The Betrayed Heiress's Ruthless Fake Marriage

I am the Luna of the Blackwood Pack, but my Alpha mate, Ryker, has spent the last six years treating me like a placeholder while publicly pining for his ex, Faye. When Faye's friends cornered my wolfless daughter and called her a defective embarrassment, I finally used my Luna authority to kick them out. But instead of defending our child, Ryker stormed in and used his Alpha Command on me. He forced me to my knees with his raw power, ordering me to apologize to the bullies who had just humiliated our daughter. When I fought his crushing command and refused, his retaliation was swift and brutal. He and his mother stripped me of my family's sacred heritage, the Moonpetal Grove, and gifted it to Faye as a reward. They even tried to force a quack doctor on my daughter, telling me to just accept that she was broken. The entire pack watched me lose everything, mocking me as the useless, rejected mate. I had endured his coldness for years, but watching him sacrifice our daughter's safety and my family's legacy for his mistress was the final straw. How could the Moon Goddess tie me to a man who would so easily destroy his own flesh and blood? Instead of crying, I pulled out my mother's ancient grimoire and drafted a formal rejection of our mate bond. And when a terrifyingly powerful, cloaked stranger suddenly appeared to save my daughter's life, carrying a familiar scent of ancient power, I knew my fate was changing. This time, I wouldn't just walk away. I was going to burn their world to the ground.

My husband, Keaton, and my adopted sister, Kaylene, betrayed me. I discovered Kaylene was pregnant with his child, a calculated move to secure an heir for the shipping empire my family built and he now controlled. He painted me as a cold, career-obsessed wife who couldn't give him a child, turning our mutual decision to wait into a weapon against me. When I confronted them, Keaton promised to handle it, but it was just another lie. His deception ran deeper than I ever imagined. When a violent figure from Keaton' s past emerged, revealing he had used stolen money to marry into my family, Keaton chose to protect his pregnant mistress over me, leaving me to be attacked and seriously injured. He left me bleeding on the floor of an art gallery, choosing to shield the woman carrying his child-a child that, I would later discover, wasn't even his. I faked my own death, escaping to Ireland to start a new life, free from his web of lies. But Keaton, consumed by a twisted obsession after learning the truth, hunted me down. He found me, desperate to reclaim what he had destroyed. "You're mine, Blair," he growled, his eyes filled with a possessive fire. "Always have been, always will be."

On our third anniversary, I found ninety-nine love letters my husband wrote. None of them were for me. They were for Kennedy, the woman who stole my award-winning design years ago, the woman he swore he was over. His letters spoke of a soul-deep connection, a passion I'd only ever dreamed of. Then, my best friend called from the airport. She saw him there, with Kennedy, locked in a Hollywood-style embrace. He wasn't just cheating. This was a long-con. He'd married me to silence me, using my DNA to help Kennedy fraudulently claim the inheritance of the powerful Olsen family-an inheritance that was rightfully mine. He canceled my credit cards, renounced his citizenship, and secretly married her in France, all while I played the part of the loving wife. When I tried to fight back, he had me drugged, imprisoned, and nearly drowned, all to protect his precious Kennedy. He thought he had erased me, a mere footnote in their grand story. But he made one fatal mistake. He didn't know I was the real Olsen heiress. And I was coming back to claim everything he stole.

For three years, my boyfriend Adelard’s ex-girlfriend, Aurore, haunted our relationship with her fake brain cancer. He swore his devotion to her was just pity, a sense of duty to his dying first love. Then, on our anniversary, he asked me to stand by while he held a fake wedding with Aurore. He claimed it was “therapy” to cure her jumbled memories and give her closure so we could finally be together. He swore it was the last thing he’d ever ask of me. But I soon discovered he’d known she was faking for months. I found the love letters he wrote to her on our anniversaries, on my birthdays. His friends, who knew the truth, mocked me in a language they thought I didn’t understand. He had never loved me. I was just a placeholder, a convenient stand-in until he could get closure with his true love. So when he publicly proposed to Aurore with a sky full of fireworks, I didn't cry. I packed my bags, took the company shares he'd 'gifted' me as a symbol of our future, and walked away. The next morning, I put on a different wedding dress. I was going to marry Grady Barber, the powerful heir my twin sister was supposed to marry. This time, I chose myself.

The phone buzzed, a jarring sound, and it was Liam. His voice, once a comfort, was now a broken mess, choked out words about losing everything in a high-stakes poker game-including his grandma' s house. I abandoned my college dreams, moved to the coast, and spent five grueling years as a nightclub hostess, saving every dollar to pay off his million-dollar debt. But then, the final payment made, I overheard a conversation. It wasn' t a mistake. It was a five-year-long, cruel game orchestrated by Liam and my high school rival, Ashley Thompson, to punish me for being a scholarship student who always came first. Heartbreakingly, a familiar voice, his, dripped with malice: "It was Ashley's idea. She wanted to punish her. And I owed Ashley a favor." My world tilted. The love, the sacrifice, all a twisted lie. When I confronted him, his voice, stripped of pretense, confirmed my worst fears, "You gave them. Don't pin your bad choices on me. You liked being the hero, didn't you?" Later, Ashley came to my door, demanding a five-million-dollar necklace as "repayment" for my academic success, threatening my ailing mother. Then, a "staged" car accident left me bruised, and Liam, ever the actor, rushed me to the ER, only to abandon me for Ashley' s dinner reservation. My mother, manipulated by Ashley' s lies, died tragically trying to escape the nursing home. Liam, once again, dismissed my grief as an inconvenience. I couldn't fathom the depths of their depravity. Why me? Why such calculated cruelty? What kind of monster would use love as a weapon and sacrifice an innocent life for a twisted game? With nothing left but a box of ashes and a broken heart, I booked a one-way ticket to the UK, determined to reclaim my life, to find out who Chloe Davis truly was beyond their game.

The ambulance siren faded, but the chaos at the Sterling mansion was just beginning. My adoptive sister, Charlotte, had slit her wrist, her note simply stating my name: "Ava." Suddenly, I was standing in the opulent living room, the one where they' d celebrated my adoption five years ago, now a courtroom where I was on trial. My adoptive mother, Eleanor, shrieked, her perfectly manicured hand trembling as she pointed at me. "She loved you. She looked up to you. And you did this to her." Richard Sterling, my adoptive father and a man whose tech empire I was secretly working to expose, stepped forward, his face a thundercloud of rage. "Don' t lie to me, Ava. Charlotte' s note was clear. You' ve been tormenting her." Even Ethan, my usually kind adoptive brother, turned away. "I can' t believe I ever trusted you." The betrayal from him cut deeper than the accusations. Eleanor sobbed, "She' s a fragile girl. You, you' re strong. You preyed on her weakness." Then, Richard' s hand connected with my cheek, the slap echoing in the cavernous room. "You will stay in your room," he commanded, his voice a low growl. "You will not leave. You will not speak to anyone." Locked in my room, Agent Hayes' s immediate message flashed in my mind: Extraction denied. Maintain cover. Sterling is planning something big. We need you inside. My mission, meant to expose Richard, had not only imploded, but had trapped me deeper in their twisted web. I was meant to stay. I was meant to endure. But as Richard' s chilling voice carried through the door later that night, confirming his plan to freeze my accounts and leave me with nothing, I knew one thing: I had to get out.