The Runaway Heiress's Accidental Contract Marriage
To escape an abusive ex who blacklisted her from every job in the city, Annabelle fled to New York with nothing but her late grandfather's secret marriage token.
Destitute, she was unexpectedly taken in by the ultra-wealthy Barrera family.
Meeting their sweet, handsome nephew, Davion, she naturally assumed he was her arranged fiancé.
Seeing that Davion already had a girlfriend he loved, Annabelle felt a deep sense of guilt about the secret contract.
Sitting in his passenger seat one morning, she confessed her true identity and offered to help him secretly break the marriage alliance.
But Davion just looked at her in sheer panic.
"What engagement?"
Before Annabelle could explain, his phone accidentally went on speaker.
A low, terrifyingly calm voice echoed through the car.
It was Jasper Barrera—the ruthless, cold-blooded head of the family, and the terrifying tyrant Annabelle had accidentally offended in the estate's greenhouse just days ago.
He had heard every single word of her plan to break the sacred family trust.
Davion's face went completely ashen as he hastily pulled the car over, his hands shaking violently on the steering wheel.
"Anna," he whispered, looking like he had just seen a ghost. "Who do you think you are engaged to?"
That was when the horrifying realization crushed the air out of her lungs.
She wasn't engaged to the sweet nephew. She was engaged to the monster.
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Chapter 7
The dining room was bathed in the bright morning light. Annabelle sat at the long mahogany table, carefully slicing her Eggs Benedict.
But her eyes kept darting across the table. She was covertly watching Davion.
He sat diagonally across from her, wearing a crisp white shirt, reading the Wall Street Journal. Every time he lifted his coffee cup, his movements were deliberate and elegant. He was exactly what a high-society husband should be.
Suddenly, Davion lowered the newspaper. His eyes caught hers. He offered a soft, knowing smile.
Annabelle's breath hitched. She quickly looked down at her plate, her ears burning hot.
Gabriella walked into the dining room, tossing her purse onto a chair. She caught the exchange and her eyes gleamed with mischief.
"Ugh, my car is in the shop," Gabriella complained loudly, sitting down. She looked directly at Davion. "Davion, you have to drop Anna off at her office in Manhattan today."
Annabelle's head snapped up. "No! Gabriella, I can take the Long Island Rail Road. It's really no trouble."
Davion folded his newspaper and set it aside. "It's no trouble at all, Anna. I'm heading to the city anyway. I'd be happy to give you a ride."
Ten minutes later, Annabelle found herself sitting in the passenger seat of Davion's Aston Martin. The cabin was small and intimate. The scent of his expensive, woody cologne filled the air, making her pulse race.
As they drove, Davion asked her about her new job at Apex Digital Comics. He listened intently, asking smart questions about the digital illustration process. Annabelle found herself talking freely, completely at ease. He was so easy to talk to.
When he pulled up to her office building, he smiled and wished her a great first day.
Annabelle stepped out onto the sidewalk, waving as he drove away. But as the car disappeared into traffic, a heavy feeling settled in her stomach.
He was being nice to her because she was his sister's friend. He had no idea she was the girl he was contractually obligated to marry. Holding this secret felt like a lie. It felt manipulative. The moral weight of her deception made her feel slightly sick.
That evening, during dinner at the estate, Annabelle set her silver fork down on her porcelain plate. The soft clink drew the attention of Eleanor and Gabriella.
Annabelle took a deep breath, her hands trembling slightly in her lap. "Mrs. Barrera, Gabriella... I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking me in. But I got my first paycheck advance today. I'm going to look for an apartment this weekend and move out."
The dining room went dead silent.
Gabriella's eyes instantly welled up with tears. She reached across the table and grabbed Annabelle's hand. "No! Anna, why? Do you hate it here?"
Eleanor frowned, her elegant brows pulling together. Her voice carried the weight of a matriarch. "Annabelle, has someone made you feel unwelcome? The staff?"
"No, no! Everyone is wonderful," Annabelle stammered, feeling terrible. "I just... I can't keep living off your hospitality. It's not right."
Eleanor let out a soft, elegant laugh. Her sharp eyes studied Annabelle's face for a fraction of a second longer than necessary. There was a calculating, knowing gleam in the older woman's gaze-a look that suggested she knew exactly who Annabelle Jenkins was and the weight of the crest she carried.
Eleanor reached over and placed her hand over Annabelle's. Her grip was warm but possessed an unyielding, authoritative strength. "My dear, this house is practically empty. Having you here brings a wonderful energy to the place."
Eleanor leaned in slightly. "Winter is coming to New York. Finding a safe, decent apartment right now is nearly impossible. I insist you stay at least until after Thanksgiving. We would love to have you for the holiday. Think of it as... honoring a family connection."
"Please, Anna," Gabriella begged, squeezing her hand. "If you leave, I'll starve myself. I swear."
Annabelle looked at the two women. She had grown up without a mother, without a warm family table. The genuine desire in their eyes to keep her here broke down her walls. A lump formed in her throat.
She bit her lip and slowly nodded. "Okay. Until Thanksgiving."
Gabriella cheered, throwing her napkin in the air.
Later that night, Annabelle walked alone down the quiet, dimly lit hallway toward her room. She looked out the window at the moonlit lawns. She had tried to leave, but fate-and Eleanor-had forced her to stay. She would just have to endure this awkward, secret cohabitation with her "fiancé" until the truth came out.
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9.4
As a "wolfless" Omega at the absolute bottom of the pack hierarchy, my only goal was to build a safe, normal life with my fiancé, Dan.
That illusion shattered the day I came home early from work. I found Dan completely naked, tangled in my bedsheets with my cousin, Laura.
The suffocating stench of their betrayal polluted my home. Dan frantically tried to blame Laura, while she shrieked that they had been sleeping together for months. My sanctuary was destroyed. With no family to turn to, I fled into the night. Heartbroken and desperate for oblivion, I ended up in the office of my terrifying boss, Alpha Kane Cain. Fueled by whiskey and grief, I recklessly surrendered to him, signing a note consenting to whatever he wanted just to make the pain stop.
But the next morning, the blinding pleasure was replaced by pure terror. Kane hadn't pulled out. In our brutal world, an unmarked, wolfless Omega carrying an Alpha's child would be cast out and hunted. I panicked, begging him to let me leave, convinced I was just another disposable mistake.
Instead of letting me go, the ruthless Alpha's eyes darkened with a terrifying, primal possessiveness. He pulled out the note I had signed in my drunken haze.
"You gave me this power, little wolf," he growled, ordering his men to move my belongings to his estate. "Don't pretend you can take it back now."
8.9
Debora went to prison to protect the man she loved, only to end up a paroled convict living under the roof of her abusive foster parents.
When they found her positive pregnancy test from a one-night stand, they threatened to kick her out and send her straight back to a cell.
Just as they were about to report her, the stranger from that dark hotel room suddenly appeared.
He paid her foster parents one million dollars to marry her and take her away.
Debora thought she was finally safe.
But the moment they were alone, he looked at her with pure, venomous hatred.
He didn't want a wife; he wanted a prisoner.
He believed Debora was the ruthless murderer who had destroyed his life in a car crash, and he planned to make her suffocate in her own despair.
He didn't know she was just a scapegoat.
To survive and protect her baby, Debora found a job at a bridal shop, only to run into the real culprit—the man who actually drove the car and framed her.
He was now happily engaged to a wealthy heiress.
They deliberately ruined a priceless wedding gown and blamed it on her.
"Kneel on this floor and apologize, or I'm calling the police to revoke your parole!"
Why did she have to rot in hell for his sins, while the man she married wanted to destroy her?
Just as her trembling knees were about to touch the cold marble floor, the heavy glass doors were violently shoved open.
Her billionaire husband strode in like a force of nature, his eyes locked onto the wealthy couple with a terrifying, destructive rage.
9.1
What would a woman do if one day she is waiting for her husband to tell him the news of her pregnancy but he comes home with another woman who is pregnant with his child?
........
Ariadne had a perfect life until her mother died in a car accident and her father remarried, bringing a stepmother and stepsister into her life. Once adored by all, Ariadne became an eyesore to everyone, including her father. Her stepmother and stepsister took everything from her.
However, she lost it when their eyes fell on Xander, the sole heir of the richest family in the country and her childhood love. When rumors of Crystal, her step sister and Xander's dating spread, Ariadne used her everything to force Xander into marrying her.
Despite pouring her heart and soul into the marriage Ariadne failed to make Xander reciprocate her feelings. Their loveless marriage came to an end when Crystal returned in their lives.
With a broken heart, Ariadne left the city with a secret and rebuild her life.
Five years later, she returned as a successful interior designer to design her ex-husband's new mansion. But this time, what she saw in Xander's eyes for herself was not hatred. It was something else.
She came face to face with the same people who had wronged her in the past. They still held resentment towards her. But this time Ariadne vowed to strike back at her bullies.
Many secrets were revealed in the process that made Xander regret his past actions. He determined to win Ariadne back.
BUT Will Ariadne be able to forget their past and get back together with Xander or She will choose someone else?
9.3
Elliana sat on the cold marble floor, staring at the two pink lines on the pregnancy test. Overjoyed, she went to her husband Garrett’s study to surprise him.
But the room was empty. On his iPad, she accidentally opened a muted security video from the night before. As a graphic novelist trained in facial anatomy, she easily read Garrett’s lips as he spoke to their housekeeper.
"Increase the hallucinogens and the birth control. Let her become a complete lunatic."
The truth shattered her reality. Her three years of inexplicable exhaustion and mental collapses were orchestrated to keep her away from her ex-fiancé, who was now married to Garrett’s sister, Cristina. The nightmare worsened during a horrific highway crash. As their SUV flipped and caught fire, Garrett ruthlessly abandoned a pregnant Elliana in the crushed backseat. He dragged Cristina to safety, leaving Elliana to burn. She survived, but her right hand—her drawing hand—was permanently destroyed.
Lying in the hospital with her career ruined and her intellectual property stolen by the husband who forged her signature while she was drugged, a freezing void of hatred consumed her. She was nothing but a sedated decoy to hide Garrett's twisted, incestuous obsession with his own sister.
When Garrett knelt by her hospital bed with fake tears, Elliana didn't scream or expose him. Instead, she forced a pathetic, dependent smile, playing the perfect broken wife. She was going back to his penthouse to steal his encrypted files, ready to feed him to Manhattan's most cutthroat divorce lawyer and watch his empire burn.
9.3
Elara Voss never imagined that a single mistake could turn her life upside down. A brilliant marketing strategist with ambition as sharp as her wit, she thrives on control, until the day she crashes her rival's luxurious wedding, causing a scandal that will haunt her in high society.
Enter Dante Cross: the notorious billionaire, charmingly arrogant, and impossibly handsome, the bride's brother. In a moment of impulsive defiance, he proposes an outrageous solution to save face: a marriage neither of them wants... but both are forced to accept.
Thrown together in a world of glitz, power, and unspoken secrets, Elara and Dante clash at every turn. Sparks ignite as pride battles attraction, and the closer they get, the more dangerous their connection becomes. With hidden rivalries, family secrets, and unexpected betrayals swirling around them, Elara must navigate a game of social intrigue and decide if love is worth risking everything.
Will their forced union survive the chaos, or will the very secrets that brought them together tear them apart forever?
9.3
Candice Luna thought her marriage to Julius Hansen was a lifeline to save her father's struggling company.
She didn't know it was a death sentence until Julius coldly slid divorce papers across his mahogany desk.
His true love, Amina Rowe, was nestled in his arms with a triumphant, mocking smile. The "merger" Julius promised had been a brutal, hostile takeover designed to bleed the Luna Group dry from the inside. Bankrupted and utterly broken, Candice's father stepped off the roof of their corporate tower. Meanwhile, Candice was publicly humiliated, stripped of her dignity, and mocked by all of Wall Street as a discarded stepping stone.
She died in a car accident, her final moments consumed by an agonizing, feral scream. She hated herself for letting her blind devotion destroy the father who had always believed in her.
But when Candice opened her eyes to the harsh fluorescent lights of a hospital room, she realized she wasn't dead.
She was twenty-two again. Three years before the wedding. Three years before her father's suicide.
When Julius's assistant walked in holding a bouquet of blue roses to discuss the preliminary merger, he expected a docile, desperate heiress.
Instead, Candice grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand and flung it directly into his smug face.
"Tell Julius Hansen to never, ever send his dogs to my door again."
This time, there would be no engagement. This time, the Hansen family would choke on her family's legacy.