The Bride He Wanted Was Never My Sister
Mirabella spent her entire life in her sister's shadow, serving as the family fixer who cleans up every disaster left behind by her golden sister, the perfect sister and the one who got the guy she had always crushed on. When her sister absconds on her wedding day to avoid an arranged marriage with Theodore Hartley, a calculated logistics billionaire with a soft spot to her and her family, the family’s survival depends on one final sacrifice. Mirabella is convinced by her parents to step into the veil, expecting a furious groom who will demand an annulment only to discover that Theo has been waiting for her all along.
The wedding is a trap, meticulously orchestrated by a man who didn't just buy a wife, but claimed the woman he has obsessed over from the sidelines for years. As Mirabella is swept into the opulent, suffocating world of Theo’s museum-like estate, she realizes her life is no longer her own. Every gesture of his affection is a calculated move to bind her closer, and every secret she uncovers about his business threatens the fragile peace she’s trying to maintain. Trapped between a debt she cannot pay and an undeniable, terrifying attraction to the man who stole her identity, Mirabella must decide if she will continue to be the fixer for everyone else’s mistakes or finally break the chains of the man who owns her heart and her future, take back her life and love her the right way
Read
Chapter: Find my eyesTheo Sergei slid up to me out of nowhere. “I see you dressed dapper for your wife,” he said, pressing a glass into my hand. His voice stunned me after I’d just dismissed the fifty-second guest with whom I’d exchanged pleasantries. My pockets were filled with at least thirty something business cards. My ears could bleed. “Where the hell have you been, Sergei?” I shot back at him before drinking from the glass. “Important work.” He did his best to clamp down a smile, but I caught it, the look he always had when he was out doing something mysterious. Then it occurred to me, a light bulb switching on over my head. I took a step back to take him in. He was without a tie, no jacket, wearing just a black dress shirt and his roughened-up hair. I gasped at the realization. “No,” I said. “absolutely not.” He cocked his head. “What?” I rubbed my lips, stunned
Last Updated: 2026-10-26
Chapter: CheriBella Theo held up his glass and brought the mic closer to his mouth, his eyes locked on me the entire time. “This would have never been possible without you, my darling wife.” My first sip of champagne turned to stone as it shot down my throat and into my chest. One of the bright spotlights swiveled and landed directly on me. Thank heavens I didn't splutter or choke right then while the entire room's attention shifted to my face. The initial shock gave way to a sudden, blooming warmth that spread over my skin and down to my toes. “You are an impeccable work of art, Cherie, and your creations are nothing less,” he continued, his voice steady and echoing through the speakers. A hot sting prickled behind my eyes as emotion surged into my chest, threatening to overflow and drive me straight up onto that stage to kiss him. God. The way he was looking at me right now. The way he's looked at me throu
Last Updated: 2026-10-25
Chapter: A moment In TimeBellaThe museum hall was relatively warmer than the storage room we’d just left, the air laced with a dozen varieties of expensive, overbearing perfumes.Jazz music filtered into the atmosphere from the far corner, where a woman stood belting a melodious harmony while her accompanists played along. Lulled chatter and polite laughter hummed through the space as people clustered together, making acquaintances and catching up on social talk they’d willfully forgotten about since the last high-society function.It wasn't my first time attending one of these. My father used to make it compulsory for me to accompany him to settings like this, so I’d long since gotten used to the rhythm of high society. My armor was well seasoned.Everyone moved with practiced, lethargic grace, their laughter echoing softly against the soaring gallery walls where private art collections hung like silent judges. Composure was the unspoken dress code.I snapped straight, rolling my shoulders back to attain p
Last Updated: 2026-10-24
Chapter: 76: Gala NightTheo As soon as we stepped into the dimly illuminated hall, my mom's face was the first image I saw. She was leaned over the backrest of a wooden chair, her legs draped over it, a slash of yellow pigment altered her cheek. She was smiling, genuinely smiling because her dimples were out in full display.My heart dropped, my sight blurred out again.How could I not have this portrait of my mother?I'd thought all of had been destroyed years ago but here she was, vibrant and happy. Down where Bella held my hand, I felt a light squeeze.I was overcome with so much gratitude that she was here with me, that she'd been so adamant on getting me here, my heart hung heavy, out weighed by many memories I thought I'd forgotten.Losing a loved one was only a part of the grieving but the next part came when memories you thought you could never forget begin to fade, including how they looked. I had grieved so hard
Last Updated: 2026-10-23
Chapter: 75: Strained Tension Bella Theo held the end of an extremely strained rubber band and I held the other end, it felt like any movement I made could snap the band apart.I focused on the cool leather of the back seat against my legs instead of his rhythmic breathing, or the smell of espresson and wood seeping out from him.His breathing, his presence, heat radiating from his body, I could feel it all which madr me all the more conscious of the fact that it was probably the same for him.If I snugged any closer to the car door, the car would be left with an imprint of my body. Despite the space between us, it felt inadequate.I dared not shift in my space or even do as little as flinch, or look over at his side, shadow falling over his so very dapper self. So I sat as straight as a rod, too careful not to move or stir his attention to myself.Since we began the ride, he's sat, straight as I was- then again, he was always of impeccable posture
Last Updated: 2026-10-22
Chapter: 74: Sweetest Damnation Theo The moment I shut her door, everything I shouldn't want and should be avoiding came rushing, crashing against my resolve. My blood boiled hot. My skin prickled from the heat, it didn't matter that her door was cold to touch, my body could combust. I tore down the knot of my tie in anticipation of a rush of oxygen. It didn't do shit. Only the woman on the other side of the door could sate me, only she could quench this thirst and dounce me in her cold water. If I continued staying by her door, I risked losing my common sense and bursting through her door to drink as much of her as she permitted me. I pressed my back against her door, letting every movement of her dress, the soft fall of her bare feet on the floor of the room drive me. For goodness sake, seeing her bare feet did something to me, it felt like she
Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Chapter: CHAPTER 10: NoelleNoelle I parked where a car wasn't supposed to be parked and where someone's father probably mowed every two days, mostly because I couldn't quite find wherever cars were actually supposed to be parked, and sat there for a solid thirty seconds gripping the wheel.I breathed out, slowly.Fine. Okay. In. Ring. Out. That was the plan. Not complicated. Or just drop it at the door as earlier discussed.I got out before I could think myself out of it, ring clutched in my fist like it might make a break for it, and walked up to a front door that was easily twice my height, dark wood with iron detailing that matched the gate, because apparently even the door needed to remind you this wasn't a place that did anything halfway.The suited men all watched me and I felt like an ant under a microscope. I half expected one of them to tackle me to the ground but nope, they all just stared at me while some looked away as though I was not a worthwhile use of their time.The walk up alone took longer t
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: Chapter 9Noelle The GPS took me down roads that got me progressively less convinced of it ever leading to an office space.First it was the highway, easy. Then it narrowed into a two-lane road with actual trees crowding above it, the further I drove the more I left behind possible locations for an office, my GPS was leading me to one of the porshest residential areas. The tall trees blocked out the sun in patches so the whole drive strobed between light-dark-light-dark until you feel a a little dizzy. Then the houses started spacing out, further and further apart, until there weren't houses at all, no businesses at all, just long stretches of stone wall half-swallowed by ivy, the stonewall game way to a much more modern outlook."Your destination is on the left," my GPS announced, entirely too casual for what I was looking at.I slowed the car to a stop in front of a set of iron gates taller than my apartment building.No buzzer intercom with a company directory, no little sign that read Mil
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: Chapter 8: Unfortunate LuckNoelle I sat in my car outside the pawn shop for a full ten minutes before I trusted myself to drive.More than the shop itself, the words of the grumpy man kept looping, an ugly little chorus I couldn't shake. I'd worn, slept while wearing, showered next to, brushed my teeth beside, a ring worth more than my entire apartment building, probably, and I hadn't even had the decency to be nervous about it until now.Classic Noelle always landing herself in trouble.Okay. Fine. New plan. I couldn't sell it, wouldn't sell it, didn't even want it, not really. I wanted my dignity back and Clayton's smug face wiped permanently from existence, and this ring wasn't going to get me either of those things. It was only ever going to get me deeper into whatever this was. Talking about Clayton, I imagined he was all cozied up with his new found love while I had to worry about being arrested for a jewelry heist I had nothing to do with.Clayton was an asshole and I'd been unable to shake off the b
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: Chapter 7: Go and CashNoelle Gold and Cash sat wedged between a laundromat and a vape shop, its sign missing the LD in gold so it read GO AND CASH in flickering yellow letters, lopsided, felt about right for where my life currently was. I'd changed out of yesterday's shirt, at least. I showered, swallowed more water than I thought a human stomach could hold, hoping that the nauseating feeling would be drowned out, but bad idea because now my stomach made a sound when I moved too fast. My most nondescript hoodie was the outfit for the day, better to blend in while I attempted to offload evidence of my own personal crime scene. Because that's what this was, wasn't it. A crime scene. Exhibit A: one engagement ring, obtained under false pretenses, currently residing on the ring finger of a woman who had absolutely no business wearing it. Had Emeric stolen it? Or was it a mistake? Exhibit A? Nahhh, more like the victim in all this. A typical example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The
Last Updated: 2026-07-04
Chapter: Chapter 6: DiamondNoelleMy head was doing something it had never done before, something between a marching band rehearsal and an incessant bass drop that never fully died out. I opened one eye and immediately regretted the decision. Sunlight, unbothered by my pounding brain, poured through a gap in my curtains personally gloating.I groaned into my pillow. My mouth tasted like stale scotch, metal and something much more bitter.Betrayal.Right.Bits and pieces came back to me in the worst possible order.Clayton's stupid, happy face. Vivian's red nails. A wine glass shattering. My own voice, loud and unhinged, telling an entire restaurant that my ex-best friend knew nothing about being a decent human being.And then, green eyes. A ring. A kiss that tasted like coconut and made my toes curl in a way three years with Clayton never managed.I sat up too fast, and my stomach whooshed violently in disagreement with the motion."Okay," I whispered to no one, "okay, okay, okay."My hand went instincti
Last Updated: 2026-07-03
Chapter: Just Not YetEMERIC She was looking around the bar while the server poured us our drink, she ordered the strongest scotch in the house and I had a bourbon.I didn't stop her from ordering high content alcohol, I would want to feel nothing but numbness at this time if I was in her shoesI felt like I understood her on a different level.The disappointment, the feeling of not being enough and taken for granted, you could just feel your self worth depreciating.I knew it all too well.I took a sip from my drink. “Are you looking for something?”She was stunned and blinked at me.“You keep looking around and I wonder what for”“No… no” She shook her head, “it's just been a long day.”She was thinking about it, it seemed so.I inched closer to her and our knees touched, she leaned in to sip her drink from the glass, rounding her lips over the rim of the glass and throwing it all back in one gulp. She cleared her throat afterwards.I corked my head, a light bulb had come on. “Tell me about your day.”
Last Updated: 2025-03-26
LOGIN
