Bound by Love

Lane Wood met Malia Sneyd by chance and courted her hard once he learned who her family was. The Sneyds are the richest family in the city, with a fortune running into the billions, and Malia had almost no experience of anything outside it. She believed what he told her, and she became pregnant. Malia brought him to the family company to meet her mother, May Sneyd. Lane made his demand there. He wanted the Sneyd fortune signed over to him, and said that if Malia would not marry him he would put the pregnancy about and leave the family to be laughed at. Malia, by then afraid he would walk out on her and the child, pressed her mother to agree to it. May had spent years in business and read him at once. She worked out a plan with her adopted daughter, Keira Sneyd. They told Lane the transfer papers were being drawn up and used the wedding preparations to stall him, and while he waited they collected evidence of what he had done.