Novels by Haileybeybey

Adrian's Pov The headline on Sophia’s phone felt like a punch to the ribs. For a second, all I could do was stare at it, the words blurring and sharpening again as if my eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing.ETHAN ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT AGAINST KNIGHT GLOBAL.UNFAIR COLLUSION. PERSONAL SABOTAGE.A lawsuit.He actually filed a lawsuit.Of course he did.Ethan Ward never fought with fists or loud words. He fought by dragging people into the mud and pretending he was spotless. He used lawyers the way other people used knives.But dragging Clara into this, using her as a spark, was something even I didn’t expect.Sophia’s voice broke the silence. “This… this is going to be bad, isn’t it?”Clara didn’t speak. She stood there frozen, staring at the screen like it was a live grenade about to explode. The color had drained from her face so fast I felt something twist painfully in my chest.My first instinct wasn’t strategy or damage control.It was to pull her into my arms and protect her

Adrian's Pov The city blurred outside the car window, streaks of silver and blue sliding past like they were trying to outrun the thoughts swirling in my head. My fingers were tight around the strap of my purse. Too tight. My knuckles were white, and I could feel the tremble I was trying so hard to hide. I didn’t want Adrian to see me shaking. Not again. But I felt his eyes on me, calm, steady, unmovable. Like he could read the storm inside me even if I didn’t say a word. “Clara,” he said quietly. I didn’t look at him. If I did, I knew something inside me would crack open. “I’m fine.” “You’re not.” He said it simply. Not like an accusation and not like pity. Just the truth. And maybe that was what made me flinch. Silence stretched between us, heavy and uncomfortable. I tried to breathe slowly, to press down the panic that was slipping under my ribs. I thought I’d gotten better. I thought I’d left that version of myself behind when I walked out of Ethan’s penthouse with my su

Adrian’s POV“Then tell me to stop.”The words left my mouth with more force than I intended. They weren’t a request, they were a dare, and we both knew it.Clara stood frozen, framed by the glow of the city behind her. Her eyes widened, flickering with uncertainty, fear, yes, but also something else. Something that caught in my chest like a blade.She didn’t move neither did she speak, and that silence told me more than anything.If she truly wanted me to stop, she would have walked out of my office and slammed the door hard enough to rattle the glass. She would’ve thrown that lily back in my face. But she hadn’t. She was still here, trembling in her heels, fighting a battle I could see written in the lines of her posture.I stepped closer. Slowly. Carefully. Like approaching something fragile.“Clara,” I said, her name rough on my tongue. “You don’t understand. I don’t play games. Not with you.”Her breath hitched. “Then what is this? Because I don’t know if I can survive another ma

Clara’s Pov“You shouldn’t be here, Clara.”That’s the first thing Nora says the moment I walk through the front door of our apartment. She’s sitting cross-legged on the couch, scrolling on her phone like she’s been waiting for me to arrive. Her tone is sharp, the kind that slices straight through any excuse I could try to come up with.I drop my heels by the door, my shoulders aching from hours of holding myself together at the gala. “Good evening to you, too, sis.”Nora doesn’t even smile. Her brows pull together as she shoves her phone at me. “This is why I’m saying it.”On the screen is a gossip site, headline bold, picture brighter. Adrian Knight, elusive billionaire, was seen leaving the gala with Clara Hayes, Ethan Ward’s former flame.The image is damning: Adrian and I, side by side, his hand just hovering at my back, my face tilted up toward him as though he’s the only person in the room.My stomach drops. “Oh, God.”Nora crosses her arms, frustration rolling off her in waves

Adrian’s Pov"You shouldn’t let him get to you."Sophia’s voice cut through the silence of my office, soft but sharp enough to drag me out of my thoughts. She leaned casually against the glass wall, arms crossed, her dark hair falling over her shoulders like she had all the time in the world.I barely looked up from the decanter of whiskey I was pouring. “I’m not letting him get to me.”She laughed under her breath, that knowing little laugh she’d perfected since childhood. “Adrian, you’ve been brooding since the gala. That’s three days. For you, that’s practically sulking.”I set the glass down harder than I meant to. “I don’t sulk.”Her brow arched. “Then what do you call scowling at your phone every time another headline pops up with her face in it?”Her. Clara Hayes.Even the name had started to carve its way into my mind, uninvited.I leaned back in my chair, pressing two fingers against my temple. “It’s not about her. It’s about Ethan. He’s still pulling the strings, still showi

(Adrian’s POV)“You really think you can outbid me?”The words had slipped from my mouth before I even thought about them. My tone was sharper than I intended, but that woman, Clara Hayes, looked at me as though she already knew I wasn’t used to losing.The crowd buzzed around us, the auctioneer’s voice echoing through the gilded hall. I had come here to secure the Rothschild painting, another piece to add to Knight Global’s private collection, a deal that should have been simple. Instead, I found myself staring at a pair of steady brown eyes belonging to a stranger who refused to back down.No, she wasn’t a stranger.I’d heard her once before. Clara Hayes. The woman Ethan left in ruins, the one who, according to gossip, never quite recovered from him. Seeing her in person was disarming. She didn’t look broken. She looked… "determined.“I don’t lose easily,” she said, her voice even controlled.For a moment, I almost smiled. Almost.The gavel came down, and she won. She won because I