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 4
Back in the ballroom, a tomb-like silence had fallen. The last of the guests, whispering amongst themselves, were being ushered out by a frantic Miles Proctor.
Jeremey stood in the center of the cavernous room, one hand pressed to his throbbing jaw. The humiliation was a physical thing, a hot coil tightening in his chest.
Hayden made her way from the doorway, still touching her scratched cheek, and slipped her arm through his. She clung to him, her face a picture of worried devotion. "Jeremey, darling, don't let her get to you," she whispered, her voice a soothing balm. "She's... she's just desperate. It's sad, really."
Her words were meant to comfort, but they only stoked the flames of his anger, directing it squarely at Adeline.
When the room was finally empty, Jeremey's gaze landed on Isabell. She was standing by the grand entrance, staring at the doors Adeline had just walked through.
A spike of irritation shot through him. He walked over and crouched down, forcing his voice to be gentle. "Isabell. Did that woman frighten you?"
Isabell shook her head. She looked up at him, her eyes wide and serious. "She was pretty," she said softly.
The answer caught Jeremey off guard. Beside him, Hayden's expression tightened for a fraction of a second.
She immediately swept in, scooping Isabell into her arms. Her tone was bright and sweet, but her grip was firm. "Yes, she was, sweetie. But she's a very bad woman. A woman who hurts people. We don't want to see her again, do we?"
Isabell squirmed in her arms, her face buried in Hayden's shoulder. She didn't answer.
Hayden started toward the staircase, but Isabell suddenly pointed a small finger at her face. "Mommy, you have something on your cheek."
Hayden paused, confused, and touched her cheek. "What is it, honey?"
Jeremey looked closer. On the perfect porcelain of Hayden's cheek was a faint, but distinct, red mark. It wasn't a slap; it was a thin, angry scratch, as if a sharp fingernail had deliberately raked the skin.
A memory surfaced through his rage. In the chaos of Adeline's departure, a brief moment where she'd brushed past Hayden near the door. He'd dismissed it as incidental contact.
Hayden pulled a small compact from her clutch. She snapped it open, and her face went pale. It was a deliberate mark, a calculated insult delivered with stealth.
The mask of the gentle victim shattered. Her body trembled with fury. "She... she did this to me!" The words came out in a choked sob, tears of genuine rage and humiliation filling her eyes.
She turned her face to Jeremey, showcasing the evidence of her violation.
The sight of that red mark on Hayden's skin, coupled with the lingering pain in his own jaw, sent Jeremey's anger into overdrive.
Adeline Garrett. She hadn't just returned. She had returned to wage war.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Miles, his voice dangerously low. "I want to know everything. Where has Adeline Garrett been for the last three years? Who is that man? I want their lives turned upside down. I want them to pay."
Leaning against his chest, Hayden allowed a small, triumphant smile to touch her lips. Adeline's aggression was the perfect gift. It made her the victim, and it made Jeremey her avenger.
From the top of the stairs, Isabell watched them. She saw her father's rage, and she saw Hayden's fake tears.
She knew. That pretty lady was her mommy.
And she had seen the scratch. It happened in a blur as her mommy walked past. It hadn't scared her. It had felt... right.
Because she remembered the cold look in Mommy's eyes when her father wasn't looking.
Jeremey ended the call, his face a thunderous mask. He pulled Hayden closer. "Don't worry," he vowed. "I will never let her hurt you or Isabell again."
He was so consumed by his protective fury that he failed to recognize the true nature of his emotions. This wasn't about justice. It was about a woman he thought he owned, a woman who had slipped his grasp and now dared to challenge him. It was the rage of a thwarted possessor.
He barked orders to increase security. Adeline Garrett was not to set foot on his property again.
Miles away, in a penthouse suite overlooking Central Park, Adeline stared at her own hand. One of her nails was slightly chipped.
That scratch was just the interest. The principal on the debt was yet to be collected.
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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?