One Night With The Wrong Brother
I thought I was waking up in the arms of Arthur, the man I loved. But as the morning light hit the Hamptons estate, the man buttoning his cuffs by the window turned around with eyes like chips of ice. It was Augustus Riddle, Arthur’s cruel younger brother, and I had just spent the night whispering confessions of love into the wrong man's ear.
The night I thought was a beautiful beginning turned into a devastating nightmare. Instead of comfort, Gus treated me like a stain on his expensive carpet, scribbling a check for "services rendered" before shoving me into a dark service corridor to hide my existence from his brother.
"How much does it cost to buy your silence?"
He sneered, before leaving me barefoot in a torrential downpour while he drove away in a luxury Cadillac. Four years later, I am a struggling actress in Los Angeles, working double shifts as a barista just to keep the lights on. My life was finally stable until my roommate dragged me to a high-end dinner to meet her new "influential" boyfriend. The man sitting at the table, looking more arrogant and lethal than ever, was Augustus.
He spent the entire night humiliating me, calling me a pathetic amateur and a social climber in front of my only friends. When I fled into the rain and collapsed on the sidewalk, skinning my knee until I bled, he watched from his car. He saw me clutching a plastic baggie containing the taped-together pieces of that four-year-old check—the only proof of my shame. He looked at me like roadkill, rolled up his window, and drove off into the dark.
I couldn't understand why he was doing this. Why did he hate me enough to crush me, yet remember that I couldn't handle the smell of cigarette smoke? Why did he leave me bleeding in the street, only to send expensive medical supplies and coffee to my door the very next morning?
"I'm moving out."
I told my roommates, realizing that Gus Riddle didn't just want to destroy me; he wanted to haunt me. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out with eighty dollars to my name, finally ready to disappear into the city before he could burn the rest of my life to the ground.
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Chapter 6
The champagne bottle was empty. Kylie was flushed and loud.
"This place is dying down," Kylie announced, clapping her hands. "We should go to Nightingale Plaza. I know the promoter."
Gus leaned back, spinning his gold lighter on the table. "I'm tired."
"Oh, come on, Gus!" Kylie whined. She grabbed his arm. "Don't be a grandpa. Besides..." She turned her gaze to Katherine, a wicked glint in her eyes. "Kat can sing for us. Did you know she sings? She's terrible at acting, but she has a voice."
Katherine's head snapped up. "Kylie, no."
"Why not?" Kylie laughed. "Gus hasn't heard you. Maybe he can put you in his movie if you impress him. Sing something, Kat. Right now."
"We are in a restaurant," Katherine hissed. "I am not a circus animal."
"Oh, don't be such a prude," Kylie sneered. "Just a few bars. Sing that song you're always humming in the shower."
The table fell silent. People at nearby tables were looking. Katherine felt like she was shrinking, disappearing. She felt naked.
"Sing," Kylie commanded.
Katherine looked at Gus. She pleaded with her eyes. Help me.
Gus looked at her. He saw the panic. He saw the humiliation.
His hand slammed down on the lighter.
BANG.
The sound was startlingly loud. Kylie jumped.
"I have no interest," Gus said, his voice cold and hard as steel, "in listening to an amateur performance."
Kylie blinked. "I was just-"
"It's pathetic," Gus said. He didn't look at Kylie. He looked straight at Katherine. "Begging for attention in a restaurant. Have some self-respect."
The words were a slap in the face. He had stopped Kylie, yes. But he had done it by crushing Katherine.
A wave of nausea rolled over Katherine. It started in her stomach and rose to her throat-acidic and hot. It was the same sickness she had felt that morning in the Hamptons.
She stood up so fast her chair screeched against the floor.
"Excuse me," she choked out. "Restroom."
She grabbed her purse and ran. She didn't look back.
If she had, she would have seen Gus watching her go. She would have seen his hand clenched into a fist on the table, the knuckles white.
"She's so dramatic," Kylie huffed, reaching for her glass. "She has zero thick skin."
Gus turned his head slowly to look at Kylie. His eyes were dark, terrifying voids.
"Check," he barked at a passing waiter.
He threw a black American Express card onto the tray. He didn't wait for the bill.
"We're leaving," Gus said.
"But Nightingale..." Kylie started.
"Now," Gus said. The tone of his voice brooked no argument. It was the voice of a man hanging onto his control by a thread.
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9.2
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The house was locked from the inside, and the police didn't have a single lead.
Before she died, Annabelle left a note: "Beware of the Other Mom."
9.0
Leila Jones was never meant to be seen, only used.
In a family that worships perfection, she is the invisible daughter.
Ignored by her father. Humiliated by her stepmother. Outshined by a sister who smiles sweetly while sharpening knives behind her back.
When Leila is framed for a crime she didn't commit and betrayed by the one man she trusted, her life collapses overnight.
Cast out. Disgraced. Silenced.
But what her enemies don't know is this:
A soft heart can still learn to be ruthless.
As secrets unravel and power shifts hands, Leila must decide whether to remain the scapegoat she was raised to be, or rewrite her fate with blood, strategy, and a black card that opens doors no apology ever could.
Because forgiveness is optional.
And revenge is intentional.
What kind of book is this?
Well black card soft heart is a contemporary power rise revenge story focused on betrayal, elite family dynamics, and a woman's strategic transformation.
Romance exist but it didn't save her. POWER did
7.0
Eight years ago, Alaina forced herself to say the most vicious, heartless things to break up with her fiercely loyal college boyfriend, protecting him from his billionaire family's wrath.
Now, she is a top maxillofacial surgeon, and Jarred Mcknight has returned as the ruthless CEO of Wall Street's most powerful corporation.
Their worlds collide in the ER, but Jarred isn't alone. He is accompanying his rumored heiress fiancée.
His eyes are pure ice. He treats Alaina with a suffocating, clinical detachment, fiercely protecting the heiress from Alaina's medical examination. The professional slap in the face shatters Alaina's heart all over again.
Later, at an exclusive restaurant, Jarred catches Alaina on a miserable, forced blind date. Still believing she left him for money and status, he publicly mocks her for working herself to the bone just to climb the ladder.
Her sleazy date, humiliated by the billionaire's sheer dominance, turns his bruised ego on Alaina. On the dark street outside, the lawyer aggressively grabs her arm, trying to force himself on her.
Alaina thought Jarred despised her. She thought he had completely moved on, leaving her to drown in the memories of the future they never had.
But why did Jarred suddenly explode from the shadows like a lethal predator, brutally snapping the lawyer's wrist just for touching her?
Pinning her trapped against the cold brick wall, Jarred's dark eyes burn with a terrifying, unhinged possessiveness.
"Is this the kind of garbage you date now?"
The eight years of separation mean nothing. The billionaire hasn't let her go, and this time, there is no escape.
8.6
On the night of her third wedding anniversary, Isabella Hart discovered her husband in another woman's bed.
By morning, she was divorced.
Humiliated. Replaced. Erased.
After three years of loving a man who treated her like a shadow in her own marriage, Isabella walks away with nothing but her pride - and a secret she refuses to tell him.
But fate has a cruel sense of humor.
Hours after signing the divorce papers, she accidentally marries the most powerful and dangerously untouchable man in the city - billionaire CEO Alexander Laurent - in a legally binding contract mistake that cannot be undone.
Alexander needs a wife to secure his inheritance.
Isabella needs revenge.
What begins as a cold-blooded deal soon turns into something neither of them expected.
Because her ex-husband suddenly wants her back.
And this time... she's no longer the woman he threw away.
But when secrets unravel and the truth about that anniversary night comes to light, Isabella must decide-
Is this marriage her salvation... or her greatest mistake?
7.8
BLURB
"Beg for it, Bella," his rasped voice whispered against my ears as his dick rubbed against my thighs.
"I want you to f**k me until my tongue knows nothing but your name. Please, Daddy," I begged shamelessly until he finally slipped into me.
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The first time I saw him, I understood why people ruin their lives for dicks.
He was standing in the sunlight, watching me like he already knew how the story would end. I had a boyfriend. He was my best friend's father. And ninety days should have been easy to survive.
Then I opened the wrong door, and after everything burned.
Alexander Moreau doesn't touch you first. He studies you, learns you, and makes you feel like the only person in the room. And somewhere between midnight swims and locked doors, I stopped pretending I didn't want him.
I'd go through hell and come back friends with the devil if it would mean him sticking his dick inside me again.
But houses made of glass don't protect secrets, and by the time summer ended, I had lost my best friend, my relationship, my future, and the version of myself I thought I was. Because falling for Alexander Moreau wasn't the danger.
His ex-wife was.
8.0
Tara signed hospital papers she believed would save a stranger's life.
Weeks later, she learns the truth, she is legally married to him.
Ethan Hale needed a wife to protect his sister.
Tara never agreed to be one.
They have six months to undo the marriage.
Living together was never part of the plan.