Too Late: She Chose The Billionaire Heir

"She’s just like a sister to me, Eliana. You’re being dramatic." That was Jax’s excuse every time he chose Catalina over me for three years. When Catalina staged a fake drowning in three feet of water, he pushed me aside to save her, telling me my life wasn't his problem. But the breaking point came when she deliberately pushed me down a flight of stairs. My ankle shattered on the concrete. I was lying there in agony, unable to move. Yet, Jax didn't check on me. He stepped over my bleeding body to scoop Catalina up because she had a minor scratch on her elbow. He screamed at me for "hurting" her. While I lay in the hospital alone, waiting for surgery, he was spoon-feeding her soup in her dorm, posting photos captioned "My Hero." He thought I would always be his "Elie Bear," the doormat waiting at home to clean up his messes. He was convinced that no matter how much he hurt me, I would never actually leave. But he was wrong. I didn't scream. I didn't fight. I simply signed the withdrawal papers, blocked his number, and boarded a one-way flight to New York without saying goodbye. Three months later, when Jax finally realized his "sister" was a nightmare and came crawling back to beg for forgiveness, he found me. But I wasn't alone. I was holding the hand of a billionaire heir who looked at Jax with cold, deadly eyes. "Touch her again," my new fiancé whispered, "and I will destroy your entire family by morning."

Chapters

Chapter 8

The text came at 8:00 PM.

*Come downstairs. Please. - Jax*

I shouldn't have gone. My flight was in twelve hours, and I should have been sleeping, or at least pretending to. But some part of me—the part that still remembered the ache of being sixteen and desperately in love—needed to see the end.

I pulled on a coat and walked down to the courtyard.

It was dark, but the pavement glowed, illuminated by hundreds of tea lights arranged in a massive heart shape. Soft music drifted from a Bluetooth speaker—our song. The one we danced to at prom.

Jax was standing in the center of the heart, holding a single red rose. I noticed immediately that he wasn't wearing his sling. He must have discarded it for the aesthetic, enduring the throb of his injury just to sell the scene.

"Eliana," he said, his voice thick with rehearsed emotion. "I know things have been rough. I know I messed up. But I want to remind you of how we started."

He took a step forward. "Do you remember? The park? The rain? You said you wanted a fairy tale."

I stood just outside the circle of candles. I felt like an audience member at a play I had seen too many times.

"Jax," I started.

*BOOM.*

A firework exploded overhead. Then another. Red and gold sparks showered the night sky, lighting up the dorm windows like strobe lights. Students were looking out, cheering.

It was grand. It was expensive. It was perfect.

And it felt completely wrong.

"Did you like it?"

The voice didn't come from Jax.

Catalina stepped out from behind a large oak tree. She was holding a tablet, her thumb hovering over the volume control. She walked right into the candlelight, standing next to Jax as if taking her curtain call.

"I picked the fireworks," she beamed, looking at me. "Gold is your favorite color, right? And I told Jax he had to ditch the sling. It ruins the aesthetic."

My stomach dropped through the floor.

Jax looked at her, then at me. "Cat helped me set it up. She wanted it to be perfect for you, El."

"I planned the whole thing," Catalina corrected him, linking her arm through his. "He was going to just buy chocolates. Boring. I told him, 'No, Eliana needs a show.'"

She looked at me with a predator's grin. "You're welcome."

I looked at Jax. He wasn't embarrassed. He was grateful. He looked at Catalina with awe, thankful that she had stage-managed his romance for him.

"See?" Jax said to me, his eyes wide and earnest. "We both care about you."

The realization hit me like a physical blow. There was no us. There was never an us. There was only Jax and Catalina, and I was the audience they performed for.

"It's beautiful," I said. My voice was hollow.

"I knew you'd love it!" Catalina clapped. "Now, give her the rose, Jax. Kiss her. The lighting is perfect right now."

She was directing him. *Action.*

Jax stepped forward, extending the rose. "I love you, Elie Bear."

I looked at the rose. Then I looked up, seeing the invisible puppet strings attached to his limbs, leading straight to Catalina’s hands.

"Thank you for the show," I said.

I turned around and walked back into the building.

"Eliana?" Jax called out. "Where are you going? We haven't cut the cake!"

I didn't stop. I walked up the stairs, the sound of their confusion fading behind me.

I didn't pack the rose. I didn't pack the memory. I left them both burning on the pavement.

Continue to next part

She survived four years alone—no pack, no backup, no one who stayed when things got hard. Then she crossed into the most dangerous territory on the continent, and Kael Dravon, the Alpha whose name makes packs redraw their borders, didn't let her leave. He had searched six months, not to capture her, not to sell her, just to find her. Cold and ruthless to the world, he stitches her wounds and reads poetry at 4 a.m. when nightmares strike. When she rejects the mate bond, he simply says it's her right—no argument, no manipulation. But an assassin lurks inside his walls, a traitor has already sold them once, and a war only her bloodline can stop is closing in. She doesn't do helpless or belonging. Yet God help her—she's starting to belong here.

Action Adventure Mystery Romance Werewolf

9.7

Fated to the Mad Alpha, Pregnant with His Twins

9.7

After a humiliating public rejection, she flees into forbidden lands, only to be claimed by the formidable Lycan King, Kael. Far from a defect, her veins hold the sacred blood of the Ancient White Wolf—the only key to unlocking his sealed beast. As corrupt elders and shadow rogues hunt her down to destroy him, their forbidden bond ignites. Now pregnant with miraculous twin heirs, the outcast they once mocked holds the ultimate power to reshape their entire world.

Action Adventure Fantasy Modern Romance Werewolf

9.8

My Wife's a Doctor and a Killer

9.8

Finn’s mother desperately needs a heart transplant, and his wife Wendy Lowell is the only surgeon capable of the task. However, Finn discovers Wendy in a compromising position with her assistant. Instead of showing remorse, Wendy retaliates against Finn’s confrontation by ordering his mother’s oxygen supply cut off. Driven to the brink by her cruelty and infidelity, Finn decides he will no longer play the victim. He begins a dangerous game of shadows to expose Wendy’s crimes and ensure she pays for her heartless betrayal.

Action Modern Mystery Romance

8.4

Mysteries Next Door

8.4

In the gripping modern novel Mysteries Next Door, a man's life takes a dark turn when he agrees to share his apartment with a captivating married woman unable to pay her rent. What begins as a provocative arrangement soon evolves into a web of deceit. Though he believes he has won her heart and body, he eventually realizes he is merely a pawn in her lethal game. This mysterious black widow uses passion as a weapon, luring him into a dangerous trap where lust becomes a double-edged sword.

Action Modern Mystery Romance

9.3

The Broken King's Silent Obsession

9.3

I am Cipher, an elite operative, but the world knows me as Evita Peck-the mute, illegitimate liability of a powerful political dynasty. To protect my sister and maintain my cover, I played the role of a fragile, broken doll, enduring my stepmother's abuse in silence. Everything shattered at a high-stakes gala when my stepmother forced a drugged cocktail down my throat to sell me to a wealthy donor for campaign funds. Fighting the chemical haze, I fled to a restricted suite and collapsed into the arms of the one man I should have avoided: Jedidiah Stone, the paralyzed, reclusive "Broken King." The drug stripped away my control, leading to a night of desperate passion with the man who was my family's greatest enemy. I escaped at dawn, but I accidentally left behind a bloodstain on his sheets and fled with a classified data chip hidden in his jacket, marking me as a target for the most dangerous security force in the city. When I returned home, my mother slapped me for the "failed" deal and immediately announced I was being sold into a marriage alliance with the Stone family. Before I could process the horror, Julian Kensington-Jedidiah's deadliest rival-publicly claimed me as his secret fiancée, turning me into a pawn in their brutal corporate war. I was trapped in a deadly tug-of-war between a man who wanted to use me as a shield and a man who was hunting for the "spy" who had breached his bed. I didn't know how much longer I could play the mute victim while the two most powerful men in the country fought to possess me. The game reached a breaking point when Jedidiah invoked a "hostile asset acquisition" clause to legally force me to marry him instead of his cousin. Now, I am moving into the Stone estate, realizing that the man I am about to marry is the same man who has sworn to break the very woman I truly am.

Action Modern Romance

8.7

The Hidden Alpha's Innocent Contract Mate

8.7

Desperate to escape her family’s plan to sell her to a violent pack warrior, a wolfless young woman flees into a Chicago storm and makes a shocking proposal to a stranger: marry her for five hundred dollars a month. Her new husband, Damien, seems like a broke rogue driver, but his quiet control hides an ancient, terrifying power. When he breaks her pursuer’s wrist and forces Pack wolves to retreat, she begins uncovering secrets—luxury apartments, black credit cards, and a grandfather who calls her Luna. Now she must discover whether she escaped one monster only to bind herself to the most dangerous Alpha in the city.

Action Modern Mystery Romance Werewolf

Too Late: She Chose The Billionaire Heir

Chapter 8

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