Tang Doudou

I was sitting in the obstetrics clinic, rubbing my four-month bump, when a livestream popped up on my phone. It was my husband, Xander, exchanging vows with my illegitimate half-sister, Rissa. The caption read: "The Commission never ratified your marriage. You're just the incubator." My husband and my father had sworn they were at a critical mafia sit-down. But there they were on the screen, laughing. I called Xander. He answered, thinking he was slick, but he forgot to mute the room. "Two more years of acting like a saint," I heard him sneer to his men. "Fucking her is a chore. But she's worth fifty million in clean assets." My marriage was void. My child was considered a bastard by the Mafia code. When I confronted them later at the gala, Rissa threw herself to the ground, screaming that I attacked her. Xander shoved me. Hard. I hit the table, and as blood trickled down my legs, he didn't even look at me. He scooped Rissa up and stepped over my bleeding body like I was trash. They froze my accounts. They hunted me down to a cheap motel, planning to kill me once I signed over the trust fund. I was cornered by a mob in a dirty clinic, waiting for the final blow. But it never came. A hand caught the metal chair mid-air. Killian Qiro, the most dangerous man in Chicago, stood over me. "Who dares?" he growled, his eyes dark with lethal promise. "Who dares call a Qiro child a bastard?" He picked me up from the dirt. "Xander is a dead man walking," he whispered against my hair. "He just doesn't know it yet."

My fiancé' s mistress hacked off my hair in the middle of Van Cleef & Arpels while he laughed on the phone. He told her to "teach the stalker a lesson," having no idea the woman in the hoodie was actually the billionaire heiress he was arranged to marry. Ten minutes later, my brother' s private army shut down Fifth Avenue, and I picked up the scissors to return the favor. I had spent a year doing humanitarian work in war zones, so I arrived at the jewelry store in jeans and a worn hoodie to collect my custom engagement tiara. Glennie Kramer, a supermodel and Ashton' s "true love," sneered at my appearance and claimed the diamonds for herself. When I tried to stop her, she grabbed gift-wrapping scissors and violently severed my waist-length hair while the staff watched in terror. Desperate, I called Ashton, but he mocked me as a "pauper" and authorized security to hold me down while Glennie finished the job. They smashed my phone, thinking I was helpless. But the call hadn't disconnected before my brother, Ason Kane, heard everything. The King of Wall Street arrived with a fleet of armored SUVs and a rage that froze the room. Ashton collapsed when he realized he had just assaulted the sister of the most powerful man in New York. I walked over to the trembling supermodel, the scissors cold in my hand. "You said a nobody doesn't deserve beautiful hair," I whispered. I didn't just ruin their looks; I sent them to the Black Cell and erased their existence from high society forever.

My husband Dorian and I clawed our way out of the foster system together, building a software empire from scratch. He was my hero, the man who swore he' d always protect me. But he became obsessed with "saving" a manipulative single mother, draining our accounts and our marriage. I thought the baby I was secretly carrying could be the bridge to bring him back to me. Then, at my first prenatal appointment, her son attacked me. He rammed his head into my stomach, and a universe of pain exploded inside me as I collapsed, bleeding on the cold hospital floor. I begged Dorian for help. He looked from my pale face to the wailing child, and made his choice. "You need to get a grip," he said coldly, scooping the boy into his arms and walking away, leaving me to lose our child alone. He let our first baby die, and now our second. His love was a lie. So I sent him a final gift to remember me by-the divorce papers, and a small jar containing the body of the son he abandoned.

For three years, I was the wife of Damian Costello, a feared mafia underboss who I believed was my savior. I lived in a gilded cage, mistaking his possessive passion for love. Then, on the day my father was executed, I discovered my marriage was a lie. A photo proved my husband was in Paris, not for business, but to chase the one woman he had always loved: my aunt, Isabella. I was just a substitute, a younger version of her he could own. He had staged the ambush where he "saved" me, and he only wanted a child with me for my family's eyes. His obsession was absolute. When a tureen of scalding soup flew toward us in a restaurant, he didn't shield me, his pregnant wife. He threw himself in front of Isabella. He even screamed at me in front of everyone, "In my heart, Seraphina will never be as important as you!" I realized my child wasn't a product of love. It was the final piece of his collection—a living trophy. So after he carelessly signed the annulment papers, I had an abortion. On the day he went into surgery to donate his second kidney to her, I left him a box containing the surgical report and our annulment decree. Then, I boarded a plane and vanished.

My volunteer work was simple, a quiet act of kindness. For two years, I drove underprivileged students to their SATs, finding genuine joy in helping. Then my phone buzzed, and a sharp, high-pitched voice introduced me to Tiffany. She wasn't just demanding a ride; she was demanding a luxury SUV for five, not three, and a perfectly pristine car. "Make sure your car is clean. We don' t want to show up to the most important exam of our lives covered in dog hair or smelling like old takeout." Her voice dripped with an entitlement that left me breathless, and I knew this was different. I brushed aside the unease, telling myself it was just one difficult person. But from the moment they sauntered out, laughing, holding expensive coffees, the verbal jabs began, culminating in Tiffany grabbing my steering wheel on the highway. The car swerved violently. A truck narrowly missed us. "What is wrong with you? You could have killed us!" I yelled, my body shaking with rage. "Me? You' re the one who can' t drive! You almost got us killed!" she shrieked back, her eyes wide with indignation, not remorse. To my horror, Jessica, one of the others, nodded in agreement with Tiffany's outrageous lie. The unfairness of it all made me sick. My good deed had been twisted into an obligation, and I was being made the villain. My husband' s calm voice echoed in my head: "Don't give them a single thing they can use against you. Be polite, be professional…" I decided I would be a robot. A chauffeur. No emotion, just function. I would finish this, and then wash my hands of them forever.

The launch party for my company was supposed to be the peak of my life' s ambition, but my eyes were glued to the door, waiting for my wife, Olivia. Just last week, she' d finally warmed up to me, hinting at starting a family after three years of a marriage that felt like a contract. Then the doors opened, and Olivia walked in, but she wasn' t alone; beside her, with a possessive hand on her back, was Dr. Marcus Thorne, her former mentor. He was a ghost from her past, and she was smiling at him in a way she never smiled at me. I watched them, trying to convince myself it was nothing, as he leaned in to whisper, and she laughed, an intimacy that screamed of a shared history I was not a part of. Dave, my business partner, clapped me on the shoulder, telling me we were "killing it," but my gaze was fixed on Olivia taking a glass of wine from Marcus, their fingers brushing. It felt like a punch to the stomach, seeing the effortless familiarity he had, everything I' d bled for in three years of trying. The anger and humiliation choked me, until I finally stumbled over to them, my voice hoarse. Marcus turned, looked me up and down, and with a condescending smirk, called me "the boy genius," belittling my entire existence. Then the room tilted, my chest tightened, and the world went black. I woke to the sterile smell of a hospital, Olivia asleep beside me, but the warmth turned to bitter self-mockery as I remembered her denial in front of him. Our marriage had been a transaction from the start-a deathbed promise to my father to "look after me." I was 21, grieving, hopelessly infatuated, and agreed, hoping forced proximity would blossom into love. Three years of trying to earn her affection, culminating in last week' s "validation," now felt like just another concession. A cold resolve settled over me; I couldn' t live as a child she was obligated to care for anymore. I disconnected the IV, and when Olivia stirred, I looked her in the eye and said, "Let's get a divorce." She was pale, shocked, but I had never been more clear; I signed the papers and walked out, leaving everything behind. For two days, I hid in a cheap motel, suffocating the voice that replayed her smiling at Marcus, until there was a loud banging on my door. It was Dave, and behind him, a pale and frantic Olivia, who pushed past him, calling me unthinking and childish. "I'm not a child, Olivia," I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "Then stop acting like one!" she shot back, as I pulled the signed divorce papers from my bag and pushed them into her hands. "I'm letting you off the hook. You don't have to keep your promise to my father anymore. You're free." She stared at the papers, her eyes widening with disbelief, then she whispered, "No." And with a sudden, violent movement, she ripped the papers in half, declared she would not divorce me, and threw the shredded pieces at my feet. It was never about me; it was always about the promise.

My life with Victoria, a tech mogul with billions, was a gilded cage. I was her house husband, an artist reduced to chores, all to stay close to Emily, seven, and Josh, five, my children. Her protégé, Liam, a smirking young man with hollow ambition, made every day hell, spilling wine for me to clean, complaining about my cooking, even shrugging when he killed our cat. Victoria saw my suffering and encouraged it. Then came the day that broke the world. Victoria brought Emily and Josh downstairs, both terrified. "Get in the crate," she commanded, pointing to a new dog crate. "And bark." My blood ran cold. "They' re children. You can' t do that," I whispered. But she grabbed them, dragging them towards the door. "If they can' t make it a few days in the urban park downtown, they' re too weak to be my children anyway," she snarled, then sped off, leaving me screaming on the driveway. Three days later, the detective called. They found Emily and Josh, two small bodies under a pile of cardboard, dead from exposure. That same evening, Victoria was at a charity auction, laughing and buying Liam a three-million-dollar car. My grief turned to cold, hard resolve. I walked onto the stage at the auction, holding the two small urns. "I' m not here to bid on a car," I announced. "I' m here to buy two souls." Victoria tried to pull me off the stage. "They' re dead, Victoria," I whispered, louder than any shout. "Emily and Josh. They' re dead." She called me insane, a liar. Liam played the brave protector, faking fear. The public bought their story, condemning me, a pathetic, unhinged husband. But they didn't know the truth. They didn't know about Liam's cruelty, or Victoria's chilling threats to send my children away, a threat that had kept me captive. Now, that threat was tragically meaningless. With nothing left to lose, I set my purpose. I began attending auctions, asking a strange question that would change everything. My family's old money, long ignored, would now become my weapon.

The shriek that tore through the quiet afternoon wasn' t my daughter Lily' s, it was my mother-in-law Evelyn' s, a sound so sharp and theatrical it felt rehearsed. My heart instantly seized, not for Lily' s safety, but for Evelyn' s impending drama. Then I saw it: three-year-old Lily, floating face down in the community pool, her small pink swimsuit a sickening slash of color against the placid blue. Evelyn, instead of helping, was on the ground, clutching her chest and wailing, "Oh, my heart! This child will be the death of me!" I pulled Lily from the water, my hands trembling as I started CPR. But Evelyn scrambled over, grabbing my arm, screaming, "You' re trying to kill her so you can pin it on me!" She threw herself onto my back, trying to pry my hands away, just as my husband Mark arrived. He didn' t even look at Lily. His eyes were fixed on his mother, now hysterically weeping at his feet. "What did you do, Sarah?" he roared, his hand flying, a stinging slap cracking across my face. Neighbors whispered judgment: She' s always working, probably doesn' t even watch her kid. Mark is such a good son. Then, a small, choked sound. Lily coughed. Water gushed from her mouth, and she gasped for air. She was alive. But Mark' s fury didn' t subside. "Look what you did," he hissed, "You terrified my mother. Apologize to her now." I looked at his contorted face, at Evelyn' s triumphant smirk, at my shivering daughter, and at the whispering neighbors. Something inside me snapped. The love I thought I had for this man, the hope for our family, all turned to dust. My heart went completely cold. This wasn' t just a moment of neglect; it was a calculated campaign of emotional abuse, and Mark was her willing accomplice. I was done.

The sterile white walls of the hospital room were my first sight, a blinding canvas reflecting the nothingness inside me. Just days ago, I was Scarlett, a nurse, a wife; now, I was a widow, grieving the hero firefighter who died saving me from our burning home. My childhood friend, Liam, found me after my desperate attempt to escape the crushing silence left behind, dragging me back to a life I didn't want. As I struggled for water, voices drifted from the hall-Mark, my husband' s colleague, and then him. "You're a lucky bastard," Mark chuckled. "A hero's funeral, the whole nine yards." "It was a lot of work," came the casual reply. "Had to make sure the dental records were switched, get the right uniform on the dummy. The gas line explosion covered the rest." It was Ryan. My dead husband. Alive. My breath hitched as I heard him dismiss my suicide attempt as "unfortunate" before explaining his elaborately faked death: it was all to leave me for Ava, his brother's widow. The man I died for, the hero I mourned, was a liar, a coward, who hadn't saved me from a fire but thrown me into one. My love curdled into scorching betrayal. He didn't just abandon me; he erased me, making my deep grief seem like a pathetic joke. In the shattering silence, as Liam, with his kind, honest eyes, rushed to my side, a wild, desperate idea ignited in the ruins of my heart. "Liam," I rasped, "do you remember what you asked me, a long time ago, under the old oak tree by the lake?" "Is the offer still on the table?" I asked, looking directly at the man who had always been my anchor. This wasn't about love. It was about pure, unadulterated defiance. This was about proving that the old Scarlett was dead, but a new, unbreakable woman had risen from the ashes he left behind. I would not be his victim. I would live, and I would erase every last trace of Ryan Miller from my life.

The sterile hospital walls closed in on me, the rhythmic beep of the heart monitor a cruel reminder of the life I' d just lost. My late-term miscarriage had torn a gaping hole in my world. Reaching for my phone, I desperately needed to hear my husband Matthew' s voice. But then I saw it: Matthew' s new Instagram post. A tiny, perfect footprint, emblazoned with the caption, "Welcome to the world, little angel. Dad will always protect you." My world shattered anew. When I finally reached him, he was impatient, dismissive, and with Maria-his former intern-and their newborn, in the same hospital. He told me to "be strong," then commanded, "Don't let the one that's gone compete for attention with the one that's here." His words echoed, a cruel, mocking testament to my desolation. My own parents, his parents, and our entire social circle pressured me to accept his twisted lie – that it was just IVF, a "life debt." The final straw came at a lavish party meant to celebrate his new "family." His mistress, Maria, gloated, admitting their baby was conceived "the old-fashioned way" during a drunken company retreat. Then, she screamed, faking a scare, and Matthew slapped me across the face in front of everyone. In that moment, the grief, the pain, the confusion vanished. Only ice remained. I walked out of that house, his signature on divorce papers in hand, and called Ethan Scott, my childhood friend and Matthew' s biggest rival. "Marry me," I said, "I'll give you controlling shares of Jenkins Construction. All I want is for you to help me ruin Matthew Roberts."

"Stage IV lymphoma." Dr. Carter's words hung in the air. I had only months to live, and the treatment required a family member's consent. My powerful relatives were strangers, detached from my pain. My heart clung to one person: Liam, my husband. He was my last hope. But when I called, he rejected my calls. When he finally came home, he sneered, accusing me of "faking for attention." He walked out, leaving me alone, calling a cousin over caring for his dying wife. The next day, when I blurted out "I have cancer," he laughed, "That's a new one. You're getting creative." He refused to sign the forms, abandoning me. His callousness cut deeper than any illness. Then, my cousin Savannah showed up, admitting she had drugged Liam and framed me three years ago, destroying my life. Liam's life. But before I could react, she slashed her own arm with a letter opener, screaming that I attacked her. Liam burst in, embraced her, and glared at me with pure hatred, dragging me to the hospital to apologize. How could he be so blind? How could he believe her monstrous lies over his own dying wife? Didn't he see he was the fool, playing into her cruel game? The injustice, the betrayal, pushed me to my breaking point. But as the world faded to black, a desperate thought sparked: what if I confessed to her lies? What if exposing the monster he believed me to be was the only way to reveal the true monster lurking in the shadows?

I was heavily pregnant, carefully driving home, my husband David's forgotten paperwork beside me. Then, screeching tires, a violent crunch, and smoke billowing from my mangled car. Trapped and panicking after the wreck, I called my firefighter husband, David, expecting him to save me. Instead, he was preoccupied with his old flame, Chloe, dismissing my dire emergency for her child's "minor asthma attack." He hung up. My pleas and my terrifying situation were ignored as he played hero for someone else. His callous neglect led to the unspeakable: I lost our baby. Even worse, he gaslit me, claiming I was "dramatic" or "jealous." He was in the same hospital, with Chloe, while I was miscarrying. Later, I discovered he’d been living with Chloe for days, lying about his shifts. How could the man I loved betray me so completely, choosing a fabricated crisis over my life and our child's? Broken but resolute, I left David, beginning a grueling journey of healing and rebirth away from his toxic lies. But the truth about Chloe's manipulative game, and David’s blind devotion, was about to resurface. This is the story of how one woman rebuilt her life from ashes, while the man who abandoned her faced the devastating collapse of his own.

Six months pregnant, my heart swelled with love and dreams for the future. Jack, the ambitious game developer, was my world, and our baby, a girl, was going to complete our picture-perfect life. I poured everything into supporting him, my art echoing the passion in his studio plans. But then a phone call changed everything. Sophia, a ghost from Jack’s past, painted a venomous lie on the tiny phone screen, accusing me of sabotaging her stream, fueled by 'jealousy'. Jack, my Jack, turned on me instantly, his eyes colder than the Chicago wind outside our window. ‘This is your fault, Emily,’ he hissed, his voice a stranger’s. He advanced, seizing my arm, his grip bruising despite my swollen belly. Dragged to the musty spare room, I saw the old steamer trunk, a dark, heavy relic. ‘You’re going to feel what she felt,’ he snarled, forcing me inside. I pleaded for our baby, for our love, as he folded my limbs into the impossibly small space. The lid slammed down, and the metallic click of a padlock sealed my fate, extinguishing light and air. I died there, suffocating, my last thought of our child, our innocent daughter. He didn’t come back, even as my body decomposed within inches of his everyday life. Instead, Sophia moved in, wearing my robes, rearranging my life, celebrating her triumph on our sofa. My existence, erased; my memory, maliciously rewritten. How could the man I built a life with, the man who put a ring on my finger, leave me to rot, just a few feet from where he slept? But death was not an end, merely a new beginning for my silent wrath. My spirit lingered, an unseen tormentor in the home where I died. I would whisper in his dreams, shatter his carefully constructed lies, and guide new eyes to the darkness he hid. Jack and Sophia thought they could bury me, but they would soon discover that some truths refuse to stay buried. Justice would come, even if I had to orchestrate it from the other side.

Erin had been engaged to Jacob since childhood. The two grew up together. No one knew him better than her. However, he cheated on her with her half-sister and even dumped her on their wedding day. Because of the scar on her face, she lost everything. After making up her mind, she left away and rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Coming back as the nemesis, she turned the tables and won back what belonged to her. As for the ones who betrayed her, she would let them pay for the price they deserved.

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.

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.

I was the perfect Mafia wife, my dowry the foundation of my husband's ambition. I paid for his Yale degree, his tailored suits, and the very mansion he called his own. My reward? He paraded his mistress into my bedroom and declared her his second wife, expecting me to silently finance their affair. They thought they had broken a merchant's daughter. They forgot I was raised by wolves. Armed with a blood chit—a life debt owed to my family by the most feared man in Chicago—I walked into the lion's den. I went to Damien 'The Wraith' Falcone, the Dark Don who rules the Outfit with an iron fist, to demand a simple annulment. But the King of Chicago isn't interested in simple transactions. He saw the steel beneath my silk, the vendetta burning in my eyes. He granted me my freedom, but at a price: my allegiance. Now, I'm a pawn in his lethal game of thrones, caught between a treacherous husband I swore to destroy and a ruthless Don who looks at me with a terrifying, possessive hunger. In a city built on loyalty and betrayal, I'm about to teach them all that a queen's wrath is the deadliest weapon of all.

Three days after my fiancé publicly dumped me for my stepsister, the Supreme Don issued a command that silenced the entire estate. I wasn't being cast aside. I was being sold to Damien Russo. The "Broken Don." A crippled, scarred monster rumored to have murdered his last two wives. My adoptive mother, Elena, didn't cry for me. She smirked. To her, I was finally being disposed of. She was so confident I was walking to my death that she decided to loot my corpse before I even left. She forged documents to steal my entire inheritance—my biological mother’s trust fund—to pay for my stepsister’s lavish wedding to my ex. "She won't need money where she's going," my stepsister laughed, wearing a dress bought with my stolen funds. They thought they were sending a lamb to the slaughter. They thought I was too weak, too stupid, and too afraid of the monster to fight back. But they made a fatal mistake. With my aunt’s help, I didn't just find the proof of their embezzlement; I found a weapon. I’m not running from the monster. I’m going to marry him. And when I hand him the evidence that the Herrera family stole from his bride, he won't be my executioner. He will be my vengeance.

I was married to the Dark Don of New York, but to the Trevino family, I was just collateral. While I was suffering from agonizing acute appendicitis, my husband forced me out into the freezing rain just to watch him parade his mistress in front of the city's elite. When I handed him the annulment papers and begged for my freedom, he coldly burned them to ashes right in front of my face. He watched me collapse on the floor in blinding pain, completely ignoring my deathly pale skin. "Stop this pathetic performance. If you aren't ready for the gala by seven, I will throw your grandfather into a state facility." His mistress even mocked my illness, handing me raw oysters with a victorious smirk while he looked at me with pure disgust. I finally understood that in this gilded cage, my life meant absolutely nothing to him. If I stayed, I would die here—either from a ruptured appendix or from his suffocating cruelty. So, I took a heavy dose of painkillers, threw my diamond ring into the river, and emptied the family's hidden safe. When he finally cornered me in a dark alley to drag me back, I shoved the real annulment papers into his chest. "Touch me, and I will scream until every rat in this city hears me." I stepped into the getaway cab, taking the master copies of his smuggling ledgers with me. It was time to burn his empire to the ground.

Heidi gripped the sterile hospital bedsheets as violent contractions ripped her body apart. The heavy door opened, but it wasn't the doctor. It was Brigette, wearing the exact custom wedding dress Heidi had spent six months designing for herself. Brigette held up her phone on speaker. When the doctor warned that a natural delivery would kill the mother, Christian Page's voice echoed through the room, ice-cold and devoid of any warmth. "Prioritize the Page heirs. Let her die." The man she loved had just signed her death warrant over the phone. Brigette stole her newborn twins, dragged her to an abandoned warehouse, and poured gasoline over her bare legs. Flicking a lit cigar into the puddle, Brigette left Heidi tied to an iron pillar to burn alive. But as the flames formed a deadly circle around her, Heidi's body convulsed with a terrifying truth. In the heart of the blazing inferno, she miraculously gave birth to two more babies she didn't know she was carrying. Using her own back as a human shield against the falling embers, she survived the fire, but the ultimate betrayal burned deeper than her ruined skin. Four years later, Heidi returned to New York with a reconstructed face, two brilliant children, and a terrifying new identity as the world's top underground surgeon. When Christian, entirely unaware of who she was, signed a waiver begging her to save his dying grandfather's life, Heidi looked into his desperate eyes with absolute, clinical boredom. "The game starts now," she said coldly.

"Happy Anniversary," my husband said, sliding the separation agreement across the mahogany desk. It was the eighteenth time in five years I had signed these papers. Matteo De Luca, the most ruthless Capo in New York, checked his Rolex with cold impatience. "Sign it, Sera. Bianca is on the ledge again. She needs to see we're over, or she jumps." Bianca. The ward. The broken bird. The woman whose fragile psyche dictated every moment of my marriage. I signed my name, and he left me alone on our anniversary to save her. Again. But saving her wasn't enough. When Bianca pushed me down a flight of marble stairs in a fit of jealous rage, shattering my spine and leaving me paralyzed, I thought Matteo would finally choose me. I was wrong. I woke up in the hospital to find him holding her hand, not mine. "The security footage has been wiped," he told me, his voice void of emotion. "We cannot have a scandal. You fell, Sera. That is the story." He erased the truth. He erased my pain. He protected the woman who crippled me over his own wife. Two months later, he wheeled me into a gala, playing the doting husband while I sat in the chair that was my prison. He didn't know I had a burner phone hidden in my velvet dress. He didn't know that tonight, the obedient wife was going to die on the pavement, and a ghost would rise in her place. I looked at him one last time and dropped the phone in his lap. "I hope she's worth it."

For seven years, I was his eyes. But the moment he regained his sight, he decided to marry someone else. Seven years of devotion couldn't buy his heart. I gave him back his dignity. Now that he was restored as the Godfather of the New York Mafia, he laughed with others, degrading me to the status of a mere "mistress." He thought I didn't understand Italian, but I heard him loud and clear: he was going to marry his first love. He arrogantly believed I would always love him, willing to stay in his penthouse like a caged bird. But he was wrong. I boarded a one-way flight to Australia. Dante, I don't want you anymore. By the time he returned home, he would have lost me forever. But a sore loser refuses to concede. Even if he had to burn the world to the ground, he would search for me and beg for my forgiveness.

At my boyfriend's poorest moment, I suddenly broke up with him. Later, he became a Don in the Mafia and married me by any means necessary. Everyone said he loved me to the bone. But every night, he brought different women home, deliberately trying to provoke me. I asked no questions, shed no tears, and never disturbed his trysts with his mistresses. He went crazy with rage instead, kissing me fiercely and demanding, "Why aren't you jealous?" He didn't know I was sick. Dying. While he was furiously taking his revenge on me, I was slowly walking toward death.

I spent five years laundering my family's wealth and buying military-grade weapons to crown my husband, Alistair, the Don of the Chicago Mafia. But the night before his coronation, he drove an Italian stiletto into my stomach. He sneered that a Don needed a true Mafia Queen, and that was always meant to be his "fragile" friend, Kylie. As I bled out on the Persian rug, he revealed the sickening truth. The night I was found in a rival Irish boss's bed two years ago wasn't a setup by our enemies. Alistair had ordered his own mother and sister to drug and frame me. He just needed me terrified enough to sign over my merchant trust fund to prove my loyalty. My entire marriage, my sacrifices, and my stolen wealth were just stepping stones for him and his mistress. I had bled for him and won him the city, only to be slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb so he could hand my empire to another woman. Before the flames I started consumed us both, I swore I'd drag his entire family to hell. Opening my eyes again, the suffocating smoke was gone, replaced by the scent of lavender and the bitter taste of chloral hydrate. I was back on the exact night of the frame-up two years ago. Outside the door, my sister-in-law was whispering, waiting for the Irish boss to arrive so they could ruin me. This time, I was going to make sure she was the one in that bed.