Runaway Lover: Escaping The Ruthless Billionaire
For fifteen years, I thought my mother had died in a tragic fire.
Then the wealthy Ross family's butler knocked on my door, revealing she was alive—locked away in the psychiatric annex of their massive estate.
I rushed into the lion's den to save her, only to run straight into Graydon Ross, the ruthless billionaire CEO.
He looked at my cheap clothes with pure disgust, convinced I was a bottom-feeding scammer trying to extort his family.
"Throw this bitch out into the snow."
He ordered his armed guards to drag me away, completely cutting off my only chance to see my mentally broken mother.
But as he violently grabbed my collar to throw me out, I saw a custom eagle-head cufflink hanging from his coat pocket.
My blood turned to ice, and a wave of paralyzing terror crashed over me.
Eight months ago, I accidentally slept with a masked stranger in a pitch-black hotel room and fled before dawn.
That cufflink belonged to him.
The man who took my virginity—the Wall Street tyrant I had been hiding from—was Graydon Ross.
If he ever found out I was that woman, he would literally destroy my life.
But to save my mother, I couldn't be thrown out.
When his grandmother suddenly appeared, I dropped to the floor, exposed the dark bruises Graydon had just left on my wrists, and sobbed.
I framed the billionaire for assault to secure my place in the mansion, forcing myself to live right next door to the monster whose bed I had fled.
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Chapter 7
Graydon pulled a silk pocket square from his chest pocket. He wiped violently at the tea stain on his trousers, his movements so aggressive he nearly tore the fabric.
Tinsley shook like a leaf. "Graydon, I'm so sorry!" she cried, her voice pitching into a panicked whine. She reached out to help him wipe the stain.
Graydon took a sharp step back. His eyes sliced into her like razors. "Do not touch me with your filthy hands."
Tinsley recoiled as if she had been slapped. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Humiliated and terrified of Graydon, she spun around and directed all her venom at Caroline.
"This is your fault!" Tinsley shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at Caroline's face. "If you hadn't moved, the tea wouldn't have hit him!"
Caroline stared at her, utterly disgusted by the twisted logic. "So I should have stood there and let you burn my face off just to save his pants?"
Graydon tossed the ruined silk square directly into the roaring fireplace. The flames swallowed it instantly. He looked at Caroline, his voice dripping with Wall Street cruelty.
"This is exactly like restructuring a toxic asset," Graydon said, his words cold and precise. "You introduce a poisonous element into a clean ecosystem, and it contaminates everything."
The phrase "toxic asset" hit Caroline like a physical blow to the chest. She clenched her jaw so hard her teeth ached.
Emboldened by Graydon's insult, Tinsley puffed out her chest. She looked right at Matilda and screamed the family's dirtiest secret.
"She doesn't even deserve that bracelet! Her mother Lorelei was just a stray! A pathetic orphan the family bought from an asylum!"
The words struck Caroline like lightning. Her brain buzzed. She turned her shocked eyes to Matilda, silently begging the old woman to deny it.
Matilda's face turned grim. She gripped her cane tightly and yelled at Tinsley to shut up, but she didn't deny the accusation. Her eyes darted away from Caroline's.
It was true. Caroline felt the floor drop out from under her. She had zero Ross blood in her veins. She was a complete stranger in a house of monsters.
Graydon watched the color drain from Caroline's face. A sick sense of satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.
He walked back to the bar cart and poured another drink. "You're just a defective replica," he said smoothly. "Stop trying to climb a ladder that doesn't belong to you."
A crushing wave of humiliation threatened to drown Caroline. But years of fighting ruthless corporate sharks had forged her spine out of steel.
She took a deep breath. Instead of crying, she straightened her shoulders. A cold, razor-sharp smile spread across her lips.
She looked Graydon dead in the eye. "Good. Since we aren't related, I won't feel a shred of guilt when I drain that trust fund dry."
Tinsley let out a furious scream. She lunged at Caroline like a wild animal, her manicured claws reaching for the Cartier bracelet.
Caroline easily sidestepped the sloppy attack. Her hand shot out and grabbed a gooey, chocolate-covered macaron from the silver tea tray.
As Tinsley stumbled past her, Caroline slammed her hand flat against the back of Tinsley's pristine, white Chanel tweed jacket. She smeared the sticky chocolate deep into the expensive fabric.
A massive, dark brown stain ruined the haute couture instantly.
Tinsley looked over her shoulder. When she saw the stain, she let out a blood-curdling shriek and practically collapsed onto the sofa.
Caroline wiped the chocolate crumbs off her fingers. Her eyes were dead cold. "Street dogs bite hard. Don't test me again."
Matilda watched the chaos. Instead of being angry, a faint glimmer of approval shone in her old eyes. Caroline was a survivor.
Graydon's grip on his whiskey glass tightened. He stared at Caroline. She hadn't broken down. She had fought back with a vicious, calculating cruelty that completely contradicted her cheap clothes.
It fascinated and disgusted him at the same time.
Caroline ignored them all. She turned to Matilda, her voice hard. "I want to see my mother. Now."
Matilda nodded slowly. She gestured for Finch. Caroline turned her back on Graydon's piercing stare and marched out of the room.
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8.1
Born into luxury, Hermione Watson-Pierce has always felt like merely a pawn in her parents' ruthless game of power. She learned to suppress her emotions, earning herself the title of the "Ice Queen."
Just then, Aiden Mendes bursts into her life-a charming playboy known for his reckless reputation. Aiden chooses to cope with his inner turmoil through a lavish lifestyle, using his charisma and striking looks to keep others at bay.
A looming threat forces them to face a contracted marriage or risk losing their inheritance. When they first meet, Aiden is struck by an unexpected attraction, as if it were love at first sight. Yet, his notorious reputation precedes him, and Hermione makes no effort to hide her disdain.
As their contractual marriage evolves into a battle of wills, Aiden must work to melt Hermione's icy heart, proving that he is more than what meets the eye. But can he persuade her to rise above her prejudices and bravely pursue love?
8.9
I returned to New York for my welcome-home party, expecting a warm embrace from Edwin, my devoted fiancé of twenty years.
Instead, his first words to me were a cold, public warning to stay away from his new girlfriend, Kacy.
He stood in my family's hotel, shielding a girl I had never even met, and painted me as a vicious, jealous bully.
"She is very sensitive, Kaitlyn. Her background is tough. Please, be gentle with her. Don't upset her."
He humiliated me in front of our entire elite circle, allowing them to mock me as the aggressive, discarded ex while he carried her away like a fragile princess.
For twenty years, I had been his loyal shadow, fixing his mistakes and loving him unconditionally.
I couldn't understand how decades of deep devotion could be instantly erased by a few crocodile tears and a manipulative damsel act.
He was absolutely certain I would throw a tantrum, cry, and eventually crawl back to beg for his attention.
But he was wrong.
He didn't know that Everett Rowe, a billionaire tech mogul, had been patiently waiting five years to marry me.
He also didn't know that during my three years abroad, I wasn't just studying art—I became "K.B.", the ruthless Wall Street predator who could swallow his family's empire whole.
I calmly pulled out my phone, ignored the mocking whispers around me, and typed a single message to Everett.
"Yes. I'll marry you."
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.
7.2
For ten years, Aurora was abandoned by her wealthy family to rot in the countryside.
When she finally returned, there was no warm welcome. The Lott family only brought her back to replace her adopted sister in an arranged marriage with Damian Yates, a notoriously violent, crippled billionaire, just to save their bankrupt company.
Her grandmother mocked her as uneducated trash. Her fake sister feigned disgust at her very presence.
When her biological father desperately tried to stop them from sending his daughter to her death, the family turned on him.
Her grandmother struck her father across the face, kicked the three of them out of the manor into the freezing rain, and arrogantly declared they would starve on the streets by nightfall.
They thought Aurora was just a helpless, pathetic hillbilly who would quietly accept being sold as livestock.
They had no idea that over the past decade, she had survived the darkest corners of the world, becoming a lethal operative with unimaginable power.
Standing in the cold rain, Aurora didn't shed a single tear.
She calmly pulled out her encrypted phone, personally canceled the billionaire's marriage contract, and ordered her hacker to completely freeze the Lott family's accounts.
"Total financial annihilation. Burn them to the ground."
But as she watched her abusers' legacy crumble, a classified file arrived on her phone, revealing that the very billionaire she just rejected was tied to her mother's unsolved murder.
The real hunt was just beginning.
8.4
After being kidnapped for years and finally rescued, five-year-old Izzy thought she was going home to her wealthy biological family.
But when the social worker brought her to the freezing bus station, her biological father, Conrad, didn't even get out of his Mercedes. He took one look at her tangled hair and worn-out shoes, his lip curling in disgust.
"I have a real family now. I'm not disrupting my life for this."
He drove away, leaving her choking on his exhaust fumes. When her rough, grease-stained uncle Bryan forcefully brought her to the family mansion, things only got worse. Her biological mother refused to touch her, complaining that she smelled like a dumpster. Her half-sister Katelynn pushed her to the ground, making her bleed, and framed her for stealing. Instead of helping, Conrad roared at Izzy, calling her a wild animal and threatening to throw her back onto the streets.
Izzy stood there shivering in her oversized rags, watching them stand together in a perfect, unbroken circle. She didn't understand why her own blood looked at her like she was a monster, or why they were so eager to throw a traumatized child back into the dark.
But what her wealthy family didn't know was that Izzy had a secret: she could hear plants talking. And the greenhouse orchids were screaming at their cruelty. So, she climbed onto their expensive coffee table, pointed at her mechanic uncle, and made her choice.
"I don't want Conrad to be my daddy. I want Uncle Bryan."
She walked out of that loveless mansion forever, ready to follow the whispers of an old apple tree in her new backyard—a tree that was about to guide her to a buried fortune of gold.
7.5
For three years, I was trapped in a paper marriage to a billionaire I had never met, until my father forced me to finally visit his hotel suite.
But when I walked in, I found my husband, Bryton Lott, heavily drugged by my own father. Stripped of all reason, Bryton violently pinned me down and took my innocence, making me a pawn in my father's sick scheme to force a pregnancy and save his bankrupt company.
After escaping his feral grip, I overheard Bryton call my father. He called me a useless, invisible wife, vowing to hand me divorce papers the second he saw my face. The nightmare didn't end there. When I brought a priceless antique jade bracelet to my mother's birthday, she slapped me across the face in front of the entire elite crowd. My stepsister publicly accused me of selling my body. Hiding in the shadows, I even heard my mother admit she wished I was dead, only keeping me around to exploit my marriage.
I had played the obedient, impoverished daughter for years, enduring their endless abuse just to protect my grandmother's legacy. Why did my own flesh and blood treat me like a sacrificial lamb to be sold and destroyed?
The last thread holding my heart together completely snapped. I left the multi-million dollar bracelet on the cold stone sill and walked out into the freezing night. Snapping my everyday SIM card in half, I pulled out an encrypted satellite phone and activated my true identity as the underground world's top operative, "King."
"Run a full hostile intelligence sweep on Apocalypse Corp."