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Valerie Hemsworth has always lived in the shadows, timid, obedient and the perfect assistant to ruthless, demanding billionaire CEO Damien Culligan. She has spent years trying to never step out of line. Their relationship has always been servant-master like, but after a drunken one night stand, she ends up pregnant for him. When Valerie tries to run from the humiliation and chaos, Damien stops her and she is forced into a loveless marriage. Not ready to let go of her long time lover, she decides to run away with him. However, as she enters his apartment, she catches her best friend in bed with him. Read to find out what happens when Valerie discovers the truth behind her marriage with Damien.
Valerie's POV
"Get in here right now!!". I hear my boss screaming from the other end of the phone. It is another typical day at the office for me.
I walk into my office bathroom and stare at my reflection taking in deep breaths. If this had happened two years ago, I would have curled up to a ball and bawled my eyes out, scared out of mind.
Now I am so used to it that nothing surprises me anymore.
I clutch my folder and walk through the hallway of Culligan Inc. Although I'm used to everything, my heart still pounds with anxiety.
I may have gotten used to being yelled at, overlooked and punished, but I can never get used to the anxiety that comes with working for the most ruthless businessman in New York. Damien Culligan.
I rush towards the conference room to deliver some last minute report. You may be thinking, if I am used to working for someone as ruthless as Damien Culligan, why am I still messing up?.
This is not my mistake, I clearly asked Damien if the report would be needed for the meeting several times this week and got the same reply.
"If I want a report pumpkin, I'll ask for a report".
I groan at the memory and rush into the conference, not wanting to get on his bad side. Again. You have no idea how many times it has happened in the past two years.
I get to the hall in time, skeptical about how smooth everything is going, but I speak too soon. I bump hard into someone and the papers I'm holding scatter everywhere. Yup, typical day at the office.
The whole room of all the elite businessmen and women in New York turn around at the chaos. I freeze, praying that the floor opens up and sucks me in.
"Excuse my personal assistant, everyone gets clumsy sometimes", is what I expect Damien to say but boy am I wrong.
I scramble to pick up the scattered papers, embarrassed. Even the entire lobby outside goes silent, all eyes on me as I hastily gather the documents.
To my dismay, a shadow looms over me, and before I can look up, I hear his voice.
"You incompetent fool!" Damien Sinclair's voice booms, dripping with venom. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
He doesn't give me a chance to respond. "These are confidential documents, and you have just made a fool of yourself in front of my clients!" His voice echoes through the lobby, making me shrink.
Clutching the papers to my chest, I stammer an apology, but Damien does not wait to hear it. He scoffs, straightens his suit, and with a dismissive shake of his head, turns away.
"Clean up your mess and get out of my sight," he mutters before walking off, leaving me humiliated.
"Do not cry Valerie, no tears, do not let him see you cry" I beg myself. I pick up the rest of the papers, arrange them into a neat pile, hand them to him and rush out of there.
I know I said earlier that I am used to it, but I realize now that I am wrong. I can never get used to being treated this way.
Over the past two years, Damien and I never got along. He has never failed to display his distaste for me and I could not care less. I had to learn to blend into the background, have a small voice and never speak unless absolutely necessary just the way Damien Culligan liked his subordinates.
All these things are clearly not enough because every time, he still makes me feel like a worthless and useless nobody.
I walk back to my office slowly, keeping my head down and avoiding the stares of everyone.
The moment the door shut behind me, I collapse into my chair, burying my face in my hands as hot tears pour out. I feel humiliated. I've tried so hard to stay invisible, to do my job quietly, but I still get treated like this.
After what seems like hours of sobbing, I pick up my phone and notice some missed calls. I'm about to return them when I hear a soft knock on the door startling me.
Quickly wiping my tears, I straighten up, forcing a weak smile as the door swings open.
"Val, what happened? I just heard," Sienna says, stepping inside with a sympathetic frown. She looks effortlessly beautiful, with sleek black hair and gorgeous green eyes. "Did the great Damien Sinclair finally bite your head off?"
"In front of everyone," I whisper.
Sienna sighs dramatically and perches on the desk. "You should quit. Honestly, no paycheck is worth that kind of humiliation."
Before I can answer, her phone buzzes. She grabs it, and hands me the phone when she sees Ethan's name.
"Hey," I answer, trying to hide the emotion in my voice.
"Val, are you okay? Sienna just texted me. What happened?" Ethan's voice is soft, warming me up.
I swallow hard. "It's nothing to worry about, I messed up, and Damien got mad."
"Again?" Ethan sighs. "Baby, you don't have to put up with this. I don't like how he treats you."
Sienna rolls her eyes. "Oh please, Ethan, if she quits, who pays for our weekend trips?" she teases, making me shoot her a glare.
"I just need to get through this week and then I can relax on our vacation ," I murmur into the phone, ignoring Sienna's comment.
Ethan exhales heavily. "I hate seeing you like this, Val. Maybe we should just...."
The door suddenly swings open, and Sienna flinches as Damien's cold voice fills the room.
"Valerie. My office. Now."
I stiffen as Damien turns and walks away without another word.
Sienna smirks. "Well, that doesn't sound terrifying at all."
I swallow the lump in my throat. Whatever this is, I have a feeling it would not end well.
Gia Alessandro is the daughter of a very popular mafia boss who is feared and respected but for his whole life he has been at war with a rival mafia gang. How he made his money and she did not ask questions but she made sure it was clear from the beginning that she would be in control of her love life. So when her father told her she would be marrying the rival gang's heir, she was livid and rebelled. Lorenzo Federico, the rival gang's heir, is a cold, ruthless and dominating Playboy and he makes it clear that he would never love her or treat her like a woman. They both end up in a loveless marriage which leads Gia into the arms of another man who treats her well. Read to find out what happens when Gia finds herself trapped in a marriage with a monster.
"Just kill me please", Serena begged as cold chains tightened around her wrists. Born a Luna heir, she would rather die than serve a pack that brutally murdered her family. But when death denies her mercy, revenge becomes her only reason to live. Fate offers her a second chance as she is sent to serve the alpha family of her enemies, but Serena faces a tough choice: to continue on her quest for vengeance or surrender to a love she never expects.
For as long as she can remember, Aria Caelan has been invisible, a ghost in the halls of her high school, a shadow in her own home. Bullied mercilessly, ignored by her father, and tormented by a stepmother who relishes making her life hell, Aria has only ever longed for one thing, to belong. So when her class takes a field trip to a wildlife reserve, she defies her father's orders and sneaks out, hoping for one moment of escape. Lured into the dense forest by a cruel prank, Aria soon finds herself trapped, outnumbered, and at the mercy of her tormentors. But just as fists are raised and she prepares to welcome the darkness, a bone-chilling howl echoes through the trees. A stranger emerges. Tall, fierce, and dangerous. His eyes glow silver in the moonlight. His presence sends her attackers fleeing in terror. And when he takes her hand and whispers, "Run," she doesn't hesitate.What she doesn't know is that she hasn't escaped the wolves. She's just been claimed by one. Aria wakes in an unfamiliar place, a world hidden in the depths of the wilderness. Her rescuer is no ordinary boy. He is Ronan Sinclair, heir to the Midnight Pack. A war is brewing. A stolen relic must be found before the next blood moon. And Aria? She may be more connected to the wolves than she ever imagined.With a dangerous love square, buried family secrets, and a brewing war between rival packs, Aria must choose: return to the human world where she was nothing or embrace the wild, where she might be everything.
There was only one man in Raegan's heart, and it was Mitchel. In the second year of her marriage to him, she got pregnant. Raegan's joy knew no bounds. But before she could break the news to her husband, he served her divorce papers because he wanted to marry his first love. After an accident, Raegan lay in the pool of her own blood and called out to Mitchel for help. Unfortunately, he left with his first love in his arms. Raegan escaped death by the whiskers. Afterward, she decided to get her life back on track. Her name was everywhere years later. Mitchel became very uncomfortable. For some reason, he began to miss her. His heart ached when he saw her all smiles with another man. He crashed her wedding and fell to his knees while she was at the altar. With bloodshot eyes, he queried, "I thought you said your love for me is unbreakable? How come you are getting married to someone else? Come back to me!"
June Rivera was divorced by her husband after three years of marriage because he wanted to be with her sister who was pregnant for him. Kicked to the curb with a divorce and rejected by her parents,she struggles to make ends meet and get a job until she saves Luis Ambrose from an accident - the only child of Rafael Ambrose, a widowed man and the CEO of Ambrose Corporation. When little Luis asks to have her as a nanny, and Rafael's mother pressures him to get married, they draw a contract. To be Luis's nanny and his fake wife for one year in exchange for 50 million dollars!
"You're a creepy bastard." His eyes smolder me and his answering grin is nothing short of beautiful. Deadly. "Yet you hunger for me. Tell me, this appetite of yours, does it always tend toward 'creepy bastards'?" **** Widower and ex-boss to the Mafia, Zefiro Della Rocca, has an unhealthy fixation on the woman nextdoor. It began as a coincidence, growing into mere curiosity, and soon, it was an itch he couldn't ignore, like a quick fix of crack for an addict. He didn't know her name, but he knew every inch of her skin, how it flushed when she climaxed, her favourite novel and that every night she contemplated suicide. He didn't want to care, despising his rapt fascination of the woman. She was in love with her abusive husband. She was married, bound by a contract to the Bratva's hitman. She was off-limits. But when Zefiro wanted something, it was with an intensity that bordered on madness. He obsessed, possessed, owned. There'd be bloodshed if he touched her, but the sight of blood always did fascinate him. * When Susanna flees from her husband, she stumbles right into the arms of her devilishly handsome neighbour with a brooding glare. He couldn't stand her, but she needed him, if she was ever going to escape her husband who now wanted her dead. Better the devil you know than the angel you don't. She should have recalled that before hopping into Zefiro's car and letting him whisk her away to Italy. Maybe then, she wouldn't have started an affair with him. He was the only man who touched her right, and the crazy man took no small pains in ensuring he would be the last.
"I've warned you from the beginning. Don't marry him, but you won't listen." Darcy stood close to me and smiled with concern. "You're not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze." My whole body trembled at her words. "Have you no shame?" I asked. "Take a good look at yourself, Heather." She stared at me in the mirror. "You can't even glance at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of gazing at that scar?" Heather Bailey got a surprise from her husband: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn't believe Blaze intended to divorce her. She was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman. After signing the divorce papers, shockwaves caught her up. Her flower shop was burned to the ground. Her father's company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers from influential families, she started her revenge on Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted, but that was just the beginning.
In the previous life, Maggie Johnson was so cowardly, gullible and stupid that she was coaxed by her fiance and stepsister and then broke her legs and lost everything including her fortune, love and even life. However, she was so lucky that she was reborn in the year before everything happened. Since her life restarted, how could she repeat a previous tragedy? Therefore, in this life, she took the opportunity to improve herself and take revenge on the ones who had ever insulted her. Facing the people who had humiliated her previously, she became smart and experienced to break their frames and tricks that had caused her to hurt in the previous life. Finally, no one could stop her pace to amaze the world any more.
Natalie used to think she could melt Connor’s icy heart, but she was sorely mistaken. When at last she decided to leave, she discovered that she was pregnant. Even so, she chose to quietly leave his world, prompting Connor to mobilize all of his resources and expand his business to a global scale—all in a bid to find her. But there was no trace of Natalie. Connor slowly spiraled into madness, turning the city upside down and leaving chaos in his wake. Natalie finally surfaced years later, with wealth and power of her own, only to find herself entangled with Connor once again.