My Empire, My Love, And No Regrets
My father raised seven brilliant orphans to be my potential husbands. For years, I only had eyes for one of them, the cold and distant Damien Paul, believing his distance was a wall I just had to break through.
That belief shattered last night when I found him in the garden, kissing his foster sister, Eve—the fragile girl my family took in at his request, the one I had treated like my own sister.
But the true horror came when I overheard the other six Fellows talking in the library.
They weren't competing for me. They were working together, orchestrating "accidents" and mocking my "stupid, blind" devotion to keep me away from Damien.
Their loyalty wasn't to me, the heiress who held their futures in her hands. It was to Eve.
I wasn't a woman to be won. I was a foolish burden to be managed. The seven men I grew up with, the men who owed my family everything, were a cult, and she was their queen.
This morning, I walked into my father's study to make a decision that would burn their world to the ground. He smiled, asking if I'd finally won Damien over.
"No, Dad," I said, my voice firm. "I'm marrying Hunter Beach."
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Chapter 1
My father raised seven brilliant orphans to be my potential husbands. For years, I only had eyes for one of them, the cold and distant Damien Paul, believing his distance was a wall I just had to break through.
That belief shattered last night when I found him in the garden, kissing his foster sister, Eve—the fragile girl my family took in at his request, the one I had treated like my own sister.
But the true horror came when I overheard the other six Fellows talking in the library.
They weren't competing for me. They were working together, orchestrating "accidents" and mocking my "stupid, blind" devotion to keep me away from Damien.
Their loyalty wasn't to me, the heiress who held their futures in her hands. It was to Eve.
I wasn't a woman to be won. I was a foolish burden to be managed. The seven men I grew up with, the men who owed my family everything, were a cult, and she was their queen.
This morning, I walked into my father's study to make a decision that would burn their world to the ground. He smiled, asking if I'd finally won Damien over.
"No, Dad," I said, my voice firm. "I'm marrying Hunter Beach."
Chapter 1
My name is Elena Barron, and I am the sole heiress to a global logistics empire. For as long as I can remember, my world has revolved around seven young men my father took in. They are the Barron Fellows, underprivileged prodigies my father is grooming. One of them is meant to be my husband and his successor.
For years, my heart only beat for one of them: Damien Paul.
He was the most brilliant, the most talented, and the most distant. I spent my youth chasing after him, a shadow clinging to his light. I baked him cookies he never ate. I waited for him after his classes, but he always walked past me without a word. I told myself his coldness was just his nature, a wall he built because of a dark past.
I believed that if I just tried hard enough, I could break through it.
Last night, that belief shattered.
I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk in the moonlit garden. That's when I saw them, hidden in the shadows of the old oak tree. Damien had Eve McClain, his foster sister, pressed against the trunk. He was kissing her like his life depended on it, a passion I had only ever dreamed of receiving.
Eve, the girl my family had also taken in at Damien's request. The girl everyone saw as sweet and fragile. The girl I had treated like my own sister.
That single moment destroyed everything.
This morning, I walked into my father' s study and made a decision that would change the course of my life.
"Dad, I've decided who I'm going to marry."
My father, Mr. Barron, looked up from his papers, a warm smile on his face. "Have you finally won over Damien? I knew you could do it, sweetheart."
I shook my head, my voice firm. "No. I want to marry Hunter Beach."
My father's smile vanished. He put down his pen and looked at me, his brow furrowed with confusion. "Hunter? The tech mogul from Silicon Valley? Elena, he's not one of the Fellows. What is this about?"
"He loves me, Dad. Truly."
"The Fellows are brilliant. They've been raised alongside you. Javier is a master strategist, Kennith has a fiery passion that could move mountains. Any one of them would be a worthy partner."
I felt a bitter taste in my mouth. "Worthy? Dad, you have no idea."
My mind flashed back to a week ago. I had been searching for my favorite book in the library and overheard voices from the adjoining study. It was the Fellows. All of them except Damien.
Javier Solis, the cunning one, was speaking in a low voice. "We need a new strategy. Elena is becoming more insistent about Damien. She' s not a child anymore."
Kennith Boyle, always hot-tempered, scoffed. "So what? We just keep ignoring her. She' ll get the hint eventually."
"It's not that simple," Javier replied, his voice calm and sharp. "Mr. Barron wants a marriage. If it's not Damien, it will be one of us. And none of us want that. Our loyalty is to Eve."
A cold dread had filled me as I listened, hidden behind a bookshelf.
They talked about how they had orchestrated small "accidents" and "misunderstandings" to make me look foolish or clingy in front of Damien. They even mentioned the time Javier had "saved" me from a falling sculpture in the garden two years ago, an event that had made me see him as a hero.
"That was a good move,Javi," Kennith had said with a laugh. "She looked at you like you were a god for a whole month."
Javier's voice was smug. "It was easy. A little nudge was all it took. The point was to make her feel a debt to someone other than Damien, to complicate things. To make her feel confused."
They laughed. They laughed at me. At my trust, my affection, my "stupid, blind" devotion.
They weren't competing for me. They were working together to avoid me. To keep their little group intact.
The only one they spoke of with any kindness was Hunter Beach, the outsider. They pitied him for wasting his time on me, a girl they saw as a burden.
"At least he's not one of us," Javier had concluded. "He's not part of the family."
Their ultimate goal, the reason for all the deception, was Eve. They saw her as one of their own, a fellow survivor from the harsh world they' d escaped. They were united in protecting her, in ensuring that she, not I, remained the center of their universe.
My hands clenched into fists at my side, my nails digging into my palms as the memory burned through me. I was trembling with a rage so pure it felt like ice in my veins.
My father had found them in orphanages and broken homes, seven brilliant boys with nowhere to go. He gave them the best education, a life of luxury, and a future. When he chose Damien, the boy had made one condition.
"You have to take my foster sister, Eve, too."
I remembered being so moved by his loyalty. I, a naive sixteen-year-old, had begged my father to agree. "Please, Dad! He loves his sister so much! We have to keep them together."
And so, Eve came to the Barron estate.
She was treated like a princess. The Fellows doted on her, buying her gifts, protecting her from any perceived slight, always taking her side. If I ever showed a hint of jealousy, they would look at me with disappointment. "Elena, she's had a hard life. Can't you be more compassionate?"
I would shrink back, filled with guilt, believing I was the petty one.
Now I knew. It was all a lie. They weren't brothers protecting a fragile sister. They were a cult, and she was their queen.
The memory of what I saw last night returned, sharp and painful. After I'd heard them in the study, I'd stumbled out into the garden, my mind reeling. That's when I heard the whispers from the oak tree. That's when I saw the kiss.
I saw every detail. Damien's hands tangled in her hair, Eve's arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
Then I heard her voice, a tearful whisper. "Damien, what if she makes you marry her? I don't want to lose you."
Damien's reply was cold, devoid of the passion I'd just witnessed. "She won't have my heart. Marrying her is just repaying a debt to her father. You're the only one who matters, Eve. You always have been."
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7.4
I single-handedly saved my family's corporate empire from a hostile takeover, securing our market share for the next decade.
But my grandfather didn't see me as a hero. He saw me as a flawed piece of inventory.
To calm the board and fix the reputation I supposedly ruined, he forced me into an arranged marriage, auctioning me off to the highest bidder.
Desperate, I turned to my childhood friend, Egnacio, the only person who ever promised to protect me.
But instead of saving me, he publicly humiliated me. He used my desperation as a networking opportunity, pitching my arranged marriage as a business deal to a ruthless private equity king named Dexter Mathews.
Later that night, I caught Egnacio holding my cruel cousin in his arms.
"What man wants to be with a woman who looks at you like she's planning a hostile takeover?"
Hearing him mock my pain shattered the last bit of hope I had.
I realized I was never family to them. I was just a sharp knife, used to cut down their enemies and then traded for cash before I got dull.
The heartbreak vanished, replaced by a cold, violent rage.
I didn't break, and I didn't run.
Instead, I got into the back of Dexter Mathews's car. He had watched my family tear me apart, but he didn't see a broken pawn. He saw a queen.
And together, we were going to burn their entire empire to the ground.
9.3
They say you can't have it all. I'm about to prove them wrong-or destroy myself trying.
When my struggling mother married billionaire Richard Stone, I thought I was gaining a family. Instead, I found three stepbrothers who became my obsession, my downfall, and my salvation.
Dominic, the eldest, cold and commanding, who kisses me like he's claiming his kingdom and looks at me like I'm the only thing he can't control.
Julian, the charming playboy who hides a vulnerable soul beneath his perfect smile, making me feel like I'm the only woman he's ever truly seen.
Asher, the brooding artist who paints me like I'm his muse and touches me like I'm his masterpiece, seeing parts of my soul I didn't know existed.
They're forbidden. They're dangerous. They're everything I shouldn't want.
But when I discover my father didn't die by suicide that he was murdered by the very man who now calls himself my stepfather, these three powerful men becomes my unlikely allies.
First it was a forbidden attraction, now it's an arrangement that defies every rule.
The rules are simple:
I'll give each of them a chance.
I'll take everything they offer.
And in the end, I'll have to make the hardest decision of my life:
Choose one of them. Choose all of them. Or choose myself.
9.6
To escape my sister-in-law selling me off to a local thug, I married a complete stranger I met at City Hall.
My new husband, Drake, claimed to be a broke Uber driver who could barely make rent.
He even made me sign a brutal ten-page prenup just to ensure I wouldn't take his rusted, beat-up Ford sedan if we ever divorced.
I thought I was just sharing a decaying Brooklyn apartment with a struggling man at the bottom of the ladder.
But things quickly stopped making sense.
When that local thug cornered me at a restaurant, my "weak" husband didn't cower.
Instead, he dismantled three massive mobsters in ten seconds with the terrifying, fluid speed of an apex predator.
"I used to be a human punching bag in an underground boxing gym to pay off debts."
I believed his excuse, until his supposedly homeless grandfather showed up at our door in a moth-eaten sweater, begging to sleep on our lumpy sofa.
Before going to sleep, the old man casually pressed a heavy, intricately engraved pocket watch into my hand as a wedding gift.
He claimed it was a cheap flea market find that didn't even keep time.
But the sheer weight of the solid rose gold and the flawless mechanical gears inside screamed otherwise.
Why did a destitute driver have the aura of a man who controlled empires?
And what kind of homeless old man casually hands over a priceless, museum-grade antique?
I had no idea the "broke driver" sleeping on my floor was actually a ruthless billionaire CEO, and I had just walked straight into his trap.
9.0
Eileen woke up in a trashed hotel room, her head pounding with the pathetic memories of a despised Hollywood actress.
Outside the window, paparazzi were already screaming about her manufactured cheating scandal, but the real nightmare was waiting at her door.
Her paralyzed, billionaire husband, Carlisle Vinson, looked at her with pure disgust while his butler shoved a divorce settlement at her chest.
"Mr. Vinson is offering a severance package of fifty million dollars, provided you sign immediately and vacate the premises."
The original owner had left her an absolute mess.
Her trusted assistant had sold her room number to the press to frame her, and a playboy had scammed her out of her entire two million dollar life savings.
If she signed those papers and lost the Vinson family's protection, the breach of contract fees and her enemies in the industry would swallow her alive in days.
Eileen felt a cold fury override the original owner's lingering panic.
Why should she take the fall and be thrown out on the streets while the parasites who set her up lived out their wealthy fantasies?
She had died once, and she wasn't about to waste her second chance playing the victim.
Eileen slammed the heavy divorce folder shut right against the butler's chest.
"I'm not signing," she said with a terrifying, absolute calm.
She stepped behind her husband's wheelchair, ready to shield him from the cameras, secretly cure his dead legs, and make everyone who betrayed her bleed.
8.2
She was the sacrifice-married off to the city's most ruthless billionaire to save a family that never loved her. But when she discovered his betrayal with her own sister, everything shattered.
Pregnant, penniless, and abandoned, Bella Hart disappeared into the night, vowing never to be powerless again.
Few years later, she returns as the CEO of an international empire, more powerful than anyone imagined possible. Her secret weapon? The little boy with piercing grey eyes who calls her "Mommy, he is the son of the man who destroyed her.
Caleb Black spent years drowning in regret, searching for the wife he threw away. Now she's back, untouchable and unforgiving. He'll do anything to reclaim what he lost his wife, his son, his chance at redemption.
But Bella didn't return to forgive, she returned to conquer.
With enemies circling, old wounds bleeding, and a passion that refuses to die, Bella must decide: Will she let the man who broke her back into her heart? Or will she destroy him the way he once destroyed her? In a world of billion-dollar deals and deadly secrets, love is the most dangerous gamble of all.
9.7
Eleonora held the positive pregnancy test, trembling with fragile hope as she told her husband they were having a baby.
Instead of embracing her, Butler slapped the plastic stick away, his eyes cold and dead.
"You cheating whore," he spat, throwing a stack of papers at her face.
He didn't listen to her desperate pleas. He ordered his bodyguards to drag her out of their penthouse and lock her in a private hospital room.
Trapped and terrified, Eleonora watched in horror as Butler's mistress walked in with a wicked smile.
The mistress shoved a medical consent form, signed with Butler's unmistakable handwriting, right in front of Eleonora's face.
"This isn't just an abortion," the mistress sneered. "It's a full hysterectomy. You'll never have a child again."
Eleonora's heart shattered into pieces. She couldn't understand how the man she loved could be so cruel, willing to kill their unborn baby and mutilate her body over a fabricated lie.
Driven by pure maternal terror, she smeared her blood on the forged papers, set the hospital room on fire, and let the world believe she had burned to ashes.
Five years later, Eleonora returned to New York with her young son.
She was no longer the weak, broken girl who begged for mercy.
Walking into the Holloway Group boardroom in a flawless Dior suit, she slammed a legal document onto Butler's desk.
She was still his legal wife, and she was here to dismantle his empire piece by piece.