Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride
For three years, I was the unrecognized genius bleeding for Marcus’s empire. On the night he was crowned the city's youngest billionaire tycoon, I stood in the shadows, waiting for the proposal he promised. Instead, I watched him pull my treacherous step-sister onto the stage, sliding a six-carat diamond onto her finger while presenting my life’s work as their joint masterpiece.
When I confronted him, his sneer was dripping with disgust: 'You belong hidden in a sterile lab, Elara. She belongs in the spotlight. Know your place.'
Stripped of my legacy, my reputation, and my dignity, I was discarded in the freezing rain. That was where the bulletproof Maybach found me.
Alexander Thorne. The ruthless tyrant of the business world. An apex predator who viewed human emotion as a disease—and the only man with the power to crush Marcus overnight.
He rolled down the window, his gaze lethal.
'I need a brilliant doctor to keep my sister breathing, and a wife who knows how to submit in public. You need a weapon. Get in.'
The contract was absolute: Two years of marriage, total obedience before the cameras, and absolute silence regarding his family. In exchange, he would grant me the unimaginable wealth and power to destroy the parasites who ruined me.
Marcus thought he had buried a pathetic, obedient lab rat. Alexander thought he had bought a desperate, easily controlled doctor. As I signed the marriage certificate and became the untouchable Mrs. Thorne, they both failed to realize one fatal truth.
I didn't just want my research back. I was going to burn their empire to the ground.
Baca
Chapter: Chapter 117The vehicle came to a complete halt in front of the massive stone steps of the Thorne estate.The driver opens the rear door. Cold night air rushes into the cabin, carrying the smell of wet earth and heavy rain.Alexander steps out first. He turns around and extends his hand. Elara places her fingers against his palm. He grips her hand firmly, assisting her out of the vehicle. His leather shoes hit the wet pavement with a solid thud.The heavy front doors of the estate stand open. They walk up the stone steps together. They do not maintain the mandatory twelve-inch professional distance mandated by the original contract. Their shoulders brush. His arm remains close to her side. The physical proximity requires no conscious effort.Entering the main foyer, the polished marble floor reflects the light from the overhead chandelier. The house staff retired hours ago. The ambient hum of the central heating system vibrates faintly through the massive space. Water drips from their coats onto
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-03
Chapter: Chapter 116The wrought-iron gates of the Thorne estate come into view through the rain-streaked windshield.Alexander drops his hand to his knee. He traces the fabric of his trousers with his thumb. He finishes the final details of the morning she walked out of the penthouse.Elara adjusts her grip on her silver clutch. She tracks the outline of the approaching gates. She runs the data through her mind. Marcus Sterling stole her research while she slept next to him. Natasha Volkov stole Alexander's European distribution network while managing his schedule. The betrayals mirror each other with terrifying symmetry. The victims share the exact same scars."Did you love her?" Elara looks directly at his profile.Alexander turns his head. He holds her gaze in the shadows of the backseat. The ambient light from the dashboard illuminates the harsh lines around his mouth."I thought I understood the person sharing my house." He leans back against the leather headrest. "I misjudged the depth of the perfo
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-03
Chapter: Chapter 115Alexander reaches up and pulls his dark silk tie loose. He unfastens the top button of his dress shirt, stripping away the final layer of the untouchable executive. He drops his hands back to his lap, leaving his throat exposed."Then I met you in that alley behind the underground clinic." Alexander turns his body fully toward her.He closes the physical distance between them on the wide leather seat."I walked into that alley expecting a desperate, broken academic." Alexander leans closer. "I brought a briefcase full of cash. I expected you to negotiate for your basic survival."Elara remembers the harsh sting of the rain that night. She remembers the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and the sharp pain radiating from her bruised ribs. She remembers looking at the towering man stepping out of the shadows."I offered you absolute protection and infinite funding." Alexander traces the line of her jaw with his eyes. "And you looked at the contract and asked about the molecular struct
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-02
Chapter: Chapter 114Alexander rests his head against the high leather back of the seat. He watches the amber glow of the streetlights pass over the dark privacy partition."I spent the next two years burying the damage." Alexander rolls his shoulders against the upholstery. "I restructured the three compromised divisions from the ground up. I covered the two-hundred-million-dollar capital bleed through aggressive secondary offshore investments. I rebuilt the entire internal security framework."He lists the corporate recovery steps. He treats the disaster as a mechanical failure, detailing the specific, brutal actions required to patch the hull of a sinking ship."I fired the security directors who allowed the breach." He looks down at his large hands resting on his thighs. "I never pursued legal action against Meridian or Natasha."Elara processes the immense discipline required to walk away from the theft. Marcus Sterling stole her life’s work, and she fought him immediately. She clawed back her data a
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-01
Chapter: Chapter 113The reality of that same morning exists in a completely different perspective.Natasha knew about the exposure three days before Alexander printed the logs. She monitored the server pings on the Meridian subsidiary device. She tracked his lead security director breaching the proxy servers. She watched the firewall collapse in real-time.She packed her primary belongings the night he sat in the dark study.Walking into the penthouse living room that morning, she operated on pure adrenaline. She felt her pulse hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She gripped the strap of her leather handbag tight enough to cut off the circulation in her fingers.She anticipated a violent corporate confrontation. She prepared counter-arguments, legal threats, and aggressive deflections. She braced for him to hurl the crystal glasses against the wall. She expected him to tear her apart verbally.She looked at the documents on the glass table. She lifted her gaze to his face.The sight of his expre
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-04-30
Chapter: Chapter 112He turns his head away from the window. He looks directly at her."I laid the evidence out the following morning." Alexander traces the crease of his suit trousers with his thumb. "I waited for her in the penthouse living room."The details of that morning form clearly in the quiet cabin.Cold, gray sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse. Alexander stood next to the glass coffee table. He arranged the printed documents in a neat, orderly row. He placed the Helios collapse reports on the left. He set the restructuring outlines in the center. He placed the raw metadata logs with the Meridian subsidiary IP addresses on the right.He built a physical timeline of the betrayal. He stood over the glass, staring at the numbers.Natasha walked into the living room. She wore a tailored gray suit and a pair of black heels. She carried her leather handbag over her shoulder. She prepared for a normal workday at the corporate office.She stopped near the edge of the s
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-04-29
Masuk
