LOGINShare
One
publish date:
2026-04-13 19:07:33Celeste’s POV
The gold-plated revolving doors of the Harrington Flagship Hotel spun with a rhythmic whoosh, announcing the arrival of the elite. I didn't need to look up to know who it was, because I could smell the expensive, cloying scent of Chanel No. 5 from across the lobby.
I kept my head down, my hands gripped tightly around the handle of a gray mop. The marble floor beneath me had a muddy footprint from a hurried guest, and I cleaned it with steady, repeated movements. My black maid’s uniform was stiff and uncomfortable, and my white apron had a bleach stain on it. In this lobby, I felt invisible like a ghost.
"Oh, look, Ava. The trash is out early today."
The voice was high, sharp, and dripping with fake sweetness. I stopped scrubbing.
Vivienne Harrington stood a few steps away, wearing a silk dress that cost more than I would earn in a year of cleaning these floors. Beside her was Ava, her best friend, already holding up her phone like she was filming a documentary about something dirty and unpleasant.
"Is that a new stain on your dress, Celeste? Or is that just your personality leaking out?" Vivienne laughed, the sound echoing off the high ceilings.
I slowly straightened my back. My muscles ached, and my palms were calloused, but I didn't look down. I looked Vivienne straight in her perfectly made-up eyes.
"It’s bleach, Vivienne… It’s used to clean up filth. You should try some, it might help with that mouth of yours."
Ava gasped, her jaw dropping.
Vivienne’s smile faltered for a split second before she regained her composure. She stepped closer, her expensive heels clicking aggressively on the wet marble. "You should watch your tone, don't you know what today is? Or are you too busy sniffing floor wax to hear the news? Damien Chen is coming. And he’s coming for me."
She held up her left hand, though it was bare of a ring. "The merger. The marriage. The contract. I’m about to become the most powerful woman in the country while you spend the rest of your life cleaning the toilets I use."
I leaned against the mop handle, a small, cold smile touching my lips. "Is that what Dad told you? That you’re a prize?"
"I am the prize," Vivienne snapped.
"No," I countered, my voice dropping to a whisper that felt like a blade. "You’re a price tag. You’re the collateral for a debt Dad is too stupid to pay. Everyone in the staff room knows the truth, Vivienne. The Harrington hotels are bleeding money. The investments in the south failed. The bank is circling. You aren't getting married because you’re beautiful… you’re getting married because the family is broke and Damien Chen is the only man with a big enough check to keep you from being homeless."
Vivienne’s face turned a violent shade of red. "You lie! We are the Harringtons!"
"We are a sinking ship," I said, stepping toward her. I was taller than her, and without her heels, she would have looked small. "And you? You’re just the piece of wood Dad is throwing to the shark so he doesn't get eaten first. Tell me, does Damien Chen even know your name? Or did he just ask for the girl with the biggest dowry and the smallest brain?"
Ava looked like she wanted to run away. Vivienne was trembling, her hands balled into fists. "I’m going to have you fired for this! I’ll tell Mom!"
"Go ahead," I shrugged, turning back to my mop. "But then who would clean the lobby for the signing ceremony tonight? You? Ava? I don't think your manicures could handle the soap."
Vivienne let out a frustrated scream, spun on her heel, and marched toward the elevators. I watched her go, my heart thumping hard against my ribs. I had won this round, but the weight of the truth felt heavier than the mop.
The rest of the afternoon was a nightmare. Margaret, my stepmother, was in a frantic state of rage. She found me in the laundry room and piled ten more tasks onto my list.
"The library must be polished. The crystal glasses must be hand washed. The silver trays must shine like the sun!" she screamed, her face pale with stress. "If one thing is out of place when Mr. Chen arrives, I will personally throw you into the street, Celeste. Do you understand?"
"I understand," I said, keeping my eyes on the floor.
I worked until my fingers were raw. I polished the dark wood of the library where the signing would take place, I moved heavy furniture, and scrubbed the baseboards. I was the silent engine making sure the Harrington ‘perfection’ was ready for the Executioner.
By 6:00 PM, the hotel was humming with tension. The board members were arriving. The guards were stationed at the doors. I was sent to the executive floor to deliver a tray of black coffee to my father’s private study.
The hallway was quiet, the thick carpet muffling my footsteps. As I approached the door of the study, I heard a voice. It was my father, Howard. He sounded tired, but there was a sharp edge of anger in his tone.
The door was slightly opened. I stopped, the tray of coffee trembling in my hands.
"I don't care about the girl, Margaret!" Howard’s voice boomed from inside.
I froze, my breath caught in my throat.
"She is a constant reminder of the biggest mistake of my life," Howard continued. I could hear the clink of a glass… he was drinking. "Every time I see her face, I see Rose. I see that back-alley apartment. I see the scandal that almost ruined me years ago."
"We should have sent her away when the mother died," Margaret’s voice hissed. She was in there with him. "Keeping her here as a maid was your idea of charity, Howard. Now she’s a liability."
"I regret ever getting that woman pregnant," my father said, and his words felt like a physical blow to my chest. "I regret that Celeste was ever born. She is a shadow on my name. She is a servant, and that is all she will ever be… I’m ashamed to even breathe the same air as her."
The tray in my hands tilted. A spoon slid across the silver surface with a loud clink.
I couldn't stop myself, I pushed the door open.
My father was standing by the window, a glass of scotch in his hand. Margaret was sitting in the leather chair, her eyes sharp and cold. They both froze when they saw me.
The silence in the room was suffocating. My father didn't look guilty, he looked annoyed. He looked at me with the same disgust he would show a cockroach on his desk.
"Your coffee, sir," I whispered. My voice didn't sound like mine, It was hollow.
I stepped forward and set the tray on the desk. My hands didn't shake this time, the pain had turned into something else… something cold and hard as diamond.
"I heard you," I said, looking him directly in the eye.
Howard straightened his tie, his face hardening. "Then you heard the truth, Celeste. Don't act surprised. You’ve always known what you are to this family."
"I know exactly what I am," I mumbled.
I turned and walked out before he could respond. I didn't head back to the maid’s quarters, I headed toward the ballroom.
In my pocket, I felt the cold metal of a pendant… my mother’s pendant. I had found it in a box of trash Margaret had thrown out years ago.
The signing ceremony was about to begin. The Harringtons thought they were selling Vivienne to save themselves, they had no idea that the mistake they were so ashamed of was about to become the person who decided whether they lived or died.
Latest chapter
Unwanted Bride Twenty-Five
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Island of Lost SoulsThe roar of the speedboat faded into the rhythmic thrash of the Caribbean Sea, leaving the villa in a suffocating silence. Damien stayed by the shattered window, his silhouette dark against the moonlight like a gargoyle."She’s heading for the North Sound," he said, lowering his scope. "There’s a private marina in the mangroves. If she reaches the Architect’s transport, she vanishes into the radar shadows of the reef."I helped Howard to a chair, my hands shaking. He looked at me, and the hollow fog in his eyes finally lifted. He reached out, his thumb brushing a smudge of ash from my cheek."I let them take you," he whispered. "I spent twenty years convincing myself you were a dream I had during the war.""I wasn't a dream, Dad," I said, leaning my forehead against his knee. "I was the girl who remembered your voice every time the attic got too cold.""We don't have time for the past," Damien interrupted. He wasn't being cruel; he was bei
Unwanted Bride Twenty Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: The Mirror’s LieThe words hit me harder than the blast at the Chen Tower. To hear my own father—the man who was supposed to be my sanctuary—dismiss me as a mercenary was a cruelty I hadn't prepared for. He looked at me with a mixture of pity and suspicion, his protective arm draped around Vivienne."I’m not a mercenary, Howard," I said, my voice trembling despite my effort to keep it steady. "Look at me. Really look at me.""Don't listen to her, Dad," Vivienne hissed, her eyes darting toward the laptop on the table. the transfer bar was at ninety percent. "She’s a master of manipulation. Silas trained her to mimic the family. He wanted a backup heir in case I didn't cooperate."Howard stepped forward, his eyes searching my face. For a fleeting second, I saw a spark of recognition—a shadow of a memory of a woman named Rose—but then his gaze hardened. "You have the eyes," he whispered. "But the woman I loved was kind. She wouldn't come into a home with a threat on
Unwanted Bride Twenty Three
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The Cayman ConnectionThe photo on the screen felt like a physical blow to the stomach. The real Howard Harrington was alive. Not the mercenary with the fake wrist scar, and not the coward who had let me rot in the attic—but the man my mother had actually loved. And he was standing beside the sister who had just tried to incinerate me."She didn't save him," I whispered, my fingers trembling as I zoomed in on the grainy image. "She hijacked him."Damien leaned over my shoulder, his warmth a sharp contrast to the cold calculation in his eyes. "Vivienne didn't blow up the tower just to destroy the evidence, Celeste. She did it to create a distraction large enough to move a high-value asset out of the country. She didn't want the empire. She wanted the man who holds the keys to the Vane Estate’s offshore vaults.""But why would he be with her?" I asked, looking at Howard’s face. He looked older, gaunt, but there was a fierce protectiveness in the way he stood near V
Unwanted Bride Twenty Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Boardroom BloodbathThe Harrington Flagship Hotel didn’t look like a place that had survived a revolution. The gold-plated doors still spun with that rhythmic, expensive hush, and the marble floors were so polished they mirrored the anxiety on the faces of the staff. But the air was different. The "Executioner’s Wife" was dead, and the "Unwanted Daughter" had vanished.I stepped into the lobby at 11:55 AM.I wasn't wearing silk. I was wearing a structured, charcoal-gray power suit that fit like a second skin, with a white silk shirt buttoned to the throat. My hair wasn't in a maid's bun or a bride's waves; it was pulled back into a sleek, lethal ponytail. Beside me, Damien walked in a black tailored suit, his presence acting as the silent muscle to my growing storm."They're in Boardroom A," Marcus, the doorman, whispered as I passed. He didn't just open the door; he bowed."Thank you, Marcus," I said, not stopping. "Make sure the coffee they’re drinking is the
Unwanted Bride Twenty one
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Morning After the FireThe sun didn't rise over the Potomac with a sense of peace; it rose with a harsh, judgmental glare that exposed every crack in the marble and every drop of blood in the grass.I sat on the bumper of Sarah’s car, a thermal blanket draped over my obsidian-shattered dress. My father—Julian—was asleep in the backseat, his hand still twitching in his sleep as if he were trying to ward off ghosts. Damien stood a few yards away, talking to a man in a dark suit who didn't look like a fed. He looked like an asset."You're thinking about the phone call," Damien said, walking toward me. He didn't look like a billionaire anymore. He looked like a man who had been through a war and realized he liked the smell of smoke."The Architect didn't sound defeated, Damien," I said, looking at my hands. The cuts from the obsidian were starting to throb. "She sounded like she was giving me a graduation speech."Damien sat beside me, the weight of his body a grou
Unwanted Bride Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTY: The Reckoning at the PotomacThe silence in the East Wing was deafening, a sharp contrast to the chaos erupting in the ballroom behind me. The live broadcast had turned the Sterling Estate from a palace into a crime scene. President Sterling’s ivory smile had finally shattered, and the world was watching the pieces fall.I reached Damien, my hands trembling as I helped him to his feet. His tactical gear was shredded, and his breathing was shallow, but the fire in his eyes hadn't dimmed. He looked at the obsidian shards embedded in my palms—the cost of my small, violent rebellion against the terminal."You broke the broadcast loop," he rasped, leaning his weight against me. "You didn't just open the door, Celeste. You tore the roof off the whole house.""The Architect wanted to rule the ruins," I said, my voice sounding like cold stone. "I decided to make sure there was nothing left to rule."We moved toward the ballroom, the sound of the crowd rising into a panicked ro
You may also like
Dear Ex-Wife, You Are MINE!
Cerise R. Wood650.7K viewsA Life Debt Repaid
Cheng Xiaocheng1.1M viewsThe Trap Of Ace
Eva Zahan1.0M viewsEx-Husband's Regret
Evelyn M.M4.7M viewsThe Bucket List
Suzi de Beer57 viewsDADDY’S DIRTY SECRET
Queen Flora31 viewsProperty of Belmont hotel
Mama raven194 viewsTHE CONTRACT BRIDE’S REVENGE
Clara’s Pen15 views
