Claimed by My Ex's Stepbrother
"IS IT TRUE?" Grayson's voice thundered through the room.
"Yes!" Tessa said softly. "Yes it is!"
"So you've been cheating on me, haven't you?" He spat.
Her hands trembled. "No, I swear, it's not like that."
He grabbed her arm, his grip bruising her wrist as she squealed in pain.
"Then whose baby are you carrying, huh?" His voice was ice cold.
Tessa shivered, tears blurring her vision.
"I don't know."
**********
Pregnant with the powerful Roman Blackwood's child, while engaged to his unstable stepbrother - Tessa Quinn becomes the key to a ruthless inheritance war where love has no place.
As secrets unravel and danger closes in, Tessa must protect her unborn child while trapped between love, vengeance, and men who want to own her fate.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 1
The scent of antiseptic filled the small hospital room. Tessa's hands trembled as the nurse smiled, holding the ultrasound report like a fragile promise.
All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Months of pills, hormone injections, and doctor visits had drained her both physically and emotionally.
And now, maybe... a flicker of hope. Maybe, finally, a chance to give her fiancé what he wanted: a child. Their child.
"Congratulations, Miss Quinn." The nurse smiled. "You're pregnant."
"Yes!" Tessa squealed. "I'm finally pregnant with Grayson's baby!" A shaky breath escaped her lips and her eyes sparkled with hope.
Finally. After all the heartache and desperation, she could give Grayson the baby he wanted so badly. The baby who would secure his place as heir to Thorne Industries, just like Grayson's father's will had demanded.
This wasn't just about her anymore. It was about survival.
She clutched the report close, imagining Grayson's smile, the relief flooding his face. This was their future, her future.
Tessa grabbed her purse and jolted out of the hospital in a hurry, excited to share the news.
The elevator dinged open to their high-rise apartment floor. Her heart raced as she fumbled with her keys.
She stepped inside, expecting silence, peace, and maybe a smile from Grayson.
Instead, laughter spilled from the living room.
Grayson lounged on the velvet couch, an arm wrapped possessively around a woman Tessa knew too well - his secretary, Sofia.
Tall, sleek, with an amused smirk curling her lips.
"Grayson," Tessa's voice cracked like glass. "What's happening?"
He didn't even look up. "You again. What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Tessa snapped. "We live here, remember? The real question is what is she doing here?"
"That's none of your business, Tessa." Grayson said coolly. "What do you want?"
Tessa's stomach twisted. The casual dismissal hit harder than any shout could have. She stepped forward, eyes locked on Sofia's hand resting on Grayson's thigh.
Her eyes opened in realization.
"You've been lying to me," she said, voice trembling but steady. "How long? How long have you been screwing your secretary while I've been killing myself trying to give you the one thing you keep saying you need?"
Grayson finally met her gaze, his expression flat. "You're making a scene over nothing. Sofia understands me. She doesn't drag me down with endless doctor visits and false hope."
The words landed like a slap. Tessa's breath caught.
Her fists clenched. "False hope? After everything I've put myself through? The pills, the appointments I dragged myself to even when I was shaking, the sleepless nights wondering if this would finally be our chance - and this is how you repay me? By calling me false hope?"
Grayson shrugged, cold and unapologetic. "You've been nothing but a disappointment, Tessa. I don't even think you can get pregnant."
The words hit her like ice water.
"No," she hissed, stepping closer, her voice low but fierce. "I've done everything. Every damn thing. How can you treat me like this?"
Sofia chuckled, sharp and cruel. "Maybe you're just not the right one, Tessa. Maybe I'm the one who can actually give Grayson what he wants."
Grayson smirked. "She'll give me my heir," he said, rubbing Sofia's belly. "You're nothing but a broken failure."
"How dare you speak to me like this?" Tessa snapped.
Sofia stood, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Don't pretend you were ever enough for him."
Grayson laughed darkly. "You're dried up, Tessa. You've been lying to me the whole time. You can't bear my heir. No baby is coming. At least not from you."
Her hands balled into fists. "How dare you? I've done everything for us. For you."
He smirked. "And look where it got you. Get out of my sight. Just looking at you makes me sick."
Her voice grew sharper, fueled by anger and heartbreak. "You fucking bastard. How can you do this?" she demanded, dragging at his shirt.
Before he could reply, the front door swung open.
His mother - Eleanor - stepped in, regal and cold, her eyes like daggers aimed at Tessa. "Get your filthy hands off my son. How dare you question him for you not being able to carry his baby? You sterile piece of junk."
Tessa's breath hitched. "That's not true."
Eleanor's lips curled. "I'm not wrong. You're weak, incapable of giving us what we need."
Sofia leaned in, her voice silky and cruel. "I will give Grayson the heir he deserves. You're just a broken woman."
"Would you shut up, you home wrecker?" Tessa snapped, lunging at Sofia, rage blazing in her eyes. But Grayson caught her, shoving her backwards.
Before she knew it, his hand flew across her face, giving her a burning slap.
His mother's eyes narrowed in approval and Sofia smirked.
"Grayson. How dare you? How dare you hit me?" Tessa sniffed.
"That's enough, Tessa. I am done with you. Now get out of my house."
Tears blurred her vision as pain and humiliation washed over her.
"Fine. I see who you truly are now. And I never want to have anything to do with you again. I hope this home-wrecker can give you babies."
"Yeah. Yeah. Get out!" He chuckled, brushing her off.
Furious and broken, Tessa pulled the crumpled report from her purse. "You think you know everything? You don't."
She tore it in two, the pieces fluttering in the air before she shoved them into his face. "See that? That's the truth you refuse to accept."
Grayson sneered, wiping his cheek. "You're delusional."
She spun away, her heart pounding, tears burning her eyes.
The apartment door slammed shut behind her.
"Silly girl," his mother said as Tessa stormed out of the room. "What's this nonsense now?"
Eleanor bent down, her fingers brushing the torn pieces of paper scattered on the floor.
Her eyes scanned the shattered report and widened in realization.
"Grayson." A slow, satisfied smile curled her lips.
"What is it, Mom?" He turned to face her.
"She's pregnant," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "She really is pregnant."
Sofia narrowed her brows. Her knuckles turned white as Grayson grabbed the piece of paper from his mother's hand.
His eyes scanned the page. His heart thudded in his chest as he saw the pregnancy confirmation.
"Go after her," his mother scowled. "She's carrying your heir - and that baby will change everything."
You may also like
8.6
"What do you think people would say if they found out you don't have a dick?" Christian asked, his voice low and dripping with seduction. His hand pressed firmly against my crotch, fingers exploring the flat, unfamiliar emptiness there. A devilish smirk curved his lips. "Or if they discovered these voluptuous breasts you've been hiding so well?"
A strangled moan slipped from my throat as his hand slid under my shirt, his fingers brushing over my hardened nipples, teasing them with slow, deliberate strokes.
"Which do you think they'd call you?" he murmured, eyes gleaming. "A boy with tits... or a dickless little fraud?"
I stared into his hungry blue eyes, words failing me.
"The term you're looking for is 'girl,'" came Xavier's smooth voice from the bathroom doorway. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click, his gaze raking over me with open interest. "So tell me, little girl... what the hell is someone like you doing in an all-boys dorm?"
Christian's smirk widened. "She wants to be devoured by boys like us." His fingers gave my nipple one last firm pinch before he leaned in closer, breath hot against my ear. "And I'll be more than happy to give her a taste."
7.4
Four years ago, to protect the man I loved from losing his billionaire empire, I drugged his drink, told him I only used him for his money, and vanished.
Now, at a high-society gala, Callum Wyatt is back. He isn't just a CEO anymore; he's a ruthless predator, and the second his eyes lock onto me, I know I am his prey.
When my wealthy half-sister publicly humiliated me, calling me the cheap bastard child of a homewrecker, Callum stepped out of the shadows. He nearly snapped her wrist in half and declared to New York's elite that anyone who touched me would be dismantled.
In the back of his Maybach, he pinned my arms above my head, his eyes burning with psychotic obsession.
"If you run again, Aubrey, I will burn your entire world to the ground just to keep you."
My heart bled. I had spent four grueling years tearing myself apart to keep him out of my messy, blood-soaked revenge against the family that watched my mother die.
But his terrifying protection only made my biological father's family target me harder, using their massive capital to buy out my movie set and crush my acting career.
They thought I would cower.
But as I walked onto the soundstage, facing the heiress trying to steal my role, I took off my sunglasses. I wasn't running anymore; it was time to make them pay.
7.3
Seven years ago, my fiancé, Don Dante Moretti, sent me to prison to take the fall for my adopted sister, Chiara. He called it a gift-a way to protect me from a worse fate.
Today, he picked me up from prison only to abandon me at my family's estate. His reason? Chiara was having another one of her "episodes."
My parents then informed me I'd be staying in the third-floor storage room, so as not to disturb the fragile girl who stole my life.
They celebrated her "recovery" with a lavish dinner party, while I was treated like a ghost. When I refused to join, my mother hissed that I was ungrateful, and my father called me jealous.
They assumed I couldn't understand their venomous whispers. But prison was my university. I learned Spanish. I understood every word.
It was then I realized I wasn't just a sacrifice; I was disposable. The love I once felt for all of them had turned to ash.
That night, in the dusty storage room, I logged onto an encrypted channel I'd set up years ago. A single message was waiting: "The offer stands. Do you accept?" My hands, scarred and steady, typed back, "I accept."
9.5
As the fetal monitor screamed in the delivery room, Danae begged the nurses to call her billionaire husband to save their dying baby.
Instead of Adrian, his chief lawyer arrived with a chilling directive: all emergency interventions were explicitly denied.
While security guards pinned her arms to the mattress, Danae was forced to listen to her baby's heartbeat flatline. The lawyer simply dropped divorce papers on her bed and walked out. A sympathetic doctor helped Danae fake her own death to escape the family. Stripped of her assets and kicked out into the freezing rain, she tried to drown herself with her child's ashes, only to be saved by a mysterious benefactor.
Three years later, Danae returned as a top medical researcher. But at a high-profile symposium, she crossed paths with Adrian and his new fiancée—a cheap lookalike of Danae. The woman maliciously staged a bloody miscarriage using a restricted chemical, perfectly framing Danae's lab for the crime.
Adrian pinned Danae against the wall, his eyes black with rage, vowing to make her beg for death. Three years ago, he let their real child die without even answering the phone. Now, he was ready to destroy her over a fake pregnancy.
Just as Adrian's private guards dragged her away to be locked up, the hospital doors were violently kicked open. A rival billionaire stepped in with a team of ruthless lawyers, shielding Danae behind his back and declaring war.
9.6
I was only three and a half years old, living in a damp basement and beaten daily by Enoch Pruitt with a heavy leather whip.
"Get up, you useless waste of space!"
He always told me I was a stray he had picked out of the garbage.
But during one brutal beating that nearly stopped my heart, time froze, and a glowing figure called The Chronicler appeared.
"You are not an abandoned orphan, Clare. You carry the blood of the highest gods."
He revealed that I was the stolen daughter of the ultra-wealthy Barrett family.
Then, he showed me the horrific ending of my previous life.
I had died right here on this bloody dirt floor.
My real parents and three brothers went completely insane with grief, turning into ruthless monsters who destroyed themselves and the entire world to avenge me.
Meanwhile, the Pruitt family kept torturing me, locking me in a woodshed and feeding me moldy bread.
The memory of my bones breaking and my real mother's agonizing screams crushed my chest.
Why did I have to suffer like an animal while my true family tore the world apart looking for me?
This time, I refused to die in the mud.
I accepted my divine blood, my eyes glowing gold as I summoned a bolt of purple lightning to strike my abuser.
I just needed to survive the night.
Because my real father's heavily armed convoy was already tearing up the mountain, ready to burn this hell to the ground.
8.7
Jolie transmigrated into a high-tech universe ruled by beast-shifting Primals, only to wake up in the body of a "defective" female. With a Genetic Compatibility Index of zero, she was publicly discarded by her mandated military partner.
Before she could even adapt, her stepmother drugged her with an illegal aphrodisiac and locked her in a pitch-black suite with that same ex-fiancé—now a feral, maddened beast. The family wanted her torn apart to permanently erase their embarrassment.
But instead of dying, Jolie awakened a rare plant-manipulation power. She bound the raging General, drained his energy, robbed him blind, and fled to a remote farming planet. Just as she thought she was free, the Commonwealth system flashed a new mandate. They assigned her a new husband: Keanu Robertson, a psychotic assassin who had murdered his last three wives.
The system wasn't giving her a partner; it was handing her a death warrant. Keanu despised females, especially a "useless" zero-GCI burden. He tracked her forged alias across the galaxy, descending upon her barren farm in the dead of night with pure murderous intent. How could a discarded, defective girl survive the most feared apex predator in the Shadow Sector?
But as the legendary assassin stepped onto her property to finish the job, a mutated, neurotoxic vine whipped out and completely paralyzed him. Watching the massive killer crash face-first into the dirt, Jolie lowered her rifle and smiled.
"Welcome home, husband."