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Silas Vane is a billionaire with a problem. He needs his ex-wife's signature to save his tech empire. June Ashby is an orchard owner with a grudge. She doesn't want his money. She wants him to suffer. The deal is simple. Silas must move back to their small hometown and work the harvest for six months. He has to trade his silk suits for manual labor and play the doting husband for the press. The marriage is fake. The contract is legal. But as the sun sets over the trees, the old sparks start to feel dangerously real. Silas came for a patent, but he might just lose his heart to the woman who owns him.
Owned by the Ex Chapter 1 The Alpha Code
The glass walls of the Vane-Corp boardroom offered a panoramic view of Manhattan that usually made Silas Vane feel like a god. Today he felt like a man standing on a trapdoor. He sat at the head of the obsidian table and watched his Chief Operating Officer, Julian Thorne, pace the length of the room. Julian was wearing a suit that cost more than a mid-sized sedan and a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Julian stopped pacing and leaned over the table, sliding a tablet across the dark surface. He pointed at a highlighted paragraph on the screen. He told Silas that the foundational code for the entire operating system was never legally severed from his marriage to June Ashby. Because they lived in Georgia and used a DIY divorce kit, the intellectual property was still considered a shared asset.
Julian looked at Silas with a mixture of pity and calculation. He said the board was already asking questions about the Globex merger. He reminded Silas that if this didn't get resolved immediately, the twenty-billion-dollar deal would collapse and the board would vote for a new CEO. Julian didn't have to say that he was the first in line for the job. Silas could see the ambition radiating off him like heat.
Silas stood up and grabbed his jacket. He told Julian to manage the press and keep the board quiet while he went to Oakhaven to get the signature. Julian's smile widened as he warned Silas that some debts couldn't be paid in cash. Silas didn't wait for a response. He walked out of the room with the measured stride of a man who was used to winning every fight.
The transition from the sterile air of New York to the heavy humidity of Georgia was a physical blow. Silas watched the scenery shift from steel skyscrapers to the endless rows of pine trees that guarded the entrance to Oakhaven. By the time his driver pulled into the gravel driveway of Blackwood Orchard, the sun was beginning to set, casting long, bloody shadows across the trees.
The orchard looked smaller and more desperate than Silas remembered. The fences were leaning at dangerous angles and the barn was gray with age. He saw a figure working near the edge of the grove.
June Ashby was hauling a crate of apples toward a rusted tractor. She was thirty-one now and the soft edges of the girl Silas used to know had been sharpened by a decade of hard work. She wore heavy denim and a faded flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Her skin was tanned by the sun and her hair was pulled into a messy braid.
Silas stepped out of the SUV. The dust from the driveway coated his polished shoes. He walked toward her and felt a familiar pull in his chest that he had spent ten years trying to ignore. June didn't look up until he was five feet away. She set the crate down with a heavy thud and wiped a smudge of dirt from her forehead. There was no surprise in her eyes. There was only a cold, hard indifference.
He didn't waste time with small talk. He pulled the leather folder from his jacket and told her he was prepared to offer ten million dollars for her signature. He told her it was more than enough to save the orchard.
June looked at the folder and then at the black car idling in her driveway. She walked closer to him until he could smell the apples and earth on her skin. She told him she didn't want his money. She said she had spent ten years cleaning up the mess he left behind. She realized how much he needed her, and she offered a deal of her own.
She would sign the papers, but only after the final harvest was finished in six months. Silas had to live in the guest cottage and work the land like a common laborer. Most importantly, he had to play the part of a devoted husband to help her secure a local agricultural loan.
Silas told her it was impossible. Before he could argue further, a truck pulled up to the gate. Miller Reed, the local veterinarian, hopped out with a friendly wave. He was tall and rugged with an easy smile that Silas had never possessed. Miller walked over and put a hand on June's shoulder. He asked if everything was alright and looked at Silas's expensive suit with a quiet curiosity.
June introduced Silas as her husband who had finally come home to help with the trees. Silas felt the color drain from his face as the trap snapped shut. Miller shook Silas's hand with a grip that was firm and honest. He said he was glad June finally had some help before driving away.
Silas turned on June the second Miller was out of sight, but she didn't let him speak. She told him breakfast was at four in the morning.
As Silas walked toward the guest cottage, a woman stepped out onto the porch of the main house. It was Beatrice "Bea" Ashby. She wiped her hands on her apron and stared at Silas with a look of pure, unadulterated judgment. She didn't say hello. She just shook her head and went back inside, slamming the screen door behind her.
Silas sat on the edge of the small bed in the cottage. He was a billionaire and a titan of industry. But as the crickets began to chirp in the long grass, he realized he was exactly where June wanted him. He was back in the mud, and for the first time in his life, he was out of his depth.
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Owned by the Ex
chisimdi divine
Billionaires
Chapter 1 The Alpha Code
08/02/2026
Chapter 2 The Ghost in the Kitchen
08/02/2026
Chapter 3 The performance
08/02/2026
Chapter 4 The boardroom in mud
08/02/2026
Chapter 5 The Serpent in the Grove
08/02/2026
Chapter 6 The shadow on the Deed
08/02/2026
Chapter 7 The Lion's Den
08/02/2026
Chapter 8 The first bushel
08/02/2026
Chapter 9 The Barn loft
08/02/2026
Chapter 10 The Black spot
08/02/2026
Chapter 11 The summons
08/02/2026
Chapter 12 The Gavel and the Rain
15/02/2026
Chapter 13 The cost of the code
15/02/2026
Chapter 14 The Glass cage
15/02/2026
Chapter 15 The Weight of the Harvest
15/02/2026
Chapter 16 The Ledger of Ghostly Profit
15/02/2026
Chapter 17 The Map in the Binding
15/02/2026
Chapter 18 The Watcher in the Wood
15/02/2026
Chapter 19 The First Frost of Peace
15/02/2026
Chapter 20 The Circle Closes
15/02/2026
Chapter 21 The Frozen Gavel
15/02/2026
Chapter 22 The Ghost in the Rig
15/02/2026
Chapter 23 The Vein of Memory
15/02/2026
Chapter 24 The Shadow of a Scholar
15/02/2026
Chapter 25 The Inheritance of Blood
15/02/2026
Chapter 26 The Blossom and the Badge
15/02/2026
Chapter 27 The Tower and the Trench
15/02/2026
Chapter 28 The Vein of the mountain
15/02/2026
Chapter 29 The Bitter Gold
15/02/2026
Chapter 30 The Harvest Moon's Shadow
15/02/2026
Chapter 31 The white Wall
16/02/2026
Chapter 32 The Iron Seed
16/02/2026
Chapter 33 The Gilded pulse
16/02/2026
Chapter 34 The singing Grove
16/02/2026
Chapter 35 The Silver Drift
16/02/2026
Chapter 36 The Glass Fishbowl
16/02/2026
Chapter 37 The common Ground
16/02/2026
Chapter 38 The Resonance of Iron
16/02/2026
Chapter 39 The Glass Harvest
16/02/2026
Chapter 40 The Global Seed
16/02/2026