5.0
Comment(s)
6
View
17
Chapters

He was born to destroy the world that broke him. Love was never part of the plan until she became his target. Ares Clinton is the heir to the deadliest mafia dynasty in the city. Cold. Calculated. Relentless. Everyone fears him and for good reason. Ten years ago, his family was betrayed, his mother slaughtered, and his father imprisoned. Ares vanished without a trace... until now. He returns with one mission: revenge. Every name. Every face. Every lie they're all on his list. And nothing will stop him from burning the world that ruined his bloodline. But his plan hits a wall when he meets Elena Blackwoods, the innocent daughter of the man who betrayed him. Sweet. Clever. Untouchable. She's everything he should hate... and yet everything he can't resist. To Ares, she's a pawn. A trap. A weakness he can't afford. To Elena, he's in danger wrapped in a suit and she's falling for the one man who could destroy her family. As secrets unravel and enemies close in, Ares must choose between vengeance and the woman who makes him feel again. But in the mafia world, love is a liability and trust can kill. He came back to bury the past... But the past wasn't done with him.

HIS BLOODY OATH Chapter 1 THE RETURN OF THE GHOST

Chapter One: The Return of the Ghost

Ten years.

That's how long it took Ares Clinton to crawl back from the ashes of betrayal.

The city skyline bled gold under the setting sun as his black Bentley glided through the streets of Ravenport. Sleek, powerful, and silent just like him. As they neared the heart of the city, the view twisted into a mockery of what used to be home. Glass towers pierced the sky, bearing names he hadn't spoken in a decade. Names he had burned into memory like a curse.

One in particular: BLACKWOODS ENTERPRISES .

"They never saw you coming," Julian said from the driver's seat, smirking as he slowed at a red light. "You really are a ghost."

Ares didn't look at him. His jaw clenched, eyes locked on the towering structure ahead Blackwoods' headquarters. The building gleamed like justice wrapped in sin.

"Ghosts haunt the living," he replied, voice a quiet threat. "And I'm not here to scare them."

He was here to destroy them.

Every lie. Every name. Every bloodstained dollar. He would rip their empire apart brick by brick.

Julian slid a file across the console. "Here. Her name's Elena Blackwoods. Twenty-three. A Law student. Recently returned from Italy. Daddy's favorite. Smart, quiet, heavily protected. Her schedule's in there."

Ares finally looked down at the file, flipping it open.

There she was.

A candid photo. Hair dark as ink, eyes the color of stormy skies. She had the kind of beauty that could calm or kill soft lips, clever gaze, an elegance that didn't belong in the world she came from.

"She doesn't know anything," Julian added. "She was just a kid when it happened."

"She's still a Blackwoods," Ares said flatly.

But something twisted in his chest as he studied her picture. There was innocence in her gaze. And something else, something familiar. A strange pull he couldn't explain.

He shoved the file shut.

"She's the key," he murmured. "And the beginning of their end."

Elena Blackwoods tapped her fingers nervously against the armrest of the leather chair in her father's office. The floor-to-ceiling windows bathed the room in cold light, but it felt like a cage.

Something was wrong.

Her father had called her in without explanation. That alone was unusual. Harold Blackwoods didn't waste time on sentiment. And now, she waited like a schoolgirl, unsure of why her chest was tight and her thoughts restless.

The door opened.

A man stepped in. Tall. Broad shoulders. An Armani suit cut to perfection. Dark hair slicked back, a scar etched faintly near his jawline like a forgotten battle.

He didn't smile.

He didn't need to.

His presence was a weapon.

"Ah," her father said, standing. "Elena, this is Mr. Ares Clinton. He'll be consulting with us on the Whitmore project."

Her heart thudded.

Clinton?

The name rang in her mind like a bell.

But it was his eyes that stunned her.

They were sharp, glacial piercing through her like she was made of glass. There was something in them. Not just calculation, but... recognition?

Why did he feel familiar?

She stood slowly, offering her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Ares's fingers brushed hers. Cold. Controlled.

"Pleasure," he said, voice low and unreadable.

Their touch lasted a second too long.

And in that second, something cracked beneath the surface. Heat. A flicker of something buried. Then gone.

Elena withdrew her hand, masking her confusion behind a polite smile.

Her father continued talking, droning on about numbers and mergers. But she barely heard him. All she could think about was that name.

Clinton.

She'd read it before. In old news articles. Whispers of a scandal that nearly ruined her family's empire. A name swallowed by silence.

And now it stood in front of her.

Breathing.

Alive.

Why now?

Later that evening, Ares leaned against the balcony of his penthouse suite, city lights flickering below like dying stars. He poured a glass of bourbon, but didn't drink.

His mind replayed the moment their hands touched.

Elena Blackwoods.

Sweet. Naive. With eyes too kind for the blood she carried in her veins.

He hated that she didn't flinch when she met him. That she didn't look guilty. That she reminded him of the world before everything burned.

"She's not what I expected," he muttered.

Julian, lounging on the couch behind him, raised a brow. "You're not going soft, are you?"

Ares shot him a look. "She's a pawn. Nothing more."

"Keep telling yourself that," Julian said with a shrug.

Ares looked back out over the city. His grip on the glass tightened until it cracked.

She felt like something more.

That made her dangerous.

The next morning...

Elena walked into Blackwoods HQ earlier than usual, hoping to clear her head. But as soon as she stepped into the elevator, her breath caught.

He was already there.

Ares stood near the back, arms folded, phone in hand. Impossibly composed.

"Miss Blackwoods," he greeted, as the doors closed behind her.

She nodded. "Mr. Clinton."

Silence stretched between them.

The elevator hummed as it ascended. Thirty floors of tension.

She glanced at him.

His jaw clenched. His eyes forward. But she could feel his awareness of her.

"I did some reading last night," she said finally.

He turned slightly, one brow raised.

"About your family. The Clintons. My father never mentioned he knew them."

Ares didn't blink. "Did he mention why he stopped?"

She faltered. "No. Just silence."

"Silence is often guilt in disguise," he replied.

The elevator dinged.

Before she could respond, the doors opened and he was gone, his footsteps vanishing down the marble hallway.

Elena stood frozen.

What did he mean by that?

That night...

Ares walked through the rusted gates of the Clinton family estate. Overgrown vines wrapped around the columns, and shattered windows stared like hollow eyes. The mansion had been left to rot.

Just like them.

Inside, he lit a single candle and walked to the old study. Dust coated the bookshelves, but he knew exactly where to look.

Behind a row of books, he pulled out an aged, bloodstained envelope.

He opened it.

Inside was a photo.

His father, smiling. His mother, radiant.

And a man in the background Harold Blackwoods.

Standing behind them with a glass raised.

Smiling like a friend.

Ares crushed the photo in his hand.

This wasn't revenge.

This was justice.

Elena sat in her bedroom, flipping through an old album when a torn photograph slipped from between the pages.

It was faded, almost unreadable.

But there, tucked in the corner, was a boy.

Dark hair. Familiar eyes.

Ares?

Her heart pounded.

Why would his photo be in her family album?

Continue Reading

Other books by Lilac Blackwoods

More

You'll also like

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.

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

Nathaniel Stone
4.5

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner—my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend’s apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I’d spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend’s face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Gujian Qitan
5.0

I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
HIS BLOODY OATH HIS BLOODY OATH Lilac Blackwoods Adventure
“He was born to destroy the world that broke him. Love was never part of the plan until she became his target. Ares Clinton is the heir to the deadliest mafia dynasty in the city. Cold. Calculated. Relentless. Everyone fears him and for good reason. Ten years ago, his family was betrayed, his mother slaughtered, and his father imprisoned. Ares vanished without a trace... until now. He returns with one mission: revenge. Every name. Every face. Every lie they're all on his list. And nothing will stop him from burning the world that ruined his bloodline. But his plan hits a wall when he meets Elena Blackwoods, the innocent daughter of the man who betrayed him. Sweet. Clever. Untouchable. She's everything he should hate... and yet everything he can't resist. To Ares, she's a pawn. A trap. A weakness he can't afford. To Elena, he's in danger wrapped in a suit and she's falling for the one man who could destroy her family. As secrets unravel and enemies close in, Ares must choose between vengeance and the woman who makes him feel again. But in the mafia world, love is a liability and trust can kill. He came back to bury the past... But the past wasn't done with him.”
1

Chapter 1 THE RETURN OF THE GHOST

16/04/2025

2

Chapter 2 THE FIRST MOVE

16/04/2025

3

Chapter 3 THE LINE BETWEEN US

16/04/2025

4

Chapter 4 INTO THE SHADOWS

16/04/2025

5

Chapter 5 THE MIDNIGHT GAME

16/04/2025

6

Chapter 6 THE MIDNIGHT DEAL

16/04/2025

7

Chapter 7 SHADOWS IN HIS SILENCE

16/04/2025

8

Chapter 8 ELENA'S DOUBTS AND FORCED LOYALTY

16/04/2025

9

Chapter 9 THE MIDNIGHT MEETING

16/04/2025

10

Chapter 10 THE UNRAVELING TRUTH

16/04/2025

11

Chapter 11 THE LINE IN THE SAND

16/04/2025

12

Chapter 12 WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS

18/04/2025

13

Chapter 13 PIECES OF A DEAD EMPIRE

22/04/2025

14

Chapter 14 TWISTED LOYALTIES

22/04/2025

15

Chapter 15 LOVE AS A WEAPON

01/05/2025

16

Chapter 16 THE PACT

01/05/2025

17

Chapter 17 THE BLOODY OATH

01/05/2025