Silent Vows: Protected By The Billionaire
The $50 million lawsuit notice on my phone screen was a violent, pulsing red. My father’s corporate espionage had finally caught up to us, and he was ready to throw me to the wolves to save his own skin.
To survive, I signed a contract marriage with the predator himself—Alaric Hunter, the very man currently dismantling my family’s legacy.
But the moment we left City Hall, my father turned into a monster. He called the hospital and canceled the private care for my dying mother, moving her to a miserable state ward just to break my spirit for "disobeying" him.
"I will find the money," I hissed, even as my throat threatened to close from the paralyzing stress.
"You’ll come crawling back when that monster dumps you!" my father roared, leaving me standing in the rain with nothing but a battered suitcase.
My ex-boyfriend, the man who actually falsified the documents that framed me, mocked me from his Ferrari, while Alaric’s own business rivals planted hidden cameras in our new penthouse to watch our every move. I was a legal shield, a corporate asset, and a target all at once.
I didn't understand why Alaric was suddenly paying my mother’s medical bills in secret or why he looked at me with such chilling intensity. Was I just a tool for his voting shares, or was he the only person in this city who actually wanted me safe?
I looked at the files Alaric left on the marble counter, filled with evidence against everyone who had ever hurt me. I was done being the victim of a hostile takeover; it was time to show them what happens when a Hunter’s wife decides to start hunting.
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Chapter 5
The Maybach purred as Alaric's driver parked it in the private garage beneath a glass tower in Tribeca.
He looked up at the structure. It was a gleaming spear of steel and light. Exposed art installations hung in the lobby. A flickering holographic display cast long, dancing shadows against the polished marble. It looked more like a modern museum than the derelict warehouses Hunter Industries was scheduled to demolish next month.
"This is it," Alaric said, his voice small. "Penthouse. Direct elevator."
Alaric didn't blink. He grabbed her heavy suitcase from the trunk as if it weighed nothing. "Lead the way."
The elevator was silent, ascending with unnerving speed. The doors opened directly into the apartment. By the time they arrived, Grace was panting. Alaric wasn't even winded.
Alaric used a thumbprint to open the massive steel door. It swung open with a faint hiss.
Alaric made a mental note: Add her biometrics.
The apartment was a cavern of glass and white furniture. The living room held a sprawling sectional sofa and a wall that was a single television screen. The kitchen was a gleaming expanse of stainless steel.
Grace turned to him. "Per the agreement, we have separate rooms. But... I don't see any other doors."
Alaric looked around. "This is the guest wing. My quarters are on the second floor. This entire level is yours." He rubbed the back of his neck, a feigned gesture of casualness. "Actually, Grace, I have bad news. The holding company that absorbed your gallery's debt? It got shut down today. Your professional accounts are frozen."
Grace's eyes widened. "What? So you have nothing?"
"Zero," Alaric lied smoothly. "I can't access your professional funds. But I'll handle your expenses. Consider it an advance."
Grace's face softened. The tension in her shoulders dropped. "It's okay. We're both in the same boat. We'll... figure it out." She pointed to the en-suite bathroom that was larger than her old bedroom. "You should shower. You're soaked."
Alaric stepped into the bathroom. It was so large his footsteps echoed. The showerhead was a rainfall fixture the size of a dinner plate. When he turned the knob, the water was instantly and perfectly hot.
He stood under the powerful spray, a billionaire in a perfect shower, wondering what the hell he was doing.
"I found the guest closet!" Grace called out.
Alaric turned off the water and wrapped a thick, plush towel around his waist. He stepped out.
Grace was holding up a pair of pajamas. They were charcoal grey silk. They were plain, minimalist, and exquisitely tailored.
"It's from the closet," Grace explained, her face turning bright red. "It was in a drawer marked 'Guest Attire'. It's a men's large. It's the only thing that will fit you."
Alaric stared at the dark silk. His left eye twitched. "Thank you."
"Take it or leave it," Grace said, tossing it at him. "Or sleep naked."
She ducked into the kitchen to hide her blush.
Alaric sighed. He pulled on the pajamas. They were ridiculously soft. He looked in the mirror, ran a hand through his damp hair, and snapped a selfie. He texted it to Marcus.
Proof of life. Send the asset protection agreement to my personal email.
Marcus replied with a single thumbs-up emoji.
When Alaric walked out, Grace was placing two steaming bowls of what looked like takeout ramen on the massive marble island. She looked up, saw the perfectly fitting pajamas, and bit her lip to keep from staring.
"Dinner is served," she said.
Alaric sat down. He looked at the noodles. He looked at his wife, who was trying so hard to be brave in a gilded cage. He picked up his fork.
"Thank you," he said.
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8.7
"I hate you, Aiden! I hate you! And trust me... you'll never find anyone who'll love you the way I did."
Tears streamed down Charlotte Parker's face as she stormed into her room, packing the last pieces of her broken heart. This time, I knew I'd messed up. And there was no going back.
Charlotte Parker is a kind, beautiful, and well-mannered 22-year-old with dreams of becoming a popular writer. But life has other plans. With her family struggling, she's forced to step up... whether she's ready or not.
Aiden Kingston, on the other hand, is everything she can't stand. Arrogant. Rude. A notorious playboy. And the cold-hearted CEO of a million-dollar company. For Aiden, keeping his inheritance means one thing: marriage. Fast.
Both blindsided by an arranged marriage neither of them asked for, their worlds collide in the most chaotic way. Charlotte is water, soft but strong. Aiden is fire, uncontrolled and burning through everything in his path.
But Aiden has a secret. One that could destroy whatever fragile peace they're trying to build.
Will he let his walls down for her?
Can Charlotte see past his mistakes and frozen heart?
Or will the hatred between them grow so deep it consumes them both... for good?
7.0
At their first meeting, Vanessa dazzled as the heiress of an elite family, while Shawn survived as a broke, hardworking student.
He fell for her-then she shattered his illusion with a sneer. "Do you think you're even in my league?"
Years later, Shawn returned as a rising attorney and heir to a powerful family, backed by wealth and influence.
Disgraced and frantic, Vanessa fought to free her parents, framed and jailed.
She dropped to her knees and begged for his help.
He said coolly, "Be my lover-until I'm done with you."
To her, it was his revenge. But Shawn knew it was the love he'd wanted.
8.5
Alexandrea woke up with a splitting headache in a strange hotel bed, terrified to find a brutally handsome, half-naked stranger beside her.
Before she could even scream, the door burst open. Her adoptive mother, Ivette, stormed in with a swarm of reporters and flashing cameras.
"How could you disgrace our family name like this?"
Ivette sobbed, putting on a theatrical performance of a heartbroken mother. It was a setup to completely ruin Alexandrea's reputation in front of New York's elite.
For ten years, Alexandrea had lived in a house of horrors. Her back and arms were covered in silvery scars and puckered cigarette burns left by Ivette's vicious abuse.
Yet to the public, Ivette had carefully crafted Alexandrea's image as a wild, ungrateful, and manipulative liar.
Trapped under the duvet, Alexandrea was drowning in shame, her voice lost in the storm of accusations.
She didn't understand why her adoptive family hated her so much, treating her worse than a stray dog while using her brother's future to keep her chained.
But what she understood even less was the stranger beside her.
Instead of panicking, the man slowly sat up, his presence alone silencing the frantic room. He was Ace Griffith, the billionaire heir who owned half of Manhattan.
He wrapped his suit jacket around her trembling shoulders, looked Ivette dead in the eye, and dropped a bomb.
"I will be marrying her."
Then, he carried Alexandrea away from her ten-year prison, ordering his men to dig up the Terry family's darkest secrets and her true identity.
7.6
Bridget caught her fiancé tangled in the sheets with another woman. She left the engagement ring behind and, in a moment of reckless defiance, had a one-night stand with Damond Oneill, the most terrifying billionaire on Wall Street.
But her nightmare was far from over. Her biological father threatened to destroy her mother's company if she didn't crawl back to her cheating ex to secure a business merger.
Worse, she found her mother coughing up bright red blood, secretly hiding a fatal illness. Desperate to save her family, Bridget attended a high-society gala, only for her ex and her legitimate half-sister to slip a powerful drug into her champagne. Trapped on a locked balcony, her body burning and paralyzed, she watched her ex approach to assault and film her.
"Let's see how arrogant you are when the drugs kick in."
She didn't understand why her own blood treated her like disposable trash. Why was she always the pawn while her mother suffered in secret? The absolute despair almost broke her.
Just as he grabbed her dress, a deafening explosion shattered the glass door.
Damond stepped through the ruin, brutally crippled her ex, and claimed her as his own. But when Damond's team traced her mother's secret medical funds to a highly classified Swiss clinic, Bridget realized the real war had just begun.
9.7
I died with blood pooling and betrayal.
My fiancé never loved me-he only wanted. My stepsister never saw me as family. And when I discovered I was carrying his child and tried to expose their affair, they shoved me into a shattered glass table and left me to bleed out alone.
But I woke up a year earlier, with my voice miraculously returned and a second chance burning in my chest.
This time, I refuse to be the silent, obedient sacrifice they used and discarded. This time, I'll make them pay. And when a ruthless billionaire offers me an impossible deal-a fake marriage to save his crumbling empire, I accept without hesitation.
They still see me as that broken, voiceless girl who couldn't fight back.
They have no idea I've already won.
7.1
Celeste Hart vanished after a night with Damien Kane, leaving the world's richest man haunted by the memory of a butterfly tattoo. What he doesn't know is that she carried his greatest secret-four children whose gifts could rival empires. Years later, Celeste returns, cloaked in success and secrecy, determined to stay hidden as she takes a job in Damien's company. But the closer they grow, the harder it becomes to conceal the truth. With family betrayals lurking, children desperate to find their father, and a love too powerful to ignore, their lives are set on a collision course. And when the truth is revealed, nothing will ever be the same.