Li Zi Hai Shi Xing

The scream tore from my throat, but no sound came out. I was back. My hand flew to my belly—round, firm, eight months pregnant. Sunlight poured into my apartment. I was alive. But the memory was searing: that sterile hospital room, the monstrous pain of losing her, my baby girl ripped away. Mark’s family, their greedy faces, haunted my vision. They wanted my company, my money. They watched as my child and I died. Just three days. That's all I had before the loan sharks would come, the harbinger of my past life's ruin. They called my unborn daughter 'worthless' plotting my divorce and even grooming Mark's mistress to bear their 'heir.' They’d publicly shame me, all while seizing my assets. The burning injustice was a raw wound. To protect their name and inheritance, they’d sacrifice an innocent life. How could family be so cold, so utterly devoid of humanity, willing to let me and my child perish for their selfish desires? But not this time. Now, I knew their every cruel scheme. My shattered past had armed me with foresight. This time, my baby girl would live. This time, I was ready. And they would pay. They would pay for every tear, every life they tried to extinguish. Their downfall begins now.

I had played the role of Hunt Noble’s perfect partner for three years, a polished asset to his multi-billion dollar empire. But the mask slipped when I saw a photo of him smiling at another woman with an intimacy he hadn’t shown me in months. When I tried to walk away, Hunt didn't beg for forgiveness. He pinned me against a cold marble counter and reminded me that I was his property. "I provide for you. I don't answer to you." At the city's most prestigious gala, I made one final, desperate plea for a real commitment. He laughed, calling our relationship a "merger of assets" and labeling me a "bad investment" with a failed career. He had his lawyers draft a thirty-million-dollar NDA to buy my silence, treating our three years together like a business transaction to be settled and filed away. I signed the papers and threw the keys to his penthouse in his face, desperate to reclaim my soul. But that same night, I was drugged at a high-end club by a predator who thought I was unprotected. Before the darkness swallowed me, Hunt reappeared, a violent shadow who beat my attacker until the floor was slick with blood. I woke up back in the one place I swore I’d never return to: his master bedroom. As Hunt washed the filth of the night off me, his eyes burned with a terrifying, renewed possessiveness that the $30 million check couldn't hide. "You don't go anywhere without my permission." I realized then that the money wasn't my exit fee—it was the down payment on a permanent cage. If I ever wanted to be free, I couldn't just walk out. I had to burn his entire empire to the ground.

The silence in our living room was heavy, broken only by my ragged breathing. On the coffee table, a single photograph lay between us: my wife, Chloe Davis, holding a child, a man I' d never seen before, Alex Reed, his arm possessively around them. The anonymous email was simple: "Everything you believe is a lie." I stared at Chloe, my wife of five years, the celebrity I had helped build, the woman I loved with every fiber of my being, as she calmly confessed. "His name is Alex Reed. And that' s our son, Noah." Their son. The son I was told I could never have. The pain I had carried for us, the infertility I had accepted as my truth, was nothing but a calculated cover story. Her mother, Eleanor, rushed to my side, not to comfort me, but to smooth things over, to sell me on a lifetime of complicity. "Ethan, you know you can' t have children. This has happened. What' s the point of making a scene? Be a father to the boy. It' s a blessing in disguise, really." The sheer audacity, the cold dismissal of my pain and betrayal, left me speechless. Chloe, the woman I thought I knew, looked at me with chilling pragmatism. "It' s the most practical solution, Ethan. We can keep Alex and Noah hidden. This can just be our secret." My entire marriage, a lie. My love, a tool. My supposed brokenness, a convenient cover for her betrayal. The devastation burned away all confusion, leaving behind a stark clarity. "No," I said, quiet but final. Chloe blinked, as if the concept was foreign. "I want a divorce." Then came the storm. Not from Chloe, but from a social media post crafted by Eleanor, turning me into the villain. "Some people can't handle a strong woman. Chloe deserves a man who can give her a real family." My fabricated infertility, their weapon. The woman I sacrificed everything for had joined her mother and her secret family to paint me as the inadequate, abusive monster. They thought I was weak. They were wrong. My fingers, no longer trembling, found my phone. "I need to file for divorce. And I want to be prepared for a fight."

The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes wasn' t relief, but a dull ache in my chest. This wasn't my body, but Ava's. And with it came the ghost of her memory-a life of betrayal, humiliation, and a desperate wish for justice. Just hours ago, she was destroyed in the very home I now found myself in. Downstairs, the low murmur of voices belonged to the perfect, grieving family: Chloe, Ava' s supposed sister, clinging to Mark, Ava' s fiancé, both displaying a tenderness Mark hadn't shown Ava in years. Beside them stood my father, a man of iron will, his hand on Chloe's shoulder, looking at her with a pained affection he never once bestowed upon his own biological daughter. The scene turned sickening when Mark declared his love for Chloe, emphasizing her "softness" that Ava, with her ambition, supposedly lacked. Then came my father' s final hammer blow: "This girl, Chloe, has more grace and kindness in her little finger than you have in your entire body. She is the daughter I always wished I had." Every word was aimed at Ava, shattering her spirit. This was the core of her pain, the reason she gave up. But for me, it was the spark. I smiled, a cold, unwavering smile. "Good," I said, my voice clear and steady. "Then you won\'t mind when I take back everything that is rightfully mine. Every last thing."

The glowing line of code on Sarah' s monitor signaled another crisis averted, a familiar satisfaction that quickly vanished, replaced by the dull ache of a life suffocating under the weight of her possessive fiancé, Mark, and his manipulative sister, Emily. "Just three more days," she whispered to the empty office-a countdown to her escape and a new life where she would finally be valued. But her carefully constructed countdown shattered the moment Emily, supposedly pregnant and fragile, staged a dramatic public collapse in Sarah' s office, openly accusing her. Mark, the supposed love of her life, didn' t hesitate; his immediate, furious accusation- "What did you do?" -echoed through the silent office, his eyes burning with pure hatred. The betrayal was swift and absolute. He accused her of attempting to kill Emily and, later, their unborn child (Emily's baby, not theirs). Her reputation, her career, and her very freedom evaporated under a deluge of his self-righteous rage and Emily' s calculated lies. The accusations hung heavy in the sterile hospital air, turning her into a monster in front of her colleagues and the police. How could the man who once adored her believe such monstrous lies without question? How could a bond forged in love warp into this toxic web of manipulation and deceit? The injustice was a cold, sharp blade, cutting deep into her soul. She was trapped, branded a villain, with no one but herself to fight the tide of his blind fury. Yet, a seed of hope remained. Just two more days, she reminded herself. Two more days until a clandestine agency pulled her from this nightmare, erasing her old life and giving her a chance to reclaim herself. It was a risk, a leap into the unknown, but it was her only way out.

A blinding headache kicks off the wildest day of my life. I' m Savannah Vance, a pastry chef, but suddenly I' m a villainess in some cheesy romance novel, hated by everyone, including Dr. Kael Blackwood, the handsome, cold hero. My new 'family,' who apparently swapped me at birth from a wealthy tech mogul father, instantly disowns me. Accusations fly-they parade my presumed low-class origins, and my adoptive mother' s misguided "love potion" gift to "secure a man's interest" only solidifies their disgust. No matter what I do, they just see the conniving gold-digger from the book. My supposed sister, Blair, frames me again and again, turning every family member against me, while Kael watches with chilling disdain. His own family, especially his mom, seems to be the only ones who see my truth. How am I supposed to survive in a world where everyone believes I'm the villain, especially when the hero despises me and my own family actively tries to sabotage me? This isn' t my story, but I' m living it. I will not be this villainess. I' ll use my real skills, my baking talent, and my anonymous blog, "Sugar & Spice," to carve out my own destiny, even if it means fighting alone against a pre-written ending.

For 15 years, Lena and I were Apex and Viper, Sentinel Group's best. We moved like ghosts, always got the job done. I thought our bond was iron, that nothing could break what we had. A lifetime together, quiet, away from it all – that was the future I saw. Then Julian Thorne, a tech billionaire's son, walked into our lives. I saw the shift in Lena's eyes, a flicker I hadn't wanted to acknowledge. Her laughter grew too loud, too often with him, and her subtle jabs at me turned sharper, more dismissive. She started calling him Julian, shared operational details she shouldn't have, and openly mocked my ruggedness, insisting Julian preferred 'polish.' My gut twisted when he tossed our custom-made challenge coin in the air – the symbol of our unbroken partnership, given to him like trash. But nothing hit harder than her cold laugh, "A future? With you? Don't be ridiculous, Alex. You think I' d ever be with someone like you?" Twenty years of belief, shattered in an instant. The woman I loved, my partner for fifteen years, saw me as nothing but a grunt, a relic, beneath her ambition. The pain was a physical blow, a cold, hard truth: this wasn't a partnership. To her, it was just a job, and Julian Thorne, a shiny, disposable perk. Watching her laugh with him, the knot in my gut tightened, then snapped. I pulled out my burner phone, the one I hadn't touched in years. "Grandfather," I said, my voice rough, "It's Alex. About that arrangement… is it still on the table?" It was time to leave everything behind, to find a peace she could never offer.

The scream died in my throat, a ghost of a sound from a life already lost. My eyes snapped open to weak autumn sunlight filtering through bedroom curtains. Michael, my husband, slept beside me, his breathing even. Down the hall, Lily, my five-year-old, would soon be stirring, ready for cartoons and pancakes. It was a normal morning, but the memories, the ice-cold dread, they weren't a dream. It was a terrifying premonition: a monstrous blizzard, Lily's small, still face, Michael's broken body in the snow. I saw the snarling faces of Frank, Brenda, Billy, and Jimmy, their greedy eyes scanning our home. And then, the ultimate betrayal: Jessie. My adopted daughter, Jessie, siding with them, facilitating their violence, celebrating their victory over our family. They had ransacked our home, murdered my husband and daughter, and left me to die in the freezing snow. My heart hammered with the visceral horror of that nightmare, the profound betrayal burning deeper than any wound. How could the daughter I loved, the one I raised, turn into such a monster and actively choose our destruction? This wasn't just a nightmare; it felt terrifyingly real, a chilling glimpse into an impending doom. "It had all happened. It was all going to happen. Today." A tremor went through me. Today was the day the blizzard warnings began, the day Jessie first whined about wanting to see her "real" family. I was back. Armed with the brutal wisdom of a life I'd already lost, I would rewrite every brutal chapter, protect my family, and ensure those who sought to harm us faced a fate far worse.

Ethan and I were a medical power couple, brilliant doctors at Mount Sinai West, building a life, a future. My world, however, shattered in a horrific car crash. My head throbbed, my vision blurred, and though my words were clear enough to convey a severe neurological emergency, the man I loved, Dr. Ethan Hayes, rushed past my trauma bay. He called me "dramatic," dismissing my critical state to focus on his stepsister, Brooke, who he believed had a 'shattered leg.' I watched, a helpless ghost, as my body flatlined, the monitor's unbroken tone signaling my death. He still didn't know, too preoccupied with fixing Brooke's "injuries," too blind to her manipulative tears and lies about the accident. The betrayal was colder than death itself. Five years, a future planned, all discarded for a carefully crafted pretense. My heart, or what was left of it, ached with an unbearable truth. The true horror, the one that would forever define his torment, was a secret I carried even into the afterlife: I was pregnant. With our child. The baby he unknowingly condemned with his catastrophic medical negligence. His world was about to unravel – spectacularly, brutally. And I, his silent, invisible companion, would be tethered to him, watching every agonizing moment as his brilliant career, his sanity, and his very soul disintegrated.

My name is Sarah Miller, and I gave up everything for the man I loved. When a scandal threatened my fiancé Ethan Vance's political ambitions, I sacrificed my family's ancestral land and treasured heirloom locket to the ruthless Arthur Sterling, clearing Ethan's massive debt. I then endured brutal months in Sterling's notorious sweatshop, working until my body broke, leaving me with a permanent limp and a jagged scar. But the day Ethan won his election, the news crushed me: he was engaged to Tori Sterling, Arthur Sterling's cruel daughter. I limped to his victory celebration, desperate for his promised future, only for him to look me dead in the eyes and publicly declare, "I don't know you." Tori sneered, branding me a "delusional ex," and amid their mocking laughter, Ethan had Sterling's enforcers banish me from town. How could the man I crippled myself for betray me so utterly, abandoning me for the very family who orchestrated my ruin? Cast out, every sacrifice seemingly for nothing, a searing injustice ignited a desperate fire within me. Limping away from everything I knew, I set my sights on whispered legends of a hidden community, The Hollow. I would seek refuge there, not to hide, but to forge a new destiny and, one day, demand the fierce justice I deserved.

Her wedding night was nothing but a nightmare for Della, where her newly-married husband left her alone without so much as a second glance, ignoring her cries for him to stay with her. Hopelessly drunk, she found herself losing her grip on reality and even mistook Mark for her husband. However, what was waiting for her was a brewing storm. Her scandalous photo of last night was on the headline. And her husband threw the divorce agreement and a check for five million dollars on her face. Six years later, she rose up like a phoenix and became her ex-husband’s opponent in the business world. However, Mark came to her life again. This time, she didn’t know how to get rid of this romantic trouble.

Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé. Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now-billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn't mind. I'd crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one? Wrong. One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That's when it hit me-he didn't love me. He didn't even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn't even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup. So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster-my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise. Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Enter him. Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I'd met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes. It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised. But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life. And, as it turned out, the best decision I'd ever made. Because my one-night stand isn't just some random guy. He's richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with. And now, he's not letting me go.

She spent ten years chasing after the right brother, only to fall for the wrong one in one weekend. ~~~ Sloane Mercer has been hopelessly in love with her best friend, Finn Hartley, since college. For ten long years, she's stood by him, stitching him back together every time Delilah Crestfield-his toxic on-and-off girlfriend-shattered his heart. But when Delilah gets engaged to another man, Sloane thinks this might finally be her chance to have Finn for herself. She couldn't be more wrong. Heartbroken and desperate, Finn decides to crash Delilah's wedding and fight for her one last time. And he wants Sloane by his side. Reluctantly, Sloane follows him to Asheville, hoping that being close to Finn will somehow make him see her the way she's always seen him. Everything changes when she meets Knox Hartley, Finn's older brother-a man who couldn't be more different from Finn. He's dangerously magnetic. Knox sees right through Sloane and makes it his mission to pull her into his world. What starts as a game-a twisted bet between them-soon turns into something deeper. Sloane is trapped between two brothers: one who's always broken her heart and another who seems hell-bent on claiming it... no matter the cost. CONTENT WARNING: This story is strongly 18+. It delves into dark romance themes such as obsession and lust with morally complex characters. While this is a love story, reader discretion is advised.  

The rain in Detroit was slick with grime when my family finally came to fetch me. They didn't want a reunion; they wanted a sacrificial lamb to marry into the Kaufman empire to save their failing business. I thought I was just being sold off, but the limo ride ended under a dark overpass where six hired thugs were waiting with chains. My own sister had ordered them to "break my spirit" so I’d be a shaking, pathetic mess by the time I reached the altar. They called me "Detroit trash" and sprayed air freshener when I sat on their leather seats. My stepmother wanted a video of me begging for my life, and my father was ready to trade me like a used car to a man everyone called a "vegetable." They expected a submissive country girl, unaware that I was a high-level "cleaner" who could snap a radius bone before they could even scream. When I finally reached the Kaufman estate, I found my fiancé, Barron, slumped in a wheelchair, drooling and silent. But as soon as the doors closed, the "invalid" grabbed my wrist with a grip of iron and whispered a command that changed everything. I didn't understand why my own blood was so desperate to see me destroyed. What had I ever done to deserve a hit squad and a forced marriage to a man they thought was a corpse? But Barron isn't a vegetable, and I'm not a victim. We just touched down at the Moon family gala in a matte-black helicopter, and as the doors slide open, the "broken" bride is about to show them exactly what happens when you throw away the wrong daughter. "If we're going to crash a party," Barron whispered, his eyes burning with lethal clarity, "we should make an entrance."

Camille Lewis was the forgotten daughter, the unloved wife, the woman discarded like yesterday's news. Betrayed by her husband, cast aside by her own family, and left for dead by the sister who stole everything, she vanished without a trace. But the weak, naive Camille died the night her car was forced off that bridge. A year later, she returns as Camille Kane, richer, colder, and more powerful than anyone could have imagined. Armed with wealth, intelligence, and a hunger for vengeance, she is no longer the woman they once trampled on. She is the storm that will tear their world apart. Her ex-husband begs for forgiveness. Her sister's perfect life crumbles. Her parents regret the daughter they cast aside. But Camille didn't come back for apologies, she came back to watch them burn. But as her enemies fall at her feet, one question remains: when the revenge is over, what's left? A mysterious trillionaire Alexander Pierce steps into her path, offering something she thought she lost forever, a future. But can a woman built on ashes learn to love again? She rose from the fire to destroy those who betrayed her. Now, she must decide if she'll rule alone... or let someone melt the ice in her heart.

She hides behind ugly suits and fake names. He's done trusting women. When they meet in a masked sex club, neither realizes they've been fighting each other across boardroom tables for eighteen months. At Taylor Industries, she's Joy Smith-the frumpy CFO who drowns her curves in shapeless polyester and wearing a wig. At home, she's the forgotten wife of a cheating lawyer who hasn't touched her in so long she's starting to wonder if she's broken. When she finds hot pink lace panties stuffed in her couch cushions...definitely not hers, it's not heartbreak she feels. It's freedom. Grayson Taylor doesn't do relationships anymore. Not after walking in on his actress fiancée with another woman. Now he channels everything into hostile takeovers and board meetings, especially the ones where his overcautious CFO fights him on every goddamn acquisition. Joy Smith is brilliant, infuriating, and funny when he pushes all her buttons. But Honey is tired of being invisible. Tired of never having felt real pleasure. So, when her best friend gives her the details of The Velvet Room-Manhattan's most exclusive masked club-she promises herself just one night. One night to find out if her husband's right, if she really is frigid, or if she's just never been touched by the right hands. She doesn't expect the masked stranger who claims her the second she walks in. Doesn't expect the chemistry that ignites between them, the way he makes her body sing, or the orgasms that leave her shaking. Doesn't expect him to hand her an email address with one command: "Only me. No one else touches you."

I was at my own engagement party at the Sterling estate when the world started tilting. Victoria Sterling, my future mother-in-law, smiled coldly as she watched me struggle with a cup of tea that had been drugged to ruin me. Before I could find my fiancé, Ryan, a waiter dragged me into the forbidden West Wing and locked me in a room with Julian Sterling, the family’s "fallen titan" who had been confined to a wheelchair for years. The door burst open to a frenzy of camera flashes and theatrical screams. Victoria framed me as a seductress caught in the act, and Ryan didn't even try to listen to my pleas, calling me "cheap leftovers" before walking away with his pregnant mistress. When I turned to my own family for help, my father signed a document severing our relationship for a five-million-dollar payout from Julian. They traded me like a commodity without a second thought. I didn't understand why my own parents were so eager to sell me, or how Ryan could look at me with such disgust after promising me forever. I was a sacrifice, a pawn used to protect the family's offshore accounts, and I couldn't fathom how every person I loved had a price tag for my destruction. With nowhere left to go, I married Julian in a bleak ceremony at City Hall. He slid a heavy diamond onto my finger and whispered, "We have a war to start." That night, inside his secret penthouse, I watched the paralyzed man stand up from his wheelchair and activate a screen filled with the Sterling family's darkest secrets. The execution had officially begun.

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

I received a pornographic video. "Do you like this?" The man speaking in the video is my husband, Mark, whom I haven't seen for several months. He is naked, his shirt and pants scattered on the ground, thrusting forcefully on a woman whose face I can't see, her plump and round breasts bouncing vigorously. I can clearly hear the slapping sounds in the video, mixed with lustful moans and grunts. "Yes, yes, fuck me hard, baby," the woman screams ecstatically in response. "You naughty girl!" Mark stands up and flips her over, slapping her buttocks as he speaks. "Stick your ass up!" The woman giggles, turns around, sways her buttocks, and kneels on the bed. I feel like someone has poured a bucket of ice water on my head. It's bad enough that my husband is having an affair, but what's worse is that the other woman is my own sister, Bella. ************************************************************************************************************************ "I want to get a divorce, Mark," I repeated myself in case he didn't hear me the first time-even though I knew he'd heard me clearly. He stared at me with a frown before answering coldly, "It's not up to you! I'm very busy, don't waste my time with such boring topics, or try to attract my attention!" The last thing I was going to do was argue or bicker with him. "I will have the lawyer send you the divorce agreement," was all I said, as calmly as I could muster. He didn't even say another word after that and just went through the door he'd been standing in front of, slamming it harshly behind him. My eyes lingered on the knob of the door a bit absentmindedly before I pulled the wedding ring off my finger and placed it on the table. I grabbed my suitcase, which I'd already had my things packed in and headed out of the house.

"I will marry you. Wait for me!" Mabel woke up. She had that dream again. In her dream, a man said he would marry her. Just a dream. Five years ago, she was set up by her stepsister and became pregnant out of wedlock. She lost everything, including her baby. Five years later, she was forced to marry her stepsister's fiance, Jayden, who was sick and going to pass away. Having no choice, Mabel decided to marry Jayden, not expecting that Jayden was the man...

I just got my billionaire husband to sign our divorce papers. He thinks it's another business document. Our marriage was a business transaction. I was his secretary by day, his invisible wife by night. He got a CEO title and a rebellion against his mother; I got the money to save mine. The only rule? Don't fall in love. I broke it. He didn't. So I'm cashing out. Thirty days from now, I'm gone. But now he's noticing me. Touching me. Claiming me. The same man who flaunts his mistresses is suddenly burning down a nightclub because another man insulted me. He says he'll never let me go. But he has no idea I'm already halfway out the door. How far will a billionaire go to keep a wife he never wanted until she tried to leave?