The Man I Was Meant to Hate
When Ava Montgomery’s brother is killed in a hit-and-run, her world shatters. The police close the case too quickly, and all fingers point to Liam Hart, her brother’s best friend, a man she once admired, now branded a murderer.
Three years later, consumed by rage and loss, Ava reinvents herself as Eva Moore and secures a job at Liam’s company to destroy him from within. But the man she meets isn’t the monster she imagined. He’s haunted, silent, and guilt-ridden… yet heartbreakingly kind.
As Ava digs deeper, she uncovers a truth darker than revenge could satisfy: Liam took the blame to protect someone he loves, and the real killer has returned to tie up loose ends.
Between love and vengeance, Ava must decide: Will she destroy the man she’s grown to love, or save him before it’s too late?
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Chapter: CHAPTER 88 — “False Hands”Liam's POVThe letter never touched Ava again.I slipped it into a clear evidence sleeve and sealed it, slow and careful, like it might bite if handled wrong. Ava watched me do it without speaking. Her face was calm now, but it was the kind of calm that comes after something breaks and settles into a sharper shape.“I’ll be back before evening,” I told her.Then she nodded. “Don’t protect me by lying.”That landed harder than she meant it to. “I won’t,” I said. And meant: I’ll try.….….The first rule of dirty systems is this: they never move alone.Letters don’t just appear. Voices don’t just get edited. Fear doesn’t just find the right door without help. Someone always opens it.I started with the paper. Not the words. The material.The sleeve crinkled softly as I laid it flat under the scanner. Weight, texture, fibre blend. The watermark didn’t match any domestic supplier. Not a prison issue. Not corporate stationery either.“European,” I said.I pulled up a database I wasn’t suppo
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Chapter: CHAPTER 87 — “The Brother She Lost”Ava's POV I don’t sleep. I just lie on the bed and watch the ceiling change colour as the night moves on. Grey to darker grey. The hum of the city never fully stops. Somewhere, a siren rises and fades. Somewhere else, a door slams. Life keeps happening as if nothing has cracked open.Liam sleeps on the chair by the window. Not properly. One arm folded across his chest, head tipped forward, like he’s ready to wake the second I move. He said he’d stay. I didn’t argue.Tomorrow is the hearing. A sealed one. Another room I won’t be allowed into. Another decision was made without me.Ethan’s voice keeps looping in my head. The notebook. The hinge squeaked.I press my palms over my eyes.For years, I told myself he was just someone who passed through my life. Someone helpful. Someone kind. Someone I lost because the world is careless.That lie was easier. The truth is heavier.He was family.Not by blood. By choice. By the quiet way he stayed when everyone else left.I sit up before the th
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Chapter: CHAPTER 86 — “My Mother’s Shadow”Ava's POVThe letter arrives by email in the morning after the sound file. Not through email. Not through the courier. But through the post.Real paper. Thick. Cream-coloured. My name was written in careful ink, like each letter had been practised before it touched the page. I stare at it for a long time before I can pick it up.Liam stands across the kitchen, mug in his hands, watching me without pretending he isn’t.“You’re shaking,” he says.“I know.”The return address is a prison. Women’s facility. North wing.My chest tightens. My mother. She hasn’t written to me in seven years. Not after the trial. Not after the sentencing. Not after the appeal failed and the world moved on without her. Not even when Ethan disappeared.Then I slide my finger under the seal. It tears too easily. Like it wants to be opened.There is one sheet of paper Inside. The paper was folded once. No extra pages. No photos. Just words.Ava,I wondered how long it would take before you heard my voice again.
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Chapter: CHAPTER 85 — “Going On Record”Ava's POV The studio smells like old coffee and fresh paint. I notice that first because I’m still learning how to calm my body. It looks for small things. Safe things. Ordinary details that tell me I am not in a courtroom, not in a sealed room with men who never blink.Just a studio. Grey walls. One table. Two chairs. And a choice.Liam sits a few feet away, not beside me. That was my decision. If I look at him too much, I might soften. And today is not for soft.The reporter enters gently. No camera crew. No lights yet. Just a notebook and a recorder placed gently on the table, like a question waiting to breathe.Thank you for agreeing to this, she says with her voice calm. Clear. Not hungry.I didn’t agree to everything, I reply. “Only what I choose.”She nods. “Of course.”That matters more than she knows.Then we sit beside each other. She doesn’t start recording right away. Instead, she asks if I want water. Suppose the chair is comfortable for me. If I need a moment.I almost
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Chapter: CHAPTER 84 — “What Protection Costs”Liam's POVProtection, it turns out, is just another control word.I learned that before noon. They didn’t call. Didn’t knock like last time. They just sent a black car.Quiet. Windows too dark for a city that pretends it has nothing to hide.Ava was still upstairs, shower running, steam fogging the windows. I watched the car from the kitchen, my heart slow but heavy, the way it gets when you already know the ending and still walk into the scene. Then I stepped outside before they could come in.The driver didn’t speak. He just opened the back door.I recognised a man sitting inside without needing to know his name. Same calm face I’d seen in hearings. Same voice from recordings that never made it to court. He looked like order. Like safety. Like the sort of man people trust because he never raises his tone.Liam Carter, he said. “Thank you for coming down.”I didn’t, I replied. “You came up.”A flicker of a smile. Practised. Fair. I stayed standing. He stayed seated. It was deliberat
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Chapter: CHAPTER 83 — “The Hidden Trial”Ava's POVLiam’s yes still echoed in my chest when everything shifted. Not loudly. Not dramatically. It was the quiet kind of shift. The kind that happens when the ground beneath you decides it was never solid to begin with.Rylan left an hour later, promising updates, promising caution, promising nothing would move without us knowing. I believed he meant it. I also knew belief did not equal safety anymore.Liam made tea again. Strong this time. British, he said, like it was armour. We sat at the small kitchen table, knees brushing, steam curling between us. For a moment, we were just two people breathing in the same space.Then my phone vibrated.Once.I didn’t look at it right away. I knew that was fear. I let it be there, resting under my palm, buzzing again like it was impatient.Liam noticed. He always did.“Do you want me to—” he started.“No,” I said softly. “I’ve got it.”I picked up the phone.It wasn’t a message. It was a secure alert. One I hadn’t seen since the first heari
Last Updated: 2026-01-21
Torn between my boyfriend and his boss
When Naomi Monro gets her dream job at the best New York tech firm, she never imagines and expects to fall for her boyfriend’s boss—let alone discover a tangled web of hidden identities, betrayal and a legacy that ties them all together. As the relationship between she and her possessive boyfriend unwinds, Naomi finds herself drawn to the very cold, mysterious CEO, Henry Vance—a man with secrets which reach deep into her past. Naomi, caught between love, loyalty, ambition and truth, must confront everything which she thought she knew to claim her future, and the love she truly deserves. Would she choose her boyfriend or would she spend the rest of her life with the mysterious CEO?
Promotional line:
She thought she had gotten her dream job—until she fell for her boyfriend's boss who could either ruin everything… or save her.
What makes the story unique and attractive:
This story is a heated mix of forbidden love and buried secrets, it turns simple office romance into an exciting emotional rollercoaster.
With unexpected and shocking twists, powerful themes, and a heroine who rises from betrayal to power, the story a romance that cuts deeper than most.
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Chapter: Chapter 20 – The Blood TiesHenry's POVThe alert came through at 2:17 a.m.I was still awake, staring at the ceiling of my penthouse, replaying every conversation I’d had with Naomi over the past weeks. Every pause. Every look she held too long. Every question she didn’t ask out loud.My phone buzzed once on the nightstand.Just once.That was enough.I reached for it, already knowing what I would see. The screen lit up with a single line from a system I’d hoped would stay silent forever.ACCESS GRANTED — MONRO FILES.My chest tightened so hard I had to sit up.“No,” I muttered. “No, no, no.”I swung my legs off the bed and stood, running a hand through my hair. The city lights outside my windows blurred as memory slammed into me all at once.Naomi had opened it.She had found the name.She had crossed the line her father had drawn in blood and silence.I opened the secure channel, fingers moving fast, heart pounding.She had accessed everything. The core files. The private records. The ones only three people h
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: Chapter 19 – The Name That Opens DoorsNaomi's POVI waited until the apartment was quiet again.Not just quiet in sound, but in feeling. The kind of quiet that comes after someone leaves their weight behind. Asher’s presence always lingered. In the air. In the walls. In my chest.I locked the door. Then I locked it again.My laptop sat on the table where I’d left it, the flash drive still plugged in, small and innocent-looking. Like it hadn’t already torn my life apart.I sat down slowly, my heart beating hard enough to make my hands shake.“Okay,” I whispered. “One more time.”The password box stared back at me. Cold. Patient. Her name.Not my mother’s real name. Not the one on documents. Not the one she used with the world.The name she used with me. I closed my eyes and leaned back, letting my head rest against the chair. I let myself drift, not into logic, not into fear, but into memory.I was five. Maybe six. Sitting on the kitchen counter, swinging my legs while my father cooked. My mother stood behind me, brushing
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: Chapter 18 – Masks We WearNaomi's POVIt was as if they would go to wipe me out. I didn’t sleep that night. The slightest sound seemed to be a threat.The window was being blown by the wind. Somewhere down the elevator was whirring along. I held my phone in my hand until dawn when the screen was black but so full of what it had already revealed to me. By morning terror had become colder and sharper. Anger. When the knock came, I was filling the coffee. Three slow taps. Cool, simply composed and cool. I was aware that it was Asher before I opened the door. He was standing in a black coat, his hair cut off, his face prudent and anxious. Too tender, as though it were a mask that was merely thrown on.You did not come home last night, you see, he said in an affable way. I stepped aside to let him in. “I needed space.”He made a nod, as though that response pleased him. He entered my apartment as though he was part of it and he was scanning every corner of the room without looking conspicuous. Noticing ever
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: Chapter 17 – The First LieNaomi's POVI hear the words of my mom reverberating in my head as I stand there caught between the desire to yell and the need to cry.Had you heard what was, you wouldn’t like me evermore.“Then why won’t you tell me?” My voice was scarcely keeping together. Why can you say so, and cease?Elaina comes back to me again, with her arms around her, as she is cold. The city lights beyond lighten her face in soft shadows, yet I may be able to see her jaw tighten.I have had enough to say, she says.No, you have not, I say getting nearer. You have said enough to rip me up.She doesn’t turn around. That is worse than the way she would have screamed at me.You believe it is more kind being silent, I continue, now shaking my hands. “But it’s not. It never was. You left, Mom. You disappeared. I spent the entirety of my life blanking you in. And now you are standing here, and you tell me that you are one of the secrets of my dad, and you even will not tell me why?Her shoulders are slowly risin
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: Chapter 16 – Mother’s Secrets Point of view of NaomiIt weighed more than my phone and my keys altogether. Every time I moved, that tiny flash drive pressed into my ribs in my coat like a live thing. I was unable to open it just yet. Not until I got the thing I was missing. The password. The name of my mother. I felt lightheaded at the thought. Elaina, my mother, had only ever been a ghost in my life. She went when I was old enough to understand what it was like to be abandoned but still young enough to remember songs. I had made up a story about her disappearance for years: she was weak, self-centered, and she put her freedom before her family. Now, however, her name held the secret to my father's truth. This suggested that she hadn't simply disappeared. She had been involved from the beginning. Before I could talk myself out of it, I called her number. After three rings, her voice came through, friendly but careful. Naomi? I tightened my hold on the phone. "Hello, Mom. Can we get together? A pause. "Now
Last Updated: 2025-08-31
Chapter: Chapter 15 – Torn LoyaltiesNaomi's Point of ViewAs I walked home, I was unable to think about anything else. The city itself seemed to be watching me, and every step and sound in the street was sharper than usual. As if to make sure it was still there, my fingers continued to trace the shape of the flash drive through the material of my coat. It wasn't until his voice faded into the void that I heard Asher's footsteps behind me. He stated, "You're quiet." I spun around and jumped. His face was opaque as he stood a few steps back with his hands in his pockets. "I had no idea you were still pursuing me." "I told you, Naomi," he continued in a strong yet smooth voice. "I can't let you go into danger by yourself." Risk. It was a sharp word. "You weren't asked to." He looked down at my pocket. I froze, hoping he hadn't seen how firmly I was holding on to it. "What did he give you?" he said in a careful, now almost tender tone. Too cruel, I faked a laugh. "Nothin'. Only words. Empty threats"Naomi," he whis
Last Updated: 2025-08-31
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