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Natalie Carter is the daughter of Charles Carter, a powerful real estate tycoon known for his colossal financial empire. She left her family home to live among ordinary people after a humiliating rejection from her fiancé, an influential man she thought was her soul mate. Her escape caused a scandal, bringing shame on her family. Three years later, Natalie leads a discreet life in Manhattan. She lives in a modest apartment in a picturesque neighborhood and works as an executive assistant in a small advertising agency. She is in a relationship with a simple and unremarkable man. All seems peaceful until her neighbor mysteriously disappears. This disappearance is followed by a series of disturbing events, including murders linked to influential figures in high society. Her mother, Elizabeth Carter, contacts her to alert her of an imminent danger linked to their past. Driven by circumstances, Natalie crosses paths with her former fiancé, Alexander Drake, an enigmatic and ruthless billionaire. Faced with plots, betrayals, and shocking revelations, Natalie finds herself forced to return to the world she fled, ending her simple and anonymous life. But can she navigate this whirlwind of lies and power without losing who she has become? And is Alexander an ally or a threat?
Manhattan exuded a deceptive tranquility that morning, shrouding its cobblestone streets in a light mist that softened the contours of the cityscape. Natalie Carter, snuggled up in her gray sweater, savored this rare tranquility while sipping her coffee near the window of her apartment. The walls of her modest home were decorated with minimalist frames and simple objects, echoes of a discreet life that she had carefully built far from her tumultuous past.
The streets below rustled faintly, a sign of the city's gradual awakening. Natalie loved this precise moment of the day, this moment when the world seemed suspended between silence and excitement. As she put down her cup, a loud noise coming from upstairs startled her. It came from Clara's apartment.
Clara was his immediate neighbor, a young woman with delicate features and often feverish manners. Their relationship was limited to brief greetings and a few exchanges of small talk on the landing. Yet there was something intriguing about Clara, a palpable nervousness that suggested she was hiding a secret.
Intrigued, Natalie opened her door and went out onto the landing. She listened. A heavy silence reigned now, as if the noise heard a moment earlier had never existed. She hesitated to knock on Clara's door but thought better of it. Maybe it was nothing, she thought.
A few hours later, while she was writing a report for work, there was a sharp knock at her door. She opened it to find Clara, visibly agitated, with disheveled hair and shifty eyes.
"Natalie, I... I'm sorry to bother you," Clara stammered, out of breath.
"No problem, come in," Natalie replied, surprised.
Clara refused to enter and cast furtive glances around her, as if afraid of being observed. She handed Natalie a small notebook.
"Keep it for me, please." If something happens to me..." She stopped, her voice trembling.
Natalie frowned, confused.
"Clara, what are you talking about? Everything is fine ? »
Clara shook her head, visibly terrified.
"I have to go. Just do what I ask you. Please. »
Before Natalie could ask any more questions, Clara disappeared down the stairs. Natalie stood in the doorway for a moment, notebook in hand. She wanted to open it but held back, respecting her neighbor's strange request.
The next day, Clara's absence became evident. His mailbox was overflowing, and no light was coming from his apartment. Natalie finally decided to knock on his door. No response. Worry rose within her.
She went to the building manager, Mrs. Collins, a woman in her fifties, known for her invasive curiosity.
"Clara? Ah, that girl... I haven't seen her in two days," Mrs. Collins said, shrugging her shoulders. "But she's the discreet type. »
"Two days? Don't you think that's strange? » insisted Natalie.
Mrs. Collins sighed. "Maybe she left without warning. It happens often. »
But Natalie wasn't convinced. That same evening, she decided to enter Clara's apartment. She had a spare key that Clara had given her a few weeks ago, just in case. Her heart was pounding as she unlocked the door and stepped inside.
The apartment was plunged into oppressive darkness. The closed curtains blocked any light from entering. Natalie looked for the switch and turned on the light. What she saw made her blood run cold.
The living room was upside down. Overturned furniture, papers scattered everywhere, and a strange metallic smell hung in the air. A broken lamp groaned beneath his feet. Natalie felt a cold sweat running down her back.
She cautiously walked towards the kitchen, where she found a cup of coffee still half full on the counter. This meant Clara left in a hurry, or worse, was forced to leave.
Natalie noticed a disturbing detail: a hastily scribbled note on a piece of paper hanging on the refrigerator. He simply said: *'They know. »*
She stepped back instinctively, her heart pounding. Who were "they"? And what did they know?
Suddenly, a noise in the hallway startled her. She turned off the light and cowered behind a piece of furniture, holding her breath. The footsteps approached, then moved away. Once silence returned, Natalie ran out of the apartment, her legs trembling.
Back at home, she carefully locked the door and collapsed onto her couch, Clara's notebook still in her hands. This time she decided to open it.
Inside she found a series of messy notes, names, phone numbers, and addresses. Some names were circled or crossed out, but none were familiar. In the middle of the pages, a complex diagram linked nouns to words like "blackmail," "murder," and "secret."
Natalie felt panic growing inside her. Was Clara involved in something dangerous?
The next morning, Natalie went to the police station to report Clara missing. But the welcome she received only added to her discomfort.
"Your neighbor, you say? » asked the officer in charge, visibly not interested.
" Yes. She hasn't given any sign of life for three days, and her apartment... was a mess. It was weird," Natalie explained.
The officer shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe she went on vacation without warning. You know, it's not that rare. »
Natalie felt her irritation rising. "No, you don't understand. She was terrified before she disappeared. She gave me this notebook..."
She took out the notebook to show it, but the officer pushed it away with a nonchalant gesture.
"Look, unless we have evidence of a crime, there's not much we can do. If you have other information, you can come back. »
Frustrated, Natalie left the police station. She felt like she was going in circles, like she was alone in this quest. Yet one thing was certain: Clara had tried to send him a message, and it was her duty to figure out what had happened.
As she was returning home, a black car, parked a few meters from her building, caught her attention. Two men in dark suits seemed to be watching him. When she stopped, they looked away, but she knew they were watching her.
His heart raced. Who were they? And what did they want?
That evening, Natalie did not sleep. She spent hours analyzing Clara's notebook, looking for a clue, an answer. But the more she read, the more the questions multiplied.
The anonymity she had cherished so much seemed to slip through her fingers, replaced by growing worry and invisible danger. Clara had disappeared, but her shadow still loomed, heavy with mysteries and secrets.
Under the gaze of a fallen mafia, Elvie, a young woman with a troubled past and victim of a brutal ex, seeks to rebuild her life. Working as an assistant in the villa of the Corleone, an influential crime family, she tries to avoid conflict with the three Corleone brothers, all as dangerous as each other. But everything changes when Adriano, the eldest brother and heir, breaks his arranged engagement to embrace the war between enemy families and must quickly remarry. Cold and calculating, he sees Elvie as a simple piece in his game. For her, he is just another nightmare to flee. But as they interact, appearances crumble and unexpected bonds are forged. As her ex resurfaces, Elvie will have to choose between her new life, her secrets and the growing violence that threatens everything she has rebuilt.
Alice's life has been devastated by the betrayal of those she believed to be her allies. Five years ago, her fiancé, in the grip of a professional failure, convinced her to sacrifice her dreams to help him get back on his feet. But her best friend, hungry for glory and power, made a decision that would change their friendship forever, by secretly becoming a surrogate mother. When Alice's fiancé, now at the top of his career, left her, claiming that she no longer met his expectations, Alice, broken, accepted the proposal of the mysterious billionaire, Gabriel Hartman. Known for his coldness and indifference, Gabriel seemed to offer Alice an escape. What she didn't know was that he was the one who had orchestrated her best friend's request for maternity... But what if everything she thought she knew was just a decoy? What if, deep down, the price of her redemption is much higher than she imagined? Can the truth really mend broken hearts, or will secrets destroy everything in their path?
Zoe's dreams of marriage are shattered when she catches her fiance in a compromising situation with his best friend. Devastated, she seeks to recover what she has lost. That's when an enigmatic man, a warm billionaire named Maxime Delacroix, offers her an unexpected solution: a loveless marriage, a contractual alliance with the aim of destroying his ex's career. Although reluctant, Zoe accepts, ready to do anything to get revenge. But as their relationship grows, Zoe realizes that the stakes are more complex than she imagined. Between revenge and a budding passion for this distant man, she finds herself torn between her desire for justice and her budding feelings. How far will she be willing to go to get revenge without losing everything in the process?
Lily thought she had a simple life, surrounded by her adoptive parents in a small town. But everything changed the day she learned that her real parents were industrial tycoons and that she had a twin brother, heir to a family empire. Welcomed into a world of luxury, she found herself facing a reality very different from the one she knew. Her brother, a cold and ambitious man, had always hated her. "You're just an intruder, Lily," he told her. But another secret resurfaced: a mysterious businessman claimed that Lily was the rightful heir to a huge hidden fortune. "It's time you knew the truth," he told her. Between betrayals and revelations, Lily must choose between wealth and family loyalty.
Lara Sanders and Ethan Cole had been together for five years, but Lara had never been his priority. Ethan, obsessed with his work, did not see the soul of the woman he had married. Lara had tried to rekindle the flame, but in vain. She had had enough. One day, she left everything: the house, the promises, and Ethan. Years later, Lara reappears. She has become a successful entrepreneur, an icon of the business world, and no one recognizes her anymore as the fragile young woman she once was. Far from the shy and discreet Lara, she is now a queen of industry, admired and respected. At a public event, a journalist asks her: "Lara, you are the most influential businesswoman of the moment. What is the key to your success?" Lara, with a mysterious smile, answers: "Never let a man define you. Take charge of your life. » The next day, to everyone's surprise, Ethan appears at Lara's door. The man she thought had been forgotten, who had let her go without a glance, returns with a surprising proposition: "Lara, I made a mistake. Can we start all over again... Together?"
Luca Moretti, an influential businessman, is forced to marry Amélie Lefevre, a woman he considers a simple family obligation. Already in love with another, he vows to make Amélie's life hell so that she will ask for a divorce. However, he does not know that Amélie is hiding a secret that could change his life forever. Behind her calm facade, Amélie is much more determined and intelligent than he thinks. What will happen when Luca finds himself caught in his own game? Will he succeed in breaking their union or will he succumb to the hidden truth?
Becky endured three years of marriage to the cold-hearted Rory. In all that time, she naively reasoned that one day, he'd gradually come to like her. But the second he forced her to kneel down and humiliate herself, she knew she had been wrong about him. This man had no feelings for her at all. So why should she still love him? When Rory gave her the choice between kneeling down and divorcing, she didn't miss a beat and chose the latter. After all, why should she waste her youth on this scumbag? Wouldn't it be nicer for her to just have fun every day with her billion-dollar family fortune?
Lucia Balstone thought she had chosen the right man to spend the rest of her life with, but he was the one who ended her life. Their ten-year marriage seemed like a joke when her husband stabbed her with a dagger. Fortunately, God is never blind to people's tears. Lucia got a second chance. She was reborn at the age of 22, before all the terrible things had happened. This time, she was determined to avenge herself and let those who hurt her pay! She made an elaborate list of her goals, and the first thing on her list was to marry her ex-husband's enemy, Alonso Callen!
Allison fell in love with Ethan Iversen, the soon-to-be Alpha of the Moonlight Crown pack. She always wanted him to notice her. Meanwhile, Ethan was an arrogant Alpha who thought a weak Omega could not be his companion. Ethan's cousin, Ryan Iversen, who came back from abroad and was the actual heir of the pack, never tried to get the position nor did he show any interest in it. He was a popular playboy Alpha but when he came back to the pack, one thing captured his eyes and that was Allison.
P-please, I beg you. Come let's go tell Christian I had no hand in whatever happened, p-please." I clutched the lapel of his jacket desperately. "Let's go. You need to tell my husband you were paid." "Young lady, you're harassing me." His tone was cold and his stare granite. But I could care less. "You harassed me first! You had sex with me without my consent, my husband knows and now I'm pregnant with this child he doesn't want. You ruined my marriage! I-I hate you!" ************************************ Caught by her husband with another man on their matrimonial bed the morning after her birthday, Hailey Codza could not defend herself. As though it's not enough, she gets pregnant. Her enraged husband decides to pay her back for her infidelity by having an affair with his ex-girlfriend - Denise Kellers, the family Hailey never knew she had. Losing her family's wealth and company to her husband and his ex (now girlfriend), she is devastated, homeless and penniless as all her credit cards are blocked by her husband. She sees the man who is responsible for her pregnancy. The man she has no idea how he'd found his way to her matrimonial bed - Jared Johnson. Jared is annoyed when this strange woman disrupts his meeting and accuses him of ruining her life, marriage and impregnating her. It affects his business deals and having no choice, he marries her to calm the public whilst engaged to someone else. But he loathes her and allows his family treats her badly. Hailey who has fallen in love with Jared is broken when she can no longer take the humiliation. She signs the divorce papers and leaves, only to arrive six years later to the country as a self-made, secret billionaire and a mother of twins. Now her two ex-husbands are begging to have her back...
Belinda thought after divorce, they would part ways for good - he could live his life on his own terms, while she could indulge in the rest of hers. However, fate had other plans in store. "My darling, I was wrong. Would you please come back to me?" The man, whom she once loved deeply, lowered his once proud head humbly. "I beg you to return to me." Belinda coldly pushed away the bouquet of flowers he had offered her and coolly replied, "It's too late. The bridge has been burned, and the ashes have long since scattered to the wind!"
Darya spent three years loving Micah, worshipping the ground he walked on. Until his neglect and his family's abuse finally woke her up to the ugly truth-he doesn't love her. Never did, never will. To her, he is a hero, her knight in shining armour. To him, she is an opportunist, a gold digger who schemed her way into his life. Darya accepts the harsh reality, gathers the shattered pieces of her dignity, divorces him, takes back her real name, reclaims her title as the country's youngest billionaire heiress. Their paths cross again at a party. Micah watches his ex-wife sing like an angel, tear up the dance floor, then thwart a lecher with a roundhouse kick. He realises, belatedly, that she's exactly the kind of woman he'd want to marry, if only he had taken the trouble to get to know her. Micah acts promptly to win her back, but discovers she's now surrounded by eligible bachelors: high-powered CEO, genius biochemist, award-winning singer, reformed playboy. Worse, she makes it pretty clear that she's done with him. Micah gears up for an uphill battle. He must prove to her he's still worthy of her love before she falls for someone else. And time is running out.