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 7
The moment I met Daniel's icy gaze, my mind went completely blank.
I tightened my grip on my phone and forced myself to stay calm. "What does that have to do with you?"
"Nothing to do with me?" He let out a quiet laugh, though there was no warmth in his eyes. "Didn't you make yourself very clear just now?"
He walked toward me step by step. "You said you would never marry me."
Hearing those words come from his mouth made them hurt even more.
My chest tightened painfully, and the emotions I had been suppressing all day finally burst free.
"Was I wrong?"
I looked up at him, anger bleeding into my voice.
"Daniel, what gives you the right to stand here and question me? Five years ago, you never showed up. Five years later, when I don't need you anymore, you suddenly keep appearing in front of me every single day. Do you enjoy humiliating yourself or something?"
Daniel's expression darkened instantly.
He laughed out of anger and lifted a hand, pointing at my face.
"Claire, after all these years, you've gotten even better at pretending."
Pretending?
I let out a cold laugh.
He thought everything I had just said was an act?
"What?" I laughed shakily. "Daniel, you think I was putting on a show for you just now?"
"Wasn't it?" Daniel stared at me coldly.
His eyes locked onto mine as he pressed each word down heavily.
"How dare you even bring up what happened five years ago? If you chose to marry Ryan for the Cooper family's money and influence, then stop acting pathetic! And now you're trying to turn it around on me because I didn't show up five years ago?"
He paused, his gaze frighteningly cold.
"Even if I had gone back then, you probably still wouldn't have chosen me. You're greedy. Disgusting."
His words cut straight through me.
So this was the kind of person I was in his eyes.
My eyes burned, but I forced the bitterness back down.
My fingers trembled uncontrollably, yet my words still came out sharp.
"What right do you have to judge me like that?"
Daniel did not answer.
He only stared at me, his expression terrifyingly dark.
The next second, something sharp flashed through his eyes as he suddenly grabbed my wrist.
Caught off guard, I stumbled when he yanked me toward him.
"Daniel, what are you doing?"
Without saying a word, he dragged me straight back into the restaurant.
"Let go of me!"
I struggled desperately, but I could not break free.
His grip was so strong that red marks bloomed around my wrist.
Daniel shoved open the restroom door and slammed me hard against the wall inside one of the stalls.
In the cramped space, the air instantly turned suffocating.
"What are you trying to do?"
The moment the words left my mouth, his burning body pressed hard against mine.
He stared at me as his breathing gradually grew heavier, his eyes filled with emotions I could not understand.
Just as I tried to push him away, he suddenly gripped the back of my neck and lowered his head to kiss me.
It was nothing like the gentle kisses we had shared in the past.
This kiss was filled with anger. His tongue forced its way into my mouth, leaving me struggling to breathe.
A wave of humiliation crashed over me.
How had things ended up like this?
Even through the confusion, my reaction was fast.
I bit down hard, and the metallic taste of blood spread across my tongue.
Daniel froze for a second.
I shoved him away at once and slapped him hard across the face.
The sharp sound echoed through the stall, leaving behind a terrifying silence.
My chest heaved violently as I stared at him, my voice trembling with cold anger.
"Daniel, have you lost your mind?"
His face was turned slightly to the side. The corner of his lips had been bitten open by me, the blood painfully vivid.
But he only wiped the blood away casually before his gaze fell back onto my lips.
"That mouth of yours only knows how to say things that piss me off. So I figured I'd shut it myself."
I laughed out of anger. "You're exactly the same as before. Everything has to happen your way. You're disgusting."
Daniel's eyes turned ice-cold instantly.
But I no longer wanted to hear another word from him.
I shoved open the stall door and walked quickly out of the restroom.
This time, he did not follow me.
I practically fled the restaurant.
The night wind hit my face, and only then did I finally manage to breathe again.
But the lingering pain on my wrist and lips still filled me with shame.
I closed my eyes briefly and forced myself to calm down.
Just then, a voice called out behind me. "Ms. Parker."
I turned around.
At some point, Evan had come outside as well.
He stood at the bottom of the steps, his suit still perfectly neat, that self-satisfied smile still hanging on his face.
"Were you waiting for me? Did you change your mind?"
I looked at him coldly.
"Mr. Collins, I've already made myself very clear."
"Really?" Evan smiled and took two steps closer. "But I've never been the type to give up easily."
I frowned.
Yet he acted as though he had not noticed my rejection at all, his tone becoming even more relaxed.
"You don't have to think so badly of me. I've heard a little about your family situation. Your parents are definitely overbearing, but I can help you."
"Help me?"
"That's right." He looked at me carefully, testing my reaction. "If you want to get away from them, you'll need someone more suitable to rely on."
His so-called help was nothing more than another transaction.
Disgust twisted in my stomach as I turned to leave.
But Evan suddenly reached out and grabbed my wrist.
"Ms. Parker, don't reject me so quickly." His voice lowered slightly. "The more you act like this, the more interested I become."
My expression turned completely cold. "Let go."
Instead of releasing me immediately, he smiled. "You're far more challenging than I expected."
As he spoke, he tried to guide my hand onto his body.
"Go ahead and touch me. Maybe you'll end up falling for me."
Disgusting.
I jerked backward and shook him off, only to collide with someone else behind me.
Before I could apologize, a low laugh sounded behind me.
The laugh was quiet, yet cold enough to send a chill through me.
"Claire." Daniel's voice was dangerously calm. "So this is the reason you rejected me?"
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7.0
Eight years ago, Alaina forced herself to say the most vicious, heartless things to break up with her fiercely loyal college boyfriend, protecting him from his billionaire family's wrath.
Now, she is a top maxillofacial surgeon, and Jarred Mcknight has returned as the ruthless CEO of Wall Street's most powerful corporation.
Their worlds collide in the ER, but Jarred isn't alone. He is accompanying his rumored heiress fiancée.
His eyes are pure ice. He treats Alaina with a suffocating, clinical detachment, fiercely protecting the heiress from Alaina's medical examination. The professional slap in the face shatters Alaina's heart all over again.
Later, at an exclusive restaurant, Jarred catches Alaina on a miserable, forced blind date. Still believing she left him for money and status, he publicly mocks her for working herself to the bone just to climb the ladder.
Her sleazy date, humiliated by the billionaire's sheer dominance, turns his bruised ego on Alaina. On the dark street outside, the lawyer aggressively grabs her arm, trying to force himself on her.
Alaina thought Jarred despised her. She thought he had completely moved on, leaving her to drown in the memories of the future they never had.
But why did Jarred suddenly explode from the shadows like a lethal predator, brutally snapping the lawyer's wrist just for touching her?
Pinning her trapped against the cold brick wall, Jarred's dark eyes burn with a terrifying, unhinged possessiveness.
"Is this the kind of garbage you date now?"
The eight years of separation mean nothing. The billionaire hasn't let her go, and this time, there is no escape.
9.0
My fiancé, Connor, and I had a one-year pact. I'd work undercover as a junior developer in the company we co-founded, while he, the CEO, built our empire.
The pact ended the day he ordered me to apologize to the woman who was systematically destroying my life.
It happened during his most important investor pitch. He was on video call when he demanded I publicly humiliate myself for his "special guest," Jaden. This was after she'd already scalded my hand with hot coffee and faced zero consequences.
He chose her. In front of everyone, he chose a manipulative bully over our company's integrity, our employees' dignity, and me, his fiancée.
His eyes on the screen demanded my submission.
"Apologize to Jaden. Now."
I took a step forward, held up my burned hand for the camera, and made a call of my own.
"Dad," I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "It's time to dissolve the partnership."
8.8
Kaia was diagnosed with late-stage bone cancer, with only three months left to live.
She wanted to give up her family's entire trust fund just to have Gerrit play the role of a loving husband for her final days.
But before she could show him the biopsy report, he looked at her with absolute disgust, declaring that their three-year marriage made him physically sick.
He only loved Seraphina.
To force Kaia out, Seraphina constantly framed her. When Seraphina faked a fall, Gerrit pushed Kaia so hard she tore her waist open on a glass table.
When Kaia writhed in agonizing pain from her failing organs, he stood over her coldly, mocking her pathetic acting.
Even when Gerrit finally discovered Seraphina had hired a fake stalker and maliciously burned Kaia's skin with boiling tea, he still chose to protect his mistress.
"I already signed the divorce papers with Kaia. We are going to bury this story temporarily to protect the company."
Hearing those words from behind the wall, the last shred of hope in Kaia's chest completely died.
She had endured his cruelty for three years, only to realize his bias for another woman defied all logic and morality.
Lying in the bathtub, coughing up mouthfuls of dark blood that turned the water crimson, Kaia picked up her phone and dialed her lawyer.
"Julian, initiate the final plan."
Since Gerrit despised her existence, she would make sure he never found her body.
7.3
Eloise was the untouchable Brandt family heiress, just one audition away from landing a lead movie role and escaping her golden cage.
But overnight, her family's empire completely collapsed.
With her father dying of heart failure, her mother forced her to beg the only man who could save them: Christian Clarke.
Christian was the ruthless billionaire who had publicly humiliated Eloise in college, ripping up her love letter in front of a laughing crowd.
Now, he tossed a fifty-million-dollar acquisition contract on the table.
"What exactly is the Brandt heiress putting up for sale today?"
To secure her father's medical care, Eloise was forced to sign a suffocating marriage contract, selling herself as a corporate tax shield.
He moved her into his freezing penthouse and treated her like a purchased asset. He mocked her attempts to cook him dinner, yet pinned her against the wall with punishing, possessive kisses whenever she tried to pull away.
Eloise's pride was entirely shattered.
She didn't understand why he was doing this. If he hated her so much and only wanted revenge, why did his touch carry such an agonizing, desperate heat?
Determined to survive, she went to her final audition and miraculously won the lead role, crying tears of joy because she had finally earned something on her own.
She had no idea that the cold-blooded monster sleeping beside her had just secretly threatened to destroy all of Hollywood to give it to her.
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.
7.6
Overnight, Ella lost her family, her home, and her entire life. Discarded by the foster system, she was left shivering in the freezing mud outside her ruined estate.
That was when Javier Shepherd appeared. The terrifyingly cold, powerful billionaire pulled her from the dirt, threw her into a massive glass penthouse, handed her an unlimited black card, and vanished overseas, leaving her in the hands of a cruel caretaker.
The caretaker treated Ella like garbage, feeding her cheap, processed meals while using the black card to buy designer bags. The toxic food triggered a severe allergic reaction. Ella collapsed in the dark hallway, her throat swelling shut, gasping for air while the caretaker locked the door and turned up the TV. She almost died on that cold hardwood floor.
When Javier found out, he ruthlessly destroyed the caretaker and sent her to prison. He guarded Ella's hospital bed with terrifying intensity and even moved into her apartment to stop her panic attacks. Yet, when Ella finally broke down crying over her dead parents, his eyes turned to ice.
"Losing emotional control over a juvenile past is an inefficient waste of energy."
He sneered, treating her grief like a bad financial investment. Ella was completely bewildered. Why did this dangerous man protect her so fiercely, yet hate her past so deeply?
It wasn't until his cousin visited the hospital that the cruel truth was revealed. Javier wasn't saving her out of kindness. He had been obsessed with Ella's mother—his family's adopted daughter who ran away years ago. To him, Ella wasn't a person to be loved. She was just a replacement asset, a ghost of the woman he never got over.