OWNED IN THE DARK
After losing both her parents at a tender age, Ciara experiences coldness despite having her best friend Carlista whose parents chose to raise her, she faces several oppositions from extended family and even outside pressure as a result of her inherited wealth; she falls in love with her best friend's brother who refuses to acknowledge their relationship to the public.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 3
I began pacing around. "Go check out Ciara's movement, and if she's recently made new friends. "
Damn .. I need to fix this fast.
" What did you find?"
"She's just recently started seeing Tony. She's not made new friends, and she just got out of the hospital."
I still go very still at the word hospital. What is she doing at the hospital? Is she unwell?"
Louis clears his throat "Now I need you to be calm about this Mathew"
"What the fuck is going on?"
"She's just gone into the hospital for an abortion today" Every single thing around me blurs immediately "Did you just say abortion?"
"Yes, according to my men, she found out she was three Months pregnant and immediately requested an abortion. She never wrote the name of the father of the child."
"I am the father of the child"
"What? Then why did she get an abortion?"
"I'd like to know the answer to that too. I'm leaving the office now.
I call my assistant into the office, "Cancel everything I have pressing for the next week. I'd be back as soon as I can Geoffrey"
"Yes sir." He steps out
"Where is she now Louis?"
"She's on her way to your old family house."
I nod..."Okay guess I'm going home "
I rise from the chair and walk away from the office, get into my car and drive towards the old house. I'd never, ever, let her go in this lifetime.
I drive down to the house and Calista is first to berate me "Now what on earth are you doing here Mathew?"
I scoff "Last I checked both our parents own the house and we both grew up in this house"
"So is your little fiancée with you?"
"No, she's not Calista, give me a break. I'm going to my room." I walk away and she calls after me "Mom and dad will be so glad you came around."
I drop my things off in the room and move down the stairs to the kitchen, lighting a cigarette...I promised I'd quit yet whenever I'm in a nervous state I revert to my cigarette, my bad habit. I put out the cigarette, pick a glass of sparkling water when I hear her voice as I move towards them; she freezes the moment she sees me.
"Hello Ciara."
"Hi Matthew." She says softly then clears her throat before looking at Carlista in question as Calista shrugs nonchalantly.
"Babes, Matthew suddenly turned up here without prior notice hope you don't mind?"
"Of course not it's fine." She says softly. "
She chose to come here to avoid me but there is no avoiding me right now because we both need to have the dreaded conversation she's avoiding.
Calista fawns over her "Sweetheart, why were you at the hospital? Are you okay? Should you be standing?"
"I'm fine Calista...just need to lie down right now."
She takes her hand as they both walk up the stairs together, disappearing from my sight.
I wait until Calista comes out "She's asleep, I need to get some things outside now I'd be back on time. Please keep an eye on her for me will you? I know you don't like her but please she's the closest one I have to a sister."
I scoff "Why do you even think I don't like her?"
"Well duh...she avoids you like a plague and you ignore her totally which works just fine for me but today she's sick so I need you to watch her for me."
"Okay, Calista." I walk up to her, hug her and kiss her forehead as she eyes me suspiciously" You should let Louis take you"
She snaps immediately "I don't need Louis, I can go out by myself."
There's a story there I know but since they both don't tell me anything I act like I know nothing.
Immediately she leaves, I go to Cara's room where I find her asleep, a few minutes later, it starts raining heavily and I get a text message from Louis "I have your sister, I'd return her after the storm has passed"
I shake my head at that.. he'd share when he's comfortable sharing. I pick a chair and sit beside her as I stare at her then light a cigarette, two hours later she finally yawns and comes awake. I sent the butler a message to get soup for her.
"Are you feeling better Ciara?"
She frowns "Where is Calista?"
"She went out so it's just us. Would you care for water?" I open a bottle of still water and pour some into a cup, helping her sit as I help her drink it from the cup.
The butler James walks in with a tray which contains her soup and I collect it. "Drink up, it's healing soup" So I feed her and wait until she's done and a little relaxed before clearing my throat "Why on earth would you choose an abortion over telling me you were carrying our child Ciara?"
She scoffs "Of course you know already... doctor-patient clause doesn't even matter to you."
" Why would I keep a child I never signed up for? You want things always done your way but I will not be a pawn in whatever games you're playing. I'm done with you."
"Did it ever occur to you that I might actually want the child?"
"Oh get a grip and get off Lulu land Mathew; you're engaged very publicly to another woman, I told you I wasn't ready to have a child, you switched my pills, had my IUD removed without my consent just to keep me tied to you and I won't be having that. I'd like to go back to sleep now, please excuse me."
I stand, help her lie back, adjust her bed cover and kiss her lightly even as she stiffens.
"I know you're mad right now and it's fine, I'm sorry. Heal, I'll watch you till you're fully healed but we are not done, Ciara."
You may also like
7.6
The heavy prison gates clanged shut, ending three years. I scanned the empty lot for Julian, my fiancé. Deserted.
Biting December wind my only welcome. Calls to Julian, father, mother: unanswered/disconnected.
Shivering, Julian's tracker showed an unfamiliar Long Island estate. A freezing cab left me penniless; I walked through the blizzard. Through a mansion window, I saw Julian, my stepsister Clara, a small boy—a perfect family. Julian, who hated children, doted on him, and Clara wore *my* engagement ring.
I overheard Julian's call: he, my father, conspired to frame me for Clara’s medical error, saving their company and future. My family hadn't just abandoned me; they plotted my destruction.
A delayed text from Julian popped up, lying about a "cross-border meeting," promising to pick me up tomorrow. Despair vanished, replaced by a cold, terrifying smile. Typing "Understood," I turned from their stolen life, walking into the blizzard, fueled by burning rage.
8.3
Ayleen Ramirez sat in the sterile Hope Hill Fertility Clinic, her heart shattering as Dr. Finch delivered the crushing news: her third IVF cycle had failed.
Eavesdropping outside a supply closet, she overheard her husband Don on the phone, laughing cruelly. "She's a defective incubator," he sneered to his mistress Alessandra. "I never used my sperm—just cheap bank donation. No trailer trash carries a Bradley heir."
Betrayed, Ayleen confronted him, but her adoptive family ambushed her at home. Her parents and brother sided with Alessandra, now pregnant by Don, demanding Ayleen sign divorce papers to secure family investments. "You're an embarrassment," her mother snapped, threatening to cut her trust fund. Ayleen tossed back their heirloom necklace and walked out.
She stormed the Bradley mansion, slapped divorce papers on Don, packed her bags amid his aunt's insults, and fled into the night.
Drunk in a trendy bar, she stumbled into a powerful stranger—Burdette Guerrero—spilling whiskey on his crotch, then accidentally grabbed a napkin to his trousers. He shoved her away in rage.
Worse, she mistook his penthouse suite for her hotel room, bursting in on his shower, smashing a mirror in panic. He pinned her to the wall, snarling accusations.
How did this arrogant man know her name? Why demand she sign a mysterious contract at 9 a.m.? Devastated and clueless she's actually pregnant—with his stolen heir—Ayleen sobbed alone, the world crumbling.
The next morning, she straightened her spine in the Grand Guerrero lobby, ready to face him and demand answers—no matter the cost.
7.2
I thought I was just marrying a middle-class commercial pilot who proposed to me in a Brooklyn cemetery to fulfill his grandmother's bizarre dying wish.
But when an arrogant pilot tried to harass me at the airport, my "ordinary" husband suddenly appeared, his eyes like chips of ice.
"Take your hand off my wife."
With that single cold command, he had the airline's top executives groveling and the man practically fired on the spot.
Everyone called him "Mr. Chandler." He handed me an exclusive black Centurion card, claiming it was just a standard "manager's perk." His retired parents, who supposedly ran a small business, visited me wearing Patek Philippe watches. I ignored all the glaring red flags, foolishly believing I had just lucked into a stable, caring marriage after a lifetime of disappointments.
Yet, despite his constant, suffocating generosity, he kept a physical wall between us. After a kiss so desperate and hungry it felt like he had been starving for it his entire life, he violently pushed me away.
"We should take this slow."
I couldn't understand why a man who looked at me with such intense, possessive devotion would treat our marriage like a sterile business deal. Why was he orchestrating every perfect detail of my life while refusing to even share a bed with me?
I had no idea that the man sleeping in the guest room wasn't a pilot at all. He was Harmon Chandler, the ruthless billionaire emperor of the Chandler Group. And he had been secretly monitoring my every move for ten years.
8.0
Eight years of devotion crumbled under one calculated betrayal.
Diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only a year, Olivia faced heartbreak when her husband cheated with a student she had sponsored and asked for divorce.
"She only has a year to live... can't you let her have this?" he pleaded, unaware Olivia hid the same fate.
Without protest, she signed and returned to science, determined to leave something behind.
Believing they'd reunite, he waited-never knowing she was running out of time.
During a clinical trial, she burned through her final days.
Only after her death did he learn the truth, collapsing in regret. "Olivia... I was wrong."
9.5
My husband, Colton, the Wall Street mogul, slid annulment papers across the table, coldly discarding me and our unborn child. He thought he was getting rid of a useless wife, but he was actually throwing away the secret architect of his entire empire. Now, I'm ready to make him pay for every insult, every lie, and every single secret I've kept.
For three years, eight months pregnant, I secretly saved Colton's ten-billion-dollar company from collapse, enduring a cold, transactional marriage.
One night, he shattered that illusion, serving annulment papers and callously discarding me and our unborn child.
I signed, leaving luxury behind. Exposing his butler's fraud, I escaped. Colton later found his wedding ring gone and, on his desk, my SEC compliance fixes—proof I was his hidden genius.
Blindsided, he realized he’d destroyed his own empire. His mother then called, gloating. The injustice ignited a fierce resolve within me.
The next morning, I launched Kidd Legal Consulting. I'd use forty-seven folders of Farmer Capital's un-patched loopholes to force a fair settlement, securing my daughter's future.
9.3
After eight years in captivity, I was finally rescued. I thought it was the beginning of a new life with my mother.
But she didn't even look at me. She ran into the arms of a handsome stranger, her real husband, and I was treated like a dirty secret from her past.
They called me a contamination, a reminder of their trauma. My new stepsister set their Doberman on me, and as the dog's teeth sank into my arm, I looked up and saw my mother watching from the window.
She met my eyes for a second, then slowly closed the curtains.
In that moment, the last bit of hope I had died. The shallow bond of family was completely gone, and I finally gave up.
But they made one mistake. The family patriarch, suspicious after a car accident, ordered a secret DNA test.
The results came back on the day of my stepsister's birthday party, revealing a truth that would burn their perfect world to the ground.