CEO's Runaway Lover: My Cold Ex Begs For My Love Again
Four years ago, Madelynn accepted money from Caiden's family and vanished. She thought it was for the best-he would remain the untouchable heir while she faced her tough life alone.
When they met again, Caiden humiliated her in public, yet appeared when she was cornered by a difficult client, pulling her back into his life.
He forced her to stay as his lover, using her mother's medical bills as leverage, whispering, "What you owe me... you'll repay the same way."
Madelynn believed he despised her. Only after the accident, when he ran toward her before the explosion, did she understand-he never let go.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 6
"And who exactly do you think you are to lecture me?" Lacey snapped back.
"I'm the executive producer," Madelynn replied firmly.
Lacey faltered, her response dying in her throat.
Abby's voice rang out from behind them. "Impressive. Throwing your weight around like that, Madelynn."
She approached in measured steps, heels clicking, and stopped beside Lacey, her lips curling into a faint, knowing smile. "Shame this isn't your project anymore. Mr. Willis made that very clear—you've been replaced, and I'm in charge now. So what exactly gives you the right to call the shots here?"
Madelynn met her gaze head-on. "I'm doing this as Margot's friend. Is that good enough for you?"
Abby laughed hard. "Friend? That's quite the claim. You're just an employee trying to latch onto a celebrity; do you really think she considers you as a friend?"
At that moment, Margot stepped forward through the crowd and took her place beside Madelynn. "She is my friend."
Abby's face went rigid at once.
One by one, people began to gather around them—the script supervisor, lighting crew, and even a couple of supporting actors. Each of them had, at one point or another, been on the receiving end of Lacey's deliberate or subtle mistreatment.
Not a single person said anything.
They simply stood there.
The shift in Abby's expression was impossible to miss.
Right in the middle of the tense silence, Louis' voice cut through the air. "What's with the delay? Are we shooting today or not?"
He pushed his way forward, and the moment his eyes landed on Madelynn, his brows drew together. "You again?"
Madelynn paid him no attention and continued addressing Abby, saying, "I've already arranged for someone to retrieve the behind-the-scenes footage. If Lacey doesn't provide Margot with a written apology before the day is over, I'll be sending the full, unedited recording directly to the Dawson Group's legal department on behalf of Infinity Entertainment. Since this is their production, I assume they won't mind stepping in to resolve the matter, right?"
Abby faltered. "You wouldn't—"
"Feel free to test that," Madelynn interjected calmly.
Louis quickly grasped the situation.
His gaze shifted from Lacey to Margot's swollen cheek, and his expression darkened.
"Did you do this?" he asked Lacey.
Lacey visibly panicked. "Mr. Barrett, just let me explain—"
"Answer the question. Did you do this or not?" Louis cut her off.
Lacey fell silent, not daring to respond.
Louis said nothing for a few seconds, then muttered a curse under his breath.
When he looked back at Madelynn, the usual mockery in his tone had disappeared for the first time.
"The Dawson Group will cover all of Margot's medical expenses," he said.
Madelynn didn't reply.
Louis lingered for a brief moment before turning and walking away.
Abby and Lacey followed behind him, their expressions stiff with embarrassment.
The crowd slowly dispersed.
Meanwhile, Margot remained beside Madelynn, her eyes rimmed red. "Madelynn..."
"It's alright now," Madelynn said, giving her shoulder a light pat. "Go put some ice on your cheek."
Margot nodded, but after taking a few steps, she turned back again. "Madelynn, you mentioned before that Louis and Caiden know each other personally."
"Yeah."
"Then... is that why he helped us just now?"
Madelynn didn't answer.
Her thoughts drifted to the message Jed had sent her the night before.
It was brief.
"Mr. Dawson said you can continue your work in Avlester. He'll take care of Louis."
She hadn't replied.
It seemed Caiden had already taken care of things with Louis.
As evening set in, a light rain began to fall.
Madelynn left the set without an umbrella, wandering down the street without any clear destination.
She didn't feel like returning to the hotel. She didn't want to sit alone there.
Her thoughts were tangled and restless.
It had been four years. She had believed she was used to handling everything on her own by now.
But standing there earlier, in the middle of that confrontation, she had suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion.
It wasn't a feeling she experienced often anymore.
The last time she felt that had been four years ago, when she stood in front of Caiden and said, "The contract is over. Let's end things peacefully."
She had never forgotten the look in his eyes that day.
It was cold as ice.
She had always believed he hated her.
Maybe he did.
But why had he appeared in that alley the other night? And why had he asked Jed to pass along that message to her?
Could it be that he still hadn't broken the habit of helping her? Just like before.
The rainfall intensified, turning steadier and harsher.
Madelynn stepped beneath a roadside bus stop to dodge it, resting against the advertisement panel as she gazed absentmindedly through the veil of rain.
Her phone rang suddenly with a call from an unfamiliar number, and she picked it up.
"Madelynn." Caiden's voice came through the line.
Madelynn stiffened in place. "Caiden?"
A short silence followed from the other end of the line.
"Where are you?" Caiden finally asked.
Madelynn glanced around instinctively. "Avlester. Why?"
"Send me your location."
"What?"
The call abruptly disconnected.
Madelynn looked at her phone screen, momentarily unsure what to do.
After a long three minutes, she finally sent Caiden her location.
The second she hit send, she felt a bit foolish.
Why had she complied so easily just because he asked?
Acting on impulse, she quickly retracted the message.
Almost immediately, Caiden replied, "Already saw it."
A wave of awkwardness settled over Madelynn.
She slipped her phone back into her pocket.
The rain eased slightly, yet she remained where she was. She wasn't even sure what she was waiting for.
About twenty minutes later, a black car came to a stop beside the bus stop.
The car window slid down.
Caiden sat behind the wheel, his gaze landing on her through the curtain of rain. "Get in."
Madelynn didn't move. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I had a meeting nearby in the afternoon."
"A meeting that went on until now?"
Caiden gave no response.
They held each other's gaze for a brief moment before Madelynn finally reached for the door and got in.
The interior of the car was warm, carrying that familiar pine scent.
Caiden started the car without another word. He didn't ask why she had been standing alone there or why she looked so drained. He simply drove. The only sound was the steady sweep of the wipers cutting across the windshield.
Madelynn leaned back against the seat, her eyes drifting toward the blurred city lights outside.
"Thanks for today," she said after a while.
"What do you mean?"
"For handling Louis."
Caiden gave a quiet nod in response, offering nothing more.
Silence settled between them again.
Then, out of nowhere, Madelynn spoke, her voice quiet, almost distant. "Four years ago, when I left..."
Caiden's grip tightened slightly on the steering wheel.
"It wasn't because of Isaac," Madelynn continued.
She kept her eyes forward, not looking at him. "Back then, your mother came to see me."
The rhythmic sound of the wipers continued, the only thing breaking the stillness.
Caiden said nothing.
Madelynn waited for a moment, then let out a faint laugh. "Forget it. That was all in the past anyway."
She shut her eyes.
Caiden didn't press her further, and she offered no more explanation, either.
Four years had gone by, long enough that neither of them knew how to begin to talk about this topic anymore.
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
9.3
On her wedding night at The Plaza Hotel, Clara went looking for her husband.
Instead, she found him in the dimly lit parking garage, passionately pinning down her bridesmaid.
She couldn't even scream or expose them. Just hours before the ceremony, Julian had tricked her into signing away her twenty percent shares of their co-founded company, leaving her completely penniless and unable to pay her grandmother's life-saving medical bills.
Fleeing in absolute despair, a sudden hotel blackout plunged her into a second nightmare. She was dragged into a pitch-black room and brutally violated by a heavily drugged stranger.
When a shattered Clara returned to the office to audit the books and reclaim her power, Julian demoted her to a dusty desk by the trash cans.
He flaunted his mistress in the executive suite and deliberately sent Clara into a horrifying trap. He arranged for vicious clients to drug and assault her, demanding high-definition blackmail photos so he could divorce her with absolutely nothing.
"Since you want to play rough, you can service Mr. Petrocelli tonight," the thug sneered, locking the VIP room door.
Clara was pushed to the brink of hell. Why was the man she devoted three years of her life to trying to destroy her so completely? And why did the freezing cedarwood scent of the stranger who ruined her in the dark perfectly match Conrad Vance, the ruthless CEO and Julian's untouchable uncle?
Rather than let Julian win, Clara smashed a glass bottle, held the jagged edge to her own throat to force the men back, and threw herself off the second-floor balcony into the freezing night.
But the bone-crushing impact never came. A massive figure shot out from the shadows and caught her, and her brutal counterattack finally began.
7.6
Johana walked half a mile through a brutal blizzard just to secure a tutoring job with the elite Black family.
But the very night she was hired, she received a terrifying call from the ER—her quiet roommate, Hazelle, had been drugged and severely traumatized at a Hamptons party.
When Johana rushed to the hospital, she didn't find the police. Instead, she found a team of ruthless billionaires erasing the crime.
Leading them was Dalton Black, the cold, arrogant older brother of her new student.
Within minutes, Dalton's fixers wiped the hospital's security footage, deleted all digital evidence, and forcefully transferred Hazelle to a locked private psychiatric facility.
"We are ensuring her privacy."
Dalton's voice was devoid of emotion, treating the horrific assault like a minor PR glitch.
His friends mocked Johana's powerlessness, while Dalton authorized a blank check to pay for the private ward, effectively burying the scandal and buying their silence.
Johana stood in the sterile hallway, trembling with a mix of despair and absolute rage.
How could they destroy an innocent girl's life and simply pay to make it disappear? Why was the truth so easily erased by money?
She had no wealth, no connections, and no proof, but she refused to be a victim of their cover-up.
Staring directly into Dalton's intimidating, icy blue eyes, Johana made a vow.
"I don't want your money. I will find out what you monsters did to her."
She thought the billionaire heir would crush her on the spot, but instead, he watched her walk away and quietly ordered his assistant: "Find out everything about Johana Neal."
8.2
I went to a private clinic for a routine physical, only to find out I was pregnant.
It was impossible. I took my birth control every single day. But when the doctor tested my pills, they turned out to be high-purity vitamin placebos. My billionaire husband, Denton, had been systematically replacing my medication.
Yet, on our anniversary, he brought my sister Beverly home, demanding a divorce so he could marry her. When I refused to sign a settlement that left me with nothing, he froze my accounts and blacklisted me across New York.
My own father disowned me. When an old friend offered me a job just so I could afford prenatal care, Denton launched a ruthless financial attack to bankrupt his firm.
Then, Beverly got into a car crash. Denton's bodyguards dragged me off the street and forced me into a hospital trauma room. Beverly was hemorrhaging, and I was the only blood match.
I cried and begged Denton to stop, desperately trying to protect my fragile pregnancy without exposing my baby to the monster who controlled my life.
"Please, my body can't handle this. Don't do this to me!"
But he just looked at me with pure disgust and ordered his men to strap me to the chair, forcing the needle into my vein while threatening to kill me if his mistress died.
As I dragged my bleeding, cramping body out of the hospital into the freezing snow, my last shred of hope died.
I touched my stomach and made a vow: I would disappear, and I would make them all pay.
7.4
Avery thought she'd found her happily ever after with Ethan, the charming billionaire who swept her off her feet in Willow Creek. But after one night of passion, he vanished, leaving her heartbroken and alone. She returned home to find her grandmother, her only family, had passed away.
Devastated, Avery discovered a shocking truth: she was the daughter of a millionaire who'd left her a vast fortune. Relocated to New York, she met Ethan again, but this time, he was determined to win her back. Unbeknownst to him, Avery had been hiding a life-changing secret: she's the mother of his twin babies.
As Avery navigates her complicated past and the wicked family members who despise her, Ethan's pursuit becomes relentless. He'll stop at nothing to reclaim the love they shared, but Avery's secrets threaten to tear them apart. Can she trust him with her heart and the truth about their children, or will it drive them further apart?
Ethan's words echoed in her mind: "I've been searching for you for six years, Avery. I won't let you go again." But Avery's secrets were only the beginning. Little did Ethan know, their love story was only just beginning...
9.0
Once a pampered princess, Alaina now clutched a deactivated American Express card, staring out at Central Park. Her family’s fortune was gone, her life, over.
Her family's Hamptons estate, a four-generation legacy, was seized by Dyer Capital. The name hit her: Hardin Dyer, the poor boy she’d once scorned, had returned.
Hardin marched in, serving a divorce agreement. He'd orchestrated her family's downfall for revenge, giving her 24 hours to vacate his property. Penniless, her father faced prison, needing $50 million. Her mother forced her to beg Hardin, who sneered, offering the money for her body. Alaina ripped up the contract.
Hours later, her father had a heart attack. Desperate, she became "Lexi," a club girl enduring humiliation. In the Viper Room, Hardin's lackeys demanded she lick whiskey off his shoe for $10,000. Hardin watched. Outside, her brother Ashton's hand was threatened for a $3 million debt. Spirit shattered, Alaina returned, knelt on broken glass, offering to sign. But Hardin declared her family "dead," offering $10 million for her body, commanding her to use her mouth.
In a furious act of defiance, Alaina threw whiskey in his face, snatched the check, and fled. Yet, when he finally took her, a searing, foreign pain and blood on the sheets revealed a shocking truth: he had never touched her three years ago. Why had he let her believe such a monstrous lie?
9.2
Nica caught her boyfriend, Chris, and her best friend, Ella, in a shocking betrayal. Chris was kissing Ella while caressing her close, and Ella only smirked at Nica as if she had won. Nica got pissed off and swore she would not let their betrayal go unpunished. What happens next? Read the story and find out for yourself.