The Bride he wanted was Never my sister
/1/127579/coverbig.jpg?v=2ea34f2e2c2f3053a637d5acfe2fbf25)
His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius
I flew back to New York on my twenty-fifth birthday, carrying vintage gold cufflinks I spent weeks finding for my billionaire husband, Declan. But when I walked into our townhouse, I found him throwing a massive victory party with Sloane, a glamorous socialite, standing by his side as the proud hostess. "Don't cause a scene. Go upstairs." Declan coldly dismissed me in front of his guests. Even Poppy, the rookie player whose shattered ankle I had painstakingly rebuilt, rolled her eyes and ignored me to suck up to Sloane. Hiding in the shadows, I heard the maids gossiping that everyone thought Sloane was the future Mrs. Hartford. To make matters worse, I discovered Sloane had stolen my anonymous, groundbreaking medical algorithm and was planning to present it as her own. First my husband, then the girl I mentored like family, and now the scientific foundation I had built with my own hands. Declan even texted me to cancel our birthday breakfast without a single apology, treating me like an annoying afterthought. My tears vanished, replaced by a freezing clarity. I signed the divorce papers, leaving them on his desk with zero demands for his money. Then I packed my bags, booked a one-way ticket to Boston, and prepared to destroy them on the global stage.
Chapter 1
Aurelia Vance POV:
I had been married to Declan Hartford for three years.
Today was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had flown back from Boston in secret, hoping for one quiet evening with my husband.
I'd spent a week carefully picking out a pair of gold cufflinks as a gift for my husband.
But the laughter spilling from the front door told me I was already too late: the woman who had taken my place at his side was already inside.
The heavy oak door swung open before I reached the porch. Three young players from the New York Titans, Declan's NHL franchise, stumbled out with crystal tumblers of scotch, laughing loudly. They barely glanced at me as they passed.
I stepped into the grand foyer. The heat hit me instantly,expensive champagne, roasted tenderloin, cigar smoke.
Dozens of people filled the double parlor: executives, scouts, wives in designer dresses.
In the center stood Declan, tall and broad in a bespoke charcoal suit. Beside him, laughing into his ear, was Sloane Whitfield, her backless silver dress catching the chandelier light. Her hand rested on his forearm like she belonged there.
Before I could take another breath, a blur of blonde hair darted past my elbow.
"Sloane!" Poppy Delacroix cried, throwing her arms around Sloane's slender waist. "You were completely right about the catering! This is literally the best victory party the team has ever had!"
Poppy is fourteen, a junior elite forward prospect.
I scouted her two years ago from a crumbling youth league, back when she was at her lowest.
Her parents had once shown me great kindness, and I knew they had already passed away, leaving her all alone in the world.
Declan and I adopted her together.
I rebuilt her shattered ankle with a custom rehabilitation plan.
I had always loved and cared for her as both a mother and a sister.
Now, she did not even glance in my direction.
Declan turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd until his eyes locked onto mine. The easy grin on his sharp jaw vanished instantly. His brows drew together in a hard, irritated line.
He excused himself from Sloane, cutting through the throng of players with long, impatient strides.
"Aurelia," Declan said, stopping two feet in front of me. His voice carried zero warmth. "What are you doing here?"
My throat felt like sandpaper.
"I took the four o'clock flight from Boston," I whispered, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. "It is my birthday, Declan. I thought we could—"
"We are celebrating the division win," he cut in, his tone sharp enough to draw blood. "The board is here. The sponsors are here. Sloane spent four consecutive days coordinating this event so the organization could project stability."
He did not look at me. His gaze slid past my shoulder to the bar, like I was a waitress who had wandered into the wrong room.
"Don't cause a scene," he added quietly. "Go upstairs."
A soft, mocking murmur rippled through a cluster of players' wives standing near the grand staircase. Two women with platinum blowouts exchanged knowing glances over their flutes of Dom Pérignon.
"I didn't know," I said, my voice barely audible over the swelling music. "I am sorry."
I turned toward the staircase, my legs trembling beneath my wool trousers.
Near the landing, Poppy was adjusting her designer jacket in the hallway mirror.
"Poppy," I said softly, pausing beside her. "How is your ankle feeling after Thursday's third period? Did you complete the isometric sequence I sent?"
Poppy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly as she pulled out her phone.
"Aurelia, please, not right now," she muttered without looking at me. "Sloane is introducing me to a marketing director from one of our partners. I don't have time for your spreadsheets."
The dismissive edge in her voice hit me harder than Declan's coldness. I had stayed up until three in the morning reviewing her biomechanical scans while she was recovering from surgery, and now I was just an annoyance in the way of her social ascent.
I walked up the rest of the stairs and entered the primary suite—the massive, sterile bedroom allocated to me under our prenuptial agreement.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out the velvet box. The gold cufflinks gleamed under the bedside lamp, cold and useless.
Downstairs, cheers erupted. The sound vibrated through the floorboards.
I walked to the French doors overlooking the rear garden. Down on the illuminated patio, Sloane was directing two servers by an ice sculpture. Declan stood beside her, his head bent down as he listened to her speak, his hand casually brushing the small of her back.
They looked like the couple the city expected them to be.
My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out, hoping against hope.
It was an email notification.
"Happy Birthday, Aurelia. Remember that true science requires patience and solitude. You are meant for greater arenas than New York boardrooms. -Dr. Edmund Sterling."
My mentor at Harvard was the only person in the world who had remembered.
I typed a brief "Thank you, Professor" and shut off the screen.
Hours passed. The bass eventually quieted, replaced by the occasional clatter of glassware and slamming car doors. My throat burned with thirst.
At two in the morning, I padded downstairs in my stocking feet to fetch a glass of water from the butler's pantry.
As I rounded the corner near the service hallway, the voices of two newly hired catering maids stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Miss Whitfield is stunning," the first girl whispered, scraping dessert plates into a bin. "Mr. Hartford's girlfriend carries herself like royalty."
"A girlfriend?" the other asked, pausing. "But isn't Mr. Hartford rumored to be married? Is it inappropriate to be this close with Whitfield?"
"Married?Where did that come from? Even if there was one, they must have split long ago. I've worked three events here this month, and Miss Whitfield is the only woman hosting by his side. Everyone knows she's the future Mrs. Hartford."
I shrank back into the cold shadow of the archway, my blood turning to ice.
In the home where I held a legal marriage certificate, my presence had already been wiped clean.
/1/115317/coverbig.jpg?v=a0697d84839c0353d6cdb9ea3666452d)
The Bride he wanted was Never my sister
Mirabella spent her entire life in her sister's shadow, serving as the family fixer who cleans up every disaster left behind by her golden sister, the perfect sister and the one who got the guy she had always crushed on. When her sister absconds on her wedding day to avoid an arranged marriage with
/1/101485/coverbig.jpg?v=8df345b9475a61435b5e0075ef4c71a6)
THE BRIDE HE NEVER WANTED
The Bride I Never Wanted One betrayal. One reckless decision. One deadly mistake. The night before my wedding, I found my fiancé in bed with my maid of honor. Heartbroken and humiliated, I did what any rational woman would do-I ran. What I didn't expect was to find a stranger on a bridge, second
/0/77904/coverbig.jpg?v=e4a2b1647b1418b418abd7af330060ae)
THE WIFE HE NEVER WANTED
Isla Calloway's marriage was never built on love, it was a carefully orchestrated alliance between two families, and she had accepted it with quiet strength. Despite Adrian, her husband, being cold and distant, Isla carried on with dignity, hoping someday she would be seen for more than just the wo
/1/123745/coverbig.jpg?v=1816bb11f3d41d86623dcbb1c1856a17)
HE WAS NEVER MINE
"You were never my wife. You were just... a placeholder until I got my real life back." Nathaniel Sterling said the words like they cost him nothing. Avery Monroe didn't flinch, she didn't cry, she didn't even beg. "Give me one night," she asked instead. "My first, and my last, as your wife." He
/0/19392/coverbig.jpg?v=bae5659a41c27cfaa517f16b40b28392)
He was never mine
Carmen was in one-sided love, and she didn't know that until she got married to Liam, her high school crush. After getting married to him, his attitude towards her changed. But Carmen stayed in the marriage and endured his inappropriate behavior towards her. However, everything changed when she met
/0/90794/coverbig.jpg?v=c3822b0f72ed29a38f32981751f5b747)
THE BRIDE HE NEVER CHOSE
She took her twin's place to survive. But falling in love with the man meant to ruin her was never part of the plan. When Layla Ross steps into the shoes of her missing twin, she's thrust into a marriage with Dominic Foster the dangerously powerful man who married her sister for revenge. But nothin
/0/22040/coverbig.jpg?v=f593db51b1307860322e86e7d10e671e)
He Was My Crush
Sylvia Torres has always had a crush on Alex Jones until she kissed quiet Patrick Jamison to prove otherwise. Now to keep up with her lie, she must be closer to Patrick or else be humiliated by Alex's girlfriend. But what happens when real feelings set in and there's more to Patrick and Alex than ju
/0/95404/coverbig.jpg?v=b58a291fdfc4408fef6066cccf130872)
Twisted Love: The Bride He Never Loved
Celestia was a proud heiress, adored by all. Until one drunken night ruined everything. Branded a homewrecker. Her father hospitalized. Her family empire stolen. And forced to marry Jareth - the cold, ruthless billionaire who destroyed her. On their wedding night, she stood alone in the rain, sick a
/1/129537/coverbig.jpg?v=1760820ba815b1a30f29386861dd1420)
The Substitute Bride He Could Never Replace
Cassian Ashbourne's bride was never to be Neriah Vale. She was nothing more than a replacement for the sister. Suffering from a rare disease that doctors at the time thought would kill her before her 21st birthday, Neriah replaces her sister at the altar for treatment. But she regrets that de
/0/95678/coverbig.jpg?v=6339418fac3de91ea9ddfcbc6ad833a9)
The Twin He Wanted
May and Josphine were twins with the one being loved and other being rejected . The one being Healthy and other being Sick. She sacrificed her body for her twin well being and when she realised that it was enough she escaped to find her own world where he was patiently waiting for her to enter his
/0/67817/coverbig.jpg?v=76879f5767159a50bfe1e5e48c11c710)
The Luna they Never wanted
Aria never wanted to marry Kael, the arrogant playboy her father forced her to accept as her fiancé. But Kael had his own twisted motives-he only wanted her because she was the one girl who refused him. When Aria rejected his demand to sleep with him a week before their wedding, Kael tried to take
/0/24003/coverbig.jpg?v=e2ee81becb09b212527130b3f3640183)
He Was Never Mine To Keep
There are two sides of a coin, heads, and tails. Both represent a whole, without either side of the coin, the coin will be incomplete. There will always be something missing but combined they make the coin whole. Two sides of a coin, they might seem insignificant but both are important, for a coin i
/0/63175/coverbig.jpg?v=b83984ae603227d2a8a9d45fe1f59bdf)
NEVER KNEW HE WAS A MAFIA
Her father and stepmother died, leaving her to the brutal hands of her step brother. Her stepbrother is heartless. He treats her as a maid, is it a torture? She however discovers that she has been sold. Sold to a Ruthless Mafia, just to serve as a settlement for her stepbrother's debt. Now she fea
/1/125296/coverbig.jpg?v=f2206eed3133174af40bfe2d3d2e28aa)
Divorcing the CEO: He Never Wanted Me Until I Left
For three years, Estella Mccarthy was the wife Alden Molina never wanted. She wore the ring. She attended his family dinners. She smiled beside the Wall Street billionaire whenever their marriage contract required it. And foolishly, somewhere along the way, she fell in love with him. Alden never
/0/86409/coverbig.jpg?v=466a314c6b0f735ac068dca0f42ff627)
The Wedding That Never Was
The last thing I remembered was the cold, seeping into my bones on the operating table, as doctors frantically tried to stop the hemorrhaging. Then, the words that shattered my world: "The baby… the baby can' t be saved." My baby, gone. And in a flash, I remembered my husband Liam' s venomous snee
/0/99503/coverbig.jpg?v=e3397de932d26b650c48608048225a2b)
THE WIDOW WHO NEVER WAS
They buried her with lies... They mourned her with guilt... But Alira was never truly gone. When Alira discovers the affair between her sister and her husband, the man she once built her entire world around... confrontation turns to tragedy. Her life is stolen in a single, cruel moment but fate giv
/0/45973/coverbig.jpg?v=f519081b2aab2d8e9b3bb173365a1f0c)
He Was Once My Uncle
I quickly combed my hair because it was said that Ninong Raphael's visit was today! Wow after two years we will meet again! I'm thrilled, I've had a crush on Ninong for a long time, it's like he has all the qualities I want in a man. Papa and Uncle Raphael are best friends, in other words Papa
/0/81325/coverbig.jpg?v=7809d7b82d3d3b7030fd98717bfe4340)
My Ex's "C" Was Never Me
Another wire transfer pinged. It was another "apology payment" from Victoria Sterling, my girlfriend of five years. This one was different: $500,000. Far more than her usual fifty thousand, a sum that had already made me secretly rich. I' d played the role of the devoted, slightly naive boyfrien
/1/110058/coverbig.jpg?v=4371dcd6c33cda44e0f591219f7b2fbf)
The Woman He Was Never Meant To Love
She was sold into silence. He was born into power. Love was never supposed to happen. When Elena Brooks is forced into a cold, calculated marriage to Sebastian Blake-the ruthless heir to a powerful dynasty-she believes she has simply traded one prison for another. The Blake estate is filled with sec
/1/114165/coverbig.jpg?v=53356f42c6518ad09bc6af4efe6a8b18)
The Billionaire My Sister Wanted Is Mine Now
In her past life, Serena Vale was the perfect daughter and sister. She sacrificed everything, her dreams, her university admission, and even her inheritance, so her stepsister could live the life she deserved. But kindness was repaid with betrayal. At twenty-eight, just hours after her billionaire
