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I went to my stepsister's birthday party, foolishly hoping for a family truce. Instead, she drugged my drink and had me shoved into a dark hotel suite, where a stranger took my innocence. When I sneaked back home the next morning, battered and humiliated, I overheard my stepsister and stepmother laughing in the hallway. They had orchestrated the whole trap to destroy my reputation so I would be forced to marry a thrice-divorced, abusive butcher. "And don't forget the little extras we've been putting in her food," my stepmother gloated. "She'll never lose the weight. That fat Miss Piggy is meant to be your backdrop." The revelation chilled me to the bone. My years of punishing diets, the brutal exercise, the deep self-hatred-none of it was my fault. It was poison, fed to me daily by the family I trusted. I packed a single bag, took the commemorative coin I had stolen from the stranger's nightstand as a reminder of my lowest point, and vanished into the city. One year later, having lost ninety pounds and transformed into a completely different woman, I agreed to attend the blind date with the butcher they arranged. But because of a flipped brass table number, I sat down in front of the wrong man. It was Julian Sinclair, the billionaire stranger from that dark room, and he looked at me and proposed a contract marriage.
Contents
The Billionaire I Slept With Became My Husband Chapter 1
"Just one more, Chloe. It's your 25th birthday!"
Tiffany's voice was sweet as honey, but the lights of The Starlight Lounge fractured in Chloe's vision, swimming like broken glass. A wave of dizziness washed over her, so strong she had to grip the edge of the marble bar to stay upright.
Her stepsister pushed a vibrant, colorful cocktail toward her. The "Starlight Fallout."
Chloe glanced at the reflection of her own fingers on the polished stone-puffy, swollen. A familiar pang of shame made her stomach clench. She quickly pulled her hand back into her lap.
"Tiffany, I really can't drink anymore."
"Just this last one," Tiffany insisted, her voice a playful whine as she shook Chloe's arm. "A toast to leaving the past behind and starting fresh!"
A flicker of warmth cut through the fog in Chloe's mind. Maybe Tiffany really did care. Maybe she was finally trying to be a real sister.
Letting go of her doubt, Chloe picked up the glass. The liquid was cool against her lips. She drank it all in one go, missing the triumphant smirk that flashed across Tiffany's face.
A strange heat spread from her throat down to her limbs. The world around her began to warp, the noise of the bar fading into a dull, distant hum. Her vision blurred at the edges.
"I'm just going to the restroom. Wait for me right here, honey," Tiffany said, patting Chloe's shoulder with false affection. She turned and disappeared into the crowd without a second glance.
Chloe tried to call out to her, but her tongue felt thick and heavy. She couldn't form the words. A powerful vertigo seized her, and she slumped forward, her elbows barely holding her up on the bar.
The bartender glanced at her limp form, then at the direction Tiffany had gone. He gave an almost imperceptible nod to a nearby security guard, who turned his back on the scene and busied himself with his phone. Tiffany had paid them well-a crisp stack of hundreds slipped across the counter earlier that evening-to look the other way when a "friend" needed help getting her drunk companion to a room.
Suddenly, a tall shadow fell over her, blocking the dizzying lights. The air shifted, carrying the scent of expensive whiskey and crisp cedar. It was a cold, clean smell.
She fought to lift her head. All she could see was a man's sharply defined jawline and the cuff of a pristine white shirt. A sliver of a watch peeked out-a Patek Philippe, understated but radiating wealth.
He murmured something to the bartender, his voice too low for her to catch. Then, a strong arm wrapped around her waist, steadying her trembling body. His touch was firm, scorching hot against her skin.
Panic warred with a drug-induced haze in her mind. Her instincts screamed at her to push him away, but her body was useless, soft as melting wax.
He lifted her into his arms.
A few hushed gasps rippled through the nearby crowd, but with the security guard conspicuously looking away and the bartender already wiping down the counter, no one moved to intervene. Chloe's cheek pressed against the fine wool of his suit. A tear of pure humiliation slid silently down her temple.
The elevator doors closed, encasing them in a mirrored box. In the reflection, she saw her own body, heavy and pathetic, a ridiculous sack of flesh held by a handsome stranger.
He carried her into a presidential suite, the door clicking shut behind them. He didn't turn on the main lights, leaving the room bathed in the dim, yellow glow of a single bedside lamp.
He placed her gently on the massive, soft bed.
Through her blurry vision, she watched him loosen his tie and unbutton the top of his shirt. He moved toward her, his silhouette dark and predatory, like a panther stalking its prey.
The drug finally shattered the last of her will, leaving only raw, primal instinct. She clawed at something, a desperate, futile gesture, before her hands were pinned down by a force far greater than her own.
Just before her consciousness dissolved into blackness, she thought she heard him whisper something against her ear, his voice a rough rasp.
But she couldn't understand a single word.
The next morning, Chloe woke to a pounding headache. The ceiling was unfamiliar, the sheets were a tangled mess, and the man's white dress shirt she was wearing hung on her like a shroud.
Every detail screamed of what had happened.
She shot up in bed, her heart hammering against her ribs. The space beside her was empty. The man was gone.
Her own clothes were folded neatly on a chair by the bed. A silent, mocking courtesy.
Chloe scrambled into the bathroom and stared at her reflection. Her body was a roadmap of shame, covered in faint bruises and red marks. Her eyes were swollen from crying. A wave of nausea churned in her stomach.
Shivering, she dressed herself, each movement an agony.
As she prepared to flee the scene of her disgrace, a glint of light from the nightstand caught her eye.
It was a coin. A 2000 Massachusetts state quarter, with the words "The Bay State" and the silhouette of a Minuteman.
She didn't know why-maybe for revenge, maybe out of sheer, chaotic despair-but she snatched the coin. She clenched it in her fist, the cold metal edge digging into her palm, a sharp, grounding pain.
She ran from the room like a fugitive, not daring to look back.
In the hotel lobby, a news report on a large screen was covering the Sinclair Group. A man's profile flashed on the screen for a second, but her mind was a storm of panic and she didn't register it.
Back in her own small, rented apartment, she threw the coin onto her desk. It landed with a clatter that echoed the shattering of her world.
She went straight to the bathroom and scrubbed her skin raw, trying to wash away the memory, the touch, the shame.
Over the sound of the shower, she didn't hear her phone vibrating, the screen flashing with Tiffany's name again and again.
Water streamed down her face, mixing with hot, silent tears.
She knew, with a certainty that chilled her to the bone, that her life had been destroyed.
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