Su Banqing

To save her family from a crushing financial crisis, Alaina Carney signed a one-year contract marriage with the cold, untouchable billionaire, Alaric Wynn. But her toxic ex-boyfriend, Damian Horton—the very man who engineered her family's ruin—refused to let her move on. When Damian discovered Alaina was opening her own architecture gallery, he launched a vicious corporate attack. He ruthlessly short-sold her suppliers' stocks and forced her entire construction team to walk out. He cornered her in her empty office, throwing a humiliating contract onto her desk. He demanded she sign her gallery over to him and crawl back as his hidden mistress. If she refused, he promised to destroy anyone who dared to work with her, arrogantly threatening to even target the Wynn Group. Alaina was suffocating under his obsessive blackmail. She had already sold her freedom to escape his grip, yet he still treated her like a helpless toy he could break at will. She absolutely refused to surrender, but how could she possibly fight a massive corporation all by herself? Just as Damian smugly gave her one hour to submit, the office door swung open. Alaric Wynn strode in, picked up Damian's contract, and tore it to shreds. "My wife doesn't sign trash." He turned to a live video feed of Damian's board of directors and coldly delivered the final blow. "While you were busy bullying her, my team just bought a controlling stake in your entire company."

I was supposed to pitch our family's failing company alongside my father and my fiancé. Instead, I discovered it was a sickening trap. The men I trusted most had conspired to sell me to a fifty-year-old predator. When I barely escaped and rushed home, I found my stepmother physically abusing my frail, dying mother. "Your sick mother should have died long ago! It's your honor to bring profit to this family!" They mocked me for being a useless Omega and admitted they orchestrated everything to steal my grandfather's priceless healing formula. When I fought back and cut ties, my ex-fiancé even sabotaged my mother's emergency hospital admission to force my hand. I had given them everything, yet they treated us like disposable trash. To save my mother's life, I anonymously auctioned the ancient formula. It sold for a staggering one hundred million dollars. But my relief shattered when I learned the buyer's identity. It was the legendary Sinclair Alpha—a brutal, crippled monster rumored to feed disobedient servants to his wolves. And the condition for the money was that I had to move into his isolated, terrifying castle to personally treat him. I had just escaped the hell of my family's betrayal. But to keep my mother alive, I had no choice but to walk straight into the devil's lair.

Seraphina Hayes went from a billionaire heiress to a desperate daughter overnight. To pay for her dying father's surgery, she stood in the freezing rain to beg her ex-boyfriend, Liam, for help. Instead of helping, Liam threw a check into a muddy puddle to humiliate her. Left with no way out, Seraphina was forced to sign a brutal marriage contract with Julian Sterling—a ruthless billionaire who also happened to be Liam's uncle. But her new husband treated her like a bought possession. At Liam's grand engagement party, Julian forced Seraphina to wear a scandalous diamond necklace and enter alone. Then, he walked in with his famous ex-girlfriend on his arm. The entire ballroom mocked Seraphina as a discarded clown. Liam pulled her onto the dance floor, grinning as he whispered in her ear. "When he's done with you, you can always come crawling back to me to be my mistress." She stood surrounded by cruel laughter, her pride shattered. Why did Julian spend hundreds of millions to save her family, only to publicly execute her dignity? Was she just a cheap prop for his twisted games? But they underestimated her. Seraphina didn't break down. She leaned in, her voice like ice. "You're just the piece of gum I scraped off my shoe this morning. Disgusting, and easily forgotten." Leaving Liam pale and stumbling, she walked out of the ballroom like an untouchable queen, unaware that her ruthless husband was watching from the balcony, a dangerous spark of genuine interest finally lighting up his eyes.

My wedding day was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. My fiancé, Cyrus, was my hero, promising to save my sick grandmother with his generous insurance. Instead, he ripped my wedding dress to shreds and revealed he’d been sleeping with my best friend for months. I was a scientist, on the brink of marrying Cyrus, a man who seemed to embody every dream I had. With my critically ill grandmother dependent on his insurance for experimental treatment, he felt like my unwavering protector. But the night before our wedding, my world shattered. He confessed he’d been secretly sleeping with Brianna, my best friend and houseguest, for months. Then, with ice in his eyes, he told me this wedding wasn't for me, but to provide "stability" for her. He shredded my wedding dress, then forced me to the altar by threatening my academic career and showing me a live feed of my critically ill grandmother's vitals. During the ceremony, he broadcast intimate videos of himself and Brianna, triggering my grandmother's fatal stroke. Adding to the horror, Brianna, my best friend, confessed her part in sabotaging my research, an attack that had already caused a severe endocrine condition, stealing my chance at children. The man I loved, the friend I protected, the career I built, the family I cherished – all utterly destroyed. What kind of monster would orchestrate such a calculated, brutal betrayal against a dying woman and a vulnerable friend? There were no more tears left, only a cold, hard resolve in the face of absolute devastation. But then, a job offer flashed on my phone screen: a senior research scientist position in Berlin. With nothing left to lose and a burning need for justice, I returned his ring, declared our life together over, and booked a flight for tomorrow, ready to build a new future from the ashes of his deceit.

After four years of torture in a so-called “rehabilitation center,” I was finally released. My husband, Elliot, was waiting for me. He wasn’t there to save me; he was there to serve me divorce papers. He and my adoptive family were convinced I was a liar. They believed my broken leg, my missing fingernails, and my scarred vocal cords were all part of an elaborate performance for attention. "Still playing the cripple," he sneered, looking at my ruined body with disgust. He tossed a handkerchief at my bleeding hand so I wouldn’t stain the leather seats of his car. Back home, my perfect adoptive sister, Elyse, confessed everything with a smile. She had paid the doctors to torture me, to break my bones, to destroy my voice. When I lunged at her, my own mother called me an animal. My father prepared to sign me back into that hell permanently. They saw my pain as a performance and her cruelty as innocence. When I was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had months to live, Elliot tore up the medical report, calling it my most pathetic lie yet.

I sacrificed the wolf core to save my beloved. To avoid being overwhelmed by guilt, I chose to leave and silently wait for death in a corner of the human world. But even after he became the alpha of the wolf pack, he still went to great lengths to marry me. After we got married, he flaunted his mistress in front of me every day, trying to provoke me and get revenge. But he didn't know that I was about to die. Darling, I'm dying.

On my wedding night, I waited for the fated spark. Instead, I found a fresh tattoo on my Alpha husband's chest. Beneath the ink lay a jagged bite mark. Jameson had marked Caren, the wolf-less Omega, just hours before our ceremony. When I confronted him, he called me paranoid. But the betrayal didn't stop at infidelity. On my birthday, Caren brought me "fertility tea." I smelled the metallic tang of Wolfsbane immediately—a poison deadly to our kind. I refused to touch it, but Jameson’s eyes flashed with dominance. "Drink it. That is an order." He used the Alpha Voice to force the poison down my throat. As my throat seized and I clawed at the carpet, dying, he didn't help me. When I reached for the antidote, he shoved me into the wall to protect Caren, accusing me of trying to attack her. I woke up in the hospital to the devastating news: the poison had killed our unborn pup. Yet, Jameson still shielded his mistress, baring his fangs at his own mother to keep Caren safe. He thought he could fix it. He thought he still owned me. "Sit! I command you to stay!" He roared the Alpha Command, expecting me to kneel. But his authority shattered along with my heart. I didn't just sign the divorce papers. I walked out to the parking lot under the full moon and rejected the bond, watching him collapse in agony. Then, the "broken" wolf he despised finally shifted. I rose as the legendary White Wolf, and left him howling in the dirt.

For the seventh time, I stood at the altar, pregnant with his child, waiting to marry Justice Keith. And for the seventh time, he abandoned me. His phone rang, and just like that, he was gone-rushing to the side of his "fragile" stepsister, Kamala, who was supposedly having another panic attack. He pushed me aside in front of everyone, his family sneering that a "new-money girl" like me would never understand their loyalty. This was the man who baked her special cakes in the middle of the night while ignoring my own hunger, the man who had left me at seventeen other almost-weddings and rehearsals. But this time, as I stood there in my wedding dress, the humiliation was a physical weight. I was tired of being his second choice, the understanding fiancée he always came back to with empty promises. So I walked out. I cancelled the wedding, shattered his family's priceless heirloom, and secretly terminated the pregnancy that tied me to him. I wasn't just leaving anymore. I was going to spend the next seven years meticulously planning how to burn his entire corrupt, old-money empire to the ground.

I was Ariel Burnett, a tech mogul, a genius celebrated in Silicon Valley, with a loving husband, Damien, and a loyal best friend, Cohen. My world was perfect until a rare, aggressive liver disease threatened to take it all away. They promised to save me, and they did. Three years of fighting, a successful transplant, and I was finally healthy, ready to surprise them. But when I arrived at my penthouse, a security guard stopped me, claiming Mrs. Hobbs was already upstairs. My smile froze when he showed me a photo: Kara Gregory, my liver donor, standing on my balcony, looking just like me. The world tilted. I stumbled, hitting my head, as Damien' s voice crackled over the guard' s radio, telling him to get rid of the "crazy woman" disturbing Kara, his "wife." They were in my home, my bed, the penthouse Damien designed for me. Kara, the woman I pitied, the one who claimed she didn't take charity, was now living my life, with my husband and my brother-figure. The pain in my head was nothing compared to the agony in my chest. My husband, my brother, they were in this together. The betrayal was complete. I knew then that my perfect world was a lie, and I was nothing but an inconvenience to be managed.

The sun beat down on the flea market, where I sold my quilts. Each stitch was hours I should've spent on my art fellowship, but my handyman husband, Ethan, always said we needed money. Work was feast or famine in our Appalachian town. Then, at the upscale Bistro, I saw him: Ethan. Not in his work clothes, but a crisp linen shirt, laughing intimately with Veronica Hayes, "Aunt Ronnie" to our son. Hiding nearby, I overheard his chilling confession: "Marrying her was a mistake... I' d leave her tomorrow. Cody… he' ll adjust. He already likes you more anyway." My world shattered. My marriage, a lie. My husband, ready to abandon me and our son. My sacrifices, all for naught. He wasn't struggling; he was funding Veronica' s lavish influencer life. Later, he abandoned me in a a storm, leading to my broken ankle, only to then demand my masterpiece quilt – my 'Appalachian Sunset' – to save Veronica' s phony art show. The audacity! My own son, Cody, parroting their contempt, called my art "old rags," pushing me and screaming he wished "Aunt Ronnie was my mom!" How could they so cruelly betray everything I' d built? But in that hospital room, facing his casual cruelty and the theft of my soul' s work, something snapped. Battered but resolute, I looked at Ethan: "I want a divorce." Dr. Reed' s fellowship, my art, my path to freedom – it was all suddenly clear. I wouldn't be his convenient cover story anymore. I was taking back my life.

For five long years, my sister Meg and I lived in Ryan Sterling's opulent mansion, a "gilded cage" disguised as an act of kindness after our accident. My days were consumed by caring for his demanding son, Kyler, while my musical dreams lay dormant, my face forever marked. One morning, Kyler, with a malicious smirk, deliberately scalded my guitar hand with scorching coffee. But a far colder burn came moments later: I was six weeks pregnant with Ryan's baby. His chilling words, delivered with flat precision, demanded: "An abortion, Ellie. It's the only way." My hand blistered, a constant ache, yet it was dwarfed by his casual dismissal of our unborn child as a mere "complication." He spoke of my "damaged" and "dependent" state, his tone echoing the pervasive control that had suffocated us for five years. How could the man who once seemed captivated by my music now strip me of all humanity, reducing my life, my body, and my child to inconvenient problems? This callous disregard, this profound sense of injustice, was the final, devastating cut to my soul. But in that instant, a desperate resolve ignited within me. I would not bring my beloved child into such a cold, demeaning existence, nor would I let her witness my own subjugation. Clasping my still-blistering hand, now a symbol of their cruelty and my newfound defiance, I looked Ryan in the eye and declared, voice trembling but firm: "Meg and I are leaving."

Emily ended up being a replacement for Shirley, who was supposed to be engaged with James, a member of the royal family. However, Shirley ran off somewhere and Emily was kidnapped to play her part. That was how Emily entered the world of nobility and prestigious families. She thought she could make the most of this opportunity and just have a good time. The last thing she wanted was to lose her first kiss on her first day of school. In a fit of rage, she greeted her royal fiance, James, with a hard slap on his face. The entire school broke into gossip because of the commotion they made, But this was merely a prelude to their story.

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."

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."

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.

On our third anniversary, my husband canceled our dinner, claiming a sudden work emergency. I tracked his phone to an exclusive French restaurant, only to find him tenderly fastening a blessed bracelet—one I had flown across the world to get for him—onto his college ex-girlfriend's wrist. The sheer shock triggered a violent placental abruption. Bleeding out in my car just across the street, I frantically called his number. Through the window, I watched him glance at his screen, frown in annoyance, and press decline to focus on his lover. While I was wheeled into a freezing operating room for an emergency C-section utterly alone, he took his mistress back to our marital bed. He didn't even bother to check if I was alive, completely oblivious that our premature daughter was fighting for her life in the NICU. I soon discovered our entire marriage was a sham. He had used my family's wealth to save his company, and now he was trading me to secure a massive business deal with his ex's father. The man I loved didn't exist; he only saw me as a disposable asset. "I'm going to make him wish he had never been born." After secretly securing my baby in a private retreat, I ordered a medical-grade silicone pregnancy belly to hide my flat stomach. I stepped back into our penthouse, ready to burn his precious empire to the ground.

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.

My stepmother’s bodyguards were seconds away from dragging me back to a life that was essentially a prison cell wrapped in silk. I couldn't even scream for help because the words always died in my throat—a clinical condition called selective mutism that felt like drowning on dry land. I had just discovered the sickening truth: my father was planning to sell me to a sleazy investor named Sterling to cover his company’s bankruptcy. They were going to drug me, ship me off to a private island, and strip away the only thing I had left—my late mother’s multimillion-dollar art trust. When I arrived at the manor, my stepmother Lydia handed me a glass of wine laced with bitter sedatives, her smile sharp as a razor. "Drink up, darling. It’ll make the transition to Mr. Sterling much easier." My stepsister Harper stood in the corner, wearing a dress bought with my mother’s stolen money, mocking my inability to speak. My father didn't even look me in the eye as he calculated my price tag, treating his own daughter like a piece of damaged, mute inventory. They thought because I didn't speak, I didn't hear them laughing about the "accident" that killed my mother or how they planned to burn her final restoration work. They assumed my silence was a sign of surrender, a white flag waved by a broken girl who would never fight back. How could the people who were supposed to be my family treat me like a commodity to be traded? Did they really think my silence meant I was weak, or that I didn't know every dirty secret they were hiding in their ledgers? I didn't drink the wine. Instead, I burst into the VIP suite of Carlisle Pierce, the most cold-blooded billionaire in New York, and slammed a crumpled napkin on his table with a desperate, last-second gambit. "MARRY ME. NOW. $1 MILLION."

For three years, Clara devoted herself completely to being the perfect wife for her husband, Alexander. She quietly put up with the harsh insults from her mother-in-law and the constant shadow of Valeria, her husband's first love. Clara believed that with patience and devotion, she could win Alexander's heart. But that hope turned to ashes the night of a tragic accident. When Alexander chose to save Valeria instead of his wife, Clara's heart didn't just break-it froze over. She signed the divorce papers and vanished without a trace. Two years later, fate brought them together once again. Clara had returned, but she was no longer the meek woman who once begged for scraps of attention. Now, she was a globally celebrated fashion designer, confident, brilliant, and utterly beyond reach. Alexander, tormented by the emptiness she left behind, discovered that the brilliant mastermind his empire desperately needed was none other than his ex-wife. Obsessed with winning her back, he soon learned that the new Clara had no intention of forgiving him. The man who was used to having the world at his beck and call must now face the unrelenting queen he himself helped create-and he'd find that forgiveness came at an unthinkable cost: his pride.

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.

For three years, Cali Sullivan abandoned her brilliant tech career to be the quiet, accommodating wife of billionaire Halsey Donovan. But on her thirtieth birthday, she returned to their London mansion only to find it empty. The housekeeper, looking at her with deep pity, revealed that Halsey had taken his female friend, Brittaney, out shopping to celebrate her birthday instead. He had even taken their young daughter, Lily, with them. When Cali called him, Halsey coldly dismissed her, his attention entirely on Brittaney's bright laughter in the background. The crushing blow came the next morning when Cali stood outside Lily's bedroom and overheard her own daughter's innocent wish. "I wish Auntie Brittaney could be my new mommy. I think Daddy would like that, too." Later that afternoon, Cali saw them through the window of a private club. Halsey was wiping a smudge from Lily's face with a tender focus he never showed his wife, while Brittaney casually fed him cake. They looked like the perfect, happy family. All of Cali's desperate love and sacrifices felt like a cruel joke. She had been entirely erased from her own family. In that moment, the agonizing pain just stopped, replaced by a cold, absolute clarity. Cali drafted a divorce agreement waiving every cent of his wealth, left her platinum wedding rings on the nightstand, and booked a one-way flight back to New York. She was no longer Mrs. Donovan; it was time to get her real name back.

At my own engagement party, I thought I was finally going to become Collin's wife and truly belong to the Beaumont family after being missing for ten years. But under the spotlight, Collin walked right past me. He knelt and slipped my million-dollar ruby ring onto my adopted sister Ivy's finger—just because she got a tiny scratch from a broken glass. My family didn't defend me. My mother dug her nails into my arm, calling me vicious. My three brothers surrounded Ivy protectively, demanding I apologize for embarrassing them. When I later exposed that Ivy had secretly hired thugs to abduct and beat me, my father roared in anger. He didn't believe a single word I said. Instead, he froze all my bank accounts and officially disowned me, caring only about the thirty percent company shares in my trust fund. I looked at the family I had spent years trying to please. They never loved me; they only loved the fake, manipulative daughter they raised while I was gone. My heart completely died. Penniless and cast out into the cold night, I walked into a diner and sat across from Damian Sterling, the dying titan of the tech world. I looked at the incurable poison spreading through his veins and smiled. "I am the only person alive who can save you," I said. "In exchange, you will be my sword to make the Beaumonts tremble."