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My wife's childhood best friend returned from overseas with a child. To protect his reputation and secure the boy's future, she told everyone that she was the child's mother.

And my child? She claimed that my daughter was the bastard I had brought home after fooling around behind her back.

When I finally broke down and demanded an explanation, she remained as calm as ever.

"Bryan has always had it hard at home," she said. "And his son cannot grow up without a mother. I have to help them."

That day, I looked at the woman I had loved for seven years and decided that I would never love her again.

Chapter 1

When I learned that Gwyneth Sullivan planned to take Bryan Thatcher on a trip three days later to help sell the lie that his child was really her firstborn, I called my mother-in-law, Hilda Brunt.

"Mrs. Sullivan, I want a divorce."

Hilda let out a long sigh on the other end of the line. "Oh, dear child, it was Gwen who wronged you."

Ever since Gwyneth told everyone that our child, Prudence, was some bastard I had brought home after fooling around outside, a child I had forced her to raise, we had fought more fiercely than at any other time in our seven-year marriage.

When she realized I intended to take our daughter and leave, she had people lock me inside the villa.

Even when I took Prudence out for a checkup, a dozen bodyguards followed me every step of the way.

"She is our child," she had said. "I can't abandon her."

So she knew. She knew Prudence was her child. Yet with one careless sentence, she had nearly destroyed both our lives, even though she knew perfectly well that our daughter was her biological child.

Bryan's son, Sam, was the one whose mother no one knew.

I brushed my fingers over my daughter's sleeping cheek and realized this was my last chance. The thought that she might grow up without a mother's love hurt deeply. Yet I could not bear the idea that she would carry the stain of someone else's sin from the moment she was born.

Perhaps she felt the warmth of my hand. She shifted in her sleep and smiled, as if she understood how broken I felt, as if she were trying to comfort me.

Tears fell at once. I pulled my hand back and stepped out onto the balcony for air. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Forgive your father for being cruel."

I had barely steadied myself when the villa door opened.

Gwyneth walked over and stopped in front of me. She glanced at my red eyes and said in the same flat voice, "Don't be like this in front of Prudence. Try to be happy."

It was easy for her to say. If I could control my feelings, I would never have fallen for the woman standing in front of me.

I had always known she kept a place for Bryan in her heart. I had always known that what she felt for me was not real love. The person I had loved most was the one who had wounded me most deeply.

"You've done so much to hurt me. You trapped me here. You took away my freedom." I looked at her. "What, I don't even have the right to feel devastated?"

She only stood there, guilt flickering across her face, but no words came.

Just like a few months earlier, not long after she gave birth…

I took Prudence for her shots that day. At the clinic, I ran into Gwyneth while she was there with Bryan's child.

She was gentle and attentive with Sam. She acted as if she feared he might be bumped or scratched.

"Gwen, look at our baby. He really takes after you."

A soft glow spread across Gwyneth's face. She let Bryan hold her hand, then allowed him to guide it to the child's little head.

The next moment, she looked up and saw me standing at the corner. She did not explain. She simply froze.

What a happy family of three.

If I had not been Gwyneth's husband, I might have said it out loud. I might even have envied them.

But I could not say it, and she did not deserve to hear it.

…

The woman standing in front of me remained silent for a moment, as if she had only just remembered something.

Anyone have a link for this? Or it's title on noel? Thanks in advance <3

Hi, Does anyone have a link to this?

Chapter 1

Five years after our breakup, I changed my name and left Chicago.

With a right hand that could no longer hold a scalpel for long and legs that could barely keep me on my feet, I opened a small clinic near Vancouver General Hospital.

I thought I would never see Adrian Moretti again.

Until one day, a man from Chicago walked through my door.

He wore a black overcoat, with the Moretti Family's silver wolf insignia pinned to his cuff.

After picking up his medication, he didn't leave right away and stood there watching me for a long moment.

"Doctor, did you ever live in Chicago?"

I lowered my eyes and continued sorting the prescriptions.

"A long time ago."

The man hesitated before lowering his voice.

"Adrian still hasn't married. The old Don has pushed him to marry more times than I can count, and even the Family council tried arranging marriage alliances for him, but he turned every one of them down. Everyone says he's waiting for a woman."

I said nothing.

...

Five years ago, my name was still Erin Carter.

I was the youngest trauma surgeon at the Moretti Family's private medical center and the most unwelcome outsider in the entire Family.

I didn't have a powerful last name, a capo willing to protect me, or a Don for a father.

Scholarships, my medical license, my own skill, and a little luck were all I had when I joined the Moretti Medical Center.

Adrian, on the other hand, was the Moretti Family's underboss and the strongest contender to become the next Don.

Everyone said standing beside him was the luckiest thing that could ever have happened to me.

They also believed I should spend the rest of my life grateful to the Moretti Family for allowing me that privilege.

What none of them knew was that Adrian had been the one who chased me for an entire year.

Just then, the bell above the clinic door chimed again.

The man in front of me suddenly went rigid.

I looked up.

Adrian stood in the doorway.

Five years had passed, but the moment he appeared, the entire room still fell silent.

His black suit was sharply tailored, his shoulders straight.

But the hard, intimidating edge that had once made people afraid to get too close to him had faded, leaving only obvious exhaustion and tightly buried strain on his face.

He stood there staring at me for so long that he seemed to forget how to breathe.

Finally, he walked to the counter.

"Erin."

His voice was hoarse.

"It's been a long time."

I looked at him calmly.

"Yeah. It has."

The sight of him dragged me straight back to that night five years ago.

Chapter 2

It all started when Selena Moretti returned to Chicago.

She was the old Don's adopted daughter and Adrian's adopted sister, the girl he had protected since they were children.

On her third day back, she burst into my office in tears.

"Erin, after I used the medication you prescribed, my wound got infected! And now I have HIV!"

She rolled up her sleeve.

A strange patch of angry red swelling covered her arm.

I frowned and pulled up her medical records.

The medication I'd prescribed was routinely used at the medical center, and there was nothing wrong with the batch number, manufacturer, or dosage.

More importantly, she had contracted HIV long before I ever treated her.

The lab results made that perfectly clear.

I had barely opened my mouth to explain when the office door was kicked open.

Adrian walked in with two Family enforcers behind him.

Selena's eyes instantly filled with tears.

"Adrian, I really don't blame her. Maybe Erin just looks down on me because I'm adopted. She doesn't think I'm a real Moretti, so she didn't care what medication she gave me."

"She ruined my life!"

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Selena, you know that's not what the test results say."

Adrian didn't even look at the report.

He only looked at me.

"You admit you prescribed the medication?"

"Yes, but the HIV infection wasn't caused by it."

"Enough."

He lifted one hand.

One of the enforcers stepped forward and seized my right arm.

A terrible feeling hit me.

"Adrian, what are you doing?"

His expression was ice cold.

"Isn't this the hand you're so proud of? You're a doctor on the Moretti payroll, with no Family name and no protection of your own, and you still thought you could go after a daughter of this Family. Let me make one thing clear. You don't have that right here."

The next second, a heavy metal baton came crashing down on my right wrist.

The crack of bone came almost at the exact same moment as my scream.

The pain dropped me to my knees.

Adrian only looked down at me.

"This is a lesson. Once you learn how to respect her, I'll have the best orthopedic surgeon treat your hand."

I looked up at him through the pain.

"You didn't even read the test results, and you've already decided I'm guilty?"

Selena burst into tears and wrapped both arms around his.

"Forget it, Adrian. She's going to marry you soon, after all."

That sentence didn't protect me.

If anything, it only made everyone around us look at me with even more contempt.

In their eyes, I wasn't arguing because I was a doctor defending a medical judgment.

I was arguing because they thought I was about to become Mrs. Moretti.

By that evening, everyone at the Family's private bar had already heard the rumors, and they drank and laughed as they tore me apart.

"An outsider thinks she gets to throw her weight around in the Moretti Family?"

"She can't seriously think getting engaged to the underboss means she can start ordering Family members around."

"She's just some broke doctor with no Family behind her, and she's already acting like she's Mrs. Moretti."

"I heard she's almost burned through what little her father left her, and she still acts like she's too good for the rest of us."

I stood outside the bar and heard every word.

After looking into it, I discovered the rumors had started with Adrian's personal assistant.

I called him, and he answered.

"Did you tell people to spread those rumors about me?"

"Yes."

His answer was perfectly calm.

"You've crossed the line too many times lately. I just wanted to make sure you don't do it again."

I stared down at my splinted hand as a chill slowly spread through me.

"Shut the rumors down."

"Apologize to Selena first."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

There was silence on the other end for two seconds before Adrian gave a quiet laugh.

"Erin, did you forget who pulled strings for you at the medical center? Who helped you go from an unknown resident to a lead surgeon at the Family's medical center? Without the Morettis, you're nothing."

That was the first time I truly understood.

Everything Adrian had ever done to help me had never been love in his eyes.

They were resources and privileges, things he believed he had given me and could take back whenever he wanted.

Chapter 3

The next day, Adrian took me to the Drake Hotel.

The Moretti Family was holding a private reception there, and almost every important capo in Chicago was in attendance.

Selena sat near the head table, her arm wrapped in an exaggerated amount of white bandages.

The moment I walked into the ballroom, every eye turned toward me.

Someone deliberately raised his voice.

"So that's the incompetent doctor? I heard she even had the nerve to botch the Family's own daughter's treatment. Give an outsider too much status, and sooner or later she starts thinking she's one of us."

Adrian acted as though he hadn't heard a word.

He walked up to Selena, then turned to me.

"Apologize."

I didn't move.

"I already sent you the complete lab report. Her infection had nothing to do with the medication I prescribed."

Selena shook her head, her eyes red.

"Forget it, Adrian. I don't want you two fighting because of me."

The more she said things like that, the angrier everyone around us became.

One of the capos slammed his glass down on the table.

"Miss Carter, this isn't your hospital. Miss Moretti is willing to accept your apology, so don't keep testing the Family's patience."

Another man gave a mocking laugh.

"She probably thinks a medical license makes her more qualified to speak than those of us who actually came up on the streets."

The whole thing was absurd.

They looked down on me because of where I came from, then turned around and accused me of looking down on them.

Adrian finally lost his patience.

"Erin, don't make me have someone hold you down and force you to bow your head."

I looked straight at him.

"What exactly do you want me to admit? That I hurt her on purpose? That because you skipped our engagement party, I took revenge on your adopted sister? That I'm not good enough to be a Moretti?"

His brow tightened.

"If you keep talking back like this, you're only going to make everyone here hate you more."

I suddenly laughed.

"So none of you care about the truth. You just want to hear me say whatever you've already decided you want to hear."

The words had barely left my mouth when Adrian's head of security grabbed my shoulder and pinned me against the edge of the table.

My injured right hand slammed into the corner, and pain tore through me so violently that all the color drained from my face.

Selena immediately ducked behind Adrian.

"Don't do that. She'll hate me."

Adrian patted her hand.

"She has no right to hate you."

Then he looked at me.

"Say you're sorry."

I clenched my teeth.

"No."

The ballroom went silent.

A few seconds later, Adrian ripped the medical center ID badge from my chest and threw it onto the floor.

"Then for the rest of tonight, you don't get to speak as a doctor from the Moretti Medical Center. Go stand by the door. Come back when you've thought it through."

That night, still wearing my evening dress, I stood outside the Drake Hotel ballroom for three hours.

Every Family member who entered or left could see me.

Some deliberately spilled wine on my shoes, while others shoved empty glasses into my hands and told me to clear them away.

One man laughed as he passed.

"That's more like it. A woman with no Family behind her should learn to serve the Family before she starts giving orders."

I didn't cry.

Not until a drunken young enforcer cornered me in a service hallway.

He waved an old needle he'd taken from a first aid kit, grinning viciously.

"Heard you're obsessed with hygiene. Want to guess who used this before you?"

My expression changed.

"Put it down."

Instead, he moved closer.

"A woman who only got this far because the underboss propped her up thinks she can order me around?"

I took a step back and hit the wall behind me.

"I said put it down."

He suddenly grabbed my arm.

During the struggle, the needle broke the skin on my arm.

My entire body went rigid.

Footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor.

Adrian and several capos were coming out of one of the private rooms.

I called out almost instinctively.

"Adrian!"

He stopped and looked from me to the man beside me.

The young enforcer immediately released my arm, but there wasn't much fear on his face because he knew Adrian wasn't going to punish him harshly over me.

Sure enough, Adrian only said flatly, "If you're drunk, get the hell out of here."

Then he turned to me.

"Don't make a scene over this and ruin the whole reception. These people already don't like you. The more you talk to them like you're giving orders, the more they'll make a point of targeting you."

I looked down at the bead of blood forming on my arm.

"So this is still my fault?"

Adrian frowned.

"I didn't say that. But maybe you should ask yourself why they never treat Selena this way."

After that, I didn't want to explain another word to him.

I went to the ER alone.

The doctor on duty cleaned the wound and prescribed HIV post-exposure prophylaxis.

Before I left, she handed me a document.

"Erin, I didn't want to tell you this right now. Someone from the Moretti Family met with the hospital board this afternoon, and your surgical privileges have been suspended."

I looked up.

"On what grounds?"

"A professional conduct investigation."

Her eyes turned red.

"Adrian personally signed off on it."

This one feels like a long shot :( but im sooo hooked!!!!

Link or Noel if anyone has it.

Does anyone have a link or the name on Noel Novel?

Hi anyone able to share links for this novel: title is

the billionaire's forgotten night, Aria and Xavier’s story

I read the ad preview and now I want to know more, can't find it with a search online anywhere, not even the app it's from shows up in the search. I feel stupid, but if anyone can help me find it I would be grateful

During my three-year secretive relationship with my boss, Zane Bender, we used 999 condoms.

Before Zane dated me, he'd go through 20 partners per month.

After he started dating me, he only bedded me and me only.

He promised me that he'd give me a surprise on my birthday.

I thought it was going to be a grand proposal. But the moment the clock struck 12, Zane called me.

""Cassidy, buy a pack of condoms and deliver it to the 31st floor of Mavelon Hotel right now. Remember, I want the extra thin ones.""

At that moment, I couldn't believe my ears.

Before I could react, Zane completely lost his patience. He urged, ""Stop standing around! Hurry up and get over here! Lily and I are in the mood right now!""

Lily Hubbard was the charming secretary who recently joined the company.

My complexion turned pale instantly. ""You're sleeping with her, Zane? Then… Then who am I to you?""

Zane fell silent for a while. Then, he let out a soft chuckle.

""You? You're just a bedwarmer who can help alleviate my urges. That's all.""

It turned out that the so-called surprise wasn't a proposal. It was just me fantasizing about a relationship that never existed in the first place.

The pink bubbles of love and romance finally popped on my 25th birthday.

After that, a car accident completely changed everything in my life.

When I meet Zane again, he realizes that he can no longer win back the heart of his ""pet"".

Chapter 1

Cassidy's POV

In that moment, all the color drained from my face. My eyes burned red as words failed me.

On the other end of the line, the amusement in the man's voice became unmistakable. He sounded like he was teasing his pet as he said, ""Did you think we were a couple who were madly in love or something?""

That mocking tone pushed me over the edge. I hung up without another word.

The room fell back into a deathly silence, the stillness so stifling I could hardly breathe. Then, my phone lit up again.

Zane Bender sent me a message. It was the location of a hotel.

I stared blankly at the address for a long time, feeling as if a piece of my heart had been ripped out.

That night, I didn't get a wink of sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, Zane's degrading remarks echoed in my mind.

I'd met him three years ago. He was the CEO of Cosmo Group, while I had been just an intern back then.

To be honest, it never even crossed my mind that I'd get into Cosmo Group, as it was one of the top companies in the industry.

Everyone there graduated from elite universities. With my average educational background, I'd practically exhausted myself just to secure that one and only job offer from the company.

At the time, I'd thought I was the luckiest person in the world, never imagining that something even better would come after I entered the company.

Anyone know where to find this? It was a random Facebook ad but the sites not working, I read enough I wanna finish it 😅

Does anyone know where I can find this?

Can someone please send the link for this plz?

help me find this novel. thanks