My Sweet, Silent Revenge

On our one-year anniversary, I waited in red silk, praying my Alpha, Alex, would finally mark me as his Luna. Instead, a notification popped up on his tablet: "The Omega Prank." I tapped it and watched a livestream of him draping the Moonstone Necklace around another woman's neck, laughing that I smelled like desperation. It turned out the last year of my life was just a bet. A game to entertain the bored elites. But the humiliation didn't stop at the truth. Alex forced me to wear a diamond collar at the Charity Gala, parading me as "The Alpha's Pet" while the pack laughed. When his grandmother ordered me beaten with a cane for a painting his mistress ruined, Alex didn't stop them. He just poured a drink and looked away while the wood cracked against my spine. I didn't scream. I just watched him check his phone, indifferent to my blood. He thought he could exile me to a winter cabin to keep his "embarrassment" hidden. He didn't know I had already initiated the Ghost Protocol. I staged a bloody scene at the cliff's edge, making it look like a rogue attack. Standing over the freezing black water, I looked back one last time and severed the bond. "I reject you, Alex Bradley." Then I jumped, leaving him with nothing but a fake suicide scene and a regret that would come too late.

My life with Ethan was a fairytale. Diamonds cut like stars, a library wing, a best-selling book titled "100 Reasons Mia Hayes is the Center of My World"-he built a universe around me, declaring me his guide. I was his everything, or so I believed. Then, I found it. A hidden folder on his home office computer. Images of Ethan and a young woman, Skyler Reed, sickeningly intimate and explicit. My carefully constructed world shattered, a thousand glittering pieces falling around me. The betrayal was a physical blow, colder than any frost. Every grand gesture, every loving declaration, now felt like a cruel joke, a meticulously crafted lie designed to blind me. I remembered my one rule for us, whispered years ago: "If you ever truly lie to me, if you break that trust, I will walk away. And you will never find me again." He had laughed then, promising I was his universe. Now, his universe was a lie. A cold dread seeped into my bones. The fear, long buried, clawed its way up my throat. How could I have been so blind? So utterly naive? Was everything just a performance for his audience, for my adoration? The profound humiliation burned hotter than anger. But amidst the wreckage, a chilling clarity emerged. My world was destroyed, yes, but I was not. The decision was instant. Cold. Clear. I picked up the burner phone I'd bought months ago, a nagging unease I'd dismissed as paranoia. "It's Amelia Hayes," I said, my voice devoid of emotion. "I need to activate the Disappearance Protocol. Immediately."

I was eight months pregnant when my husband drugged me and locked me in our panic room. The contractions started immediately, fierce and too soon. He told me over the intercom that his late partner's widow was also in labor. Her child had to be born first to inherit billions from a tech fund. He ignored my screams, my pleas, the blood soaking through my nightgown. He called me dramatic and manipulative. His sister arrived, not to help, but to inject me with another drug to "keep me quiet." I felt my baby's life fading along with my own. I was left to die, a casualty of my husband's greed. But he made one fatal mistake. He never knew I was Elinor Guzman, the sole heir to the Sterling empire. And now, two years after my supposed death, I'm back to collect the debt he owes-with interest.

The man I loved, the man I was going to marry, asked me to save my twin sister' s life. He didn't look at me as he explained that Annabell's kidneys were failing completely. Then, he slid the annulment papers across the table. It wasn't just my kidney they wanted. It was my fiancé, too. He told me Annabell's dying wish was to marry him, even for a day. My family' s reaction was brutal. "After everything we've done for you?" my mother shrieked. "Annabell saved your father's life! She gave him a piece of herself! And you can't do the same for her?" My father stood beside her, his face grim. He told me if I wouldn't be a part of the family, I didn't belong in his house. I was being cast out. Again. They didn't know the truth. They didn't know that five years ago, Annabell drugged my coffee, causing me to miss our father's transplant surgery. She took my place, emerging a hero with a fake scar while I woke up in a cheap motel, branded a coward. The kidney humming inside my father was mine. They didn't know I only had one kidney left. And they certainly didn't know that a rare disease was already ravaging my body, giving me only months to live. Abel found me later, his voice ragged. "Choose, Aurora. Her, or you." A strange calm washed over me. What did it matter anymore? I looked at the man who once promised me forever and agreed to sign my life away. "Fine," I said. "I'll do it."

For twenty-seven days, I sat hoping by my mother' s hospital bed, begging Olivia, the woman I' d loved for six years, to marry me. Her excuses flowed like water-"Swamped with work," "Bad timing," "Next week, honey." Then, a text. And a picture. Olivia, radiant in a wedding dress, arm-in-arm with Brandon, her childhood friend. The marriage certificate read: twenty-seven days ago. The very day my dying mother had entered the hospital and I' d first proposed. The world shattered. My phone buzzed again, an apology from Olivia: she couldn' t make our courthouse wedding, Brandon wasn' t feeling well. Another lie. That same evening, the nurse grimly told me Mom had passed away. Olivia' s deceit had poisoned her last wish. I was numb, my heart a block of ice. When Olivia called later, feigning concern, trying to string me along with more empty promises, something snapped. "Mom is dead, Olivia," I said, then hung up, letting myself finally break. I wouldn' t forgive her. Not for Mom. Not for me. I purged everything-my job, my apartment, every trace of her. But she just wouldn' t quit. Then, the ultimate betrayal: I found Brandon, her secret husband, in my bed, in my apartment, wearing my clothes, while she tried to pull another pretense of love. I walked out, leaving the wreckage behind. I fled south, seeking a clean break, a new start. My life was shattered, but I vowed to rebuild.

The rain hammered against my windowpane, a relentless drumbeat mirroring the dull throb in my abdomen-a constant reminder of the child I' d lost. My husband, Captain David Miller, was a celebrated hero on TV, his charismatic smile a stark contrast to the corroding rust of our marriage. Right there, beside him, was Chloe, my best friend, looking at him with adoration, her hand tucked in his arm. They didn' t know the real David, not like I did. The betrayal had been a slow, agonizing descent, a series of small, sharp cuts. Late nights, calls taken in hushed tones, excuses woven around Chloe' s supposed fragility. "She' s fragile, Scar," he' d say, "You' re strong. You understand." I tried to, but then he missed our anniversary for her panic attack, my doctor' s appointment for her broken-down car. Each time, a piece of my trust chipped away. The final, unforgivable act came when I lay bleeding on the floor, calling him in a choked whisper. "David, please. Something' s wrong. I' m… I' m bleeding." I heard Chloe' s tearful voice in the background, "David, don' t go. I need you." He hesitated. That cold, sharp hesitation twisted in my gut. He never came. I lost our baby alone in a sterile hospital room while he comforted her. He truly cared more about her feelings than our child. Months later, with my mother' s funeral underway, Chloe approached me again. "It' s like she had to go so my son could live," she whispered, claiming my dying mother was a necessary sacrifice for her child. My suppressed rage ignited. This woman, who had manipulated my husband, stolen my locket, and had a piece of my body donated to her, was now mocking my grief. "I want a divorce, David," I declared, the words cutting through the chaos. He tried to deny it, to plead, to promise. But his love was poison, and I was done. I walked away from the graveside, leaving behind the man who had destroyed everything. With the help of my father' s old friend, an opportunity for a new life, a new name, appeared. I didn' t look back as I dropped my wedding ring into a trash can at the airport. It made a small, tinny sound, the final note on a life I was leaving behind. As the city lights faded below, I felt a flicker of peace. My past was over. My future was waiting.