Evelyn Reed

My ten-year contract marriage was over. I had saved my sister's life by playing wife to a billionaire and mother to his two sons. Today, I was finally free. But at my stepson's birthday party, my public execution began when a deepfake porn video starring my face was broadcast to all of New York's elite. Then, my husband's ex-wife, Carolina, orchestrated my downfall. She stabbed herself and blamed me. The boys I raised screamed that I was a monster. And my husband, Justin, believing her lies, beat me so brutally that I miscarried the child I never knew I was carrying. He chose her. He chose the lie. He let our child die. But his mother, the woman who orchestrated our marriage, saved me. Months later, my ex-husband and stepsons found me in LA, crying and begging me to come home. I looked at the men who destroyed me and smiled. "No," I said calmly. "I don't need you anymore."

The kiss was cold. Not just the late hour, but his eyes, fixated on a spiking graph over my shoulder, measuring my every breath. "Perfect," Ethan murmured, pulling away. "The oxytocin response was exactly as predicted." He wasn' t talking to me. Our kiss, a desperate attempt to reconnect, was just data for his obsession: Project Seraph. Our home had become a lab, our life an experiment. I, Ava, a software engineer who' d set aside my career for his, felt like a ghost, a tool in his grand design. That night, a thin line of light from his locked office door beckoned. I used a backdoor I' d coded years ago. The room was a laboratory. And in the center, a shimmering, life-sized hologram of Sophia Reed-his dead ex-girlfriend. "Soon, Sophia. Soon you'll be whole again," he vowed, his voice filled with a reverence he hadn't shown me in years. Then, the horror. He saw me. "Ava? She' s served her purpose. Her neural patterns, her emotional responses… they were the perfect raw data to rebuild you." He filtered out my "weaknesses," my "softness," using our intimacy, our arguments, just to gather data. I stood frozen. It wasn't just a project. It was a resurrection. And I was the sacrifice. He didn't grieve her; he resented me for not being her. The chilling realization of his malice, extending even to my devastating miscarriage years ago, hit me like a physical blow. My love turned to ash. I would not be a template. I would not be erased. This wasn't about saving my marriage. This was about survival. And justice. I would burn his project to the ground.

My mother-in-law, Maria, was crying silently at my kitchen table, her shoulders shaking with a defeated kind of grief. My husband, Ethan, barely glanced up from his phone. "Dad had another one of his episodes," he said, dismissively. This meant Maria, our lifeline for childcare, was being sent back to her abusive husband. A cold dread settled in my stomach; this was the beginning of the end for my paralegal career. Then, the strange incidents started with the nannies: a baby monitor blasting static, a gas knob turned on, a back door found wide open. Terrified, one by one, they all quit, forcing me to give up the job I loved, the independence I cherished. Ethan, now a newly promoted Regional Director, gloated. "See? It' s a sign. You' re meant to be home with Maya." He cut off my access to our joint account, then tossed me a few hundred dollars a week like an allowance, questioning every single purchase. Our home became a cage, and he was the gatekeeper. But I wasn' t stupid. I knew his control was tightening, and I saw a way out. One night, after he threw a wad of cash in my face and called me a leech, my phone buzzed. A photo appeared, then quickly vanished: Ethan, arm-in-arm with another woman. My hands shook with a potent mix of humiliation, rage, and a terrifying clarity. That night, I hit record on my camera, pouring every ounce of my defiance into my 100th baking video. The next morning, it went viral.

I spent my childhood isolated, my violin the only companion, fueled by my father's promise: master it, and my estranged mother would return. She did come back, but not for me. My mother, Sabrina, arrived with a fragile half-brother, Caleb, and eyes that held no warmth, only a chilling disdain. I quickly discovered I was nothing but a painful reminder of a past she hated. My father, a tech mogul, used Caleb's critical illness as leverage, caging my mother in our sprawling estate. My desperate attempt to help Caleb backfired spectacularly, revealing my own hidden, life-threatening blood disorder. The world shattered around me overnight. My entire existence was a carefully constructed lie designed by a father who controlled my fate, and a mother who openly despised me, wishing I'd never been born. Now, with Caleb tragically gone and my parents' twisted war reaching a deadly climax, I must confront the shocking truth of their love, their hatred, and who I truly am amidst the wreckage.

My life as a mafia princess ended the day Dante Moretti, the new Don, killed my family and seized our home. Now, I was a prisoner, a humiliated servant scrubbing floors in what was once my mansion, enduring his cruel torment day and night. He swore my family had destroyed his, and his vengeance was absolute. Then came the impossible truth: I was pregnant with his child. A tiny, secret hope, a fragile reason to endure, began to bloom in my heart. But Dante, spurred by his calculating fiancée, brutally forced me to abort our baby. He then coldly orchestrated the public murder of my last remaining family-my beloved mother. My entire world shattered in that moment. That final act of cruelty extinguished every flicker of hope, leaving nothing but cold, dead ash. My will to live evaporated, replaced by a quiet resolve to end my suffering. I prepared my escape, a hidden bottle of pills my one solace, planning to simply fade away. How could one man inflict such unimaginable pain, destroying everything I held dear, yet haunt my every thought with a past love I tried desperately to bury? Why, in his eyes, did I see both pure hatred and a possessive darkness that called to something deep within me? Was there truly no undoing the generational cycle of violence he relentlessly pursued? On the night he paraded me as a broken trophy before his capos, my family's remaining loyalists stormed the ballroom to kill him. As a blade lunged for his heart, an instinct, a forgotten echo of a life I thought was gone, made me throw myself in front of him. But as I shielded the man who utterly ruined me, the poison I had taken hours earlier began its final, irreversible work.

My father' s funeral was a blur of lilies and hushed condolences. I stood by his grave, a shell of grief, the world a gray canvas of loss while my fiancé, Ethan, stood beside me, a comforting presence, or so I thought. Then darkness. I woke on a funeral home couch, voices drifting in. Ethan' s smooth tones and his father Senator Carter' s icy pronouncements cut through the haze: "With Senator Thompson gone, the girl' s family is... socially irrelevant now." My breath caught, a sharp, bitter thing. Their casual cruelty laid bare the truth: Ethan's plan to ditch me for a "much better fit" for his ambitions, seeing me only as "yesterday's news." The man who whispered promises, who held my hand, saw me as nothing more than a discarded stepping stone. My heart, already shattered by loss, was now brutally re-fractured by their cold, calculated betrayal. The sheer audacity of it, planning my discard while my father's casket lay near, left me reeling, choked with a humiliating fury. How could they?! But as the nausea receded, a cold, hard resolve solidified in my gut. They thought I was irrelevant, that my family's name meant nothing without my father. I would show them meticulously how relevant the Thompsons still were, and their own PR firm would orchestrate it.

A perfect afternoon shattered in an instant, taking my five-year-old son, Leo, who was skipping happily by my side. I was critically injured, rushed into surgery, my world already in pieces. But a strange genetic immunity to anesthetics meant I woke up. And I heard everything. My husband, Mark, calm and cold, told the doctor, "Remove her uterus. Make sure she can't have any more children." Then, a phone call. "The kid is handled," he muttered. "Payment is on its way." Leo wasn't an accident. He was "handled." My own husband had our son murdered, and was making me barren to clear obstacles for his other family – a mistress and the teenage son he' d hidden for years. Every shared moment, every memory, a calculated lie. My son' s short life, reduced to an inconvenience to be erased. At Leo's funeral, Mark, his secret family, and his mother celebrated, flaunting their wealth. His other son, Brody, deliberately kicked Leo's scattered ashes, sneering, "Guess he's really scattered now." The depths of their depravity turned my raw grief into a cold, unbreakable resolve. They thought me broken, unstable, weak. They had no idea that beneath my feigned unconsciousness, a different battle had just begun. I faked my own death, but my meticulous justice was just beginning.

My 8-year-old daughter, Lily, was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening heart condition, needing immediate, exorbitantly expensive treatment. The doctor' s words were a blow, but the real shock came when I learned our entire savings were gone. My mother-in-law, Carol, had squandered over a hundred thousand dollars on pseudo-scientific "wellness" products from a charismatic online guru, Tiffany Hayes, believing they'd "cure" Lily and bring "good fortune." Yet, I said nothing. I even "sold" our townhouse to generate $500,000 for Lily's care, depositing it into a new account. Predictably, within 72 hours, Carol blew almost all of it-including a $200,000 "Bio-Resonance Chamber"-on more of Tiffany's schemes. My husband, Mark, complicit, claimed to have tried to stop her. Lily' s 'symptoms,' conveniently coached by Mark and Tiffany, seemed to worsen dramatically. Everyone witnessed my unsettling calm, mistaking it for passivity or naiveté. How could I endure such betrayal? Such financial recklessness at the expense of our daughter' s life? But behind my placid exterior, a cold calculation was at play. For months, I had been watching them, quietly gathering every piece of evidence. The moment Lily 'collapsed' and we rushed to the hospital, I knew my moment had arrived. As Mark frantically begged me to call my wealthy parents for a bailout, and a journalist live-streamed, I looked directly at him and stated, "No money, no treatment. I won't lower my lifestyle for this." The outrage was immediate. They thought I was a monster. But what they didn't know was this was exactly what I wanted them to think.

I thought I had it all. A quiet, devoted husband David, a brilliant son Ethan heading to college, and a secret life of immense wealth, lavishing affection and luxury on my high school sweetheart Leo and his charming son, Finn. My two worlds never touched, or so I believed. Then, a frantic call from David. Ethan was gone, a hit-and-run. My careful composure fractured, but I still played the part of the grieving mother. I performed sorrow, wearing a threadbare cardigan over my expensive dress, hoping to conceal my true life. But David' s eyes, full of a pain I couldn' t counterfeit, saw through me. And then, Leo, my lover, let slip the horrifying truth: Finn, in the luxury car I' d bought him, was behind the wheel. My own son, dead, at the hands of the boy I' d chosen over him. The carefully constructed walls of my indifference crumbled. Yet, the real blow came reading Ethan' s journal: his quiet dreams, his deep love for his father, and the heartbreaking entries about my blatant neglect. "Mom seems to like Finn more than me." His words, his uncomplaining endurance, shattered me more than any physical pain. In that raw, desolate moment, surrounded by the remnants of my lies, a new, cold resolve ignited. They took my son. Now, I would make them pay. And I knew precisely how.

I, Ethan Thorne, had quietly ensured my fiancée Seraphina Vance's family wealth for years. It was a sacred pact, tied to my ancient Thorne Providence, a legacy of power I cherished. At the grand ballroom, I sought Seraphina, only to find her locked in a passionate kiss with Marcus Blackwood. She brazenly announced our breakup, publicly mocking me and our past, calling me a "relic." Then, with chilling contempt, she desecrated our engagement compass, a powerful conduit for her family's prosperity, flicking it to the ground. The crowd snickered, their whispers fueling her disdain, as she declared it "lost." My heart, once bruised, solidified into cold, stark resolve as she deliberately shattered the compass, unwittingly destroying the very source of her family's fortune. She still thought this was about her petty pride or common money, completely blind to the profound act she had just committed. Unaware of the ancient force she had provoked, she laughed when I offered her a final chance to avert disaster, to simply pick up the pieces. Then, I calmly revealed her fate: her company would plummet by thirty percent on Monday. And for her new lover, Blackwood: a crippling leg cramp, within minutes. He scoffed, mocking my "magic," but then screamed and collapsed, writhing in undeniable agony. The lavish ballroom fell into a terrifying silence as everyone witnessed the brutal materialization of my words. Seraphina, her face pale with dawning horror, finally saw the terrifying power she had irrevocably unleashed. This chilling demonstration was just the first payment for her betrayal.

Elliana, the unfavored "ugly duckling" of her family, was humiliated by her stepsister, Paige, who everyone admired. Paige, engaged to the CEO Cole, was the perfect woman-until Cole married Elliana on the day of the wedding. Shocked, everyone wondered why he chose the "ugly" woman. As they waited for her to be cast aside, Elliana stunned everyone by revealing her true identity: a miracle healer, financial mogul, appraisal prodigy, and AI genius. When her mistreatment became known, Cole revealed Elliana's stunning, makeup-free photo, sending shockwaves through the media. "My wife doesn't need anyone's approval."

"Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress. With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap. Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell. On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered. When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling."

For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted. Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke. Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph. Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!" With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off." A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!"

After five years of playing the perfect daughter, Rylie was exposed as a stand-in. Her fiancé bolted, friends scattered, and her adoptive brothers shoved her out, telling her to grovel back to her real family. Done with humiliation, she swore to claw back what was hers. Shock followed: her birth family ruled the town's wealth. Overnight, she became their precious girl. The boardroom brother canceled meetings, the genius brother ditched his lab, the musician brother postponed a tour. As those who spurned her begged forgiveness, Admiral Brad Morgan calmly declared, "She's already taken."

Sunlit hours found their affection glimmering, while moonlit nights ignited reckless desire. But when Brandon learned his beloved might last only half a year, he coolly handed Millie divorce papers, murmuring, "This is all for appearances; we'll get married again once she's calmed down." Millie, spine straight and cheeks dry, felt her pulse go hollow. The sham split grew permanent; she quietly ended their unborn child and stepped into a new beginning. Brandon unraveled, his car tearing down the street, unwilling to let go of the woman he'd discarded, pleading for her to look back just once.

Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."

In their previous lives, Gracie married Theo. Outwardly, they were the perfect academic couple, but privately, she became nothing more than a stepping stone for his ambition, and met a tragic end. Her younger sister Ellie wed Brayden, only to be abandoned for his true love, left alone and disgraced. This time, both sisters were reborn. Ellie rushed to marry Theo, chasing the success Gracie once had-unaware she was repeating the same heartbreak. Gracie instead entered a contract marriage with Brayden. But when danger struck, he defended her fiercely. Could fate finally rewrite their tragic endings?

The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."

Maia grew up a pampered heiress-until the real daughter returned and framed her, sending Maia to prison with help from her fiancé and family. Four years later, free and married to Chris, a notorious outcast, everyone assumed Maia was finished. They soon discovered she was secretly a famed jeweler, elite hacker, celebrity chef, and top game designer. As her former family begged for help, Chris smiled calmly. "Honey, let's go home." Only then did Maia realize her "useless" husband was a legendary tycoon who'd adored her from the start.

Blinded in a crash, Cary was rejected by every socialite—except Evelina, who married him without hesitation. Three years later, he regained his sight and ended their marriage. "We’ve already lost so many years. I won’t let her waste another one on me." Evelina signed the divorce papers without a word. Everyone mocked her fall—until they discovered that the miracle doctor, jewelry mogul, stock genius, top hacker, and the President's true daughter… were all her. When Cary came crawling back, a ruthless tycoon had him kicked out. "She's my wife now. Get lost."