Nine Years Gone

Nine Years Gone

Gavin

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For nine years, I poured every ounce of my sweat and soul into building a future. As a carpenter, I paid for Chloe's law school, seeing her as the only family I had since taking her in as a teen. My dream, a new house-our home-was finally within reach. But the moment I burst through the door, beaming after closing on the house, Chloe wasn' t smiling. She held out her hand, the silver ring I'd given her resting in her palm. "I can' t, Leo," she declared, her voice flat, "We need to end this." My heart shattered. Nine years of sacrifice, reduced to a cold business transaction. "We were partners in survival," she stated, eyes cold, "My life is starting now. You' re not compatible." Then I saw it: a luxury Swiss watch for Julian, her wealthy new mentor. She didn't even know my shirt size; she saw my calluses, not me. The bitter truth crashed down. My promise to her, that she would be my only family, had become a cage of my own making. How could the person I' d given everything to betray me so utterly? Nine years felt like a devastating lie. As I sat in the desolate apartment, I remembered a crumpled business card, long ignored. Hollis Investigations. They' d been searching for my biological parents. It was time to find out. I picked up the phone.

Introduction

For nine years, I poured every ounce of my sweat and soul into building a future. As a carpenter, I paid for Chloe's law school, seeing her as the only family I had since taking her in as a teen. My dream, a new house-our home-was finally within reach.

But the moment I burst through the door, beaming after closing on the house, Chloe wasn' t smiling. She held out her hand, the silver ring I'd given her resting in her palm. "I can' t, Leo," she declared, her voice flat, "We need to end this."

My heart shattered. Nine years of sacrifice, reduced to a cold business transaction. "We were partners in survival," she stated, eyes cold, "My life is starting now. You' re not compatible." Then I saw it: a luxury Swiss watch for Julian, her wealthy new mentor. She didn't even know my shirt size; she saw my calluses, not me.

The bitter truth crashed down. My promise to her, that she would be my only family, had become a cage of my own making. How could the person I' d given everything to betray me so utterly? Nine years felt like a devastating lie.

As I sat in the desolate apartment, I remembered a crumpled business card, long ignored. Hollis Investigations. They' d been searching for my biological parents. It was time to find out. I picked up the phone.

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Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

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I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

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Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Gavin
4.5

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

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