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 9
Nicholas's words hit me like thunder.
"And now you will help me get them back- whatever it costs."
The way he said it, calm but dangerous, made it clear this wasn't a request.
It was a final judgment. And I was now part of a war I didn't start but was somehow central to.
"Whatever it costs?" I repeated, my voice shaky.
"What does that mean?"
He turned away from me, moving to the cabinet behind the bookshelf and opening a hidden panel. I didn't even know it existed.
He pulled a black box and a file from it, thick, old, and sealed with a weak leather strap.
He tossed the file onto the table, the contents clinking together.
"It means you'll learn things you were never meant to know about me. Things that'll make you question everything, especially why someone would use children as leverage."
I stepped back.
"Nicholas, what is this?"
He stared at me, grinding his teeth together.
"This is the other half of my life, Ava. The part that built this mansion. That funded those children's futures. The part Vivian never liked asking about."
I looked at the file, then back at him.
"Why now?"
He came closer, voice low.
"Because whoever took my kids knows me, not just the billionaire, the man, the mistakes. They're not targeting my name; they're targeting my past."
He opened the file containing names, photos, locations, and transactions.
A chill shot through me.
Black-market deals.
Property handovers in countries I didn't even know existed.
Signatures.
Alias names.
Pictures of people I'd never seen, some looked bruised, some beaten.
"What is this?" I whispered.
Nicholas didn't flinch. "Leverage"
He pushed the file closer to me.
My fingers trembled as I turned one page, then another.
Some documents were contracts written in foreign languages, but the names were familiar people from Vivian's charity foundation.
A man I'd once seen shaking hands with Nicholas at an awards gala, A woman who had smiled too brightly during the funeral.
"These people... they worked for you?"
"They worked with me," he corrected.
"But loyalty has a price, and when money speaks louder than blood, people switch sides."
The weight of silence filled the air.
"You were involved in this?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Years ago. Before I met Vivian before I knew what life was like with children, back when I believed building an empire meant getting my hands dirty and keeping my heart locked away."
"And now?"
His eyes collided with mine.
"Now, I'm paying for every secret I buried."
I stood there, the file open between us like an open sore.
My mind raced with questions I wasn't ready to ask, but one word repeated in my mind.
"Do you think... someone you trusted took them?"
His silence was answer enough.
I backed away, my stomach twisting.
"And you think I can help with this? Nicholas, I don't even know where to start!"
"You don't need to," he said, standing.
"You just need to follow me."
He moved toward the hallway, not waiting for me to catch up. The fury in the way he moved made it clear this wasn't just about the kids.
It was about setting things right.
I followed him out of the study, my bare feet walking slowly against the cold marble.
We entered another room, smaller, windowless, filled with screens.
"This is the surveillance room," he said flatly.
"Everything gets recorded here. Every car that enters. Every call that is made from inside this house."
He indicated to the screen on the left.
It was paused on the footage from the night of the triplets' disappearance.
I held my breath.
"They didn't break in," I said softly.
"That car was let in."
He nodded.
"Someone had access. Which means it was an inside job."
I watched the footage closely.
The driver wore a cap, and sunglasses. Not even the high-quality zoom could catch their face.
"Who was on duty that night?" I asked.
Nicholas pressed the keyboard. The guard's ID showed up.
"Marco," he said. "New hire, cleared background and no history. But he's gone now. Left that same night."
"You think he was planted?"
"I think he was bought."
We stared at the screen, the same scene repeating; the car entering, headlights blinding, the guard waving it in like it was routine.
I drew in a sharp breath.
"What do you need me to do?"
He turned to me, his eyes darker than I'd ever seen.
"Pretend like nothing's changed. Stay here, play your part and watch everyone."
"Everyone?"
"Yes, maids, all staff, Vivian's friends and even my board members, if they show up."
My heart raced in my chest.
"You think the betrayal goes that deep?"
"I think this isn't about ransom. It's about revenge."
He handed me a tablet, on it were pictures of ten people. All familiar faces. All the people I'd smiled at in passing.
"These are my suspects," he said.
"But I need you to be the eyes I can't use. They won't talk to me. But you? You're innocent to them. They'll underestimate you."
"Is this even legal?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," he said.
"But neither was stealing my children."
I gripped the tablet, bile rising in my throat.
"What happens if I find the person?"
He drew closer to me, his voice was cold and sharp.
"Then I make them pay."
I couldn't breathe.
The Nicholas I met when I signed that surrogacy contract was cold, guarded, and controlled.
This Nicholas? He was terrifying in a new way.
Broken, raw and willing to burn the world to get his kids back.
I wanted to scream, I wanted to ask why I had to be part of this, but something deep inside whispered that I'd already crossed the line the moment I gave birth to those babies.
They weren't just Nicholas's anymore.
They were mine too.
And if this was the only way to bring them home, then so be it.
Even if it meant facing my worst fears or the kind of danger I'd only seen in nightmares.
***
That night, I couldn't sleep.
The file tormented me in my mind.
The faces.
The bruises.
The silent screams on paper.
Nicholas's calm voice telling me about leverage like it was just business.
But mostly, the way he'd looked at me when he said, "You're innocent to them."
I wasn't sure that was true anymore.
I rose before sunrise and walked down the empty hallways. Everything was so quiet that the air felt so suffocating.
Then I heard it - a soft sound. A door creaks shut near the eastern wing.
I stood motionless.
That part of the mansion had been off-limits since the kids went missing.
Nicholas said it was being kept sealed for the investigation.
So who was in there?
I tiptoed forward, careful not to make a sound. My fingers gripped the tablet he'd given me, using it like a mirror to check the hallway around the corner.
A shadow moved, someone tall and broad.
I hid behind the curtain.
They stopped at the corner and then sneaked through a side door to the kids room.
My heart almost stopped.
No one was allowed in there.
I waited, counting the seconds.
One. Two. Three.
The door creaked again.
I rushed out, ready to confront whoever it was, but the hallway was empty.
Gone.
Like a ghost.
I looked down the corridor. I found nothing.
But when I stepped closer to the kid's room door, I noticed it wasn't locked.
My hand shook as I reached for the knob and slowly pushed it open.
Inside, the bedsheets were untouched. The toys were still in place.
But a single envelope sat on the centre bed, the one where Ivy used to sleep.
My knees nearly gave out.
I walked over and opened it with trembling hands.
Inside was a photograph.
The triplets.
Alive.
Sleeping.
And a note written in cut-out letters that screamed horror film:
"Stop digging. Or the next picture won't be so peaceful."
My eyes filled with shock then my fingers went cold.
A sound behind me made me spin, but no one was there.
I pressed the photo to my chest, heart racing.
They'd been here.
Someone had been inside the house again.
Watching.
Mocking.
I wasn't just part of the game anymore.
I was being hunted.
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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.