The Billionaire's Disguise: Rising From The Ashes
I spent two years sweating on construction sites, hauling drywall and mixing cement, just to give Brittni the normal life she said she wanted. On our anniversary, I sat in our dark kitchen with a plate of homemade fettuccine and a one-carat diamond ring I’d saved six months of wages for, waiting for her to come home.
Then my phone pinged. An Instagram notification showed Brittni at a luxury rooftop gala, a bottle of Dom Perignon on ice, and a wealthy socialite’s hand resting possessively on her waist. She was wearing the expensive red dress I bought her for her birthday—the one she told me was "too fancy" for our simple dinner dates.
The caption read, "Back with my queen," and Brittni had replied with a single red heart. Minutes later, she texted me: "Stuck at a late-night board meeting, babe. Don't wait up. Love you!" I looked at the cold, congealed pasta and the jagged scar on my ribs from my time in the special forces, realizing the last two years were nothing but a lie built on her pity and my desperate need for normalcy.
I didn't scream or throw my phone. Instead, a strange, predatory calm washed over me—the "Ghost" persona kicking in to shut down the noise of heartbreak and focus on mission parameters. I was done being the "simple builder" who worried about rent while she used me as a placeholder until a "better" man came along.
I walked to the closet, pried up a loose floorboard, and pulled out a gold signet ring bearing the Hubbard family crest—the symbol of the multi-billion-dollar empire I had rejected five years ago. I dropped the modest engagement ring into the trash on top of the wasted pasta and dialed a number I had sworn never to call again.
"It's time, Harve. I'm coming home."
The motorcade was dispatched before I even hung up. As I stepped into a blacked-out Cadillac and watched the $50 million deposit hit my account, I realized how small Brittni’s world truly was. She thought she was trading up for a Rolex and a social media tag, but she was about to find out that the man she just ghosted was the heir to the very empire that owned her future.
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Chapter 5
Brittni paced the length of her luxury condo in the Gold Coast, her heels clicking frantically on the hardwood. She held the cheap engagement ring in her fist, the metal digging into her palm.
She remembered Ace's hands. They were rough, calloused, always stained with dust or paint. She had once found them charming, a sign of honest work. Recently, she had found them embarrassing to hold at industry mixers.
She opened Instagram again. She went to Jefferson's post-the one at Soho House.
There was a notification she had missed.
Ace_Builder liked your post.
Her blood turned to ice.
"He saw it," she whispered. "He saw everything."
The 'like' wasn't a mistake. It wasn't support. It was a goodbye note.
She dialed her executive assistant, Sarah.
"Track Ace Hubbard's social security number," Brittni ordered, her voice shaking. "I need to know where he went. Check the rental databases, check the Greyhound tickets."
Ten minutes later, her phone rang.
"Ma'am..." Sarah sounded terrified. "I... I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
"Ace Hubbard's records have been flagged," Sarah stammered. "I tried to run a credit check, and my screen went red. It says 'Classified Access Only.' I can't even access his tax history anymore. It's all gone."
"What do you mean flagged? He's a construction worker!" Brittni screamed.
"It's like he... like he's been erased, Brittni. Or like he never existed."
Brittni dropped the phone onto her silk sheets.
She felt a profound sense of insecurity wash over her. It wasn't just that he was gone; it was that the man she thought she knew was a ghost. She felt like she had lost an anchor she didn't realize was holding her steady.
Jefferson called again. She answered, her voice icy.
"Jefferson, did you see Ace today?"
"That loser? No. Why? Did he finally run out of rent money?" Jefferson laughed, a sharp, condescending sound.
"He's gone. And I think I made a mistake."
"Babe, you're just stressed about the IPO," Jefferson cooed. "Forget him. You're a queen. You don't need a peasant."
Brittni hung up. She walked to the mirror. She didn't look like a queen. She looked like a woman who had traded her soul for a social media tag.
At the Hubbard Estate, the heavy oak doors swung open.
Two silent footmen bowed as Ace stepped into the Grand Hall. The air was chilled, smelling of beeswax and old power.
Harve Hubbard stood at the end of the hall, beneath a massive chandelier. His arms were crossed.
To his right stood Jaiden, looking polished in a navy suit, his face twisted in a smirk.
To his left was Dosha. Her dark hair was sharp, her eyes predatory. She watched Ace like a cat watching a mouse.
"The prodigal returns," Jaiden said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Did you enjoy playing in the dirt?"
Ace didn't look at his father. He walked straight toward Jaiden. He stopped two feet away, invading his personal space.
"I'm not the prodigal, Jaiden," Ace said calmly. "I'm the landlord. And you're sitting in my house."
Jaiden's smile falters. His eyes narrowed.
"Enough," Harve boomed, stepping forward. His presence filled the room. "Let's eat. We have much to discuss regarding the Foley merger."
Ace turned and walked toward the dining room, leaving his brother standing in the hall, looking suddenly smaller.
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8.6
Seven nights with the devil to pay a debt. One truth that will burn the world down.
Sienna Blackwood was never part of the deal until her step-brother gambled with her life to save his own.
Now, she is collateral in a brutal game of revenge. The collector is Dante Moretti, a billionaire with a fifteen-year grudge and a thirst for Blackwood blood.
He doesn't want her money; he demands seven nights of her total surrender.
But in the shadows of a Manhattan penthouse, hatred turns into a lethal obsession. When a syndicate ambush forces them to flee, the contract becomes a race for survival across the Atlantic.
Hunted for the three-year-old secret heir in their arms, Sienna and Dante must navigate a world of blood oaths and forced alliances.
In a game where every kiss is a tactical error, Sienna must decide: is her step-brother's rival the monster who shattered her life, or the only man who can save it?
7.7
Aida's life is already complicated.
A controlling boyfriend.
A job that drains her.
A heart tired of giving more than it gets.
So the last thing she expects is Mike-the quiet, handsome "new trainee" who walks into the office with a mysterious calm and an unexpected kindness.
He's humble. Soft-spoken. Nothing like the men she's used to.
But something about him feels... different.
Dangerous.
Safe.
All at once.
As their friendship blooms, jealous eyes begin to watch.
Whispers spread.
Fake friends interfere.
And even Mike's family stands against them.
Two hearts drawn to each other.
One relationship already falling apart.
Secrets that can destroy everything.
In a company filled with gossip, power, and hidden agendas,
Aida and Mike must decide-
is this friendship worth the risk?
Or will the growing tension ruin them before they even begin?
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."
8.1
I was Asset 7, a "ghost" kept in a high-security facility with no memory and paralyzed vocal cords. My only value was my silence, making me the perfect disposable tool for the world's elite.
Everything changed when I was sold to Culver Lancaster, a media billionaire drugged with a dangerous synthetic aphrodisiac. His staff needed a woman who couldn't talk, couldn't sue, and didn't exist in any official directory.
They scrubbed my skin raw like a piece of meat and threw me into a dark penthouse with a man who had lost his mind to the drug. Culver didn't treat me like a human; he choked me against a door and used my body as a shield against his own madness. When I tried to run, his security hunted me down with dogs, and Culver threw me into a freezing wine cellar. I spent days in total darkness, starving and dehydrated, lapping dirty water off the floor just to stay alive.
I lay on that cold stone, wondering why my life had become a series of cages and scars. I couldn't even scream to let the world know I was dying. How could a man claim to protect me while treating me like a disposable object?
But when Culver finally came to the cellar to feed me, I didn't surrender. I bit him hard enough to draw blood, watching the shock in his eyes as I communicated the only way I could.
Now, I wear the silk uniform and the velvet mask he bought for me, playing the role of his obedient "Shadow." Culver thinks he owns a broken girl he can lock in a velvet panic room, but I'm a weapon who just found her target. Every kiss is a reconnaissance mission, and I'm going to burn his empire to the ground.
8.7
On the night of her engagement, Lila Hart discovers that her fiancé isn't just cheating-he's selling her to the cruel Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack to settle a debt.
Dragged into the arms of Damien Blackwood, a ruthless billionaire Alpha feared across the werewolf world, Lila vows to escape. But Damien isn't what he seems-behind his icy exterior lies a dangerous secret... one that ties Lila to him in ways neither can deny.
9.4
I woke up in Augustine Haynes’s high-thread-count gray sheets, my head throbbing and my throat dry. I told him last night wasn't just about the alcohol, but he didn't even look at me as he tightened his silk tie, treating me like a piece of displaced furniture.
He thought I was just a girl from the Rust Belt who’d slept her way into his bed to gain leverage after a failed corporate deal. But when I leaned in and whispered the words "Project Chimera" along with the details of his secret offshore accounts, his cold indifference turned into a sharp, dangerous focus.
I forced him into a three-month deal: he would stay out of my way and ignore my moves in the city, or I’d leak the data that would ruin him. To execute my real plan, I transformed into "Siren," a masked singer at the Onyx Room, specifically designed to bait Julian Talley. I even threw myself into the freezing black water of the harbor just to let Julian "save" me, trapping the heir to a corrupt empire in a web of manufactured guilt.
Augustine watched from the shadows, convinced I was just a gold digger with a flair for the dramatic, while Julian showered me with cash and Hermès bags to ease his conscience. They didn't see the shaking hands I hid every time I remembered my mother’s voice screaming through the smoke of our burning home. I wasn't looking for an affair or a career; I was a ghost using their own greed as a noose.
Now, I finally have the invitation to the Talley Family Gala and the encryption keys to their darkest secrets. Julian thinks he’s found a soul to save, and Augustine thinks he’s managing a risky asset. They have no idea that the girl they’ve let into their inner sanctum is about to burn their entire world to ash.