Eight Years Of His Cold Betrayal
After eight years in a cold marriage, I watched my husband, Damian, run past me during a raging fire. He ignored my screams, his only focus on saving another woman.
That night, he coldly admitted he never loved me. Our entire marriage was just a business deal he was forced into.
But his betrayal didn't end there. His mistress, Aida, framed my innocent younger brother for a crime he didn't commit. Damian believed her lies without question.
He stood by as she had my brother murdered in his hospital bed. He even forced me to crawl over broken glass to apologize for "upsetting" her.
The final blow came when he threatened me with my mother' s heirloom box, not knowing it held my brother' s ashes. He had taken everything from me-my love, my family, my dignity.
He thought he had broken me. But he only forged me into a weapon.
Now, I'm back. And as the new majority shareholder of his company, I'm here to make him pay for every last sin.
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Chapter 8
Jillian POV
Damian stood frozen, his brow furrowed, a flicker of something close to distress in his eyes. He started to take a step after me, but Aida, still clutching her bleeding wrist, threw herself against his arm. "Damian, darling, my head is spinning! I feel so faint!" she wailed, her voice a theatrical tremor.
His footsteps faltered. He glanced from my retreating figure to the dramatically swooning Aida at his side. A conflict, subtle yet palpable, played out in his expression. But the ingrained habit of protecting her won. He scooped her up, his face etched with concern, and carried her back towards the house, towards a quiet resting place.
I didn't look back. I didn't care.
I walked out of Hildegarde's estate, the cool night air a balm on my burning skin. A car I had pre-booked was waiting. I slipped into the back seat, clutching the broken pieces of my mother's bracelet, Cristopher's ashes a silent weight in my bag.
"Airport," I told the driver, my voice steady. "And then, the world."
My plan was simple. I had enough money from the sale of Damian's 'gifts' and Hildegarde's generous settlement to disappear. To grieve. To heal. To live for Cristopher. I would scatter his ashes in every beautiful place he had ever dreamed of seeing.
As the plane ascended into the night sky, leaving the city lights twinkling below, a burst of fireworks erupted, painting the darkness with vibrant colors. It was Hildegarde's birthday, my final gift to the only person in that family who had ever truly loved me.
I looked down at the glittering tableau, a wry smile on my lips. This city. This life. This family. From now on, Hildegarde was my only connection. Damian Ramsey and I were strangers. And when, if ever, our paths crossed again, it would be for a reckoning. A cold, hard, merciless reckoning.
Damian POV:
I carried Aida to a private lounge, her head lolling dramatically against my shoulder. She whimpered, clinging to me. "Damian, darling, my chest hurts so much! Rub it, please?" Her wet, pleading eyes looked up at me.
My movements stiffened. My heart gave a strange, unexpected lurch. In my mind's eye, Jillian's face flashed, her eyes calm, devoid of all emotion, even beneath her tears. The image was a stark contrast to Aida's histrionics. A sudden, unsettling wave of unfamiliar emotions washed over me-a strange dissatisfaction, an irritation I couldn't quite place.
I gently, but firmly, pulled Aida's arm from around my neck. "Aida," I said, my voice detached, "you need to rest. I have things to see to."
Her face fell, a flicker of something dark crossing her features before she quickly composed herself. She grabbed my hand, her grip surprisingly tight. "Damian, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Her voice was a soft, trembling plea.
My brow furrowed. The irritation intensified. I felt a growing sense of annoyance. "Just rest, Aida," I said, pulling my hand free. "I'll arrange for a doctor to see you. You just need to lie down."
"But... but you'll take me to the hospital, won't you? Like we always do?" she asked, her voice tinged with desperation.
"Later," I said, my voice flat. "First, I need to deal with some matters."
She stared at me, her eyes wide, a dawning horror in their depths. I simply turned and walked away, leaving her alone in the opulent lounge.
I walked back into the main ballroom, my eyes scanning the crowd, searching for Jillian. I didn't know why. A strange compulsion, a nagging unease, propelled me. When I couldn't find her, I headed towards Hildegarde.
"Grandmother," I said, my voice strained. "Where is Jillian?"
Hildegarde's face, already pale and drawn, stiffened. "She's... she's gone, Damian."
Before she could say anything more, a high-pitched shriek ripped through the elegant murmur of the crowd. My head snapped towards the sound. My attention, instantly diverted, missed whatever else Hildegarde was trying to tell me.
I pushed through the alarmed guests. In the center of the commotion, Aida's personal maids were loudly accusing a woman of bumping into Aida, pushing her. The woman, elegantly dressed, looked furious.
My eyes narrowed. I recognized her. Kyle Snyder. The formidable CEO of Snyder Industries, a rival corporation, and a crucial partner in our multi-billion dollar merger.
I quickly stepped in, pushing Aida's aggressive maids back. Aida, seeing me, immediately rushed towards me, throwing herself into my arms, sobbing hysterically. "Damian, darling! She just... she just pushed me for no reason! Her maids were so mean!"
My brow furrowed. A strange doubt pricked at me. Aida always claimed to be the victim, always pushed the blame onto others. Before I could process the thought, Kyle Snyder's security detail, a team of burly men, stormed in, quickly subduing Aida's maids.
Kyle Snyder, her face flushed with fury, stepped forward, her eyes blazing. "How dare you, Ramsey? Your little protégé's thugs assaulted my people! And you stand there, protecting that manipulative little parasite?" She pointed a furious finger at Aida. "We had a handshake deal, Ramsey. A multi-billion dollar merger. But I refuse to do business with anyone who tolerates such blatant disrespect and outright thuggery. Consider our deal terminated."
A collective gasp rippled through the guests. The implications were catastrophic. This merger was vital to the Ramsey Group's expansion.
"No!" I said, my voice sharp, a cold dread seizing me. I stepped forward, trying to reason with her. "Kyle, please! This is a misunderstanding. Aida didn't mean any harm. I'm sure we can compensate you for any... inconvenience."
She looked at me with utter contempt. "Compensate? You think money can fix everything, Ramsey? No. My company values integrity. Something your family, and particularly your... companion, clearly lack." She turned, her gaze sweeping over Aida with undisguised disgust. "And as for that woman, she's a blight. You deserve better, Ramsey. You're just too blind to see it." She then walked away, her bodyguards following, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.
Hildegarde, who had followed me, her face pale, let out a cry of distress. She marched towards Aida, her hand raised. A sharp crack echoed through the room as she slapped Aida across the face, a resounding blow.
"You fool!" Hildegarde shrieked, her voice trembling with rage. "You little viper! You have ruined everything! Get out of my sight! Get her out of here! To the family chapel! She will face the family elders! And she will be disinherited! Disowned!"
Aida shrieked, clutching her stinging cheek, and lunged towards me, her eyes wide with terror. "Damian! Help me! Please! Don't let them!"
I stood there, frozen. My arms, which had always instinctively reached out for her, remained at my sides. Aida stumbled, falling to her knees, looking up at me, her face a mask of pleading. A strange, unfamiliar wave of hesitation washed over me. I felt... nothing. No frantic urge to protect her. No overwhelming concern. Just a dull, aching emptiness.
My heart gave a sharp, painful lurch. Why did I hesitate? Why didn't I catch her? Why did I feel this... relief?
The image of Jillian's calm, wounded face, her eyes filled with cold indifference, flashed in my mind. A surge of irrational annoyance, then a deeper, unsettling sense of guilt, washed over me.
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9.5
Arranged to marry the most ruthless mafia don in the city, Serafina learns early that obedience is the price of survival.
Luca De Santis doesn't love, he owns.
And she is his most valuable possession.
Inside an empire built on blood, fear, and unbreakable loyalty, there is only one man who never looks at her like property.
Matteo De Santis.
Luca's cousin. His enforcer. His shadow.
Falling in love with him is forbidden.
Being discovered means death.
As loyalty fractures and betrayal ignites, Serafina is forced to choose: remain a silent bride to a monster or rise beside the man willing to burn the empire for her.
In a world where love is treason, survival demands rebellion.
9.5
"My father sold me to a sixty-year-old monster to clear his gambling debts. So, I made a desperate gamble of my own."
Seventeen-year-old Isabella Rossi has two choices: become the broken plaything of a sadistic mafia Capo, or do the unthinkable. She chooses the latter. Sneaking into a high-end speakeasy, she slips an aphrodisiac into the whiskey of the deadliest man in New York—Damien Falcone, the ruthless Underboss of the Falcone family.
Her plan was simple: steal his seed, secure his protection, and run.
But you don’t drug a predator and expect to walk away.
When Damien wakes up, he doesn’t kill her. Instead, he claims her.
"You intercepted a delivery meant for my enemy. Turns out, it was you. Now, you are my Collateral."
9.8
I reached for my fiancé's phone to silence an alarm and found a hidden folder named "The Protocol."
Inside was a spreadsheet that systematically dismantled my entire existence.
Task 399: Buy blue hydrangeas. Note: Her favorite. For Denzel.
Task 400: Schedule anniversary dinner. Note: Make sure she feels special. For Denzel.
In that heartbeat, I realized the man I had loved for three years hadn't looked at me once without seeing a chore list left by his dead brother. I wasn't Elfrieda Stewart, the woman Jaxon Tate loved. I was a legacy project.
The truth turned lethal at our engagement gala. When a massive chandelier detached from the ceiling, Jaxon didn't lunge for me.
He tackled his "ex" Janice—who I later discovered was his secret wife—to safety.
He left me standing in the center of the target to be crushed by shattering glass.
But the cruelty didn't end there. On a "reconciliation" yacht trip, Janice pushed me overboard. Jaxon looked at me struggling in the freezing black water, then threw the life preserver to her.
He saved the shark and left me to drown.
I lost everything in that water, including the unborn child I hadn't even told him about.
He thought I was dead. He thought he was free to play house with Janice.
But my brother pulled me from the darkness.
And when I resurfaced in Norway, wearing the ring of a man far more dangerous than Jaxon could ever dream of being, Jaxon realized too late that he had destroyed the only thing that could have saved him.
8.4
I saved a man bleeding out in the snow. He had no memory, so I called him Ben.
We lived in a cabin, fell in love, and married by firelight with no witnesses but the ghosts of my parents.
Then one day, he disappeared.
Two years later, he returned. Not as my husband, but as Bernard Logan, the ruthless Underboss of the city's most dangerous crime family.
And he didn't remember me.
He brought his cruel new fiancée to my clinic and treated me like a stranger.
When she threw my father’s antique music box into a cactus display, he watched as I tore my hands apart trying to save it.
He called our past a "drug-induced hallucination" and threatened to destroy me if I spoke up.
Worst of all, I found out I was pregnant.
He cornered me in the hospital room, his eyes cold and devoid of the warmth I used to know.
"Is it mine?"
I knew if I said yes, he would turn my child into a killer like him. Or his fiancée would ensure we never survived.
So I looked the love of my life in the eye and lied.
"No," I said. "It's not yours."
I signed his NDA, took his hush money, and vanished to Europe to raise my twins alone.
I thought I was free. I found a good man who actually loved me.
But three years later, at an art gallery in Zurich, the crowd parted.
Bernard was standing there, staring at me with a terrifying hunger.
He had found out the truth.
And he was ready to burn the world down to get us back.
7.1
We have been neighbors our whole lives and were best friends when we were kids. Now he is my bully who claims that I am his to torment. There is only one little problem, I have been in love with him since I was sixteen. For two years, Jace Palmer has tortured me with his cruelty in the halls of our high school, but how do I make him stop when it's those same actions that excite me more than they should. Especially when he slams me against a locker and whispers, "You've been a bad girl, Ella."
Now that he's claimed me as his own, he opens my eyes to the darkness within me, turning everything that I have ever known into a thing of the past while helping me to embrace my new role in his life. Only by doing so, it unlocks a piece of me that will change everything. Once my true self comes forward, will he be able to handle the aftermath of his choices?
8.3
Adaline Whitmore becomes the price for her father's betrayal when she is forced to live under the roof of the ruthless billionaire Ronan Frost, the man who lost everything because of her family.
But neither of them knows one truth. She is the same girl who once saved him years ago.
As everything begins to change and secrets come to light, the line between punishment and desire fades. Now Ronan must choose between his need for revenge and the woman quietly stealing his heart.