Sutton Moul

I walked in on my husband caressing his pregnant mistress' s belly. In my own home. But the real betrayal wasn't his affair. It was when he, his mother, and even my own parents declared my pregnancy a "complication" that needed to be erased for a multi-billion-dollar merger. They locked me in my penthouse and dragged me to a clinic. My own mother and father sold me out for a check, signing off on the procedure to get rid of my baby. "It's time to cleanse the bloodline," my mother-in-law said as they held me down. As the needle went into my arm, I felt my child, the one I'd prayed for, being stolen from me. They didn't just break my heart; they murdered my baby. But they didn't know who I really was. Rescued by my true family-the powerful Pittmans-I learned I wasn't a discarded wife. I was a kidnapped heiress. And now, I will use every bit of my power to make them pay for the child they took from me.

My fiancé, Bentley Wise, heir to a New York real estate empire, promised we'd marry in 99 days. But after he saved a socialite, Frida Tanner, from a landslide, he spent those days repaying her "kindness," abandoning me at every turn. When Frida, driving distracted, killed my mother in a car crash, Bentley defended her at the funeral. "It was an accident, Adelle. You're causing a scene." He shielded my mother's killer, pushed me to the ground, and chose her over our ten years of love. Lying on the floor of the chapel, I watched him comfort the woman who destroyed my life. I knew then that our love was dead. I exposed their crimes online and fled to Paris to start over. But just as I found new love and a new life, Bentley appeared, begging for a second chance. "I'm so sorry, Adelle. Please, just come back to me." I refused, telling him I was with someone else. That night, Frida's mother, seeking revenge, had me kidnapped and left for dead. Bentley sacrificed himself to save me, taking the blows meant for me. As he lay bleeding, he pleaded, "Give me another chance. I'll do anything." I looked at the man who had destroyed me, then saved me, and said, "I have a new life now, Bentley. A life you have no part in."

"Look at the reflection in the window, sweetie," the TikTok sleuth messaged me. That one notification unraveled my entire life. My fiancé, Ashton, wasn't on a business trip. He was with Angela. And Alfie, the seven-year-old "little brother" I' d been raising and financing for two years? He was actually their son. I was just the ATM covering their bills while Ashton bought Angela a diamond ring with my money. When I tried to expose them, Angela played her trump card. She gave Alfie an angora rabbit, knowing he had a deadly allergy, just to frame me for attempted murder. "You poisoned him because you're jealous!" she shrieked in the crowded ER. Ashton looked at me with pure hatred. "You're a monster, Kaylynn." They thought they had me cornered. They didn't know I' d installed hidden cameras in the house three days ago. Or that I had the DNA test proving Alfie wasn't even Ashton's biological son. I wiped my tears and smiled at the police officer. "I have a video I think you need to see."

I discovered I was pregnant with my boyfriend of five years, empire heir Cash Robinson, in the same clinic where I learned his fiancée was also pregnant with his child. His family' s response was to have me thrown to their guard dogs. As they mauled me, I heard Cash walk away, believing the lie that I had taken their money and left. But they made one mistake: I survived. And with the help of his best friend, I' m coming back to burn their entire world to the ground.

My fiancé Franklin and I had been together for ten years. I was standing at the altar in the chapel I designed myself, waiting to marry the man who had been my entire world since high school. But when our wedding planner, Hayley, who was officiating, looked at him and asked, "Franklin Frye, will you marry me?" he didn't laugh. He looked at her with a love I hadn't seen in years and said, "I do." He left me standing alone at the altar. His excuse? Hayley, the other woman, was supposedly dying of a brain tumor. He then forced me to donate my rare blood type to save her, had my beloved cat put down to appease her cruel whims, and even left me to drown, swimming right past me to pull her from the water first. The last time he left me to die, I was suffocating on the kitchen floor, going into anaphylactic shock from the peanuts Hayley had deliberately put in my food. He chose to rush her to the hospital for a fake seizure instead of saving my life. I finally understood. He didn't just betray me; he was willing to kill me for her. As I lay recovering in the hospital, alone, my father called with an insane proposal: a marriage of convenience to Arden Harvey, a reclusive and powerful tech CEO. My heart was a dead, hollow thing. Love was a lie. So when he asked if a change of groom was in order, I heard myself say, "Yes. I'll marry him."

For three years, I poured my soul into Innovate, building Brittany' s startup from the ground up as her lead engineer and live-in boyfriend. I fixed her code, her leaky faucet, and every problem in her life, while she paid me a pittance, treating me like a glorified handyman. But at her success party, watching her beam at her ex-boyfriend Dylan, unveiled as the new "visionary," something inside me snapped. Then came the ultimate insult: demotion to Dylan' s assistant, his snakeskin boots propped on MY desk, MY awards tossed in a dusty box. The years of exploitation culminated in a single, burning question: how could someone I gave everything to treat me with such utter contempt? No more. I handed her my resignation, a meticulously itemized invoice for eighty-seven thousand dollars of unpaid work, and played a recording of her own words. "Forty-eight hours, Brittany," I said, pocketing my phone. "The clock is ticking." That night, I walked out of her apartment for good, the trash bag holding her memories of me thudding satisfyingly down the chute. This wasn' t just an exit; it was a declaration of war.

I loved Ethan Scott for a decade, dreaming of being his wife, his partner, and the mother of his children. On our wedding night, when he whispered about starting a family, my heart soared. I believed he finally loved me back. Weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant with twins, and my joy was boundless. But that joy shattered when I secretly overheard Ethan, his mistress, and his friends boasting about drugging and violating me as part of a cruel, six-figure bet. My life twisted into a nightmare of public humiliation as Ethan paraded me around, forcing a paternity test for all five men involved in his sick game. I was judged, abandoned, and then falsely accused, leading Ethan to shove me so hard I lost my twin babies. He didn't ask if I was okay, only complained about the bloodstains on the rug. I had lost everything: my babies, my dignity, and the man I loved had become a monster. But as I lay bleeding, a cold, hard clarity settled inside me. The game had just begun for them, but for me, it was time to play a different one. I called my brother, the ruthless lawyer, ready to bury everyone who stood in my way.

My boyfriend, Caleb, was my family, my everything, for nearly two decades. He worked as a security guard for a spoiled tech heiress, Gabrielle, but our Fourth of July plans were finally just for us. Then a frantic call from his client shattered everything. Suddenly, we were on a deserted road, fireworks popping in the distance, when a "carjacking" erupted. As masked men attacked, Caleb didn't hesitate. He sprinted past me, sacrificing my safety to shield Gabrielle, whispering, "If anything happens to you, I can't live with myself." His words, and the knife searing my side, were a shock that cut deeper than any blade. I bled out on the asphalt, while Caleb fussed over Gabrielle's minor scratch. I woke up in a hospital, alone, only to hear nurses describe Caleb as the "devoted guard" who hadn't left Gabrielle's side. He eventually appeared, reeking of her perfume, offering pathetic excuses and blaming me for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time." Just then, Gabrielle, pristine and smug, was wheeled in. "We both had our panic buttons," she purred, "We were going to see who he'd save." She confirmed the carjacking was a setup, a twisted bet I never knew I was in. My world imploded. How could the man I loved, my family, orchestrate such a cruel betrayal, then abandon me for a sick game? He chose her, leaving me broken. But I wouldn't stay broken. This was just the beginning of my reckoning.

It was my wedding night in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the air thick with the hum of my guitar and the sweet promise of a new life with Jennifer. Everyone called me a prodigy, especially when I poured my essence into the "Soul Chord," a gift that felt like pure magic flowing through my fingers. Then, the juke joint doors burst open, and a biker gang stormed in, dragging me off stage. They held me down, and their leader, with a ball-peen hammer, systematically crushed the bones in my left hand, the one that played my Soul Chord. Through a haze of blinding pain, I saw Jennifer, shielding Caleb, watching without a word, her eyes cold and distant. Later, in the clinic, drugged but awake, I heard their whispers: Jennifer, Sabrina, and Caleb. They had planned it all, drugged me, orchestrated the attack to steal my music for Caleb' s album. My deepest secret, a dormant Soul Chord in my right hand, was brought up. And then, Jennifer quietly, methodically, severed the tendons in my right wrist, destroying my last hope, my last chance to play. They framed me as a violent gang affiliate, spread lies, and announced Jennifer and Caleb' s engagement, built on my ruin. My own adopted mother, Sabrina, then ordered my legs broken, leaving me a helpless, shattered mess. Thrown into a swamp to die, betrayed by everyone I loved, a cold rage ignited in me. They destroyed my body, my spirit, my life, but they made one fatal mistake: they left me breathing. Now, all that pain, all that fury, has become something more. And I' m coming back for every single one of them.

My phone screen lit up, not with a text, but a stark, black-and-white pop-up. "Ethan' s SAT scores: 1580. Stanford bound with Tiffany. You' re the 'just in case' girl." Just moments earlier, my childhood crush Ethan, whose father my own dad died saving, feigned despair over "disastrous" SAT scores. He'd gently coerced me, the valedictorian, to give up my dream school for State College, all for "us." These mysterious pop-ups, visible only to me, had always been unsettlingly, terrifyingly right. This one revealed his calculated deception: he'd aced his SATs and was going to Stanford with his new girlfriend, Tiffany. My heart turned to ice. I was his backup plan, a discarded pawn. The betrayal escalated at his lavish graduation party where he publicly humiliated me, painting my sacrifice as my idea. Then, with Tiffany's cruel suggestion, he trapped and locked me in a dark utility closet. The final blow: he brazenly showed my ailing mom a faked State acceptance letter, causing her to suffer a heart attack. As I sat by her hospital bed, watching her struggle for breath, a cold rage ignited. How could the boy whose family owed us everything be capable of such cruel manipulation? My dad died for his. Why was I his pawn? What were these pop-ups? But in that sterile room, watching his continued charade, something inside me snapped. I slapped him, hard. No longer a confused victim, I saw him for what he was: a manipulative abuser. This wasn't the end of my story. This was the beginning of my fight to reclaim it.

My life revolved around AuraStream, the tech company I co-founded with my wife, Olivia, where I was the quiet force behind the scenes. Our shared tradition: Olivia, the CEO, would dedicate the prestigious Innovator's Chalice to me, acknowledging our joint vision, every single year. But this year, the gala lights felt cold as she announced the award was for "fresh perspective," for Noah Evans, a junior marketing intern. My gut twisted as Noah immediately plastered photos of Olivia, the chalice, and himself across Instagram, celebrating "my CEO' s belief in my vision." The public humiliation escalated as Olivia showered Noah with a luxury company car for organizing pizza lunches, promoted him to "Special Projects Coordinator" over qualified veterans, and dismissed my team' s concerns about his incompetence. I watched, baffled, as she defended him and told me to "get my people in line" when he actively stole our ideas. The ultimate betrayal struck on the launch day of our flagship platform, Phoenix, when Olivia skipped out, claiming a "crucial partner meeting." Instead, I saw Noah' s Instagram post: poolside at a luxury resort, clinking champagne flutes with Olivia, who was conspicuously wearing the custom white gold watch I' d given her – the one with our entwined initials. How could she so openly flaunt her favoritism, her affair, and our shattered trust, using a symbol of our marriage to mock me? As the pieces clicked into place, a cold, unyielding resolve settled deep within me. She broke it all, and now, it was my turn to show her the true meaning of consequences.

I was Sarah Miller, a senior marketing manager, fiercely independent, building a life I was proud of. My husband, Mark, constantly praised my strength, publicly toasting "To Sarah, the most incredible woman!" I poured everything-my salary, my energy-into our home, our son Leo, and his expensive private school, believing I was crafting our shared future on my terms. But at the annual charity gala, my company card-used for "shared" household expenses because Mark' s were always mysteriously maxed out-was humiliatingly declined. Not once, but twice. A small, apologetic frown from the attendant confirmed the impossible: "I'm sorry, Ms. Miller, it's declined." Red-faced, I called Mark. "That five bucks in there is for my coffee," he sneered about the account holding my six-figure salary. Later, I discovered his Venmo: thousands transferred to a "Tiffany Evans." "Rent Support." "Shopping Spree." "Car Down Payment - BMW." His so-called "niece." Her Instagram, however, tagged "My amazing man" and flaunted new designer bags and a shiny BMW: #BestBoyfriend. My world shattered. Was my entire self-made independence just a facade, meticulously used to fund his secret life with another woman? The betrayal felt like a lead weight in my chest. That crushing realization was the final straw. So, when my chauvinistic boss brazenly took credit for my latest multi-million-dollar campaign, something snapped. "Actually, Chad," I declared, my voice steady, "that' s my campaign. I quit." Then, the words of liberation: "My dad' s monthly allowance to me in college was more than your annual salary." The time for Sarah Miller, the naive workhorse, was over. The time for Sarah Harrison had begun.

Everyone knew Ava Chen was just keeping Dr. Julian Vance' s spot warm. He, a brilliant Columbia astrophysicist; I, a New York financial analyst. We were dating, but his great love, my former best friend Chloe, was merely on fellowship, her return an unspoken ticking clock. The clock exploded the day Julian stood me up at City Hall for our marriage license. An Instagram story appeared instead: Julian, smiling, at Chloe' s surprise welcome-back party. My heart didn' t just break; it fractured into a dull, final ache. I shredded the marriage application. Later, Chloe brought a drunken Julian to my apartment, his subtle taunts confirming my place. He then whispered it: "Chloe." The ultimate affront. His cold, indifferent "Take the pill" solidified our transactional reality. I was a placeholder. My deep love unrequited, our relationship a cruel joke of neglect and manipulation. Why did I cling to a love that never truly saw me? But my tears turned to cold fury. I canceled wedding leave, applied for a senior analyst role in London. I would shed the "placeholder" and forge a fierce new beginning, on my own terms.

At the wedding venue, my bride suddenly learned that her first love was terminally ill. Without hesitation, she decided to call off the wedding, leaving me to pick up the pieces alone. I begged her to finish the ceremony first, but she frowned and said, "Jase, he's dying. What are you even comparing?" Eventually, as she wished, I stopped comparing everything. I became a business tycoon, and a divorce agreement landed in front of her. But she panicked.

Everyone knew Kristine loved Colton. Still, his heart clung to a woman overseas-someone he spent most days with, now pregnant with his baby-and Kristine still asked him to marry her. On their registration day, however, he never came; his "true love" had flown back. Seven years of loyalty later, Kristine walked away, blocked him, and left his city. Colton didn't blink-until he saw her at the courthouse, arm-in-arm with another man, and the proud CEO went pale. He went after her, desperation overtaking him. "I'm sorry. Please give me another chance." She snapped, "Could you stop? I'm already married."

I stood at my mother’s open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest’s voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone—he brought Charla with him. He claimed she’d had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

"Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress. With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap. Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell. On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered. When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling."

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Elliana, the unfavored "ugly duckling" of her family, was humiliated by her stepsister, Paige, who everyone admired. Paige, engaged to the CEO Cole, was the perfect woman-until Cole married Elliana on the day of the wedding. Shocked, everyone wondered why he chose the "ugly" woman. As they waited for her to be cast aside, Elliana stunned everyone by revealing her true identity: a miracle healer, financial mogul, appraisal prodigy, and AI genius. When her mistreatment became known, Cole revealed Elliana's stunning, makeup-free photo, sending shockwaves through the media. "My wife doesn't need anyone's approval."

For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted. Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke. Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph. Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!" With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off." A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!"

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

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