The CEO Who Won't Let Me Go
I've always been the unwanted child-the invisible one. The rebel no one ever tried to understand.
And yet, I never resented my perfect, beloved sister. All I ever wanted was for her to be happy.
But one cruel twist of fate-and a devastating betrayal by someone I trusted-changed everything.
I woke up in a stranger's bed, losing the one thing I had guarded so carefully. Back then, I thought that was my greatest loss.
I was wrong.
Because not long after, my sister introduced me to her fiancé.
And the man standing in front of me... was the same stranger from that night.
Now he haunts me-day and night, in my dreams and in my waking hours. And just when I start to believe the nightmare might finally fade with the dawn, Alan walks back into my life.
This time, he has no intention of letting me forget.
Not the insult I dealt him.
...or that one unforgettable night.
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Chapter 6
"My name is Boris. And here's your purchase and your change."
The man in front of me had somehow managed to turn an awful day into something almost bearable. For the first time in what felt like forever, I actually wanted to smile again. Maybe there were still good people left in the world. I'd spent so long obsessing over certain people that I'd stopped noticing everyone else.
"Thank you," I said, taking the bag and the money from him. "I'm Zoe. And you have no idea how much better I feel right now. But that girl isn't getting off with nothing more than a shoplifting fine."
"Then I'm guessing what she did was a lot worse than fighting over the same guy," he said.
Heat rushed to my face, and I dropped my gaze.
I had never been this flustered around a man before, and I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself, so I just nodded.
"Well, have a good day, Zoe."
He flashed me one last heart-stopping smile and stepped aside. I threw one last look toward the door my former friend had disappeared through, then headed outside.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I stopped in surprise when I saw the name on the screen.
Kriss.
Well, would you look at that. So she'd had her phone with her the whole time and had been ignoring my calls on purpose. And now suddenly she remembered I existed?
She probably needed something.
Deal with your own mess, Kriss. I always have to deal with mine.
I got home a little after noon and, unfortunately, found the whole family there.
Mom was in the living room, drinking tea and talking to one of her friends on the phone. Dad was in his office, loudly complaining about his useless employees. And Valeri was in the kitchen making sandwiches.
I headed straight for her.
"What time did you get home, Zoe?" my sister asked, narrowing her eyes.
She looked different today. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes were shining, and she looked ridiculously happy.
Apparently meeting her fiancé had gone very, very well.
"Right before sunrise," I said quickly, already trying to think of a way to change the subject.
On the way home, I'd taken a better look at what I'd bought, and it turned out to be a cute blouse exactly in Valeri's style. I set the bag down on the table and smiled.
"This is for you. A little present. So? How did it go with your fiancé?"
Apparently, that was exactly what she'd been waiting for.
Valeri looked inside the bag and blinked in surprise.
"You bought me clothes? From this store?" She glanced at the logo on the bag. "Zoe, this must've cost a fortune."
"I just wanted to make you happy."
She immediately handed me half her sandwich, and I practically inhaled it while she started talking.
"I'd seen his pictures in newspapers before, but in real life..." She sighed dreamily. "He's completely different. He's such a gentleman. Polite, kind, attentive. And..." She nodded toward the windowsill.
An enormous bouquet stood there in a vase, so beautiful it barely looked real.
"He gave me those flowers. And he invited me to his country house next weekend so we can get to know each other better. I asked if you could come too, and he said yes."
"Oh no, Valeri," I said around a mouthful of sandwich. "He wants to be alone with you. Talk to you. Maybe drag you off into a bedroom somewhere. I'm not going. I refuse to be the third wheel."
A piece of ham fell out of my sandwich and landed in my lap.
Without even thinking, I grabbed it and stuffed it back into my mouth.
Valeri gave me a look.
"You're coming with me. Otherwise I'll tell Mom and Dad you secretly applied to literature school and refused to study law and finance."
I snorted and glared at her.
Low blow.
"And why do you even need me there? I'll just be in the way."
"Girls."
Mom walked into the kitchen.
She set her cup in the sink and looked at us. I had to admit, she looked incredible. Fresh, beautiful, glowing.
Of course, that was mostly thanks to countless surgeries and expensive treatments. Over the years, she'd changed so much it was hard to tell what she had originally looked like. Valeri was the female version of Dad. As for me... maybe I looked like Mom used to, before she'd remade herself completely.
"Your father and I are flying to the United Arab Emirates tonight for work, so we won't be back until the end of the week. If anything happens, call us. I'll transfer money to Valeri's account."
We both nodded.
Mom stepped away a second later when her phone started ringing again.
The second she was gone, I looked at Valeri.
She understood immediately.
"Check your account," she said. "I sent you your half half an hour ago."
I pulled out my phone and saw the notification.
Perfect.
Unfortunately, Mom came back at exactly the wrong moment.
"Zoe, did you deliver the documents?"
I froze.
Beside me, Valeri looked way too interested in my answer. I grabbed her wrist before she could betray me.
"Of course, Mom. Everything's fine. I already got accepted."
"The only thing I worry about," Mom said coldly, "is whether you'll embarrass this family one day. Valeri, keep an eye on your sister."
Then she walked out.
I lowered my head.
"I'll go with you," I muttered. "Just please don't tell them. You know they'll make me study whatever they want."
"I won't," Valeri promised with a smile. "As long as you keep your word. You'll see, Zoe. You're going to like him. Alan is exactly what a perfect man should be."
"I believe you," I said.
After I finished eating, I went upstairs to my room.
I was exhausted. My whole body felt heavy, and even though I never slept during the day, this time I gave up and crawled into bed.
What had happened in the store had given me a strange kind of peace.
Then Kriss ruined it.
My phone buzzed over and over with messages from her.
Please call me back.
I'm in such a horrible situation.
I'm so miserable.
This is so unfair.
And finally:
Help me, Zoe. We're friends.
The worst part was realizing there was something ugly inside me. Something mean. Something that had probably always been there.
Because after getting a taste of revenge, I wanted more.
Kriss dreamed of landing a rich boyfriend. That was the only reason she'd dragged me around with her all this time.
She was such an idiot.
Why would any rich, spoiled guy want a liar and manipulator like her?
I wanted something completely different.
I wanted to fall in love with an ordinary guy. Someone funny. Someone I chose for myself.
He didn't need to be rich.
A life like Valeri's was the last thing I wanted. The truth was, she'd never really been given a choice. Our parents had picked a fiancé for her, and somehow she'd gotten lucky enough to fall for him at first sight.
But me?
It was suddenly painfully obvious that I hadn't managed to save myself for the man who was supposed to be my first.
Curling up under the blanket, I pressed a hand against my stomach, and all the warmth inside me disappeared.
I thought about that bastard.
About what he had done to me.
And I swore that I would never, ever get involved with a man like him again.
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7.2
In the roaring flames of the abandoned warehouse, my skin blistered and peeled.
Through the crackling fire, my sister Elara's malicious voice echoed. She told me my husband, Damien, was dead, and it was all my fault.
For years, I had treated Damien like a monster. I fought him, threw tantrums, and desperately tried to escape our marriage, all because I blindly followed Elara's advice.
"Remember, the harder you fight, the more disgusted he'll get."
She texted me things like that, telling me to smash vases over his head and run away, claiming she was protecting me.
In reality, she was poisoning my mind, stealing my valedictorian spot at university, and plotting to crawl into my billionaire husband's bed.
My foolish rebellion cost me everything, ultimately leading to Damien's tragic death and my own fiery end.
As the massive explosion tore my consciousness to shreds, I finally understood who truly loved me and who the real monster was.
I died suffocating on my own agonizing regret, wishing I could tear Elara apart.
Then, a rush of freezing air punched into my lungs.
I opened my eyes to the crisp scent of cedar and mint. I was back seven years ago, on the very night our marriage was supposed to go to hell.
This time, looking at Damien's flawless, unscarred face, I didn't push him away.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and made a silent vow: I would make every single person who ever hurt him bleed.
8.9
Betrayed by the people she trusted most, Ava Lin's perfect life shatters overnight. From losing her mother under mysterious circumstances to being tormented by her stepmother and stepsister, Ava learns early that love in her world comes at a price. But nothing prepares her for the ultimate betrayal,catching her fiancé in bed with her own sister just weeks before their wedding.
Humiliated and heartbroken, Ava makes a reckless decision that changes everything: a contract marriage to a stranger. What she doesn't know is that her new husband is Elias Ward,a powerful, cold-hearted billionaire with secrets of his own.
Thrown into a world of wealth, power, and hidden enemies, Ava finds herself entangled in a dangerous game of revenge, lies, and unexpected passion. As she rises from the ashes of betrayal, those who once destroyed her will stop at nothing to bring her down even if it means exposing deadly secrets buried in her past.
But when love begins to bloom in the most unexpected place, Ava must decide,will she continue fighting for revenge, or risk everything for a second chance at love?
In a story filled with scandal, heartbreak, and justice, one woman's pain becomes her greatest strength... and her ultimate weapon.
9.7
Clarissa rushed into a crowded nightclub for one simple reason: to save her wildly drunk best friend.
But her ruthless billionaire husband, Giovanny, was watching from the VIP room. After effortlessly ruining a man just for grabbing her wrist, Giovanny punished Clarissa for breaching their public image contract with an impossible curfew.
When she inevitably arrived back at his penthouse late, he didn't just yell. He forced her to her knees by his bathtub to wash his back, making her watch an explicit, humiliating video as punishment.
A sudden family medical emergency dragged them to his parents' estate. Still in her soaked, transparent dress and his misbuttoned shirt, Giovanny's mother caught them. She joyfully assumed they had been passionately intimate.
Instead of clearing her name, Giovanny pulled Clarissa close and lied to his mother's face.
"We are working very hard on the family's future, Mother."
He locked her in the guest suite, tossed a sheer silk nightgown on the bed, and literally shattered the tablet holding their "no-contact" prenuptial agreement. He then slapped a file against the window—he had secretly bought all her father's toxic debt.
Clarissa was terrified. They were supposed to be business allies bound by a strict contract. Why was he suddenly acting like a predator determined to own her body and soul?
"Give me an heir, or your father goes to federal prison," he whispered.
Stripped of all choices, Clarissa picked up the white silk. She would surrender tonight to save her family, but as his shadow swallowed her, she made a silent vow to survive this monster, and one day, tear his empire to the ground.
8.7
Five years ago, I was the invisible scholarship charity case at an elite Manhattan prep school, trying to survive in a sea of trust-fund babies.
Arlo Hammond, the untouchable billionaire heir, made sure to completely dismantle my soul.
When his wealthy friends asked if he noticed me, his mocking laughter echoed down the hallway.
"Are you out of your mind? You seriously think I'd be interested in a boring little nerd like her?"
But the moment we were alone, he would corner me in dark alleys, pinning my wrists against brick walls with terrifying, possessive jealousy if my phone even buzzed. He played his twisted games until I was left standing in the rain with my shattered dignity.
Now, I am an Assistant District Attorney. I spent years burying those memories under mountains of legal files.
But tonight, he returned.
When we crossed paths at an exclusive club, he looked at me with the cool detachment he'd give a piece of furniture. In front of a crowd of elites, he coldly declared:
"We have absolutely nothing to do with each other anymore."
Then he walked away to pick up a supermodel, leaving me trembling from the sheer humiliation.
I didn't understand. If I was so worthless to him, why did he still have my birthday tattooed in dark ink on his wrist? Why did he look at me with such raw, painful vulnerability in the shadows?
I stared at my pale reflection in the mirror and made a silent vow.
I am not that pathetic seventeen-year-old anymore, and I will prove to him that I am completely, entirely over him.
7.6
My father raised seven brilliant orphans to be my potential husbands. For years, I only had eyes for one of them, the cold and distant Damien Paul, believing his distance was a wall I just had to break through.
That belief shattered last night when I found him in the garden, kissing his foster sister, Eve—the fragile girl my family took in at his request, the one I had treated like my own sister.
But the true horror came when I overheard the other six Fellows talking in the library.
They weren't competing for me. They were working together, orchestrating "accidents" and mocking my "stupid, blind" devotion to keep me away from Damien.
Their loyalty wasn't to me, the heiress who held their futures in her hands. It was to Eve.
I wasn't a woman to be won. I was a foolish burden to be managed. The seven men I grew up with, the men who owed my family everything, were a cult, and she was their queen.
This morning, I walked into my father's study to make a decision that would burn their world to the ground. He smiled, asking if I'd finally won Damien over.
"No, Dad," I said, my voice firm. "I'm marrying Hunter Beach."
7.5
To survive a lethal genetic breakdown, Holden, a legendary mercenary known as "Ghost," was forced into an arranged marriage with the wealthy heiress Julia Ramsey.
But the moment he stepped into the lavish estate wearing an oil-stained jacket, he was treated like absolute garbage.
Julia accused him of being a perverted stalker, pulling a gun on him and demanding he be thrown out. Even after Holden used a forbidden kinetic strike to save her grandfather from a fatal heart attack, the family still looked at him with pure disgust. Julia confined him to a cramped guest room, warning him to stay out of her life. To make matters worse, his other estranged fiancée, an elite military commander, barged into the penthouse just to throw an annulment in his face.
"You are a pathetic, bottom-feeding parasite! You have no ambition. You hide in this woman's apartment like a stray dog. You are entirely beneath me."
She mocked him in front of Julia, completely blind to the fact that Holden had just effortlessly incapacitated her Tier-1 operative with a single strike. They all thought he was just a greedy, low-class thug clinging to their wealth. They had no idea they were mocking an apex predator who commanded the city's underground and hunted mutant monsters for sport.
When Julia forced him to attend a high-society yacht party as part of a trap to publicly humiliate him, Holden just smirked and took a sip of his cheap beer.
He was more than happy to play along, already calculating exactly how he was going to tear their arrogant little world apart.