Ex-Fiancé's Costly Mistake

The garden lights cast everything in gold—the roses, the champagne flutes, the faces of people pretending to celebrate me. I touched my bare ear, still unused to the absence of the hearing aid that had been my constant companion for nine years. The surgery had been successful. Dr. Morrison said I'd hear perfectly now, that the world would open up to me in ways I'd forgotten. He was right. I could hear everything. Including Jon's voice drifting from the stone pathway near the fountain, where he stood with his university friends. I'd been making my way back from the restroom when their laughter stopped me. Something in Jon's tone—sharp, bitter—made me step behind the hedge.

Chapters

Chapter 2

I sat at my desk, the college applications spread before me like a map to my future. My finger traced over the name I'd originally written: Westlake University—Jon's choice, not mine. The school where he'd already been accepted, where our families expected us to continue our story together.

Not anymore.

With a black marker, I crossed out Westlake and wrote "Columbia University" in bold letters. New York. Three thousand miles away from Jon Wheeler and the life I thought we'd have together.

"Are you sure about this?" Mom asked from the doorway, her voice gentle.

"Completely." I didn't look up as I filled out the new forms. "I've always wanted to study business in New York."

"But you and Jon—"

"There is no me and Jon." The pen pressed harder into the paper. "There never really was."

She didn't argue further, just squeezed my shoulder before leaving me to remake my future.

Two weeks later, I received a call from Columbia's admissions office that made my blood run cold.

"Miss Harris, we're calling to confirm your preference for Westlake University over Columbia, as requested in your most recent communication."

"What?" I gripped the phone tighter. "I never sent any communication changing my application."

"We received an email three days ago from your address, stating you wished to withdraw your Columbia application and prioritize Westlake instead."

Jon. It had to be Jon.

"That email was fraudulent," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "I am absolutely committed to Columbia University, and I need you to disregard any communication suggesting otherwise."

After verifying my identity and documenting the situation, the admissions officer assured me they would honor my original application. I hung up and immediately called Jon.

"How dare you," I said when he answered, not bothering with hello.

"Lila, I—"

"You hacked my email and tried to change my college applications? Are you insane?"

His silence was confirmation enough.

"Listen carefully," I continued, my voice low and dangerous. "If you ever interfere with my education or my future again, I will file harassment charges. We're done, Jon. Accept it."

I hung up before he could respond, my hands shaking with rage. The boy who couldn't stand to touch me couldn't stand to let me go either. Not because he wanted me, but because he couldn't bear losing control.

Three months later, I was shopping at Westfield when I spotted them—Jon and Gabriela Mendoza, the campus beauty queen, browsing through designer watches. His hand rested casually on her lower back, his smile easy and genuine in a way it had never been with me.

I should have walked away. Instead, I froze, watching them through a display of sunglasses. Gabriela laughed at something he said, tossing her perfect hair over her shoulder. She was everything I wasn't—effortlessly beautiful, socially adept, undamaged.

When Jon looked up and saw me, his face transformed. He whispered something to Gabriela and abruptly left her standing alone, making a beeline toward me.

"Lila," he called, weaving through shoppers. "Wait, please."

I turned to leave, but he caught up, positioning himself to block my path.

"She's nothing," he said breathlessly. "Gabriela—she's just... we're just friends."

I looked past him to where Gabriela stood watching us, her expression calculating. "You don't owe me explanations anymore, Jon."

"I miss you," he said, his voice dropping. "I've been miserable without you. Please, can we talk? Just give me one more chance."

I studied his face—the face I'd once thought I'd grow old with—and felt nothing but a hollow pity.

"You know what's strange?" I said quietly. "I spent nine years thinking I wasn't enough for you because of these." I touched my ear where the hearing aid used to be. "But now I see the problem was never my ears. It was that I listened to you at all."

His face crumpled. "Lila, please—"

"Goodbye, Jon." I stepped around him. "I hope she gives you what you're looking for."

As I walked away, I could feel Gabriela's eyes on my back, calculating, measuring. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. But that wasn't my problem anymore.

For the first time since that night at my birthday party, I felt truly free.

Continue to next part

He made her a wife out of duty. She became his enemy out of necessity. When Eliza Thorne married a man in a coma, she did it to protect her family. When Damon Valerius woke up and ordered her out of his life with a single, cruel demand—“Sign the papers and get the f*ck out of my house!”—he sealed her fate. Damon thought he was rid of the desperate girl. He was wrong. Now, Eliza has returned as the head of a global conglomerate, using every ounce of her power to launch a hostile takeover of Valerius Capital. As the war for his empire rages, Damon finds himself battling a cold, stunningly beautiful woman who knows his weaknesses better than anyone. But the deeper Eliza digs into her revenge, the closer she comes to uncovering a conspiracy that proves Damon was also a victim. To achieve true justice, she must choose: complete the cold revenge she dedicated her life to, or risk her heart on the ultimate merger—forgiveness.

Billionaire Modern Romance

9.6

BROKEN HEART: A Contract Marriage With Mr Stone

9.6

Betrayed by her husband. Destroyed by her family. Aurora Moretti signs a marriage contract with the cold, unreadable Elias Stone—never expecting him to see the woman she buried. But when love becomes the most dangerous truth of all, she’ll have to choose between vengeance and freedom. A story of survival, seduction, and the kind of love that demands blood.

Billionaire Modern Romance

7.1

Captive Of The Ruthless Underground King

7.1

I was living as a ghost in a run-down trailer park, trying to outrun a past that would kill me if it ever caught up. Then the storm hit, and a dying monster collapsed through my door, bringing the smell of copper and the promise of a very different kind of death. I tried to defend myself with a cheap butcher knife, but Darius didn't just disarm me—he acquired me. Before the rain even stopped, I was drugged and whisked away on a private jet, waking up in a luxury penthouse that was nothing more than a high-tech cage overlooking the city skyline. He didn't just want my silence; he wanted total control. When I begged to check on my sick grandmother, he threw a manila envelope on the table filled with surveillance photos of her at her nursing home. "I own the board of that facility," he said, his voice cold as ice. "One call from me, and she dies alone on the street." He vetted my life in that trailer park down to my medical records and childhood diaries, convinced he had every lever of power needed to keep me obedient. He forced me into silk dresses and expected me to be his domestic pet, a quiet girl waiting for him to return from his world of shadows and blood. I played the part, letting him pull me into his lap and bury his face in my neck, pretending to be the broken girl he thought he’d bought. I watched his security cameras, calculated his blind spots, and waited for the moment his exhaustion outweighed his instinct. Darius thinks he knows me because he saw where I lived, but he’s never been more wrong. His investigators found the pauper, but they completely missed the princess with an Ivy League degree and a family name that carries more weight than his illegal empire. He thinks he’s the one holding the leash, but he has no idea who he’s actually brought into his home. The game has just begun, and this time, the "asset" is going to be the one who burns the house down.

Billionaire Horror Modern

8.8

The Mighty CEO Knelt Outside My Door After I Asked for a Divorce

8.8

Her daughter lay dying-her only chance at survival resting in a bone marrow transplant from her biological father. That man, the one Stella Johnson had once loved with all her heart, was nowhere to be found. While Stella made call after call, hands trembling with desperation, Charles Hart was busy building a crystal castle for the daughter of his beloved white moonlight-lighting up the entire city with fireworks in her honor. All Stella got in return was a cold, clipped response: "I'm busy." And then. silence. She waited. And waited. Until the warmth left her daughter's tiny hand. He never came. Cradling the small urn, Stella stepped into the streets-only to be greeted by a cruel spectacle. Every digital screen on the bustling boulevard played the same scene: Charles, his white moonlight, and their daughter, smiling under the fireworks as they sang "Happy Birthday," basking in a future built on someone else's grave. The love Stella once held for Charles didn't just die that night-it was burned to ash. And from those ashes, something far stronger rose: Hatred. Cold. Sharp. Unforgiving.

Billionaire Modern Romance

8.6

Crossed Fates

8.6

Leonard Cross has built an empire on precision, ruthlessness, and control. As the CEO of Cross Industries, his name commands fear as much as respect. To his board, he's a visionary; to the world, he's a self-made billionaire; but behind the sleek offices and power suits lies a man hollowed out by secrets - and guilt. Years ago, a hostile takeover of a smaller tech company ended in tragedy when the owner, a man named Daniel Hart, lost everything... and then his life. Leonard buried the incident and his conscience along with it, telling himself it was just business. Now, years later, Leonard runs his company like a fortress - until she walks in. Stephanie Reed arrives one morning as his newly appointed executive assistant, recommended by an elite agency. She's efficient, poised, and impossibly capable. She anticipates his every need before he even voices it. Coffee exactly the way he likes it. Meeting notes already summarized. Calls screened before he even asks. Leonard, who's fired three assistants in a month, finds himself begrudgingly impressed - and unsettled. From the very first day, there's something about her that feels too familiar. The curve of her handwriting. The way she watches him when she thinks he isn't looking. Her calm, unreadable expression when his temper flares. She never flinches - even when others do.

Billionaire Modern

9.0

Divorced and Remarried:Desired by Two Billionaires

9.0

Velma spent ten years as Dylan's wife, enduring his mother's cruelty and constant reminders that she was barren-an orphan who didn't deserve him. When she finally became pregnant after a decade of trying, everything fell apart. Forced to sign divorce papers, heartbroken and pregnant, Velma disappeared. Five years later, she returned as the world's most famous artist. By her side: Theron, a patient and wealthy man who helped her rebuild her life, and the son Dylan never knew existed. She came back for an art exhibition, but fate forced her to work at Dylan's fashion company. The moment Dylan saw her, everything changed. She was no longer the quiet, broken woman he'd divorced. She was confident, powerful, radiant-and married to another man. Dylan groveled. He begged. He humbled himself in ways he never imagined, willing to do anything to reclaim the wife he'd lost for a second chance. But Velma was no longer the woman who lived in anyone's shadow. Will she forgive the man who broke her heart? Choose the man who rebuilt her? Or rewrite the rules and have them both? Click to find out... This is a why choose when she can have both book.

Billionaire Modern Romance

Ex-Fiancé's Costly Mistake

Chapter 2

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