Shadow Alasia

I dressed up as a waitress and snuck into the VIP lounge of an exclusive club. My goal was simple: seduce a spoiled playboy to secure a business contract and save my family's dying company. But the man standing in the dark penthouse wasn't the foolish heir I was looking for. He was Dominick Duncan, the ruthless and terrifying head of the family. Instead of falling for my act, he pinned me to the sofa, mocked my cheap methods, and violently ripped my grandmother's vintage hairpin from my hair. I fled barefoot into the freezing rain, catching a severe fever. Desperate to get my only family heirloom back, I tracked down his heavily guarded private estate. But before I could even demand it back, I collapsed from the sickness in his living room, completely helpless. I didn't understand why a billionaire monster who ruined companies for sport would steal an old pin. And I understood even less why, instead of throwing me out, he had his staff feed me drugged tea to keep me trapped inside his mansion. What on earth did he want from me? When I finally opened my eyes in the dark room, his terrifying voice whispered right next to my ear. "Got you, little liar." I realized then that I hadn't just failed a business deal. I had walked straight into a predator's cage, and he was never going to let me leave.

Jacqueline Blackburn, a desperate Ivy League tutor, walked into the sleazy Veridian VIP club just to save her job. But her billionaire client, the ruthless Christian Montgomery, mistook her for a cheap escort, blowing cigar smoke in her face and treating her like trash. When she furiously turned to leave, a drunk former client attacked her in the hallway, tearing her white dress open and pinning her by the throat. She fought back, stabbing the man's hand with a pen, only for Christian to emerge from the shadows and brutally crush the attacker's bleeding hand under his heel. Instead of letting her go, Christian draped his heavy suit jacket over her exposed skin, trapped her in his dark suite, and forced her to sign a suffocating contract. "You have exactly ninety days, or I will personally ensure you cease to exist in my city." She thought she could just keep her head down, teach his nephew, and survive. But she didn't understand why this terrifying underground tyrant was suddenly so fixated on her. Why did he use his immense power to isolate her, publicly claim her at a billionaire gala, and track her every move? When she received a chilling midnight text demanding she pack her bags and move into his sprawling estate by 8:00 AM, the terrifying reality set in. She hadn't escaped the wolf. She had just walked directly into his cage.

I spent six months choking down bitter herbs to cure my silver poisoning, just so I could finally bear pups for my mate, Alpha Holden. But on the day I got my medical clearance, I discovered he was cheating on me with a low-level Omega intern. Worse, I overheard him and my own brother talking in his office. My four-year marriage was a grotesque trap. My fake sister, Kylie, was the one who hired a rogue to cripple my wolf, and Holden only mated me to protect her from being exiled. My entire family knew the truth, yet they protected the culprit while treating me like a cursed, wolfless burden. When my brother violently spilled boiling soup on my stomach at a family dinner, exposing my horrific scars, my parents just rolled their eyes. "Stop the pity play, Ariana," my mother sneered. Holden didn't care about my burns either. He abandoned me on a freezing mountain road in the rain the moment his mistress called. I couldn't understand how my own flesh and blood could sacrifice me for a fake daughter, or how my mate could turn our sacred bond into a sickening lie. But I didn't shed a single tear. I secretly secured my Pack Identification Papers and gathered ironclad proof of his infidelity. I just needed one month to execute the Rejection ritual and walk away forever.

For three years, I served as Abraham Crane’s "Surgeon"—the secret fixer who managed his agonizing spinal injury and the even messier fallout of his billionaire empire. I thought the intimacy we shared behind closed doors meant I was the exception to his coldness, but I was just another line item in his ledger. The morning after a frantic night together, Abraham didn't offer a confession of love. Instead, he handed me a manila envelope containing a deed to a penthouse and a blank check. It was a severance package, a cold transaction to buy my silence and end our three-year arrangement. When I walked away and refused his money, the retaliation was swift and brutal. He sent his men to dump my meager belongings in a grimy hotel hallway, intentionally crushing the only photo of my dying mother under an expensive leather shoe. Even after I saved his life during a near-fatal medical crisis that very night, he mocked me, slurring that I had only returned to scavenge for the check. The nightmare escalated when he realized I was truly trying to leave. To force me back, he revoked the funding for my mother’s nursing home, leaving her facing immediate eviction. He wasn't just obsessed; he was desperate. He needed a scapegoat for a federal investigation into his illegal drug supply, and he wanted me to be the one to hold the bag. I stood in his study, looking at a marriage contract that was actually a legal death sentence. His original fiancée had fled in horror after realizing the "wife" would assume all criminal liability for his crimes. Abraham sat in his wheelchair, looking at me like a predator who had finally caught its prey, using my mother’s life as the ultimate leverage. He thinks he’s bought himself a shield. He thinks I’m signing my life away just to keep my mother safe. He doesn't realize that by making me his wife, he’s giving me full access to the encrypted records and offshore accounts that can incinerate his entire legacy. I reached for the pen, my heart turning into cold, hard stone. This wasn't a wedding; it was a declaration of war. I looked him dead in the eye and asked, "Where do I sign?"

Just hours after I endured a grueling labor to give Kaelen, my fated mate and the Alpha, two beautiful twins, he walked into the infirmary. Instead of holding our newborns, his Alpha aura pinned me to the bed as he coldly announced, "I reject you as my mate." He claimed I reeked of another Alpha. His sister Vanessa threw a stack of photos at my face, showing me at a cafe with a broad-shouldered man. Before I could even explain, Kaelen forced a pen into my trembling hand while I was still bleeding, making me sign away my parental rights. His mother then snatched my newborn son Liam from the crib. "Take the girl and get out of my territory," Kaelen commanded, leaving me in the freezing room with my severed mate-bond and my crying daughter. I didn't understand how our sacred bond could be shattered by a single fake photo, or how my fated mate could be so blind and ruthless as to rip my baby from my arms. Five years later, his precious heir is dying, and Kaelen desperately needs an alliance and a bone marrow donor. But when he finally sees me at a high-society gala, he doesn't find a broken, exiled Omega. He finds me standing beside that very same "lover"—Dominic, the Alpha of the Silverwood Pack, my older brother. And this time, I am the one holding the blade.

Gabriella Henson returned to New York after ten years, ready to start her new life as an attending surgeon and finally reunite with her childhood sweetheart, Jerrell. But her fresh start shattered the moment she accidentally got into the unlicensed black Maybach of Emmett Kane, a ruthless, obsessive billionaire who immediately locked his sights on her. He crashed her welcome-back dinner, radiating a terrifying dominance. He grabbed her wrist, ate directly from her spoon, and publicly exposed that she had his personal number to humiliate her. Then, Emmett dropped a bomb that destroyed her world. He casually revealed that Jerrell, the man acting as her perfect protector, was secretly engaged to a wealthy senator's daughter for political power. Jerrell's golden-boy image instantly crumbled into panic, proving the betrayal was real. Meanwhile, Emmett's bulletproof SUV stalked her into the night, his dark eyes filled with a terrifying, quiet rage and an absolute need to conquer her. Ten years ago, Jerrell's elitist mother had humiliated Gabriella and chased her out of the city like trash. Now, the man she trusted had betrayed her, and a psychotic billionaire was treating her like his personal prey. Why was she always a pawn for these arrogant, wealthy families? Just as she swore to cut ties with them forever, her hospital pager flashed a Code Red. The bloody VIP trauma patient wheeled into her ER was Jerrell's mother. "Gabby! Please! Please save my mother!" Jerrell sobbed outside the trauma room, begging Gabriella to save the very woman who had ruined her life.

I gave up the peace of a civilian life to marry Dante, the most cold-blooded Don this city has ever known. For years, I managed the chaos of his life and respected his lethal secrets. But everything changed the moment he took a young soldier named Tess as his private secretary. He let her sit in the passenger seat of his armored SUV—a spot strictly reserved for me—and even allowed her to answer his encrypted burner phones. When I found her lipstick in his car, he simply said, "Don't be so paranoid." I knew then that we were over. So, on our fifth wedding anniversary, I left my wedding ring on his desk alongside a signed set of divorce papers. I packed a single bag and walked out of his gilded cage, finally choosing to live for myself.

My family called me a cold, controlling workaholic. My husband, my sister, even the brother I raised-they all lived in the architectural empire I built, yet they resented me for it. Then, the doctor gave me a few months to live. But before I could even process my own death sentence, my husband was already asking me to give up my only chance at survival-a spot in a life-saving trial-for my "sick" sister, Cayla. They took everything. My company, my fortune, my home. At a lavish party celebrating my "generosity," my own son looked me in the eye and told me he hated me. They praised my selflessness as they stripped me of my life's work. But I knew Cayla wasn't sick. I knew they were just waiting for me to die. So I smiled and gave them the perfect woman they always wanted. But my real gift wasn't my fortune or my life. It was the truth I left behind, a final act designed to trap them in a prison of guilt they could never escape.

My parents sat across from me on a live TV court show, their faces a mask of practiced sorrow for the cameras. They publicly condemned me as a thief and a heartless daughter, accusing me of abandoning them after my father's "accident" and demanding my entire inheritance. The scrolling comments behind them called me a "MONSTER." My mother cried fake tears while my cousin, Karsyn, offered her a comforting hand, her eyes glinting with triumph. They painted a picture of a family on the brink of ruin, all because of my supposed selfishness. They looked at me as if I were something rotten, and a familiar ache filled my chest. Why did my own family hate me so much? But this was a show designed to break me. When the host asked for my plea, I met the camera's gaze. "Not guilty," I stated clearly. "And I request the court use the memory retrieval device."

"Put it on," my stepbrother Brendan commanded, his eyes cold. He was forcing me to wear the silver bracelet his fiancée, Chloie, had bought to mock me. "It will burn me," I pleaded, clutching my wrist. "Stop acting like a fragile human," he snapped, his Alpha tone vibrating through the room. "Do not be ungrateful to your future Luna. Build a tolerance." Under the weight of his command, my trembling hands clasped the metal. The smell of singed hair and cooking skin filled the air immediately as the silver seared a ring into my flesh. Brendan watched my agony without a flicker of remorse, then turned to leave with Chloie, leaving me sobbing on the floor. He was my fated Mate, the boy who once took a dagger for me, but now he called me a "defect" because I hadn't shifted. He destroyed my childhood treasures in a trash compactor, paraded his lover in front of me, and told the pack I was a diluted bloodline who would break under pressure. He thought I was trapped, a weak Omega with nowhere to go. He thought I would stay and watch him marry another woman in three days. But he didn't know I had a secret burner phone hidden under the floorboards. Or that my biological father, the Alpha King of the rival Sunfire Pack, was sending a private jet for me. On the night of the Blood Moon, right before he was crowned King, I didn't just run away. I mentally grabbed the silver cord connecting our souls and snapped it. When the crushing pain of the severed bond hit him in the middle of his speech, he finally looked for me. But I was already gone, ready to awaken the legendary White Wolf he never deserved.

For ten years, I poured my family's fortune and my entire life into building my husband, Corbin, into an architectural star. I was the perfect wife, the silent partner behind his success. Then, on our anniversary, he brought his "muse," Kallie, and publicly humiliated me for her. He let her stain my Porsche, then brought her to our home. I found her in my bedroom, wearing my clothes, after she'd broken our wedding photo. He screamed at me, demanding I apologize to her. He called me materialistic and cruel, the very man whose lavish life I had single-handedly funded. But the final straw wasn't even finding them in bed together. It was when his mistress cornered me, claiming she was pregnant to force me to let him go. I just smiled, signed the divorce papers, and booked a one-way ticket to Europe. It was time to reclaim the life he stole.

My boyfriend of eight years, Devin, proposed to another woman. I saw it on social media, my world shattering as I drove. The shock, the betrayal, and the secret life growing inside me sent a wave of pain through my body. Then, a flash of light, a violent crash. Karly, his new fiancée, had run me off the road. Bleeding and desperate, I called Devin for help, telling him I was losing our baby. His voice was cold. "What baby? You're being hysterical." In the background, I heard Karly laugh. "You were just a placeholder, a charity case. Consider the 'accident' a favor." Then the line went dead. But as I faded into darkness, a woman appeared at my bedside. "I'm Arlena Dickerson," she said. "And I'm your mother." Suddenly, I wasn't an orphan anymore. I was the sole heiress to one of New York's most powerful families, and the woman who stole my life, my love, and my child was about to learn what happens when you cross a Dickerson.

The flight back was five hours shorter than planned. I finished the project ahead of schedule, a rare win in the world of architecture. I planned to surprise my husband, David, who for ten years, no matter how late, would wait up for me. Instead, I found him with his assistant, Emily, who was pregnant with his child. Then I heard him casually telling his friends that I was "too delicate" for children, and he planned to trick me into raising his illegitimate child as our adopted one. My perfect marriage was a joke. Every gesture of his "love" became poison. On our anniversary, he left me at dinner to rush to Emily's side, while she taunted me with pictures of her matching "Love-ly" bracelet and her growing stomach. The humiliation was a physical thing, hot and suffocating. He thought my acceptance of his lies was fatigue. He thought his performance had convinced me. He thought he had everything: his wife, his mistress, his child, all neatly arranged. But he had no idea that in that moment, he had lost it all. I smiled, and made a decision. I would disappear from his life. But not before he paid for what he had done.

The grand hall buzzed, thick with the scent of champagne and success, a celebration for my son Liam' s tech company going public. My heart swelled with fierce pride, eighteen years of sacrifice culminating in this moment. Then, the main doors swung open, and I saw her: Olivia, my best friend, whom I' d watched die eighteen years ago, right after giving birth. Beside her stood Mark, my ex-fiancé, who' d abandoned me weeks before our wedding. They walked towards the stage like they owned it, and Liam, my son, beamed. "Please welcome my mother, Olivia Hayes, and her husband, Mark Johnson!" My mother. The words punched me. I watched, frozen, as Olivia embraced Liam on stage. "Some of you may know Susan Miller," Olivia announced, pointing directly at me as cameras flashed. "We faked my death and gave her our son to raise, to see if she would sacrifice everything for him. And she did!" Laughter rippled through the crowd, a grotesque mockery of my life. Mark added, "Now, the test is over. It' s time for our son to come home, to his real family." My eyes darted to Liam. No warmth, no love, only cool, dismissive pity. "Thank you for everything, Susan. You were a great nanny. But it' s time for me to be with my real parents." Nanny. Eighteen years of lullabies, scraped knees, and unwavering love reduced to a job title. The betrayal ripped through me, stealing my breath, and I collapsed into darkness. Then, the sharp, antiseptic smell of a hospital. The rhythmic beep of a machine. I was back. Back on the day Olivia gave birth. The day my life was stolen.

During exercise, I accidentally damaged the jade pendant my boyfriend gave me as a token of our love. He was furious and couldn't contain his anger. His terrifying expression was completely different from his usual self. And three days later was our wedding date. Caught in a dilemma, I reached out to a relationship host for advice. While two groups of viewers in the live chat were arguing about whether to [get married] or [break up], the host frowned at the screen: "[You should just run away; this isn't even a fox spirit jade pendant! In fact...]"

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

After spending five grueling years securing the Madden Pack's empire, I thought my Alpha mate and I were finally building a perfect family. But on my birthday, I returned home to find a thick, impenetrable wall of ice in our Mate bond. Caden had completely shut me out to throw a lavish party for my half-sister, Adalynn. He let Adalynn pollute our penthouse with her cheap perfume and brainwash my five-year-old daughter, Elara. "Auntie Adalynn is a million times better than Mommy!" Elara chirped happily to a camera, while Caden watched with a doting smile. He publicly humiliated me, commanded the servants to ignore me, and deliberately fed Elara severe allergens just to spite my maternal rules. When my pup ended up in the pack hospital gasping for air, Caden confiscated her tablet and roared at her to stop crying for the mother who "abandoned" her. My heart shattered into a million irreparable pieces. I couldn't understand how the man destined to protect my soul could twist my love into cruelty and use our helpless cub as a punching bag for his ego. But the weeping, pathetic Luna died right there. I calmly signed the divorce papers, surrendered all my assets, and walked out into the cold night. Opening my encrypted laptop, I reclaimed my hidden identity as the global elite hacker "Ghost" and initiated a lethal protocol. It was time to burn his entire world to the ground.

Brought back from a humble life in Montana, Nora found out she was the true biological heiress of the ultra-wealthy Beaumont family. But her biological parents didn't love her; they loved the fake daughter, Olivia, much more. The moment she arrived, her father pushed an engagement termination agreement across his massive desk, forcing her to give up her wealthy fiancé so Olivia could have him. Her mother looked at her with pure disdain. "You should know your place. Don't reach for things that were never meant for you." To break her spirit, they moved her into a cramped, dusty servant's room. They even ordered the butler to feed her cold kitchen scraps and gristle. They wanted to humiliate her, to make her feel like a piece of trash rather than a daughter. They expected her to cry, to beg, and to be absolutely crushed by the realization that her own flesh and blood saw her only as a liability to their reputation. They thought the country girl would easily fold under their united front of cruelty. But Nora felt no sting of betrayal, only the calculating clarity of a chess player. She calmly signed the paper, pulled out the Beaumont family trust rules, and looked them dead in the eye. "Since I am the legal heir, I demand what belongs to me. I'm taking the master bedroom."