I Tore Up His Check, Then He Bought My Life
After seven years of scrubbing floors to escape my past, my doctor fiancé convinced me to attend the Met Gala. It was supposed to be a one-night trip back to a world I hated. But then the doors crashed open, and the monster I.d left for dead rolled in on a wheelchair.
Within twenty-four hours, Fielding Hancock.s shadow had poisoned everything. My fiancé, Nathan, saw a photo of Fielding touching my arm and completely shattered. He got me fired, drained our joint bank account of my life savings, and left me homeless on a sidewalk in Queens.
I thought I had hit rock bottom, but then the hospital called. My mother had suffered a stroke, triggered by an envelope Fielding sent her. The insurance Nathan had just reported as fraudulent wouldn.t cover the ICU, and I was broke.
With my mother.s life on the line and two hours to find five thousand dollars, I was out of options. He had systematically destroyed every piece of my new life, cornering me until there was nowhere left to run.
I made the only call I could. Fielding picked up on the first ring.
"You win," I said, my voice dead. "I'm yours."
Chapters
Share
Chapter 7
Essence stood on the curb, her hands gripping the hem of her scrub top so hard her knuckles turned white. She needed to calm down. She needed to breathe.
In. Out.
The window of the Escalade rolled down with a low hum.
"Your wrist is red," Fielding's voice drifted out. "Don't you want to come in and put some ice on that?"
The fake concern made something snap inside her. Essence spun around.
"Stay the hell away from me!" she screamed.
Fielding didn't drive away. Instead, the side door opened again. A mechanical whirring sound filled the air. A ramp extended from the floor of the SUV, touching the pavement.
Essence watched in horror as Fielding maneuvered his wheelchair down the ramp.
He was getting out. Here. In Queens. In broad daylight.
Passersby slowed down. A woman pushing a stroller stared openly at the man in the bespoke suit rolling onto the cracked sidewalk. He looked like an alien species dropped into a war zone. His movements were jerky, the joystick responding to what looked like a trembling hand. He was selling the image of the invalid billionaire perfectly.
"Are you crazy?" Essence hissed, scanning the windows of her building. "This isn't the Upper East Side. People talk."
Fielding ignored the audience. He rolled right up to her, invading her personal space again.
"Let me see," he commanded.
Before she could retreat, he reached out and grabbed her hand-the same one he had bruised moments ago.
"Fielding, stop!"
"I squeezed too hard," he murmured. He ran his thumb over the red marks on her wrist. The touch was light, almost tender, a jarring contrast to his earlier violence. It was intimate. Too intimate.
Essence tried to yank her hand away, but his fingers were a vice.
Screech.
Tires squealed against the asphalt.
A silver Toyota Camry slammed to a halt at the curb, just feet away from the Escalade. The bumper was dented, held on by duct tape.
Essence's heart stopped.
Nathan.
The driver's door flew open. Nathan stumbled out, still wearing his white coat, a grease-stained paper bag from McDonald's clutched in one hand. He looked exhausted, his eyes rimmed with red from a double shift.
He froze.
He saw them. He saw the man in the wheelchair. He saw the expensive suit.
And he saw Fielding holding Essence's hand.
Nathan's face went slack. The McDonald's bag slipped from his fingers and hit the ground, fries spilling onto the dirty concrete.
"Essence?" Nathan's voice was thin. "What are you doing?"
Essence ripped her hand away from Fielding, hiding it behind her back. "Nathan! It's not what it looks like!"
Nathan rushed forward, positioning himself between Essence and the wheelchair. He puffed out his chest, trying to look imposing, but he looked small next to Fielding's aura of absolute power.
"Who are you?" Nathan demanded, his hands balling into fists. "Why are you touching my fiancée?"
Fielding didn't back down. He looked up at Nathan, his expression shifting into a smirk of pure, distilled arrogance. He looked Nathan up and down, lingering on the scuffed shoes and the cheap watch.
It was a look that reduced a man to a price tag.
"Fiancée?" Fielding chuckled darkly. "Dr. Miller, your information is a bit... outdated."
Nathan blinked, his aggression faltering as he took in the man's face properly for the first time. The sleek black wheelchair. The cut of the jaw. The cold, dead eyes that were plastered on the donor plaque in the lobby of his own hospital.
"Hancock?" Nathan breathed, the name landing heavy and familiar. "The donor? Fielding Hancock?"
Fielding smoothed a non-existent wrinkle on his trousers. "I'm Fielding Hancock. An... old friend of Essence's."
The realization seemed to physically shrink Nathan. He took a half-step back, the instinctual deference to the man who effectively signed his paychecks warring with his jealousy. Hancock. Everyone in New York knew the name. It was on the hospital wing where Nathan worked. It was on the library. It was money. Old, untouchable money.
But then he looked at the black SUV, the bodyguard standing by the door, and back at Essence's terrified face. His insecurity flared into anger.
"I don't care who you are," Nathan spat, though his voice lacked its earlier conviction. "Stay away from her."
Essence grabbed Nathan's arm. "Nathan, please. We're going to be late. Let's just go upstairs."
She tried to pull him toward the building entrance. She needed to get him away. Now.
"Nathan," Fielding said. His voice was calm, carrying effortlessly over the street noise. "Aren't you going to ask Essence to introduce us properly? To tell you about our past?"
Nathan stopped dead. He planted his feet, resisting Essence's pull.
He turned slowly to look at her. "Past?"
Essence felt the blood drain from her face. "Fielding, don't."
"Tell him, Essence," Fielding said, his eyes glittering with malice. "Or should I?"
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
8.5
I was cheated on by my scumbag boyfriend.
On the night I got blackout drunk, I married a stranger, and when I woke up, I only found a marriage certificate and a black card.
He took care of my scumbag ex for me, gave me a canary diamond ring, but refused to show his face-he only called me baby on video calls.
I ran to my best friend's house to hide, only to find that the billionaire next door, who made my heart skip a beat, had the exact same scent as him.
My best friend cried and begged me: "He's Augustus, a tyrant who eats people alive!"
But only I knew that the man who pressed me against the terrace railing, leaned down to kiss me, and whispered "I'll protect you" softly.
Fifty thousand dollars to sneak photos of his private office? I'll go.
Not for the money, but to ask him to his face-
Gus, how many secrets are you hiding? And how long have you been craving me?
7.5
For six years, Isabella Rossi used her family's immense wealth to save her husband's Mafia empire from bankruptcy while he fought on the front lines.
Her reward? Don Damien Moretti returns with a mistress, a secret son, and a demand: Accept them, and keep paying the bills.
He expects her to swallow her pride. Instead, Isabella closes her checkbook. She demands a divorce, cuts off their funding, and leaves his "glorious" empire to starve.
But a Queen stepping down draws wolves. Enter Giovanni Falcone-the ruthless, untouchable King of the New York Underworld. He doesn't want her money; he wants her.
Now, her ex-husband is begging for her back. But Isabella? She's too busy building her own empire-and watching his burn.
8.8
On the eve of my glamorous Waldorf Astoria wedding, I went to the penthouse to surprise my fiancé, Hugh, wearing my late mother's heirloom pearls.
Instead, I heard my stepsister's familiar laugh and caught them tangled together on the sofa.
Through the cracked door, I heard Hugh slur that he was only marrying me for my family's financial backing.
"As soon as I secure my inheritance, she's the first thing I'm getting rid of," he promised her.
Floy giggled and asked for my mother's pearl necklace, my only legacy. Hugh agreed without hesitation, mocking my dead mother's naivety and my desperate dreams of building a family.
Every sweet word he had ever said was a lie, a knife he had been patiently sliding between my ribs for years. They planned to strip me of everything the moment I signed the prenup.
I didn't cry or scream. The crushing weight of their betrayal hollowed me out, leaving behind a terrifying, absolute calm.
Why should I be the one to lose everything while they stole my future and insulted my mother's memory?
I calmly walked down the hall, set the prenuptial agreement on fire, and vanished into the rainy night.
If Hugh wanted to play dirty for the Maxwell empire, I would play for keeps.
Using a forgotten, century-old family covenant, I was going to marry Hugh's uncle-the comatose, paralyzed war hero, Fleet Maxwell.
I would return not as a naive bride, but as their worst nightmare: his aunt, and the new lady of the house.
8.8
After eleven years in a maximum-security black site, ex-Delta Force operator Alton Combs was paroled and exiled to a toxic Appalachian wasteland.
The corrupt town mayor thought he was bullying a broken man, tricking Alton into trading his family's prime estate for a poisoned, worthless shale field.
The locals treated Alton like a rabid beast, spitting on his shoes and waiting for him to rot in a collapsed cabin. But they had no idea the "worthless" land hid a billion-dollar rare-earth mineral vein. While surviving the town's hostility, Alton found a freezing baby girl dumped in a biohazard bin with needle marks on her tiny arm.
He took her in, named her Eden, and built an electrified fortress guarded by a tamed mountain lion and a rattlesnake. He spent the next seven years quietly extracting the minerals to build a massive mining empire, raising the girl not as a victim, but as a ruthless apex predator.
Hundreds of miles away in Washington D.C., a high-ranking Pentagon official wept over an empty grave, completely unaware that his evil second wife had ordered his infant daughter thrown to the wolves. He also didn't know the baby had been rescued by the most dangerous killing machine alive.
Now, his parole was officially over.
Alton handed his seven-year-old daughter an elite academy acceptance letter.
"If the dogs try to bite you, you tear their throats out. I will handle the bodies."
Stepping into a bulletproof Hummer, the undisputed king of the valley prepared to unleash his little wolf into the human world.
8.2
After two years of love and unwavering commitment to her mate Adrian, Amelia's world shatters when she finds Adrian, cheating on her with his ex-fated mate, Mara. The pain deepens when she is framed for a crime she didn't commit, and forced to leave the pack she once called home. Yet, as time passes and Adrian's regrets grow, he embarks on a desperate quest to find Amelia and win her back.
Years later, Amelia has rebuilt her life as a successful medical doctor, only to find herself drawn to Alex Darlington, a charming and caring doctor who turns out to be none other than Adrian's stepbrother. But when their bond grows undeniable, Amelia must face the shocking truth-Adrian, the man who once betrayed her, is now the one asking for her forgiveness. Torn between her past love and her new feelings for Alex, Amelia's heart is pulled in two directions.
As Adrian fights to reclaim the woman he lost, he must confront his own mistakes and battle the darkness inside. But when Alex's true motives come to light, Amelia must decide who is truly worthy of her love, and whether she can find a future with the man who shattered her heart-or the one who might just heal it.
In a world where loyalty is tested, love is fragile, and betrayal runs deep, will Amelia find peace, or will she be forced to choose between two men who will stop at nothing to claim her heart?
Settings : Moonstone Pack, Present Day, Human World, New York City, Present Day, 21st Century.
7.6
Synopsis:
Diana, a twenty-nine year old brilliant young lady and a successful fashion designer. She was grateful she had been able to achieve everything she had without any support.
But there was a void inside of her. She wanted to get married.
She couldn't bear the fact of entering into the big chapter thirty without a life partner. She met David at a business conference meeting. He asked for her number.
She hesitated thinking he wasn't going to stay like the others. She decided to give him a chance and went on a first date with him only to realise that he was serious and wanted to marry her.
What Diana didn't know was that David was pretending all along. He was never interested in her as a person.
During a public awards ceremony, David brings Eleanor, a celebrity who is his new business partner, onto the stage. He dedicates his award to her, claiming she was the "sole inspiration" for his success.
Later that night, he tells Diana that he has already signed the divorce papers. His cold dismissal shatters her, but in the aftermath, a clear-headed determination sets in.