Annabell Seto

At my engagement party, I exposed my fiancé, Kenton, for being in love with his father' s fiancée. I thought I was finally free. Instead, his powerful family had me abducted. For daring to reveal their dirty secret, I was beaten and humiliated. Kenton, the man I loved, stood by as his father struck me across the face for speaking the truth about his own son. He watched as they dragged me away for "corrective measures" and later burned down my late mother's cherished home, turning the last piece of her I had into ash. They called me hysterical and volatile, painting me as the villain in a story of their own making. I was the one who was betrayed, yet I was the one being punished, broken, and left with nothing. Just as I hit rock bottom, my mysterious uncle, a powerful European banker I barely knew, rescued me. He looked at my bruises, listened to my story, and asked me one simple question. "What do you want?" I told him I wanted revenge. And he smiled.

My dad, a retired intelligence officer, had an unusual request: come home and meet someone. "This is critical, Ava. His name is Liam Vance. His father is Senator Vance. It's a good match." I sighed; I knew this was a setup, a potential alliance between old money and new power. I agreed, but only if I could bring my "project"-a prototype armored vehicle, Red Flag H-1-a sleek, unassuming black sedan that was also a two-hundred-million-dollar government asset. Driving the most technologically advanced vehicle on the planet to a blind date for marriage felt ironic. As I neared the restaurant, I signaled for a parking spot, but a red Ferrari screamed in, cutting me off. With a sickening crunch, the Ferrari slammed into my fender. Its front end crumpled like a cheap can, while my prototype barely shuddered. A woman in an expensive dress stumbled out, pointing at my car. "Are you blind? Did you not see me coming? What the hell is wrong with you?" She reeked of perfume and alcohol, accusing me of damaging her "one-hundred-thousand-dollar car." She pulled out her phone, hysterically claiming I' d pay for everything, including her emotional distress. Thinking she was Liam Vance's employee, I calmly mentioned meeting him. "You? Meet Mr. Vance?" she sneered, introducing herself as Tiffany Hayes, his executive assistant. "He doesn't meet with trash like you." My patience thin, I called Liam directly, explaining the situation. His tone turned cold, echoing Tiffany' s twisted version of events. "My assistant just told me some woman in a piece of junk sedan crashed into her. Now she\'s trying to scam her way into a dinner with me. Tiff handles these things, pay her what you owe for the damages and get lost." He hung up, the sheer arrogance stunning. Tiffany, victorious, demanded one hundred thousand dollars, then the crowd started whispering, "That's Tiff Hayes, Liam Vance's girl. She's ruthless. That poor woman is screwed." Something inside me shifted. They had no idea who they were dealing with.

A crisp white envelope, starkly blank save for my name, Ashley Carter, typed neatly, lay on my kitchen counter. Inside, a single sheet: a confidential lab report. Tiffany Bellweather. HIV Positive. My heart hammered with a sickening dread as I drove to the new house, the future home Mark and I had planned to fill with our life. I bypassed the door, stepping in to find him, my fiancé Mark, and his high school flame, Tiff, brazenly entangled on the floor of what was supposed to be our master bedroom. The air left my lungs, a horrifyingly familiar scene echoing from a nightmare I had already lived through. Last time, I' d stumbled upon Tiff' s secrets, tried desperately to warn Mark, only for Tiff to "accidentally" fall, and him to blame me. The true horror followed: standing at Tiff' s grave, Mark, a mask of cold fury, watching as his hired thugs tortured, violated, and ultimately ended me, all live-streamed to the world. My mother, heartbroken, suffered a fatal stroke, and my strong father, David, was financially ruined and then silenced forever by those same brutes. All of it, because I tried to warn him about Tiff. Now, the lab report, undeniable proof, was in my purse. But when Mark called later, his voice accusing, "Are you trying to slander Tiff with fake medical reports again?", my blood ran cold. Again? That single word shattered my world. He remembered. He was reborn too. The game had just changed, becoming unimaginably more dangerous. This time, I wouldn't warn him. This time, I wouldn' t say a single word. My revenge would be silent, precise, and absolute.

I liquidated every asset I owned for a single gala ticket, convinced that after twenty years, Grafton Blanchard was finally going to ask me to be his partner. My husband, Kingston Riddle, even hinted that the diamond "Eternity Lock" bracelet I’d been eyeing was gone from the vault, and I was sure it was waiting for me. But when I reached the VIP suite, Grafton didn't look at me with love; he snapped that very bracelet onto the wrist of my rival, Bella Sterling. He stood before the crowd and announced their engagement, laughing as he called me his "little mascot" while I stood there in my best dress, feeling the entire world crumble beneath my feet. The betrayal went deeper when I overheard him telling his friends I was nothing more than a "burden" and a "puppy" he was too kind to kick to the curb. Desperate to fix his image, he lured me to a "peace offering" dinner where Bella theatrically threw herself down a flight of marble stairs. Within seconds, Grafton was looming over me, his face twisted in fury as he accused me of being a jealous, vicious monster. "I'm calling the cops. You want to play games? Let's see how you like a holding cell," Grafton roared, snatching my phone so I couldn't record his cruelty. The restaurant manager and the crowd sneered at me, ready to watch me be hauled away in handcuffs for a crime I didn't commit. I was a pariah, discarded by the man I’d spent my entire life protecting. I stood trembling against the wall, realizing that the man I loved was willing to ruin my life to protect a lie. I felt the weight of twenty years of devotion being thrown into the trash, and for the first time, I stopped wondering why I wasn't enough and started wondering how I could have been so blind. Just as the security guards moved in, the heavy doors swung open. My husband, Kingston—the man I thought was a cold stranger—stepped into the light and demanded the manager play the security footage on the big screen. As the video of Bella launching herself backward played for the entire restaurant, I didn't look at Grafton's pathetic apologies; I looked at the exit and realized my life was finally beginning.

On the fifth anniversary of my father' s death, I discovered my fiancé, Graham, was having an affair with my sister, Hollie. The betrayal was compounded by a second, more devastating secret: Hollie was pregnant with his child. All this, while I was secretly carrying his baby too. He swore his loyalty to me, calling betrayal the ultimate sin, all while planning a future with her. He dismissed her as a "childish infatuation" to my face, then rushed to her side for a "family emergency." I followed him and watched them embrace, heard him promise her fireworks and my life. I saw her hand him a gift, then he carried her inside. The door closed on their shared secret, and on my entire world. My sister then sent me a picture of her ultrasound, taunting me to leave quietly. She thought she had won. But she didn't know I had already made a call. Three days later, as Graham stood with a visibly pregnant Hollie at the chapel where we were supposed to get married, he saw my car speed past. His face twisted in horror as he realized I was gone. Not just leaving, but disappearing completely. Three years later, I returned, no longer his fiancée, but Dr. Cross, a powerful strategist he couldn't touch. And he was just a man desperate to get back what he had destroyed.

My doctor told me I had two weeks before a cerebral hematoma erased all my memories. I called my husband, Griffith, my rock, desperate for his comfort. He hung up on me. A text message followed: Come to the Aurora Gallery. Now. There, I was drugged, stripped naked, and put on a rotating pedestal as a live art installation for his mistress, Beryl. He watched from the crowd, smiling, and kissed her as the audience applauded my humiliation. When I discovered I was pregnant, he hid the sonogram. Then, for Beryl's next "art concept," he had his men drag me to a hospital and forced me to abort our child. He put our baby's body on display in the gallery. After I was kidnapped by men Beryl hired, I called him one last time, begging for my life as they held me over a cliff. He was with her. "Stop this nonsense," he said, annoyed, before hanging up. They cut the rope, and I plunged into the icy sea. But I didn't die. I woke up in Florence with no memory, a new name, and a kind man named Conner who nursed me back to health. Two years later, I returned to New York on Conner's arm, ready to attend our engagement party. And I saw him in the crowd, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Adelia?" he whispered, his face a mask of hope and horror. "Is that really you?"

Mike was sketching, I was scrolling, just another quiet Tuesday night in the condo we' d built together. Our life was perfectly ordinary, perfectly peaceful. Then came the call: Mike' s mother-in-law, Brenda, had declared herself a reincarnated 1950s movie star, Lila LaRue. Even worse? She insisted Mike was her co-star, Johnny Starlight, reborn. Her eccentric claims quickly escalated into full-blown harassment: relentless calls, unannounced visits, and her moving directly across the hall. She left bizarre notes, stalked my grocery runs, and even planted hidden cameras in our bedroom. The nightmare culminated when her public theatrics cost Mike his job, leaving him utterly shattered. The police offered only a slap on the wrist, powerless against her unyielding delusion. Mike was terrified, his career destroyed, our privacy shattered beyond repair. How could the system be so blind to this sinister obsession? But as Mike reached his absolute breaking point, a cold, calculated rage ignited within me. Brenda demanded an audience for her performance? Fine. I decided to give her one she' d never forget, arming myself with a smartphone and a plan to expose her madness to the entire world.

On the day when our son had a high fever, my husband took his stepdaughter to Disneyland to watch the fireworks. He impatiently hung up my phone call, saying "It's just a little fever, can't you take care of it yourself?" I had no choice but to take my child to the hospital alone, but was killed by a mentally ill person with a knife at the entrance of the community. The police called him to come and identify my body, "Mr. Theo, please come to the public security bureau to identify your wife's identity." Theo sneered, "Emely, what kind of trick are you playing again! If you want me to come back this way, you're dreaming!" Later, he learned of my death and played the role of a loving husband in front of everyone. Until I discovered his true intentions.

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.

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!"

"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."

After five years of playing the perfect daughter, Rylie was exposed as a stand-in. Her fiancé bolted, friends scattered, and her adoptive brothers shoved her out, telling her to grovel back to her real family. Done with humiliation, she swore to claw back what was hers. Shock followed: her birth family ruled the town's wealth. Overnight, she became their precious girl. The boardroom brother canceled meetings, the genius brother ditched his lab, the musician brother postponed a tour. As those who spurned her begged forgiveness, Admiral Brad Morgan calmly declared, "She's already taken."

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."

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.

Sunlit hours found their affection glimmering, while moonlit nights ignited reckless desire. But when Brandon learned his beloved might last only half a year, he coolly handed Millie divorce papers, murmuring, "This is all for appearances; we'll get married again once she's calmed down." Millie, spine straight and cheeks dry, felt her pulse go hollow. The sham split grew permanent; she quietly ended their unborn child and stepped into a new beginning. Brandon unraveled, his car tearing down the street, unwilling to let go of the woman he'd discarded, pleading for her to look back just once.

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."

Maia grew up a pampered heiress-until the real daughter returned and framed her, sending Maia to prison with help from her fiancé and family. Four years later, free and married to Chris, a notorious outcast, everyone assumed Maia was finished. They soon discovered she was secretly a famed jeweler, elite hacker, celebrity chef, and top game designer. As her former family begged for help, Chris smiled calmly. "Honey, let's go home." Only then did Maia realize her "useless" husband was a legendary tycoon who'd adored her from the start.

In their previous lives, Gracie married Theo. Outwardly, they were the perfect academic couple, but privately, she became nothing more than a stepping stone for his ambition, and met a tragic end. Her younger sister Ellie wed Brayden, only to be abandoned for his true love, left alone and disgraced. This time, both sisters were reborn. Ellie rushed to marry Theo, chasing the success Gracie once had-unaware she was repeating the same heartbreak. Gracie instead entered a contract marriage with Brayden. But when danger struck, he defended her fiercely. Could fate finally rewrite their tragic endings?