Mr. CEO's Darling Shame
A scarred wife. A hidden legacy. A love too costly to deny.
To the world, Adrian Voss is untouchable-cold, ruthless, and devastatingly powerful. The billionaire CEO of Voss Enterprises has everything... except the one thing he hides behind locked doors.
His wife.
Scarred and scorned, Ava Voss lives in the shadows of her marriage. To society, she doesn't exist. To Adrian's glamorous mistress, Selene Monroe, she's nothing but an obstacle waiting to be erased. And to Adrian's cruel family, she's a curse.
But Ava carries two secrets no one expects-
One that ties Adrian's fragile empire to her name.
And another growing inside her that will change everything.
When betrayal rips her from Adrian's house, Ava vanishes into silence-until the night she returns. Stronger. Radiant. Revealed as the hidden heiress of Sinclair Global, the very empire Adrian is desperate to claim.
Now the man who once denied her will have to fight for her. For her heart. For their child. And for the love he was too proud to show.
She was meant to be his shame.
Instead, she will be his reckoning.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 6
AVA'S POV
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Margaret Voss's voice cracked through the silence like a whip. Her eyes narrowed on me, her lips curling into the kind of smirk that made my skin crawl. "Sign the papers and stop wasting everyone's time."
I stared down at the divorce documents in my hands, my chest tightening until it was hard to breathe. My hand shook as I clutched the pen, but I couldn't bring myself to move it. "Divorce Agreement". The word blurred on the page. My throat ached.
"I won't sign." My voice shook, but it came out steadier than I expected.
Her smirk vanished, replaced with a sneer. "Ungrateful little-"
"I-If Adrian wants me gone..." I swallowed hard, my voice unsteady but firm, "...then let him tell me himself."
I should have known better than to defy Margaret Voss. But when she shoved those divorce papers at me, my hands trembled and my chest tightened, and something inside me screamed-"don't sign".
My heart twisted, but I held my ground. "No."
Her hand slammed the table, rattling the porcelain teacup she'd been sipping from. "You ungrateful wretch!"
"Adrian doesn't want you. Stop dragging him down with your filth. Do us all a favor and disappear." she sneered, her eyes burning into me.
Marissa, lounging on the couch with her phone in hand, perked up like a vulture catching the scent of a dying animal. "Wait, Ava, do you think you actually have a choice? Mama, she thinks she has a choice."
Margaret's face twisted. "You don't want to sign? Fine. We'll help you."
Her face went red with fury. "Hold her, Marissa."
She lunged at me. Before I could react, Marissa grabbed my arms from behind, pinning me as Margaret forced the pen into my hand. My body shook with fear, but I twisted violently, sending the papers scattering to the floor.
"Stop it!" I gasped, breaking free for a second and fumbling for my phone on the counter. My fingers barely brushed the dail button beside Adrian's name on the screen when-
SMACK.
Marissa's palm cracked across my cheek, sending the phone clattering to the tiles. Pain radiated through my jaw as she snarled, "You stupid cow. Always ruining everything!" her voice shrill with rage.
I dove for the phone. My heart pounded with one thought: Call Adrian. He'll stop them.
Will he though?
I pushed back the negative thought.
He has to.
Marissa's shadow loomed above me. The glint of metal caught my eye. A kitchen knife.
"Try that again," she hissed, the blade hovering. "Go ahead. Touch it. I dare you."
Terror shot through me, cold and paralyzing.
"Marissa, what are you doing? Please stop." she stalked closer and panic seized my throat. I had to act fast.
"Marissa, please. You don't understand-"
I attempted to distract her as I lunged for the phone.
And then I felt it.
White-hot pain exploded through my stomach.
I gasped, the air ripped from my lungs as the blade tore into me. My hands instinctively flew to my abdomen-my baby. Oh God, my baby.
A scream tore from my throat, raw and broken, as Marissa staggered back, eyes wide with shock at what she'd done. Blood pooled beneath me, warm and spreading, soaking into the tiles.
"Mama..." Marissa's voice cracked, high and panicked. "I-I didn't mean-"
Margaret's eyes bulged. She grabbed her daughter by the arm. "Idiot! What have you done?"
"She moved, I swear-"
"Shut up!" Margaret hissed, her gaze flicking to me crumpled on the floor. I pressed my hands harder against the wound, feeling life slip through my fingers with every drop of blood. Panic clawed at me. Not my baby. Please, God, not my baby.
I barely registered their voices, muffled by the rush of blood in my ears.
"What do we do?" Marissa whispered, trembling.
Margaret's lips thinned. "We can't let Adrian find her like this. He'll think we did it."
"We did do it!"
"Then we'll make it look like she ran off. L-like she abandoned him for good."
No
I wanted to scream. Did they really despise me that much? Couldn't they see that I was still here? still fighting.
Help me. But the world was tilting, spinning.
"Get some sheets," Margaret barked.
But Marissa remained standing, ramrod and frozen with fear. "Marissa!" Her mother's voice cut through the air, snapping her out of her daze
"U-uh sheets? What sheets? Sheets for what?" She stuttered out and Margaret gave her an impatient look.
"What do you mean what for? We'll wrap her body and dump her somewhere far." Margaret looked like she was loosing her mind.
Marissa whimpered. "B-body? But she's still breathing-"
"Then hurry before she isn't!"
They left the room in a frenzy, their footsteps pounding up the stairs.
My chest heaved, my breath shallow. I reached blindly, blood-slick fingers scraping against the tiles until I found my phone. My vision blurred, but I pressed it to life, scrolling shakily through recent calls until I found his name.
Adrian.
With trembling fingers, I hit dial.
The ringing filled my ear like a lifeline. Once. Twice. Three times.
Then-click.
"What?" His voice snapped through the speaker, sharp and impatient.
Relief and despair collided in me. My lips trembled as I whispered, "A-Adrian... help me... please..."
Silence. A beat of confusion. "Ava?" His tone sharpened, laced with something I wanted to believe was alarm. "What's going on?"
My throat tightened, tears streaming down my face. "I-blood-Adrian, I'm scared-our baby-"
But before I could finish, his sigh cut me off. Cold. Detached.
"Stop it, Ava. Stop this pathetic act. Haven't you humiliated me enough? Do you want to destroy my career completely? Throw your tantrums somewhere else."
"No, Adrian, I-I'm not-"
Click.
The line went dead.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe. The stab wound burned, the blood loss dizzying, but nothing hurt as much as the sharp crack that split my heart at his dismissal.
He didn't believe me.
Adrian didn't know it but, his dismissal hurt worse than the hole in my stomach.
I let the phone slip from my hand, my body trembling violently as darkness closed in around me. My palm still pressed weakly against my stomach.
"I'm so sorry, baby," I whispered, voice fading into a sob. "I'm so s-sorry...."
And then, the world went black.
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
7.9
I woke up in a sterile hospital room, my head split open from a horrific car crash.
But the pain in my skull was nothing compared to the memory burned into my retinas just before the impact: my billionaire husband, Dawson, walking into a luxury hotel with a woman who looked exactly like his dead first love.
When Dawson finally arrived at the ward, there was no panic or relief in his eyes. He just coldly looked at my bloody bandages.
"Your reckless driving just forced me to postpone the quarterly board meeting."
Even our seven-year-old son, who I almost died giving birth to, didn't spare me a single glance. He kicked my hospital bed in annoyance.
"The Wi-Fi here is garbage. You're a bad mom! Dad said Aunt Angelita should be the one living with us!"
My blood turned to ice. For five years, I had bent over backward, wearing the hideous pale dresses he picked, starving myself to maintain a fragile figure, all to be a perfect, obedient substitute for a ghost.
And this was what I got. An unfaithful husband who would rather bury me in debt than grant me a divorce, and a son who wished I was dead.
The weak, subservient Charlene died on that wet asphalt.
When the doctor pointed to Dawson and asked for his name, I looked at my husband with a hollow, defensive stare.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
Using retrograde amnesia as my shield, I was going to tear their perfect world apart.
7.8
Amara Daniels doesn't believe in destiny or happy endings; having survived from the dark shadows of her past, her life no longer has room for mistakes or attractive billionaires like Ethan Cole.
Ethan enters her life with his charming persistence, and she becomes worried after he meets her four-year-old son, her past that she has carefully buried.
He is her dangerous distraction.
But their chemistry conceals shocking secrets and connecting fates - that might either bring them together or set them apart forever. In a game where hearts and careers collide, can she have it all or will passion cost her everything?
9.5
Bridget left the office early on her anniversary, her pocket heavy with a custom velvet ring box meant for her fiancé.
But when she pushed open the bedroom door, she found him tangled in their bed with her best friend, Chloe.
"Bridget! Wait, it's not what it looks like!" Jacob stammered, his eyes wide with panic.
"Evidence," Bridget stated coldly, snapping a photo of their naked bodies before fleeing into the freezing New York night.
Desperate to numb the betrayal, she got blackout drunk at an underground lounge and threw herself at a dark, terrifyingly handsome stranger.
She woke up in a penthouse suite alone, finding only a limitless black credit card left on the nightstand.
Humiliated and feeling like a cheap escort, she ran away, swearing to forget the nightmare.
But the nightmare had just begun. When she rushed into the office, she discovered the stranger was Jevon Rocha—the ruthless billionaire CEO of her company.
He didn't fire her. Instead, he trapped her in a twisted, obsessive power game, forcing her into his private life and demanding she report to his penthouse.
Bridget couldn't understand why a ruthless billionaire was so dangerously fixated on a low-level employee.
Until she stumbled upon his secret social media account and saw a crayon drawing of a little kid, captioned with a single word: "Finally."
A wave of absolute horror washed over her. He wasn't just playing games; he was hiding a secret child and a messy, high-stakes family drama.
She refused to be the naive collateral damage in a billionaire's twisted life.
Trembling, Bridget hit "Block" on his profile, determined to escape his dangerous web.
8.0
Elena Ramirez has spent years cleaning up other people's messes-balancing a demanding analyst job by day and side hustles at night to pay off a mountain of family debt. Love was never on her agenda.
Then Adrian Harrington, the city's most feared billionaire, makes an offer she can't ignore: pose as his girlfriend to steady his company during a vicious boardroom power struggle. Six months. One contract. No feelings.
It should be easy.
But each public appearance, each staged kiss, pulls them closer than either planned. The arrangement ignites a firestorm-Adrian's jealous ex fakes a pregnancy, a hacker leaks private photos, a friend betrays them, and even his own family schemes against them. The gossip columns call her a gold digger; rivals call for Adrian's head.
Somewhere between whispered confessions and desperate damage control, the line between pretend and real disappears. Now Adrian must choose between the empire he built and the woman he never meant to love, while Elena risks everything-career, reputation, and heart-for a man who was supposed to be temporary.
Falling in Pretend delivers a high-stakes contemporary romance bursting with slow-burn chemistry, ruthless betrayals, and twists that will leave readers breathless.
7.2
Ade had sacrificed the life she loved, the things she liked doing to please James. But it was never enough for him. Somehow, the one woman he just couldn't get, was the price, she was the gem.
And so once the opportunity presented itself, Ade became a past chapter of his life. A reject.
Betrayed and scorned, Ade is on a quest to reclaim her life back and face off adversaries.
But now what is she to do with the two men in front of her. One of them her ex James who can't seem to forget her and keeps stepping in her way, and the other, a billionaire who wants her at all costs.
8.7
Introduction
Emily is the adopted daughter of a billionaire family. They adopted her after the loss of their own daughter in a bid to comfort themselves.
However, when she was twenty one, the original daughter of her adopted parents came back and after the DNA tests proved that she was their child, their joy knew no bounds as they began to celebrate her.
Emily's fiance, Louis acted as a source of comfort to her around this time because her parents neglected her, providing their attention to their daughter instead.
They were set to get married in two months but that was until she saw a post on a blog, stating that her sister and her fiance Louis, were getting married.
She had an accident and nearly died but none of her family members showed up, leading her to believe that indeed they had lost all touch of love for her.
She gets home to find a piece of condom in the trashcan, suggesting that her fiance has been busy while she was in the hospital. She confronted him, telling him if what she saw on the blogs were true and he finally admitted to it, saying he loved her sister more than her and he would be getting married to her.