Immune To The Billionaire's Toxic Regret
Elmore Thomas rushed into the emergency room, clutching his feverish seven-year-old son, Buddy, tightly to his chest.
When the privacy curtain was pulled back, the air in Elmore's lungs vanished. The attending physician standing under the harsh lights was his wife, Kendal—the woman everyone believed had burned to death eight years ago.
But there was no tearful reunion. Kendal looked at him, and her eyes froze into impenetrable ice. She treated him like a biohazard, strictly referring to him as the family member.
Worse, she didn't recognize Buddy. She comforted their crying son with the same gentle warmth she used to reserve for Elmore, completely unaware she was soothing the baby she thought had died.
Days later, Elmore watched from the shadows as she picked up another boy outside a prep school, her left hand flashing a massive diamond engagement ring.
When his butler accidentally recognized her, Kendal shielded her new stepson with pure disgust in her eyes.
"Tell that psychopath to sign the divorce papers immediately. I have a new family now."
The words 'new family' echoed in Elmore's skull, tearing him apart. For eight years, he had lived in a hell of guilt and madness, raising their son in the shadow of her ghost. How could she just erase their past? How could she give her tender smiles to a stranger and look at him with absolute revulsion?
Standing in a luxury ballroom, Elmore squeezed his hand until his crystal champagne flute shattered, thick blood dripping onto the rug. The murderous obsession in his dark eyes returned as he called his lawyer.
"Freeze her divorce application. Use every dirty trick in the book. She isn't leaving."
Chapters
Share
Chapter 6
The following evening at 6:00 p.m. Kendal parked her black Volvo SUV along the curb outside an elite, ivy-covered private preparatory school. She turned off the engine, picked up the plastic Transformer toy from the passenger seat, and pushed her door open.
The crisp wind caught the edges of her tan trench coat as she stepped onto the sidewalk. The school's heavy wrought-iron gates were open, and students in sharp navy-blue uniforms were pouring out onto the street.
Kendal stood near the trunk of a massive oak tree. Her eyes scanned the sea of blue blazers, searching for one specific face.
A few moments later, she spotted him. Ten-year-old Freddie Beach was walking slowly, his head down, kicking a dead leaf along the pavement. He looked small and isolated amidst the noisy crowd.
The hard edges of Kendal's eyes melted into absolute softness. She raised her hand and called his name, her voice carrying over the chatter.
Freddie's head snapped up. The moment he saw her, his face lit up. He broke into a run, his backpack bouncing against his shoulders, and launched himself at her.
Kendal dropped to a crouch. She caught him perfectly, wrapping her arms tightly around his small frame. She squeezed him hard, then pulled back and handed him the Transformer toy.
Thirty feet away, a black Maybach with tinted windows pulled silently to the curb.
Gus Kowalski, the elderly butler and driver for the Thomas family, stepped out of the driver's seat. He walked around the back of the car to open the door for young Buddy.
As Gus reached for the door handle, his eyes drifted toward the oak tree.
His hand froze mid-air.
He blinked hard, his wrinkled eyelids fluttering as he stared at the woman crouching on the sidewalk. He looked at her profile, the way her hair fell, the curve of her smile.
"Young... Young Madam?" Gus gasped. The words tore from his throat, loud and trembling.
The title hit Kendal's back like a whip. Her spine snapped straight. The smile vanished from her face instantly.
She stood up slowly and turned around. She locked eyes with Gus. The old man's face was pale, his eyes wide with shock and filling with rapid tears.
Gus took two shaky steps forward. He raised his trembling hands, stammering that it was a miracle, thanking God she was alive.
Kendal's thumb dug viciously into her index knuckle. She took a step backward, physically positioning her body in front of Freddie, shielding the boy from Gus's view.
She stared at the old man and stated in a voice made of absolute ice that there was no Young Madam here, only Kendal Butler.
At that exact moment, Buddy walked out of the school gates. He wore the same navy-blue uniform. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Kendal standing with Gus.
Buddy looked at Kendal. Then he looked at the boy hiding behind her legs.
Freddie felt the stare. He peeked out from behind Kendal's coat, his eyes narrowing defensively at Buddy. He grabbed a fistful of Kendal's trench coat and tugged at her coat, asking why the other boy was crying and staring at them.
Kendal reached down and placed a comforting hand over Freddie's fingers. She looked at Buddy. She saw the devastating hurt pooling in her son's eyes, but she forced her heart to turn to stone.
She looked back at Gus. She ordered him to stop this ridiculous display and stated she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Thomas family ever again.
Gus's eyes dropped to her left hand. He saw the massive diamond ring. He looked at the boy clinging to her coat. The tragic reality of the situation crashed down on the old man's shoulders.
Buddy watched his mother fiercely protect another boy while looking at him with total indifference. His chest heaved, and he dropped his gaze to his shoes to hide his tears.
Kendal forced herself to look away from Buddy's shaking shoulders. She grabbed Freddie's hand, turned her back on them, and walked quickly to her Volvo.
Gus let out a heavy, broken sigh. He walked over and gently placed his hand on Buddy's shoulder.
Kendal started the engine. She looked in the rearview mirror, watching the old man and the crying boy standing on the curb. Her stomach churned with acid. She slammed her foot on the gas pedal and sped away.
You may also like
9.3
Candice Luna thought her marriage to Julius Hansen was a lifeline to save her father's struggling company.
She didn't know it was a death sentence until Julius coldly slid divorce papers across his mahogany desk.
His true love, Amina Rowe, was nestled in his arms with a triumphant, mocking smile. The "merger" Julius promised had been a brutal, hostile takeover designed to bleed the Luna Group dry from the inside. Bankrupted and utterly broken, Candice's father stepped off the roof of their corporate tower. Meanwhile, Candice was publicly humiliated, stripped of her dignity, and mocked by all of Wall Street as a discarded stepping stone.
She died in a car accident, her final moments consumed by an agonizing, feral scream. She hated herself for letting her blind devotion destroy the father who had always believed in her.
But when Candice opened her eyes to the harsh fluorescent lights of a hospital room, she realized she wasn't dead.
She was twenty-two again. Three years before the wedding. Three years before her father's suicide.
When Julius's assistant walked in holding a bouquet of blue roses to discuss the preliminary merger, he expected a docile, desperate heiress.
Instead, Candice grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand and flung it directly into his smug face.
"Tell Julius Hansen to never, ever send his dogs to my door again."
This time, there would be no engagement. This time, the Hansen family would choke on her family's legacy.
8.0
She has thirty days. Ten billion dollars. And a quantum space that can swallow anything.
Kinsey Elliott died cold, starving, and betrayed—pushed into a frozen abyss by the uncle who stole her fortune.
Then she woke up.
Back in her penthouse. Back in her perfect body. Back with a silver mark on her wrist that lets her store entire warehouses of supplies in a dimension where time stands still.
The world has thirty days until a global ice age freezes everything.
Her family has thirty days to try to lock her away, steal her money, and have her killed.
And Kinsey? She has thirty days to turn ten billion dollars into an invisible fortress—and burn every last one of them to the ground.
She's not surviving the apocalypse.
She's building it.
7.8
Evelyn was already suffocating under her family's impending bankruptcy when she rear-ended a ten-million-dollar Rolls Royce in the freezing rain.
The tinted window rolled down, revealing the cold, predatory face of Julian Hawthorne—the man she had brutally abandoned three years ago.
Now a ruthless billionaire, he demanded a seven-figure repair check she couldn't afford, or she would have to pay with her body.
Desperate, she went to her wealthy fiancé, Preston, for the money, only to find him in a VIP club with another woman straddling his lap.
Instead of helping, Preston threw the repair bill on the floor and laughed with his rich friends.
"You want the money? Fine. Get on your knees, crawl over here, and kiss the tip of my shoe in front of everyone."
Evelyn trembled with pure humiliation.
Three years ago, she had sacrificed the only man she truly loved to save her family from ruin, only to end up engaged to this pathetic, cheating scum.
Just as her knees bent toward the carpet, the heavy velvet door was kicked completely off its hinges.
Julian walked in like the grim reaper, beat Preston half to death, and dragged Evelyn away.
He pinned her in his car, threatening to destroy everyone she cared about if she didn't return to him.
Evelyn was terrified and confused. Why was this powerful tyrant going to such extreme, violent lengths to trap a woman who had thrown him away?
The answer slipped out through an accidental phone call: the cold-blooded CEO had spent the previous night drunk, crying and screaming her name.
Realizing the monster caging her was actually just a desperate, heartbroken man, Evelyn wiped her tears and made a decision.
She was going to break her engagement, walk into his corporate fortress, and finally face the terrifying debt of their past.
7.6
"One signature. One life-long debt. One night to change everything."
Elara Vance thought she could escape her family's dark past, until the ruthless tech-mogul Silas Vane corners her with a contract she can't refuse. Her father didn't just owe Silas money-he owed him a blood-oath.
The deal is simple: Marry Silas for 365 days, endure his cold touch, and play the perfect doll for the media. In return, her family's sins are erased. But Silas isn't just looking for a wife; he's looking for the woman who shattered his heart ten years ago.
Elara is wearing a dead woman's face, and Silas is a man who never forgets a betrayal. As the line between hate and heat blurs, Elara realizes the debt isn't money... it's her heart. And Silas Vane is coming to collect.
8.8
I've always been the unwanted child-the invisible one. The rebel no one ever tried to understand.
And yet, I never resented my perfect, beloved sister. All I ever wanted was for her to be happy.
But one cruel twist of fate-and a devastating betrayal by someone I trusted-changed everything.
I woke up in a stranger's bed, losing the one thing I had guarded so carefully. Back then, I thought that was my greatest loss.
I was wrong.
Because not long after, my sister introduced me to her fiancé.
And the man standing in front of me... was the same stranger from that night.
Now he haunts me-day and night, in my dreams and in my waking hours. And just when I start to believe the nightmare might finally fade with the dawn, Alan walks back into my life.
This time, he has no intention of letting me forget.
Not the insult I dealt him.
...or that one unforgettable night.
8.9
Seraphina, a broke single mother of triplets, snuck into a billionaire's charity gala just for the free food, desperate to fund her daughter's urgent heart surgery.
But her genius five-year-old son secretly hacked the gala's raffle system, thrusting them directly under the spotlight. The untouchable billionaire host, Donovan Vance, froze when he saw the star-shaped birthmark on her wrist—the exact same mark from a dark hotel room five years ago.
Cornered, Seraphina was forced into a five-million-dollar marriage contract to appease Donovan's dying father and secure his corporate empire. She swallowed her pride, took the money to save her daughter, and moved into the penthouse. But Donovan's obsessive childhood friend, Gwendolyn, immediately targeted her. She humiliated Seraphina for her poverty and violently grabbed her in the foyer.
"I dare you to get a DNA test. When the world finds out they're not his, he'll throw you into the street himself!"
Gwendolyn's vicious threat made Seraphina's blood run cold. She was suffocating in sheer panic. She didn't even know if Donovan was actually the father. If a test proved he wasn't, she would be destroyed, and her daughter would lose her only lifeline.
But to her absolute horror, Donovan's father overheard the threat and ordered a legally binding paternity test that very day to permanently silence all doubts. With the medical team arriving and nowhere left to run, the terrifying secret Seraphina had buried for five years was about to be dragged into the light.