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HIS LOVE CAME TOO LATE

Author: ABBYO

Chapter 1 SEVEN DAYS TO LOSE EVERYTHING

Word Count: 1247 | Released on: 23/10/2026

ng. A courier handed it over looking a little g

ayes?"

t's

ick envelope. "Jus

en. Inside, cream paper-sharp, cold, nothing personal about it. She stood under the brass chandelier her mother used t

ECLOSURE AND

got sold, unless she somehow paid off the debt

ice. The reception clock just ticked along, uncaring-like i

a whisper. Flat,

ing she could use to call this a mix-up. Nothing. The debt was hers. The

assumed belonged to the city itself. The papers made him sound brilliant and ruthless, the sort who didn't

gging for a new fridge, that stubbornly leaky pipe in Room Twelve-stuff she'd managed for two years since her mother di

stood between her an

ve. The third offered a loan with soul-crushing interest rates. The debt company

rning-it was the

ratched and worn. A photograph sat by the phone: her mother, laughing outsid

little embarrassed by the sou

omething people came back to-wedding guests, travelers leaving thank-you notes, everyo

or eleven mind-numbing minutes, a woman picked up, voice bright and clinical,

Hayes," she said, "but the auct

talk to whoev

naged through the

e off

lackwood

. "I want a meeting w

ubmit a

you won't get paid-because I won't

ed. "I'll forwa

l e

She had no appointment, no insider connections, no reason to expect a bill

efused to let any receptionist dismiss her as just another desperate debtor. By noon, she

lock, Oli

w at ten. Please arrive fifteen mi

ped Elena to her k

documents about the hotel's debt and ow

d to the hotel door, strangers wandering the rooms, her mother's photo carted off along with the furniture

od Holdings, looking up at a glittering glass

nd decided: she'd stay strong. She wouldn't cry, wouldn't plead, wouldn't let him mistake desp

paintings. "Mr. Blackwood already reviewed your

ere to tel

Adrian Blackwood sat behind an enormous desk, charcoal suit, hair perfect-expression

d not

ncing at the folder. "Your

t's exactly

n auction for an asset that

arrangement so I

what m

ompletely fair. He didn't seem t

upancy. Repay over time. I br

a little too hopeful. Cash flow's weak, maintenance costs keep rising, and

but her voice stayed steady. "Th

"There's one way to settle the debt all at on

ic appearances, family events,

e heard right? "You

" Adrian said, precise.

side of the scale-her freedom on the other. She could already guess what this ar

e gone, the staff keeping their jobs, he

ed him i

clear. You can pay me to pretend to love you. Bu

-a tiny narrowing of his eyes, like nobody had ev

ning back, "let's ta

Chapter End

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HIS LOVE CAME TOO LATE

ABBYO Billionaires

“He offered me six months of his name. I gave him six months of my life. Neither of us expected to lose our hearts. Seven days. That was all Elena Hayes had left before the hotel her late mother had built from nothing was sold at auction, taking the last piece of her family with it. Desperate for a miracle, she walked into the office of Adrian Blackwood, a billionaire who could destroy a person's future with a signature and buy back their loyalty with a smile. His offer was simple. Six months as his fiancée. Public appearances. Family dinners. A convincing performance of a love that didn't exist. In return, he would save her hotel. Elena agreed, but not before making one thing clear: he could buy her time, but he would never own her. Adrian found her defiance amusing. He was accustomed to women who wanted his money, his power, and his attention. Elena wanted none of those things from him, and the more he tried to understand her, the more she became the one woman he couldn't stop thinking about. She challenged him when everyone else obeyed. She saw through his arrogance when everyone else praised his brilliance. And without asking permission, she began reaching the lonely man hidden beneath his expensive suits and perfectly controlled smiles. Then a staged kiss became a memory neither could forget. A simple act of kindness became the one thing he looked forward to. And the woman he had hired to pretend to love him became the woman whose absence he could no longer bear. But Adrian Blackwood has spent his entire life believing that losing control means losing everything. Elena has spent hers learning that love without freedom is just another kind of prison. When their pretend engagement becomes real, a secret buried in her family's past threatens to destroy the very love Adrian has fought to understand. Suddenly, every promise sounds like a lie, every sacrifice raises a question, and the man who taught Elena to trust again may be the one person she can never forgive. Now Adrian must face the one battle his fortune cannot win for him. He must convince the woman he loves that she was never a transaction, that his love was never a lie, and that the man who once believed he could buy anything is finally willing to risk everything for her. Because Elena Hayes was never the woman he could afford to lose. She was the woman he should never have let himself love if he wasn't prepared to become a different man. And when she finally walks away, Adrian will discover that the most expensive mistake of his life wasn't losing his fortune. It was teaching the woman he loved how to live without him. Some men fall in love too late. Some women leave before love can destroy them. And some hearts must break before they learn how to belong to each other.”