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 3
Aria didn't sleep that night.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her father's face behind bars-tired, resigned, still trying to smile for her. She heard the metallic click of handcuffs, the echo of Julian Blackwood's voice, calm and merciless.
Trade your life. For his.
She sat on the edge of her bed as dawn bled slowly through the curtains, her chest tight, her head pounding. The house felt hollow now, as if all warmth had been sucked out with her father's arrest.
A soft sound came from the hallway.
"Mom?"
No answer.
Aria stood quickly, panic flaring, and hurried toward her mother's bedroom. The door was ajar. Inside, her mother lay curled on the bed, one hand clutching her chest, her face pale and slick with sweat.
"Mom!" Aria rushed to her side. "What's wrong?"
Her mother tried to speak, but the words came out broken, breathless.
"My... chest," she whispered. "It hurts."
Fear exploded through Aria.
Within minutes, she was dialing emergency services with shaking fingers, pressing a cool cloth to her mother's forehead, whispering reassurances she didn't feel.
Please. Not this too.
At the hospital, the lights were too bright, the air too cold. Aria sat alone in the waiting room, her knees drawn to her chest, her hands clasped tightly in her lap as doctors moved in and out.
An hour passed. Then two.
Finally, a doctor approached her, his expression serious but not unkind.
"Your mother has a severe heart condition," he said. "The stress likely triggered this episode."
Aria's heart dropped. "Is she going to be okay?"
"For now," he replied. "But she'll need ongoing treatment. Medication. Regular monitoring."
"How much will it cost?" Aria asked quietly.
The doctor hesitated.
That hesitation told her everything.
By evening, Aria stood alone in the hospital corridor, staring out the window at a city that no longer felt like home.
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
Her stomach clenched as she answered. "Hello?"
"Have you made a decision?"
Julian's voice.
She closed her eyes.
"No," she said honestly. "I haven't."
There was a pause on the other end. Not impatience. Calculation.
"Your father was moved today," Julian said calmly. "To a higher security facility."
Her breath caught. "Why?"
"Standard procedure," he replied. "For men accused of serious financial crimes."
Her fingers tightened around the phone. "You said I had two days."
"And you still do," he said. "I'm simply keeping you informed."
She swallowed hard. "My mother is sick."
Another pause.
"How sick?" Julian asked.
"She could die," Aria said, the words tearing out of her. "If she doesn't get treatment."
Silence stretched.
Then Julian spoke again, quieter this time. "I'll cover her medical expenses."
Her heart lurched. "What?"
"Regardless of your decision," he said. "Consider it... goodwill."
She let out a shaky laugh. "That's not goodwill. That's pressure."
"Call it what you want," Julian replied. "It doesn't change the reality."
Tears slid down her cheeks. She didn't wipe them away.
"Why me?" she asked brokenly. "Why not just destroy my father and be done with it? Why drag me into this?"
Julian exhaled slowly.
"Because," he said, "you get to wake up every day knowing exactly what your family took from mine."
The line went dead.
That night, Aria sat beside her mother's hospital bed, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. The machines beeped softly, steady and unforgiving.
Her mother's eyes fluttered open.
"Aria," she whispered. "Your father... where is he?"
Aria forced a smile. "He's okay. He's strong."
Her mother studied her face, too perceptive even through exhaustion. "You're lying."
Aria's throat closed.
"I'll fix everything," she said, echoing the promise she had made before. "I swear."
Her mother's hand tightened weakly around hers. "Don't destroy yourself for us."
Aria bowed her head, pressing her forehead to the edge of the bed.
But she already knew.
There was only one way to save them
The next morning, Aria stood in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror in her bedroom. She looked the same-same dark eyes, same quiet face-but something inside her had shifted.
She picked up her phone.
This time, she didn't hesitate.
"Julian Blackwood," she said when he answered. "I'll do it."
Silence.
Then, "Good," he replied. "My lawyer will contact you."
Her voice trembled despite herself. "One condition."
Julian paused. "Go on."
"You leave my mother alone," Aria said. "And you don't hurt my father further."
There was a beat.
"I'll honor the terms," Julian said. "As long as you honor yours."
The call ended.
Aria lowered the phone slowly, her hands shaking.
She had just agreed to marry a man who hated her.
To save her family
she had handed over her future.
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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.