Sold to My Billionaire Ex

The ruthless billionaire sitting in the front row of my book launch wasn't just my primary investor. He was my exand the male lead of my viral romance novel.

His girlfriend, Bianca, flashed a sickly-sweet smile at the flashing cameras. We're getting engaged soon. I'd really appreciate it if certain people stopped clinging to pathetic delusions.

A reporter shoved a microphone forward, refusing to drop the subject. "Mr. Harrison, you clearly despise the author. Why buy the copyright to her work at all?"

Harrison didn't even spare me a single glance. He sat there, an untouchable billionaire, and answered with chilling indifference. "The plot is stuffed with sickening lies, just like the author herself was back then. I never want to lay eyes on it again."

Chapter 1

"Did you hear? The main characters didn't actually get back together in real life. She dumped him."

"Why?"

"He was broke."

"And then Harrison became the sole heir to his family's empire. She tried to crawl back, and he shot her down."

"How does she even have the nerve to publish this?"

The AC in the press conference hall was blasted down to a freezing sixty-four degrees. A few extreme readers slammed shredded book pages right onto my signing table. The shrill, piercing insults echoed from every corner.

I kept my head down, forcing my pen to carefully sign my name on the title page of the book. I wrote this novel the year I graduated. I never expected it to blow up.

The more aggressively the fans shipped the fictional couple back then, the more viciously they tore me apart when my actual past with Harrison got dug up.

But I didn't have the luxury of breaking down. Even if I had to swallow the abuse with a smile, I had to finish this launch event. Because those were the primary investor's direct orders.

Harrison sat in the front row right now. He possessed this impenetrable, commanding aura as he watched the girl beside him field questions from the press.

"We're getting engaged soon. I'd really appreciate it if certain people stopped clinging to pathetic delusions." The girl flashed a sickly-sweet smile. "I mean, if you ruined someone's entire life and still expected a happily-ever-after, that would just be ridiculous, wouldn't it?"

I knew this girl. Bianca, from our college days. Her family ran in the same ultra-wealthy circles as Harrison's.

Back when Harrison and I were dating, she went out of her way to act like my absolute best friend. The second we graduated, she treated me like dirt on her shoe.

A reporter shoved a microphone right at Harrison. "Mr. Harrison, the story between you and the author is all over the internet. How exactly did you two end up breaking up back then?"

Harrison didn't even spare me a single glance. "I suggest you ask the author." His long, elegant fingers carelessly twisted the custom matte-black ring on his pinky, his entire body radiating an oppressive, untouchable dominance. That chilling, frostbitten tone completely validated the rumors.

That I was the gold-digging trash who dumped Harrison.

Mocking laughter ripped through the crowd.

"Sources say your original dream wasn't business, but becoming a scientist," another reporter chimed in. "Care to explain what made you return to inherit the family empire?"

Harrison's gaze sliced right through the crowd. He stared at me with an absolutely deadpan expression for a few seconds. Then, he looked away. "I was young."

"I didn't understand what I actually wanted. Facts proved that a person needs to return to the world they belong to. Instead of continuing to entertain a mistake."

He finished his sentence and aimed a hollow look right at me. "What do you think, Miss Blair?"

Staring down the camera lenses, my mind completely flatlined. I opened my mouth, desperate to form a word. But Harrison had already dropped his gaze, turning his attention to a whispered conversation with a corporate suit nearby, totally unbothered by whatever I might say.

The massive LED screen in the hall suddenly cut to a pre-recorded interview of Harrison.

"What was your motivation for purchasing the copyright to this book?"

Harrison's voice was frigid. "The plot is stuffed with sickening lies, just like the author herself was back then. I never want to lay eyes on it again."

Actually, I only found out today that Harrison was my primary investor. Barely any real fans showed up to my book launch. Instead, I got hit with an industry-wide blackout.

The platform was pulling my web novel down immediately. The physical prints were halting sales entirely.

"Blair, the TV adaptation it's not going to happen."

After the venue cleared out, Donovan pulled me aside. I froze near the exit doors, my feet practically glued to the carpet. His eyes dropped to my ear, hesitating for a split second.

Chapter 2

Donovan's eyes darted to the side of my head. "Your ear?"

I touched the cheap hearing aid hidden beneath my hair, my cheeks burning. "Yeah the doctor mentioned a new procedure. I want to give it a shot."

My hearing had been deteriorating rapidly over the past few years. If I didn't stare directly at someone's lips, their words just blurred into meaningless noise. The surgery cost a hundred grand. Without my royalties, I couldn't afford a fraction of it.

Donovan let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Blair. My hands are tied."

I knew he was struggling too. Our platform was a small indie publisher just trying to scrape by. Who knew corporate sharks would suddenly circle us?

A book I wrote years ago right out of college got dug up and went aggressively viral. And just like that, I was shoved straight into the crosshairs.

"It's fine. I'll figure something else out." He patted my shoulder.

Before he could finish, a heavy shoulder slammed into me. I stumbled hard, and the impact sent my hearing aid flying out of my ear.

"Sorry, my bad!" A delivery guy shouted, practically sprinting into the closing elevator.

I crouched down. The cheap plastic casing was cracked wide open. Instantly, the chaotic noise of the lobby sounded like I was underwater, muffled and buzzing violently in my head.

Then, a towering shadow blocked out the overhead lights. A pair of impeccably polished, custom Italian leather shoes stopped mere inches from my knees.

I tilted my head up.

Harrison stood there in a ruthlessly tailored three-piece suit. His gaze cut through his cold, silver-rimmed glasses, sizing me up with zero warmth. "Are you completely deaf?"

I read his lips perfectly. I glanced over and saw a terrified freight worker practically bowing in apology. I had crouched right in the middle of a loading path, oblivious to his frantic shouting.

Just as the massive, heavy metal freight box was about to snap my spine, Harrison's large hand locked like a vice around my wrist.

He yanked me hard against his rock-solid chest, engulfing me in his cold, intoxicating mint scent.

The massive crate crashed to the floor, missing my feet by mere inches.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble." I scrambled to shove my shattered hearing aid into my purse, standing up to apologize to the worker.

Harrison immediately dropped his grip on me, stepping back to re-establish the distance. "This is my building," he stated, his voice devoid of any emotion. "I simply don't want a bloodbath on my property. That's all."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away without a single backward glance.

I had been running around all day on an empty stomach. When a text from my best friend pinged on my phone, I gave her a quick rundown of the disaster.

"Bianca is with Harrison?!" My bestie blew up my phone immediately. "Does he have any idea what kind of psycho she really is? If she hadn't abandoned you back then, do you think you'd be like this now?!"

My thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a long second. "Fight or flight is human nature," I typed back. "I can't blame anyone else for saving themselves."

June weather was always brutally unpredictable. A torrential downpour unleashed itself without warning. Across the street, a massive LED billboard flashed an ad for a new multi-billion-dollar real estate projecta joint venture between Harrison and Bianca's powerful families. It was expanding aggressively.

I remembered a financial analysis I read online. High-society marriages weren't about love; they were titanium-clad business mergers. Absolutely unbreakable.

Over the years since graduation, I occasionally heard whispers about Harrison from old classmates. Back then, everyone thought he was just a dirt-poor genius. He had top grades and even took home first place in the national physics decathlon.

When we broke up, he was already finalizing a full-ride scholarship to his dream Ivy League school. But then, his grades plummeted out of nowhere. He lost the scholarship entirely.

The next time he surfaced, it was as the sole heir to the Harrison empire, completely ambushing the media.

He was a stranger. Ruthless, lethal, and terrifying in the boardroom.

Chapter 3

I knew exactly whose fault those changes were. My fault. That crushing guilt strangled any words I might have used to justify the past.

The freezing rain whipped sideways under my umbrella, soaking my clothes to the skin. I pressed my numb fingers against my broken ear, flagged down a cab by the curb, and headed across town to find a repair shop. The thunder rolled in, sounding like it was smothered in thick cotton.

Donovan was a good guy. He refused to let my hard work go down the drain and pulled every string he had to connect me with a small indie production company.

They were actually willing to risk crossing the Harrison empire to back me. Donovan set up a dinner. If we sealed the deal, I'd have the cash for my surgery by next week.

The only problem was, he got stuck in gridlocked traffic. That left me stranded at a private dining table full of greedy corporate suits.

Worse, Bianca was there.

My hearing aid was still completely busted. All night, I had to intensely track everyone's lips just to decipher their words.

Bianca crossed her designer-clad legs, swirling her wine. "Gentlemen, please don't hold back with Miss Blair. When it comes to cash, she's willing to do anything."

Right on cue, a slimy VP tossed a plastic hotel keycard onto the table, sliding it toward my plate. "If you're willing to take this key up to the penthouse suite tonight, this little bit of money won't be a problem at all."

The entire table erupted in crude, predatory laughter.

I kept my gaze locked on the tablecloth. I picked up my water glass, took a slow sip, and let the silence swallow me.

Donovan had traded serious favors for this setup. His wife had just given birth, the financial pressure on him was crushing, and I refused to let his sacrifice go up in smoke. I just needed to hold out until he walked through that door.

Instead, the VP leaned in, his foul breath washing over my face. "Keep me company tonight, and I'll"

CRASH.

The expensive wine glass in front of the VP exploded into a hundred razor-sharp shards on the floor, swiped off the table by a massive, impeccably structured hand.

"Who the hell do you think you are, asking her to keep you company?"

I jerked my head up. Harrison stood there, practically dripping with lethal intent. The harsh overhead lighting carved out the sharp, merciless angles of his jaw. Why the hell was he here?

Bianca's smug smile vanished instantly. She shot out of her chair. "Harrison? What are you doing here?"

The VP was paralyzed, all the color draining from his face as he stared at the shattered glass. "M-Mr. Harrison"

Harrison clamped his steel grip around my wrist and hauled me up. Before my brain could even process the movement, I was being dragged out of the private dining room.

Bianca's voice hit a frantic pitch behind us. "Harrison! Stop, don't do anything crazy"

Her shrieks were instantly severed as the heavy mahogany doors slammed shut behind us.

The VIP corridor parted for him like the Red Sea. He dragged me all the way to the underground garage and shoved me hard into the passenger seat of his Maybach.

"How much?"

The freezing syllables smashed into my ears like physical deadweights. Harrison braced his hand against the leather headrest, the thick blue veins in his forearm bulging against his cuffs, violently radiating his suppressed rage.

I stared at him, unable to process the sudden shift. "What?"

A dark, menacing chuckle ripped from his throat. He reached into his tailored suit jacket, whipped out an exclusive black-and-gold titanium card, and hurled it directly into my lap.

"Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?"

"Max it out for all I care. You do not need to drop to your knees and beg for scraps from trash."

It felt like a hundred rusty nails were being driven straight into my ribs. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but the words withered and died.

What exactly was my defense? I was desperate for cash. The grueling weight of poverty over the last few years had ground my pride into dust. There was nothing in this world more terrifying than being broke.

"Isn't money exactly what you want?" Harrison ground out, his jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth might shatter. "Or is my cash too filthy for you?"

My trembling fingers closed around the cold metal of the titanium card. I gripped it until its edges bit into my palm.

"I am borrowing one hundred thousand from you," I forced out, my voice embarrassingly hollow. "And I will pay back every single cent."

I knew his card didn't hold just a hundred grand. It was limitless.

Harrison's face was an impenetrable mask of pure ice. "Is that so? Remember your own words."

He leaned in, his predatory shadow swallowing me in the cramped space of the car. "Every single month, I expect to see a deposit hit my account."

"If you miss a payment, my legal team will personally hunt you down." He dropped his voice to a lethal, dangerous whisper. "So, you had better not even think about pulling a disappearing act on me again."

I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste copper. "I am not that kind of person."

Chapter 4

Harrison pinned me forcefully against the car door, his warm breath ghosting across my neck. He ground his teeth together. "Blair, you tricked me once. Did you really think you could run away a second time?"

My throat seized up. Every swallow felt like grinding down broken glass. I tried to push past him and scramble out of the car, but his massive frame blocked the exit completely.

He slammed his hand against the door frame. His other hand locked under my jaw, forcing my face up to meet his predatory gaze.

"Now, let's talk about the price."

My breath hitched. "What price?"

"Did you really think I'd just roll over and let you use me again?" His freezing fingertips trailed down my cheekbone, slicing across my skin like a physical blade.

"You did this to yourself, Blair. You didn't leave a single scrap of mercy between us. So now, this is purely a business transaction"

My broken hearing aid crackled, turning the tail end of his sentence into a muffled buzz.

"Sign the marriage contract, and the money is yours."

The Maybach glided silently through the dark streets. Harrison refused to let me out.

All because of a desperate lie I spat out ten minutes ago to get him to back off.

"I'm getting married."

His jaw had clenched tight enough to snap bone. He stared out the tinted window into the bleak night, suffocating the car in silence.

Finally, his voice cut through the tension. "To who?"

The muffled ringing in my ear made me miss it. I snapped my head up, tracking his lips. "What?"

His dark eyes locked onto mine. "I asked you, who are you marrying?"

My mouth opened and closed. My brain stalled.

His ruthless corporate instincts kicked in immediately. "Time. Location. Did you invite our old classmates?" he demanded, his tone chillingly methodical.

I couldn't answer a single one.

He let out a hollow scoff. "Blair, if you're going to lie just to run away from me again, at least put some effort into the script."

"That's none of your business."

"Sign this." He suddenly tossed a thick document onto my lap.

The bold words printed at the very top of the crisp white paper burned my eyes: MARRIAGE CONTRACT. My lungs seized as my eyes skimmed the clauses. Did he not care at all? Almost every single condition heavily favored me.

"I can't agree to this."

"Give me a reason."

I shoved the heavy paperwork back toward his chest. "You and Bianca"

Before the sentence left my lips, his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing my face with an intense, calculated focus. "I thought you didn't care."

"You vanished for years. Zero contact. You never once bothered to ask about me, did you?"

He leaned in closer. "So why the hell does it matter who I'm engaged to or what I think?"

My throat burned. I wanted to scream that I did ask about him. But bringing up the past now was just digging my own grave.

"The engagement with Bianca is purely a corporate merger orchestrated by our families," Harrison stated smoothly. "I have zero personal involvement with her. Think very carefully, Blair."

His eyes gleamed with a predatory light. "Marry me, and you get absolutely everything you want. Your fame, your TV adaptations, and"

"The cash."

It finally slammed into me. This was the exact reason Harrison ordered the industry-wide blackout on my book. Drive the prey into a dead end, and they have no choice but to surrender. He was a lethal apex predator, and he orchestrated the entire collapse just to flush me out of hiding.

"But what exactly do you get out of this?"

"You." His voice was hollow. "Don't expect some fairytale happily-ever-after."

He adjusted his cuffs, not looking at me. "Every single drop of agony I endured, I am going to feed it right back to you. Tenfold."

Honestly, I didn't have a single leg to stand on. I desperately needed that money. And I was willing to sell my soul for it.

Harrison and I signed the papers and officially registered the marriage. The exact second the ink dried, he got back in his car and headed straight to his corporate headquarters.

Right before his Maybach sped off, a text lit up my screen. A luxury residential address.

"I expect to see you at home tonight."

The message was exactly like himabsolute zero degrees, completely devoid of anything resembling a human heartbeat.

Chapter 5

I ended up booking an appointment with the hearing aid sales rep anyway. If I was going to be dealing with Harrison, I needed to actually hear what he was saying.

"Miss Blair, I'm so sorry, but the casing on your old unit is completely shattered beyond repair. You're going to need a full replacement."

Medical-grade hearing aids cost an absolute fortune. It wasn't exactly an impulse buy. Years of draining my bank accounts to cover my mother's medical bills had left my balances hovering dangerously close to zero.

I stared at the terrifying number on the price sheet, my chest tight. With trembling fingers, I pulled out Harrison's black-and-gold titanium card.

The sales rep's eyes practically bulged out of her head at the sight of the limitless metal. "Ma'am, with this, you could easily upgrade to our premium invisible line"

"No. Just the standard replacement, please," I cut her off. My stomach tightened as I watched her swipe the card through the machine and hand it back with a polished smile.

Harrison's phone definitely just pinged with the transaction alert. Maxing out a massive expense on the exact same day we signed the marriage papers I didn't even want to imagine the disgust on his face right now.

The reality was, my phone stayed completely dead. He didn't send a single word for the rest of the day. The new unit was back-ordered and would take a few days to arrive.

I headed back to my cramped apartment, shoved my basic toiletries into a duffel bag, and caught an Uber to the address he texted me.

It was a sprawling, ultra-modern mansion buried deep in a hyper-exclusive billionaire enclave. The entire neighborhood was dead silent.

A fluffy little dog was running around the manicured front lawn. The second it spotted me, its tail started wagging so hard its whole body shook.

I dropped to a crouch and scratched behind its ears. "Hey there. Are you Nimbus?"

It let out two excited yaps and immediately offered me its paw.

Definitely Nimbus. Harrison hadn't changed one bitthe man was still absolutely garbage at naming things.

The inside of the mansion was pristine. It felt like a sterile museum, stripped of any human warmth.

I scooped Nimbus up into my arms and perched awkwardly on the edge of the massive Italian leather sofa. I unlocked my phone and mindlessly pulled up Bianca's social media feed. She had blocked me from seeing her posts for years, but for some inexplicable reason, her profile was suddenly public today.

She had just posted a new photo three minutes ago. It looked like an intense executive boardroom meeting. Her camera lens was focused straight on Harrison.

He sat directly at the head of the long mahogany table, wearing his silver-rimmed glasses, his expression ruthless as he listened to a terrified executive present a report.

Every single corporate suit in that room had a standard bottle of mineral water in front of them. Except for Bianca.

She was seated right next to Harrison's elbow, and resting on the table in front of her was a customized cup of sweet milk teaa glaringly out-of-place privilege in that cutthroat environment.

[ Today's special privilege. ]

I didn't make a sound. I just hit the lock button on my screen, aggressively tied my hair up into a messy knot, and dragged my cheap duffel bag straight into the guest bedroom.

I unpacked and organized until the sun went down. I pulled up my messages, typing out a quick text to ask if he was coming back for dinner. My thumb hovered over the send button before I aggressively deleted the whole thing.

I grabbed a towel, desperate for a hot shower, only to find the water pressure completely shut off in multiple guest bathrooms. I ended up curled into a tight ball on the living room sofa, completely exhausted, fighting to keep my eyes open until past midnight.

Suddenly, Nimbus jerked his head up from my stomach, his ears perking forward.

A heavy click echoed from the front door. He was back.

I scrambled into a sitting position, my brain still foggy with sleep. The heavy oak door swung open, and my eyes slammed right into Harrison. The exact second he saw me curled up on his couch, his pupils dilated, a dangerous, unreadable shadow crossing his face.

The air in the room instantly thickened into suffocating tension.

Only Nimbus was totally oblivious to the heavy atmosphere. The little dog bolted across the hardwood floor, excitedly jumping up against Harrison's tailored suit pants.

My throat felt like sandpaper. "You're back?" I forced out.

Harrison's hyper-aggressive, predatory gaze swept over my thin, wrinkled clothes with almost physical force. He roughly yanked down his expensive silk tie, his Adam's apple bobbing sharply as he swallowed. "Yeah," he answered, his voice dangerously low and dripping with suffocating dominance. He dropped into a crouch, his large hands ruffling Nimbus's fur, deliberately cutting off eye contact.

My thumb violently dug into the cold platinum of the wedding band sitting heavy on my ring finger. It felt sickeningly absurd. Years ago, I used to lie awake at night, desperately daydreaming about what our married life would be like. Now, almost a decade later, we were finally living under the exact same rooftrapped in this twisted, transactional nightmare.

I ran my tongue over my cracked lips. "I'm going to go to bed then."

"Hold it." Harrison's icy command nailed my feet to the floor. "You're planning on sleeping in the guest room?"

I instantly caught the underlying warning in his tone. "No," I said quickly, my pulse spiking. "I'll move my things to the master suite right now."

Chapter 6

When Harrison brushed past me, the sharp scent of mint mixed with expensive whiskey hit my nose. A glaring, bright red lipstick stain was smeared across the shoulder of his crisp dress shirt. My chest tightened, but I swallowed the question down. I didn't have the right to ask.

The sound of running water echoed from behind his closed door. So the master suite still had water. I stood there, my fingers digging into my towel, hesitating until the running water finally shut off.

The door clicked open. Harrison stepped out of the thick steam. A single white towel hung low on his waist. Drops of water slid down the hard, carved lines of his chest and abdomen.

His dark eyes locked onto me. "What?"

"The water is shut off everywhere else in the house," I said.

"Yeah. I know."

The casual admission felt like a physical blow to my throat.

Harrison leaned his heavy frame against the doorframe. "The pipes are busted. Plumbers won't be here until Monday."

We just stood there in the suffocating silence. He was forcing me to beg.

I swallowed hard, forcing a nod. "Then can I use your"

"Whatever."

He tossed the word out with absolute indifference. His broad shoulder brushed against mine as he walked past me, heading straight for the study. The heavy scent of cold mint lingered in the air around me.

My phone buzzed on the counter. It was a text from my best friend.

"Did you get the hearing aid?"

I quickly typed back. "Yeah. With Harrison's money." Even though I planned to pay back every single cent, his titanium card had quite literally saved me from completely losing my hearing.

After my shower, I tossed and turned with guilt. I finally went to the kitchen, sliced up some fruit, and carried the plate to his study. I just wanted to say thank you.

Harrison was standing by his window, a phone pressed to his ear. His dark eyes flicked over to me, sweeping across my body with a chilling, deadpan gaze. The speech I had rehearsed in my head vaporized.

"Speak." He ended the call, tossing his phone onto the desk. His gaze locked onto my damp hair and flushed face.

"I I thought you might be thirsty, so I brought you some fruit."

"Wouldn't water make more sense?" he shot back instantly.

My mouth opened and closed. "I'll go get you some"

A massive hand clamped onto my wrist. He yanked me forward. I completely lost my balance, crashing back-first right onto his hard thighs. The sharp scent of his mint body wash enveloped me.

"What exactly am I to you? Do you really need to play the good wife?" His eyes were pitch black, a dangerous storm brewing inside them.

"You ran from me for years. You got the cash. Isn't that enough? Why the hell are you still trying to provoke me?"

My breath hitched. I suddenly realized that my thin silk pajama top was still damp from the shower. The damp silk clung to my skin, turning translucent under the stark lighting.

"I didn't" I desperately tried to explain.

Harrison suddenly stood up. His large hands gripped my waist, hauling me up before slamming me down heavily onto the massive solid wood desk.

He planted both arms on either side of me, completely trapping me in his fiercely possessive shadow. "You didn't?"

My throat closed up. My fingers curled into tight fists. Right as I tried to look away, Harrison's mouth crashed down on mine.

It was a punishing, brutal kiss. His aggressive, intoxicating scent instantly shredded the last bit of my sanity.

My knees went entirely weak. My hands gripped the lapels of his robe as his kiss stole the air from my lungs.

Maybe my body remembered him too perfectly. For a split second, I actually kissed him back.

Stacks of confidential documents were swept off the desk, scattering across the floor. A glass paperweight shattered into pieces.

He pulled back slightly, his ragged breathing hitting my swollen lips. He reached a long arm down, jerked open the heavy desk drawer, and pulled out a small foil packet.

"Harrison wait."

He froze. His dark, consuming eyes locked onto mine. A strange flash of dark indulgence actually softened his sharp features for a fleeting second. "What?"

"I need to tell you something."

"Speak."

"I I spent some of your money today."

"And? Are we really going to waste time analyzing a measly five grand right now?"

I swallowed hard, the tension suffocating me. "I just came in here tonight to say thank you."

Harrison stared at me for a long, heavy second. All that dark indulgence instantly evaporated from his eyes, replaced by a freezing, deadpan stare.

"So you're sleeping with me to say thank you?"

"No."

Chapter 7

"Then why?" Harrison's gaze was lethal, completely pinning me in place. "Tell me, Blair."

"Look at you right now. Why exactly are you twisting up in my sheets?"

I didn't say a single word.

If I confessed that I still loved him, the cold, hard cash transaction sitting between us would instantly twist those words into a cheap, disgusting lie.

Harrison didn't give me the chance to answer anyway. His large hands gripped me tight as he carried me straight from the study to the master bedroom. He didn't stop, not even when the tears finally slipped out and soaked into the pillows.

Harrison stared down at me, a sickeningly dark, possessive obsession rolling in his pitch-black eyes. "It doesn't matter, Blair. Even if we completely destroy each other, you are going to die trapped in my world."

The next day, Harrison flew out of state on a business trip. He didn't leave a single word behind.

But he kept his end of the bargain. He completely lifted the industry blackout on my name. The tidal wave of vicious online reviews vanished overnight like they never existed.

Donovan shook his head in disbelief. "The Harrison empire is terrifying. One flick of his finger and we were practically bankrupt one change of mind, and we're resurrected from the dead. What the hell is actually going on between you and Mr. Harrison?"

I let out a heavy sigh. "Exactly what it looks like."

Donovan choked on his coffee. "Wait, you didn't actually"

I just nodded.

My mind dragged me back to the year I moved out. It was right in the middle of a brutal storm season.

I sat in the back of a beat-up U-Haul truck, surrounded by cheap cardboard boxes. Harrison chased the truck through the pouring rain, his voice completely tearing apart.

"Blair, just wait for me! Please! I'll drop the Ivy League acceptance!"

"The state school is offering a massive cash stipendjust wait for their check to clear! I'll wire it to you right now! Please don't do this!"

Back then, Harrison didn't have a single dime to his name.

I stared down at him. "Harrison, I need a massive amount of cash, and I need it right now. Someone else is willing to write the check. Stop talking."

I watched the brilliant, perfectly clean boy I loved trip and slam face-first into the freezing mud, completely shattered.

Donovan sighed. "Who could have predicted he'd turn into a ruthless corporate billionaire? But honestly, the Harrison family is a bloodbath."

"Rumor has it his old man had half a dozen mistresses and eight or nine illegitimate kids fighting for a slice of the pie. Clawing his way out of that snake pit to take complete control of the empire that couldn't have been easy."

Yeah. Nobody saw it coming. Harrison's dream was always to build things in a lab, not tear people apart in a boardroom.

A week later, my brand-new hearing aid arrived. That same night, the production company hosted an exclusive dinner party. They only invited Donovan.

I sat in a cheap diner across the street, nursing a glass of ice water.

My phone suddenly buzzed with a photo attachment. It was a shot of a man's back.

He was wearing a flawless custom suit, his sharp side profile unmistakable. It was Harrison. He was clearly back from his trip.

"Heard you two tied the knot?" Bianca sent a sickly-sweet emoji. "So why did he come straight to my place the second his flight landed?"

The dim lighting in the photo perfectly highlighted Harrison's striking jawline.

I took a slow, deep breath, clicked on Bianca's contact, and instantly blocked her on everything.

Two seconds later, an unknown number lit up my screen. I picked up.

"Heard you went deaf?"

My entire body froze.

Bianca's shrill laughter drilled into my ear. "So it's true! No wonder my sources said you were walking around with a hearing aid."

"Blair, trapping him in a fraudulent marriage is a crime. Does Harrison have any idea you're a cripple?"

Cold sweat instantly coated my palms. My grip on the phone turned knuckle-white. "Why are you doing this? We used to be friends"

"Because looking at your face makes me sick. Is that a good enough reason?" She sounded deeply irritated.

"Since you took the cash back then, you should have just stayed rotting in the gutter. Did you really have to crawl back here and beg for attention?"

It felt like a bucket of freezing ice water had just been dumped over my head. The blood drained from my face. My voice didn't sound like my own.

"How did you know I took the cash?"

Chapter 8

The memories from that summer slammed into me.

Bianca and I were cornered in a dark alley by a gang of street thugs. She found an opening and ran, leaving me behind to be brutally beaten. The final heavy strike of a metal pipe landed directly on the side of my head. A ruptured eardrum.

Later, my mom's street food cart was violently flipped over. Boiling, scalding oil splashed all over my mother, causing severe, permanent burns. Someone wired me a hundred grand and threatened me to disappear.

That specific detailonly the mastermind and I knew about it.

The line went dead silent for a second before Bianca let out an irritated click of her tongue. "You finally guessed it. How annoying."

I had spent years desperately convincing myself it was just a tragic accident. Bianca was a victim too, so I never once blamed her for running to save her own skin. But now, years later, she was casually confessing that she orchestrated every single ounce of my living hell.

She let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "A tiny bit of pocket change, and you scurried out of the city like a pathetic stray dog. Want to try it again?"

The fingers gripping my phone went entirely numb. That hundred grand couldn't even cover the surgeries to fix Evelyn's horrific burns or my shredded hearing. When I finally went to the cops, there was zero concrete evidence. They couldn't nail a single suspect.

Her vicious laughter drilled into my ear. "Blair, let me teach you something. Go ahead, hit record."

"I fully admit itI orchestrated the whole thing. If you think you're so capable, call the cops and have me arrested."

Violent tremors racked my entire body. My screen showed the recording timer ticking past the three-minute mark. But her vague, ambiguous taunts weren't nearly enough to build a solid legal case.

Bianca was practically cackling now. "What are you going to do about it, Blair? You are so damn pathetic. I even stole the man you loved right out from under you"

Her venomous taunts mutated into a sickening buzz, drilling straight into my damaged ear. It merged perfectly with the violent, deafening throb of the blood rushing in my head.

Twenty minutes later, I slammed open the heavy double doors of the banquet hall.

Out on the sprawling rooftop terrace, I spotted Harrison. He was completely surrounded by elite corporate suits, locked in a serious business negotiation. Half the industry's heavy hitters were mingling nearby.

Bianca sat just a few tables away, laughing loudly with a flock of high-society socialites.

Harrison spotted me the exact second I walked in. His dark gaze locked onto me, then smoothly shifted away.

"Mr. Harrison, is something wrong?" a CEO asked.

Harrison pulled his attention back to the table, his voice chillingly calm. "My wife."

The men at the table froze. "You're married?"

"Yes. She's extremely shy. She doesn't really like social events"

In the next second, I grabbed a massive bucket mixed with jagged ice cubes and pungent red wine from the nearest table. I marched straight over to Bianca and mercilessly dumped the entire thing right over her perfectly styled head. Heavy ice chunks smashed against her expensive haute couture gown, the dark red wine violently dripping down her terrified face.

A blood-curdling shriek completely shattered the night sky.

The corporate suits at Harrison's table swallowed hard. "Mr. Harrison, you might want to look behind you."

By the time Harrison surged forward, I had my fist twisted deep into Bianca's ruined hair. I practically pinned her against the luxury velvet sofa, my knuckles turning bone-white from the sheer force.

"I am going to put you in a cage," I hissed right into her face. "It's only a matter of time."

I fought back the violent burn in my eyes, my voice trembling with raw adrenaline. "I was worried you couldn't hear me clearly over the phone. So I came here to tell you in person."

"Bianca, you have two perfectly working ears. I hope you hear this loud and clear."

Bianca, who had spent her entire life parading around in high-society elegance, was currently thrashing in front of the entire elite crowd like a pathetic, drowning dog. She shrieked hysterically.

She never calculated that I would actually snap and completely obliterate her carefully constructed control.

"Harrison help me"

Harrison's large hands clamped around my waist, forcefully dragging me back into his rock-solid chest. "Blair, stop."

I stayed locked in his iron grip, completely deadpan as I stared down at Bianca's ruined state.

Bianca shrank back into the corner of the sofa, absolutely terrified but desperately trying to keep up her hollow bluff.

Chapter 9

"Haha! Are you speaking that loudly because you can't even hear yourself?" Bianca shrieked, her voice dripping with venom. "You're deaf! You're a cripple Harrison, she played you!"

In that instant, the entire world went dead silent.

Vicious whispers erupted from the crowd.

"No way, she's actually disabled?"

"Harrison married that? Isn't that humiliating?"

"And she lied about it too. I'd divorce her on the spot. That's disgusting."

Harrison's warm hands cupped my face, but his fingertips suddenly brushed against the cold, cheap plastic of the hearing aid hidden beneath my hair. His entire body went rigid, the sudden stillness heavier than any explosion.

I tilted my head up, crashing straight into his stunned gaze. A suffocating weight crushed my chest.

"Is it true?" His voice was terrifyingly soft. "Blair, how much more are you hiding from me?"

In the grueling silence, I fought back the violent burn in my eyes. "She's right. I'm deaf. I can't hear a single word."

Ever since that summer when I was eighteen, my life had devolved into this exact nightmare. Every few days, I had to swallow another wave of gossip, disgust, or sickening pity