Trapped in a Marriage of Revenge
Aria Cole lost everything the day her father was arrested.
To save her family, she accepts a deal she never imagined-marriage to Julian Blackwood, the billionaire who destroyed her life.
Cold, cruel, and driven by revenge, Julian believes Aria's family is responsible for his mother's death.
Their marriage is a contract built on hatred, silence, and punishment.
But as secrets unravel and emotions refuse to stay buried, Aria must decide-
will she survive loving the man who ruined her...
or will he destroy her completely?
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Chapter 2
Aria stared at Julian Blackwood as if he had spoken another language.
"Marry you?" she repeated slowly, each word tasting unreal. "You walk into my house on the worst day of my life and say something like that, and you expect me to take you seriously?"
Julian didn't react.
That was what frightened her most.
Most men, when challenged, showed irritation. Anger. At least something. Julian simply watched her, his expression carved from stone, as though her shock and outrage were already accounted for.
"I don't expect you to like it," he said. "I expect you to understand it."
She laughed again, but this time the sound cracked. "You're using my father to blackmail me."
"I'm offering you leverage," he corrected calmly. "Something you no longer have."
Her hands curled into fists at her sides. "You think I don't know who you are? You destroy people for sport. You buy judges. You silence companies. And now you want a wife like she's part of a business deal?"
Julian's gaze sharpened, just a fraction. "Careful."
"Why?" she shot back. "You'll arrest me too?"
For the first time, something flickered in his eyes. Not anger.
Pain.
It was gone before she could be sure.
"This has nothing to do with sport," he said quietly. "Your father made choices. I'm simply making sure he pays for them."
"My father is innocent."
Julian straightened, towering over her now. "My mother is dead."
The words fell between them like shattered glass.
Aria's breath caught. "I'm... I'm sorry."
He studied her face, as if searching for something. Guilt. Fear. Recognition.
Whatever he was looking for, he didn't find it.
"She killed herself," Julian continued, voice even. Too even. "After your father's company destroyed her reputation, her work, and her life."
"That's not true," Aria said immediately. "My father never"
"You don't know what your father did," Julian cut in. "You only know the version he let you see."
Her chest tightened. Doubt tried to worm its way in, but she crushed it.
"No," she said firmly. "I know my father."
Julian's lips curved slightly. Not a smile. Something colder. "So did I."
Silence stretched.
Upstairs, her mother's crying grew louder, sharper. The sound sliced into Aria's heart.
She swallowed. "If this is about revenge, then why marriage?"
Julian's eyes returned to her, dark and unreadable. "Because prison isn't enough."
Her stomach dropped.
"I want you," he continued, each word deliberate, "to live with the consequences of what your family took from mine."
Aria's voice trembled despite her effort. "You want to punish me for something I didn't do."
"Yes."
The honesty of it stole her breath.
"I won't," she whispered. "I won't marry you."
Julian didn't argue.
He simply reached into his jacket again and placed another document on the table.
"Your father's bail hearing is in two days," he said. "The judge is undecided. The evidence is... flexible."
Her eyes flew to the papers.
"If you agree," Julian went on, "I'll ensure the charges are reduced. A shorter sentence. Medical care. Protection."
Her throat burned. "And if I don't?"
He met her gaze steadily. "Maximum sentencing. Solitary confinement."
The room felt too small. Too tight.
"You're cruel," she said, her voice barely audible.
Julian leaned closer, his presence overwhelming. "No," he said softly. "I'm fair."
Tears blurred her vision, and she hated herself for them.
"You're asking me to sell my life," she whispered.
"I'm asking you to trade it," he replied. "For his."
Her knees felt weak. She gripped the edge of the table to steady herself.
This wasn't a choice.
It was an execution with paperwork.
Julian straightened and glanced at his watch. "You have forty-eight hours."
He turned toward the door.
"Wait," Aria said, the word tearing out of her.
He paused but didn't turn around.
"If I agree," she asked hoarsely, "what kind of marriage is this?"
Julian looked back at her then, his eyes dark, empty of warmth.
"A legal one," he said. "Nothing more."
And with that, he walked out, leaving behind silence, contracts and a decision that would destroy her.
Aria sank into the chair, her body shaking as the truth settled in.
She could fight.
She could refuse.
And her father would rot in prison.
Or she could marry a man who hated her
and lose herself instead.
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9.0
The biopsy report slid across the cold metal desk, stamped with a brutal death sentence: advanced gastric cancer. Aretha had exactly ninety days left to live.
It was her twenty-sixth birthday, but her phone only rang with a furious call from her husband, Anders.
"Do you have any idea how much of a joke you made this family look like today? Post a public apology to Kelli right now."
He had completely forgotten her birthday, only caring that she skipped her adopted sister's yacht party.
When Aretha dragged her failing body back to the family estate, her biological mother slapped her across the face just for looking pale and embarrassing them in front of guests.
Seeing Aretha wasn't submitting to the usual abuse, Kelli deliberately threw herself down the stairs, playing the innocent, depressed victim.
Anders rushed in and shoved Aretha brutally against the wall to protect Kelli, while her biological father delivered his ultimate threat.
"I am freezing your trust fund. Get on your knees and apologize to Kelli right now, or you won't see another dime."
A massive, suffocating sense of absurdity washed over Aretha. She had spent six years lowering her head and begging for their approval, only to be treated like a disposable placeholder. Why should she spend her final days enduring this agonizing torture for people who didn't even care if she breathed?
Aretha wiped the blood from her chin and laughed. She publicly severed all ties with her family, whipped the signed divorce papers directly at Anders's face, and walked out into the freezing storm—ready to fight for her own life.
7.1
They ruined her face. Stole her child. Now she's back-and nothing will stop her.
Five years ago, Raina Carrington lost everything: her beauty, her family, and her newborn baby.
Now she's returned-unrecognizable, unbreakable, and with one goal in mind: to find her son and make them pay. But revenge is never simple, especially when it draws the attention of Leif Vexley-the most powerful and dangerous man in the city-who just might hold the key to her child's past.
Yet she's not the victim anymore.
She's the storm-and she's ready to strike.
7.8
Rosalind Rivers has only ever wanted one thing - revenge.
The Lycan Prince, Aklan Draven, murdered her brother in cold blood. Or so she's believed her whole life. Now, forced to serve under him at the Lycan Academy, she has no choice but to obey the man she swore to hate. But hating him becomes harder with every clash, every stolen glance, every heartbeat that refuses to stay loyal to her rage.
Because fate has a cruel sense of humor.
He's her fated mate.
Aklan doesn't understand why this stubborn, sharp-tongued wolf gets under his skin or why her scent feels like home. He only knows she's trouble. The kind that tests his control, drags buried memories to the surface, and makes him question everything he thought he knew about loyalty and guilt.
But when a hidden truth comes to light - that Rosalind's brother didn't die by Aklan's hand but by choice, their world begins to unravel. Old wounds reopen. Ancient forces stir. And Rosalind learns she is no ordinary wolf, but something far rarer, something worth killing for.
Between vengeance and love, duty and destiny, one wrong move could ignite a war between realms.
And the cruelest part?
She might just lose her heart to the man she was born to destroy.
9.5
One night, I was a girl seeking vengeance in a velvet mask. He was the stranger who took me against a cold stone wall, his touch a silent, lethal promise.
Now, he is Caspian Blackwood-the most feared architecture professor at Aethelgard. When my "perfect" boyfriend, Dominic Calloway, cheats on me and sabotages my degree, Caspian offers a lifeline with a razor-thin edge: Be his silent, nude model for thirty days.
The rules are absolute. I must wear a silk mask and a weighted collar. I must never speak. I must hold the poses he demands until my muscles scream for mercy. In the lecture hall, he ignores me with arctic indifference. In the studio, his gaze is a physical weight, stripping me faster than his hands ever could. But as the charcoal scratches against the paper, I realize the "deal" isn't just for art. It's for the soul I accidentally gave him in the dark. Will the deal destroy his career, or consume me first?
8.7
Isabelle couldn't stop drinking as the music pounded through the club. She was trying to drown out the image of her best friend, Aurora, who was pregnant with her fiancé's child, on what should have been Isabelle's engagement night.
But fate had other plans. When an employee calls in sick, Isabelle volunteers to fill in, unaware she is about to walk straight into the arms of Don Miller-the club's most powerful and dangerous client. He was ruthless, commanding, and known for treating women as playthings. Don doesn't believe in love... until Isabelle.
One glance, one reckless touch, and something shifts. She stirs a hunger in him he thought he'd buried forever. And when he learns what broke her, Don makes Isabelle an indecent offer:
He promises to mend her shattered heart and destroy everyone who betrayed her-if she surrenders to him completely.
Two broken souls. One dark deal.
Isabelle is about to learn that submission might just be the sweetest form of revenge. What begins as a dangerous bargain soon spirals into something deeper, darker, and far more intoxicating than either expected.
Maybe love isn't always gentle. Sometimes it's an obsession. Sometimes it's surrender. And sometimes... it's the most exquisite kind of ruin.
7.5
I didn't fall for him.
I crashed.
Liam Cage wasn't supposed to matter. He was just the arrogant stranger with a dangerous smile and eyes that undressed me in a single glance. Just a man passing through my life.
Until our parents got married.
Now he's everywhere, in the kitchen at midnight, leaning against doorframes like he owns the air I breathe. In the hallway, too close. Always too close. Every look between us feels like a secret. Every argument feels like foreplay. Every silence feels loaded.
We don't talk about it.
We don't have to.
Because the truth is there in the way my pulse stutters when he says my name. In the way he watches me like he's trying to decide whether to ruin me - or save me.
He's wrong.
For me.
For my family.
For my sanity.
But when he touches me, the world narrows down to skin and heat and the terrifying realization that some mistakes don't feel like mistakes at all.
They feel inevitable.
This story is about craving what you shouldn't, crossing lines you swore you wouldn't, and discovering that sometimes the most dangerous love is the one that feels the most real.