Gong Moxi

My life was a perfect ballet: Juilliard-bound, adored by Ethan Miller, the golden boy everyone envied. Our future shone brighter than any stage light. Then, the crash. A blinding flash, then darkness. I woke up to a hospital room, my ballerina legs amputated, a devastating gift from Jess, Ethan' s obsessed ex, who' d deliberately run me down. Every dream shattered. But the real nightmare began when I uncovered Ethan's secret. The man who vowed 'forever,' whose hand I clung to, was secretly comforting Jess, his 'enemy,' filling her with false hope and a twisted compassion. His perfect devotion was a suffocating lie, driving me deeper into a pit of physical and emotional agony. How could the man I loved betray me so utterly, with the very person who destroyed my life? The whys screamed in my head, a desperate, hollow echo in a world turned to ash. With nothing left but the unbearable pain, I sought the final escape. But instead of an end, I found a terrifying twist: I woke up in a hospital bed, three years earlier, my legs miraculously whole, memories of my devastating demise burning clear. This time, I would rewrite my tragic fate and break free from this cursed cycle.

I was Sarah Miller, an architect with big dreams, when I married Ethan Caldwell, the golden boy of Manhattan. I truly believed in love, that our quiet city hall wedding was just the beginning of our grand adventure. But my new life in his lavish penthouse quickly became a gilded cage. His stepmother, Victoria – his father' s younger wife, and Ethan' s undeniable obsession – revealed the sinister truth. I was a mere placeholder, a convenient beard, and she dared me: nineteen nights to win his heart, or vanish. My desperate attempts to connect were met with cold indifference. He left me trapped in a burning cafe, rushing to Victoria' s side. He demanded I lie to the press, destroying my reputation to save hers. Then, when a chemical attack struck, he shielded her, letting the corrosive liquid burn me. My love wasn't gradually eroded; it was systematically executed. How could I have been so blind, so foolish, so utterly disposable? The physical scars paled in comparison to the gaping wound in my soul. But this wasn't the end of my story, only the beginning of my true one. I broke free, rebuilt a life from the ashes, and found real love. He eventually saw Victoria's true colors and desperately tried to win me back, only to find himself crashing my engagement party. He came seeking me, but found only the cold, unyielding shell of the woman he' d destroyed. He thought I was his to reclaim, but the love he squandered was irrevocably dead.

Our love was a rebel song, forbidden by the Devereaux family's rigid rules. I was Ella, a blues singer from Bourbon Street, and he was Beau, the Prince of Prytania, who swore his heart was irrevocably mine. He chose me, even when his powerful family threatened to disinherit him. "It's you and me, Ella, always," he vowed. I wore his promises like my grandmother's treasured locket. But the Devereauxs changed tactics. A new cruelty. They gave Beau an ultimatum: produce an heir with a "suitable" woman. He begged me to understand, a "formality" before we could truly be together. Then Savannah Sinclair, polished and ambitious, entered our lives. Soon, Savannah was pregnant, and the "little longer" stretched into an eternity. Savannah became a constant, cruel presence, plotting against me at every turn. She maliciously framed me for harming their newborn daughter, Charlotte, planting "evidence" and staging hysterical outbursts. My protests fell on deaf ears; Beau let his parents lock me in a cold guesthouse. "Why, Ella? Why would you hurt my child?" Beau asked, his voice like shards of glass. My heart shattered. His child, not ours. Where was the man who once shielded me? Then, Savannah escalated, wearing my grandmother's locket, brazenly claiming Beau gave it to her. When I lunged for it, she feigned injury, shrieking about her "baby." Beau rushed in, his rage blinding him. He shoved me hard, my head cracking against marble. Before I could explain, his father, Augustus, raised his hand and struck me across the face. Beau watched it all, his back turned to me, to the truth, to everything we had ever been. His silence was consent. His inaction was betrayal. In that agonizing moment, I knew: I had to get out. I would leave, but not before they learned the cost of their cruelty.

Tonight was supposed to be the most important night of my life, the official announcement of my engagement to Mark Landon. But as we stood on the dais to make our toast, another woman-Isabel-let out a theatrical cry and crumpled to the floor. Before I could process what was happening, Mark shoved me. He pushed me aside to get to her, his arm connecting with my shoulder with brutal, dismissive force. The shove sent me stumbling backward off the platform. I landed hard on the polished marble floor, a collective gasp echoing through the stunned ballroom as my world shattered. He didn't even glance at me. He helped a perfectly fine Isabel to her feet, tucked her protectively against his side, and then glared down at me, his face a thunderous mask of fury. "Look what your jealousy has caused!" he snarled, his voice echoing in the silence. "This engagement is over! I will not be bound to a woman so consumed by petty envy!" The words were a physical blow. The pain in my soul was so intense it stole my breath, a searing agony as the bond I thought we shared was violently ripped away. The room spun as the pain dropped me to my knees. Kicked out a service exit, I collapsed in a filthy back alley, my body finally succumbing to a strange illness that had been draining me for weeks. Just as darkness closed in, a sleek black car screeched to a halt. A man emerged, impossibly tall and radiating an aura of power that made Mark seem like a spoiled child. He knelt, his stormy eyes locking onto the silver locket our family doctor had pressed into my hand moments before. His voice was a low, resonant rumble that vibrated through the very ground. "I have found her." He paused, his gaze sweeping over my face, his expression a chilling mixture of triumph and ice. "My true fated mate... and the daughter of the woman who destroyed my family."

Her world revolved around the sterile precision of Boston General, a frantic pace that helped Evie outrun a haunting premonitory dream. Then he returned: Dr. Julian Vance, her former fiancé and the brilliant surgeon whose abrupt departure had shattered her four years prior. He wasn't alone; a stunning woman in a pristine white dress, just like her dream, was by his side, introduced as his fiancée. His cool, dismissive gaze, devoid of any shared past, was a stark reminder of their painful ending. He publicly dismissed their intense history as "nothing," twisting the knife of her past, desperate attempt to secure his future. Julian's fiancée, Victoria, a woman straight from Evie' s nightmare, systematically dismantled her reputation, turning colleagues into a whispering gallery of judgment. The final, brutal blow came when Julian, a cardiothoracic genius, coldly refused to operate on Evie' s dying father, abandoning him to succumb to his illness. How could the man she once loved, a man sworn to save lives, deliver such a cruel, calculated act of revenge? Was all their shared history, all her past sacrifice, truly worthless to him, or was this a deeper, colder malice she couldn't comprehend? The raw pain and burning hatred consumed her, every breath a testament to his unforgivable betrayal. With nothing left but fractured dreams and a hollow heart, Evie packed a single bag, determined to outrun Boston, him, and the wreckage of a life defined by his cruelty.

My wedding day was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, a promise of forever with Ethan, the man I loved. But then, an unexpected call on the eve of our wedding, from his ex, Brittany-a woman he' d always painted as unstable and manipulative-shattered the illusion. She pleaded for Ethan to visit her dying mother, a plea Ethan scoffed at, dismissing it as another one of her pathetic stunts to ruin his happiness. I tried to trust him, to push down the unsettling feeling that her raw grief had felt painfully real. The next day, as I stood at the altar, ready to say "I do," the grand doors creaked open. Brittany stood there, clad in black, clutching a funeral urn. She announced her mother was dead, and that Ethan' s refusal to see her was the cause, pulling him away from me, from our wedding, with a single, heart-wrenchwrenching accusation. He abandoned me at the altar, rushing to comfort her, seemingly forgetting I even existed. The man I was meant to marry was embracing his ex, whispering apologies, while I stood there, witnessing the death of our future. Why was he so easily swayed? How could he believe her manipulated tears over everything we had? I wanted answers, I wanted to understand how my perfect day had become a stage for her twisted drama. I just wanted to make them pay for destroying my life.

My fiancé, Chadwick Steele, always treated me like a dirty secret-the nerdy brains behind his glamorous tech empire. He flaunted his affair with his mistress, Isa, while constantly reminding me I was an embarrassment he was forced to tolerate. That all came to a head in a crowded mall. In front of everyone, he publicly broke our engagement, choosing her over me and leaving me to her mercy. But Isa wasn't satisfied with just winning. She had Chadwick's bodyguards pin me to the floor. She slapped me, kicked me, and then pulled out a silver letter opener. As she carved a bloody gash across my cheek, she laughed about teaching me a permanent lesson for daring to exist in her world. I was bleeding and broken, my spirit completely shattered. I thought it was over. Then, a custom Rolls-Royce pulled up. My mother, Frederica Mooney-the silent titan of Silicon Valley who secretly bankrolls the entire Steele family fortune-stepped out. She took one look at my face, her eyes turning to ice, and gave me the only words I needed to hear: "I give you my full permission."

The man who once took a bullet for me stood in our living room, demanding I apologize to his pregnant mistress. He was the broke kid I'd made into a CEO, the foundation of my world. Now, that foundation was a sinkhole. But the real betrayal came from his mistress's lips. She whispered that Jacob had orchestrated the car accident that caused my miscarriage years ago, claiming he never wanted a child with a "cold, barren bitch" like me. He tried to move her into my house, painting me as the villain in our story. He paraded their love for the world to see, buying her islands and diamonds while I was cast aside as the city's ice queen. The love I had for him, built on what I thought was shared grief over our lost son, turned to ash. It was all a lie. Ten years of my life, a carefully staged play he directed. But he forgot who I am. At a grand gala meant to celebrate his new life, I crashed the party. With the evidence in hand and my allies at my side, I was ready to burn his empire to the ground and make him pay for every single lie.

I woke up to the familiar rumble of thunder, the bruised purple sky mirroring the dread in my stomach: exam day. It was all happening again, precisely like last time. Last time, Kevin, my earnest ex, held us back for Brie, the school' s queen bee, who, ever the drama, insisted on a "critical influencer photoshoot." We were late, of course. But the real disaster wasn't just missing the exam. Later, at a supposed peace offering, Brie handed me a coffee. It was laced with tree nuts, my deadliest allergen. I died. Kevin and his "Elites" lied, claiming I was distraught and ate something by accident. Brie played victim online, painting me as the bully, while my mother' s quest for justice shattered her life. Having lived through that betrayal, that humiliation, that fatal setup once, to wake up here again on this exact morning felt like a second chance – not just at life, but at cosmic rebalancing. Why was I back? This time, I wouldn't say a single word. Let them wait. Let them miss their exam. Let them ruin their own lives. My future at MIT was already secure. Theirs, however, was about to unravel, with me watching from the sidelines.

Allegra woke up in a sterile alien hospital with no memory, no ID chip, and a terrifying snow leopard General claiming responsibility for her crash. But a routine ID scan at a local boutique shattered her fragile cover. The machine shrieked, flashing a fatal red warning: NO NEURAL LINK DETECTED. She was a "Ghost"—an illegal, unregistered biological entity in a ruthless Hybrid Empire. The boutique locked down instantly. Heavily armed police swarmed the plaza, laser sights painting her chest red. She was dragged into a subterranean military black site, where a manic geneticist tested her blood and discovered the impossible truth. She wasn't a Hybrid. She was a pure Homo Sapiens—an extinct race whose mere presence could cure the Hybrids' fatal Psyche collapse. To keep her all to himself, the scientist lied to the General, branding her a toxic, mutating bio-weapon. Forced by Imperial law, the General abandoned her to the scientist's cruel custody. Allegra was locked inside a reinforced glass cage in the deepest isolation ward, waiting to be dissected. She huddled on the floor, trembling in absolute despair. She didn't belong in this nightmare world. Why was she being treated like a monster? Why did this madman look at her like a prize to be torn apart? Watching the scientist's fox ears twitch in manic stress outside the glass, her human empathy momentarily overrode her terror. She stood up and pressed her palm against the glass, perfectly aligning it with his. "Don't be so nervous, Mr. Fox." Instantly, an invisible wave of human resonance flooded his core, shattering his genetic madness. The terrifying predator was reduced to a whimpering, devoted puppy, pressing himself against the window in absolute submission. Allegra slowly pulled her hand back, her heart skipping a beat. Well, she thought, that changes things.

Colette Bentley gripped her terminal leukemia diagnosis, her world shattering. Her only comfort was that her husband, Edwardo, was the country's foremost hematologist. But when she called him, desperate for a lifeline, she didn't hear his reassuring voice. Instead, she heard the playful voice of her own sister, Cleo. "Edwardo, hurry up. The water's getting cold..." As Colette stood outside an exclusive club hours later, collapsing in a pool of her own blood, Edwardo was busy pressing Cleo against his car and gifting her diamonds. He ignored Colette's emergency calls, coldly texting back that he was too busy to be bothered. When Colette miraculously secured a single, priceless vial of an experimental drug to save her own life, Edwardo broke into her private safe and stole it. He fed her life-saving medicine to his mistress to treat a minor symptom, smiling proudly as he claimed he knew Colette wanted to help. "I confirmed it was the VX-7 compound and gave it to Cleo. The effect was miraculous." He had completely erased her existence, casually sentencing his own wife to death to play the hero for the woman who ruined her marriage. How could a doctor who swore to save lives be so monstrous? But Colette wasn't going to die quietly in the shadows. She slapped the smug smile off his face, extorted a hundred-million-dollar divorce settlement, and walked into a rival research institute. This time, she chose to live for herself.

I was dying at the banquet, coughing up black blood while the pack celebrated my step-sister Lydia’s promotion. Across the room, Caleb, the Alpha and my Fated Mate, didn't look concerned. He looked annoyed. "Stop it, Elena," his voice boomed in my head. "Don't ruin this night with your attention-seeking lies." I begged him, telling him it was poison, but he just ordered me to leave his Pack House so I wouldn't dirty the floor. Heartbroken, I publicly demanded the Severing Ceremony to break our bond and left to die alone in a cheap motel. Only after I took my last breath did the truth come out. I sent Caleb the medical records proving Lydia had been poisoning my tea with wolfsbane for ten years. He went mad with grief, realizing he had protected the murderer and rejected his true mate. He tortured Lydia, but his regret couldn't bring me back. Or so he thought. In the afterlife, the Moon Goddess showed me my reflection. I wasn't a wolfless weakling. I was a White Wolf, the rarest and most powerful of all, suppressed by poison. "You can stay here in peace," the Goddess said. "Or you can go back." I looked at the life they stole from me. I looked at the power I never got to use. "I want to go back," I said. "Not for his love. But for revenge." I opened my eyes, and for the first time in my life, my wolf roared.

I woke up to the acrid smell of smoke and the piercing screams from the university's burning arts building. My twin sister, Chloe, was trapped inside. My boyfriend, Ryan Ashton, stood poised to run, a heroic silhouette against the licking flames. But a memory, sharp and cold, sliced through me – my first life, a nightmare I' d lived and died. I remembered him shoving me, my hand smashing against debris, crushing the bones and ending my promising violin career. Chloe died anyway, yet he blamed me, publicly shaming me. He then married me. Not for love, but for a twisted, prolonged revenge. He systematically broke me down, convinced everyone I was a monster, even my own parents who coldly agreed, calling me selfish. My existence became a quiet, constant hell until he locked me in a suffocating room, leaving me to die. Now, it was happening again: the fire, the screams, Ryan ready to play the savior. Every agonizing moment, every betrayal, every whispered accusation from my family hammered in my mind. The sheer, burning injustice of my first life fueled a new, chilling resolve. But this time, I knew. This time, I would break the cycle. I stepped aside. He charged headlong into the inferno, screaming Chloe' s name, never once looking back at me. My hands remained perfect, unscathed. My future was mine alone. This time, destiny would be rewritten. This time, my revenge would be a symphony.

Hatred exhausted him, but Barry didn’t care, so he trapped himself in the tomb of marriage. He gave Lea his top adoration, but also pushed her down from heaven to hell. Her family went broke, her father died of serious illness, her brother disappeared for no reason and her ex-boyfriend was sent to prison. All of these was his vengeance, to get even. The day she held her father’s funeral, he held the hand with another woman in the church. However, the only reason why he accepted the marriage was to make her more painful.

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."

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.

Lillian woke in a werecreature universe as a total loser. Good news was that women ruled here and could take multiple mates, yet she still ended up as the one everyone looked down on. Compared to her talented sister at every turn, she watched her first match get stolen and her next four mates reject her without mercy. The first mate was the King of Succubine himself. On their very first meeting, he warned Lillian that he was only staying long enough to recover from his injuries-and that there could never be anything between them. The second mate was a merman. He took one look at her and said he had no interest in a loser like her, tossing her some cash so she could break off their bond herself. The third mate was the progenitor vampire-over a thousand years old. He admitted to admiring her sister instead and made it clear he had no interest in a layabout like Lillian. Lillian cut every bond and chose her own path instead. But as she rose higher and higher, those same men returned, full of regret and begging her to look at them again. The fourth mate was a werewolf Lillian had rescued from an underground fighting ring. She thought he might actually stay-until he revealed himself as royalty. And of course, he wanted to break their bond for more power.

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.

Kayla stood outside the CEO suite, holding a custom suit for her fiancé, Brennon. They had spent seven years building a tech company from a freezing garage into a billion-dollar empire. But through the cracked door, she heard the breathy laugh of Evelin, the newly hired director. Then came Brennon's low, careless voice. "The wedding's a PR milestone for the IPO, nothing more." Kayla's blood turned to ice. "She's comfortable. Makes sense on paper," Brennon continued. "But you, Evelin. You understand ambition." The betrayal hit her like a physical blow. She had written the core code that made him a billionaire. She had stayed up until 4 AM debugging while he slept on a futon. Now, he was mocking their relationship to his mistress and handing over her life's work to a woman who couldn't even read a data log. Seven years of loyalty, reduced to a PR stunt. She didn't cry. Instead, a cold, violent clarity washed over her. Why should she let him keep the crown she forged? Without a word, she pulled the three-carat diamond off her finger and dropped it into her bag. She walked out of the building, drafted her resignation, and accepted a VP position at his biggest Wall Street rival. It was time to show Brennon what happened when the real genius behind his empire decided to tear it down.

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.

Her sister is marrying her ex. So she brings her best friend as her fake fiancé. What could possibly go wrong? Savannah Hart thought she was over Dean Archer-until her sister, Chloe announces she's marrying him. The same man Savannah never stopped loving. The man who left her heartbroken... and now belongs to her sister. A weeklong wedding in New Hope. One mansion full of guests. And a very bitter maid of honor. To survive it, Savannah brings a date-her charming, clean-cut best friend, Roman Blackwood. The one man who's always had her back. He owes her a favor, and pretending to be her fiancé? Easy. Until fake kisses start to feel real. Now Savannah's torn between keeping up the act... or risking everything for the one man she was never supposed to fall for.

I woke up from a coma in the hospital, universally condemned as the vicious daughter who pushed the beloved fake heiress, Georgina, down the stairs. My ruthless billionaire brother, Angelo, stood over my bed with cold eyes, ready to destroy me for hurting his precious sister. But as I looked at him, a terrifying prophecy from my coma flooded my brain. Our entire family was doomed. In the original timeline, Georgina would team up with corporate rivals to bankrupt the company, frame Angelo, and send him to federal prison, while our parents would abandon me to die miserably. Lying there, I didn't dare speak. I just desperately cursed my idiot brother in my head. "This stupid brother is still yelling at me for that fake heiress. He doesn't even know he's going to be framed and sent to prison next month!" I just wanted to stay quiet, let them ruin themselves, and run away from this toxic family. But strangely, Angelo didn't strangle me. Instead, his attitude took a shocking turn. He abruptly fired the driver plotting to kill him, destroyed the abusive fiancé of a family ally, and publicly humiliated Georgina at a high-society gala. He even shielded me from our abusive parents, declaring to the world that I was the only sister he would ever protect. I was completely terrified and confused. Why was the tyrant brother suddenly acting like a protective beast? It wasn't until he flawlessly crushed a massive corporate attack using the exact financial secrets I had just complained about in my mind that a horrifying realization hit me. He could hear my inner thoughts!

For three years, I played the perfect, docile wife to Brendon Jimenez, desperate for the real family I never had as an orphan. But during a high-society gala, I peeked through a cracked door and caught him sleeping with my best friend. When I packed my cheap canvas bag to leave the penthouse, my mother-in-law blocked the door. She dumped my clothes on the marble floor, called me a stray dog, and slapped me so hard my mouth bled. Brendon just stood there, watching his mother humiliate me. To keep me trapped as his perfect public prop, he even faked his mother's heart attack in a VIP hospital suite. "Get on your knees. Kneel down right now and beg my mother for forgiveness until she decides to accept it." I gave them my youth and unconditional loyalty, only to realize this prestigious old-money family was nothing but a rotting corpse built on dirty secrets. I didn't cry, and I certainly didn't drop to my knees. Instead, I pulled out my phone right in front of him and called my lawyer. "File for an at-fault divorce. I have proof of his infidelity with Kaelynn Hudson. I want him ruined." Then, I touched the matte black card hidden deep in my clutch. It belonged to Kile Barrett, the ruthless billionaire shark my husband feared most, and I was going to use him to tear the Jimenez family apart.

Chloe Beaumont's adopted sister, Victoria, handed her a glass of champagne with a sweet smile right before the violent car crash. Victoria and Chloe's fiancé, Asher, left her in the freezing rain with broken ribs and a dislocated arm, certain she would die. When Chloe dragged her bleeding, mud-caked body back to the estate three days later, her family didn't offer a shred of comfort. Instead, Victoria squeezed out fake tears, claiming Chloe had gone insane. "Mother! Chloe came back and started saying these crazy things, and then she attacked me!" Her stepmother slapped her, her brothers called her a disgrace, and her father coldly watched as they accused Chloe of faking her horrific wounds for attention. They even conspired to marry her off to a dying, reclusive heir just to clear the path for Victoria's grand engagement. Looking at their disgusted faces, Chloe's usually warm eyes turned to ice. She finally understood that her own family never cared if she lived or died; they only wanted her out of the way. But she wasn't the weak, naive girl they thought they had broken. Using her hidden skills, Chloe meticulously painted a grotesque, permanent-looking burn scar across her cheek. She picked the lock of her bedroom door and headed straight for Victoria and Asher's lavish engagement party. If they wanted to treat her like a ruined monster, she would use that mask to tear their perfect, glittering world to shreds.