My Son's Death, His Sympathy Vote

For five years, I lived in a gray, quiet world, shattered by a tragic accident that claimed my fiancée, Amelia, and my three promising apprentices. I became Ethan Miller, the brilliant architect who' d lost his touch, a hollowed-out recluse living with ghosts. Then, a familiar laugh broke the silence from a room I hadn' t entered in years-Jake' s old room. It was Amelia' s voice. And with it, Olivia' s, Sophia' s, and Jake' s. "It was a necessary sacrifice," Amelia purred, her voice chillingly confident. "We needed him to be completely broken. The firm is just sitting there, waiting for me to take over." My blood ran cold as I heard their twisted plan: fake deaths, my engineered grief, all to seize my company. They had let my mentor, Mr. Davies, waste away; they had let me suffer for five years, all for a long con. The love I felt, the grief that defined me-it was all a vicious lie. They thought I was broken, a pathetic fool they could manipulate. They were wrong. A furious, cold rage ignited within me, burning away the sorrow. They wanted my legacy, built on my ruin. They would never get it. My steps were steady for the first time in forever. They had a plan. Now, so did I.

The grand hall of the royal palace was suffocating, every eye fixed on me as I stood before the throne, about to choose my betrothed. This supposed day of destiny was, for me, the day my life had already brutally ended before. I remembered the cold bite of the executioner's axe, the jeering crowd, and Prince Adrian, the man I loved, standing with his new lover, Lady Seraphina, watching me die. He had accused me of treason-all to clear his path to her. My last breath was choked with betrayal, then darkness, until I woke up screaming in my own bed, alive again. I was back, at the very ceremony that had sealed my doom. King Theron boomed, calling for my choice between General Kaelen and Prince Adrian. Adrian, handsome and charming, hissed a low warning, meant only for me: "Don't even think about it, Elara. You know who I want." He then arrogantly announced to the King that his heart belonged to Lady Seraphina, publicly humiliating me. The old me would have crumbled, but not anymore. Fueling my resolve with the memory of the axe, I walked past a stunned Adrian, ignoring his fury, and stopped before General Kaelen. My voice clear and steady for the entire hall to hear, I declared: "I choose General Kaelen." The silence was deafening, the murmurs of scandal already rising. Adrian, enraged by my defiance, later cornered me, his eyes blazing. "You're trying to make me jealous," he sneered, then leaned in, whispering, "When you get tired of his boring silence, you can come to me. I'll keep you as a mistress. It might be... amusing." The arrogance, the sheer disregard for my dignity, fueled a cold, hard anger within me. "You are mistaken, Adrian," I replied, my voice like ice. "I belong to no one but myself. And my future belongs to General Kaelen." He failed to grasp that I was not the girl he knew, leaving him sputtering in indignation. Days later, his scheme with Seraphina to extort my dowry by faking an injury led to Adrian striking me, then shoving my loyal maid, Lyra, who hit her head and lay still. Seeing Lyra, my innocent, loyal maid, injured because of them, something inside me snapped. The last vestiges of my old self burned away, leaving only a cold, pure, diamond-hard rage. They had gone too far. They had hurt my people. And for that, they would pay. I made a silent vow, looking at Lyra' s still form: I will not just survive. I will not just win. I will destroy you. Just then, a calm, cold voice broke through the tension, "You will not touch her." General Kaelen stood in the doorway, dust-worn armor telling of his rapid return, his hand on his greatsword. He was back.

The harsh, sterile light of the emergency room usually brought me a sense of purpose. But tonight, it felt like a spotlight on my humiliation. There, on a gurney, was my husband, Liam, clutching his groin, his face pale and contorted, his designer jeans cut away by paramedics. Next to him, a young woman in a crop top, mascara streaked, held his hand, whining about him collapsing. Then I saw it on his chart: Priapism. A prolonged, painful erection. A side effect of recreational drugs. On our tenth wedding anniversary. "I\'m his wife," I finally managed, the words tasting like acid. Her jaw dropped. "His wife? But he told me he was divorced! He said I was his girlfriend." The air left my lungs. My colleagues watched as Dr. Evelyn Reed, brilliant cardiac surgeon, couldn\'t even hold her own marriage together. Relief curdled into rage as Liam avoided my gaze. He looked weak, pathetic. "No, Dr. Chen," I said, my voice cold and clear. "I\'ll handle it. He\'s my patient now." I stripped off my wedding ring, dropping it onto the gurney next to his hand. "We\'re done, Liam. Consider this my anniversary gift to you." The memory of him whispering promises of forever, of honesty, of a partnership built on respect, now felt like a cruel lie. This wasn't just betrayal. He had faked a vasectomy years ago, after our miscarriage, telling me he only needed me, while planning this separate life. The depth of his deceit made me physically sick. A Code Blue saved me from that moment, calling me to save a life. But I promised myself, after I saved my patient, I would return and systematically destroy Liam\'s. I wouldn't look back.

The Arizona desert stretched endlessly before us, a shimmering ribbon of highway cutting through red rock and scrub. My best friend Emily and I were three days into our cross-country road trip, the initial excitement long gone, replaced by heat and boredom. Then Emily pointed. "Are you seeing this?" Far off the road, a figure stood, impossibly tall, waving. I dismissed it, thinking of a stranded hiker, already slowing the car. But Emily grabbed my arm, her face drained of color, eyes wide with a terror I' d never seen. "Don't get out of the car," she choked out. "Look at its legs." They were too long, bent at a sickening, backward angle. Then it moved, not walking, but scrambling with inhuman, insect-like speed, closing the distance in seconds. "Run!" Emily screamed. "That's not human!" My foot found the gas pedal, tires spitting gravel as we fishtailed onto the highway. It scraped against the trunk, a sickening thud, then impossibly, kept pace, a spindly shadow in the rearview mirror. We were safe, for a moment, after escaping the desert monster, only to have our tires slashed outside a shady garage. The mechanic and his goons tried to corner us, but a deputy' s timely arrival saved us. We thought it was over. We were wrong. News reports followed us home, showing our "Desert Wendigo" was appearing nationwide. The world wasn't safe. And we knew its dark secret.

"I' m sorry, Ms. Davies, but there seems to be a problem." The government clerk's words hit me like a physical blow. Liam and I were so excited, registering our baby' s birth early, making it all feel real. Then she said it: "Mr. Liam O' Connell is already married. His marriage to a Ms. Sienna Reed was registered six months ago." My world shattered. Married? To someone else? My cherished marriage certificate was a fake. The man who' d told me he' d searched for me every day during my year-long amnesia, the man who swore he only waited for me, had found a replacement. He had looked me in the eye and lied. Returning home, I found her clothes in his closet, her bracelet in his jewelry box. Then, I heard his voice, soft and intimate on the phone, telling 'her' I suspected nothing. "She' s just… a substitute. A shadow. She looks like you, that' s all." A wave of nausea washed over me, mixing with the sharp pain of my pregnancy apps notifications. He said he was off to a crisis in Chicago, but I drove to the luxury condo he' d once mentioned. There, I watched him kiss Sienna, a deep, passionate embrace he hadn't given me in months. This wasn't just cheating; this was a deliberate, long-term deception orchestrated for my family's money. All the while, my baby, our baby, was growing inside me, tainted by his lies. The man I loved saw me as nothing but a means to an end. My heart breaking, I was left to wonder: how could I have been so blind? What kind of monster had I loved?

I drew a thick red circle around the date, marking my escape from eight years of crushing dedication to an architectural firm-and to David Chen, the untouchable senior partner I' d foolishly adored since day one. But my whispered plans for freedom were abruptly shattered when David, in a bizarre twist of fate, started showing a new intern, Emily White, the unguarded warmth I'd always yearned for, culminating in the gut-wrenching discovery that he was buying her an engagement ring. Reeling from this brutal blow, I gave my notice only to be immediately thrust into a crisis at a flooding construction site-one where David, the project lead, was inexplicably unreachable and then, upon his sudden arrival, inexplicably threw me under the bus, suspending me for my "recklessness." I couldn't fathom his sudden, public betrayal, leaving me utterly bewildered and heartbroken; why, after my desperate attempt to save his project, would he punish me so severely, especially when he'd hugged me moments before, a gesture that defied his usual coldness? With no other choice, and my career destroyed, I found myself accepting a forced transfer to a new city, unwittingly walking into the dangerous heart of a DEA task force, where the only thing more shocking than my unexpected new life was discovering David Chen standing there, my new boss, ready to lead the charge.

They don't know I'm a girl. They all look at me and see a boy. A prince. Their kind purchase humans like me for their lustful desires. And, when they stormed into our kingdom to buy my sister, I intervened to protect her. I made them take me too. The plan was to escape with my sister whenever we found a chance. How was I to know our prison would be the most fortified place in their kingdom? I was supposed to be on the sidelines. The one they had no real use for. The one they never meant to buy. But then, the most important person in their savage land-their ruthless beast king-took an interest in the "pretty little prince." How do we survive in this brutal kingdom, where everyone hates our kind and shows us no mercy? And how does someone, with a secret like mine, become a lust slave? . AUTHOR'S NOTE. This is a dark romance-dark, mature content. Highly rated 18+ Expect triggers, expect hardcore. If you're a seasoned reader of this genre, looking for something different, prepared to go in blindly not knowing what to expect at every turn, but eager to know more anyway, then dive in! . From the author of the international bestselling book: "The Alpha King's Hated Slave."

"Where do you think you're going, huh? You're mine now, Little Mouse. Get back in the house!" Vincenzo's voice boomed, sending chills down Victoria's spine as her world seemed to crumble. Victoria Washington was shattered-betrayed by her boyfriend who dumped her the day before his wedding, to her sister. She was left humiliated, mocked by everyone. But fate had other plans for her. She's broken, he's lost. She's full of fear, and he's the monster. Yet, somehow, he's her light while he remains in darkness. Vincenzo Dante will stop at nothing to tarnish his family's name for forcing him into a marriage he never wanted. But what he doesn't realize is that his new wife is stronger than she seems-too broken to bend under his cruelty. But when love begins to bloom, and secrets start to unfold, what will happen next?

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!"

My world revolved around Jax Harding, my older brother's captivating rockstar friend. From sixteen, I adored him; at eighteen, I clung to his casual promise: "When you're 22, maybe I'll settle down." That offhand comment became my life's beacon, guiding every choice, meticulously planning my twenty-second birthday as our destiny. But on that pivotal day in a Lower East Side bar, clutching my gift, my dream exploded. I overheard Jax' s cold voice: "Can't believe Savvy's showing up. She' s still hung up on that stupid thing I said." Then the crushing plot: "We' re gonna tell Savvy I' m engaged to Chloe, maybe even hint she' s pregnant. That should scare her off." My gift, my future, slipped from my numb fingers. I fled into the cold New York rain, devastated by betrayal. Later, Jax introduced Chloe as his "fiancée" while his bandmates mocked my "adorable crush"-he did nothing. As an art installation fell, he saved Chloe, abandoning me to severe injury. In the hospital, he came for "damage control," then shockingly shoved me into a fountain, leaving me to bleed, calling me a "jealous psycho." How could the man I loved, who once saved me, become this cruel and publicly humiliate me? Why was my devotion seen as an annoyance to be brutally extinguished with lies and assault? Was I just a problem, my loyalty met with hatred? I would not be his victim. Injured and betrayed, I made an unshakeable vow: I was done. I blocked his number and everyone connected to him, severing ties. This was not an escape; this was my rebirth. Florence awaited, a new life on my terms, unburdened by broken promises.

In her previous life, Kimberly endured the betrayal of her husband, the cruel machinations of an evil woman, and the endless tyranny of her in-laws. It culminated in the bankruptcy of her family, and ultimately, her death. After being reborn, she resolved to seek retribution against those who had wronged her, and ensure her family's prosperity. To her shock, the most unattainable man from her past suddenly set his sights on her. "You may have overlooked me before, but I shall capture your heart this time around."

Elliana, the unfavored "ugly duckling" of her family, was humiliated by her stepsister, Paige, who everyone admired. Paige, engaged to the CEO Cole, was the perfect woman-until Cole married Elliana on the day of the wedding. Shocked, everyone wondered why he chose the "ugly" woman. As they waited for her to be cast aside, Elliana stunned everyone by revealing her true identity: a miracle healer, financial mogul, appraisal prodigy, and AI genius. When her mistreatment became known, Cole revealed Elliana's stunning, makeup-free photo, sending shockwaves through the media. "My wife doesn't need anyone's approval."