Bought with Millions, Paid with Death
Fuzzy Melissa · Completed · 7.8k Words
Introduction
Nobody knew he used to be a desperate stray I bought out of a dark alley. It started as a three-year contract. I burned millions to pave his way into the fashion elite, handing him top-tier campaigns until he became a global supermodel.
I stayed his dirty little secret so nothing would ruin his shot at "Model of the Year." He swore going public would kill his career, yet he had no problem parading around with young starlets—and letting them humiliate me behind closed doors.
His newest fling even smugly played a recording of him mocking me: "She’s just an ATM for brand deals. How could an uptight, older control freak ever compete with you?"
That was when I finally accepted it: love bought with money is just a transaction.
So, holding my terminal diagnosis, I signed over the last of my assets and quietly bowed out of his glamorous life forever.
I just don't understand one thing: if he was so sick of me, why did he completely lose his mind when he saw my death certificate? Why did he throw away everything he'd built, tearing the world apart to find me like a feral, abandoned dog?
Chapter 1
Clutching the bone marrow biopsy report, I walked out of the private hospital, my face completely expressionless.
The doctor's verdict had been blunt: the cancer was progressing aggressively. My remaining days were strictly a countdown.
I had just settled into my car when my phone buzzed. A trending entertainment headline flashed across the screen.
In a backstage blind spot at a Paris fashion show, Noah Pierce was leaning in close, sharing a water bottle with an up-and-coming model. The chemistry in the photo was palpable.
My eyes lingered on the nauseating GIF for a few seconds before I dialed Noah's number.
Without fail, three consecutive calls went straight to voicemail.
Half an hour later in my office, my assistant approached me tentatively. "Ms. Vance, should we arrange the private jet for Mr. Pierce tonight as usual?"
I couldn't hold back a cold sneer. A stray dog I'd dragged out of a back-alley gutter and molded into a star was now playing the diva.
"No need." I folded the terminal diagnosis report and shoved it into my pocket.
"And tell security to revoke Noah's VIP elevator access. If he wants to come up, he signs in at the front desk for a visitor's pass like everyone else."
"Also, from now on, stop calling him 'Mr. Pierce'."
After dismissing my assistant, I locked myself in the empty office.
I dragged myself through the next few hours until the phone on my desk finally rang.
The incredibly busy man had finally remembered to call back.
But the second the call connected, the background noise was deafening—heavy EDM and high-pitched female laughter.
"I'm busy, Miranda," he yelled impatiently over the noise. "I'm taking shots with executives trying to lock down a major luxury campaign. If it's nothing urgent, I'm hanging up."
The line went dead before I could speak.
He hadn't even bothered to ask: How did your hospital visit go today?
Usually, my PR team would have scrubbed the internet clean of those rumors by now.
But this time, I didn't make a single call.
I just stared at the terminal report, letting the hours slip away until morning threw light across the desk.
Near noon, I was back at my apartment changing clothes when the front door opened.
Noah pulled off his sunglasses and walked in. His eyes were bloodshot from a hangover, and he carried an overwhelming stench of stale alcohol mixed with an intensely pungent, cloyingly sweet perfume.
Just like always, he stepped up to me and habitually bowed his head, waiting for me to loosen his tie. That perfume hit my nostrils.
Disgusted, I stepped back. "Go take a shower. You smell like fermenting garbage."
He froze, then immediately switched to his signature wounded puppy look. Stepping closer, he used his drunkenness as an excuse to bury his chin in my neck, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Don't be mad. I was practically force-fed drinks to get that endorsement." His voice was coaxing. "My head is killing me. Can you rub it for me, please?"
Before, whenever he showed this kind of vulnerability, I would always soften and let things slide.
But right now, all I could think about was the diagnosis in my pocket.
Expressionless, I pried his fingers off my waist, one by one.
"Don't touch me. Go wash."
His usual trick failing for the first time, his tender facade instantly cracked.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, muttered something under his breath, and tossed his phone onto the coffee table, letting go of me.
At that exact second, the screen lit up.
No sender name. Immediately after, his privacy screen filter blacked out the display entirely from my angle.
Not a single trace left behind.
Setting up such a flawless defense against me... he really put a lot of effort into this.
Exhausted from days of traveling, Noah collapsed onto the master bed and instantly fell asleep.
I stayed in the living room, looking at his half-open suitcase on the floor. I sighed out of habit and walked over to sort his dirty laundry.
As I sorted through the alcohol-soaked couture shirts, my fingers accidentally brushed against a hidden compartment at the very bottom of the lining.
The zipper wasn't fully closed, and my fingertip caught on something flimsy. The moment I yanked it out, I froze.
A black lace thong that definitely did not belong to me.
Holding it by its pathetic little string, I strode to the master bedroom and pushed the door wide open.
Without hesitation, I whipped the filthy scrap of fabric right across Noah's sleeping face.
"Open your eyes. Explain to me whose this is."
He jolted awake. The moment his eyes focused on the black lace, the color completely drained from his face.
But he immediately feigned an absurdly innocent, wronged expression.
"Miranda, listen to me! The backstage area at the show was a complete disaster! It must have been my idiot assistant. He probably packed some random model's trash into my bag by mistake!"
While spewing this garbage excuse that couldn't fool a toddler, he reached out to grab my wrist, trying to brush it off with physical affection.
A violent wave of nausea surged up my throat, compounding the deep-seated weakness that had been screaming in my bones all night.
I swallowed down the dizziness and slapped his arm away. "Don't touch me with your filthy hands."
Seeing that I was about to leave, he completely panicked.
Forgetting his shoes, he practically threw himself out of bed, dropping to one knee next to the mattress to block my path, softening his posture to beg:
"Baby, please don't start a fight over this. I'm exhausted from all these events..."
I stared down at him, skipping the bullshit: "Fine. Then next month at the charity gala, I want you to walk the red carpet with me as my official boyfriend."
He sprang up like he'd been burned.
"Are you crazy? I just booked a global top-tier luxury campaign! If I go public with a relationship right now, my career is completely ruined!"
"And what about that blonde model you were trending with yesterday?" I locked onto him. "Sharing a water bottle in a blind spot doesn't affect your career?"
"That was a forced PR stunt by the agency!" he retorted without missing a beat.
Then, softening his eyes, he reached for my hand again. "Just give me one more year, okay? Once I win Actor of the Year, I swear I'll go public with us."
I pulled my gaze away from his hypocritical face and coldly pulled my hand free.
"Noah, I don't have until next year."
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
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
A pack of their own
The Human Among Wolves
My stomach twisted, but he wasn’t finished.
"You're just a pathetic little human," Zayn said, his words deliberate, each one hitting like a slap. "Spreading your legs for the first guy who bothers to notice you."
Heat rushed to my face, burning with humiliation. My chest ached — not from his words alone, but from the sick realization that I had trusted him. That I had let myself believe he was different.
I was so, so stupid.
——————————————————
When eigteen-year-old Aurora Wells moves to a sleepy town with her parents, the last thing she expects is to be enrolled in a secret academy for werewolves.
Moonbound Academy is no ordinary school. It's here young Lycans, Betas and Alphas train in shifting, elemental magic, and ancient pack laws. But Aurora? She's just...human. a mistake. The new receptionist forgot to check her species - and now she's surrounded by predators who sense she doesn't belong.
Determined to stay under the radar, Aurora plans to survive the year unnoticed. But when she catches the attention of Zayn, a brooding and infuriatingly powerful Lycan prince, her life gets a lot more complicated. Zayn already has a mate. He already has enemies. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with a clueless human.
But secrets run deeper than bloodlines at Moonbound. as Aurora unravels the truth about the academy - and herself - she begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Including the reason she was brought here at all.
Enemies will rise. Loyalties will shift. And the girl with no place in their world...might be the key to saving it.
The mafia princess return
Accardi
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.
Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Rise of the Banished She-Wolf
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
Invisible To Her Bully
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.
The Lycan Prince’s Puppy
“Soon enough, you’ll be begging for me. And when you do—I’ll use you as I see fit, and then I’ll reject you.”
—
When Violet Hastings begins her freshman year at Starlight Shifters Academy, she only wants two things—honor her mother’s legacy by becoming a skilled healer for her pack and get through the academy without anyone calling her a freak for her strange eye condition.
Things take a dramatic turn when she discovers that Kylan, the arrogant heir to the Lycan throne who has made her life miserable from the moment they met, is her mate.
Kylan, known for his cold personality and cruel ways, is far from thrilled. He refuses to accept Violet as his mate, yet he doesn’t want to reject her either. Instead, he sees her as his puppy, and is determined to make her life even more of a living hell.
As if dealing with Kylan’s torment isn’t enough, Violet begins to uncover secrets about her past that change everything she thought she knew. Where does she truly come from? What is the secret behind her eyes? And has her whole life been a lie?
Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl
His eyes darken, flicking to my mouth.
"It's wrong. Your brother would slit my throat for just standing this close. But tell me, little bird" his breath ghosts my skin, "are you trembling because you hate me… or because you've wanted this just as much as I have?"
Wren thought she'd buried the chaos of New Orleans for good—the clubs, the blood-soaked loyalties, the men who lived and died by their kuttes. Seattle gave her everything she ever wanted: freedom, love, a future.
But one betrayal shatters it all.
Dragged home by tragedy, Wren finds herself under the watchful eye of Ezra Jax—the Raven Reapers MC's vice president and her brother's best friend. He's infuriating, dangerous, and far too tempting for a man she should never touch.
And the deeper Wren is pulled back into his world, the more she realizes nothing about her past—or about Ezra—is what she believed.
In the chaos of gang wars, mounting debts, and old betrayals, he becomes the one constant. The more she fights him, the harder she falls. And the more he pushes her away, the more lethal his pull becomes.
Because in this world, love isn't sweet.
It's brutal. Bloody.
And it's bound to break them both.
When loyalty is everything and love can cost your life, will Wren risk her heart on the one man she was never meant to love?
