The Lone Daughter of Martyrs: Her Glory Blooms After Divorce
On the day my parents' ashes were being returned from overseas, I waited for my husband of five years, Domenic, to go to the military base with me. He was the only family I had left.
He never showed. His assistant called with an "emergency"-his mistress's mother had twisted her ankle.
This was the same man who had given my mother's ruby necklace to that woman, calling it "outdated trash." The same man who, when I brought my parents' urns home, sided with his mother when she called them "disgusting" and ordered the maids to throw them in the basement.
"Take that box and get out," he told me. "Do not come back until you are ready to apologize to my mother."
He didn't care that the box held the remains of two national heroes. He didn't care that I was their daughter. I finally understood he never saw me as his wife; he saw me as a stray he'd picked up, a pet he could discard.
But he made a fatal mistake. The "penniless orphan" he married was a decorated Delta Force veteran and the secret architect of his entire ten-billion-dollar company.
He thought he was throwing away a problem. He was about to find out he had just declared war on the woman who held his entire empire in the palm of her hand.
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Chapter 8
The conference room inside the towering Manhattan law firm smelled of lemon polish and predatory greed.
Frankie sat on one side of the massive glass table.
Opposite her sat Eleanor, flanked by three men in expensive suits-the "Shark Lawyers" of the Alexander family.
Eleanor leaned back in her plush leather chair. She looked at Frankie with a mixture of triumph and utter disdain.
She slid a single sheet of paper across the glass, followed by a rectangular slip of paper.
"Sign the non-disclosure agreement, Frankie," Eleanor said, her tone dripping with arrogant charity. "You waive all rights to Aetherion Dynamics, you admit fault in the marriage, and you walk away quietly."
Frankie looked down. It was a cashier's check.
One hundred million dollars.
Frankie's mind instantly pulled up the financial data she had reviewed last night. Aetherion's pre-IPO valuation was currently sitting at ten billion dollars.
Eleanor was trying to buy the core architecture of a ten-billion-dollar tech empire for one percent of its value, thinking she was overpaying a gold digger.
It was so profoundly stupid it almost hurt to witness.
Frankie didn't argue. She didn't demand more.
She reached into her blazer, pulled out her heavy Montblanc pen, and uncapped it.
She pressed the nib to the paper and signed her name with aggressive, fluid strokes. The scratch of the metal on paper was the only sound in the room.
Eleanor's lips curled into a victorious sneer. Just a greedy little peasant after all, her eyes said.
Frankie capped her pen. She picked up the check and her copy of the agreement, stood up, and looked down at Eleanor.
"I hope you remember this moment," Frankie said softly, her eyes dead. "Because when you come begging me to tear this up, I want you to remember how eager you were to give it to me."
She walked out without looking back.
That evening, the atmosphere inside Le Bernardin, New York's most exclusive Michelin three-star seafood restaurant, was hushed and elegant.
Frankie sat in a velvet booth, wearing a stunning, backless emerald-green velvet gown. Across from her sat her best friend, Siobhan, a ruthless venture capitalist.
Siobhan raised her crystal champagne flute. "To freedom. And to watching that bastard's company burn to the ground."
Frankie clinked her glass against Siobhan's, taking a slow sip. Her eyes briefly flicked toward the entrance of the restaurant, noting the arrival of a distinguished older gentleman in a tweed suit being led to a table across the room. She recognized him instantly, and a faint, calculated glint passed through her eyes. Siobhan hadn't noticed; she was too busy pouring more champagne.
Suddenly, a loud, braying laugh cut through the quiet hum of the restaurant.
Frankie's body tensed. Her military-trained hearing instantly isolated the sound. It was coming from the semi-private dining room right next to their booth, separated only by an ornate wooden screen.
She leaned slightly to the left, peering through the carved gaps in the wood.
Sitting at the large round table were Domenic, Carley, and Ashley Sutton, Domenic's loudest, most obnoxious trust-fund friend.
"I still can't believe she's dragging this out," Ashley was saying, shaking his head with a loud scoff. "She's probably going to take that settlement money and run back to whatever trailer park she crawled out of."
Carley placed a gentle, perfectly manicured hand on Domenic's arm, her face a mask of delicate concern.
"Dom, you shouldn't let this upset you. Some people just have different priorities," Carley said, her voice dripping with fake, sugary sympathy, playing the perfect, innocent confidante. "I never wanted to cause trouble between you two. You have to understand her background. She has no family. A hundred million is an incomprehensible amount of money to someone with her limited... scope. It's only natural she'd act out."
Domenic sat there, swirling the dark red wine in his glass. He didn't say a word to defend his wife of five years. He just took a sip, leaning into Carley's touch, silently validating every backhanded insult.
Siobhan heard it too. Her face flushed dark red with fury. She slammed her hands on the table, preparing to stand up and storm the room.
Frankie's hand shot out. Her fingers clamped around Siobhan's wrist like a steel vice.
Siobhan gasped at the sudden, bruising pressure. She looked at Frankie.
Frankie's eyes were completely black, devoid of any light. She looked like a predator watching its prey wander into a minefield.
"Sit down," Frankie whispered, her voice a chilling breeze. "Let the bullets fly a little longer. I want them at the absolute peak of their arrogance before I break their legs."
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8.0
Abigayle was the proud heir to the Pena Group, living a perfect life and engaged to Jeffery Sullivan.
But the morning after a charity gala, she woke up drugged in a hotel room, blinded by paparazzi cameras. Her fiancé and her best friend stood at the foot of the bed, throwing a forged pregnancy report at her face to publicly frame her for cheating.
The betrayal was only the beginning of the slaughter. Before she could even clear her name, the Sullivan family ruthlessly bankrupted her family's company overnight. Her father was rushed to the ICU with a heart attack, her brother was run off the road into a coma, and violent repo men raided her penthouse. Just as she was thrown out into the freezing rain, Jeffery's terrifying uncle, Donovan Sullivan—the very mastermind who engineered her family's ruin—stepped in. He offered to cover the life-saving medical bills, but only if she agreed to become his personal plaything.
Abigayle's blood turned to ice. She couldn't understand how the people she trusted most could plot such a vicious, coordinated destruction just to break an engagement. How dared the man who destroyed her entire family stand there playing the savior, trying to buy her body with her own stolen wealth?
Facing a $100,000 hospital deadline and abandoned by everyone she knew, she didn't shed another tear.
"I will never beg him."
Clutching her last diamond bracelet, she hailed a cab straight to the biggest pawnshop in the Diamond District. The Sullivans thought they had buried her, but her counterattack was just beginning.
9.4
**Fortune between Us** is a fast-paced, dramatic tale of ambition, love, and power in the glamorous world of billionaires. Isabella Carter, a brilliant and determined strategist, navigates high-stakes corporate intrigue, rivalries, and sabotage while forging a complex, slowly unfolding romance with the enigmatic Alexander Blackwood. As secrets, betrayals, and crises threaten to unravel everything, Isabella must rely on intelligence, courage, and intuition to survive-and thrive-in a world where wealth, influence, and desire collide.
7.6
The harsh glare of the spotlight hit Harper's custom wedding dress as she smiled at her groom.
But a single phone call from his mistress, Lila, made Chase violently shove his way down the aisle and sprint out of the hotel.
He left Harper to face the flashing cameras and the mockery of hundreds of guests.
Her mother-in-law dragged her into a hallway and slapped her hard across the face.
"You cannot even keep your own man in the room. You are making a mockery of this family."
When Harper rushed to the hospital, Chase blamed her for Lila's theatrical, fake miscarriage.
He threatened to pull every cent of capital from Harper's investment firm if she dared to walk away.
The Young family then used the media to frame Harper, turning her into a public pariah who viciously "killed" an unborn child.
Mobbed by ruthless paparazzi, Harper was pushed into the freezing rain, her knees bleeding on the concrete.
She couldn't accept that her entire life and career were being destroyed by a mistress's pathetic lie.
When Chase later tried to buy her silence with a pink diamond—the exact same one he had just gifted Lila—her remaining love turned to absolute ice.
But fate intervened when she was rescued from the mob by Antoni Donovan, the most ruthless billionaire on Wall Street and her biggest corporate rival.
Discovering that Antoni was actually her best friend's older brother, a dangerous smile spread across Harper's face.
She picked up his gold-lettered business card.
She was done being the victim; she was going to use the wolf of Wall Street to crush her ex-husband.
8.2
Blurb:
Richard Tucker lost everything long before he died. Orphaned young, forced to work two jobs through college, and later dragged into a scandal with the daughter of a wealthy family, he became the unwanted son-in-law of the powerful Warrens. His mother-in-law despised him, every employer rejected him, and his life fell apart piece by piece.
Then one night, Richard was hunted down, beaten, and left to die in a cold alley.
But death wasn't the end.
Richard woke up with the Trillionaire System, a mysterious power that deposits $500 into his account every hour and rewards him with skills, strength, and unlimited financial advantages. With $360k a month at Level 1, Richard discovers a future he never imagined, one where he can rebuild himself, protect his wife, and rise far beyond everyone who mocked him.
Yet power comes with enemies.
A vengeful ex-suitor, a ruthless rival family, and a powerful heiress who wants Richard for herself move against him. Old threats return, new alliances crumble, and the truth about the scandal that ruined his life resurfaces with deadly consequences.
But as Richard climbs, a new identity emerges in the shadows:
Mr. Tusks, the mysterious billionaire quietly becoming the largest shareholder in multiple corporations and preparing to launch the most anticipated company in the nation, RT Enterprise.
When the world gathers for the grand unveiling, Richard plans to reveal who he truly is...
And when he does, every enemy who called him worthless will finally understand the man they tried to destroy.
8.6
"We both know this match is not our will. For that reason, I'm offering you a contract."
My eyes widened in shock at Harrison's words-an open proposal from a man I had only met for the first time.
What the average family could never pull off happened effortlessly among the right people.
I scanned through the printed agreement in my hands.
No interference in each other's personal lives
Absolute confidentiality of the marriage contract, agreed upon by both parties
The marriage shall last a minimum of two years. If separation is still difficult to implement after that period, the contract may be extended until circumstances permit otherwise
Some of the clauses were... interesting.
A contract like this wasn't natural for a couple about to get married. But strangely, it made me feel more prepared than blindly stepping into the unknown as a member of the Marcus family.
"I deliberately left the last page blank," Harrison said calmly, tapping the paper with his finger. "Please write your conditions."
His assistant smoothly placed a ballpoint pen into my hand.
I didn't hesitate.
Respect both families as one
No physical contact
Separate bedrooms
I've always preferred being alone. I've never had a boyfriend-and I never cared to.
Unfortunately, my sister did.
She was in love, yet she had been betrothed to a billionaire's son she was now being forced to marry.
I pitied her.
So I made a decision that changed everything.
I replaced her.
Harrison Marcus, the billionaire's son, didn't want to marry a stranger either. So he proposed a contract-to me.
Helping my sister.
A marriage without love.
A deal that would end in divorce.
Or so we thought.
Two years later, we planned to file for divorce and walk away like strangers.
But contracts don't account for feelings...
and neither did we.
8.5
I was supposed to marry Aaron, the future Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, and finally have my fairy tale.
But right before our Unity Celebration, I caught him buried between my stepsister's legs in our bridal suite.
When I refused to bind my soul to his at the altar and exposed his betrayal, my world completely shattered.
My own mother called me a crazy, wolfless bitch and disowned me on the spot for ruining a political alliance.
Aaron publicly humiliated me, screaming that as a wolfless Omega, I should have been on my knees thanking him for the chance to be his breeding mare.
Driven to absolute despair by the betrayal of everyone I trusted, I tried to jump off a freezing roof.
But a pair of strong arms pulled me back from the edge.
In the dark, a stranger consumed my grief, wrapping me in a terrifyingly dominant scent of cedar and leather, making me feel an intoxicating mate bond I thought I was incapable of having.
I thought it was just a desperate, one-night mistake to make me forget.
But the next morning, when I went to the Blackwood estate to return Aaron's gifts and leave as a Rogue, a suffocating aura filled the room.
The man who stepped between me and my furious ex-fiancé, the man whose marks were currently hidden beneath my clothes, stared at me with glowing golden eyes.
"Get your hands off her."
He was Kaelon Blackwood. The supreme Alpha King.
Aaron's father.
And he had just locked the door, declaring that I belonged to him.