Jillian Chinnici

For seven years, I loved my guardian, Kendrick Page. He was my protector, my family, my entire world. The day I confessed, he called my love "unhealthy" and kicked me out. Then he brought home his fiancée, Chrissy. She took my room and my memories before revealing their engagement was a "charade"-a cruel game Kendrick designed to prove I was a burden and drive me away for good. His final act of cruelty was asking me to be his maid of honor. The man who raised me hadn't just rejected me; he had orchestrated my complete humiliation just to be free of his responsibility. Heartbroken, I escaped to Boston to start over. I met Adolfo Joyce, a brilliant, intense mentor who saw the pain I tried to hide. But just as I started to feel safe, he cornered me, his eyes holding a shocking secret. "Amirah," he whispered, his voice low and urgent. "What is your mother's name?"

For ten years, I served as the Alpha’s hidden partner, using my research to make his pack rich, waiting for the day Ethan would finally Mark me. Instead, I found him on the balcony, cradling another woman’s baby bump. He announced Chloe as his Luna because she was carrying his "heir." But I knew the truth. As the head researcher, I had seen Chloe’s medical files—she had a hysterectomy years ago. It was physically impossible for her to be pregnant. I rushed to the banquet to warn Ethan that he was being deceived. He didn't listen. "Silence!" he roared, using the Alpha Command to force me to the ground until my knees shattered on the marble floor. He branded me a traitor to protect his mistress. But the cruelest twist wasn't his betrayal. It was the secret I carried in my own womb. I was the one pregnant with his true heir. While I lay broken in the dungeon, Ethan authorized a surgery to harvest my kidney to "save" Chloe’s failing health. In doing so, he killed his own child to sustain a lie. With the last of my strength, I looked at the stone ceiling and severed our bond. "I, Ava Miller, reject you, Ethan Reed." He thought I died in that cell. He was wrong. I returned a year later, not as a servant, but as the Luna of the most powerful rival pack. And when Ethan saw me on the global stage, holding another Alpha's hand, he fell to his knees and screamed my name.

I was the biological daughter, yet my mother looked at me with disgust while worshipping my adopted sister, Carina. When I vanished for two months, my mother laughed it off as a "tantrum" designed to ruin my grandmother's jubilee. She only stopped laughing when the detective slammed a forensics report on the table. "Your daughter didn't just die, Mrs. Fowler," the officer said, his voice cold. "She was buried alive by the elements. It took her three days to suffocate in that ravine." My mother turned pale, stammering that she never got a call for help. The detective' s eyes narrowed. "Oh, she called. Five times. Someone answered the last one, listened to her scream, and then deleted the log to cover it up." The room went dead silent. Slowly, my mother' s horrified gaze turned toward Carina, the "perfect" daughter, who was trembling violently in the corner. My ghost watched from the shadows of the interrogation room as the realization finally hit her. She hadn't just neglected me; she had raised the monster who left me to die.

My husband handed me divorce papers on our anniversary. It was a "temporary maneuver," he said, to appease his pregnant mistress until she gave birth to his heir. Then he left me to die in a storm and forced me to give my blood to save her, threatening my parents' graves when I refused. He called me a "blood bag" and expected me to wait patiently for his return. He thought he knew his practical, loving wife. He was about to meet the queen who would take his crown, his company, and his entire world.

A pact sealed by my father' s death dictated that on my twenty-second birthday, I would marry a Kline and crown the next CEO. For years, I chased Brett Kline, convinced my unrequited love would eventually win his heart. But at my birthday party, he gave the bracelet meant for me to my stepsister, Juliana, right in front of everyone. "Get used to it, Faith," he sneered. "I'm about to be CEO. I can't be tied down to just one woman." He called me shameless and vicious, a disgrace to my family name. He humiliated me, cheated on me with Juliana, and demanded I accept his affairs if I wanted to be his wife. His cruelty escalated until he slapped me in public and even tried to stab me on my wedding day. In my last life, this blind devotion led to a miserable marriage. He slowly poisoned me, and I died alone while he lived happily with my stepsister. But when I opened my eyes again, I was reborn and back at that party, the moments before he was about to give my gift away. This time, I knew the truth. And I knew I wouldn't be choosing him.

The cold, damp concrete was the last thing I remembered. A guard' s boot had connected with my ribs, a brutal punctuation to a life spiraling out of control. They said I tried to kill Liam, my best friend. A frame job so perfect, even I almost believed it. My art career had evaporated. My finances were a joke. I was a magnet for every piece of misfortune the world could throw at me. Meanwhile, the Peterson family thrived. My fiancée, Chloe, was a local celebrity. Her father shot up the corporate ladder. Her aimless sister landed a six-figure job. And Derek Stone, Chloe' s deadbeat ex, became a tech mogul overnight. Their good fortune mirrored my ruin. It wasn't coincidence, I realized too late. It was a transaction. They were feasting on my life, my luck, my very soul, through some dark ritual disguised as love. Then, darkness. An endless, silent fall. Until a sharp, piercing ring jolted me back. It wasn't a prison bell. It was the clinking of champagne glasses. My eyes snapped open. I was standing on a plush red carpet, holding a champagne flute, wearing the suit I' d bought for my engagement party. Chloe Peterson stood before me, radiant in a white dress, a smile as bright and as fake as I now knew it to be. The same smile she gave me in the courtroom when they read the guilty verdict. I was back. Back in the grand ballroom of the Peterson family mansion, on the very day my life had been signed away. The day the ritual began. The rage, the betrayal, the memory of dying alone on a prison floor churned inside me. "Just a bit dizzy," I said, my voice steady, betraying none of the chaos in my mind. This wasn't a repeat. It was a second chance. And I was going to burn their entire empire to the ground.

The first call came as a familiar comfort, my mentor Professor Anya Sharma' s name on the screen, a stable part of my solitary life, her lab my sanctuary. Then, her voice shattered that peace – a choked whisper, tight with a fear I' d never heard, followed by a man's angry shout, a crash of glass, and dead silence. I rushed to the police, my heart hammering, only to be met by Detective Miller' s dismissive skepticism as he took down details of Anya' s research and the powerful CEO, Damien Vance, pressuring her. Hours later, standing over Anya' s body in the morgue, the official explanation of a botched robbery felt like a cruel joke; the specific, brutal injuries screaming of a deliberate execution, not a random mugging. My grief curdled into a cold, hard rage, a chilling certainty that Damien Vance was behind it, a suspicion Miller coldly brushed aside, reminding me I had no proof against one of the city's most powerful men. Then, the trap sprung: a grainy security photo of me at the crime scene, my fingerprints everywhere, painting me as the prime suspect in the murder of the woman I loved like a mother. My apartment was tossed, not for valuables, but for Anya's encrypted hard drive, her life's work, the dangerous truth she died to protect, now clutched in my trembling hands. Hunted, isolated, and accused, a single, burning thought solidified: If the system wouldn' t deliver justice, I would find it myself, even if it meant stepping into the lion's den. I walked into the charity gala, a ghost in a borrowed dress, offering myself as a pawn to Damien Vance, becoming his personal assistant, willing to sacrifice everything to destroy him from within.

Five years ago, I threw the man I loved into a freezing river, a desperate act to save him from a corporate poison. I watched him float away, believing I was saving his life, not realizing I was shattering his heart. Then, he came back. Ethan, now a ruthless logging magnate, stormed into my forest home, transforming my world into a hell of pure, calculated revenge. He saw only my "betrayal," not the sacrifice. He systematically destroyed me. He flayed my iridescent skin for his lover's grotesque art piece, forced a miscarriage that stole our child and my physical connection to life, then left me to die, broken and bleeding on a cold floor. My family, my people, all suffered because of his blind hatred. How could the man I loved become such a monster? How could he believe the lies when I gave up everything for him? My last breath was a whispered curse, a burning hate for a man who had ripped away my love, my future, and my very essence. But death was not my end. My soul, a tormented echo, remained tethered to him, trapped, watching his own descent into madness and destructive vengeance. Now, his final, fiery act has unleashed a silent, deadly plague upon the ancient forest, the Heartwood, threatening to erase my people from existence. And I, a ghost with the cure, must find a way to save them.

The lights of the press conference should have been the shining start to Sarah Miller's new life as Rick Harrison's fiancée. Instead, a searing memory ripped through her mind: the cold muzzle of a gun pressed to her temple, three deafening explosions, and Rick screaming accusations before she bled out on his penthouse floor. He was supposed to be beside her, but Rick was already across the room, on one knee, proposing to Tiffany Hayes – his goddaughter, his secret lover, the very woman for whom he'd murdered Sarah in their previous life. The room erupted, not with applause, but confused murmurs, which quickly turned to snickers and open mockery as Rick declared her pathetic, desperate, and nothing without him, abandoning her at the podium. His words, once capable of shattering her, now registered as mere noise. This wasn't humiliation; this was a second chance. An unshakeable vow echoed in her reborn soul: "If I get another chance, I will never love Rick Harrison again." With a newfound calm that felt alien yet profoundly right, Sarah reached for the abandoned microphone. "Actually, Rick," her voice was steady, "I was about to make an announcement of my own." What followed shocked everyone: a public resignation, a chilling call to his biggest rival's CEO, and a daring acceptance of both a Chief Strategy Officer role and a personal proposition that would rewrite not just her future, but Rick Harrison' s entire empire. What did Sarah say that day, and how will she use her second chance to reclaim her destiny, and perhaps, destroy the man who became her murderer?

It was my rehearsal dinner, sparkling with chandeliers in a historic Philadelphia hotel, filled with the promise of a perfect future with Mark, the man I had loved for seven years. Then, just as the evening began winding down, Mark leaned in and shared a long, passionate kiss with my maid of honor, Jessica, right there for everyone to see. My fiancé, the man I was marrying tomorrow, had just publicly humiliated me, dismissing it with a grin as "old times," while Jessica, my best friend, tearfully begged me not to "make a scene." When I tried to leave, Mark physically seized me, threatening to cancel our entire wedding if I dared walk out, then his family and mine blamed me for the disruption. The betrayal escalated at a forced family dinner when Jessica presented a cake made with an ingredient she knew I was severely allergic to, nearly killing me, only for Mark to blindly side with her staged injury and lash out at me again. How could the people closest to me systematically betray, gaslight, and endanger my life, while my own family continued to blame me for reacting to their cruelty? As I lay in the hospital, stripped of my dignity and support, I decided I would no longer be a victim, choosing to expose their lies and leave everything to build a new life entirely on my own terms.

For seven years, I was Seraphina Hayes, living in a forced haze, my memories stolen, my face not my own. My seven-year-old son, Leo, had just innocently questioned why his father, Ethan Montgomery, was celebrating his anniversary gala with another woman who looked like me. He didn't know the chilling truth: the woman on TV was indeed the real Seraphina, back from her faked death. Then, in a single horrific moment, my world shattered: Leo floated lifelessly in the deep end of our pool, a silent victim of Ethan' s brutal "punishment." His death was a shockwave, tearing through the veil of amnesia, flooding my mind with the agonizing truth-my name was Elara Vance, not Seraphina. I stumbled into Ethan's cruel reality, reeling from the loss, only to be met with his furious denial that Leo was dead, insisting it was a trick from the "impostor" me. He violently scattered my son's ashes onto the floor, dismissing them as "just dust" and a "sick game." He believed a forged DNA report presented by the real Seraphina, condemning Leo as not his own, mocking my grief. My mother-in-law, Eleanor, who had engineered my forced marriage, later collapsed and died, another casualty of Seraphina's sinister manipulations, leaving me utterly alone. The man who stole my life, erased my identity, and was responsible for my son' s death now stood triumphantly by the woman who orchestrated my pain, while I was dismissed as insane, a liar, and a harlot. How could a mother plot such a terrible deceit, how could a father deny his own child, and how could I, the true victim, be blamed for everything? But in the wreckage, a new resolve ignited: I would reclaim my name, expose their monstrous lies, and ensure that the truth of Leo's life, and my own, would be heard, no matter the cost.

I, Sarah King, had loved Ethan Cole since we were kids. He stumbled through his family ranch door, uniform torn, eyes wild, muttering about a strange gas, and collapsed. My medical training kicked in; I held him close, fighting to save his life. The next morning, Brittany Miller, Ethan's childhood crush, burst in, ignoring me completely. She cried about a "dangerous" billionaire, Mr. Harrison, who had "selected" her and begged Ethan to marry her for protection. Still groggy, Ethan looked from Brittany to me, then turned to her, promising marriage. My world tilted; he would marry me out of obligation to save her. When Brittany later "died" and a note blamed me, Ethan's consuming rage turned on me. In front of everyone, he publicly shamed me, accusing me of driving her to her death, destroying my reputation in our small town. The injustice, the utter betrayal, and the public humiliation crushed me, leaving me in a profound darkness. How could he, the man I saved, the man I loved, be so blind, so cruel, and believe such heinous lies? Then, I gasped awake, sitting bolt upright in bed, the sun streaming in. The calendar showed the exact date Ethan returned. It wasn't a dream; it was a memory, a life I had already lived, and I vowed not to live it again. This time, Brittany would be his savior and his wife, and I would willingly offer myself to the fearsome Mr. Harrison in her place.

After graduating from university, due to financial constraints, I rented a one bedroom apartment in the old city area. On the second day of living, I found a cigarette butt at home. After I explained the whole story to the landlord, she blamed me for making a mountain out of a molehill and bothering her with even the smallest things. He also said, 'What are you afraid of? You should behave yourself and no one will come to criticize you, okay?'

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!"

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.

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."

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?

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."