Tag(s):
• Billionaire
• drama
• Survival
• Suspense
• Thriller
• Villain

Ivy Calloway spent five years in prison for killing a man who was beating his wife half to death. She doesn't regret it. But no one hires an ex-convict, so when a maid staffing agency offers her a live-in position in the coldest, most beautiful house she's ever seen, she takes it without asking questions. She should have asked questions. Her new employer is Damian Cross... a billionaire with a charming public face and a private one that makes Ivy's skin crawl. His wife, Selene, is soft-spoken, elegant, and always just a little too interested in Ivy's past. Ivy tells herself it's kindness. It isn't. Selene has been counting on a woman exactly like Ivy walking through her door... someone who's already proven she'll kill a man who hurts a woman. Then Julian Cross arrives. Damian's estranged brother, sharp-eyed and impossible to read, asking questions about the Cross family that no one wants answered. Ivy doesn't know if he's there to save her or use her too. All she knows is that every time he looks at her, she forgets to be careful. As the walls of the Cross mansion close in... a locked wing, a six-year-old girl who flinches at loud voices, a wife with a plan Ivy never agreed to... Ivy has to decide who's telling the truth before someone else's blood ends up on her hands. This time, she might not walk away.

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Book Comment (3)

• 
  Reshia Palima

  😍 good

  16/08

    0
• 
  BolleserChris jorraine

  very good

  15/08

    0
• 
  Gia Hân Đỗ Ngọc

  Hay quá

  08/08

    0

• Total: 125

• Chapter 1 Released

  "Calloway. You're up."
  Ivy didn't move right away. Five years of being told when to stand, when to si

• Chapter 2 The Car Is Home Now

  She didn't sleep, not really. She dozed in stretches, the way she'd learned to in her cell, where re

• Chapter 3 No One Hires A Killer

  "I'm gonna be straight with you." The manager slid her application back across the counter like it h

• Chapter 4 The Agency That Doesn't Ask

  The footsteps stopped in the doorway.
  "Selene. You didn't tell me we had company." His voice was warm

• Chapter 5 The House On The Hill

  The folder was thin. Ivy stood there a long moment, listening for footsteps, before she let herself

• Chapter 6 Meeting Selene

  She told herself it wasn't her place. She told herself twice, walking down the back stairs, and a th

• Chapter 7 The Husband's Smile

  Dinner for staff was at six, a long table in a kitchen that still smelled faintly of someone else's

• Chapter 8 First Night In The Staff Wing

  The room didn't lock from the inside.
  Ivy noticed that first, before she noticed anything else… no bo

• Chapter 9 Rules Of The House

  Ivy grabbed the cart and moved.
  She didn't run… running would have meant something, would have given

• Chapter 10 Mia In The Hallway

  "My name?" Ivy kept her voice as level as she could manage, crouched now to Mia's height, the stairw

• Chapter 11 A Voice Behind A Door

  Chapter 11: A Voice Behind a Door
  "I don't know what kind of person I am to you yet either," Ivy said

• Chapter 12 The Wrong Kind Of Quiet

  "I already told you what I saw." Ivy kept her voice low, aware of how close they still stood to the

• Chapter 13 Damian Notices Her

  "Selene… " Ivy knocked a third time, harder, her shoulder nearly against the wood.
  The shoe moved.
  Not

• Chapter 14 Selene's Questions

  Ivy didn't touch the envelope. "I'd rather not take money for something I don't understand."
  "That's

• Chapter 15 What The File Doesn't Say

  Ivy pulled her hand back, slow, careful not to make it look like a flinch even though that's exactly

• Chapter 16 A Bruise, Explained Away

  Ivy didn't sleep after that. She sat with the note in her lap until the gray light came back to the

• Chapter 17 The Locked Wing

  "No one gave me anything," Ivy said.
  The lie came out steadier than she expected, though something in

• Chapter 18 Ivy's Old Life, Uninvited

  "That's not possible." Ivy's voice came out thinner than she meant it to. "I met Renee at my apartme

• Chapter 19 Dinner With The Crosses

  Nobody moved for a long second. Then Damian stepped inside and closed the door behind him, slow, del

• Chapter 20 The Way He Watches Selene

  The table went silent except for Mia's small, oblivious humming, spoon clinking against her plate.
  Iv

• Chapter 21 A Kindness With A Price

  Selene didn't sit. She stood there, Mia's hand still gripped tight in hers, chest rising fast, caugh

• Chapter 22 Julian Cross Arrives

  "Then tell me how you found out about all of this," Ivy said. "Because you didn't just show up here

• Chapter 23 The Brother No One Mentions

  Julian was already moving before Ivy fully registered. She'd stood up too, both of them taking the b

• Chapter 24 Damian's Mask Slips

  Ivy read the message four times before she made herself put the phone down.
  *Ask Julian about the fir

• Chapter 25 Ivy and Julian, First Words

  She found him leaning against a truck by the garage, not the sleek car she expected from a Cross, so

• Chapter 26 Selene's Warning

  "Show me the messages," Julian said.
  Ivy pulled out her phone, scrolled to the text from the night be

• Chapter 27 What Happened Five Years Ago

  "I need you to slow down," Ivy said, though her own pulse was racing just as fast. "Where would he t

• Chapter 28 The Man She Killed

  "Stay down," Ivy whispered, pressing Mia lower behind the hedge. "Stay down and don't make a sound,

• Chapter 29 Why Ivy Doesn't Regret It

  He didn't run at them. That was the strange part… Damian simply stood there, still as the hedges aro

• Chapter 30 Julian Asks The Wrong Question

  Julian's truck came around the side of the house a minute later, tires cutting fast across the grass

• Chapter 31 A Night Of Raised Voices

  Nobody came. The door stayed shut, footsteps fading somewhere far off toward the study, and after a

• Chapter 32 Mia In The Closet

  "Tell me," Ivy said. "Now. All of it."
  Regina glanced once more at the empty lot, then stepped fully

• Chapter 33 Ivy Steps In

  "Where's the study?" Ivy was already on her feet. "Is that where he is?"
  "I don't know." Selene's voi

• Chapter 34 Damian's Cold Apology

  Ivy didn't let go. "I'm coming with you."
  "I wasn't asking."
  "Neither was I." She held his gaze, stead

• Chapter 35 Selene's Gratitude, Too Warm

  Ivy's hand closed around the envelope before Damian had made it two steps toward the stairs.
  "What is

• Chapter 36 A Favor Ivy Didn't Agree To

  "I need to think," Ivy said, pulling her arm free of Selene's grip, gentle but firm. "Both of you ha

• Chapter 37 Julian's Real Reason

  Ivy didn't wait to think it through. She turned back down the stairs, phone still lit in her hand, a

• Chapter 38 The First Lie Ivy Catches

  "Call your accountant," Ivy said. "Now. Before whoever's watching decides you shouldn't have the cha

• Chapter 39 Selene Says The Quiet Part

  Ivy read the message twice before she turned the phone toward Julian. "If it wasn't Selene's money,

• Chapter 40 Ivy Realizes She's Not Just Staff

  "We need to find him before he finds them," Julian said, already standing. "If he's dangerous when h

• Chapter 41 Staying Anyway

  "You should be somewhere he can't find you," Selene said, moving down the steps toward Rose despite

• Chapter 42 Damian's Public Face

  The front door opened before Ivy could ask what he meant. Rose stood in the frame, Julian just behin

• Chapter 43 The Foundation Gala

  "Who?" Selene's voice had gone sharp with dread. "Rose, if you know a name, say it."
  "I will. But not

• Chapter 44 Ivy In A Borrowed Dress

  "We need to get to Rose before Margaret does." Julian was already moving, cutting fast through the c

• Chapter 45 Julian's Eyes Across The Room

  Julian didn't move. For a long second, the ballroom noise seemed to fall away entirely, the string q

• Chapter 46 Selene's Careful Choreography

  "What instructions?" Julian's voice had gone low and dangerous, all the shock of the last five minut

• Chapter 47 A Toast To The Perfect Marriage

  "Ivy Calloway!" The man's voice cracked over the microphone feedback as security finally wrestled hi

• Chapter 48 What Ivy Overhears

  "Margaret." Ivy stared at the screen until the words blurred. "She paid a man to shout accusations a

• Chapter 49 Damian's Business Partner

  "You know who he is," Selene said, her voice barely a whisper. "You already found him."
  "I've known f

• Chapter 50 Money That Moves In The Dark

  Damian didn't head for the ballroom. He cut through a service corridor toward the venue's private lo

• Chapter 51 Julian's Investigation Begins

  Ivy stared at the message twice before she showed it to Julian, angling the screen so only he could

• Chapter 52 Ivy Covers For Mia

  They made the drive back in under fifteen minutes, Julian's truck cutting through empty streets with

• Chapter 53 A Bedtime Story

  "Go," Ivy whispered. "I promised her I'd come back. I need to keep that promise before I do anything

• Chapter 54 Selene's Locked Drawer

  Ivy eased off the bed, careful not to wake Mia, and slipped out into the hallway, phone still grippe

• Chapter 55 The Photograph Ivy Finds

  "What did she tell you?" Selene's voice shook as she stepped past Damian into the room.
  Catherine Rey

• Chapter 56 Confronting Selene

  Ivy took the document with hands that weren't entirely steady. The paper was brittle, decades old, t

• Chapter 57 A Half-Truth

  Nobody moved for a long moment. Ivy stared at the envelope in Catherine's hand, the careful, familia

• Chapter 58 Damian's Temper, Up Close

  Ivy reached the nursery wing first, lungs burning, and found the hallway outside Mia's door quiet… t

• Chapter 59 Ivy Learns To Read The House

  Damian stepped out from behind the wall before Ivy could stop him, his face a mixture of shock and d

• Chapter 60 Julian Waits Outside Her Door

  Ivy stared at the folder without taking it. "I don't want that kind of power over anyone's life."
  "I

• Chapter 61 The First Almost-Kiss

  Ivy woke past noon, the light through her curtains gone thick and gold, and for a long moment she la

• Chapter 62 Pulling Back

  Ivy stood too fast, her chair scraping loud against the floor, the almost-kiss already receding behi

• Chapter 63 Damian Suspects Something

  Ivy stared at the message until the letters blurred, her whole body gone cold.
  "Ivy?" Julian's voice

• Chapter 64 A Test Disguised As Kindness

  Ivy's hands went still on the table. "Someone else was there. That night."
  "Yes." Renee's voice barel

• Chapter 65 Ivy Passes, Barely

  Ivy stepped out of the diner into the cool night air, her pulse hammering, and found Damian already

• Chapter 66 Selene's Sister Calls

  Ivy read the message three times before she showed it to Julian, who'd pulled the truck onto the sho

• Chapter 67 The Family No One Talks About

  Ivy set the phone down on the counter, her hand shaking too badly to keep holding it steady. "My nam

• Chapter 68 Julian's Old Wounds

  "Who is she?" Julian's voice had gone tight, already bracing for another blow to a night that had ha

• Chapter 69 Why He Left The Family

  "You have her number saved," Ivy said, staring at the screen. "How long have you known about her?"
  Ju

• Chapter 70 Ivy Tells Him About Prison

  The call ended a few minutes later, Margaret promising to speak with them again once they'd had time

• Chapter 71 He Doesn't Flinch

  Ivy played the voicemail a second time, hands unsteady, and set the phone down on the bench between

• Chapter 72 Selene Grows Nervous

  Ivy's stomach dropped. She showed the message to Julian without a word, and his jaw tightened as he

• Chapter 73 A Warning Disguised As Advice

  Ivy found Priya sitting up in bed in the small guest room where the doctor had insisted she recover,

• Chapter 74 Damian's Study, After Hours

  Ivy showed the message to Regina, whose face went pale at the name.
  "Catherine Voss," Regina murmured

• Chapter 75 What Ivy Finds In The Safe

  Ivy made it halfway down the drive before she cut the engine, her conscience getting the better of h

• Chapter 76 A Name She Doesn't Recognize

  Ivy's hands shook as she picked the notebook back up, flipping past the entry she'd already read, se

• Chapter 77 Julian Explains- Partly

  Ivy stepped into the small cottage, its interior cluttered with old ledgers and file boxes stacked a

• Chapter 78 The Investigator's Client

  Ivy stared at the message, exhaustion warring with the pull of one more revelation she wasn't sure s

• Chapter 79 Selene's Family Money

  Ivy called Marisol back immediately, stepping away from Julian with an apologetic glance, her pulse

• Chapter 80 Ivy Starts Asking Her Own Questions

  Ivy sat very still, absorbing it. "My family owned this land."
  "According to the deed history I found

• Chapter 81 Mia's Nightmares

  Ivy opened the email with unsteady hands, scanning quickly. It named no one directly… just a note th

• Chapter 82 A Doctor Who Asks No Questions

  Ivy read the message twice, her stomach twisting cold. She texted back immediately.
  *Are you certain?

• Chapter 83 Damian's Threat, Veiled

  Julian's hands trembled as he opened the folder. Ivy leaned in close, and together they scanned the

• Chapter 84 Ivy Considers Leaving

  Ivy didn't answer right away. She looked at Damian… really looked past the polish and the calculatio

• Chapter 85 Julian Asks Her To Stay

  Ivy stared at the message, her stomach dropping through the floor of the terrace. "She wants to meet

• Chapter 86 A Storm Traps Them All

  Ivy stopped several feet from the porch steps, every muscle in her body coiled tight. "Where's Vivia

• Chapter 87 Alone In The Kitchen

  Ivy's hand shook as she read the message aloud in the dark, the glow of her phone casting harsh shad

• Chapter 88 The Second Almost-Kiss

  *Priya.*
  Ivy stared at the name until the letters blurred, her mind refusing at first to accept what

• Chapter 89 Selene Watches From The Stairs

  Ivy ran without waiting for anyone else, the almost-kiss forgotten entirely, her bare feet slapping

• Chapter 90 Damian's Jealousy Surfaces

  The hospital waiting room smelled of antiseptic and burnt coffee, fluorescent lights buzzing steady

• Chapter 91 A Punishment For Selene

  Ivy read the message twice, her stomach twisting cold, and immediately knocked on Julian's door befo

• Chapter 92 Ivy Intervenes Again

  Ivy showed the message to the room, and the fragile calm that had settled over Nathaniel and Selene'

• Chapter 93 The Cost Of Interfering

  "Someone I've trusted since my first day," Ivy repeated, the words circling her mind without landing

• Chapter 94 Damian's Version Of Control

  Ivy showed the message to Julian, whose face darkened immediately. "Absolutely not. Alone, at an iso

• Chapter 95 Julian Confronts His Brother

  "What are you planning?" Ivy's voice came out barely steady, dread pooling cold in her stomach.
  Regin

• Chapter 96 Old History, New Wounds

  Ivy's blood turned to ice. "Mia. Someone's in Mia's room."
  The confrontation between the brothers eva

• Chapter 97 Selene's Real Fear

  Back at the estate, Selene stirred slowly, the drug's grip finally loosening its hold. Regina sat be

• Chapter 98 A Plan Ivy Isn't Told About

  "What are you talking about?" Selene's voice wavered despite her earlier resolve. "I have nothing hi

• Chapter 99 The First Real Kiss

  Josephine's footsteps faded into the night, and for a long moment nobody in the basement room moved,

• Chapter 100 Consequences Of Wanting Him

  Ivy turned, following Julian's gaze toward the drive, where an unfamiliar sedan was pulling to a sto

• Chapter 101 Damian's Suspicion Sharpens

  Ivy read the message twice before showing it to Damian, who scanned it with a stillness that unsettl

• Chapter 102 Ivy Watched, Followed

  They found Selene in the study exactly where her message suggested, standing near the vent Ivy had n

• Chapter 103 Selene's Manipulation Deepens

  Ivy showed the message to the room, and this time it was Selene's reaction that caught her attention

• Chapter 104 A Gift With Strings Attached

  Ivy stood frozen in the front hall, the phone screen still glowing in her hand, the words refusing t

• Chapter 105 Mia Calls Ivy "Safe"

  Ivy stared at the photograph until the image blurred, her hands shaking so badly Julian had to stead

• Chapter 106 Catherine Ashford's Real Claim

  Ivy read the message twice, then looked up at the room still absorbing Denise's revelations. "She wa

• Chapter 107 Priya Comes Back On Her Own Terms

  "What message?" Regina was already on her feet, her injured side forgotten entirely.
  "She said, 'Tell

• Chapter 108 What Denise Actually Wants

  Ivy read Regina's message twice, then turned to Denise, who sat quietly in the passenger seat, study

• Chapter 109 The Second Fortune, Counted

  Ivy called Selene the moment she finished reading, done with waiting for the next carefully timed re

• Chapter 110 A Truce Nobody Fully Trusts

  Regina's hands shook as she pulled the folded note from her pocket, and Ivy crossed the room fast, t

• Chapter 111 The Press Won't Let Go

  Ivy barely slept. By six in the morning she was already downstairs, phone in hand, refreshing every

• Chapter 112 Marisol Draws A Line

  Ivy was moving before she'd finished reading, calling for Selene as she sprinted toward the west win

• Chapter 113 Nathaniel's Custody Offer, Revised

  Ivy forwarded the email to Damian without a word, watching his face darken as he read it on his own

• Chapter 114 Selene Almost Signs Something She Shouldn't

  Chapter 114: Selene Signs Something She Shouldn't
  Ivy stayed up long after Patricia Okafor left, pori

• Chapter 115 Regina's Daughter Comes Forward

  Ivy read the message three times, her stomach twisting with a sick, familiar dread. She found Selene

• Chapter 116 A Reunion Twenty Years Late

  They didn't go straight home. Ivy needed a night to breathe before walking into whatever waited in E

• Chapter 117 Damian Reads The Room Wrong

  Ivy drove faster than she should have, Julian gripping the door handle beside her, both of them sile

• Chapter 118 The Company Board Takes Notice

  "Eleanor trained her," Julian said, reading the message over Ivy's shoulder, his voice tight. "Whoev

• Chapter 119 Julian Refuses His Old Name

  They stopped at Patricia's office on the way back to the estate, but she wasn't there yet, tied up i

• Chapter 120 Ivy Reads Her Mother's Letters

  Ivy called Selene, and this time the explanation came without hesitation, without careful hedging. "

• Chapter 121 Grief With Nowhere To Go

  Ivy called Denise immediately, her hands still trembling from crying over her mother's earlier lette

• Chapter 122 Damian Tightens His Grip

  Ivy stared at the message until Julian took the phone gently from her hands, reading it himself, his

• Chapter 123 A Meeting Ivy Wasn't Invited To

  Ivy woke the new attorney with a phone call before six, reading her the message word for word, and h

• Chapter 124 Selene Chooses A Side, Finally

  Julian caught Ivy's arm before she could move toward the entrance. "You are not going in there alone

• Chapter 125 Mia Draws A New Kind Of Picture

  Ivy called Patricia back immediately, needing to see whatever she'd found before the hearing began i