Too Late, Mr. Hayes: She's a Queen

Too Late, Mr. Hayes: She's a Queen

ELEANOR HORTON

5.0
Comment(s)
918
View
11
Chapters

I'd moved on. A decade ago, Ethan Hayes shattered my heart, ditching me for another woman after secretly giving me birth control disguised as vitamins, then publicly shaming me. Now, I was Queen Sarah of Valoria, attending a glamorous D.C. embassy ball with my loving husband, King Alaric, and our charming son, Liam. I thought I was free of the past. Then I saw him. Ethan. Right there, with the same woman, Jessica Vance, her hand on a pregnant belly. All the old agony, the humiliation, flooded back. He and Jessica accosted me, mistaking my simple Valorian silk for catering staff attire, offering me cash, and then, claiming my dress was stolen, tried to have me thrown out for "harassing royalty." He even unclasped his expensive cufflinks, offering them to me with a condescending smirk. My heart pounded with the phantom pain of his betrayal, the audacity of his delusion. How could he still be this man? Just as he was about to signal security, my five-year-old son, Prince Liam, intervened, kicking the guard attempting to remove me. Then, loud enough for the entire ballroom to hear, he declared, "She is my mother! Queen Sarah of Valoria!" The room fell silent. Ethan's face went white. Alaric stepped in, his glacial gaze fixing on my ex. This wasn't just a confrontation anymore-it was a diplomatic incident. And it was time for my past to finally understand who I truly was.

Introduction

I'd moved on.

A decade ago, Ethan Hayes shattered my heart, ditching me for another woman after secretly giving me birth control disguised as vitamins, then publicly shaming me.

Now, I was Queen Sarah of Valoria, attending a glamorous D.C. embassy ball with my loving husband, King Alaric, and our charming son, Liam.

I thought I was free of the past.

Then I saw him.

Ethan.

Right there, with the same woman, Jessica Vance, her hand on a pregnant belly.

All the old agony, the humiliation, flooded back.

He and Jessica accosted me, mistaking my simple Valorian silk for catering staff attire, offering me cash, and then, claiming my dress was stolen, tried to have me thrown out for "harassing royalty."

He even unclasped his expensive cufflinks, offering them to me with a condescending smirk.

My heart pounded with the phantom pain of his betrayal, the audacity of his delusion.

How could he still be this man?

Just as he was about to signal security, my five-year-old son, Prince Liam, intervened, kicking the guard attempting to remove me.

Then, loud enough for the entire ballroom to hear, he declared, "She is my mother! Queen Sarah of Valoria!"

The room fell silent.

Ethan's face went white.

Alaric stepped in, his glacial gaze fixing on my ex.

This wasn't just a confrontation anymore-it was a diplomatic incident.

And it was time for my past to finally understand who I truly was.

Continue Reading

Other books by ELEANOR HORTON

More
Sold To The Devil I Ruined

Sold To The Devil I Ruined

Modern

5.0

Fitzgerald Woodard was the "stray" I used to torment in prep school, a boy I once paid to kneel in the mud for my amusement. Now, the tables have turned, and he’s the billionaire who bought my father’s debt, dragging me into his mansion as a "personal asset" listed in a contract I never read. He didn't just want the money back; he wanted to see me break. He stood over me in the rain and told me he owned the very machines keeping my father alive, and with one flick of his thumb, he could stop his breathing forever. The nightmare escalated until I didn't recognize myself. He forced me to eat cold soup off the floor like an animal and gripped my hand over a heavy hammer, forcing me to crush a young guard's bones just to prove I was as much of a monster as he was. His childhood sweetheart, a nurse I once humiliated, stood in the shadows, whispering that I was nothing more than a used-up toy he was already bored of. I lay on the cold marble, shivering from a fever he refused to treat, realizing that the curse he placed on me years ago had finally come true. Every act of cruelty I had ever committed was being repaid with interest, and the man I once looked down on was now the only god I had left to pray to. Suddenly, he threw me out into the freezing night with nothing but rags on my back and a shattered phone. The hospital called with an ultimatum: fifty thousand dollars by noon, or they pull the plug on my father’s life support. Standing barefoot on the biting asphalt, I watched his black SUV disappear into the dark. I have nine hours to save the only person I love, and only one way to get the money. I have to go back and kneel before the devil I created.

Not Just an Incubator: The Omega's Revenge

Not Just an Incubator: The Omega's Revenge

Werewolf

5.0

I thought I was the luckiest Omega in the world when the Alpha of the New Moon Pack chose me. I was pregnant with his heir, sleeping in his bed, believing the warmth I felt was love. But then I found the medical report hidden in his desk. "Subject: Scent Modulator. Dosage: High." It wasn't a fated bond. It was a drug. He was chemically forcing me to love him. My best friend dragged me to a restaurant window, and I watched him kiss my cousin, Olivia. Through the glass, I heard the words that shattered my soul. "Just a few more months," Ethan told her, caressing her hand. "Once the incubator drops the brat, we'll dispose of her. Then we raise the heir as ours." I was never his Luna. I was livestock. A walking womb chosen for my bloodline compatibility because his mistress was barren. My father had tried to warn me with his dying breath, but I had been too blinded by the synthetic scent to listen. Grief threatened to kill me, but the White Wolf inside me woke up screaming for vengeance. I went back to the house. I didn't pack a bag. I went straight to the kitchen and brewed a tea of Wolfsbane and Mugwort. I drank it all, weeping as I felt the bond to the baby snap. Then, I walked into our bedroom, left the divorce papers on his pillow, and whispered into the mind-link: "I, Ava Miller, reject you, Ethan Cole, as my mate." As he screamed in my head, I blocked him and walked into the rain. He thought he broke a weak Omega. He didn't know he had just unleashed a White Wolf.

Broken Ties, Shattered Dreams

Broken Ties, Shattered Dreams

Billionaires

5.0

For eighteen years, the Miller mansion was my sanctuary, a gilded cage built with the love of my adoptive father, Richard, and my brother, Ethan. My top-floor studio, overlooking the city, was my universe, filled with their unwavering support for my art and their endless affection. Then Tiffany arrived, Richard' s biological daughter, a ghost from his past. I welcomed her, eager for a sister, but the dream shattered almost overnight. One night, Richard gave me a beautiful, antique paintbrush-a cherished gift. But a single, perfectly timed tear from Tiffany, a trembling voice whispering about her deceased mother, instantly shifted the narrative. Suddenly, I was the villain, my joy overshadowed by her fabricated grief. Richard took the brush back, Ethan consoled her, and I was left with a cold, heavy stone in my chest. This was just the beginning. Soon, the Miller Corporation faced ruin, and I, their beloved adopted daughter, became a commodity. My family, the men who had once adored me, arranged my marriage to a stranger to save their empire. They saw a necessary sacrifice, not a heartbroken daughter. When I fled to my Uncle David, he offered escape, a life devoted to my art. But I believed it was my last act of loyalty to the family I once loved. That night, on the grand staircase, Tiffany ensured my "loyalty" came with a price. She faked a stumble, pushed me, and sent me sprawling, my ankle twisting in agony on the marble floor. Richard and Ethan rushed to her side, not mine. "Chloe, what is wrong with you? Your jealousy is going to destroy this family!" Richard roared, his face a mask of cold fury. They saw only Tiffany' s tears, never my pain, my twisted ankle, or the innocent truth. In that moment, something inside me broke for good. The marriage wasn' t a sacrifice anymore. It was an escape, a desperate flight from a family that no longer saw me.

You'll also like

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Madel Cerda
5.0

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Gujian Qitan
5.0

I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book