numusjamesroses

Hazel Rogers never imagined her mother’s failing heart would force her into the arms of a stranger. With hospital bills piling up and no time left, she signs a desperate contract— as a surrogate for a billionaire who she doesn’t know. Ace Milan is cold, calculated, and devastatingly powerful, a man who built his empire on control and keeps  his heart locked behind a fortress. Hazel is just a transaction to him. But when a scary accident forces her to move into his home, the lines blur. He becomes cruel, unpredictable—testing her limits with sharp words and colder actions. Yet beneath his ice is something else, something broken, watching her with eyes that never quite soften. As her pregnancy progresses, Hazel stumbles upon whispers of the woman who came before her—the first surrogate. The one who vanished. No one speaks of her, and Ace refuses to explain. But the house holds secrets. Locked rooms. Late-night phone calls. Half-truths wrapped in charm. And suddenly, the child inside Hazel becomes more than a contract—it becomes a target. Torn between protecting the life growing inside her and uncovering the truth about the man she’s starting to feel dangerously drawn to, Hazel is forced to make a choice. Walk away before she ends up like the last surrogate… or risk everything to unravel the darkness Ace has spent his life hiding. One thing is clear—nothing in this arrangement is what it seems. And some secrets are buried deep for a reason.

THE BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET : Her contract, His Heart

"Jordan?" My voice cracked across the office. "He was paid off by Jordan?"

"Two hundred and fifty thousand."

I leaned over my desk and slammed my palm into the surface hard enough to rattle the monitor. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

I pushed off the desk and started pacing. My chest felt too tight, like my lungs were being pressed in from every side. "Do you know what this means?"

"He tried to kill her, Cal. She was pregnant and that bastard tried to push her off the goddamn cliff—on my property."

My hand went through my hair. I was pacing again, then stopping, then pacing again. I wanted to break something. "And now this woman—this stranger—shows up screaming like a madwoman, and it turns out she's Dahlia's sister?"

Callen's jaw clenched. "Yes. Her name is Rachel. Rachel Hyde."

Chapter 64