Collateral Love, Cruel Betrayal

Collateral Love, Cruel Betrayal

Cornelia

5.0
Comment(s)
15K
View
25
Chapters

I was a foster kid with a talent for art. My benefactor, Declan, gave me everything: an education, a home, and a future. I loved him, and I agreed to be his wife. Then his adopted sister, Faye, decided she wanted my brother. When my brother rejected her, Declan had his hands broken, destroying his future as a musician. Faye framed me for kidnapping her, and Declan believed every word. He had me thrown into an abandoned mine pit filled with snakes as punishment. Then, to teach me a "permanent lesson," he had his men drag me to a clinic. They took one of my kidneys. The man who promised to protect me, who I thought was my savior, carved a piece of me out for a crime I didn't commit. The love I felt for him died on that operating table. When I woke up, he sat by my bed and told me our wedding was still on. He thought he had broken me. He was wrong. He doesn't know I have a plan. He doesn't know I'm leaving. And he'll never see me again.

Collateral Love, Cruel Betrayal Chapter 1

I was a foster kid with a talent for art. My benefactor, Declan, gave me everything: an education, a home, and a future. I loved him, and I agreed to be his wife.

Then his adopted sister, Faye, decided she wanted my brother. When my brother rejected her, Declan had his hands broken, destroying his future as a musician.

Faye framed me for kidnapping her, and Declan believed every word. He had me thrown into an abandoned mine pit filled with snakes as punishment.

Then, to teach me a "permanent lesson," he had his men drag me to a clinic.

They took one of my kidneys.

The man who promised to protect me, who I thought was my savior, carved a piece of me out for a crime I didn't commit. The love I felt for him died on that operating table.

When I woke up, he sat by my bed and told me our wedding was still on.

He thought he had broken me. He was wrong.

He doesn't know I have a plan. He doesn't know I'm leaving.

And he'll never see me again.

Chapter 1

The buzz around the Lamb family' s adopted daughter, Faye, and her sudden interest in my brother was the talk of our social circle. Everyone knew Faye Lamb got whatever she wanted.

But my brother, Coleton, wasn' t interested.

The rumors were just background noise until my phone buzzed. It was a video from an unknown number.

My finger hovered over the screen, a cold feeling creeping up my spine.

I pressed play.

The video was shaky, filmed in what looked like a damp, dark alley. Coleton was on the ground, his face bruised, his musician' s hands bent at unnatural angles. A man' s voice, rough and low, came from behind the camera.

"He should have been nicer to Faye. Now look at his pretty little hands. Not much good for playing the guitar anymore, are they?"

My breath hitched. My heart hammered against my ribs.

Then, my phone started ringing. It was a video call from the same number. From Declan.

My benefactor. The man I loved.

My hand trembled as I swiped to answer. My whole body felt like it was encased in ice.

Declan' s face filled the screen. He looked perfect, as always, sitting in his leather office chair, the New York skyline glittering behind him. He wasn' t even looking at the camera. He was looking at something off to the side.

"You have one hour, Alana. Come to the penthouse. Alone."

My body was rigid, my voice a choked whisper. "Declan, what did you do?"

"Don't worry," he said, his tone casual, like he was discussing the weather. "Coleton is important to you."

Tears streamed down my face. "He' s my brother. He' s all I have."

Declan finally turned to the camera. His eyes were cold, devoid of the warmth I once cherished. "And Faye is all I have. She' s very upset. Coleton hurt her feelings."

"He didn't do anything! He just didn't want to date her."

"That' s not the story she told me," Declan said, his voice flat. "And Faye doesn' t lie." He gestured off-screen. "Find Faye. Apologize to her. Convince her to forgive you. Then maybe I' ll let your brother go."

The camera on the other end of the video, the one in the alley, moved. A heavy boot stomped down hard on Coleton' s already broken hand.

A scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate. "Stop! Please, I' ll do anything! Stop!"

I remembered a different Declan. A man who had found me, a scared foster kid with a life-threatening peanut allergy and a talent for art. He' d sponsored my education, my housing, my entire life.

He' d made sure every kitchen I ever used was scrubbed free of peanuts. He' d hired tutors, bought me the best art supplies, and praised my work with a genuine smile that made my heart flutter.

He' d taken a broken girl and made her feel whole.

He had promised me the world, a future, a home. The only thing he asked for in return was my hand in marriage. I had agreed without a second thought. I was so in love with him.

One of his friends once teased him, "You look at her like she' s the only thing in the room." And he' d just smiled, pulling me closer. It felt like a fairy tale.

Then Faye came back from her boarding school in Europe.

Suddenly, I felt the chasm between us. Faye was a Lamb, adopted into old money, a true princess. I was just a charity case Declan had picked up.

His attention shifted. The long talks we used to have were cut short. The casual touches disappeared. He was always with Faye, soothing her, indulging her every whim.

I finally understood. His love, or what I thought was love, had moved on.

I was a pet he' d grown tired of. Faye was his treasure.

I stumbled out of my apartment, my mind a blur of panic and a single, clear objective. Find Faye.

I got to the penthouse, my key still working, and found her in the living room, lounging on the silk sofa. Declan wasn't there.

Her sweet, fragile facade was gone. Her eyes were hard, her smile sharp. "So, you came."

"Where's Coleton?" I begged, my voice cracking.

"You want him back?" she asked, examining her perfectly manicured nails. "Then you know what you have to do. Leave Declan. Tell him you never loved him, that you were just using him for his money."

I remembered all the times Faye had "accidentally" spilled things on my work. The times my allergy medication went missing right before a big event. The times Declan had gotten angry with me over misunderstandings she had clearly created.

It was all her. All of it.

Declan' s devotion to her was absolute. He had once punched a guy at a party for looking at Faye for too long. He saw her as fragile, as something to be protected at all costs. An incestuous, possessive protection that I was only now beginning to understand.

"I' ll do it," I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. I had no choice.

Faye' s lips curved into a smug, satisfied smile. She pulled out her phone and tapped out a message. "Good girl."

A moment later, Declan called. His voice was light, almost cheerful. "He' s at the old warehouse on the pier, Alana. Go get him."

I drove like a madwoman, my hands shaking on the steering wheel. I found Coleton huddled in a corner, broken and shivering.

I held him, my tears soaking his shirt. "I'm so sorry, Coley. This is all my fault."

He just whimpered, his body wracked with pain.

"We're leaving," I told him, a new, hard resolve forming in my chest. "We're getting out of here. I promise."

I got him to the hospital, the doctors confirming his hands would need multiple surgeries, his music career now a fragile, uncertain dream.

Once he was stable, I pulled out my phone and called the only person I knew I could trust.

"Jason?"

"Alana? What' s wrong?" His voice was steady, a rock in my swirling sea of chaos.

"I need your help. Remember that study abroad program you told Coleton about?"

Jason, a successful lawyer now, had grown up in the same foster home as me and Coleton. He'd always looked out for us. He' d suggested a prestigious music program in Canada for Coleton months ago.

Coleton had refused, not wanting to leave me alone.

And Declan would have never let me go. He owned me.

But that was before. Now, I had the courage. The courage born of absolute terror and heartbreak.

I was leaving. And I was taking my brother with me.

Continue Reading

Other books by Cornelia

More
Broken Ring, Billionaire Secrets: Watch Me Shine

Broken Ring, Billionaire Secrets: Watch Me Shine

Romance

4.5

I sat on the edge of the examination table, the crinkle of the sanitary paper sounding like thunder in the sterile room. The doctor didn't even look at me as he confirmed the news: the pregnancy was over. My husband, Keyon, didn't answer my call. He just sent an automated text: "In a meeting." When I returned to our cold mansion, I found his iPad glowing with a message from his "muse," Katina. He was throwing her a secret gala tonight-on our third wedding anniversary. He told her he couldn't wait to escape the "boring" and "draining" atmosphere I created at home. Keyon didn't stumble in until 3 AM, smelling of Katina's perfume with a smear of red on his collar. When I handed him the divorce papers, he laughed in my face. He called me a "glorified housekeeper" with no skills and no future, promising I'd be back in three days begging for a subway ticket. He even bet his friends ten thousand dollars that I wouldn't survive a week without his name. He had his assistant cancel my credit cards and block my gate access before I even reached the end of the driveway. He wanted me to starve. He wanted me to crawl. He sat in his office, mocking the "desperate" woman who pawned her three-million-dollar wedding ring for scrap metal just to pay for a meal. I stood on the rainy curb, watching the man I had protected for three years treat my life like trash. He didn't know about the ultrasound I just threw in the bin. He didn't know that while he was calling me "dull," I was the one secretly writing the code that kept his billion-dollar empire from collapsing. As I slid into a cheap Uber, I opened a hidden, encrypted app on my phone. The screen refreshed to a dashboard for an account Keyon didn't know existed. The balance was ten figures long-the accumulated wealth of "Solaris," the world's most elusive tech genius. Keyon thinks he just evicted a parasite, but he's about to find out he just declared war on the only person who can hit "delete" on his entire life.

He Signed Away His Own Wife

He Signed Away His Own Wife

Mafia

5.0

#Chapter1 Chapter I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

Erased by Love, Forged by Revenge

Erased by Love, Forged by Revenge

Sci-fi

5.0

The warning chimed at noon, not from a guest or the wedding planner, but a sterile blue pop-up in my vision: [System Warning: Marriage to Mark Turner not detected. Seven days remaining until digital erasure.] My phone buzzed. A trending story: "Tech Mogul Mark Turner Weds Socialite Olivia Crest in Surprise Ceremony!" My Mark, in his custom-tailored suit, was slipping a ring onto Olivia Crest' s finger – his mentor' s daughter, who he' d called a "business acquaintance." My world went silent-the wilting roses, the empty chairs, the mocking blue notification. His call came. "Ava? Where are you? The press is going crazy." He sighed. "Olivia and I... it just happened. It's better for the company this way. Be reasonable." "Reasonable?" The word shattered in my mouth. He told me he' d wire money, then dismissed me like a fired employee as Olivia' s sweet voice called, "Honey, come cut the cake!" I stood in my heavy white dress, a joke in a room of dead flowers. The hollow echo of his words-"be reasonable"-bounced around the empty hall. My hand found cigarettes, something I' d quit for him ten years ago. It took three tries to light one, my hands shaking. I watched the smoke curl. Comments on the livestream jabbed: "She deserves a man like Mark, not some behind-the-scenes nobody." "I heard his ex was some clingy programmer." They didn't know I wrote the code for their app, that my AI patent was their fortune' s foundation. Then Mark pulled Olivia close, eyes gleaming into the camera: "She walked in and brought the color. She is my life's greatest acquisition." He never said things like that to me. Digital erasure. Seven days. A bizarre, romantic pact I had coded into my AI – a digital soul-bond to a legal marriage with Mark. My ultimate proof of devotion. Now, a death sentence. I crushed the cigarette under my satin shoe. Fine. If I was going to be erased, I wasn't going quietly. I wasn't going home to cry. I was going to his wedding reception.

Elysian Ruin: A Husband's Reckoning

Elysian Ruin: A Husband's Reckoning

Romance

5.0

I spent hours preparing Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey golden and perfect, a silent testament to the quiet life in our upscale suburban home. My wife, Izzy, was supposed to be home, but her booming lifestyle brand, Elysian Living, always came first. I was the unacknowledged foundation, the silent partner in a world she claimed to have built alone. Then I saw it—an Instagram story from Kev, her slick "Brand Strategist." He was grinning next to a brand-new Aston Martin, with Izzy by his side, her ring finger conspicuously bare. His caption, "Izzy knows how to treat her MVP," twisted the familiar knot in my stomach tighter. Moments later, Izzy called, not with an apology, but a sharp accusation about company gossip, hanging up before I could even defend myself. My phone buzzed again, this time a direct message from Kev, a taunting video tour of the car's interior. His voice smugly called me "old man." While her calls relentlessly flooded my screen, I thought of every late night. I thought of every bit of seed money, every crucial contact I leveraged to build "her" empire. None of which she ever acknowledged. The weight of her ingratitude, the blatant affair I was too "stupid" to notice, and the constant disrespect finally hit me with a chilling clarity. I was tired of being her silent safety net, her unappreciated fool. Something inside me snapped. I recorded an audio message for Kev, cold and precise. It exposed him as the parasite he was. Then I blocked him and turned off my phone. A new, definitive strategy for my own life was finally forming.

You'll also like

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

I'm Divorcing with You, Mr Billionaire!

I'm Divorcing with You, Mr Billionaire!

The Wine Press
4.2

I received a pornographic video. "Do you like this?" The man speaking in the video is my husband, Mark, whom I haven't seen for several months. He is naked, his shirt and pants scattered on the ground, thrusting forcefully on a woman whose face I can't see, her plump and round breasts bouncing vigorously. I can clearly hear the slapping sounds in the video, mixed with lustful moans and grunts. "Yes, yes, fuck me hard, baby," the woman screams ecstatically in response. "You naughty girl!" Mark stands up and flips her over, slapping her buttocks as he speaks. "Stick your ass up!" The woman giggles, turns around, sways her buttocks, and kneels on the bed. I feel like someone has poured a bucket of ice water on my head. It's bad enough that my husband is having an affair, but what's worse is that the other woman is my own sister, Bella. ************************************************************************************************************************ "I want to get a divorce, Mark," I repeated myself in case he didn't hear me the first time-even though I knew he'd heard me clearly. He stared at me with a frown before answering coldly, "It's not up to you! I'm very busy, don't waste my time with such boring topics, or try to attract my attention!" The last thing I was going to do was argue or bicker with him. "I will have the lawyer send you the divorce agreement," was all I said, as calmly as I could muster. He didn't even say another word after that and just went through the door he'd been standing in front of, slamming it harshly behind him. My eyes lingered on the knob of the door a bit absentmindedly before I pulled the wedding ring off my finger and placed it on the table. I grabbed my suitcase, which I'd already had my things packed in and headed out of the house.

The Billionaire's Blind Bride: No Mercy

The Billionaire's Blind Bride: No Mercy

Emma
5.0

I married Clive Harrington, the coldest billionaire in Manhattan, under a strict contract that forbade any emotional burdens. When I needed a high-risk surgery to save my sight, I checked into the clinic alone, hiding the procedure from a husband who saw me as nothing more than a legal asset. I thought I could handle the darkness in silence. But while I was blind and bandaged in my hospital bed, my biological mother called, screaming that if I didn't produce a Harrington heir by the end of the fiscal year, she would cut off the life-saving treatments for my disabled sister. I was crawling on the cold hospital floor, desperately feeling for a cane I had dropped, when I touched a pair of expensive leather shoes. It was Clive. He was supposed to be in London closing a multi-million dollar deal, but there he was, watching his "contract wife" groveling in the dark like a beggar. He didn't walk away in disgust. He carried me to a five-thousand-dollar-a-night VIP suite and sat by my bed, listening in chilling silence as another voicemail from my mother filled the room, calling me a "useless broodmare" who was only worth the trust fund disbursements my marriage secured. I expected him to remind me of Clause 34B or hand me divorce papers now that I was "damaged goods." Instead, I felt his thumb brush a stray tear from my cheek, his presence shifting from a statue of ice into a predatory shield. "I thought I was just currency to you," I whispered, my voice trembling behind the gauze. "Just an investment." Clive didn't answer with words. He picked up his phone and called his head of legal with a single, terrifying command: "Kill the Douglas family’s credit lines. Every debt, every lien—trigger them all. If they want a war, I’ll give them a massacre." As he leaned down to kiss my bandaged forehead, I realized the contract was dead. My husband wasn't protecting an asset anymore; he was hunting the people who had dared to touch what belonged to him.

The Convict Heiress: Marrying The Billionaire

The Convict Heiress: Marrying The Billionaire

Rollins Laman
4.8

The heavy thud of the release stamp was the only goodbye I got from the warden after five years in federal prison. I stepped out into the blinding sun, expecting the same flash of paparazzi bulbs that had seen me dragged away in handcuffs, but there was only a single black limousine idling on the shoulder of the road. Inside sat my mother and sister, clutching champagne and looking at my frayed coat with pure disgust. They didn't offer a welcome home; instead, they tossed a thick legal document onto the table and told me I was dead to the city. "Gavin and I are getting engaged," my sister Mia sneered, flicking a credit card at me like I was a stray dog. "He doesn't need a convict ex-fiancée hanging around." Even after I saved their lives from an armed kidnapping attempt by ramming the attackers off the road, they rewarded me by leaving me stranded in the dirt. When I finally ran into Gavin, the man who had framed me, he pinned me against a wall and threatened to send me back to a cell if I ever dared to show my face at their wedding. They had stolen my biotech research, ruined my name, and let me rot for half a decade while they lived off my brilliance. They thought they had broken me, leaving me with nothing but an expired chapstick and a few old photos in a plastic bag. What they didn't know was that I had spent those five years becoming "Dr. X," a shadow consultant with five hundred million dollars in crypto and a secret that would bring the city to its knees. I wasn't just a victim anymore; I was a weapon, and I was pregnant with the heir they thought they had erased. I walked into the Melton estate and made an offer to the most powerful man in New York. "I'll save your grandfather's life," I told Horatio Melton, staring him down. "But the price is your last name. I'm taking back what's mine, and I'm starting with the man who thinks he's marrying my sister."

One Night With The Wrong Brother

One Night With The Wrong Brother

Tangye Wanzi
5.0

I thought I was waking up in the arms of Arthur, the man I loved. But as the morning light hit the Hamptons estate, the man buttoning his cuffs by the window turned around with eyes like chips of ice. It was Augustus Riddle, Arthur’s cruel younger brother, and I had just spent the night whispering confessions of love into the wrong man's ear. The night I thought was a beautiful beginning turned into a devastating nightmare. Instead of comfort, Gus treated me like a stain on his expensive carpet, scribbling a check for "services rendered" before shoving me into a dark service corridor to hide my existence from his brother. "How much does it cost to buy your silence?" He sneered, before leaving me barefoot in a torrential downpour while he drove away in a luxury Cadillac. Four years later, I am a struggling actress in Los Angeles, working double shifts as a barista just to keep the lights on. My life was finally stable until my roommate dragged me to a high-end dinner to meet her new "influential" boyfriend. The man sitting at the table, looking more arrogant and lethal than ever, was Augustus. He spent the entire night humiliating me, calling me a pathetic amateur and a social climber in front of my only friends. When I fled into the rain and collapsed on the sidewalk, skinning my knee until I bled, he watched from his car. He saw me clutching a plastic baggie containing the taped-together pieces of that four-year-old check—the only proof of my shame. He looked at me like roadkill, rolled up his window, and drove off into the dark. I couldn't understand why he was doing this. Why did he hate me enough to crush me, yet remember that I couldn't handle the smell of cigarette smoke? Why did he leave me bleeding in the street, only to send expensive medical supplies and coffee to my door the very next morning? "I'm moving out." I told my roommates, realizing that Gus Riddle didn't just want to destroy me; he wanted to haunt me. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out with eighty dollars to my name, finally ready to disappear into the city before he could burn the rest of my life to the ground.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Collateral Love, Cruel Betrayal Collateral Love, Cruel Betrayal Cornelia Romance
“I was a foster kid with a talent for art. My benefactor, Declan, gave me everything: an education, a home, and a future. I loved him, and I agreed to be his wife. Then his adopted sister, Faye, decided she wanted my brother. When my brother rejected her, Declan had his hands broken, destroying his future as a musician. Faye framed me for kidnapping her, and Declan believed every word. He had me thrown into an abandoned mine pit filled with snakes as punishment. Then, to teach me a "permanent lesson," he had his men drag me to a clinic. They took one of my kidneys. The man who promised to protect me, who I thought was my savior, carved a piece of me out for a crime I didn't commit. The love I felt for him died on that operating table. When I woke up, he sat by my bed and told me our wedding was still on. He thought he had broken me. He was wrong. He doesn't know I have a plan. He doesn't know I'm leaving. And he'll never see me again.”
1

Chapter 1

05/08/2025

2

Chapter 2

05/08/2025

3

Chapter 3

05/08/2025

4

Chapter 4

05/08/2025

5

Chapter 5

05/08/2025

6

Chapter 6

05/08/2025

7

Chapter 7

05/08/2025

8

Chapter 8

05/08/2025

9

Chapter 9

05/08/2025

10

Chapter 10

05/08/2025

11

Chapter 11

05/08/2025

12

Chapter 12

05/08/2025

13

Chapter 13

05/08/2025

14

Chapter 14

05/08/2025

15

Chapter 15

05/08/2025

16

Chapter 16

05/08/2025

17

Chapter 17

05/08/2025

18

Chapter 18

05/08/2025

19

Chapter 19

05/08/2025

20

Chapter 20

05/08/2025

21

Chapter 21

05/08/2025

22

Chapter 22

05/08/2025

23

Chapter 23

05/08/2025

24

Chapter 24

05/08/2025

25

Chapter 25

05/08/2025