Stealing The Groom For Sweet Revenge
I was an unwanted foster kid taken in by the Goodwin family, about to marry into the wealthy Cantu family to secure my adoptive father's power.
But at my rehearsal dinner, my adoptive mother drugged my champagne, intending to have me assaulted and ruined.
The next morning, my fiancé and my sister burst into my hotel room with a swarm of reporters, pointing fingers in manufactured horror.
"You filthy whore! The engagement is over!"
My fiancé roared for the cameras, while my sister sobbed about my betrayal. They had brought the press to publicly slaughter me, justifying their own secret affair while my adoptive family cursed me as a disgusting stray.
For years, I had endured their toxic abuse, only to be thrown to the wolves so my sister could steal my life. They truly believed I was just a helpless pawn they could crush and discard.
But they didn't know I had anticipated their trap and deliberately walked into the bed of Dorian Underwood—the ruthless billionaire and the only man the Cantu family actually feared.
As I calmly hit 'send' to broadcast my fiancé's explicit sex tape to every reporter in the hallway, I met Dorian's dark, predatory gaze.
I wasn't just surviving anymore; I was going to tear both their empires to the ground.
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Chapter 2
Morning sunlight sliced through the gap in the heavy blackout curtains, hitting Elizabeth directly in the eyes. She blinked, her eyelashes heavy.
Her muscles ached with a dull, persistent throb. She turned her head against the feather pillow. Dorian was asleep beside her, his broad back rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
The memories of the night crashed into her brain. She pushed the duvet off her bare legs. The air conditioning chilled her heated skin. She picked up the discarded silk robe from the floor and slipped it over her shoulders.
Footsteps thundered in the hallway. Muffled, urgent whispers.
Then, the sharp beep of a master keycard.
Elizabeth's spine stiffened. She spun around, sat on the edge of the mattress, and deliberately pulled the lapels of her robe wide open, exposing her marked collarbone.
Dorian shifted. The noise woke him. He frowned, sat up slowly, and grabbed his own robe, pulling it over his shoulders with an irritating lack of urgency.
The bedroom door flew open, slamming against the wall.
Grandma Cantu stood in the doorway, leaning heavily on her silver-tipped cane. Her face was a mask of purple rage.
Behind her stood Jami, her eyes wide with a flicker of confusion before she forced them into manufactured horror, and Acey, whose face was already twisting into a violent scowl.
Jami slapped both hands over her mouth. "Oh my god!" she shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at the bed. She had stormed down the hallway primed for room 402, only to find it empty and the presidential suite door left ajar; now, seeing Elizabeth here instead, the shock in her voice carried an unscripted edge.
Acey's face turned a mottled red. He lunged forward. "You filthy whore!"
Grandma Cantu slammed her cane into the hardwood floor. The sharp crack echoed in the room. "What is the meaning of this, Dorian?"
Dorian leaned back against the tufted headboard. He lazily tied the belt of his robe. A slow, mocking smirk touched his lips.
"Exactly what it looks like, Grandmother," Dorian said. "We had a wonderful night."
Acey roared. He rolled up his sleeves and took a step toward the bed, his fists clenched.
Dorian's smirk widened into a lazy, taunting grin. He didn't even bother to stand up. "Go ahead, cousin," Dorian drawled, gesturing toward the flashing cameras in the hall. "I'm sure tomorrow's headline, 'Cantu Heir Throws Tantrum and Assaults Man in Bride's Bed,' will do wonders for the stock price. Give the press a real show." Acey froze mid-step. The mockery in Dorian's voice hit him harder than a fist, and the reminder of the cameras drained the impulsive rage from his chest, making him suddenly unwilling to cross the distance.
Seeing Acey back down, Jami rushed to the side of the bed. Tears spilled over her perfectly applied blush.
"How could you do this, Elizabeth?" Jami sobbed, her voice cracking. "How could you betray Acey? You ruined the wedding! You ruined everything for both our families!"
In the hallway behind them, the distinct click and flash of camera shutters erupted.
Meredith and Jami had brought the press. They wanted her publicly slaughtered.
Elizabeth lowered her head. She let her shoulders shake, playing the part of the broken, caught woman. Beneath the curtain of her hair, her lips curved into a cold smile.
Grandma Cantu barked at the bodyguards in the hall. "Get those vultures out of here!"
It was too late. The flashes had already captured the scene.
Acey pointed a shaking finger at Elizabeth. "I will never marry a disgusting bitch like you."
He puffed his chest out, looking at the remaining reporters in the hall. "The engagement is over. I am done with her."
Jami's eyes gleamed with triumph. She stepped back and wrapped her arms around Acey's waist, pressing her face into his shoulder to comfort him.
Grandma Cantu pointed her cane at the door. "Get your things and get out of my hotel, Elizabeth."
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. The execution was complete.
Dorian turned his head. He caught the slight shift in Elizabeth's posture. He saw the predatory glint in her eye as she lifted her head.
He leaned back, resting his arms on his knees. The show wasn't over.
Elizabeth reached out and picked up her phone from the nightstand. She wiped a dry eye with the back of her hand.
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9.4
Michael Carter is an undercover FBI agent on a mission to take down ruthless mafia king Fernando Ramírez-the man he believes killed his sister. But getting close to Fernando means playing a dangerous game, one where seduction and power blur the lines between enemy and lover.
When Michael uncovers a shocking truth, his thirst for revenge turns into a fight for something far more dangerous-his own heart. Now, torn between duty and desire, he must decide: destroy the man he swore to take down or surrender to the one thing he never saw coming.
Love has never been more lethal.
7.2
Azura Briggs was just a broke college student working freezing valet shifts to pay her adoptive mother's crushing medical debt.
Her desperate life shattered the night a bulletproof Maybach violently cornered her in an alley, and a ruthless billionaire kidnapped her by mistake.
After a harrowing escape, Azura was forced to take a humiliating "plus-one" gig at a high-end gala just to survive. But her date turned out to be the billionaire's arrogant nephew, who promptly abandoned her to the wolves. Cornered by a sleazy executive and his psychotic wife, Azura was publicly slapped, her dress torn, and left bleeding on the floor while hundreds of elites watched in disgust.
Just as she prepared to fight to the death, the crowd violently parted. Hunter Mcintosh, the terrifying man who had kidnapped her days ago, dropped to his knees in the broken glass and wrapped his bespoke jacket around her trembling shoulders.
Azura was completely paralyzed. Why was the monster who threatened her life now destroying billionaires just to protect her?
But the illusion of safety didn't last. Trapped in his Maybach hours later, Hunter threw a draconian employment contract at her feet.
"Sign it, and her care is covered. Forever."
He knew exactly how to break her. He was offering to pay off her mother's debt, but only if she signed her life away to become his personal assistant. With no other way out, Azura picked up the heavy pen.
8.5
Five years ago, Nina Hale lost everything... her family, her reputation, and the man she once loved. Betrayed by her own sister and abandoned by those she trusted most, she disappeared without a trace.
Now she's back.
With a new identity and a burning determination, Nina is ready to reclaim her life and chase the dream she once gave up: becoming a star actress. But her return awakens old enemies, and her scheming sister Lydia is determined to ruin her again.
Just when Nina thinks things can't get worse, she's caught in another trap... and unexpectedly crosses paths with a quiet, lonely little boy.
Ethan Grant hasn't spoken in years.
Feeling responsible for him, Nina agrees to stay and help the child come out of his shell. But she didn't expect Ethan's dangerously charming father, Lucas Grant, to enter the picture.
Cold, powerful, and impossible to read, Lucas slowly finds himself drawn to the woman who brightens his son's world.
What begins as a simple act of kindness soon turns into something far more complicated, because Nina came back for revenge.
She never planned to fall in love.
**********
"I saw you with him," Lucas said quietly, but the tension in his jaw gave him away.
Nina exhaled, crossing her arms. "You don't get to care."
"Don't I?" He stepped in, close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes.
"This is just a contract."
"Then why does it bother me?" His hand hovered near her waist, not touching-yet.
"It shouldn't." Her breath faltered.
His gaze darkened, "And yet it does."
9.6
My world revolved around Jax Harding, my older brother's captivating rockstar friend.
From sixteen, I adored him; at eighteen, I clung to his casual promise: "When you're 22, maybe I'll settle down."
That offhand comment became my life's beacon, guiding every choice, meticulously planning my twenty-second birthday as our destiny.
But on that pivotal day in a Lower East Side bar, clutching my gift, my dream exploded.
I overheard Jax' s cold voice: "Can't believe Savvy's showing up. She' s still hung up on that stupid thing I said."
Then the crushing plot: "We' re gonna tell Savvy I' m engaged to Chloe, maybe even hint she' s pregnant. That should scare her off."
My gift, my future, slipped from my numb fingers.
I fled into the cold New York rain, devastated by betrayal.
Later, Jax introduced Chloe as his "fiancée" while his bandmates mocked my "adorable crush"-he did nothing.
As an art installation fell, he saved Chloe, abandoning me to severe injury.
In the hospital, he came for "damage control," then shockingly shoved me into a fountain, leaving me to bleed, calling me a "jealous psycho."
How could the man I loved, who once saved me, become this cruel and publicly humiliate me?
Why was my devotion seen as an annoyance to be brutally extinguished with lies and assault?
Was I just a problem, my loyalty met with hatred?
I would not be his victim.
Injured and betrayed, I made an unshakeable vow: I was done.
I blocked his number and everyone connected to him, severing ties.
This was not an escape; this was my rebirth.
Florence awaited, a new life on my terms, unburdened by broken promises.
9.5
"You shouldn't be here, Fiona," his deep voice rasped against her ear, his hand still pressed against the wall behind her.
"Then tell me to leave," she whispered, her lips trembling inches from his. He didn't move. He didn't breathe. And in that moment, she knew he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
Fiona Harry has lived her whole life in a golden cage of wealth, reputation, and suffocating rules. University was supposed to be her escape, her first taste of freedom. But nothing could prepare her for the moment she came face-to-face with Professor Jalen Hart, her father's best friend. One reckless night changes everything. A drunken mistake turns into an irresistible obsession, pulling her deeper into Jalen's forbidden world. But secrets don't stay hidden forever. Between Jude, her possessive friend who knows too much, Marian, Jalen's wicked wife, and the dangerous power of desire, Fiona is about to risk not only hers and her family's reputation but her entire future.
And what happens when the truth comes out especially to Marian?
8.9
The mangled car teetered on the cliff's edge, my leg crushed, gasoline fumes thick in the air. My husband, Holden, stood safe on the highway, directing the rescue – but not for me. He was saving her, the woman in the passenger seat, leaving me and our unborn child to the ocean below.
I woke trapped in the crushed Maybach, leg pinned. The cliff loomed; the driver's seat was empty.
Holden, safe outside, directed paramedics past me to Giana, his "most valuable asset," ordering her rescue first.
I watched him comfort Giana, oblivious, as the car slid. My baby barely viable. Holden offered a black card for silence; Giana gloated.
Ten years of devotion, a cruel lie. Rage fueled me: how could he abandon his wife and child?
I swore a venomous oath: never again an accessory. I flicked his card away, shielded my pregnancy, and promised my baby escape.