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Reclaiming Her Crown: The CEO's Sudden Bride

Chapter 5 

Word Count: 946    |    Released on: 11/05/2026

ollar. He glared at Darnell, his voice dripping with arrogance, and threaten

tapped the screen, holding it up slightly, and calmly stated, "Mr. Lewis, I recall your company is currently in the middle of a critical Series B funding round. I

round. A police scene and a public scandal involving their recently paroled daughter

warning, telling her she would beg on her knees for the mistake she mad

linoleum hallway until the sound was swa

t Karli standing vanished. Her legs turned to water. She slid down the c

Her shoulders shook as a raw, sup

eyes unreadable. He walked over to the small bedside table, pulled

ale and streaked with tears. She took the paper towels, wi

posite her. He crossed his long legs. Even in the steri

stated that since the immediate threat was gone, they n

She unzipped her damp canvas bag and pulled out a

the paper and wrote the first rule: Total financial independence. N

cating his agreement. He added his own condition: When necessary, she must

st escaped. Acting was a small price to p

rate bedrooms. Absolute respect for privacy. No ent

e corner of his mouth twitched upward for a fraction of a s

the notebook. She signed her name

wled his signature across the

spital was no longer secure and ordered her to sign

else to go. She gathered her bag and followe

exclusive high-rise apartment building in downtown Chicago-a place that looke

p floor. Darnell pulled out a ke

nted a cold gray, the furniture was black leather and steel, and there

closed door. He told her the guest room wa

room. She dropped her bag on the floor a

he prison gate, the marriage contract, the rain, the

linking, followed by the solid thud of the master bedr

pped in the strange safety of a stranger's home, she

cago skyline. He held his encrypted phone to his ear. Julian Croft, his executive assistant, answered on the firs

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Reclaiming Her Crown: The CEO's Sudden Bride
Reclaiming Her Crown: The CEO's Sudden Bride
“Stepping out of the women's correctional center, Karli took her first breath of freedom in three years. But the luxury SUV waiting for her didn't bring her home. Instead, her adoptive parents tossed a prenuptial agreement onto her lap. They demanded she marry a violently unhinged, disfigured man so their company could secure a massive commercial deal. When she refused, her adoptive mother slapped her hard across the face. The blow brought back the suffocating nightmare from three years ago-how they had drugged her, framed her for a crime she didn't commit, and sent her to prison just so her stepsister could steal her fiancé. Now, to break her again, her adoptive father ordered his bodyguards to drag her into the estate's freezing, pitch-black basement. "You can rot in the dark without food or water until you sign that paper!" Sitting on the damp cement, bleeding and shivering, a white-hot fury burned away Karli's panic. They had stolen her youth, her reputation, and her grandfather's inheritance. She would rather die than be their sacrificial lamb again. She smashed the basement window with a hammer, dragged her bleeding body through the shattered glass, and sprinted blindly into the stormy night. Under the flickering neon sign of a convenience store, she grabbed the sleeve of a terrifyingly cold stranger. "Are you single? Marry me right now." She just needed a legal marriage to escape her family, entirely unaware she had just proposed to the most ruthless billionaire in Chicago.”