Eduino Aitchison

Friday nights used to be perfect. The smell of roasted chicken, Liam' s smile across the dining table-five years of DINK bliss, just us, no kids, no pets. Then, he dropped the bombshell: a sponsored student, Sarah, was pregnant. And it was his child. He swore it wasn' t an affair, a bizarre tale of stolen sperm and his powerful, bloodline-obsessed family. But the consequences were brutally real: Liam, who "didn't like kids," transformed, devoting himself to Sarah and their unborn child. He stripped our shared office to build a nursery, his tenderness reserved for her. My home became haunted by a happiness that was no longer mine. The final insult came during a fire. Trapped, I screamed his name, but Liam scooped up a cowering Sarah, whispering, "Our little family will be safe." He left me, choking on smoke, as a burning beam crashed down on my back. I survived, barely. But when I woke, he was asking for a temporary divorce. "It's just for the birth certificate," he said. "Then we'll remarry." Was I really supposed to wait for him while he built a life with another woman, using my name for their child? No. Not anymore. I pulled out my IV. I was leaving. For good.

My husband, Chase, was having an affair. But when I confronted him, he didn't just admit it-he told me he was tired of my ambition and that his new lover, a diner waitress, was everything I wasn't: simple and undemanding. Then he pushed me down the stairs. The fall cost me our unborn child. As I lay broken in the hospital, his mistress, Joy, visited. Under the guise of care, she forced a foul soup down my throat, whispering it was the "blood and flesh" of my dead baby. When I fought back, Chase walked in, saw Joy on the floor, and ordered his bodyguards to beat me for hurting her. One hundred slaps. Each one chipping away at the nine years of love I had for him. He had promised to be my anchor, but he had become the storm that wrecked me. Why did the man who once cherished my brilliance now despise it? Why did he protect the monster who tormented me while destroying me and our child? Lying on the cold hospital floor, bruised and bleeding, I finally understood. The love was dead. And with it, the woman who had ever loved him. I picked up my phone and made a call. It was time to burn it all down.

On our fifth anniversary, my husband Jacoby posted a tribute to our "perfect love" for the world to see. That same day, I was signing the divorce papers he didn't even know existed. I had discovered he wasn't just cheating with his junior analyst, Bridgette; they were using my secret trading algorithms for a massive insider trading scheme. He paraded their affair, publicly proposed to her, and after their first attempt on my life landed me in the hospital, he moved her into our home. They wanted me gone for good. He called me his "rock" online while whispering to her that I was a "fragile old witch." He thought I was a fool, too weak to fight back. So I gave them exactly what they wanted. I faked my own death. And as the "grieving" widower prepared to claim my fortune at his family's grand gala, I prepared to make my own spectacular entrance.

I was the orphan Marcus Thorne took in. He was my guardian, my savior, and the man I foolishly fell in love with. But when he caught me sketching his portrait, he didn't see devotion. He saw a mess. He called my feelings "inappropriate" and told his fiancée I was just a "minor household issue" before shipping me off to Italy to get rid of me. He thought I would pine for him. Instead, I erased him. I blocked his number, deleted his photos, and sent him a check for every single cent he spent on me with two words: *Debt paid.* Three years later, Marcus showed up in Florence. He looked wrecked, desperate, and furious that his "property" had walked away. He tried to order me home. He tried to claim he finally loved me. He expected the girl who used to worship him to fall into his arms. But I looked at the man who broke my heart and felt absolutely nothing. "You don't love me, Marcus," I said, stepping back into the arms of a man who actually valued me. "You just hate losing." And for the first time, I watched him crumble while I walked away.

I spent three years as the perfect girlfriend to Silicon Valley's "Ice King," August Armstrong, only to overhear him call our entire relationship a "training exercise" to win back my estranged stepsister, Caroline. He used me, then cast me aside, framing me for attacking Caroline at their engagement party after she deliberately broke my late mother's necklace. August's men beat me half to death and left me in an abandoned warehouse. "You're just a problem to be solved," they sneered. Lying broken on the concrete floor, I found August's phone. A text from Caroline glowed on the screen: "They dealt with her. She won't bother us again. See you at the wedding, my love." They thought they had buried me, but they only planted a seed. At their wedding, as they stood at the altar, the giant screens behind them flickered to life. Instead of their smiling faces, the entire world saw a video of Caroline, perfectly healthy, laughing with another man in Europe, followed by security footage of her shoving me into the path of a crashing car.

The valedictorian medal, cold against my skin, was a stark reminder of the ceremony an hour ago. My father' s face was a mask of disappointment, my mother fussed over my adopted brother, Alex, who sat slumped on the sofa. My crime? Not mentioning Alex in my valedictorian speech. An academic speech, not a family showcase. But to them, it was a deliberate act of cruelty, a way to "overshadow" Alex, who had just failed two finals and wouldn' t even get a full diploma. My mother accused, "Every success you have is just another way to remind him of what he isn't." My father added, "Family is supposed to support each other, not tear each other down. We are so disappointed in you." All my life, I'd craved their approval, but it was never enough. Alex was their sun; I, a distant, cold star. I tried to offer a peace offering-a framed photo of us, genuinely happy, from years ago. My mother twisted in disgust, pushing it away. It shattered on the floor, echoing the breaking of my heart. My graduation gift, a car for my internship, was given to Alex instead. My punishment: exile to my uncle' s farm, five hours away. Two hours into the drive, my phone buzzed. It was my mother, not to apologize, but to ask for my student ID for Alex's summer school discount. Then, she demanded I forget my internship and return to tutor Alex. As she listed his needs, a deer appeared. I hit the brake. Nothing. The pedal went straight to the floor. The last thing I heard was the sickening screech of metal against an old oak tree. Time became fluid, I was floating, watching my body in the wreckage. Ten days passed. No one came. My family didn' t notice I was gone. The letter from my internship, rescinding the offer, finally reached them. My father' s brow furrowed, "He's probably trying to punish us." That' s when I saw myself-a faint shimmer. I was a ghost. They couldn' t hear my screams, my explanations. My mother called my physical phone, miles away in the wreckage. Her voicemail, dripping with fury, not fear, echoed in my spectral ears: "This childish tantrum is over. Your brother needs you!" Anguish, cold and sharp, pierced through me. They only thought of Alex. What happened to us? And why was I, who worked so hard, always the family problem? What twisted delusion allowed them to ignore my efforts, my needs, my very existence, all while lavishing adoration on Alex? Why did they choose to be blind, even in my death? The answer would come, slowly, agonizingly, as my spectral presence clung to the home that no longer recognized me. And the truth, when it finally surfaced, would shatter their world just as irrevocably as my body had been shattered on that dark highway.

My twenty-fifth birthday was three weeks away, and if I wasn't married by then, a rare genetic condition would claim my life. My fiancé, Liam, the man I' d loved my whole life, was supposed to be my savior. But then, at a charity auction, Liam publicly awarded Sarah Jenkins-his assistant, whom I had personally recommended for the job-with a diamond necklace he knew I adored, calling her the "brightest star in his sky" right in front of me. The whispers and pitying glances were unbearable. He later showed up, acting as if nothing happened, and offered me a marriage of convenience, telling me, "It' s just a title, Chloe. I' ll give Sarah the public recognition… but I' ll give you my love. My life. You' ll be Mrs. Davis. Isn' t that what you' ve always wanted?" When I refused, the charming mask dropped. He sneered, "Don't be stupid, Chloe. What other choice do you have? You need me. You know you do." He even twisted my family' s genetic condition against me, declaring, "If you walk away from me, you' ll be damaged goods, Chloe. A ticking time bomb. No one will marry you." His words hit harder than any slap. I had given him everything, and he had thrown it all away, not just my heart, but potentially my life, all for a woman I had brought into his orbit. But as I walked away, leaving him stunned and bewildered, a new resolve solidified within me. He had destroyed my future with him, but he hadn't destroyed my future. I had three weeks. I would find someone. I had to.

The hospital lights hummed as I leaned against the cold wall, my body aching from a long shift, but my stomach coiled with a deeper anxiety. My fiancé, Dr. Mark Jensen, the rising star surgeon, was an hour late for dinner, consumed by his revolutionary new device. I decided to surprise him in his lab, a small romantic gesture to end a grueling day. But the smile died on my lips as I found him too close to Emily Carter, his research assistant, her hand tracing patterns on his arm, their heads bent intimately over schematics. "The prototype is almost perfect," she murmured, "Just us." The air between them was thick with a betrayal that had nothing to do with medicine. Mark' s head snapped up, his face shifting from unguarded affection to pure shock as he saw me. He tried to dismiss it, to blame his monumental work, but Emily' s saccharine sweetness painted me as a jealous fiancée, and Mark latched onto her excuse. He twisted it, making my hurt seem like an attack on his ambition, until I saw the truth: this was a secret partnership, one that excluded me entirely. When Emily whispered, "He needs someone who supports his dreams, not someone who holds him back," my world shattered. How could the man I was to marry in three months, the man who preached integrity, be so blind, so callous? His words – "You're either with me, or you're in the way. Decide." – were a brutal ultimatum. He had chosen his ambition, and her, over me. I ripped off my engagement ring, the symbol of a broken promise, dropping it onto the floor between us. The small clatter was the sound of our future shattering. With a final, decisive tap, I blocked his number and drove away from the building, leaving behind a life that felt like a lie. I was heading home, towards my waiting family, knowing one thing with chilling certainty: this was over, and a new, terrifying chapter of my life had just begun.

My name is Madisyn, and my story began in a dirty alley in Los Angeles. I was just a baby, a "cannon fodder" character in someone else's tragic script, destined to be a footnote in the tragic ruin of Ethan and Nicole Clark, the self-destructive heirs to a Hollywood fortune. Their parents were absent figures, leaving them in a gilded cage, completely unaware they were about to be ensnared by Jennifer Chavez and Andrew Morris, two ambitious grifters ready to bleed them dry and turn them against each other. I knew their dark future, how Jennifer would prey on Ethan's buried hero complex, and Andrew on Nicole's desperate need for affection, ultimately leaving them broken and estranged. My tiny, innocent form was supposed to be irrelevant, easily discarded by these teenagers hardened by neglect. But I wasn't just any baby; I was a baby with a plan, a knowing narrator stuck in an infant's body. I screamed and cried to force their reluctant bond, giggled to melt their facades, and strategically withdrew my affection to expose the insidious poison the grifters were injecting into their fragile relationship. When an actress framed Nicole for assault and a musician's charade of heroism was revealed, everyone expected Ethan to side with the "victim." But he remembered my tiny cries of terror whenever the actress touched me, my pointed coldness towards the musician, and Nicole's sudden awareness after my clumsy toddler words: "No owe life, sissy." I had broken the script, and I wouldn't stop until their future was rewritten.

An MIT acceptance letter lay on my desk, a full-ride scholarship, my ticket to a dazzling future far from my foster home. But my foster father, Rufus, scoffed, his voice flat: "You're not going." Instead, he' d arranged a "tech internship" out West, promising big money and opportunities, while my foster mother, Sylvia, faked a panicked "premonition" about a bus crash to dissuade me. They were lying. I knew it. All of it. Because I had lived this day before, died a horrific death on a cold metal table, betrayed by the very people who claimed to be my family. This time, I was ready. I swallowed my fury, faked compliance, and prepared to rewrite my destiny.

For five years, I was Senator Ethan Scott' s dirty little secret, a songbird locked in his penthouse overlooking the Capitol. My gilded cage shattered the Tuesday his engagement to Sylvia Chavez broke on the news – a political merger, solidifying two powerful dynasties. The next day, Sylvia' s team swept in, professional erasers, dismissing staff and purging assets, and I knew I was next on their list. A week later, the doctor arrived, claiming it was a vitamin shot to protect my voice. I knew it was anything but, and the next morning, no sound came out; my voice, the one thing Ethan cherished about me, was gone. He assumed my silence was an act of defiance, a petty rebellion of a jilted lover. He didn't know that my silence was a weapon, and this entire charade was just the first step in a revenge plan five years in the making. He didn't know I wasn't just Maria Fuller, his disposable mistress, but David Fuller' s daughter, meticulously collecting every piece of his carefully hidden corruption. He was about to learn that some ghosts don' t stay buried, and a politician' s secrets can bring down an empire.

Fifty million dollars. My cracked phone screen showed the winning Powerball numbers, confirming an impossible match. Twenty years a ghost, living paycheck to paycheck in a tiny Brooklyn apartment, and now, I held the key to a new life. But the buzz of my phone pulled me back to a familiar nightmare. It was Brenda, my "adoptive" mother, calling with fake sympathy, quickly turning to thinly veiled greed for money for my "father's" liver transplant. When I calmly told her I had won the lottery, her manufactured panic vanished, replaced by an ugly, avaricious gasp. My refusal to hand over a single cent unleashed a public tirade; soon, I was plastered across every news channel, dubbed the "Powerball Parasite," buying Birkin bags while my "dying dad" lay in a hospital bed. The world hated me, calling me a monster. Every comment was a venomous stab, every headline a condemnation. They didn't understand the icy calm behind my eyes, the cold precision of my actions. They saw heartless cruelty; I saw the meticulously laid foundation for a justice long overdue. Why would I invite such public scorn? Why play the villain? Because this wasn't some selfish whim. This was a calculated strike. And when the invitation came from 'The Dr. Grant Show' – Brenda's last desperate plea – I knew it was time for the world to see the truth. Not just my truth, but their truth.

My world was a cracked apartment ceiling, water dripping into a rusted pot, somewhere in a forgotten Rust Belt town. I was Ethan Miller, the man Sophia called her "rock," tirelessly coding the core of her tech empire, Elysian, from this grim solitude. I believed her promises of a shared future in California, even as she lived it up in Silicon Valley with her Head of Marketing, Leo. But the last thing I saw before my chest seized with a sharp, final pain, was Sophia' s face, laughing not with me, but with him. Her divorce papers, a "formality," lay discarded nearby, purchased with the money she' d supposedly sent for my living expenses-money that actually funded Leo' s Tesla and his glittering Palo Alto condo. I died knowing the brutal truth: her affair, the stolen millions, the calculated lies that had festered over years. Anger and crushing regret were my only companions in that ultimate betrayal. Then, a jolt. I sat bolt upright in my lumpy bed, the calendar on the wall showing yesterday's date-the day after Sophia had called, her voice smooth, assuring me about a "divorce for show." I knew everything now. Every lie, every betrayal, every stolen cent. This time, things would be drastically different. My hands were steady, my resolve chillingly clear. With just a bus ticket in my worn wallet, I was going to Silicon Valley. My intellectual property, my years of unpaid labor, my shattered life – I was coming to reclaim every single piece of it, and they wouldn't know what hit them.

My life as Sarah Miller, an architect flourishing in New York, felt divinely blessed after marrying the charismatic Michael Thompson. But this dream quickly twisted into a grotesque nightmare when Michael’s twin brother, David, tragically died, prompting his formidable mother to demand he father an heir with my sister, Jessica – David’s grieving widow – to secure their prestigious lineage. Though Michael publicly pledged loyalty to me, I soon discovered him secretly entwined with Jessica, their nightly affair mocking my marriage. I was systematically gaslighted by both families, accused of selfishness, and forced into excruciating public humiliations, culminating in a fabricated "miscarriage scare" engineered by Jessica, leading me to be physically beaten and then compelled to give blood to my sister, who was carrying Michael's child. The man who'd made me feel seen and cherished now personified betrayal, his "duty to David" a vile justification for his actions, leaving me isolated and utterly broken. How could my own husband and sister inflict such deliberate, soul-crushing anguish and still expect my compliance? Consumed by cold fury, I secretly filed for divorce, fled to Florence, and when Michael, oblivious, inevitably pursued me, I initiated my own meticulously crafted, jaw-dropping scheme: I announced I would be bearing a child for another man, a cruel mirror to his own betrayal, ensuring he would finally feel the agonizing depth of his sins.

My parents and brother were heroes, decorated with Medals of Freedom and a Medal of Honor for their profound sacrifice to this country. After their deaths, all my sister Isabella and I had was each other, and the fragile hope that she’d find happiness with her seemingly dependable fiancé, Ryan. But that hope shattered when a frantic call sent me to the ER: Isabella was brutally beaten, Ryan claiming she "fell," though the doctor confirmed blunt force trauma. The real horror began when Ryan’s wealthy mistress, Victoria Jenkins, confronted me, admitting she was Isabella’s attacker and gloating about her power. Ryan, the man who swore to protect Isabella, utterly betrayed her, backing Victoria’s "accident" lie and accepting her family’s blood money to dismiss the assault. The system failed us: police ignored my pleas, lawyers found their hands tied, and Victoria, untouchable because of her family’s influence, literally threw money onto Isabella’s bruised hospital bed, mocking her. Then came the kidnapping, the beating, the chilling blackmail: Victoria flaunted a vile video of Isabella and forced Ryan to confess an even darker secret—he’d previously pushed Isabella, causing a devastating miscarriage years ago. My sister’s spirit broke, extinguishing the last flicker of hope in her eyes, leaving me rage-filled and desperate for true justice in a system that seemed utterly rigged. How could the ideals my family died for be so easily trampled by the corrupt and powerful? But as I looked at our heroes' medals, a cold, unyielding resolve ignited within me; Victoria thought she'd won, but she gravely underestimated a sister with nothing left to lose. We wouldn’t disappear. We would make ourselves impossible to ignore, demanding this country live up to the sacrifices made for its freedom.

I woke up in a hospital, my head pounding, five years of my life a blank. The last thing I remembered, I was a free-spirited 21-year-old artist, alive and vibrant. Instead, my best friend Chloe told me I was 26, married to a man I didn't know: Ethan Hayes. A cold, impeccably dressed stranger who barely acknowledged my existence. This nightmare marriage had erased me: my art, my motorcycle, even the phoenix tattoo on my back—all gone. My husband publicly denied me, flaunted an affair, and when I desperately needed him, he was "too busy." I lost our baby—a life extinguished by his chilling neglect. Then came the ultimate betrayal: I, the rebellious artist, had been obsessed with him, forcing this very marriage, trapping us both. My amnesia had protected me from the monster I became, the architect of my own gilded cage and his profound resentment. How could I be this person? How had I traded everything for a man who despised me? Desperate and enraged, I challenged him to a death race for my freedom, but instead, I plunged off a cliff. Then, I jolted awake, not in a hospital, but at a dinner table—five years in the past. It was the night my engagement to Ethan was finalized. This time, I wouldn't make the same mistake. "No!" I cried, pushing back my chair. "I'm not marrying him!"

My husband hasn't touched me in five years. I thought it was just a midlife crisis, so I sought out doctors and remedies for him, making him drink nourishing soups as if they were free. But then I accidentally saw him ordering contraceptives online, buying them in bulk. It turns out those medicines really worked. He has more than one mistress, and in the end, his first love from years ago won out. He is willing to do anything to divorce me. To become someone else's groom. However, on the day of the wedding, as soon as I appeared, the bride threw off her veil and excitedly ran towards me. "Sis, I finally completed the task you gave me!"

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

Aurora woke up to the sterile chill of her king-sized bed in Sterling Thorne's penthouse. Today was the day her husband would finally throw her out like garbage. Sterling walked in, tossed divorce papers at her, and demanded her signature, eager to announce his "eligible bachelor" status to the world. In her past life, the sight of those papers had broken her, leaving her begging for a second chance. Sterling's sneering voice, calling her a "trailer park girl" undeserving of his name, had once cut deeper than any blade. He had always used her humble beginnings to keep her small, to make her grateful for the crumbs of his attention. She had lived a gilded cage, believing she was nothing without him, until her life flatlined in a hospital bed, watching him give a press conference about his "grief." But this time, she felt no sting, no tears. Only a cold, clear understanding of the mediocre man who stood on a pedestal she had painstakingly built with her own genius. Aurora signed the papers, her name a declaration of independence. She grabbed her old, phoenix-stickered laptop, ready to walk out. Sterling Thorne was about to find out exactly how expensive "free" could be.

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner—my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend’s apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I’d spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend’s face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

Vesper's marriage to Julian Sterling was a gilded cage. One morning, she woke naked beside Damon Sterling, Julian's terrifying brother, then found a text: Julian's mistress was pregnant. Her world shattered, but the real nightmare had just begun. Julian's abuse escalated, gaslighting Vesper, funding his secret life. Damon, a germaphobic billionaire, became her unsettling anchor amidst his chaos. As "Iris," Vesper exposed Julian's mistress, Serena Sharp, sparking brutal war: poisoned drinks, a broken leg, and the horrifying truth-Julian murdered her parents, trapping Vesper in marriage. The man she married was a killer. Broken and betrayed, Vesper was caught between monstrous brothers, burning with injustice. Refusing victimhood, Vesper reclaimed her identity. Fueled by vengeance, she allied with Damon, who vowed to burn his empire for her. Julian faced justice, but matriarch Eleanor's counterattack forced Vesper's choice as a hitman aimed for her.

I sat on the edge of the examination table, the crinkle of the sanitary paper sounding like thunder in the sterile room. The doctor didn't even look at me as he confirmed the news: the pregnancy was over. My husband, Keyon, didn't answer my call. He just sent an automated text: "In a meeting." When I returned to our cold mansion, I found his iPad glowing with a message from his "muse," Katina. He was throwing her a secret gala tonight-on our third wedding anniversary. He told her he couldn't wait to escape the "boring" and "draining" atmosphere I created at home. Keyon didn't stumble in until 3 AM, smelling of Katina's perfume with a smear of red on his collar. When I handed him the divorce papers, he laughed in my face. He called me a "glorified housekeeper" with no skills and no future, promising I'd be back in three days begging for a subway ticket. He even bet his friends ten thousand dollars that I wouldn't survive a week without his name. He had his assistant cancel my credit cards and block my gate access before I even reached the end of the driveway. He wanted me to starve. He wanted me to crawl. He sat in his office, mocking the "desperate" woman who pawned her three-million-dollar wedding ring for scrap metal just to pay for a meal. I stood on the rainy curb, watching the man I had protected for three years treat my life like trash. He didn't know about the ultrasound I just threw in the bin. He didn't know that while he was calling me "dull," I was the one secretly writing the code that kept his billion-dollar empire from collapsing. As I slid into a cheap Uber, I opened a hidden, encrypted app on my phone. The screen refreshed to a dashboard for an account Keyon didn't know existed. The balance was ten figures long-the accumulated wealth of "Solaris," the world's most elusive tech genius. Keyon thinks he just evicted a parasite, but he's about to find out he just declared war on the only person who can hit "delete" on his entire life.

Trigger/Content Warning: This story contains mature themes and explicit content intended for adult audiences(18+). Reader discretion is advised. It includes elements such as BDSM dynamics, explicit sexual content, toxic family relationships, occasional violence and strong language. This is not a fluffy romance. It is intense, raw and messy, and explores the darker side of desire. ***** "Take off your dress, Meadow." "Why?" "Because your ex is watching," he said, leaning back into his seat. "And I want him to see what he lost." ••••*••••*••••* Meadow Russell was supposed to get married to the love of her life in Vegas. Instead, she walked in on her twin sister riding her fiance. One drink at the bar turned to ten. One drunken mistake turned into reality. And one stranger's offer turned into a contract that she signed with shaking hands and a diamond ring. Alaric Ashford is the devil in a tailored Tom Ford suit. Billionaire CEO, brutal, possessive. A man born into an empire of blood and steel. He also suffers from a neurological condition-he can't feel. Not objects, not pain, not even human touch. Until Meadow touches him, and he feels everything. And now he owns her. On paper and in his bed. She wants him to ruin her. Take what no one else could have. He wants control, obedience... revenge. But what starts as a transaction slowly turns into something Meadow never saw coming. Obsession, secrets that were never meant to surface, and a pain from the past that threatens to break everything. Alaric doesn't share what's his. Not his company. Not his wife. And definitely not his vengeance.

My husband, Ethan Vance, made me his trophy wife. My best friend, Susanna Thorne, helped me pick out my wedding dress. Together, they made me a fool. For three years, I was Mrs. Ethan Vance, a decorative silence in his billion-dollar world, living a quiet routine until a forgotten phone charger led me to his office. The low, feminine laugh from behind his door was a gut-punch; inside, I found Ethan and Susanna, my "best friend" and his CMO, tangled on his sofa, his only reaction irritation. My divorce declaration brought immediate scorn and threats. I was fired, my accounts frozen, and publicly smeared as an unstable gold-digger. Even my own family disowned me for my last cent, only for me to be framed for assault and served a restraining order. Broke, injured, and utterly demonized, they believed I was broken, too ashamed to fight. But their audacious betrayal and relentless cruelty only forged a cold, unyielding resolve. Slumped alone, a restraining order in hand, I remembered my hidden journal: a log of Ethan's insider trading secrets. They wanted a monster? I would show them one.

The roasted lamb was cold, a reflection of her marriage. On their third anniversary, Evelyn Vance waited alone in her Manhattan penthouse. Then her phone buzzed: Alexander, her husband, had been spotted leaving the hospital, holding his childhood sweetheart Scarlett Sharp's hand. Alexander arrived hours later, dismissing Evelyn's quiet complaint with a cold reminder: she was Mrs. Vance, not a victim. Her mother's demands reinforced this role, making Evelyn, a brilliant mind, feel like a ghost. A dangerous indifference replaced betrayal. The debt was paid; now, it was her turn. She drafted a divorce settlement, waiving everything. As Alexander's tender voice drifted from his study, speaking to Scarlett, Evelyn placed her wedding ring on his pillow, moved to the guest suite, and locked the door. The dull wife was gone; the Oracle was back.

Zane and I were together for ten years. When he had no one, I stayed by his side, supporting his hockey career while believing at the end of all our struggles, I'll be his wife and the only one at his side. But after six years of dating, and four years of being his fiancée, not only did he leave me, but seven months later I receive an invitation... to his wedding! If that isn't bad enough, the month long wedding cruise is for couples only and requires a plus one. If Zane thinks breaking my heart left me too miserable to move on, he thought wrong! Not only did it make me stronger.. it made me strong enough to move on with his favourite bad boy hockey player, Liam Calloway.