EstelleCramail

Claire was forced to marry the untouchable billionaire Houston Pierce to save her abusive father's company. The ultimatum was clear: secure a Pierce heir within a year, or her mother's life-saving medical care would be cut off. But on their wedding night, Houston overheard her father bragging about using her to drain the Pierce accounts. Triggered by severe past trauma, Houston's icy demeanor shattered into violent rage. He dragged Claire into his penthouse, treating her not as a bride, but as a parasitic threat. The next morning, he tossed a Plan B pill onto her plate, coldly threatening her life if she ever got pregnant. When Claire desperately tried to escape the suffocating penthouse for a few hours, a malicious setup by her stepsister at a club convinced Houston she was a promiscuous gold digger. In retaliation, he froze her bank accounts, wiped her fingerprints from the security scanners, and placed her under full estate lockdown. She was trapped in a gilded cage, forced to play the devoted, trying-to-conceive wife in front of his formidable grandmother, while enduring his degrading psychological torment behind closed doors. She couldn't understand how a marriage she never wanted had turned into a terrifying, high-end prison. Pushed entirely past her breaking point, Claire refused to shrink back anymore. She looked the ruthless billionaire dead in the eye and demanded a divorce, but his gaze darkened with a lethal, obsessive possessiveness as he pinned her against the wall. "If you ever try to run, I will burn your entire world to the ground."

As a wolfless Omega, I just wanted to be worthy of my Alpha mate, Kael. So when his mother asked me to secretly deliver a classified treaty, I didn't hesitate. But it was a trap. The room she sent me to held a half-naked Rogue and a forged treaty ceding Pack lands. Kael kicked the door down and caught us. He didn't listen to my pleas. My best friend stood by and lied, claiming I was planning to fake a pregnancy to trap him. When I desperately cried out that I was actually two months pregnant with his heir, Kael looked at me with absolute disgust. "The thought of you carrying anything of mine makes my very soul sick." He formally rejected me, severed our mate-bond, and banished me to the wild. That night, a Rogue hired by his mother attacked me in the woods. He kicked my stomach until my baby was gone. When I woke up in a sterile hospital, I sent Kael one last desperate text about our murdered child. His reply was cold: "Stop the lies. You are dead to me." He then used his billionaire influence to blacklist me from every home and job in the city. I was left penniless, bleeding, and hunted by the man who once swore to protect me. My grief calcified into pure, vicious hatred. With nowhere to go, I risked my life to save an elderly woman in an alley. Her grandson arrived—Declan Kane, a terrifyingly powerful Lycan King whose authority dwarfed any Alpha. He offered me absolute protection from the Blackwoods if I agreed to a deal. I took his hand. This time, I would survive, and I would make them all bleed.

They killed her once. Now, she's back to collect the debt. Thrown back in time to the single night that shattered her life, Jane King is no longer the powerless charity case of the billionaire Norman family. She's a ghost with a ten-year grudge and a perfect memory of every sin they committed. The timid girl is gone, replaced by a woman with nothing left to lose and a ledger that can only be balanced in ruin. Her audit begins tonight. With the cold precision of a master strategist, she dismantles the heirs, staging their downfall as tragic accidents. But her bloody work doesn't go unnoticed. From a balcony above, the enigmatic and dangerous Hudson Ellison watches the victim become a predator. He's the only one who sees the monster she's become, and he doesn't want to cage it-he wants to crown it. He offers a dangerous alliance and the keys to an empire. But in a game of secrets and lies, when you partner with a wolf, you risk becoming the prey.

I was hired to be the "cure" for the Stuart family’s reputation, a wife whose only job was to manage the emotional risks of Casper Stuart’s cold-blooded empire. My life was governed by spreadsheets and compliance reports, and my value was measured solely by my ability to remain a silent, perfect asset. On our second anniversary, Casper didn't come home for dinner; instead, a Page Six alert showed him with a Victoria's Secret model at Soho House, his hand possessively on her back. When he finally returned, he didn't offer an apology, but a clinical reminder of my "obligations." I soon discovered he had given my three-million-dollar anniversary bonus—a pink diamond necklace—to his mistress, while tossing me a cheap bracelet his assistant had picked out. When his mother offered me a two-hundred-million-dollar settlement to disappear, Casper tore the contract to shreds in front of me. He whispered that he had bought up every cent of my family’s medical and gambling debts, turning my marriage into a life sentence of indentured servitude. To prove his power, he kicked me out of his car in a rainstorm twenty miles from the city, leaving me to walk home barefoot while he drove off with my dog. "Tell her you want to stay," he had commanded in front of his mother, using my mother’s life as leverage to keep his "portfolio" intact. I stood in the mud, shivering as the rain washed away the mask of the supportive wife, realizing that to the Stuarts, I wasn't a human being—I was a line item that could be liquidated or crushed at will. But Casper forgot one thing: I am an actress, and I’ve finally landed the role of a lifetime. I’m done managing his risks; I’m about to become his greatest liability.

I was suffocating in a borrowed Valentino gown at the Met Gala, but it wasn't the corset that was killing me. It was the debt collector, Vargo, stalking me through the crowd like a wolf. Desperate to hide, I ducked into a private lounge and threw myself at the silhouette of a man sitting in the shadows, pressing my lips to his in a frantic plea for cover. When I pulled back, the air turned to ice; I was staring into the ocean-blue eyes of Kingsley Osborn, the billionaire who believed I’d sold his company secrets six years ago. Kingsley didn’t save me; he trapped me. The next morning, he slid a "Marriage Service Agreement" across his desk, revealing he knew everything about my father’s illegal Ponzi scheme and the quarter-million dollars I owed to loan sharks. He offered to pay my debts and protect my father, but only if I signed over two years of my life to be his trophy wife. "I don't want your money, Cassidy. I want your life." The marriage was a cold, calculated war. He forced me into his glass fortress, banned me from contacting my friends, and treated me with a distilled hatred that felt like a physical weight. When I accidentally broke his grandfather’s vintage watch during a nightmare, he didn't see an accident—he saw a crime, threatening to destroy my father if I didn't "charm" his board of directors into submission. I was a prisoner in a three-piece suit, until I found a mislabeled file buried in his company’s server. It contained evidence of a massive, illegal hostile takeover that would ruin Kingsley if the Feds ever saw it. I held the gun that could destroy the man who had cornered me. But as I looked at the champagne roses he’d secretly kept from my "peace offering," I realized I didn't want to pull the trigger. I wanted to see how far he’d go to keep me from leaving.

I was the crown jewel of the Harmon family until the trust fund froze and my world turned to ash. Now, I’m just a girl in a vintage dress I can’t afford, standing in a crowded club, waiting to destroy the man who thinks he owns me. Everything changed when my ex-fiancé, Carter Sterling, didn't just break our engagement, but blocked the money meant for my brother’s medical care. He wanted to see me crawl back to him, broken and desperate, so he could remind me that I was nothing without his name. I didn't crawl; I staged a masterpiece of a breakdown. I shattered glass, screamed about his cruelty, and cowered on the floor until the entire city saw him as the monster he truly was. Carter’s reputation was dead within minutes, but the victory felt hollow because I was still penniless and alone in the cold rain. I realized that in this world, being a victim is just a role you play until you’re strong enough to become the villain. I was tired of being hunted by dogs like Carter, and I knew the only way to survive was to walk straight into the lion’s den. I stood at the iron gates of the Grimes estate, soaked to the bone and clutching a secret that could bring the city to its knees. Isadore Grimes is a man who eats people like Carter for breakfast, and I didn't come to him for mercy. "I’m not here for your money," I told him as the security cameras zoomed in on my face. "I'm here to offer you a better deal than your fiancée ever could." I wasn't just planning to get my inheritance back. I was going to steal the life of the woman who tried to destroy me, one calculated move at a time.

Ten days before my wedding, I learned my fiancé-the man who swore to heal my abandonment issues-was cheating for a "final taste of freedom." His betrayal cost me our unborn child, and then he had the audacity to beg me to give my blood to save his mistress's life. He expected to see me walking down the aisle, but I planned a different kind of show: a wedding gift that would be his public execution.

A faint blue line on a pregnancy test confirmed the dream I' d nurtured for four years: twins. I, Sarah Miller, an architect, was about to surprise Mark Johnson, the man I loved, the man who had pulled me from the wreckage of grief after my parents' suspicious death, the man whose real estate empire I had meticulously helped build. But when I reached the exclusive downtown club, laughter spilled from the private room, and a voice asked, "When are you and Lisa Chen making it official?" My world shattered as Mark' s confident voice, stripped of all warmth, replied, "Sarah? Sarah was a means to an end. A very useful tool." Then came the true horror: "She has no idea I was the one who made sure that old farmhouse of hers had a little electrical \'accident.\' Best investment I ever made." He killed them. The man I loved, my savior, was my parents' murderer. Everything I believed was a lie. The twins I carried, conceived in a deceit, were just leverage for him, a means to an heir Lisa couldn' t provide. The overwhelming betrayal, coupled with a searing pain in my abdomen, sent my vision blurring. I stumbled out into the cold, hard rain, racing toward my parents' graves, only to collapse in a pool of blood. The hospital confirmed my worst fear: I had lost the babies. I lay there, numb and broken, until a nurse revealed my unlikely rescuer: David Johnson, Mark' s estranged uncle, the man Mark had ruthlessly driven out of his own family business. He was the one who collected my cracked phone, its wallpaper a perfect picture of a perfect lie, with his stern, disapproving gaze in the background – a witness I had always ignored. This man, haunted by the same demon, would become my unlikely ally. Mark had taken everything from me: my parents, my children, my name, my work. Now, I would take it all back.

My marriage to Andrew Blakely was built on cold hard cash, not love. Our only connection was our daughter, Annabel. Then came the call that shattered my world: Annabel' s charter plane crashed. She was gone. But Andrew, her supposed father, was partying with his mistress, Gabrielle, dismissing my agony as a "dramatic stunt." He hung up on me, laughing. My grief didn't turn to tears. It turned into a chilling calm, a primal urge for retribution. Thanks to an old pact and a loyal friend, Ethan, secrets started to unravel. The security footage showed Annabel, terrified, forced onto that doomed plane by two men. And lurking in the shadows, a smug smile on her face, was Gabrielle. This wasn't an accident. It was a calculated murder. When Andrew and Gabrielle publicly disrespected Annabel again at a charity gala, even destroying the last tangible piece of her, he shoved me to the ground. That' s when it became clear: he actively shielded her killer. My daughter's room was emptied, all traces of her erased by Andrew's mother. They left me nothing. But they had no idea what they' d just unleashed. I walked back into that glittering gala and served Andrew divorce papers. He signed them without a glance, desperate to be rid of me, unaware he' d just handed me the keys to his entire empire. My revenge had officially begun.

My marriage to Harrison Sterling III was a political merger, a meticulously designed union between two powerful D.C. dynasties. I was Ellie Vance Sterling, the poised, pragmatic wife, dedicated to power and legacy, not fleeting romance. Everything changed when Harry was "rescued" by Skyler Reed, a common waitress who boldly followed him back to our world. She was loud, disruptive, and claimed Harry's love, threatening to expose our family's carefully crafted image. When Skyler triumphantly announced her pregnancy, I calmly declared my own, ensuring my son's place as the legitimate heir. But the true horror unfolded when I discovered a secret: an "heirloom" bracelet, given to me and other Sterling wives, actually contained compounds to suppress fertility. It meant my accidental breakage of the bracelet allowed my conception, revealing a chilling family conspiracy to control who bore heirs. Then came the fire, deliberately set in my wing of the house-a terrifying attempt to erase me and my unborn son from existence. How could my own husband, bound by contract and public duty, attempt such a heinous act? The revelation shattered any remaining illusion of family loyalty, replacing it with a burning certainty of cold-blooded betrayal. With my son's life and our dynastic future at stake, I made my decision: I would invoke the Vance family's formidable protection, rise from these ashes, and secure my child's legacy, no matter the brutal cost.

Our tenth anniversary was supposed to be a romantic surprise, a special night at a chic downtown hotel. Instead, I found Ethan there, shirtless on the edge of the bed, with Chloe, a young woman barely out of college, looking flustered in a hotel robe. My world shattered as his gaze flickered, murmuring it was a "drunken mistake." Then, Chloe dramatically wailed about her lost virginity, prompting Ethan to declare he "had to be responsible" for her, completely dismissing our ten years together. The betrayal deepened when I later found their chat messages, exposing years of calculated financial deception and mockery: he' d let me fund our life on my teacher's salary, all while he and Chloe secretly built a multi-million-dollar gaming empire. The final, depraved blow came in a package: my old miscarriage records, alongside the meticulously preserved body of Whiskers, my beloved cat who' d vanished months prior. I collapsed, the world spinning, battling a raging fever that blurred days into a nightmarish delirium. How could the man I cherished, the partner I poured my entire heart and savings into, be capable of such chilling cruelty, such a systematic destruction of my sanity and life? But as I drifted close to death, clinging to the unwavering comfort of my old flame, Liam, a fierce, cold spark ignited within me. I wasn't just Sarah, Ethan's victim; I was Sarah, and I was going to fight back, expose their lies, reclaim my stolen future, and finally find my way home.

New Orleans was a powder keg, teetering on the brink of explosion. I, Isabelle "Izzy" Beaumont, the Mayor's daughter, believed I could save it. I offered myself in a desperate union to Jackson "Jax" Moreau, the charismatic gang leader I once loved, hoping to bridge the chasm between our warring worlds. But Jax's "union" was a brutal charade. He betrayed me, wiping out my family – my father mauled by his dogs, my brother crushed, my mother shamed to death. I became his prisoner, forced to watch as New Orleans burned and my world crumbled. Confined to a crumbling outbuilding, I endured constant torment. He even ordered the abortion of our unborn child. My former best friend, Clara, became his new queen, wearing my dead mother's necklace, reveling in my humiliation. All the while, a silent curse, a "living decay," gnawed at me, slowly consuming my life. Why this relentless hatred? Why did he ignore my silent suffering, my hidden sacrifice, claiming I was only paying for "my family's sins"? Didn't he remember when I' d dared to enter the dark bayou for him? It took me coughing up blood and collapsing, my body finally failing, for an ancient healer to appear. She revealed the impossible truth: the insidious curse eating me alive was the secret price I paid years ago, to save his life from a deadly cottonmouth bite. With my last breaths, can this shattering realization break the monster he's become, or is it simply too late for redemption in the ashes of our destroyed love?

Trouble came to Elea when she found out she was in huge debt because of her gambling brother, Leo. Julian, the future decision-maker of the Italian mafia, came to her to get his money back. However, when he laid his eyes on her, he wanted more than that. He took her away as his hostage and wanted to have fun while waiting for his money. She then became his prisoner, but she was not a submissive girl. She was going to give Julian a hard time. An extraordinary love story started between argument, violence, and sex. Elea couldn’t help but fall for her captor. But once the debt was paid off, she would have to choose between freedom and love. What would be her choice?

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.

I was an intern nurse working exhausting shifts, yet my mother constantly forced me into blind dates with wealthy, arrogant men to secure our family's social standing. During a terrifying hospital lockdown, an assassin disguised as a doctor held a scalpel to my throat. I was almost killed, but a high-ranking military colonel threw his own body down a flight of concrete stairs to shield me. I survived with cuts and bruises, but when I went home, my mother didn't care about my near-death experience. She was only furious that I had rushed out on my blind date with Preston, a rich financial analyst. She forced me to meet him to apologize. When Preston grabbed my arm, bruised me, and mocked my attack as a pathetic lie, my mother still took his side. "Men get angry," she told me coldly. "It's your job not to provoke them. You will beg for his forgiveness, or you are no longer welcome in this house." I had narrowly escaped an assassin, yet my own family was willing to feed me to a monster just for a fat paycheck and neighborhood gossip. My heart went completely dead. So, when the intimidating Colonel appeared, offering me maximum military protection through a sudden marriage, I didn't hesitate. I walked back into my parents' house and calmly slapped a crisp marriage certificate onto the coffee table. "I won't be apologizing to Preston. I got married today."

Lillian woke in a werecreature universe as a total loser. Good news was that women ruled here and could take multiple mates, yet she still ended up as the one everyone looked down on. Compared to her talented sister at every turn, she watched her first match get stolen and her next four mates reject her without mercy. The first mate was the King of Succubine himself. On their very first meeting, he warned Lillian that he was only staying long enough to recover from his injuries-and that there could never be anything between them. The second mate was a merman. He took one look at her and said he had no interest in a loser like her, tossing her some cash so she could break off their bond herself. The third mate was the progenitor vampire-over a thousand years old. He admitted to admiring her sister instead and made it clear he had no interest in a layabout like Lillian. Lillian cut every bond and chose her own path instead. But as she rose higher and higher, those same men returned, full of regret and begging her to look at them again. The fourth mate was a werewolf Lillian had rescued from an underground fighting ring. She thought he might actually stay-until he revealed himself as royalty. And of course, he wanted to break their bond for more power.

As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole. I begged him for help, my vision blurring. But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background. "Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again." He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm. I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube. Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry. Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled. "You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up." He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research. I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym. They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive. They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity. I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding. I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it. Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house. The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born.

Her sister is marrying her ex. So she brings her best friend as her fake fiancé. What could possibly go wrong? Savannah Hart thought she was over Dean Archer-until her sister, Chloe announces she's marrying him. The same man Savannah never stopped loving. The man who left her heartbroken... and now belongs to her sister. A weeklong wedding in New Hope. One mansion full of guests. And a very bitter maid of honor. To survive it, Savannah brings a date-her charming, clean-cut best friend, Roman Blackwood. The one man who's always had her back. He owes her a favor, and pretending to be her fiancé? Easy. Until fake kisses start to feel real. Now Savannah's torn between keeping up the act... or risking everything for the one man she was never supposed to fall for.

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.

Kayla stood outside the CEO suite, holding a custom suit for her fiancé, Brennon. They had spent seven years building a tech company from a freezing garage into a billion-dollar empire. But through the cracked door, she heard the breathy laugh of Evelin, the newly hired director. Then came Brennon's low, careless voice. "The wedding's a PR milestone for the IPO, nothing more." Kayla's blood turned to ice. "She's comfortable. Makes sense on paper," Brennon continued. "But you, Evelin. You understand ambition." The betrayal hit her like a physical blow. She had written the core code that made him a billionaire. She had stayed up until 4 AM debugging while he slept on a futon. Now, he was mocking their relationship to his mistress and handing over her life's work to a woman who couldn't even read a data log. Seven years of loyalty, reduced to a PR stunt. She didn't cry. Instead, a cold, violent clarity washed over her. Why should she let him keep the crown she forged? Without a word, she pulled the three-carat diamond off her finger and dropped it into her bag. She walked out of the building, drafted her resignation, and accepted a VP position at his biggest Wall Street rival. It was time to show Brennon what happened when the real genius behind his empire decided to tear it down.

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.

I woke up from a coma in the hospital, universally condemned as the vicious daughter who pushed the beloved fake heiress, Georgina, down the stairs. My ruthless billionaire brother, Angelo, stood over my bed with cold eyes, ready to destroy me for hurting his precious sister. But as I looked at him, a terrifying prophecy from my coma flooded my brain. Our entire family was doomed. In the original timeline, Georgina would team up with corporate rivals to bankrupt the company, frame Angelo, and send him to federal prison, while our parents would abandon me to die miserably. Lying there, I didn't dare speak. I just desperately cursed my idiot brother in my head. "This stupid brother is still yelling at me for that fake heiress. He doesn't even know he's going to be framed and sent to prison next month!" I just wanted to stay quiet, let them ruin themselves, and run away from this toxic family. But strangely, Angelo didn't strangle me. Instead, his attitude took a shocking turn. He abruptly fired the driver plotting to kill him, destroyed the abusive fiancé of a family ally, and publicly humiliated Georgina at a high-society gala. He even shielded me from our abusive parents, declaring to the world that I was the only sister he would ever protect. I was completely terrified and confused. Why was the tyrant brother suddenly acting like a protective beast? It wasn't until he flawlessly crushed a massive corporate attack using the exact financial secrets I had just complained about in my mind that a horrifying realization hit me. He could hear my inner thoughts!

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.