Wu Xiaoyan

For three years, I lived in the shadow of Axel Carroll, playing the part of the devoted girlfriend while serving as his high-end errand runner. I thought we were building a life together, but tonight, the truth hit me with the force of a wrecking ball. I showed up at his private club, soaking wet and clutching the suit he’d demanded I deliver, only to find him lounging with the woman he truly wanted. As he draped his arms around the new heiress, he looked at me not with love, but with the cold, bored irritation one reserves for a fly buzzing around the dinner table. He didn't even apologize. Instead, he signaled for his friend to call security and told me he was "done" with his little charity project. He offered me a payoff, expecting me to fall to my knees in tears, begging for a scrap of the affection I’d spent years trying to earn. Everyone in that room—his sycophantic friends and his new lover—waited for the show, waiting for the pauper to break down in front of the prince. I stood there, feeling the iron cage I’d built around my own heart finally click open. I didn't feel the sting of humiliation or the heat of anger; I just felt incredibly, painfully stupid for ever believing a man who only understood transactions could ever understand love. I didn't give them the tragedy they wanted. I walked out, erased every trace of him from my life, and realized that while he thought he was holding all the cards, I had been holding the lens. I had spent three years capturing the rot behind his golden life, and it was finally time to show the world the truth.

For four years, Ember traced the bullet scar on Chace's chest, believing it proved his unwavering protection. Their anniversary gala was supposed to be the night he finally proposed, a symbol of their future. Instead, she stood frozen, watching him slide his mother's sapphire onto Karyn Warren's finger—the daughter of a rival family. His voice, amplified by the silent ballroom, declared, "Karyn is for power. Ember is for pleasure. Don't confuse the assets." Her heart incinerated. Publicly humiliated, she was ordered to remain his mistress, threatened with her dead mother's grave. Chace, confident her father's debts trapped her, forced her from their shared penthouse. He then used a fake "Help. Sick." text to lure Ember to a club, only to humiliate her further, calling her "loyal like a dog." Karyn ordered a soldier to "touch" Ember while Chace watched, indifferent. With no other choice, Ember drank a punishment cup containing wine she was severely allergic to. She collapsed, suffocating on the club floor, as Chace and Karyn watched, annoyed. Waking in a sterile hospital room, her throat raw, she faced Chace's cold relief and Karyn's dismissive cruelty. The betrayal was absolute, the injustice sickening. But moments before, in her despair, Ember had invoked a Blood Oath. She texted Keith Mosley, the ruthless Don, accepting his price for her father's debt: marriage. She would become his, and she was ready to pay.

My Alpha husband stood in the hospital room, his eyes cold as ice. He wasn't there to comfort our daughter; he was there to harvest her. "Take her essence," he commanded the doctors without a shred of hesitation. "Timothy needs the transfusion. He is the future Alpha. Your daughter is just a useless runt." I screamed, clutching the hem of his suit, begging him to stop. I tried to tell him that our little Lily wasn't weak—she was a late bloomer because she carried the rare, powerful blood of the White Wolf. But Jaimen didn't care. He used the Alpha Voice to paralyze me. "I command you to silence yourself, Omega." I was forced to stand frozen, a prisoner in my own body, as they drained my three-year-old daughter dry. She died screaming in agony, sacrificed to save Timothy, the sickly son he had with his mistress, Ivanna. With Lily's body still warm on the bed, Jaimen looked at me with pure disgust and severed our mate bond. "I reject you. Get this trash out of my territory." I was dragged out to the borderlands and beaten to death in the mud, clutching a cheap locket, while he celebrated saving his "heir." He didn't know the truth. He didn't know that he had just murdered a prodigy to save a lie. Three years later, he finally ran a DNA test on his beloved Timothy. The results showed zero match to the Alpha line, but a perfect match to a filthy Rogue. That night, the Alpha went mad. And I watched from the afterlife as he slaughtered everyone involved, begging a ghost for forgiveness that would never come.

I was a brilliant scientist, but in my family, I was always the shadow to my perfect, manipulative sister, Jetta. On the day I was set to receive the prestigious Harrison Award, my family was only focused on her graduation party, dismissing my life's work as a mere hobby. That same day, I was brutally attacked in my own lab. The men who did it used Jetta's keycard and sneered that she sent them to "teach me a lesson" and put me in my place. Bleeding out on the cold floor, I made one last desperate call to my fiancé, Hayden. "Stop being so dramatic," he snapped before hanging up. "This is Jetta's big day. Don't you dare ruin it for attention." My mother came downstairs, saw nothing but a mess, and left a voicemail scolding me for being selfish. My soul ripped free from my body, forced to watch them celebrate. I saw the love in Hayden's eyes-not for me, but for Jetta. To them, my death was just another one of my "attention-seeking stunts." Now, as a ghost trapped in my own home, I watch them find my body and slowly piece together their neglect from my journal. But they've overlooked the one thing that will expose it all: the memory pendant around my neck, which recorded every horrifying second of the truth.

I was an artist hired to be a companion for the reclusive billionaire, Kane Miller. I fell in love with the broken man I thought I was saving. Then I discovered the truth. He was secretly recording our intimate moments, only to use deepfake technology to replace my face with my stepsister Coral' s. I wasn't his lover; I was a body double for his obsession. When Coral framed me for assault, Kane didn't just believe her-he watched as his guards beat me. Later, he sent thugs to shatter my right hand, destroying my career as an artist. To protect Coral's reputation before her wedding, he had me thrown in a detention center, coldly calling me a "plaything" he was done with. He destroyed my body, my career, and my heart, all for a woman who was lying to his face. But in that cold cell, I got an offer from the stepfather who had once cast me out. He wanted me to marry a disabled tech heir, Keegan Marks, in exchange for my mother's massive trust fund. I took the deal. I walked out of that jail, left the city, and flew to marry a stranger, finally choosing to escape the man who broke me.

The world came back in a blur of twisting metal and the horrifying screech of tires. One moment, we were driving. The next, a truck had run the red light. In the passenger seat, my head throbbing, I watched my boyfriend, Adrian, scramble to comfort his first love, Cassie, who was crying in the backseat. He didn't even glance back at me, his girlfriend of five years, as he helped her out of the wrecked car. Paramedics arrived. Through the haze of pain, I watched Adrian hover over Cassie, refusing to leave her side for a second. It was like I wasn't even there anymore. He didn't remember my birthday, never knew my favorite food, and never cared that I was allergic to the flowers he bought for me, the same ones Cassie loved. I had been a side character in their love story, a placeholder until the real star of his life returned. I had been obsessed with Adrian Payne, but it wasn't love; it was a sickness, a trauma bond I had mistaken for devotion. Why did I do that? Why did I let him mold me into someone so submissive, so unlike myself? It felt like I was being controlled by some invisible force, a plot that wasn't my own. The spell was broken. The obsession vanished. All that was left was a cold, empty feeling and a sudden, desperate longing for someone else: Kellen Campos, my childhood sweetheart, the boy I had left behind five years ago. I booked the first flight to New York.

My five-year-old son, Liam, suffered severe brain damage from an allergic reaction. A car accident left me with shattered ribs and a new heart beating in my chest. My husband, Mark, seemed broken by our tragedy. Then, I overheard his phone call. "Olivia, it's done. Liam is no longer a problem. The accident went perfectly. They said her heart was a match for you. It was almost too easy." I was paralyzed. He planned it all. He fed Liam peanuts, knowing his fatal allergy. He orchestrated my crash to get my heart for his mistress, Olivia. We were pawns, obstacles to be removed so his son, Ethan, could inherit everything. Mark walked in, feigning concern. He even asked me to give blood for Olivia, whose body was rejecting my heart. He dragged me out of bed, ignoring my weakness and bleeding hand. He was draining my son too. I fainted from blood loss. Mark then suggested we place Liam in a facility and "adopt" Ethan. But in his monstrous suggestion, I saw my escape. His phone was left behind. His password was Ethan's birthday. I found a video: Olivia giving Ethan peanut crackers and pointing to Liam. It was deliberate. I forwarded the video, emailed my friend, a neurosurgeon in Switzerland, and deleted the history. I bundled Liam and slipped out. I mailed divorce papers and the USB with the video to Mark's office. "I'm leaving, Mark," I told him, then hung up. Mark eventually found Liam's room empty. The nurse, witnessing Olivia's manipulative act, showed Mark security footage of Olivia pinching Ethan and falsely blaming me. Mark erupted. He threw Olivia out, showering them with cash, telling them he never wanted to see them again. I landed in Zurich, found freedom with Liam. The news came: Mark suffered a severe spinal injury in an accident, paralyzed. He left everything to me for Liam. I founded a non-profit for children with brain injuries. Liam thrived, discovering a gift for piano. Then, my transplanted heart began to fail. I was preparing for the end, writing birthday letters for Liam. Ben burst in: "We found one! A perfect match. A directed donation from a patient in the States." It was Mark. He had arranged it, his ultimate atonement. He had his life support removed. I watched his final message, then deleted the file. A new heart. A new life. Our new life.

"The divorce papers are on the table. Sign them." Olivia's voice was cold. After ten years as her "invisible husband," a signed contract, and a son I raised as my own, our arrangement was finally over. But the finality hit differently when I saw the new portrait on the grand staircase: Olivia, radiant, linking arms with Daniel Clark, and beside them, my son Leo, beaming up at Daniel with an adoration he never showed me. Daniel was back, and I was erased. They made it clear I was nothing more than a paid service. Mrs. Hayes, Olivia's mother, sneered, "Olivia, out of the kindness of her heart, has secured you a position at a mid-level tech firm. It's more than you deserve." A dismissal, a final pat for the loyal dog. Then, at the mall, the ultimate betrayal. Leo recoiled from me, screaming, "He's not my dad! I want Daniel to be my dad!" Daniel, with a fake sympathetic smile, put his arm around Leo, while Olivia silently condoned it. It wasn't just my marriage ending; it was my fatherhood, too. The words didn't cause sharp pain; it was a dull, heavy thud, as if something inside me finally died. Ten years of sacrifice, of unrequited love, meant nothing. Why had I poured every ounce of myself into a family that saw me only as a placeholder, a loyal dog? What even was I to them? I signed the divorce papers, a final and clean break. That night, I collected the few remnants of my life-my coding projects, my mother's photo-and walked away, leaving behind the gilded cage, ready for a new beginning, a life where I wasn't just a service, but a man finally choosing to live for himself.

The antiseptic smell of the hospital room wasn't the only thing suffocating Olivia Reed. After a horrific car accident, she found herself trapped, not by her injuries, but by a chilling betrayal. Her fiancé, Ethan Miller, the man she' d loved for years, was having a secret affair with Tiffany Sterling, Olivia' s adoptive sister from the family who had taken her in, only to treat her as an inconvenience. The Sterlings, her birth family, who' d cast her out and now barely tolerated her, doted on Tiffany, their "real" daughter. As Olivia lay injured, Tiffany taunted her with messages and photos, culminating in the cruel reveal that Ethan and Tiffany were having a baby and getting married. The "love" Ethan had shown felt like a well-rehearsed performance, his every word a lie. From a named star he' d promised Olivia, now designated for Tiffany, to the custom-designed wedding bands Olivia herself had created, now gracing Tiffany' s finger. The crushing weight of betrayal, the realization that her entire life was built on a foundation of lies, was almost unbearable. Why had she been so blind? How could they all be so cruel? But just as despair threatened to consume her, a lifeline appeared. Liam Hayes, a tech mogul, offered a marriage of convenience, an escape, a clean break. Olivia wiped away her tears, detached herself from the suffocating past, and rose. She was done being a victim.

"Ava, it's a decision from the top. There was nothing I could do." My team lead handed me a box of tissues as I was summarily dismissed, the official reason being a fabricated error. Everyone knew the real reason: my boyfriend, Nathan Hayes, was making room for Chloe Davis, his high school sweetheart and the company' s co-founder, back from abroad. Just then, Nathan' s black Maybach pulled up, and Chloe emerged, linking her arm through his. He walked past me as if I didn' t exist, guiding Chloe into the building. My heart tightened. I went to our penthouse, cooked his favorite ribs, and sent him a picture: "Coming home for dinner? Made your favorite honey-glazed ribs." The message was read, but no reply came. Of course not. He was with Chloe. Days later, Nathan finally came home. He saw my pharmacy bag: "You went to the hospital?" I lied, saying it was just a cold. He pulled me into an embrace: "You're not mad I fired you, are you?" I said no. I couldn't be. Three years ago, he saved me from my mother' s gambling debts, and I became his. His kept woman. Then, Chloe's friend, Brenda Smith, found me. She showed me texts of my messages to Nathan, saying he and Chloe laughed about how pathetic I was. She slapped me, slammed my head against the table. I woke up in the hospital, Nathan by my side. He didn' t care about my pain; only about Chloe' s reputation. A part of me had died that day. Nathan wanted his "white knight" and his obedient canary in a cage. But he didn't know his "golden canary" had started digging her own way out.

He was my guardian, my "Uncle Ethan," the man who promised to always be there after the fire took Mom and Dad. On my eighteenth birthday, I believed his devoted attention, his constant presence, meant we were meant to be more than family. But when I whispered, "I love you, not like an uncle," his eyes turned to ice. "These feelings are inappropriate," he flatly stated, his voice chillingly foreign. Humiliation burned. He called me 'delusional,' cut off my funds, and dated a woman who openly mocked me. Then came the 'accident' – a knife wound, a trap set by his new girlfriend, with him blaming me and contacting Juilliard to destroy my dreams. He changed the locks, leaving me to bleed alone. Why would the man who once shielded me now actively ruin my life? Was his cruelty a twisted lesson, or something far darker? The answer arrived with Olivia' s text: a faded photo of my mother and a chilling caption: "Did you know he was obsessed with your mother? You were always just her shadow." His 'care' was a grotesque projection of a sick, unrequited love for my dead mother. I was a surrogate. But no more. A sudden lifeline from my parents' past offered the means to cut the ties, expose his manipulations, and carve out a real future where I was seen for myself.

My husband, Mark, GreenScape' s CEO, always prioritized his ambition, and I quietly supported him, sacrificing my own dreams. I meticulously managed our flagship Willow Creek project, pouring months of my life into it. Mark claimed to be in Boulder for a crucial zoning appeal. But then, an Instagram post shattered that illusion: Mark, playing 'eco-warrior' in Denver with Ashley, our new coordinator, her hand on his arm, a gushing caption highlighting her initiative. I "liked" the post. Immediately, Mark called, furious, accusing me of mocking Ashley and ordering me to retract it. Later, Ashley posted a victim statement on our company portal, subtly implicating me. Mark demanded a public apology, threatening to pull me from Willow Creek. My colleagues turned away. Mocking her? I, who truly understood hard work, was being gaslit by a man who dismissed my severe allergies as "drama." The blatant threats, years of neglect, and casual disregard for our marriage solidified into one cold, unyielding truth. This wasn't about an Instagram post; it was about him. They expected an apology, me to grovel. I closed the portal, a quiet, chilling resolve settling in. Little did Mark or Ashley know, my escape plan was already set. Our divorce papers were signed months ago-by him-back when he was too consumed by Ashley' s manufactured crises to even notice. My real project was complete. It was time for his world to unravel.

My life was supposed to be a success story, a talented architect married to a rising firm owner, living comfortably in Chicago. But at the annual holiday gala, my husband, Mark, publicly humiliated me by gifting my deceased mother's irreplaceable locket to his conniving intern, Tiffany, who then carelessly shattered it. What followed was a cruel spiral of blatant infidelity, his dismissal of my grief, gaslighting about his constant neglect, and their calculated plot to destroy my career; he even staged a fake suicide attempt for Tiffany, forcing me to donate my rare blood type on the day of my most critical professional presentation, then watched as they celebrated with my stolen project and commissioned my anniversary gown for his mistress. Lying in that sterile hospital room, sedated and weak, I understood the full extent of their calculated cruelty; every betrayal was a deliberate, agonizing twist of the knife, leaving me stripped of everything and simmering with a cold, unwavering fury. As Mark brazenly handed over my stolen designs to Tiffany, dismissing my accusations of plagiarism, I finally made the call I vowed I never would: to my reclusive, powerful father in New York, demanding he pull every string and dismantle Mark' s entire empire, piece by piece.

After finding out that her fiance cheated on her and with her half-sister no less, Sandra drowned her sorrows in the comfort of another man. Levi thought it was just going to be a one night fling but he was in for a wild surprise. Shamelessly, she came to him with a marriage agreement. She wasn't in search of love, but rather just a husband. She didn’t care if he was a playboy, as long as he was a handsome one. She was quite content with everything under her control...or so she thought. He wasn't about to give up his tricks that easily.

My five-year-old daughter was dying in the ICU, her heartbeat replaced by the continuous, electronic scream of a flatline. I gripped her cold hand, my throat sealed shut by a terror so absolute I couldn't even cry out. I dialed my husband Grayson's private number, the one reserved only for me and his assistants. He declined the call instantly. A second later, a text buzzed against my palm: "In a meeting. Do not disturb. Stop calling." Five miles away, Grayson was at a luxury gala, adjusting his silk tie and laughing with Belle Escobar. He told her I was just being "dramatic" and using our daughter's "fever" as an excuse to avoid the event. He had no idea Effie's heart had already stopped. When I finally reached our penthouse, soaked from the rain and carrying Effie's small socks in a plastic bag, Grayson didn't even look at me. He snapped at me for ruining the hardwood floors and asked if I'd left Effie with the nanny just to "feel sorry for myself." Three days later, while I buried our daughter in a small, lonely ceremony, Grayson was at the Hamptons. Belle posted a photo of him golfing with the caption: "A mental health day with the boys." He didn't even attend the funeral, but he returned home demanding I clear out Effie's room to make a study for Belle's son. The injustice burned through me until there was nothing left. I swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, desperate to join my daughter. But instead of the darkness, I woke up to blinding lights and the scent of Grayson's expensive cologne. I was standing in a ballroom, wearing a blue silk dress I had already burned. Above me, a banner read: "Happy 5th Birthday Kaiden & Effie." I was back, exactly one year before the tragedy. This time, I wasn't going to be the grieving wife. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

For two years, I was the invisible force behind tech billionaire Kieran Douglas, convinced that our "private" romance was his way of protecting us from the tabloid spotlight. I managed his mergers, warmed his bed, and waited for a future that didn't exist. The illusion shattered at 6:00 AM when a Page Six alert debuted Kieran's "real" romance with socialite Aspen Schneider. Before I could even process the betrayal, Kieran sent me a cold, professional text: "Order flowers for Aspen. Pink peonies. Her favorite." When I tried to walk away, my own mother called me a disgrace and threatened to lock my inheritance forever unless I married a sixty-year-old businessman to save her failing estate. At a high-society gala that same night, Aspen intentionally crushed my burned hand in front of the cameras, while Kieran stood by and dismissed me as a "mediocre assistant" who had overstayed her welcome. I stood in the cold New York rain, drenched in champagne and humiliation, realizing that every sacrifice I made for Kieran was a joke. I was a ghost in a penthouse that was never mine, discarded the moment his "soulmate" returned. To the world, I was just a placeholder whose time had run out. But Kieran forgot one thing: my father's multi-million dollar trust fund unlocks the moment I legally marry. I didn't need love; I needed a signature and a shield. I walked into a discreet law firm and signed a marriage contract with a man I believed was the city's most notorious, scandal-ridden playboy. I thought I was marrying a degenerate "beard" to buy my freedom and secure my revenge. I didn't realize the man who signed that paper wasn't a playboy at all, but Gaston Collins-the most powerful and dangerous man on Wall Street-and he had no intention of letting our fake marriage stay fake.

I stood at my mother's open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest's voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone-he brought Charla with him. He claimed she'd had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

My husband of three years, Arthur Vanderbilt, came home smelling of his mistress's perfume and threw divorce papers on our marble kitchen island. He demanded I sign away all rights to our assets for a five-million-dollar "severance," calling me a leech his family picked up from the suburbs to solve a temporary PR crisis. When I refused and demanded my four percent equity in the Vanderbilt Group, he and his mistress, Serena, launched a vicious smear campaign. They planted false stories on Wall Street forums, accusing me of laundering money for an Eastern European crime syndicate. They tried to force my hand with a check for five hundred million, which I tore up and threw in his face. To them, I was just a trophy wife they could easily discard. They had no idea that the "leech" they so despised was the anonymous investor who had secretly bailed out their entire company three years ago, saving them from bankruptcy. Their final move was to hire an actress to publicly accuse me of fraud in the lobby of the most powerful law firm in Manhattan. They didn't realize I was there to retain the firm's most ruthless lawyer. After security threw them out, I looked my replacement in the eye and made her a promise. "Prepare for an FBI probe into perjury and corporate defamation."

I spent three years building my husband, Axel Farrell, into Silicon Valley's ultimate "family man." As his lead PR strategist, I carefully managed his public image, making sure the world saw him as a perfect, devoted husband while I worked in the shadows of our estate. The illusion shattered when he came home one night smelling of sandalwood and roses, with three deep fingernail scratches carved into his back. When I tried to check his phone, the passcode we had used for years-our wedding anniversary-had been changed. The betrayal got worse the next morning when his mother called me a "defective product" and tried to force me into a fertility clinic. Axel didn't defend me; instead, he shoved me against a marble bar at a public gala to protect his mistress in front of the world's elite. By the time I tried to leave, Axel had frozen my bank accounts and filed a forged legal petition to have me declared mentally incompetent. He planned to have me legally kidnapped and locked in a private psychiatric ward just to stop me from filing for divorce. He even blocked every major law firm in the city from taking my case, leaving me with no money, no identity, and no one to turn to. I couldn't understand how the man who "saved" me from the mud years ago could be the same monster now trying to legally erase my existence. Was our entire marriage just a grooming process to exploit my genius for his billion-dollar empire? As the deadline for my forced commitment approached, I stopped crying and opened my laptop. I leaked the video of his affair to every tech journalist in the country, watching his stock price crash in real-time. "Axel thinks starving me out will make me crawl back to him," I whispered as I walked into the headquarters of his biggest rival. "But he forgot that the most valuable part of his company is in my head." I was no longer the abandoned wife; I was the one who was going to take his throne and burn it to the ground.

Everyone knew Kristine loved Colton. Still, his heart clung to a woman overseas-someone he spent most days with, now pregnant with his baby-and Kristine still asked him to marry her. On their registration day, however, he never came; his "true love" had flown back. Seven years of loyalty later, Kristine walked away, blocked him, and left his city. Colton didn't blink-until he saw her at the courthouse, arm-in-arm with another man, and the proud CEO went pale. He went after her, desperation overtaking him. "I'm sorry. Please give me another chance." She snapped, "Could you stop? I'm already married."

"Let's get a divorce. She's pregnant and deserves a place in my life." He once promised to protect Claire forever, yet when his first love returned, he cast her aside. For three years, Claire dimmed her brilliance, living quietly as the obedient wife behind him. When he handed her divorce papers to give his pregnant mistress a place, Claire no longer hid her talents. The woman he had overlooked was a legendary healer, racing prodigy, and a genius designer. After the divorce, she reclaimed her glory. When he pleaded, "Honey, let's remarry," another man pulled her close. "She's my wife now. As for you... Someone, take him out and give him what he deserves!"

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

For three years, Allison played the perfect First Lady in a marriage that never gave her love back. Nolan handed her divorce papers, sneering at her background while his mother mocked her as barren and his pregnant mistress claimed her place. So Allison walked away. On the very day she left him, the royal family reclaimed her as their lost princess. Crown, fortune, power, three terrifying brothers, and a handpicked royal consort now stood at her side. Her eldest brother-the world's most feared arms dealer-pushed a black card across the table. "Go on. Spend whatever you like." Her second brother-the genius doctor-twirled a scalpel between his fingers. "Tell me, sis. How many cuts do the ones who hurt you deserve?" Her third brother-a global martial arts superstar-stormed into her ex-husband's lair. "Who made my sister cry? Time to face the music." When her regretful ex begged for another chance, Allison only smiled. It was too late. She was no longer his wife. She was his worst mistake.