Claimed by My Ex's Stepbrother
"IS IT TRUE?" Grayson's voice thundered through the room.
"Yes!" Tessa said softly. "Yes it is!"
"So you've been cheating on me, haven't you?" He spat.
Her hands trembled. "No, I swear, it's not like that."
He grabbed her arm, his grip bruising her wrist as she squealed in pain.
"Then whose baby are you carrying, huh?" His voice was ice cold.
Tessa shivered, tears blurring her vision.
"I don't know."
**********
Pregnant with the powerful Roman Blackwood's child, while engaged to his unstable stepbrother - Tessa Quinn becomes the key to a ruthless inheritance war where love has no place.
As secrets unravel and danger closes in, Tessa must protect her unborn child while trapped between love, vengeance, and men who want to own her fate.
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Chapter 1
The scent of antiseptic filled the small hospital room. Tessa's hands trembled as the nurse smiled, holding the ultrasound report like a fragile promise.
All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Months of pills, hormone injections, and doctor visits had drained her both physically and emotionally.
And now, maybe... a flicker of hope. Maybe, finally, a chance to give her fiancé what he wanted: a child. Their child.
"Congratulations, Miss Quinn." The nurse smiled. "You're pregnant."
"Yes!" Tessa squealed. "I'm finally pregnant with Grayson's baby!" A shaky breath escaped her lips and her eyes sparkled with hope.
Finally. After all the heartache and desperation, she could give Grayson the baby he wanted so badly. The baby who would secure his place as heir to Thorne Industries, just like Grayson's father's will had demanded.
This wasn't just about her anymore. It was about survival.
She clutched the report close, imagining Grayson's smile, the relief flooding his face. This was their future, her future.
Tessa grabbed her purse and jolted out of the hospital in a hurry, excited to share the news.
The elevator dinged open to their high-rise apartment floor. Her heart raced as she fumbled with her keys.
She stepped inside, expecting silence, peace, and maybe a smile from Grayson.
Instead, laughter spilled from the living room.
Grayson lounged on the velvet couch, an arm wrapped possessively around a woman Tessa knew too well - his secretary, Sofia.
Tall, sleek, with an amused smirk curling her lips.
"Grayson," Tessa's voice cracked like glass. "What's happening?"
He didn't even look up. "You again. What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Tessa snapped. "We live here, remember? The real question is what is she doing here?"
"That's none of your business, Tessa." Grayson said coolly. "What do you want?"
Tessa's stomach twisted. The casual dismissal hit harder than any shout could have. She stepped forward, eyes locked on Sofia's hand resting on Grayson's thigh.
Her eyes opened in realization.
"You've been lying to me," she said, voice trembling but steady. "How long? How long have you been screwing your secretary while I've been killing myself trying to give you the one thing you keep saying you need?"
Grayson finally met her gaze, his expression flat. "You're making a scene over nothing. Sofia understands me. She doesn't drag me down with endless doctor visits and false hope."
The words landed like a slap. Tessa's breath caught.
Her fists clenched. "False hope? After everything I've put myself through? The pills, the appointments I dragged myself to even when I was shaking, the sleepless nights wondering if this would finally be our chance - and this is how you repay me? By calling me false hope?"
Grayson shrugged, cold and unapologetic. "You've been nothing but a disappointment, Tessa. I don't even think you can get pregnant."
The words hit her like ice water.
"No," she hissed, stepping closer, her voice low but fierce. "I've done everything. Every damn thing. How can you treat me like this?"
Sofia chuckled, sharp and cruel. "Maybe you're just not the right one, Tessa. Maybe I'm the one who can actually give Grayson what he wants."
Grayson smirked. "She'll give me my heir," he said, rubbing Sofia's belly. "You're nothing but a broken failure."
"How dare you speak to me like this?" Tessa snapped.
Sofia stood, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Don't pretend you were ever enough for him."
Grayson laughed darkly. "You're dried up, Tessa. You've been lying to me the whole time. You can't bear my heir. No baby is coming. At least not from you."
Her hands balled into fists. "How dare you? I've done everything for us. For you."
He smirked. "And look where it got you. Get out of my sight. Just looking at you makes me sick."
Her voice grew sharper, fueled by anger and heartbreak. "You fucking bastard. How can you do this?" she demanded, dragging at his shirt.
Before he could reply, the front door swung open.
His mother - Eleanor - stepped in, regal and cold, her eyes like daggers aimed at Tessa. "Get your filthy hands off my son. How dare you question him for you not being able to carry his baby? You sterile piece of junk."
Tessa's breath hitched. "That's not true."
Eleanor's lips curled. "I'm not wrong. You're weak, incapable of giving us what we need."
Sofia leaned in, her voice silky and cruel. "I will give Grayson the heir he deserves. You're just a broken woman."
"Would you shut up, you home wrecker?" Tessa snapped, lunging at Sofia, rage blazing in her eyes. But Grayson caught her, shoving her backwards.
Before she knew it, his hand flew across her face, giving her a burning slap.
His mother's eyes narrowed in approval and Sofia smirked.
"Grayson. How dare you? How dare you hit me?" Tessa sniffed.
"That's enough, Tessa. I am done with you. Now get out of my house."
Tears blurred her vision as pain and humiliation washed over her.
"Fine. I see who you truly are now. And I never want to have anything to do with you again. I hope this home-wrecker can give you babies."
"Yeah. Yeah. Get out!" He chuckled, brushing her off.
Furious and broken, Tessa pulled the crumpled report from her purse. "You think you know everything? You don't."
She tore it in two, the pieces fluttering in the air before she shoved them into his face. "See that? That's the truth you refuse to accept."
Grayson sneered, wiping his cheek. "You're delusional."
She spun away, her heart pounding, tears burning her eyes.
The apartment door slammed shut behind her.
"Silly girl," his mother said as Tessa stormed out of the room. "What's this nonsense now?"
Eleanor bent down, her fingers brushing the torn pieces of paper scattered on the floor.
Her eyes scanned the shattered report and widened in realization.
"Grayson." A slow, satisfied smile curled her lips.
"What is it, Mom?" He turned to face her.
"She's pregnant," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "She really is pregnant."
Sofia narrowed her brows. Her knuckles turned white as Grayson grabbed the piece of paper from his mother's hand.
His eyes scanned the page. His heart thudded in his chest as he saw the pregnancy confirmation.
"Go after her," his mother scowled. "She's carrying your heir - and that baby will change everything."
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7.8
My abusive ex was threatening a lawsuit that would destroy my father's career and wipe out my PhD. I was completely out of options.
That night, Graham, the boy from next door I hadn't seen in a decade, showed up at my apartment in the middle of a hurricane. Now a wealthy orthopedic surgeon, he offered a transactional marriage: he needed a local wife to keep his family away while he cared for his sick mother, and in return, he would make my ex disappear.
I thought it was a simple deal. But the morning after we signed the marriage license, Graham didn't just scare my ex off—he ruthlessly dismantled him. Then, Graham turned to me. His eyes were dead as he pulled out his phone, showing me a high-resolution photo of the night I illegally sold lab samples to pay off my ex's initial blackmail. He had hired a private investigator to stalk me. If that photo leaked to the FDA, I wouldn't just lose my degree; I'd go to prison.
"I needed a guarantee," he said flatly.
I was shaking with rage and terror. This wasn't a rescue. It was a hostage situation. Why did he hunt me down? Why use my darkest secret to trap me in this twisted marriage?
I couldn't live like this. I demanded an immediate divorce. But at the courthouse, the clerk dropped a bomb on us: state law required a mandatory thirty-day waiting period. Thirty days trapped with a ruthless, manipulative stranger. I had to find a way to break his leverage before the month was up.
9.2
For four years, I was the Silvercrest Pack's biggest joke—a scentless, wolfless Omega who somehow became the Alpha's Luna.
I thought I was just naturally defective, until our fourth anniversary, when I overheard my husband Adrian talking to his Beta.
"I’ve been having the kitchens slip a silver-based compound into her meals since the day I marked her."
He confessed the poison was meant to suppress my inner wolf and keep my womb permanently barren. He only married me as a power play to make his highborn mistress, Seraphina, jealous. While I wept over my empty cradle and apologized to his family for my broken body, he was using pack funds to buy her custom luxury goods, tossing me the leftover wrapping paper. When I finally confronted him about the silver and tried to leave, he flew into a feral rage. He violently smashed my head against the marble vanity, leaving me bleeding on the floor, and locked the bedroom door behind him.
I lay there in the cold, staring at the pool of my own blood. My entire life, my endless pain, and my unborn pups were nothing but a cruel, calculated joke to the man who was supposed to be my Mate.
But Adrian didn't know I wasn't just a brainless Omega.
I wiped the blood from my face, climbed down the balcony trellis into the freezing rain, and pulled out an encrypted burner phone.
"The cage is broken. Initiate Phase Two."
7.7
Rory stood on the witness stand, forced by her father into an impossible choice: secure her dying mother's medical funding, or save her innocent boyfriend.
She looked Corbin right in his trusting eyes and lied to the court, testifying that he was the one driving the car during the fatal hit-and-run, sending him to a maximum-security prison for ten years.
The betrayal destroyed him. Corbin's father died of a heart attack upon hearing the guilty verdict. Six years later, Corbin returned as a ruthless billionaire and systematically blacklisted Rory from every job in the city. He cornered her into singing at his private club, humiliating her by forcing her to drink scotch—knowing she was severely allergic—and making her throw away his promise ring just to earn a stack of cash.
"Remember this moment. This is only the beginning."
She endured his cruel revenge because she was hiding a desperate secret: she was raising his five-year-old daughter, Willa. But when Willa's congenital heart defect suddenly worsened, requiring an impossible one-million-dollar surgery, Rory realized Corbin's calculated blockade had left her completely trapped with no way to save their child.
Staring at the sterile hospital walls, the last shred of her guilt burned away, replaced by a cold, hard resolve. He had destroyed her career and backed her into a corner, but he was the only one with the money. Wiping her tears, Rory turned and headed straight for Vance Tower.
8.4
On the night before her wedding, Navia Harrison discovers her fiancé in bed with her step-sister-and worse, the two of them are already planning how to get rid of her after the marriage.
Humiliated and consumed by hatred, Navia exposes their affair during the wedding ceremony itself, destroying both families' reputations in a single move.
Then, she meets him.
Leonel Crawford - the cold and dangerously powerful head of the Crawford family. Untouchable. Ruthless. A man no woman has ever been able to keep close.
He's also her ex-fiancé's uncle.
One impulsive proposal changes everything.
"If you need a wife... marry me instead."
"Honestly... we'd make a pretty good match."
9.3
A pitiful wolfless Omega, Lana discovers that she is pregnant for her beloved fiancée and Alpha to be, Asher. He is the only man she has ever loved, but her world turns upside down when her Fiancée coldly reveals that he is getting married to her sister who is also already pregnant for him.
To make matters worse, her cruel sister and cheating Fiancé banish her from her only home!
Lana is devastated, but thankfully, her best friend Jasper, helps her runaway and hide her pregnancy from her former fiancée.
8 years later, Lana has become the mother to Asher's triplets and is engaged to be married to her best friend Jasper.
But by a cruel twist of fate, Alpha Asher suddenly changes his mind and kidnaps her!
So what is Lana supposed to do when she forced to choose between two powerful men, while also fighting off the traitors and enemies surrounding her?
9.7
Giana woke up drugged and burning with fever in a luxurious hotel suite. Standing before her was Cornel Stark, the most ruthless billionaire in New York.
Memories of her past life stabbed into her brain. In that life, her adoptive family and her fiancé Gary had stolen her inheritance and left her to die a brutal, agonizing death.
She also remembered how fighting Cornel only made him more violent. So this time, she didn't scream.
She endured his brutal punishment, escaped the moment he let his guard down, and swallowed a Plan B pill on the freezing streets.
Returning to her adoptive family's mansion, she faced the people who had destroyed her. Her fiancé and her stepsister put on masks of fake concern, secretly mocking her.
Instead of throwing a useless tantrum like before, Giana deliberately threw herself down the steep wooden stairs.
She smashed her head against the marble floor, using her own blood to shatter their plans and win back her mother's trust.
She thought she had finally taken control. She was ready to crush the people who had betrayed her and live for herself.
But she didn't understand why the billionaire she had just escaped was suddenly turning her life upside down.
When she woke up in the hospital, her room wasn't filled with her family's fake tears, but an ocean of blood-red roses.
The heavy door swung open, and Cornel Stark walked in, his gray eyes locking onto her with a dark, predatory hunger.
"Remember this feeling, Giana. Every breath you take belongs to me now."