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 8
It was 2:00 AM when Cora stepped out of the private elevator onto the penthouse floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. She had booked this room using the very last of the hush money Axel had thrown at her months ago. She hadn't dared to return to her cramped Brooklyn apartment tonight, terrified that Axel would hunt her down there after the gala. She needed a neutral, highly secure fortress just for one night. The thick, plush carpet absorbed the sound of her heels. The hallway was dead silent, the air smelling faintly of lavender and expensive floor wax.
She dragged her exhausted body toward her suite-paid for by the last of the hush money Axel had thrown at her months ago. She dug her keycard out of her purse.
Before she could slide it into the slot, she noticed a sliver of light bleeding out from under the door.
Her stomach plummeted.
Before she could step back, the door was violently yanked open from the inside. A large hand shot out, grabbing a fistful of her rented green dress, and hauled her into the room.
Cora let out a sharp cry as she was thrown backward. Her spine slammed against the hard wood of the entryway wall. Her purse clattered to the floor.
Axel Malone stood over her. His tuxedo jacket was gone. His bowtie hung loose around his neck. His eyes were bloodshot, and the stench of stale alcohol rolled off him in waves.
He slammed the door shut and locked it. He planted his hands on the wall on either side of her head, caging her in.
"Where the hell have you been?" Axel roared, spit flying from his lips.
Cora winced as the pain in her spine radiated outward. She looked up at the man she had once loved, feeling nothing but a profound, sickening disgust.
"It's your wedding night, Axel," Cora said, her voice dripping with ice. "Shouldn't you be in Aubrey's bed? Or did she lock you out already?"
The taunt hit its mark. Axel's face contorted in rage. He grabbed her shoulders, his fingers digging painfully into her flesh.
"Everything I did today, I did for us!" he screamed, shaking her. "I married Aubrey to get the Mayer family's backing! I need their board seats to take down Jace! Once I have the company, I can give you everything!"
Cora stared at him. He was completely delusional. He actually believed his own lies.
She let out a harsh, barking laugh. "You didn't do this for us. You did this because you're a pathetic, insecure bastard who would sell his own soul to pretend he's a real Bauer."
Axel froze. The word bastard was his ultimate trigger. He raised his hand, his palm open, ready to strike her across the face.
Cora didn't flinch. She stared right into his bloodshot eyes, her chin raised. "Do it," she whispered.
Axel's hand trembled in the air. He couldn't do it. He dropped his hand, his expression twisting into a pathetic, desperate mask. He reached out and tried to stroke her cheek.
"Cora, baby, please," he begged, his voice cracking. "Just come back to the apartment. Stop fighting me."
Cora felt bile rise in her throat. She violently slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me. Get out of my room before I call hotel security."
The rejection snapped whatever thread of sanity Axel had left. His face hardened into a mask of pure malice. "You think you can just walk away? I own your contract, Cora. I will blacklist you. I will make sure you never work in this town again. You'll be begging on the streets."
"I'm not afraid of you anymore," Cora spat.
Axel lunged at her again. Cora reacted purely on instinct. She grabbed the heavy bronze vase sitting on the entryway console table and swung it with all her might.
The bronze connected with Axel's shoulder with a sickening thud.
Axel yelled in pain, stumbling backward and clutching his arm.
Cora didn't hesitate. She ripped the door open and bolted into the hallway.
She didn't make it far. Axel charged after her, his hand clamping down on her wrist just as she reached the center of the long corridor. He yanked her back, his face twisted in a vicious snarl.
"You crazy bitch!" he hissed, trying to drag her back toward the open door.
Ding.
The soft chime of the VIP elevator at the far end of the hall cut through the struggle.
The polished steel doors slid open.
Jace Bauer stepped out. He wasn't just passing through; this was his domain. He held a sleek, black keycard in his hand, his long strides carrying him purposefully toward the Presidential Suite at the end of the corridor. He had removed his tuxedo jacket. His white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, his sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. He looked tired, dangerous, and utterly untouchable.
The struggle in the hallway ceased instantly.
Axel froze. The rage drained from his face, replaced by a sudden, paralyzing terror. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a freight train.
Jace paused. His cold, dead eyes swept over the scene. He saw Axel's hand wrapped like a vice around Cora's wrist. He saw Cora's torn dress and disheveled hair.
He didn't look surprised. He didn't look angry. He looked profoundly bored.
Jace broke eye contact, dismissing them entirely, and began walking down the hallway toward the presidential suite. He didn't speed up. He didn't slow down. He walked past them as if they were nothing more than stains on the carpet.
The sheer weight of Jace's indifference hit Axel like a physical blow. Axel's grip on Cora's wrist loosened.
Cora ripped her arm free. She rubbed her bruised skin, her mind racing. Jace was ignoring her. He was playing his part of the cold, unfeeling CEO perfectly.
But Cora needed Axel to back off permanently. She needed to use the weapon she had just acquired.
She took a step back from Axel, raising her voice just enough so it would carry down the quiet hall.
"Look at him, Axel," Cora said, her voice laced with cruel triumph. "Look at the man who actually owns the world. That's why I'm leaving you. "
The words echoed off the walls.
Thirty feet away, Jace stopped. He had just slid his keycard into the door of the presidential suite.
He turned his head slowly. He looked back down the hallway, his dark eyes locking onto Cora. The look he gave her was unreadable-a mix of warning, dark amusement, and a chilling promise of retribution.
Then, he pushed his door open and disappeared inside.
Axel stood frozen, his face pale, his chest heaving. He looked from the closed door of the presidential suite back to Cora. He spat a vile curse at her feet, turned around, and practically ran toward the elevators.
Cora stood alone in the hallway, her heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She had drawn the battle lines.
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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.