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 60 — “Almost Normal”Ava's POVThe coffee smells real.That’s the first thing I notice as I push open the glass door and step inside. Warm. Bitter. Comforting. Not sharp like smoke. Not cold like metal. Just coffee.For a moment, I stopped walking.My body doesn’t trust this. It waits for shouting. Sirens. Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the dark.Nothing happens.People stand in line. A woman laughs at her phone. A man argues with the barista about oat milk. Life keeps going like it never almost crushed me.Liam’s hand tightens around mine.“You okay?” he asks quietly.I nod, even though my chest feels strange. Light. Heavy. Both.“I think so,” I say. “It just feels… loud.”He gives a small smile. “Normal can be loud.”That word still feels new in my mouth. Normal.We step into line together. Our shoulders brush. His thumb moves slowly over my knuckles like he’s counting something. Like he’s making sure I’m real.No guards today.No agents watching from across the street. No cars idling to
Last Updated: 2026-01-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 59 — “Rylan’s Reckoning”Rylan's POV I haven't slept in two days. Not any sleep that really makes you forget things. I can still hear his voice, Ethan, every time I close my eyes; he is always one step ahead, calm, sharp. He always trusts me to keep up. I didn’t. And that is the fact I keep circling round in, as though I could look at it from enough angles, it would be softened. It doesn’t.Silence there is in my apartment that makes the skin itch. There is a hum of the city beyond, and the rain and traffic pounding on the fire exit. I am sitting at the small window table, with my laptop open and with the screen blazing with lines of code and folders that no longer ought to be.But they do. Since Ethan never believed in one concealment. Neither should I.I rub my face and lean back in the chair. My weight is creaking the wood. I feel older than I should. Guilt does that. It also gets into your bones, and it does not want to go. I regret, I say to nobody. Or maybe to him.The last time I saw Ethan, he smiled
Last Updated: 2026-01-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 58 — “The Anonymous Tip”Ava's POVThe email arrives at 6:42 p.m.I knew the exact time because I was watching the clock on the microwave, waiting for it to beep so Liam would stop pretending he knew what he was doing in the kitchen.The subject line is blank. No greeting. No signature. Just one sentence in the body: “YOU FORGOT ONE CONTRACT.”My fingers go cold around my phone. The kitchen smells like something burned and something sweet at the same time. Butter, maybe. Or sugar. Or panic. Liam is standing over the stove, wooden spoon in hand, staring into the pan like it personally betrayed him.Is it supposed to look like that? he asks, without turning.I don’t answer. My heart is already running. Then I read the sentence again. Slowly. Like if I stare hard enough, the words will explain themselves.You forgot one contract.I didn’t. I couldn’t have. I burned it. I watched the paper curl and blacken. I watched the ink disappear. I made sure. I made damn sure.“Ava?” Liam glances over his shoulder. Hey. Are
Last Updated: 2026-01-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 57 — “What He Almost Lost”Liam's POVInstead, I did not inform her of how much I was about to leave. Not right away.The following morning, following the message, the house was silent once again, but was completely different compared to yesterday. Not calm. Watchful. And even the air appeared to be listening.Ava has her legs brought up, and she is sitting with her back to the couch. She is clearing a box of old stuff we got out of storage, papers, photos, fragments of a life that outlived fire and the truth.I watch her from the doorway. This--this--it is all that I nearly left.She lifts a photo and squints. Why do I appear as I am judging the camera? she says.I laugh softly. “You always look like that.”She smiles, and it strikes me in the chest.I move into the room and sit next to her. Our shoulders touch. Simple. Familiar. Safe, for now.She glances at me. “You’ve been quiet.”I shrug. “Just thinking.”She gazes at my face just as she always does when she is certain there is more. “About what?”I don’t
Last Updated: 2026-01-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 56 — “ The Quiet Morning”Ava's POVI woke up because of the light. It slides under the thin curtains and lies across the bed as it is part of it. No alarms. No shouting outside. None of those sharp jerks of fear at my breast, and for a few seconds, I don’t move. I just breathe. Liam sits next to me, facing the window, one of his arms folded under his pillow. His expression is placid in a manner never seen before. Not guarded. Not alert. Just resting. This is new. Then I stand there and allow myself to touch it. The weight of the blanket. The comfort of another body near mine. The muffled sound of the house rising around us. No sirens. No footsteps. No time running out in my head. My body believes it for the first time. I slid out of bed and crept into the kitchen. The floor is cold again. The same cracked ceiling. The same crooked table. But this morning it is different. I prepare coffee and stand in front of the window as it brews. Grass is glittering with dew outside. A dog of a neighbour barks,
Last Updated: 2026-01-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 55 — “What We Build After”Ava's POVSilence has a sound. I hear it when I wake up.No sirens. No phones buzzing. No footsteps outside the door that don’t belong to us. Just wind moving through trees and a floorboard settling somewhere down the hall.It takes me some time to remember my location. The room is small. White walls. Its ceiling is low, with a crack, a thin scar, running along its corner to the other. Sunlight is filtering through cheap curtains and falls across the bed in strips of uneven light. Liam is beside me. He is lying on his back with one hand tossed above his head, with hair that is just disheveled in a manner that would make him look younger were I not familiar with the burden he bears. And there is a slight bruise on his jaw that is nearly healed. A reminder that bodies still break despite all. I watch him breathe. Slow. Deep. Real. I had to work to get sleep, and for weeks it was. Whenever I closed my eyes, my mind continued to run, repeating the testimony, faces in the court, th
Last Updated: 2025-12-28
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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