All Chapters of HIS RUTHLESS DEAL, HER BROKEN HEART: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Rain hammered against the windows of the Sterling Grand Hotel, turning the city lights into blurry streaks of gold and silver.Elena Carter stood outside the presidential ballroom, clutching a white envelope so tightly that its edges bent beneath her fingers.Inside it was a medical report.Her father's condition was worsening, and the hospital had given her only seven days to pay the outstanding bill before transferring him to a public facility with limited treatment options.Seven days.She had repeated those words so many times that they no longer sounded real.Seven days to find money she didn't have.Seven days to save the only parent she had left.Seven days before everything she had worked for might collapse."Miss Carter!"Elena flinched as her supervisor, Mrs. Collins, hurried toward her in a black uniform and uncomfortable heels."Why are you standing here?" the older woman demanded. "The guests inside are waiting for champagne. Do you expect me to do your job for you?""I'm

Elena stared at the message on her phone until the words began to blur.Ask Alexander what happened to Daniel Carter ten years ago. Then ask him why he has been looking for your family.Her brother's name seemed to burn into her mind.Daniel Carter.Ten years ago, he had disappeared from their lives after a terrible argument with their father. Elena had been twelve then, too young to understand the details and too frightened to ask the questions that might have made everything worse.She remembered Daniel standing outside their old house with a small suitcase in his hand. She remembered their father shouting that Daniel had betrayed the family. And she remembered Daniel turning toward her one last time."Whatever happens, Ellie, never trust a man who offers you everything without asking for something in return."Those had been his final words to her.For years, Elena had believed he was simply angry and wanted to start a new life somewhere else. Their father refused to discuss him, an

Elena's POVI barely slept that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the photograph hanging in the corridor of Alexander Sterling's mansion.Daniel.My brother had stood beside Richard Sterling, the powerful patriarch of a family whose name my father could barely hear without trembling. He had been young, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, with the same stubborn eyes I remembered from childhood.And Alexander had known.He had known that Daniel had once been part of his family's world, yet he had looked me in the eyes and offered me a marriage contract without explaining why.I turned onto my side and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.The bedroom was larger than the entire apartment Ethan and I shared. Heavy curtains framed tall windows, a crystal lamp stood beside the bed, and a wardrobe occupied almost half the wall. Someone had placed fresh flowers on a table near the window.Everything was expensive.Everything was perfect.And I hated it.I didn't want silk sheets or a private bath