Falling for the CEO's brother
Elise thought her life was finally falling into place. She turned down her father's company to work as executive assistant to Marcus Grey-the boy she's loved since childhood, now the powerful CEO she's devoted her life to.
But when Marcus proposes to another woman, Elise's world crumbles. Enter Sebastian Deluca-Marcus's tattooed, ruthless, long-estranged brother. He's everything Marcus isn't: dangerous, magnetic, and determined to take back his place in New York.
But, there's something odd about him.
Something changed since he arrived.
Bound by family secrets and a mutual desire to expose Marcus's fiancée, Elise and Sebastian form an uneasy alliance. But as sparks ignite between them, Elise must choose: remain loyal to the boy she thought she loved, or risk everything for the man who sees her as more than a shadow.
Some loves are safe. Others are consuming. Which one will she survive?
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Chapter 5
Elise's pov
We returned to the table separately after that.
My eyes drifted to the couple of the year, Marcus eyes were already on me making me look away.
"Lucian, I am a bit offended that you never told us that Sebastian Deluca is your son." My father said, "After all our years of friendship, you sly dog."
Mr Grey chuckled but it sounded strained. "I didn't mean to but... it's a bit complicated. Do accept my apologies, Mark."
My father clamped his hand on his shoulder. "It's fine, my friend. So, why is he back here after all these years?"
Mr Grey exchanged a look with his wife then said, "Sebastian is here because he wants to open a branch of his company in New York."
"What?" Marcus exploded, shooting to his feet. "Why am I just hearing about this? And I never agreed to this."
"Calm down son."
"Don't tell me to calm down!" He snapped. "New York is my territory, London is his. We all had an agreement to never cross paths so what the fuck is going on?"
"Enough!" Mr Grey snapped.
A low chuckle came from Sebastian, making Marcus shoot him a glare. "Come on, baby brother. Territory? Are we five." Sebastian said, amused. "This is all business and times have changed."
"Shut it." Marcus snapped.
The relaxed aura from Sebastian turned to something deadly that made the hairs on my arm stand. "Careful, Marcus."
I saw Marcus swallow and look away briefly. What was that?
Then suddenly it clicked in my head why Sebastian's name was so familiar. I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it initially.
Sebastian Deluca was the CEO of freedom tech.
The third Largest tech company in the entire world. He was on every article in Forbes, business insider, New York times and the entire tech world has been raving about him for years.
"The prodigy of England's tech revolution." "The man who rivaled Silicon Valley before thirty."
And yet I... I had mistaken him for a staff.
Somebody kill me now. My face turned red in embarrassment as my mind replayed our discussion and even how I had gone as far as telling him not to sneak into "higher up" residence.
Who dug this pit for me? I was about to fall inside. I just wanted to vanish because the humiliation was eating me up.
I managed to sneak a peak and he was already looking at me.
No, fuck. Big mistake.
He shot me a wink and his smirk widened.
Something about that combo was lethal and made my stomach flip so I looked away and focused on Marcus instead.
"New York is mine, Deluca." Marcus spat. "My life, my company, my client, my people. You can't just swoop in here and plant your flag like you belong."
"Belong?" Sebastian said the word like it was foreign, an amused look on his face. "It seems you have forgotten that I am Sebastian Deluca, brother. Whether you like it or not, I belong wherever I decide to be and there's nothing you can do about that."
I sucked in a sharp breath. I have known Marcus for years and if there's one thing he hates it's things being out of his control. A new piece was on the cheeseboard that he didn't approve of, it was unraveling him.
"Don't fucking test me." Marcus said through gritted teeth, pointing a finger at Sebastian. "You've been out of this family for years, remember your place and don't think you can crawl back now and play king in my city."
Sebastian laughed. A deep belly laugh like Marcus had just cracked the joke of the century. "You know I am not doing this for your precious little inheritance or family name."
Yup, there was something deep about this family that I didn't know about.
"If you were actually half the CEO you pretend to be then you won't be afraid of a little competition. Or can't you stand against me without father's influence?"
Even the air went still.
Victoria, who always looked smug, shifted uncomfortably in her chair. I noticed Mr and Mrs Grey exchange a tense look. My family and I simply sat back and watched something dangerous unfold.
That's when it hit me
This wasn't just rivalry. This wasn't just about New York.
This was a family war.
A memory suddenly crept in. I was eight at the time and had slept over at the Greys' mansion. I couldn't sleep for some reason so I wandered down the hall barefoot looking for only God knows what.
Then I heard hushed voices from Mr Grey's study.
Curious, I paused to listen.
"...he's disgraced us enough. He's no longer part of this family."
"...he'll ruin everything if we let him stay..."
"...our other son will carry the legacy. The right son."
Back then I didn't understand what or who they were talking about because Marcus was the only son I knew. I chalked it off as me mishearing them or maybe I had just dreamt about it.
But now, sitting in the middle of the tension between this family, I realized that it was a dream and the son they had spoken about was real.
Sebastian was that son. The one they had erased and now he was back.
Why had Sebastian been erased in the first place? Why keep him hidden all these years? And more importantly, why come back now?
Marcus' voice snapped me back to the present. "Stay out of my way, Sebastian. I'm warning you."
Sebastian leaned forward, eyes locked on Marcus. "Try and stop me."
A chill ran down my spine.
Mr. Grey coughed awkwardly. Mrs. Grey plastered on a fake smile, trying to steer the dinner back on track, but it was useless. The storm had already been unleashed.
If Sebastian was this powerful and successful, then why had he stayed in the shadows for so long? Why New York, of all places? Why now, at the exact moment Marcus decided to propose to Victoria?
There were too many questions and secrets.
Marcus threw his napkin down and stormed away from the table, Victoria immediately getting up and following at his heels with a huff.
The tension reduced slightly but it was still there.
Then Sebastian turned to me and I felt my heart stop. He slowly leaned close to me, my heart started again and raced wildly.
What's he doing? Stop, damnit! I wanted to scream but my tongue felt heavy like lead.
"I'll be in touch." He whispered.
I blinked. "What?"
He rose from his chair, stretching lazily. His lips tilted into that maddening smirk again. "When I need you. You'll know."
And just like that, he walked away.
As I watched the mysterious, tattoo covered man walk away I couldn't shake off the feeling that from here on out, things were going to be different.
I just didn't know whether it was going to be good or bad yet.
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7.8
Alayna was working a grueling catering shift in worn-out heels to support her broke college boyfriend, Caiden, who claimed to be studying at the library.
But through the crack of a VIP suite door, she saw him wearing a bespoke suit and a Patek Philippe watch, sipping expensive liquor.
"It's a little poverty role-play. Keeps things interesting."
He was laughing with his rich friends, mocking her as his clueless "charity case."
To make matters worse, she was forced into a humiliating mascot costume just in time to watch him passionately kiss his wealthy ex-girlfriend.
That same night, Alayna's mother collapsed with gastric cancer, requiring a half-million-dollar surgery.
When a desperate Alayna begged Caiden for help, he refused.
"Why don't you just apply for Medicaid? That's the path for people like you."
For two years, she had starved herself to buy his textbooks, his tickets, and his shoes.
He had stolen her sweat and her sacrifices, all for a cruel game.
The sheer audacity of his betrayal made her blood run cold.
When a billionaire stranger stepped in to pay her mother's medical bills in exchange for a one-year fake marriage, Alayna didn't hesitate to sign the contract.
She slipped the flawless diamond ring onto her finger, opened a spreadsheet, and sent Caiden an invoice for every single cent.
This time, she was going to dismantle his entire life.
9.3
Ginny was chained to a concrete pillar in an abandoned warehouse, bleeding and betrayed by the two people she trusted most.
Her fiancé, Brant, and her adopted sister, Coretta, had just slashed her face open. Brant coldly admitted she was nothing but a disposable key to a vault, right before he tossed a lighter onto the gasoline-soaked floor.
As Ginny burned alive in the roaring inferno, the heavy iron doors were violently smashed open. Bedford Parks—the notoriously ruthless, germaphobic "monster" of Silicon Valley whom Ginny had always feared—charged straight into the flames. Ignoring the blistering heat, he shielded her charred body with his own. A massive steel beam collapsed, snapping his spine.
"I love you."
He coughed up blood, whispering his final words against her blackened skin before dying to protect her.
Hovering as a ghost, Ginny's soul screamed in agonizing realization. She had spent her life terrified of Bedford, yet he was the only one who truly loved her, while her supposed family laughed at her gruesome murder.
Suddenly, a blinding white light swallowed the warehouse.
Ginny gasped for air, opening her eyes to find herself sitting in the back of a luxury Maybach. She was eighteen again, wearing the humiliating clown makeup Coretta had tricked her into wearing on the day she was brought back to the wealthy Steele estate.
Ginny stared at her reflection, her dark eyes turning cold and sharp.
This time, she would tear her betrayers apart piece by piece, and she would protect her "monster."
8.8
Alaia Dudley spent her life playing the devoted partner, completely unaware that her fiancé Austen was sleeping with another woman.
She thought the worst he could do was break her heart, until she found herself pinned to a cold operating table.
Austen held her down with a cruel smirk while a scalpel sliced through her sternum.
They cracked her chest open while she was still fully conscious.
The agonizing pain of her heart being cut out burned into her nerve endings.
She realized then that to him, she was never a lover—just a spare organ, a boring piece of wood to be discarded the second his true love needed it.
She died in excruciating agony, choking on her own blood while the man she loved walked away with her heart.
Until her last breath, she didn't understand why she had to suffer so brutally.
Why did she waste her life begging for a monster's attention? Why did they get a happy ending while she was carved up like an animal?
But then, ice-cold water flooded her lungs, and Alaia violently broke the surface of her bathwater.
Her trembling fingers touched her smooth, flawless chest. No scars. Her heart was still beating.
The date on her phone glared back at her: it was exactly five years ago.
Tonight was the exact night Austen first took his mistress to a hotel room.
This time, she wouldn't just expose them. She would use Wall Street's most terrifying tyrant as her personal weapon to strip them of everything they had.
8.6
To save my father's failing workshop from ruthless loan sharks, I sold one year of my life.
I signed a fake marriage contract with Cameron Fox, an icy billionaire who needed a wife to pacify his sick grandmother. The rules were strict: it was purely a commercial transaction, with absolutely no physical contact and no emotional attachments.
Soon after, that cold hearted man seemed different to me. Wait, is he pursuing me?
8.6
Ellery was trapped in a suffocating marriage with Manhattan's most ruthless billionaire, Holland Sutton.
She silently endured his blatant affairs, even measuring his mistress for custom lingerie at her own design studio. She drank foul, black fertility potions forced on her by his cruel mother, who treated her like nothing more than a breeding machine.
She only tolerated the endless abuse because her own brother blackmailed her. He threatened to pull the plug on their dying mother's life support if Ellery didn't secure Holland's massive investment for his company. So, she swallowed her pride. She let Holland drag her around like a trophy, let his mother demand she quit her business, and allowed herself to be stripped of all dignity.
But then, the devastating news broke.
Holland's cousin had just welcomed a baby boy, securing the family inheritance. Ellery's womb was suddenly useless to the Sutton empire. The promised investment for her brother was instantly revoked. Every humiliation, every bitter potion she had choked down, was for absolutely nothing. She had been the perfect, silent puppet in a sick game she could never win.
Yet, Holland simply dragged her to the closet and threw a black haute couture gown at her feet.
"Put that on. Tonight, you are going to smile and show all of New York that my marriage is perfectly intact."
Staring at the heavy dress on the floor, a cold, terrifying clarity replaced her despair. If the rules of his twisted game had changed, then so had hers.
8.5
Kelsi Owens stood in front of the mirror in a six-figure gown, ready to marry into the wealthy Harrington family.
But her fiancé, Jeb, didn't even look at her. He abandoned her right in the middle of the fitting because his widowed sister-in-law, Seraphina, called crying.
That same night, Kelsi collapsed on her apartment floor with a ruptured appendix. Sweating and in blinding agony, she called Jeb for help.
Instead of concern, she heard Seraphina laughing and party music blaring in the background. Jeb just snapped at her.
"Stop being dramatic. Seraphina is the guest of honor tonight. I can't leave."
He hung up, leaving her to call her own ambulance. Kelsi woke up from emergency surgery completely alone, only to receive a cold text from Jeb calling her fragile.
To make matters worse, her toxic adoptive family didn't care that she almost died. They demanded she crawl back and apologize to Jeb just so they could keep leeching off her connections and trust fund.
Lying in that cold hospital bed, the illusion finally shattered. For three years, she had always been the one left waiting. She realized she meant absolutely nothing to the people she loved.
Kelsi didn't cry, and she didn't beg.
She calmly texted Jeb to call off the engagement, blocked his number, and cut ties with her greedy relatives forever.
She was finally walking away. What she didn't know was that the city's most ruthless billionaire had been watching her, and he was already weaving a golden net to claim her for himself.