Married To My Ex's Ruthless Uncle
My father was dying in the ICU, and our family company, the Martin Group, was on the verge of total collapse.
While I was desperately trying to sign the consent form for his life-saving surgery, my fiancé, Eston, sent me a text.
"I told you not to be stubborn. The company is mine by Friday. Beg me, and I might pay for the funeral."
He had been secretly looting my family's assets from the inside, waiting for me to break so he could steal everything. He thought I would crawl back to him in absolute despair, surrendering my father's legacy just to survive. The sheer weight of my helplessness crushed my chest as the heart monitor next to my father's bed let out a frantic, high-pitched scream.
The betrayal tore through me, but the despair quickly hardened into a cold, sharp stone.
Why should I let the man who ruined me dance on my family's grave? Why should I let him walk away with everything while I lost the only family I had left?
I wiped away my tears and blocked his number permanently.
Then, I stepped out into the freezing Manhattan rain and went straight to the top floor of the Maxwell building.
I threw my remaining shares onto the desk of Ellwood Maxwell—the apex predator of Wall Street, and Eston's untouchable, ruthless uncle.
"I want you to marry me," Ellwood said, pushing a marriage contract toward me. "That is the only way your company survives."
I picked up the pen. If Eston wanted to destroy my life, I would become his aunt and make him bow.
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Chapter 8
The heavy metal door of the stairwell slammed shut, echoing loudly in the concrete shaft. The air was cold and smelled of dust.
Edythe pinned Audriana against the wall, her fingers digging into her daughter's arms. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the diamond ring.
"You broke off your engagement with Eston two days ago," Edythe's voice trembled, rising in pitch. "And now you are married to his uncle? Ellwood Maxwell? Are you out of your mind?"
Audriana looked down at the disposable hospital slippers on her feet. "We fell in love, Mom. It was sudden."
"Don't lie to me!" Edythe screamed, shaking her. "Ellwood Maxwell doesn't fall in love! He destroys companies for a living! Did you sell yourself to him? Did you do this to pay for the surgery?"
The word sell hit Audriana like a physical blow to the stomach. Her throat closed up. The tears she had been holding back spilled over her eyelashes. She didn't say a word, but her silence was a screaming confession.
Edythe gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Her legs gave out, and she slid down the wall, bursting into loud, agonizing sobs. "Oh my god. My baby. I did this to you. We ruined your life."
Audriana dropped to her knees. She wrapped her arms around her mother, hugging her tightly. "No, Mom, don't say that. He's not a monster. He's been good to me. He protected me from Eston."
She stroked her mother's hair, forcing a calm tone into her voice. "It's just a business arrangement. We help each other. In a few years, we'll quietly divorce. It's fine."
Edythe looked up, her face streaked with tears. She touched Audriana's cheek, her heart breaking at the sight of her daughter's forced bravery.
The stairwell door creaked open. Ellwood's assistant stood there, looking uncomfortable. "Excuse me. Mr. Martin has been moved to the VIP suite."
Audriana helped her mother up. They wiped their faces and walked out.
The VIP suite looked like a five-star hotel room. Harper was lying in the center bed, an oxygen mask over his face, his chest rising and falling in a steady, peaceful rhythm.
Ellwood was standing by the window, talking to the head nurse in a low, authoritative voice, ensuring every detail of the post-op care was perfect.
Edythe watched him. The hostility in her eyes faded, replaced by a complex, heavy gratitude.
Ellwood turned around. He noticed the red rims around both women's eyes, but his expression remained perfectly neutral. He walked over to the bedside and poured a glass of warm water from a glass pitcher, handing it to Edythe.
"His recovery will take time," Ellwood said, his voice deep and reassuring. "I have arranged for round-the-clock private nurses. You do not need to worry about anything."
Edythe took the glass. Her hands shook. She bowed her head deeply. "Thank you for saving my husband. And… please, be kind to my daughter."
Ellwood reached out and gently pushed Edythe's shoulder up, stopping her from bowing. He looked directly into her eyes. "Audriana is my wife. I take care of what is mine."
The possessive weight of his words made Audriana's heart skip a beat. Her stomach fluttered.
Ellwood checked his heavy silver watch. "I have a board meeting. I must go."
Audriana walked him to the elevator bank. The hallway was empty. She looked up at his tired face, noticing the faint dark circles under his eyes. "Thank you. For everything."
Ellwood pressed the elevator button. He looked down at her. "Words are cheap, Audriana. I want to see a return on my investment. The Martin Group is bleeding out. Eston's rats are still inside your company."
Audriana's posture straightened. The soft, vulnerable girl vanished, replaced by a cold determination. "I know."
The elevator doors chimed open. Ellwood stepped inside. Just as the doors began to close, he reached out. His large hand rested on the top of her head. He gently rubbed her hair, a surprisingly tender gesture that sent a shockwave of heat straight to her toes.
"Don't work too late," he murmured.
The doors slid shut.
Audriana stood there, her hand slowly reaching up to touch her hair. Her skin felt like it was on fire. She turned around, her eyes hardening. It was time to go to war.
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8.6
In my past life, the Cerberus strain leaked, turning the world into a blood-soaked hell of rotting flesh and mutated monsters.
I thought my boyfriend Declan and my best friend Hailee would have my back as we fled the quarantine zone.
Instead, when the surging crowd of the infected cornered us, they didn't hesitate.
They shoved me backward into the horde just to buy themselves three seconds to run.
As I fell into the mud, I saw them fleeing without a single backward glance.
"She's dead weight anyway!" Hailee screamed.
"Just keep running, she'll distract them!" Declan yelled back.
I was torn apart, feeling the agonizing tear of rotting teeth sinking into my neck and the hot spray of my own blood.
Before the apocalypse, my greedy uncle had locked away my ten-million-dollar trust fund, leaving me with nothing but a fake boyfriend who only wanted me for my money.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand how the people I loved most could trade my life for a head start.
Why did I blindly trust them? Why didn't I see through their perfectly choreographed lies?
Opening my eyes again, the stench of decaying flesh vanished, replaced by the sterile smell of my college dorm room.
Hailee and Declan were standing over my bed, faking tears of concern over my meningitis fever.
I was back exactly seven days before the world ended, and my spatial vault ability had come back with me.
This time, I'm extorting my uncle for every cent, hoarding the city's supplies, and leaving them all to rot.
9.3
She sells flowers. He spills blood. And he will stop at nothing to make her his. Elena Rossi has always lived quietly among roses and lilies, dreaming of love as gentle as the petals she arranges. She thought she found it in Daniel, the man she planned to marry. Until her wedding day when a dangerous stranger walked into the church and shattered everything. Adrian Volkov is a king in the underworld, a man feared for his ruthlessness and power. But to him, Elena is not just a prize. She is an obsession. A storm he cannot live without. And he will burn the world and anyone in it, to claim her. Torn from the life she knew, Elena resists him, manipulates him, and even runs from him. But Adrian is relentless. His love is dark, his touch both punishing and tender, and his obsession inescapable. When betrayal and bloodshed close in, Elena must face the truth: She doesn't just fear him. She doesn't just hate him. She loves him. Petals and Blood is a haunting, passionate tale of obsession, betrayal, and the dangerous kind of love that blooms in shadows.
9.2
She loved him until she lost herself.
Now, behind locked doors and shattered glass, she must learn to breathe again.
When she first met Lloyd, he was magnetic and intoxicating. The kind of man who turned every head when he entered a room, who spoke in promises sweet enough to taste. With him, she felt chosen, cherished, and safe.
But safety was an illusion, and love became a weapon.
And slowly, piece by piece, he dismantled her until nothing of the woman she once was remained.
Now institutionalized after a breakdown, she begins to piece together the brutal truth of what really happened in the shadows of their love story. Memories sting like open wounds: the manipulation disguised as tenderness, the apologies that blurred into threats, the desperate hope that tomorrow he'd be the man she fell for again.
Yet beneath the grief and the shame, a quiet rebellion stirs, a vow to reclaim her voice, her freedom, and her life. Because this is not just a story of how she fell apart. It is a story of how she rises.
Haunting, raw, and achingly intimate, Boys like him peels back the glittering mask of a toxic love affair to reveal the kind of darkness that hides in plain sight, and the unbreakable strength it takes to escape it.
8.7
For seven years, I was Alpha Zane’s Chosen Mate, suppressing my warrior instincts to be the docile, supportive partner he demanded.
On our seventh anniversary, while I waited by a candlelit table, I accidentally overheard his mind-link with another woman.
"Seven years is a habit, my dear, not love. She's docile, she'll understand."
He told Seraphina, his new political ally, laughing as he dismissed my entire existence.
I didn't scream or cry. I scraped the anniversary cake into the trash, drafted a formal rejection letter, and walked out of the packhouse.
But Zane didn't even notice my departure. He was so consumed by his new lover that my rejection letter was treated as garbage and tossed into the incinerator.
He paraded Seraphina around the pack, even handing my hard-earned strategic command over to her—a woman who knew absolutely nothing about war.
When my loyal subordinates protested, he violently suppressed them, declaring my absence a "childish tantrum" and framing me as the bitter obstacle to his destined romance.
He honestly thought I was just hiding in my room, waiting to beg for his charity and accept a humiliating demotion.
He had no idea that I had already crossed the border into enemy territory.
Tonight, I am attending his grand celebration.
Not as the heartbroken mate he discarded, but as the newly appointed Gamma of his deadliest rival, the Sterling Pack.
7.4
Clara Davis was trained to seduce, deceive, and destroy.
Her mission is simple: infiltrate billionaire Jeffery Rothwell's life, gain his trust, and help seize his empire in exchange for the freedom she has always craved.
But the deeper she slips into his dangerous world, the more the lines between mission and desire begin to blur. Falling for him was never part of the plan and neither was discovering that the man she was sent to manipulate may not be the real Jeffery at all.
Now trapped in a deadly web of obsession, power, and hidden identities. Clara is caught between the organization that owns her, the monster who remade her, and a love that has turned into vengeance. Clara must survive a man who sees everything, controls everything, and may be far more dangerous than the organization that created her.
Because in this game of seduction and revenge, love might be the deadliest trap of all.
9.5
"You shouldn't be here, Fiona," his deep voice rasped against her ear, his hand still pressed against the wall behind her.
"Then tell me to leave," she whispered, her lips trembling inches from his. He didn't move. He didn't breathe. And in that moment, she knew he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
Fiona Harry has lived her whole life in a golden cage of wealth, reputation, and suffocating rules. University was supposed to be her escape, her first taste of freedom. But nothing could prepare her for the moment she came face-to-face with Professor Jalen Hart, her father's best friend. One reckless night changes everything. A drunken mistake turns into an irresistible obsession, pulling her deeper into Jalen's forbidden world. But secrets don't stay hidden forever. Between Jude, her possessive friend who knows too much, Marian, Jalen's wicked wife, and the dangerous power of desire, Fiona is about to risk not only hers and her family's reputation but her entire future.
And what happens when the truth comes out especially to Marian?