The Oracle's Revenge: My Purchased Marriage

The Oracle's Revenge: My Purchased Marriage

Qijia Lady

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I'm the girl from the trailer park who married the coldest billionaire on Wall Street. To the world, I'm a lucky gold-digger. To Gustavus English, I'm just a $2 million "service fee" and a human shield to keep his board of directors from tearing him apart. The morning after he treated our intimacy like a cold business transaction, he threw a check at my face and called me a mistake. He didn't know that behind my "frightened doe" act, I was a finance genius at Columbia secretly shorting his company's stock to destroy him from the inside. The humiliation was relentless. He forced me into expensive suits that made me look like a pathetic doll and paraded me in front of paparazzi to boost his stock price. Then his brother, Caspian, arrived-the man who laughed while bulldozing the orphanage of my childhood. Caspian recognized me, whispering threats of exposure while his eyes stripped me bare. "Don't method act with me, hillbilly. You aren't my wife," Gustavus hissed, pinning me against a marble wall. I felt the burning injustice of being a bought asset, trapped between a husband who despised me and a brother-in-law who wanted to break me. I was a victim playing a dangerous game, waiting for the right moment to strike. But at a high-stakes family dinner, the power struggle turned lethal. To stop his family from seizing his billions, Gustavus dropped a bomb that shattered my plans. "We are already working on an heir," he announced, activating a legal clause that froze the entire family trust. He dragged me into the shadows, his voice a dark command. "Now you have no choice. You get pregnant, or we lose everything. Don't make me regret this." He wanted a legacy to save his empire, but I was about to give him the most expensive mistake of his life.

Chapter 1 1

Sunlight didn't filter into the room; it assaulted it. The harsh morning rays cut through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Tribeca penthouse, landing directly on Heda Roman's face.

She woke with a gasp, her body a map of dull aches. Her lower back throbbed, a rhythmic reminder of the cold transaction disguised as intimacy that had taken place hours ago. She didn't move immediately. It was a rare and calculated command performance; at the Hamptons estate, they slept in separate wings. Here, in this glass box in the sky, she was entirely his property. Instead, her hand slid under the pillow, fingers trembling slightly until they brushed the cold, hard plastic of the invisible earpiece.

It was still there. Good.

The sound of the bathroom door handle turning made her flinch. Instantly, her breathing shallowed, her posture collapsing inward. The door swung open, slamming against the marble wall. A cloud of steam billowed out, followed by Gustavus English.

He wore only a towel low on his hips. Water droplets clung to the dark hair on his chest, trailing down to the defined ridges of his abdomen. He looked like a statue carved from resentment. On his shoulder, a fresh red scratch mark stood out against the pale skin-her mark.

He didn't look at her like a husband. He looked at her like a stain on his Egyptian cotton sheets.

Heda instinctively grabbed the duvet, pulling it up to her chin. She scrambled backward, pressing herself into the corner of the headboard, widening her eyes. It was a practiced motion. The frightened doe. The girl from the trailer park who had never seen sheets with a thread count higher than two hundred.

Gustavus walked to the bedside table. He didn't speak. The silence in the room was heavy, suffocating, filled with the unspoken toxicity of the night before.

He pulled a checkbook from his discarded suit jacket.

Scritch. Scratch.

The sound of the fountain pen tearing across the paper was louder than a scream in the quiet room. He ripped the check out with a sharp snap.

He didn't hand it to her. He let it go in the air above her.

The slip of paper fluttered down, the sharp edge grazing her cheek before landing on the duvet. Heda didn't flinch. She let a single tear slide down her nose. It was perfect timing.

Her hand shook as she picked it up.

$2,000,000.

Two million dollars.

Inside her chest, Heda Roman felt nothing but cold amusement. The English Group's stock fluctuated more than this in a single second of bad trading. She could burn this check and not feel the heat. But Heda, the girl from Appalachia, stared at the zeros as if they were a lifeline.

"Service fee," Gustavus said. His voice was gravel, rough from disuse and the meds. "Last night was a mistake."

Heda bit her lip, forcing her voice to pitch higher, layering on the thick twang of the mountains. "I thought we were... husband and wife."

Gustavus let out a short, cruel laugh. He reached out, his fingers digging into her jaw, forcing her face up. His eyes were empty.

"Don't method act with me, hillbilly. You aren't my wife. You are a shield I bought to keep the vultures on the board away from my carcass."

He shoved her face away, disgust radiating off him in waves. He turned his back to her, dropping the towel to dress. The muscles in his back bunched tight, a roadmap of tension and repressed rage.

Heda moved.

In the split second he was turned, her "frightened" demeanor vanished. Her eyes went sharp. Her hand darted out, plucking the tiny black listening device from the edge of the nightstand where it had been placed. With a practiced, silent motion, she pressed it firmly into the sticky underside of the collar on his discarded suit jacket, tucking it deep into the seam.

Gustavus pulled on his shirt, fastening the cufflinks with aggressive precision. The wall of ice was back up. The Wall Street shark had returned.

He grabbed a hanger from the chair and threw a garment bag at her. It hit the bed with a thud.

"Put it on. We go back to the Hamptons in an hour."

Heda pulled the fabric out. It was a Chanel suit. Pink. Tweed. Expensive, but on her, it would look like a costume. Like a child playing dress-up.

"I have class," she whispered, clutching the suit. "I'm in college."

Gustavus paused, his hand on his tie. He looked at her reflection in the mirror, his lip curling.

"That etiquette class at whatever community college you go to? Don't make me laugh."

Heda lowered her head, hiding the flash of ice in her eyes. It was Columbia University. Finance. Top of her class. But he didn't need to know that. Not yet.

"Yes, Gustavus," she mumbled.

He stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the window panes.

The moment his footsteps faded down the hall, Heda's tears stopped. Instantly. It was as if someone had turned off a faucet.

She threw the duvet off and sprinted to the bathroom, turning the shower on full blast to create a wall of white noise. She reached behind the toilet tank, her fingers finding the waterproof bag taped to the porcelain.

She pulled out an old Blackberry. It looked like a relic, but the software inside was military-grade.

Her thumbs flew over the keypad. Green code cascaded down the screen.

English Group Short Position: 15% Established.

She looked at herself in the mirror. The bruise on her neck was darkening.

"I'll take the interest on last night out of your stock price, Gustavus," she whispered.

The phone buzzed. A text from Roxy.

'Oracle', massive buy order coming in from the Cayman Islands is sweeping English stock. Looks like a counter-move.

Heda frowned. Her reflection looked back, sharp and dangerous.

Negative. It's not us. Trace it.

A horn honked from the street below. The summons.

Heda shoved the phone back into its hiding spot. She pulled on the pink Chanel suit. It was tight in the shoulders. She looked in the mirror and practiced a smile-timid, greedy, pathetic.

She opened the door. The Oracle was gone. The hillbilly was back.

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His Cruelty, My Despair

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5.0

The heavy oak door of my penthouse swung open, and I looked up, my heart hoping Ethan was finally home alone. He wasn' t. Olivia Chen was clinging to his arm, her smile bright, her eyes sweeping over our home with a look of ownership. "Chloe," he said, his voice flat, "We need to talk." For a month, he' d been asking for a divorce, claiming our life was monotonous. He meant someone new. "I' m not signing the papers," I told him, the words tasting like ash. Olivia' s sugary sweet voice cut in, "Ethan, darling, maybe she just needs more time to understand." A cold fury ignited in my chest as he gestured vaguely, tired of "this" -our ten years together. Then he led her right into our custom-designed master bedroom. My blood ran cold. He couldn' t. But he did. And her light laughter drifted out, cutting right through me. A sudden, searing pain shot through my chest, making me gasp. It felt like a wire pulled tight, a strange agony I' d been feeling for weeks, always when his betrayal was deepest. I stumbled toward the door, pushing it open, and the sight shattered the last piece of my hope. He had her pressed against our bedroom window. "What are you doing? Get out," he said, his eyes filled with cold irritation, not shame. "This is my room," I whispered. "Not for much longer," he said cruelly. The pain intensified. He didn' t just want a divorce; he wanted to erase, to humiliate me. With the calm of despair, I walked to the study, and signed the divorce papers. "Here," I said, my voice empty, holding them out. "It' s what you wanted." He snatched them, his eyes lighting up with unconcealed joy. "Finally. Let' s go. We can get this filed right now." He dragged me to his new Aston Martin, personalized with Olivia' s initials. He was so eager to be rid of me, he was blind to his own betrayal. At the courthouse, ten years dissolved in twenty minutes. As he walked away, I felt something snap inside me. "The bed," I called out. "The million-dollar bed. It was a gift from my grandfather." "It' s just a bed, Chloe." "It' s not just a bed. It was for us!" I cried, the pain in my chest flaring. "I was bored. Love isn' t some fairy tale," he said, dissecting our love like a failed business deal. Another sharp pain, more intense than any before, shot through me. I crumbled to the ground, black spots dancing in my vision. "Stop being so dramatic," he said, pushing me into a cab. I curled into a ball, the world fading to black. I woke in the condo he' d sent me to, weakened. A few days later, Olivia showed up, demanding the pearl necklace Ethan had given me. "He told me it represented the years we had built together, each pearl a precious memory." "I' m here for the pearls," she said. "No," I said, my voice firm. Then Ethan appeared with security guards. "She' s been unwell. She might not be thinking clearly. Retrieve the jewelry box." One pushed me. I hit my head. Olivia cried, "Oh my god! She fell! Ethan, she tried to attack me!" He looked at her, not me. "She' s unstable. Take her to the old property with the basement apartment. Make sure she stays there." They dragged me to a dilapidated building, throwing me into a damp, dark basement. The heavy metal door slammed shut. I was a prisoner. And I began to remember. Not just in this life, but a past one. He had saved me then, binding his life force to mine with a forbidden ritual. His betrayal now was severing that bond, killing me. I would not die in this basement. I found a way out, desperate to clear my name. I went to Marcus Green, Ethan' s business partner, our friend. "Ethan said you' d gone to a wellness retreat," Marcus said, shocked by my appearance. I told him everything. "He locked me in a basement. Olivia set me up!" "Ethan is my partner. He wouldn' t do something like that." "Olivia is pregnant," Marcus said. The words hit me like a physical blow. A baby would secure her position. "It' s a lie," I whispered, though I knew it was likely true. Marcus reached for the phone. "I' m going to call Ethan. He' ll know what to do." Panic seizing me, I ran, a fugitive on the streets, with no money, no phone, nowhere to go. My body was failing, the cough persistent. He found me in a doorway. "You' ve caused a lot of trouble," he said, leading me to his car, straight to the penthouse. Olivia' s things were everywhere. "Olivia is having a difficult pregnancy," he said. "She needs someone to look after her." "You' re going to take care of her." He wanted me, his ex-wife whom he had imprisoned, to nursemaid his pregnant mistress. "No!" I cried, a spark of defiance. "You don' t have a choice. Or I will have you committed." He had me trapped. The next weeks were hell. I cooked for her, cleaned for her, treated like an invisible servant. My health declined rapidly. One afternoon, carrying a heavy tray, an unbearable agony struck. I collapsed, gasping for breath. I woke in a hospital bed. Dr. Hayes was grave. "Your body is shutting down." From the other side of the curtain, I heard Ethan and Olivia. He cooed, "Don' t be scared, I' m right here." Then, kissing. The pain in my chest exploded. "How can you be so cruel?" I gasped, tears streaming. "Honestly?" he said, his voice flat. "I' d be relieved. It would make things a lot simpler." His words were the final blow. He wanted me dead. A few days later, I was back in the penthouse, facing a grim prognosis. The only comfort was Whiskers, my rescue cat. I found him huddled in the bathroom, a bloody gash on his fur. "You did this!" I screamed at Olivia. She lied. "He scratched me." Ethan walked in. She burst into tears, showing him her scratch. "Chloe' s cat attacked me! And now she' s accusing me of hurting it. She' s crazy!" "You did this?" he snarled at me, blindness in his eyes. "No! Ethan, she' s lying! Look at him!" He slapped me, sending me stumbling. Whiskers fell, crying. "You' re a monster. Get out, and take that disgusting animal with you." I carried Whiskers' dying body out, buried him in a quiet park, and returned, hollow. Ethan arrived later, searching. "Where is it? The herb. The life-saving herb I gave you." He wanted the miraculous herb that could save my life, to give to Olivia and his child. "It' s for the baby, isn' t it?" I asked. "It' s for both of them. Tell me where it is. Olivia' s life is on the line." "It' s mine. You gave it to me. I think I might need it." I placed a hand over my aching chest. "Don' t be dramatic, Chloe. Olivia is the one who is really sick." He twisted the past, claiming his life-binding sacrifice was a debt I owed him. "That bond is the reason I' m dying," I whispered. "Your betrayal is killing me, Ethan. Literally." He dismissed it as insanity, tearing the condo apart. My pain flared. I knew I didn' t have much time. I remembered the herb, hidden in my jewelry box. I could let him fail. But suddenly, what was I fighting for? A life without love? I pulled out the box, then the powerful herb. "Give it to me," he demanded, his eyes gleaming. "You can have it. But you have to do one thing for me. I want the divorce finalized. Now. Every last tie. I want to be free of you." He quickly agreed. An hour later, the papers were signed. The pain ripped through me as I finished. I cried out. He snatched the papers. "The herb, Chloe." With my last strength, I placed it in his hand. He didn' t notice me dying. "Thank you," he said, already turning. "Ethan," I gasped, "Help me." "You' ll be fine. You just need to rest." And he was gone. I lay dying, unseen. My life flashed before my eyes. I saw him racing to the hospital, giving Olivia the herb, her "miraculous" recovery. Then, their lavish wedding. As they kissed, a final, passionate sealing of their union, I took my last breath. My death was quiet, unnoticed. He was blissfully unaware he was dancing on my grave. A few days later, nightmares began for Ethan. He' d wake in a cold sweat, a profound sense of loss. He' d hum a lullaby, my mother' s song, and a sharp pang would hit. He looked for me in crowds, picked up the phone to call me. He tried to contact my lawyer, but my lawyer had vanished. A frustrating, low-grade anger grew. A cold dread then seeped into his bones. What if I had been telling the truth? He doubled down on his new life, but the nightmares came back. I was always there, just… gone. The emptiness was a gaping wound. My friend, Sarah Jenkins, called my lawyer, Liam Rodriguez. He told her everything. My death. The cause: heart failure from severe emotional and physical distress. "Ethan did this," Sarah said, her voice shaking with rage. "He killed her." Liam also told her about my will, leaving everything to Sarah. And Ethan was trying to contest it. Olivia, listening on a hidden device, realized she had to keep him in the dark. Once married, his claim would be stronger. The day before the wedding, Ethan found himself at my condo, staring. He felt an overwhelming urge to go up, to see me, to apologize, to fix his mess. But he drove away. It was too late. I was probably gone, living a new life. The wedding day. Ethan waited at the altar, but as Olivia walked down the aisle, a knot of dread formed. He was looking for me. He wanted me to stop this. His numbness continued until the reception. Sarah found him on the dance floor. "I' m Chloe' s friend. Chloe is dead, Ethan. She died three weeks ago. Alone." "No," he whispered. "You' re lying." Sarah shoved my death certificate at him. He stared at it. His vision swam. "She' s dead," he repeated. His mind flashed back to me, collapsed on the floor. He had walked away. He spiraled. "He' s lying! This is a trick! Chloe is trying to ruin my wedding!" "She' s gone, Ethan. And you killed her." The words broke through. He ran from the ballroom, collapsing in the gardens. Every cruel word, every selfish act, rushed back. He had taken my love, my loyalty, my life force, and thrown it away. He had traded a diamond for glass. Regret was a poison. He went to Dr. Hayes. "Tell me about Chloe. Her condition… it was unusual, wasn' t it?" "Rapid. As if her body had simply lost the will to live." "It wasn' t her will," Ethan said. "It was me." He found Olivia packing. "The baby isn' t yours to take. It' s mine. You' re not going anywhere." He told her about the bond, how he had killed me. She tried to dismiss it as grief. "You lied to me, Olivia. You lied about everything." "I did it for us! She was always going to be between us!" she shrieked. "Tell me the truth, Olivia. Was the baby ever in danger?" he roared. "No!" she sobbed. "The baby was fine! I lied!" He let her go. He looked at the wreckage. His new life was a lie. Only Chloe' s love had been real. And he had killed her for it. He drove to my grave. A simple, unmarked patch of grass. He found my locket. Inside, his smiling face, and Whiskers. "I' m sorry," he whispered, collapsing. He stayed for hours, tormented by memories. He found the truth. The long-buried memories of another life, of his sacred vow. He had murdered his own soulmate. Olivia and her mother, Lily, were plotting. He looked at them. "I' m going to destroy you, Olivia." His revenge was cold, systematic. He dismantled her life, piece by piece. He revealed her lies. He confined her to a gilded cage until the baby was born. He gave the child to another family. Olivia was given money and a one-way ticket. Ethan sold everything. He lived in exile, consumed by regret. He poured his fortune into finding a way to bring me back. He sought mystics, bought ancient texts, performed bizarre rituals. He came close, but the ritual required him to burn the locket, to erase my memory forever. He threw the locket into the flames, a final, agonized cry. The ritual failed. The memory was gone. He was utterly broken. Years bled into a decade. Ethan returned to New York, a ghost, the memory of my face burned away. All that remained was a hollow ache. He overheard talk of a reclusive spiritual guide, someone who could help him find what he had lost. Hope flickered. He undertook the perilous journey. Weeks of climbing, enduring, shedding his old self. He just needed to know why. At the monastery, the monk tried to turn him away. "I need to find her! I lost her, and I don' t even remember her face!" he yelled, an agony he couldn' t name. The master saw him. "The soul you seek cannot be brought back. Her spirit has moved on." "But there is a way for you to see her. She is in the world again, living a new life." "Where? I have to find her!" "To see her, you must first truly remember her. It is hidden in the place where your love was strongest." He searched their old haunts, desperate. At my unmarked grave, he knelt. "I can' t remember." His hand brushed against a smooth, white stone. He remembered. A promise on a beach. Our love was in the promise. The floodgates opened. My face, my smile, my voice-it all rushed back. He remembered everything. He then felt a faint, distant echo. He focused, and saw an image: a young woman with familiar eyes, painting in a bright, sunlit studio. He found the studio in Brooklyn. He watched her emerge. It was me. But she was younger, unburdened, happy. His first instinct was to run to her. But the warning held him back. "To interfere would be to risk causing her harm once more." He saw her with a young man, Noah. They were in love. It was a fresh stab of pain, but also a profound relief. She was happy. He started to follow her, a silent protector. One day, he sat near her in the park. She looked up, her eyes meeting his. There was no recognition. But he felt the last, tattered remnants of their bond flare. She felt a strange chill, a flicker of a forgotten nightmare, and hurried away. He had scared her. His presence, his dark history, was still a poison. He finally understood. To truly love her, he had to let her go. He would set up one final, massive trust fund, delivered upon his death. Then disappear. He watched Noah propose to Lily. His heart clenched. She was moving on. He had to hear her answer. He moved closer. Noah saw him, putting himself between Ethan and Lily, his voice protective. Ethan froze. On Lily' s hand, he saw the new ring. And on her thumb, another, a simple silver band. The one he had given me. "Chloe," he whispered. Lily' s eyes widened. "I' m sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else." Noah stepped forward. "I think you should leave." Ethan backed away, the image of her frightened eyes burning him. He had broken his own rule. He realized his guardianship was selfish. He would make the final arrangement, then disappear completely. A few weeks later, he saw them again in the park. Lily was smiling, talking about her solo show. Noah then proposed their wedding be soon. "Ever since that strange man in the park, I' ve felt this sense of urgency. I need to protect you." Ethan lowered the binoculars, a tear of sorrow and peace tracing his cheek. She had a protector now. His job was done. He walked away, not looking back. Letting go was harder than imagined. His purpose gone, he felt the hollow ache of grief. His obsession turned inward. He began to stalk her again, a ghost drawn to the light. He watched her gallery opening. She was radiant, confident. Noah was beaming. Ethan was the outcast peering from outside. That night, his nightmares returned, but they were Lily' s. The cold basement, the dying cat. He was experiencing the echoes of my trauma. He woke screaming, realization dawning. His presence was actively harming her. He dreamed again. As his spiritual self, he watched Lily' s spirit. "His regret is meaningless," my spirit-voice whispered. "It is the regret of a man who mourns what he has lost for himself, not what he has taken from another." He woke with a gasp. His atonement, his years of suffering, had all been about him. He was still selfish. He knew what to do. He had to erase himself from the world. A final, selfless act. He walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. "I love you, Chloe," he whispered. "Always." And then, he let go. Lily woke with a start, the nightmare more vivid than ever. Noah held her, reassuring her it was just a dream, but she felt a strange sense of finality. A few days later, a lawyer named Liam Rodriguez appeared. "He passed away. And he has left you his entire fortune." "Ethan Miller?" Lily stammered. "I don' t know any Ethan Miller." "I think you do," Liam said, showing her a photo. A younger Ethan, and her. Chloe Davis. "That is you, in a former life. And that is Ethan Miller. He was your husband." The words, the photo, the nightmares-it all coalesced. The dream wasn' t a dream. It was a memory. He handed her a thick envelope. "He wanted you to know the truth." Noah read Ethan' s confession. About the love, the betrayal, the spiritual bond, the cruelty, the long, painful atonement. How he watched over her. How he orchestrated her success. His final, selfless act. Lily cried. "He did all that?" "He was your guardian angel." A week later, Lily decided. "I' ll accept it. But on one condition. I want to use it to create the Chloe Davis Foundation for the Arts." She looked at Noah, her eyes clear. Chloe Davis was a part of her story, but she was Lily. In the months that followed, the nightmares faded. She and Noah married. The Chloe Davis Foundation became her life' s work, a legacy of hope. Liam called. Ethan' s official coroner' s report was out. "His heart… looking like the heart of a very, very old man. Worn out from overuse." Lily knew. The spiritual bond, the echo of his sacrifice, had drained him. His final act was the severance of a physical tie his heart couldn' t survive without. A package arrived. The silver locket. Returned by the mystic. "A soul' s story should never be erased." Lily looked at the locket, a symbol of a great, tragic love. She placed it in her safe. She returned to her canvas, a new, bright painting waiting. She had a new story to tell. Her own. And it was just beginning.

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