Pregnant With The Ruthless CEO's Heir
My ex-boyfriend of three years, Axel, married a perfect wealthy heiress.
I attended his wedding, not to mourn our relationship, but because he had spent the last three years bleeding me dry.
He left me with absolutely nothing but a final notice from the hospital for my dying brother's life support.
Instead of feeling guilty, Axel cornered me in the church hallway, crushing my wrist.
"I'll set you up with an apartment. You won't have to work another day in your life."
He thought he could buy my silence with spare change, while leaving my seventeen-year-old brother, Julian, to die when his treatments were cut off the very next day.
When I refused to be his dirty little secret, Axel used his power to utterly destroy my acting career.
He had my talent agency terminate my contract under a fake morals clause, publicly humiliated me on set, and blacklisted me across the entire industry.
I was shoved out into the freezing rain, left with a torn dress and absolutely no way to pay the five hundred thousand dollar medical bill.
He actually believed he could step on my brother's dying body to build his own fake empire.
He thought I was just a weak, pathetic victim who would eventually crawl back to him on my knees.
But he forgot about the one monster he was absolutely terrified of: his legitimate, ruthless billionaire half-brother, Jace Bauer.
Looking at the three positive pregnancy tests hidden in my drawer, I stepped right in front of Jace's armored Maybach.
"Marry me, and I'll give you the heir you need to secure your empire."
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Chapter 6
The Maybach's tires shrieked against the asphalt. The driver slammed on the brakes, the massive grille of the car stopping mere inches from Cora's kneecaps. The blinding halogen headlights washed over her pale, frozen face.
She didn't flinch. Her legs were shaking so violently she could barely stand, but she kept her chin raised.
The rear passenger window slid down with a quiet hum.
Jace Bauer's face emerged from the shadows of the backseat. His eyes were lethal. He didn't look surprised; he looked deeply, dangerously annoyed.
"Do you have a death wish?" he asked. His voice was quiet, cutting through the wind like a razor blade.
Cora walked around the hood of the car. She grabbed the edge of the open window, her knuckles white, her fingers completely numb.
"Give me five minutes, Mr. Bauer," she said. Her voice was hoarse, her throat raw from the cold.
Jace's lip curled into a sneer. He didn't even look at her. He looked at the back of his driver's head. "Put it in reverse. Run her over if she doesn't move."
The driver hesitated for a fraction of a second, his hand hovering over the gearshift.
In that split second, Cora reached down and yanked the heavy door handle. The driver had forgotten to lock the doors in the chaos. The heavy armored door swung open.
Cora threw half her body into the warm, leather-scented interior of the car. She looked Jace dead in the eye. "I have a proposition regarding Axel Malone."
The air in the car vanished.
At the sound of his brother's name, the bored arrogance on Jace's face evaporated. Pure, unadulterated violence took its place.
His hand shot out. His large fingers wrapped around Cora's throat, pinning her back against the door frame. The impact knocked the wind out of her. His grip was iron. He was cutting off her air supply.
Cora's face flushed red. Her lungs burned. But she didn't claw at his hand. She didn't struggle. She stared back at him, her eyes wide and defiant, and forced the corners of her mouth to twitch upward into a mocking smile.
Jace stared at her, a muscle ticking in his jaw. He held her there for three agonizing seconds, watching the life drain from her face. Then, with a look of utter disgust, he released her, throwing her backward.
Cora stumbled, gasping loudly for air, rubbing her bruised neck.
Jace pulled a sterilized wipe from a dispenser in the armrest and meticulously wiped his hand. "Open the door," he snapped at the driver.
He stepped out of the car, ignoring Cora completely, and walked toward the unmarked steel door of the club. He punched a code into the keypad and pushed the door open.
Cora didn't wait for an invitation. She scrambled after him, slipping through the door just before it clicked shut.
She followed him down a short, dimly lit hallway and into a private, soundproofed cigar room. The room was empty, smelling of rich tobacco and old money. Heavy leather armchairs sat in the corners.
Jace walked straight to the mahogany bar. He poured two fingers of neat whiskey into a crystal glass. He leaned against the bar, swirling the amber liquid, and finally looked at her.
He checked the heavy platinum watch on his wrist. "Your five minutes started thirty seconds ago, spy."
Cora's heart skipped a beat. Spy. So that was it. That was why he had ignored her at the gala. He thought she was working for Axel.
She didn't correct him. Let him think she was a mercenary. It was safer that way.
She took two steps forward, stopping in the center of the Persian rug. She squared her shoulders.
"I want you to marry me," Cora said. Her voice didn't shake.
The silence in the room was absolute. It felt heavy enough to crush bone.
Jace stopped swirling his drink. He stared at her for a long moment. Then, he threw his head back and laughed. It was a dark, cruel sound that held absolutely no humor.
He downed the whiskey in one swallow and slammed the heavy crystal glass down on the marble bar. The glass cracked.
He closed the distance between them in two long strides. His height and sheer physical presence forced Cora to tilt her head back to look at him.
"I don't marry strangers," Jace said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "And I certainly don't marry my bastard brother's used trash."
The words were a physical blow. Cora felt the blood drain from her face. Her stomach twisted into a painful knot.
"You think you're smart?" Jace sneered, his eyes dropping to her lips and then back to her eyes with pure revulsion. "Axel sends you to spread your legs, get some blackmail material, and you think you can use it to extort a ring out of me? Your acting is pathetic."
Cora dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands. The physical pain kept her grounded. She forced herself to smile. She made it look greedy.
"Axel didn't pay me enough," Cora lied smoothly, leaning into the persona he had created for her. "He offered me an apartment. I want an empire. I'm a gold digger, Mr. Bauer. And you have the most gold."
Jace's eyes darkened with absolute loathing. He pointed a long finger toward the heavy wooden door. "Get out."
Cora didn't move. She slowly reached into her cheap clutch purse. She unzipped the inner pocket.
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so quick to kick out the mother of your heir," she said. Her voice was as calm as a placid lake.
Jace's pupils dilated. His hand dropped to his side.
Cora pulled out a folded piece of paper. It bore the official stamp of Mount Sinai Hospital. She stepped forward and slapped the paper flat onto the marble bar, right next to his cracked whiskey glass.
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9.5
Gina was locked in Blackwood Asylum for five years, framed as a violent lunatic by her own wealthy family.
Her brother suddenly dragged her out, but not to save her. He forced her into an arranged marriage with Kerr Brooks, the billionaire emperor of New York, just to save the Rollins family's failing company.
Back at the estate, her parents treated her like a biohazard. They showered her adopted sister, Hailie, with love and luxury, while forcing Gina into a freezing servant's room. They threw a brutal prenuptial agreement at her face and threatened to leak a deepfake scandal video to the press if she didn't play the perfect bride. To ensure Gina's absolute ruin, Hailie even ordered a maid to spike her dinner with a massive dose of LSD. They were ruthlessly sacrificing her to a man who was secretly in a deep, unresponsive coma.
"She is just a tool, Hailie. Do not waste your pity on a broken thing."
Her mother's cold words echoed in the foyer. They looked at Gina's faded jumpsuit and vacant eyes, fully believing she was a heavily sedated pawn they could easily manipulate and discard.
But they didn't know Gina was a master hacker, a lethal underground surgeon, and the secret owner of the world's top luxury brand. She neutralized the poison in seconds and slipped into her comatose fiancé's heavily guarded ICU. Disabling the secret neuro-suppressants keeping him asleep, Gina smiled in the dark. If they wanted her to marry a corpse, she would use his empire to bury them all alive.
8.6
As the eldest daughter of the Sharp family, I was treated worse than a stray dog, while my younger sister Seraphina was their precious princess.
When the family needed someone to marry a dying billionaire heir, they naturally chose me to take her place.
To force my consent, my brothers held a peanut butter sandwich to my face—knowing it was a lethal allergy—while dangling my EpiPen just out of reach.
On speakerphone, my own mother sighed in annoyance.
"Let her die. It might be for the best."
I choked out an agreement just as my throat closed up. But the forced engagement broke my sacred mystical vow, causing me to violently cough up my own lifeblood.
Seeing the blood, Seraphina dramatically fainted. My brothers instantly carried her to the hospital, stepping over my dying body and leaving me to bleed out on the cold marble floor.
I had to use a forbidden blood rune, draining my last ounce of strength, just to survive the night.
Even the mystical Order I served offered no comfort, calling only to demand I secure ten billion dollars for them or forfeit my soul for eternity.
Abandoned by my blood family and my spiritual master, I was completely alone, left with nothing but a broken body and a ticking clock.
But they made one fatal mistake: they let me live.
I turned to the dying heir they forced me to marry, a man plagued by a dark curse only I could cure.
"I will be your wife, and I will save your life," I told him.
In exchange, I would use his unimaginable wealth and power to make everyone who threw me away pay the ultimate price.
7.9
Valerie Ashford, a girl who had just turned twenty-one, was introduced by her father to his business associates at a grand party, where she met a frightening, cold-blooded man.
That man was none other than her father's business partner, the CEO of a major corporation. He was taken with Valerie and had wanted her from the moment he first laid eyes on her.
For Rovano Morvane, whatever he desired was absolute and he had to have it, even by the worst means possible.
That night Valerie vanished without a trace and Rovano became the prime suspect, yet the Ashford family could not prove their allegations.
"P-please, I don't want to die, sir..." Valerie whispered so softly that Rovano had to bend down even lower.
"Didn't you just say you didn't care whether you were kidnapped or not? So shut your mouth." Rovano ordered.
Cold, Valerie felt the other side of the folding knife pressed against her cheek.
Rovano was going to mark Valerie.
It felt like something was missing if Rovano didn't take out his psychopathic urges on someone.
And this time, for the first time, he wanted a girl: Valerie Ashford.
Would Valerie's life end here?
9.1
I was supposed to be celebrating my twenty-first birthday and my engagement to the man I loved.
Instead, I was bleeding out in a crushed car, listening to my fiancé Greggory and my stepsister Alta laughing over the car's Bluetooth.
They had cut my brakes.
As the steering wheel crushed my shattered ribs, they cheerfully clinked their champagne glasses, celebrating their hostile takeover of my family's media empire.
I tried to scream for help, but my lungs wouldn't work.
Then, Alta's sweet voice delivered the final, fatal blow over the speaker.
"Your mother? I took care of her too."
I died in the freezing rain, my heart frozen with absolute hatred as I realized every touch and whispered promise was just a calculated step toward my murder.
I gave them everything, treating them like my closest family.
Why did they have to kill my innocent mother? Why did I blindly trust two vipers who only wanted to drain my blood?
Opening my eyes again, the smell of gasoline was gone.
I was back in my bedroom, safe and unharmed, on the exact day of my twenty-first birthday party.
The day the tragedy began.
Downstairs, my murderers were waiting to spring their trap, expecting me to blindly accept Greggory's proposal.
But this time, I put on a blood-red dress, grabbed the photo of their secret affair, and walked down the stairs to choose a new fiancé—the most ruthless billionaire in the room.
9.5
After her step sister ran away from her marriage to the billion dollar heir, they took Emerald Jane Campbell as a stand-in to fill in the position of her step sister. Forced by her evil mother, Emerald can't do anything but to follow. She was tied to the disabled billion dollar heir for three years and all she got was cold treatment from him. Years later, a kidnapper appears in their lives. The kidnapper threatens the life of Emerald until Jude Rafael Sanders- the billion-dollar decides to do what it takes to protect his wife, Emerald.
Secrets began to unravel one by one. But what if Jude finds out his beloved wife has something up beneath her sleeves? Find out how tension intensifies in their roller coaster marriage.
8.6
Eleanor Sinclair always knew her stepmother and stepsister were leeches, but she never expected their betrayal to reach into her private study.
In the dead of night, she caught the family's trusted nanny of twelve years photographing confidential trust documents. The mastermind paying her off was Lillian, Eleanor's stepmother, who had been secretly embezzling estate funds and bribing tutors to deliberately ruin the academic future of Eleanor's younger brother, the only legitimate heir.
Emboldened by their deceit, the parasites grew arrogant. Her stepsister, Isabelle, deliberately flaunted her secret affair with Eleanor’s billionaire fiancé, sobbing fake tears while waiting for Eleanor to suffer a humiliating nervous breakdown.
When the tension finally peaked, Lillian played the victim so perfectly that Eleanor's own father, a powerful U.S. Senator, stormed into the room with a raised hand, ready to strike his own daughter.
"You will apologize to your stepsister immediately! I will not have this family harmony destroyed by your petty jealousy!"
They actually expected her to be a weeping, heartbroken girl. They thought cheap hotel affairs and stolen pennies could outsmart the true Sinclair bloodline. Did they really believe a few fake tears and a weak-willed father could strip her of her empire?
Eleanor didn't feel anger; she felt the cold, detached fascination of a biologist observing doomed insects. She calmly pulled out the forensic audits, locked down the estate's exits, and prepared her stepmother's psychiatric commitment papers. The merciless purge of her family had officially begun.