LOGINJanelle Sterling is the hidden CEO of the world's biggest fashion empire. After ten years abroad, she returns home to claim her inheritance, only to receive one condition from her father: marry within two years or lose everything. Tired of men chasing her fortune and mocking her size, Janelle hides her identity and starts over under a fake name, determined to find someone who will love her for who she is. She falls for Kennedy Jones, the charming owner of a rising fashion house, believing she's finally found true love. Until his first love returns. Kennedy becomes cold, abusive, and humiliates Janelle at every turn. On the day she's supposed to present her husband to her family, he publicly divorces her and proposes to another woman instead. Heartbroken, Janelle prepares to return to the empire she abandoned. Then fate intervenes. Kennedy's younger brother returns after ten years away. The youngest billionaire in New York, devastatingly handsome and everything Kennedy isn't, he falls for Janelle at first sight. Now Kennedy must watch the woman he threw away reclaim her throne as the hidden queen of the fashion world... while his own brother fights to make her his.
View MoreJanelle's POV
“Seeing you naked is the most disgusting thing I’ve had to endure. If I could undo one thing in my life, it would be you.” I stood in the middle of the bathroom, one hand still reaching for my towel, unable to move as the words sank in and stole whatever strength I had left in my body. “Kenn…” My voice came out smaller than I intended. “Why are you doing this to me?” “Doing what?” he asked calmly. I swallowed hard and forced myself to step closer, even though every instinct told me not to. “Why do you keep hurting me? I’m trying my best here, Kennedy.” For a brief moment, he said nothing. Then he exhaled slowly, like I was something he had grown tired of explaining himself to. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” he asked. My hand had already reached for him without me realizing. “I’m trying to get my husband to make love to me,” I said quickly, my voice shaking. “I just want you to touch me… it’s been so long.” His eyes dropped to my hand on his arm and he jerked away like I burned him. “Don’t call me that.” I blinked, pain tightening in my chest. “Call you what?” “Your husband.” He stepped back, expression completely unreadable now. “You’re not deserving of me, Janelle. You were a decision I made when I wasn’t thinking clearly, and somehow you’ve mistaken that for something permanent.” My chest tightened painfully. “It’s not my fault I’m fat, Kennedy.” His gaze sharpened instantly. “Then, whose fault is it?” Before I could respond, the bedroom door opened. I gasped and quickly grabbed my robe, pulling it tightly around myself as I stepped back, trying to gather whatever dignity was left. Kennedy’s mother walked in first, followed by his siblings, Fiona and Leonard strolling in like they owned the place, eyes immediately landing on the scene. “I heard voices,” his mother said, scanning the room with sharp eyes. “What’s going on here? Are you okay, son?” Kennedy let out a bitter laugh, gesturing at me with clear revulsion. “How can I be okay when I’m sharing a room with the fattest woman in the world?” He shook his head, voice dripping with contempt. “Can you believe she tried to seduce me this morning? Now my entire day is ruined before it even starts.” His siblings burst into loud laughter, clutching their stomachs like it was the funniest joke they’d ever heard. “But for real, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” Leonard sneered, looking me up and down. “You weigh 280 pounds! Like the size of this full house. And you expect my brother to still be attracted to you? Look at you, trying to force yourself on him when you look like that.” Fiona, his sister jumped in, lips twisted in mockery. “Seriously, Janelle. Have some self-respect. No wonder Kennedy can’t even get it up for you anymore. Who wants to fuck a walking whale?” I clutched the robe tighter around my body, cheeks flaming and tears stinging my eyes. My voice came out small and shaky. “You… you barged in without knocking. This is my privacy and…” Kennedy’s head snapped toward me, eyes blazing with anger. “Are you mad?” he barked. “Are you trying to teach my family how to act in my own house? They can do whatever they want. You have no right to speak about privacy. If you don’t like how things are done here, then leave.” He turned to his family, ignoring me completely. “I’m going to the gym. I need to clear my head” With that, he stormed out, leaving me standing there half naked in my robe when his family continued laughing and whispering cruel jokes about my body. And the worst part, even through the shame, my body still ached for him. Months of sexual starvation had left me throbbing and wet at the smallest memory of how he used to love me before his first love returned and turned him into this monster. I wished things would go back to how they were in the beginning. The first few months of our marriage, Kennedy had been the best husband any woman could ask for. He was attentive, gentle in ways I had never experienced before, and for a while, I truly believed I had been given a second chance at life. But everything changed after the miscarriage. The doctors later diagnosed me with secondary infertility, and from that moment, something in him shifted. He began to blame me for everything that followed, the hormonal imbalance, the sudden cystic acne that scarred my skin, and the unexplained weight gain that changed my body almost overnight. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to explain that I couldn’t control it; he had already made up his mind. I fought to fix it anyway. I went weeks without eating properly, surviving on water and whatever weight-loss teas I could find. I pushed myself in gyms until my vision blurred, sometimes fainting before I even made it home. But nothing changed. My mother-in-law’s sharp voice snapped me out of my reverie. “Listen, you ugly fat woman, if you’re done moping around like a lost cow, get into the kitchen and make me breakfast and freshly squeezed orange juice make it quick” Fiona smirked. “And scrub the bathrooms again. I saw dust on the tiles yesterday” Leonard added lazily, “While you’re at it, wash my gym clothes from yesterday. Hand wash, no machine” I nodded numbly and moved to the kitchen and by the time I had finished all the chores, it was already noon. Kennedy still hadn’t returned, and despite everything, I found myself checking my phone more than once. I wiped my hands and went to the sitting room where his family lounged, watching television. “I’m done with all the chores,” I said quietly. His mother looked me up and down, nose wrinkling. “Why are you sweating like a cow? Look at you, dripping everywhere.” Fiona laughed. “We’re helping you lose weight, Janelle. You should be thanking us instead of complaining.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned toward the stairs, my legs aching. I had just reached the top when the doorbell rang. “Janelle! Get the door!” his mother shouted from below. I hurried back down, heart pounding, and opened it. Kennedy stood there. Beside him was a woman I had never seen before with many luggages at her feet. “Who is she?” I asked before I could stop myself. “Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing someone here?” Kennedy stepped inside first, guiding her gently like she belonged there. Then he looked at me. “You’re the one who doesn’t belong here, Janelle,” he said evenly. Then added, without hesitation. This is Brenda, my fiancée.” “Your what?” “And she’s carrying my child.”Janelle's POVMy eyes fluttered open slowly.For a moment, everything was a blur and I blinked hard, trying to gather my scattered thoughts.Where was I?Panic rushed through me instantly, and I pushed myself up too fast, my chest tightening as my eyes darted wildly around the unfamiliar room.“Where am I?”My voice came out hoarse and weak.Then suddenly, a warm hand gently touched my arm.I flinched at first, then turned quickly.Zane sat beside the bed, his expression calm, his touch steady in a way that strangely soothed the panic rising inside me.“Hey,” he said softly, his thumb brushing lightly over my arm in quiet reassurance.“You’re safe now. Calm down. No one is going to hurt you here.”The tension in my chest loosened immediately.A shaky breath left my lips as I sank back against the pillows, my eyes stinging unexpectedly.“I thought…” My voice cracked, and I swallowed hard. “I thought I had died in that basement.”I looked at him, my throat tightening with emotion.“Than
Janelle's POV “Oh my God… no… no, not here…”The words tumbled out of my mouth in broken panic as darkness swallowed me whole.The basement was pitch black, thick with damp air and a smell of rot I could not place.I scrambled up and threw myself at the door, pounding with both fists.“Help me!” I screamed, voice cracking with terror. “Please, somebody open this door! You can’t lock me in here… please! Let me out!”Tears blurred my vision as I kept banging, desperation turning violent.“Kennedy!” I sobbed. “Kenn, please… don’t do this to me. You know I can’t stay here. Please open the door.”“You should have thought about that before running your mouth.”My body went weak.I pressed my forehead against the cold metal, shaking violently.“Kenn…” My voice broke. “Please… I’m scared.Brenda’s soft laughter drifted through the door.“Well, that’s unfortunate,” she said lazily. “Perhaps a few hours in darkness will teach you humility.”Fiona laughed. “Look at that. The lioness has become
Janelle's POV “Where do you expect me to go?”My voice came out hollow, broken beneath the weight crushing my chest, but somehow loud enough to silence the room for a moment.I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, every part of my body aching, my dignity already in pieces at their feet.My swollen eyes found Kennedy’s face.“You know I have no family,” I whispered. “You know I have nowhere else to go.”Kennedy did not soften, not even for a second.He simply slipped one arm around Brenda’s waist and drew her closer, his touch gentle in a way he had not touched me in months.“You can sleep in the streets for all I care,” he said coldly. “Sleep in a shelter. Sleep in a zoo. Sleep wherever abandoned things go when they are no longer wanted.”His gaze dropped meaningfully to Brenda’s stomach before returning to me.“My concern is my child and the woman carrying that child. Whatever Brenda wants, Brenda gets.”His voice hardened.“But I suppose you cannot relate to that kind of blessin
Janelle's POV For a moment, I heard nothing.A sharp ringing filled my ears, drowning out everything else as the room tilted violently beneath my feet. My knees weakened so suddenly that I had to grab the edge of the console table beside me to keep from collapsing.My fiancée.She’s carrying my child.No, I must have heard wrong.Kennedy wouldn’t—A bright, cheerful voice shattered the fragile thread of denial I was clinging to.“Welcome home, sister-in-law,” Fiona said warmly as she stepped forward to embrace Brenda. “I hope your flight wasn’t stressful.”Slowly, painfully, I turned my head toward her.My lips parted, but for several seconds, no sound came out.Then finally, in a voice so thin it barely sounded like mine, I asked, “You knew?”Fiona pulled back from Brenda and looked at me with faint amusement.My breathing hitched.“You knew?” I repeated, louder this time, my voice shaking with disbelief. “You knew your brother was engaged to another woman, and all this time, you












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