The CEO Drove His Mute Wife Away, Now He Regrets
For three years, Adrian's heart belonged to another, and his wife Jessica-mute and unloved-endured his coldness.
Realizing she deserved better, she quietly left him, divorce papers on the table.
Adrian tore them up, accusing her of childish games, but Jessica had no interest in wasting more of her life.
After their split, her voice returned and she was suddenly surrounded by admirers.
Adrian, blinded by jealousy, begged her to come back.
Jessica only laughed, repeating his own words, saying, "Didn't you say love is the most worthless thing in the world?"
Now, she'd never look back.
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Chapter 3
Adrian avoided responding to Cheryl's question and rose from his chair. "I need to handle something at the office. Jessica and I are leaving."
Cheryl's expression changed instantly as she rushed to stop him. "Why would you go now?" She gestured toward the kitchen, voice tightening. "The chef has already finished preparing the dishes, and all the family members are here. Can't you at least stay for lunch?"
Without hesitation, Adrian reached for Jessica and pulled her to her feet, his voice flat. "No. We are not staying."
After the couple left the Buckley Estate, Cheryl's anger erupted. Her chest rose sharply as she struck the arm of her chair with her fist.
Understanding her son was becoming more difficult by the day.
If he truly disliked Jessica, then why was every word and action of his instinctively protective of her?
Yet if he did care for Jessica, why did he remain tangled with Eleanor?
Even Eleanor's past marriage and child failed to deter him in the slightest.
Cheryl could not make sense of his thoughts at all.
Once seated inside his car, Adrian lit a cigarette, pale smoke curling around his knitted brows.
Jessica recognized the habit. Adrian only smoked when he was frustrated.
She remained still beside him, breathing lightly, afraid of disturbing him.
The cigarette shortened inch by inch until only the filter remained.
Adrian finally turned, his intense gaze settling on Jessica.
She looked exactly as she had been when they had first met—delicate features, a gentle face, calm to the point of detachment.
Even when mistreated, she never protested or made a scene, always compliant to an unsettling degree.
Time had not changed her in the slightest, yet his dislike for her submissive demeanor only deepened.
To him, she resembled a hollow doll, numb and unresponsive, while he, a man with ordinary desires, favored women who were vibrant when it came to intimacy.
The irritation boiling in Adrian's chest intensified. He pulled off his tie and flung it aside.
Jessica quietly picked it up, smoothing the fabric before placing it into a bag to keep it clean.
Adrian's eyes lingered on her movements before he spoke abruptly. "You heard what my mother said earlier, didn't you?"
A subtle tremor passed through Jessica's brows as she turned to look at him, her expression gentle.
Adrian studied her face and asked, "What do you think about it?"
For a brief second, the meaning behind his question failed to register with Jessica at all.
Seeing the confusion on her face, Adrian continued, his voice steady, "Do you want to have a child?"
Jessica instantly understood what he meant and gestured quickly. "I'll follow whatever your mother decides. You don't need to worry. I've never allowed myself to fantasize about that."
In truth, during the early days of their marriage, she had once imagined a child that belonged to the two of them.
But gradually, she realized the harsh reality.
She learned that all the good things were reserved for women who were cherished.
They were never meant for someone like her, a mute person, unwanted and always looked down upon.
Back at an important family gathering in their first year of marriage, she had eaten something bad and gagged a few times.
Every gaze in the room had swung toward her, whispers spreading as people wondered if she might be expecting.
At that time, Cheryl's face had hardened, and Adrian's expression had darkened alongside it.
Once the nausea finally passed, Jessica heard Cheryl tell her that the Buckley family had no intention of welcoming a child currently and that if she was pregnant, she should go to the hospital to end her pregnancy.
Panic seized Jessica, and she instinctively turned to Adrian for help.
But Adrian said nothing. He did not object to the idea at all.
That silence made everything painfully clear to Jessica. Adrian did not want a child, or rather, he didn't want a child with her.
So now, when Adrian brought the topic up again, Jessica understood it was never a question of her wishes; he just wanted to make sure that they were on the same page.
As if confirming her thoughts, Adrian's next words followed calmly. "You understand what I mean, don't you? I didn't take any precautions last time."
Jessica responded at once, lifting her hands again, "It's alright. I already took birth control pills."
Her gestures were careful and deliberate, as though she feared he might misunderstand her. She had an earnest expression, and a faint sheen of moisture shimmered in her clear eyes.
Adrian received the answer he wanted to hear, yet the sense of ease he had expected never arrived.
He watched her in silence for a long moment before letting out a breath and turning to look at the passing scenery beyond the window. "Good."
That single word drained the color from Jessica's face even further.
Worried he might notice, she lowered her head quickly, slender fingers knotting together in her lap.
Just as she had anticipated, his concern had never been about what she wanted, only about confirming whether there was any chance she might get pregnant.
Thankfully, she had not blurted out her true feelings just now.
Had she acted on that impulse, the humiliation would have been unbearable.
The thought alone made her chest tighten briefly before she steadied herself.
The luxury car soon slowed to a stop at the entrance of the Buckley Group.
Through the car window, Jessica immediately spotted Eleanor standing nearby.
Eleanor had been smiling, but the instant her gaze landed on Jessica getting out of the car behind Adrian, that smile collapsed, replaced by a sharp, hostile glare.
Her voice cut through the air. "Adrian, why did you bring her here?" The displeasure in her tone was obvious, making it seem as if she were actually Adrian's wife.
Adrian didn't mind that. Without hesitation, he turned to speak to Jessica. "I'll have the driver take you back."
Jessica inclined her head obediently and settled back into the seat.
Eleanor, however, was still not satisfied. She clung to Adrian's hand, her annoyance plain. "Adrian, can you stop bringing her to the company from now on?"
Her eyes flicked toward the car. "People might misunderstand and think you two are together."
Adrian did not pull away. His response was calm. "She is my wife. That's simply the truth."
Eleanor's dissatisfaction deepened. She pursed her lips into a pout. "I just don't like you being around her. Promise me you won't do it again."
A faint trace of a smile flickered across Adrian's otherwise impassive face.
He offered no verbal reply, his silence serving as quiet agreement.
From inside the car, Jessica watched the exchange, her vision slowly blurring as her eyes reddened.
She witnessed her husband favoring another woman, and that woman was her own half-sister.
No matter how unreasonable Eleanor acted or how openly she tried to take her place, Adrian always indulged her without restraint.
To him, the woman he loved could never be at fault.
Perhaps, in their eyes, she, the so-called Mrs. Buckley, was nothing more than a laughingstock.
Lowering her gaze, Jessica used sign language to quietly instruct the driver to pull away.
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8.6
It was my birthday, but instead of celebrating, I was bleeding on the floor of my own bedroom. My sister Serena had just smashed a champagne bottle over my legs, her eyes filled with a dark madness because our father allowed me to wear the family diamonds.
To escape her, I bolted into a pitch-black guest suite, only to be grabbed by a man who felt like a wall of solid muscle. He was drugged, unstable, and pinned me against the wall, his teeth sinking into my neck in a primal claim that left a permanent mark.
I managed to flee, but the nightmare was just beginning. My father didn't care about my injuries; he only cared that I had "insulted" the man in that room—Delos French, the most powerful CEO in New York. He threatened to stop paying for my mother’s critical care facility unless I went to Delos and begged for his forgiveness.
My brother Julian was even worse, intentionally pouring scalding coffee over my bandaged wounds just to see me flinch. They forced me into a revealing gold dress, treating me like a high-priced commodity to be sold to the highest bidder to save their failing company.
I didn't understand how the people who were supposed to love me could be more predatory than the monster in the dark. I had spent my life fixing their scandals, yet they were ready to throw me to the wolves the moment I became useful as a pawn.
But when I stood before Delos French at his gala, he didn't see a trophy. He recognized my scent, my touch, and the fire in my eyes. He trapped me in his private lounge, kneeling to clean the blood from my injured feet.
"Marry me," he whispered, his voice a low, terrifying growl. "And I will give you the power to burn your family to the ground."
I looked into the eyes of the man who had hunted me and realized he was the only one offering me a weapon to destroy the people who had broken me.
"Okay," I whispered.
7.4
For six years, I worked myself to the bone to support my "struggling artist" boyfriend, Kasen. I paid the rent on our leaky Brooklyn apartment and believed in his dream, thinking our love was real.
That all ended one rainy night when I delivered documents to an exclusive club and overheard him with his wealthy friends. Our life, he said, was just a "sociological experiment."
He wasn't poor at all. He was a trust fund heir with a fiancée in the Hamptons, waiting to close a corporate merger.
"Kaia is just a naive pet who voluntarily pays my rent," he laughed over a three-thousand-dollar glass of scotch.
He told them girls like me were so desperate we'd come crawling back for a scrap of affection. My entire world shattered.
I packed my bags and walked out that night with eighty-four dollars to my name, ready to start over. But escaping one monster only threw me to another. The next day, a predatory client tried to drug me during a business meeting.
My boss, the terrifyingly powerful CEO Camden William, intervened. But after a night of drug-induced chaos, I woke up in his bed.
He didn't offer an apology. He offered a contract. "Marry me for three years," he commanded, "and I'll give you five million dollars and make sure Kasen can never touch you again."
9.8
I sat in the VIP waiting room of the fertility clinic, clutching the report that confirmed my implantation was a success. After years of struggling, I finally had a reason to make my marriage with Garnett work.
But when I went to find him in the lounge, I heard a woman’s laughter coming from behind the door. It was his mistress, Alison. I froze as I heard Garnett’s cold, dismissive voice.
"She’s just an incubator."
"Once the heir is born, we kick her out. The trust fund only requires a legitimate heir born to my wife. It doesn't require the wife to stick around afterwards."
The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. I soon discovered the clinic had botched the procedure—the baby I was carrying wasn't even Garnett’s. It was donor sperm from Sterling Sharp, the most powerful tech mogul in the world.
When my in-laws forced me to move into their estate for "monitoring," I realized I was entering a cage. Garnett and his mistress were paying the family doctor to inject me with hallucinogens to mimic a mental breakdown. They planned to declare me legally incompetent and commit me to an asylum the second I gave birth.
I stood in the shadows of the East Wing, realizing my husband wasn't just stealing my child—he was trying to delete my mind. The people I called family were poisoning me daily, waiting for me to break so they could claim a legacy that wasn't even theirs.
They wanted a madwoman, so I decided to give them one. I turned the doctor into my double agent, faked every symptom of a breakdown, and began building a secret empire from the shadows. Garnett thinks he’s trapped an incubator, but he’s actually locked himself in with a nuclear weapon.
8.5
Hadley married into the Jacobson family, a ruthless Wall Street empire. Her prenuptial agreement was absolute: she wouldn't touch a penny of the family wealth until she produced an heir.
But one rainy night, she used a copied keycard to enter a secret Tribeca penthouse, only to find her husband tangled in bed with a famous actress.
When she slapped the divorce papers in front of him, Cleveland didn't apologize.
"The party who files walks away with nothing. You will die in this position."
He tore the documents to pieces. To protect his flawless public image, he forced Hadley to attend family galas, smirking coldly while his grandfather publicly humiliated her for her "barren" stomach. When Hadley finally fought back and confronted his mistress, Cleveland snapped. With a single phone call, he froze her bank accounts, revoked her access to their home, and left her stranded in a cold parking garage.
She had given up her independence for a man who treated her like a useless breeding machine. He thought he could erase three years of her life in an instant, confident that his money made him invincible.
But Cleveland didn't know she was holding the ultimate weapon to destroy his precious legacy. As he received a frantic call about his mistress and rushed to his SUV, Hadley finally screamed the agonizing secret she had hidden for years.
"I can't give you an heir! It's over!"
Watching his taillights disappear into the dark, Hadley prepared to burn his empire to the ground.
8.0
She's working tirelessly to support her family, unaware that the man she's serving as an assistant is the CEO she once saved from a minor accident. Professional boundaries blur, tension ignites, and forbidden attraction threatens everything. Can love survive when secrets are revealed, or will ambition and pride destroy them both?
8.0
I spent six years as a "shadow asset" for the Holmes family, a brilliant scholar living in a cramped Queens apartment on a secret scholarship. I was their silent investment, a ghost in their machine, until the day a fluorescent orange eviction notice appeared on my door.
The legal documents from Holmes Holdings were brutal. They were terminating my sponsorship and demanding immediate repayment of every cent of my tuition. The reason was buried in the fine print: a moral turpitude clause. I was pregnant with a Holmes heir, and in their world, that made me a liability that needed to be erased.
Ingram Holmes, the family’s cold-blooded CEO, didn't see a woman; he saw a line item on a balance sheet. He offered me a million dollars to disappear, abort the child, and sign away my existence. He had me escorted to a private clinic like a criminal, ready to finalize my erasure. But the plan shattered when his grandmother, the matriarch of the family, collapsed in a sudden cardiac arrest.
As the doctors failed, I stepped out of the shadows. I diagnosed the toxicity they couldn't see and brought her back from the brink of death. I wasn't the helpless charity case they expected. I was a genius who knew their medical secrets better than their own surgeons.
"Who are you?" Ingram growled, pinning me against a desk in his frozen office.
I didn't blink. I had just secured the family's ancient signet ring and a seat at their table. Now, I’m living in his manor, sharing his bed, and holding the keys to the vault that contains their darkest sins.
"I'm the problem you can't afford to solve," I whispered.
The game has changed. I’m no longer the asset—I’m the hunter.