Awakening From A Toxic Billionaire Marriage

I was dying at the banquet, coughing up black blood while the pack celebrated my step-sister Lydia’s promotion. Across the room, Caleb, the Alpha and my Fated Mate, didn't look concerned. He looked annoyed. "Stop it, Elena," his voice boomed in my head. "Don't ruin this night with your attention-seeking lies." I begged him, telling him it was poison, but he just ordered me to leave his Pack House so I wouldn't dirty the floor. Heartbroken, I publicly demanded the Severing Ceremony to break our bond and left to die alone in a cheap motel. Only after I took my last breath did the truth come out. I sent Caleb the medical records proving Lydia had been poisoning my tea with wolfsbane for ten years. He went mad with grief, realizing he had protected the murderer and rejected his true mate. He tortured Lydia, but his regret couldn't bring me back. Or so he thought. In the afterlife, the Moon Goddess showed me my reflection. I wasn't a wolfless weakling. I was a White Wolf, the rarest and most powerful of all, suppressed by poison. "You can stay here in peace," the Goddess said. "Or you can go back." I looked at the life they stole from me. I looked at the power I never got to use. "I want to go back," I said. "Not for his love. But for revenge." I opened my eyes, and for the first time in my life, my wolf roared.

I was the invisible trophy wife, a silent liability who just signed away another two years of my life for a monthly allowance and a closet full of clothes. My husband, Holmes Wilson, didn't even look at me as he dismissed me like a servant, his voice a cold baritone that made the room drop ten degrees. Everything changed when he suddenly threw a divorce agreement at me, offering twenty million dollars to walk away forever. That night, I shed the mask and went to a club to celebrate my freedom, only to end up dismantling three men with the surgical efficiency of a spec-ops soldier to save my friend. I didn't know Holmes was watching from the shadows, his eyes locked on the "lifeless" wife he thought he knew. The next morning, the divorce was gone, replaced by a predatory ultimatum that turned my world into a gilded cage. "Withdraw the papers," Holmes commanded, his gaze now filled with a terrifying curiosity. "We're going to the Hamptons." My family-in-law cornered us, demanding an heir for board control, while my secret handler went completely dark. Holmes trapped me in his penthouse, suspecting I was a corporate spy, his touch becoming a possessive trap as he realized my entire background was a "ghost file" that shouldn't exist. I didn't understand how my carefully rehearsed theater had failed so spectacularly, or why the man who had ignored me for years was now obsessed with breaking my secrets. As the world outside hunted for the data I carried, I realized the man I feared most was now my only shield. "There's nowhere left for you to run," he whispered against my skin, his voice thick with a dark, dangerous obsession. "You're mine now."

After our parents died in a plane crash, my brothers were my whole world. That ended the day they brought Francis home-a manipulative liar they treated like a saint while he systematically turned them against me. He framed me for everything, from fake injuries to sabotaging the neuro-linker compound that was my life's work. My brothers always chose his crocodile tears over my truth. "He's in the hospital, Jenna. Thanks to you," Bryan snarled over the phone. They even offered him my childhood bedroom right in front of me, as if I was already a ghost. They had no idea I was about to become one. I had a one-way ticket to Zurich and a contract with their biggest rival, a man who saw my value when my own blood saw a problem. I wasn't just running away-I was taking all of their secrets with me.

I endured 121 needle marks on my stomach for the child my husband, Braden, and I desperately wanted. But as I lay on the procedure table, moments from our embryo transfer, he walked out. He left me for his high school sweetheart, Isabella, who was hysterical over her son's scraped knee. He paraded her around in public "family" photos while his own family shamed me at dinner for being too "stiff." When Isabella's son shoved me to the floor, Braden rushed to comfort the boy, not me. He looked at me with pure disgust. "How can you possibly think you'd be a good mother when you behave like this?" he spat. I looked him dead in the eye, my voice shaking but clear. "The funniest part is, Braden? I canceled the embryo transfer." Then, in front of his entire family, I said, "I want a divorce. And this time, I'm not kidding."

Today was my four-year anniversary with Chace. He told me to wear my white dress for a surprise he had planned. I spent all afternoon getting ready, practicing my "Yes," certain he was finally going to propose. But when I arrived at the hotel ballroom, the banner read, "Congratulations, Chace & Karyn." In front of all their friends and family, he got down on one knee and proposed to his childhood friend, Karyn Warren. He used his mother's heirloom ring—the one he once showed me, saying it was for the woman he would spend his life with. He then introduced me, his girlfriend of four years, as "a very good friend." His new fiancée smiled sweetly and told me their marriage would be an open one, giving me permission to stay on as his mistress. I overheard him telling his friend his real plan: "Karyn is my wife for show, but Ember can be my woman on the side for fun." He thought I would just accept being his toy. He was wrong. I pulled out my phone and texted a number I'd never dared to call before—the executor of my estranged father's will. "I need to claim my inheritance." His reply was instant. "Of course, Ms. Ford. The stipulation is a marriage to me. Are you ready to proceed?" "Yes," I typed back. My life with Chace was over.

The sharp, metallic scent of rain on asphalt filled the air, a smell I hadn't registered in thirty years. I opened my eyes not to a hospital, but to the familiar gray ceiling of the apartment I once shared with Olivia Hayes, the date on the calendar October 12th, 2024. My phone buzzed, her name, Olivia, lighting up the screen. In my first life, I' d answer, and her panicked voice would tell me she' d made a terrible mistake, using company funds for a gift-not knowing then it was for her secret lover, Mark Jenkins. Without hesitation, I' d drain my savings and take out a high-interest loan to save her job and reputation. In return, she married me, and for the next three decades, she made my life a living hell. I remembered everything: the constant belittling, her sneering at my passion and controlling every dollar I earned while lavishly spending on herself and Mark. I remembered the fights, the chilling silences for weeks, always her punishment for not being ambitious enough, for not earning more, for not being Mark Jenkins. The worst memory was our daughter, Lily. I cherished her, gave her everything Olivia denied me emotionally, believing she was my reason to endure. But as she grew, Olivia and Mark poisoned her mind, twisting my sacrifices into control, my love into a cage. On her sixteenth birthday, after I' d worked months to buy her a car, she looked at Mark, calling him "Dad," shattering my world. The phone kept buzzing, insistent, desperate. I remembered my death at fifty-eight, alone, my last moments filled with regret and Olivia telling paramedics not to hurry. This time, there would be no sacrifice, no bailing her out. This time, I wouldn't be the hero. I wouldn't be the fool. I swiped to decline. Then I called Richard Sterling, Head of Internal Audit. "Mr. Sterling," I said, "this is Ethan Davis. I have reason to believe there's been a significant misappropriation of funds in the marketing department. I think you should look into Olivia Hayes."