Zoey takes a sip of hot tea as she watches the sunrise over the beach. She never expected to be sitting on the balcony of a hotel suite in Maui days after Christmas. Her life had changed so much over the past few weeks.

Max tightly embraces Zoey as the board room of Carmichael Resort Corporation empties out. "I think your first board meeting went really well," he tells her. "Way better than mine. And a thousand times better than your mom's."

Zoey laughs. "That's good. I was so nervous. I was just hoping that I didn't fuck up or sound like an idiot."

"Shan and Matt would be very proud of you," Max softly says. "Despite what DNA may or may not say, Zoey, Matt loved you so much. He was your father in every sense of the word."

Zoey smiles. "I know."

A knock at the door causes them to turn. Austin was standing there, with a folder in his hands. "How is the birthday girl," he asks, walking into the board room.

"Good. Happy. And hungry."

Max laughs. "Let's get some lunch."

"In a few minutes," Austin says. Zoey and Max exchange a confused look. Austin closes the doors to the board room. He holds up the folder. "This was delivered to my office a couple of days ago. I had to verify that the information was authentic."

"You gonna tell us what it is," Max amusedly asks. "Granted, if it's porn…Scratch that, it would depend on the type of porn."

Austin hands the folder to Zoey. She opens it and frowns. It was a certificate of sale of shares for Queen Industries. Her mother's signature was at the bottom along with Robert Queen's. "Queen Industries a couple of years before Robert's and Moria's deaths had been having some financial difficulties," Austin begins. "Robert went to Shannon and asked her to buy some Queen Industries shares. The intent was for her to keep them until he could buy them back. But Robert and Moria died in the plane crash before that could happen. Shannon had a trust created for you, Zoey. She put all the shares of Queen Industries that she own in that trust with specific instructions that you gain full access of it on your eighteenth birthday."

"Austin, this says that my mom owned fifty percent," Zoey points out.

"And now you own fifty percent of Queen Industries, Zoey."

Zoey sits down in one of the empty chairs. Max shakes his head. "This is not possible," he says, grabbing the file. "Shannon would have told me."

"Does Oliver know," Zoey asks, looking at Austin.

"No."

"Why? Why would I get them? Why didn't my mom give them back to Oliver or put them in a trust for him? Why me?"

"The only person that could answer that isn't here."

Zoey looks between Max and Austin. Max had been uncharacteristically quiet. "Uncle Max?"

"I don't know," Max softly answers. He looks at his niece. "But you can not tell Oliver. Not until we figure this out."

A hand lightly touches her shoulder and she turns to see Oliver. He leans down and softly kisses her before taking the empty seat next to her. "You're up early," he says.

Zoey shoots him a tired smile. "Time difference has me a little screwed up."

Oliver watches as she turns her gaze back to the ocean. He knew she was hiding something from him. "You ever gonna tell me what's bothering you, Zo."

"Nothing's bothering me."

"Bullshit."

"Is that a real thing," Zoey asks. She was sitting on the couch, watching Law & Order with Max. It was their Friday night ritual that they had started in Smallville.

"Spousal privilege," Max asks. "Yeah. But it usually depends on the crime and circumstances. One of my legal aid clients waived the privilege to put her drug-dealing husband in prison. It also helped get her divorce pretty easy."

Zoey bites her lip. She looks at Oliver. "We should get married."

Oliver chokes on the coffee he was drinking. He grabs a few napkins and wipes up the coffee he spilled. "Why do you want to get married, Zo?" Zoey stands up and walks back into the hotel suite. "Zoey—"

"I need to tell you something, but I can't."

"Why can't you just tell me, Zo?"

"I…Ollie, I just need you to trust me on this."

"Zo, I do trust you. But I want you to be honest with me."

"Uncle Max and Austin said I shouldn't say anything until they can make sure everything is right."

Oliver frowns. "Zoey, what's going on?"

"You know if we just get married, then it'll make things so much easier. For you and for me."

"Zoey, tell me what's going on. Now."

Zoey lets out a frustrated breath. "Your dad sold fifty percent of the shares of Queen Industries to my mom. I guess your dad was trying to raise some capital or something. The plan was for him to buy them back, but he died before that could happen. So, my mom went and put the shares in a trust for me. Austin a got notice a few days before my birthday saying that I needed to go to the bank and sign the paperwork so I could get access to the trust. Because my mom wanted to have full access to it on my eighteenth birthday."

Oliver paces around the suite. "And why couldn't you tell me this before?"

"Because Uncle Max and Austin are still trying to figure out what to do. No one knew about it. My mom didn't tell anyone. She didn't leave any instructions in her will."

"And why do exactly do you think getting married will make this easier?"

"Because then you can just have them. It-it-it's not my company. It's yours. You should own them. And I can't just sell them to you. The trust won't let me. So, I'm stuck with them." Zoey walks over to him. "Ollie, it doesn't have to be a real marriage. It can just be one on paper."

Oliver stares at her. This wasn't how he ever pictured getting married. He wasn't sure if he ever wanted to get married. "Look, Zo, if we do this. Then we do it for real. That means you end things with Bruce Wayne."

"I-I-I don't understand."

"No more secret hookups with him. No more random trips to Gotham."

"But-but—"

"I mean it."

"You're forcing me to make a decision—"

"Don't give me that horseshit, Zoey. Everyone knows about the plans you've been making to go to Princeton. If you wanted to be with him, then you aren't you with him?"

"Bruce didn't want to do long-distance," Zoey cries. "I'm trying to do the right thing and it feels like you're punishing me."

"I'm not…" Oliver trails off. "You know what everyone calls you? At all the stuffy parties and shit? The billionaire slut. They take bets who will get to fuck you next. And it's just gotten worse since you're birthday."

"Uncle Max hasn't—"

"Max doesn't know. He doesn't get invited to these dinners or parties." Zoey sits down on the bed. She was clearly taken back by what he had just told her. Oliver sits down next to her. "Look, Zo, I have no problem with waiting however long it takes for me to buy the shares from you. But if we do this, then I'm not going to let you destroy your reputation in the process. If you want these assholes to take you seriously in the future, don't give them ammo to use against you."

Zoey wipes away her tears. "This would be so much easier if my mom hadn't fucked me over." She takes a deep breath. "I'll end things with Bruce."

Oliver grabs her hand. "We'll do it tomorrow. We actually need to find out what the rules in Hawaii are."

"I already look it up. You just go to the courthouse with a copy of the birth certificate. I brought copies of both of ours."

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Since you asked where I wanted to go on vacation?"

"And what would have done if I said no?"

"I didn't think about that."

Chloe knocks on the door of the Kent farmhouse. Under normal circumstances, she would be at home with her father and enjoying the last few days of Christmas break. But the latest issue of the Smallville Ledger had caused her to run right over to the Kents. "Come on in, Chloe," Martha calls out and Chloe hurriedly enters the house.

"Have you guys seen the Ledger," Chloe asks, handing the paper to Martha. "I mean, the Ledger used to be respectable and now it's turning into some trashy tabloid." Martha unfolds the paper to reveal the headline: Local Girl is Actually Billionaire Heiress. Zoey's senior class photo was on the front page next to a photo from the annual Carmichael Fourth of July Party. "I think we'd all know if Zoey was a billionaire."

"Actually, she is, Chloe," Martha replies, sitting down at the kitchen table.

Chloe stares in disbelief as Clark and Jonathan enter the house. "Morning, Chloe," Clark brightly greets his best friend.

"Zoey's a billionaire," Chloe exclaims, looking between the Kents. "I just thought that her uncle was rich. But not Zoey."

Martha wordlessly hands her husband the newspaper. "Unbelievable," Jonathan says, handing the paper to Clark.

Smallville is home to a new billionaire and she's a student at Smallville High School. Zoey York is more commonly known as Zoey Carmichael. Her parents were killed in a drunk driving accident when Zoey was just seven years old. But how does someone such as Zoey Carmichael arrive in Smallville and live here without anyone knowing? Simple. Max Carmichael had carefully constructed a tale that explained Zoey's absence in Star City; that during the school year, Zoey Carmichael would attend a boarding school in Switzerland. In reality, Zoey was living here, in Smallville, and attending school. And it went unnoticed as every journalist, including myself, assumed that Zoey's last name was Carmichael.

Zoey's last name is actually York. Her father was Matthew York, a star running back for Smallville High during the '70s. Her mother was Shannon Carmichael, a billionaire hotel heiress. Matt meets Shannon not long after her infamous three-month marriage to Doug Smith of Doug and the Boys. They both were attending the University of California, Star City when they met. Matt was on a football scholarship while Shannon had just enrolled. It was at a post-homecoming celebration party in 1980 that the two met. Shortly after, they started dating and became inseparable.

In the spring of 1981, Shannon arrived with Matt to spend Easter weekend with his parents. And it didn't go well. "Shannon was a snob," Jack York, Matt's younger brother, recalls. "And my parents hated her. Mom didn't think that a party girl from the big city was good enough for Matty. And Mom told him so."

Matt graduated from UC Star City with a degree in aerospace engineering in the spring of 1984 and had entered the NFL draft, where he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. Shannon followed her football player boyfriend to San Francisco and settled into the role of football girlfriend. "Shannon wanted Matty to marry her days after they met," Jack tells me. "But Matty wanted to focus on his football career and she didn't like that."

Matt was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 1985 and Shannon followed him to Seattle, Washington. A year later, Shannon and Matt eloped in Seattle. "Mom was pissed. Shannon was knocked up and convinced Matty to have a shotgun wedding," Jack remembers.

On December 2, 1986, Shannon gave birth to Zoey Stella York in Seattle. And a week later, Matt announced that he was ending his football career. The new family moved to Star City after the football season was over and settled into their new life. Matt eventually took a job at Ferris Aircraft while Shannon was a stay-at-home mother. Of course, their seemingly happy relationship was anything but. "They did nothing but fight. Matty wanted more kids, but Shannon refused."

But tragically, Matt and Shannon never had a chance to work out their problems. On a rainy February night in 1993, they died in a horrific car crash after a drunk driver crashed into them. Matt and Shannon were both killed on impact. Custody of Matt and Shannon's daughter was given to Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are Zoey's godparents. "I guess Matty wanted a more normal upbringing for his little girl than Shannon's brother could ever give her. The Kents were probably the only people that Shannon could agree on. I guess I wasn't good enough to raise my niece."

Despite the fact that Zoey's lived in Smallville since she was seven years old, she hasn't made many friends. "Zoey keeps to herself mostly," Shane Burke, one of Zoey's many ex-boyfriends, tells me. "When we were dating, she never talked about her family. Anytime I would ask, she would change the subject. I was really hurt when she broke up with me. I loved her."

One of Zoey's closest friends, Mike Wilson, moved away from Smallville during their freshmen year of high school. When I contacted Mike for a quote about this article, he refused to comment. "I don't think Zoey had any other friends," Shane told me. "Like I said, she keeps to herself mostly."

Zoey's dating life includes a few local boys, but most other billionaires, including Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. Most recently, she's been linked to Oliver Queen. Most boyfriends would take their girlfriends out to dinner for their birthday. But Oliver Queen took Zoey on a romantic vacation for her eighteenth birthday present. "That girl is exactly like her mother. She cares more about money and status than anything else," Jack says after I tell him of Zoey's birthday present. "She don't give a crap about anybody in this town."

Of course, Zoey inherited a number of shares in Carmichael Resort Corporation on her eighteenth birthday. Along with a seat on CRC's board of directors. The biggest question is how was Zoey able to fly under the radar in Smallville so well? My answer is because of Lex Luthor. No one batted an eye at an expensive car driving down Main Street and being parked in front of the Talon after the Luthors moved to town. And I believe that Zoey used that to her advantage.

Clark sets the newspaper on the table and looks at his mother. "I didn't know Zoey had another uncle."

"That's because Jack York spent the past twenty years in and out of prison," Jonathan explains. "Matt paid for his rehab, all three times, and it never stuck with Jack. It was in everyone's best interests for Jack not to be allowed around Zoey."

Martha shakes her head and stands up. "I'm gonna call Mr. Wells and see if there's anything we can do."

"Wait, how much of that article was true," Chloe asks, looking between the Kents.

Jonathan and Martha exchange a look. "Most of it is," Martha says. "I don't believe that Zoey ever dated Shane Burke."

"I think he used to bully her," Clark clarifies. "She mentioned it to me a couple of times."

Chloe turns the page. Numerous photos in black and white covered the page. It was clear that they were long-range photos. But you could clearly make out the petite curly-haired blonde in the photos. One of the photos showed Zoey, wearing a very revealing bikini, embracing a tall blonde haired man. While another showed Zoey, wearing a mini dress, enjoying an ice cream cone with a dark-haired young man in a European city. The clearest one showed Zoey, wearing an evening gown, with Lex in Metropolis.

Austin leans back in his chair and watches the very tanned heiress as she stares out the window. When someone in his office had delivered the latest issue of the Smallville Ledger, Austin had called Max. Max didn't want to acknowledge the article, but Austin had a feeling that Zoey wanted to do something different. "What do you want to do about Gillian Wilson and the Smallville Ledger?"

Zoey stares out at the Metropolis skyline. It was a dark, cloudy day. "I want to start a company," she says. "And buy the Smallville Ledger."

"What do you want to name it?"

"York Media Group Incorporated. YMG Inc."

"I'll get it taken care of."

"Oliver and I eloped in Maui." Zoey turns away from the window and digs through her bag. She hands him a marriage certificate.

Austin takes the certificate. "I can have a postnuptial drawn up."

Zoey bites her lip. "Would it be crazy if I didn't want one?"

"It would be very fucking insane. My advice is to get some kind of agreement."

She looks down at the rings dangling on a silver chain around her neck. "It's not necessary."

Austin sighs and sets the license on his desk. "You know Max is going to lose his shit when he finds out."

"Oh yeah," Zoey smirks. "You need to start fucking him again. It'll help ease the blow. He'll be in happy land."

"I'm not fucking Max to distract him from when he finds out that you eloped." Austin runs a hand over his face. "We are so fucked."

Now I'm standing at four corners

To have and to hold

Now, my love, you stand beside me

To walk life's winding road

And I owe it all you

For taking the chance

You've shown me there's a right man

Cause I never knew a right man