The Pitiful Ex-wife Is Now A Brilliant Tycoon
I was the "mute kitten" of billionaire CEO Brice Salazar, a submissive wife who never said a word. For three years, I played the part of the perfect, damaged trophy he rescued from a war zone, living in a mansion that felt like a marble prison.
Everything shattered when I caught him with his mistress, Lola Vane. While I sat silently in the shadows of a private club, I heard Brice laughing with his inner circle, calling me "damaged goods" and a "high-maintenance signature machine" who was only useful for signing legal documents.
The betrayal went deeper than a secret affair. I discovered a voice memo where Brice planned to have me committed to a Swiss sanitarium the moment my trust fund vested. He wanted to lock me away in a padded room forever so he could keep my money and his freedom. He even bought two identical pink diamond bracelets-one for me to fix his public image, and one for the woman he was actually sleeping with.
I realized my "hero" never loved me. He didn't save my life in Kandahar out of mercy; he acquired me like a failing company, exploiting my trauma to ensure my silence. He treated me like a tenant in my own home while planning to erase my very existence.
But Brice forgot one thing: before I was his mute wife, I was "The Surgeon," an operative who knew exactly how to handle a predator. I tricked him into signing a separation agreement worth billions and wore a blood-red dress to a gala to hire his greatest enemy, Damon Yates, to eat him alive.
Just as the trap was set, my world tilted. The morning sickness hit me with the force of a freight train. I wasn't just escaping a monster anymore; I was carrying his child, the ultimate leverage in a war that had just become life or death.
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Chapter 5
Brice stepped over a pile of Dior dresses, his boots muddying the delicate fabric. He reached for her, his hand aiming for her waist. It was possessive, a reflex.
"Carly, answer me. Why is half the closet on the floor?"
She stepped back. A sharp, distinct movement. She dodged his touch as if his skin were coated in acid.
Brice's hand grabbed empty air. His brow furrowed. "What is wrong with you?"
Carly pulled out her iPad. She forced her fingers to stop trembling. She typed.
Spring cleaning. These are old.
Brice looked down. He kicked a Chanel gown with the tag still on it. "This is from the fall collection. It's brand new."
Carly typed again. There is a charity gala next week. Autism awareness. I am donating them for the auction.
Brice read the screen. The tension in his shoulders dropped. "Charity. Right."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "You and your causes. Fine. Whatever makes you feel useful. It's a good tax write-off, anyway. Make sure you get the receipts."
He loosened his tie, his eyes raking over her body. The anger was gone, replaced by a sudden, drunken lust. It wasn't desire, it was a need to reassert his ownership after her small act of defiance. He took a step closer. "Since you're feeling so generous..."
He reached for her again.
Carly felt a wave of nausea so strong she thought she might vomit on his shoes. The PTSD roared in her ears-the sound of mortar fire, the feeling of being trapped under rubble. His touch was no longer a comfort; it was a cage.
She clutched her stomach and grimaced. She doubled over slightly.
She pointed to her lower abdomen and mimed a cramp. She typed one word.
Period.
Brice stopped. His face twisted in disgust. "Great. Just great."
He turned on his heel. "I'm sleeping in the guest room. Don't wake me up."
He slammed the bathroom door.
Carly waited until she heard the shower running. A cold dread washed over her as she mentally calculated the days. She was late. Very late. She pushed the thought away, attributing it to the immense stress. It couldn't be anything else. It was impossible. Then she moved.
She wasn't donating the clothes.
She dragged three large suitcases from the storage loft. She began stuffing them. The Birkins went first. Inside the lining of a crocodile skin Kelly bag, she tucked a stack of cash she had been siphoning from the grocery budget for months.
She packed the jewelry he had given her-the pieces that weren't insured by the family trust.
She took photos of everything and uploaded them to a private chat with a buyer from The RealReal. She had set this up weeks ago under an alias.
Buyer: I can take the lot. Cash payout. Pickup tomorrow at 10 AM.
Carly: Done.
She zipped the bags shut. She sat on the edge of the bed, her heart racing.
She had the money. She had the evidence. But it wasn't enough. Brice had the best lawyers in New York. They would bury her in paperwork until she ran out of cash.
She needed a shark.
She opened her laptop and searched for a name. Damon Yates.
The search results were terrifying. "The Devil's Advocate." "The Man Who Never Lost." And most importantly: "Brice Salazar's friend."
She checked his schedule. He was attending the Tech Summit Gala tomorrow night.
Brice was going too. He had forbidden her from attending, saying it was "business only."
Carly looked at the empty space in the closet where a red Valentino gown used to hang. She hadn't packed that one.
She walked over to the garment bag hanging on the back of the door. She unzipped it. The red silk shimmered like fresh blood.
She wasn't asking for permission anymore.
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7.6
The heavy prison gates clanged shut, ending three years. I scanned the empty lot for Julian, my fiancé. Deserted.
Biting December wind my only welcome. Calls to Julian, father, mother: unanswered/disconnected.
Shivering, Julian's tracker showed an unfamiliar Long Island estate. A freezing cab left me penniless; I walked through the blizzard. Through a mansion window, I saw Julian, my stepsister Clara, a small boy—a perfect family. Julian, who hated children, doted on him, and Clara wore *my* engagement ring.
I overheard Julian's call: he, my father, conspired to frame me for Clara’s medical error, saving their company and future. My family hadn't just abandoned me; they plotted my destruction.
A delayed text from Julian popped up, lying about a "cross-border meeting," promising to pick me up tomorrow. Despair vanished, replaced by a cold, terrifying smile. Typing "Understood," I turned from their stolen life, walking into the blizzard, fueled by burning rage.
7.3
I borrowed my wealthy best friend's identity to seduce Colonel Ethan Christensen. He was the powerful uncle of my ex-boyfriend, Kayden, who had brutally dumped me for a rich heiress.
My revenge plan worked too well. Ethan fell deeply in love with my fake persona and proposed. But then he handed me a thick envelope: a top-secret military background check requiring fingerprints and ten years of history.
My fake identity was about to be shattered. I faced federal fraud charges and prison time. More than that, the guilt was eating me alive. Ethan wasn't a pawn; he was a genuinely honorable man who promised to protect me. Terrified and exhausted by the lies, I typed out a full confession, ready to tell him everything and walk away.
But right before I hit send, Kayden's new fiancée called to gloat about their engagement. Through the phone, I heard Kayden's voice, lazily mocking my low status.
"Tell her to stay home. Tell her to find someone on her own level in the gutter."
The rage burned away all my guilt. Why should I be the bigger person while they destroyed my life without a second thought?
I deleted the confession and called my friend to hire a black-market hacker. I needed a flawless, forged background in forty-eight hours. I am going to marry Ethan Christensen, and I am going to smile when Kayden is forced to call me "Aunt."
7.2
Leila never believed in fairy tales - especially not the kind sealed with signatures instead of kisses.
When a carefully structured contract binds her to billionaire Damian Black, it's supposed to be simple: public appearances, flawless smiles, and zero emotional attachment. A calculated arrangement designed to protect reputations and secure power.
But high society is watching.
Whispers follow her into every ballroom. Rumors trail behind every step she takes beside him. They call her an outsider. A contract wife. Temporary.
What they don't see is the silent tension unfolding beneath polished smiles.
Damian Black is controlled, strategic, unreadable - a man who doesn't allow weakness. Yet Leila begins to notice the subtle shifts. The possessive glances. The quiet approval in his voice. The rare moments when his composure falters... just for her.
And Leila is far from fragile.
As jealousy simmers, rivals test boundaries, and past secrets threaten to surface, the line between pretense and reality begins to blur.
What happens when a marriage built on conditions starts to demand something real?
In a world where power is currency and vulnerability is dangerous, can a contract survive the slow burn of genuine emotion?
A billionaire romance filled with tension, rumors, emotional push-and-pull, and undeniable chemistry.
8.4
I'm Kailee Lynn. On the night of my engagement party, my fiancé Julian left me standing alone in front of every wealthy guest in the city, humiliating me without a single shred of mercy. I became the biggest laughingstock of high society overnight, written off as a nobody from a small town with no status, no backing, and no right to stand among them.
Everyone looked down on me, convinced I was weak and easy to push around. But I've never been one to swallow insults or accept defeat. Instead of fleeing in shame, I turned and walked straight toward the darkest, most intimidating figure in the entire banquet hall-Ervin Hendricks, the reclusive and ruthless fifth heir of the powerful Hendricks family.
Rumors followed him everywhere: they said he was confined to a wheelchair, cold-blooded, dangerously unhinged, and cruel enough to ruin anyone who crossed him. The entire room held its breath, certain I was walking straight to my doom. I lifted my chin, met his sharp gaze steadily, and spoke in a calm, unshakable tone:
"Ervin Hendricks. Marry me. I'll clear every obstacle in your path and help you seize everything that belongs to you. In return, you'll stand by my side and shield me from this world's cruelty."
In the blink of an eye, I went from Julian's discarded fiancée to his aunt by marriage, the official Mrs. Hendricks. The whole town waited eagerly to watch me break down, to see me suffer at Ervin's hands and beg for mercy. They had no clue I was hiding far more than they could ever imagine.
I'm the elite medical genius that top hospitals beg to consult, the unbeatable hacker who can crack any system in minutes, the hidden tycoon pulling strings behind global empires, and the secret powerhouse even the most elite families dare not cross. One by one, my true identities were unveiled, and every person who once mocked me fell silent, bowing to my power.
As for Julian? He watched me rise from a social outcast to the most feared and respected woman in the city, standing proudly beside the all-powerful Ervin Hendricks. Meanwhile, his own fortune crumbled, his reputation was in tatters, and the life he'd chased after leaving me turned into a complete disaster.
He was consumed by regret, so desperate he lost his mind. He chased me down at every high-society event, his eyes red with guilt and desperation, pleading for forgiveness, groveling to take back every cruel word, begging me to give him a second chance. He whined about how he'd made the worst mistake of his life, how he'd thrown away the only person who could have made him truly successful.
I felt nothing but cold contempt for him. You cast me aside like worthless trash when you thought I had nothing to offer. You chose arrogance and greed over loyalty, and now you think a few empty apologies can erase that? I didn't even spare him a glance, simply linking my arm through Ervin's and stepping past him without a second thought.
And then, the man everyone believed would never walk again suddenly rose from his wheelchair, pulled me tight against his chest, and whispered in a deep, soft, and utterly possessive voice that only I could hear:
"Kailee. You're my little treasure, my only obsession, and the only person I'll ever love and protect with everything I have."
This life, I'm taking down every enemy that wronged me, dominating every circle I step into, and making the most powerful man in the city wrap himself entirely around my finger.
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.
9.1
Selene Rivers was an upcoming singer and her future was bright until the moment when she received a phone call which was supposed to elevate her but ends up ruining her life.
During the night, she was declared a fraud, beat up on the street, run over by a car and charged with committing a crime she never committed. Her husband framed her. Her songs were stolen by her best friend. And the world thought that she was dead.
Selene lost her voice, her face and her child who she believed was dead at birth in jail.
Somebody wanted her to go permanently. The job was nearly done by a gang attack, but was rescued by billionaire Ronan Blackwood, who is the best friend of her husband, and provided her with a new name, a new face, and a second life.
Now Selene is willing to reclaim all the things that had been stolen.
With a new name she comes back to the music world and reveals the lies, the betrayal, and the secrets that took her to the hell. Her revenge, however, reveals a bigger truth, that her son is alive, and he has lived under her roof all along.
As she struggles to seek justice and reclaim her life, she begins to feel something she has never anticipated, that is, love, comfort, and security in the arms of Ronan.
Her past tried to bury her.
Her opponents attempted to mute her.
But she is done running.
This is the time she will have her voice back.
This time she will save her child.
This time, it will be her own choice of the future.