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: 47 : THE DINNER THAT CHANGED IT ALLGIANNAI wake up in my bed with Peculiar's robe still around my shoulders and no memory of the walk between rooms.The last thing I remember is the poetry book, the armchair, and the lavender scent wrapping around me like arms. Then nothing, just warmth and the vague sense of being lifted, of a heartbeat that wasn't mine pressed against another chest.He carried me. There's nobody else it could be. Sean found me asleep in his mother's sacred room, in his mother's robe, and instead of waking me, instead of being angry that I'd trespassed, he picked me up and brought me here.I don't bring it up when I see him in the hallway that morning, he nods the way he always does, brief and professional, with the fortress intact. But the air between us is different. It’s warmer, like a room where someone just opened a window for the first time.That evening, I decide to push."Sean, Have dinner with me," I say casually.
Last Updated: 2026-03-25
Chapter: 46 : THE WOMAN IN THE LAVENDER ROOMSEANIt’s 3:07 AM and the hallway is dark but my feet know the route. I move left at the corridor. Past her door and pause to listen, for her heartbeat which beats steady through the wood, and she's sleeping. I move past the library, down the east wing stairs.It’s my nightly patrol, my nightly penance. The house checks I've been doing since my mother died because if I walk every hallway, if I listen at every door, if I keep count of every heartbeat under this roof, then nothing can be taken while I'm watching.I reach the lavender room and the door is open.The door is never open. I closed it the day after the funeral and it's stayed closed, a sealed chamber, a museum to a woman I couldn't save. Mrs. Kate dusts it weekly. Nobody else enters. Nobody is allowed.But Gianna is inside.She's asleep in my mother's armchair. The silk robe that was my mother's favorite, the one she wore on Sunday mornings with coffee and the cross
Last Updated: 2026-03-25
Chapter: 45 : AFTER VICTORYGIANNAI wake up to an avalanche. My phone has more than 347 notifications. My social media has tripled overnight. My followers skyrocket in real time like a stock ticker after good earnings. Every art blog, cultural magazine, and lifestyle platform is running the story. The headlines are savage: "Fraud Exposed at Manhattan Gallery." "The Original Artist Wins: Authentication Panel Delivers Unanimous Verdict." "TrueCanvas Unmasked as Copycat Cousin in Dramatic Gallery Showdown."I sit in bed scrolling through them with one hand on my belly and the other hand shaking. The baby is calm this morning. She fought her fight yesterday. Now she's resting.The DMs are a flood, galleries wanting to show my work, sponsors offering collaborations, collectors asking about purchases. Six months ago I couldn't afford prenatal vitamins. Now strangers are offering five figures for a canvas.Laurel calls at eight."I saw everything. The video of you walking toward Tasha is already a meme. You're iconic
Last Updated: 2026-03-24
Chapter: 44 : THE GHOST AT THE GALERYSEANThe moment Tasha screamed Ryan's name, I was already moving towards Briggs. He was positioned at the south wall, with an earpiece in, and a hand on the security radio. I caught his eye and he read the question before I asked it."Holt entered through the main entrance at 7:42 PM," Briggs says into my ear as I reach him. "Positioned himself near the back exit. Gallery CCTV tracked him the entire event.""What did he do?""He just watched and photographed several of Gianna's pieces on his phone. He lingered near the TrueCanvas wall for a bit. Then he left through the service entrance forty-five seconds before Tasha started screaming."Forty-five seconds. That means he knew. He saw the verdict coming, he heard the first crack in Tasha's voice, and exited before the explosion. Everything was calculated and controlled. That’s the exact behavior of a man who came to gather intelligence, not to be seen.But he was seen. By the cameras, by Briggs and by me."The guest list was controlle
Last Updated: 2026-03-24
Chapter: 43 : THE VERDICTGIANNADr. Osei doesn't rush. She's the kind of woman who understands that silence before truth makes the truth land harder."Our panel conducted three independent analyses," she says into the microphone. The gallery is dead quiet, two hundred people holding champagne they've forgotten to drink. "Firstly, the forensic paint layer composition. The works attributed to the artist known as Gianna Meyers employ a proprietary blending technique, a specific ratio of oil and acrylic layered in alternating sequences that produces a unique chemical signature at the molecular level."She pulls up a slide on the gallery's display screen. Two microscopic cross-sections side by side, the paint layers visible in colored bands like geological strata."The works attributed to TrueCanvas approximate this technique but fail to replicate it. The ratios are consistently off by twelve to fifteen percent. The layering sequence is reversed in four of twelve pieces.
Last Updated: 2026-03-20
Chapter: 42 : THE GALLERY OF TRUTHSGIANNAThe gallery is a battlefield dressed in champagne and track lighting. My work is on the east wall, while TrueCanvas’s on the west. Twelve paintings each, hung at uniform height, lit with gallery-grade spots that make the colors sing. The room is packed with people . From Manhattan's art elite, collectors in designer glasses, to critics with notebooks, and influencers with phones, and a press corps clustered near the podium where the authentication panel will deliver their findings.I walk the east wall first to where my paintings are displayed. I know every brushstroke, every layer, every moment of rage and grief and hope that went into the canvas. The red bird. The fire walk. The cracked-open chest. The abstract of tangled heat that I turned to face the wall in my studio and Sean's team retrieved without comment. They glow under the spots, alive in a way that makes me want to cry, because six months ago I was dying in a ra
Last Updated: 2026-03-20
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: Years LaterMIRAFive years later, the summer sun streams through the floor to ceiling windows of the foundation's conference room, casting golden light across the polished table where I sit reviewing grant applications. At fifty, I've learned to appreciate these quiet moments before the chaos of the day begins.My phone buzzes with a text from Nora. *Mom, emergency. Need you at my office. Now.*My heart skips a beat. Emergency. That word still triggers something primal in me after everything we've been through. I grab my purse and head out, telling my assistant I'll be back later.Nora's office is only ten minutes away, in the sleek modern building that houses the tech division of our foundation. She's transformed the place over the past three years, launching initiatives that bring technology education to underprivileged communities, creating scholarships for young women in STEM fields.I take the elevator to the top floor, my mind racing through possibilities. Is she sick? Is Tony hurt? Did s
Last Updated: 2026-02-25
Chapter: A Good Ending (2)MIRAIt’s been two years now and I'm standing in the backyard of our mansion, watching Nora laugh with Tony as they dance to music only they can hear.She grew so fast. She used to adore her pink Barbie bag, her pink bike and her signature fresh bread and strawberry jam sandwich.But, she's twenty-one now, glowing like a new born, radiant in her cap and gown, fresh from her computer science graduation ceremony. The twins toddle around the lawn, chasing each other, their pink dresses already grass-stained. Lily has my dark hair and Jackson's sharp features, while Aurora has my eyes and a mischievous smile that gets her into trouble constantly.Nora and Sera, inseparable as always, stand together near the buffet table, talking and laughing. It still amazes me sometimes, the fact that they're sisters, bound by blood they didn't know about for so long. When we finally told Nora the truth about Andrew being her biological father, she'd been shocked at first, then angry, then finally acce
Last Updated: 2026-02-13
Chapter: 119: A Good Ending (1)MIRAThe contractions start at 3 am, sharp and insistent, pulling me from sleep with a gasp. Jackson wakes immediately, his hand finding mine in the darkness."Is it time?" he asks, and I can hear the excitement mixed with fear in his voice."It's time," I confirm, breathless as another contraction rolls through me.It’s two weeks early, but the doctors said twins often come early. Jackson is already moving, grabbing the hospital bag we packed two days ago, helping me to my feet, calling ahead to let the medical team know we're coming.The next twelve hours are a blur of pain and pushing, of Jackson's hand gripping mine so tight I think he might break my fingers, of doctors and nurses moving around me with practiced efficiency. And then, finally, the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.Crying of not one baby, but two."It's girls," the doctor announces, placing the first warm, squirming bundle on my chest. "Two healthy girls."I look down at her tiny face, scrunched up and red from
Last Updated: 2026-02-12
Chapter: The RevelationJACKSONI hold Nora tighter, feeling her whole body shake with sobs against my chest. My hands cup the back of her head and that's when I feel it, the texture I'd almost forgotten. Pink streaks in her hair. The highlights she'd gotten for her birthday, the ones she'd been so excited about. The ones the fake Nora got rid of.I pull back slightly to look at her and my heart breaks. She's still wearing her birthday dress, the pale pink one with the delicate lace sleeves that she'd spent weeks picking out. Three months ago she'd looked radiant in it, glowing with happiness as she blew out her candles.Now the dress is dirty, torn at the hem, stained with god knows what. She looks thin, her cheekbones more prominent than they should be, dark circles under her eyes that speak of sleepless nights and fear. Her skin is pale, too pale, like she hasn't seen sunlight in months. Because she hasn't. But she's alive and she's here. And as I examine her more closely, relief floods through me. No
Last Updated: 2026-02-11
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
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