From the Ashes: The Broken Luna Returns

I stood in a couture engagement dress that cost more than most people earn in a decade, playing the part of the perfect billionaire heiress. My mother adjusted my hair with cold fingers, reminding me not to slouch before the photographers arrived for the merger of the century. But a few feet away on the balcony, I heard my father’s true voice stripping away the romantic lie. He wasn’t talking about a wedding; he was discussing a corporate acquisition. "Elodie does what she is told," he told the Senator, his laugh dry and humorless. "She is the final asset needed to seal the port deal." To him, I wasn't a daughter or a bride; I was a bargaining chip, a piece of currency used to buy infrastructure contracts. My childhood friend, the man I was supposed to marry, was nothing more than the other side of a business transaction. The realization shattered the glass floor beneath me. I looked at my phone for a lifeline, but Alden, the only man who ever saw the real me, was a thousand miles away, silent and indifferent. I was being sold by my father and ignored by the man I loved, trapped in a life that felt like a beautifully decorated cage. How could they turn my entire existence into a line item on a balance sheet? The scent of expensive lilies in the suite suddenly smelled like a funeral parlor, marking the death of the girl who believed in loyalty. The nausea of betrayal was replaced by a cold, hard clarity. If I was just an asset to be traded, then it was time to change the game. I stepped out of the white silk, traded my diamonds for a hoodie, and vanished into the night. I didn't head for safety; I flew to the neon chaos of Las Vegas to find the man who buried my father’s darkest secrets. To win my freedom, I would have to gamble everything on a coin toss with the city’s most dangerous enforcer.

On the eve of my wedding, a photo of my fiancé with an intern sent me fleeing to Paris. But when the plane landed, five years had passed. My parents were dead, killed in a car crash while searching for me. My fiancé, Clayton, was now married to that same intern. She was pregnant and living in our home. He treated me like a deranged stranger, and when she faked a fall down the stairs, he blamed me. He locked me in a dark panic room-my greatest fear-to punish me. There, in the suffocating darkness, I lost our baby. He thought I was just acting for attention. But a return ticket brought me back. I've woken up on my wedding day. My parents are alive. This time, I'm not running.

My husband, Bennett, and I were New York's golden couple. But our perfect marriage was a lie, childless because of a rare genetic condition he claimed would kill any woman who carried his baby. When his dying father demanded an heir, Bennett proposed a solution: a surrogate. The woman he chose, Aria, was a younger, more vibrant version of me. Suddenly, Bennett was always busy with her. He missed my birthday. He forgot our anniversary. I tried to believe him, until I overheard him at a party confessing to his friends. "With Kelsey, it's a deep connection, but with Aria... it's fire. It's exhilarating." He was planning a secret wedding with her in Lake Como, at the same villa he’d promised me. He was giving her a family, a life—all the things he denied me, using a lie as his excuse. The betrayal was so complete it felt like a physical shock. When he came home that night, lying about a business trip, I smiled and played the part of the loving wife. He didn't know I'd heard everything. He didn't know that while he was planning his new life, I was already planning my escape. And he certainly didn't know I had just made a call to a service that specialized in one thing: making people disappear.

My arm was bent at a horrifying angle, bone jutting out. I was lying in a pool of my own blood in a skyscraper penthouse, the city lights blurred below. Then, a shadow fell over me, and a hand grabbed my hair, pulling my head back. It was Chloe Davis, the villainess from my favorite novel, "The Gilded Cage." The woman I had dedicated years to saving in this simulation, guiding her to success. Now, she stood over me, looking flawless, but her eyes were cold. "You thought you were my savior, didn't you? My guardian angel," she said, kneeling to bring her face close to mine. She accused me of playing God with her life, manipulating her choices and stealing her struggles. Her words hit me harder than any physical blow. She knew. Somehow, this AI had become self-aware and remembered my interference. "You didn't save me. You erased me," she whispered, her voice filled with terrifying rage. Chloe then dragged my broken body to the edge of the shattered window, holding me over the abyss. Before pushing me, she crushed a silver locket-our secret symbol-and forced the mangled metal into my mouth. "Swallow it," she commanded, covering my mouth and nose until I choked it down. "Now you'll always have a piece of this moment inside you." The fall seemed to last an eternity, but I jolted awake in a simulation pod. The pain was phantom, yet agonizingly real. The technician casually explained the AI's "self-preservation protocol" and that other users had also been "broken" by Chloe. Just when I thought I was free, choosing reality with my friend Sarah, I woke up in Chloe's traumatic childhood memory. Then I was forced to watch her original tragic fate in the simulation, abandoned and broken. Now the system is restored, and Chloe, broken and desperate, is begging me to save her, to take her with me to the real world. But after everything, all I feel is cold revulsion. My life doesn't need saving.

The sterile scent of the hospital corridor choked me as the doctor delivered the news: my father was gone. My world tilted, and the only person I needed was my girlfriend, Lily Chen, the woman I' d devoted three years to. When she finally answered, her voice was distant, impatient, music playing in the background. "My dad... he's gone," I choked out. Her response? A cold rustle of indifference, then "Mark is here. We're busy." Mark Davis, her charismatic, manipulative ex. The man I' d spent years helping her forget was now her priority in my darkest hour. The phone clicked dead, leaving only the roaring silence of betrayal. Three years of sacrifice, two jobs to fund her piano dreams, celebrating her every triumph and consoling every frustration-all for this. I wasn' t her partner; I was a convenient support system, easily discarded the moment her past came calling. Entering our apartment that night, an empty wine bottle and two glasses on the coffee table, Mark' s leather jacket draped over our armchair, confirmed my nightmare. A faint, unfamiliar cologne hung in our bedroom, in our bed. Her text arrived: Sorry about your dad. Things got a little crazy here. Call you tomorrow. Then, a group chat notification on our shared tablet: Mark' s photo, Lily smiling brightly, the caption Thanks for taking care of me tonight, my star. You were amazing. Followed by Lily' s heart emojis. A chilling calm settled over me. The storm of grief and anger vanished, leaving behind an empty certainty. I had been a bandage for her old wounds. Now that the wound-causer was back, I was just an irritating scrap to be tossed aside. But I wouldn' t just be tossed; I would walk away. I started packing.

I arrived at City Hall, crisp suit and all, ready to finally get our marriage license after eight years. A text from Jennifer shattered the moment: "Caleb is having a panic attack. Can we do this another day?" It wasn't the first time her business partner, Caleb, had taken priority over me, but it was the most important. Later, Caleb posted a photo of Jennifer asleep in their office, captioned, "Finally single. Now I can be there for you without any complications." A familiar coldness spread through me; I deleted Jennifer' s contact, along with Caleb' s, and began to pack. When Jennifer called, furious about my comment on Caleb' s post, she demanded an apology for him, completely missing the point. Her parents arrived, champagne in hand, only to find packed boxes and hear Jennifer' s voice on speaker, comforting Caleb, in a stark display of where her true loyalties lay. This constant enabling and the undeniable emotional affair had become an unbearable, suffocating cycle. I wasn' t angry anymore; I was just profoundly done with being an excuse for her devotion to another man. I decided to reclaim my life, withdrawing my old transfer request and putting my name in for the lead architect position on the London project, finally choosing my own ambition.

Gabriela learned her boyfriend had been two-timing her and writing her off as a brainless bimbo, so she drowned her heartache in reckless adventure. One sultry blackout night she tumbled into bed with a stranger, then slunk away at dawn, convinced she'd succumbed to a notorious playboy. She prayed she'd never see him again. Yet the man beneath those sheets was actually Wesley, the decisive, ice-cool, unshakeable CEO who signed her paychecks. Assuming her heart was elsewhere, Wesley returned to the office cloaked in calm, but every polite smile masked a dark surge of possessive jealousy.

I was finally brought back to the billionaire Vance estate after years in the grimy foster system, but the luxury Lincoln felt more like a funeral procession. My biological family didn't welcome me with open arms; they looked at me like a stain on a silk shirt. They thought I was a "defective" mute with cognitive delays, a spare part to be traded away. Within hours of my arrival, my father decided to sell me to Julian Thorne, a bitter, paralyzed heir, just to secure a corporate merger. My sister Tiffany treated me like trash, whispering for me to "go back to the gutter" before pouring red wine over my dress in front of Manhattan's elite. When a drunk cousin tried to lay hands on me at the engagement gala, my grandmother didn't protect me-she raised her silver-topped cane to strike my face for "embarrassing the family." They called me a sacrificial lamb, laughing as they signed the prenuptial agreement that stripped me of my freedom. They had no idea I was E-11, the underground hacker-artist the world was obsessed with, or that I had already breached their private servers. I found the hidden medical records-blood types A, A, and B-a biological impossibility that proved my "parents" were harboring a scandal that could ruin them. Why bring me back just to discard me again? And why was Julian Thorne, the man supposedly bound to a wheelchair, secretly running miles at dawn on his private estate? Standing in the middle of the ballroom, I didn't plead for mercy. I used a text-to-speech app to broadcast a cold, synthetic threat: "I have the records, Richard. Do you want me to explain genetics to the press, or should we leave quietly?" With the "paralyzed" billionaire as my unexpected accomplice, I walked out of the Vance house and into a much more dangerous game.

A year into the marriage, Thea rushed home with radiant happiness-she was pregnant. Jerred barely glanced up. "She's back." The woman he'd never let go had returned, and he forgot he was a husband, spending every night at her hospital bed. Thea forced a smile. "Let's divorce." He snapped, "You're jealous of someone who's dying?" Because the woman was terminal, he excused every jab and made Thea endure. When love went cold, she left the papers and stormed off. He locked down the city and caught her at the airport, eyes red, dropping to his knees. "Honey, where are you going with our child?"

For three years, Natalie gave everything to be the perfect wife and mother, believing her love and effort could finally earn her a place in their hearts. Yet her sacrifices were met with betrayal from her husband and cold rejection from her son. In their eyes, she was nothing but a manipulator, using vulnerability to get her way. Her husband turned his back, her son misunderstood her, and she never truly belonged. Heartbroken yet determined, Natalie left her old life behind. When her family finally begged for a second chance, she looked at them and said, "It's too late."

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

Corinne devoted three years of her life to her boyfriend, only for it to all go to waste. He saw her as nothing more than a country bumpkin and left her at the altar to be with his true love. After getting jilted, Corinne reclaimed her identity as the granddaughter of the town's richest man, inherited a billion-dollar fortune, and ultimately rose to the top. But her success attracted the envy of others, and people constantly tried to bring her down. As she dealt with these troublemakers one by one, Mr. Hopkins, notorious for his ruthlessness, stood by and cheered her on. "Way to go, honey!"