
THE BILLIONAIRE WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY STEPFATHER
Tonia Gospel · Ongoing · 136.0k Words
Introduction
The night I met Dominic Vale, I had just lost my job. The rain was pouring, the elevator broke down, and one thing led to another. I snuck out of his penthouse before sunrise, praying I would never see his dangerously handsome face again.
I thought it was just a reckless one-night stand. A secret I would take to my grave.
Until tonight.
"Alina, I have wonderful news," my mother said, practically glowing with happiness as she unlocked our apartment door. "I'm getting married."
I was happy for her. She deserved it. She told me he was wealthy, powerful, and wanted to take us both to dinner.
But when the private dining room door opened, my entire world stopped.
Dominic Vale stood there in a dark suit. The same broad shoulders. The same intense, dark eyes that had memorized every inch of my body just forty-eight hours ago.
Shock flashed across his face. Real shock.
"Dominic," my mother said warmly, stepping forward to kiss his cheek. "This is my daughter, Alina."
The silence that followed felt louder than thunder.
He didn't blink. He didn't look away. His gaze locked onto mine, slow and careful, replaying the exact same forbidden memories I was.
He held out his hand like we were complete strangers.
"I believe we’ve already met," he said smoothly, his thumb subtly brushing against my pulse point as I shook his hand.
My mother laughed. "You have?"
"Yes," Dominic replied, his eyes darkening as they dropped briefly to my lips. "We shared a very... unforgettable ride in the elevator."
Chapter 1
The night I met Dominic Vale, I had just lost my job.
And somehow, that still wasn’t the worst part of my evening.
“Clean your desk before you leave.”
My boss didn’t even bother looking at me when he said it.
The words landed like a slap.
For a moment, I just stood there, staring at him across the office desk.
“I… don’t understand,” I said slowly.
He sighed as if I were the one being difficult.
“Alina, the company is making adjustments. Your position is no longer necessary.”
“That’s not what you said last week.”
He finally looked up then.
Cold.
Impatient.
“That was last week.”
The finality in his tone made it clear the conversation was already over.
My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag.
Two years.
Two years of staying late, taking extra shifts, doing things that were never even part of my job description.
And this was how it ended.
Just like that.
“Fine,” I said quietly.
I turned before he could see the frustration in my eyes.
But just as I reached the door, his voice stopped me.
“Oh, one more thing.”
I paused.
He slid a thick envelope across his desk.
“Take these documents to Vale Tower. Twenty-fourth floor.”
I frowned slightly.
“At this hour?”
“Consider it your last task.”
My jaw tightened.
Of course it was.
But arguing wouldn’t change anything.
So I picked up the envelope and walked out.
The rain started halfway through my bus ride.
By the time I reached Vale Tower, the storm had turned the streets into mirrors of reflected light.
I stood outside the massive glass building for a moment, staring up at it.
Vale Tower was famous in the city.
Tall.
Impressive.
Intimidating.
It belonged to one of the most powerful business empires in the country.
And somehow, tonight of all nights, I was the unlucky person delivering paperwork here.
“Just drop the files and leave,” I muttered to myself.
I pushed through the glass doors.
The lobby was enormous.
Soft golden lights reflected across polished marble floors, and the quiet elegance of the place made me suddenly aware of my damp coat and slightly messy hair.
Definitely not the picture of professionalism tonight.
I walked toward the elevators at the far end of the lobby.
One of them was already closing.
“Wait!”
I slipped my hand between the doors just in time.
They slid open again with a quiet mechanical sound.
I stepped inside quickly and pressed the button for the twenty-fourth floor.
Just as the doors began to close again, a deep voice spoke behind me.
“Hold the door.”
I pressed the button without thinking.
A man stepped inside.
And suddenly the elevator didn’t feel empty anymore.
He was tall.
Broad shoulders, dark suit, rain still clinging to the edges of his hair.
But what caught my attention most was the quiet confidence in the way he carried himself.
Like he belonged anywhere he walked into.
The elevator doors closed behind us.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
The elevator began moving upward.
18, 19, 20.
Then suddenly…
The elevator jerked violently.
I gasped as my balance shifted.
My heel slipped against the polished floor.
Before I could fall, a strong arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back.
My body collided with his chest.
Warm.
Solid.
Very close.
“Careful,” he said quietly.
His voice was calm, steady.
The kind of voice that naturally commanded attention.
I quickly stepped back, embarrassed.
“Sorry.”
Then the elevator shuddered again.
And stopped.
The lights flickered once… twice…
Then dimmed into emergency lighting.
I stared at the frozen floor numbers.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The man beside me leaned casually against the wall, completely unbothered.
“Well,” he said calmly, “this is unfortunate.”
I crossed my arms.
“That’s a polite way to describe being trapped in an elevator.”
He studied me for a moment.
“You’re not panicking.”
“Should I?”
“Most people would.”
I shrugged.
“Screaming probably won’t fix the elevator.”
A faint smile appeared on his face.
And suddenly I realized something unsettling.
He was even more attractive when he smiled.
The emergency lights cast soft shadows across his face, highlighting the sharp line of his jaw.
He looked like trouble.
The kind sensible women stayed far away from.
“What floor?” he asked.
“Twenty-four.”
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
“That’s where I’m going too.”
Of course he was.
Minutes passed in silence.
Then the elevator jerked again.
My balance shifted for the second time.
“Oh come on—”
I stumbled forward.
Straight into him.
His hands caught my waist instantly.
This time neither of us moved.
My back touched the wall behind me, and suddenly he was very close.
Close enough that I could see the faint gold flecks in his dark eyes.
My heart began beating faster.
His gaze moved slowly across my face.
Curious.
Focused.
Then it dropped briefly to my lips.
“Tell me something,” he said softly.
“What?”
A small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Do you always fall into strangers’ arms like this?”
Heat rushed to my cheeks.
“I tripped.”
“Do you?”
The teasing tone in his voice made my stomach flip unexpectedly.
“You seem very entertained by this situation,” I said.
“I’m entertained by you.”
The honesty of the statement caught me off guard.
Before I could respond, the elevator suddenly jolted back to life.
The lights brightened.
The numbers began moving again.
The doors slid open.
I stepped out quickly, relieved to finally have space again.
But just as I started walking away, his voice stopped me.
“Wait.”
I turned.
He was still standing inside the elevator.
Watching me.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Alina.”
He repeated it slowly.
“Alina.”
“And you?” I asked.
“Dominic.”
Something about the way he said his name made it sound important.
But before I could think about it, the elevator doors began closing.
“Maybe we’ll meet again,” he said.
I gave a small polite smile.
“Maybe.”
The doors slid shut.
And as I walked down the hallway toward the office I was supposed to visit, I had no idea that the man I had just met in that broken elevator…
Was about to become my mother’s fiancé.
Last Chapters
#105 Chapter 105 Chapter 105: A face Achingly familiar
Last Updated: 7/16/2026#104 Chapter 104 A Name That Isn't Hers
Last Updated: 7/16/2026#103 Chapter 103 Elena Return
Last Updated: 7/16/2026#102 Chapter 102 Someone At The Door
Last Updated: 7/16/2026#101 Chapter 101 Someone else Waiting
Last Updated: 7/16/2026#100 Chapter 100 One Hour
Last Updated: 7/15/2026#99 Chapter 99 A Familiar Face
Last Updated: 7/15/2026#98 Chapter 98 The word Left Unfinished
Last Updated: 7/15/2026#97 Chapter 97 The Call That Died
Last Updated: 7/15/2026#96 Chapter 96 The signature
Last Updated: 7/15/2026
You Might Like 😍
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms
I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.
On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...
Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.
George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.
His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"
Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.
When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.
"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"
George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"
"I'm afraid that's impossible."
Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
They'll Regret This
My fiancé didn't just dump me—he proposed to her that same night. My so-called family handed me bus fare and a one-way ticket to the countryside.
Perfect. Let them think they won.
They don't know who I really am. The anonymous genius surgeon who saves lives when elite hospitals give up. The legendary artist whose paintings sell for millions at auction. The undefeated shadow queen of the underground fighting circuit. And the true heiress to a fortune that makes theirs look like pocket change.
Now my ex-fiancé begs on his knees. My fake sister's jealousy is eating her alive. And that cold, arrogant CEO who once threw our engagement contract in my face? He's hunting me down like a man possessed, desperate for one more chance.
They threw me away like trash to upgrade their lives.
Joke's on them.
I was always the upgrade.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother
"What is wrong with me?
Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?
It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.
He’s my boyfirend’s brother.
This is Tyler’s family.
I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.
**
As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.
Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.
When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.
I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.
**
I hate girls like her.
Entitled.
Delicate.
And still—
Still.
The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.
Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.
I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.
It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.
I’m not here to rescue anyone.
Especially not her.
Especially not someone like her.
She’s not my problem.
And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.
But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Avery and the Cursed Alpha
Then a mysterious billionaire offers her a deal that sounds too good to be true.
Alexander Ravenswood is powerful, wealthy, and feared throughout Tenebrous City. Behind his perfect public image lies a deadly secret. He is the Alpha of the Nocturne Pack, cursed by an ancient bloodline that is slowly driving him toward madness and death. His only hope lies in finding the legendary Aethon Orb—or the prophesied mate destined to save him.
When Alex discovers that Avery can draw symbols connected to the long-lost artifact, he offers her a contract she cannot refuse: become his fake fiancée for six months in exchange for enough money to erase her debts and save her home.
What begins as a business arrangement quickly becomes something far more dangerous.
As they search for the missing Orb, Avery is drawn into a hidden world of werewolves, ancient prophecies, and deadly pack rivalries. Powerful enemies want Alex's throne. A jealous Alpha heiress wants Avery gone. And a ruthless rival Alpha will stop at nothing to claim the Orb for himself.
But the greatest secret of all may be Avery herself.
Because the closer she gets to Alex, the more impossible truths begin to surface about her past, her strange abilities, and the destiny that has been waiting for her all along.
With a curse threatening Alex's life, enemies closing in from every side, and a forbidden bond growing stronger by the day, Avery must decide whether to walk away from the dangerous Alpha who needs her—or risk everything for a love written by fate itself.
In a city where secrets kill and destiny cannot be escaped, can a fake engagement become a love powerful enough to change the future?
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Reborn To Rule: I Will Seize The Throne!
He paused, his gaze never leaving mine.
"And I don't share what's mine."
☆
I died on my son's death anniversary, betrayed by the man I'd devoted my entire life to, and the woman who stood by, smiling as I took my last breath… was my very own sister.
When I opened my eyes again, I was five years in the past—before the betrayal, before my death and before the beginning of it all.
This time, I refused to marry the man who destroyed me.
Instead, I walked straight into the arms of the only man the entire Empire feared—Crown Prince Alpha Rhaedon Ashkaar.
Rhaedon was everything Lucien wasn't.
Dangerous. Competent. Powerful.
And the perfect weapon for my revenge.
He wanted the throne. I wanted vengeance.
It should have been the perfect alliance, but revenge was never that simple.
With every step I took toward my revenge, another secret from my first life came to light. The deeper I dug, the more I realized I wasn't the only one playing this game.
And by the time I uncovered the truth...
Walking away from Rhaedon Ashkaar was no longer an option.
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.
His Lethal Obsession
He didn't respond but moved his eyes around the room, scanning the place.
"Wha...what are you doing here?"
His icy blue eyes returned to me, sending shivers down my spine. Then further dropped to my dress and then back to my eyes.
"The shit going on downstairs, what does it mean?" he asked, making my legs as weak as they are eager to flee.
"It's....it my wedding,"
He scoffed darkly. "Excuse me?"
I swallowed. "I am......getting married,"
He let out a humorless laugh, looking away and giving me lesser comfort. He looked at me with a demonic frown.
Terror washed me.
"Every single motherfucker/human being here, be it adult or child, including you, will burn before that happens,"
〽️〽️〽️
The quiet but pathetic life of Twenty-year-old Mia Jefferson changed the night she found a few months old interracial baby boy abandoned in a dumpster on her way home. She saved him and kept him in her care for almost a month until she was taken by a deadly gang who accused her of abduction. She thought it was it for her until the ruthless gang leader, Nathaniel Kincaid, known on the streets as Big Kai and the father of the baby appeared and added to her punishment. At the point when Mia is about to give up, Nathaniel makes her his baby's nanny as the only way to convince him that she is not the abductor. As she picked up her care for the baby, Nathaniel watched her every move consistently, placing his heart in a dark and passionate risk.
The Deadly Mafia Princess
Her gang take the matter in their own hands, to try to save their leader from the horror of her home. What none of them know, they wasn’t her real parents, and now Ro will be sent away to live with her real family. That makes her closest members in her gang pack up and move as well. They don’t want to be far away from their leader.
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!
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-












