
Beyond the Contract
Natacha_H · Ongoing · 256.2k Words
Introduction
"You have to change," Abraxas says, kissing her temple is a caring and soothing way.
"Eh, why? Am I not the bride?" I ask in confusion.
Little did I know, the wedding was only the beginning of a nightmare.
Despite knowing it was a contracted marriage, I still entered into it full of hope that Abraxas Harlow would eventually fall in love with me.
But after years of being treated as a slave and striving to perform as the Harlow family's 'good wife', I had enough. When I finally gathered the courage to ask for a divorce, Abraxas belittled me, and he thought my life would be a struggle without him.
But he couldn't have been more wrong. I am Anastasia, the billionaire heiress of the Jackson family, the most influential and powerful family in Pearl City. I am not just any Stacy.
Now that Abraxas knows my true identity, and he thinks he can win me back? Dream on!
Chapter 1
Anastasia's POV
Six Years Ago
Today Anastasia Jackson becomes Stacy Elizabeth Reid, the identity created for the occasion by my powerful father. Standing in my bedroom, I look myself over in the mirror. The dress hugged my curves perfectly, and I'm smiling. Today I'm going to marry the guy I've had a crush on for years and years. He doesn't know who I am, but I've had time to study him at every occasion - yes I sound like a stalker! But I'm not, I swear.
Abraxas Harlow is a business associate of my fathers, and my father is very protective. So, even with me and my brother being the heirs to take over, he has been going out of his way to keep us out of the limelight - with more or less success. I've been going to every business meeting and venture with him as his 'assistant', so I can learn the protocol for years. It's exciting. But it's also where I met Abraxas for the first time and fell in love with him.
"Are you really sure about this, sis?" Aron asks for the million times. He is as worried about me as the rest of my family, but I am sure. I need to do this for myself. To get out of that overprotected world my parents had placed me and him in, and get some life experience for myself.
"I'm sure. We created my alias for this occasion and I'm seeing it though." I told him. My father had a man make me a new identity. From the moment I left the car I would no longer be Anastasia Jackson, but Stacy Elizabeth Reid. They had made it bulletproof, so even with the extensive background check Connie Harlow had ordered on me, she didn't know anything but what we wanted her too - and that was nothing.
"Okay then! You have your things, and the special phone?" He asks while looking me in the eyes. I'm going to miss him too.
"Yes and yes. I'll call if and when I want out, but you know I've been crushing on Abraxas for years, brother." Aron snorts some sort of answer before hugging me tight.
The church is small, and only for the high society people to use. The pastor knows my family, but he doesn't know me. I've been protected by my parents for him to know.
I walk with my stuff to the church where the wedding is taking place. I have put on a cute, not too expensive, not too cheap white dress and semi white high heels. I walk through the door, putting down my things.
The people there turn at the door movement, and I am met with Abraxas' cold gray eyes, his mouth turning down into a scowl. Beside him clings a platinum blond woman whose pale blue eyes widen at my arrival.
"She's wearing white. Why is she wearing white? I'm supposed to be the only one. Make her stop, baby!" She whines at my husband-to-be.
Looking back, that should have been enough warning, but nope.
"You have to change," Abraxas says, kissing the other woman's temple in a caring and soothing way.
"Eh, why? Am I not the bride?" I ask in confusion, not following the train of thoughts between these people. The other woman starts to cry loudly.
"She's so mean already. Why is she already mean?" She whales and I take a step back. What the fuck.
Before I can react, an older woman, the spitting image of a younger woman on the other side of Abraxas grabs my arm harshly.
"Stop being a needy brat and get changed already. We don't have time for your prima donna tendencies. Isn't it enough that you are going to be my son's legal wife? You don't have to be a bitch about it too." She says, as she drags me to a side room. In there she gives me a cheap badly fitting black dress and black flats to wear.
"Change and come out! We don't like to be kept waiting." She walks out, and I'm left alone with my thoughts.
I knew I was only to be a wife through a contract, but I didn't know he already had a woman in his life. I don't follow the gossip of the town much, the only thing I saw was an opportunity to finally get some time with the man I've been crushing on. Time to win him over. As humiliated I feel, I do as they say and we are married with me in black, while the blonde woman cries hysterically into my new mother-in-law's arms.
She is acting like this is a funeral, not a wedding.
I'm shaken from my thoughts by a shout from an annoying high pitched voice of Celia, Abraxas's little sister.
She is shouting for me to get downstairs for god only knows what, and I am done. This time I will not answer her beck and call. I know the consequences all too well if I don't follow instructions through and through, I've lived through them all - beatings with belts, canes, shouting, degrading and starving.
But today I got something else other than me to fight for. Something they will never touch or even look at in the wrong way. They have no idea. No idea who lived here for 6 years. No idea who they have mistreated for six years - most of the time just because someone was bored or needed an outlet.
I pack the last of my things, making sure everything I was supplied with from this horrible family is still in the closet. I am only taking the things I brought with me - including the wedding dress I brought to church that day. I look outside the window, a calm falling over me as I hug myself. This has to be done, and the more I think about it the more it feels right. In my heart and in my head.
I tried for six years to get him to love me back, and now there is nothing left but promises broken.
Last Chapters
#225 Chapter 225
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#224 Chapter 224
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#223 Chapter 223
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#222 Chapter 222
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#221 Chapter 221
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#220 Chapter 220
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#219 Chapter 219
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#218 Chapter 218
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#217 Chapter 217
Last Updated: 2/27/2026#216 Chapter 216
Last Updated: 2/27/2026
You Might Like 😍
King of the Underworld
However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”
But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”
Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.
She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Where I End and She Begins
But when a body lies at Amelia’s feet, and her hands are covered in blood that isn’t hers, one question echoes louder than the rest:
How did it come to this?
As the school year unfolds, cracks begin to show — in friendships, in family, and in Amelia’s own mind. The lines between loyalty and control blur. Between truth and perception. Between who she is… and who she thinks she needs to be.
Because some friendships don’t just shape you.
They consume you.
And when the illusion shatters, there’s always something left behind.
The mafia princess return
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
Cursed Fates
Omega Bound
Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life.
Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Mated to Her Alpha Instructor
Weeks later, our new Alpha combat instructor walks in. Regis. The guy from the woods. His eyes lock on mine, and I know he recognizes me. Then the secret I've been hiding hits me like a punch: I'm pregnant.
He has an offer that binds us tighter than ever. Protection… or a cage? Whispers turn ugly, darkness closes in. Why am I the one without a wolf? Is he my salvation… or will he drag me to ruin?
A pack of their own
Tango with the Alpha's Heart
“He met her at the Alpha training camp,” he said. “She is a perfect suitor for him. It snowed last night, indicating that his wolf is happy with his choice.”
My heart sank, and tears made their way down my cheeks.
Alexander took my innocence last night, and now he is taking that thing in his office as his Luna.
Emily became the laughingstock of the pack on her 18th birthday and never expected the Alpha's son to be her mate.
After a night of passionate love, Emily finds out that her mate has taken a chosen mate. Heartbroken and humiliated, she disappears from the pack.
Now, five years later, Emily is a respected high-ranking warrior in King Alpha’s army.
When her best friend invites her to a night of music and laughter, she never expects to run into her mate.
Will her mate figure out it is her?
Will he chase after her, and most of all, will Emily be able to keep her secrets safe?
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.
Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?












