Thirty-Six Hours To Save Her

To settle her family's debt, Alys Flores is sold into a proxy marriage with the city's most infamous recluse, the wheelchair-bound Gustaf Greer. It's a union of the broken and the discarded. Or so it seems. She's not broken; she's a ghost. A hacker known as "Zero" who uses her silence as a shield while she plots the destruction of those who wronged her. He's not discarded; he's a king. A powerful CEO faking his disability to hunt a traitor who tried to kill him. In a world of secrets, their marriage is the biggest one of all. And when their separate paths of revenge lead them to the same enemy, they'll have to trust the one person they can't afford to believe.

I spent five years as the perfect wife to Easton Harrington, smoothing his midnight-blue ties and fading into the wallpaper of his massive estate. I thought I was the heart of our family, but I was really just a ghost in a sensible beige dress. The illusion shattered at a charity gala when Easton’s "family friend," Georgina, appeared in a gown that matched his suit perfectly. While they basked in the flashbulbs as a golden couple, I was literally pushed into the velvet ropes by a cameraman. No one noticed. Then my four-year-old son, Holt, slapped my hand away in front of the city's elite. "Don't touch me! You're not my mom, you're just the nanny. Daddy said so." The room went silent, but Easton didn't defend me. He just looked annoyed that I was causing a scene, making a sharp shooing motion for me to take the boy away. Beside him, Georgina feigned shock while her eyes crinkled in pure amusement. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a placeholder. They had stripped me of my dignity and even my child's love, treating my five years of devotion like a temporary staff position. I didn't scream. I just slid off the Harrington heirloom ring, tossed it into a fountain, and walked out into the night. Easton thinks I’m a penniless housewife who won’t last a week without his credit cards. He doesn't know that I’m Dr. Althea Morrison, the "prodigy" researcher his company has been begging to hire. I'm not asking for alimony, and I'm not begging for a second chance. I’m returning to the lab to build an empire that will bring his to its knees.

For five years, New York society envied me, Ava Riley, the perfectly devoted wife to tech titan Liam Carter. Though legally blind, I felt his love in every touch, every whispered word, convinced I was the luckiest woman alive. But one night, a searing pain shot through my head, a shocking kaleidoscope of color exploded behind my eyelids, and then-I could see. My vision, blurry but real, focused on the bed. It wasn't Liam on top of me. It was a faceless, flawless robot, moving with the practiced intimacy I believed belonged to my husband. Then I saw Liam across the room, wrapped around a perfect, lifelike doll-his adopted sister, Sophia. Every intimate moment of our five-year marriage, every cherished touch, had been a vile, mechanical lie. The truth crashed down: I was just a blind prop in his twisted obsession, a placeholder for the woman he truly desired. When I confronted this horrifying reality, Sophia pushed me down the stairs, and I lost our baby. But Liam' s concern wasn't for me. He protected Sophia, dismissing my pain, our child, and even me, as collateral damage, painting me as an "emotionally unstable liar" to cover their tracks. How could the man I loved betray me so utterly? How could my own sacrifice have led to such a depraved deception? My heart didn't just break; it became a cold, hard stone of disbelief and fury. Lying in that hospital bed, rage burning through my soul, I ripped up Liam' s seven-figure "hush money" check, looked Sophia directly in her astonished eyes, and declared, "I' m divorcing him. And I' m not going quietly. I' m going to take everything."

I sacrificed everything for Michael Thorne, the ambitious man I loved and believed in. My promising career, built on integrity, crumbled when I took the fall for his unethical land deal, my name tarnished, my reputation destroyed. The immense stress manifested as psychosomatic blindness, transforming my vibrant world into an indistinct haze, making me completely dependent on him. He vowed to be my eyes, a low murmur of reassurance, his control a heavy cloak I mistook for devotion, as he built his real estate empire on the ruins of my life. For years, I was a captive in our luxurious city apartment, a gilded cage arranged for my impaired convenience, subtly controlled by the man who claimed to protect me. But then, a miracle: my vision, slowly, painstakingly, began to return, a fragile hope I nurtured in secret. Eager to surprise him, I cut my therapy retreat short, only to silently unlock our door and find him in bed with his conniving junior associate, Tiffany. My newly restored sight, cruelly perfect, illuminated the stark, undeniable intimacy, a betrayal that stole my breath and shattered my soul. The man who vowed to be my eyes, the one I had given everything for, had been reveling in my dependence, enjoying the power of my blindness as he carried on his affair right under my nose. The shock morphed into a cold, unwavering resolve; my heart, once broken, hardened into stone. I would pretend I was still blind, still naive, enduring their thinly veiled cruelty and arrogant entitlement. But as I stumbled, feigning helplessness, I would meticulously gather every piece of damning evidence. I swore to reclaim my life, my heritage, and my true self, leaving him to face the very ruin he built for me. He thought he had absolute power over his blind, docile wife, but he was about to discover what a woman with nothing left to lose, and everything to see, could truly do.

My Sweet Sixteen was supposed to be a dream. I was Scarlett, a golden child, engaged to my childhood sweetheart Julian, and protected by my powerful brother Ethan. Our lives were perfectly aligned, part of an influential dynasty. But then, a science experiment gone wrong left me disfigured and screaming. The intern, Brianna, who caused it, seemed to vanish, destined for jail. My brother and fiancé swore revenge, their initial protectiveness a comforting blanket. Yet, strange, mocking voices whispered in my head: "They're impressed by her. They'll fall for her. Hard." Soon, Brianna was "sick," and Ethan and Julian abandoned my hospital bedside to rush to hers. My calls went to voicemail, my care diminished, and then I was framed for attacking her. Julian dissolved our engagement, calling me unstable. I was banished to a forgotten wing, then a rundown halfway house, forced into grueling labor. The lowest point came when they held me under icy water, demanding an apology for a crime I didn't commit. Why abandon me, their Scarlett, for this woman who ruined my life? Was I just an inconvenience, a damaged relic of a past they wanted to forget? The voices in my head revealed the shocking truth: "It was a diversion. You were a pawn. Everything – your suffering – was a strategic move." My pain wasn't about love or betrayal; it was a cold, calculated sacrifice for power. With this sickening clarity, I refused their hollow apologies and offers to "restore" my life. I walked away from their gilded cage, leaving my old self and their lies behind. Now, free from their toxic influence, I begin a new chapter, far from the corrupt city, ready to redefine my own destiny.

The lawyer’s pen clicked, signaling the finality of my parents' second divorce, but for me, Emilia, it was just the eerie echo of a past life that had ended with my younger sister, Sophia, stabbing me seven times, and a brutal existence under the ruthless Isabella Vanderbilt. This time, I had to escape Isabella's grasp, so I deliberately plunged down the stairs, disfiguring myself, knowing Isabella would never accept "damaged goods" as an heir. My father, Richard, confirmed my desperate gamble: "Isabella will never accept damaged goods!" I stayed with my kind mother, Linda, and we built a new, humble life away from that toxic world. But then Sophia, now a condescending teenager, reappeared, flaunting her new life with Isabella, subtly reminding me of my "missed potential." The façade of peace shattered when Sophia sent literal thugs to abduct me, twisting my mother’s arm and breaking it right before my eyes. My mom, Linda, screamed in agony, her broken arm a visceral pain that ripped through me. As I was dragged into a black SUV, the metallic taste of terror filled my mouth, utterly desperate and confused. Why would my own sister go so far, inflicting such harm on our own mother? Amidst the chaos, hidden from Sophia’s triumphant gaze, I fumbled for my emergency phone. I dialed a number I had only memorized in secret, a last resort: the private line of my estranged grandmother, Eleanor Ainsworth, a name that commanded respect even in the darkest corners of New York society. This time, everything would be different.