandeered my body.

She wore the white silk gown Harrison and I spent months searching for. And she ran.

Playing the brave, defiant heroine, she hitched up my skirts, bolted to his secluded estate, and hauled a drowning Maddox out of his bathtub.

She crushed him against her chest. "Don't be scared. I'm here to save you!" Heartbreakingly cinematic. If it hadn't been my stolen body.

And if Maddox hadn't retained the memories of his past life. The man coughing up bathwater didn't look at her with pathetic, trembling gratitude.

The insecure, desperate boy was dead.

Maddox stared at Harper with obsidian, lifeless eyes. "Dangling hope in front of me just to watch me starve," he rasped, his voice vibrating with absolute malice. "Stringing me along while you play house with another man.

Is this your new game, Maeve?" He had rewound the clock. And in this second life, he suffered the ultimate revelation.

He thought he finally saw my true colors. "If you despise me, why pull me out?" He lunged, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the soaking wet lace of my wedding dress. "Why save me, just to slit my throat the second I become obsessed with you?!" He sneered at the bridal gown. "What's the goal here?

Playing the runaway bride to keep me on your leash?" He swore he would never let me destroy him again. Chapter 3 BookTok practically threw a parade. "She’s finally chasing her man!

He’s just projecting his trauma! You know he’s secretly obsessed now that she wants him!" Even Harper bought into the delusion.

She convinced herself his absolute venom was just a defense mechanism.

A wounded animal lashing out because I had broken his trust. "I just have to love him louder," she promised her followers. "I can break down his walls.

I can fix him." But what about my stolen life? What about Harrison, the man who worshipped the ground I walked on? She treated my unborn baby like garbage.

She took a match to our perfect wedding and watched it burn to ash. Harrison tried to hold her, tried to pull her back. She slapped him.

Kicked his shins. "How many times do I have to spell it out? I never loved you! I only want Maddox!" My Harrison. My protector.

He had zero clue why his beloved Maeve had suddenly become a complete stranger. All he knew was the love of his life suddenly looked at him with utter revulsion.

And she wanted to terminate our baby. He fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around my stolen waist. His voice broke. "Maeve, stop. Please. You’re just sick.

You’ll remember when the fever breaks. It’s me. It’s Harrison." We grew up in the same culdesac. He had two years on me. The boy next door.

Since he could string a sentence together, it was always, "Maeve and me. Forever." He kept that promise. As the only daughter, Victor and Patricia spoiled me rotten.

Harrison shielded me from the rest of the world. Whenever the playground kids shoved me, I’d sprint straight to him, tripping over my own sneakers.

I’d fist my hands in his shirt, sobbing into his chest. "Harrison, they pushed me!" He remained invincible.

He’d chase them off, wipe my nose, and make stupid faces until my ribs ached from laughing.

I’d throw my little arms around his neck. "I’m gonna marry you when we grow up!" We went from scraped knees to stolen kisses behind the bleachers.

From sneaking out my window to picking out floral arrangements for our reception. It played out like a literal fairy tale. Then Harper shattered the glass.

Harrison sat on our porch all night. He burned through two packs of Marlboros. Harper paced the kitchen, frantic to get to Maddox. She grabbed a steak knife. "Call off the wedding!

Let me go, or I swear to God I’ll end it right here!" She dragged the blade across my wrist. A thin line of crimson bloomed.

When the first sliver of dawn bled over the horizon, Harrison stubbed out his last cigarette. He stood up, his eyes entirely dead. "Fine. The wedding is off.

But you carry the baby to term." Harper scoffed in disgust. "I’m not raising a brat! Don’t think you can babytrap me!" Harrison stared at my face.

For a split second, it felt like his gaze pierced through the bone, finding my suffocating soul trapped behind my own eyes. "I’ll raise it," he rasped.

She snatched the stuffed bear from my nightstand—the one he won for me at our first state fair. She ripped its head off.

Threw it on the hardwood and crushed it under her heel. "Stop suffocating me! I don’t have amnesia!

I don’t care about this garbage!" she shrieked. "It’s pathetic!" She trampled his beating heart right alongside the cheap cotton stuffing.

Just like that, she bulldozed my entire existence. She severed ties with Victor and Patricia just so she could chase down the illegitimate billionaire heir.

She degraded my body to "save" Maddox. Performing cheap stripteases in his penthouse. Showing up at his corporate office with Tupperware full of homecooked meals.

She even livestreamed a grand proposal on Instagram. Maddox didn't flinch.

He just stared at her, eyes like shards of ice. "I’m not falling into the same trap," he sneered. "Did you really think cheap stunts would make me forget how you gaslit me, Maeve?" Chapter 4 Until— The scandal broke.

Maddox was exposed as Archibald's illegitimate son. At his exclusive induction gala, Richard, the rightful heir, dumped a plate of halfeaten garbage over his head.

Maddox became the ultimate punchline. Harper took the hit for him. She wore my face—cold and untouchable—but played the glowing savior. She reached out her hand. "Don't be scared.

I've got you!" The chandelier light cascaded over her shoulders. The exact same face. An agonizingly familiar scene. Maddox froze.

The clock violently rewound to that alleyway years ago. He stopped fighting. He reached back.

After that, everyone whispered that Maddox's desperate little shadow had finally won. "Word is she was engaged. Pregnant, too.

Then her company pitched to Maddox, and she just dumped her newborn and her fiancé. Chased him like a dog in heat." "Her poor ex. And the kid.

Hopefully, Maddox wakes up and sees that toxic pickme for what she really is." They were holding their breath for nothing. Harper knew exactly how to play him.

The second she cracked Maddox's armor, she went all in. Her loud, blindingly bright persona ripped through his dark world like a spotlight.

When Maddox hit rock bottom, she livestreamed a proposal to millions. The screen showed her in a flowing white dress, dropping to one knee with a bouquet and a diamond band.

No one had ever chosen him like that. His throat worked. "I treated you like dirt. You aren't pissed?" She pressed her lips to his forehead.

Smiling. "A broken boy just needs someone who refuses to walk away. Relax, Maddox. I'm never letting go." The ice finally shattered. His eyes went bloodshot.

In front of the entire internet, he crushed her against his chest. It broke the internet. It trended so hard it buried the breaking news alert.

The alert about Harrison's sudden, devastating car crash. Bile burned my throat. Why? Why did it have to be my body? Why did one single act of pity drag me straight into hell?

Why did this parasite get to hijack my flesh, ruin my life, and sleep like a baby?!

A few comments finally cut through the noise online. "Okay, but Maddox was just secretly obsessed with her.

Is it a crime that she didn't like him back?" "An unrequited crush doesn't give you the right to act possessive! What are you all defending?" And so, on that exact day.

Year six of the hijacking.

My blinding rage finally ripped Harper from my skull. "Jesus, what is your problem?!" Her voice echoed, fading. "I literally served you the male lead on a silver platter!

Don't be an ungrateful bitch. You heroines are so exhausting. Always playing the victim!" "Aren't you happy now?" The threat hissed through my nerve endings. "I'll be back.

Don't screw this up!" In her twisted mind, I was the glamorous Mrs. Maddox. I had his obsessive, undying devotion. The ultimate happy ending. What else could I possibly want?

What was there to complain about? I wanted my goddamn life back. Because in my world, I choose who I love. I choose my leading man. Not some manufactured, toxic plotline.

The second she vanished, the numbness broke. I slammed back into my own flesh. Maddox's face hovered inches from mine. Without a second of hesitation, I swung.

The crack of my palm against his cheek echoed through the room. "Who the hell are you? Get your hands off me!" He staggered back. Five red welts bloomed instantly across his jaw.

He stared at me, disbelief morphing into a sharp, ugly sneer. "Amnesia? Is that your new angle?" Chapter 5 My vision locked onto his face. The numbness shattered.

I lunged, my fingers locking like a vice around his throat. "Where is Harrison?!" The scream tore out of me, raw and hysterical. "Where the hell is Harrison?!

How did I end up married to you?!" Six years ago, I was pregnant. We had promised to get married! Maddox's face turned to stone.

His eyes darkened with pure, suffocating hostility. "Harrison.

Harrison." He sneered the name like a curse. "So he's still in there." "He's my husband!" I glared at him, my body tense and guarded. "Of course he is! Where am I?

I want to go home! I want to go home!" That single sentence incinerated every ounce of trust Harper had meticulously built with him over the last six years.

His expression contorted into a dark scowl. "Your husband? Heh.

Just because I stayed thirty minutes late with Chloe yesterday, you're pulling this amnesia stunt to play hard to get?" He closed the distance, his massive frame blocking out the rest of the room.

He forced me to look at him. "Open your eyes, Maeve. Look at me. I am your husband." "Chloe is just a coworker. I’ve explained this a hundred times. She’s young and naive.

Why are you constantly making a big deal out of nothing? And didn't I warn you?" His voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "Never use another man to threaten me." Chloe.

His shiny, young secretary. She was the one existence the bodysnatcher had been violently paranoid about. It made sense he thought this was just another jealousyfueled tantrum.

If this were yesterday, the bodysnatcher would have collapsed like the sky was falling.

She would have sobbed, begged for forgiveness, and frantically admitted her "mistake" before wrapping herself around him. Too bad for him. I wasn't the bodysnatcher.

My answer was a heavy porcelain vase. I grabbed it from the console and smashed it directly into the side of his skull. CRASH.

Blood immediately welled up, sliding thick and warm down his temple. The blood vessels in my eyes threatened to burst. My teeth ground together so hard my jaw ached. "Get out!

Get the hell out!" The heavy oak doors suddenly burst open. "Maddox!" It was Chloe. The secretary. She scrambled into the room, gasping at the blood pouring from Maddox’s head.

A microsecond of glee flashed in her eyes before her face contorted into selfrighteous condemnation. "Maeve, how could you physically assault Maddox?

Just because my little work mistake made him thirty minutes late coming home?" She stood there, actively painting me as the toxic, unhinged wife. "Maddox and I are strictly professional!

Even if you don't trust me, how could you doubt his love for you?" At the word love, the raw shock of my attack faded from Maddox's face.

It hardened into bitter, exhausted apathy. "She doesn't love me," he scoffed, his voice dripping with selfdeprecating venom. "She's not even bothering to pretend anymore." In the past, the second those words left his mouth, the bodysnatcher would have tackled him in a panic, swearing on her life: "Who said that?

You are the only man I will ever love!" To prove it, she had nuked her entire social circle. She isolated herself until Maddox was the only breathing soul in her contacts.

All in the name of giving him one hundred percent of her love. I didn't tackle him.

I reached for the second vase. "At least you have some goddamn selfawareness!" I hurled it with everything I had. A piercing shriek ripped through the air.

Maddox lost his mind, sheer panic washing over his bloody face.

Because the ceramic shattered against Chloe, who had thrown herself right in front of him. "Chloe!" She clutched her head, her eyes instantly brimming with giant, redrimmed tears. "I—I'm okay.

It's my fault. I caused this misunderstanding between you two.

Maddox, please don't blame Maeve." She swayed on her feet, her voice dropping to a trembling, breathy whisper. "Maddox… my head hurts so bad…" Maddox abandoned every ounce of his cold rationality.

He scooped her up in his arms, spinning toward the door to rush her to the ER. Right as he crossed the threshold, he stopped.

He whipped his head back, glaring at me with undisguised fury. "Are you happy now?! You crossed the line today, Maeve!

Apologize to Chloe right now, or I swear to God I am never coming back to this house!" He didn't wait for an answer. He stormed out. Chapter 6 That was his signature move.

The ultimate toxic tactic to keep the bodysnatcher in line. But he didn't stick around to see the aftermath. I wasn't dropping to my knees in regret.

I was leaning over the trash can. Heaving until my ribs ached. I should be grateful. Harper had tried to sleep with him. God knows she wanted to.

But every single time she leaned in, every time she even entertained the thought—Bile would claw up my throat. A violent, visceral rejection. My physical body refused him.

Deep down, my cells knew he was a stranger. My shaking fingers brushed against my phone. The screen unlocked. The contacts list glared back at me. I froze. Who could I even call?

Victor and Patricia? They had completely disowned me. Would they believe a single word I said? Harrison? It had been six years. Would he even pick up?

My thumb hovered over his memorized number. My hand trembled so hard I could barely tap the screen. The screen switched to dialing… One ring. Two.

An incoming call overrode the screen. I mashed the answer button, my throat feeling like sandpaper. "Hello, am I speaking with Theodore's mother?

Your son got into an altercation at school. We can't reach his father, so we need you to come down immediately." My son.

The baby I never even got to hold. "Is he okay?!" I shrieked, my nails digging into the phone case. "Is he hurt?!

I'm on my way!" I didn't even catch the stunned silence on the other end. Usually, Harper would scream at them for being useless educators.

Unaware of the shift, the voice stammered, "No, no, he's fine. He's… well, he's the one who started the fight." I shoved open the heavy glass doors of the administrative office.

My eyes frantically scanned the room. Philip, the Dean of Students, stood up from his desk. Two little boys sat on the leather chairs.

One was decked out in pristine designer clothes, looking painfully smug. The other was covered in dirt, his cheek scraped and red. The designerclad kid spotted me.

He shot a nasty smirk at the other boy. "You're dead meat! My mom is here!" He hopped off the chair, sprinting toward me with his arms wide open. I didn't even break my stride.

I walked right past him. I dropped to my knees in front of the bruised, dusty little boy. I pulled him against my chest. My throat slammed shut.

Hot tears spilled over my lashes, burning my skin as I checked his scraped cheek. "Where does it hurt?" I choked out. "Does it sting? It's okay. Mommy's here.

I've got you." He felt like a missing piece of my soul clicking back into place. The entire office went dead silent.

The little boy in my arms stiffened, his eyes wide with absolute shock. The smug kid froze, his arms still hanging in the air. Philip cleared his throat. "Ma'am. That's Theodore.

Mason is right behind you. I think you're confused." Confused? Not a chance. I cupped the boy's dirty face, tracing his jawline. He had my nose. My mouth. But those eyes?

Those were Harrison's eyes. Mason charged at me, shoving my shoulder hard. "Maeve! Stop hugging him!" he screamed, his face turning red. "I'm telling Uncle Maddox!" That's right.

He wasn't Maddox's son. He was his nephew. The illegitimate kid of Maddox's older brother, Richard.

When Maddox was dragged back into the Archibald family empire, he desperately needed leverage. He sucked up to Richard at every turn. Richard’s wife, Veronica, ran a tight ship.

So when Richard’s mistress, Chelsea, showed up at the estate with a baby, all hell broke loose. Harper saw an opening.

She convinced Maddox to take the kid in and pass him off as their own. It was a masterclass in manipulation—Richard owed Maddox a massive favor, and Harper got to play house.

That was why, in public, Mason called Harper "Mom" and Maddox "Dad." Chapter 7 The second Mason shoved my shoulder, Theodore snapped.

The kid who had just stood there taking the hits suddenly launched himself forward. He swung. Fast, brutal, and completely feral. Total chaos erupted.

Mason ended up with two black eyes. He dropped to the floor, bawling his lungs out. I snatched Theodore back. His eyes rimmed red.

He lifted his chin, staring at me with stubborn defiance. "Go ahead and get mad.

You told me never to fight back." His voice cracked. "But Dad said I can never let anyone hurt you." For six long years, Harper paraded around town playing the doting mother to Mason.

Meanwhile, she strictly banned Theodore from ever calling her Mom. Mason got to be the golden child with the gorgeous mother. Theodore?

He was branded the motherless stray. "I heard the grownups say his mom is a dirty homewrecker!" Every single time Mason swung at him, Harper physically shielded the bully. "It was an accident!

Just let it go!" She’d sneer at my own flesh and blood. "Who told you to touch him? If you leave a scratch on my son, I will ruin you!" Theodore’s tiny brain couldn't process it.

Why did the beautiful woman who birthed him force him to call her by her first name? Why did she treat him like a monster while coddling some other kid?

So right now, his body braced for impact. He waited for the screaming. For the disgust. But the slap never came. Instead, warm fingers wrapped around his bruised knuckles.

The woman who had treated him like a parasite was staring at his hands, her face twisting in pure agony. "Does it sting?" I traced his raw skin. "If you have to throw a punch, don't use your bare hands.

What if you break a bone?" Theodore's breath hitched. His massive, dark eyes went completely round. I tilted his chin up, forcing him to look at me. "Don't be scared.

Mommy's got you." A suffocating lump formed in Theodore's throat. He wanted to sob. But Dad always said men don't cry.

When he was just a toddler, barely understanding the world, he had looked up at Harrison. "Then why were you crying last night?" he had asked. "When you were holding Mommy's picture?" His dad had frozen.

Staring at the wall. Completely hollow. A physical pain ripped through my chest. My boy. I stood up.

I turned my back to Theodore, shielding him, and locked eyes with Mason. "Listen to me very carefully, kid." My voice dropped to dead zero. "I am not your mother.

Your mother is the dirty little secret your dad hides across town. If you have a problem, go cry to him. But you do not get to touch my son. I'm taking this all the way.

You are going to apologize to my son, and you are going to pay for it." I didn't leave a single inch of breathing room.

I dragged all the filthy family secrets straight into the light. Out in the hallway, the kids pressing their ears against the glass erupted