Best Modern Novels

I spent ten years locked in an asylum, heavily sedated, until my wealthy family dragged me back to their Hamptons estate. I pretended to be a brain-damaged lunatic to survive. They didn't bring me back out of love. The Holden family was bleeding money, and they desperately needed me dead to inherit my massive trust fund shares. My step-cousin Cristian was the mastermind behind the purge. First, he tried to quietly murder our billionaire grandfather with a mutated toxic orchid. Then, he ordered a guard to drop a deadly Gaboon viper into my bedroom in the dead of night. My father was a spineless coward, my mother was drugged into a stupor by the family doctor, and my brother was a crippled addict. They all stood by as I was thrown into the freezing mud, treated like garbage. "She is a disgrace to this family! Get her back to the asylum immediately!" My uncle roared, completely unaware that my brain was forged in a decade of clandestine warfare. But the strangest part wasn't my hidden combat skills. It was that my blood relatives could suddenly hear my cold, tactical inner thoughts. Through my silent, telepathic broadcasts, I exposed Cristian's poison to my grandfather, woke my mother from her chemical haze, and turned my paralyzed brother into a ruthless, blood-soaked protector. Still playing the shivering, crazy girl, I smiled in the dark. The real war had just begun.

Seraphina, a broke single mother of triplets, snuck into a billionaire's charity gala just for the free food, desperate to fund her daughter's urgent heart surgery. But her genius five-year-old son secretly hacked the gala's raffle system, thrusting them directly under the spotlight. The untouchable billionaire host, Donovan Vance, froze when he saw the star-shaped birthmark on her wrist—the exact same mark from a dark hotel room five years ago. Cornered, Seraphina was forced into a five-million-dollar marriage contract to appease Donovan's dying father and secure his corporate empire. She swallowed her pride, took the money to save her daughter, and moved into the penthouse. But Donovan's obsessive childhood friend, Gwendolyn, immediately targeted her. She humiliated Seraphina for her poverty and violently grabbed her in the foyer. "I dare you to get a DNA test. When the world finds out they're not his, he'll throw you into the street himself!" Gwendolyn's vicious threat made Seraphina's blood run cold. She was suffocating in sheer panic. She didn't even know if Donovan was actually the father. If a test proved he wasn't, she would be destroyed, and her daughter would lose her only lifeline. But to her absolute horror, Donovan's father overheard the threat and ordered a legally binding paternity test that very day to permanently silence all doubts. With the medical team arriving and nowhere left to run, the terrifying secret Seraphina had buried for five years was about to be dragged into the light.

At my million-dollar wedding to the Hoffman heir, the priest was interrupted by a ringing phone. My groom, Elijah, didn't silence it. He answered it right at the altar, yanked his arm from my grasp, and walked out because his "true love" Jalyn needed him. I was left standing alone in front of three hundred elite guests, blinded by mocking camera flashes. My own mother rolled her eyes in disgust, later threatening to freeze my trust fund and sell me to a notorious playboy to recoup her losses. Elijah even had the nerve to call me, demanding I take the blame for the canceled wedding to save his PR, while live news feeds showed him cradling a fragile Jalyn in the hospital. I had spent two years bending over backward to be his perfect bride, only to be discarded like trash. What made it sicker was finding out that Jalyn's sudden "medical emergency" was actually a ruptured cyst caused by having vigorous sex with Elijah right before he walked down the aisle. I refused to let them destroy me. Kicking off my six-inch heels, I stepped down from the altar and walked straight to the back row where Cristian Lowe sat. He was the ruthless iceberg of Wall Street and Elijah's most terrifying rival. I looked up at his sharp jawline and asked the craziest question of my life. "Will you marry me?" He stood up, his dark eyes locking onto mine. "As you wish."

I saw him first. I knew him first. I loved him first, but here he is being introduced to me as my new step-dad. How could this happen? How could he end up married to my mother, the one person I can't possibly steal him from and yet... Now that I'm no longer an eighteen year old child and he isn't my teacher, lines are beginning to cross. What do I possibly do with this desire and guilt that keeps overlapping and why is it when I try my best to keep my distance he keeps pulling me in? It feels so wrong and yet it feels so right, will I be able to ignore this longing or will I want him to hold me tight?

On the eve of my glamorous Waldorf Astoria wedding, I went to the penthouse to surprise my fiancé, Hugh, wearing my late mother's heirloom pearls. Instead, I heard my stepsister's familiar laugh and caught them tangled together on the sofa. Through the cracked door, I heard Hugh slur that he was only marrying me for my family's financial backing. "As soon as I secure my inheritance, she's the first thing I'm getting rid of," he promised her. Floy giggled and asked for my mother's pearl necklace, my only legacy. Hugh agreed without hesitation, mocking my dead mother's naivety and my desperate dreams of building a family. Every sweet word he had ever said was a lie, a knife he had been patiently sliding between my ribs for years. They planned to strip me of everything the moment I signed the prenup. I didn't cry or scream. The crushing weight of their betrayal hollowed me out, leaving behind a terrifying, absolute calm. Why should I be the one to lose everything while they stole my future and insulted my mother's memory? I calmly walked down the hall, set the prenuptial agreement on fire, and vanished into the rainy night. If Hugh wanted to play dirty for the Maxwell empire, I would play for keeps. Using a forgotten, century-old family covenant, I was going to marry Hugh's uncle-the comatose, paralyzed war hero, Fleet Maxwell. I would return not as a naive bride, but as their worst nightmare: his aunt, and the new lady of the house.

For five years, I was the flawless wife to the heir of the De Luca empire, securing billion-dollar acquisitions to prove my worth. But my husband, Alessandro, still paraded his mistress in our home, publicly humiliating me as a "cold spreadsheet" while she sneered in triumph. It didn't stop at infidelity. When I dared to cut off her credit cards, Alessandro decided to teach me a lesson. He allowed his mistress to secretly file down the metal clasp on my horse's saddle right before a massive public equestrian event. My leg was completely shattered in a horrific, agonizing fall in front of hundreds of elite guests. While I lay bleeding in the dirt, my husband didn't even glance my way. Instead, he rushed to hold his mistress, shielding her eyes from the gruesome sight. Later, pretending to be unconscious in the infirmary, I overheard him ordering his guards. "Get rid of the saddle. It was just a lesson to remind her who's in charge." He didn't just want me humiliated; he wanted me crippled and broken. As the sterile smell of the hospital hit me, a horrifying realization set in—I was two weeks late. I was pregnant with his child. The thought of my baby growing up in this ruthless, toxic family made my blood run cold, and the last spark of my love turned into absolute hatred. The obedient wife died on that dirt track. I quietly contacted his family's biggest rival and activated my secret scorched-earth protocol. It was time to burn his empire to the ground.

In Evelyn Whitmore's heart, Annelise Whitmore had never been the imposter who stole her life. She had always been the sister who pulled her out of hell. Annelise had taught her how to carry herself, had stood up for her when no one else would. When Evelyn's husband, Nathan Langford went bankrupt and their life fell apart, Annelise was the one who stepped in without hesitation, helping them through it all. It wasn't until the day Nathan got hurt that everything shattered. Evelyn saw it with her own eyes. He had Annelise pinned against the wall, his voice breaking. "You said your sister was pitiful and made me marry her, but what about me? Annie, let's be together again, okay?" Tears streamed down Annelise's face. "I can't. I already took her place. I can't take her marriage too." Outside the door, Evelyn trembled all over. So her husband and her sister had been in love all along. She signed the divorce papers and chose to let them be together. But Nathan chased her across miles, grabbing her hand and begging her to come back.

Ciel Miller opened her eyes to the blinding lights of a Manhattan ballroom, realizing she had been reborn on the exact night her life was ruined. On the stage, the billionaire patriarch of the Chavez family was proudly announcing her engagement to his arrogant grandson, Harry. In her past life, Ciel had blindly accepted his outstretched hand. That single step plunged her into a suffocating marriage filled with public humiliation and psychological torture, slowly draining her life away until she died. Harry had treated her like a pathetic stray dog, flaunting his absolute ownership while systematically destroying her. Now, as the polite applause echoed, Harry extended his hand with a sickening smirk, waiting for her to lower her head and submit. Instead, Ciel stood perfectly rigid and publicly rejected him in front of the entire New York elite. Harry's face drained of color, while his family quickly mocked her. "This is a cheap, embarrassing trick to get his attention," his sister sneered. Harry's arrogant smirk crawled back. He fully believed she was just throwing a childish tantrum to make him jealous, convinced she was absolutely nothing without his wealth and status. But Ciel looked at the man who had killed her in her past life with freezing disgust. Then, she turned to the powerful patriarch and dropped a bombshell that left the entire ballroom gasping for air. "If the family insists on taking care of me, I will marry into the Chavez family." "But I want to marry the comatose war hero. I want to marry General Deacon Chavez." She would rather spend the rest of her life with a "vegetable" than wake up next to a monster.

Valerie Ashford, a girl who had just turned twenty-one, was introduced by her father to his business associates at a grand party, where she met a frightening, cold-blooded man. That man was none other than her father's business partner, the CEO of a major corporation. He was taken with Valerie and had wanted her from the moment he first laid eyes on her. For Rovano Morvane, whatever he desired was absolute and he had to have it, even by the worst means possible. That night Valerie vanished without a trace and Rovano became the prime suspect, yet the Ashford family could not prove their allegations. "P-please, I don't want to die, sir..." Valerie whispered so softly that Rovano had to bend down even lower. "Didn't you just say you didn't care whether you were kidnapped or not? So shut your mouth." Rovano ordered. Cold, Valerie felt the other side of the folding knife pressed against her cheek. Rovano was going to mark Valerie. It felt like something was missing if Rovano didn't take out his psychopathic urges on someone. And this time, for the first time, he wanted a girl: Valerie Ashford. Would Valerie's life end here?

For three long years, my husband Richard has refused to touch me. All because of one tragic accident that stole our three-month-old baby... an accident that wasn't even my fault. I tried everything to win him back. I begged, I cried, I seduced. Nothing worked. Desperate and burning with unmet desire, I found myself drawn to my new boss, Teddy. With one smoldering look, he awakens the fire I thought had died inside me. I crave him. I need him. But I'm still married... and I still love Richard with all my heart. Then came the business trip that shattered everything. In a single night, I discovered Richard's secret-he's been cheating on me all along. Rage and years of pent-up hunger collided. That night, I finally unleashed. But after the trip what becomes of me, my husband and my boss, even his lover.

Warning! 18 and above, contains explicit sexual content to invade your lustful desires. This is unfiltered, it is forbidden, it's stories that will keep you up at night. ****************** "Ever had sex before?" he asks as he begins to take off his pants. There's a huge bulge in his boxer already. "Ye..yes," I stutter. He closes the distance between us and grabs my right boob in his palm. "Good, cause i'm going to fuck your little cunt till you beg me to stop." I clench my thighs to ease the ache building up down there. "Bend over, princess." ************************* This collection of erotica contains BDSM, REVERSE HAREM, SEXUAL TERMS YOU DIDN'T KNOW EVEN EXISTED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED This is a collection of every lustful desires you've ever had. Grab a wine and a pleasure toy, YOU WILL NEED IT!

To keep her art scholarship, Vesper had to complete a life-size woodcarving for her final project. But her randomly assigned model was Slade Forrester, the arrogant basketball captain who had shattered her grandfather's priceless antique carving tools freshman year without a single apology. When Vesper blackmailed him with a ten-thousand-dollar property damage claim to force him into the studio, Slade mercilessly turned the tables. "I'll be your model, but you're going to do something for me in return." He demanded she carve a custom piece to help him woo a girl who hated his guts, and forced Vesper to act as his personal spy. The target turned out to be Vesper's own roommate. To make matters worse, Slade caught onto Vesper's terrifyingly deep, secret crush on his polite roommate, Julian. He ruthlessly weaponized her anxiety, mocking her stuttering panic and trapping her in a twisted mutual-blackmail deal that left her completely suffocated. Exhausted, humiliated, and desperate to escape this nightmare, Vesper logged onto the university portal at 2 AM to register for a quiet online elective where she wouldn't have to see anyone. But the system lagged, locking her out of every normal class and leaving only one open seat in a brutal varsity physical conditioning course. With her required credits and scholarship on the line, she had absolutely no choice but to hit register. Then the syllabus loaded on her screen. The Teaching Assistant for the class was Slade Forrester.

To pay for her father's life support, Haleigh sold herself into a marriage with Fabian Blackburn, a ruthless billionaire in a deep coma. But on her wedding day, she caught her boyfriend cheating with her stepsister, laughing about how they would steal the inheritance the second Fabian stopped breathing. Cornered and desperate, Haleigh secretly underwent IVF using her comatose husband's frozen sperm to secure the family trust. Weeks later, a miracle happened. Fabian woke up. But instead of gratitude, he treated her like trash. He threw annulment papers at her face, completely disgusted by the arranged marriage. "If you try any dirty tricks to get pregnant, I will personally drag you to a clinic and have that bastard scraped out of you." Terrified, Haleigh hid her positive pregnancy test and desperately tried to hack her way to enough cash to escape. But while using his computer, she accidentally opened a highly classified folder. Inside was a medical file and a photo of a severely disabled girl who looked exactly like Fabian. Before she could process it, Fabian walked in. Seeing the screen, his cold mask shattered into pure, unhinged madness. He lunged across the room, lifting her off the floor by her throat, completely ignoring her desperate gasps for air. "Lock her in the basement," he roared to his guards. "No food. No water." Curled on the freezing concrete, clutching her newly pregnant belly, Haleigh didn't understand what she had just seen that turned him into a murderous monster. But she knew one thing: if she didn't escape this terrifying estate, both she and his unborn heir would die in the dark.

I handed my terminal brain cancer diagnosis to my billionaire husband, hoping for a shred of comfort. Instead, he sneered, accused me of faking it for a better divorce settlement, and told me to die quickly. Heartbroken, I turned to my sister, a top surgeon, who promised to save my life. But on the operating table, my soul was ripped from my body as I watched her inject me with a lethal drug. She didn't just murder me. She harvested my organs, forged my medical records to claim I was a hysterical liar who ran away, and went straight to my penthouse to take my place. She looked at my blank organ donation consent form and smiled. "Don't worry, he'll sign." And he did. My husband welcomed her into our bed and announced their grand wedding, while my own mother celebrated my disappearance as a chance to secure his wealth. I hovered in the air, screaming silently. Why did my own flesh and blood slaughter me to steal my life? Why did the man I loved hate me so much that he'd happily marry my killer? As my husband stood by the window, daring my runaway self to show up at their wedding, my spectral heart turned to stone. I decided not to fade away. I would stay right here as a ghost, and watch their monstrous charade burn to the ground.

They say you can't have it all. I'm about to prove them wrong-or destroy myself trying. When my struggling mother married billionaire Richard Stone, I thought I was gaining a family. Instead, I found three stepbrothers who became my obsession, my downfall, and my salvation. Dominic, the eldest, cold and commanding, who kisses me like he's claiming his kingdom and looks at me like I'm the only thing he can't control. Julian, the charming playboy who hides a vulnerable soul beneath his perfect smile, making me feel like I'm the only woman he's ever truly seen. Asher, the brooding artist who paints me like I'm his muse and touches me like I'm his masterpiece, seeing parts of my soul I didn't know existed. They're forbidden. They're dangerous. They're everything I shouldn't want. But when I discover my father didn't die by suicide that he was murdered by the very man who now calls himself my stepfather, these three powerful men becomes my unlikely allies. First it was a forbidden attraction, now it's an arrangement that defies every rule. The rules are simple: I'll give each of them a chance. I'll take everything they offer. And in the end, I'll have to make the hardest decision of my life: Choose one of them. Choose all of them. Or choose myself.

Four years ago, Madelynn accepted money from Caiden's family and vanished. She thought it was for the best-he would remain the untouchable heir while she faced her tough life alone. When they met again, Caiden humiliated her in public, yet appeared when she was cornered by a difficult client, pulling her back into his life. He forced her to stay as his lover, using her mother's medical bills as leverage, whispering, "What you owe me... you'll repay the same way." Madelynn believed he despised her. Only after the accident, when he ran toward her before the explosion, did she understand-he never let go.

Love sometimes arrived when people least expected it, and often through the last person they would've imagined. At forty years old, Daniel lived a life built around routine. His days revolved around managing the family company as its CEO while raising his three children alone. After losing his wife, grief slowly consumed him and turned him into a distant, guarded man over the years. Meanwhile, Deanna lived an ordinary life. She worked part-time while studying at the School of the Arts, determined to achieve her dream of becoming an opera singer. With only one year left before graduation, her life suddenly changed when her friend Harry came to her in desperation and begged for help. An old family tradition stood in Harry's way and prevented him from marrying his pregnant girlfriend. According to the family's rules, Daniel, his older brother, had to marry first. In order to help Harry out of the situation, Daniel and Deanna agreed to fake a relationship and enter a marriage of convenience. They were complete opposites, yet the attraction between them slowly became impossible to ignore. Daniel found the warmth and comfort that had long disappeared from his life, while Deanna experienced love again after suffering through a painful breakup. For the first time in years, Daniel finally had a chance to rebuild the family he thought he'd lost forever. However, not everyone wanted to see them together. Hidden motives, outside interference, and countless schemes constantly threatened to drive them apart. Their journey wasn't easy. Aside from dealing with people determined to complicate their relationship, they also had to confront their own fears and insecurities. A fifteen-year age gap was never going to be simple to overcome. Still, the heart followed its own path, and love rarely listened to reason.

I placed the positive pregnancy test on the black marble island, expecting at least a flicker of emotion from my billionaire husband. Instead, his assistant dropped a thick divorce agreement right on top of it. "Laelia is back in New York," Alistair said, his eyes completely dead. "This two-year game is over. Get rid of it." He ordered his private security to book an abortion clinic for that very night. To protect my unborn child, I fled through a freezing maintenance shaft and threw myself off a snowy cliff into a rocky ravine. When I woke up battered and bruised in the hospital, I faked a miscarriage, hoping he would finally let me go. Instead of an ounce of pity, he choked me, called me a vile creature, and had his guards throw me out into a deadly Manhattan blizzard in nothing but a thin hospital gown. As the hypothermia set in, I remembered my father jumping off a Wall Street high-rise, driven to bankruptcy by the very man who just left me and his own blood to freeze to death. For two years, I had played the submissive stand-in wife, mapping out every vulnerability in his empire, but I never expected him to be this ruthless. Just as I was about to lose consciousness in the snow, a black Maybach skidded to a halt in front of me. Inside sat Silas Rhodes, Alistair's biggest corporate rival. I dragged my battered body up and offered him the ultimate weapon to burn my ex-husband's empire to the ground.

HOLY SHIT! My father's best friend had his face buried in between my legs. I threw my head back against the headrest, fisting his hair in my palms but it only urged him to go faster. His breath was warm against my clit and just when I thought I couldn't get enough, he hummed, the vibration sending intense waves of pleasure through me. "Oh my God," this was so wrong yet my body betrayed me, leaning closer into his touch. ~~ Diane Ashford thought four years in Paris had killed the forbidden feelings she had for Damon Pierce. But returning to New York brings the past rushing back. Damon is her father's best friend, her protector, and the man who makes every part of her body ache for him. Now working as his assistant, Diane must face desire, secrets, and family lies that could destroy them. Damon is powerful, possessive, and impossible to resist. Can their forbidden love survive the truth or will it ruin them both?

Rose was so naive that she didn't know Jonah, her ex-fiancé, was cheating on her even before her wedding day. On the night before her wedding, she caught him cheating on her with the last person she would ever expect him to be with, Rebecca. Out of anger and spite, she cursed at them and left, then went and got herself drunk and made out with a mafia don, who, oblivious to her, was her fiancé's stepbrother and his boss. On the day of the wedding, she stormed in and canceled it, calling Jonah out. After the embarrassment, Jonah vowed to make her life miserable. She tried to get a job, but it was almost impossible because of the influence Jonah had. So she went to the greatest mafia don that her friend Lucy recommended to her. When she went to ask for his help, the don turned out to be the mysterious man who had been showing interest in her, but she had kept declining. Unbeknownst to her, he was her ex-fiancé's boss and stepbrother. She asked for his help, and he offered it, of course, but on one condition.that she would be his mistress !.

Christa discovered her adopted daughter Evelyn was sneaking around with a street thug named Dante. When she furiously confronted her, Evelyn squeezed out a few tears and played the tragic, abused orphan. "Mom is so cruel to me, I just want someone to love me," Evelyn cried to the men of the house, who instantly took her side. Christa didn't realize her anger only gave the girl the perfect victim card. Evelyn manipulated the family's guilt to drain their wealth and orchestrate a massive corporate fraud. When the authorities closed in, Evelyn let Christa's eldest daughter Julianna take the fall, sending her to federal prison. The Stephenson family went completely bankrupt. Christa's husband Grant, crushed by the betrayal and debt, jumped off a Manhattan skyscraper. Until her family was entirely destroyed, Christa couldn't understand. They had given the orphan a home, a trust fund, and endless love. Why did Evelyn treat them like easy marks? Why did she use their kindness as a weapon to tear them apart? Opening her eyes again, Christa saw the heavy velvet drapes letting in the pale morning light. She was back seven years ago, on the exact day she first caught Evelyn texting that thug. This time, Christa wouldn't scream or fight. She would cut off the money, drop the rules, and watch the parasite dig her own grave.

Isabella thought she had the perfect life as the wealthy Conrad family heiress, complete with a loving childhood sweetheart. Until she woke up drugged in a hotel bed, blinded by paparazzi flashes, as her fiancé pointed a shaking finger at her, screaming that she had drugged and seduced him. "She threatened to ruin Kaylie if I didn't sleep with her!" he yelled to the cameras. Kaylie, the newly discovered biological daughter, stood in the doorway weeping perfectly. Within hours, Isabella's adoptive father publicly severed all ties, froze her assets, and kicked her out into a violent thunderstorm. Fleeing the city, her car's brakes suddenly failed. As Isabella lay dying in the crushed metal of her Porsche, Kaylie strolled up with a pristine umbrella and a genuine smile. "The mechanic was quite expensive, but cutting the brake lines was worth every penny," Kaylie laughed. Isabella coughed up blood, her heart turning to ice. Her twenty years of family, love, and loyalty had been nothing but a cruel joke, destroyed by a calculated frame-up. She died suffocating on absolute betrayal and unadulterated hatred. Then, she gasped for air. She wasn't dead. She was sitting in the driver's seat of her car, staring at her flawless reflection in the rearview mirror. It was exactly four years ago—the day the real heiress first arrived. A chilling smirk curled the corner of Isabella's mouth. This time, she was going to rip their lives apart from the inside out.

When Christina woke up in the hospital after a severe car crash, her brain didn't just recover—it mutated. She was suddenly cursed with an agonizing, high-speed hyper-memory. The first thing her new mind processed was the pristine Army uniform of her fiancé, Major Burke, and the hand of her stepsister, Corrina, casually stroking his shoulder. Every lie, every gaslighting sigh, and every secret glance between them over the past three years flashed before her eyes with merciless clarity. Christina immediately called off the engagement, demanding only one thing back: her late mother's old silver pendant. "A broken pendant? Are you really making a scene over that piece of trash?" Corrina scoffed. Burke refused to return it, letting his spoiled sister Brielle steal it to wear as a trophy. When Christina finally forced them to hand it over under the threat of a military scandal, the metal was covered in deep, ugly scratches. The arrogant Clark family treated her like a pathetic, hallucinating widow clinging to a worthless dollar-store trinket. They had no idea what they had actually been holding. Alone in her apartment, Christina pressed a drop of her blood into the pendant's scratched grooves. A blue light flared, syncing instantly with her neural implant to unlock the "Ghost Protocol"—a top-secret military archive that also held a hidden clue about her supposedly dead husband. Looking at the unimaginable power now downloaded directly into her brain, Christina knew the Clarks hadn't just thrown her away. They had handed her the world.

My mother was dying and desperately needed a half-million-dollar deposit for an experimental heart surgery by tomorrow. I swallowed my pride and begged my wealthy husband, Garrick, to save her life. Instead of helping, he laughed coldly and threw a thick stack of divorce papers right in my face. "A hen that can't lay eggs gets slaughtered," he sneered, ruthlessly poking my flat stomach. He revealed that his secretary, my supposed friend Lacey, was already pregnant with his heir. To him, our three years of marriage was just a business transaction, and now that my family was bankrupt, I was nothing but damaged goods. He flicked a humiliating five-thousand-dollar check at me as his final act of charity, then locked me out of our townhouse into the freezing, pouring rain. I had spent years enduring agonizing hormone treatments for a fertility issue that wasn't even my fault, only to be discarded like trash when I needed him the most. Was my dignity, my absolute devotion, and my mother's life really worth nothing to him? Driven by pure, reckless desperation, I threw myself directly into the path of a moving Rolls-Royce Phantom on Fifth Avenue. It belonged to Holden Tillman, the ruthless patriarch of the Tillman empire—and the uncle Garrick lived in absolute terror of. I thought I was walking into my death, but instead, I became his fiancée, ready to make Garrick and Lacey pay for every tear I shed.