All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE RUTHLESS CEO : Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

~CLARA'S POV~ "Going once... going twice... Sold for fifty million dollars to the gentleman in the shadows." The strike of the mahogany gavel sounded like a gunshot in the plush, suffocating silence of the underground room. I closed my eyes, my nails digging into my palms until I broke the skin. I was standing on a literal stage, dressed in a silk gown that felt more like a shroud. Around my neck was a delicate, heavy silver collar—the symbolic brand of the Midnight Gala. I had just sold my life. My freedom. My body. Everything. Fifty million dollars, I thought bitterly. Just enough to pay off the fraudulent debts and keep my father out of a federal penitentiary. "Step forward, Item 43," the masked auctioneer droned, his voice devoid of any human empathy. I forced my trembling legs to move, stepping down the stairs toward the private V.I.P. booth where my buyer sat. The lighting in the gala was intentionally dim, keeping the identities of the monstrously wealthy men hidd

CLARA'S POV When the clock on my desk finally struck eight, Ares didn't say a word. He merely stood up from his mahogany command center, shrugged into his overcoat, and walked toward the private executive elevator. I followed a step behind him like a well-trained shadow, my hands clutching the handles of my briefcase so tightly the leather groaned under the pressure. The ride down to his private garage was a countdown, the heavy silence in the enclosed space pressing against my ribs until I could barely breathe. By the time his sleek, midnight-black town car pulled into the subterranean garage of his residential fortress, the city had completely dissolved into the dark. We rode the private elevator straight to the top floor. When the doors slid open, the scale of Ares’s private kingdom hit me all at once. The penthouse was a masterclass in architectural arrogance—floor-to-ceiling glass walls offering a panoramic view of the glittering skyline, wrapped entirely in shades of obsi

~CLARA'S POV~The bathroom of the guest suite was as cold and sterile as the rest of Ares Volkov’s kingdom.I turned the heavy metal dial until the shower water ran near-scalding, letting the steam thick with the scent of high-altitude ozone fill the marble space. Stepping under the spray, I didn't cry. I didn't let myself freeze. Instead, I took the expensive, unscented soap provided in the stall and thoroughly scrubbed my skin, desperate to wash away the lingering warmth of his touch, the scent of his cedarwood cologne, and the absolute humiliation of being left broken and discarded on his floor.The heat turned my skin into a dark, angry pink, but it couldn't penetrate the permanent frost settling deep within my core.By the time I stepped out and pulled on a simple, oversized silk robe from the closet, the clock on the nightstand read 2:14 AM. Less than five hours remained before my administrative shift at Volkov Global officially began.Sleep, however, was a luxury I could no lon