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.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 8
The bus dropped her off two blocks from the apartment. The rain was torrential now, a curtain of water hammering the pavement.
Katherine didn't have an umbrella. She put her purse over her head and ran.
Her cheap flats slapped against the wet concrete. She was soaked to the bone in seconds.
As she rounded the corner to her building, she saw brake lights.
The Escalade was parked in front of her building.
Katherine skidded to a halt. She ducked behind a large hedge, her heart pounding.
The passenger door opened. An umbrella-huge, black, and sturdy-emerged first.
Gus stepped out. He opened the umbrella effortlessly.
He walked around to the back door and opened it. Kylie stepped out, giggling.
She moved into his space immediately. Gus held the umbrella over her. He tilted it so she was completely covered.
But in doing so, he left himself exposed.
The rain hammered down on Gus's left shoulder. within seconds, his expensive t-shirt was soaked, clinging to his arm. He didn't seem to notice. He just held the umbrella steady for Kylie.
Katherine watched from the bushes, shivering violently. It was such a small gesture. So gentlemanly. So Gus.
He walked Kylie to the door. Kylie turned to him. She stood on her tiptoes, her hands on his chest.
From Katherine's angle, hidden in the dark, it looked like their faces merged.
A kiss.
Katherine clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. The pain was physical. It felt like someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart until it burst.
She closed her eyes. She couldn't watch.
After a moment, the lobby door opened and closed.
Katherine opened her eyes.
Gus was still standing there. Alone. In the rain.
He hadn't gone inside.
He folded the umbrella. He stood by the car, water dripping from his hair. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the lighter and a cigarette. He lit it, shielding the flame with his hand.
He took a deep drag, the cherry of the cigarette glowing bright red in the darkness.
He turned his head. He looked straight at the hedge where Katherine was hiding.
He couldn't possibly see her. It was pitch black.
But he stared at that spot for a long, long time.
Then, he threw the cigarette into a puddle. He got into the car. The engine roared, and he drove away.
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
9.2
The body of my sister, Annabelle, was found brutally stuffed inside an ottoman in our living room.
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.
-
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.