Too Late CEO: The Runaway Wife Returns
Corrie lay restrained on the sterile hospital bed, her wrists bleeding against the thick leather straps.
Her husband, Damon, walked in with eyes entirely black with disgust and ordered the nurse to drain her rare blood.
He believed Corrie had pushed Kara, the woman he claimed as his savior, and he was willing to drain Corrie dry to save her.
"As long as she doesn't die, keep drawing. Kara's life is worth a hundred of hers."
He ignored the frantic beeping of her heart monitor and walked out, leaving her slipping into hypovolemic shock.
Using her last ounce of strength, Corrie escaped the clinic and hailed a taxi in the freezing rain, just wanting to survive.
But the driver locked the doors and deliberately drove the speeding car straight off the bridge into the raging Hudson River.
As the icy water swallowed her and she tried to swim out of the shattered windshield, a black-gloved hand grabbed her ankle.
The inhuman grip dragged her down into the crushing, dark depths, filling her lungs with liquid fire.
As her vision faded to black, Corrie's heart shattered into a million pieces.
Why did the man she loved believe a lying stranger over his own wife?
And who was the assassin in the dark water making sure she died?
Five years later, Corrie walked out of the airport with a new, untouchable identity and a pair of genius twins.
The freezing river had permanently ruined her heart and lungs, but it had also forged her into a ruthless survivor.
She swore to never let the Holloway family touch her again, until her son's identical icy blue eyes caught the attention of the billionaire CEO she thought she had escaped.
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Chapter 4
The Maybach descended into the private underground parking garage of the Holloway Group headquarters in Manhattan.
Damon stepped out of the car. The air around him was suffocatingly heavy. His employees kept their heads down, terrified of the dark aura radiating from their CEO. He walked with long, aggressive strides toward his private elevator.
He stepped into his top-floor office and ripped his suit jacket off, throwing it onto the leather sofa. He walked behind his massive mahogany desk. His eyes immediately fell on a silver photo frame. It was placed face-down on the wood.
The intercom on his desk buzzed.
"Mr. Holloway," his secretary's voice trembled. "Ms. Kara Berger is in the lobby. She doesn't have an appointment, but she's causing a scene."
Damon's brow furrowed deep. A wave of pure disgust rolled through his stomach. "Send her up."
Minutes later, the office doors opened. Kara walked in wearing a simple, innocent white dress. Her eyes were red and puffy. She looked fragile and broken.
She practically ran to the desk. She reached her hand out, trying to grab Damon's wrist.
Damon shifted his arm back, dodging her touch effortlessly.
Kara's hand froze in the air. She pulled it back, her face flushing with embarrassment. She immediately burst into tears.
"Damon, you have to help me," she sobbed. "The internet trolls are ruining my life. They are spreading vicious rumors that I used a ghostwriter for my memoir."
Damon leaned back in his leather chair. He stared at her with dead eyes.
"It's not a rumor, Kara," Damon said, his voice slicing through her tears like a blade. "It's a fact."
Kara's face went paper-white. She gripped the edge of his desk. "It's my competitors! They are trying to destroy me. I need the Holloway PR team to release a statement."
Damon didn't speak.
"If I can just get an exclusive cover interview with Nova magazine, I can flip the narrative," Kara pleaded. "Please, Damon."
"I don't use my company's resources to cover up stupid lies," Damon said coldly.
Kara gasped. She suddenly clutched her chest, her breathing turning ragged and shallow. She swayed on her feet.
"My chest," she wheezed. "It hurts so much. Ever since that night five years ago... when your wife's blood was pumped into my veins... my body has never been the same."
The words hit Damon's ear. The muscle in his jaw ticked violently. The guilt of having destroyed Corrie to save this wretched woman was a daily torture.
Damon stared at her pathetic display. "Fine. I will have my office contact Nova."
Kara instantly stopped wheezing. A bright smile broke through her tears. "Thank you! Will you come with me to the charity gala tonight?"
"No," Damon snapped. He pressed the button on his desk. "Brad. Escort Ms. Berger out."
Kara bit her bottom lip, furious but hiding it. She turned and walked out as Brad entered.
The heavy doors clicked shut.
Damon grabbed the knot of his silk tie and yanked it down, desperate for air. The guilt of owing his life to a woman he despised was a daily torture.
Brad walked to the desk and handed Damon a sleek black folder. "Background check on Nova magazine, sir."
Damon flipped the folder open. His eyes scanned the executive summary, stopping on the name of the Editor-in-Chief: Aria.
"She has no last name on file," Brad explained. "No public photos. She took over Nova two years ago and pulled it out of bankruptcy. She's ruthless."
Damon felt a flicker of predatory interest. "Skip the PR department. Book a meeting with this Aria for me directly."
Brad shifted uncomfortably. "I tried, sir. Her assistant rejected the request ten minutes ago. She said Nova doesn't do favors for liars."
Damon raised a dark eyebrow. In this city, no one slapped the Holloway Group in the face.
A cold smirk played on his lips. "Cancel my afternoon meetings. I'm going to meet this editor myself."
He stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the crawling traffic of Manhattan.
Suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain hit the left side of his chest.
It was a phantom pain. It happened every time it rained, every time he remembered that night five years ago.
He walked slowly back to his desk. His hand trembled slightly as he reached out and touched the back of the face-down silver frame.
He flipped it over.
Behind the glass was a candid photo of Corrie. She was laughing, her hair blowing in the wind, her eyes full of bright, innocent light.
Damon's thumb rubbed over the smooth glass, tracing the curve of her cheek.
"Corrie," he whispered. The sound tore out of his throat, thick with agonizing pain.
Brad stood silently near the door. The world thought Damon Holloway was a machine made of ice and money. Only Brad knew that the CEO had died the same night his wife's car went off that bridge.
Brad's phone buzzed aggressively in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text message. His eyes went wide.
"Boss," Brad said, his voice tight. "There's an anomaly at the Golden Leaf Academy. The autism project you fund."
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9.3
On her wedding night at The Plaza Hotel, Clara went looking for her husband.
Instead, she found him in the dimly lit parking garage, passionately pinning down her bridesmaid.
She couldn't even scream or expose them. Just hours before the ceremony, Julian had tricked her into signing away her twenty percent shares of their co-founded company, leaving her completely penniless and unable to pay her grandmother's life-saving medical bills.
Fleeing in absolute despair, a sudden hotel blackout plunged her into a second nightmare. She was dragged into a pitch-black room and brutally violated by a heavily drugged stranger.
When a shattered Clara returned to the office to audit the books and reclaim her power, Julian demoted her to a dusty desk by the trash cans.
He flaunted his mistress in the executive suite and deliberately sent Clara into a horrifying trap. He arranged for vicious clients to drug and assault her, demanding high-definition blackmail photos so he could divorce her with absolutely nothing.
"Since you want to play rough, you can service Mr. Petrocelli tonight," the thug sneered, locking the VIP room door.
Clara was pushed to the brink of hell. Why was the man she devoted three years of her life to trying to destroy her so completely? And why did the freezing cedarwood scent of the stranger who ruined her in the dark perfectly match Conrad Vance, the ruthless CEO and Julian's untouchable uncle?
Rather than let Julian win, Clara smashed a glass bottle, held the jagged edge to her own throat to force the men back, and threw herself off the second-floor balcony into the freezing night.
But the bone-crushing impact never came. A massive figure shot out from the shadows and caught her, and her brutal counterattack finally began.
8.1
Desperate for a way out of rejection and poverty, Pearl Augustine accepts a nanny job with an outrageous salary-working for billionaire Ace Warren. What she doesn't expect is his daughter.
Mia Warren is spoiled, sharp-tongued, and feared by everyone in the mansion. Behind her cruelty is a lonely child longing for a mother. As Pearl becomes the only one who can reach her, walls begin to fall-especially those around Ace, a grieving man hiding behind wealth and control.
What started as "just a job" quickly turns into something dangerous: attachment.
Sometimes, healing begins where you least expect it.
8.2
My wedding to Ethan Reed was just weeks away.
After seven years, I was certain of our perfect future.
Then, Ethan claimed "selective amnesia" from a head injury, forgetting only me.
I tried to make him remember, until I overheard his video call.
"Total genius move," he boasted to friends.
His amnesia was a fake "hall pass" to pursue influencer Chloe Vance before our wedding.
Heartbroken, I feigned belief.
I endured his open flirting with Chloe and their taunting selfies.
He mocked my distress, prioritizing Chloe's fake emergency.
After an accident he caused, he abandoned me, injured, choosing to send Chloe to the hospital first.
He even tried to cut me off financially.
How could my fiancé be this cruel, calculating monster?
His betrayal poisoned every memory.
I felt like a fool for trusting such boundless cruelty.
His audacity left me reeling.
But I wouldn’t be his victim.
Instead of breaking, a cold plan formed.
I would shed my identity, become Olivia Carter.
I would disappear, leaving him, my past, and his engagement ring behind forever, claiming my freedom.
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.
9.5
Jennifer, a fiercely independent entrepreneur, never imagined that running her company would put her in the orbit of Joseph, a reclusive billionaire with a dangerous agenda. Their professional clashes ignite a forbidden attraction, drawing them into a passionate affair that threatens to unravel everything Jennifer has built. As corporate sabotage, hidden heirs, and dark secrets from Joseph's past begin to surface, Jennifer's world spirals into a web of betrayal, desire, and moral peril. In a story where power and love collide, nothing is as it seems and every choice could be lethal.
9.5
After her step sister ran away from her marriage to the billion dollar heir, they took Emerald Jane Campbell as a stand-in to fill in the position of her step sister. Forced by her evil mother, Emerald can't do anything but to follow. She was tied to the disabled billion dollar heir for three years and all she got was cold treatment from him. Years later, a kidnapper appears in their lives. The kidnapper threatens the life of Emerald until Jude Rafael Sanders- the billion-dollar decides to do what it takes to protect his wife, Emerald.
Secrets began to unravel one by one. But what if Jude finds out his beloved wife has something up beneath her sleeves? Find out how tension intensifies in their roller coaster marriage.