Married to the Coldest Media King
My father was the King of Wall Street until he was branded a fraud, turning the Maxwell name into a lead weight dragging me to the bottom of the Hudson. I walked into the Brennan Media Tower with blood-red lipstick and a desperate proposal, offering myself as a "paper wife" to Garland Brennan, the coldest billionaire in Manhattan.
Garland didn’t even look at me as a human being; he tore my term sheet in half and called me "radioactive" before having security toss me out like trash. I returned to my rotting apartment in Bushwick only to find my roommate’s cousin, a debt collector named Jax, waiting to break my bones.
He pinned me against the wall, his hand heavy on my throat as he sneered about selling me to a club to pay off my father's debts. With my ribs aching and my back against the radiator, I had to leak corporate secrets on Twitter just to summon Garland’s private mercenaries to stop a predator.
The humiliation didn't stop there. At the Met Gala, the elite mocked my dress made of construction tarp, and my father’s creditors began harassing my senile grandmother in her nursing home. I was a cornered animal, and Garland Brennan was the only hunter offering a cage instead of a grave.
I realized then that in this zip code, you are either the predator or the prey, and I was tired of being hunted.
Garland offered me a marriage contract that demanded total submission—no equity, no voting rights, just an employee with a wedding ring. I signed the four-hundred-page document with a steady hand, but not before hiding a legal poison pill in the fine print. He thinks he bought a silent asset, but I just secured a front-row seat to his downfall.
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Chapter 5
The safe house was a penthouse on the Upper East Side, overlooking the river. It was sterile, white, and silent.
Dylan woke up in a bed with sheets that felt like spun clouds. For a moment, she forgot. Then the pain in her cheek throbbed, bringing it all back.
She walked into the living room. Carter was there, standing by the window like a statue. He pointed to a table where a new iPhone sat next to an ice pack.
Your new number, he said. It is encrypted.
Thank you, Dylan said. She picked up the ice pack and held it to her face. Where is Garland?
Mr. Brennan is busy, Carter replied automatically.
Dylan scoffed. Busy. Right.
Her phone rang. It was a number she recognized-the nursing home where her grandmother, Rose, lived.
Miss Maxwell? The nurse's voice was panicked. You need to come. There are men here. They are shouting at Mrs. Maxwell.
Dylan's blood ran cold. I'm coming.
She looked at Carter. I have to go. Now.
Carter frowned. You are advised to rest.
My grandmother is in trouble. If you try to stop me, I will jump out this window.
Carter sighed. I will drive you.
The ride was tense. When they arrived at the assisted living facility, Dylan didn't wait for Carter to open the door. She sprinted into the lobby.
She heard the shouting from the solarium.
Gordon Vance, one of her father's biggest creditors, was standing over Grandma Rose's wheelchair. He was a vulture of a man, balding and sweaty.
Sign the release, Rose! Vance yelled. That ring on your finger is bought with stolen money!
Grandma Rose, confused and frail, clutched her left hand to her chest. No, she whimpered. It's my wedding ring.
Dylan burst into the room. Get away from her!
She shoved Vance. It was a pathetic shove, given her size, but her fury gave it weight. Vance stumbled back.
Well, look who it is, Vance sneered. The little thief. I should sue you too.
You are harassing a senile woman, Dylan spat. Get out.
I'm taking the ring, Vance said, reaching for Rose's hand again. And I'm freezing her trust fund tomorrow.
Rose looked up, her eyes suddenly clearing. Dylan, she whispered. She pressed something into Dylan's palm. A small, cold key.
Dylan closed her fist around it.
Vance stepped closer, his face red. You Maxwells are finished. You are garbage.
Dylan looked around the room. In the corner, a TV was playing CNBC. The headline scrolled across the bottom: BRENNAN GROUP ACQUIRES TECH GIANT.
An idea, reckless and desperate, formed in her mind.
She saw Carter standing at the entrance of the solarium. He was watching, his arms crossed, his face unreadable.
Vance saw him too. He recognized the suit. He recognized the pin on the lapel. Brennan Security.
Vance's eyes darted from Carter to Dylan.
Dylan straightened her back. She channeled every ounce of arrogance she had learned in boarding school.
"You really want to do this, Gordon?" she asked, her voice dropping an octave. "My... situation is currently under review by Brennan Capital's legal department. Mr. Carter here is handling the asset assessment. This ring, as part of the Maxwell estate, is now a component of that assessment. Your actions constitute interference with a pending corporate merger."
Vance blinked. What?
"My father's debt is being restructured," Dylan lied, her heart pounding so hard she thought it would burst. "Brennan Capital has taken over the portfolio. They are auditing everything. Including the provenance of every asset. If you touch her, you aren't stealing from me. You are stealing from Garland Brennan. Do you want to explain that to his lawyers?"
Vance looked at Carter. Carter didn't move. He didn't speak. But he slowly, deliberately, raised an eyebrow.
The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.
Vance swallowed hard. He wiped sweat from his forehead.
I... I didn't know, he stammered. I thought...
You thought wrong, Dylan snapped. Leave. Before I call Mr. Brennan.
Vance grabbed his briefcase. This isn't over, he muttered, but he retreated, practically running out of the room.
Dylan watched him go. Her knees gave out, and she grabbed the back of the wheelchair to steady herself.
Grandma Rose patted her hand. Good girl, she murmured. Just like your grandfather.
Dylan looked at Carter. He was walking toward her.
She braced herself for the scolding. For him to call Garland and tell him she was a liar.
Carter stopped in front of her. He looked at the door where Vance had fled.
That was... creative, Carter said.
Dylan let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Please don't tell him.
Carter adjusted his cuffs. Mr. Brennan hates being used, Miss Maxwell. But he hates losing assets even more.
He offered her his arm. Let's get your grandmother settled.
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8.9
I was tossed into a dark alley like rotting garbage, bleeding and grieving the child I had just lost.
When I was finally brought back to my fiancé Angelo's penthouse, instead of comfort, I was met with absolute disgust.
His family declared me "unclean" after the kidnapping. Angelo coldly announced he was burying the scandal by marrying my sweet, innocent cousin, Carissa.
When we were alone, Carissa stood over my bed, her voice dripping with venomous delight.
"My father arranged the kidnapping. And now, Angelo and I can finally be together."
Before I could react, she forced a silver letter opener into my hand, deliberately stabbed her own shoulder, and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Angelo stormed in, struck me across the face, and gathered a sobbing Carissa into his arms, looking at me with absolute revulsion.
The family matriarch appeared at the door, her cold eyes sweeping over the scene before she gave a chilling order to the maids.
"Clean this up."
They pinned me down and brutally drove the blade directly into my chest.
I choked on my own blood, staring at the man who had promised me the world as he turned his back, calling my murder a "mercy."
As my heart beat its final agonizing rhythm, I made a silent vow to the shadows that if there was a next life, I would have my vendetta.
When I opened my eyes again, there was no blood, only the soft silk of my nightgown.
I had returned to the day before my eighteenth birthday.
This time, I wouldn't play the desperate victim. I was going to ally with the Devil of Chicago and burn them all to the ground.
8.9
I sold myself into a loveless marriage for $500,000 just to afford my little niece's life-saving surgery.
But my new husband, Kash, despised me, completely convinced I was a shameless gold-digger after his assets.
At 2:00 AM, he called to demand I fulfill my end of our twisted bargain: giving him an heir.
He forced me to sign a supplementary agreement surrendering all custody rights before I was even pregnant, treating me like a rented womb he bought at auction.
When my niece's condition suddenly worsened and I desperately begged him for a $50,000 advance, he hurled a black credit card directly at my face, leaving a stinging red welt.
"Take the money and get out," he sneered, his eyes filled with absolute disgust.
He immediately set up real-time transaction alerts to track my every purchase, waiting to catch me on a selfish shopping spree.
He thought I was a parasite, completely unaware that every single penny went straight to the pediatric intensive care unit.
Even my abusive former guardians cornered me at the fertility clinic, loudly mocking me for selling my body while my niece was dying.
I endured the degrading contracts, the cold IVF appointments, and Kash's relentless contempt, suffocating under the weight of his cruel assumptions.
Why did he have to strip away my dignity when he already owned my life on paper?
But as I clutched the hospital receipt that finally secured my niece's surgery, the fear inside me died.
With a new career starting tomorrow and a high-powered lawyer suddenly stepping in to audit my stolen inheritance, I was done playing the helpless victim.
I was going to show my arrogant husband exactly what happens when you push a desperate woman too far.
9.3
For three years, Evelyn Harper was the perfect invisible wife, brilliant architect who anonymously poured revolutionary designs into her cold CEO husband Alexander Knight's company, building his billion-dollar empire while being dismissed as useless by him and his family.
When he hands her divorce papers expecting tears, she signs with a calm smile and walks away taking back her genius.
What Alexander never knew: every award-winning project, every stock surge, every headline praising his vision was hers.
Now, as Elara Voss, Evelyn returns stronger than ever surrounded by powerful men who truly see her, winning landmark contracts, and watching rivals tremble at her name.
Alexander wakes to regret too late: his crumbling empire, the secret twins he never knew existed, the woman he lost.
He begs for forgiveness, offers everything to start over, even kneels publicly in humiliation.
But Evelyn demands justice: full credit, billions in royalties, and control.
As old enemies scheme violently out of jealousy and his world falls, Alexander fights to prove change, while Evelyn builds an untouchable new empire on her terms.
Co-parenting begins. Old sparks flicker. Forgiveness debates rage in her heart.
Will she allow slow reconciliation for their brilliant twins?
Or close the door forever on the man who once owned her world?
9.4
Ashley gave Nicolas ten years of love and five years of loyalty as his perfect housewife, only to be repaid with betrayal, humiliation, and death at the hands of him and his mistress.
After being reborn, she vowed to make them pay.
She tore apart the mistress, kicked her useless husband aside, and returned as the heiress of a top-tier family.
Surrounded by billions, luxury, and a parade of elite bachelors, Ashley became the woman everyone wanted-including a cold, powerful tycoon.
When Nicolas came begging for forgiveness, she smiled coldly. "Fuck off! My man is worth a hundred of you."
7.5
I was tied to a concrete pillar in an abandoned warehouse, the heavy stench of gasoline suffocating me.
Ten steps away, a masked kidnapper slammed a loaded Glock onto a metal barrel and forced my husband, Alvie, to make a sick choice.
"The wife or the mistress. You only get to walk out of here with one."
Alvie didn't even blink.
He walked straight toward the dark corner where his mistress, Gail, was crying. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, shielding her, and guided her toward the exit.
He never looked back. He didn't cast a single glance over his shoulder. To him, I was already a corpse, just trash left on the pavement.
The kidnapper laughed and tossed a lighter onto the soaked concrete floor.
A wall of ghostly blue fire erupted instantly, swallowing me whole. The absolute agony of my skin blistering and melting shattered my sanity.
In my last moments, consumed by the inferno, I couldn't understand how the man I had loved and served so submissively could leave me to burn alive. My heartbreak quickly morphed into a hatred far deeper than the flames.
Then, I violently jerked awake.
I shot up from the bed, gasping for cold air, my hands frantically checking my perfectly smooth, unburned skin.
I looked at the desk clock. I had returned to exactly four years ago, the morning of the annual Gallagher family gathering.
The fragile, naive wife died in that warehouse. This time, I am going to destroy them both.
8.1
I was Asset 7, a "ghost" kept in a high-security facility with no memory and paralyzed vocal cords. My only value was my silence, making me the perfect disposable tool for the world's elite.
Everything changed when I was sold to Culver Lancaster, a media billionaire drugged with a dangerous synthetic aphrodisiac. His staff needed a woman who couldn't talk, couldn't sue, and didn't exist in any official directory.
They scrubbed my skin raw like a piece of meat and threw me into a dark penthouse with a man who had lost his mind to the drug. Culver didn't treat me like a human; he choked me against a door and used my body as a shield against his own madness. When I tried to run, his security hunted me down with dogs, and Culver threw me into a freezing wine cellar. I spent days in total darkness, starving and dehydrated, lapping dirty water off the floor just to stay alive.
I lay on that cold stone, wondering why my life had become a series of cages and scars. I couldn't even scream to let the world know I was dying. How could a man claim to protect me while treating me like a disposable object?
But when Culver finally came to the cellar to feed me, I didn't surrender. I bit him hard enough to draw blood, watching the shock in his eyes as I communicated the only way I could.
Now, I wear the silk uniform and the velvet mask he bought for me, playing the role of his obedient "Shadow." Culver thinks he owns a broken girl he can lock in a velvet panic room, but I'm a weapon who just found her target. Every kiss is a reconnaissance mission, and I'm going to burn his empire to the ground.