TRAPPED IN MARRIAGE WITH THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE

AVA‘S POV I woke up gasping. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. The ceiling above me blurred as the memory of twisted metal and shattered glass dragged me back into the past. Headlights, my mother screaming and the violent sound of impact. I sat upright, clutching my chest as my heart pounded wildly against my ribs. This dream again. It always came back to that night. Outside the window, morning light spread across the Carter estate, calm and golden, completely indifferent to the storm raging inside my mind. I exhaled slowly. Years had passed since that accident. But some memories never faded. Once upon a time, my life had been normal. My name is Ava Hart. I used to belong to a small but happy family. My father, Daniel Hart, ran an investment firm. He wasn’t a billionaire or some powerful tycoon, but he worked hard and believed that one day his efforts would pay off. My mother, Elena Hart, was the calm in our home. She had a soft voice and gentle hands that always made everything feel safe. And my little brother, Leo, was chaos in human form. He was Ten years old. Loud, curious and always asking questions no one could answer. Back then, I thought life would always stay that way. But I was wrong. It started with my father’s business. He had been offered a partnership opportunity that promised enormous profits. Investors were excited. The projections were too perfect. By the time my father realized the truth, the company had vanished. The deal was a scam and the money was gone. The loans he had taken from the bank became debts he couldn’t repay. Our world collapsed overnight. Phone calls came constantly. Letters filled the mailbox. Strangers began appearing outside our house asking about money my father no longer had. For weeks, he barely slept. I would sometimes find him sitting alone at the dining table late at night, staring at papers covered in numbers that no longer made sense. Still, he tried to smile whenever we were around. Then one afternoon he said something unexpected. “Let’s go out.” My mother looked surprised. “Out to where?” “Anywhere,” he replied quietly. Leo jumped up immediately, excited. “Can we get ice cream?” My father laughed softly. “We’ll see.” At the time, I thought he simply needed a break. Now I realize he was trying to hold onto one last normal day. The road outside the city was quiet that evening. Leo and I sat in the back seat while my father played soft music on the radio. For a moment, everything felt peaceful. But I noticed my father was unusually silent. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Dad?” I leaned forward. He didn’t respond. “Dad.” He blinked and glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “Yes?” “You missed the turn.” “Oh.” He corrected the wheel quickly. “Just thinking.” My mother placed her hand gently over his arm. “It will work out,” she said softly. He nodded. But his shoulders stayed tense. Then everything happened in seconds. A car sped through the intersection. “Daniel!” my mother shouted. The sound of brakes screeching filled the air. My father jerked the steering wheel. But it was too late. The impact felt like the world exploding. Glass shattered. Metal screamed. The car spun violently. And then everything went dark. When I woke up, rain was falling. Cold drops hit my face. The car around me was destroyed. Smoke drifted into the night sky. My head throbbed as I tried to move. “Mom…?” No answer. My father slumped over the steering wheel, completely still. My mother sat motionless beside him. Leo… Leo didn’t move. The world became unbearably quiet. I tried to scream, but the sound wouldn’t come out. Then footsteps approached. “Oh my God!” Someone forced the door open. “There’s a girl here! She’s alive!” Strong hands pulled me from the wreckage. “You’re safe,” the stranger said. But nothing would ever be safe again. I woke in the hospital three days later. The doctor spoke gently. My father was gone. My mother was gone. Leo was gone. I was the only survivor. But losing them wasn’t the end of it. The bank took everything. Our house, my father’s office and all his assets. Within weeks I was standing on the street with a small suitcase while strangers carried our furniture away. Relatives stopped answering my calls. The daughter of a bankrupt man was a burden no one wanted. And just like that… I had nowhere to go. For months, I wandered on the street. Cheap shelters, crowded hostels and sometimes park benches when I had nowhere else. I walked through the city for hours because stopping meant thinking. And thinking meant remembering. One afternoon, lost in my thoughts, I stepped onto the road without looking. A car horn blared. Once, twice and again. But I barely heard it. Then tires screeched. The car stopped inches from me. A man jumped out angrily. “Are you trying to die?” I blinked in confusion. “I’m sorry…” The back door of the car opened. An elderly man stepped out. His silver hair was neatly combed, his posture straight despite his age. There was something powerful about the way he carried himself. He studied me quietly. “Are you hurt?” he asked. I shook my head. “No.” The driver muttered, “She walked right in front of the car.” The old man raised his hand to silence him. “What is your name?” “Ava.” “Ava Hart.” He nodded thoughtfully. “I am Nicholas Carter.” Even I knew that name. Nicholas Carter was one of the most powerful businessmen in the country. And he was standing in front of me. “You seem troubled,” he said. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I told him everything. The accident, the debts, the house being taken. When I finished speaking, he remained silent for a long moment. “You have nowhere to stay?” he asked. “No.” He looked at me carefully. Then he said something that changed my life. “Come with me.” Nicholas Carter gave me a home. “You will study,” he had told me the first week I moved in. “Sir…” “Call me Grandfather Nicholas.” I had stared at him in confusion. He simply smiled. “If you are going to live under my roof, you are family.” That was the beginning of everything. Nicholas Carter kept his promises. He enrolled me in one of the best private schools in the city. When I struggled with subjects, tutors appeared. When I doubted myself, he pushed me harder than anyone else ever had. “You are too capable to settle for less,” he would say. So I worked harder than I ever had before. Years passed faster than I expected. I graduated at the top of my class and eventually finished university with honors. Nicholas never celebrated loudly, but I could see the pride in his eyes whenever he looked at my report cards. “You remind me of someone,” he once told me during dinner. “Who?” I asked. “Myself,” he said simply. But despite everything he had given me, there was one thing Nicholas Carter could never hide. His loneliness. The mansion was enormous. Too enormous for just two people. There were dozens of rooms, long corridors, and grand halls that echoed whenever footsteps crossed the marble floors. The staff came and went, but once the evening settled in, the house always felt strangely empty. That emptiness had a name. Lucas Carter. Nicholas’s only grandson. The heir to the Carter empire. And the one person who refused to return home. I had heard the story many times over the years. Lucas had lost his parents since he was young. After that, he left the country to study abroad and rarely came back. Nicholas would sometimes call him late at night. The conversations were always short and sometimes tense. So eventually, the mansion became just Nicholas and me. A lonely old man. And the girl he had rescued from the street. “Miss Ava?” A gentle knock sounded on the door. I turned. “Yes?” One of the maids peeked in. “Breakfast is ready.” “I’ll be down in a minute.” She hesitated. “Mr. Carter is already at the table.” That was unusual. Grandfather Nicholas normally ate later in the morning. Still, I nodded. “I’m coming.” I quickly washed up and changed before heading downstairs. The scent of freshly brewed coffee filled the dining hall as soon as I entered. But the moment I stepped inside, I stopped. Someone else was sitting at the table. For a second, my mind struggled to process what I was seeing. The man looked younger than I expected. Tall, composed, dressed in a dark suit that fit him perfectly. His posture was relaxed, yet there was a quiet authority in the way he carried himself. His gaze lifted slowly. And our eyes met. I felt a strange jolt run through me. Nicholas Carter noticed my hesitation and chuckled. “Ah, Ava. You’re finally here.” I forced my feet to move forward. “Good morning, Grandfather.” Then I glanced again at the stranger. Nicholas followed my gaze. “Oh, right. I suppose introductions are necessary.” The man stood. Up close, he looked even more imposing. Nicholas gestured toward him casually. “Ava, this is my grandson.” The man’s voice was calm when he spoke. “Lucas Carter.” For a moment I simply stared. Of course. I had seen his picture before—framed photographs in Nicholas’s study, articles about the Carter Group, news interviews with the heir who had built a reputation overseas. But meeting him in person was different. Lucas Carter studied me with the same cool curiosity. “So you’re Ava,” he said. The way he said my name felt more like an observation than a greeting. I nodded slightly. “Yes.” Grandfather Nicholas seemed unusually pleased with himself as he watched the two of us. “I’ve told Lucas quite a bit about you.” Lucas sat down again, picking up his coffee cup. “Yes,” he said dryly. “I’ve heard.” His tone carried the faintest hint of amusement. “The girl Grandfather brought home from the street.” My fingers tightened slightly around the chair. Nicholas frowned. “That’s not how I described her.” Lucas shrugged. “Close enough.” The room fell quiet for a moment. Then Nicholas suddenly cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Now that the two of you have finally met… I suppose this is the right time to say it.” Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Say what?” Nicholas’s gaze moved between us. Calm and decisive like a man announcing something he had already planned. “My final wish,” he said slowly, “is for the two of you to get married.” The words dropped onto the table like a stone. I froze. Lucas set his cup down. For the first time since I entered the room, his expression changed. “What did you just say?” Nicholas smiled calmly. “I said,” he repeated, “that I want you to marry Ava.” The silence that followed felt heavy enough to break. And suddenly, I realized something terrifying. Nicholas Carter wasn’t joking.