From Widow to His World: Claimed by the CEO
Five years ago, I, Claire Parker, ran away for love with Daniel Carter, the broke boy everyone looked down on. But on the very day we were supposed to leave together, he abandoned me.
Overnight, I became the laughingstock of the entire city and was forced into a marriage alliance with a terminally ill man, Ryan Cooper.
Five years later, my husband died, the marriage arrangement fell apart, and the Cooper family threw me out without a shred of mercy.
Meanwhile, Daniel, the man everyone once sneered at, returned home in glory and became the hottest rising name in the business world.
And somehow, he ended up becoming my boss.
I wanted nothing to do with him, yet he kept closing in on me, cornering me with sarcasm sharp enough to draw blood.
Then one day, Daniel caught me on a date with another man.
His eyes reddened instantly as he pinned me against the wall. "Claire... are you abandoning me again?"
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Chapter 2
"Someone who disappeared when it mattered most and never even gave me an explanation doesn't really have the right to mock me, does he?"
At last, I said the words that had been buried in my chest for five years.
The office fell deathly silent.
Daniel sat behind the large desk, one hand still resting on the file. His expression remained distant and unreadable.
I almost laughed coldly at the sight of him.
What gave him the right to act like this?
The next second, I slapped the file down onto the desk with a heavy thud.
"The data isn't wrong." I looked straight at him, my voice turning colder with every word. "If you're only trying to make things difficult for me, Mr. Carter, then you can have someone else deliver the file next time."
The moment those words left my mouth, something in his eyes finally shifted.
But I no longer had the energy to argue with him. I picked up the file and turned to leave.
When I returned to my desk, nearly everyone in the office looked up at the same time.
My expression looked awful, and the rejected file was still in my hands. Anyone could tell something had gone wrong.
Lily had just walked out of the printing area when she spotted me and froze for a second.
"What happened to you? You look terrible. Did Mr. Carter give you a hard time?"
She hurried over, guilt written all over her face.
"This is my fault. I forgot to warn you." She glanced toward the CEO's office and lowered her voice even further. "Mr. Carter was transferred in out of nowhere. Today's his first official day, and he's already been tearing the whole department apart all morning."
I forced a faint smile.
Lily thought I was still upset about what had happened and tried to comfort me quietly. "You know how it is when a new boss takes over. They're always extra intense at first. Don't take it personally. Mr. Carter isn't singling you out." She paused before adding softly, "Besides... he really does have the ability to back it up."
I looked up at her. "What do you mean?"
"Wait, you seriously don't know?" Lily leaned closer and whispered, "Mr. Carter's insanely capable, and his standards are ridiculously high. Pretty much every project he's taken over has been a success. I heard headquarters sent him here specifically to clean up the mess in this branch."
"But," she continued, changing her tone, "even though nobody questions his ability, he's seriously intimidating. He's only been here two days, and the whole company is already scared of him."
After a pause, she added with a sigh, "Honestly, Mr. Carter's rich, handsome, and ridiculously attractive. Even if he's scary, there are still tons of girls interested in him. What a shame, though. Men like that are never single."
My grip on the file tightened slightly.
That photo from five years ago suddenly flashed through my mind.
Under dim lighting, Daniel had been lying in the same bed with another woman.
Bitterness spread quietly through my chest. Had he really ended up with that woman?
Just then, a man's voice sounded beside me.
"Claire, are you okay?"
I turned around to see Andrew Anderson from the marketing department standing beside me, holding a freshly poured cup of warm water. Concern was written plainly across his face.
"You don't look well. Are you sick?" He handed me the water. "If you're not feeling well, you should take the afternoon off. I can finish that report for you."
My thoughts were a mess, and I could only answer politely. "Thanks, but..."
"Looks like I haven't assigned enough work if you still have time to help other people."
At some point, the CEO's office door had opened. Daniel was standing there, staring directly at me.
Andrew looked awkward immediately. "Mr. Carter."
Daniel ignored him completely. His eyes stayed fixed on me, his tone unreadable. "This is a workplace, Ms. Parker, not somewhere for flirting. You need to watch your behavior."
The mocking edge in his voice instantly lit a fire in my chest.
"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Carter," I said, staring straight at him and emphasizing every word. "But who I talk to and who I spend time with are my business."
Daniel's eyes darkened little by little.
I didn't look away from him. Instead, I continued calmly, "And my personal life has nothing to do with you anymore. You're my boss, not my guardian. Don't you think you're overstepping a little, Mr. Carter?"
The entire office area fell silent. Even the people passing by unconsciously slowed their footsteps.
Daniel's jaw tightened visibly.
For a moment, I honestly thought he was going to lose his temper right there.
But in the end, he said nothing and simply turned away.
Lily didn't dare breathe properly until he was far enough away.
"Oh my God..."
Andrew looked embarrassed too as he lowered his voice. "Did I cause trouble for you?"
"No."
I lowered my eyes to the cup in my hands and shook my head gently. But deep down, an uneasy feeling had already started creeping in.
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8.1
Born into luxury, Hermione Watson-Pierce has always felt like merely a pawn in her parents' ruthless game of power. She learned to suppress her emotions, earning herself the title of the "Ice Queen."
Just then, Aiden Mendes bursts into her life-a charming playboy known for his reckless reputation. Aiden chooses to cope with his inner turmoil through a lavish lifestyle, using his charisma and striking looks to keep others at bay.
A looming threat forces them to face a contracted marriage or risk losing their inheritance. When they first meet, Aiden is struck by an unexpected attraction, as if it were love at first sight. Yet, his notorious reputation precedes him, and Hermione makes no effort to hide her disdain.
As their contractual marriage evolves into a battle of wills, Aiden must work to melt Hermione's icy heart, proving that he is more than what meets the eye. But can he persuade her to rise above her prejudices and bravely pursue love?
8.6
Marrying Theron Draix in a few days was a life long dream come true.
For seventeen years, I'd loved him, revolving my life around him, and in just three days, we should be married.
"Let's break up. I won't be attending the wedding," he said.
My life shattered in that instant.
Finding out he was in love with my adopted sister was worse. They had played me and controlled my emotions.
At the end, Mireya had killed me.
If I was given a second chance, I would never love Theron and never trust Mireya.
7.0
Erika was a disgraced ex-wife, struggling to survive in a freezing Brooklyn slum to raise her five-year-old son.
But her billionaire ex-husband, Doyle Morgan, wasn't done destroying her. He orchestrated a cruel trap, forcing her to deliver a custom sapphire brooch to his new mistress, just to watch her get humiliated and severely burned by scalding coffee.
When Erika fought back and refused to beg, Doyle's punishment was swift. He demoted her to scrubbing executive toilets with raw, bleeding hands. Starved, exhausted, and pushed to the absolute brink of organ failure, she finally collapsed lifelessly in front of him in Central Park.
For five years, she had endured his relentless torment and the world's mockery just to keep her child safe. Doyle despised her, convinced her son was the filthy proof of her cheating with another man.
He didn't know the boy was actually the child of his deceased older brother, conceived in a dark, drugged hotel room. Why couldn't he just leave them alone to suffer in peace?
But when Erika woke up in the VIP hospital ward, the nightmare took a terrifying turn. Doyle pinned her weak wrists to the mattress, his eyes burning with a dark, possessive obsession. He had figured out the truth about the boy's bloodline.
"He's a Morgan. He has my family's blood in his veins, and I will not allow my nephew to be raised in a slum. If you can't care for him, I will. From this moment on, you and that boy belong to me. And you are never leaving my sight again."
9.2
Lainey spent her last life destroying herself for Larry, only to become the woman he discarded most cruelly. He never loved her, never wanted her, and made no secret that his first love still owned his heart.
On their wedding day, he abandoned Lainey at the altar for that woman, then later used Lainey as nothing more than a stepping stone for his company's rise. In the end, he even had her kidney ripped from her.
Reborn at the very moment everything began, Lainey called off the wedding without hesitation. But after losing her, Larry begged desperately.
Lainey shot him a cold look, then turned and walked straight into the arms of a powerful, aloof man, who stared down at Larry with pure contempt. "She's my wife now."
7.9
I woke up in a burning warehouse, twelve years after my supposed death. My body had been reset to its physical prime, the deep burn scar on my wrist completely gone.
Through the smoke, my eldest son, Kennard, rushed blindly into the flames. He was screaming the name of the very woman who had orchestrated this trap—Brittnie.
When I tackled him out of the way of a falling steel beam, he didn't recognize my youthful face. Instead, he pinned me to the concrete and nearly crushed my windpipe.
"How much did she pay you to carve up your face to look like a dead woman?"
He hissed the words at me, treating me like a sick corporate spy. For a decade, a bizarre narrative "script" had brainwashed my son, forcing him into pathetic devotion to Brittnie. She had drained his wealth, turned my daughter against him, and hollowed out our family empire.
Whenever Kennard tried to resist her, the mind control punished him with agonizing migraines, driving him to smash his own hands against the wall just to cope with the pain.
Hearing him quietly sobbing outside my locked door, my heart shattered. How could this invisible force torture my brilliant son and turn my family into puppets for a D-list actress?
I dragged him to the hospital for a DNA test.
When the results confirmed my maternity at 99.999%, the cold billionaire collapsed to the floor, weeping in my arms like a lost child.
I wiped his tears and smiled ruthlessly. It was time to take back my empire and burn Brittnie's life to the ground.
9.3
Charlene was locked in a Swiss asylum by the wealthy Gay family, force-fed antipsychotics until her hands shook violently.
Her adoptive brother, Columbus, dragged her out of the psych ward merely to parade her as a prop for the paparazzi.
He had locked her up to get a psychiatric evaluation, ensuring she was declared legally insane and unable to claim her massive trust fund.
The moment she returned to the estate, the torment worsened.
Her other brother, Antwan, kicked her to the ground and shattered her wrist on the gravel.
"You lost your legal rights, you stupid bitch," he sneered, while the staff blindly ignored her agony.
Her childhood bedroom was completely gutted and given to a distant cousin.
Worse, she discovered Columbus was secretly sleeping with Isabela—the fake heiress who had framed Charlene in the first place.
Every trace of her existence in the family was being violently scrubbed away.
She had lost her dignity, her health, and the baby the doctors claimed had died in the delivery room.
She couldn't understand why the family she loved hated her so viciously, stripping away everything she had.
That was until she saw a little boy in the hospital hallway, a perfect, miniature replica of her own face.
Clutching the gold-crested cufflink he dropped, she realized the asylum's doctor had stolen him.
Her baby was alive.
With her heart turned to stone, Charlene made a silent vow to crawl out of hell and burn the Gay family to the ground.