Rising From Ashes: The Betrayed Heiress
Dorene survived a terrifying night with a bleeding, dangerous intruder in her hotel penthouse, only to receive a far more devastating blow the next morning.
A black and gold envelope arrived. It was an engagement invitation. Her boyfriend of seven years, Kadyn, was marrying her sweet, innocent best friend, Dolly.
Refusing to hide, Dorene crashed the gala in a blood-red gown. But Dolly was ready. Grabbing Dorene's wrists, Dolly purposely threw herself backward into a tower of champagne glasses, shrieking about her stomach and her unborn baby.
"If anything happens to Dolly or my child, I swear to God, I will destroy you!"
Kadyn roared, holding the weeping Dolly in the broken glass. He didn't ask a single question. He branded Dorene a jealous monster. To completely break her dignity, he publicly handed her over to the city's most notorious, sleazy playboy just to appease Dolly's fake tears.
"Give him a shot," Kadyn told her coldly.
Seven years of love were ground into the marble floor. She was framed, publicly humiliated, and discarded like trash by the two people she trusted most.
Dorene didn't shed a single tear. She gave them a smile of pure, freezing mockery and walked out of the gilded cage into the freezing Manhattan night. She didn't know that as she left, the lethal, blood-stained man from her penthouse was watching from the shadows, ready to help her burn their world to the ground.
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Chapter 8
Dorene stood less than two feet away from Kadyn. The physical distance was close, but the emotional chasm between them was infinite. She could clearly see the messy swirl of anger, embarrassment, and a cowardly urge to look away flashing in his eyes.
The surrounding guests held their breath. Even Chuck stopped groaning and clamped his mouth shut. The air in the ballroom felt thick, heavy, and suffocating.
Dorene completely ignored the trembling woman hiding behind Kadyn's back. Her perfectly lined eyes stayed locked onto Kadyn's face. Her voice was terrifyingly calm, devoid of any tremor or heat.
She tilted her chin up just a fraction. "Kadyn. I am only going to ask you one question. Look me in the eye and answer it."
Kadyn's instinct was to look at the floor, but the sheer, crushing weight of her stare pinned him in place. He was forced to meet her dead, icy eyes.
Dorene slowly raised her hand and pointed a single finger at Chuck, who was cowering a few feet away. Her voice carried a faint, heartbreaking trace of desperation. "Do you honestly believe I belong with a piece of trash like him?"
The question hit Kadyn like a sledgehammer to the ribs. He knew exactly what Chuck Vance was. He knew that associating Dorene's name with a man like that was the ultimate degradation.
Kadyn opened his mouth. His conscience screamed at him to say no, to defend the woman who had stood by him for seven years. But right before the word left his throat, he felt a soft, desperate tug on the back of his suit jacket.
Dolly let out a microscopic, pathetic sniffle. "Kadyn," she whispered, her voice barely audible but perfectly timed. "I just wanted her to find someone so she stops trying to ruin us..."
That single, venomous whisper triggered the hero complex hardwired into Kadyn's brain. He remembered Dolly bleeding on the floor just minutes ago. He remembered he had to protect his fragile, pregnant fiancée from this aggressive woman standing in front of him.
To prove his loyalty to Dolly, Kadyn crushed his guilt. His eyes hardened into cold stones.
He looked Dorene straight in the face and delivered the killing blow. "Dolly is just trying to help. Since he likes you, why don't you give him a chance? Give it a shot."
Give it a shot.
Those four words were like a rusty, serrated blade plunging directly into Dorene's heart and twisting violently.
Dorene's pupils contracted to pinpricks. The ambient noise of the ballroom vanished entirely. All she could see was Kadyn's cold, indifferent face magnifying in her vision.
She had imagined a hundred different ways they might finally end. She never imagined he would personally hand her over to a predator just to score points with his new lover.
Behind her, Vivian gasped loudly. "You are a sick, twisted bastard," Vivian hissed, stepping forward to slap him.
But Dorene stood frozen like a marble statue. She bit down on her lower lip so hard the metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. She forced her tear ducts to stay dry. She would not bleed for him. Not here.
She stared at Kadyn for ten agonizing seconds, burning the image of his pathetic, cowardly face into her brain so she would never, ever forget it.
And then, Dorene laughed.
It wasn't a hysterical laugh. It was a bright, stunningly beautiful smile that dripped with absolute, crushing mockery and profound sorrow.
The smile sent a violent shiver down Kadyn's spine. He instinctively took a half-step back. The woman standing in front of him suddenly felt like a complete stranger, someone entirely out of his league.
Dorene let the smile drop. The last flickering ember of warmth in her eyes died completely, leaving behind a barren, scorched wasteland.
She nodded slowly. Her voice was as light as a feather, but every word was a lethal injection. "Okay. Good. Kadyn Paul, you really showed me what true garbage looks like today."
She didn't just insult Chuck. She took Kadyn and Dolly's dignity and ground it into the marble floor with her stiletto.
Kadyn's face turned a sickly shade of gray. He opened his mouth to shout back, but he found his throat completely paralyzed. Standing in front of the woman he had just mentally destroyed, he couldn't form a single word.
Dolly tried to salvage the moment. She stepped out from behind Kadyn, her eyes wide. "Dorene, please-"
Dorene shot her a look so violently cold that Dolly physically recoiled, snapping her mouth shut.
Dorene didn't waste another breath on them. She turned around gracefully, facing Vivian. She reached out and gently adjusted the collar of Vivian's dress, which had gotten twisted during the fight. Her demeanor returned to the flawless, untouchable elegance of a true heiress.
"Let's go, Vivian," Dorene said calmly. "The air in here is toxic. It's making me sick."
Without looking back at the crowd, the groom, or the bride, Dorene straightened her spine. She looked like a queen leaving a conquered territory, not a woman who had just lost everything.
She walked toward the grand exit, her heels clicking sharply against the floor, leaving Kadyn staring at her retreating back.
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7.6
Jocelyn Yang lived in the grand Turner Mansion, not as a guest, but as a prisoner. Ever since her father's death, the ruthless billionaire Elam Turner forced her to atone for sins her father never committed.
On her nineteenth birthday, a male classmate secretly sent her a diamond necklace. Elam, who had flown back from London overnight, flew into a psychotic, jealous rage at the sight of another man's gift.
He mercilessly crushed the delicate necklace into the marble floor with his custom leather shoe.
"Did you forget what you are?" Elam hissed, dragging her into a pitch-black storage room. "You take gifts from other men behind my back?"
He pinned her to the dusty floorboards and violently assaulted her. The next morning, a wire transfer of $500,000 hit her bank account. He had humiliated her, broken her spirit, and was now casually trying to buy her silence. Later, when a broken bike left her walking miles through a freezing rainstorm, he just shoved scalding tea into her bleeding hands.
"Look at you," he sneered. "You look like a stray dog ruining my floors."
Jocelyn curled up in the cold, her lips bleeding and her heart shattered. She couldn't understand his terrifying obsession. If he hated her so much, why did he refuse to let her go? Why did he look at her with such manic hunger while systematically destroying her life?
Staring at the massive sum of hush money on her phone, a desperate spark of vengeance flared in her chest. Jocelyn wired every single cent back to Elam's account. She picked up her charcoal pencil, vowing to win the upcoming art competition and buy her escape from this monster forever.
8.1
One contract. Two worlds. Zero room for the heart.
Elena "Ellie" Morrison is a master of the mask. By night, she's the witty, guarded bartender at the city's most exclusive lounge. By day, she's a woman drowning in debt, fighting a losing battle against her brother's mounting medical bills and a past that haunts her every step. She doesn't have time for romance, especially not with a man like Alexander Hartley.
Alexander Hartley is a man who buys what he wants.
As the icy CEO of a global empire, Alex lives by logic, duty, and the rigid expectations of his powerful family. He's already engaged to a woman who matches his status-a marriage of convenience designed to secure his legacy. But when he sees the fire behind Ellie's eyes, he makes her an offer she can't afford to refuse:
Become his mistress. He will pay for everything. But he will give her nothing.
The rules are simple: No public appearances. No expectations. And absolutely no feelings.
But as the lines between their agreement and their reality begin to blur, Ellie discovers that Alex is hiding more than just his engagement. Behind his storm-gray eyes lies a man as lonely as she is. In a world of gilded cages and corporate secrets, they must decide if they are willing to burn down their lives for the one thing that wasn't in the contract...
Love.
8.7
Lina Carter was just a waitress trying to make ends meet. On the other hand, Alexander Knight was a billionaire who would do anything to safeguard his empire. When he proposes a deal for her to be his fake girlfriend, it seems straightforward, he act like she loves him, stick to the rules, and walk away with a nice payday. No feelings involved. No strings attached. No room for error.
But as they share fake kisses, those moments turn into lingering glances. What starts as cold, business-like orders shifts into a quiet sense of protection. Suddenly, the line between pretense and reality begins to blur.
Then, out of nowhere, his ex-fiancée reappears-gorgeous, ruthless, and hell-bent on ruining Lina's life. When the truth about their arrangement comes to light, Lina finds herself publicly humiliated, tossed aside as if she never mattered at all. She walks away with her pride shattered, but her heart still whole.
Now, the man who once paid her to pretend is realizing he wants her for real. But some betrayals cut too deep... and some love stories start with a lie that's just too painful to forgive. She was brought in to act. He ended up falling for her for real.
9.0
I married the CEO of the powerful Powers Corporation, and everyone saw me as the perfect trophy wife. They assumed my days were filled with nothing but shopping on Fifth Avenue.
But this prestigious family was a house of cards. My husband's siblings were spoiled, useless children threatening to bring the entire empire down with their stupidity.
His brother, Braden, was a parasite who mistook his trust fund for "freedom." His sister, Chelsea, was a brainless socialite being used as a pawn in a public scandal by a con artist.
Even the family's ruthless Chief of Staff, a man meant to be their shield, looked at me with utter contempt, viewing me as just another problem to be managed.
They all saw a fragile doll. They had no idea that their weakness was an insult to the family name, and I was not going to stand for it.
It was time to discipline the children. The first lesson began at 3,000 feet, when I kicked my brother-in-law out of a plane mid-flight. His rehabilitation—and my takeover of this family—had just begun.
8.8
When Nigerian financial analyst Eniola Adeyemi exposes a 2.3 billion naira money laundering scheme, she becomes the target of powerful criminals who'll stop at nothing to silence her. Her only protection? A contract marriage to Elijah Kingston-the cold, ruthless, American billionaire CEO whose own family is at the heart of the conspiracy. What begins as a transactional arrangement for safety and an heir becomes a dangerous game of power, betrayal, and undeniable passion as they're forced to choose between empire and love.
9.8
Ever since Ryan took her in, Kailey had tried to be sensible and pleasing, shaping herself around his moods.
He'd raised her, but she never saw him as family; she'd been sure they'd end up together.
On the day she turned twenty, ready to confess her feelings again, his beloved woman came back.
Kailey overheard, "Kailey is just a kid to me; I could never look at her that way. The only person I love is Olivia."
She walked away, and Ryan fell apart.
Later, at her wedding, Kailey smiled in white. Ryan pleaded, "I regret it, Kailey. Please don't marry him."
Calmly, she said, "Can you let go? My groom won't appreciate it."