Framed by the Man Who Saved Her

Framed by the Man Who Saved Her

Madel Cerda

5.0
Comment(s)
2.8K
View
10
Chapters

I was living the American dream with Sarah. A small house, a steady job at the garage, and a wedding on the horizon. Life in our Montana town was simple, predictable – until Billy Rivers walked in. One afternoon, I came home early with a bouquet of wildflowers, only to find Sarah on the couch, wrapped around a shirtless Billy. She claimed he was just upset, that she was comforting him, but the way he looked at her... it was more than just a friendly hug. Then Sarah dropped the bomb: Billy was the EMT who saved her life after a logging truck nearly killed her. He donated blood directly, becoming her "hero," her "lifesaver." Now, he was down on his luck, and she insisted he move in with us. My gut screamed, but Sarah accused me of being jealous and heartless. Soon, the town turned against me, whispering about my "dark moods" and "controlling" behavior. Billy, the golden boy, played the victim card perfectly, while Sarah remained blind to his lies. Was I losing my mind, or was everyone else? Everything exploded when Billy claimed I pushed him down a flight of stairs. I was arrested, my reputation ruined, and Sarah got a restraining order against me. My life had completely shattered. But that's when I decided, enough is enough. I was going to prove my innocence, and expose Billy for the fraud he truly was, even if it meant losing everything – including Sarah.

Framed by the Man Who Saved Her Chapter 1 1

I was living the American dream with Sarah. A small house, a steady job at the garage, and a wedding on the horizon. Life in our Montana town was simple, predictable – until Billy Rivers walked in.

One afternoon, I came home early with a bouquet of wildflowers, only to find Sarah on the couch, wrapped around a shirtless Billy. She claimed he was just upset, that she was comforting him, but the way he looked at her... it was more than just a friendly hug.

Then Sarah dropped the bomb: Billy was the EMT who saved her life after a logging truck nearly killed her. He donated blood directly, becoming her "hero," her "lifesaver." Now, he was down on his luck, and she insisted he move in with us.

My gut screamed, but Sarah accused me of being jealous and heartless. Soon, the town turned against me, whispering about my "dark moods" and "controlling" behavior. Billy, the golden boy, played the victim card perfectly, while Sarah remained blind to his lies. Was I losing my mind, or was everyone else?

Everything exploded when Billy claimed I pushed him down a flight of stairs. I was arrested, my reputation ruined, and Sarah got a restraining order against me. My life had completely shattered. But that's when I decided, enough is enough. I was going to prove my innocence, and expose Billy for the fraud he truly was, even if it meant losing everything – including Sarah.

1

The old wrench slipped in Jake Sullivan's grease-stained hand.

He tightened his grip, gave one last torque, and the bolt finally gave.

He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm, leaving another dark smudge on his skin.

The garage was quiet, just the hum of the fluorescent lights and the distant clank of tools from the other bay.

He'd finished early. Business was slow.

He thought about Sarah. His fiancée. They were supposed to pick out wedding invitations tonight.

A knot formed in his stomach. Something felt off lately.

He decided to head home early. Maybe surprise her.

He clocked out, the office quiet as he passed through. The manager, Henderson, just nodded from his desk, buried in paperwork.

Jake walked out into the fading Montana sun. The air was crisp, carrying the scent of pine from the nearby national forest.

His truck started with a familiar rumble. He pulled onto the main road, heading towards the small house they shared on the edge of town.

He pulled into the driveway. Sarah's car was there. Good.

He grabbed the small bouquet of wildflowers he'd picked from the side of the road on his way to work that morning. He'd forgotten to give them to her.

He walked up to the porch, his boots quiet on the wooden planks.

He reached for unresponsive doorknob. Unlocked. Strange. Sarah always locked the door.

He pushed it open slowly.

The air inside was thick, heavy. Quiet. Too quiet.

"Sarah?" he called out, his voice a low rumble.

No answer.

He walked into the living room.

And then he saw them.

Sarah was on the couch.

She was holding a young man. Billy Rivers.

Billy was shirtless. His back was to Jake, smooth and pale.

Sarah's arms were around him, her head resting on his shoulder. She was murmuring something soft, comforting.

Billy's hand was on her leg, just above the knee.

Jake stopped dead. The wildflowers dropped from his hand, scattering on the worn wooden floor.

The scene burned into his eyes. The intimacy. The casual touch.

His heart hammered against his ribs. A cold dread washed over him.

Sarah's head snapped up. Her eyes, usually so warm, widened in shock.

"Jake! You're home early."

Her voice was thin, strained.

Billy turned, a startled look on his boyish face. He quickly pulled away from Sarah, grabbing for a t-shirt draped over the back of the couch.

"What the hell is this, Sarah?" Jake's voice was flat, devoid of emotion. He couldn't feel anything but a growing coldness.

Sarah stood up, her hands fluttering nervously.

"Jake, it's not what it looks like. Billy... Billy was just upset. I was comforting him."

Billy, now with his shirt hastily pulled on, looked down at his feet. He looked young, vulnerable.

Jake's eyes stayed on Sarah. "Comforting him? Half-naked on our couch?"

"He was hot. He took his shirt off earlier. He's been having a really hard time, Jake."

Sarah's eyes pleaded with him.

"A hard time about what?" Jake's gaze flickered to Billy, then back to Sarah. He felt a tremor in his hands and clenched them into fists.

Sarah took a deep breath. "You remember the accident? Two months ago?"

Jake nodded slowly. How could he forget? Sarah, a volunteer firefighter, had been responding to a call. A logging truck had lost control on a wet road. Her small car was crushed. She'd almost bled out.

"Billy was the EMT on scene," Sarah continued, her voice hushed. "He was the first one there. I was losing so much blood, Jake. They couldn't get a line in fast enough at the hospital. Billy... Billy has my blood type. He donated directly. He saved my life."

Her eyes welled up. "I owe him everything."

Jake looked at Billy. The kid still wouldn't meet his eyes. So this was the hero.

A past connection, a debt. It hung in the air between them, heavy and suffocating.

Jake felt a surge of something complex. Gratitude, yes, for this young man saving Sarah. But also a deep, gut-wrenching unease. The scene on the couch. Sarah's defense. The kid's presence.

He felt a wave of nausea. The image of them together, so close. It wouldn't leave his mind.

He wanted to shout, to break something. But his Ranger training kicked in. Control. Assess.

He looked around the small living room. Their living room. Pictures of them on the mantelpiece. A shared life. Now, it felt tainted.

He swallowed hard. "Okay. He saved your life. I get that. I'm grateful for that, Billy." He forced the words out.

Billy finally looked up, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. "Just did my job."

"But this..." Jake gestured vaguely at the couch, at the space between them. "This doesn't feel right, Sarah."

His chest ached. He felt a hollowness spread through him. He was overwhelmed by a storm of emotions: confusion, betrayal, anger, and a profound sadness.

The discovery was like a physical blow. His fiancée, the woman he was going to marry, holding another man.

The explanation, the life debt, it twisted things, made it complicated. But it didn't erase the image.

Billy Rivers. Younger. An EMT. Now, apparently, a permanent fixture in their lives due to this debt.

Jake watched Billy. The kid had a way of looking unassuming, almost innocent. But Jake, trained to spot threats, felt a prickle of warning. There was something in the way Billy glanced at Sarah when he thought Jake wasn't looking.

Jake felt a cold knot of anger in his gut. He tried to push it down. He had to stay calm, think this through.

He remembered his service. The tight spots, the betrayals he'd witnessed, the ones he'd endured. This felt like a different kind of war, one fought in the quiet of his own home.

He focused on breathing, trying to keep his voice even.

Sarah stepped closer to him, her hand reaching out. "Jake, please. Billy's an orphan. His parents died a few years back. He has no one. After the accident, after what he did for me... I feel responsible for him. He's like a brother to me."

A brother. Jake's jaw tightened. The way she was holding him wasn't sisterly.

"He's been through so much," Sarah pressed on, her voice trembling. "He lost his job recently. He has nowhere to go."

Her eyes were wide, appealing. "I was thinking... we have the spare room. He could stay with us. Just for a little while. Until he gets back on his feet."

Jake stared at her. The words hit him like a punch. Move in? With them?

"You want him to live here?" His voice was quiet, dangerously so.

"Just until he sorts things out," Sarah pleaded. "He needs support, Jake. We can give him that. After what he did for me... it's the least we can do."

She framed it as an act of compassion, a repayment of an immense debt. But Jake saw something else. He saw Billy insinuating himself into their lives, into their home.

He saw Sarah, blinded by guilt and gratitude, unable to see the danger.

Jake stepped back, away from Sarah's touch.

"No." The word was final.

"Sarah, I understand you feel indebted. I am too. He saved your life. But him moving in here, with us? That's not happening."

He looked at Billy, who was watching them, his expression carefully neutral.

"You need to find somewhere else, Billy."

Sarah gasped. "Jake! How can you be so heartless? After everything?"

"Heartless?" Jake's control was fraying. "I come home to find my fiancée wrapped around another man on our couch, and I'm heartless for not wanting him to move in?"

His voice rose, louder than he intended. "There are boundaries, Sarah. This crosses them. All of them."

He felt the ground shifting beneath him. The simple, stable life he'd craved after the army, the life he thought he was building with Sarah, was crumbling.

He saw the hurt in Sarah's eyes, but underneath it, a stubborn resolve. She truly believed she was doing the right thing.

And in that moment, Jake knew this was just the beginning of a much larger fight.

Continue Reading

Other books by Madel Cerda

More
Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Romance

4.7

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

The Ex-Fiancé You Can't Afford To Lose

The Ex-Fiancé You Can't Afford To Lose

Modern

5.0

I stood in the ballroom with a diamond ring in my pocket, waiting to be crowned King of the empire I had built from the ground up. Instead, the woman I loved walked to the microphone and signed my death warrant with a smile. Serena didn't announce our engagement. She announced that Luca Moretti—an incompetent associate I'd almost fired three times—was the new Underboss and her partner in life. Then, she kissed him. Deep and possessive, right in front of the entire Commission. My heart didn't break; it simply stopped. Luca smirked at me, wearing a suit that was too tight, while Serena looked at me with cold, dead eyes. "Dante is the old guard," she told the crowd, dismissing me like a waiter. "We are moving in a new direction." They stripped me of my title. They humiliated me on live television. They thought they had taken my crown. But they forgot one crucial detail. I was the Architect. I had built the encrypted logistics system that kept the FBI in the dark. A system that required my specific biometric code every morning to function. I didn't make a scene. I didn't scream. I simply placed the ring on a waiter's tray and walked out into the night. Forty-eight hours later, the Vitiello empire was in a freefall. The accounts were frozen. The shipments were flagged. My phone buzzed. It was Serena. "Dante," she panicked, her voice trembling. "Fix it. Now." I took a sip of my espresso and smiled at the chaos on the news. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Serena. You fired the only pilot who knows how to fly the plane."

The Real Boss Was His Neglected Wife

The Real Boss Was His Neglected Wife

Mafia

5.0

I was putting my signature on the invoice for the Gulfstream G650 when my husband snatched the boarding pass from the folder and handed it to his mistress. "You're taking the commercial flight out of JFK," Jackson said, daring me to challenge him in front of his security detail. "Amber needs the privacy. She gets air sick." I looked down at the crumpled ticket he had slid to me. Economy. Middle seat. Three layovers. Then I looked at the sixty-million-dollar bird I had leased specifically so his crime family wouldn't get slaughtered on the highway by their rivals. "Amber is fragile," he whispered, his breath smelling of the expensive scotch I bought. "She carries the future. You just carry the checkbook." My mother-in-law was already on board, sipping the vintage Dom Pérignon I had curated, refusing to look at me. They treated me like a glorified ATM with a medical degree. They forgot that five years ago, when the Feds froze everything, I was the one who bought their lives with a five-million-dollar tribute. They forgot that the hand that writes the checks can also close the account. As the engines roared to life, leaving me stranded on the tarmac, I didn't cry. Surgeons don't cry over dead bodies. I pulled out my phone and cancelled the Uber he had called for me. I wasn't going to the airport. I was going to the safe to retrieve the "Blood Contract." The five million dollars wasn't a gift. It was a callable loan. And the collateral was everything. I dialed my lawyer. "Burn it to the ground."

You'll also like

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Madel Cerda
4.7

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Framed by the Man Who Saved Her Framed by the Man Who Saved Her Madel Cerda Modern
“I was living the American dream with Sarah. A small house, a steady job at the garage, and a wedding on the horizon. Life in our Montana town was simple, predictable – until Billy Rivers walked in. One afternoon, I came home early with a bouquet of wildflowers, only to find Sarah on the couch, wrapped around a shirtless Billy. She claimed he was just upset, that she was comforting him, but the way he looked at her... it was more than just a friendly hug. Then Sarah dropped the bomb: Billy was the EMT who saved her life after a logging truck nearly killed her. He donated blood directly, becoming her "hero," her "lifesaver." Now, he was down on his luck, and she insisted he move in with us. My gut screamed, but Sarah accused me of being jealous and heartless. Soon, the town turned against me, whispering about my "dark moods" and "controlling" behavior. Billy, the golden boy, played the victim card perfectly, while Sarah remained blind to his lies. Was I losing my mind, or was everyone else? Everything exploded when Billy claimed I pushed him down a flight of stairs. I was arrested, my reputation ruined, and Sarah got a restraining order against me. My life had completely shattered. But that's when I decided, enough is enough. I was going to prove my innocence, and expose Billy for the fraud he truly was, even if it meant losing everything – including Sarah.”
1

Chapter 1 1

23/05/2025

2

Chapter 2 2

23/05/2025

3

Chapter 3 3

23/05/2025

4

Chapter 4 4

23/05/2025

5

Chapter 5 5

23/05/2025

6

Chapter 6 6

23/05/2025

7

Chapter 7 7

23/05/2025

8

Chapter 8 8

23/05/2025

9

Chapter 9 9

23/05/2025

10

Chapter 10 10

23/05/2025