My Wedding, Her Ex

To marry his first love, Deanna's husband of three years faked his death. Hiding behind his twin brother's identity, he and his family ran a cruel con. Her sobbing didn't move him. To impress that woman, he even had Deanna punished. As agony lit every nerve, she chose to walk away. With a sharp flick, she sent the ring into his face and wed a comatose tycoon, brushing off her ex's belated begging. A bleak future seemed certain-until the "coma" turned out to be an act. Under cover of night, her new husband pinned her down and murmured against her ear, "Baby, why don't we go another round?"

My perfect marriage shattered with an e-vite for my husband's son's first birthday-a son I never knew existed. The true nightmare unfolded at my own birthday party when his mistress, Hayden, had their son run to my husband, Chase, and call him "Daddy" in front of all our friends. In the ensuing chaos, Chase shoved me. I fell, hit my head, and miscarried the baby I had just discovered I was carrying. He left me bleeding on the floor to comfort his mistress and their child. But Hayden wasn't done. To eliminate me for good, she had me kidnapped and thrown off a cliff into a canal, whispering that Chase wanted me gone permanently. I survived. I faked my death and disappeared, channeling my pain into my work. Now, six months later, I'm accepting a prestigious award on international television. I see Chase in the crowd, a broken man rushing toward me, begging for forgiveness. This time, I'm the one who gets to walk away.

To save my grandmother, I married a man who hated me. He never knew I was the one who secretly saved his life with a bone marrow donation. And when my grandmother lay dying, he refused to pay for the surgery that would have saved her. He called it another one of my "dramas," laughing as my last hope died. But he didn't just kill my grandmother. He killed our child, too. I was secretly pregnant, part of a billion-dollar surrogacy deal to get the money for her care. When I begged him, showing him the ultrasound, his reply was cold. "Get rid of it." With my grandmother dead and my heart destroyed, I finally gave up. He would always believe the lies of his mistress-my sister-who had stolen the credit for saving him. So I terminated the pregnancy, signed the divorce papers, and paid a doctor to erase every memory of him. Now, he stands before me, a broken man begging for forgiveness, but I can only look into his tear-filled eyes and ask, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

I woke from a five-year coma not to the faces of my family, but to my own death certificate. It was signed by my parents and my fiancé, Dante Moretti, the most ruthless Don in our world. He had sworn on his father's grave to wait for me. Instead, he replaced me with Sienna—the very woman who put me in that hospital bed. My own son, Luca, looked at me with cold, unfamiliar eyes. "You're not my mother," he sneered, hiding behind the woman who wore my face. My parents rushed to shield her, not me. "You must understand the bigger picture," my father said. "We did what was necessary for the Famiglia." But the final betrayal came after Sienna pushed me off a bridge and needed a blood transfusion. My own parents signed the consent form to use my blood, and my fiancé gave the order. "Save her," he snarled. The nurse told me they were ordered to "discard the blood bag after use." As if I were trash. I walked out of that hospital, a ghost in my own life. I took the new identity my old professor offered and vanished. This time, I wouldn't be Elara Bianchi, the tragic fiancée. I would build an empire of my own.

"I want you to seduce my brother." Those words, colder than the champagne in Alexander Hayes' s hand, shattered my five-year-long silent devotion. He was the man I secretly loved, the tech mogul who always dismissed our relationship, now demanding I break his disabled brother Daniel' s engagement to Chloe Miller. My heart hammered as he slid a check across the table: a cool million dollars to destroy an innocent man, followed by a promise of marriage to me-the ultimate reward for being his loyal, convenient secret. The familiar sting of his manipulative arrogance turned into a bitter laugh. Marriage? Now? After years of begging for commitment, I was just a prize for a performing dog. The shock gave way to cold anger. All my sacrifices, the lonely nights, the lies-all for him. He expected me to gratefully accept, like always. He wanted a performance? I' d give him one. But on my terms. "It's not enough," I heard myself say, my voice steady. His eyebrows shot up. He didn't expect that. "Five million," I stated, walking closer. "And a signed marriage contract. Before I even meet him." He stared, searching for weakness. He found none. The desperate, love-struck girl was gone. He agreed. I took the deal, trading my love for a contract, realizing I was just an asset in his twisted game. The game had changed. I was no longer his puppet. This was about survival. And maybe, just maybe, revenge.

The judge' s voice was a low drone, stamping out the last echoes of a life I barely recognized. "Divorce granted." My husband, Daniel, wasn' t there, called away by "duty"-a last-minute training, his lawyer smoothly explained. It was always duty, always Olivia, his "fragile" niece, who overshadowed everything. My last day at the fire station, a small comfort, was shattered when Daniel appeared, asking me to drop the papers. He even tried a surprise birthday gift, only to abandon me when Olivia had another "panic attack." I filed for divorce, expediting my transfer to a small town. But before I could leave, Daniel burst in with Olivia, whose innocent eyes hid a smirk. They' d invaded my last sanctuary. Then, I overheard Olivia, the so-called fragile niece, passionately kissing Daniel while begging him to choose her and "let me go." My world crumbled. This wasn't a family; it was a sick, twisted drama. I was the villain, destroying their codependent world. And then Olivia, in a dramatic display, ran headfirst into a wall, collapsing in a pool of blood. Daniel scooped her up, his eyes accusing me. My fault. Always my fault. I didn' t understand. How could I be blamed for her manipulative antics? How could he be so blind? This wasn't just about an affair; it was a decade of emotional suffocation. I was drowning, and he was too focused on her tears to notice. I picked up the divorce papers, the ones he hadn't received because Olivia had intercepted them. The true nature of their warped bond finally became horrifyingly clear. I drove away, toward a new city, a new life, finally ready to let go of the man who had loved duty more than me-or so I thought.