Dong Shengxue

For five years, I was the devoted girlfriend of a corporate heir, Alden Stone. He gave me a single red rose every month, a symbol of his love. But it was all a beautifully crafted lie. On our anniversary, I discovered the truth: the roses were named "Gabriella," for the woman he was obsessed with. He didn't just break my heart; he stole my life's work-a revolutionary cancer formula-and gave it to her to secure their family alliance. At the gala celebrating her supposed genius, I confronted him. "Don't make a scene," he hissed, his eyes cold. "Gabriella is pregnant. If you try to expose her, I will personally see to it that your career is over." From the stage, Gabriella gave me a predatory smile, flaunting a diamond bracelet I had designed for myself. My love, my future, my life's work-all sacrificed for his obsession. He had played me for a fool and left me with nothing. So I faked my death. I recorded a video exposing their lies, set it to go viral, and sailed his yacht straight into a storm. The world would believe Katelynn Walls was dead, but I was just getting started.

On New Year's Eve, I was ready to go public with my secret boyfriend of a year, Alberto. Instead, I watched him kiss another woman and announce their engagement in front of my own parents. He didn't just break my heart; he publicly humiliated me. "And this is Charlotte," he said with a cold smile. "She's like a little sister to me." He had systematically erased every trace of our year together, even packing my things from his apartment-our home-into a storage unit to make room for his new fiancée. A year of stolen kisses and whispered promises, all a lie. He had used me, then tried to erase me, expecting me to quietly disappear. But when I quit my job, he tracked me down at the airport, thinking he could threaten me back into line. Instead, I gave him an ultimatum: transfer $100,000 to my account, or his new fiancée would get a full, detailed history of our 'secret affair,' complete with screenshots.

It was my ninety-ninth wedding day with Mark Johnson, ten years of my life waiting, and I stood on the cold stone steps of City Hall, my simple white dress already damp. My phone rang. It was him. "Olivia, I can't make it today." He was ditching our wedding, our ninety-ninth attempt, for a limited edition Chronos watch for his mistress, Sarah Miller. The rain soaked into my hair, my dress, my soul. He hung up. My bouquet of white roses scattered on the wet pavement. Ten years. Ninety-nine broken promises. I had put so many projects on hold for him, for a future he never intended to build. A wave of cold fury washed over me. "He's not coming, is he?" A deep, smooth voice asked. Liam Black, Mark's biggest business rival, stood under a large black umbrella. I laughed, a bitter, broken sound. "I've had enough proposals for one lifetime." He looked at me, a flicker of something I couldn't read in his cool, intelligent gray eyes. "Marry me instead," he said. I stared. He was honest. It was business. A power play. And I was tired of being a pawn in Mark's game. "You want to marry me to piss off Mark?" I asked. "Yes," he said. "And you need an escape. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement." My voice tasted like freedom. "Okay, let's get married."

I announced my retirement, and the whole SWAT team erupted in celebration. They popped champagne, hoisted me onto their shoulders, cheering. Only one person wasn' t celebrating: Ethan, my rising star colleague, pushing through the crowd, face pale, eyes desperate. He was searching for me. The media swarmed, asking how he felt about "Prophet Cop" Alex retiring. He forced a smile, "Captain Alex is a legend. We'll all miss him. He taught me everything I know." Lies. All of it. Because this wasn't the first time. In my previous life, a decorated SWAT leader, my career was flawless until Ethan, with his "danger prediction," arrived. He' d sense hidden bombs, get hunches about suspects' locations, always right. He became the "Prophet Cop." I became the joke. The team mocked me; the public called me incompetent. My fiancée, Sarah, also my second-in-command, had stopped me on our final mission. "Alex, wait! Ethan says it's too dangerous for you to go first." As I hesitated, she shoved me. I tumbled over the cliff edge, the last thing I saw was her cold face, standing beside Ethan. They didn't save me. Then, darkness. And I woke up in my own bed, phone buzzing with a message about a hostage rescue operation. The same day. The day I fell. I had a second chance. I remembered this day, the beginning of the end, when Ethan publicly overshadowed me. I wouldn't let it happen again. "Gear up," I ordered. "We're changing the route." But as we screeched to a halt, the warehouse was already surrounded. By the Narcotics Unit. And standing there, cuffing the last suspects, was Ethan. "What the hell?" Miller muttered. "How did they get here so fast?" I remembered this exact scene: We arrived late, a hostage died, and I was blamed. Sarah accused me of incompetence, Director Thompson, my mentor, backed her. My career was ruined. I stood there, watching Ethan soak up the glory, and made a vow. This time, history would not repeat itself.

At just ten years old, my life in the sleepy, fading town of Oakhaven was unremarkable. We were a hardworking family, simple and honest, clinging to the quiet hopes for a decent future. Then Brittany Evans, who lived just a few houses down, cornered me by the old park swingset. Her voice was too grave for a child, her eyes too knowing. She declared, "Everything good that's supposed to happen to you? It's mine now. I'm taking it all." She claimed to be reincarnated, privy to the "original script" of my life. And she proceeded to steal it. My father' s long-awaited promotion, my mother' s cherished dream of a small business, even my crucial college scholarship-all systematically diverted to Britt or her parents. When a devastating flood wiped out our home and savings, Britt merely smirked, claiming it was her "prediction," clearing the way for her own gains. We were left with nothing, forced to abandon the town. How could one family so consistently snatch away every opportunity? Was Britt genuinely disturbed, or was there an unsettling truth to her chilling pronouncements? The utter injustice, the persistent feeling of being targeted by an unseen force, left me confused, isolated, and raw with a burning, desperate rage. But as we left Oakhaven, facing an uncertain future, a fierce determination rose within me. Britt thought she' d stolen my fate. She was wrong. I would build a new life, brick by brick, far from her reach. A life she could never, ever claim as her own.

It was the grand opening of my dream restaurant, Aura, the culmination of years of hard work, my moment of triumph as an acclaimed chef. But then, a woman I barely knew, Isabella Vance, stormed in and publicly declared my husband, Ethan, was her husband, waving a marriage certificate dated years before I even met him. My perfect night shattered, replaced by screeching headlines, ruined bookings, and vicious online attacks branding me a homewrecker. My daughter, Lily, came home crying, asking why kids said Daddy had another Mommy. Ethan, the man who swore he loved me, became a ghost, offering only evasive "it's complicated" excuses as Isabella unleashed a relentless public smear campaign against me, even involving my own protégé. How could the man I built a life with, the father of my child, harbor such a devastating secret? Every truth he withheld felt like a fresh stab, leaving me reeling in a vortex of humiliation and betrayal, with nowhere to hide. My entire life was collapsing, and the world watched, laughing. Now, trapped in a nightmare of lies and public assaults, I have only one choice: fight for my daughter and expose the insidious truth, no matter the cost.

Every day of my life, I, Hailey, was keenly aware I was nothing but an unwanted burden to my parents, Frank and Brenda, their every word and action reserved instead for my coddled younger brother, Kevin. Thanksgiving approached, and their solution to saving money for Kevin's new gaming console was horrific: I was to travel hundreds of miles, locked inside an old, smelly footlocker, checked as luggage on a Greyhound bus. Buried in suffocating darkness, I scratched at the lid with weakening fingers as the air dwindled, until my desperate struggle became nothing more than a final gasp before floating into oblivion. Upon arrival, my parents, eager to enjoy the holiday, left my tomb in a corner, only to casually open it a day later to find my lifeless, blue body, eliciting Frank's curse and Brenda's chilling remark about the "bad luck" I brought before they paid a local man, with the money saved from my bus fare and food, to bury me swiftly and quietly in an unmarked grave, forgotten for Kevin's new treats. To them, my life was merely an obstacle, and my agonizing death was nothing more than an inconvenience, solidifying their profound and terrifying indifference towards me. But then, with a choked gasp, I bolted upright in my bed, the morning sun streaming through my window, and realized I had been given an impossible second chance: it was the same fateful Thanksgiving morning, the old footlocker by the door, and this time, I wouldn't just obey.

Ethan Miller, a successful architect, believed he had it all – a fulfilling career and a beautiful, powerful wife, Isabella Vanderbilt, the CEO of a luxury empire whose name dripped old money. Publicly, they were Manhattan's golden couple, striving to conceive a Vanderbilt heir. But his seemingly perfect life shattered when he discovered Izzy' s chilling deception: unable to conceive naturally, she had secretly orchestrated a plan with Liam O' Connell, a younger man disturbingly similar to Ethan, to be the sperm donor and pass his child off as Ethan's. His cherished home transformed into a gilded prison at their Hamptons estate as Izzy isolated and gaslighted him, her cold ambition eclipsing any remorse. He was subjected to a horrific ordeal, physically and psychologically tormented by Liam, the very man who usurped his place and lineage. How could the woman he loved and trusted so deeply betray him with such cruel precision, turning his entire existence into a meticulously crafted lie? The pain of her treachery was a physical wound, deepening his confusion and overwhelming sense of injustice. Just as despair threatened to consume him, facing ultimate humiliation and potential death, a dramatic rescue by his brother revealed the full, brutal scope of Izzy's manipulations. Now, Ethan must decide whether to seek justice and rebuild a life far from the wreckage, or remain tethered to the toxic legacy that nearly destroyed him, and the child caught in its snare.

Ava Miller, a twenty-one-year-old ballerina, had loved her step-brother Ethan Hayes since she was fifteen. For six years, their passionate, secret affair was her entire world, filled with whispered promises of Europe and forever. She believed he was her soulmate, the king to her queen in their private realm. But after a horrific car accident shattered her legs, the truth shattered her heart even more profoundly. From her hospital bed, she overheard Ethan, the man she adored, calmly admitting he orchestrated the crash. He sneered, revealing their entire relationship was a meticulously planned revenge plot against her mother. He wanted to destroy her dancing career and publicly humiliate her, calling her a "gold-digger's daughter." Her dreams, her body, and every memory of their stolen moments were reduced to a tool in his cruel game. Even as he feigned devastation and vowed to care for her, her world crumbled into excruciating pain and utter betrayal. He later brought his childhood love, Chloe Vanderbilt, into their home, showcasing his true affections right before Ava's eyes. He then abandoned Ava, leaving her to die, not once, but twice. Six years of her youth, her devotion, her very self, were all a lie, a twisted performance for his twisted revenge. How could the man she loved so deeply harbor such venomous hatred? The raw agony of his betrayal was a physical ache, eclipsing even her broken bones. But as her mother offered a sliver of hope for recovery in Vail, a fierce, cold determination ignited within Ava. She vowed to heal, escape, and make him pay for every tear, every broken bone, and every beautiful, shattered lie. Her revenge would be swift, public, and far more devastating than anything Ethan could have imagined.

My fiancé, Jake, stood impatiently by the Greyhound bus, his hand on my back, promising a new life away from our dying West Virginia town. But this wasn't our first trip. In another life, just moments after boarding this very bus, his hands closed around my throat. I remembered the cold fury in his eyes and the hiss of another woman's name: Brittany. That life ended with my world going dark. My hero father' s legacy, his survivor benefits, and even his house, systematically stolen by Jake' s family, the Millers. They' d taken me in after Grandma died, only to exploit every cent, while Brittany, the town's "it girl," brazenly used my father's name for her own gain, all with Sheriff Miller's complicit blessing. How could I have been so naive? So blind to Jake's possessive obsession with Brittany? To the quiet exploitation that turned my father's honorable memory into a tool for their greedy schemes? The realization burned, a colder wrath than death itself. Now, I' m back. The naive Ava is dead, burned away by the memory of my own murder. This time, I won't just board the bus; I'll wait. I' ll make them wait. Because this second chance isn't about escaping-it's about justice. For my father, for my stolen life. And I know Jake remembers too. He' s already planning.

Manson's life had been saved by a girl. The only thing he could remember about her was her smell. Her fragrance lingered in his memory for the past two years, a sweet and unforgettable impression that came back to him whenever he closed his eyes. He had been trying to find her for a very long time. At last, he found her. It seemed that his lucky stars had favored him! Bella was like one in a million, and he couldn't help but love her for it. Like a plant spreading its roots slowly and quietly, it seemed that his love had grown and grown during their long separation until it was strong and deep.

The minute he caught sight of her, he immediately knew that she was the one. James casually handed Gail his business card—he had offered her a job working in his company. As expected, she successfully passed the interview. She was now an intern. On Gail's first day of work, she found that James was actually the CEO of the company. Taken aback, she had no idea what was in store for her.

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."

"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."

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!"

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."

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.

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?

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.

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."

The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."

Blinded in a crash, Cary was rejected by every socialite—except Evelina, who married him without hesitation. Three years later, he regained his sight and ended their marriage. "We’ve already lost so many years. I won’t let her waste another one on me." Evelina signed the divorce papers without a word. Everyone mocked her fall—until they discovered that the miracle doctor, jewelry mogul, stock genius, top hacker, and the President's true daughter… were all her. When Cary came crawling back, a ruthless tycoon had him kicked out. "She's my wife now. Get lost."