Marrying The Enemy: My Ex's Worst Nightmare

Marrying The Enemy: My Ex's Worst Nightmare

HAZEL MARTIN

5.0
Comment(s)
1.5K
View
24
Chapters

I spent ten years as the ward of Kason Oneal, the ruthless Underboss of the city's most dangerous crime family. He saved me when I was a child, raised me, and made me believe I was his queen. But the moment his ex-girlfriend, Dalia, returned, the illusion shattered. Kason demanded I return the jade pendant-the one he had hand-carved for my sixteenth birthday-just so he could hang it around Dalia's neck. To him, I was suddenly nothing more than a placeholder who had kept his bed warm. The cruelty didn't stop there. He stood by and watched as Dalia shredded my clothes with scissors, laughing at my tears. When I collapsed on the floor in agony from acute appendicitis, Kason didn't call an ambulance. Instead, he dragged me to a shady clinic, accusing me of faking a pregnancy to trap him. He ordered the doctor to "terminate it" while I was dying of sepsis on the table. He called me trash. He called me property. He stripped away every ounce of dignity I had left, all to please a woman who was lying to his face. I realized then that the hero who saved me when I was ten was dead. I was done begging for scraps of affection from a monster. Trembling, I walked to the phone and dialed the number of the one man Kason feared most-his sworn enemy, Hadley Payne. "Tell him yes," I whispered into the receiver. "I accept the arrangement. I will marry him." Kason thought he could break me. Instead, he was about to watch his "property" become the Queen of the rival family.

Marrying The Enemy: My Ex's Worst Nightmare Chapter 1

I spent ten years as the ward of Kason Oneal, the ruthless Underboss of the city's most dangerous crime family. He saved me when I was a child, raised me, and made me believe I was his queen.

But the moment his ex-girlfriend, Dalia, returned, the illusion shattered.

Kason demanded I return the jade pendant-the one he had hand-carved for my sixteenth birthday-just so he could hang it around Dalia's neck. To him, I was suddenly nothing more than a placeholder who had kept his bed warm.

The cruelty didn't stop there. He stood by and watched as Dalia shredded my clothes with scissors, laughing at my tears.

When I collapsed on the floor in agony from acute appendicitis, Kason didn't call an ambulance. Instead, he dragged me to a shady clinic, accusing me of faking a pregnancy to trap him. He ordered the doctor to "terminate it" while I was dying of sepsis on the table.

He called me trash. He called me property. He stripped away every ounce of dignity I had left, all to please a woman who was lying to his face.

I realized then that the hero who saved me when I was ten was dead. I was done begging for scraps of affection from a monster.

Trembling, I walked to the phone and dialed the number of the one man Kason feared most-his sworn enemy, Hadley Payne.

"Tell him yes," I whispered into the receiver. "I accept the arrangement. I will marry him."

Kason thought he could break me. Instead, he was about to watch his "property" become the Queen of the rival family.

Chapter 1

Isabela Walker POV

The moment Kason Oneal demanded I return the jade pendant -the one he had carved for my sixteenth birthday -just so he could hang it around his ex-girlfriend's neck, I knew I had to sell my soul to the devil to escape him.

I stood in the center of the library, the place where he had once taught me how to read Italian, and stared at his outstretched hand.

His palm was calloused.

It was the same hand that had wiped away my tears when I was ten years old.

Now, it was waiting to strip me of the last piece of dignity I had left.

"Isabela," Kason said.

His voice was low.

It used to be the sound of my safety. Now, it sounded like a cell door slamming shut.

"Dalia likes it. It matches her eyes. Besides, you don't even wear it anymore."

I reached up and unclasped the cool stone from the hollow of my throat.

My fingers trembled, but I refused to look away.

I dropped the pendant into his hand.

The jade clicked against the gold band on his finger-no, not a wedding ring.

He wasn't married yet.

But he acted like he was already bound to her.

Dalia was the love of his life who had run away, and I was just the placeholder who had kept his bed warm and his ego stroked while she was gone.

"Thank you, Bella," he said, pocketing my heart like it was loose change. "You're a good girl."

He turned his back on me.

He walked out the door to go find her.

I stood there until the sound of his footsteps faded into the silence of the Oneal estate.

Then, I walked to the desk phone.

I picked up the receiver and dialed a number I had memorized but never dared to use.

My father answered on the second ring.

"Isabela?" Arvil Parrish's voice was weak, terrified of why I was calling from the main line.

"Tell him yes," I said.

"What?"

"The contract," I said, my voice flat and dead. "Tell Don Hadley Payne I accept the arrangement. I will marry him."

My father gasped.

"Isabela, are you sure? The Paynes... they are butchers. Hadley is a monster."

"So is Kason," I whispered. "He just wears a better suit."

I hung up the phone.

My legs gave out, and I sank onto the Persian rug.

I closed my eyes and let the memory wash over me.

I was ten years old again.

I was standing in this same hallway, clutching a dirty teddy bear, while Cora Stout and her daughter laughed at my thrift-store shoes.

They called me trash.

They said I smelled like poverty.

Then Kason had appeared.

He was eighteen, already dangerous, already the heir to the Oneal crime family.

He had stepped between us, a wall of muscle and expensive cologne.

"She is with me," he had declared, his voice silencing the room. "Anyone who touches her, touches me."

He had saved me.

He had raised me.

He had made me love him with a desperation that consumed my entire teenage life.

He knew I loved him.

He had used that love to keep me loyal, to keep me quiet, to keep me waiting.

And then Dalia came back.

The illusion didn't just crack; it shattered.

I looked at my reflection in the dark window.

The girl Kason saved was gone.

The woman who remained was going to burn this house to the ground, even if she had to stand in the fire to do it.

Continue Reading

Other books by HAZEL MARTIN

More
From Neglected To New York Queen

From Neglected To New York Queen

Romance

5.0

"The wedding is back on," my mother' s voice announced, shattering the calm of my Los Angeles penthouse. An arranged marriage to Everette Bryant, a relic from my grandfather' s past, was suddenly my future. I thought I could lean on Danial and Ismael, my childhood friends, my rocks during a mysterious illness. But a new intern, Judi Coffey, had entered our lives, and something felt off. Judi, with her innocent facade, quickly became the center of their universe. She stumbled, she cried, she even deliberately broke my award, all to gain their sympathy. Danial and Ismael, once my protectors, turned their backs, their concern solely for her. "Angelina, what's wrong with you? She's just an intern," Danial accused, his eyes cold. Ismael added, "That was harsh. She's just a kid." Their blind loyalty escalated. Judi' s manufactured crisis, a flat tire, pulled them away, leaving me alone. Later, Danial, enraged by a broken vase, shoved me, causing a head injury. He didn't even notice my allergic reaction, a symptom they once rushed to treat. How could they forget everything? The bee stings, the shellfish allergies, the times they held my hand in the emergency room. The gardenias Danial planted, now the source of my suffering, went unnoticed. I looked at their faces, at the two men I had known my entire life, and saw strangers. My decision was made. I burned our shared memories, resigned from my firm, and put my house up for sale. I was leaving them, all of them, for good.

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Marrying The Enemy: My Ex's Worst Nightmare Marrying The Enemy: My Ex's Worst Nightmare HAZEL MARTIN Mafia
“I spent ten years as the ward of Kason Oneal, the ruthless Underboss of the city's most dangerous crime family. He saved me when I was a child, raised me, and made me believe I was his queen. But the moment his ex-girlfriend, Dalia, returned, the illusion shattered. Kason demanded I return the jade pendant-the one he had hand-carved for my sixteenth birthday-just so he could hang it around Dalia's neck. To him, I was suddenly nothing more than a placeholder who had kept his bed warm. The cruelty didn't stop there. He stood by and watched as Dalia shredded my clothes with scissors, laughing at my tears. When I collapsed on the floor in agony from acute appendicitis, Kason didn't call an ambulance. Instead, he dragged me to a shady clinic, accusing me of faking a pregnancy to trap him. He ordered the doctor to "terminate it" while I was dying of sepsis on the table. He called me trash. He called me property. He stripped away every ounce of dignity I had left, all to please a woman who was lying to his face. I realized then that the hero who saved me when I was ten was dead. I was done begging for scraps of affection from a monster. Trembling, I walked to the phone and dialed the number of the one man Kason feared most-his sworn enemy, Hadley Payne. "Tell him yes," I whispered into the receiver. "I accept the arrangement. I will marry him." Kason thought he could break me. Instead, he was about to watch his "property" become the Queen of the rival family.”
1

Chapter 1

07/01/2026

2

Chapter 2

07/01/2026

3

Chapter 3

07/01/2026

4

Chapter 4

07/01/2026

5

Chapter 5

07/01/2026

6

Chapter 6

07/01/2026

7

Chapter 7

07/01/2026

8

Chapter 8

07/01/2026

9

Chapter 9

07/01/2026

10

Chapter 10

07/01/2026

11

Chapter 11

07/01/2026

12

Chapter 12

07/01/2026

13

Chapter 13

07/01/2026

14

Chapter 14

07/01/2026

15

Chapter 15

07/01/2026

16

Chapter 16

07/01/2026

17

Chapter 17

07/01/2026

18

Chapter 18

07/01/2026

19

Chapter 19

07/01/2026

20

Chapter 20

07/01/2026

21

Chapter 21

07/01/2026

22

Chapter 22

07/01/2026

23

Chapter 23

07/01/2026

24

Chapter 24

07/01/2026