Love Beyond The Contract

Love Beyond The Contract

E. Duke

3.5
Comment(s)
14K
View
73
Chapters

From a spilled tray to a contract marriage. Autumn and Jaxon's lives gets intertwined by fate after a clumsy encounter in the bustling city of New York. As they navigated the fine line between pretense and genuine affection,a sinister plot threatened to expose their secrets, testing the strength of their love. Will they be able to withstand the trials that come their way? Or will they be affected by whatever the villains' intervention would cause?

Love Beyond The Contract Chapter 1 THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

The alarm rang loudly on the nightstand, its regular buzzing filling the tiny, darkly lighted room. Autumn White moaned and struggled to find the snooze button, but she ultimately succeeded. She blinked at the red numbers on the clock, which read 5:30 AM. For a waitress like her, it was much too early to be up so she decided to go back to sleep.

"Wake up Miss sleepy head. It's almost time for work. if you sleep any longer, we would get to work late," a voice said across the room.

Her best friend and roommate, Ruby, walked into the room hands akimbo but Autumn ignored her.

"Wake up now before I smack you Autumn," Ruby warned.

"Let me be, Ruby; it's just 5:30am. We still have a long time before work resumes," Autumn said as she rolled over to the other side of the bed still feeling sleepy.

"Uh...no, it's not; it's 7:30am. it says so clearly on your alarm clock," Ruby said.

Autumn, not believing her friend, turned to face the alarm clock on more time and saw it read 7:30am, which meant she had less than 30 minutes to get ready and be at work. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets as she jumped up from her bed.

"Why didn't you wake me earlier?" Autumn blamed her friend as she rushed into the bathroom to have her bath.

"Well I tried but you my friend was so deep in Wonderland that you refused to be woken," Ruby yelled back at her friend.

"I'll make us something to eat before we go to work," Ruby said, exiting the room.

Few minutes later, Autumn got out of the bathroom and immediately got dressed. She had always been known for coming to work early and she wasn't about to change that. Last night was the most stressful time at work; she went to bed pretty late after closing from work pretty late, which was why she found it hard to get up from bed on time.

She joined Ruby in the living room and they had breakfast together. As soon as they were done eating, they exited their home and made their way to the restaurant, Le Petit Bistro. Le Petit Bistro was a popular and charming eatery tucked between the sparkling skyscrapers of New York.

Autumn loved her job because it made her feel happy and satisfied. She carried out her duties with a smile on her face because she wanted the diners to feel happy and satisfied while having their meal. She had been working there for the past three years and had managed to impress the manager who took a liking to her.

Soon Ruby and Autumn got to their workplace and got ready to open for the day. Other employees joined them as time went on and by 10am, they were fully opened. Customers began to stream into the restaurant/diner that was famous for its delicious delicacies.

Meanwhile in a prestigious company not far from the diner, a Head Manager, Jaxon Wellington was having a discussion with his secretary. Jaxon was a tall, handsome young man, the heir to a great establishment, the Wellington Group, which contained a variety of businesses like hotels, airport, malls etc.

Although Jaxon was handsome and well to do, he was single but was always seen around with different ladies. his parents had pleaded with him to get married but he kept telling them that marriage was not his thing. The board of directors, who were bothered that his promiscuity would affect the business, urged him to find a wife but still he didn't bother doing so.

To him, being in a marriage felt like being in bondage where he wouldn't have freedom to do whatever he felt like doing. Also, he didn't think that being with one woman was a fun thing. His father, Marcus, who was still CEO, was scared to hand over the business to him so he threatened him to either get married or forfeit his right to take over the company.

"And that would be all," Jaxon finally said.

"Okay sir," the secretary replied.

"Do I have anything else on my schedule for today?"

"Yes sir, a get-together with your friends at the Le Petit Bistro by 9pm."

"That's outside of work hours; why did you add it in my schedule?"

"You asked me to, sir. You said you didn't want to forget as it was an important meeting," the scared secretary.

"Oh, that's true; thank you Sweety," Jaxon said to his secretary whose actually name was Sweety.

Sweety walked out of the office, leaving Jaxon to continue with his work. At the close of work, Jaxon went straight home to freshen up and take a rest before meeting with his friends that evening. At exactly 8:30pm, he left his house, casually dressed in a polo designer shirt, a pair of jeans, a pair of the latest Nike Air force sneakers, an expensive diamond chain and diamond Rolex watch. He didn't forget to put on his expensive Cologne.

In less than 30 minutes, he arrived at the restaurant and was led to a table where his friends were waiting for him. they were so excited to see each other as they exchanged pleasantries.

"This place looks nice and cozy," Jaxon said as he looked around the restaurant.

"Yeah, I chose this pace. This is where I took my wife to for our second year anniversary," Jacobi, one of Jaxon's friends said.

"I still cannot believe that you and Harry are married. And you, Kyle, an engaged man?" Jaxon said.

"Yes, marriage is good. you should join the team instead of gallivanting about with different ladies. you could catch STDs or whatever," Harry said.

"I don't just sleep with any woman, Harry. I do my findings first," Jaxon replied with a smirk on his face.

Before anyone else at their table could say another word, Jaxon suddenly yelled.

"WHAT THE FUC...?"

Continue Reading

Other books by E. Duke

More

You'll also like

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Roderic Penn
4.5

I stood at my mother’s open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest’s voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone—he brought Charla with him. He claimed she’d had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Xiao Hong Mao
4.3

I lived as the "scarred ghost" of the Stephens penthouse, a wife kept in the shadows because my facial burns offended my billionaire husband’s aesthetic. For years, I endured Kason’s coldness and my family's abuse, a submissive puppet who believed she had nowhere else to go. The end came with a blue folder tossed onto my silk sheets. Kason’s mistress was back, and he wanted me out by sunset, offering a five-million-dollar "silence fee" to go hide my face in the countryside. The betrayal cut deep when I discovered my father had already traded my divorce for a corporate bailout. My step-sister mocked my "trashy" appearance at a high-end boutique, while the sales staff treated me like a common thief. At home, my father threatened to cut off my mother's life-saving medicine unless I crawled back to Kason to beg for a better deal. I was the girl who took the blame for a fire she didn't start, the wife who worshipped a man who never looked her in the eye, and the daughter used as a human bargaining chip. I was supposed to be broken, penniless, and desperate. But the woman who stood up wasn't the weak Elease Finch anymore; she was Phoenix, a tactical predator with a $500 million secret. I signed the divorce papers without a single tear, walked past my stunned husband, and wiped the Finch family's bank accounts clean with a few taps on my phone. "Your money is dirty," I told Kason with a cold smile. "I prefer clean hands." The cage is open, the hunt has begun, and I’m starting with the people who thought a scar made me weak.

The Scars She Hid From The World

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE
4.6

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

The Billionaire's Secret Triplets: Mom's Revenge

The Billionaire's Secret Triplets: Mom's Revenge

HONEY MULLINS
5.0

Six years ago, I was a naive girl sold by my father to the powerful Sanders estate, only to be tossed onto the streets after a brutal assault they labeled "marital infidelity." I fled the country pregnant and broken, hiding from the shadow of a husband I had never even met. Now, I’ve returned to New York with my triplets to sign the final divorce papers and disappear forever. But Archibald Sanders—the man I was told was a crippled recluse—intercepted us with the cold precision of a predator. He didn't see the woman his family destroyed; he saw a gold-digger who had shamed his name. His security team hunted us to a grimy motel, using tactical force to snatch my children away and drag me to his glass-walled empire. In his office, he loomed over me, demanding a DNA test and threatening to throw me in prison while my babies were lost to the foster system. He was convinced I’d cheated, yet he stared at my sons with a haunting confusion, unable to ignore the stormy blue eyes that were a perfect mirror of his own. I stood there, paralyzed by his scent—the sharp tang of rain and expensive leather that triggered the icy dread of my worst nightmares. How could he accuse me of betrayal when he felt exactly like the monster who had shattered my life in that dark hotel room? "I'll sign anything," I sobbed, "just give me my kids." But the game changed when my five-year-old son hacked the tower’s security, holding the skyscraper hostage to save me. In the chaos, a fragile, silent boy—Archibald’s secret son—wandered into the room and reached for me as if I were his missing soul. Archibald’s face turned to stone as he tore up the agreement and locked the doors. "Until I find out why my son is looking at you like that," he growled, "you aren't going anywhere."

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Sibeal Sallese
5.0

I lay paralyzed on stiff white sheets, a prisoner in my own skin, listening to the rain lash against the window like nails on a coffin. My father, Elmore Franco, didn't even look at my face as he checked his clipboard. He just listened to the steady, monotonous beep of the heart monitor-the only thing proving I was still alive. Without a hint of remorse, he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed the Do Not Resuscitate order. My stepmother, Ophelia, stepped out from behind him, wearing my favorite pearl necklace and smelling of cloying perfume. She leaned close to my ear to whisper the truth that turned my blood to ice. "It was the tea, darling. Just like your mother. A slow, tasteless poison." She chuckled as she revealed that my fiancé, Bryce, had a two-year-old son with my sister, Daniela. My inheritance had been funding their secret life for years, and now that the money was secure, I was an inconvenience they were finally scrubbing away. As my father yanked the power cord from the wall, the beeping died, and the darkness swallowed me whole. I was being murdered by my own flesh and blood, used as a bank account until I was no longer needed. I died in that sterile room, drowning in the realization that every person I ever loved was a monster who had been waiting for me to take my last breath. Then, I gasped. I woke up in a luxury hotel suite surrounded by silk sheets, five years in the past-the very morning of my wedding. Next to me lay Basile Delgado, the "Wolf of Wall Street" and my family's most dangerous enemy. In my first life, I ran from this room in a panic and lost everything. This time, I looked at the man who would eventually destroy my father's empire and decided to join him. "I'm not leaving, Basile. Marry me. Right now. Today."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Love Beyond The Contract Love Beyond The Contract E. Duke Billionaires
“From a spilled tray to a contract marriage. Autumn and Jaxon's lives gets intertwined by fate after a clumsy encounter in the bustling city of New York. As they navigated the fine line between pretense and genuine affection,a sinister plot threatened to expose their secrets, testing the strength of their love. Will they be able to withstand the trials that come their way? Or will they be affected by whatever the villains' intervention would cause?”
1

Chapter 1 THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

16/09/2023

2

Chapter 2 JUST ONE LITTLE MISTAKE

16/09/2023

3

Chapter 3 AN ABSURD PROPOSAL

16/09/2023

4

Chapter 4 LEFT WITH NO CHOICE

16/09/2023

5

Chapter 5 THE FAKE WEDDING

16/09/2023

6

Chapter 6 BEYOND BUSINESS RIVALRY

16/09/2023

7

Chapter 7 DOSE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE

16/09/2023

8

Chapter 8 REMINISCE OF GOOD OLD DAYS

16/09/2023

9

Chapter 9 IS THAT JEALOUSY I HEAR

16/09/2023

10

Chapter 10 AN ADDITIONAL CLAUSE

16/09/2023

11

Chapter 11 JUST A GLORIFIED LANDLORD

16/09/2023

12

Chapter 12 FEELINGS OF LOVE

18/09/2023

13

Chapter 13 UNSPOKEN FEELINGS

19/09/2023

14

Chapter 14 UNCERTAINTY AND HIDDEN DESIRES

21/09/2023

15

Chapter 15 AN UNCERTAIN HEART

24/09/2023

16

Chapter 16 AM I REALLY IN LOVE

24/09/2023

17

Chapter 17 WHAT LOVE DOES TO A MAN

28/09/2023

18

Chapter 18 LOVE CONFESSIONS

28/09/2023

19

Chapter 19 EMOTIONAL TEMPEST

03/10/2023

20

Chapter 20 THE UNKNOWN CALLER

09/10/2023

21

Chapter 21 MEETING WITH THE RIVAL'S EX

09/10/2023

22

Chapter 22 RETURN OF THE EX

09/10/2023

23

Chapter 23 RETURN OF THE EX II

09/10/2023

24

Chapter 24 THE FAILED SEDUCTION

09/10/2023

25

Chapter 25 THE BREWING STORM

10/10/2023

26

Chapter 26 THE STORM ARRIVES

10/10/2023

27

Chapter 27 THE STORM ARRIVES II

10/10/2023

28

Chapter 28 THE BIGGEST SCANDAL

11/10/2023

29

Chapter 29 THE BIGGEST SCANDAL II

11/10/2023

30

Chapter 30 THE BIGGEST SCANDAL III

11/10/2023

31

Chapter 31 A RUINED REPUTATION AND A SHATTERED RELATIONSHIP

11/10/2023

32

Chapter 32 A RUINED REPUTATION AND SHATTERED RELATIONSHIP II

14/10/2023

33

Chapter 33 A Broken Heart and A Wounded Spirit

14/10/2023

34

Chapter 34 ONCE A SAFE HEAVEN

14/10/2023

35

Chapter 35 HER PAINFUL DECISION

19/10/2023

36

Chapter 36 A CEO'S BURDEN

19/10/2023

37

Chapter 37 A THERAPEUTIC VACATION

19/10/2023

38

Chapter 38 KISSED IN THE DARK

19/10/2023

39

Chapter 39 A HEART TORN IN TWO

19/10/2023

40

Chapter 40 CELEBRITY PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

26/10/2023