The Billionaire's Contract: Protecting My Secret Son
I sat in a Louis XV-style chair that cost more than my entire education, picking at the peeling leather of my thrift-store handbag. Across the mahogany table, Council Bartlett didn't even look at me; he just checked his watch, treating our marriage like a corporate merger that needed to be finalized before the market closed.
To the world, I was a gold digger hitting the lottery, but I was actually a woman with a secret I guarded more fiercely than a state secret. I had one week to show a social worker a stable home with a husband, or they would take my four-year-old nephew, Leo, and put him back into the system forever.
The ink was barely dry on our marriage certificate when my world started to fracture. My aunt called, screaming for help as her drunk husband broke into her house, forcing me to leave my new "billionaire husband" in my cramped Queens apartment to handle a domestic nightmare with a baseball bat and pepper spray. When I returned, smelling of cheap whiskey and sweat, I found Council’s mother—the ice-cold Hortense—waiting on a video call. She didn't just want a business arrangement; she wanted an heir, and she’d already sent a box of fertility drugs to my kitchen counter to prove it.
I was living a lie in a tenement building, caught between a man who treated me like a line item and a social worker who viewed my life as a "phantom." Council was sleeping on my lumpy sofa, his expensive legs dangling off the end, while I locked the bedroom door every night. I didn't want his money; I just wanted my boy. But how could I survive a war where the enemy lived in a penthouse and the casualties were measured in custody hearings?
Just as Council saw me holding Leo and the "Ice King" finally began to thaw, his phone buzzed with an anonymous threat.
"I know you're faking it. Pay me 100k or the press gets the story."
The blackmailer was someone inside the Bartlett estate, and the "shield" I had built for Leo was about to become our cage.
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Chapter 8
Council sat in his office. The ergonomic chair cost five thousand dollars. It adjusted to his spine perfectly.
But he missed the pain.
He shifted. It was too quiet here.
"Sir." Marcus walked in. He placed a file on the desk. "Updated background check on Addie Henry."
Council opened it.
Former Junior Appraiser, Sotheby's. Specialization: 19th Century European Art.
Reason for leaving: Family medical emergency (Sister's cancer).
Council ran his finger over the text. Sotheby's. That explained the "ROI" comment. That explained why she knew the value of the chair in the law firm. She wasn't uneducated. She had a career. She had a life. And she gave it up to nurse a dying sister and raise a nephew.
He felt a knot of shame in his gut. He had treated her like trash.
That evening, Council returned to the apartment.
The TV was blaring cartoons. Addie was at the small table, typing furiously on a laptop.
"Dinner?" Council asked. He was starving. He had skipped lunch.
"Pot," Addie said, not looking up. "Stove."
Council walked to the kitchen. A pot was sitting on the burner. He lifted the lid.
Instant noodles.
He sighed. "Sodium and regret," he muttered.
He ladled a bowl. He saw something green. Bok choy. And a poached egg, perfectly round, floating on top.
He sat down and took a bite.
The yolk broke, coating the noodles in rich yellow cream. The broth was spicy. It was hot.
It was delicious.
He ate quickly. He scraped the bottom of the bowl.
Leo waddled over. He was holding a stuffed bear.
"Yummy?" Leo asked. "Addie makes best noodles."
Council looked at the boy. Then at the empty bowl.
"It was... edible," he said.
Addie closed her laptop. She walked over to take the bowl.
"Why did you leave Sotheby's?" Council asked suddenly.
Addie froze. Her hand tightened on the ceramic bowl.
"Family," she said.
"To take care of him?" Council nodded at Leo.
Addie turned to face him. Her eyes were tired but clear.
"Some things are more valuable than antiques, Mr. Bartlett. Like people."
The room went quiet.
Council looked at her. Really looked at her. In his world, people were assets. They were depreciating assets. No one had ever told him that a person was worth more than the bottom line.
"Bath time, Leo," Addie said, breaking the tension. She scooped the boy up.
Council sat alone. He heard the water running. He heard Leo splashing. He heard Addie laughing.
It was a sound he had never heard in the Bartlett manor.
He pulled out his phone.
To: Marcus
Subject: Sarah Henry
Message: Stop the investigation. Delete the file.
The bathroom door opened. Leo ran out, naked and wet, escaping the towel.
He slammed right into Council's legs.
"Gotcha!" Leo shrieked.
Council didn't recoil. He didn't push the wet child away.
He reached down and picked him up. He held the boy awkwardly, but securely.
Addie stepped out of the bathroom, holding the towel. She stopped.
She saw the billionaire, the Ice King, holding her nephew against his expensive sweater.
And for a second, he didn't look like a devil. He looked like a father.
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9.1
He was a ruthless CEO who always got what he wanted until he noticed her, a homeless girl surviving outside his office building. Quietly proud, clever, and impossible to read, she became the one woman who refused to fall at his feet, forcing him to chase for the first time in his life.
As she steps into his workplace, she faces ridicule, betrayal, and a wealthy woman determined to erase her from his world. While his family pushes him toward an arranged marriage with an entitled heiress, his heart is already bound to the girl everyone underestimates.
In a world ruled by power and status, she must prove her worth through strength and integrity, while he learns that love cannot be bought, controlled, or inherited.
8.1
Content Rated 🔞🔞
This book contains explicit sexual scenes, obsession, morally grey characters, toxic desires, raw emotions, family dramas, dark romance themes, and psychological tension.
Stay off or get burned.
Just kidding! Dive dive in and enjoy the fire.😉😉
.............
"These sharp lips," he growls against my throat, grazing his teeth on my pulse, "they already cost me my soul. And now they'll moan my name...." his hand drags down my waist, gripping it harder, finding its way to my bare throbbing core. "and learn exactly who they belong to."
*******
One brother owns her future.
The other is addicted to her ruin.
Meeka Clemson is engaged to marry Nathaniel DeWitt, the billionaire heir her family chose, the man she's secretly loved for years. But one reckless mistake changes everything.
One forbidden night with a stranger she should never have touched. A man who held her like he intends to keep her.
Slade is everything she shouldn't want. He's dark, obsessive, scarred and dangerous.
And worst of all? He's Nathaniel's older brother.
Slade doesn't believe in restraint. He doesn't believe in sharing. And the once he tastes Meeka, he refuses to let go.
Every stolen touch becomes a betrayal. Every secret meeting pulls her deeper into the obsession. And the closer the wedding gets, the more ruthless Slade becomes, willing to destroy his brother, his family, and even his own name just to claim her.
Now Meeka is trapped between duty and desire, safety and sin. Between the man she's meant to marry, and the man who will burn the world before letting her walk away.
Because Slade doesn't do mercy, he does destruction, and he possesses. And he'll stop at nothing until she's his.
9.1
What would a woman do if one day she is waiting for her husband to tell him the news of her pregnancy but he comes home with another woman who is pregnant with his child?
........
Ariadne had a perfect life until her mother died in a car accident and her father remarried, bringing a stepmother and stepsister into her life. Once adored by all, Ariadne became an eyesore to everyone, including her father. Her stepmother and stepsister took everything from her.
However, she lost it when their eyes fell on Xander, the sole heir of the richest family in the country and her childhood love. When rumors of Crystal, her step sister and Xander's dating spread, Ariadne used her everything to force Xander into marrying her.
Despite pouring her heart and soul into the marriage Ariadne failed to make Xander reciprocate her feelings. Their loveless marriage came to an end when Crystal returned in their lives.
With a broken heart, Ariadne left the city with a secret and rebuild her life.
Five years later, she returned as a successful interior designer to design her ex-husband's new mansion. But this time, what she saw in Xander's eyes for herself was not hatred. It was something else.
She came face to face with the same people who had wronged her in the past. They still held resentment towards her. But this time Ariadne vowed to strike back at her bullies.
Many secrets were revealed in the process that made Xander regret his past actions. He determined to win Ariadne back.
BUT Will Ariadne be able to forget their past and get back together with Xander or She will choose someone else?
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.
7.0
My chest tightened with anticipation, five years of shared struggle culminating in this moment at the Manhattan penthouse banquet. But Chace, my partner, didn't look at me; he turned to Karyn, sliding his family's heirloom emerald ring onto her finger. Then, his voice echoed through the hall, dismissing me as "nothing but an asset under my name to provide entertainment."
My smile froze, the room erupted in laughter, and a cruel kick sent me sprawling, spraining my ankle on the cold marble floor. Karyn mocked me, but it was Chace’s icy gaze that truly shattered me. He dismissed our past, threatening my mother’s grave and my father’s life if I didn't "stay in your place and be an obedient dog."
The man I bled for, starved for, fought for, was a complete stranger, a monster veiled in cold disdain. My heartbreak bled out, replaced by a reckless, destructive madness. This wasn't just humiliation; it was an execution.
Retreating to the lavish restroom, my mind sharpened. I unblocked a forbidden number, a name whispered with terror in the New York underground: Keith Mosley. My text was brief: "I am ready to pay my debt." His reply flashed, stark and dominant: "The price is marriage." This wasn't a price; it was my knife.
7.2
Kayla Robinson is at her breaking point. After catching her boyfriend and her best friend, in the backseat of her own car, her world shatters. To make matters worse, she's broke and in debt.
Just when she thinks she has hit rock bottom, her powerful, and intimidating boss, Damien Blackwood, CEO of Blackwood Industries makes her an offer she can't refuse.
Damien needs a wife to secure his corporate empire, and he's chosen Kayla for the role.
She must play the part of the powerful Mrs. Blackwood while fighting her growing attraction to a man who is as dangerous as he is handsome.
Now she's part of a high stakes game. When secrets unfold and traitors are revealed, would she be able to see it through? How long will it take for her to fall for Damien and breach her contract? Or will Damien fall for her first?