Claimed By The Ruthless Billionaire Boss
Tonight was supposed to be Cordelia's grand engagement party, the night she finally secured her future.
But an hour before the banquet, she received an anonymous video. Her fiancé was in the hotel's penthouse, tangled in the sheets with her stepsister. They had even paid off her trusted staff to keep her isolated.
Cordelia didn't shed a single tear. She walked onto the grand stage, hijacked the screens, and broadcasted their betrayal to hundreds of New York's elite. She tore up the multimillion-dollar prenup and threw the pieces in his face.
"The engagement is canceled. My legal team will seize your family's assets by tomorrow morning."
But instead of support, her own father violently grabbed her wrist, furious that she ruined their reputation. Her stepmother tried to slap her for the cameras, and her ex-fiancé threatened to completely destroy her career. Surrounded by the people who were supposed to be her family, she was treated like the villain.
Just as she was cornered, Justice Duncan, the most ruthless billionaire on Wall Street, stepped out of the shadows.
He offered her absolute protection and capital, but only if she signed a five-year contract marriage to mother his four-year-old heir.
But when Cordelia finally met the little boy, her blood ran completely cold.
The boy was the exact baby she was told she had miscarried four years ago. And the billionaire handing her the marriage contract was the same stranger who had taken him.
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Chapter 8
The morning sun spilled across the hardwood floor of the master bedroom.
Cordelia sat in a velvet armchair by the window, wearing a silk robe. She stared at the screen of her laptop.
On the video call was her private attorney.
"Are you absolutely certain about this, Miss Nguyen?" the attorney asked, adjusting his glasses. "If you sign this electronic authorization, you are legally severing all ties to the Nguyen family trust. You will forfeit any future inheritance."
Cordelia's face was completely calm. "I'm certain. Execute the document."
She typed in her digital signature and hit send.
It was done. She had just cut the final chain binding her to Alistair and Eleanor. They could never use money to manipulate her again.
The second the call disconnected, her phone started vibrating violently on the table.
It was Alistair.
Cordelia picked it up and answered.
"You ungrateful bitch!" Alistair's voice screamed through the speaker, so loud she had to hold the phone away from her ear. "The lawyers just called! You think you can just walk away from this family? After everything I gave you?"
"You gave me nothing but a price tag, father," Cordelia said coldly. "I'll see you in court for the embezzlement charges. Do not call this number again."
She hung up and immediately blocked the contact.
She dropped the phone onto the table. Suddenly, the adrenaline faded, leaving behind a crushing wave of exhaustion.
Cordelia closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the chair. Her shoulders slumped.
The bedroom door opened quietly.
Justice walked in, carrying a mug of hot milk. He saw her sitting there, looking fragile and drained.
He set the mug down on the nightstand. He walked up behind her chair.
Justice reached down and wrapped his large arms around her shoulders, pulling her back against his chest. His thumbs pressed into the tense muscles at the base of her neck, massaging the knots away with firm, rhythmic pressure.
Cordelia let out a shaky breath and leaned her head back against his stomach.
"I cut them off," Cordelia whispered. "I have nothing left of my past. I just... I look at Leo, and I'm terrified I don't know how to be a good mother to him."
Justice stopped massaging. He leaned down and pressed a long, warm kiss to the crown of her head.
"You gave him life," Justice said, his voice a steady, grounding rumble. "And you fought for him the second you knew he was yours. You are already the perfect mother, Cordelia."
The absolute certainty in his voice settled the anxiety in her chest. For the first time in her life, she felt truly safe.
"Sir," the voice of Justice's assistant came from the hallway. "The European acquisition requires your immediate authorization."
Justice sighed. He kissed her cheek. "Drink the milk. I'll be back in an hour."
He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Cordelia sat alone in the quiet bedroom, the warmth of his kiss still lingering on her skin. She picked up the mug of hot milk, her hands finally steady. For the first time in years, the crushing weight of survival had lifted off her shoulders. She looked out the massive window at the sprawling grounds of the Duncan estate. She had traded one cage for another, but this one felt entirely different. Here, she had her son. Here, she had a man who would burn the world down to keep her safe.
She took a slow sip of the milk, the sweet, warm liquid soothing her frayed nerves. She thought about Leo's bright blue eyes, the way he had clung to her skirt in the garden. She thought about Justice's terrifying strength, the way his heartbeat felt against her palm. The chaotic pieces of her shattered life were finally snapping into place, building a fortress around her and her child. She closed her eyes, allowing herself a rare moment of profound, undisturbed peace.
But peace, in the Duncan family, was always an illusion.
Down the long hallway, inside the brightly colored children's room, Leo was still sitting on the fluffy rug. The nanny had just stepped into the adjoining bathroom to draw his bath.
Underneath his pillow, the black smartwatch silently vibrated.
Leo slipped his hand under the fabric and pulled the device out. He tapped the screen, bypassing the cartoon interface with practiced ease.
The military-grade encrypted messaging screen loaded.
A new message from 'Grandpa' glowed in stark white text against the black background.
The board is set.
A flicker of cold, calculating intelligence, far beyond his years, briefly crossed his face before being replaced by his usual childish innocence.
Leo pressed the power button, turning the screen black. He shoved the watch back under his pillow.
He picked up a red Lego brick just as the nanny walked back in, smiling warmly. "Leo, sweetheart, your bath is ready!"
Leo looked up. He beamed at her, his blue eyes wide and full of childish joy.
"Okay!" Leo chirped sweetly. And Cordelia had no idea she was standing right in the center of the board.
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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.
8.0
Finley's stepfather gave her a sickening ultimatum: marry her predatory stepbrother Shane tonight, or he would throw her fragile mother out on the street.
To escape this hell, she used a matchmaking agency and hastily married a complete stranger. Garrison Strickland claimed to be an ordinary data analyst making $95,000 a year, driving a beat-up Honda Civic, and needing a wife in name only. They got their marriage license at City Hall that very afternoon.
But when Finley returned home to pack her bags and threw the certificate on the table, her family just laughed. Dozier ordered Shane to drag her into the bedroom to "teach her a lesson" and trap her forever.
"Come on, little sister," Shane crooned, lunging at her. "Don't fight it."
Finley's own mother just stared at the floor, blaming Finley for ruining the family, watching blindly as Shane cornered her.
Terrified and desperate, Finley smashed an ashtray over Shane's head and frantically dialed her new husband's number. Shane snatched the phone, mocking the "imaginary husband" before the line went dead. Finley felt a bottomless despair. Garrison was just a normal guy; he would never risk his life against her violent family. She was completely on her own, waiting for the end.
Suddenly, deafening bangs echoed through the house, and Garrison stepped into the living room radiating a cold, terrifying fury. This supposedly "frugal data analyst" effortlessly snapped Shane's wrist, leveled a ruthless death threat that made Dozier tremble, and whisked Finley away in a waiting Bentley. Looking at the powerful man beside her, Finley's heart raced: just who exactly had she married today?
8.8
When Nigerian financial analyst Eniola Adeyemi exposes a 2.3 billion naira money laundering scheme, she becomes the target of powerful criminals who'll stop at nothing to silence her. Her only protection? A contract marriage to Elijah Kingston-the cold, ruthless, American billionaire CEO whose own family is at the heart of the conspiracy. What begins as a transactional arrangement for safety and an heir becomes a dangerous game of power, betrayal, and undeniable passion as they're forced to choose between empire and love.
8.9
Ava Kidd just wanted to escape her abusive stepmother when she got drunk at a high-end club and stumbled into the wrong hotel room.
She woke up the next morning in a luxury penthouse, lying naked next to a terrifyingly handsome man covered in her scratch marks.
Recalling rumors of the hotel's secret underground concierge, she immediately assumed she had accidentally slept with an elite male escort.
Desperate to settle the bill, she offered him her only debit card with a pathetic $1,800.
But the man, who was actually Garrison Terry, the ruthless billionaire CEO, was deeply insulted by the cheap plastic.
He trapped her against the bed, coldly demanding a half-million-dollar service fee.
When Ava frantically offered her dead mother's tarnished locket as collateral, he cruelly dismissed it as worthless junk.
Ava was humiliated, her heart pounding with absolute terror.
She didn't understand why this arrogant gigolo was acting like a deranged extortionist, demanding a fortune from a broke girl who had clearly made a mistake.
Furious and refusing to cower, she sneaked out, put on his oversized designer shirt, and aggressively ate his $800 truffle breakfast.
Having no money left, she grabbed her cheap red lipstick, wrote a defiant IOU on his expensive linen napkin, and fled the hotel.
She thought she had escaped a criminal, but upstairs, the billionaire traced her lipstick-stained name with a predatory smile.
"Ava Kidd, I will absolutely find you."
7.5
Bryn hovered as a translucent soul over her own fresh grave, just three days after she was buried.
She had been shoved off a cliff by Keifer, the boyfriend she provided for, while her adopted sister Fabiola watched and laughed.
Now, they stood at her grave crying fake tears, ready to steal her massive inheritance.
Suddenly, Dominic Hutchinson, the arrogant school tyrant who made her life a living hell, arrived.
He didn't come to mock her. He dug up her grave with his bare, bleeding hands, hugging her freezing urn as he sobbed in pure despair.
He ruthlessly exposed Keifer and Fabiola's murder plot, sending them to federal prison.
Three months later, Dominic stood before her rebuilt headstone in a pristine white tuxedo.
"It's finally over. I can finally come pick you up."
He pulled out a silver scalpel and slit his own wrist, leaving a bloody kiss above her carved name as he died.
Bryn fell to her knees, screaming and sobbing uncontrollably.
The boy she thought hated her had loved her with his entire life, while the parasites she trusted had killed her.
Why had she been so utterly blind?
A blinding light swallowed her soul, and Bryn suddenly snapped her eyes open.
She was standing by her high school lockers, completely alive.
She had returned to exactly three years before her death.
7.5
Daisy spent her birthday cooking a perfect dinner, waiting in their massive penthouse for her billionaire husband, Emmett.
Instead of coming home, a breaking news alert flashed on her screen: Emmett was at the hospital, protectively shielding his old flame, Eryn. When Daisy rushed to the VIP ward, Emmett physically blocked her to comfort a crying Eryn, completely forgetting it was his wife's birthday.
Heartbroken, Daisy demanded a divorce and fled. In response, Emmett ruthlessly froze all her bank accounts and trust funds, leaving her penniless in the freezing Manhattan rain. When she cornered him with divorce papers at a public funeral, a heavy metal cart slammed into her, tearing her calf wide open. Bleeding onto the marble floor, she begged him to sign. Instead, Emmett violently ripped the bloody papers to shreds.
"Unless I am dead, you are my wife," he snarled, locking her inside a room.
Daisy risked her life to escape through a window, dragging her bleeding leg to a dingy motel. But the real nightmare began when Eryn called. The tragic car crash that killed Daisy's adoptive parents ten years ago wasn't an accident—the brake lines were cut. And Emmett, the man she loved, had been using his vast corporate empire to protect the murderers all along.
Why did Emmett bury the police report? What was the deadly secret behind her true identity and the antique "Venus" necklace? Staring at her blood-stained hands in the cracked mirror, the terrified wife died. Daisy grabbed her coat and limped out into the dark, heading straight for the Navy Yard to burn his empire to the ground.