A Miao

My fiancé, Caleb Holder, saw me as a burden, a stain on his perfect image. In my past life, his constant cruelty and public humiliation drove me to suicide. After I died, the truth came out. His mistress, Erica, had faked her pregnancy and the miscarriage she blamed on me. While the world celebrated their "true love," I was just a tragic, forgotten fool. But then I opened my eyes. I was back on the night of the gala, moments before Erica would throw herself down the stairs. In a few minutes, Caleb would believe her lies without question, slap me until I bled, and call me a monster in front of his family. "You evil, jealous monster! You tried to kill my child!" Last time, his words destroyed me. This time, they would be my battle cry.

To an orphan like me, the Donovans’ approval was oxygen. I thought I was living a fairy tale as Ivan’s fiancée, finally finding a place to land. That illusion shattered the night I overheard my future father-in-law whisper behind a study door. "We can't keep paying Kayla forever. If this comes out, it ruins the merger." The name hung in the air like toxic smoke. Driven by a sickening gut feeling, I dug deeper. I found a tuition bill for a prestigious kindergarten for a boy named Leo—paid for by the Donovans. I disguised myself as a pest control worker and infiltrated the address on the bill. Inside the playroom of a massive mansion, I found the smoking gun. It wasn’t a receipt. It was a commissioned oil painting. It depicted my fiancé, Ivan, smiling with his arm around a beautiful woman, a young boy standing between them. The plaque read: *Our Happy Family - 2023.* They weren't just cheating; they were living a parallel life. They thought I was just the naive, grateful scholarship student who would never look too closely. They were wrong. At our lavish fifth-anniversary party, in front of five hundred of Manhattan's elite, Ivan waited for my loving toast. Instead, I signaled the AV booth. The giant screen behind us flickered to life. But it didn't show our wedding photos. It showed the painting. And then, I played the recordings.

On our anniversary, I was basting the roast when my husband’s encrypted laptop lit up on the kitchen counter. Alex Bradley, the ruthless Underboss of New York, never made mistakes. But tonight, he left a chat room open. The notification shattered my world: "Is the idiot eating the dog food yet?" It was from his mistress, Charlotte. They were betting on whether I would eat the red velvet cake she had spiked with her Rottweiler’s excrement. I realized then that my marriage was a long-con. I was just a "placeholder" wife to secure his promotion to Don. To survive, I had to play the part. Alex sat on the bed, feeding me the tainted cake with a loving smile. "Eat up, Jillian," he purred. "It’s to die for." I swallowed every bite of the filth, forcing myself not to vomit until he left the room. The humiliation didn't stop there. I found out our marriage license was void. He publicly bought me a twenty-million-dollar necklace at a gala, then abandoned me to face the debt, forcing me to hand over my grandmother’s earrings as collateral. He even watched calmly as his family beat me for a prank Charlotte orchestrated. But the final blow came when I overheard him planning our "romantic" getaway. "The blizzard hits Friday," he told Charlotte. "It’ll look like a tragic accident. Hypothermia." He thought he was taking a lamb to the slaughter. He didn’t know I had been counting down the days. When we arrived at the cabin and he went to prepare my "accident," I didn't cry. I tossed one of my boots over the cliff edge to stage my death. Then I climbed into the black extraction van waiting in the snow. Alex Bradley thought he had killed his wife. He had no idea he had just set her free.

After three years of being the agreeable, invisible girlfriend to my tech CEO boyfriend, Edward, I finally left him. Then Brody Frazier, his charming rival, swept into my life, determined to use me to get under Edward's skin. But at a tech gala, Edward cornered me, publicly declaring his love and flashing a "promise ring" he claimed he'd bought for me weeks ago. He did this right after his high school crush, Jeannette, announced their engagement, and right before he accused me of humiliating him. He insisted his feelings for Jeannette were a "youthful fantasy" and that I was his "anchor," his "stability." He said he loved me. But I remembered the truth. I remembered the small, hand-carved wooden bird he'd once made. A gift he'd had me send to Jeannette years ago, along with a love note he dictated himself. And I knew his desperate confession wasn't love. It was damage control.

After fifteen years of marriage and a brutal battle with infertility, I finally saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test. This baby was my victory, the heir that would finally secure my place as the wife of mob capo Marco Vitiello. I planned to announce it at his mother's party, a triumph over the matriarch who saw me as nothing but a barren field. But before I could celebrate, my friend sent me a video. The headline read: "MOB CAPO MARCO VITIELLO'S PASSIONATE NIGHTCLUB KISS!" It was him, my husband, devouring a woman who looked like a younger, fresher version of me. Hours later, Marco stumbled home, drunk and reeking of another woman's perfume. He complained about his mother begging him for an heir, completely unaware of the secret I held. Then my phone lit up with a text from an unknown number. "Your husband slept with my girl. We need to talk." It was signed by Dante Moretti, the ruthless Don of our rival family. The meeting with Dante was a nightmare. He showed me another video. This time, I heard my husband's voice, telling the other woman, "I love you. Elara... that's just business." My fifteen years of loyalty, of building his empire, of taking a bullet for him—all dismissed as "just business." Dante didn't just reveal the affair; he showed me proof that Marco was already stealing our shared assets to build a new life with his mistress. Then, he made me an offer. "Divorce him," he said, his eyes cold and calculating. "Join me. We'll build an empire together and destroy him."

The scent of lilies was thick, sweet, and suffocating. It was my wedding day, a grand affair Chloe had meticulously planned, even insisting on a custom-designed lighting fixture for the venue. Then the world exploded: metal twisted, glass shattered, and a crushing impact stole my sight, leaving me in a terrifying void. Chloe stayed by my side, weeping as the doctors delivered their grim prognosis: permanent blindness. She promised to be my "eyes," to take care of me, and swore our extravagant wedding would still happen, a beacon of eternal devotion. Her words were a lifeline in the suffocating dark, and I clung to them, believing in a future where her love would guide me. But then, the flickers started, ghost images resolving into light. My sight was returning, yet an instinct deep inside told me to keep it a secret. I continued to play the blind man, observing, listening, hidden in plain sight. One evening, feigning sleep, I heard Chloe whisper to Mark Stone, her brother-in-law. "Are you sure this was the only way?" she asked. "It was the cleanest way," he murmured, "An accident. Now he's helpless. He'll never find out about us." My heart stopped as I saw Mark kiss her-long and deep-before they spoke of my "inheritance" and a future built on my ruin. They planned it all: the accident, my blindness, my slow, humiliating descent into a "charity case" to be exploited. The betrayal was a physical blow, a cold, black void far worse than any darkness they thought they' d cast me into. They thought me a sightless fool, an easy target. They had no idea who I truly was, or what I was capable of. A silent, burning rage ignited within me, hardening into an unbreakable resolve. They wanted a show? I would give them one tonight at the wedding-a spectacle they would never forget, where their carefully constructed lies would unravel.

I watched the man I loved, the star I' d built from scratch, standing on a stadium stage. My heart hammered, knowing he was about to call me up, to begin our dreamed-of life together. But then he smiled, a brilliant, camera-ready smile that didn' t reach his eyes. "I' d like to welcome to the stage, my fiancée… Nicole Lawrence!" The name hit me like a physical blow as the polished pop-country princess glided out to kiss him. Later, when I confronted him with our old demo tape, he stared at me with cold, empty eyes. "I' m sorry, I don' t know you. You should probably go home." Then I heard his manager whisper: "Good job. The amnesia story is perfect. We can' t have any small-town baggage dragging you down." My blood ran cold. It wasn' t amnesia. It was a choice. I was baggage. The humiliation only escalated. Nicole publicly mocked me, then staged a fall, screaming I pushed her. Caleb rushed to her, snarling, "What the hell is wrong with you, Stella? Get her out of here! She' s poison to my career." Security guards dragged me out, dumping me on the sidewalk. Days later, Nicole broke my father' s beloved guitar, his legacy. And Caleb, seeing her theatrical tears, finished the job, stomping on the splintered wood. He blacklisted my name, starved me of work, and used his fame to have me arrested for a staged poisoning attempt. I became a pariah, selling my father' s precious mementos to survive. How could he do this? How could a lifetime of love and shared dreams be erased so easily? Was I just a forgotten memory, or something worse? Was this all part of a calculated plan, or was he truly that cruel? My world shattered, left homeless and brutally attacked in an alleyway, I lay dying. But then, a shadowy figure appeared, a hand reached down. I woke up in a sterile room, face-to-face with Wesley Hughes, "The Wanderer." He told me the truth: Caleb' s betrayal was a calculated move, and Nicole' s malice was intentional. He had proof. And more importantly, he revealed our fathers' long-lost pact. My father' s legacy, our legacy, was waiting to be reclaimed. This wasn' t the end. This was the beginning of my reckoning.

The air in the upstairs hallway was thick with the scent of expensive perfume, and I paused, my hand hovering over my bedroom door. For three decades, I was the unseen force behind my husband, the Governor of Texas, building his dynasty brick by painful brick. But then, voices from my son' s room shredded that illusion: my daughters-in-law, their hushed tones revealing a chilling plot. "Stress-induced heart failure within five years," one whispered, detailing my supposed "natural decline" as a pre-programmed exit for a new woman, Sabrina, my husband' s dead college sweetheart' s daughter. My breath hitched-they were discussing a "system" and a payoff for my demise, orchestrated by my own husband and sons. The family I built, the sons I raised, saw me as nothing more than a placeholder, destined to conveniently die so a younger, 'fresher' face could inherit my life. A cold dread, sharp and sickening, turned into a burning rage that pulsed through my veins. They wanted me gone? They wanted a compliant, tragic matriarch? I ripped open the door to Andrew' s room, my voice dangerously calm as I asked, "Tell me more about this 'system' ." They were speechless, frozen in fear, but I wasn't going to die quietly for their convenience. I was going to burn their carefully constructed world down.

My New York apartment smelled of lilies and roses, and my perfect Hamptons wedding was just three days away. Mark Olsen was everything I'd ever wanted: charming, successful, and devoted. I was about to become Mrs. Mark Olsen, stepping into the solid, perfect future we' d planned. Then a text from an unknown number shattered my world: "Can't believe you're still going through with this sham wedding. Last weekend was proof you belong with ME. Call it off like you promised, or I will. - T." My breath hitched. The words swam before my eyes. Mark was supposedly at a finance conference that very weekend, but my investigative dive into "T" (Tiffany Hayes, his high school ex) revealed glossy photos of her at his hotel, captured during his supposed conference. To add insult to injury, Tiffany was already engaged to another man, Alex Walker. I wasn't just betrayed; I was Mark's desperate fallback plan. Every cherished moment, every promise over our year-long engagement, felt like a sickening, elaborate lie. Why propose, why plan this lavish wedding, if I was just a convenient consolation prize? The thought was humiliating, the destruction of everything I believed our relationship was. My excitement curdled into icy rage. I wouldn't just call off the wedding. I decided to expose them both. This wouldn't be a celebration of love; it would be their public downfall, and I had just the stage for it: our pre-wedding brunch.

My 30th birthday, and my wife, the brilliant tech CEO Izzy Hayes, was late-again. Living in her opulent New York apartment, I, Ethan Cole, a once-promising surgeon, felt like a ghost, a consequence of a transactional marriage that saved my mother' s life five years ago and simultaneously crushed my own dreams. Fed up with her absolute indifference, I finally decided to break free. I accepted a prestigious surgical fellowship in Germany and served her divorce papers. She signed them on the spot, without a second glance, mistaking them for adoption forms-a brutal testament to how little I meant to her. But escaping Izzy' s orbit proved impossible. Her manipulative ex, Marcus Vance, resurfaced, systematically sabotaging my reputation and career. He staged a fake "assault" at the hospital that got me suspended, and Izzy, completely blind in her work-obsessed world, effortlessly believed his lies, her family joining the cruel chorus, painting me as a jealous villain. Just as my visa was finally approved, offering me a clear path to reclaim my life, I found her waiting at the airport. Tears of frustration blurred my vision as she snatched my passport. "Going somewhere, Ethan Cole?" she smirked, then, with chilling nonchalance, she ripped it in half. "Oops. Clumsy me." She still believed we were married, choosing to live in that delusion even as her own company began to tank due to Marcus' s cunning schemes. "You are my husband," she declared, grabbing my arm, dragging me back into her chaotic, high-stakes world. She forced me to play the role of the devoted spouse, a public facade to salvage her company' s image. Trapped, bewildered, and furious, I knew this wasn't just a crisis for her, but a crucible for me. Can I survive this charade? And what will it take to truly escape?

My life as Marcus Thorne's personal assistant was a tightrope walk, fueled by debt and a desperate need for invisibility. He was Hollywood's most feared mogul, and I was just the anonymous competence making his world run. Then Tiffany arrived, a caricature of a woman whose perfume assaulted the senses, declaring herself Marcus's "leading lady" and dismissing me as mere "help." Her delusion quickly escalated from annoying pronouncements to outright malice. She openly resented a simple silver pendant Marcus had given me, dismissing it as "charity." She deliberately sabotaged my work, sweeping crucial files across the floor. Once, she even sloshed scalding coffee onto my hand and keyboard, her smirk dripping with false sympathy. Her threats grew bolder, hinting she knew a dangerous secret about Marcus's most guarded Blackwood deal. I tried to endure, focusing on my duties, but her fervent belief in her own rom-com script, coupled with her growing aggression, was deeply unsettling. How could she be so dangerously unaware of reality, or worse, so brazenly malicious? The breaking point arrived when she, in an overly dramatic gesture, spilled steaming coffee directly onto Marcus Thorne's immaculate suit. The room fell silent. But Marcus didn't look at her; his icy gaze found me. "Sarah," he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "Handle this." It was the first time he truly saw me, not just as background noise.

It was Leo and Lily' s fifth birthday, a bright morning, and my husband Ethan, the real estate mogul, was showering our twins with laughter and kisses. He promised to see me at my parents' that night, his hand tenderly resting on my pregnant belly, blissfully unaware of the horror about to unfold. Hours later, the world shattered. My car was ambushed, my children and I dragged to a remote barn, and then I saw them: Tiffany Monroe, a socialite I vaguely recognized, and... my husband, Ethan, by her side. They stood watching impassively as men brutally beat my twins, Leo and Lily, to death. My twins screamed, fought, and then fell limp, moments before Tiff, with Ethan's cold encouragement, burned me with a cigarillo. Even when I screamed his name, when they ripped my custom locket off, he dismissed me as "trash," declaring his wife "safe" because she had her locket-the very one they'd stolen from me. The final blow came when he ordered a C-section in front of me, taking my unborn child as a "souvenir" for Tiff. How could he not know me? How could the man who promised me forever, the father of my children, casually order my baby carved from me, all because a locket wasn't on my neck? The pain of his betrayal, his utter blindness, was colder than death itself. Yet, as one loyal employee saved me from oblivion, I watched Ethan's horror when he finally saw the truth, confirming he was a monster, not an unwitting participant. It sparked a new life within me, not one of grief, but of ice-cold, calculated revenge. He took everything. Now, I will take his empire, his freedom, and his sanity, piece by agonizing piece.

Ava Rodriguez's brilliant brother, Leo, won the acclaimed American Justice Fellowship. His future was supposed to shine, a beacon of hope for their family. Then, he died. They called it suicide, but Leo's last scrawled words to her were: "Don't accept the fellowship." Ava knew they were lying. He was murdered, just like every other fellow who threatened the powerful. For three years, she buried herself in law, watching, waiting, preparing to expose the truth. Now, she's won the fellowship herself, her proposal a direct challenge to the corrupt system. But as she publicly declares her brother was murdered and vows to expose the truth, the trap springs shut around her. Suddenly, she's not the grieving sister seeking justice, but the prime suspect in a series of horrific murders. Evidence - her brother's unique custom pen, her IP address near other "suicide" scenes - mysteriously emerges, painting her as a cold-blooded serial killer. Even her own mother, distraught and masked, appears, "confessing" to the crimes to protect Ava, unknowingly deepening the meticulously planned frame-up. The world spins into a nightmare of accusations and twisted truths. She' s being set up not to shine, but to be destroyed, with her "suicide" in federal custody as the perfect final act. How could they twist everything so perfectly? Why her mother' s desperate, bizarre act? The narrative has been set: Ava Rodriguez, brilliant law graduate, or monstrous serial killer? Refusing to be another silenced victim, Ava stages a high-stakes escape from federal custody. She races to the darkest secret her family holds, the one place she believes the real truth lies-her father's grave. Under the harsh glare of news cameras and the FBI, a shovel in hand, she prepares to dig. What she unearths will either expose a shocking family secret and a vast conspiracy, or bury her forever.

My life with Ethan was a dream. High school sweethearts, married five years, he was a charismatic tech mogul, and I loved him deeply. Then, I got pregnant, and he seemed absolutely over the moon, especially when we learned it was twins. That dream shattered when I overheard a hushed conversation between Ethan and our fancy OB-GYN. He was demanding an early C-section for me-not for my health, but to align with his mistress Chloe's due date. The "twins" he cried tears of joy over? One was hers, a sickening ploy to pass off her baby as ours for a crucial inheritance. My world tilted on its axis as I discovered I was only carrying one healthy baby. His tearful joy, his endless doting-every cherished moment was a well-rehearsed performance. When I fled, he staged a massive "missing person" search, dragging me back to his hospital while still talking about our "high-risk twins" to control me. Then, on our wedding anniversary, I found him with Chloe, kissing her passionately, planning their wedding right there in the hospital wing he always steered me away from. How could the man I'd loved for a decade be such a monstrous deceiver, using my body, my pregnancy, and my life as pawns in his twisted game? The hypocrisy burned, the casual cruelty a punch to the gut. Everyone around him, even our doctor, was complicit in this horrifying web of lies. But as I watched his humiliating, live-streamed "wedding" to his mistress from my hospital bed, my heartbreak hardened into icy resolve. I finally understood the extent of his betrayal, and that very realization ignited a fierce determination within me. I signed the divorce papers, ready to escape this gilded cage and fight for my freedom and my child's future, no matter the cost.

Betrayed by her fiance, Tracy was sent to Marcus’s room as a gift. After a wild night, she found that the man lying next to her was not only the big name in the city but also her ex-boyfriend she dumped years ago. He worked hard to become the only heir of his family so that one day he could stand in front of her and avenge himself. However, when she fell in front of him to save him, he realized that he still cared about her as much as before, and was so afraid of losing her.

Everyone knew Kristine loved Colton. Still, his heart clung to a woman overseas-someone he spent most days with, now pregnant with his baby-and Kristine still asked him to marry her. On their registration day, however, he never came; his "true love" had flown back. Seven years of loyalty later, Kristine walked away, blocked him, and left his city. Colton didn't blink-until he saw her at the courthouse, arm-in-arm with another man, and the proud CEO went pale. He went after her, desperation overtaking him. "I'm sorry. Please give me another chance." She snapped, "Could you stop? I'm already married."

I stood at my mother’s open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest’s voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone—he brought Charla with him. He claimed she’d had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

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!"

"Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress. With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap. Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell. On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered. When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling."

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."

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

The heavy thud of the release stamp was the only goodbye I got from the warden after five years in federal prison. I stepped out into the blinding sun, expecting the same flash of paparazzi bulbs that had seen me dragged away in handcuffs, but there was only a single black limousine idling on the shoulder of the road. Inside sat my mother and sister, clutching champagne and looking at my frayed coat with pure disgust. They didn't offer a welcome home; instead, they tossed a thick legal document onto the table and told me I was dead to the city. "Gavin and I are getting engaged," my sister Mia sneered, flicking a credit card at me like I was a stray dog. "He doesn't need a convict ex-fiancée hanging around." Even after I saved their lives from an armed kidnapping attempt by ramming the attackers off the road, they rewarded me by leaving me stranded in the dirt. When I finally ran into Gavin, the man who had framed me, he pinned me against a wall and threatened to send me back to a cell if I ever dared to show my face at their wedding. They had stolen my biotech research, ruined my name, and let me rot for half a decade while they lived off my brilliance. They thought they had broken me, leaving me with nothing but an expired chapstick and a few old photos in a plastic bag. What they didn't know was that I had spent those five years becoming "Dr. X," a shadow consultant with five hundred million dollars in crypto and a secret that would bring the city to its knees. I wasn't just a victim anymore; I was a weapon, and I was pregnant with the heir they thought they had erased. I walked into the Melton estate and made an offer to the most powerful man in New York. "I'll save your grandfather's life," I told Horatio Melton, staring him down. "But the price is your last name. I'm taking back what's mine, and I'm starting with the man who thinks he's marrying my sister."

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.