THE BILLIONAIRE'S STAND-IN BRIDE
Aria has spent her life trying to save a company her brother destroyed while her family blamed her.
When her father reveals that a mysterious billionaire tycoon will invest in their company if she marries him—as a stand in for his real bride who disappeared—she sees her chance for redemption.
But when she discovers her father plans to use her and discard her if needed, Aria makes a choice: she'll marry the billionaire anyway, but for herself.
She'll claim half his properties and finally escape her toxic family. What she doesn't expect is that Romanov Sleigh, the terrifying reclusive tycoon, was not looking for her. He was looking for someone else.
Now, standing in front of the man who was supposed to solve her problems, Aria realizes she's just walked into a far more dangerous situation.
Romanov paid for one bride and received another—and he has no idea who she really is.
As he begins to investigate, Aria must decide if she can survive being married to a man who can destroy her with a single word, and whether the connection growing between them can survive the truth.
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Chapter: EIGHTY Aria’s POV The study looked different by mid-afternoon than it had at dawn, every surface covered now in neat, organized stacks of documents, Dmitri’s meticulous system already imposing order on everything we’d carried back from the Gathering House. Romeo sat hunched over his laptop near the window, cross-referencing financial records against the contact list while Elena reviewed photographs of the founders on the main screen, her expression unreadable. I lingered near the doorway a moment before joining them, still steadying myself from the terrace, the quiet of it already feeling impossibly far away against everything spread out across the desk now. “We’ve confirmed twelve names on that list,” Dmitri said, without looking up from his notes. “Eight appear to still be active. Three are marked with the symbol we saw repeated near several crossed-out entries, which I now believe indicates deceased. One remains unaccounted for entirely.” “The unidentified name,” Romanov said. “The o
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: SEVENTY-NINE Aria’s POV We didn’t speak much on the drive back to the estate, the documents secured in a locked case wedged between Dmitri’s feet, my thoughts still circling the same signature over and over, unable to settle anywhere else. Romanov drove with one hand resting occasionally over mine on the console between us, not saying anything, simply staying present in the only way either of us seemed to have energy left for. I watched the fields blur past the window, unable to hold onto any single thought long enough to make sense of it, my mind returning again and again to the same worn photograph, the same careful signature, the same quiet, ordinary memories now permanently tangled up with everything we’d just uncovered. By the time we reached the estate, exhaustion had settled over all of us in a way that felt different from the adrenaline-driven crashes after Ashgrove or the docks. This wasn’t the ordinary fatigue of danger surviving into safety. It was heavier, slower, the particular we
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: SEVENTY-EIGHT Aria’s POV Dmitri secured both men quickly, radioing for a second vehicle to transport them while Romeo swept the rest of the building’s perimeter, confirming no one else remained hidden inside. Only once the property was fully cleared did Romanov finally let me step through the doorway, his hand resting briefly against the small of my back, a silent promise that he was still right there beside me. I paused just past the threshold, letting my eyes adjust to the dim interior light, my pulse still racing from everything that had happened in the clearing. Whatever fear I’d carried on the drive here had shifted into something sharper now, something closer to anticipation than dread. The main room was smaller than I’d expected, though every inch of it felt weighted with significance the moment I crossed the threshold. The long table Dmitri had described sat centered beneath a bare overhead bulb, papers spread across its surface in loose, deliberate stacks, as though whoever had been wo
Last Updated: 2026-08-17
Chapter: SEVENTY-SEVEN Aria’s POV The gunshot’s echo hadn’t even finished fading before Dmitri was moving, waving us both back toward denser cover while Romeo’s voice crackled sharp with alarm over comms. “That came from inside,” Romeo said. “Everyone hold position, I’m moving to the eastern entrance now.” “Negative,” Dmitri said, his voice flat and controlled in the way it only got when a plan had already changed shape without his permission. “We don’t know what that shot means yet. Could be a struggle inside. Could be someone eliminating a witness before we reach them.” My stomach dropped at the thought. “You think they’re hurting someone in there?” “I think we don’t know,” Dmitri said, “which is exactly why we’re not rushing in blind.” We held at the tree line another agonizing few seconds, the morning silence pressing back down over the clearing as though the gunshot had never happened at all. My heart hammered against my ribs, every possibility racing through my mind at once, none of them good.
Last Updated: 2026-08-17
Chapter: SEVENTY-SIX Aria’s POV The drive to the Gathering House took just under an hour, the road narrowing steadily from paved county highway to a rough, unmarked track that Dmitri’s satellite imagery had barely managed to capture. Romanov drove in silence beside me, his attention split between the road and the tactical display mounted on the dash, tracking Elena’s position in the support vehicle a half mile back. Neither of us spoke much during the drive. There wasn’t much left to say that the terrace hadn’t already covered, and some quiet part of me suspected we were both saving whatever nerve we had left for whatever waited at the end of the road rather than spending it on words that wouldn’t change anything now. “Two minutes to the tree line,” Dmitri’s voice said over comms, steady despite the hour. “Romeo’s team is already in position on the eastern approach.” “Copy that,” Romanov said. “We’re proceeding to the northern edge now.” We parked where the access road bent away from the property, w
Last Updated: 2026-08-16
Chapter: SEVENTY-FIVE Aria’s POV The final briefing ended just after three, Dmitri dismissing the security team to prepare equipment while Romeo retreated to a spare room to catch what little sleep he could before dawn. Elena stayed close to the monitors Dmitri had set up in the study, testing the comm channel twice more than necessary, her way of steadying nerves she wouldn’t admit to having. I found myself unable to sit still, the tight, restless feeling in my chest refusing to settle no matter how many times I told myself the plan was as solid as it could be. I walked the length of the study twice before finally stepping out onto the terrace, needing the cold air more than I needed rest. Romanov found me there a few minutes later, joining me at the railing without a word at first, simply standing close enough that his presence alone said more than anything he might have offered aloud. “You should be resting,” he said eventually. “So should you.” “I will,” he said. “Once I know you’re actually goi
Last Updated: 2026-08-16
Chapter: Chapter 44 — Someone Inside SKY’S POV I called Reyes before practice, too early for it to be a casual conversation, and he must have understood that from the tone of my voice because he told me to come straight to his office instead of the locker room. “You read the article,” he said, not a question. “Somebody close to the organization. That’s a pretty small circle, Reyes. Who has access to whether my sessions got discontinued?” “HR. Legal. Marcus’s office. Damian, obviously.” He rubbed his forehead. “That’s still six or seven people minimum, and that’s assuming nobody talked to somebody who talked to somebody else.” “It’s not random anymore. First it was a photo. Then rumors. Now specific details about my therapy sessions that only people inside this building would know.” I sat down across from him. “This isn’t bad luck. Somebody’s doing this on purpose.” “I agree with you,” he said, quieter than I expected. “I’ve thought that for a while now. I just didn’t have anything solid enough to say it out loud.”
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: Chapter 43 — Losing Control SKY’S POV Thursday’s game started wrong and never fully corrected itself. I felt it in warm-ups already, a heaviness in my legs that had nothing to do with conditioning, my glove a half-step slow on shots I would normally read without thinking twice. I told myself it was fatigue. I told myself a lot of things that week that didn’t hold up once the puck actually dropped. First period, I let in a soft one. Not a bad shot, not a screen, just a wrist shot from the top of the circle that I should have had and didn’t, my angle slightly off, my reaction slightly behind where it needed to be. The bench went quiet in that particular way benches go quiet when nobody wants to say what everyone’s thinking. • Second period, it got worse before it got better. A two-on-one broke in clean, and I overcommitted to the pass, left the shooter an open net, and watched the puck go in from an angle I should have covered without any real effort. Two goals now, both on me, both the kind of mistake tha
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: Chapter 42 — The Empty Chair SKY’S POV The new psychologist’s name was Dr. Whitfield. He had a firm handshake, a leather notebook, and an office that had been a spare conference room before someone decided the team needed continuity of care while Amira’s leave played out. “Sky. Good to meet you.” He gestured at the chair across from his desk. Not the low armchair Amira used. A regular office chair, the kind you’d get called into for a performance review. “I’ve read your file. I want you to know I’m not here to replace anyone. Just to help however I can during this transition.” “Sure,” I said, and sat down, and felt the wrongness of the room before he’d said another word. • He started with breathing exercises, the same basic ones I’d learned years ago before Amira ever taught me anything real. Box breathing. Four counts in, four held, four out. I did it because refusing seemed like more trouble than it was worth, but my chest stayed tight the whole time, like my body knew this wasn’t the same conversation ev
Last Updated: 2026-08-17
Chapter: Chapter 41 — Under InvestigationSKY’S POV She didn’t call back the next morning. Or the one after that. Three days of nothing, and I told myself that was normal, that a woman facing a formal HR investigation had better things to do than update me on her decision. I told myself a lot of things that week that I didn’t fully believe. I found out what happened the way I found out most things lately — from Reyes, standing outside the equipment room, choosing his words like he was walking across ice he wasn’t sure would hold. “They put her on leave,” he said. “Effective this morning. Pending the outcome of the investigation.” “Leave. As in—” “As in she’s not allowed in the building. Not allowed to see players. Not allowed to do her job until this gets resolved.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “They’re calling it a neutral administrative step. Damian’s calling it exactly what he wanted from the start.” I stood there a second, trying to make the words line up with something that made sense. “She didn’t do anything.”
Last Updated: 2026-08-17
Chapter: Chapter 40 — No Turning Back SKY’S POV At the time, I had no idea Amira was thinking about leaving the organization. All I knew was that something had changed. The silences on her end grew longer. The version of her voice I caught in passing hallway moments sounded thinner than it used to. Weeks later she’d tell me she’d already been considering walking away, back around this same stretch. At the time, all I had was the silence itself, and the growing sense that something on her end had changed too. We weren’t supposed to be texting at all anymore. That made the silence easier to explain, but somehow harder to live with. I kept my phone in my pocket most nights instead of on the nightstand, like distance from the object itself might make the rule easier to keep. I broke it once, a single line asking how she was holding up under the ongoing scrutiny, telling myself a plain check-in didn’t count as the kind of contact we’d agreed to avoid. It sat unanswered for two full days before a short reply finally came b
Last Updated: 2026-08-16
Chapter: Chapter 39 — Playing Through Pain SKY’S POV Five days into avoiding each other on purpose, and I understood something I hadn’t fully accounted for when we agreed to it. Managing anxiety alone was one thing. Managing it alone while also missing the person who’d taught me how to manage it was a different weight entirely, one I hadn’t budgeted for when the plan sounded reasonable over the phone. Game one of the next round arrived regardless of any of that. Elimination hockey now, single mistakes carrying more weight than they had all season, and I skated out for warm-ups with a version of the old tightness already sitting low in my chest before a single shot had been fired. I told myself I could handle it. I’d handled worse. The first period went fine, mechanically. I stopped what I needed to stop, communicated with my defense the way I always did, felt my legs under me the way I expected to feel them. Somewhere around the midway point of the second, a shot got through that I should have had — clean read, good pos
Last Updated: 2026-08-16
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