Claimed By The Arrogant Billionaire
Eva Brooks, a 25-year-old woman, was set up by her best friend. Her fiancé broke up with her and demanded compensation for allegedly cheating on him.
Eva had a one-night stand with the richest CEO in Dominic City, Ethan Owen. He was arrogant and offered her a job as his secretary.
As his secretary, Ethan couldn't shake his fondness for Eva. He became obsessed with her, worrying that she was cheating on him.
He broke up with his fiancée to become engaged to Eva, but will his fiancée let him go? Will Eva accept a relationship with her boss?
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Chapter 4
Eva's POV:
Arriving at the White Estate gate where Cruz lived, the taxi pulled to a stop in front of the entrance. My only brother, Cruz, married Maddison Brooklyn, a rich man's daughter. She was too pompous and proud, and she got along with my older sister, Elora.
Sighing, I walked up to the gate to meet the estate security man.
"Yes, who are you here to see?" the tough-looking security man in black asked me.
"Um, I am here to see my older brother, Cruz Brooks. He lives in the estate," I said, already exhausted. On a Saturday morning like this, I should have been at home resting. But here I stood in front of an estate gate.
"Call him," the security man replied, before ordering me to stand aside. I knew he wouldn't let me enter the estate without permission.
Pulling out my phone, I called my older brother, Cruz.
However, I froze when I saw a black Rolls Royce driving into the estate gate. The White Estate was known to house many wealthy billionaires in Dominic City. Gulping, I froze again when my gaze locked with Ethan Owen—the same man I had a one-night stand with a few hours ago.
*What was he doing here? Did he live inside this White Estate too?* I pondered and immediately looked away from Ethan, pretending I didn't know him. But his gaze bored into me, and I could feel the intensity of his stare.
Another security man pulled the magnificent white gate open, and Ethan's car drove in. Not just his car alone—I noticed the bodyguards in another black convoy following behind him. I sighed and released the breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Hello, Cruz, I am at the white estate gate now," I said to my brother on the call. He replied, "I will be there now."
The call ended, and I took out my white handkerchief from my bag and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
A few minutes later, my brother arrived in a red sports car and parked. The security man finally let me enter the gate.
"Eva, take a look at your face and neck. What the heck?" Cruz gasped, and I froze. I hadn't looked at myself in the mirror.
"What happened to me? What do you mean?" I asked my older brother, laughing nervously. I walked up to his car and peered at my reflection in the mirror.
I was shocked by the sight that beheld me. My cheek was painted red, and hickeys covered my neck.
"What?" I gasped, embarrassed by my own state.
"I didn't know I looked this bad. I am sorry," I said, and my brother shook his head, still laughing at my embarrassment.
"Eva, this is enough for Jacob Stone to break up with you. Who did you get laid with?" Cruz asked, his large blue eyes peering at mine. I lowered my head as my cheeks flushed.
"It's not important to talk about the man. It was a one-night stand," I said, my voice trembling as my older brother towered above me.
"A one-night stand, and he painted you this red? Do you happen to know him?"
"No… I… I mean, I don't know him," I replied, my voice quivering.
"Cruz, can you take me to your house and stop asking me questions?" I said, wanting to escape my brother's inquiry. He peered at me with a calculated gaze.
"Eva, why do I feel like you're lying to me and you know the man you spent the night with? Well, in case you aren't aware, Jacob cancelled the engagement, and he is demanding the sum of $10,000,000 as compensation for all the money he spent on you," Cruz stated as he moved to pull his car door open for me.
"What? $10,000,000? When did Jacob spend such a huge amount on me? The university cost only $800,000 per year—times four years, plus a few more expenses. Let's say a total of $4,000,000. When did Jacob ever spend up to $10,000,000 on me? Even the money he spent on me isn't up to $4,000,000," I said, my voice sharp. Cruz exhaled.
"Well, that's what Jacob is demanding as compensation for you cheating on him. As for Dad, he broke off the partnership and demands that Dad pays him $5,000,000 as his support fee. So that's a total of $15,000,000 that we have to pay Jacob now," Cruz said with a calm voice as I sat in his car.
"I will not pay that amount. We dated, and I don't owe Jacob anything. Where is it written that you have to pay compensation for a breakup? I didn't intend to cheat on him. Layla set me up, and I ought to have her arrested. How can Jacob not understand? Instead, he blocked me from contacting him," I ranted, wanting to visit Jacob and Layla, only I looked too flushed at the moment.
"Hmm," my brother exhaled and said, "That's why you should have kept your guard up. You already made the mistake, and Jacob caught you. But how about the man you slept with? Did he see Jacob and you? If he could afford a room at the Owen's luxury five-star hotel, then he must be a big shot," Cruz said, his gaze calculating.
"I don't want to talk about the man. He said I owe him for taking advantage of him," I replied, and my brother burst out laughing.
"The man took advantage of you, and he blames you for taking advantage of him? Well, I would say let him go. But if you happen to know him, you could have made him explain to Jacob that it was a setup," Cruz said, but I shook my head.
"Just take me home. I will confront Layla and Jacob later," I said, exhausted. My brother closed the car door, walked over to the driver's seat, got in, and fastened his seatbelt.
"About my wife," Cruz said, and I knew Maddison and I didn't get along.
"You have to put up with her tantrums and not argue with her," he reminded me, and I sighed.
"Why does Maddison have to control you? You didn't marry her for her money. If you hadn't helped in her father's company, Almond Tech wouldn't have grown to the height it is today," I said, knowing my brother worked for Maddison's father before he married her. But she controlled him to the point that she didn't allow their baby to take my brother's surname. Her baby is Chris Brooklyn, instead of Chris Brooks.
"It doesn't change anything, so long as we love each other," Cruz replied, but I didn't have the time to advise him. He was thirty years old and old enough to make his own decisions. I sat silently, watching the road as Cruz drove his red sports car down the White Estate road. He finally arrived at a white gate and parked.
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9.7
For three years, I endured being treated like a walking ATM and a maid by my husband's family, biting my tongue to keep the peace.
Then, my husband's buddy suddenly dropped off a nine-year-old boy at my front door.
The crumpled note from my husband casually explained it was his illegitimate son, blaming me for being barren and demanding I raise the kid as our own.
My mother-in-law was absolutely thrilled, parading the boy around as the true heir at the dinner table.
"Some trees just don't bear fruit, no matter how much water you give them," she sneered.
My brother-in-law cheered, and my drunk father-in-law demanded I cook a feast to celebrate.
They actually expected me to continue paying the mortgage, buying the groceries, and cleaning up their endless messes, all while raising the living proof of my husband's betrayal.
I looked at the parasites who had drained me dry for years, acting like they were doing me a favor by letting me stay in a house that my money paid for.
I didn't scream, and I didn't cry.
I simply called my lawyer to file for an immediate divorce, froze every single bank account and credit card they relied on, and drove off to my grandmother's secluded cabin in the woods.
Let them see how long they survive without my money.
8.7
Five years ago, I was the invisible scholarship charity case at an elite Manhattan prep school, trying to survive in a sea of trust-fund babies.
Arlo Hammond, the untouchable billionaire heir, made sure to completely dismantle my soul.
When his wealthy friends asked if he noticed me, his mocking laughter echoed down the hallway.
"Are you out of your mind? You seriously think I'd be interested in a boring little nerd like her?"
But the moment we were alone, he would corner me in dark alleys, pinning my wrists against brick walls with terrifying, possessive jealousy if my phone even buzzed. He played his twisted games until I was left standing in the rain with my shattered dignity.
Now, I am an Assistant District Attorney. I spent years burying those memories under mountains of legal files.
But tonight, he returned.
When we crossed paths at an exclusive club, he looked at me with the cool detachment he'd give a piece of furniture. In front of a crowd of elites, he coldly declared:
"We have absolutely nothing to do with each other anymore."
Then he walked away to pick up a supermodel, leaving me trembling from the sheer humiliation.
I didn't understand. If I was so worthless to him, why did he still have my birthday tattooed in dark ink on his wrist? Why did he look at me with such raw, painful vulnerability in the shadows?
I stared at my pale reflection in the mirror and made a silent vow.
I am not that pathetic seventeen-year-old anymore, and I will prove to him that I am completely, entirely over him.
9.7
Emaline Finley was drowning in massive debt to keep her dying father alive, even enduring a humiliating blind date with an arrogant man just to find a financial lifeline.
But the fatal blow came from her former best friend, Kitty. Kitty, who was already engaged to Emaline's ex-boyfriend, deliberately told Emaline's father that his expensive treatments were bleeding his daughter dry.
Out of extreme guilt, her father threw away his life-saving medication and checked himself out of the hospital to die at home. When Emaline found him, he was coughing up pools of bright red blood, his lungs rapidly collapsing. As the paramedics rushed him away, Kitty called to gloat, mocking Emaline's poverty and telling her to go watch her father die.
Emaline was completely shattered, suffocating under the sheer injustice of it all. She had been betrayed, stripped of her dignity, and was now forced to watch her only parent slip away because of a cruel, spiteful lie.
Just as her world went dark, a wildly wealthy stranger stepped in. Cullen Preston, the mysterious man who had witnessed her humiliating date, paid the astronomical medical bills and brought in the city's top surgeon to pull her father back from death. But his salvation wasn't charity.
"Consider it a dowry."
He bought her father's life, and in exchange, he demanded Emaline as his wife.
8.4
Everly spent four years playing the perfect, accommodating wife to Carson Moss, swallowing every grievance just to secure medical treatments for their sick daughter.
But at a high-society banquet she exhausted herself organizing, Carson's pregnant mistress crashed the party.
The woman shoved an ultrasound of Carson's "real heir" directly into Everly's frail grandfather's face.
The shock triggered a massive heart attack.
Carson refused to use his private helicopter to save the dying old man, choosing to protect his mistress and his company's IPO instead. Her grandfather died on the hospital table.
Instead of remorse, her mother-in-law demanded Everly publicly cover up the murder.
"You will do exactly as I say, or I will freeze every single cent of the medical trust fund paying for your crippled daughter's treatments."
When a battered Everly returned to the estate, she discovered her three-year-old daughter covered in dark bruises and pinch marks. Her in-laws were deliberately torturing her disabled child.
Everly couldn't comprehend how a family could be so utterly heartless. Her only family was murdered, her child was abused, and her husband threw a five-million-dollar check at her face as hush money.
They thought she would just break and quietly disappear.
But when a terrifyingly powerful billionaire unexpectedly blocked Carson's security team from locking her up, Everly finally saw her window.
She grabbed her sleeping daughter and ran out into the freezing storm, making a blood-bound vow to make the entire Moss family bleed.
8.2
Justine abandoned her career as a top trauma surgeon to marry Congressman Carl McConnell. She did it to fulfill her dying sister's last wish: to protect her son, Leo, from this ruthless political family.
But the seven-year-old boy she swore to protect shoved her into a freezing koi pond, then cried to his father that Justine tried to drown him.
Carl didn't even check the security cameras. He hugged his precious heir and looked at his freezing wife with pure disgust.
"Are you out of your mind? Trying to hurt the heir to the McConnell family!"
He locked Justine in a 55-degree wine cellar while she was burning with a 102-degree fever. When she finally told him the truth, Carl flew into a rage and hurled a heavy brass-cornered book at her face, slicing her cheekbone wide open.
His mother even ordered the staff to starve her for seven days to reflect on her sins.
Justine stood in the dark, blood dripping down her face, her heart completely dead. She had sacrificed her brilliant future and her pride for this family, only to be tortured and discarded like garbage. How could they be so utterly devoid of humanity?
She pulled out her old medical kit and stitched up her own face.
Then, she signed the legal documents to permanently relinquish her stepparent rights, threw them at the housekeeper, and calmly looked at her abusive husband.
"I am divorcing you, Carl."
9.0
Carli followed an anonymous text to a dark garage, only to find her fiancé of seven years tangled with another woman in his Porsche.
She smashed his window, threw her engagement ring at his face, and walked away.
But the betrayal didn't stop there. Her own family sided with the cheater. Her father slapped her across the face so hard she bled, demanding she hand over her late aunt's trust fund.
"If you don't do exactly as you're told tonight, I will freeze every credit card in your name," her father roared.
Forced to attend the exclusive Gutierrez family gala, Carli watched her ex-fiancé parade his cheap mistress to humiliate her, while her stepsister tried to publicly ruin her.
Suddenly, a violent screech echoed as the massive crystal chandelier above them snapped from the ceiling.
In a split second of pure instinct, Vaughn shoved his mistress to safety and threw himself to the ground, completely abandoning Carli to be crushed.
Staring up at the plummeting glass, Carli felt the crushing reality that her entire life had been surrounded by monsters.
But the fatal impact never came.
A massive force yanked her into a hard chest, shielding her body entirely from the explosive shrapnel.
Carli opened her eyes to find Fletcher Gutierrez—the ruthless billionaire king of Wall Street and the masked stranger from her reckless one-night stand—bleeding heavily over her.
Feeling his warm blood on her hands, Carli knew the game had just changed.