You Cannot Afford Your Divorced Wife Now
Adeline had just endured the agonizing pain of giving birth to her daughter.
But when she woke up, the bassinet beside her hospital bed was completely empty.
Her husband, Jeremey, stood at the foot of the bed with his female friend, Hayden, tossing divorce and sole custody papers onto her lap.
"You're leaving. And she's staying," Jeremey said coldly.
He accused Adeline of being a jealous monster, claiming she had poisoned Hayden's tea and permanently destroyed Hayden's chances of ever having children.
Using a manipulated security video as blackmail, Jeremey forced Adeline to sign away her parental rights to protect her newborn from being branded the daughter of a convicted felon.
Stripped of her assets and her dignity, she was thrown out of the Castillo estate and exiled to a nowhere town, forced to leave her baby in the hands of the very woman who framed her.
The despair of having her child stolen by such a vicious lie nearly broke her soul. How could the man she loved be so utterly blind?
Three years later, the grand doors of the Castillo ballroom swung open at her daughter's lavish fourth birthday party.
Adeline stepped in, wearing a scarlet gown and a mocking smile, backed by the untouchable Garrett family.
She was no longer the weak, discarded wife. The war to ruin them and take her daughter back had just begun.
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Chapter 3
The two bodyguards hesitated, their professional training warring with a primal sense of caution. They stopped a few feet from Gilmer Garrett.
Gilmer didn't even look at them. His eyes were locked on Jeremey. He reached into the inner pocket of his tailored jacket and produced a slim, black business card. He held it out to the head of security.
The guard took it, glanced down, and his posture stiffened. The easy confidence he usually projected vanished, replaced by a look of profound seriousness.
He turned to Jeremey, his voice low and urgent, speaking into his wrist cuff. "Mr. Castillo, my apologies. We have a situation. The guest is Gilmer Garrett, Executive Director of the Garrett Foundation. Please advise."
Jeremey's brow furrowed. Garrett? He'd run a background check on Adeline years ago. She was an orphan from a middle-class family with no connections to speak of.
Hayden was equally stunned. Her own investigation had yielded the same results. A nobody.
Gilmer's voice cut through the tension, cold and sharp. "Castillo. Your personal issues with my sister are your own. Don't involve men who are just doing their job."
My sister.
The words hit Jeremey like a physical blow. He stared at Gilmer, truly seeing him for the first time. The same dark hair, the same determined set of the jaw, the subtle similarity in the high cheekbones.
Rage, hot and blinding, surged through him. It was a complex, ugly thing-fury at being deceived, and a possessive anger that she had a life, a family, that he knew nothing about.
He had wrongly assumed Gilmer was her new lover. The truth was somehow worse.
"Your 'brother'?" Jeremey sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. "When did you learn to hide behind a man, Adeline?"
Before Adeline could respond, Gilmer's fist shot out. It was a swift, precise movement, connecting solidly with Jeremey's jaw.
The sound of the impact cracked through the silent ballroom.
Jeremey staggered back, the taste of blood filling his mouth. A collective gasp rippled through the guests.
"Jeremey!" Hayden shrieked, rushing to his side. She glared at Gilmer, her face a mask of outrage. "You hit him! Security!"
But the guards remained frozen, their eyes fixed on Gilmer.
Gilmer flexed his knuckles, his expression unbothered. "That," he said calmly to Jeremey, "was for the way you treated her three years ago."
Adeline placed a restraining hand on her brother's arm. She shook her head slightly. Enough for now.
She turned her cool gaze back to Jeremey, who was wiping a smear of blood from his lip. "I didn't come here to fight, Jeremey. I came to see my daughter."
Her eyes found Isabell again. The little girl's hands were clenched in the nanny's dress, her small face a mixture of fear and a desperate, unspoken longing.
Hayden instantly moved to block Isabell from view, pulling the child behind her skirts. "You will not get near her!" she hissed. "Isabell is my daughter now."
Adeline laughed. It was a soft, humorless sound that sent a chill down Hayden's spine. "Legally, Miss Figueroa, I am her mother. You... are nothing."
The words struck Hayden's most vulnerable point with surgical precision.
The party was in ruins. The guests were no longer pretending to be polite; they were openly staring, soaking in the drama.
Jeremey's composure finally cracked. His eyes, dark with fury, locked onto Adeline and Gilmer.
"This is not over," he said, his voice low and menacing. "Now take your man and get out of my house."
Adeline knew she had accomplished her primary goal: to announce her return in a way that could not be ignored. Pushing further now would be a tactical mistake.
She gave Isabell one last, lingering look. "Mommy will be back for you, sweetheart," she murmured, too quiet for anyone else to hear.
Isabell's lips parted, as if to say something, but Hayden quickly placed a hand over the child's mouth, smiling sweetly as if it were a playful gesture.
Adeline's eyes narrowed. She filed the image away.
She and Gilmer turned and walked out, heads held high, leaving a wake of chaos and speculation behind them.
Minutes later, in the quiet sanctuary of a Rolls-Royce, Gilmer opened a first-aid kit.
"Addy," he said, his voice heavy as he dabbed an antiseptic wipe on a scratch on her arm she hadn't even noticed. "Seeing him again... I still can't believe you were willing to challenge the entire Foundation for that man. Was it worth it?"
The words hung in the air, a partial reveal of a much larger secret.
Adeline stared out the window at the blurred city lights. Her expression was unyielding.
"The past doesn't matter, Gil. All that matters now is getting Isabell back."
Gilmer said no more. He put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb. The Castillo family had no idea what was coming for them. The Garrett family did not forgive. And they never, ever lost.
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9.0
My father was dying in the ICU, and our family company, the Martin Group, was on the verge of total collapse.
While I was desperately trying to sign the consent form for his life-saving surgery, my fiancé, Eston, sent me a text.
"I told you not to be stubborn. The company is mine by Friday. Beg me, and I might pay for the funeral."
He had been secretly looting my family's assets from the inside, waiting for me to break so he could steal everything. He thought I would crawl back to him in absolute despair, surrendering my father's legacy just to survive. The sheer weight of my helplessness crushed my chest as the heart monitor next to my father's bed let out a frantic, high-pitched scream.
The betrayal tore through me, but the despair quickly hardened into a cold, sharp stone.
Why should I let the man who ruined me dance on my family's grave? Why should I let him walk away with everything while I lost the only family I had left?
I wiped away my tears and blocked his number permanently.
Then, I stepped out into the freezing Manhattan rain and went straight to the top floor of the Maxwell building.
I threw my remaining shares onto the desk of Ellwood Maxwell—the apex predator of Wall Street, and Eston's untouchable, ruthless uncle.
"I want you to marry me," Ellwood said, pushing a marriage contract toward me. "That is the only way your company survives."
I picked up the pen. If Eston wanted to destroy my life, I would become his aunt and make him bow.
9.3
A pitiful wolfless Omega, Lana discovers that she is pregnant for her beloved fiancée and Alpha to be, Asher. He is the only man she has ever loved, but her world turns upside down when her Fiancée coldly reveals that he is getting married to her sister who is also already pregnant for him.
To make matters worse, her cruel sister and cheating Fiancé banish her from her only home!
Lana is devastated, but thankfully, her best friend Jasper, helps her runaway and hide her pregnancy from her former fiancée.
8 years later, Lana has become the mother to Asher's triplets and is engaged to be married to her best friend Jasper.
But by a cruel twist of fate, Alpha Asher suddenly changes his mind and kidnaps her!
So what is Lana supposed to do when she forced to choose between two powerful men, while also fighting off the traitors and enemies surrounding her?
9.7
Gemma expected the tearing agony of the bullet wound that had just ended her life.
Instead, her trembling fingers met the cool, smooth friction of heavy silk.
She stared into the mirror. Her face was flawless, completely devoid of the jagged scar that had marred her cheek for the last five years.
It was exactly ten years ago. The day of her engagement party to the ruthless billionaire, Brion Hubbard.
In her past life, her "best friend" Katelyn convinced her to run away with a scheming scumbag.
Katelyn claimed Brion was a heartless tyrant who would ruin her. Gemma had foolishly believed those fake tears.
That choice led to her family's bankruptcy, her brutal disfigurement, and ultimately, a fatal bomb explosion.
The only person who tried to save her was Brion, his blood-soaked body shielding hers from the blast.
She even realized too late that the strawberry cream cakes she always made for him were full of dairy.
He wasn't leaving to cheat on her. He was locking himself in a medical bay, fighting fatal allergic shock, just to accept a tiny scrap of her affection.
Gemma had been so incredibly blind. Why did she trust the venomous snakes who destroyed her, while hating the man who died for her?
Hearing Katelyn frantically knocking on the dressing room door, urging her to run away again, a towering hatred surged through Gemma's veins.
This time, she wasn't going to run.
She was going to expose the traitors, take back her family's wealth, and claim the tyrant for herself.
8.9
My family's company went bankrupt, and my biological father was lying in the ICU, kept alive by machines that cost tens of thousands a day.
I thought it was just a tragic business failure, until I caught my mother in bed with my stepfather.
They had secretly transferred all our assets months ago, deliberately bankrupting the company and leaving my father to die.
To pay the hospital bills, my stepfather forced me to a private club, trying to sell me to a sleazy investor.
When I refused, he slapped me across the face, and my mother just looked at me with cold, dead eyes.
"Be realistic, Jaelynn. A woman's body is a tool. Use it to get what you need."
Later, right before my father's emergency surgery, my stepfather signed a Do Not Resuscitate order and froze the medical accounts.
"If you don't get on your knees and spread your legs for him, I will tell the hospital to pull your father's plug."
Standing in the freezing rain, covered in mud and blood, I stared at the astronomical hospital bill in my hand.
My own family had plotted to murder my father and sell me to the highest bidder. The betrayal shattered every ounce of sanity I had left.
I didn't cry or beg them anymore.
Instead, I pulled out a water-stained, gold-embossed business card.
It belonged to Dolph Valentine, the most ruthless billionaire in New York and my ex-fiancé's uncle.
If they wanted to destroy my life, I was going to sell my soul to the biggest monster of them all and drag them straight to hell.
9.3
WARNING!! THIS STORY CONTAINS A LOT OF MATURE THEMES, ELEMENTS OF HARDCORE BDSM, PRAISE KINKS, SLUT-SHAMING KINKS, AND DEGRADATION KINKS. READ WITH CAUTION.
(BOOK ONE OF THE DELUCA KINGS SERIES)
Serena would do anything to uncover the death of her parents, including sleeping with the most dangerous man in New York, Nero DeLuca. And he knows this, so he strings her along so he can see how far she's willing to go.
***
"Get on your knees," Nero said.
"Excuse me-"
"You're my submissive, and you exist for the sole purpose of my pleasure. I don't tolerate defiance. When I say get on your knees, you get on your knees."
"Yes," I replied as I got on my knees, hating how much his commanding tone turned me on.
He put his finger under my chin and lifted it so I could look at him.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good girl. Now get on the bed and show me that beautiful cunt. I want to see what it looks like before I destroy it with my cock. Tonight, the whole of New York will know you belong to me. I'll not take anything less than you screaming my name, and by the time I'm done with you, you'll feel me between your legs for a week."
8.8
"I loved you with all my heart, but you betrayed me, cheating with me on her? Really?" Vionne Wallace said bitterly to her husband.
"Sign it! We are getting a divorce, I've come to realize Nora is the one for me. You can't even bore a child, barren woman." He said sharply, his void devoid of emotions
He could tell it all, he was in love with Nora, my own step sister.
Lene Wallace, was a fashion designer and also business administrator, she got married to the love of her life, Harrison Worthington
Just after 3 years of marriage, she couldn't give birth and the marriage started crashing, he cheated on her with Nora.
With a broken heart, she drank to stupor and had a one night stand with a powerful billionaire.
When her father found out, he was in support of Harrison and Nora, while he disowned her, giving everything he had to Nora.
She found out there was more to the one night stand man, when they met again.
He was her father's best friend
The one night stand was not just powerful, he had a connecting relationship with her father and her ex husband, he will get married to her and help her defeat them.
Will they come to fall in love? Or will she go back to her ex husband after this?