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 5
Elease slammed into the heavy wooden door of the ground-floor executive restroom.
She rushed into the furthest stall, dropped to her knees, and gripped the edges of the porcelain toilet bowl. Her stomach violently convulsed, but there was nothing to throw up. She dry-heaved, her throat burning with stomach acid.
Her hand shook uncontrollably as she reached up and slammed the flush button. The loud rush of water barely masked the desperate, broken sob tearing out of her throat.
The pain in her heart was catastrophic. It felt like a serrated knife twisting between her ribs. She pressed her forehead against the cold metal partition, cold sweat soaking through the back of her silk blouse.
Suddenly, the main door to the restroom swung open.
The sharp, rhythmic clicking of stilettos echoed against the tiles, accompanied by the overwhelming scent of Chanel No. 5.
Elease instantly stopped breathing. Pure panic and the last shreds of her dignity made her reach up and slide the deadbolt on the stall door locked. She didn't make a single sound.
Outside, Kori was complaining loudly into her phone.
"Brogan was being entirely too rigid with the press just now. He needs to relax," Kori whined, her tone dripping with the spoiled entitlement of someone who knew she was adored.
Elease sat on the floor, her back pressed hard against the door. Listening to that voice-a voice so similar to her own, yet so full of confidence-made Elease dig her fingernails directly into her own palms.
Kori hung up the phone. She walked over to the marble vanity. The faucet turned on, water splashing loudly.
Elease looked down at her watch. Her heart was beating in a terrifying, erratic rhythm. If she didn't get out of this stall and take her medication right now, she was going to go into cardiac arrest on the bathroom floor.
She took a slow, agonizing breath, forcing the emotional breakdown into a tight box in her mind.
Elease reached up, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. She walked over to the sink on the far side of the vanity.
Kori was leaning toward the mirror, applying lipstick. She caught Elease's movement in the reflection and paused.
Kori turned her head. She openly looked Elease up and down, her eyes filled with a condescending, aristocratic judgment.
Elease forced herself to meet that gaze. She kept her face completely blank and professional. She turned on the water and began washing her hands.
Kori let out a soft, mocking laugh.
"Your makeup is far too heavy for a corporate environment. It looks cheap," Kori critiqued, her voice laced with poison.
Elease turned off the faucet. She pulled a paper towel from the dispenser and dried her hands.
"This is my personal style. You don't need to worry about it," Elease replied coldly.
Kori's face darkened. Having her authority challenged on her first day was unacceptable. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Elease.
Kori's eyes dropped to the Walton Group employee badge clipped to Elease's skirt. A malicious smile curled her lips. She slipped right into her role as the supreme boss.
"Go to the independent cafe on the corner of 5th. Get me a hand-crafted double espresso. Bring it up to the CEO suite immediately," Kori ordered.
Elease wanted to tell her to go to hell. But a sharp spasm in her chest warned her that her heart couldn't handle a screaming match right now. She needed to get outside to take her pills.
Elease kept her face expressionless. She gave a stiff nod, threw the crumpled paper towel into the trash, and walked out of the restroom with long, fast strides.
The moment she pushed through the lobby doors and hit the cold street, Elease ducked into a blind alleyway out of sight of the security cameras.
Her hands were shaking so violently she dropped the pill bottle twice before getting three pills into her mouth. She swallowed them dry.
She leaned against the rough brick wall, staring at the cafe down the street. The humiliation was a physical weight crushing her throat.
But Julian had her PTO approval. She needed that money. She had to swallow her pride for one more hour.
Elease walked into the cafe and bought the espresso.
Holding the scalding paper cup, Elease stepped into the executive elevator. As the car shot up to the top floor, the deadness inside her solidified into ice.
The elevator doors opened to the CEO suite. The thick, plush carpet absorbed the sound of her heels entirely. The hallway was dead silent.
Elease walked up to the heavy mahogany double doors. They were cracked open just an inch.
She raised her hand to knock, but her eyes caught the movement inside.
Kori was sitting sideways on Brogan's lap. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck. Brogan had his head buried in the crook of Kori's neck, kissing her skin deeply.
Elease's hand jerked.
Scalding hot espresso sloshed out of the lid, splashing directly onto the back of her hand. The skin instantly turned angry red, but Elease didn't feel the burn. Her nerve endings were completely numb.
Brogan sensed something. His head snapped up, and his predatory gaze shot straight through the crack in the door, locking onto Elease.
Elease didn't flinch. She didn't look away.
She stared back at Brogan with the dead, freezing eyes of a stranger for one full second.
Then, she turned her hand over and dropped the full cup of coffee straight into the hallway trash can.
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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.