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Addicted to the Man I Hate

Genre:
CEO, Revenge, Dark Romance
Last updated:
25 Sep 2026
By:
Ava Montgomery & Production Syndicate
Status:
Completed
Language:
English · 18+
9.9 Rating 125 Chapters
76.1K Views
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Synopsis

Revenge Billionaire Dark Romance Enemies to Lovers Corporate Intrigue Psychological Suspense Forbidden Love Family Secrets

After her family's shipping and logistics empire, Montgomery Maritime, collapses into bankruptcy, lawyer-in-training Ava Montgomery blames ruthless private equity magnate Julian Cross. Armed with a razor-sharp intellect and a thirst for vengeance, Ava infiltrates Cross Global Holdings as an in-house corporate legal analyst to find the forensic evidence that will destroy him. But Julian is far more dangerous than she anticipated: guarded, fiercely intelligent, and intensely captivated by Ava's relentless questions. As Ava digs deeper into confidential transaction ledgers, she unearths disturbing discrepancies suggesting Julian took the public blame for the collapse to shield an innocent life, while the true saboteur lurks inside her own family. Caught in a lethal game of corporate espionage and an overwhelming, forbidden attraction, Ava must choose between blinding revenge and a dangerous truth that will demand everything from her heart and mind.

Chapter 1

The Ruins of Montgomery Maritime

A biting November gale whipped across the slate-gray waters of New York Harbor, sending icy spray over the rusted chain-link fences surrounding the Red Hook shipyards. Ava Montgomery stood on the cracked asphalt of Pier 42, her hands driven deep into the pockets of her tailored black wool trench coat, her raven hair lashing against high, porcelain cheekbones. Before her rose the towering, skeletal remains of gantry cranes and dry docks that had once carried her family's name in pristine white steel: Montgomery Maritime Logistics – Est. 1928. For nearly a century, three generations of Montgomerys had built this waterfront into an empire of honest commerce, employing hundreds of dockworkers, machinists, and merchant captains. Her grandfather had patrolled these docks with oil-stained palms; her father, Arthur Montgomery, had poured every waking breath into modernizing the container fleet to compete with global mega-conglomerates. Now, heavy forged chains and yellow federal padlock notices bound the iron gates. Foreclosure Executed. Asset Liquidation in Progress. Receiver: Cross Global Capital Management.

Ava closed her eyes against the stinging salt wind, but darkness brought no refuge from the memory that had haunted her every waking hour for eight long months. It was a Tuesday morning when the hammer fell. She remembered the frantic call from her father’s executive secretary, the blaring sirens of the ambulance slicing through lower Manhattan, and the horrific sight of her father slumped across his mahogany desk, his trembling fingers clutching a forced default acceleration notice from Cross Global. Arthur Montgomery had survived the massive hemorrhagic stroke, but the vibrant patriarch was gone. Now he sat paralyzed in a specialized rehabilitation center in Westchester, his right side useless, his once-thunderous voice reduced to painful, broken murmurs. The attending neurologist had been blunt: another catastrophic shock or profound emotional distress would trigger a terminal aneurysm. Her father had lost his ships, his fortune, and his legacy—sacrificed upon the altar of corporate plunder.

The financial press had treated the downfall of Montgomery Maritime with casual indifference, depicting it as just another routine casualty of rising interest rates, volatile freight indices, and ruthless market discipline. But what sickened Ava to her core was the breathless adulation lavished upon the man who had pulled the trigger: Julian Cross. At thirty-four, Julian was hailed by Forbes, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal as 'The Architect of Pure Efficiency'—a private equity titan whose $18-billion fund dismantled underperforming legacy companies and reconstituted them into lean, hyper-profitable monopolies. The magazine covers displayed a man carved of aristocratic arrogance: razor-sharp cheekbones, dark hair cropped with military precision, and eyes like polished slate—unforgiving, calculating, and completely devoid of human warmth. Julian never granted television interviews, never mingled at society galas, and never hesitated to liquidate thousands of livelihoods with the stroke of a Montblanc fountain pen.

To Wall Street, Julian Cross was a financial deity whose ruthless intellect commanded absolute reverence. To Ava Montgomery, he was a cold-blooded executioner who had murdered her father in all but physical name. Ava withdrew a heavy cream envelope from her inner coat pocket, shielding it against the harbor squall. The silver-embossed crest at the top caught the dim winter sunlight: Cross Global Holdings, 575 Fifth Avenue, 65th Floor. Inside lay an official summons: 'Dear Miss Montgomery: We are pleased to confirm your final-round interview for the position of Senior Legal Associate – Corporate Restructuring and Distressed Debt.' For three agonizing years, Ava had driven herself to the absolute summit of Columbia Law School, finishing first in her class while quietly obtaining dual certification in forensic accounting and international asset tracing. She had deliberately scrubbed her mother’s maiden lineage and altered public registry records so no corporate algorithm would connect her to Montgomery Maritime.

Her classmates had accepted lucrative, soul-crushing junior partnerships at blue-shoe white-shoe firms on Wall Street, dreaming of billable bonuses and summer houses in the Hamptons. Ava cared nothing for prestige or wealth. She had spent every night of the past eight months studying the labyrinthine corporate structures of Cross Global’s offshore subsidiaries, analyzing court dockets, and dissecting Julian Cross’s acquisition strategies until her eyes bled. She knew that attempting to sue Julian in open bankruptcy court was useless; his phalanx of top-dollar defense lawyers would tie her up in procedural motions for decades until her father died destitute. If she wanted true justice, if she wanted to dismantle Julian Cross’s empire piece by piece and strip him of the arrogance that protected him, she had to strike from within his own fortress. She had to become the very weapon he welcomed into his inner sanctum.

A deep, mournful blast echoed across the narrows as an outbound Panamanian container vessel glided past the Statue of Liberty toward the open Atlantic. Ava watched its wake churn into white foam before dissipating into the gray depths. She lowered the letter, folding it with meticulous precision and slipping it back into her coat. Her hands were ice-cold, but within her chest, a raging inferno burned with lethal clarity. Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, she would enter the gleaming glass aerie of Cross Global Holdings. She would wear the mask of a brilliant, ambitious corporate attorney eager to serve the apex predator of private equity. Julian Cross believed his millions, his private security details, and his sixty-five stories of bulletproof glass made him invulnerable. He had no idea that the reckoning had arrived on his doorstep. Ava turned her back on the ruined docks of Pier 42, walking with measured, lethal determination toward the subway stairs.

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Addicted to the Man I Hate at a glance

Chapters
125
Words
155.3K
Free online
Ch 1–5
Status
Completed
Author
Ava Montgomery & Production Syndicate
Updated
25 Sep 2026

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To readers

Addicted to the Man I Hate is a ceo and revenge novel by Ava Montgomery & Production Syndicate. It is completed with 125 chapters. After her family's shipping and logistics empire, Montgomery Maritime, collapses into bankruptcy, lawyer-in-training Ava Montgomery blames ruthless private equity magnate Julian Cross. Armed with a razor-sharp intellect...

On Booknovel you can read the first chapters of every story free, right here on the website. The rest of Addicted to the Man I Hate, and thousands of other romance chapters, are in the Booknovel app for iPhone and Android, with free coins every day and offline reading.

Questions about Addicted to the Man I Hate

What is Addicted to the Man I Hate about?

After her family's shipping and logistics empire, Montgomery Maritime, collapses into bankruptcy, lawyer-in-training Ava Montgomery blames ruthless private equity magnate Julian Cross. Armed with a razor-sharp intellect and a thirst for vengeance, Ava infiltrates Cross Global Holdings as an in-house corporate legal ana...

Is Addicted to the Man I Hate completed?

Yes. Addicted to the Man I Hate is completed with 125 chapters, so you can read it start to finish.

Who wrote Addicted to the Man I Hate?

Addicted to the Man I Hate is written by Ava Montgomery & Production Syndicate, a ceo, revenge, dark romance romance novel.

Where can I read Addicted to the Man I Hate for free?

You can read the first 5 chapters of Addicted to the Man I Hate free on Booknovel, right here on the website. The rest of the story is in the Booknovel app for iPhone and Android.

How many chapters does Addicted to the Man I Hate have?

Addicted to the Man I Hate has 125 chapters (about 155,321 words), written in English.

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Catalog

125 chapters
  1. 1. The Ruins of Montgomery Maritime Free
  2. 2. The Wolf of Park Avenue Free
  3. 3. The Interview with the Devil Free
  4. 4. The Offer on the Table Free
  5. 5. The First Day in the Lions' Den Free
  6. 6. The 2:00 AM Coffee In app
  7. 7. The Redacted Transaction In app
  8. 8. The Galley at South Street In app
  9. 9. A Dinner in Tribeca In app
  10. 10. The Rain in Soho In app
  11. 11. The Encrypted Partition In app
  12. 12. The Missing Signature In app
  13. 13. Under Surveillance In app
  14. 14. The Midnight Archive In app
  15. 15. The Collision in the Vault In app
  16. 16. The Hostile Takeover In app
  17. 17. The Gilded Cage In app
  18. 18. Shadows in Westchester In app
  19. 19. The Phantom Subsidiary In app
  20. 20. Blood and Ink In app
  21. 21. The Gala at the Met In app
  22. 22. The First Fracture In app
  23. 23. The Morning After the Met In app
  24. 24. Sovereign Authority In app
  25. 25. The Swiss Intercept In app
  26. 26. The Cyber Incursion In app
  27. 27. Locked in the Tower In app
  28. 28. Scars of the Past In app
  29. 29. The Fire Within In app
  30. 30. The Geneva Summons In app
  31. 31. 40,000 Feet Above the Atlantic In app
  32. 32. The Hotel des Bergues In app
  33. 33. A Stolen Hour in the Old Town In app
  34. 34. The Swiss Bank Vault In app
  35. 35. The Shadow of Henri Valmont In app
  36. 36. The Creditors' Ambush In app
  37. 37. A Dinner at Beau-Rivage In app
  38. 38. The Whispers of Betrayal In app
  39. 39. The Mountain Road In app
  40. 40. The Alpine Chalet In app
  41. 41. Tangled in the Snow In app
  42. 42. The Zurich Ledger In app
  43. 43. Marcus's Trap In app
  44. 44. The Confrontation on the Pier In app
  45. 45. The Sniper's Shot In app
  46. 46. Blood on the Snow In app
  47. 47. The Care of a Titan In app
  48. 48. The Return to Manhattan In app
  49. 49. The Unsealed Vault of Delaware In app
  50. 50. The Shadow Beneficiary In app
  51. 51. Shadows in Brooklyn Heights In app
  52. 52. The Legacy of Robert Montgomery In app
  53. 53. The Grand Jury Subpoena In app
  54. 54. Sparring in the Boardroom In app
  55. 55. The Sovereign Counter-Strike In app
  56. 56. Whispers in the Hamptons In app
  57. 57. The Southampton Infiltration In app
  58. 58. A Waltz Among Vipers In app
  59. 59. The Black Book in the Study In app
  60. 60. The Unthinkable Revelation In app
  61. 61. Blood against Blood In app
  62. 62. The London Extradition Hearing In app
  63. 63. The Sovereign Transatlantic Flight In app
  64. 64. Homecoming at Pier 42 In app
  65. 65. The Memorial by the Harbor In app
  66. 66. The Dissolution of Aegean Logistics In app
  67. 67. The Boardroom of Kings In app
  68. 68. The Stolen Patent In app
  69. 69. Reclaiming the Past In app
  70. 70. A Night in Hudson Yards In app
  71. 71. The Plea from Otisville In app
  72. 72. The Interview in the Glass Box In app
  73. 73. The Threat Unveiled In app
  74. 74. The Ambush at Foley Square In app
  75. 75. The Threshold of Retribution In app
  76. 76. The Trial of the Century In app
  77. 77. The Web of Cartels In app
  78. 78. The Defense's Desperation In app
  79. 79. The Corrupt Juror In app
  80. 80. Neutralizing the Fixers In app
  81. 81. Marcus's Testimony In app
  82. 82. The Blackmail Tape In app
  83. 83. The Cryptographic Refutation In app
  84. 84. Victoria's Breakdown In app
  85. 85. The Unanimous Verdict In app
  86. 86. The Sentence of History In app
  87. 87. The Fall of the House of Sterling In app
  88. 88. Solitude in Central Park In app
  89. 89. The Shadow in Monaco In app
  90. 90. Landing on the Côte d'Azur In app
  91. 91. The Vaults of Port Hercule In app
  92. 92. The Fixer's Corner In app
  93. 93. Seizure on the High Seas In app
  94. 94. The Secret Manifest of Antibes In app
  95. 95. The Monaco Settlement In app
  96. 96. Starlight Over the Riviera In app
  97. 97. The Return to New York In app
  98. 98. Dismantling the Shadow Network In app
  99. 99. A New Board of Directors In app
  100. 100. The Milestone of Justice In app
  101. 101. The Proposal at Sunset In app
  102. 102. The Vow of Two Houses In app
  103. 103. The Architecture of Tomorrow In app
  104. 104. A Morning on Willow Street In app
  105. 105. The Rotterdam Accord In app
  106. 106. The Shadow in the North Sea In app
  107. 107. The Return of the Longshoremen In app
  108. 108. The Wedding Gown of Eleanor In app
  109. 109. A Brother's Forgiveness In app
  110. 110. The Federal Commendation In app
  111. 111. The Penthouse Redesigned In app
  112. 112. The Sovereign Green Bond In app
  113. 113. The Night Before Forever In app
  114. 114. The Gathering at Plymouth Church In app
  115. 115. Walking Down the Aisle In app
  116. 116. The Rings of Sovereign Devotion In app
  117. 117. The Reception at Pier 42 In app
  118. 118. The First Dance Under the Stars In app
  119. 119. The Midnight Departure In app
  120. 120. Sunrise on the Open Atlantic In app
  121. 121. Anchored in Paradise In app
  122. 122. The Beacon of Red Hook In app
  123. 123. The Next Generation In app
  124. 124. The Horizon United In app
  125. 125. Addicted to You Forever In app

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