The Billionaire's Substitute: Her Final Escape
For five years, I was Brogan Walton’s shadow—a contract companion kept behind closed doors, hidden away because of a cruel, fabricated rumor about my genetic health. I lived for the moments he looked my way, even if those moments were cold and transactional.
Everything shattered when he returned from London early, tossed a legal document onto the table, and coldly announced the termination of our contract. He didn't just want me gone; he wanted me erased, offering a severance package to ensure I never spoke of the life I’d traded for his protection.
As I signed the papers, my chest burned with the familiar, suffocating agony of my failing heart. I watched him check his watch, his impatience a blade in my back. When the door slammed shut, I finally collapsed, clutching the pill bottle that was my only lifeline, realizing I was dying—and he didn't care.
I wasn't a lover or even a person to him. The next day, I saw her—Kori Barnett, the new CEO, the woman Brogan actually loved. She looked identical to me, down to the curve of her smile. I was never a Cinderella; I was just a cheap, disposable stand-in he’d groomed to be a mirror for his true obsession.
Broken and discarded, I walked into the office, dropped my badge on the desk, and finally walked away. But as I stepped onto the street, I realized the nightmare wasn't over. A predator from his past was waiting for me, and when I looked at Brogan for help, he simply rolled up his window and drove away. I realized then that I had nothing left to lose. I took a deep breath, gripped the knife in my pocket, and decided that if I was going to die, I wouldn't go down as his victim.
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Chapter 4
Elease pushed through the revolving glass doors of Walton Group.
The massive lobby was chaotic. The noise level was deafening, and there were twice as many security guards patrolling the marble floors as usual.
She started walking toward the elevator banks when her coworker, Penny, grabbed her arm.
Penny leaned in, her eyes wide with excitement, and lowered her voice. "Did you hear? The major shareholder's daughter is taking over as CEO today."
Penny pointed toward the massive floral arrangements being set up in the center of the lobby.
Veronica, another coworker known for her snobbery, slid over to them. She crossed her arms and smirked.
"She's not just an Ivy League socialite," Veronica said, her tone dripping with envy. "She's Brogan's first love."
The words 'Brogan's first love' hit Elease like a physical blow to the stomach.
An invisible hand clamped down on her heart. Her lungs stopped working for a full second.
Elease forced her facial muscles to stay relaxed. She stretched her lips into a casual smile.
"Really? What's her name?" Elease asked, though her voice trembled slightly at the edges.
Veronica rolled her eyes dramatically. "Kori Barnett."
The name reeked of old money and generational wealth.
A wave of severe dizziness washed over Elease. The lobby spun. She needed to get out of there immediately.
But the elevator chimed, and the doors slid open. The crowd of employees surged forward, physically pushing Elease into the metal box.
Inside the packed elevator, the gossip continued. Penny and Veronica loudly discussed Kori's flawless resume and her time in Europe. Every single word was a needle piercing Elease's eardrums.
Elease stared blankly at the digital floor numbers ticking upward. She pressed her hand against her chest, fighting the suffocating tightness, repeating a mantra in her head: Just hand in the resignation letter. Just leave.
The elevator reached the administrative floor.
Elease practically ran to her cubicle. She just needed to grab her personal mug and head straight to Julian's office.
She had barely pulled her drawer open when Julian Proctor, her direct supervisor, marched out of his glass office clapping his hands loudly.
"Everyone downstairs! Now! We are lining up in the lobby to welcome the new CEO," Julian barked.
Elease walked up to him. "Julian, I'm not feeling well. I need to take a sick-"
"Absolutely not," Julian cut her off harshly. "New leadership means perfect attendance. Get downstairs, Elease."
Left with no choice, Elease was herded back into the elevator with the rest of the department.
Down in the lobby, she was shoved into the second row of the massive welcoming committee. Her heart hammered against her ribs, the psychosomatic pain radiating down her arm as the trauma of her fabricated genetic illness flared under the extreme stress.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted on the street outside the glass walls. Three black Range Rovers pulled up, flanking a massive, extended Rolls-Royce.
Elease stood in the crowd. The lack of oxygen from her failing heart was making her vision go dark at the edges. She leaned her shoulder against a cold Roman pillar to keep from collapsing.
The door of the Rolls-Royce was pulled open by a bodyguard.
A pair of legs wearing limited-edition Christian Louboutin red-bottom heels stepped out onto the pavement.
Then, Kori Barnett emerged. She was wearing a custom white trench coat, looking effortlessly elegant as camera flashes erupted around her.
Elease peered through the gap between her coworkers' shoulders.
In the next second, a physical shockwave ripped through Elease's nervous system. Her entire body froze solid.
Stepping out of the car right behind Kori, wearing a bespoke suit and a gentle, protective expression, was Brogan Walton.
Brogan naturally placed his hand on the small of Kori's back, shielding her from the aggressive paparazzi. It was a tender, fiercely protective gesture Elease had never, ever received from him.
The employees around Elease gasped in awe, whispering about how perfect the golden couple looked together.
Elease's eyes were locked onto Kori's face. As the couple walked closer, the horrifying truth poured over Elease like a bucket of ice water.
Kori's eyes, the slope of her nose, even the exact curve of her smile-they were a terrifying, identical match to Elease's own face.
Five years of bizarre, controlling rules suddenly clicked into place in Elease's brain. Brogan forcing her to dye her hair that specific shade of chestnut. Brogan forbidding her from wearing heavy makeup.
A violent, tearing agony exploded in Elease's chest. She bit down on her lip so hard that the metallic taste of fresh blood flooded her mouth.
She wasn't a Cinderella. She was never loved. She was just a cheap, easily replaceable stand-in for the woman he actually wanted.
Brogan and Kori walked through the lobby doors, surrounded by executives.
Brogan's sharp gaze swept over the crowd. For a fraction of a second, his eyes seemed to pause near Elease's section.
A split second before their eyes met, Elease ducked her head down, completely hiding herself behind the broad back of a male coworker.
The sharp clicking of Kori's red bottoms faded as they walked toward the VIP elevators.
The moment the private elevator chimed, Elease's legs gave out. She turned and sprinted toward the ground floor restrooms, desperate to escape the nightmare.
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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.
9.8
Adeline's stepmother had secretly drugged her for years, turning a child genius into a drooling, mentally disabled laughingstock just so her stepsister could steal her life.
But when her greedy father sold her off to Griffin Herring—a violent, untouchable billionaire psychopath—to save his company, things took a deadly turn.
Before the wedding, Griffin attacked her in a dark alley, nearly snapping her neck before stealing her grandfather's silver necklace.
That necklace held a micro-drive with her family's deepest secrets, and without it, she had nothing.
Back at the estate, her situation only worsened. Her stepsister Damaris paraded around in the Herring family's diamond engagement gifts, trying to force-feed Adeline wet dog food on an Instagram live stream.
When Adeline's calculated "clumsiness" ruined the video, her furious father locked her in a damp, rusted basement.
"Give her to the psycho," her stepmother hissed through the door. "Let him lock her away forever."
Listening from the shadows, Adeline's fists clenched until her palms bled.
Her supposed mental fog wasn't a tragedy—it was a calculated assassination of her mind. They had destroyed her childhood and were now throwing her to a monster just to keep the billions.
The dull, empty look in Adeline's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a razor-sharp, chilling clarity.
She pulled a thin surgical needle from her messy bun and picked the heavy iron padlock in ten seconds. It was time to break into the billionaire's penthouse, take back her necklace, and tear them all apart.
8.1
Alice Monroe has always lived quietly. Between the late nights diner shifts and early morning classes,her world is small, ordinary, and safe. She doesn't have time for distractions especially not the kind that comes wrapped in tailored suits and gray eyes.
Brian carter is used to getting everything he wants as the ruthless billionaire CEO of cross enterprises, people fear him ,envy him and obey him. But the moment he locks eyes with an innocent diner waitress whose innocent eyes disarm him, Brian finds himself craving something he's never had , someone untouchable .
She wants nothing to do with men like him powerful, dangerous ,the kind who burn everything they touch. Yet fate keeps pulling them together. His world is full of secrets and ruthless,hers is fragile and simple. They should never collide.
But he can't stay away .
And she can't deny the fire he awakens in her.
7.8
I was forty-eight hours into my shift, smelling of stale sweat and clutching a red-stamped bill for my mother's life support. As a scholarship intern, I was a ghost in the hospital, working myself to the bone just to keep her ventilator humming.
Then Dr. Thorne shoved a metal clipboard into my chest and ordered me to perform a surgical prep on a VIP patient for a circumcision. But the moment the cold betadine touched the man's skin, he lunged at me like a predator, his hand crushing my wrist until the bone nearly snapped.
"I'm here for a kidney stone. What kind of incompetent butcher shop is this?"
He wasn't a patient; he was Conrad Marks, a lethal billionaire, and Thorne had intentionally set me up to assault him. Within minutes, a five-million-dollar lawsuit was filed, and the Dean ordered security to shred my license and throw me out of the building.
My phone buzzed with a final notice: the facility was stopping my mother's meds at midnight because my payment had failed. I was a doctor who had just been framed and a daughter about to watch her mother die.
I didn't understand why Thorne would ruin me so casually, but with my mother's life on the line, I had nothing left to lose.
I slipped past the guards and back into the billionaire's suite with a set of silver needles and a desperate bargain. I stopped his agony in seconds, and when he looked at me with those cold, lethal eyes, I offered a trade: I would be the fake girlfriend his family demanded if he would save my mother and bury the lawsuit.
"Deal," he said, his grip on my waist tightening with dark possession.
I signed the contract, realizing I hadn't just saved my career-I had sold my soul to the most dangerous man in New York.
7.7
Kael Ravyn was born to rule, a powerful Alpha with a rare bloodline that even the strongest enemies coveted. But a lifetime ago, his father's desperate act to save him left Kael powerless, his wolf suppressed, his destiny stolen. Now, with the pack growing impatient and his throne threatened, he has three months to reclaim his power... or lose everything.
Aria has always believed the world was ordinary. With her mother gone and her father hiding secrets of a supernatural past, she's never imagined a life beyond what she can see and touch. Until the night of a billionaire's birthday party changes everything.
In the glimmering lights of wealth and power, Kael and Aria meet for the first time-and the instant pull between them is undeniable. Neither understands it, yet the bond of mates awakens something dangerous, something powerful... and something that could cost them both more than they ever imagined.
9.6
Elara Quinn had no choice. Debt, danger, and a family counting on her left only one solution: marry the coldest billionaire she had ever met. Dominic Blackwood is feared by everyone, ruthless, commanding, and impossible to read. His mother watches her every move, his enemies whisper from the shadows, and Dominic himself treats her like a pawn in a game she cannot win.
The contract is clear: obey, smile, survive. Love is forbidden. Questions are not allowed. But Elara quickly learns the greatest threat isn't the contract, it's the growing tension between them, the secrets lurking in Dominic's past, and the enemies who would destroy everything if given the chance.
One misstep could ruin her, or him. In a marriage built on power, control, and silence, trust becomes the deadliest weapon of all.