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 5
Three days later.
Elizabeth sat on the white leather sofa in the penthouse. She scrolled through the digital edition of the New York Post on her phone.
There he was. Dorian Underwood, sitting in a VIP booth at a SoHo club, a blonde model draped over his lap. His smile was lazy and arrogant.
Her phone vibrated, replacing the photo with an incoming call. Kerr Goodwin.
She swiped to answer.
"Get to the estate for dinner tonight," Kerr barked through the speaker. "You've been married three days and your husband is already publicly humiliating you. You're making us look like fools."
Elizabeth stared at the city skyline. "I'll be there." She hung up before he could say another word.
At seven o'clock, her cab pulled up to the wrought-iron gates of the Goodwin estate in Long Island.
She walked through the heavy front doors alone. The air in the house was stale, thick with years of unspoken resentment.
She walked into the dining room. Kerr, Meredith, and Jami were already seated at the long mahogany table. The silence was suffocating.
Jami looked up. A fake, sympathetic pout formed on her lips. "Where's Dorian? Couldn't drag him away from the club?"
Meredith scoffed, slicing her steak with unnecessary force. "What did you expect? A man like that doesn't take a foster system stray seriously."
Elizabeth pulled out a chair and sat down. She picked up her heavy silver fork and knife, her face completely blank. She ignored them.
Her silence hit Meredith like a physical blow. The older woman slammed her hand onto the table. The crystal glasses rattled.
"You ungrateful little bitch," Meredith hissed. "We took you in. We fed you. And you destroy your sister's engagement with your filthy tricks!"
Elizabeth slowly raised her eyes. Her gaze was dead, devoid of any emotion.
"Who put the drugs in my champagne, Meredith?"
The temperature in the room plummeted. Kerr stopped chewing. He turned his head slowly, staring at his wife.
Meredith's face flushed a violent shade of red. Panic flashed in her eyes before anger swallowed it. "You lying whore! You carry the trash genes of whatever junkie left you in the system!"
Jami sniffled loudly, dabbing her dry eyes with a napkin. "Acey and I love each other. You just couldn't stand to see me happy. You had to steal him."
Elizabeth dropped her fork onto the porcelain plate. The sharp clatter made Jami jump.
Elizabeth let out a cold, hollow laugh. "Steal him? Jami, you can keep the garbage. I just took out the recycling."
Jami's face crumpled. She looked at Kerr. "Daddy, make her stop!"
Kerr threw his napkin onto the table. He pointed a thick finger at Elizabeth. "Apologize to your sister right now. You are a disgrace to this family."
Elizabeth pushed her chair back and stood up. She looked at the three of them, feeling nothing but absolute disgust.
"I came here to tell you one thing," Elizabeth said, her voice eerily calm. "I am done. I owe the Goodwin family nothing. Do not call me again."
She picked up her purse from the empty chair next to her.
Meredith shrieked. She grabbed her half-full glass of red wine and hurled the liquid across the table.
Elizabeth twisted her body, but the dark red wine splashed across the side of her black dress. It dripped down the fabric like fresh blood.
Elizabeth stopped. She turned her head slowly and locked eyes with Meredith. The sheer, murderous intent in Elizabeth's stare froze the older woman in her seat.
Elizabeth didn't say a word. She turned on her heel and walked out of the dining room, leaving the toxic rot of the Goodwin family behind her forever.
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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.