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 7
Damon stopped exactly three steps away from her.
His chest heaved. His blue eyes dragged over every inch of her face, burning with a mixture of rage, relief, and agonizing pain. He stared at her as if trying to rip her soul out through her skin.
Corrie forced her hand to let go of the electrical breaker. She locked her knees to stop them from shaking and stood up perfectly straight. She met his stare with walls of ice in her eyes.
She was thinner than he remembered. The soft, innocent curve of her cheeks was gone, replaced by sharp angles and cold indifference. The change in her physically hurt him.
Damon broke the suffocating silence. His voice was a raw, gravelly whisper.
"A widow?" Damon asked. "I didn't realize I died five years ago."
Corrie let out a short, cruel laugh. "As far as I'm concerned, you drowned at the bottom of the Hudson River five years ago."
Damon's pupils contracted sharply. The mention of the river was a knife twisting in his gut. But the anger quickly swallowed his guilt. He took a massive step forward.
His tall, broad body cast a dark shadow over her, trapping her against the edge of the workbench. The physical pressure of his presence was overwhelming.
"Why did you hide my children?" Damon growled, his face inches from hers.
Corrie leaned back, her spine pressing uncomfortably into the wood. "They are not your children. They are Mael's. They have nothing to do with the Holloway family."
The lie was the spark that ignited the powder keg.
Damon's hand shot out. His long fingers clamped around her jaw, just like he had in the hospital room five years ago.
"Do you think I'm blind?" Damon roared, his warm breath hitting her face. "That boy's face is my face! It is undeniable proof!"
Corrie gasped in pain. She raised her hands and slapped at his wrist, fighting to break his grip. As she thrashed, the heavy plastic goggles resting on her forehead slipped down. The sharp plastic edge caught her cheek, slicing a thin line into her skin.
A drop of bright red blood welled up on her pale cheek.
Damon saw the blood. His eyes widened in shock. He instantly snatched his hand back, as if her skin burned him. But he didn't step back. He kept his body planted, blocking her only path of escape.
Corrie pressed her hand to her bleeding cheek. Her chest began to rise and fall rapidly. The claustrophobia of being trapped by him triggered a visceral memory of the sinking taxi. She couldn't get enough air.
"Get out of my studio," Corrie commanded, her voice trembling. "Or I will call the police and have you arrested for trespassing."
Damon looked at her like she had just told a joke. He reached into his suit jacket, pulled out his sleek black smartphone, and tossed it onto the workbench next to her.
"Call them," Damon sneered. "Let's see which cop in New York has the balls to interfere with Holloway family business."
Corrie's entire body shook with fury. She stared at the phone. She knew he was right. His money and power made him untouchable.
Damon's eyes scanned the back room of the studio. He saw the empty chairs. He saw her packed duffel bag. His gaze fell on the contract still sitting on the workbench.
"That contract," Corrie said, her voice trembling with rage. "Did you send it? To trap me?"
Damon picked up the paper. His brow furrowed as he scanned it. "I didn't send this. The charity committee handles procurement." His jaw tightened as understanding dawned. "Kara. She must have pushed this through the committee. She's been trying to claw her way into every corner of my life since you disappeared."
His eyes turned pitch black. He looked back at her.
"Where are they?" Damon demanded, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "Tell me where Mael took them, or I swear to God, Mael Corbin will not live to see the sun rise tomorrow."
The threat against Mael snapped the last thread of Corrie's control.
She reached behind her on the workbench. Her fingers wrapped around the thick wooden handle of a sharp metal carving knife.
She whipped her arm around and pointed the blade directly at the center of Damon's chest.
The four bodyguards in the room instantly drew their firearms, aiming right at Corrie's head.
Damon didn't even blink. He raised his right hand, a silent command. The guards immediately lowered their weapons.
Damon looked down at the knife, then up into Corrie's terrified, furious eyes.
He took a step forward. The sharp tip of the blade pierced the expensive fabric of his suit jacket, resting right over his heart.
"Do it," Damon whispered, his eyes wild and obsessive. "Push it in. Kill me again, just like you did five years ago."
Corrie's hand shook violently. The metal blade rattled against his chest. She looked at the madman standing in front of her. A crushing wave of powerlessness washed over her.
Suddenly, a bright, electronic ringtone echoed from the pocket of Corrie's apron.
It was a custom 8-bit video game sound. Leo's ringtone.
Damon's eyes snapped to her pocket. In a flash of movement too fast to track, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. He twisted her arm sharply, forcing her to drop the knife.
He spun her around, pinning her back against his chest. He locked both her arms behind her back with one hand. With his free hand, he reached into her apron pocket and pulled out her phone.
The screen flashed: Leo Baby.
Damon stared at the screen. A slow, cruel smirk spread across his lips. His thumb swiped the green button. He answered the call.
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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.