The Wedding Crasher's Comeuppance

The university library hummed with the quiet hum of panic on the last day for college applications. My finger hovered over the 'Submit' button for Caltech, my dream school, when I heard him. Liam, my best friend since childhood, was laughing with his friends, his voice cutting through the silence. "Chloe' s going there. She' s an art major, and she' s kind of nervous about being in the city alone. Someone' s got to look out for her." Then the words that shattered everything: "Ava? It' s fine. She has my account password. When she sees I' ve changed my mind, she' ll follow suit. She can' t live without me anyway." My breath caught. He hadn' t just broken our decade-long promise of attending Caltech together; he expected me to abandon my own future, my father' s legacy, like a pet. He truly saw me as an extension of himself, not a person with my own dreams. The casual cruelty stung, deeper than any physical pain. How could he so easily dismiss everything we' d planned, everything I was, for a new girl he barely knew? Had our shared dream, the very foundation of my future, been nothing but a fleeting whim to him? The betrayal was absolute, the humiliation searing. I had built my world around a promise that, for him, was apparently disposable. But then, a cold anger washed over me, stronger than any hurt. He thought I couldn' t live without him? He had no idea. With a steady hand, I clicked 'Submit' on my Caltech application, forging my own path, free from his shadow.

My life was a meticulously crafted blueprint, or so I thought. A successful architect, adored by my community, with a childhood sweetheart, Liam Hayes, by my side. Our marriage was the fairy tale I' d dreamt of, until it shattered with the news of his death. Ten years later, I found him alive, living a picturesque life with my best friend, Sophia Chen. His "death" was a lie, a calculated escape from a life, and a wife, he didn' t want. The final twist? He died saving me in a real car crash, his last words confessing his enduring love for Sophia, not me. I woke up, gasping, the scent of birthday cake and lilies filling the air. I was twenty-two again, on the day I first chose Liam. But not this time. Liam' s betrayal carved a raw wound, his dying words now a command ringing in my ears. This time, I wouldn' t make the same mistake. I chose Ethan Stone, my former rival, a man who consistently challenged me, whose aloofness I\'d once mistaken for disdain. My grandfather looked at me, bewildered, as I rejected the expected. Then, at my birthday party, the public humiliation began. Liam, ever the schemer, beat me to the punch, announcing his love for Sophia first, making it seem like he had rejected me. Sophia, a flawless actress, played the role of the innocent, heartbroken friend. As I stepped forward, the black box in my hand, declaring my choice of Ethan, Sophia lunged at me. Liam, defending her, shoved me. My head hit the marble floor, and the world went dark. But not before I saw a flash of black leather, a furious green gaze, and Ethan running towards me.

My perfect life, a meticulously crafted facade, shattered the moment I walked into my lawyer' s office, signing a new will to kill the man everyone thought I was. That night, at my pre-wedding dinner, I saw it: my fiancée, Olivia, laughing with my half-brother, Liam, his hand possessively on her back, their betrayal so blatant it stole my breath. The pain intensified as Olivia, with a perfectly fake smile, kissed my cheek, reeking of Liam' s cologne, then dismissed the custom-made key to our dream home as "just a key," leaving me standing alone with my rejected love. As I saw them kiss the next morning, followed by a voice recording of Olivia' s cruel laughter describing me as "poor, sad Ethan" and her "ticket" to Liam and wealth, a terrifying clarity pierced through me. They thought I was weak, a fool to be manipulated, but the man they knew died that day; I would rise from the ashes, a new man ready to enact a revenge they would never see coming.

For ten years, I built a wall of mediocrity around myself. After my sister Sarah vanished, an alleged suicide linked to the sinister "Blackwood Tech Curse," my parents pulled me from advanced STEM, scrubbed my online presence, and moved two states over. "Just be average, Ashley," my father pleaded, "Average is safe." I became an insurance analyst, safe and boring, believing I had outsmarted fate, that Sarah was a random tragedy. Until today, when an encrypted email landed in my inbox: "Congratulations, Ashley Miller. You've been accepted." The Blackwood curse, a digital ghost from a defunct institute, promised death wrapped in an acceptance letter, just like Sarah's. When I tried to expose it, the FBI agent who' d dismissed my fears showed me security footage-me, at the scene of a Blackwood victim's death, then a fabricated psych evaluation painting me as delusional. My own laptop was framed as the source of a federal hack, isolating me further. Even my parents, panicked by the lies, asked, "Ashley, honey… Did you… have you been seeing someone?" The one person I thought I could trust, Davies, believed the frame job. "The hack came from your laptop," he said, his voice flat. But then, my own hand clenched, tried to strike me, until Davies, who' d burst in, saw it wasn' t me. "You' re not suicidal," he whispered. "Something else was controlling you." He set up a livestream, making my forced stay at a "safe house" public, only for a chilling message to appear on my screen, "WE CAN GET TO YOU ANYWHERE." Then, a porcelain doll-Sarah' s childhood doll, supposedly lost for years-appeared at my window, its face frozen in a scream. The lights went out, and in the darkness, my mother, her eyes wide and blank, attacked me with a shard of glass, whispering, "The signal is the vessel." The next morning, the doctors diagnosed me with "severe schizoaffective disorder, with acute paranoid delusions." My parents finally broke, signing the commitment papers when a psychiatrist presented a photo altered to show me with a different sister, Eva, claiming Sarah was just my cousin, that their decade of lies was to "protect" me. I realized then, in the sterile silence of the psychiatric facility, that this wasn' t a ghost story, but a controlled experiment. And I heard a name whispered in the halls: Marcus Thorne, the vanished founder of Blackwood Tech, now a VIP patient on the top floor. They thought they had trapped me, broken me. But they had just given me a new purpose, a new identity, and a clear target.

Tonight was supposed to be perfect, our fifth wedding anniversary, and I, Ava Monroe, was glowing, a secret smile playing on my lips for the news I planned to share with my loving husband, Liam. But then, a strange, unlocked phone in his study revealed a picture: Liam with another woman, Sophia Chen, whose hand clung to his with an intimacy that made my blood run cold. Hidden, I heard his voice, tender and intimate, confirming my worst fears about Sophia and a chilling dismissiveness towards me: "Ava doesn\'t suspect a thing. She\'s probably in the kitchen, playing the perfect wife, just like always." He then spoke of a "real, legally binding" marriage that wasn\'t ours, calling our five years "a beautiful placeholder," a "five-year arrangement that\'s about to end." My perfect life shattered, exposing his carefully constructed deceit. My heart hammered with a terrifying realization: I was pregnant with his child, a child conceived in a lie, while he was secretly married to another woman. Then, at a charity gala, with my arm still bruised from Sophia\'s staged fall and Liam\'s furious accusations, I saw them. Under the table, while he held my hand for the cameras, his other hand stroked hers-a secret, intimate gesture meant for me. The sheer audacity, the cold, calculated performance, didn\'t even hurt anymore; it simply filled me with a profound, soul-crushing boredom. I just wanted out. Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through my body, as I collapsed, instinctively knowing Sophia had poisoned me, and Liam, blinded by his own narrative, walked away, leaving me to my fate. Waking up alone in a sterile hospital room, no longer pregnant, I learned the truth: Sophia had tried to kill me, and Liam' s betrayal went deeper than I ever imagined. I would disappear, but not before leaving behind the unedited truth of his monstrous betrayal.

The Starlight, a vintage car, coughed and died, mirroring the decade-long marriage of Chloe and Mark. What was supposed to be their ten-year anniversary took a dark turn when a lawyer' s call shattered Chloe' s world: her marriage was a sham, and Mark had been legally wed to her sister, Brittany, all along. The revelation of Mark' s bigamy and Brittany' s hidden role as his true wife left Chloe reeling, compounded by the horrifying realization of their brazen deceit under her own roof. As Chloe' s mother suffered a heart attack, Mark callously prioritized Brittany's fake pregnancy, letting Chloe' s mother die while ordering security to remove a pleading Chloe, leaving her bruised and heartbroken. But from the depths of her despair, Chloe made a silent vow: she would sever every tie to her past, embrace a new chance at family with an unexpected adoption, and rise from the ashes of betrayal, leaving Mark and Brittany to face the true cost of their lies.

"Ahh!" She was in a moaning mess. She did not want to feel anything for this man. She hated him. His hands began to move all over her body. She gasped when he pulled down the back chain of her dress. The chain stopped at her lower waist, so when he zipped it off, her upper back and waist were exposed. "D-Don't touch m-ummm!" His fingers rolled around her bare back, and she pressed her head against the pillow. His touches were giving her goosebumps all over her body. With a deep angry voice, he whispered in her ear, "I am going to make you forget his touches, kisses, and everything. Every time you touch another man, you will only think of me." - - - Ava Adler was a nerdy omega. People bullied her because they thought she was ugly and unattractive. But Ava secretly loved the bad boy, Ian Dawson. He was the future Alpha of the Mystic Shadow Pack. However, he doesn't give a damn about rules and laws, as he only likes to play around with girls. Ava was unaware of Ian's arrogance until her fate intertwined with his. He neglected her and hurt her deeply. What would happen when Ava turned out to be a beautiful girl who could win over any boy, and Ian looked back and regretted his decisions? What if she had a secret identity that she had yet to discover? What if the tables turned and Ian begged her not to leave him?

For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted. Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke. Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph. Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!" With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off." A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!"

The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."

Kaelyn devoted three years tending to her husband after a terrible accident. But once he was fully recovered, he cast her aside and brought his first love back from abroad. Devastated, Kaelyn decided on a divorce as people mocked her for being discarded. She went on to reinvent herself, becoming a highly sought-after doctor, a champion racer, and an internationally renowned architectural designer. Even then, the traitors sneered in disdain, believing Kaelyn would never find someone. But then the ex-husband’s uncle, a powerful warlord, returned with his army to ask for Kaelyn’s hand in marriage.

The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?

“You need a bride, I need a groom. Why don’t we get married?” Both abandoned at the altar, Elyse decided to tie the knot with the disabled stranger from the venue next door. Pitying his state, she vowed to spoil him once they were married. Little did she know that he was actually a powerful tycoon. Jayden thought Elyse only married him for his money, and planned to divorce her when she was no longer of use to him. But after becoming her husband, he was faced with a new dilemma. “She keeps asking for a divorce, but I don’t want that! What should I do?”