THE BILLIONAIRE'S BETRAYAL: Married To My Ex's Brother
"I GAVE HIM MY LOYALTY. HE LEFT ME TO ROT."
He promised to save her. Instead, he let her take the fall. River was his loyal PA, his fiancée, his secret keeper. But when the crimes Rowan Kane committed came to light, it was she who took the fall and he left her behind bars to rot. The day she walks free, she's in labor with his child. And just two days later, she receives the final blow: He's marrying her best friend. Betrayed. Alone. Furious.
River vows revenge. But fate sends her someone unexpected: Killian Kane, her ex's older brother-once discarded, now powerful and hell-bent on reclaiming what was stolen from him. Including revenge. Including her. He offers River a contract marriage: two years of pretending, plotting, and rising to the top together. But in the shadows of vengeance, something real begins to bloom. Love wasn't part of the plan. But neither was war. Will revenge bring them the justice they crave or awaken a passion neither of them is ready for?
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Chapter 2
River's POV
Nova-my best friend who helped get me out of prison. The one who smiled in my face, held my baby, and told me I'd be fine. There she was, standing in a white dress, holding the hand of the man I loved.
My legs trembled. Rowan's eyes met mine. His face went pale, like he'd seen a ghost. His mouth opened, but no words came. He clearly had no idea I'd been released.
Nova... she saw me too. Our eyes locked...and then she smiled. Like everything was perfect. Like she was the happiest woman on earth. I couldn't breathe.
No one else seemed to notice me standing there like a statue. Just them. I stumbled to the back and sat on a pew. I tried not to cry, but the tears came anyway...hot, heavy, and unstoppable.
I looked up again. They were still standing there, smiling at each other. Why did Nova help me get out? Was it to mock me? To watch me break down?
Then it hit me-she must have been the one who sent that message telling me to meet Rowan here. This was her plan all along.
I remembered how they laughed at the office, the silly jokes they shared, and how they hung out because she worked at the company too. But I never thought it would mean anything.
She was my best friend. She wouldn't betray me... right?
My chest ached, and I felt like I was falling...but there was no one to catch me. I looked down at the engagement ring on my finger. The one I never took off. The one I held onto every single day in prison.
I told myself it meant something. That he loved me. That he would wait. But it was all a lie.
All for nothing.
I wiped my tears with my sleeve and raised my head to watch the rest of the show. I noticed Rowan kept glancing at me like he expected me to cause a scene.
Then suddenly the priest spoke. "If anyone has a reason why these two should not be joined in marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace."
And I stood up.
Every head turned.
Gasps. Whispers.
"Isn't that Rowan Kane's P.A.?"
"The assistant who disappeared after the scandal..." They recognised me. Rowan's hands began to shake. Sweat beaded on his forehead, even in the air-conditioned room.
He thought I'd speak up. Thought I'd reveal everything. But I didn't. I just looked at him for the last time. Then I turned around and walked out of the building.
The doors shut behind me, sealing in the music, the lies, and the pain. I stood outside and took a shaky breath. My eyes were sore...I had no tears left to cry. I slipped the ring off my finger and threw it far into the street.
And there-right in front of that building-I made a promise to myself: Rowan Kane was going to pay for what he did to me. At just 23, he had destroyed my life. Left me with a prison record that would stain everything I tried to build.
Now, I'd destroy him. No matter how long it took.
Piece by piece.
I started walking, trying to flag down a cab. But I was so lost in thought...thinking about everything and nothing all at once...that I didn't see the car. And before I knew what was happening, it knocked me off my feet.
Then pain-blinding and sharp, shooting through me like lightning. I heard shouting. Someone screamed my name or maybe it was in my head.
My baby.
I turned my head just enough to see her on the ground...so small, so still...and then everything went black.
~~~~
When I opened my eyes again, everything was hazy. The light above me was too bright. A steady beeping echoed somewhere nearby.
My head throbbed with a deep, dull ache. I blinked, trying to focus. White ceiling. Hospital bed. The sheet over me smelt faintly of disinfectant.
"My baby", I croaked, my voice dry and cracked. I tried to sit up, but pain shot through my skull, making me groan.
"Ouch..."
"Be careful, dear," a calm voice said beside me. I turned my head slowly and winced. A tall man stood next to me, with kind eyes and a gentle expression. I didn't know him.
"Who are you?" I asked, barely whispering.
"Oh-I'm Killian," he said with a small smile. "I was the one who brought you here. You were hit by a cab, but thank God, it wasn't too serious."
I didn't care about that.
I only cared about one thing. "Where's my baby?" My throat tightened. My heart pounded. Before he could answer, the door opened. A doctor walked in holding a clipboard, wearing the practiced, tired smile doctors always wear.
"Oh, you're awake," he said cheerfully. But I didn't look at him. I couldn't. My eyes locked on the person behind him...a nurse, walking in quietly.
In her arms was my baby.
Safe.
Whole.
Wrapped in the same little blanket I'd tucked around her that morning. I let out a shaky breath, my chest loosening for the first time since waking.
The nurse gently placed her in my arms. "There you are," I whispered. My baby blinked up at me, sleepy and soft. "You need to be careful, please."
"It looks like your baby is just two days old, and you still need more rest after giving birth. This accident could have been worse, but we thank God that you and your baby are fine." His words came with a kind smile.
I felt a soft rush of relief, even as my body still ached from the crash. He turned slightly and nodded towards the man standing quietly near the door. "Thanks also to this gentleman over here who rushed you in on time."
My eyes followed his gaze, and I looked at the man again. "I've prescribed some drugs for you to help with the pain."
"You can leave whenever you're ready; the gentleman has sorted your bills." I couldn't say anything for a moment. My throat felt tight and my eyes began to sting.
"Thank you so much, Killian. I'm so grateful you saved my life." My voice cracked a little, and I quickly wiped the tears from my cheek. I didn't even want to think about what could have happened if he hadn't shown up.
I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if anything had happened to my baby. He gave me a small smile. "Let me know whenever you're ready to leave."
"Oh, it's fine. I can get home myself. You've done enough for me already." I didn't want to bother him anymore. He didn't argue much, but before he turned to go, he asked softly if he could have my number.
I hesitated, looking at him for a moment. Something about it made me uneasy. I didn't want him to come back expecting more than I could give.
He didn't look like the kind of man who helped just to help, and I wasn't sure I was ready to find out if I was wrong.
So I said no.
He didn't push. He just nodded slowly, almost like he had expected it. After a while he still went out of his way to get me a cab. "Be safe," he said softly. I watched the hospital fade behind me as the car pulled away.
I couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened just in the space of two days. Even if I never saw Killian again, I'd always remember what he did for us.
Getting home was slow and painful; every step sent a sharp ache through my body, but I held my baby close and kept moving because I had made up my mind.
I couldn't stay here any longer, not after everything that had happened. I was done waiting for things to get worse. I had already planned to leave the country for good.
I was an orphan with no one to turn to. Now I have to start over somewhere far away and raise my child in peace. Even though my body screamed for rest, I began packing my bags.
I folded clothes with shaking hands, trying not to think about Nova...my best friend who I now knew would betray me. If she could turn her back on me like that, then what else was she capable of?
The night dragged on. I couldn't sleep. I lay on the bed with my baby beside me, staring at the ceiling. I thought about Rowan, about how much I gave him, how much I sacrificed.
And now, he was married to someone else, living a life I thought we were building together. I was lost in that pain when I heard footsteps...soft but steady-somewhere in the house.
My whole body froze. Fear wrapped around me so tight I couldn't breathe. I sat up, my heart racing, and reached for the lamp on the table. It was the only thing I could grab.
I crept out of the room, each step heavy with dread, and when I turned the corner, I saw him...a man in a black hoodie. "How did he get into my apartment?"
I patiently waited for him to get close, and when he did, I raised the lamp, ready to hit him, but he was too fast. He grabbed me...his hand over my mouth, the other tight around my arm.
I fought him with everything I had, and when I broke free, I finally saw his face in the dim light.
It was Killian!
"River," he whispered my name. But it wasn't the way he said it that scared me. It was the look in his eyes.
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9.2
After catching my fiancé cheating with my adoptive sister, I broke off our engagement on the spot.
In retaliation, my abusive adoptive parents sold me to Kaelen Knight, the Lycan King, to clear our pack's debts.
He was rumored to be a ruthless, reclusive monster who had been horribly crippled in a fire centuries ago.
To ensure my absolute ruin, my sister planted fake love letters to my ex in my luggage and anonymously destroyed my university scholarship, cutting off my only escape route to the human world.
"A wolfless whore. You planned to drug me," Kaelen sneered, looking at the fake evidence with absolute disgust.
Believing I was a spy, my new husband had his guards throw me into the freezing woods with the Dire Wolves, leaving me to survive the night alone.
I was just a broken, wolfless Omega, entirely at the mercy of a cruel, powerless Lycan and a family that wanted me dead.
But I was wrong about him being powerless.
One night, I accidentally saw him rise from his wheelchair, his tall frame radiating an overwhelming, lethal aura.
He wasn't crippled at all.
The secret I thought was my shield was actually a loaded gun pointed at my head. Trapped with a terrifying predator, I had to stop playing the victim and fight for my life.
8.1
My husband, Alpha Kaeden, once looked at me with adoration. But after he brought Clemmie home, his eyes turned cold, glazed over by the "herbal tea" she fed him.
Now, I lay chained to a steel table in the dungeon, the smell of my own burning flesh filling the air.
Kaeden stood over me, indifferent to my screams. He ordered the guards to electrocute me through silver cuffs—the poison of our kind—even though he knew I was carrying his pup.
But torture wasn't the end goal. I froze when I heard the doctor’s question.
"The transplant carries risks, Alpha. Taking a heart from a living donor..."
Clemmie didn't just want my husband; she wanted my heart to cure her "sickness" and steal my White Wolf power.
I waited for Kaeden to refuse. Instead, he rubbed his temples and delivered my death sentence.
"Harvest the heart. Dispose of the rest."
"And the fetus?" the doctor asked.
"Incinerate it."
Those words killed me faster than the silver. I died on the operating table that night, my heart flatlining for three minutes to stage my death.
Kaeden thinks I am ash in a jar. He thinks he saved his mistress.
But when I opened my eyes in the safe house, they weren't brown anymore. They were glowing silver.
Beside me, my daughter slept, alive and radiating ancient power.
The weak Luna is dead. The White Wolf has risen.
And I am going home to take back my pack.
8.9
I lay on a mildewed mattress in a run-down motel, my body trembling from withdrawal. Once the most feared "Gossip Queen" in Hollywood, I was now a forty-three-year-old ghost staring at a cracked mirror, waiting for the end.
The door clicked open, and Brittany Potts stepped in, looking immaculate in a beige trench coat that cost more than my life. She didn't come to help; she tossed a waiver of marital assets onto my bed and handed me a cup of coffee laced with something that smelled like bitter almonds.
She laughed, telling me my husband, Bennet, was already in the Bahamas celebrating my death. I froze when I saw the sapphire pendant around her neck—my mother’s necklace, which had vanished the day she died. As the poison began to burn through my chest, Brittany leaned in and whispered her final secret: she was the one who cut the brake lines on the car that killed my father when we were teenagers.
My entire life had been a lie. The pills, the scandal, the bankruptcy—it was all a masterpiece of betrayal orchestrated by the two people I trusted most. I died on that filthy floor, suffocating on my own rage and the taste of chemicals, praying for a single chance to make them pay.
But when I opened my eyes, the pain was gone. I was sitting in my old bedroom, the morning sun shining on a calendar that read September 15, 2024. My mother’s voice, warm and alive, called me for breakfast from downstairs. I was eighteen again, back in my senior year at Crestview Academy, and the monsters who destroyed me were still pretending to be my friends. This time, I’m the one who holds the shears.
9.5
Seven words
9.5
Mara Vance never expected her life to shatter in an instant. But one late-night message-seven careless words never meant for her-exposes the truth her fiancé thought he'd buried.
"She won't suspect anything tonight."
Betrayal should have broken her.
Instead, it sharpened her.
While Marcus scrambles to keep his perfect image intact, Mara begins a quiet, calculated unraveling of everything he cherishes. Not loud. Not messy. No screaming, no scenes. Just a slow, elegant destruction designed to make him question his reputation... his future... and eventually, his sanity.
As old loyalties shift and hidden secrets crawl into the light, Mara discovers that revenge isn't a moment-it's a strategy. And the sweetest payback is the kind no one sees coming until it's far too late.
Seven words ended her trust.
Now seven thousand unspoken plans will end his world.
A tense, intoxicating story of love turned weapon-where the real damage is done in silence.
9.4
I was standing in the center of the gallery, holding a glass of expensive champagne, when the screens behind me flickered and my life ended.
It was supposed to be an art unveiling, but the monitors shifted to fake footage of me handing evidence to the FBI.
My fiancé, Ethan, looked at me like I was a sick dog that needed to be put down.
My father slapped me across the face in front of everyone, disowning me to save his own skin.
That was when Luca Vitti, the city’s most dangerous man, stepped in.
He cleared the room and took my hand.
I thought he was saving me.
I didn't realize he was just collecting a new pet.
I was locked in his estate, isolated and terrified.
Then, my healthy mother suddenly "died" of pneumonia in a Vitti clinic.
Days later, I saw Luca’s frail stepsister, Clara, breathing easily for the first time in her life.
She had my mother’s lungs.
I became nothing more than a breeding vessel.
When I fell pregnant, I overheard Luca and Ethan planning my death.
"Once the kid is cut out, she's a loose end," Luca had said.
They were going to kill me and give my son to the woman who stole my mother's breath.
I couldn't let that happen.
So, I staged a tragedy.
I induced labor in secret, hid my living son, and placed a fake corpse in the crib with a note: The Vitti Legacy.
I escaped while they mourned.
Five years later, Luca finally found the doctor’s confession.
He learned that Clara had orchestrated everything.
He opened the velvet box I left behind and realized it was empty.
Now, he knows I didn't kill his son.
I saved him from becoming a monster like his father.
7.7
"There's no way to kill Alpha Penking."
"Maybe there's one, make sure he has absolute power, never bows to anyone but will crawl to her feet each time she wants it."
Amelia's first life ended when she was ten-when the most notorious Alpha in New York took everything her father owned and killed him.
As if that wasn't enough, he coerced her father into selling his only daughter before death claimed him.
Fifteen years later, Amelia survives as a prostitute, her past buried beneath layers of control, routine, and silence. She lives for two things only: keeping her younger brother alive and nursing the revenge that never died. Every alpha is just a body. Every night is calculated. Her life is controlled-until the night she sleeps with him.
The same man who ruined her life.
Alpha Penking-feared, untouchable, merciless-without her knowing who he truly is.
Yet, her world shatters again.
Because Penking knows her.
Because he watched her grow in the shadows.
Because he knows her real name.
Because he is the one who ruined her and owned her.
Because he serves her a contract that doesn't ask-it commands.
A contract where she belongs to him.
For months.
For life.
No bargain.
No gain.
Trapped between hatred and a bond she never consented to, Amelia begins counting the only freedom she has left-ten ways to kill Alpha Penking. But revenge grows complicated when obsession turns mutual, when power bleeds into possession, and when an impossible consequence binds them forever.
Because the man she plans to kill now owns her body...
And the child growing inside her might decide who survives.