Cait

I sat on the cold tile floor of our Upper East Side penthouse, staring at the two pink lines until my vision blurred. After ten years of loving Julian Sterling and three years of a hollow marriage, I finally had the one thing that could bridge the distance between us. I was pregnant. But Julian didn't come home with flowers for our anniversary. He tossed a thick manila envelope onto the marble coffee table with a heavy thud. Fiona, the woman he'd truly loved for years, was back in New York, and he told me our "business deal" was officially over. "Sign it," He said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. He looked at me with the cold detachment of a man selling a piece of unwanted furniture. When I hesitated, he told me to add a zero to the alimony if the money wasn't enough. I realized in that moment that if he knew about the baby, he wouldn't love me; he would simply take my child and give it to Fiona to raise. I shoved the pregnancy test into my pocket, signed the papers with a shaking hand, and lied through my teeth. When my morning sickness hit, I slumped to the floor to hide the truth. "It's just cramps," I gasped, watching him recoil as if I were contagious. To make him stay away, I invented a man named Jack-a fake boyfriend who supposedly gave me the kindness Julian never could. Suddenly, the man who wanted me gone became a monster of possessiveness. He threatened to "bury" a man who didn't exist while leaving me humiliated at his family's dinner to rush to Fiona's side. I was so broken that I even ate a cake I was deathly allergic to, then had to refuse life-saving steroids at the hospital because they would harm the fetus. Julian thinks he's stalling the divorce for two months to protect the family's reputation for his father's Jubilee. He thinks he's keeping his "property" on a short leash until the press dies down. He has no idea I'm using those sixty days to build a fortress for my child. By the time he realizes the truth, I'll be gone, and the Sterling heir will be far beyond his reach.

For seven years, I was the secret wife of Chandler Roberson, a rising political star. I sacrificed my own journalism career to be his "rock," the ghost in the background of his perfect life, always believing his promise that it was all for us. That promise shattered the night he brought his mistress, Britni, to our home. She took one look at me, then threw herself down the stairs, letting out a theatrical scream. "She pushed me!" she cried. Chandler didn't hesitate. He slapped me across the face, his eyes blazing with a rage I'd never seen. "You bitch! What did you do?!" he snarled, rushing to her side. He cradled her in his arms, his face a mask of concern for her and pure hatred for me. He believed her instantly, ready to paint me as a violent, jealous monster to protect his affair and his career. In that moment, watching him choose her, watching my life crumble under his cold, indifferent gaze, the woman who had loved him for twenty years died. But then I was back. Reborn in that same moment, with the memory of his betrayal burning in my soul. And I remembered the one thing he'd forgotten: the hidden camera in the entryway, recording his perfect crime.

My husband Collin forced me to watch him with his mistress, Jaime, calling it my "education" on how to be a woman. This was my reality for months, even on our wedding anniversary. He refused to pay for my mother's life-saving treatment, causing her death. Then, he let Jaime beat me so severely that I miscarried the baby I didn't even know I was carrying, leaving me unable to ever have children. As if that wasn't enough, Jaime shattered my mother's urn in front of me and fed her ashes to a dog, all while Collin watched. My mother's last words were, "Stop begging him." She left me a number for my estranged uncle, a powerful man I barely knew. When I called him, he sent a jet to bring me to London. Now, I'm back. Not as the broken wife he discarded, but as the new CEO of his collapsing company, ready to take everything from him.

My fiancé staged his own kidnapping as a sick loyalty test, betting I'd risk our unborn child to save him. The shock of his betrayal cost me our baby. When I confronted him, he protected his mistress and burned our son's ashes right in front of me. He sneered that I was just his "loyal little soldier" and that only death would end us. He was right. He just never realized he was talking about his own death, at the hands of the queen who owns his entire army.

My passport was in my hand, my bag zipped, when my girlfriend, Sophia, walked in, fresh from a trip with another man. "What are you doing, Ethan?" she asked, her voice airy as she flaunted a high-end jewelry bag. She still thought I was just throwing a tantrum. But when I told her I was leaving her, the playful mask slipped, revealing the cold, calculating woman beneath. Then she laughed, sharp and condescending, suggesting an insincere wedding to make my "sick sister" feel important. My blood turned to ice. She didn't know. How could she? Lily was already dead. The memory of her last breath, just after Sophia's engagement party with Mark Peterson, burned in my chest. Her organ rejection, the doctors said, was triggered by emotional shock from seeing Sophia with another man. When I begged Sophia for the money I'd saved with her for Lily's treatment, she coldly refused, hanging up on me, even having her bodyguards throw me out of their mansion. Lily died on New Year's Eve, holding my hand as fireworks lit the sky. And now, Sophia offered a wedding, a shallow gesture, an insult to Lily's grave. My art, my life's passion, she called "nothing" as she destroyed my supplies, sending a wooden box crashing into my forehead, leaving me bleeding. "I need the money back," I told her, referring to the fortune I had entrusted to her over seven years, money she had instead spent on Mark and their extravagant future. She laughed, calling it "pocket change." What words could capture the horror, the utter betrayal, of realizing the woman you loved had systematically stripped you of everything-even the memory of your dead sister? What deeper depths of cruelty could she sink to? Later, as I fled, she drained my bank accounts, every last cent of my life' s savings. But a new life called to me-the prestigious international art gallery' s offer-a chance that felt like a flicker of hope after so much despair. Now, finally free, I was ready to live for myself.

The crisp white envelope from the lab looked utterly normal on my kitchen counter, but a knot of dread still tightened in my stomach. It was just a routine health screening, something I, Ava Williams, a professional athlete, did every year. Then I tore it open, and the bold letters screamed at me: Positive: Chlamydia trachomatis. My world, carefully built on discipline and a loving engagement to Mark Johnson, shattered in an instant. I confronted Mark, but his casual dismissal and a text from "Jessica" on his phone exposed a sickening truth-a web of betrayal including Sarah, Emily, and Chloe, each message a punch to my gut confirming his depravity. The situation spiraled out of control when his mother, Carol, burst in, attacking me, dismissing me as a "gold-digger" when she saw his phone. How could the man I loved, the man my entire family adored, be such a monster? What twisted game were they playing? Later that night, I overheard Mark and Carol. "It' s…it' s HIV," Mark whispered, followed by Carol' s chilling plan to frame me, destroy my career, and ruin my academic parents. My father then collapsed from a stress-induced heart attack during their public smear campaign against me. The fear inside me calcified into pure, unadulterated fury. This wasn't just about infidelity anymore; it was war.

The two pink lines on the pregnancy test announced a truth Chloe Davis had yearned for, prayed for. But the baby wasn' t her husband Liam' s, a man whose wealth was matched only by his emotional distance and public disdain for children. For five years, she'd endured his family's pointed questions about her "barren" state, while Liam made it painfully clear he wanted no children with her. Now, with a secret donor and a sterile clinic, she had what his family wanted, but the truth would destroy everything. The irony was bitter; his indifference had already killed their marriage, yet she' d secretly conceived a life he' d never wanted to give her. Then, the ultimate humiliation: Liam brought his heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend Isabella Rossi into their home, expecting Chloe, an obstetrician, to care for them both. He dismissed her life' s ambition, viewing her expertise as merely a tool to serve his mistress and her child. She was reduced to a glorified caretaker in her own home, constantly reminded of her supposed failure by the very man who caused it. The injustice burned, fueling a quiet rage and a fierce, primal need to protect the life growing inside her. He told her, "If you don't like it, you can leave." With a chilling smile, Chloe walked out, a plan solidifying in her mind. She' d embark on a calculated act of defiance, exposing his hypocrisy and reclaiming her life, one devastating truth at a time.

I stood there, presenting my research, my heart thrumming with artificially amplified love for Professor Alistair Finch. For three years, the "Aura Emboldener" patch had allowed me, Sarah Miller of the "Quiet Heart," to feel a full spectrum of emotions, to build a future, and to believe in our genuine connection. I' d gambled my entire inheritance on The Phoenix Initiative, hoping to permanently cure my lifelong emotional flatness. Then Alistair spoke, his voice smooth and utterly dismissive. "Sarah," he said, turning cooler, "this has been an interesting academic diversion." Beside him, Victoria Sterling smiled a small, knowing, unkind curve of her lips as he announced their engagement. His words hit me like a physical blow. My vibrant, borrowed emotional life, fueled by the patch, instantly felt like a branding iron. My phone buzzed: "Target unrecoverable. Mission failure. Await extraction." Extraction meant Reflection House, the patch removed, and a terrifying return to my "Quiet Heart," only this time, a profound apathy worse than before-a complete emotional flatline. How could my desperate journey to feel, my three years of intense, patch-fueled devotion, be dismissed as a mere "diversion"? How could I go back to a silent world, now knowing the joy and pain I'd experienced, only to feel nothing at all? The thought of this deeper silence, this absolute void, was terrifying. But what Alistair and The Phoenix Initiative didn't grasp was that this very blankness, this chilling apathy, would become my unexpected shield and my new path. With no emotions left to manipulate, I was finally free to refuse him, to see through their games, and to discover a truer, quieter connection awaiting me back home.

It was our seventh anniversary, Valentine's Day, and I was dining alone at a Michelin-star restaurant in New York. My husband, Jake, CEO of the company I helped build, was a no-show. The phone rang, his voice sharp: "PR crisis." But a younger, female voice giggled in the background, "He means our PR crisis, Mrs. Shen." His intern, Chloe, mocked me, revealing they somehow had matching dresses, and the one meant for me arrived visibly damaged, just like her public flaunting of their affair. The next morning, Jake demanded I create a "united front" at a press conference, simultaneously gaslighting me about the "misunderstanding" and publicly humiliating me for my past. He called me bitter, aging, and dramatic when I recalled his cruel dismissal of my health, even our miscarriage. I dedicated my entire inheritance, my career, my life to him, only to be reduced to "Mrs. Apex CEO," a brand extension. How could the man I built an empire with betray me so brazenly, then have the audacity to demand my compliance? Why did he deliberately mock me, while Chloe sent me pictures of herself in our bed? I was no longer weeping or shaking. The raw sting of his deceit had finally given way to a chilling clarity. My stomach didn't drop, my hands didn't shake. Not anymore. I made one call to my lawyer, initiating divorce proceedings for half of everything. Then I called Ethan Chen, accepting his partnership offer. The ring came off. My new life began now.

Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé. Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now-billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn't mind. I'd crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one? Wrong. One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That's when it hit me-he didn't love me. He didn't even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn't even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup. So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster-my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise. Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Enter him. Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I'd met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes. It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised. But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life. And, as it turned out, the best decision I'd ever made. Because my one-night stand isn't just some random guy. He's richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with. And now, he's not letting me go.

She spent ten years chasing after the right brother, only to fall for the wrong one in one weekend. ~~~ Sloane Mercer has been hopelessly in love with her best friend, Finn Hartley, since college. For ten long years, she's stood by him, stitching him back together every time Delilah Crestfield-his toxic on-and-off girlfriend-shattered his heart. But when Delilah gets engaged to another man, Sloane thinks this might finally be her chance to have Finn for herself. She couldn't be more wrong. Heartbroken and desperate, Finn decides to crash Delilah's wedding and fight for her one last time. And he wants Sloane by his side. Reluctantly, Sloane follows him to Asheville, hoping that being close to Finn will somehow make him see her the way she's always seen him. Everything changes when she meets Knox Hartley, Finn's older brother-a man who couldn't be more different from Finn. He's dangerously magnetic. Knox sees right through Sloane and makes it his mission to pull her into his world. What starts as a game-a twisted bet between them-soon turns into something deeper. Sloane is trapped between two brothers: one who's always broken her heart and another who seems hell-bent on claiming it... no matter the cost. CONTENT WARNING: This story is strongly 18+. It delves into dark romance themes such as obsession and lust with morally complex characters. While this is a love story, reader discretion is advised.  

Camille Lewis was the forgotten daughter, the unloved wife, the woman discarded like yesterday's news. Betrayed by her husband, cast aside by her own family, and left for dead by the sister who stole everything, she vanished without a trace. But the weak, naive Camille died the night her car was forced off that bridge. A year later, she returns as Camille Kane, richer, colder, and more powerful than anyone could have imagined. Armed with wealth, intelligence, and a hunger for vengeance, she is no longer the woman they once trampled on. She is the storm that will tear their world apart. Her ex-husband begs for forgiveness. Her sister's perfect life crumbles. Her parents regret the daughter they cast aside. But Camille didn't come back for apologies, she came back to watch them burn. But as her enemies fall at her feet, one question remains: when the revenge is over, what's left? A mysterious trillionaire Alexander Pierce steps into her path, offering something she thought she lost forever, a future. But can a woman built on ashes learn to love again? She rose from the fire to destroy those who betrayed her. Now, she must decide if she'll rule alone... or let someone melt the ice in her heart.

She hides behind ugly suits and fake names. He's done trusting women. When they meet in a masked sex club, neither realizes they've been fighting each other across boardroom tables for eighteen months. At Taylor Industries, she's Joy Smith-the frumpy CFO who drowns her curves in shapeless polyester and wearing a wig. At home, she's the forgotten wife of a cheating lawyer who hasn't touched her in so long she's starting to wonder if she's broken. When she finds hot pink lace panties stuffed in her couch cushions...definitely not hers, it's not heartbreak she feels. It's freedom. Grayson Taylor doesn't do relationships anymore. Not after walking in on his actress fiancée with another woman. Now he channels everything into hostile takeovers and board meetings, especially the ones where his overcautious CFO fights him on every goddamn acquisition. Joy Smith is brilliant, infuriating, and funny when he pushes all her buttons. But Honey is tired of being invisible. Tired of never having felt real pleasure. So, when her best friend gives her the details of The Velvet Room-Manhattan's most exclusive masked club-she promises herself just one night. One night to find out if her husband's right, if she really is frigid, or if she's just never been touched by the right hands. She doesn't expect the masked stranger who claims her the second she walks in. Doesn't expect the chemistry that ignites between them, the way he makes her body sing, or the orgasms that leave her shaking. Doesn't expect him to hand her an email address with one command: "Only me. No one else touches you."

I received a pornographic video. "Do you like this?" The man speaking in the video is my husband, Mark, whom I haven't seen for several months. He is naked, his shirt and pants scattered on the ground, thrusting forcefully on a woman whose face I can't see, her plump and round breasts bouncing vigorously. I can clearly hear the slapping sounds in the video, mixed with lustful moans and grunts. "Yes, yes, fuck me hard, baby," the woman screams ecstatically in response. "You naughty girl!" Mark stands up and flips her over, slapping her buttocks as he speaks. "Stick your ass up!" The woman giggles, turns around, sways her buttocks, and kneels on the bed. I feel like someone has poured a bucket of ice water on my head. It's bad enough that my husband is having an affair, but what's worse is that the other woman is my own sister, Bella. ************************************************************************************************************************ "I want to get a divorce, Mark," I repeated myself in case he didn't hear me the first time-even though I knew he'd heard me clearly. He stared at me with a frown before answering coldly, "It's not up to you! I'm very busy, don't waste my time with such boring topics, or try to attract my attention!" The last thing I was going to do was argue or bicker with him. "I will have the lawyer send you the divorce agreement," was all I said, as calmly as I could muster. He didn't even say another word after that and just went through the door he'd been standing in front of, slamming it harshly behind him. My eyes lingered on the knob of the door a bit absentmindedly before I pulled the wedding ring off my finger and placed it on the table. I grabbed my suitcase, which I'd already had my things packed in and headed out of the house.

I was at my own engagement party at the Sterling estate when the world started tilting. Victoria Sterling, my future mother-in-law, smiled coldly as she watched me struggle with a cup of tea that had been drugged to ruin me. Before I could find my fiancé, Ryan, a waiter dragged me into the forbidden West Wing and locked me in a room with Julian Sterling, the family’s "fallen titan" who had been confined to a wheelchair for years. The door burst open to a frenzy of camera flashes and theatrical screams. Victoria framed me as a seductress caught in the act, and Ryan didn't even try to listen to my pleas, calling me "cheap leftovers" before walking away with his pregnant mistress. When I turned to my own family for help, my father signed a document severing our relationship for a five-million-dollar payout from Julian. They traded me like a commodity without a second thought. I didn't understand why my own parents were so eager to sell me, or how Ryan could look at me with such disgust after promising me forever. I was a sacrifice, a pawn used to protect the family's offshore accounts, and I couldn't fathom how every person I loved had a price tag for my destruction. With nowhere left to go, I married Julian in a bleak ceremony at City Hall. He slid a heavy diamond onto my finger and whispered, "We have a war to start." That night, inside his secret penthouse, I watched the paralyzed man stand up from his wheelchair and activate a screen filled with the Sterling family's darkest secrets. The execution had officially begun.

Kara Martin was known as Miss Perfect. She was a beauty with good personality and successful career. Unfortunately, her life changed at one night. She was accused of adultery, losing her job, and abandoned by her fiance. The arrogant man who slept with her did not want to take responsibility. He even threatened her life if they met again. What's worse, Kara was pregnant with twins and she chose to give birth to them. Four and a half years later, Kara returned to work at a large company. As the secretary, she would frequently face their notorious CEO. Kara thought it wouldn't be a problem, but as it turned out ... the CEO was the father of the twins!

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?

The rain in Detroit was slick with grime when my family finally came to fetch me. They didn't want a reunion; they wanted a sacrificial lamb to marry into the Kaufman empire to save their failing business. I thought I was just being sold off, but the limo ride ended under a dark overpass where six hired thugs were waiting with chains. My own sister had ordered them to "break my spirit" so I’d be a shaking, pathetic mess by the time I reached the altar. They called me "Detroit trash" and sprayed air freshener when I sat on their leather seats. My stepmother wanted a video of me begging for my life, and my father was ready to trade me like a used car to a man everyone called a "vegetable." They expected a submissive country girl, unaware that I was a high-level "cleaner" who could snap a radius bone before they could even scream. When I finally reached the Kaufman estate, I found my fiancé, Barron, slumped in a wheelchair, drooling and silent. But as soon as the doors closed, the "invalid" grabbed my wrist with a grip of iron and whispered a command that changed everything. I didn't understand why my own blood was so desperate to see me destroyed. What had I ever done to deserve a hit squad and a forced marriage to a man they thought was a corpse? But Barron isn't a vegetable, and I'm not a victim. We just touched down at the Moon family gala in a matte-black helicopter, and as the doors slide open, the "broken" bride is about to show them exactly what happens when you throw away the wrong daughter. "If we're going to crash a party," Barron whispered, his eyes burning with lethal clarity, "we should make an entrance."