Thirty Days To Marry: The Doctor's Escape
I was Ethan Dejesus’s "glorified roommate" for eight long years. Even though I was a successful doctor, I lived in the guest room of his luxury penthouse and spent my mornings making his coffee like a servant while waiting for a ring that was never coming.
The breaking point came when Ethan forced me to give his mistress, Delisa, a medical exam in the VIP wing of my own hospital. He didn't just want to break my heart; he wanted to destroy my professional dignity in front of the woman he was cheating with.
During a paparazzi swarm at his estate, a heavy camera lens hit me in the temple, leaving me bleeding on the floor. Ethan didn't even flinch. He stepped over my body to protect Delisa, making sure he looked like a hero for the cameras while I struggled to stand. That night, I overheard him laughing at a bar, telling his friends I was like a "stray dog" that would always crawl back for scraps no matter how much he starved me. When I finally stood up to him, he shoved me out of his SUV onto a dark highway in the middle of a rainstorm and threw my purse into the mud. I walked for miles in the freezing rain, only to get home and find Delisa already moved into the penthouse, sitting at my vanity and wearing my clothes.
"You'll be back in a week when the money runs out," he laughed as I packed my only suitcase.
"You're a nobody from Queens. You have nothing without me."
I looked at the man I had loved for nearly a decade and realized the woman who worshipped him was dead. He had murdered her on that highway, and he didn't even care.
I blocked his number, dropped my key card on the floor, and walked out into the night without looking back. I wasn't going to be his "stray dog" anymore. I was heading to a small house in the suburbs to meet Carleton Schmitt—a total stranger I had agreed to marry in a moment of drunken desperation who was now my only way out.
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Chapter 3
St. Augustine's Private Hospital smelled of antiseptic and expensive lilies. The VIP wing was quieter than the rest of the hospital, the floors carpeted to muffle the sound of gurneys and footsteps. Amira stood at the nurses' station, her eyes scanning a patient chart, trying to drown out the noise in her head with medical data.
"Dr. Cortez."
The voice was clipped, sharp. Dr. Sterling, the hospital administrator, stood beside her. He was a small man who wore suits that were too large, as if trying to physically expand his presence.
"VIP patient in Suite 1. They requested you specifically."
Amira frowned. "I'm not on rotation for the VIP wing today. And I have rounds in the general ward."
"You have time for this," Sterling said, his eyes hard. "Go."
Amira felt a knot of dread tighten in her stomach. She closed the chart and walked down the hallway to Suite 1. She knocked once and pushed the door open.
The room was larger than her apartment. A plush seating area, a view of the park, and a state-of-the-art exam bed.
Delisa Conrad was reclining on the bed, looking like a tragic heroine from one of her movies. She wore a silk hospital gown that she must have brought herself. Ethan sat in the chair beside her, holding her hand, his thumb rubbing her knuckles soothingly.
Amira froze in the doorway. Her professional mask slipped for a fraction of a second, revealing the shock beneath.
"I'm not an OB-GYN," Amira stated, her voice stiff. She was an ER physician. This was not just outside her specialty; it was a flagrant breach of protocol.
Ethan looked up. His eyes were cold, daring her to make a scene. "But you are a doctor. Delisa trusts you. She's... fragile right now."
Delisa turned her head, her blonde hair cascading over the pillow. She smiled, a sweet, venomous expression. "I heard you're so thorough, Amira. I just want to make sure everything is... perfect."
Amira gripped the door handle. "I'll page Dr. Evans. He's the specialist."
She turned to leave, but Sterling was standing in the doorway, blocking her path. He wasn't looking at her; he was looking at Ethan with a sycophantic smile.
"Is everything alright, Mr. Dejesus?"
"Dr. Cortez seems reluctant to do her job," Ethan said smoothly.
Sterling turned to Amira, his smile vanishing. He leaned in close, his voice a low hiss. "The Dejesus family donates a wing to this hospital, Dr. Cortez. Their foundation pays your salary. Do this, or I'll make sure you're blacklisted from every reputable hospital in the tri-state area. You'll be practicing in a back-alley clinic by noon."
Amira looked at Sterling, then back at Ethan. It was a trap. A humiliation ritual.
She let go of the door handle. She walked to the sink and snapped on a pair of latex gloves. The sound was loud in the quiet room.
"Fine."
She approached the bed. Ethan didn't move. He stayed right there, watching. Amira began the basic checkup-blood pressure, heart rate, temperature. Her movements were precise, mechanical. She touched Delisa only where necessary, her skin crawling even through the gloves. This wasn't a medical exam; it was a performance for an audience of one. She knew it, and they knew she knew.
Ethan watched Amira's hands. He had a look of satisfaction on his face, enjoying the sight of his ex-girlfriend serving his current obsession.
Amira placed the stethoscope on Delisa's chest. She leaned in to listen to the heart rhythm.
Delisa lifted her head slightly, bringing her lips close to Amira's ear.
"He told me you're pathetic in bed, too," Delisa whispered. "Like a dead fish."
Amira's hand slipped. The stethoscope clamored against Delisa's collarbone. Amira pulled back, her breath hitching. She steadied herself, forcing her hand to stop shaking.
"Heart rate is normal," Amira announced, her voice sounding robotic to her own ears. "Blood pressure is slightly elevated."
Ethan frowned. "You sound bored. Show some respect. She's in distress."
"I am being professional," Amira countered, stripping off the gloves.
Ethan stood up, towering over her. He stepped into her personal space. "I'm filing a complaint for your attitude. You have zero bedside manner."
Sterling appeared in the doorway again, as if summoned by a silent alarm.
"Dr. Cortez, my office. Now."
Amira looked at Ethan one last time. He was smiling. She walked past him, head high, but inside, she was screaming.
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8.5
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But the heat in Miami isn't just from the sun. While Daniel's magnetic pull draws Tyla into a world of high-stakes parties and whispered promises, a blade is being sharpened in the shadows. Summer, the "best friend" who has lived in Tyla's shadow for years, has finally reached her breaking point.
Summer doesn't just want Daniel; she wants Tyla's life. And she's willing to burn both of them to the ground to get it.
7.8
I was the "perfect" fiancée for Harrison Vincent—regal, silent, and low-maintenance. For two years, I suppressed my career as a forensic accountant to be the "safe" choice that polled well with his family’s shareholders.
But at a high-society gala, I found him in a VIP lounge with a socialite wrapped around him. He told her I was just a "boring art piece display stand" he had to drag around until his trust fund was unlocked.
I didn't scream or make a scene. I mentally filed a "bad debt" report, tossed my emerald engagement ring into a glass of stale champagne, and walked out of his life. That same night, I found myself in a dark jazz club bathroom, using a strip of my velvet dress to stop the bleeding of a mysterious man with a gunshot wound and eyes like grey flint.
The fallout was immediate. Harrison blocked my credit cards, assuming I’d crawl back once I couldn't afford rent. His mother called me a "nobody" while simultaneously begging me to handle the family's medical emergencies because they were too panicked to function. They treated me like a tool they could discard and pick up at will, never realizing I had already moved my things into a cramped Brooklyn apartment.
I couldn't understand why they thought I was still their puppet, or why a black Maybach began following me through the city streets. I had saved a stranger's life and ended a toxic engagement, yet the air around me felt heavier and more dangerous than ever.
The truth came out at the hospital when the most feared man in the city stepped out of the shadows. It was the man from the bathroom—Collis Vincent, the ruthless head of the family. He didn't just humiliate Harrison; he took my hand in front of everyone and made a chilling declaration.
"Harrison is a fool to have let you go, Helena. Your arrangement with him is terminated. From now on, you'll be working with me."
7.2
Azura Briggs was just a broke college student working freezing valet shifts to pay her adoptive mother's crushing medical debt.
Her desperate life shattered the night a bulletproof Maybach violently cornered her in an alley, and a ruthless billionaire kidnapped her by mistake.
After a harrowing escape, Azura was forced to take a humiliating "plus-one" gig at a high-end gala just to survive. But her date turned out to be the billionaire's arrogant nephew, who promptly abandoned her to the wolves. Cornered by a sleazy executive and his psychotic wife, Azura was publicly slapped, her dress torn, and left bleeding on the floor while hundreds of elites watched in disgust.
Just as she prepared to fight to the death, the crowd violently parted. Hunter Mcintosh, the terrifying man who had kidnapped her days ago, dropped to his knees in the broken glass and wrapped his bespoke jacket around her trembling shoulders.
Azura was completely paralyzed. Why was the monster who threatened her life now destroying billionaires just to protect her?
But the illusion of safety didn't last. Trapped in his Maybach hours later, Hunter threw a draconian employment contract at her feet.
"Sign it, and her care is covered. Forever."
He knew exactly how to break her. He was offering to pay off her mother's debt, but only if she signed her life away to become his personal assistant. With no other way out, Azura picked up the heavy pen.
7.8
Amara Daniels doesn't believe in destiny or happy endings; having survived from the dark shadows of her past, her life no longer has room for mistakes or attractive billionaires like Ethan Cole.
Ethan enters her life with his charming persistence, and she becomes worried after he meets her four-year-old son, her past that she has carefully buried.
He is her dangerous distraction.
But their chemistry conceals shocking secrets and connecting fates - that might either bring them together or set them apart forever. In a game where hearts and careers collide, can she have it all or will passion cost her everything?
9.5
Smoke and silence rule the ruins of the Mantle pack. Lyra, once a fierce warrior-wakes shackled and ritual-silenced, her wolf buried but not dead, a living emblem of everything Lucius, the cruel Alpha of Onyx Crest, used to cement his power. Brian, the heir raised to obey, is taught to deny the bond he never wanted; one whispered word from Lyra cracks that obedience and sparks a secret, dangerous connection.
As their flickering bond strengthens, Lyra's wolf claws back to life and Brian's loyalties split, igniting a rebellion against a family built on sacrifice and fear. When Asher seizes the crest and brands them fugitives, what begins as escape becomes a fight for more than revenge-it's a war to remake the packs into something kinder and just, and to claim a throne built on unity rather than domination.
9.6
For ten long years, Gloria put up with Victor' Anderson's cold heart, his cheating, and the shame of being a wife he didn't want anymore all to protect their daughter, Annabel. Then one day, she snapped. "I want a divorce," she said. Victor laughed at her, like a cruel joke. To him, Gloria was nothing without his name, his money, his control. Her family depended on him for survival. She came from poor roots and would go back to nothing. "You'll come crawling back," he said with a mean smile. "You always do." But this time, she didn't. With no money, no job skills, and a child to care for, Gloria left her fancy life for a hard, unknown world. She promised to start over, no matter how tough it got. The real world was dark and cruel. Jobs turned her away. Money ran out. Bills piled up. Fear for Annabel's future choked her like a tight grip. In her desperation, she went to the one man she knew was dangerous Lukas Anderson. Victor's younger stepbrother. He was a rich boss, a famous womanizer, a man who broke hearts as easy as he signed deals. For years, he had wanted Gloria, staring at her body, dreaming of her in secret ways. Helping her was simple. Owning her? Even better. "You need money. I need you," he whispered, his voice low and tempting, his hands brushing her skin. "Work for me... and I'll give you what your husband never did. Safety. Power. And pleasure you can't imagine." Now Gloria is stuck between two bad men: the husband who broke her... and the stepbrother who wants to take her body and soul in a storm of dark, hungry sex.