Lan Lan

My husband, Edgar, and my mentee, Amelie, betrayed me. He staged a car crash that left me with amnesia, then held me captive for three years, convincing me he was my protector. Meanwhile, Amelie stole my identity, my family's fortune, and became the new "Elise Everett." My parents died of grief, believing I was dead. A slap from Amelie shattered the lies, and my memory came flooding back. I learned the horrifying truth: my perfect life was a prison built on my grave. Forced to play the part of a broken, amnesiac lover, I endured their cruelty, secretly gathering evidence of their crimes. I overheard Edgar confess everything-the crash, my parents' deaths, his plan to keep me as his "obedient pet" forever. He wanted to parade his new wife at his birthday gala, a final humiliation for me. So I offered to plan the party for him. He thought it was a gesture of love. He had no idea I was planning his downfall.

After waking up from a five-year coma, I expected a warm embrace from my Fated Mate, Alpha Caleb. Instead, I was greeted with disgust. Standing beside a woman named Hailie, Caleb accused me of being a traitor. He claimed I had sold pack secrets and faked my coma to escape punishment. My own brother, Fitz—the boy I had sacrificed my wolf spirit to save—stood by and let them condemn me to protect his own stolen power. My life became a living hell. Caleb locked me in a sauna filled with toxic Wolfsbane vapor. He burned my skin with silver-laced water while Hailie laughed. And finally, he watched me fall from a roof, leaving me to die broken and alone on the concrete. It was only after my death that he discovered the truth: Hailie was the real spy, and I was innocent. Consumed by guilt, Caleb burned to death beside my coffin, praying for a second chance. The Moon Goddess heard him. Time rewound. Caleb woke up back to the day I opened my eyes. This time, he banished Hailie instantly. He treated me like a fragile treasure, filling my room with roses and vowing to protect me from the world. He thinks he has been given a miracle to fix his mistakes. He thinks he can make me fall in love with him again. But there is one thing my "perfect" mate doesn't realize. I didn't lose my memory in the reset. I remember every single way he killed me.

It wasn't a gun, but the pen in my hand was going to end my life just the same. Liam, the man I was supposed to marry in a month, pointed to the tablet on his desk. It showed a live feed of my mother’s hospital room. "Sign the confession, Ava," he said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "Take the fall for the embezzlement. Or the funding for her ventilator stops in ten seconds." My heart hammered against my ribs. The crimes weren't mine. They belonged to Chloe, his mistress. But Liam Valenti, the Underboss of New York, was sacrificing me to save her. "She's fragile," he said casually, adjusting his silk cuffs. "She can't handle prison. You're strong. You'll survive." With tears blurring my vision, I signed the document. I signed away my career as a lawyer and my freedom to save my mother. Liam snatched the paper like a prize. He didn't offer comfort. He just smirked. "Good girl. The wedding is still on, of course. You'll look beautiful in the ankle monitor." He walked out to celebrate with his mistress, thinking he had won. Thinking he owned me. But he forgot one crucial detail. I wasn't just his fiancée. I was the one who laundered his money. I knew where every body was buried—literally and financially. The moment the door clicked shut, I stopped crying. I pulled out a burner phone and opened an encrypted app. I wasn't going to jail. I was going to war. I typed three words to the one man Liam feared most. "Execute Protocol Zero."

My future was a single, glowing line on a computer screen, a nearly perfect SAT score promising MIT and a clear path to my AI dreams. The world felt bright, simple, and entirely within my grasp. Then the doorbell rang. It was Jake, my childhood best friend, looking disheveled and heartbroken, muttering that he had "bombed" his scores and was "not getting in anywhere that matters." He begged me, citing our childhood promises, to abandon my Ivy League ambitions and go to the state university with him. But as he laid on the act, my laptop pinged. A tagged photo on Emily Chen's Instagram showed Jake triumphantly celebrating his 1450 SAT score, directly contradicting his tearful performance. He was accepted to CIT, a top tech school, and had obviously lied to manipulate me. The performance was flawless, the lies seamless. My voice was quiet, dead. "You got a 1450." His face froze, the grief replaced by panic, then anger. He tried to grab my laptop, shouting that I was ruining everything. Just then, an email from our school confirmed his score. My friendship with Jake, twelve years in the making, was dead. Suddenly, a new email popped up. This one from Emily. Attached were encrypted files: chat logs, emails, audio recordings. Their plan wasn't just to steal my AI. They were planning a hostile takeover of Alex Turner's company, Eos Dynamics, using my work as the weapon, framining him for corporate espionage. The sheer audacity of their continued deceit, even after all I knew, left me seething. They wanted to play games? I'd play.

I drove to my father's mansion, divorce papers on the passenger seat, ready to tell him about my broken marriage. But voices from his study stopped me cold. My stepmother' s pleased tone and my father' s soft replies revealed a horrifying plot: they had orchestrated my forced marriage to David, drugging him and luring me there, all to seize my mother' s company, Miller Corp. My own father had sold me for a company. The man who orchestrated my five years of misery also murdered my mother. My world shattered. Grief turned to rage. I confronted David, only to find him with my stepsister, Samantha. He ripped up my divorce papers and choked me, accusing me of using him. My own husband, the one person I thought I could rely on, stood by as my father beat me. He let me risk my life to save his mistress. He let me lose our baby. After all that, they offered me a divorce, believing they had won. Why did they hate me so much? Why was I, his wife, continually punished while his mistress was doted on? What dark secret bound them all to this twisted game, and what was truly at stake? But they underestimated me. I refused to be a victim. I would reclaim my mother' s legacy, expose their crimes, and make them pay for every tear, every betrayal, and every loss.

"No." The word fell like a stone in our perfectly proper living room. Thirty years old in two months, and the Miller Curse loomed-marry or face ruin. My parents, desperate, had arranged my marriage to Ethan Black, my childhood sweetheart. But the perfect picture shattered. I found out Ethan, the man I was supposed to marry, had been having an affair with Sarah Jenkins, my ambitious young intern whom I had personally mentored. The final insult came at a high-profile gala. Ethan took the stage, and with a smile, proposed to Sarah using a priceless architectural sketch-a design I had always adored, a symbol of our shared dreams. He then soft-talked Sarah, telling her she understood him better, and kissed her passionately while the room erupted in applause around me. He walked right past me, leaving me humiliated, shattered, and utterly alone in a room full of pitying and scornful eyes. My world tilted. How could the man who promised me everything publicly choose another woman, and use my memories to do it? But when he cornered me afterwards, offering to keep me as his secret mistress, his words twisted the knife. He even used the Miller Curse against me, threatening to destroy my career. That was when I knew: I wouldn't just walk away. I would rebuild. On my own terms.

The rain fell, cold and miserable, at my six-year-old daughter Lily' s funeral. My world had shrunk to a muddy patch of grass, as I numbly watched her tiny white casket lowered into the ground. The one person who should have been by my side, my wife Sarah, was conspicuously absent. I'd told everyone she was too overwhelmed, but a chilling doubt was already taking root. Back at our opulent mansion, I found Sarah not grieving, but on the phone with her ex-boyfriend, Mark. Her voice was light, cheerful, as she casually uttered words that shattered my reality: "Lily was an accident. I never wanted a child. And with her illness… I took care of it." Then came the brutal confession: "The trip to Switzerland wasn' t for some miracle cure… It was for euthanasia. Now we can finally be together, Mark. No more secrets. No more baggage." My beautiful daughter, my brave girl battling for life, had been murdered by her own mother, who now mocked me, calling me a "leech" for spending "her family's money" on Lily's "treatment." How could she? How could the woman I loved, the mother of my child, commit such an unspeakable act and then gloat about it? My grief turned into a cold, hard resolve. I knew then what I had to do. I would use my life's work, my groundbreaking Regenesis technology, to strike back at the people who stole everything from me.

The scent of rosemary and garlic used to be my comfort, a promise of a future I was meticulously crafting. My Ashton Culinary Academy application, almost complete, sat waiting for my signature dish video. Then, my step-sister Brittany waltzed in, phone already recording. "Welcome back to the 'Ultimate Prank Challenge' !" she announced, her cruel smirk widening. This wasn' t my audition; it was my entry for her "Worst Chef Wannabe" contest. Laughter erupted, sharp and loud, from her clique, including Liam, my childhood friend, who just stared at his shoes. They'd "accidentally" spilled water on my application. My meticulously written essays blurred into meaningless inkblots. My chance was gone. They hadn't just destroyed my dream; they' d turned me into a prop in their game for social media likes. The reflection in the oven showed their triumphant faces, a circle of hyenas enjoying their kill, while I was a ghost in my own kitchen. The warmth was gone, replaced by the sting of betrayal. My mom' s voice later confirmed: Ashton had withdrawn my application. No anger, no sadness, just a factual pronouncement. She didn' t ask what happened, or if I was okay. I was just a problem to her. They wanted peace? Fine. I would find my own way, with people who actually respected me. I was done understanding.

It was my 28th birthday, spent alone in a lavish mansion, a single cupcake my only company. My husband, Ethan, a media mogul, saw me as little more than a convenient accessory, oblivious to the aggressive brain cancer secretly consuming me. So I signed the divorce papers, faked my own demise with my best friend' s help, and vanished, releasing him from a marriage he barely acknowledged. He went on to pursue his college sweetheart, thinking himself finally "free" – but soon, his perfect life unraveled as he realized the vacuum I' d left, plunging him into a torment of regret as he believed I was dead. Months later, I woke up in a different hospital, given a second chance at life by an experimental treatment and a caring doctor, but with no memory of my past, particularly of Ethan, the man I' d loved in secret. My new doctor claimed to be my loving husband, and together we built a beautiful life, complete with a joyful daughter, while Ethan desperately searched for the "dead" wife he never truly saw. Now, imagine his raw despair when he finally finds me, radiant and thriving, only to hear me say, "I'm sorry, sir, I don't know you," embracing my new family and utterly refusing to let his painful past haunt my hard-won peace.

Her endless troubles began due to a mere misunderstanding. Everyone in the city believed that she was dissolute, a slave to vanity, who used her fiance's family property to fulfil her own selfish needs. Her fiance dumped her and retrieved his investments, which led her company into bankruptcy. Her father was immersed in debt and ended up in prison. Soon, she became the target of public criticism. Left with no choice, she left her hometown to get away from the predators. Three years later, he ran into her once again. A storm of mixed feelings swirled inside him and he gradually removed the veil of misunderstanding. But she didn't want anything to do with him, the pain of his betrayal still fresh in her heart. But he didn't give up. He married her forcefully and swore to never let go of her again.

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."

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!"

"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."

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."

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.

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."

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

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.

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Sophie stepped in for her sister and married a man known for his disfigured looks and reckless past. On their wedding day, his family turned their backs on him, and the town laughed behind their hands, certain the marriage would collapse. But Sophie's career soared, and their love only deepened. Later, during a high-profile event, the CEO of some conglomerate took off his mask, revealing Sophie's husband to be a global sensation. *** Adrian had no interest in his arranged wife and had disguised himself in hopes she would bail. But when Sophie tried to walk away, Adrian broke down and whispered, "Please, Sophie, don't go. One kiss, and I'll give you the world."