The Billionaire's Contract Lover
Ruby and Leo were never meant to fall in love. Their relationship began as a simple contract two strangers with broken pasts agreeing to play the perfect couple for their own reasons. Rules were clear, no emotions, no complications, no crossing the line. And for a while, it worked. Stolen glances were ignored, lingering touches dismissed, and the quiet comfort between them carefully denied.
But somewhere between late night conversations and shared silences, the lines blurred.
Just when everything began to feel real, she returned.
Leo's ex, beautiful, confident, and carrying a past that refused to stay buried walked back into his life as if she had never left. With her came secrets, unresolved feelings, and a truth that threatened to shatter everything Ruby thought she understood.
Suddenly, the contract didn't feel like protection anymore it felt like a lie.
Caught between what was fake and what had become painfully real, Ruby must decide if she's willing to fight for a love that was never supposed to exist. And Leo must face the past he never truly let go of.
Because sometimes, the hardest part isn't pretending to love it's admitting that you already do.
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Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
You have to choose
After a long pause, Richard sat again. His voice was softer, almost hesitant-a tone Leo rarely heard from him.
"Leo... you're alone."
Leo froze.
Richard's gaze softened.
"Your mother was everything to me. When she died, I lost more than a wife. I lost the one person who made this house a home."
Leo swallowed hard.
He rarely spoke of her.
Richard almost never did.
"Son," Richard continued, "you work all day, travel all year, and come home to empty penthouses. You don't attend parties, date. Do you even trust people?
Look at you, you're drifting away."
Leo's chest tightened.
He hated how accurate that was.
"You think marriage will fix that?" he muttered.
"Not instantly," Richard admitted. "But you need someone, Leo. Someone to share the weight. A person who isn't afraid of your world."
Leo looked away.
"What if I never find that person?"
Richard paused.
"Then maybe you already have."
Leo frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Richard raised an eyebrow.
"I saw the news. The incident yesterday. You stopped traffic to help a girl."
Leo stiffened.
"You investigated her?"
"Of course," Richard said simply. "It's my job to know who my son interacts with."
Leo's jaw clenched.
"Ruby is not someone for you to interfere with."
Richard studied him carefully.
"So you do care."
Leo froze.
He didn't expect the conversation to turn that fast.
"She was injured," Leo said quickly. "That's all. Anyone would have helped."
"Not anyone," Richard corrected. "Most people would have driven off, especially in your position."
Leo looked down, remembering Ruby's frightened eyes.
Richard continued, voice thoughtful.
"She looked... gentle."
Leo blinked. "You saw her?"
"A picture from the security footage."
Leo's hands curled into fists.
"Dad, stay out of this."
Richard sighed.
"I'm not saying she's the one. But she triggered something in you. You can't deny it."
Leo didn't answer.
Richard walked closer, placing a hand on the desk.
"Leo, you have two options."
Leo raised his eyes slowly.
"One," Richard said, "you find someone you can build a life with. Someone you choose."
Leo exhaled shakily.
"Or two," Richard continued calmly, "I choose for you."
Leo's heart dropped.
"I won't let you arrange my marriage," he said firmly.
"Then find someone," Richard insisted. "Before the end of the year."
Leo stepped back.
"That's-"
"Fair," Richard interrupted.
Leo stared, speechless.
Richard straightened his cuffs.
"The world is watching you. The board is watching you. And I am watching you most of all."
Leo swallowed hard.
"And if I refuse?"
Richard sighed, the sound heavy with finality.
"Then I will appoint your brother as the next CEO."
Silence.
The kind that broke something inside Leo.
His hands trembled slightly-anger, frustration, betrayal, fear.
Richard softened just a little.
"Leo... I want you to be happy. But I also need you to secure the future of this family."
Leo looked away, jaw tight.
He didn't have an answer.
*******
Later, after the meeting, Leo walked out of the mansion, his steps heavy. He got into his car but didn't start the engine.
He stared at the steering wheel, breathing slowly, fighting the storm inside him.
He leaned back and closed his eyes.
Ruby's face appeared behind his eyelids-soft, gentle, frightened, strong.
Her voice replayed:
"People like you don't talk to people like me."
Leo exhaled shakily.
Across the city, Leo pushed open the front doors of Saint Rowland Medical Center, the familiar scent of disinfectant and sterile air hitting him at once.
He hated hospitals. The bright white lights, the constant beeping of machines, the low murmurs of doctors and nurses-it all felt suffocating. But today, he needed to be here.
He needed to see Blake.
It had been years since they last saw each other, ever since Leo left for business school abroad and Blake dove headfirst into medical studies. Life has been busy. Complicated. Heavy. And now, with the weight of his father's latest decision pressing on him, Leo needed someone who wasn't afraid to tell the truth.
The receptionists looked up as he walked in. Recognizing him instantly, they whispered among themselves. Everyone knew the Carter's family-one of the wealthiest in the country. Leo was used to attention, but today, he ignored it.
He took the elevator to the fifth floor, where Blake often took breaks between surgeries. As he approached the resting lounge, he spotted a tall figure in a white coat leaning over a table, flipping through patient files.
Leo grinned.
"Dr. Blake Harrison," he called out dramatically. "Saving lives and breaking hearts, I see."
Blake froze, then slowly turned.
The moment he recognized Leo, his face broke into a wide smile.
"Leo?" he exclaimed. "Holy-get over here!"
They embraced tightly, the kind of hug that came with years of history-childhood fights, shared secrets, teenage stupidity, dreams whispered under star lit rooftops.
When they pulled apart, Blake shook his head in disbelief. "You look richer every time I see you," he teased.
"And you look sleep deprived," Leo shot back.
"Occupational hazard."
They sat down across from each other, the reunion warmth fading into something steadier, more serious.
"So," Blake started, leaning back. "What brings you here? You don't visit hospitals unless someone forces you or you break a bone."
Leo sighed. "My dad."
Blake nodded slowly. "Let me guess... another business move?"
"It's more than that," Leo replied. "He wants to merge Carter's Industries with an international conglomerate. He plans to step down eventually. Which means-"
"Which means everything will fall on you," Blake finished.
Leo rubbed his palms together anxiously. "Exactly."
He slumped back in his chair, eyes drifting to the window. "I'm not ready for it, Blake. I'm not even sure I want it. But my father... he's already decided."
Blake folded his arms, observing him quietly. "Has he discussed it with you properly? Or is this another 'expectation' he's dropping on your shoulders?"
Leo let out a bitter laugh. "You know my father."
"Yeah," Blake muttered. "I do."
They sat in silence for a moment, letting the weight of the situation settle.
"You know," Blake said softly, "you don't have to follow the path he chose."
Leo looked at him, eyes tired. "But if I don't... who will? My father trusts me. He built everything from scratch. He believes this merger will secure our legacy for decades. If I walk away, it'll crush him."
"Leo," Blake said firmly, "you're not responsible for carrying the dreams he created for himself."
Leo stared at him, absorbing the words.
"I wish it were that simple," he whispered.
Blake leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. "Maybe it's not simple. But you're allowed to want something different. You're allowed to breathe."
Leo laughed lightly. "And do what? Travel? Paint? Start a café?"
"If that's what makes you happy," Blake answered without hesitation.
Leo's laughter faded, replaced by a small, grateful smile.
Just then, a nurse poked her head into the room. "Dr. Harrison, they need you in Ward C."
Blake nodded. "I'll be there in a minute."
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7.7
For three years, Avery Woods lived a lie. Trapped in a high-stakes psychological "simulation" designed by her own father, she was forced to endure the life of a discarded trophy wife, scrubbing floors and suffering in silence to temper her mind into a weapon.
When the simulation shattered, Avery emerged as the Sovereign-the most experienced CEO in human history, having lived twenty years of strategic warfare in a matter of months. She tore down her father's global conglomerate, erased the world's digital memories, and sought a quiet life in the shadows.
But you cannot delete a god.
Now, a year after the "Great Erasure," the world has gone dark, but the connection remains. Four hundred million people are syncing up through a biological "Chorus," using their own neural pathways to rebuild a decentralized, inescapable Hive Mind. At its center is Mila, a child who is more code than flesh, and the only anchor strong enough to stabilize a new reality.
From the high-tech bunkers of Moscow to the hallucination-filled "Dead Zone" of the Sahara, Avery and her protector-assassin, Julian Vane, must race to stop the Chorus before it rewrites the physical world.
The satellites are dead. The servers are gone. But the Silence is screaming.
8.7
I sat at a mahogany table in River Oaks, clutching the strap of a pilled black dress from a life I’d lost five years ago. I was an exile in a world of old money, just trying to survive a dinner party I didn't belong in.
Then the doors opened, and Baron Lowery walked in. He was no longer the boy I’d loved, but a powerful man with eyes like a storm front. When the host asked if we’d met, Baron didn't even blink.
"I don't know her," he said.
The erasure was a physical blow. His new girlfriend spent the night mocking my "quaint" legal aid work and calling me a washed-up gold digger. Baron didn't defend me; he watched my humiliation with a cold, predatory stillness. During a game of Truth or Dare, he stared me down, waiting for a confession. To protect his career and the secret of my father’s federal crimes, I looked him in the eye and told the ultimate lie: "No regrets."
He retaliated by pinning me against a concrete wall in a dark stairwell, crushing his mouth to mine in a kiss that felt like a punishment. He told me I wasn't worth the effort and left me. I retreated to my real life—a moldy trailer and a blackmailer named Harvey who was forcing me into a marriage to save my father from prison.
I thought I’d hit rock bottom until Baron’s silver Bentley pulled up to my slum. He didn't come to apologize. He flipped open a checkbook, scribbled fifty thousand dollars, and held it out like I was a common streetwalker.
"One night," he demanded. "Do whatever I say, and it's yours."
I looked at the man I’d sacrificed my entire soul for and realized he’d finally become the monster I'd tried to save him from. I shoved the check back in his face and ran into the rain, leaving the billionaire staring at the trailer park, unable to understand why the "gold digger" he hated so much wouldn't take his money.
9.7
Five years ago, I took ten million dollars from my fiancé's grandmother and abandoned him to save my father from dying in federal prison.
Today, working three jobs just to survive, I ran into him while substituting as a music therapist at a VIP clinic.
He is now a powerful Wall Street billionaire, standing beside his beautiful fiancée and their little girl.
He trapped me, threw a stack of hundred-dollar bills at my face, and mocked me for being a pathetic gold digger who blew through his family's money.
Bound by a strict non-disclosure agreement, I couldn't defend myself and fled in absolute humiliation.
But fate wasn't done torturing me. That same afternoon, my four-year-old daughter—his secret child—was suspected of having severe leukemia.
At the hospital, exhausted and terrified, I briefly leaned on a kind doctor friend's shoulder to cry.
I had no idea my ex-fiancé was inspecting the new medical wing and watching us from the shadows.
Seeing the child's bouncy curls, he mistakenly thought I had jumped into another man's bed and built a perfect family using the money I stole from him.
Driven by insane jealousy and blind rage, he ordered his assistant to completely destroy the innocent doctor.
"I want him to know what happens when you take what belongs to me."
Watching my daughter's pale face, I knew my peaceful life was over. To save her life, I had to walk right back into the devil's den.
9.0
I died on the cold delivery table, bleeding out while the heart monitor flatlined.
Through the blinding surgical lights, I heard my husband Damon's cold, final order to the doctors.
"The child is the priority."
He didn't care about my life. To him, I was just a vessel to produce an heir, a tool to fulfill his prenuptial clause and secure his billionaire empire.
While I took my last agonizing breath, he was already planning his future with his fragile, theatrical mistress, Jasmin.
In my past life, when he first brought her into our home claiming she was a helpless victim, I shattered.
I screamed, threw vases, and played the hysterical wife perfectly.
My desperate pleas for his affection only gave him the exact weapons he needed to ruin my reputation, isolate me, and ultimately force me onto that fatal delivery bed.
Until my very last moment, the suffocating pain in my chest wasn't just physical.
I couldn't understand how the man I loved could treat my death like a simple business transaction.
Why was my absolute devotion rewarded with a carefully calculated execution?
But then, my eyes snapped open.
I was sitting on the edge of my king-sized bed, exactly three years before my death.
From downstairs, I heard Damon's voice echoing in the foyer, bringing Jasmin into our home for the very first time.
This time, the scream building in my chest turned to ice.
I didn't cry or throw a fit.
Instead, I calmly swallowed a secret birth control pill, smiled at his mistress, and dialed the most ruthless divorce lawyer in Manhattan.
8.1
On her eighteenth birthday, Arabella's life was destroyed when thugs attacked her and left her reputation in pieces. Brenton played the hero, sent the men to prison, and married her, becoming the man she trusted most.
For two years, she believed he had saved her, until one overheard confession shattered everything. "If she had pushed a little harder, she might've figured out Brinley was behind the whole thing. That's the only reason I married her. Lucky for me, she's so easy to fool."
He had only married her to protect the woman who truly mattered to him. When that woman came back, Arabella chose divorce without hesitation.
Brenton expected her to come crawling back. "How can she even survive without me?"
Instead, she rose in the tech world, untouchable, brilliant, and far beyond his reach-just in time for another powerful man to claim her heart.
Then Brenton begged, "Baby, I messed up. Just give me one more chance. Please."
But the tycoon pulled her into his arms. "Baby? Please. She's my wife now."
7.5
For three years, I was trapped in a paper marriage to a billionaire I had never met, until my father forced me to finally visit his hotel suite.
But when I walked in, I found my husband, Bryton Lott, heavily drugged by my own father. Stripped of all reason, Bryton violently pinned me down and took my innocence, making me a pawn in my father's sick scheme to force a pregnancy and save his bankrupt company.
After escaping his feral grip, I overheard Bryton call my father. He called me a useless, invisible wife, vowing to hand me divorce papers the second he saw my face. The nightmare didn't end there. When I brought a priceless antique jade bracelet to my mother's birthday, she slapped me across the face in front of the entire elite crowd. My stepsister publicly accused me of selling my body. Hiding in the shadows, I even heard my mother admit she wished I was dead, only keeping me around to exploit my marriage.
I had played the obedient, impoverished daughter for years, enduring their endless abuse just to protect my grandmother's legacy. Why did my own flesh and blood treat me like a sacrificial lamb to be sold and destroyed?
The last thread holding my heart together completely snapped. I left the multi-million dollar bracelet on the cold stone sill and walked out into the freezing night. Snapping my everyday SIM card in half, I pulled out an encrypted satellite phone and activated my true identity as the underground world's top operative, "King."
"Run a full hostile intelligence sweep on Apocalypse Corp."