The Mute Bride's Secret Billionaire Contract

The Mute Bride's Secret Billionaire Contract

The Edge

5.0
Comment(s)
View
150
Chapters

I woke up with a throbbing pressure behind my eyes and the taste of metallic champagne in my throat. Instead of my cramped apartment, I was draped in expensive silk under a ceiling the color of a storm cloud. A pear-shaped black diamond sat heavy on my finger, and a document on the nightstand confirmed my worst fear. I was married to Arnulfo Bond, the shipping magnate whose previous eight fiancées had all vanished or died in "accidents." My sister, Verity, had drugged me at the Met Gala and sold me to cover our father's fifty-million-dollar debt. "You do this, or I pull the plug on Aunt Meredith," she warned me over a burner phone. Arnulfo didn't look at me with lust; he looked at me like an auditor checking a spreadsheet for defects. He sealed the estate with titanium shutters, turning the mansion into a high-tech fortress. When a doctor saw the whip scars and cigarette burns on my back-reminders of the childhood abuse Verity never faced-Arnulfo realized I wasn't the pampered socialite he'd bought. I was a line item, a transaction, a mute girl trapped between a husband who treated me like property and a family that wanted me dead. I didn't understand how my own sister could be so heartless, or why Arnulfo was suddenly looking at my broken skin with a terrifying, possessive interest. But they all made a fatal mistake. They thought I was just a helpless victim. They didn't know I was "The Ghost," a forensic accountant for the SEC who lived on the dark web. As Arnulfo walked away, I opened a hidden terminal on my phone. I wasn't running anymore; I was infiltrating. I was going to find every cent of his blood money and use it to buy my freedom.

Chapter 1 1

The pain was a physical weight, a heavy, dull anchor dragging Erline Guy's consciousness up from the black depths. It wasn't a sharp pierce but a throbbing pressure behind her eyes, the kind that suggested dehydration or a drug wearing off. Her first instinct was thirst. Her throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper.

She reached out blindly, her hand seeking the familiar chipped wood of her bedside table. Instead, her fingertips grazed silk. It was cold, slippery, and undeniably expensive.

The sensory dissonance snapped her eyes open.

The ceiling was wrong. It was too high, painted a shade of grey that looked like a storm cloud, devoid of the water stains she had memorized in her apartment. The light filtering in was muted, filtered through heavy curtains. Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in her chest.

Memory returned in fragmented shards. The Met Gala. The flashing lights that blinded her. Her sister, Verity, handing her a glass of champagne. The foam had been too thick, the taste slightly metallic. Drink up, little sister. It's a celebration.

Erline tried to sit up. The sheet slid down her chest, and the air hit her skin. She was naked. She looked down at herself. There were no bruises, no scratches, no signs of a struggle. Her skin looked scrubbed, polished, almost clinical. It was a terrifying kind of clean. It felt like she had been prepared.

She moved her left hand to pull the sheet up, and a weight dragged at her finger.

A ring. A pear-shaped black diamond, the size of a quail egg, sat heavy on the base of her ring finger. It was too tight. It choked the circulation, making the tip of her finger throb in time with her head.

Next to the bed, on a table made of dark glass and chrome, sat a document. A heavy fountain pen, black with gold trim, pinned it down.

She reached for it, her hand trembling. The paper was thick, cream-colored.

Confirmation of Marriage

Party A: Arnulfo Bond.

Party B: Erline Guy.

Date: Effective Immediately.

The air left Erline's lungs. Arnulfo Bond. The name was a ghost story in the financial districts and a horror story in the tabloids. The shipping magnate. The man whose previous eight fiancées had either vanished into sanitariums or died in accidents that were just tragic enough to be believable.

She dropped the paper. It fluttered to the floor. She needed to leave. Now. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, but her muscles turned to water. She collapsed onto the thick carpet, her knees giving way. The drugs were still in her system.

From the deep shadows in the corner of the room, a sound cut through the silence.

Click.

The distinct, mechanical snap of a lighter.

Erline whipped her head around, her heart hammering against her ribs.

A man sat in a high-backed leather chair. The cherry-red ember of a cigar glowed in the dimness, illuminating a strong jawline and a mouth set in a hard line. Smoke curled up, lazy and toxic.

Arnulfo Bond stood up. He was massive. As he walked toward the window, he blocked out the sliver of morning light, casting a long shadow that swallowed her whole. He didn't rush. He moved with the predatory grace of a shark in open water.

He stopped at the foot of the bed, looking down at her. She was naked, shivering on his floor, clutching a sheet to her chest. He didn't look at her with lust. He looked at her the way an auditor looks at a spreadsheet. He was checking for defects.

"You're awake, Mrs. Bond."

His voice was a low rumble, metallic and cold.

Erline's mouth opened. The instinct to scream, to deny, to tell him she wasn't Verity, rose in her throat. I am Erline. You have the wrong sister.

But the words died on her tongue. Verity's warning from the night before echoed in her mind. You do this, or I pull the plug on Aunt Meredith. Don't make a sound.

She snapped her mouth shut. Her fingers dug into the silk sheet, her knuckles turning white.

Arnulfo watched her struggle. A corner of his mouth ticked up, devoid of humor. "Verity Guy. I was told you possessed a certain... social vivacity. It seems the rumors were overstated."

He leaned down. He reached out, his hand large and warm, and captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger. His grip was firm, forcing her to look up at him.

His eyes were grey-blue, flat and impenetrable. There was no soul behind them, only calculation.

"To acquire you, I forgave your father's fifty-million-dollar debt," he said softly. His thumb traced the line of her jaw, not a caress, but an appraisal of the bone structure. "That means every inch of this body, from the hair on your head to the soles of your feet, is now an asset of Bond Industries."

Erline felt the humiliation burn behind her eyes. She was a line item. A transaction. Tears pricked at her eyelids, hot and stinging, but she refused to let them fall. She would not give him that satisfaction.

Arnulfo saw the resistance in her eyes. He released her chin with a small shove, then pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his fingers, as if he had touched something dusty.

He tossed a tablet onto the bed. It landed with a soft thud.

"Read the news. You have nowhere to go."

Erline grabbed the device. The screen lit up with a push notification.

BREAKING: The Union of the Century. Mute beauty Erline Guy weds Arnulfo Bond in Secret Ceremony. Bond Estate Welcomes New, Silent Mistress.

The photo was of Verity, smiling her perfect, shark-like smile. But the world thought it was her. If Erline walked out now, screaming the truth, she would be branded a fraud. Her family would be ruined. Aunt Meredith would die.

Arnulfo turned his back on her, walking toward the bathroom door.

"You have ten minutes to wash the smell of that cheap party off you," he said, not looking back. "Come downstairs. I don't feed useless things."

Continue Reading

Other books by The Edge

More
The Master Of Deception's Richest Game

The Master Of Deception's Richest Game

Modern

5.0

I spent three years playing the perfect "placeholder" boyfriend for a billionaire’s rebellious daughter. I was the safety net, the companion, and the professional distraction paid to keep her out of trouble until she reached her "real" future. But the moment she turned twenty-one, her father slid a fifty-thousand-dollar check across a polished mahogany desk and told me I was a defective appliance being disposed of. He demanded I sign a non-disclosure agreement and disappear forever, treating my years of service like a common trash pickup. I walked out of the estate with a face full of tragic longing, making sure the security cameras caught my wet eyes. But the second the iron gates slammed shut, I wiped my face and opened "Proxy," a high-end app for the 1% who need hired bodies for their dirty emotional work. I didn't have the luxury of a broken heart; I had a foster home to roof and dialysis bills to pay. My next gig was a "hazard pay" nightmare with Antoinette Lowe, a cold-blooded professor who used me as a vessel for her grief. One hour I was wearing a five-thousand-dollar tuxedo while she hurled porcelain vases at my head, screaming about the man who left her at the altar. The next, she had me in a French maid outfit, scrubbing her kitchen floors on my hands and knees while she mocked my dignity. I became her ghost, her servant, and her scripted lover, whispering "you are breathtaking" for a five-hundred-dollar bonus while a silent timer vibrated on my wrist. I lived my life in fragments: a silent audience for a violent cellist by night, and a commanding voice on a headset for a girl who couldn't sleep. I was everyone’s everything, yet I was becoming a man with no face of my own. I realized then that these people didn't want a human; they wanted a mirror that didn't bleed. Antoinette started believing the lies I sold her, convinced she was my muse instead of my paycheck. She didn't see the calculation in my eyes or the way I analyzed her every weakness just to stay in character. "I am whatever you need me to be, Ms. Lowe," I told her, my voice a perfect mask of devotion. The obsession is growing, the roles are bleeding together, and the danger is peaking. But as long as the deposit clears, I’ll keep playing the game until there’s nothing left of me to sell.

A Mother's Strength, A Wife's Fall

A Mother's Strength, A Wife's Fall

Romance

5.0

The first thing I noticed was the ultrasound picture on my kitchen island, a grainy image signaling a future I never saw coming. My husband, David, looked pale, and beside him, his intern, Lily, barely legal and with a hand protectively over her flat stomach, smiled triumphantly. "I' m pregnant," Lily announced, "It' s David' s." The words shattered 15 years of my life. David, the man I' d sacrificed everything for, couldn' t meet my eyes. He mumbled about it "just happening." Then my fifteen-year-old adopted son, Alex, walked past me and handed Lily a glass of water, telling her, "You should sit down." He looked at me, his young face hard. "Mom, just listen. Dad made a mistake. Lily is scared. We need to be adults about this." The shock was a physical blow. Not just my husband, but my son, my Alex, was against me. Lily, seeing her advantage, spoke with false sincerity. "Sarah, I don' t want to break up your family. We can make this work. I can live here. You can help me with the baby." The audacity left me breathless. She wanted me to raise my husband' s illegitimate child in my home. My perfectly curated world dissolved into chaos. David, Lily, and Alex stood there, a new family, and I was the inconvenient, old piece. A profound cold dread spread through me. This wasn' t a crack; it was a demolition. Seven years ago, I had taken the fall for David' s career-ending mistake, losing my architectural license and, due to the stress, an ectopic pregnancy that left me unable to have children naturally. David had promised, "You are all the family I will ever need." Now, he fawned over Lily. My sacrifices, my body, my love-none of it was enough. Alex admitted he' d been covering for David and Lily for months, helping them meet. "Maybe if you were a better wife, none of this would have happened," Alex declared, his eyes full of contempt. "Maybe if you paid more attention to Dad instead of your work, he wouldn't have needed someone else." That was the final blow. I looked at their united faces. My heart didn' t just break, it turned to dust. "Get out of my house," I said, my voice dead. "All of you. I want nothing to do with you, or with it." David was speechless. I calmly opened the bottom drawer of my desk and pulled out a manila envelope. "I want a divorce," I stated, placing the papers on the coffee table. The words were final. Alex scoffed, "You have nothing without him. Where would you even go?" David tried to placate me, then offered me the house, asking me not to fight for the rest of the assets-for the baby' s sake. Then came the ultimate insult. "I think it would be best if you found somewhere else to stay," he said. "Lily' s pregnancy… all this stress isn' t good for her. Or the baby." He was kicking me out of my own home, the sanctuary I had built, to make room for his mistress. A bone-deep sadness settled over me. It wasn' t my home anymore; it was a house full of strangers. "Fine," I whispered. "I' ll be gone by the end of the week." My choice was made.

A Wife's Cold Smile of Revenge

A Wife's Cold Smile of Revenge

Billionaires

5.0

My life was a monument, built brick by brick on my mother' s legacy, dedicated to a name that meant integrity, quality, and family. Then, in a sterile hospital room, it all ended. The man I married, Mark, took everything: my company, my home, my inheritance, and the future of my unborn child. I had saved him from ruin, pulling him from the wreckage of his own failed ventures, using my funds and company resources to clear his name. In return, he promised me the world, and like a fool, I believed him. I invested my expertise, my connections, my family' s capital into him, helping him climb the corporate ladder, all while he climbed on my back. At my most vulnerable, six months pregnant, he stole my designs and sold them to our biggest rival. When I confronted him, he stood with Emily, the woman from that rival firm, sneering, "Even if Emily is ruthless, she loves me and would never betray me!" He twisted the knife, "You\'re just a pawn, Sarah. Bound by our family\'s contract. A tool. If it weren\'t for avenging what your family did to Emily\'s years ago, I wouldn\'t have even bothered with you!" He unraveled everything, funding Emily\'s projects with my firm\'s assets, selling off my child' s future. The hatred consumed me, a fire that burned away every last ounce of love. Then, the world went dark. I woke up, not in that hospital, but in my own bed, two years earlier. My stomach was flat, no baby, no pain. The digital clock showed the exact day Mark first brought Emily home. I heard his voice downstairs, her laugh. He knew. He had come back too. A cold smile spread across my face. "Grandfather," I said, my voice clear and steady as I joined them. "Since Mark likes this woman so much, let\'s welcome her into the family." He had expected tears, not this. My hatred, reborn, was a razor\'s edge. He had just welcomed a viper into his home, a corporate raider I knew would drain him dry in less than ten days.

You'll also like

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison
5.0

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book