Their Secret, His Silence

My mate, Alpha Damien, was holding a sacred naming ceremony for his heir. The only problem? He was celebrating a pup he had with Lyra, a rogue he brought into our pack. And I, his true mate, four months pregnant with his actual heir, was the only one not invited. When I confronted her, she clawed her own arm, drew blood, and screamed that I had attacked her. Damien saw her performance and didn't even look at me. He snarled, using his Alpha's Command to force me to leave, the power of our bond twisted into a weapon against me. Later, she attacked me for real, making me fall. As blood bloomed on my dress, threatening our child's life, she tossed her own pup onto a rug and screamed that I had tried to kill him. Damien burst in, saw me bleeding on the floor, and didn't hesitate. He scooped Lyra's screaming pup into his arms and sprinted away to find a healer, leaving me and his true heir to die. But as I lay there, my mother's voice echoed in my mind through our own link. My family's escort was waiting for me just beyond the territory border. He was about to find out that the Omega he threw away was actually the princess of the most powerful pack in the world.

I sacrificed my dream career for my fiancé, only to find him cheating with his older investor-a betrayal that led to my mother's death. He reached a new level of cruelty when he dumped my mother's ashes in the trash and conspired to have my wedding dress disintegrate off my body at the altar. I vanished for five years, building a new life with a new family, but now he's found us-and just saved my daughter's life to force his way back in.

For five years, I believed I had the perfect marriage. That ended the day I saw my husband in the park with his son—a son I never knew existed, and a woman my family told me was dead. The woman was Morgan, my adoptive sister who tried to have me killed in a hit-and-run before vanishing. My husband and parents swore she died in a car crash. They all lied. I found a hidden tablet, a five-year highlight reel of my life as a cover story. Photos of a pregnant Morgan. Videos of my husband, David, teaching their son to say “Dada.” Even pictures of my own parents, holding the secret grandson they adored while telling me I wasn't ready for a child. My entire world, my entire family, was a complete fabrication. But the final blow was a recording of David’s voice, discussing a “Plan B” in case I ever discovered the truth. “We can have her declared mentally incompetent. We can have her committed and out of our way for good.” They weren’t just betraying me; they were ready to lock me in a psychiatric ward and throw away the key. So that night, on our fifth anniversary, when David handed me a cup of “calming tea” sent by my mother, I smiled. I played the part of the loving wife one last time, then walked out the door forever. They wanted to erase me, so I decided to become a ghost.

On our wedding anniversary, I had a sudden urge to make a memory video using my husband's old phone. After turning it on, the phone's notes app popped up automatically, with the latest entry titled "Baby Diary." "Today marks one month since our little girl arrived. Mommy's morning sickness seems worse. It breaks my heart. Daddy got you lots of cute dresses to wear when you're here." The note was signed by my husband, James Vance. But I wasn't pregnant. I called James at work. "What's with the notes on your old phone?" His breath caught on the other end, then he chuckled lightly. "Oh, that? It's just a buddy of mine. His wife's pregnant, and he had nowhere to write it down, so he used my phone." I laughed and said okay. After hanging up, I opened the phone's photo album, went to "Recently Deleted," and recovered a deleted ultrasound image. Holding the ultrasound with the name "Amelia Harper" on it, I smiled and dialed my mother-in-law, Margaret.

The heavy iron gate groaned open, spitting me back into a world that felt alien. Three years in hell, for a crime I didn' t commit. I thought it was finally over. My adoptive brother, Ethan, and my former fiancé, Noah, picked me up, not with comfort, but with an invitation to a celebration. For Chloe, my adoptive sister, the golden child. The celebration of her new album, filled with my songs. The whispers followed me into the glittering ballroom. "Is that Sarah Miller? The one who went to jail?" "She looks terrible." Chloe, radiant in a dazzling gown, welcomed me with venomous whispers, flaunting her stolen life. Ethan' s cold righteousness and Noah' s pity were suffocating. They justified my sacrifice, claiming my career was over anyway. They said I owed her. They said I was responsible. But I knew the truth. I was an orphan adopted by the Bennetts, then easily discarded when their biological daughter, Chloe, reappeared. Chloe, who had built her career on my talent, who then drove drunk and struck a pedestrian, begging me to take the fall. I was a fool. They promised to visit, to support me. The visits stopped. The pleas of "Think of it as paying back the family" and "Once you' re out, we can get married" echoed like cruel jokes. Now, as I lay bleeding from Chloe's latest attack, they chose her again, leaving me to die. Why did I blindly sacrifice myself for them? Why did they choose a manipulative liar over the truth, over me? What twisted words did Chloe whisper to make them so utterly blind? My phone buzzed. An unknown number. "Is this… Sarah Miller?" a warm voice asked. "My name is Alexander Hayes. I think… I think you' re my sister."

The dull ache in my belly was a constant reminder: our baby was gone. I was still reeling from the loss when I caught the scent of another woman' s perfume on my fiancé, Liam, in my hospital room. It was "Amour Infini," Clara' s signature scent, clinging to his expensive suit. Clara, our biggest professional rival, the one he had just told me a ridiculous lie about fainting from overwork. My world shattered. My hand hovered over the phone, my thumb on the wedding planner's contact. This wasn't minor infidelity; it was a deep, calculated betrayal. Later, a notification from my best friend, Sarah, flashed on my new phone-Clara' s Instagram. A close-up of a woman' s hand on a pregnant belly, covered protectively by a man' s hand. Liam' s hand, with his family signet ring. A single white heart emoji. He hadn't just cheated; he had built a life, a family, with her. The agony in my chest dwarfed any physical pain. My almost-husband, my protector since childhood, had been building a secret life for years. The man I loved more than anything was a stranger. He thought I was a "sweet little thing," predictable and easily manipulated. He thought he had me under control. But in that moment, as I stared at the glowing testament of his betrayal, something cold and hard settled in my heart. The game had changed. And I, an architect of dreams and now of revenge, was finally ready to play.