Ellene Millstein

My fiancé and my adopted sister framed me for burning down our Hamptons beach house. They had me declared insane and used a forged power of attorney to lock me away in a private facility for four years. While I was drugged, tortured, and systematically broken, they stole my company, my reputation, and my life. When I was finally released, they stood before me, dripping in the wealth they'd stolen. Kelly, my sister, even wore my mother's engagement ring, a glittering trophy on her finger. They saw a vacant, docile shell, not the woman who spent every waking moment meticulously planning their ruin. They thought they had extinguished the fire. At a party meant to celebrate their victory, Kelly held up a dog collar studded with cheap rhinestones. "Wear this," she cooed, "and you can have your mother's watch back." I dropped to my knees and barked. They thought it was my final, crushing humiliation; it was the beginning of their end.

At the Full Moon Banquet, my husband didn't just announce a surrogate. He humiliated me. Alpha Bennett stood center stage, radiating power, while I stood in the shadows—the embarrassment, the Wolfless Luna. "Kelsey is too fragile," he announced to the pack. "Aria will carry our legacy." He called it a medical necessity. But later, I heard him tell his Beta the truth: "I look at her and see a dead end. Aria smells like a mate should." The humiliation didn't stop there. Aria moved into our home, scent-marking my bed with her vanilla perfume. When she staged a fall, Bennett didn't check if I was okay. He grabbed me by the throat, accusing me of trying to kill his unborn "Alpha twins." He even drained his own blood to save her fake pregnancy, while I bled from silver wounds he ignored. Broken and replaced, I left my wedding ring on the table and vanished to Paris. Bennett was so eager to be rid of me, he signed the separation papers without even reading them. It wasn't until his wedding day to Aria that the truth came out. The pregnancy was a lie. The twins were a fraud created by witch potions. Desperate and regretful, Bennett tore through Europe to drag me back, thinking I was still his weak, human wife. He didn't know he was walking straight into the Lycan King's territory. And he certainly didn't expect to find that his "Wolfless" wife had finally awakened as the legendary White Wolf.

I was the Luna of the Moonstone Pack, but to my husband, Alpha Blake, I was nothing more than a placeholder. While he showered his "fragile" childhood friend Ariana with attention, I kept a secret black notebook. It wasn't a diary. It was a countdown. Missed our anniversary dinner for her? Minus 10 points. Saved her from a falling sculpture while leaving me to be crushed by steel? Minus 20 points. I lay in the hospital with broken ribs, watching him leave to comfort Ariana because she was "traumatized" by my accident. But the final straw came the night I was hit by a truck in a storm he abandoned me in. Desperate to save our unborn baby, the doctors called Blake. They needed his Alpha energy to anchor the fetus. "I can't come," Blake said coldly over the speakerphone. "Ariana is having palpitations. If the fetus is strong, it will survive. If not, it wasn't meant to be." He hung up. I felt the life inside me wink out. With trembling hands, I opened my notebook for the last time. Incident: Killed our child for her. Final Score: -100. I signed the divorce papers, left them on the ashes of my life, and vanished. When Blake finally returned to the empty house, realizing he had lost his True Mate, he fell to his knees and howled. But he didn't know the truth yet. The wife he called weak had just awakened as the legendary White Wolf, and I was never coming back.

I was the invisible daughter of a low-level mobster until Ethan Cole, the city’s most terrifying Don, plucked me from the streets. He claimed it was love at first sight. He married me, draped me in vintage diamonds, and treated me like a fragile porcelain doll. I thought I was living a fairytale until I found the secret room in his library. It was filled with photos of a dead woman named Olivia. A woman who had my hair, my eyes, and my face. I wasn't his soulmate. I was a replacement part for a broken machine. When I became pregnant, Ethan didn't hug me. He placed a possessive hand on my stomach and whispered, "The heir." He didn't see me. He only saw an incubator for a ghost's legacy. My father tried to warn me and died for it. I realized that once I gave Ethan this child, I would be trapped in his gilded cage forever, a broodmare for a man in love with a corpse. So, I did the unthinkable. I walked into a clinic and paid cash to remove the one thing he valued more than his empire. I went home, collapsed on the marble floor in a pool of blood, and looked up at the monster who thought he owned me. "I lost it," I screamed, tearing at his lapels. "I lost our baby!" I watched his heart break, knowing I had just declared war.

Eleanor Vance, tech titaness, finally leaned back, champagne in hand, on her Monte Carlo terrace. Six months into hard-earned semi-retirement, her empire was thriving, and today, her daughter Sarah and son-in-law Mark were officially taking the reins. A notification shattered the peace. "VANCE TECH SHOCKER: NEW HEIRESS ANNOUNCED AS FOUNDER' S DAUGHTER BRANDED A FRAUD." Her blood ran cold as she saw the image: Mark, arm around a smug stranger named Lily Miller, the Vance Tech logo looming like a tombstone. Sarah' s phone went straight to voicemail. "Sarah, darling, it' s Mom. Call me back the second you get this." Mark answered, voice sickeningly cheerful. "Eleanor! Enjoying the Riviera, I hope?" Then, dropped a bombshell: "Sarah Vance is not, in fact, Eleanor Vance' s biological daughter. She is an illegitimate child… The true inheritor… is my daughter, Lily." Eleanor watched live footage: Sarah, her dress torn, screaming "He' s lying! I' m her daughter! Mom, he' s lying!" as security dragged her away. Mark' s smooth voice narrated: "Sarah has been… unwell." The camera zoomed on Sarah' s anguished face, then a guard shoved her out. The world vanished for Eleanor; only a burning rage remained. She hurled her glass, shattering it against the wall. "Get the jet ready," she commanded, voice dangerously calm. "Get me everything you can find on Jessica Brown and Lily Miller. Dig." "I' m going home," Eleanor vowed, her eyes like flint. "And I' m going to burn their world to the ground." How could Mark, her trusted son-in-law, conspire with Jessica, a former employee fired for corporate espionage, to publicly destroy her daughter and steal her legacy? The deeper horror: the faint red welts on Sarah' s back in the video; this wasn' t the first time he' d hurt her. Why hadn' t Sarah called? What kind of hell had her child been living in while she was sipping champagne across the world? The guilt was crushing, but the fury burned brighter. Eleanor wouldn't just fight; she would annihilate. "When we land, we go directly to headquarters." Mark thought he' d won; he just triggered the war of his life.

The familiar ache pulsed behind my eyes, a constant companion in the sterile white room where sheets matched my pale, bruised skin. They had given me electric shock therapy again, leaving my mind a fog of agony. A key turned, and in walked Ethan Miller, the man I was supposed to marry, his face handsome but cold, etched with pity and disgust. "Still acting like this, Chloe?" he snapped, accusing me of hurting a nurse-a lie I was too broken to fight. Then Liam Thorne, my half-brother, joined him, an insincere mask of concern plastered on his face. "See, Ethan? She' s completely gone," Liam purred, blaming my supposed violent tendencies on the stress of his "illness." Ethan, my savior turned accomplice, instantly sided with Liam, his trust absolute. But then Mark Evans, a childhood friend turned doctor, assessed my condition, his voice serious as he unveiled the severe trauma and abuse they' d inflicted on me. Liam quickly deflected, accusing me of self-harm, a narrative Ethan chillingly affirmed. Liam then proposed transferring me to a private institution, the 'Thorne Wellness Center' -a name that sent a jolt of terror through me, a prison designed just for me. Desperate, I pleaded with Ethan, "Please, don' t take me there. I' ll do anything." He hesitated, a flicker of the old Ethan visible, and agreed to take me home. But Liam intervened, whispering manipulations, leading me back into the trap. I screamed as orderlies grabbed me, but it was too late. They injected the sedative, and I went limp, my savior watching as he condemned me. The torture at Thorne Wellness Center was worse than I could have imagined, leaving my mind fractured, my body starved. When Ethan finally came to pick me up, he was horrified by the skeletal, lifeless woman I had become. In that moment, a plan formed in my fragmented mind. I had to escape, even if it meant jumping from a second-story window. Under the cover of darkness, I slipped from my gilded cage, running, barefoot and silent, into the night.

"I'm resigning." The words felt heavy on my tongue, the crisp white envelope a symbol of escape. My HR director, bless her kind heart, urged me to reconsider, yet I walked away, my steps measured, a desperate fight against the urge to shatter the office's perfect silence. Instead of going down, I went up-to Mark Johnson' s office. Tech mogul. My sister Emily's ex-fiancé. The man who owned my life. I whispered, "I can' t do this anymore." His mocking reply: "Did you forget the debt you owe?" He revealed the horrifying depths of his revenge, convinced my father murdered Emily and that I, Chloe, must atone for it. He called me a "substitute," a "punishment," claiming Emily was his songbird, caged by him. Now, I was his new bird, and this time, "the cage has no door." Humiliation after humiliation, I became his personal maid, scrubbing his pristine apartment while he spoke to a new woman, happily planning a future that should have been Emily' s. Then came the bridal shop, Jessica Carrington, Mark's radiant fiancée, a diamond sparkling on her finger. "I said yes," she declared, and Mark's triumphant gaze met mine over her shoulder. Jessica, eyes cold and sharp, warned me to disappear, claiming Mark was burdened by me. She also revealed a chilling truth: "He has a tracker on your phone." Trapped, I endured endless nights of servitude, my dignity eroding, until one night, in the back of his town car, Mark kissed me-a furious, violating act-then abandoned me in the pouring rain. A dream of Emily, calling to me to be free, sparked a fragile hope. I walked into his office, ready to break free, but his knowing smirk and a chilling whisper reminded me, "The cage has no door." Then, at the bridal shop, Jessica's staged fall led to Mark's hand flying across my face, a slap that shattered everything inside me. The last shred of my misplaced loyalty, my fear, my shame-it all broke. I walked out, pulling the tracker-laden phone from my purse, and threw it into the nearest trash can. I was free.

The icy water stole my breath, a final, burning cold consuming me as I sank into the dark lake. The last thing I saw was my Harvard acceptance letter, a cruel joke on the grass. Yesterday, that letter was everything, the key to saving my brother, Liam. But that was before Noah Vance, the school bully, destroyed my life. It began with his chilling "mind-reading" trick. He cornered me before the exams, his smirk unwavering as he revealed things only I knew, like Liam' s urgent need for a bone marrow transplant and our family' s crushing medical debt. He proposed a bet: if he got into an Ivy League, I' d be his personal assistant for three months. If not, he' d pay for Liam' s surgery. Desperate, I agreed. I aced my exams, and the call from Harvard brought a wave of relief. Then I saw the public scoreboard: my perfect score, and right below it, Noah Vance, with the exact same perfect score. It was impossible. He and his friends dragged me into the shadows. "Looks like I won," he sneered, his face inches from mine. There was no money for Liam; only the bet. They held me down. They broke me. Not just my spirit, but my body. The next days were a blur of pain and shame. I couldn' t tell anyone. Then the hospital called: Liam had a complication, an infection. Without funds, they couldn' t operate. He died two days later, and with him, a piece of me. I walked to the lake, the Harvard letter in hand, feeling nothing but a profound emptiness. How did Noah Vance, a slacker, get a perfect score? The water closed over my head. Then, I opened my eyes. I was in my bed, the sunlight streaming in. My best friend' s text buzzed on my phone: "You ready for the last day of hell before exams?" I was back. Back to the day before the bet, before everything. A cold smile spread across my face. This time, Noah Vance would not succeed.

The email chimed, promising a breakthrough – a perfect 1600 on my SATs, a golden ticket to the future, and finally, acceptance into the Miller family. But then, Chloe, my adoptive sister, gasped, her own 1599 score turning her face green with envy. In an instant, joy curdled into a nightmare as Liam, my adoptive brother, materialized, his protective fury ignited by Chloe' s crocodile tears. He branded me a cheat, an ungrateful outsider out to humiliate his beloved sister, tearing down everything I' d worked for. They dragged me, terrified, from the house, not to reflect, but to a rundown animal shelter, a place designed to exploit my deepest, most traumatic childhood phobia: dogs. This was no prank; it was calculated malice. Left bleeding and broken, Liam' s scathing words on the phone twisted the knife deeper, dismissing my pleas for help as manipulation. Then, Chloe' s voice, sickeningly sweet, promised to destroy my most cherished possession-a photo of my late mentor, Mr. Harrison-and I heard the shattering glass. The line went dead, leaving me in the dark with a freed, aggressive pit bull, its growl a death knell. Just as hope flickered, Chloe' s voice, cruel and dismissive, echoed again, mocking my screams as "dramatic." They weren' t coming. They wanted me to die. But then, I heard the sirens, and found the strength to scream one desperate command: "Break it down!" The world exploded in light, but so did the Millers' carefully constructed facade, exposed live on national television as a horrific betrayal. Now, as they face the consequences of their monstrous acts, I will rise from the ashes, no longer an outsider begging for crumbs of affection, but the architect of my own destiny.

The plane landed, and Liam was there, handsome as ever, his smile making my heart flutter despite the exhaustion of my art residency. But then I found a delicate pink earring in his car, one that wasn't mine. Minutes later, his phone buzzed; it was his assistant, Chloe, and then a text popped up: "Are you with her?" He brushed it off as "just work," but his hurried attempt to get rid of me, to send me into a bakery while he "circled the block," spoke volumes. The cold dread in my stomach turned to ice, confirming what I already suspected: his concern for me was a performance, and the earring was a deliberate marker, a sign that my carefully constructed world was about to shatter.

The organ music swelled, painting my white wedding dress in shades of blood red. I was marrying Julian Thorne, a man who despised me, believing the lies that had ruined my reputation. This wasn't a marriage; it was a sentence, orchestrated perfectly by my stepsister, Sophia, who had always wanted Julian for herself. Everyone saw Eleanor Vance, the brilliant architect, as the luckiest woman alive, but my heart was a cold stone. As the word "I do" escaped my lips-a whispered surrender-a blinding white light engulfed me. I woke up in my old bedroom, the floral wallpaper still on the walls. My phone read October 12, 2014-ten years ago, the day of my first wedding, the one that never happened. Relief surged through me; I wasn't Julian Thorne's wife. But then dread set in as Sophia's text buzzed on my smaller, older phone: "Julian's family is coming for dinner tonight, you have to make a good impression!" It was all starting tonight, the very dinner where Sophia would introduce me to the Thornes, setting off the chain of events that would lead to my forced marriage. The contempt in Julian's eyes was already there, seeing me as a social climber, exactly the image Sophia had carefully crafted. I was trapped again, a ghost in my own life, burdened by a future I knew was coming: the Thorne family's imminent financial ruin, and my own career sacrificed to support them. But this time, I wasn't the naive girl to be manipulated. I knew all their secrets, and I would not spend another ten years as Eleanor Thorne. I would fight.

My world shattered in the sterile hospital air, moments after my twin sons, Leo and Max, were born. Overhearing a hushed conversation, I discovered Max wasn't mine – he was my wife Olivia's lover Marcus's son, a fact confirmed by a secret DNA test. My mother, beside me, gasped, then collapsed, dying on the spot from the shock of Olivia' s betrayal. Olivia abandoned me and Leo, taking Max away, only to unleash a torrent of public humiliation. Marcus plastered their family photos online, Olivia still wearing my wedding ring, brazenly claiming "my woman, my son." The city' s gossip consumed me; I was the cuckolded fool. But the betrayal intensified. My culinary competition portfolio, my life' s work, vanished. Days later, Marcus stood on stage, presenting my stolen ideas as his own. And then Olivia, my wife, painted me as a delusional lunatic, publicly tearing down my credibility to protect her lover. How could she be so callously cruel? My mother was dead because of her, my son abandoned, my career destroyed, and I was branded the insane one while they thrived. The injustice was a suffocating weight. But the broken pieces of my life sparked a furious resolve. I threw my wedding ring into the river, a final severance. I would leave this poisoned city, escape the whispers, and take Leo, my real son, far away. We would rebuild, find peace, and finally, be free from her shadow.

I was a simple fisherman from Maine. I saved a girl named Izzy from a shipwreck, and in her amnesia, we built a pure, simple love. We promised each other forever by the salty sea. Years later, the woman who looked exactly like my Izzy, now the formidable heiress Isabelle Sterling, summoned me to New York. But this Isabelle was cold, distant, and chillingly allowed her aggressive fiancé, Preston, to repeatedly brutalize me. She kept me confined in her luxurious penthouse, a gilded cage far from my home. Preston had me beaten in an alley, smashed my jaw, and even framed me for assault, sending me to Rikers Island for a brutal month. Isabelle watched, seemingly unmoved, later bringing me back only to keep me under her watchful eye. My health was failing, constant headaches and blurred vision plaguing me, but I clung to the hope that my real Izzy was truly out there, fighting for her family, plotting our reunion. "My Izzy would never abandon me," I' d whisper, constantly denying this powerful, callous Isabelle was the girl I loved. Why was she letting this happen to me? Was the Izzy I knew gone, or just buried under layers of New York ambition? Then, at a glittering gala, as Isabelle triumphantly exposed Preston' s crimes and shockingly announced our engagement, he screamed the devastating truth: "She IS Izzy! She abandoned you for power! And she' s using you again!" The world spun, my carefully constructed reality crumbled, and the full weight of her betrayal, coupled with a crushing pain, brought me to my knees.

The hospital air was cold, too clean, smelling like death trying to hide. I was running, lungs burning, clutching the $50,000 I'd scraped together-every cent Dad and I had, plus loans and extra shifts-desperate to save my father. He'd helped me raise the money for Izzy' s "crippling debt," a desperate plea from the woman I loved and planned to marry. I believed her, truly. Then the doctor delivered the blow: "Your father, Michael... he passed away an hour ago. He collapsed because he hadn' t been taking his prescribed medication. The expensive ones for his condition." My blood ran cold, the words echoing in the sterile hallway. He did this for Izzy. He killed himself to help my girlfriend. Numb, I found Izzy at her "struggling artist" apartment, her eyes feigning perfect concern. "It's for your debt," I rasped, handing her the thick envelope. Days later, working a catering gig, my father' s cheap cardboard urn tucked under my arm, I overheard her at a lavish party. Izzy, laughing with Liam Astor, her smug "childhood friend." "He actually passed the hardship test, Liam. Impressive, for a line cook." My blood turned to ice. Then Liam' s cruel reply: "The old man croaking was a nice touch. Really sold the desperation." They knew. They knew my father died. My father' s life, his sacrifice, was a game. A test. The love I felt for Izzy, the future I imagined with her, crumbled into ashes, just like the ones I carried. This wasn' t just betrayal; it was a grotesque, sadistic mockery. My selfless father, reduced to a pawn in her twisted elite games, his death a mere footnote in their cruel charade. The world tilted, reeling from the sheer, mind-numbing horror of it all. No. I wouldn't be their punchline. I quit my job, scattered Dad' s ashes, and left. Vanished. But when, years later, she' d desperately beg me to "come clean" and "come home" on national television, her pleas would ring hollow. I had found my peace, far from her toxic world, leaving her to the echoing silence of her monumental lies.

I urgently need 'Living Man 2' to complete the final homework. Who would like to say that Tiannai awesome will fall from the sky and two men will fight for a woman's name. I took a big step forward and forcefully stopped one of the men. Dear, I'll help you become the second male lead! You should be my research material Seeing that he remained unmoved, I gritted my teeth and continued to increase the pressure. The education package will include after-sales service Later, he surrounded me at the bar booth, tears streaming down my face as he rubbed against my earlobe in grievance, saying: Jiang Xiaohuai, what about the agreed after-sales service

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.

"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."

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!"

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.

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.

Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."