Left At The Altar: Marrying The Billionaire
At my million-dollar wedding to the Hoffman heir, the priest was interrupted by a ringing phone.
My groom, Elijah, didn't silence it. He answered it right at the altar, yanked his arm from my grasp, and walked out because his "true love" Jalyn needed him.
I was left standing alone in front of three hundred elite guests, blinded by mocking camera flashes. My own mother rolled her eyes in disgust, later threatening to freeze my trust fund and sell me to a notorious playboy to recoup her losses. Elijah even had the nerve to call me, demanding I take the blame for the canceled wedding to save his PR, while live news feeds showed him cradling a fragile Jalyn in the hospital.
I had spent two years bending over backward to be his perfect bride, only to be discarded like trash. What made it sicker was finding out that Jalyn's sudden "medical emergency" was actually a ruptured cyst caused by having vigorous sex with Elijah right before he walked down the aisle.
I refused to let them destroy me.
Kicking off my six-inch heels, I stepped down from the altar and walked straight to the back row where Cristian Lowe sat. He was the ruthless iceberg of Wall Street and Elijah's most terrifying rival.
I looked up at his sharp jawline and asked the craziest question of my life.
"Will you marry me?"
He stood up, his dark eyes locking onto mine.
"As you wish."
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Chapter 4
Sunlight sliced through the gap in the heavy drapes, hitting Amaris directly in the face. She groaned, rolling over, but the shrill ring of her phone dragged her out of sleep.
She grabbed it, squinting at the screen. Irma Lewis.
Her first instinct was to decline. Her thumb hovered, but the guilt of a lifetime of obedience made her swipe right.
"What is wrong with you?" Irma's voice was a whip crack, devoid of any maternal warmth. "You've ruined everything. The Hoffman alliance is destroyed. Do you have any idea how much money you cost us?"
Amaris sat up, gripping the phone so hard the plastic creaked. She didn't bother defending herself. It was pointless.
"Stop crying," Irma snapped. "It's pathetic. Listen to me. Silas Vane is in town. His family owns half of Connecticut. You will meet him for lunch today and fix this disaster."
Amaris felt sick. Silas Vane was a pig, notorious for his treatment of women. Irma didn't care about her happiness; she only cared about the price tag on her daughter's head.
"No," Amaris said. The word felt foreign on her tongue.
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. I'm not a piece of meat you can sell to the highest bidder," Amaris said, her voice trembling but firm. "And it doesn't matter anyway. I got married yesterday."
Dead silence on the line. Then, a sharp, mocking laugh.
"Married? To who? You're damaged goods, Amaris. No one of value would touch you after that spectacle. Who is it? Some broke bartender?"
Amaris's jaw clenched. "Cristian Lowe."
The laughter stopped instantly. But Irma recovered quickly, her tone turning vicious. "You're lying. And even if you weren't, I'll freeze your trust fund by noon. You'll come crawling back when you can't pay your rent."
"Go ahead," Amaris shot back. "Try it."
She hung up, her hand shaking so badly she dropped the phone on the duvet. She took a deep breath, fighting the panic. She wasn't broke. She had the prenup. She had Cristian.
But she needed to move fast. She rushed to the desk and opened her laptop, logging into the Aura Inc. server.
Her blood ran cold. A board meeting notification was flagged. Irma had called an emergency vote for tomorrow. The agenda: diluting Amaris's shares, citing "emotional instability."
She was trying to steal the company. Her father's company.
Amaris grabbed her phone and dialed her assistant, Dawna. "Get me everything on the board members. Find out who Irma paid off. We're going to war."
A knock on the door made her jump. She slammed the laptop shut.
Cristian walked in, carrying a mug of coffee. He wore a simple white t-shirt and grey sweatpants, his hair still damp from the shower. He looked less like a ruthless CEO and more like a model in a domestic ad.
He set the coffee on the desk, his eyes lingering on the closed laptop for a second too long. He didn't ask.
"What's on your schedule today?" he asked, leaning against the wall.
"I'm going to Hoffman Group to resign," Amaris said, her chin lifting. "I need to end things properly."
Cristian's brow furrowed. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he just gave a curt nod. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"No," Amaris said quickly. "This is my mess. I need to clean it up myself."
Cristian studied her face for a long moment. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of car keys. He placed them next to the coffee mug.
"It's the Range Rover in the garage. Armored." He pointed to a small red button on the key fob. "If you're in trouble, hit this. It alerts my security team and tracks your location."
Amaris picked up the keys, her fingers brushing against his. A jolt of electricity shot up her arm. She pulled her hand back, her face flushing.
"Thank you," she mumbled.
Cristian just nodded and left the room. Amaris grabbed her bag and hurried downstairs. She needed to get out of there before the walls started closing in.
She drove out the gates, checking the rearview mirror. Cristian was standing on the front steps, his hands in his pockets, watching her leave. His gaze was heavy, intense, and it followed her all the way down the drive.
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7.6
After an exhausting fourteen-hour flight, Katia returned to her Upper East Side penthouse, expecting the quiet comfort of the life she had built.
Instead, she found a pair of familiar red stilettos in the foyer and her fiancé, Caleb, tangled in their bedsheets with his twenty-two-year-old assistant.
She didn't scream or cry. She simply took off her three-carat engagement ring, threw it at his bare chest, and demanded he buy out her half of the penthouse by Friday.
Seeking to numb the sickening disgust, she got blackout drunk and crashed at a luxury hotel, accidentally stumbling into the wrong suite.
Thinking the imposing man inside was a high-end escort hired by her friend, she threw him over her shoulder and spent a wild night with him.
The next morning, she left five thousand dollars on his nightstand with a lipstick-stained note.
"Good Job."
For six years, she had funded Caleb's dreams and built his startup from the ground up, only to be treated like a lifeless ATM.
With ruthless precision, she spent the next two months systematically bankrupting his company, cutting off his venture capital, and erasing his life's work.
She felt no heartbreak, only a cold, calculating need to cleanse herself of his betrayal.
But when Katia finally returned to corporate headquarters to co-lead a massive merger, she literally crashed into the new Vice President.
Strong arms caught her waist, and the sharp scent of cedarwood and whiskey hit her like a freight train.
"You came back," Jackson whispered, his eyes burning as he stared at the woman who had treated him like a cheap gigolo.
7.2
Four years ago, Madelynn accepted money from Caiden's family and vanished. She thought it was for the best-he would remain the untouchable heir while she faced her tough life alone.
When they met again, Caiden humiliated her in public, yet appeared when she was cornered by a difficult client, pulling her back into his life.
He forced her to stay as his lover, using her mother's medical bills as leverage, whispering, "What you owe me... you'll repay the same way."
Madelynn believed he despised her. Only after the accident, when he ran toward her before the explosion, did she understand-he never let go.
9.2
Averie spent hours preparing a perfect third-anniversary dinner for her billionaire husband, Jarett Sharp.
Instead of celebrating, she received an anonymous photo of him intimately holding another woman.
When Jarett finally arrived, he didn't even look guilty.
"Candida. It's okay. Don't be scared. I'm on my way."
He simply took a call from his mistress, shoved Averie aside, and walked right back out the door.
That same night, Averie's father suffered a massive heart attack.
The hospital demanded a half-million-dollar deposit before they would operate.
But when Averie frantically tried to use the emergency medical trust card Jarett had given her, it was declined.
Jarett had deliberately frozen her access to the funds just hours earlier.
While she begged his assistant on the phone, Jarett refused to be disturbed, busy wrapping his expensive coat around his mistress in the hospital garden.
Averie collapsed in the hallway, realizing the man she loved was deliberately letting her father die.
In the end, a childhood friend stepped in to pay the bill and save her father's life, while her billionaire husband later pinned her to their bed, throwing a check at her and reminding her he had bought her for three million dollars.
Averie didn't shed a single tear.
She slowly ripped his check into pieces, left her massive diamond ring on the dresser, and walked out into the cold New York night with nothing but her old suitcase.
She pulled out her phone and dialed her old ballet professor.
She wasn't just going to leave Jarett Sharp. She was going to destroy him.
8.7
For three years, I played the perfect, submissive housewife to billionaire Julian Harrison.
But right after an intimate night together, he coldly threw a divorce agreement onto the bed.
"Scarlett landed an hour ago. I need my single status restored to welcome her back."
That same night, I ended up in the emergency room and discovered I was pregnant with twins.
When Julian found out, he didn't show a shred of joy. Instead, he stormed into my hospital room, threw a blank check directly at my face, and ordered me to get rid of them.
He accused me of using the babies as a sick game to trap his assets.
Then, his ruthless lawyer kicked me out of our penthouse, confiscating the jewelry he gifted me and tossing my worn-out notebook onto the floor like garbage.
Standing in the freezing rain, my heart completely died.
I had swallowed my pride, managed his life, and cooked his meals to his exact standards for three years, only to be thrown away the second his first love returned.
But he didn't know that the notebook his lawyer discarded contained the secret formulas of Aura Beauty, a billion-dollar empire I built in the shadows.
I tore his check into pieces, blocked his number, and left in a Maybach sent by my associate.
Logging into my global CEO database, I looked at his company's fragile stock chart with a predatory smile.
The docile Mrs. Harrison died in the rain. It was time to crush his empire.
9.1
What would a woman do if one day she is waiting for her husband to tell him the news of her pregnancy but he comes home with another woman who is pregnant with his child?
........
Ariadne had a perfect life until her mother died in a car accident and her father remarried, bringing a stepmother and stepsister into her life. Once adored by all, Ariadne became an eyesore to everyone, including her father. Her stepmother and stepsister took everything from her.
However, she lost it when their eyes fell on Xander, the sole heir of the richest family in the country and her childhood love. When rumors of Crystal, her step sister and Xander's dating spread, Ariadne used her everything to force Xander into marrying her.
Despite pouring her heart and soul into the marriage Ariadne failed to make Xander reciprocate her feelings. Their loveless marriage came to an end when Crystal returned in their lives.
With a broken heart, Ariadne left the city with a secret and rebuild her life.
Five years later, she returned as a successful interior designer to design her ex-husband's new mansion. But this time, what she saw in Xander's eyes for herself was not hatred. It was something else.
She came face to face with the same people who had wronged her in the past. They still held resentment towards her. But this time Ariadne vowed to strike back at her bullies.
Many secrets were revealed in the process that made Xander regret his past actions. He determined to win Ariadne back.
BUT Will Ariadne be able to forget their past and get back together with Xander or She will choose someone else?
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.