Lyon
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His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius
I flew back to New York on my twenty-fifth birthday, carrying vintage gold cufflinks I spent weeks finding for my billionaire husband, Declan. But when I walked into our townhouse, I found him throwing a massive victory party with Sloane, a glamorous socialite, standing by his side as the proud hostess. "Don't cause a scene. Go upstairs." Declan coldly dismissed me in front of his guests. Even Poppy, the rookie player whose shattered ankle I had painstakingly rebuilt, rolled her eyes and ignored me to suck up to Sloane. Hiding in the shadows, I heard the maids gossiping that everyone thought Sloane was the future Mrs. Hartford. To make matters worse, I discovered Sloane had stolen my anonymous, groundbreaking medical algorithm and was planning to present it as her own. First my husband, then the girl I mentored like family, and now the scientific foundation I had built with my own hands. Declan even texted me to cancel our birthday breakfast without a single apology, treating me like an annoying afterthought. My tears vanished, replaced by a freezing clarity. I signed the divorce papers, leaving them on his desk with zero demands for his money. Then I packed my bags, booked a one-way ticket to Boston, and prepared to destroy them on the global stage.
Chapter 1
Aurelia Vance POV:
I had been married to Declan Hartford for three years.
Today was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had flown back from Boston in secret, hoping for one quiet evening with my husband.
I'd spent a week carefully picking out a pair of gold cufflinks as a gift for my husband.
But the laughter spilling from the front door told me I was already too late: the woman who had taken my place at his side was already inside.
The heavy oak door swung open before I reached the porch. Three young players from the New York Titans, Declan's NHL franchise, stumbled out with crystal tumblers of scotch, laughing loudly. They barely glanced at me as they passed.
I stepped into the grand foyer. The heat hit me instantly,expensive champagne, roasted tenderloin, cigar smoke.
Dozens of people filled the double parlor: executives, scouts, wives in designer dresses.
In the center stood Declan, tall and broad in a bespoke charcoal suit. Beside him, laughing into his ear, was Sloane Whitfield, her backless silver dress catching the chandelier light. Her hand rested on his forearm like she belonged there.
Before I could take another breath, a blur of blonde hair darted past my elbow.
"Sloane!" Poppy Delacroix cried, throwing her arms around Sloane's slender waist. "You were completely right about the catering! This is literally the best victory party the team has ever had!"
Poppy is fourteen, a junior elite forward prospect.
I scouted her two years ago from a crumbling youth league, back when she was at her lowest.
Her parents had once shown me great kindness, and I knew they had already passed away, leaving her all alone in the world.
Declan and I adopted her together.
I rebuilt her shattered ankle with a custom rehabilitation plan.
I had always loved and cared for her as both a mother and a sister.
Now, she did not even glance in my direction.
Declan turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd until his eyes locked onto mine. The easy grin on his sharp jaw vanished instantly. His brows drew together in a hard, irritated line.
He excused himself from Sloane, cutting through the throng of players with long, impatient strides.
"Aurelia," Declan said, stopping two feet in front of me. His voice carried zero warmth. "What are you doing here?"
My throat felt like sandpaper.
"I took the four o'clock flight from Boston," I whispered, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. "It is my birthday, Declan. I thought we could—"
"We are celebrating the division win," he cut in, his tone sharp enough to draw blood. "The board is here. The sponsors are here. Sloane spent four consecutive days coordinating this event so the organization could project stability."
He did not look at me. His gaze slid past my shoulder to the bar, like I was a waitress who had wandered into the wrong room.
"Don't cause a scene," he added quietly. "Go upstairs."
A soft, mocking murmur rippled through a cluster of players' wives standing near the grand staircase. Two women with platinum blowouts exchanged knowing glances over their flutes of Dom Pérignon.
"I didn't know," I said, my voice barely audible over the swelling music. "I am sorry."
I turned toward the staircase, my legs trembling beneath my wool trousers.
Near the landing, Poppy was adjusting her designer jacket in the hallway mirror.
"Poppy," I said softly, pausing beside her. "How is your ankle feeling after Thursday's third period? Did you complete the isometric sequence I sent?"
Poppy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly as she pulled out her phone.
"Aurelia, please, not right now," she muttered without looking at me. "Sloane is introducing me to a marketing director from one of our partners. I don't have time for your spreadsheets."
The dismissive edge in her voice hit me harder than Declan's coldness. I had stayed up until three in the morning reviewing her biomechanical scans while she was recovering from surgery, and now I was just an annoyance in the way of her social ascent.
I walked up the rest of the stairs and entered the primary suite—the massive, sterile bedroom allocated to me under our prenuptial agreement.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out the velvet box. The gold cufflinks gleamed under the bedside lamp, cold and useless.
Downstairs, cheers erupted. The sound vibrated through the floorboards.
I walked to the French doors overlooking the rear garden. Down on the illuminated patio, Sloane was directing two servers by an ice sculpture. Declan stood beside her, his head bent down as he listened to her speak, his hand casually brushing the small of her back.
They looked like the couple the city expected them to be.
My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out, hoping against hope.
It was an email notification.
"Happy Birthday, Aurelia. Remember that true science requires patience and solitude. You are meant for greater arenas than New York boardrooms. -Dr. Edmund Sterling."
My mentor at Harvard was the only person in the world who had remembered.
I typed a brief "Thank you, Professor" and shut off the screen.
Hours passed. The bass eventually quieted, replaced by the occasional clatter of glassware and slamming car doors. My throat burned with thirst.
At two in the morning, I padded downstairs in my stocking feet to fetch a glass of water from the butler's pantry.
As I rounded the corner near the service hallway, the voices of two newly hired catering maids stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Miss Whitfield is stunning," the first girl whispered, scraping dessert plates into a bin. "Mr. Hartford's girlfriend carries herself like royalty."
"A girlfriend?" the other asked, pausing. "But isn't Mr. Hartford rumored to be married? Is it inappropriate to be this close with Whitfield?"
"Married?Where did that come from? Even if there was one, they must have split long ago. I've worked three events here this month, and Miss Whitfield is the only woman hosting by his side. Everyone knows she's the future Mrs. Hartford."
I shrank back into the cold shadow of the archway, my blood turning to ice.
In the home where I held a legal marriage certificate, my presence had already been wiped clean.
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Alpha's Last Minute Bride
Evangeline was blackmailed to marry a ruthless Alpha in replacement of her sister. Anything she hated in her life was the werewolves. She had seen her father leaving her mother for another she-wolf. Why? Because her mother was a human and so is she!! Though her father loved her a lot despite her being a human, she never forgave him for the things which he did to her mother and stayed away from pack and werewolves community. Little did she know that she had to marry an Alpha just because her sister ran away from her wedding at the last moment. Daniel Grint was the ruthless, heartless and fearless Alpha. He never believed in mate or mate bond because of the circumstances he faced in his life. But he had to marry a stupid alpha daughter to strengthen his pack. He hated that idea from the beginning but he agreed for the sake of his pack. He was finding himself hard to control his anger and frustration when he came to know that his stupid bride flew away before the wedding and he was offered a human as his last minute bride, who also happened to be an Alpha’s daughter and…..his mate.
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The Rebel
"Lower your eyes mate" He said with a hint of warning in his tone. She didn't flinch under his cold fingers coiled around her neck, instead with a smirk on her bruised lips,she looks back at him. Daring to defy him. "Submit!" He growled at her this time, frustrated with her ability to infuriate him to the extent of forcing him to hurt her. "Many have tried mate" The word mate leaving her lips sounded more of a mockery, making his grip on her neck to tighten slightly. "I am not others Vera. I am your mate. Your superior. Submit this instant!" She again smiled, managing to roll her eyes at him. "You can try . But remember,you will never succeed in it" He could end her with just a little more pressure on her neck, having the fate as many others who have dared to defy him,but something in those eyes was stopping him. He wanted to extinguish that fire in them., to see them rolling over as he thrusted inside her, to see them begining him to continue as he denied her. He wanted her to submit.Badly. Completely to him in all respects. Body and soul both. To let him be her protector,her punisher, her dominant,her lover her mate. Her everything. But little did he knew that his mate was not an ordinary Luna who happily submits to her mate's whims and needs. She was who they all popularly call as "The rebel" The mysterious protector of good and savior of women. The man who gives justice to the inequality created by men. If only they knew he was a women instead. .................................................... "The day I submit to a man will be the last day of my life mate. Vera Red was born as a rebel, will live as a rebel and will also die as a Rebel. With or without a cause"
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The Arranged Bride
" I said you won't be working anymore ." She smirked ," Watch me " Saying that she turned and I watched her till she walked out of the door. ........................................ The thirty-year-old billionaire bachelor Nicholas Carter isn't really fond of the word- love, owing to his past. What happens when he is arranged in marriage to the twenty-seven-year-old sweet and independent Sophia Jones who refuses to bow down in front of him and accept everything he throws her way unlike an usual arranged bride? Oh! Did I mention Nicholas Carter's five-year-old son?
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THE HOMELESS BILLIONAIRE
Twenty-year-old Jasamina Rutherford was forced by her parents to marry a politician who's so much years older than she is, because they wanted money and social influence. Ludale McCully is a beast in human form and a psycho. He abused her a lot. But, when she gave birth to her baby and he beat her so badly, Jasamina damned all the consequences and ran away with her new born baby. Out on the cold streets; bruised and battered, no food, money or supplies, and with a baby hidden inside her coat, she was at the end of her rope when she ran into him. ***** Tanner Dantes lost his family in the most brutal way a person would loose a lost one. It was so traumatizing and horrifying that he took to the streets. He drank himself to stupor, just to keep the memories at bay. Sober is not an option, because sober means remembering. Then, a woman ran into him one cold dark night. She was so bruised, there was no part of her body that wasn‘t ‘occupied' with either a fresh or an old wound/bruise/scar. And, she has a baby strapped so protectively inside her clothes. She fainted into his arms. A woman on the run from her powerful psychotic husband and a man who'll drink himself to death than to go sober and let reality in. What's going to happen in here? A lot is gonna happen! So, why don't you go on this mind-blowing ride with me!?
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ETHEREAL BLUE
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Purple love
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The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century
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