Reese

After six years of loving Julian Grayson and literally keeping him alive with her rare blood donations, Hazel Ashworth is just three days away from becoming his wife when he calls to cancel their wedding. 
The reason? Her half-sister Ivy has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and her dying wish is to marry Julian instead. Hazel watches in horror as Julian takes her handcrafted wedding dress to Ivy, who plans to wear it while stealing not just Hazel's fiancé, but her entire wedding—same venue, same date, even the same cake flavor. 
It's a devastating replay of their childhood, where Ivy's mother Eleanor destroyed Hazel's family by seducing her father and driving her mother to suicide, then spent years pushing Hazel out while Ivy took everything that was once hers. 
But this time, Hazel refuses to break like her mother did. She demands Julian's entire company and two million dollars as compensation, then shows up at the hospital to deliver Ivy's "wedding gift" in the most explosive way possible.
As Ivy plays the perfect dying victim and Julian remains blind to her manipulation, Hazel begins to suspect that her half-sister's illness might not be as terminal as everyone believes. When Ivy has the audacity to ask Hazel to witness her wedding to Julian, the gloves come off completely. 
Now Hazel must decide how far she's willing to go to expose the truth and reclaim what's rightfully hers, even if it means destroying the man she once loved in the process.

The Billionaire Backs Me Up

Chapter 9 - Blood Ties and Bitter Bargains


My fingers trembled on the lock, the sleeping pills making my movements sluggish. Julian's pounding continued relentlessly.


"Hazel! Open this door now!" he shouted.


I finally managed to turn the lock, and the door flew open with such force it nearly knocked me backward. Julian burst in, his face a mask of rage. Before I could speak, he grabbed my wrist and began pulling me toward the door.


"What are you doing?" I tried to pull away, but my body felt like lead. "Let go of me!"


"Ivy's dying," he snapped, refusing to release me. "She needs blood. Your blood."


I stared at him through my drug-induced haze. "What are you talking about?"


"There's no time. The doctor says she might not make it through the night." He yanked me forward again. "You're coming to the hospital right now."


I dug in my heels. "No, I'm not. I took sleeping pills. I can barely stand."
