Defying The Ruthless Billionaire Heir
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."
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Chapter 7
The smell of rubbing alcohol hit her like a slap. They had driven through the night—four hours from D.C. to the South Fork, Chloe gripping the wheel while Johana stared at her phone, willing it to ring. By the time they pulled into the Southampton Hospital parking lot, the first gray light of dawn was bleeding into the sky. Johana stopped dead in the doorway of the ER, her chest heaving.
Dalton's eyes locked onto hers. For a fraction of a second, something flickered in them-surprise, maybe. But it was gone instantly, replaced by that same cold, hard mask he wore in the driveway.
Kamren Hubbard stood up, buttoning his suit jacket. He walked toward her, his hand extended. "Miss Neal. I'm Kamren. We spoke on the phone."
Johana ignored his hand. She looked past him, at the other men in the room. One of them was pacing, his phone pressed to his ear. He was tall, with slicked-back hair and an open collar. Zane Croft.
"...I don't care about the optics," Zane was hissing into the phone, his back half-turned. "Just handle it. I want a full-spectrum sweep. No digital ghosts, you understand?"
Johana's blood ran cold. She stepped around Kamren and confronted Zane. "What did you do to her?"
Zane glanced at her, annoyed. "Who the hell are you?"
"Where is Hazelle?" Johana demanded, her voice rising. "What did you do?"
Kamren stepped in, his hand lightly touching her elbow. "Miss Neal, please. Lower your voice. The doctors are working."
"Don't touch me!" Johana yanked her arm away. She pointed at Zane. "I heard him. He's talking about a digital sweep. You're covering something up."
The waiting room went quiet. A nurse at the station looked up, frowning.
Dalton stood up. He moved slowly, his presence commanding the space. He walked over until he was standing right in front of Johana, looking down at her.
"This is a hospital," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Not a courtroom. Making a scene won't help your friend."
"Help her?" Johana's voice cracked. "You people did this to her. You're destroying evidence."
"We are ensuring her privacy," Dalton said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Unlike you, we are trying to keep this out of the news."
Before Johana could scream at him, the ER door swung open. A young man in a rumpled suit hurried in, followed by a woman carrying a briefcase.
The man in the suit walked straight to Dalton. "Mr. Black. We've retained Dr. Feldman. He's the best trauma specialist on the East Coast. He's been consulted via teleconference and has already arranged for Miss Olson's immediate transfer to a private suite at a facility upstate,where he will personally oversee her case."
Dalton nodded once. "And the hospital?"
"Taken care of," the assistant said. "No records will leak. Mr. Croft's team is handling the digital footprint as we speak."
Johana listened in horror. It was all true. They were erasing the night. They were making Hazelle disappear.
"You're monsters," she whispered.
Zane Croft hung up his phone and sneered at her. "Listen, sweetheart, you don't know who you're dealing with. Back off."
Dalton's head snapped toward Zane. One look. Just one icy glare. Zane's jaw tightened. He shot a look back that was half defiance, half grudging respect, before turning away and muttering under his breath.
Dalton turned back to Johana. "We are providing your friend with the best medical care money can buy. If you care about her at all, you will let us do our jobs."
His words were logical. His tone was infuriating. He was treating her like a problem to be managed.
The door to the treatment rooms opened. A nurse stepped out, holding a clipboard. "Family of Hazelle Olson?"
"I'm here," Johana said, pushing past Dalton. "How is she?"
The nurse looked at her sympathetically. "She's been sedated. She was highly agitated. The doctor will come out to speak with you shortly."
Johana's knees buckled. The adrenaline was crashing. She reached out for the wall, missing, and started to fall.
A hand caught her arm. Firm, warm, steadying her. Dalton.
She looked up at his hand on her skin, then up at his face. The disgust in her eyes was absolute.
She ripped her arm out of his grip. "Don't touch me."
She steadied herself against the wall, breathing hard. "I don't want your money. I don't want your doctors. I want the truth. And I will find out what you did to her."
Dalton let his hand drop to his side. He stared at her, his expression unreadable. He didn't defend himself. He didn't argue. He just watched her, his blue eyes dark and intense.
"Okay," he said quietly.
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8.0
When gifted cellist Vivienne Aurel inherits her late father's catastrophic $4.2 million debt, she expects to lose everything. She doesn't expect the debt to be bought by Caspian Vane, the most feared private equity magnate in New York. Caspian doesn't want to ruin her; he wants her to work exclusively for him as the artistic director of his new cultural foundation for eighteen months. Forced into his world under a binding agreement, Vivienne prepares to fight against a cold, transactional cage. But as the intense, quiet proximity between them begins to blur the lines of their contract, she discovers a terrifying truth: the man who now owns her future has been watching her from the shadows long before she ever knew his name.
8.6
I was the untouchable Mafia Queen, but my reign ended in the blood-soaked depths of a damp dungeon.
My half-sister, Kelsey, drove a rusted, sharpened spoon into my chest, screaming about the unfairness of fate.
In my past life, my father sold me to the ruthless Don Dante Blackwell as collateral to pay off his debts.
To survive, I took a black-market fertility drug, birthed his heir, and clawed my way to the throne through sheer ruthlessness.
But in the mafia world, a pregnant woman isn't a queen; she's a walking target.
I survived countless bombings and poisonings, only to be betrayed and slaughtered by my own family.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand. I had sacrificed everything to secure our survival in the empire. Why did my blood and tears only earn me a rusted spoon to the heart?
Opening my eyes again, I am seventeen, sitting in my father's drawing room.
Two black velvet boxes sit on the mahogany table.
Kelsey greedily snatches the box containing the fertility drug, her eyes gleaming with feverish triumph.
"I'll take this one, Papa."
She thinks she is stealing my golden ticket to the crown, completely unaware that she just chose a death sentence.
I lower my gaze, letting my eyelashes mask the cold, lethal amusement pooling in my eyes as I take the remaining box.
Inside is the detailed psychological profile of the Don's dead fiancée.
This time, I won't be a breeding mare fighting off assassins. I will dissect the devil himself.
8.3
EDEN
8.3
Elianila, an AI Architect, is part of an elite team tasked with designing a global system meant to prevent threats, manage disasters, and distribute resources to vulnerable regions. After five years of tireless work with her colleagues, she uncovers disturbing anomalies, code-named, X-variables, that flag individuals according to criteria she never programmed.
As Elianila digs deeper to understand what the X-variables measure and where their origin, she finds herself in direct conflict with the authorities. Soon, the System marks her and her daughter as threats - targets to be eliminated.
With a small band of colleagues and dissidents, Elianila goes on the run, hiding in places beyond the Systems reach. As they evade surveillance, they race against time to warn others, expose the truth, and fight back against the omnipresent authority of the System.
9.3
Six years ago, my adoptive family framed me for commercial espionage, stripped me of my identity, and threw me out. Now, I finally returned to the Solis estate as a commercial pilot to take back what was mine.
But the first thing my adoptive mother did was threaten me with that forged evidence again. She demanded I take my sister Kiana's place in a marriage contract with a disabled man, simply because Kiana refused to marry him.
When I refused, Kiana ambushed me at the airport with a mob of reporters. She cried for the cameras, publicly accusing me of causing our father's and brother's deaths. She painted me as a ruthless monster who bankrupted the company and ruined the family. The crowd instantly turned on me, screaming that I was a murderer and a gold-digger. Kiana wanted to completely destroy my reputation so I would have no choice but to submit to her arrangement.
I looked at her fake tears, feeling a cold, absolute fury. How dare she use the tragic deaths of the only family members who actually loved me as a prop for her sick show? They had ruined my life once, and now they wanted to bury me alive.
I didn't hesitate. I slapped her hard across the face right in front of the flashing cameras.
"That was for my father and brother."
Then, my real fiancé, a decorated Delta Force commander, rolled through the crowd in his wheelchair. He tossed a classified Pentagon file to the reporters, completely clearing my name and exposing Kiana's lies. I married him to start my revenge, but as I stepped into his heavily secured penthouse that night, I realized my powerful new husband had been preparing for me for a very long time.
9.7
Giana woke up drugged and burning with fever in a luxurious hotel suite. Standing before her was Cornel Stark, the most ruthless billionaire in New York.
Memories of her past life stabbed into her brain. In that life, her adoptive family and her fiancé Gary had stolen her inheritance and left her to die a brutal, agonizing death.
She also remembered how fighting Cornel only made him more violent. So this time, she didn't scream.
She endured his brutal punishment, escaped the moment he let his guard down, and swallowed a Plan B pill on the freezing streets.
Returning to her adoptive family's mansion, she faced the people who had destroyed her. Her fiancé and her stepsister put on masks of fake concern, secretly mocking her.
Instead of throwing a useless tantrum like before, Giana deliberately threw herself down the steep wooden stairs.
She smashed her head against the marble floor, using her own blood to shatter their plans and win back her mother's trust.
She thought she had finally taken control. She was ready to crush the people who had betrayed her and live for herself.
But she didn't understand why the billionaire she had just escaped was suddenly turning her life upside down.
When she woke up in the hospital, her room wasn't filled with her family's fake tears, but an ocean of blood-red roses.
The heavy door swung open, and Cornel Stark walked in, his gray eyes locking onto her with a dark, predatory hunger.
"Remember this feeling, Giana. Every breath you take belongs to me now."
7.7
Dasia's twin brother, Gerald, was an e-sports prodigy, the rising star of the Glory team.
But during a crucial moment, he was framed by his own teammates. They orchestrated a trap that completely destroyed his reputation and left his right hand brutally crushed.
Instead of getting him medical help, the club threw him out into the freezing rain, bleeding and disgraced. The manager labeled him useless trash and slapped him with a five-million-dollar termination fee to bleed him dry. Stripped of his pro status, the wealthy bullies at his prep school relentlessly targeted him, mocking his crippled hand and beating him down.
Dasia watched her twin brother cry in his room, his life and dreams shattered by the people he trusted. A violent, suffocating rage boiled in her chest. How could they smile while crushing his hand? Why should the victim be treated like a rotting piece of garbage while the perpetrators get rich and celebrated?
She didn't shed a single tear. She stood in front of the mirror, took a pair of scissors, and ruthlessly hacked off her waist-length hair. She wrapped her chest in coarse medical bandages until her ribs screamed, and pulled on his oversized black hoodie.
"Everything you took from him, I am going to take back with interest."
The girl in the mirror was gone. She was Gerald now. She secretly passed the brutal online tryouts for Glory's biggest rival, the elite Blackflame team, and signed their official contract. The revenge had officially begun.