Qing Bao

For three months, I was the perfect wife to tech billionaire Axel Delacruz. I thought our marriage was a fairy tale, and the welcome dinner for my new internship at his company was supposed to be a celebration of our perfect life. That illusion shattered when his beautiful, unhinged ex, Diana, crashed the party and stabbed him in the arm with a steak knife. But the real horror wasn't the blood. It was the look in my husband's eyes. He cradled his attacker, whispering a single, tender word meant only for her: "Always." He stood by as she held a knife to my face to carve off a beauty mark she claimed I'd copied from her. He watched as she threw me into a kennel with starving dogs, knowing it was my deepest fear. He let her have me beaten, let her shove gravel down my throat to ruin my voice, and let her men break my hand in a door. When I called him one last time, begging for help as a group of men closed in, he hung up on me. Trapped and left for dead, I threw myself out of a second-story window. As I ran, bleeding and broken, I made a call I hadn't made in years. "Uncle Francisco," I sobbed into the phone. "I want a divorce. And I want you to help me destroy him." They thought they married a nobody. They had no idea they'd just declared war on the Wallace family.

I finally terminated my tutoring contract with Donovan Carlisle, the wealthy hockey captain I had never met. I even waived a six-figure settlement just to get my freedom back. To celebrate my new life, I went to a popular campus bar, only to be cornered by a group of aggressive, drunk football players. Desperate and trapped, I spotted a dangerous-looking stranger in a dim corner. I ran over, threw my arms around his neck, and kissed him hard to use him as a shield. Instead of pushing me away, the stranger played along. His icy blue eyes mocked me as he whispered a command to keep going. In my absolute panic to make the act convincing, I fumbled with his shirt buttons. When the threat finally left, I shoved him away. Overwhelmed with shame, I slapped fifty crumpled dollars on the table for his "trouble" and ran out into the cold night like a fugitive. I hid in my dorm room, terrified and humiliated. I couldn't understand why he chose to play along just to watch my pathetic show. I thought I had just offended a random, arrogant guy. But then my best friend dropped a bomb on me. "That guy you kissed? That's Donovan Carlisle." My blood ran cold. The stranger I had just forced myself on and insulted with cheap cash was the very employer I dumped this morning. And worst of all, he had just ordered his team to turn the entire university upside down to hunt me down.

After my mother passed away, my stepfather and his daughter took over our home and erased my existence. I was the only true heir to my mother's legacy, but I was pushed out. Five years later, I saw my stepsister trending on social media. She was flaunting the "Star of the Ocean"—my mother's seven-million-dollar sapphire necklace that mysteriously vanished from our family safe right after the funeral. I flew straight back to New York and crashed my stepfather's high-society birthday gala. When I publicly pointed out the stolen necklace on my stepsister's neck, my stepfather grabbed my arm, his fingers digging painfully into my skin. "What nonsense are you talking about? Don't ruin my party!" he growled, his face flushed with fury. He turned to the crowd with a fake smile. "It's just a misunderstanding between sisters. A simple family spat." My stepsister hid behind him, clutching my mother's necklace, playing the terrified, innocent victim while the crowd whispered about my dramatic return. It was sickening. They had stolen my mother's company, looted my inheritance, and expected me to stay quietly in the shadows while they climbed the social ladder using my family's blood and sweat. Did they really think I was still that helpless, grieving girl they could easily manipulate? I shook off his hand, pulled out the original certificate of authenticity from the auction house, and calmly dialed 911. "Yes, officer. I want to report a grand larceny. The thief is right here."

Celestia woke up heavily sedated, her wrists bound tightly to the legs of a grand piano in a cold, opulent room. Before she could even process the panic, a towering billionaire named Sterling Sinclair IV stepped in, looking at her like a possessed piece of art. The head maid then handed Celestia a thick surrogacy contract with her perfectly forged signature. "You are here to bear an heir for Mr. Sinclair," the maid stated flatly. Celestia screamed that they had the wrong person, but her desperate cries bounced uselessly off the soundproof walls. Stripped of her clothes, phone, and identity, she was trapped on an isolated island surrounded by high-voltage electric fences and armed guards. When she furiously fought back, Sterling physically overpowered her, punishing her resistance with brutal, terrifying dominance until she lost consciousness on the marble floor. She didn't understand who had kidnapped her from her normal life. Why was her biometric data perfectly faked in a classified dossier? Who had framed her as a willing, ten-million-dollar premium product for a ruthless billionaire? Driven by pure survival, Celestia began aggressively consuming raw garlic and bathing in harsh white vinegar to destroy her fertility and repel his touch. And when Sterling finally reviewed her bizarre, self-sabotaging dietary logs, the terrifying truth hit his calculating mind like a physical blow. The broken, innocent woman he had been brutally tormenting all week was never his hired surrogate.

My husband, Conrad, pulled me from the abyss after my brother died, saving me when I had nothing. He promised to protect me forever. But for ten years, his endless affairs and cruel mind games have been a slow poison, leaving me with a terminal illness and a broken spirit. The final blow came on our tenth anniversary. He gave my gift-an emerald necklace I' d dreamed of since our honeymoon-to his mistress, Aubrey. But that wasn't enough. He then gave her the last piece of my brother I had left: his final symphony. She scribbled on the pages, used them as a coaster, and called his life's work "garbage." As my body failed, I realized the man who swore to save me had weaponized my deepest traumas to destroy me. My love curdled into a cold, quiet rage. Now, drowning in guilt, he has destroyed Aubrey to atone for his sins. He kneels by my deathbed, begging for forgiveness, promising to do anything to earn it. He has no idea my final act of revenge requires his absolute devotion. And his life.

My fiancé and my cousin destroyed my life. Their betrayal led to my mother's suicide and my grandmother's death. They framed me for arson, and I went to prison. Three years later, I' m a trauma surgeon. The ER doors burst open, and there he was, carrying her in his arms. She was pregnant, and she was bleeding out. He begged me to save them. "Save her, Alana. Please. Save them both." Then he accused me of wanting revenge, his eyes filled with hate. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" The man who took everything from me was now on his knees, his world depending on my skill. I was the only one who could save the woman who stole my life. I did my job. I saved them both. But as I walked out of the hospital that night, his car was there, blocking my path. This wasn't just a chance encounter. He was back to reclaim what he thought was his.

As the Luna of the Silver Moon Pack, I thought my Fated Mate bond with Alpha Liam was unbreakable. That was until Ava Sinclair walked into the banquet hall, pregnant, and Liam used his Alpha Command to force me to my knees in front of the whole pack, choosing his mistress over me. The violence of his rejection didn't just break my heart; it killed the unborn pup I hadn't even told him about yet. When I tried to escape the toxicity, Liam hunted me down and chained me in a dungeon with silver cuffs, desperate to keep me as a "backup" while he played house with Ava. It took him two years to realize Ava was carrying a rogue's bastard, not his heir. Suddenly, the arrogant Alpha was the victim, kneeling in the dirt at the Solstice Festival, offering me a massive diamond ring and begging for a second chance. He thought he could buy forgiveness. He thought I was still his broken little wife. But I didn't reach for the ring. I turned to the female warrior standing beside me—the one who had lifted a collapsing stone pillar to save my life while Liam was busy destroying it. I interlaced my fingers with hers and looked down at my ex-mate. "You ask why I choose her?" I said, my voice ringing across the silent plaza. "Because while you were building my cage, Liam, Seraphina was becoming my sky."

After five years trapped in a cursed slumber, I finally woke up. The first thing I did was follow the scent of my mate, my Alpha, Kaelen. I found him in his office, kissing another woman—a mousy Omega I barely recognized. He told me she meant nothing, that she was just there to soothe his grief. Like a fool, I believed him. But when I went to the pack's Hall of Records, the elder told me I had been declared legally dead three years ago. The petition was signed by my own parents and executed by Kaelen. He had already chosen a new Luna: her. My own son told me I should have stayed dead. He said the other woman was nicer and should be his mother. Then, the woman who replaced me tried to kill me, pulling me off a cliff into a raging river. Kaelen dove in, swam right past my outstretched hand, and saved her. Lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, I was forced to listen as Kaelen used his Alpha's Command to order a blood transfusion to save her life. He never even asked who the donor was. He just demanded they drain my life to save his chosen mate. As my life drained away, I saw my entire family—my mate, my parents, my son—gathered around her bed, a perfect picture of happiness. That's when I finally understood. Waking up was a mistake. My only path forward was to disappear and pray they would never find the ghost I was about to become.

Ava Jenkins stared at her reflection in the darkened bus window, a stranger looking back. Her fiery red hair and loud clothes screamed for attention, but inside, she carried a secret heavier than a brick: Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Her heart was failing, and there was no cure. She just needed to see him, Liam Hayes, her distant uncle, one last time. Her world shattered when his mother, Martha, slammed an engagement announcement into her chest: Liam was marrying Chloe, Martha's own daughter. The boy who had once comforted her with candy at her father' s funeral, who had been her sole source of light, was now lost to her-and worse, he didn't even remember her. Desperate, she confronted Liam, only to be met with cold disdain. He pushed her away, repeatedly, with cruel words, accusing her of being pathetic, attention-seeking, and a disgrace. Even when her beloved Grandma Rose lay dying due to Martha's greed, Liam, a renowned lawyer, chose to represent Martha in court, effectively sending Ava to prison, crushing her last shred of hope. Liam's constant rejection and disbelief-even when she told him she was dying-left her utterly bewildered. How could the person she loved most, the one who taught her kindness, become so full of hatred and indifference towards her? Why did he believe everyone else but her? Lying in a hospital bed, medically paroled and close to death, Ava made a final, heartbreaking decision: she would let Liam believe he had saved her out of guilt, giving him a clean conscience, and then slip away quietly, finally finding the peace he had always denied her.

The cold prickle of the lethal injection syringe was my last sensation. Then, I gasped, choking on air, my lungs burning as I shot upright in my own bed. It was the morning of the day my life ended the first time. Framed for a brutal hit-and-run, I' d watched my family crumble and my fiancée, Chloe, look on with pity-filled eyes. Now, the date on my phone confirmed it. I was back. A soft knock, and Chloe stood in the doorway, smiling. Her presence, once comforting, now sent a jolt of pure fear through me. I remembered the courtroom, her sorrowful gaze-it felt like a prelude to my personal hell. "Leo, you awake? I made breakfast." Her voice dripped with concern, a perfect performance. My instinct screamed: change everything. I told her I wasn' t feeling well, cancelling the fateful drive. Her smile flickered, a micro-expression of annoyance I' d missed before. Hours later, I heard her hushed voice from the living room, tight with frustration. "No, he didn' t go," she hissed. "The point is to ruin him, whether he' s on the coast road or sitting on his damn couch. Find another way." My world tilted. The woman I was to marry was plotting my destruction. The cold dread of betrayal numbed me, then a white-hot rage ignited. I bolted, my mind a blur. I had to run, to put distance, to survive. But she was standing there, a fresh smile on her face. "Feeling better?" she asked. I pushed past her, fumbling with the lock, her voice calling my name echoing like a curse. I ran until I hit the street and called my best friend, Matt. He picked me up, confused but loyal. I told him Chloe was setting me up, omitting the rebirth. "Chloe? She adores you. Maybe you misunderstood." "I didn' t misunderstand, Matt! I heard her. She said, 'The point is to ruin him.' " He believed me, taking me to his apartment, the safest place on Earth. I hoped I had dodged the bullet. Then the news broke. "Police in Oceanville are searching for a suspect in a violent hit-and-run that occurred just an hour ago on Seaside Boulevard." My blood froze. Seaside Boulevard was nowhere near the coast road. But the face on the screen was mine. LEO VANCE. Wanted. Dangerous. My beer bottle shattered. "Leo," Matt whispered, his face pale. "What the hell is this?" Confusion turned to anger. "You lied to me! You were driving! You involved me in this!" The sirens wailed. They had found us. Just like before. The trap wasn' t a location; it was a narrative. And it had snapped shut around me again.

The official report said my husband, Liam, a heroic smokejumper, died saving me from a wildfire. Pregnant and heartbroken, I tried to end my life, only to wake in a hospital bed, the world a muffled blur of pain and grief. Then, a voice cut through the fog – Liam's. He was alive, outside my room, telling a buddy the "story was solid" and everyone thought he was dead. My world didn't just burn; it was pure, calculated arson. I heard him choose Claire, his twin brother's fragile fiancée, over me, his pregnant wife, dismissing my suffering with a chilling "Ava has Noah. She has her family. They'll take care of her." He planned to assume his deceased brother's identity and money, all for her. The man I worshipped, the hero, was a cold, calculating stranger who had discarded me and our unborn child for another woman. Every memory, every shared dream, turned to ash in that hospital room. Lying there, the old Ava died. A new one was forged in betrayal and ice, and the first act of this new woman was to accept my childhood friend Noah's long-standing marriage proposal, right under Liam's nose. The game was far from over.

Jessica Peterson, my classmate and rival for that scholarship, smiled her fake bright smile and invited me on a weekend trip. I was top of my class, but finals had me wound tight, and a break sounded too good to pass up. One too-sweet soda later, everything went black. I woke up on a stained mattress in a dilapidated farmhouse, the air thick with mold and fear. Not a relaxing getaway, but a nightmare. My "friend" Jessica hadn't just abandoned me; she' d sold me to the brutish Miller family as a forced bride, all for a broken-down pickup truck and a job for one of their leering sons. My pleas were met with kicks and sneers. When I tried to escape, I was dragged back, bruised and battered. A passing neighbor dismissed my desperate cries for help, thinking I was a delirious runaway, disbelieving me because of my mud-streaked, disheveled appearance. Even my own cousin, who briefly heard my muffled screams, was fooled by the Millers' slick lies. My academic future, my university dreams, all seemed destined to turn into an endless nightmare in this backwoods hell. How could Jessica, my childhood friend, trade my entire life, my freedom, for a rusty old truck? The sheer, horrifying injustice of it was a bitter, burning rage in my gut. Why me? Why this? But then a flicker of recognition cut through the despair. This place, this county, was my Grandpa John' s homeland – where he was Sheriff for forty years, where his name still carried immense weight. With that realization, a new strength surged. I might be trapped, but I was Sarah, Sheriff John' s granddaughter. And if I could just get a message out, everyone who wronged me-Jessica, her family, and the Millers-would regret it. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Sylvia's stepsister framed her and put her in prison, but Sylvia was not afraid. She had a man who would do anything for her. When her father and stepmother were about to throw her mother out of the hospital, her man threw them into the sea. When her ex-fiance ruined her reputation at school, her man made him suffer for the rest of his life. Ever since she met him, no matter what problem she faced, she knew that it would be solved in the end. “No worries, my sweetie. As long as you're happy, everything will be fine."

I was the President's Old Lady - and the only reason his MC was still breathing. For three years, I ran every legal business the Serpents of Redemption owned. While Craig chased road glory across state lines, I turned a failing auto shop and a tattoo parlor into the money that kept the brothers fed, the bikes fueled, and the clubhouse lights on. Then he rode home from a two-month run with a sweetbutt on the back of his Harley - and her son. Ginger, he said, had saved his life on the road. So he put her in the main residence, in the room directly across from our bed. He handed her my ledgers and called it repayment. When her son dumped a cup of scalding coffee over my hand, Craig never checked my burns. He scooped up the boy and blamed me. His grandmother - the club's Matriarch - stood before every patched brother and accused me of hurting "family." That night, Craig told me Ginger held a place in his heart I could never reach. A debt of blood he'd honor above me. Three years. My family's fortune. My scarred hand. All of it - worthless next to his roadside savior. So I did the one thing a President never expects his Old Lady to do. I gave back his patch. Now they can keep their empty ledgers. They can play happy family in a clubhouse I built. And when this motorcycle club burns - I'll be the one holding the match.

I was in the hospital, enduring the agonizing pain of labor, while my husband, a famous hockey captain, refused to show up. When I called him for the twelfth time, begging for him, he lost his patience. "Giving birth is a woman's job, don't bother me with this stuff." Then, I heard my stepsister's sweet voice offering him a drink, and he immediately softened before hanging up on me. I gave birth to twins all by myself. The nurses treated me with cold indifference, and the family in the next bed loudly mocked me as a pathetic "Puck Bunny" who was just an adopted orphan about to be dumped. They were right. A month ago, my husband had thrown divorce papers at me, demanding I make way because my stepsister was pregnant with his child. I thought my life was a joke. I was just a discarded prop he married to satisfy his grandfather, a fake daughter my adoptive parents only used to elevate my stepsister. I was completely alone, ready to sign the papers just to protect my two babies. But then, the head of the hospital rushed in, transferred me to the top-floor VIP suite, and handed me a DNA test. It turned out I wasn't an unwanted orphan, but the long-lost daughter of the ultra-wealthy Sinclair family who had been searching for me for twenty years. Looking at my billionaire parents and three powerful brothers who just flew in on their private jets to protect me, I picked up my phone to call my arrogant husband. This time, I was going to make him leave with nothing.

"Sign the contract, or lose everything." I stared at the papers that would seal my fate-a three-year marriage to Julian Blackwood, the ruthless billionaire they call the Ice King. My family didn't ask. They demanded. My father's company was drowning, my stepsister's engagement had exploded, and I was the replacement bride they could sacrifice. Just another transaction. Julian made it clear on our wedding day: "Don't expect affection. Don't expect companionship. Certainly don't expect love." He refused to kiss me at the altar. He gave me a bedroom down the hall and told me to stay out of his way. I was Mrs. Blackwood in name only-a contract, a convenience, a means to an end. I accepted it. I had survived twelve years of abuse in my own home. I could survive three years of indifference in his. But then Nate, Julian's best friend, showed me kindness, and suddenly my cold husband became possessive. When my sister attacked me, he became protective. Now the man who promised me nothing is fighting his own father to keep me. The marriage that was supposed to be fake is becoming terrifyingly real and the secrets about my mother's death are threatening to destroy everything. They said Julian Blackwood destroys everything he touches. What they didn't tell me... is that sometimes destruction is exactly what you need to be reborn. With a pregnancy involved, how was I going to end this three-year marriage peacefully?

Five years ago, I stood in the freezing rain at my mother's funeral, waiting for my husband. Blake Knight, the billionaire NHL superstar, was two hours late. When he finally showed up, he brought his rumored girlfriend, the woman he had just rented a hotel rooftop for to celebrate her birthday. Watching him defend her fake tears, my heart completely died. I took off my diamond wedding ring, placed it on my mother's headstone, and walked away from my marriage forever. I fled to London, changed my name to Ava, and secretly raised the triplets he never knew existed. I thought I was finally safe from him. But today, my kids vandalized a silver Aston Martin in our apartment's parking garage, and the owner caught my youngest daughter. My phone rang. The voice on the other end was Blake's. He had moved into my building, and he was holding my little girl in his penthouse, demanding her mother come get her immediately. Panic suffocated me. If I walked through that door, my five years of hiding would be instantly destroyed. He would recognize me, realize I didn't get rid of our child like everyone thought, and he would use all his power to take my babies away. I couldn't let him ruin my life again. "I'm just her nanny," I lied through my teeth. I frantically begged my best friend to go upstairs and rescue my daughter in my place. He bought the disguise, but now, the King of the Ice is dangerously obsessed with investigating my new identity.

Chloe had just given birth to twins, lying exhausted in a cramped, bustling hospital ward. When she called her husband, Julian, he was busy partying with his actress mistress. He coldly hung up on her, having already drafted a brutal divorce agreement that would leave her with a pittance. Strangers in the next bed loudly mocked her pitiful state, gossiping about how Julian was dumping her. For years, Chloe had erased her own identity to fit into his elite world, only to be thrown away like garbage. She was completely alone, clutching her helpless babies, bracing herself to sign the cruel papers just to survive. She couldn't understand why her absolute devotion was met with such chilling indifference. Why did she have to suffer this ultimate humiliation while he celebrated with the woman who ruined her life? But then, a senior doctor noticed a unique mole on her wrist and ran a secret DNA test. The results were staggering: Chloe was the long-lost daughter of the billionaire Beaumont family. With her fiercely protective parents and three powerful brothers suddenly forming an impenetrable fortress around her, Chloe picked up her phone and texted her arrogant husband. "City Hall tomorrow at 10 AM. If you don't show up, my lawyer will handle everything. And trust me, you won't like their terms."

After six years away, I returned to my hometown with a single suitcase and a picture of my fiancé tangled up with my stepsister. I thought it was just a simple, disgusting betrayal, but when I planted a bug in their private suite to get a confession, I heard a truth that froze my blood. My fiancé, Leo, laughed about how my own father had already signed over my mother's legacy-The Nightingale Ranch-as collateral to his powerful family. "Once this is all done, Claire will have nothing. And the woman you marry will be me," my stepsister Jenna cheered. Leo cooed back, calling me a stray dog he'd kick to the curb once he was bored, a worthless woman who couldn't even hold onto her family's land. My family had sold me out, and the man I loved was planning to leave me with absolutely nothing. I didn't cry. The pain burned away into a cold, hard hate. How could my own father conspire with them to destroy the only thing I had left of my mother? I crashed their prestigious charity auction and played their filthy recording over the speakers for the entire town to hear. But when Leo charged at me in a murderous rage, a wall of leather and muscle stepped in front of me. Kade "Chaos" Peterson, the terrifying President of the rival motorcycle club, crushed Leo's wrist and announced to the stunned room, "She's with me now."

For three years, Hilary played the perfect, devoted wife to billionaire Julian Carlisle to save her family from financial ruin. But her husband didn't love her; he was busy throwing a birthday party for the five-year-old son he secretly had with his college sweetheart. To keep up appearances, Julian bought Hilary a million-dollar Cartier bracelet, but she soon discovered the exact same jewelry on his mistress's wrist. During a heated confrontation about his lies, Julian accused her of being a hysterical madwoman and violently shoved her away. But he didn't care that her head smashed against the sharp edge of a nightstand, causing a life-threatening cranial hemorrhage. So she was left bleeding and unconscious on the cold floor, while he simply sneered at her. "Stop pretending. I don't have time for these pathetic games." He walked out the door, leaving her alone to die. After a brush with death, her years of unrequited love and hope were completely gone, and she finally gave up. Waking up in the ICU, she calmly looked at Julian's terrified, regretful face and made her final decision. "Mr. Hayes, please deliver the signed divorce papers to my husband immediately."

I was sweating on a stained cot in a rundown clinic, enduring agonizing labor to deliver my twins. My boyfriend, Viper, the President of the Raven MC, was right next door. But he wasn't there to support me. He was buying the whole clubhouse a round of drinks to celebrate his new girlfriend's birthday. Instead of coming to see his newborn children, he sent a thug with a loaded Glock and a legal contract. The prospect shoved the cold steel against my forehead, demanding I sign my parental rights over to the club and walk away with nothing. If I refused, he promised to dump our bodies in the swamp. In the hallway, the club girls laughed, calling me a worthless charity case. "Sign the paper, or I leave three corpses in this bed." I clutched my fragile babies to my chest, my heart turning to dead ash. I had given that man my youth and loyalty, only to be discarded like trash. I didn't understand how someone could be so ruthlessly cruel to his own flesh and blood. Before the hammer could drop, a mysterious man in a tailored suit calmly walked in and shattered the prospect's wrist. He took one look at the faded scar on my shoulder, ran a rapid blood test, and revealed a truth that shook my world. I wasn't an unpatched stray, but the long-lost daughter of the most feared motorcycle club president in the country. Now, with a two-hundred-bike army at my back, it was my turn to hunt.

For three years, Caddie gave up her aerospace engineering career to be Julien's secret girlfriend, quietly writing the core algorithms for his tech company. On their anniversary, she stood outside his apartment with a rare gift, only to hear his friends laughing inside about his "charity project." Julien's voice was ice-cold as he called her a stray puppy. He said she was only useful for debugging his code, and once her final algorithm was finished, she would have no value left. He was already planning to announce his engagement to the wealthy Kiersten Parrish. He bragged that he would just write Caddie a check and kick her out, mocking that without him, she couldn't even afford next month's rent. Caddie leaned against the cold wall, her world shattering. She had turned down top research fellowships and poured her soul into his work, only to be treated as a disposable tool. He actually believed she was just a helpless nobody who relied on his charity. She didn't scream or cry. She simply threw the expensive gift into the trash chute. Logging into his company's secure server, she permanently deleted every single line of code she had ever built for him. Then, she packed her single suitcase, walked out the door, and dialed a number she hadn't called in years. "I'm ready. I want to come home." It was time to reclaim her place as the true billionaire Kensington heiress.

"From tonight on, Farrah is my one and only Old Lady! As for you, Sloane... you're just my personal bed-warmer." In the deafening roar of the crowded motorcycle club, my boyfriend of five years hauled another woman against his chest, publicly stripping me of my title. The entire room erupted in laughter, waiting for the "helpless orphan" to break down and cry. His bloodsucking mother and sister smirked in the crowd. For five years, I had served their family like an unpaid maid, secretly bleeding my dead father's legacy dry just to pay off their debts. Now, they were thrilled to see me thrown into the dirt. Beau pinched my chin, offering his mercy like a king to a beggar. "As long as you know your place and stay in the basement to do the chores, I'll generously let you be my secret baby mama. It's the greatest mercy a cursed orphan with a dead bloodline will ever get." They thought they had stripped me of everything. They expected me to crawl on my knees and beg for their scraps. The very next morning, I broke into their safe, took back my stolen inheritance and the keys to my father's legendary motorcycle, and rode straight to the National President-the man who held the absolute power of life and death over the entire outlaw world. When Beau smugly swaggered into the President's office, fully expecting to find me begging on my knees for him to take me back, he was instead slapped in the face with a wax-sealed document of formal severance. "She is a free agent now. Anyone who touches her answers to my gavel." I straddled my father's roaring heavy chopper, looking down at my ex's humiliated, panicked face. "This is just the beginning, Beau. I'm going to make your family bleed out everything you stole." But what I didn't realize was that the moment I took my first step toward revenge, the dangerously wild man I collided with in the dark the night before-the one wearing the forbidden insignia of the absolute royal bloodline-had already locked his sights on me like a predator claiming his prey...