No Second Chance For Us
For five years, I was tech billionaire Alden Maxwell' s secret. A pretty accessory on his arm, a deal I made to save my father' s life. I played my part, quietly planning my escape for the day our contract ended.
But then his first love, Amanda, came back.
At a lavish auction, he spent ten million dollars to outbid me for my own mother' s heirloom bangle, only to place it on Amanda' s wrist, calling it a "token of his undying affection."
Later, he told me I was just practice. A "little bird" he could use to learn how to be gentle before he went back to his true love.
That' s when the last of my foolish hope died. I was never a person to him, just a transaction he could buy and discard.
So I disappeared. I took a five-year, off-grid research position and cut all ties. When he finally tracked me down, begging me to name my price, I faced him through the sterile glass of the facility and gave him my final answer.
"We' re done."
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Chapter 4
Hope POV:
The world spun. My blood felt like ice in my veins, my face drained of all color. Ten million. For a jade bangle that was mine, that was my mother' s, that represented everything I had sacrificed. But to Alden, it was just a token, a way to impress Amanda.
"Sold!" the auctioneer' s gavel struck, a deafening sound that sealed my fate. "To Mr. Maxwell, for ten million!"
Amanda, a smug smile plastered on her face, held up the bangle, letting it catch the light. Alden, his eyes filled with a sickening adoration, watched her, completely oblivious to the wreckage he' d created. I heard the whispers around me, sharp and cruel. "The little kept woman tried to bid against Amanda? How foolish." "She really thinks she stands a chance."
My chair felt like it was burning. I pushed myself up, my legs shaky, and walked out of the auction house. Each step was a struggle. I couldn' t breathe. The night sky, a bruised, inky black, mirrored the despair in my heart.
It' s over, Hope. The thought echoed in my mind, stark and final. You can' t win against her. You never could. And frankly, you shouldn' t want to.
My phone vibrated in my hand. It was an unknown number. I hesitated, then answered. "Hello?"
"Miss Gonzales?" A professional, warm voice. "This is Dr. Evans from the NIH. We' ve received your research proposal. It' s highly impressive. We' d like to offer you a position."
A lifeline. A breath of fresh air in the suffocating darkness. My heart, though still aching, fluttered with a fragile hope. "Thank you, Dr. Evans. I accept."
"Excellent! We' re thrilled to have you. We' ll need you to report to the research facility in Jiangcheng within two weeks. It' s a secure, high-clearance project, so you' ll be off-grid for at least five years. No outside contact. Is that amenable?"
"Perfectly." No outside contact. Five years. A clean break. A chance to disappear. I felt a strange calm settle over me. This was it. My escape. My future.
I returned to my dorm, not the opulent prison Alden had provided. I fell onto my narrow bed, exhausted but oddly at peace. I didn' t check my phone. I didn' t want to see any more news about Alden and Amanda. I didn' t want any more reminders of a life that was no longer mine.
The next morning, I woke to the sound of my roommate, Sarah, gasping. "Hope! Oh my god, Hope!" She was clutching her phone, her eyes wide. She tried to hide the screen, but it was too late. The headlines blared, splashed across every news outlet. Tech Billionaire Alden Maxwell Spends Ten Million on Heirloom Bangle for Reunited Love, Amanda Erickson.
The accompanying photo was a punch to the gut. Amanda, radiant and triumphant, wearing my mother' s bangle, smiling up at Alden. And Alden, his gaze full of adoration, his arm possessively around her. I saw it then, clearly. This was how he loved. With a grand, public display of ownership, a relentless pursuit, a devotion that bordered on obsession. A love I would never experience from him.
A bitter, humorless laugh escaped my lips. "It' s fine, Sarah," I said, forcing a smile, pulling my phone from her grasp. "It' s all fine." I had to be strong. For myself. For my future.
I genuinely believed he wouldn' t seek me out again. He had Amanda back, his "true love." He had humiliated me, discarded me. Our arrangement was clearly over.
But a week later, a message from Alden appeared on my phone: Be at the apartment by 8. My heart sank. He still expected me to play my role, even after everything.
I took a taxi to the penthouse, a knot of dread tightening in my stomach. When I arrived, a team of decorators and movers were bustling in and out. They were carrying out furniture, artwork, even the small, whimsical trinkets I' d collected.
I rushed inside, my eyes scanning the familiar space. My little collection of quirky ceramic figurines, gifts from my mother, usually perched on the mantelpiece, was gone. My stomach dropped. "Where are my things?" I asked one of the maids, my voice tight.
The maid, a kind-faced woman who always brought me fresh fruit, looked uncomfortable. "Oh, Miss Gonzales. Mr. Maxwell had everything removed. Miss Erickson found the décor… unappealing. She' s redecorating." She looked away, her voice softening. "I' m so sorry, dear. Even your little dolls… they were thrown out."
Thrown out. My mother' s gifts. My heart fractured, a sharp, ragged pain tearing through me. This wasn' t just about the décor. This was about erasing me, every trace of me, from his life. I remembered how pleased Alden had been when he' d first furnished this place for me, how he' d said it was my home. He' d even brought back one of my mother' s handmade fabric dolls from a trip abroad, a small, thoughtful gesture that had brought tears to my eyes. "With me, Hope, wherever I am, that' s your home," he' d promised, his voice low and comforting. I had believed him. I had clung to that illusion, believing I was finally safe, finally loved.
Now, that illusion lay in shattered pieces around me, just like my ceramic figurines. He had built me a cage, then destroyed it with a single word from another woman. My mother' s doll, a piece of my real home, discarded like trash. The grief was a physical weight, crushing me, stealing my breath.
Alden walked in then, his eyes finding mine. He looked tired, but his expression was unreadable. I couldn' t even force a smile. My face was numb, my heart a frozen block of pain.
He glanced at the empty mantelpiece, then back at me. "Hope," he said, his voice devoid of warmth. "Pack your remaining things. Amanda will be staying here occasionally. I need this space to be… suitable for her tastes." He paused, his gaze hardening. "Unless I call you, don' t return." He dismissed me with a wave of his hand.
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8.9
Adela stood outside the private room, holding the obsidian necklace she had spent three months hand-crafting for her boyfriend.
But through the cracked door, she heard Juston laughing with his friends, calling her a stupid, obedient pawn and her art "garbage."
After she shattered the necklace and walked out into the freezing rain, Juston texted her a far more horrifying truth.
Her own family didn't just hate her-they had actively tried to kill her.
Two years ago, her brother Kayden intentionally slipped deadly shellfish into her food at a gala, sending her into anaphylactic shock.
Worse, her parents had covered up the attempted murder as a simple kitchen mistake, all to protect the family name and elevate her adopted sister, Kara.
Adela collapsed on the wet pavement, suffocating under the weight of the ultimate betrayal.
She had spent her entire life begging for their love, secretly working as the anonymous designer keeping their failing company afloat, only to realize she was nothing but a disposable tool.
She had absolutely no one, and nowhere to go.
Just as the storm threatened to swallow her whole, a sleek black Maybach pulled up to the curb.
Harmon Holland, the ruthless Wall Street billionaire she was originally arranged to marry, stepped out into the rain.
He didn't offer her pity. Instead, he handed her a legal document.
"Marry me, Adela. For one year."
She took the pen. This time, she wouldn't be an obedient pawn; she would be their executioner.
7.4
Tonight was supposed to be Cordelia's grand engagement party, the night she finally secured her future.
But an hour before the banquet, she received an anonymous video. Her fiancé was in the hotel's penthouse, tangled in the sheets with her stepsister. They had even paid off her trusted staff to keep her isolated.
Cordelia didn't shed a single tear. She walked onto the grand stage, hijacked the screens, and broadcasted their betrayal to hundreds of New York's elite. She tore up the multimillion-dollar prenup and threw the pieces in his face.
"The engagement is canceled. My legal team will seize your family's assets by tomorrow morning."
But instead of support, her own father violently grabbed her wrist, furious that she ruined their reputation. Her stepmother tried to slap her for the cameras, and her ex-fiancé threatened to completely destroy her career. Surrounded by the people who were supposed to be her family, she was treated like the villain.
Just as she was cornered, Justice Duncan, the most ruthless billionaire on Wall Street, stepped out of the shadows.
He offered her absolute protection and capital, but only if she signed a five-year contract marriage to mother his four-year-old heir.
But when Cordelia finally met the little boy, her blood ran completely cold.
The boy was the exact baby she was told she had miscarried four years ago. And the billionaire handing her the marriage contract was the same stranger who had taken him.
8.7
To escape my toxic ex-fiancé and the father who froze my assets, I entered a contract marriage with Barrett, a cold but protective corporate consultant.
I thought he was my safe harbor. I even confided my secret, ruthless strategy to take back control of my company from my ex.
But at the most critical board meeting, a mysterious new chairman dialed in.
The synthesized voice coming through the speakerphone systematically dismantled the board and took over the company, using the exact, word-for-word strategy I had only ever whispered to my husband in the dead of night.
My ex-fiancé turned pale with panic. The board members were stunned into silence.
And I sat there, my blood running completely cold.
The man who had held my hand in the hospital, who had slept in my bed, and who had promised to protect me, had just committed the ultimate corporate espionage.
Every tender touch, every late-night confession—was it all just a calculated move to steal my life's work? How could the only person who made me feel safe use my deepest vulnerabilities to orchestrate my ruin?
I packed up my files, walked straight out of that boardroom, and prepared to disappear from his life forever.
But when I fled to my best friend's apartment to hide, I looked out the window.
The ruthless mastermind who had just stolen my empire was standing completely still in the freezing downpour, waiting for me to come down.
7.0
At their first meeting, Vanessa dazzled as the heiress of an elite family, while Shawn survived as a broke, hardworking student.
He fell for her-then she shattered his illusion with a sneer. "Do you think you're even in my league?"
Years later, Shawn returned as a rising attorney and heir to a powerful family, backed by wealth and influence.
Disgraced and frantic, Vanessa fought to free her parents, framed and jailed.
She dropped to her knees and begged for his help.
He said coolly, "Be my lover-until I'm done with you."
To her, it was his revenge. But Shawn knew it was the love he'd wanted.
9.0
I stood in the center of the Pierre Hotel’s grand ballroom, a mute, smiling doll in a Dior dress. My job was to signal stability to investors while my fiancé, Clive Fitzpatrick, looked for any excuse to ignore me.
The night of our engagement, the world turned into a different kind of hell. I watched Clive disappear onto the terrace with another woman, his hand possessively on her waist. Distraught and drunk, I stumbled into a dark penthouse suite seeking sanctuary. I woke up the next morning to a gravelly voice and the smell of expensive tobacco. I hadn't slept with my fiancé; I had accidentally spent the night with his uncle, Bruno Fitzpatrick—the man Wall Street called the "executioner."
The humiliation was only the beginning. Clive didn't just cheat; he admitted he was only marrying me to steal my family's voting rights so I could "rot" in an apartment while he lived with his mistress. When I tried to protest, my adoptive mother, Claudia, dragged me into a private room and whipped me with a riding crop to remind me of my place. She held up a video of my frail, sick sister, Lucia, making it clear that my total obedience was the only thing keeping Lucia alive. I was a business asset to be traded, used, and beaten into submission.
I couldn't understand why everyone I was supposed to trust was so eager to destroy me. Was I really just a mannequin to be discarded once the merger papers were signed? The marks on my back burned, but the ice in my veins was colder. I was done being the victim of a mediocre man and a heartless mother.
Then Bruno offered me a way out. At the family dinner, right in front of my cheating fiancé, he proposed a lethal bet: if I could raise the company’s stock by ten percent in thirty days, he would give me his board veto—the ultimate power to crush Clive and Claudia forever. If I failed, I would owe him any favor he asked. I looked at the man who had ruined me and the man who wanted to own me, and I realized I had nothing left to lose. I wasn't going to be a doll anymore; I was going to be the one who burned the house down.
8.7
Love unspeakable
8.7
Note that the famale lead real name is isabella,not Mirabel.It was corrected to isabella in chapter two.
Love unspeakable volume one (part one).
Novel synopsis
Betrayed and abandoned by James, who is deceived into believing she is a prostitute, Isabella Laurent loses everything including love, trust, and family wealth. Alone and heartbroken, she meets Frederick, a billionaire scarred by betrayal, who helps her rediscover love and faith. As their bond grows, Isabella rises in Frederick's company, turning heartbreak into power, intelligence, and influence.
But darkness lingers. Janet and Lydia, jealous of Isabella's strength, murdered her father and stole his fortune. Now, they fear her ascent and plot her downfall. Veronica, Frederick's cunning ex, returns with a child and falsified DNA tests, attempting to claim him. Frederick resists, but can he protect Isabella from a web of lies, deceit, and danger?
Will Isabella reclaim her father's legacy? Can love survive amidst betrayal and ambition? And who truly watches from the shadows, ready to strike when least expected?