The Surrogate Contract With The Ruthless Billionaire
In a great need to save her mother, who was dying, Ava agrees to become a surrogate for a billionaire couple. The plan seemed so simple to Ava: carry the child, get paid, and walk away.
When she thought the deal was over, she received shocking news about Vivian, the children's mother. She has died in a tragic accident.
Caught in a whirlwind of loss and responsibility, Ava finds herself stuck in the home of the ruthless billionaire Nicholas Williams. He blames her for everything and clarifies to Ava that she's staying to care for the kids.
What happens when love comes knocking on the heart of this ruthless billionaire? Whose plan was to make life miserable for her?
What if Vivian's death wasn't an accident?
What if Ava was never meant to leave?
And what happens when the truth finally comes out? Will love prevail?
This is a story of heartbreak, secrets, and unexpected love that tries to bloom in the darkest places.
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Chapter 3
Five years.
That was how long it had been since Vivian's funeral, since the quiet ceremony with black umbrellas and fake condolences, since Nicholas Williams had looked me in the eye and told me I didn't have a choice.
It has been Five years since I stopped thinking of this house as temporary. Now, it is just part of my daily life; the kids have become my new normal.
"Mommy!"
The nickname still made something flutter in my chest. At times, it felt sweet or like a weight I hadn't earned. But neither of the triplets, Ivy, Rita, or Julie, knew any other word for me.
As far as they were concerned, I was their mother. And in all the ways that counted, like feeding them, protecting them from their nightmares, giving band-aids when they got hurt, or bedtime stories.
I turned away from the sink and crouched just in time to catch Ivy as she barreled into my legs, her curls bouncing wildly.
"What's all this energy?" I laughed, smoothing a hand over her head. "Julie said you make better pancakes than Daddy!" she announced, and I smiled.
"Is that a fact?"
Behind her, Julie appeared, arms crossed and a mischievous grin. "I didn't say better," she declared, knowing how to stir things up. "I said the ones you make don't look like burned hats."
A snort came from the hallway, and I stilled to stare at the handsome man in my sight.
Nicholas stood in the doorway, wearing a black suit and a half-done tie. His watch glinted in the sunlight. Even now, he looked wonderful with his tall stature, effortlessly groomed appearance, and unreadable expression.
"Is that so?" he said coolly.
The children giggled and dashed off, their footsteps echoing into the vast halls of the house.
He stepped into the kitchen, picking up his coffee from the counter where I'd placed it twenty minutes earlier. It was still hot and perfect, but he didn't thank me; he never did.
"Your appointment is at Five," he said without looking at me.
"What appointment?" I said, frowning in confusion.
"For Julie's pediatrician, I rescheduled it since you missed the last one." My stomach tightened. "You didn't tell me about it."
"I shouldn't have to."
There it was, the tone, that subtle, dismissive edge that told me this was not a conversation, but an order.
I didn't answer, I just nodded, returning to the dishes. We had these moments often, sharp and cold and quiet.
He never yelled, never raised his voice, but everything he said carried an unspoken threat. One he never needed to say aloud anymore: "You're here because I let you be."
No one could deny that he was a good father. He was always attentive and affectionate, so the kids loved him. He tucked them in bed every night when he wasn't traveling, read to them, and built extravagant playhouses in the backyard.
But to me?
I was still the woman who took something from him.
He hadn't forgiven me for Vivian's death, and grief had twisted him into something sharp.
I sometimes caught him staring at me from across a room, his eyes distant and tormented. He seemed to be trying to imagine her in my place or erase me altogether.
Later that week, I stood on the patio, hanging Rita's tiny T-shirts on the drying rack. The sun was warm, and the air smelled like lavender from the garden. If someone had taken a photo of me then, they might have thought I looked peaceful.
They wouldn't have known I flinched every time I heard his footsteps.
Nicholas walked out onto the patio without a word, his phone pressed to his ear. He barely looked at me as he passed, but I heard the tail end of his conversation.
"...no, I said I'm not ready for that, I'm not replacing her."
I froze, one hand on a peg.
Replacing her.
He wasn't talking about business, I knew that much. He never spoke about Vivian to me, but I knew she was still in everything.
Her photos hung in the hallway, and her perfume bottles remained untouched in the upstairs bathroom. It was as if she might return any day, but I knew she couldn't.
I swallowed and looked away. I wasn't here for him and reminded myself of that every day. I was here for them, Ivy, Rita, and Julie.
I woke them, fed them, played with them, and sang them to sleep. Every scraped knee, every fever, every tantrum, they were all mine to handle.
And in the quiet hours of the night, when I tiptoed past the nursery back to my room, the small, spare guest room at the far end of the house, I reminded myself that it wasn't forever.
Or at least, it wasn't supposed to be.
After everyone was asleep that night, I sat on the edge of my bed with the lamp on and picked up my phone.
There was a missed call from my mother and then a text.
"Sweetheart, can I see you soon? I know you're busy with school, but I miss you."
Guilt hit me square in the chest like it had been doing for a while now.
I hadn't seen her in for too long, and she lived just a few hours away, in a house I used to call home. She wouldn't like Nicholas, and he'd never welcome her here; his kindness wasn't part of the deal.
I stood, pacing a little.
I had the pediatrician appointment tomorrow as well as laundry. There was always something, some reason to stay locked in this life I hadn't chosen but couldn't seem to escape.
But still, that message echoed in my chest.
Can I see you?
I don't even remember the last time I hugged her or felt the warmth she exuded.
I stared out the window at the dark lawn below, Five years of living someone else's life, of putting myself last.
I turned and grabbed my overnight bag from the top of the closet. Just for the weekend, I told myself.
I would visit her, and I'd let the kids stay with the nanny because she was more than capable. I needed to breathe. For a while, I needed a reminder that I wasn't just the woman who stayed behind.
I still had a name, a past, and a mother who loved me dearly. I needed to remember who I was before all this began.
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7.2
Blurb:
They said loving him would ruin her, and they were right.
Adrianna never meant to fall for Xavier Palmer, the cold, untouchable billionaire whose name alone could silence a room. He was dangerous, controlling, and completely out of her world.
But the moment he claimed her as his, there was no escape.
What started as a forced bond quickly turned into something far more dangerous. Obsession and possession, a love so intense it blurred the line between protection and destruction.
Then everything shattered.
A brutal accident leaves Adrianna fighting for her life... and Xavier drowning in guilt, rage, and a darkness no one has ever seen before. While she lies unconscious, he hunts for the truth behind the attack, unaware that betrayal is closer than he thinks.
When Adrianna finally wakes up, nothing is the same.
Secrets have been buried, a child has been lost, and enemies are closing in.
But Xavier has made one thing clear.
He will destroy anyone who dares touch what belongs to him, even if it means becoming the monster she fears.
Even if it means losing her forever.
7.7
Kael Ravyn was born to rule, a powerful Alpha with a rare bloodline that even the strongest enemies coveted. But a lifetime ago, his father's desperate act to save him left Kael powerless, his wolf suppressed, his destiny stolen. Now, with the pack growing impatient and his throne threatened, he has three months to reclaim his power... or lose everything.
Aria has always believed the world was ordinary. With her mother gone and her father hiding secrets of a supernatural past, she's never imagined a life beyond what she can see and touch. Until the night of a billionaire's birthday party changes everything.
In the glimmering lights of wealth and power, Kael and Aria meet for the first time-and the instant pull between them is undeniable. Neither understands it, yet the bond of mates awakens something dangerous, something powerful... and something that could cost them both more than they ever imagined.
8.9
Aubree Hamilton was the top-tier executive assistant to Wall Street's most ruthless titan, Beck Franco. A month ago, she made a catastrophic mistake and spent the night in his bed.
Thinking she had erased the mistake with a morning-after pill, she panicked upon his return and lied about being engaged to push him away.
But Beck, a man who despised disloyalty above all else, immediately suspended her and ordered her escorted out of the building. Her nightmare only escalated when her toxic ex-boyfriend attacked her on the street, tearing her purse open and exposing the empty morning-after pill box to the public—and to Beck, who was watching from his penthouse. After having his security rescue her, Beck trapped her in his car, ruthlessly tearing apart her fake engagement. Later in her apartment, the suffocating tension between them almost ignited into a kiss, but a violent wave of nausea suddenly hit Aubree.
She shoved him away with all her strength and violently threw up in the bathroom.
Beck took it as the ultimate physical disgust. He walked out, deeply humiliated and dangerously obsessed, unleashing his resources to investigate her every move.
Left alone and trembling, Aubree finally checked the crushed white box. The pill she took had expired a month ago.
Staring at the two bright pink lines on the pregnancy test, she made a desperate vow: Beck Franco could never know she was carrying his child, and she had to disappear before he found out.
7.6
For seventeen years, I was the pride of the Carlisle family, the perfect daughter destined to inherit an empire. But that life ended the moment a DNA report slid across my father’s mahogany desk.
The paper proved I was a stranger. Vanessa, the girl sobbing in the corner, was the real biological daughter they had been searching for.
"You need to leave. Tonight. Before the press gets wind of this. Before the stock prices dip."
My father’s voice was as cold as flint. My mother wouldn't even look at me, staring out the window at the gardens as if I were already a ghost. Just like that, I was erased. I left behind the Birkin bags and the diamonds, throwing my Centurion Card into a crystal bowl with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot. I walked out into the cold night and climbed into a rusted Ford Taurus driven by a man I had never met—my biological father.
I went from a mansion to a fourth-floor walk-up in Queens that smelled of laundry detergent and struggle. My new siblings looked at me with a mix of fear and disgust, waiting for the "fallen princess" to break. They expected me to beg for my old life back, to crumble without the luxury I’d known since birth.
But they didn't know the truth. I had spent years training in a shark tank, honing survival skills they couldn't imagine. While Richard Carlisle froze my trust funds to starve me out, my net worth was climbing by millions on an encrypted trading app.
They thought they were throwing me to the wolves. They didn't realize they were just letting me off my leash. As the Carlisles prepared to debut Vanessa at the Manhattan Arts Gala, I was already making my move.
"Get dressed. We're going to a party."
8.9
My family's company went bankrupt, and my biological father was lying in the ICU, kept alive by machines that cost tens of thousands a day.
I thought it was just a tragic business failure, until I caught my mother in bed with my stepfather.
They had secretly transferred all our assets months ago, deliberately bankrupting the company and leaving my father to die.
To pay the hospital bills, my stepfather forced me to a private club, trying to sell me to a sleazy investor.
When I refused, he slapped me across the face, and my mother just looked at me with cold, dead eyes.
"Be realistic, Jaelynn. A woman's body is a tool. Use it to get what you need."
Later, right before my father's emergency surgery, my stepfather signed a Do Not Resuscitate order and froze the medical accounts.
"If you don't get on your knees and spread your legs for him, I will tell the hospital to pull your father's plug."
Standing in the freezing rain, covered in mud and blood, I stared at the astronomical hospital bill in my hand.
My own family had plotted to murder my father and sell me to the highest bidder. The betrayal shattered every ounce of sanity I had left.
I didn't cry or beg them anymore.
Instead, I pulled out a water-stained, gold-embossed business card.
It belonged to Dolph Valentine, the most ruthless billionaire in New York and my ex-fiancé's uncle.
If they wanted to destroy my life, I was going to sell my soul to the biggest monster of them all and drag them straight to hell.
8.2
The $50 million lawsuit notice on my phone screen was a violent, pulsing red. My father’s corporate espionage had finally caught up to us, and he was ready to throw me to the wolves to save his own skin.
To survive, I signed a contract marriage with the predator himself—Alaric Hunter, the very man currently dismantling my family’s legacy.
But the moment we left City Hall, my father turned into a monster. He called the hospital and canceled the private care for my dying mother, moving her to a miserable state ward just to break my spirit for "disobeying" him.
"I will find the money," I hissed, even as my throat threatened to close from the paralyzing stress.
"You’ll come crawling back when that monster dumps you!" my father roared, leaving me standing in the rain with nothing but a battered suitcase.
My ex-boyfriend, the man who actually falsified the documents that framed me, mocked me from his Ferrari, while Alaric’s own business rivals planted hidden cameras in our new penthouse to watch our every move. I was a legal shield, a corporate asset, and a target all at once.
I didn't understand why Alaric was suddenly paying my mother’s medical bills in secret or why he looked at me with such chilling intensity. Was I just a tool for his voting shares, or was he the only person in this city who actually wanted me safe?
I looked at the files Alaric left on the marble counter, filled with evidence against everyone who had ever hurt me. I was done being the victim of a hostile takeover; it was time to show them what happens when a Hunter’s wife decides to start hunting.