Er Duo

After our parents died, my brothers were my protectors. That ended the day they brought home Faye, a fourteen-year-old orphan they treated like a fragile doll, while I became part of the furniture. They gave her my vintage saxophone, my promised trip to Paris, and dismissed my symphony-my life' s work-as "noise." The final betrayal happened in the library. Faye deliberately tore my master score to shreds. When I tried to stop her, she faked an injury, and my brothers took her side without hesitation. "You are a jealous, manipulative child," Clinton spat, before burning the rest of my symphony in front of my eyes. They told me to get out of their lives. So I did. I accepted a ten-year isolated fellowship and vanished. Now, I've returned as a world-renowned composer whose work saved millions. When my brothers, broken by regret, finally found me and begged me to come home, I gave them a calm, professional smile. "I'm sorry," I said. "Do I know you?"

I carried the first word I had spoken in ten years like a sacred offering, ready to surprise the man who had saved my life. But through the crack in the study door, I heard Josiah tell his Underboss that I was nothing but a noose around his neck. "Grace is a burden," he said, his voice cold. "I can't become Don while babysitting a mute ghost. Lexi brings power. Grace brings nothing but silence." He chose to marry the Mafia Princess for her father's trade routes, dismissing me as wreckage. But the true betrayal didn't happen in that office. It happened in the woods during an ambush. With bullets flying and the mud sliding beneath us into a ravine, Josiah had to make a choice. I was injured, trapped at the bottom. Lexi was screaming on the ridge. He looked at me, mouthed "I'm sorry," and turned his back. He hauled Lexi to safety to secure his alliance. He left me to die alone in the freezing mud. I lay there in the dark, realizing the man who swore a blood oath to protect me had traded my life for a political seat. He thought the silence would finally swallow me whole. He was wrong. I crawled out of that grave and vanished from his world completely. Three years later, I returned to the city, not as his broken ward, but as a world-renowned artist. When Josiah showed up at my gallery, looking shattered and begging for forgiveness, I didn't sign. I looked him dead in the eye and spoke. "The girl who loved you died in that ravine, Josiah."

After seven years in a dungeon for a crime I didn't commit, my fated mate, the Alpha who let them drag me away, finally opened my cell door. He announced I would take my place as his Luna, not out of love, but because the law demanded it. But the moment a frantic mind-link came through that his precious Seraphina—my adopted sister, the one who framed me—was having trouble breathing, he abandoned me without a second glance. That night, huddled in a dusty shack, I overheard my own parents' secret conversation. They were planning to have me exiled. Permanently. My return had upset Seraphina, and her "weak heart" couldn't take the shock. I lay there in the darkness, feeling nothing. Not surprise. Not even pain. Just a profound, empty coldness. They were casting me out. Again. But as they plotted my exile, a secret message arrived for me—an offer of escape. A new life in a sanctuary far to the north, where I could leave the Blackmoon Pack behind forever. They thought they were getting rid of me. Little did they know, I was already gone.

I was Ella Cash, a ballerina who gave up everything for Damien Wolfe, believing his philosophy that love should be free and untethered. I thought our love was superior, purer than any vow or ring could make it. Then, I overheard him on the balcony of his penthouse, talking to a friend. "Of course I'm going to marry her. Kiersten is the only one for me." He called me a "placeholder," dismissing our two years together. My world shattered. Every loving gesture, every whispered promise, every shared dream-it was all a lie. He left me standing there, rushing off to Kiersten, who was crying in Central Park. There, I heard the ultimate betrayal: "I never loved Ella. I pursued her for you. I needed her to carry our child so you wouldn't have to put your career on hold." The baby I miscarried wasn't ours; it was Kiersten's, conceived with a donor's sperm. I was just a vessel, an unwitting surrogate. To add insult to injury, I learned I was the real Bentley heiress, a truth Damien and Kiersten conspired to hide to protect her inheritance. They even tried to kill me, pushing me into a pool, with Damien choosing to save her over me.

I collapsed from exhaustion after dedicating ten years of my life to my CEO girlfriend, Kendal. I gave up my music, my dreams, everything to build her empire. At the hospital, the doctor delivered the news. Malignant tumor. I needed emergency surgery to save my life. Kendal never visited. Not once. I later found out she was on the phone with another man, sweetly telling him she missed him while I was lying in a hospital bed. Two weeks after they cut the cancer out of me, on her birthday, I went home and cooked her favorite meal. It was supposed to be our last supper, a final goodbye. She stumbled in late that night, drunk, carried piggyback by that same man. They were wearing matching black t-shirts. His said, "I'm with her." Hers said, "I'm with him." She saw me and froze, her laughter dying in her throat. She scrambled off his back, her face a mask of panic and guilt. But I felt nothing. Not anger, not jealousy. The part of me that could feel pain for her had been carved out on the operating table, right along with the tumor. I looked her straight in the eye. "It's over." Then I walked out of the penthouse we once called home, leaving her standing alone in the monument to our failed relationship. This time, I wasn't coming back.

"A daughter should never marry better than her family, Sarah. It's a simple truth." My adoptive father, Mr. Miller, laid down the law every night, telling me my only job was to be grateful and listen to his "guidance." Then, a week later, my successful boyfriend, Michael, came to dinner, flowers in hand. My father, who had just fawned over my brother Kevin's wealthy girlfriend, turned ice-cold. "Get out of my house," he snarled at Michael, shaming me and driving him away. Hours later, the nightmare escalated. My father, drunk and enraged, announced he had already arranged my marriage to Leo, a man I barely knew. When I refused, he lunged across the table and struck me. I fled, humiliated and betrayed, only to have my father ambush me at work the next day with Leo. He publicly announced our "engagement," turning my professional life into a circus. Michael walked in on the chaos, and the trust in his eyes vanished. He left, unable to handle the "chaos." My own family, including my mother, then blamed me for everything, even after my brother physically assaulted me. They demanded I fix their problems, clean up their mess. How could my own family do this? What twisted logic allowed them to treat me like property, to sabotage my life at every turn, while showering their biological son with privilege? Why was I, the dutiful daughter, always the one punished? Their cruelty, their endless demands, transformed my despair into a cold, hard rage. I saw their game, and I decided then and there: if I couldn't fight them head-on, I would dismantle their power from the inside. They wanted a pawn? Fine. They were about to get a queen.

The harsh, sterile light of the emergency room usually brought me a sense of purpose. But tonight, it felt like a spotlight on my humiliation. There, on a gurney, was my husband, Liam, clutching his groin, his face pale and contorted, his designer jeans cut away by paramedics. Next to him, a young woman in a crop top, mascara streaked, held his hand, whining about him collapsing. Then I saw it on his chart: Priapism. A prolonged, painful erection. A side effect of recreational drugs. On our tenth wedding anniversary. "I\'m his wife," I finally managed, the words tasting like acid. Her jaw dropped. "His wife? But he told me he was divorced! He said I was his girlfriend." The air left my lungs. My colleagues watched as Dr. Evelyn Reed, brilliant cardiac surgeon, couldn\'t even hold her own marriage together. Relief curdled into rage as Liam avoided my gaze. He looked weak, pathetic. "No, Dr. Chen," I said, my voice cold and clear. "I\'ll handle it. He\'s my patient now." I stripped off my wedding ring, dropping it onto the gurney next to his hand. "We\'re done, Liam. Consider this my anniversary gift to you." The memory of him whispering promises of forever, of honesty, of a partnership built on respect, now felt like a cruel lie. This wasn't just betrayal. He had faked a vasectomy years ago, after our miscarriage, telling me he only needed me, while planning this separate life. The depth of his deceit made me physically sick. A Code Blue saved me from that moment, calling me to save a life. But I promised myself, after I saved my patient, I would return and systematically destroy Liam\'s. I wouldn't look back.

My body was a battlefield, stitches screaming with every step, but my heart soared. I had just given a kidney to save Liam, the struggling artist I loved more than life itself. This massive sacrifice for the man I believed was my destiny, the fellow orphan who understood my every struggle, was all worth it because he would live. But then, laughter peeled from his hospital room – not just Liam' s, but his wealthy friends', their voices dripping with cruel amusement. "I can' t believe she actually did it," Tiffany' s voice sliced through me. "Sold a kidney! For you! That is the funniest thing I have ever heard." My world shattered as Liam, the "dying" patient, emerged from his charade, pulling off a fake IV and lighting a cigarette, his smirk cold and unfamiliar. The room reeked of betrayal. Liam, the "struggling artist," was the heir to the massive Blackwood Corporation. His illness, our shared past, his love – all a meticulously crafted lie, a cruel game orchestrated by Tiffany to "teach the little orphan a lesson." The thought made me sick; I had carved myself open for a ghost, my every genuine feeling trashed for their entertainment. Why? Why would someone inflict such calculated cruelty? My hope, once so vibrant, was crushed, leaving a gaping wound where my heart used to be. The humiliation was a physical weight, but then a cold, quiet rage began to burn away the tears. They thought they had broken me, reduced me to a pathetic charity case. They were wrong. I would not be their mouse anymore. I pulled out my phone, a new purpose hardening my resolve. I was done playing their game; it was time to leave.

We woke up screaming. The cloying scent of lilies, the vivid, horrifying memories-Jessica. My older sister, a syringe in her hand, her eyes bright with a chilling mania, her obsession with "dark romance" novels, her fixation on tech mogul Damian Blackwood. We died once because of her twisted fantasy; we were just collateral damage. Now, we were back-my parents and I-with the chilling knowledge of our past. Then the phone rang. It was her. She' d damaged Damian Blackwood' s drone again, trying her pathetic "meet-cute." Just like before. My parents, once her enablers, now had pale faces and rock-hard eyes. This time, we wouldn't bail her out. This time, she would face the consequences alone. But Jessica' s delusion only festered. Arrests, lawsuits, public humiliations-she embraced them as "tests." She stalked him, got fired, and finally, drugged him. I watched, sickened, as she spiraled deeper into her twisted script, even after being assaulted. Her unshakeable belief that Damian was "testing" her, even as she was thrown out like trash, was maddening. How could someone be so utterly lost in a fantasy, even when faced with stark, brutal reality? What happened to the caring sister I once knew? This reawakening wasn't just about surviving. It was about breaking the cycle. This time, the monster wouldn' t win. I would dismantle the very source of her misguided obsession, Damian Blackwood himself, armed with the terrifying knowledge of his true nature from a life we already lost.

I am Elara, one of the last Sunstone Guardians, living a quiet, sacred life channeling my essence into healing crystals in the heart of the Arizona desert. To secure my people's peace, I sacrificed my vitality, marrying a wealthy, paralyzed Texan, Ethan Rutherford, to heal him with my life-giving Sunstone Seeds. He walked again, strong and vibrant, but my peace was shattered at a glittering Dallas charity ball when I saw my precious, living Sunstone Seeds listed for a twisted public display. Ethan, now outwardly charming, announced a cruel game: I had to identify my three sacred Seeds from a hundred counterfeits, or he would crush them, one by one, for 'research' orchestrated by his jealous stepsister, Candice. My terrified pleas were met with a chilling smirk, as security guards held me fast while my humiliation was live-streamed for a national audience. They called me 'primitive' and a 'gold-digger' as I was forced to watch my vital essence, my very soul, shattered into dust before my eyes, then ordered to 'eat' the pulverized remains. The unthinkable cruelty, the public mockery, and the desecration of everything sacred within me was a searing agony I thought would break me entirely. How could the man I saved, the man I married, become such a monstrous betrayer, orchestrated by the woman who now demanded my 'confession' as a fraud? But as a raw, broken laugh escaped my lips, the grand chandelier above us flickered violently, and a tremor shook the ballroom floor. My last remaining, untouched Sunstone Seed pulsed with an blinding light, levitating to blast the horrifying truth of my sacrifice and Candice's evil directly into Ethan's fractured mind, a cosmic vengeance finally awakening.

Aurora Hayes, a senator' s wife with a mystical singing gift known as "Heartnote Harmony," craved true connection on her tenth wedding anniversary night. But inside their D.C. mansion, she overheard a devastating truth: her charismatic husband, Alistair, had fathered children with his former aide, Cassie Bellweather. Cassie demanded Aurora' s unique gift be used to legitimize her sons, shattering Aurora's carefully constructed world. The betrayal escalated quickly; Cassie stole Aurora's ancestral locket, then brutally crushed her hands in a piano, forever silencing her extraordinary voice. Aurora was publicly framed as unstable and suicidal, her "drowning" orchestrated to preserve Alistair' s political image. Yet, as a final act of defiance, bandaged hands shaky, she scrawled "NEVER" in her own blood on a forced confession. Presumed dead, Aurora was secretly rescued by a loyal friend, retreating to the Louisiana bayou where her broken gift transformed into something wilder, potent. Now, rising from the swamp' s embrace as Nola Rey, she' s returning to claim what was stolen by the very man who buried her.

After being set up by her fiance, she suffered public humiliation once again. She couldn't tolerate it anymore. So, under everyone's watchful eyes, she walked towards the cold man with a smile. Without further ado, he took her hand and saved her from the turmoil. Finally heaving a sigh of relief, she held his arm more tightly as they walked out. To repay him, she said yes to his request⁠—to pretend to be his girlfriend and help him get rid of his romantic troubles. However, before she could even figure out what was happening, she had already fallen into his love trap.

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?

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."

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.

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."