The Villain's Unexpected Heir

He was about to adopt his enemy's daughter, and there was nobody left alive to inherit his few billion. The villain pointed at the girl in the corner of the group home.

He was taking her home. That was when I started seeing the live chat. [No wonder he's so set on dying later. Shame about the Kang money, though.

How much was it again... a few billion?] A few billion? I dropped to my knees and slid across the floor. Both arms around the villain's leg. Locked on. "I'd know you anywhere.

You're my longlost mommy." The villain: ? Chapter 1 The villain came to the group home to pick a kid, and he walked right past me. I was mid crabwalk at the time.

He looked at the quiet girl in the corner instead. "That one." Then the chat started scrolling past, right over his head. [This kid's a riot. Shame she's sick.

She won't make it to the season finale.] [Forget the extras, the villain's the real tragedy.

Does exactly what the heroine asks, adopts the kid, and doesn't find out until he's halfway through raising her that she belongs to the male lead.

Even his enemies would feel bad watching that.] [No wonder he's so set on dying later. Shame about the Kang money, though. Nobody left to inherit it.

How much was it again... a few billion?] What? Okay. Pause the bit. Survival first. I dropped to my knees, slid, and grabbed his leg. "That's a big wallet.

I'd know you anywhere, you're my longlost mommy!" The villain: ? Good. It was working. Thank God for all those nights I'd spent watching the Director tip male streamers on Twitch.

I tipped my head back. He was better looking than any of them. The owner of the leg came back to himself. Pretty brows pulling together. I followed his eyes.

Over by the wall, the Director had fully glitched out. A second later the Director hauled me up by the back of my shirt. "I'm so sorry. This one isn't right in the head.

I hope she hasn't bothered you." She squeezed out a smile with her whole face in it. "Peaches is all packed, sir, so whenever you're ready..." I doggypaddled in midair and looked at him like my heart was breaking. "Mommy.

You don't want me?" A vein came up at the Director's temple. She barked at me, loud enough for the whole room. "Open your eyes and look. That's a man.

Where do you see a mommy?" "A manmom is still a mom." Straight from her own mouth. I'm a good student.

Then I stretched both arms up at him like we'd known each other for years. "Up." His eyes finally left Peaches and landed on my face. Weightless. Nothing behind them.

The room got so quiet that the only thing still moving was the chat. [This kid is built different. Straight up running a scam on a villain. Respect.

Waste of time though, that Peaches girl already won just by standing there.] [Uh, with a face like a mini version of the heroine, what exactly is she supposed to lose with?] [Little ungrateful though.

He kept asking her if she wanted to come. She said no. Said he looked scary and asked if he was a bad guy. Look at his face.

He's having flashbacks to how the heroine used to talk to him.] Ugh. Can't read that one. But the first thing his hand did was close into a fist. So I got it.

I trotted over and bumped my fist against his. "Yo. Bro. I feel you." Then I turned to the girl still frozen in the corner. "Give it up, Peaches.

He picked me." The villain's head snapped around. "? When did I—" "You just fistbumped me.

You're not trying to back out, are you?" Chapter 2 He didn't answer, so I covered my right eye and let my voice go grave. "Amaterasu." "It has come to this.

I will destroy every last one of you." The Director had seen enough. She grabbed my arm to drag me off. I grabbed his arm and did not let go. "Stop!

Her mom and dad are coming back for her.

You don't want to end up a stepmom, do you?" "Wait." He stopped the Director with one word, then looked down at me. "What's your name?" There was an opening.

I went full character. "Nothing special. But from every angle, I'm an E." Then I walked him through the whole MyersBriggs thing. He had to be obsessed with me by now. Called it.

I got taken home by my manmom. Although it turned out to have nothing to do with my charm.

It was one sentence he couldn't let go of. "How do you know her parents are coming for her?" I looked up at the bling on the ceiling of his car and answered honestly. "She said so.

Nobody believed her." "Nobody believed her. You did?" "I don't do things the normal way." His brain was clearly a few steps behind.

He looked at me, lost. "At the home, I go sideways. Nobody stops me." He didn't say anything for a long time after that. Just looked. I know this one.

He's realizing he picked up a treasure. Back at the house, the chat would not shut up.

They said the villain, the man who brought me home, was named Adrian Kang, and that he picked me because he was scared.

Scared that Peaches's parents would come back, find her gone, and have their hearts broken. [He got taken as a kid, right? That's still in there.

He's terrified of accidentally being the guy who does that to someone else.] [Honestly, outside of loving people way too hard, the villain isn't a bad man.

If he could be even a little rational about the heroine he wouldn't end up the way he ends up...] [I think this weird little kid is great.

Beats raising your rival's daughter, that's for sure.] Didn't get it. Sounded like a compliment. Whatever. I'll compliment him back. "Thanks for taking me home.

You're a really good mommy." Adrian frowned. "Did nobody teach you the difference between a man and a woman?" "No, the Director explained it.

Doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. The bigger the wallet, the more mommy you are." I said it with my whole chest. His face went dark right in front of me.

So when the heroine called that night, hinting that he'd brought home the wrong kid and should return her, Adrian said no for the first time in his life. "Send her back the same day I brought her home?

What would people think? What would she think?" "Wren doesn't look like other kids. I know that. She's also only eight.

I'm not handing her back to a woman like that Director and letting her learn how to be like her." [Is this the first time the villain has ever told the heroine no?] [Eh, tracks.

A princess who's never had a hard day in her life doesn't understand what those two sad little strays are to each other.

She just thinks he can't handle one simple errand...] [Think about it. The one light in your whole life shoots down everything you do, every single time, no matter how hard you try.

That's how you push a man into going dark ahead of schedule.] Chapter 3 [NOOO. He just got the kid, she's not even raised yet. Wait. THE KID. Go. Tiny legend.

Your manmom is depresso again. GO SAVE HIM.] The word save hit something deep in my base code. Adrian was in the bathtub. A razor blade an inch from his wrist.

I shouldered the door open with 99+ notifications stacked over my head. I had a fry pinched between two fingers. I took a drag off it.

Blew out a lungful of nothing. "How many times have I told you." My voice came out heavy, like a man three times my age. "Lock the door when you're in the bath.

Promise me you'll protect yourself out there. Okay?" His eyes locked onto my fingers.

Then narrowed, and his voice came down somewhere I had never heard it go. "Who taught you that?" I blinked at him. "You did." He went still. The blade slipped out of his hand.

I think that was the second he remembered. That the night he came apart, there had been a very small me curled up on the couch.

I pretended to notice the blade on the floor and gasped. "Were you about to..." His jaw locked. Like the only thing that scared him was what this would do to me.

He opened his mouth to explain. I cut the spell. "...shave your pits in secret?" "The Director says eight out of ten guys at the gym only do that for somebody. So. Mommy.

When are you getting me a dad?" "..." [my STOMACH. if you can look at the villain's face right now and not laugh you should get screened for depression] [Villain: was mostly dead.

Now he's mad. Now he's alive.] He came out of the bathroom in a robe with murder in his walk. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, nowhere left to hide.

My eyes lit up and I started clapping. The applause lasted about a second before long fingers came down and dealt with me. "Tomorrow. You are going to school. Wren.

Kang." Squished into a duck bill, I could only wiggle. "Ohkay. Ohkay." See? He's mad again. School makes you behave. Not much. Mostly it was a body problem.

Turns out when the chat said I was sick, they weren't roasting me. At my backtoschool physical, they found a hole in my heart. Congenital, the doctor said.

Adrian stared at the paperwork and didn't say anything, and I figured I was going back. Same as all the other times.

The chat disagreed. [Surgery costs that would flatten a normal family? Sorry, to Mr.

Kang that's a rounding error.] [Tiny legend acts unhinged 90% of the time but she's still a little kid who's scared of needles. Look at her shaking.

I'm feral about her.] Adrian noticed too. He put a hand on my head and did an awkward, outofpractice job of comforting a child. "Don't worry.

I'm going to fix this." I nodded and kept my mouth shut. In a corner where nobody was looking, I quietly liked a video called HILARIOUS. NOBODY CAN LAST 10 SECONDS.

The chat over my head went quiet for a second. [...so when they said she wouldn't make it to the season finale. This is what they meant.] [And there it goes.

Clock's running.] Chapter 4 Because of the heart thing, most of Adrian's attention landed on me. With that kind of money behind it, the condition stabilized fast.

You could see him settling into the whole dad job. I once watched him post my school ID photo online. Caption: That's my girl. Somebody please ask me the question.

That day, every stranger who liked or commented got a DM from an unknown account asking for their Venmo so he could send them money.

To keep him from bleeding cash, I had no choice but to apply myself at school. Which is how he ended up getting a call from the office.

Everyone in the room was looking at him a certain way.

Adrian very casually put up an Instagram post with a photo attached. [How did you know my girl got praised by her teacher?] Somebody commented under it immediately. [BRO.

THIS IS A PARENT CONFERENCE.] So the man who doesn't blink at a hundredbilliondollar deal sat there looking mildly lost. Until the English teacher cleared her throat. "So.

Wren's dad." "I know raising a child alone isn't easy.

But at her age, her whole sense of the world is still forming, and she needs guidance from a parent, so..." The assignment had been titled My Mom. [I have never met my mom.

But I think my dad is my mom.] Reading the first line, Adrian's eyes went red. Then he got to the rest of it. And it wasn't just his eyes anymore. [Because his wallet is very big.

But I am a big girl now, so I don't ask for any more