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 5
The Hoffman Group tower loomed over Midtown Manhattan, a giant pillar of glass and steel. Amaris parked the Range Rover on the street and walked through the revolving doors.
The lobby fell silent. The receptionist's eyes widened, a mix of shock and disgust on her face. Amaris ignored her and got into the elevator.
On the 40th floor, the whispers started immediately.
"She actually showed her face..."
"I heard he left her standing there like an idiot..."
"Jalyn is so much prettier anyway..."
Amaris kept her spine straight, her eyes fixed forward. She wouldn't let them see her bleed.
She stepped off the elevator and nearly collided with Perry, Elijah's assistant. The man looked down his nose at her, a sneer twisting his lips.
"He's busy," Perry said, blocking the hallway. "He doesn't have time for your hysterics, Amaris. Go home."
Amaris didn't slow down. She reached into her purse, pulled out the envelope she had written at dawn, and slammed it against Perry's chest.
"Then he doesn't have to see me. That's my resignation. Effective immediately. Tell him to lose my number."
Perry stumbled back, catching the envelope. Amaris walked past him toward her old office.
The door was open. The room was bare.
Her desk was cleared. Her bookshelves were empty. Three cardboard boxes sat on the floor, haphazardly stuffed with her personal items-frames, pens, a dead orchid. They hadn't even packed them properly.
Elijah had erased her completely. Not a single trace of her two years of work remained.
Amaris felt a strange sense of relief wash over her. It was a clean break. No lingering ties. She picked up the boxes, stacking them in her arms.
She took two steps toward the door before the pain hit.
It started as a dull ache in her lower belly, but within seconds, it exploded into a white-hot inferno. It felt like a hand was inside her stomach, twisting her intestines into knots.
Amaris gasped, the boxes slipping from her fingers. They hit the floor with a thud, scattering pens and papers everywhere.
She doubled over, clutching her stomach. Sweat broke out across her forehead, soaking through her blouse. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't stand.
Two coworkers walked by the open door. They glanced at her, crumpled on the floor, then at each other. They quickly looked away and walked faster, their heels clicking hurriedly down the hall.
The pain spiked, a red haze covering her vision. Her knees gave out completely. She hit the carpet, curling into a ball, a low groan escaping her lips.
She was going to die here, on the floor of the office of the man who threw her away.
Suddenly, the world shifted. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her off the floor with effortless strength.
The scent hit her first-cedar and cold air, with a faint hint of antiseptic. It was a smell she was beginning to recognize, one that cut through the chaos.
"Amaris!" Cristian's voice was rough, stripped of its usual cool control. He sounded terrified.
She forced her eyes open. His face was inches from hers, his features tight with panic. The icy mask was gone, shattered by raw fear.
He held her against his chest, his grip bruisingly tight. He turned and strode out of the office.
Perry stepped out into the hall, his face pale. "Mr. Lowe, this is Hoffman property-"
Cristian didn't stop. He didn't even look at the assistant. He just threw a glare over his shoulder that made Perry physically recoil, stumbling backward into the wall.
Cristian carried her into the elevator, kicking the emergency button. The doors slid shut.
"NewYork-Presbyterian, now!" he barked into the security camera.
He sank to the floor, keeping her cradled in his lap. He grabbed her hand, squeezing it so hard it hurt, but the pain in her stomach eclipsed everything else.
He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from her forehead, his movements frantic, uncoordinated. He was murmuring something under his breath, a string of curses mixed with prayers.
Amaris's head lolled against his shoulder. The pain was fading, replaced by a heavy numbness. She could hear his heartbeat, fast and erratic, against her ear.
Just before the darkness pulled her under, she felt a warm hand gently brush the hair from her forehead, the touch lingering for a moment longer than necessary.
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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.