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 5
The black Maybach rolled smoothly into the VIP drop-off lane at the Golden Leaf Academy.
Damon stepped out of the car. Principal Eleanor was already waiting on the marble steps, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. She forced a bright, welcoming smile.
"Mr. Holloway, what an unexpected honor," Eleanor gushed, walking quickly to keep up with his long strides as they entered the main hall.
"Explain the anomaly," Damon demanded, his voice bored. He only came here to escape the suffocating air of his office.
"It's nothing bad, sir," Eleanor explained quickly. "A massive, anonymous overseas wire transfer just hit the school's account, specifically earmarked for the autism art therapy room you sponsor."
Damon stopped listening. His eyes wandered to the wall of fame lining the main corridor. Rows of framed photos displayed the school's top students.
His gaze drifted over the smiling faces.
Suddenly, his eyes locked onto a photo in the second row.
His expensive leather shoes stopped dead on the marble floor.
It was a picture of a second-grade boy in the school uniform. The boy wasn't smiling. He stared at the camera with cold, indifferent eyes. His brow bone was slightly lowered, casting a shadow over his eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin, arrogant line.
It was Damon's face. Just shrunk down to the size of a child.
Damon's heart violently contracted. The air vanished from his lungs. He couldn't breathe. He took a slow, stiff step toward the wall, his eyes burning into the photograph.
Brad followed his boss's gaze. Brad gasped, the sound loud in the quiet hallway. "That's... that's impossible."
Damon reached out and grabbed Eleanor's upper arm. His large hand clamped down like a steel vice.
Eleanor let out a sharp cry of pain. "Mr. Holloway! You're hurting me!"
"Who is this boy?" Damon roared, his voice echoing off the high ceilings.
Eleanor trembled, terrified by the sudden violence in his eyes. "He... he's a new transfer student. He started today. His name is Leo Alvarez."
Alvarez.
The name struck Damon like a physical blow to the head. The blood roared in his ears, rushing backward through his veins.
He let go of Eleanor's arm, shoving her slightly. "Bring me his entire enrollment file. Now."
Three minutes later, Damon sat in the principal's leather chair behind her desk. His large hands shook visibly as he flipped open the thick manila folder.
On the first page, clipped next to Leo's form, was a photo of a little girl. Stella. She had the exact same striking, icy blue eyes that every Holloway possessed.
Damon's eyes darted down the page. Under grade placement, a bold notation read: Accelerated placement, Grade 2. Qualified via gifted assessment. IQ: 168.
Father: [Blank]
Mother: Corrie Alvarez
The black ink on the white paper hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Damon slammed the folder shut. He sucked in a massive breath of air, his chest heaving.
Five years of crushing guilt, of waking up in cold sweats, of wishing he was dead-all of it vanished in a single second. It was instantly replaced by a wild, manic joy, followed immediately by a volcanic rage.
She wasn't dead.
She faked her death and hid his flesh and blood from him for five years.
Damon shot to his feet. The heavy leather chair flew backward, crashing violently into the wall behind him.
"Bring those children to this office immediately," Damon ordered Eleanor, his voice a lethal growl.
"Mr. Holloway," Eleanor stammered. "The teacher says... a man claiming to be their uncle came and picked them up ten minutes ago. He presented a legally notarized emergency pickup authorization form signed by Ms. Alvarez, and we verified the signature."
Damon's eyes turned pitch black. The temperature in the room plummeted.
"Uncle?" Damon whispered, the word dripping with venom. "What wild man is suddenly playing family with my children?"
He snatched the phone out of Eleanor's hand and looked at the digital sign-out log on her computer screen.
Authorized Pickup: Mael Corbin.
A sickening wave of pure, violent jealousy chewed through Damon's stomach. He turned to Brad.
"Lock down this entire block," Damon commanded. "Nobody leaves."
"Sir, we can't," Brad said calmly, stepping in front of his boss. "Locking down an Upper East Side block will bring the NYPD in minutes. Let me pull the security footage. We track the car."
Damon forced his fists to uncurl. He walked to the security monitors on the wall.
He watched the grainy footage. A man-Mael-was holding Stella's hand and guiding Leo toward a black SUV.
Just before stepping into the car, the boy, Leo, stopped. He turned his head and looked directly up at the security camera hidden in the corner of the building.
Leo smirked. A deliberate, mocking challenge.
Damon stared at the screen. He saw his own arrogant expression mirrored on his son's face.
Damon laughed. It was a dark, terrifying sound. He cracked his knuckles, the popping sound sharp in the quiet room.
He turned and marched toward the door.
"Find out everything about this Mael Corbin," Damon barked at Brad. "I want their exact location. Now."
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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.