Too Late, Mr. William, She's Free

Too Late, Mr. William, She's Free

Luo Lijiang

5.0
Comment(s)
213
View
28
Chapters

Franklin William destroyed my father, then raised me as his ward. For ten years, I loved him, not as a guardian, but as the man who held my world in his hands. On my 18th birthday, I confessed. He crushed me with five words. "Love is a liability, Eliana." His cruelty escalated. He got engaged to a ruthless socialite who publicly branded me his "pet project." He forced me to wear a cheap necklace I was allergic to, the metal burning my skin like a brand of shame. That night, he stumbled into my room, drunk, and violated me, whispering his fiancée's name. My own mother called, not to comfort me, but to scream that I had ruined her social standing before disowning me. I was nothing. A project. A disposable toy. But as I sat in the wreckage of my life, an encrypted email arrived from my long-lost godfather. The subject line was clear: "It's time, Eliana. There's a way out."

Too Late, Mr. William, She's Free Chapter 1

Franklin William destroyed my father, then raised me as his ward. For ten years, I loved him, not as a guardian, but as the man who held my world in his hands.

On my 18th birthday, I confessed. He crushed me with five words.

"Love is a liability, Eliana."

His cruelty escalated. He got engaged to a ruthless socialite who publicly branded me his "pet project." He forced me to wear a cheap necklace I was allergic to, the metal burning my skin like a brand of shame. That night, he stumbled into my room, drunk, and violated me, whispering his fiancée's name.

My own mother called, not to comfort me, but to scream that I had ruined her social standing before disowning me.

I was nothing. A project. A disposable toy. But as I sat in the wreckage of my life, an encrypted email arrived from my long-lost godfather. The subject line was clear: "It's time, Eliana. There's a way out."

Chapter 1

The headline hit me like a physical blow, stripping the air from my lungs. "Franklin William to Wed Katarina Monroe: Merger of Tech Giants Confirmed." The words blurred, then sharpened, each one a needle piercing through the fragile shell of my world. My hands trembled, the tablet slipping, but my fingers clenched, refusing to let it fall.

It couldn't be true.

This had to be a mistake. A cruel joke. Franklin. Mine. He was mine.

I stared at the glossy image of him, his arm around Katarina, her smile sharp and triumphant. Her dark hair, perfectly coiffed, brushed his shoulder. My stomach convulsed, a bitter, metallic taste flooding my mouth. This wasn' t just a simple announcement. This was a public execution.

My vision swam. The vibrant colors of the penthouse living room - the rich blues, the polished chrome - swirled into a dizzying vortex. I felt like I was falling, even though my feet were rooted to the plush carpet. No, this wasn't happening. Not to us.

He's mine. The thought was a desperate, childish chant in my head. He always has been.

A decade. Ten years since the world had crumbled around me. I was just eight, a tiny figure clutching a teddy bear, the sound of sirens still echoing in my ears. My father, brilliant, kind, but too trusting, had been outmaneuvered, his life' s work stolen, his heart breaking under the strain. A stress-induced heart attack, they said. But I knew. I knew who was responsible.

Franklin William.

He was the wolf in the elegant suit, the architect of the hostile takeover that devoured my father' s startup. I remembered the funeral, a blur of black suits and hushed whispers. Then, his imposing figure loomed over me, a dark shadow against the pale morning light. He' d made a promise. A rare flicker of guilt, the tabloids later speculated. He took me in.

"You're a Barnett," he'd said, his voice deep, oddly comforting in its authority. "That means something. I'll take care of you."

And I believed him. I clung to that promise like a lifeline. He was my protector, my savior, the one who pulled me from the wreckage of my childhood. Even if he was also the one who caused it. I lived in his gilded cage, a penthouse overlooking Manhattan, a silent, watchful girl, then a teenager, growing up under his stern, watchful eye. Every book I read, every lesson I learned, every ambition I harbored, was shaped by his world, by his presence.

My 18th birthday. I remember the dress, a simple velvet that he had chosen. The city lights twinkled outside the panoramic windows, reflecting in my hopeful eyes. I had practiced my words, rehearsed the confession a hundred times. I loved him. Not as a father, not as a guardian. As a woman loves a man. It was foolish, I knew, but also undeniable.

I walked up to him, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. "Franklin," I began, my voice barely a whisper, "I... I love you."

His face, usually a mask of control, tightened. His eyes, cold as the winter sky outside, narrowed. He didn't flinch, didn't react with surprise, only with a chilling finality. "Love is a liability, Eliana," he said, his voice flat, devoid of warmth. "I will not tolerate it."

The words felt like a physical slap. My cheeks burned, but no tears came. Just a hollow ache, deepening with each beat of my broken heart. He turned away, dismissing me, dismissing my entire existence in that one brutal sentence.

His cruelty escalated from that day. He wanted me gone, out of his perfect, emotionless world. He forced me to attend the pre-merger gala, a glittering spectacle of power and ambition. That's when I first saw her. Katarina Monroe. Her presence was a force, an undeniable statement. She moved with a predator's grace, her eyes assessing, her smile a thin, painted line.

She saw me across the crowded ballroom, a flicker of something - contempt? amusement? - in her gaze. She walked over, her heels clicking a rhythmic beat against the marble floor, a queen approaching a lowly peasant. "Franklin's pet project, I presume?" she drawled, her voice dripping with condescension. She looked me up and down, a sneer twisting her perfectly sculpted lips. "Charming."

My face flushed. I felt naked, exposed under her scrutiny, under the cold, silent judgment of Franklin, who stood a few feet away, watching. He said nothing. Did nothing. He allowed it.

That night, alone in my room, the opulent silk sheets felt like a shroud. I stared at my reflection, the girl who had foolishly believed in love, in a future with him. I was a child, a fool, a burden. The disgust was a physical thing, rising in my throat. I tore at the expensive dress, the fabric ripping with a satisfying sound. I hated the girl in the mirror. I hated her weakness, her hope, her pathetic love.

I found a half-empty bottle of Franklin' s expensive whiskey on the bar cart. My hands shook as I poured a generous amount into a crystal glass. It burned going down, a fiery liquid ripping through my throat, but it dulled the edges of the pain. It was a defiant act, a poisonous ritual.

I wouldn't stay here. I couldn't. This couldn't be my life. I had to leave. I had to find a way out of this gilded cage.

Continue Reading

Other books by Luo Lijiang

More
The Ruined Heiress and Her Ruthless Monster

The Ruined Heiress and Her Ruthless Monster

Modern

5.0

My fiancé cheated on me with a bottle service girl on the giant screen at our own engagement party. I woke up the next morning in a strange bed, smelling of sandalwood and expensive scotch, only to realize I was in the penthouse of Julian Blackwood—the man I had cruelly humiliated ten years ago. Before I could even process the shame, my world collapsed. My father suffered a massive stroke, and my half-brother Conrad immediately moved to seize the family empire, while a swarm of illegitimate siblings emerged to strip us of every cent. "You're a stain on my floor, Vivian," Julian told me, his eyes as cold as a stormy sea. He didn't just want me gone; he wanted to watch me go bankrupt. My stepmother hissed that I needed to get on my knees and beg him to be our lawyer, or we’d end up on the street. Then, a biker with a metal bat tried to kill me on a dark Hamptons road, proving my own family had already put a price on my head. I didn't understand why the boy I once called "the gardener's son" was now the only one standing between me and a shallow grave. Julian saved my life from the wreck, but his touch felt like a threat. Was he protecting me, or just making sure he was the one who got to finish me off? Standing in the lobby of Blackwood & Partners, I looked straight into the security cameras and told the biggest lie of my life. I told the world that Julian was obsessed with me, turning a restraining order into a scandalous affair. If I had to be a villain to survive my own family, I would be the most dangerous one New York had ever seen.

The Genius Heiress They Tried To Break

The Genius Heiress They Tried To Break

Mafia

5.0

I stood outside the Genovese estate in the freezing rain for two hours, waiting for the man I loved to let me in. I was Elena Russo, the brilliant forensic accountant who had just laundered forty million dollars for the family. I was the adopted daughter, the fixer, and the fiancée of the Underboss, Luca. But the moment Sofia, the "real" daughter, returned, I became nothing but a placeholder. Luca looked me in the eye, swirling his scotch, and delivered the blow. "I need you to hand your work over to Sofia. She needs the prestige to be accepted by the Commission." He demanded I give up my life’s work—a complex laundering algorithm—so his new favorite could take the credit. When I refused, the humiliation began. Sofia faked a fall into the pool, and my adoptive father kicked me into the deep end to "teach me a lesson." I nearly drowned. Luca didn't save me. He handed me a diving mask and told me to find Sofia's lost ring at the bottom of the freezing pool before I was allowed to warm up. They stole my code. They ruined my reputation at the university. They slapped me in front of the press. They thought I was a stray dog with nowhere to go. They were wrong. Lying in the hospital bed, I dialed a number I had memorized years ago. "This is Asset 724," I whispered. "I'm ready to come home." The next day, the Russo empire began to crumble. And when a convoy of black SUVs arrived to collect me, Luca finally realized his mistake. My real father wasn't a nobody. He was Don Moretti, the King of the West Coast. And he was here to burn their world to ash.

Betrayal's Sting: A Husband's Reckoning

Betrayal's Sting: A Husband's Reckoning

Romance

5.0

Tonight was supposed to be special. Our fifth anniversary. I' d booked our favorite restaurant, bought a new shirt Chloe loved. Then, scrolling through social media, a photo from her company' s group chat caught my eye. Chloe, laughing, her hand resting on the arm of her intern, Liam. The caption called it "burning the midnight oil." I called it a lie. I typed a reply, directly into the chat: "Looks like fun. Chloe, I\'m still waiting for our anniversary dinner. The reservation was for seven." My phone rang instantly. It was Chloe, her voice a furious hiss. "What the hell do you think you\'re doing? Are you trying to embarrass me?" "Embarrass you?" I retorted, her dismissive tone burning me. "I' m sitting here alone on our anniversary. You told me you were stuck in a meeting." She called me needy, childish, then hung up. All my sacrifices, my life savings poured into her startup, the sleepless nights coding her company' s foundation – for this? To be a ghost in her shiny, successful life? The truth was laid bare: I was just an afterthought. I looked at our wedding photo, so full of hope, then slowly, deliberately, turned it face down. Then I blocked her. The next morning, her company's lead engineer called, panicking. "It's the Genesis build. It's a complete disaster. Liam broke it." Chloe had brushed off my warnings about Liam's sloppy code. She called him a rockstar. Now, she needed me to fix her golden boy' s mess. She sent her assistant to drag me to the office. Then Chloe herself called from the assistant's phone. "Ethan Miller, you get down here right now!" She tried to smooth-talk me, sweet-talking about "us." And then I heard it. A soft, wet sound, a kiss. And Liam' s voice. "Is he giving you trouble, boss? Let me talk to him." Chloe' s hushed, affectionate whisper: "It's fine, sweetie. I've got this." My world stopped. "Sweetie?" I repeated, the word dripping with mock sweetness. "Is that what you call your interns now, Chloe?" The betrayal, concrete and undeniable, sliced through me. All that anger, all that pain, crystallized into one chilling realization: "You don't need me. You need my work. There's a difference." "Consider your contract terminated," she threatened. "Consider it terminated," I replied, and hung up. I finally felt nothing. Just a vast, empty space where five years of my life used to be. I was done.

You'll also like

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

Nap Regazzini
4.6

I woke up in a blindingly white hotel penthouse with a throbbing headache and the taste of betrayal in my mouth. The last thing I remembered was my stepsister, Cathie, handing me a flute of champagne at the charity gala with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Now, a tall, dangerously handsome man walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips. On the nightstand sat a stack of hundred-dollar bills. My stepmother had finally done it—she drugged me and staged a scandal with a hired escort to destroy my reputation and my future. "Aisha! Is it true you spent the night with a gigolo?" The shouts of a dozen reporters echoed through the heavy oak door as camera flashes exploded through the peephole. My phone lit up with messages showing my bank accounts were already frozen. My father was invoking the 'morality clause' in my mother’s trust fund, and my fiancé had already released a statement dumping me to marry my stepsister instead. I was trapped, penniless, and being hunted by the press for a scandal I hadn't even participated in. My own family had sold me out for a payday, and the man standing in front of me was the only witness who could prove I was innocent—or finish me off for good. I didn't have time to cry. According to the fine print of the trust, I had thirty days to prove my "rehabilitation" through a legal marriage or I would lose everything. I tracked the man down to a coffee shop the next morning, watching him take a thick envelope of cash from a wealthy older woman. I sat across from him and slid a napkin with a $50,000 figure written on it. "I need a husband. Legal, paper-signed, and convincing." He looked at the number, then at me, a slow, crooked smile spreading across his face. I thought I was hiring a desperate gigolo to save my inheritance. I had no idea I was actually proposing to Dominic Fields, the reclusive billionaire shark who was currently planning a hostile takeover of my father’s entire empire.

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu
4.5

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Too Late, Mr. William, She's Free Too Late, Mr. William, She's Free Luo Lijiang Modern
“Franklin William destroyed my father, then raised me as his ward. For ten years, I loved him, not as a guardian, but as the man who held my world in his hands. On my 18th birthday, I confessed. He crushed me with five words. "Love is a liability, Eliana." His cruelty escalated. He got engaged to a ruthless socialite who publicly branded me his "pet project." He forced me to wear a cheap necklace I was allergic to, the metal burning my skin like a brand of shame. That night, he stumbled into my room, drunk, and violated me, whispering his fiancée's name. My own mother called, not to comfort me, but to scream that I had ruined her social standing before disowning me. I was nothing. A project. A disposable toy. But as I sat in the wreckage of my life, an encrypted email arrived from my long-lost godfather. The subject line was clear: "It's time, Eliana. There's a way out."”
1

Chapter 1

26/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

26/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

26/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

26/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

26/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

26/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

26/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

26/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

26/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

26/12/2025

11

Chapter 11

26/12/2025

12

Chapter 12

26/12/2025

13

Chapter 13

26/12/2025

14

Chapter 14

26/12/2025

15

Chapter 15

26/12/2025

16

Chapter 16

26/12/2025

17

Chapter 17

26/12/2025

18

Chapter 18

26/12/2025

19

Chapter 19

26/12/2025

20

Chapter 20

26/12/2025

21

Chapter 21

26/12/2025

22

Chapter 22

26/12/2025

23

Chapter 23

26/12/2025

24

Chapter 24

26/12/2025

25

Chapter 25

26/12/2025

26

Chapter 26

26/12/2025

27

Chapter 27

26/12/2025

28

Chapter 28

26/12/2025