Dear Ex, See you never
Millicent Andrews never expected her life to collapse right before her twenty-first birthday.
One moment she’s a wife, a best friend, a girl with a future… and the next, she’s staring at her husband Brian Vel in bed and tangled in her best friend’s arms, the betrayal slices her open in ways she can’t begin to stitch shut.
The divorce is brutal and the humiliation is even worse. With nowhere else to go, Milli returns to her mom’s house with her sick son. She reopens her small, struggling photo studio, just in time to learn the entire building has already been bought by Damon Hale, a forty-seven-year-old billionaire with a reputation colder than the steel hotels he builds.
Damon wants the land, but Milli refuses to give up the last piece of her life that hasn’t been stolen from her. Their fight become heated, and combustible, until he makes her an offer she should never accept: marry him for one year to soothe his mother, live under his roof, follow his every rule…and in return, he’ll save the studio, every shop on the block and her sick son gets the best treatment possible, but she does.
They hate each other and they’re nothing alike. The contract is supposed to keep their worlds separated, but forced proximity has sharp fangs. Meanwhile, Brian returns, desperate and regretful, determined to pull Millicent back into his life.
While she tries to outrun her past, she discovers a painful truth about her own bloodline that changes everything she thought she knew, all while discovering Damon's darkest secret. What happens to their paper tie, when he discovers she knows the truth who he really is?
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Chapter: the ending that isn'tMillicent's POVMorning in the mansion. The light comes through the kitchen windows at a slant, painting everything in shades of gold. It's early, too early, really, for the chaos that's already unfolding, but the sun doesn't care about schedules, and neither does my son.Josh is at the kitchen table, eating cereal with more enthusiasm than accuracy. Milk splashes across the surface with each bite. Cheerios scatter like tiny refugees fleeing a disaster zone. His dinosaur pajamas are already stained, and the day has barely begun."Josh, try to keep the cereal in the bowl.""I AM keeping it in the bowl.""That Cheerio is on the floor.""That's not MY Cheerio. That's a FLOOR Cheerio."I don't have the energy to argue with four-year-old logic at 7 AM. He's inherited my stubbornness, which I'm told is karmic justice for everything I put my own mother through. The thought makes me smile despite myself.Mike is at the stove, attempting to make eggs. "Attempting" is the operative word, he's b
Last Updated: 2026-02-07
Chapter: the future discussedMillicent's POVThe conversation starts over breakfast, amidst the clinking of silverware and the smell of toasted bagels, and stretches lazily into the afternoon. Mike pours coffee from the French press, the dark liquid swirling, and Damon spreads some documents across the oak table.They aren't the usual business documents, no spreadsheets of profit margins or acquisition targets. These are something else entirely.Printouts about surrogacy agencies, adoption requirements, the legal complexities of multi-parent families in different jurisdictions.The morning light catches the papers as he arranges them, casting shadows across charts and bullet points and photographs of smiling children from agency brochures. It's the kind of research Damon does, thorough, exhaustive, leaving no question unasked. It's how he approaches a merger, and apparently, how he approaches expanding our family."I've been thinking," he says, which is how most of our major conversations begin. My eyes drop to
Last Updated: 2026-02-06
Chapter: the photoMillicent's POVI set up the camera on its tripod, the metal legs clicking against the stone, adjust the angle, and check the lighting for the fourth time because in my line of work, perfection depends on precision.The sun is dipping lower, casting long, dramatic shadows that I usually try to avoid, but today, I don't mind them.The mansion steps have been photographed countless times. They have been captured by newspapers documenting galas, by magazines doing architectural spreads, by the professional photographers Damon has hired over the years for official portraits. There’re stiff and formal, where everyone looks like a wax figure.But I've never photographed them myself. I've never turned my lens, my artistic eye, my personal perspective, on my own home, my own family, and on the people I love most. Today feels like the right day. The air is crisp, the light is golden, and for once, the world feels quiet enough to capture."Mommy, can I hold Mr. Hop?" Josh asks, swinging his ba
Last Updated: 2026-02-05
Chapter: the anniversaryMillicent's POVIt’s two years already. It's been twenty-four months, seven hundred and thirty days, already since I walked through the mansion's massive front door with nothing but a battered suitcase, a sleeping child heavy in my arms, and a contract tucked into my bag that was supposed to be temporary.Twenty-four months since I stood in Damon's foyer, shivering despite the heating, terrified of the cold billionaire I'd married, and certain in the marrow of my bones that I'd made a terrible mistake.I remember that first night with a clarity that still stings. I remember the way Damon looked at me like I was an inconvenience to be tolerated, a piece of furniture he hadn't ordered but couldn't return. I remember the way the mansion felt like a mausoleum, vast and echoing, stripping away any sense of warmth. I remember the way I lay awake in an unfamiliar bed, staring at a ceiling I didn't recognize, wondering how long I could survive this arrangement before I crumbled completely.N
Last Updated: 2026-02-04
Chapter: the health scareMillicent's POVThe doctor's words don't make sense at first."Elevated markers... probably nothing... recommend a procedure... just to be safe..."I'm sitting in the pediatrician's office, the same office where Josh has had checkups since he was born, and the words are sliding past me like water off glass. Josh is on my lap, playing with a plastic dinosaur the nurse gave him, completely unaware that his mother's world is tilting sideways.The walls of the office are covered in cheerful posters about hand-washing and healthy eating. There's a mobile hanging from the ceiling, there’re colorful fish swimming in circles and everything just looks normal. Nothing looks like the end of the world, but the doctor's mouth is still moving, and the words are still wrong."Mrs. Hale? Do you have any questions?"Do I have.. I do actually. I have a thousand, a million maybe. None that I can articulate."What kind of procedure?" I manage."Minor surgery to remove a small growth. Almost certainly b
Last Updated: 2026-01-28
Chapter: the letter from RiaMillicent's POVThe envelope arrives early on a Thursday morning, it’s mixed in with other bills and client correspondence.I almost miss it, the plain white, handwritten address, with no return information. But something about the handwriting stops me. Something familiar that I can't quite place.I open it in my studio, in between appointments, expecting nothing. The letter inside is three pages long and carefully written."Dear Millicent,I know you probably don't want to hear from me. I wouldn't want to hear from me either. But I've been watching your life unfold from a distance, through the articles, the interviews, and the photos of you looking happier than I ever saw you when we were friends, and I realized I owe you something I should have given you years ago.An explanation and an apology.Not because I deserve your forgiveness. I know I don't, but because you deserve to know the truth about what happened, and why."I sit down heavily, the paper trembling in my hands.It’s Ria
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Bound By A Borrowed Heart
BLURB
He killed her parents and kicked her out while she was pregnant. He thought he’d destroyed her.
On their first anniversary, Ryan Holt didn’t give Gianna a gift—he gave her a death sentence. Broken, homeless, and diagnosed with heart failure, Gianna was ready to die until he stepped in.
Sean Cooper, the coldest billionaire in New York, offered her a lifeline. He gave her a new heart and he gave her protection. But everything comes with a price.
“I didn’t save you because I care,” Sean whispered, his eyes cold as ice. “I saved you because the heart beating inside your chest belongs to my mother. And I’m keeping it close.”
Now, trapped in a contract marriage with a man who loves only her heart, Gianna must survive.
But when her ex-husband returns, begging for a second chance, he realizes too late: The woman he broke is gone. And the billionaire’s wife who replaced her is out for blood.
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Chapter: FIVE: A HEART FOR A HEARTGIANNAThe vibration of the phone against the wooden floorboards sounds like a drill in the silence of the empty house. It jolts me awake. My hand flies to my chest instinctively, checking the machine, checking the wires.Whir. Click.It’s still working, still keeping me alive, barely. I snatch the phone. The screen is cracked, a spiderweb of glass over the glowing light.Dr. Laurel: We have a heart Gi, please come now. Do not wait. My breath hitches. A heart means a chance. A second chance at life, and that means time. More time to live, and more time to rise and kick those who kicked me down.I don't think. I just move, grab my purse, ignoring the dizziness that sways the room like a ship in a storm. I don't have a coat or an umbrella uni, I just have the desperation of a mother fighting for her unborn child.I run out the door and the storm hits me the moment I step off the porch. It isn't just rain; it is a fucking downpour. The wind howls, tearing at my dress, soaking me to the
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: FOUR: THE LAVENDER ROOMSEANThe smell of lavender is supposed to be calming. It is supposed to soothe the nerves, to bring peace, to remind me of spring meadows and sunlight. But to me, it smells like death.The scent is thick in the air, pumped through the vents of the private suite on the top floor of Mount Sinai. It chokes me. It masks the antiseptic sting of the hospital, but it cannot mask the underlying stench of decay.I stand by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the New York skyline. From here, the city looks like a circuit board of gold and steel. I own half the buildings in my line of sight. I can crumble companies with a phone call, and I can ruin men’s lives with a signature.I am Sean Cooper, but the press calls me the “God of War”. They say I have ice in my veins and a calculator for a heart. But right now, I am powerless. All the money in the world but I can’t.."Sean." The voice is a whisper, dry like autumn leaves scraping against pavement.I turn. The movement is stiff. My muscl
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: THREE: A WEEK AND ANOTHERGIANNAThe dust in the air tastes like abandonment. It coats my tongue, dry and bitter, a flavor that matches the rest of my life. I am sitting on the floor of my parents' old estate, not the manor we lived in, but the dilapidated townhouse on the edge of the city that Dad was meaning to renovate before... well before everything.There is no furniture, just a wooden chair that has seen better days. There’s no heat, it’s just me, a thin blanket I stole from a shelter, and the relentless, mechanical whirring in my chest.Whir. Click. Whir. Click.My artificial heart. The machine that keeps me alive while the man who has my real heart inside his chest lives in a mansion with my cousin.I cough, the sound rattling in the empty room. It has been a week since the anniversary. A week of hell. A week since I watched them bury my mother in a closed casket because the truck left nothing recognizable. A week since I stood over my father in the charity ward, watching a machine breathe for him be
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: TWO: THE DEVIL’S CONFESSIONGIANNAThe world outside the window is a kaleidoscope of red and blue lights. They flash against the wet pavement, reflecting off the puddles that are forming rapidly in the sudden downpour. It is raining. The sky is weeping for my mother because I cannot. I’m frozen like a statue carved out of ice and horror.I see the paramedics moving too slowly. Or maybe they’re not moving at all. One of them, a man with broad shoulders and a yellow vest, stands up from the figure lying on the asphalt. He shakes his head and he pulls a white sheet over the body.The sheet turns transparent in the rain, clinging to the small, frail form underneath.Mom."No," the word falls from my lips like a stone. "No. She’s just sleeping. She just fell."A sharp, piercing sound cuts through the fog in my brain. Beep. Beep. Beep.It is coming from my chest. My pacemaker, the device that keeps my broken heart pumping, is sending a warning signal. My pulse is too high. My blood pressure is crashing. The pain is
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: ONE: THE ANNIVERSARY GIFTGIANNAThe pain in my chest is a dull and rhythmic throb, it feels like a bruised fist squeezing my heart every few seconds. The things we do for love right?I press my palm flat against the silk of my red dress and force a breath through my teeth. I cannot ruin tonight. I refuse to let my failing body ruin the one night that actually matters.The dining room smells of rosemary and roasted garlic, the scent is thick and heavy in the air. I spent four hours in the kitchen, my legs shaking and my vision blurring at the edges, just to get the glaze on the lamb chops perfect. The candles in the center of the table are burning low, the wax dripping down the sides in slow and clear tears. It is perfect. It has to be perfect because today is the day everything changes.I walk to the mirror in the hallway and check my reflection. My skin is pale, almost translucent under the warm hallway light, but the red lipstick hides the blue tint of my lips. I look alive. I look like a wife who is ready
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
The Price Of Her Mercy
BLURB
Mira, a poor farm girl, felt she was cursed because of the events that happened in her life after her land, the only property left to her by her late father, was forcefully taken 4 years ago.
She’s left with nothing to cater for her sick little sister, and is forced to tend to the horses of the same man who took her land and that made her hate him, with everything in her.
Jackson, who ran from the flames of an internet scandal against his company in search of answers and solitude, was instead carried away by Mira’s beauty, charm and confidence, and he decided to change her world while being the ruler of it.
What happens when a spark is ignited between them? Mira, who loathed her landlord because he was a constant reminder of her lost property, due to unfairness, and Jackson, who only loved power and control.
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Chapter: Meeting the Masked ManJACKSONWe’re there waiting for the second email to be sent. It’s 2: 45 am already. The second mail comes at exactly 3:00 am, it’s another video message from a man wearing a mask. I watch it three times, my blood running colder with each viewing.The masked man's distorted voice fills my ears. "Mr. Meliś. Come alone to the coordinates we're sending you. 6:00 am. No exceptions. If you want your real daughter back alive, you'll be there alone. Make sure you come alone, or she dies."The screen goes black and another message pops up. GPS coordinates. An address on the outskirts of the city, some industrial area I've never heard of.I glance at Mira. She's finally fallen asleep on the sofa, exhausted from crying, from the stress, from everything.I don't tell Mira about the message. I can't. She's already been through too much tonight, and with the baby, I can't risk her insisting on coming with me or having another panic attack. This is something I have to handle alone.I spend the rest
Last Updated: 2026-02-10
Chapter: Where to from here?JACKSONThe memory hits me like a freight train, so vivid I can almost smell the hospital antiseptic. Nora was eight years old, curled up in Mira's arms in that sterile white room, her small body trembling."They took my blood," she'd said, her voice barely a whisper. "The bad people. They stuck needles in my arm and took so much blood. It hurt."We'd assumed she was traumatized, confused. The police had found her forty-eight hours after the kidnapping, abandoned in a parking lot, physically unharmed except for the needle marks in her arm. The doctors ran every test imaginable but found nothing wrong. No drugs, no infections, nothing.Just the blood draw.I look at Mira and I can see it in her eyes, she's remembering too. Her face has gone ashen."The kidnapping," she breathes. "When she was eight. They took her blood.""That's what they used," I say, the pieces falling into place with sickening clarity. "They've had her DNA for eleven years. They've been planning this for eleven fuc
Last Updated: 2026-02-09
Chapter: The Fake DaughterMIRAI'm still gasping for air, my chest heaving like I've just run a marathon, when I hear Nora's footsteps thundering down the stairs."Dad!" she screams, her voice raw with panic. "Dad, something's wrong with Mom! She can't breathe!"The blanket she wrapped around herself trails behind her like a cape, and through my blurring vision I watch her stumble into the living room where Jackson was making his calls."What the hell?" Jackson's voice booms from downstairs. "Nora, why are you..""She's having a panic attack or something! Please, Dad, she needs help!"Heavy footsteps pound up the stairs, two at a time. Jackson bursts into Nora's room, his eyes wild, and takes in the scene. Me on the floor, struggling to breathe. Tony standing there half-dressed, his shirt clutched in his hands. The rumpled bed that tells the whole sordid story.Jackson's face goes from concerned to absolutely murderous in the span of a heartbeat."You fucking piece of shit," he snarls at Tony, but he moves to
Last Updated: 2026-02-08
Chapter: Unplanned DiscoveryMIRAThe iron gates of our estate swing open and the headlights sweep across the circular driveway, illuminating the fountain at its center. I'm already exhausted, my body heavy with worry and the weight of early pregnancy, when Jackson suddenly hits the brakes."What the hell," he mutters.I look up and my breath catches. Parked right in front of the main entrance, gleaming white under the porch lights, is Nora's Mercedes. The vanity plate NORA1 stares back at me like a taunt."She's home," I breathe, and I don't know if what I'm feeling is relief or rage or some twisted combination of both. "Jackson, she's home."He's already out of the car before I can unbuckle my seatbelt, striding toward Nora's vehicle with long, angry steps. I follow more slowly, my heels clicking against the cobblestones, my heart pounding in my chest.Jackson places his palm flat against the hood of the Mercedes. He holds it there for a moment, then pulls back and turns to me."It's warm," he says, and his vo
Last Updated: 2026-02-07
Chapter: The DisruptionMIRAThe whispers are starting to irritate me, it’s spreading through the ballroom like poison. I can hear them even though people try to keep their voices low, even though they turn away when I look in their direction."This is ridiculous. One spoiled rich girl goes missing and they shut down the whole event?""I worked my ass off for this scholarship award and now they're canceling the ceremony because some billionaire's brat ran off with her boyfriend?""Typical. The world stops spinning when something happens to them, but the rest of us are supposed to just deal with our problems quietly."Each word is a knife, sharp and cruel, and I want to scream at them that this isn't about money or status or inconvenience. This is about my daughter, my baby, who might be in danger. But I can't speak, can't move, can't do anything except stand here while Detective Morrison asks me questions that feel impossible to answer."When did you first notice changes in your daughter's behavior?" Morris
Last Updated: 2026-02-06
Chapter: The DisappearanceMIRALily's words echo in my head like a death sentence, but I can't focus on them right now because something else is nagging at me, pulling my attention away from SEC investigations and financial crimes. "Mira?" Lily's hand touches my arm. "Are you okay? You look pale.""Yes, I just need to use the restroom quickly. If you’d excuse me."My heart starts pounding, hard and fast, knowing what I'm going to find. Or rather, what I'm not going to find.I push through the crowd, ignoring the people who try to stop me, who want photos or conversations or pieces of me that I don't have to give right now. The ballroom exits lead to a grand foyer, marble floors reflecting the chandelier light, and I rush to the coat check.I'm running now, my heels clicking against the marble, out the front doors and into the cool night air. The valet area is packed with expensive cars, drivers waiting patiently for their wealthy passengers. I search for Nora's white Mercedes, the one Jackson bought her for
Last Updated: 2026-02-05
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