Fate! Chance! A terrible accident changes the course of Karen's life. Thrown into the world of enigmatic billionaires Taylor Grey and his father Marshal Grey, she must find her way out of the cage presented to her by their family. Karen thought Taylor Grey was offering a helping hand after causing the accident that took away her livelihood, but she soon discovered that his father had other plans for her that she could never have imagined. Forced to play a role she never wanted, can she escape before it's too late for her to return to her own life? Torn between two very different men, who will she turn to for the freedom she desperately seeks? Will Karen find redemption or stay trapped by a family that will do anything to have their way?
"Her vitals are fading, we need to get her into an operating room, stat!" yelled one of the doctors in the team.
"Yes doctor," a nurse responded, hurrying off to the intercom to book a room for an emergency operation.
The emergency room was bright and rowdy, two doctors and three nurses stood around the lady on the gurney, from her driver's license they knew her name was Karen – Karen Preston.
"We have one," the nurse who made the call for the operating room said as she rushed back to the team on Karen.
"Let's move," the doctor said as they all rushed Karen out of the emergency room and to the operating room.
A man stood to follow, but the nurse working on him held him back, "They are going in for surgery, I'll let you know where the room is. For now, hold on while I have a doctor look at this arm," she said in a gentle, firm voice.
The man sat back down with a nod and shortly after, a doctor came over to look at his injured left arm.
The man, much calmer now, looked around the noisy, bustling room. He remembered the moment of impact and shook his head, turning away.
==========
Karen opened her eyes with a jolt. Her heart was racing and her breathing was short and rapid.
She tried to move her head but she could not, she tried her arms, but they did not budge. She closed her eyes and opened them, taking in what she could of her surroundings.
This looks like a hospital. I'm...I'm in a hospital bed.
She steadied her breathing and listened, trying to get a handle on the sounds around her but there weren't any.
Slowly, she noticed the beeping of a heart-rate monitor and something she assumed to be an air-conditioning unit.
In her line of sight, there was a white lace curtain covering a wide window. She could see the bright blue sky and the clouds.
It suddenly hit her, it's daylight!
It was nighttime when I was driving. I remember! It was night and now it's...morning? Afternoon...? It's...daylight!
But it was night, dark, late, and I was heading...I was heading to the gallery for a showing...I was on the phone....
And then, her memories came flooding back in.
After she hung up using the button on her car's dashboard, she checked the clock on her phone clipped beside the steering wheel, navigation running, showing her the time to her destination.
She turned the corner, taking a sharp bend, and was startled by a car coming from the opposite direction.
It was a large vehicle, driving at full speed, way too fast for a bend, with headlights on full blast.
She had slowed down, but the car suddenly came at her, swerving into her own lane.
Desperate to avoid the oncoming vehicle, she had turned the wheel sharply to the left. The oncoming driver also swerved, but in the panic of the situation, made a wrong decision and swerved to the right, causing a direct impact.
Her smaller sedan could not take the impact from the larger GMC truck and was thrown across the road, tumbling three times before landing upright on its wheels and spinning to a grinding halt.
She felt glass fall on her, and that was the last thing she remembered before waking up here, in a hospital.
Karen's heart started to race again and she could hear the heart monitor speeding up.
It was then that she felt someone in the room. Was it a quick breath that was taken, or the imperceptible movement of cloth?
She felt it before she actually heard the person, and she held her breath, struggling to move her eyes, which would not obey her brain's command.
Karen could hear the footsteps of someone approaching the bed. Again, she tried to turn her head but she could not.
The footsteps came around the bed, and her mind raced, is it a doctor, a nurse, an orderly? But as the person came into view, she saw that this was none of these. Far from it.
This man, almost a giant of a man, gazing down at her was dressed in casual clothes – a dark golf shirt, dark brown belt, and light-colored slacks – and had an expensive haircut. A very expensive haircut.
He looked familiar, like someone she had seen on TV, in the papers or on her newsfeed.
He stepped closer to the bed, his mouth moving, but Karen could not hear what he was saying. She gazed at him, blinking slowly.
==========
As the man stared down at her, he remembered what had happened barely one week ago. How he had waited outside the operating room, after being treated by the nurse and doctor in the emergency room, and how anxious he had been at the accident scene.
He could still hear the screeching of tires, the loud crash, and the tearing and breaking apart sound of metal.
He relived the accident again, for the umpteenth time in the past two days.
He had opened the driver's side door of the silver GMC truck slowly and stumbled out.
He approached the wrecked vehicle, fumbling in his pockets for his phone as he wiped at a cut on his forehead.
What have you done now, Taylor? He asked himself.
His eyes were unfocused, his body stumbling, swaying from side to side from the impact and the shock of the accident, as he tried to get to the driver of the sedan.
Through the shattered windshield, he saw a mass of tangled brown hair matted with red, and he tried to walk faster. The driver was unconscious, pressed between the dislodged back seat and the airbag from the steering wheel, and covered in broken glass.
Taylor approached the wrecked sedan, desperately trying to hurry but unable to do so. The pain from the accident ripped through his body, slowing him down. He worked frantically to pull out his phone as he moved forward.
He finally extracted his device from his pocket and immediately dialed the emergency number, his blue eyes squinting from pain.
He knew something in him was broken but he didn't know what or where. His only thought was to get to the slender woman covered in red and glass.
The road was still damp from the rain that had fallen earlier that evening and the weather was cool, but Taylor was sweating profusely, his heart beating rapidly, gasping to catch his breath.
Sam thought she knew where her loyalties lay until she uncovered a devastating secret: her real family was murdered by the same mafia gang that raised her. Preston, once her closest ally, now stands between her and the sinister leader of their mafia family, Xavier; a lover of diabolical games. Torn between love, loyalty, and revenge, Sam faces the ultimate test of faith when she learns that Preston has plans for their gang that could destroy everyone she's ever known and that she is more than a victim of circumstance. In the world of the mafia where loyalty is deadly and betrayal is the ultimate weapon, will she stand by her ally or trade everything for vengeance?
Fate! Chance! A terrible accident changes the course of Karen's life. Thrown into the world of enigmatic billionaire Taylor, she must now find her way out of the cage presented to her by the Grey family. Unable and unwilling to trust, Karen and Taylor must learn to work together to defeat their demons. What unfolds is a battle of wills as passion and duty collide. Will they find redemption or stay trapped in the shadows created by their pasts?
Karen Preston, an ambitious gallery owner who doesn't believe in love or making sacrifices for nothing, has her life turned upside down thanks to an accident caused by the reckless driving of Taylor Grey, a billionaire socialite. Born into an average, middle-class family, Karen has struggled all her life to rise above her station and make a name for herself. She is a driven, independent woman who loathes to depend or rely on anyone. Now unable to work and with pending debts to investors and artists, Karen finds herself in a compromising position – lose all she has worked for or seek help from the one person who cannot refuse, the person who jeopardized her future – Taylor Grey. Under the insistence of his controlling father, Marshal Grey, Taylor must help Karen but Marshal Grey has specific demands of his own: to keep the details of the accident out of the public eye, Karen and Taylor are to live together in a remote estate owned by the Grey family until Karen is fully healed. Neither Karen nor Taylor wants this arrangement. Karen resents Taylor's presence and rejects his every attempt to help, while Taylor, guilt-ridden and angry, feels equally trapped by his father's demands. Can the independent Karen stay locked down and can the carefree Taylor restrain himself from breaking his father's commands? What will happen when these two very different people make their stand? Will these imposed restraints break them, or set them free?
Marcia and Jullian were inseparable in college; they were like two halves of one whole. Everyone thought they were a forever couple. On the day of their graduation, Jullian vanished without a trace, and Marcia's world came crashing down. Five years later, after rebuilding her life abroad, Marcia is back home, fully focused on her new company, the new love of her life. Just as things are falling into place, Jullian suddenly reappears, still as captivating as ever. His reason for coming back? To "help" Marcia and to "correct" his past mistakes. Jullian has a proposal – one that feels more like a challenge – sell your company to me and let me take care of you the way I should have years ago. What follows is a battle of wills. Will Marcia hold on to the independence she fought so hard to achieve, or will Jullian's return and his offer of security be too much to resist? It's a showdown between the woman who craves freedom and the one who once let her go.
The night before her engagement, Valerie was tricked by her boyfriend and stepsister into spending the night with a stranger. After the night together, the man vanished. Later, her boyfriend accused her of cheating, revealing his affair with her stepsister. Pressured by her father, Valerie married an unconscious man in place of her stepsister. Valerie exposed the scheme, sabotaged her father's ambitions, and transformed herself. When her husband woke and chased her to the airport, she calmly refused him, saying, "It's over between us." He held her firmly. "You married me, so you must commit."
On the day of their wedding anniversary, Joshua's mistress drugged Alicia, and she ended up in a stranger's bed. In one night, Alicia lost her innocence, while Joshua's mistress carried his child in her womb. Heartbroken and humiliated, Alicia demanded a divorce, but Joshua saw it as yet another tantrum. When they finally parted ways, she went on to become a renowned artist, sought out and admired by everyone. Consumed by regret, Joshua darkened her doorstep in hopes of reconciliation, only to find her in the arms of a powerful tycoon. "Say hello to your sister-in-law."
Janice, the long-forgotten legitimate heiress, made her way back to her family, pouring her heart into winning their hearts. Yet, she had to relinquish her very identity, her academic credentials, and her creative works to her foster sister. In return for her sacrifices, she found no warmth, only deeper neglect. Resolute, Janice vowed to cut off all emotional bonds. Transformed, she now stood as a master of martial arts, adept in eight languages, an esteemed medical expert, and a celebrated designer. With newfound resolve, she declared, "From this day forward, no one in this family shall cross me."
It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, but Carrie made the mistake of falling in love with Kristopher. When the time came that she needed him the most, her husband was in the company of another woman. Enough was enough. Carrie chose to divorce Kristopher and move on with her life. Only when she left did Kristopher realize how important she was to him. In the face of his ex-wife’s countless admirers, Kristopher offered her 20 million dollars and proposed a new deal. “Let’s get married again.”
Ava Adler was a nerdy omega. People bullied her because they thought she was ugly and unattractive. But Ava secretly loved the bad boy, Ian Dawson. He was the future Alpha of the Mystic Shadow Pack. However, he never gave a damn about rules and laws, as he only liked to play around with girls. Ava was unaware of Ian's arrogance until her fate intertwined with his. He neglected her and hurt her deeply. What would happen when Ava turned out to be a beautiful girl who could win over any boy, and Ian looked back and regretted his decisions? What if she had a secret identity that she had yet to discover? What if the tables turned and lan begged her not to leave him?
For seven years, Jillian pursued Bryan with unyielding passion, but he remained distant, his emotions tightly sealed. Disheartened, she left for overseas after graduating from college. Three years later, Jillian, now a successful attorney, sat provocatively on the lap of Bryan's competitor. She flashed Bryan a playful smile and taunted, "What's wrong, Bryan? Are you impotent?" Bryan's restraint shattered in an instant. In a swift motion, he scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed. The next morning, as Bryan woke up, Jillian flashed a mischievous smile. "Let's keep things casual, okay?"