The billionaire's beautiful marionette
"Be my wife."
Lucia looked at him, questioning his sanity.
"You're out of your mind.I don't even know you ".
Lucas Mariano's voice was icy, his gaze unreadable.
"You need help.Your sister requires care.I can help you both.You have quite the image so I'm sure you'll need it.
It's transactional-nothing more."He finished.
Once the rising star in the ballet world, Lucia Moretti's life is shaken after a brutal divorce and a terrible fire that leaves her and her sister homeless.
Now, with her dreams buried,her heart is guarded and her main focus is keeping both herself and her sister alive.
Enter Lucas-Merciless, cold and sinfully compelling.He offers a contract marriage which comes with everything Lucia needs but at a cost she doesn't understand...yet.
What started as a formality quickly grows into something far more twisted when her ex-husband,Matt-lucas's best friend-returns, determined to have her again.
"You got married to Lucas?" Matt snarled,fury dripping from his voice.
"Is this your revenge?" He continued icily.
No, Lucia said without emotion.
"This is survival."
As sparks fly and secrets come to light, Lucia Finds herself torn between a past that nearly broke her and a man who might shatter her in a brand new way.
In a world of socialites, betrayal and fake love, Lucia must ask herself: Is she the puppet or the one holding the strings?
Chapters
Share
Chapter 4
Lucas's pov
The rain ceased when I stepped back into the hospital, but the call with Matt lifted my spirits a bit before a familiar chill attacked and clung to me like the past-unchangeable and bitter.
My shoes clacked against the tiles drawing a few glances from nurses. I didn't take too much notice of them. I moved like a man with purpose.
Lucia.
Her name felt like a memory in my mind. Short. Soft but layered with strength.
She had disappeared down that hallway thirty minutes ago and I remained outside longer than I had hoped. The call from Matt came to mind again but I quickly shoved it aside. My mind was elsewhere.
Not on my mother's diagnosis or business or my empire waiting for me but on Lucia.
The fierce woman who intrigued me, a feat few women managed to achieve.
She reminded me of my sister - Clara.
I hadn't really thought of her in months. Years, maybe. Not really. But something about Lucia - the flames hidden in her icy eyes,the sharp edge of her voice, her natural instinct to protect someone smaller - brought back memories of Clara I had buried beneath towering buildings and business deals.
Clara had been soft but fierce. A gazelle in motion. At thirteen, she had twirled her way into national competitions and won as the youngest in her class. The paparazzi couldn't get enough of her,calling her a ballet prodigy. I just called her gazelle.
Until the day the music stopped playing. A car crash. Instant death.
I hadn't been there to save her.
I couldn't save her.
But maybe, just maybe, I won't be so useless this time.... maybe I could do something finally.
I moved past the hallway where Lucia had passed through and found the billing desk. My voice, low but commanding.
"There was a young woman here. Lucia. Mid twenties. She brought in a younger patient today - Sophia."
The receptionist, a slender woman with worn out eyes blinked slowly. "I - I can't give you information on our patients sir."
"I'm not asking for bullshit information," I said smoothly. "I'm here to settle the medical bills for the girl."
The woman was skeptical. "Even if I had the power to allow that - these things require authorization."
I leaned forward, producing my black card and sliding it across the counter like a secret weapon. The receptionist looked at it with wide eyes before I continued, "you'll find that authorization comes quite quickly when the hospital board is partly funded by Marano group charities,love."
The receptionist looked flustered now.
"Right. Forgive me sir."
I didn't stick around for the process. I moved back into the hallway, my eyes scanning for Lucia.
I found her outside the pediatric ICU.
She stood as her arms were wrapped around her body, her back against the wall, head tilted back like she was communing with a ceiling that had no God.
Her eyes were tightly shut, lashes wet.
She murmured words too quiet to hear.
I didn't disturb her.
I just stood there and watched.
And for a second something squeezed in my chest. She was so tiny next to the huge hospital walls. So loud in her quietness. Everything about her screamed vulnerability - and yet not once did she beg for assistance.
She really reminded me of Clara.
She seemed like someone who still had faith that love alone could hold the world together.
When she finally opened her eyes, she saw me. Her expression darkened.
"You again," she said, cleaning her cheeks. "What,you want round two of the vending machine?".
I couldn't help but offer the smallest of smirks. "Thought, I'd check if you somehow managed to win the snack war."
She exhaled before laughing loudly. "Not quite sir. The war continues till I get my twix."
It was my turn to laugh now, she still managed to be funny which was impressive.
"How's your sister?" I asked, shifting the mood quickly.
Lucia's jaw tensed before she replied. "She's stable for now. But they're refusing to run some of the scans for her. Because I can't afford them."
Her voice cracked just a little.
I didn't let my expression waver as I continued, "What if you could?"
Lucia blinked.Three times."What?"
I shifted forward, my voice even."What if someone already handled it?"
She frowned deeply."What are you talking about?"
"I mean," I said, sliding my hands into my pockets," your baby sister's medical bills have been paid for. In full."
She went deathly still.
"No way." She shook her head defiantly. " I can't accept it. I didn't ask for that. I didn't want that."
"I didn't do it because you asked for it."
"Then why?" she snarled,tears falling now.
"Because you felt pity for me? Is that it?
Am I part of some kind of billionaire charity project now?"
I didn't flinch at her words.
"I did it," I began calmly, "because I lost someone once.someone who danced like the entire world was at her feet.someone who would still be alive if she had been helped sooner."
She stared at me,surprised.
"I don't need rescuing," she murmured softly, but her voice wavered.
"I'm aware," I replied, moving closer.
"That's precisely why I did it. Because you're too proud to ask."
For a long moment, she stayed silent as her eyes examined the floor then she whispered,"Thank you."
I nodded once."You're welcome."
Before she could say more,my phone buzzed. I took a quick look at it.
Matt Richards - again.
"Excuse me, I need to answer this," I said, stepping out.
I answered Matt's second call with practiced calmness."Mr.Matt."
His voice boomed through."Twice in a day - this must be destiny Lucas."
I smirked."or just poor timing."
"Same difference. Just checking in because I'm bored. Thought I'd trouble your ass a little more before your work swallows you whole."
"You're doing a perfect job of troubling me now."
"Well good.Anyway tell your mother I said hi though. And hey - next time we hit LA, let's swing by that poker place you love so much. God knows we need to gamble for real."
"I'd be careful if I were you, you know you always lose right?" I said with amusement in my voice.
"It's still fun regardless."
"So no drama in your life, huh?"
My eyes darted back towards the hallway where Lucia stood a few seconds ago.
"No drama," I said coolly. "Just..a storm on the way."
Matt laughed. " Ain't that the truth. Catch you later Mr. Ghost Marano."
"Later asshole."
I ended the call, pocketed my phone and shifted my gaze towards the hospital where Lucia stood moments ago. I didn't believe in fate or destiny.
But this?
This felt like an opportunity, a second chance in disguise and I would gladly take it.
You may also like
9.5
My boyfriend, Jefferson, convinced me to give up my Yale scholarship for him. He was my secret, my escape from the shame of my mother's past, and I threw away my future for our love.
Then, at a gala, he publicly announced his engagement to Aubrey Carroll-the girl who made my high school years a living hell.
He trapped me in his mansion, forcing me to become her personal servant. She tortured me daily, culminating in her brutally killing our dog, Charlie, with a garden trowel.
When her friends arrived, they joined in, stripping me half-naked and live-streaming my panic attack for the world to see.
The man who once promised to protect me watched as they destroyed me.
But as I lay bleeding out on the floor, it wasn't an ambulance that arrived. It was the private security of Alexzander Stevens-my estranged, billionaire grandfather.
He revealed I was his sole heiress, and now, we were going to make them pay for every last tear.
8.7
On her eighteenth birthday, Elinor thought she was finally an adult. But a single text message reminded her she was just property.
Boyd Walker, the ruthless billionaire who dictated her every breath, threw a contract onto her bed. He had bought her adoptive father's medical debt—one billion dollars. And she was the sole collateral.
The punishment for even a hint of rebellion was catastrophic.
When her disabled friend tried to check on her, Boyd had his good leg shattered in front of a live security feed just to teach her a lesson.
When she fought off an entitled frat boy at school and came back with a bleeding arm, Boyd didn't comfort her.
Driven by a twisted, suffocating jealousy, he held her under a freezing bath, then tied a red thread with a silver bell around her ankle.
"You are a pet that needs to learn its boundaries."
Every time she moved, the high-pitched ring was a humiliating reminder of her gilded cage. The billion-dollar debt was a chain she could never break, and the monster holding the leash would destroy anyone who dared to help her.
Stripped of her money, her friends, and her dignity, Elinor lay completely still in the dark room for three days, refusing all food and water.
If Boyd wouldn't give her freedom, she would take the only thing she had left to control—her own death.
7.8
Twenty minutes before the "Wedding of the Century" at The Plaza, I stood outside the Presidential Suite in a fifty-thousand-dollar Vera Wang gown. I was the girl from a West Virginia trailer park about to marry Hugh Maxwell, the golden heir to a billion-dollar defense empire.
I pushed the door open only to find Hugh pinned against the bed with my own stepsister, Floy. She was wearing my bridal diamond necklace, and the sounds of their laughter scraped against my eardrums like sandpaper.
I didn't scream; I listened as Hugh grunted that once the wedding was over and the trust fund unlocked, he’d dump "that hillbilly trash" on a bus back to the mountains. They weren't just cheating; they were planning to steal my family’s land deeds and leave me with nothing. When I set off the sprinklers and exposed their naked bodies to the paparazzi, the Maxwell family didn't apologize. They called me a "greedy peasant" and threatened to ruin my life unless I signed a new deal to save their crashing stock.
I realized then that I was never a bride to them. I was a transaction, a rounding error in a ledger to be used and discarded. They thought my poverty made me weak and my silence made me a victim.
"If we don't have a marriage certificate by midnight, the bank freezes thirty percent of our liquidity," their lawyer warned.
So, I gave them exactly what they wanted. I used a loophole in their hundred-year-old family covenant and married the only other direct heir available. I didn't marry Hugh. I walked into the ICU and married his uncle, Fleet Maxwell—the legendary war hero who had been in a vegetative state for months.
Now, I am the matriarch of the Maxwell dynasty. I’ve suspended Hugh’s executive powers, exiled my mother-in-law to the Swiss Alps, and taken control of the family vault. They think I’m just a gold-digger waiting for a "corpse" to die so I can collect a fifty-million-dollar widow's payout.
But last night, as I lay beside my comatose husband, the man they called a vegetable gripped my hand back.
7.6
I am the illegitimate, mute daughter of the wealthy Owen family, kept hidden in the attic like a shameful secret.
To save his failing company, my father decided to sell me off to a repulsive, predatory investor named Grossman.
At the family dinner, Grossman's sweaty hands roamed my bare legs while my half-sister Kaleigh intentionally spilled red wine on my dress, laughing as she watched me suffer.
When I grabbed a steak knife to defend myself, my father slammed his fist on the table.
"Sit down, or I will cut off the maintenance payments for your mother's grave."
My stepmother and sister sneered, treating me like a piece of meat meant to be sacrificed for their luxury. I was starved, locked away, and treated worse than a stray dog, all while my family paraded their high-society status to the world.
I couldn't understand why they hated me so deeply, or who really ordered the hit that killed my mother twenty years ago. The police reports were buried, and I was entirely powerless, trapped in a house of monsters.
But they didn't know that the night before, I had accidentally stumbled into the secret life of Burleigh Livingston—the ruthless, supposedly paralyzed billionaire who was faking his madness.
When Burleigh suddenly crashed our family dinner and threw a limitless Black Card on the table to outbid Grossman and buy me for the night, I didn't hesitate.
I grabbed the handles of his wheelchair, accepted his twisted deal, and prepared to use the devil himself to tear my family apart.
8.0
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, mine didn't.
I came back with a marriage certificate bearing a stranger's name, a ring worth more than my parents' love ever was, and a son whose father I've never seen, never known, never remembered.
I went to Vegas for a racing competition. I won. I celebrated. And somewhere between the victory and the sunrise, my life changed forever.
For six years, I've lived with the consequences of one reckless night. I built an empire. I raised my son. And I searched for the man who changed my life without even knowing it.
Then fate laughed in my face.
My sister married my ex-fiancé-the man I was promised to since childhood. The man I was supposed to become Mrs. Windsor for. The man who now wears my family name... and looks far too much like my child.
Every time I'm near him, the past presses closer. Every glance feels like a question I'm terrified to ask. I shouldn't notice him. I shouldn't feel anything. He is my sister's husband.
But some secrets refuse to stay buried.
Because the truth about Vegas isn't just in the ring on my finger or the child in my arms.
It's standing right in front of me.
And when it finally comes out, it won't just destroy a marriage, it will burn an empire to the ground.
7.1
I lay paralyzed on stiff white sheets, a prisoner in my own skin, listening to the rain lash against the window like nails on a coffin. My father, Elmore Franco, didn't even look at my face as he checked his clipboard. He just listened to the steady, monotonous beep of the heart monitor-the only thing proving I was still alive.
Without a hint of remorse, he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed the Do Not Resuscitate order. My stepmother, Ophelia, stepped out from behind him, wearing my favorite pearl necklace and smelling of cloying perfume. She leaned close to my ear to whisper the truth that turned my blood to ice.
"It was the tea, darling. Just like your mother. A slow, tasteless poison."
She chuckled as she revealed that my fiancé, Bryce, had a two-year-old son with my sister, Daniela. My inheritance had been funding their secret life for years, and now that the money was secure, I was an inconvenience they were finally scrubbing away. As my father yanked the power cord from the wall, the beeping died, and the darkness swallowed me whole.
I was being murdered by my own flesh and blood, used as a bank account until I was no longer needed. I died in that sterile room, drowning in the realization that every person I ever loved was a monster who had been waiting for me to take my last breath.
Then, I gasped. I woke up in a luxury hotel suite surrounded by silk sheets, five years in the past-the very morning of my wedding. Next to me lay Basile Delgado, the "Wolf of Wall Street" and my family's most dangerous enemy. In my first life, I ran from this room in a panic and lost everything. This time, I looked at the man who would eventually destroy my father's empire and decided to join him.
"I'm not leaving, Basile. Marry me. Right now. Today."