Rabbit

As a wolfless charity case at the Hyde Pack's celebration, my world shattered when Braydon, my supposed protector, publicly announced Katherine Parrish as his Luna, erasing me. Heartbroken, I fled into a terrifying contract marriage with Alpha King Dallas Marshall for protection. Braydon's public assault and threats forced me to reveal my secret marriage, challenging the King. My "protection" felt like a prison. Braydon revealed I was a "key" to power, not a mate, confirming my fears. Enraged by my attempt to take a morning-after pill, Dallas forced me to swallow it, then branded my lips with a furious kiss. His chilling silence hardened my resolve. I immediately drafted an addendum to our contract, setting strict boundaries to reclaim control.

On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up. As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress. The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me. The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one. With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered. I chose the one man they never expected. I chose his father, the Don himself.

The acrid smell of smoke still clung to Evelyn in the ambulance, her lungs raw from the penthouse fire. She was alive, but the world around her felt utterly destroyed, a feeling deepened by the small TV flickering to life. On it, her husband, Julian Vance, thousands of miles away, publicly comforted his mistress, Serena Holloway, shielding her from paparazzi after *her* "panic attack." Julian's phone went straight to voicemail. Alone in the hospital with second-degree burns, Evelyn watched news replays, her heart rate spiking. He protected Serena from camera flashes while Evelyn burned. When he finally called, he demanded she handle insurance, dismissing the fire; Serena's voice faintly heard. The shallow family ties and pretense of marriage evaporated. A searing injustice and cold anger replaced pain; Evelyn knew Julian had chosen to let her burn. "Evelyn Vance died in that fire," she declared, ripping out her IV. Armed with a secret fortune as "The Architect," Hollywood's top ghostwriter, she walked out. She would divorce Julian, reclaim her name, and finally step into the spotlight as an actress.

My wealthy husband, Nathaniel, stormed in, demanding a divorce to be with his "dying" first love, Julia. He expected tears, pleas, even hysteria. Instead, I calmly reached for a pen, ready to sign away our life for a fortune. For two years, I played the devoted wife in our sterile penthouse. That night, Nathaniel shattered the facade, tossing divorce papers. "Julia's back," he stated, "she needs me." He expected me to crumble. But my calm "Okay" shocked him. I coolly demanded his penthouse, shares, and a doubled stipend, letting him believe I was a greedy gold digger. He watched, disgusted, convinced I was a monster. He couldn't fathom my indifference or ruthless demands. He saw avarice, not a carefully constructed facade. His betrayal had awakened something far more dangerous. The second the door closed, the dutiful wife vanished. I retrieved a burner phone and a Glock, ready to expose the elaborate lie he and Julia had built.

For two years, I was the Alpha's secret wife, a duty he resented. But the positive pregnancy test in my hand was a miracle, a blessing from the Moon Goddess. This baby, our heir, was supposed to be the bridge that finally mended our broken mate bond. That night, he left without a word. I saw on a gossip site that he'd gone to pick up his ex-lover, Isadora. Reaching for him through our bond, I wasn't met with his usual coldness, but with her emotions bleeding through him-triumph and smug possession. The next morning, I went to his office, ready to tell him about our baby, believing our child could fix us. But I stopped when I heard him talking to our Pack Healer about me. The healer said I looked fragile, that he should care for his mate. My husband laughed. "You seem to care for her more than I do," Demetri said, his voice dripping with ice. "Do you want me to give her to you? Take her. She's of no use to me." My world shattered. I wasn't just unloved; I was a thing to be discarded. I looked down at the pregnancy report, the proof of the life inside me, and made a vow. He would never know about our child, and I would sever our bond myself.

Yelena discovered that she wasn't her parents' biological child. After seeing through their ploy to trade her as a pawn in a business deal, she was sent away to her barren birthplace. There, she stumbled upon her true origins-a lineage of historic opulence. Her real family showered her with love and adoration. In the face of her so-called sister's envy, Yelena conquered every adversity and took her revenge, all while showcasing her talents. She soon caught the attention of the city's most eligible bachelor. He cornered Yelena and pinned her against the wall. "It's time to reveal your true identity, darling."

Nina had been by Julian's side for ten years, ostensibly as his personal doctor, but in reality, she was his lover. Whenever he was injured in conflicts, she treated him; during his moments of loneliness, she was there to comfort him. Nina believed that if she devoted enough, she would eventually win his heart. That was until his idealized love returned to the country, rendering Nina worthless in his eyes, and he discarded her like yesterday's news. Even his assistant couldn't bear to see it and advised Julian to appreciate her, but he scoffed at the suggestion. "Nina was never part of my life plan. I kept her around because she bore a slight resemblance to Aria." In that instant, Nina's infatuation seemed like a joke. When he wrapped his arm around his idealized love's waist, smiling as he asked her to help plan their wedding, Nina didn't cry or cause a scene; she just smiled through her tears and obediently agreed. Then she turned around and dialed a number. "There are seven days left in the ten-year commitment. I am applying for termination, and from now on, I will have nothing to do with Julian."

My marriage to Joshua Caldwell was a prison sentence. I was a Hartman trophy, sold to the powerful family who had destroyed mine. Then I discovered he was cheating. His mistress was pregnant with the child he denied me, and he was stealing my secret song lyrics to build her career. When I confronted him, he called me a spineless liability and threatened to destroy what was left of my family. To make matters worse, a one-night stand with a stranger turned out to be with my husband's brother, Anthony Caldwell-the Don of the city. He knew all of Joshua's secrets and used them to trap me in a twisted game, seeing me as nothing more than an asset. They both thought I was a broken doll they could control. I wrote a song for his mistress, a beautiful execution with a single, impossible note I knew would destroy her voice. She sang it, and now her career is over. Now the Don has summoned me to Chicago, not knowing the woman he thinks is his asset is the one who just burned his brother's world to the ground.

My fated mate, Alpha Kaden, watched me die slowly for three years while he groomed his mistress. When our pup withered and died inside me due to his neglect, he publicly accused me of murder. That was the day I stopped dying for him and started living to defy him. The Pack Healer confirmed our pup's soul returned to the Goddess; Kaden's weakened bond was literally killing me, forcing a procedure to remove the last physical tether. Immediately after, Kaden returned with Cori Mullins, his 'true love', and found me. He snarled accusations I'd destroyed his heir-a lie Cori eagerly reinforced. He dismissed my cries that he killed our baby, believing their narrative. My inner wolf gave a final gurgling howl as necrosis spread, and he swallowed Cori's lie that she, not me, saved him from rogues. I looked into his eyes and saw only disgust; he deemed my pain a performance, blind to the bond rotting me. Realizing he would never believe me, I formally rejected him as my Mate. He laughed, dismissed it as a tantrum, and refused to accept. But as he walked away, leaving me to die, I vowed to reclaim my life. I vanished into the night, determined to live for myself, whatever the deadly cost.

Andrew Hebert, the man who promised to protect me, stood on a stage and announced his engagement to my tormentor. It wasn't just heartbreak; it was a business deal. He was selling me to a creditor to cover his gambling debts. The applause of the powerful families was a death sentence, each clap sealing my fate as collateral. Andrew had paraded me here just to show everyone I was an asset to be liquidated, while his new fiancée smirked at me from the stage. I was trapped, with no money and no one to turn to. The man I loved was leading me to the slaughter. But as I fled into the library, a voice emerged from the shadows, deep and dangerous. Damien Maddox. The Dark Don. The only man Andrew feared. He offered me a different kind of cage, one with the power to burn Andrew's world to the ground. With nothing left to lose, I looked the devil in the eyes. "Take me with you."

In the third year after my heart failure diagnosis, I, Aria Green, watched my Alpha, Luke Perry, generously give away my heart source to his mistress's father. Layla Vale, the mistress, flaunted how perfectly they fit together in bed, how well-behaved their pups were. My heart shattered. Since Luke had betrayed me, I would no longer accept him as my mate. But the heart source that belonged to me, I would take it back. I dialed a communication code that had been sealed away for five years. "I'll return to the Green Pack for the surgery. Come pick me up in a week." But when I truly left, Luke was the one who regretted it.

I woke up in a bed of Egyptian cotton with a jackhammer headache and the naked CEO of my company sleeping beside me. I was a low-level analyst who had accidentally texted the world's most ruthless billionaire instead of my crush. Now, Sebastian Sterling wasn't just my boss-he was the man who owned my debt, my marriage, and a secret that was currently burning us both alive. He forced me into a cold-blooded marriage contract, trading my mother's life-saving medical bills for a year of my life as his trophy wife. I thought I was just a pawn in his corporate war against his ex-fiancée, but the tattoo over his heart-0825-held the date of the fire that destroyed my childhood and killed my peace. He hadn't just found me; he had been watching me from the shadows since I was twelve. He built a fortress of money and lies around me, manipulating my every move while his family tried to have me erased. When they finally targeted my mother and my son, I realized I couldn't just be a victim anymore. I fled to the industrial slums of Newark, erasing my identity to hunt down the ledgers that could put his family behind bars. But Sebastian didn't let me go; he stripped off his suits and checked out of his penthouse to follow me into the grime. Now, he's posing as a low-life driver named Ben, watching over me from a beat-up SUV while I infiltrate a criminal syndicate. He thinks he's my guardian angel, but I'm the one holding the match that will either save his empire or burn it to the ground.

After ninety-nine punishments under the family rule, Clara Whitmore had finally earned her freedom to choose her own marriage. Dragging her weakened body, she hurried forward, desperate to share the news with her childhood sweetheart, Adrian Hayes. But what she saw instead froze her in place. Adrian was down on one knee, proposing-to Sienna Mercer, the girl who had once stolen her identity. "Sienna, marrying Clara was my responsibility... but loving you is instinct," he said. So love had been nothing more than a cruel joke. The man who once swore he would marry no one but her had already changed his heart. With her world collapsing around her, Clara dialed home. "I'll agree to the marriage alliance in Kingshaven," she said.

After her eleventh miscarriage, Clara Fulton became pregnant again. To protect the pregnancy, she lay in a hospital bed day after day, enduring injection after injection, waiting for the special drug meant to save her child. Then she discovered the truth. Her husband of eight years, Ethan Grayson, had already given that one dose of the special drug to his newly pregnant mistress. Clara wiped the tears from her face and made a ruthless decision, ending the pregnancy she had fought so desperately to keep. She no longer wanted a man who wavered between women. But anyone who betrayed sincerity would have to pay a price. She took out a phone she had never once used and dialed the only number saved on it. "You wanted me to acknowledge you as my father, didn't you? Come pick me up in a week. I'll take your seat." She had no idea that after she left, Ethan would kneel before every god he could think of, praying for nothing but her return.

I, Serena Sterling, was infamous in our social circle for being ugly. Heavy bangs that hid my eyes, a face scattered with freckles, and clothes that never quite fit right made me unpleasant to look at. And yet, somehow, this very appearance caught Adrian Blackwood's attention. Even under pressure from his family, even as people mocked him for having a "taste for the ugly," he still insisted on marrying me. In the three years that followed, he spoiled me into becoming the most envied wife in our circle. I thought it was real love-the kind that saw past appearances and reached the soul. Until the day I stumbled upon ninety-nine love letters in his study-and a trust document bearing another woman's name. Only then did I realize that all his devotion had been nothing but a lie-one that turned me into a shield for the woman he truly loved. He had never loved me. Now that he had secured his position in the Blackwood family, he was finally free to be with her. I didn't argue. I handed him the divorce papers, wiped away the disguise that had made me "ugly," and disappeared from his life.

My husband, Ethan Vance, made me his trophy wife. My best friend, Susanna Thorne, helped me pick out my wedding dress. Together, they made me a fool. For three years, I was Mrs. Ethan Vance, a decorative silence in his billion-dollar world, living a quiet routine until a forgotten phone charger led me to his office. The low, feminine laugh from behind his door was a gut-punch; inside, I found Ethan and Susanna, my "best friend" and his CMO, tangled on his sofa, his only reaction irritation. My divorce declaration brought immediate scorn and threats. I was fired, my accounts frozen, and publicly smeared as an unstable gold-digger. Even my own family disowned me for my last cent, only for me to be framed for assault and served a restraining order. Broke, injured, and utterly demonized, they believed I was broken, too ashamed to fight. But their audacious betrayal and relentless cruelty only forged a cold, unyielding resolve. Slumped alone, a restraining order in hand, I remembered my hidden journal: a log of Ethan's insider trading secrets. They wanted a monster? I would show them one.

“Drive this woman out!” "Throw this woman into the sea!” When he doesn’t know Debbie Nelson’s true identity, Carlos Hilton cold-shoulders her. “Mr. Hilton, she is your wife,” Carlos’ secretary reminded him. Hearing that, Carlos gives him a cold stare and complained, “why didn’t you tell me earlier?” From then on, Carlos spoils her rotten. Little did everyone expect that they would get a divorce.

Vivian Harrison used to be an ordinary nurse at the hospital, but she had the rare Rh-negative blood type. Three years ago, she saved the life of the king of the underworld, Archie Palmer, who had been on the brink of death, with her blood. From that moment on, she had completely fallen for him. However, when Archie awoke, he just coldly handed her a marriage contract. "I never owe anyone a favor." The marriage, in the name of repaying a favor, became a gilded cage that confined Vivian for three years. Archie made Vivian his wife, yet he gave all his tenderness and devotion to a vivacious and innocent woman-Cassie Fuller. He would drive across half the city on a stormy night just to stay with Cassie because she was afraid of the dark. He would spend a fortune at an auction to acquire a piece of priceless jewelry, because Cassie said she liked it. Yet, all he ever offered Vivian was endless indifference and suspicion. When Cassie suffered even the slightest grievance, he would unhesitatingly lay all the blame on Vivian and even torment and punish Vivian in the cruelest ways. "Your blood disgusts me as much as you do, Vivian." Later, when Vivian took a fatal bullet for him and lay bleeding on the ground, he walked coldly past her, holding the frightened Cassie in his arms, without sparing Vivian even a glance. At that moment, Vivian finally understood that this marriage was nothing but a joke from the start. She decided that she would no longer play along with Archie. But when Vivian, her body battered and broken, resolutely left Archie, and Archie, who had always claimed he never loved Vivian, for the first time felt his eyes sting, and frantically searched for her all over the world.

The thunder cracked over the Hamptons, but it was nothing compared to Elena Sharp's scream. She lay twisted on the marble foyer, accusing me of trying to kill her baby. My husband, Julian, walked in, saw the scene, and his eyes froze me out of his life forever. He didn't listen, shoving a separation agreement across the desk, accusing me of murder. Stripped of my name and home, I was thrown out, left with nothing but my clothes and a terrifying secret growing inside me. My accounts frozen, I ended up in a crumbling Philadelphia row house, forced to pawn heirlooms. During a fire, my water broke, and I delivered our premature daughter, June, whose lungs were damaged. I stole formula to feed her, facing massive medical bills. Accused of destroying an heir, I was exiled while carrying his true legacy, fighting for every breath. The injustice burned, but June's life was my only fight. Three years later, June needed life-saving surgery. Julian's dying grandmother called me back with the funds, forcing a cruel charade with the man who hated me, a man still oblivious to his daughter.

At the proposal ceremony, my husband, Ethan Carrington's so-called true love, Chloe Langley, showed up uninvited, her pregnant belly on full display as she crashed the event. I, Nora Whitmore, didn't argue. I didn't make a scene. I simply took off the engagement ring and returned it in silence. In my previous life, I had desperately forced him to drive Chloe away, which led to her getting into a car accident and losing the baby. Five years into our marriage, I finally became pregnant. But when I was about to give birth, Ethan personally pulled the life-support equipment from my bedside. With a cold laugh, he told me the child in my womb was nothing more than a bastard he had arranged with some street thug, just to get revenge on me. "You owe her this. Today you'll pay it back, along with that bastard child." I fought back with the last strength I had left and drove a shard of broken glass straight into his throat. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the proposal ceremony. To hell with love. This time, I would take control of the company myself and make sure they lost everything.

My husband, Ethan Vance, glanced at the wrong intake report and thought I was the one dying of late-stage brain cancer. He instinctively stepped back. "The company's about to go public. Cash flow is tight. For the sake of the business, we should stop treatment." I clenched the real diagnosis in my coat pocket, the one with Ethan's name on it, and swallowed the impulse to save him. To force me out with nothing, he cut off my medical payments, transferred 50 million dollars in assets, and even sent our daughter to the Silverpeak Republic as leverage. A month later, at the Meridian Exchange celebration gala, he wrapped an arm around Bella Carrow, his mistress, and sneered at me. "How are you still alive?" The next second, blood gushed from his nose, splattering across Bella's white dress. As he convulsed and collapsed, I curved my lips into a cold smile. "Because the one who's terminally ill is you."

Kaelen was supposed to be my destiny. The future Alpha of our pack, my childhood love, and my fated mate. But one night, I smelled another woman on him-a sickly sweet Omega scent I knew all too well. I followed him and found them under the great oak, locked in a lover's kiss. His betrayal was a slow and deliberate poison. When his precious Omega, Lyra, staged a fall, he cradled her like she was made of glass. But when he sabotaged my saddle during a dangerous jump, causing my horse to throw me and break my leg, he called it a "warning" not to touch her. His care for me afterward was just damage control to avoid my father's suspicion. At a public auction, he used my family's money to buy her a priceless diamond, leaving me humiliated and unable to pay. I finally understood what I'd overheard on the pack's mind-link days before. To him and his brothers-in-arms, I was just a "pampered princess," a prize to be won for power. Lyra was the one they truly desired. He thought he could break me, force me to accept being second best. He was wrong. On the night of my 20th birthday, the night I was supposed to be bonded to him, I stood before two packs and made a different choice. I rejected him and announced my union with a rival Alpha, a man who sees me as a queen, not a consolation prize.

On the third anniversary of our marriage, Adrian Griffin had a new face in his passenger seat. This time, I, Audrey Lawson, didn't storm over to tear them apart. I didn't scream or demand explanations. I simply went home and poured the dinner I had spent the entire afternoon preparing into the trash. The housekeeper tried to stop me. "Mrs. Griffin, you worked all afternoon on those dishes..." I wiped my hands, my voice flat. "It's cold. I don't want it anymore." Not the food. Not the man I had once given up my career to marry. I took out the divorce papers I had prepared long ago. Without hesitation, I signed my name-slowly, carefully, stroke by stroke. Then I began packing my things. Clothes. Jewelry. And the honors that were rightfully mine. Adrian had no idea that every award-winning design Griffin Group had received in the past five years had come from my hand. He had built his reputation in the industry on my work. I dialed a number that had lain dormant for three years. "Professor, I'm back." From this day forward, I would reclaim everything that belonged to me.

For four years of marriage, my husband, Julian Crawford, had avoided me, repulsed by my crippled legs, never once willing to touch me. And yet, in cruel contrast, my body betrayed me, my desires spiraling out of control. During a gynecological exam, under the hands of a stranger—a male doctor—I lost control, soft, broken sounds slipping from my lips. Outside the consultation room, my husband stood beside the woman he had never forgotten, Vanessa Whitmore, holding her in plain sight as he called me a "useless burden." The doctor adjusted my skirt for me, his fingertips brushing slowly along the side of my thigh. Then, in a low voice, he asked, "Do you want me to help you?"

Celine was a top negotiation expert in the police force, but she never imagined encountering her husband's assistant attempting suicide during a call to action. She rushed to intervene, only to discover her husband's affair with the assistant. To appease the assistant, her husband even tricked Celine into signing divorce papers. Heartbroken and disillusioned, Celine ultimately chose to divorce him and joined a secretive military boot camp, determined to sever all ties with the unfaithful man. Yet, the jerk was left in utter regret!

In my previous life, I, Claire Holloway, was eight months pregnant, kneeling in a storm, begging Lucas Ashford to save the bankrupt Holloway family. But he held his first love, Vanessa Wren, in his arms, looking down at me with cold disdain. "The Holloway family's downfall was orchestrated by me. Did you really think I'd fall for a spoiled rich girl like you? If it weren't for getting my revenge today, I'd have found even touching you disgusting." In despair, I died that freezing night—two lives lost with me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I was diagnosed with pregnancy. Lucas was gently peeling shrimp for me, smiling as he asked what kind of diamond ring I wanted. I looked at his hypocritical face and let out a quiet, cold laugh. This time, I wouldn't make the same mistake again.

After years of marriage, Adrian Foster still only spoke to me in bed. The moment he got out of it, the warmth vanished, replaced by cold indifference. I, Nora Bennett, had endured it all in silence, hoping that if I stayed obedient, he might show our daughter, Nina Foster, a little more care. Yet in his eyes, Sophia Graham was his one and only-the woman he put on a pedestal, shielding and indulging her at every turn. For her child, he had even taken my daughter's bone marrow. In that moment, I finally understood. I was nothing more than a pawn in his battle with the woman he truly loved. So I stopped holding on. I took my daughter and left without hesitation.

On the seventh anniversary of my marriage, I, Clara Hart, received two "gifts." One was an urgent alert from the embassy-armed conflict in Arkania was imminent, and all citizens were advised to evacuate immediately. The other was a message from my husband, Adrian Foster, "Pack your things. Wait for me downstairs. Ten minutes." I quickly packed an emergency kit and rushed downstairs. People around me were already evacuating in a panic, yet Adrian was nowhere to be seen. I called him, my voice trembling, only to be met with a cold, clipped response. "The car's packed with confidential company documents. There's no room left. Sophie has a severe fear of war. I need to get her out first." My blood ran cold. "What about me?" I asked, barely believing what I was hearing. Adrian clicked his tongue impatiently. "Clara, stop being so dramatic. Just take the embassy bus. It's the same." Explosions thundered in the distance, shattering everything I had believed in over the past seven years. Whatever love had once existed between us crumbled to dust. I stopped waiting. Slinging the emergency pack over my shoulder, I turned and walked away into the chaos of war.

Serena, six months pregnant, continued to save lives on the battlefield, despite her severe illness. Her husband, Logan, who had once chosen her over his family, gave her life-saving medicine and prenatal care items to his lover, Amy. When the artillery struck, he let go of Serena's hand without hesitation to protect another woman, leaving Serena to collapse on the battlefield. Later, Serena earned the respect of everyone in the midst of conflict with her medical skills. Her ex-husband, eyes filled with remorse, knelt before her, saying, "I married her out of gratitude, I won't divorce..." Before Serena could respond, a gun was already aimed at Logan's forehead by the undisputed leader of the safe area. "Sign the divorce papers. She's with me now."

My grandmother died in a car accident. Ethan Griffin forced me to operate on his mistress, Tessa Langley's dog. At the family banquet, he looked down on me like a king. "Kneel and apologize to Tessa," Ethan said coldly. "Then I might forgive you." I, Nina Sterling, said nothing. In front of everyone, I lit the engagement contract and dropped the burning paper into a champagne glass, watching it curl into ashes. Then I turned and walked toward the man sitting in the corner in a wheelchair, Adrian Griffin, the one the Griffin family treated like their greatest disgrace. "Adrian," I said, bending slightly to meet his eyes. "Do you have the guts to gamble on this with me?" Ethan exploded in rage and lunged toward me. With a sharp click, the lighter in Adrian's hand snapped shut. He caught Ethan's wrist in a firm grip. Adrian lifted those dark, brooding eyes and spoke to Ethan in a voice that cut through the room. "Watch your manners. She's my wife."

During a snow-mountain expedition, an avalanche buried me alive. By the time they dug me out, the cold had already drained every last trace of warmth and life from my body. Julian Crowe dug through the snow with his bare hands for ten straight hours. His fingers were torn and bleeding by the time he finally pulled me out. Then he chartered a private jet and rushed me to the most elite private hospital for emergency treatment. Inside the thermal recovery chamber, a faint thread of consciousness returned to me. Through the haze, I heard Julian arguing with the doctor. "Weren't we supposed to amputate just to save her life? Why are you draining all of her hematopoietic stem cells too? Mr. Crowe, you're personally destroying her last chance of survival!" Julian's voice, usually so controlled, carried a chilling cruelty. "Letting her live safely and comfortably until today is already the greatest mercy I've ever shown her. The only woman who will grow old with me is Serena Vale. And the only thing that can save Serena is her life. She owes Serena that much, and now it's time to repay it." So the promise to live and die together had only been my own foolish fantasy. Julian had married me, Stella Hart, for one reason only. To turn me into a walking blood bank for his precious mistress. If that was the truth, then I would give them exactly what they wanted.

On Christmas Eve, the snow fell in relentless sheets. My grandmother and I were cast out into the snow as if we were nothing by my uncle. My aunt cursed me as a bad luck charm, while my uncle's boot landed fiercely in my chest. I knelt in the freezing snow, clutching my grandmother's body as it grew cold, my nails digging into my flesh, convinced that death awaited us tonight. Suddenly, the blinding headlights cut through the night. A convoy of Rolls-Royce cars, bearing diplomatic plates, silently blocked the entrance to the rundown neighborhood. The elderly butler strode directly to my grandmother, who had been "blind" for forty years, and knelt on one knee, "Your Highness, forgive us for arriving so late."

When the boy I had loved in silence for five years dropped to one knee and proposed to the very girl who had bullied me, the entire room burst into laughter at my expense. "That fat, ugly Lydia Prescott actually thinks she has a shot with a mafia boss?" In a single night, I became the city's favorite punchline. I fled in humiliation. The next time I appeared, I had transformed. The weight was gone, and so was the ridicule. I stunned everyone into silence. Miles Calloway begged through tears for another chance, but I simply slipped my arm through the arm of the mafia godfather beside me and smiled. "Sorry. I'm married." The man rumored to be cold-blooded and untouchable pulled me closer and declared with chilling certainty, "Lydia is my wife." The room erupted. Only my best friend, Annie Sinclair, gasped, "Lydia, you seriously locked down my dad?"

When they remarried for the fourth time, Blaire Bennett told Evan Everett it was their last chance. If he betrayed her again, she would leave him for good. Evan had sworn absolute loyalty, hand over heart-then turned around and wrapped another woman in his arms. Caught red-handed, he delivered his excuse with practiced ease. "I can't control the split personality. You can't punish me for something the other me did." It was a pathetic lie, and Blaire had believed it three times. Only moments ago, she had heard him admit with her own ears that the so-called split personality was nothing but an act-a convenient cover for cheating. That was when the truth finally tore through her. The pain had carved into Blaire like a blade. She filed for divorce without hesitation. This time, she would not look back.

"Drink this, and I'll ensure your mother's safety." Five months pregnant, Cynthia was forced by her Alpha, Killian, to down an entire bottle of strong liquor and dress up as a clown to entertain his so-called "savior." She endured the humiliation, clinging to a sliver of hope. It wasn't until the banquet that she discovered her mother had been disposed of in an unmarked grave by him three months prior! That night, her heart shattered. In front of everyone, she cut all ties with him and escaped through the window with the child in her womb. Killian went mad, coughing up blood and scouring the world for her for five whole years. Five years later, she returned, a master potion maker, with a quick-witted child by her side. Upon their reunion, the once arrogant pack leader humbly knelt in the rain, begging her to come back. But the little one coldly blocked him, "Sir, stop pretending. Mommy said good exes should vanish themselves."

After three years together, the man who had once promised to marry me, Babur Caldwell, threw me out the moment he got into Redmont University. "Valeria, a pretty little fool who only knows how to dress up, how could you ever be worthy of someone like me, a future elite of Gilded Row?" Later, when I, Valerie Quinn, became the Financial Queen admired by thousands, he knelt in front of me, sobbing, begging for another chance. Holding the bouquet Kearney Smith had sent me, I answered in the same tone he had once used. "Sorry, Babur, someone as short-sighted as you isn't worthy of an elite like me."

To save on the outrageous wages of hired movers, I, Jade Lawson, bought a werewolf who had been returned three times from a secondhand trading site. The seller warned me he was vicious, wild, and prone to biting. What caught my eye wasn't his temperament. It was his build. Six foot three, solid muscle, the kind of body that looked like it could haul six hundred pounds of packages without breaking a sweat. When he arrived, he was indeed vicious. He kept sneaking into my room at night, pressing his scorching body against mine and grinding his teeth against the back of my neck. I thought he was teething. Or worse, developing rabies. I contacted the seller immediately to request a return. After hearing my description, the seller went quiet for a long time. "We don't recommend returning him." "He's not teething. Werewolves only feel the urge to bite the back of their mate's neck during their rut phase. It's a mate-marking instinct." "He wants you. He's trying to get you to bear his pups."

Natalie Harrington never expected that less than a year after remarrying, Adrian Brown would cheat on her again. As the design director of Brown Group, she had worked late into the night once again. When she returned home, she saw the servants standing in a row at the foot of the stairs, blocking the way. The moment they spotted her, their faces turned deathly ashen. "Mrs. Brown... why are you back? Didn't Mr. Brown say you'd be working through the night and wouldn't be coming home? I... I'll go upstairs and ask him to come down." As the servant turned and went upstairs, Natalie heard the sounds coming from above. "Ah... that feels so good! Adrian, slow down, I can't take it..." "Go on. Louder. Natalie isn't home anyway. You can scream all you want." "You're so bad... ah!" Seeing Natalie's expressionless face, the servant asked nervously, "Mrs. Brown, I'll go tell Mr. Brown right away that you're back." "No need." Natalie turned and walked toward the dining room, her voice calm. "I'm hungry. Prepare a late-night meal for me." The servants were utterly shocked, not expecting her to remain so composed, unaware that she had already decided to divorce.

In the fifth year of Irene Shaw's marriage to Ethan Hart, he was involved in a car accident and lost his memory. No matter how she tried to prove that they had once loved each other, Ethan still insisted on a divorce. His reasoning was hard to refute. "If I really loved you as much as you claim, how could I forget you?" The childhood sweetheart who had once cut him off without hesitation had now become his sole emotional anchor. He looked at Irene coldly. "Since you know this is a mistake, why not end it cleanly?" The hands that had once refused to let her go now recoiled from even her lightest touch. Disheartened and exhausted, Irene signed her name and pushed him completely out of her life. Not long after, Ethan stopped her in the rain, his eyes red from crying. "Irene, don't leave me. You said I'd never lose you." As the car window slid shut, the arm around her waist tightened instinctively, and someone spoke before she could. "Drive on. Irene said she doesn't know him." She lowered her gaze, feeling a serene detachment, "I really don't know him."

On New Year's Eve, Aria Hart watched Julian Lawson come home with an eighteen-year-old model on his arm. Her fingers tightened around the late-stage stomach cancer diagnosis, while he mocked her without even blinking. "If I'm not marrying her, what, you think I should marry you?" Aria had given him ten full years, only to be repaid with the news that Julian was going to marry someone else. This time, she neither argued nor fought. After calling the hospital and agreeing to go abroad for treatment, she quietly disappeared. She thought it would end cleanly there, but after Aria left, Julian completely lost his mind. He ran from his wedding in front of everyone, put all his work on hold, and searched for her across the world. Eventually, he found information about Aria at the hospital. The nurse frowned. "Are you her family member?" Julian nodded urgently. "I'm her husband!" The nurse shook her head. "That's impossible. She said she has no family member. And she isn't here anymore."