Katie Oettgen

For six years, I was the wife of a tech billionaire with crippling mysophobia. To my husband, Killian, I was a contaminant he was forced to tolerate for a business merger, a ghost in my own home. But for his mistress, the influencer Isabel, every rule was broken. He worshipped her, believing she was the angel who' d saved him from a near-fatal climbing accident two years ago. The truth was, I was the one who braved a blizzard to rescue him, suffering severe frostbite in the process. But he laughed in my face, calling me too fragile. He knelt on a filthy police station floor to touch her bare feet, yet he' d recoiled from my touch for years. He destroyed my grandmother' s priceless locket because she wanted it. He forced me to kneel and apologize for her lies, threatening my family's company if I refused. The final humiliation came when he publicly declared her the true mistress of the house and made me climb a dangerous, thorny hill on my injured ankle to pick roses for her. As I stumbled back, covered in mud and blood, I felt nothing. The love I had stubbornly held onto was finally, completely dead. I walked away that night with the signed divorce papers in my hand. My old life was over, and my fight for a new one had just begun.

For five years, I was the perfect husband to my wife, Jorja. I was the man who supposedly healed her broken heart after her first love, Cale, left her. Now Cale was back, and she insisted we all have dinner together. Suddenly, a fight broke out at the next table. A man flung a bowl of steaming hot soup, and it flew directly towards us. In that split second, I watched my wife lunge. Not towards me, but towards Cale, shielding him with her own body. The scalding liquid hit my arm and chest, the pain searing through me. While I gasped in agony, Jorja fussed over a tiny splash on Cale's hand. "We need to go to the emergency room right now!" she cried, rushing him out the door. She paused only to look back at me. "I'm so sorry," she said. "You can take a taxi to the hospital, right?" After five years of selfless care, of giving up my art scholarship to Paris to be her live-in cure, I was abandoned, covered in second-degree burns. As I sat alone in the ER, an email arrived. My scholarship had been reinstated. That night, I didn't go back to her house. I went to start the life she had stolen from me.

I was the perfect wife to my producer husband, Braden, enduring his coldness and affairs for one reason: his promise to release my late father's priceless songbook. Then, at a crowded industry party, I watched him kiss his starlet mistress, Destany, for all to see. The humiliation made me collapse, and I woke up in a hospital bed to a shocking truth: I was pregnant. Braden used our unborn child as a leash, playing the role of a devoted husband while secretly continuing his affair. His mistress grew bolder, breaking into our home after taunting me with photos of her and Braden in Tokyo. "That baby is just another obstacle," she whispered, her eyes filled with hate as she lunged at me. In the struggle, she shoved me down our grand staircase. The fall was a blur of sickening thuds and a sharp, searing pain. I lost my child. The one thing that had tied me to him was gone, stolen by his cruelty and her jealousy. The years of his lies and my silent suffering crystallized into a single, cold purpose. When Braden knelt by my hospital bed, sobbing and begging for forgiveness, I felt nothing. I simply picked up the phone and called my lawyer. "I want a divorce," I said, my voice like ice. "And I'm taking back everything."

Five years ago, I tore my inner wolf out of my soul to save Alpha Floyd's life. In return, he treated me like a "Wolfless freak" and made me a slave in my own pack. To please his mistress, he pressed glowing coals laced with silver directly into my palms, burning the hands that had once woven protection spells for him. Then, he watched with cold indifference as I drowned in the freezing Moon Pool, sneering that I was just "being dramatic." It wasn't until the autopsy that he saw the surgical scars on my heart. He finally realized I hadn't lost my wolf—I had given it to him. Consumed by madness and guilt, Floyd sacrificed his own soul in the Silver Dungeon, begging the Goddess to turn back time. He wanted a second chance to worship me. When I opened my eyes, I was eighteen again, back at the Academy. Floyd stood before me, his eyes ancient and filled with tears. "I remember everything," he choked out, reaching for me with a trembling hand. "I came back for you, my Luna." I looked at the man who had murdered me in the name of love. "You think suicide buys forgiveness?" I stepped back, grabbing the hand of the quiet Beta student he used to despise. "I reject you, Floyd Meyers." "And this time, I'm choosing the man who would never let me burn."

The sterile air of the pre-flight briefing room chilled me to the bone. It was the taste of betrayal, bitter and metallic, that filled my mouth once more. Liam, my fiancé, and Chloe, his protégé, had crushed my career, my reputation, my entire life. They had effectively killed me. Then, I opened my eyes. I was back in the exact room, at the precise moment it all went wrong. My heart hammered, a frantic drumbeat of terror and a cold, rising fury. "Ava, are you listening?" Mark, my second-in-command, looked at me, concerned. He told me Chloe Vance had brought an undeclared briefcase, a "gift." I recognized it instantly: Project Chimera, a dangerous AI prototype. In my past life, I'd tried to protect Liam, only to have him orchestrate my complete downfall. He' d publicly accused me of corporate espionage, painting me as unstable and emotional. I had broken protocol for him, and he used it as a weapon. That version of me, naive and trusting, was dead. "You' re right, Liam," I heard myself say, my voice softening. "A gift is just a gift. We' ll let it go this one time." My team stared at me in disbelief. But I wasn' t saving him. I was giving him enough rope to hang himself. This time, he would be the one to fall.

The white ceiling was unbearably familiar. I was supposed to be dead, incinerated in a lab accident ten years ago, but instead, I was back, staring at the ceiling of the hotel suite where my marriage to Sophia Hayes began. My second chance. Instead of a fresh start, I walked into the same hollow wedding, only to be ambushed by Director Thompson. He dropped a bombshell: my marriage was a cover, Sophia was an intelligence agent, and my cutting-edge Manticore Project was the target of her operation. Forced to play the loving husband, every affectionate gesture felt like a lie. The bitterest pill was seeing Sophia, my wife, constantly meeting with Liam Carter, my rival from a past life. I watched them in the park, saw her laugh and hold his hand, the warmth she never showed me, fueling a rage that culminated in me shattering our wedding photo. Why was she so readily giving him what I craved? The official explanation – it was all part of the mission – felt hollow. It was a hell I' d already lived, but this time, the betrayal was sanctioned, and I was just a patriotic fool. Then, I followed them to a clandestine meeting, only to overhear Liam demand my Manticore data. Before I could process Sophia seemingly agreeing to hand over my life' s work, I was caught in a federal sting. Liam escaped, and I was arrested for espionage, with Sophia, my own wife, claiming full responsibility and confirming I was her co-conspirator. Her complete and utter betrayal, putting me in jail, all to protect him, shattered my soul. I had traded one prison for another, a cage of unrequited love for one of national conspiracy. My second chance was quickly becoming a second curse.

I signed a contract to marry a comatose billionaire. It was just business-a way to save my parents from crushing medical debt. I was a broke musician, she was a famous Silicon Valley CEO, and my job was simple: act like a devoted husband while she was unconscious. But then, a voice started talking in my head. "Ugh, this Jell-O tastes like sadness." It was her. Victoria. The woman everyone thought was brain-dead was fully conscious inside, and I was the only one who could hear her. Suddenly, my life became a bizarre performance. I was trapped, not just by the contract, but by her relentless, snarky inner monologue. I acted out her hidden desires-eating tacos by her bedside, arguing about bad rom-coms-all while the world hailed me as the ultimate devoted husband. The fame exploded, her company's stock soared, and everyone believed the fairy tale. Except me. And her, the voice in my head. But just as our bizarre connection deepened, just as I started to fall for the real, hidden Tori, she woke up. And she believed the worst. She saw me in a staged embrace with another woman, heard whispers of my "devotion" while she was unconscious, and instantly branded me a perverted gold-digger. After weeks of sharing her innermost thoughts, after hearing her true self, how could she believe I was the villain? I wasn't just some broke musician anymore. I was the only person who truly knew Victoria Blackwood. So, standing there, accused and disgraced, I had a choice: walk away with the money, or fight for the woman whose voice had haunted my dreams. I chose to expose every secret, every quirk, every vulnerability she thought only she knew, hoping she'd finally see the real me. And the truth.

My life as a self-made millionaire seemed perfect alongside my wife, Jessica, and our six-year-old son, Leo. Then, the doctor's words hit like a brick wall: "End-stage renal disease. He needs a transplant." My brother, Kevin, was Leo's only match. But instead of a selfless act, he smirked, demanding my vacation home, two million dollars, and 20% of my company for a life-saving kidney. My own father, Frank, and the rest of my family backed his outrageous extortion. I said no. The room erupted. My wife shrieked, my father raged, and Kevin gloated, calling me a monster. Jessica wasted no time, launching a viral GoFundMe immediately: "Help My Son When His Millionaire Father Won't." The internet condemned me instantly, painting me as a heartless villain willing to let his child die over money. Why would a man who built an empire from nothing risk it all, and supposedly his own son's life, for mere dollars? Was I truly the monster they saw? They thought I was insane, blinded by greed. But as I calmly froze our joint accounts and walked into the hospital cafeteria where they were celebrating their public shaming campaign, they had no idea. The truth I was about to unleash would shatter their world, not just mine. This wasn't about money; it was about a deeply buried, horrifying secret I had been preparing to expose for months.

My entire world revolved around Liam, my little brother, whose fragile life was being stolen by aggressive leukemia. My boyfriend, Ethan, genuinely loved me, but the $50,000 needed for Liam' s experimental treatment felt like an insurmountable mountain. In a desperate bid for money, I answered a seemingly legitimate ad for a high-paying personal assistant, only to step into a horrific trap orchestrated by my own manipulative half-sister, Chloe. I was brutally assaulted, drugged, and left for dead. The police report, maliciously twisted by Chloe' s connections, painted me as a "high-end call girl" injured in a "client dispute." Chloe then spun a web of lies to Ethan, claiming I' d taken the $50,000 for myself. He bought every word, his loving eyes turning into a mask of utter disgust before he walked out of my life forever, leaving me shattered and Liam still fighting for his life. How could the man who once vowed to protect me believe such monstrous accusations without question? The betrayal, the public humiliation, and the profound injustice felt like a physical weight crushing my spirit. Five years later, I had painstakingly rebuilt my life, becoming a successful tech executive in London. Then, a call from Ethan-now a billionaire-pulled me back to New York. My fragile hope for closure was brutally crushed when I found him engaged to Chloe, ready to restart their cruel tactics and drag me back into their twisted game. This time, I wouldn't just survive; I would fight back.

For a year, I was nothing but a ghost in the Vanderbilt penthouse, Seraphina's secret plaything, her devoted bodyguard. I loved her with a silent, burning devotion, always there, always ready to serve. Then, as casually as she' d summoned me to her bed, she dismissed me. Her wedding to Julian Astor was in ten days, and our arrangement was abruptly over. The chilling indifference in her eyes was a prelude to the hell that followed. Suddenly, I was at Julian Astor's mercy – a petty, sadistic monster who reveled in torment. He ordered me beaten, humiliated, even forced me to kneel on scorching metal grates until my knees were raw. I endured a public flogging, my back shredded, while Seraphina, the woman I' d protected with my life, smiled at my tormentor. When I was stabbed protecting Julian, he deliberately shoved me into the knife, and Seraphina merely watched, unconcerned. My unique blood, inherited from the parents I scarcely remembered, was drained near to death to save the man who tortured me. It was then I learned the truth: my parents weren't gone in an accident. They were murdered by Seraphina' s father, who then "rescued" me, molding me into his perfect, disposable weapon. Every ounce of hope, every flicker of warmth I'd held for Seraphina, froze into bitter ice. I was broken, but no longer blind. Now, the loyal dog is dead. From the ashes of Vanderbilt' s cruelty, The Wraith is born, and I will tear down their empire, one bloody secret at a time.

My mother, a medical examiner, sees death every day. Yet, for ten years, she never truly saw me, not after my father' s tragic death, which she relentlessly blamed on me. Instead, all her love was lavished upon Chloe, the perfect daughter, my shining replacement. On my 21st birthday, Chloe sent men to abduct me. With a phone pressed to my ear, a hiss on the other end commanded me to beg my mother for a birthday meeting. Liv' s response was a chilling dismissal, a final accusation regarding my father' s death, and then echoing silence. Soon after, I became a Jane Doe, dismembered and stuffed into a duffel bag, delivered directly to my mother' s morgue. I watched, an unseen ghost, as her meticulous, gloved hands pieced together my violated body. She didn't flinch, my own mother, just saw a case, a victim, nothing more. Anguish, a useless emotion for a ghost, consumed me. As Liv worked, I relived Chloe' s whispered taunts: "He always liked you best, Sarah. Even dead, he liked you best." Chloe, the one who orchestrated my father's boating 'accident' and then meticulously murdered me, went home to my mother' s continued praise and love. Meanwhile, I lay in pieces on a cold steel table, under my mother' s unseeing eyes. But a small, silver dolphin pendant, my father' s last gift, sent back to my mother with a severed hand and a lock of shocking pink hair, ultimately ripped through her carefully constructed blindness. It was a macabre gift, a final, undeniable piece of a monstrous truth linking her perfect daughter, my father' s death, and my own brutal end. The story wasn' t over; it was just beginning.

Sure! Here’s the translation: --- In my freshman year, I was confessed to by my dream guy. Liam boldly presented me with a bouquet of roses in front of the whole class. I was so excited that I cried in public and took the microphone, responding to him incoherently: “Liam, I like you too! I’ve liked you since the first time I saw you in high school…” He smirked and said dismissively, “I was playing truth or dare, sorry!” I became the laughingstock of the school. Later, I focused on my future and pushed Liam out of my mind. Flowers and applause followed. But then he cornered me against the wall, looking sad, and begged me for another chance.

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!"

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."

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."

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."

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

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.

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

Two years of marriage left Brinley questioning everything, her supposed happiness revealed as nothing but sham. Abandoning her past for Colin, she discovered only betrayal and a counterfeit wedding. Accepting his heart would stay frozen, she called her estranged father, agreeing to the match he proposed. Laughter followed her, with whispers of Colin's power to toss her aside. Yet, she reinvented herself-legendary racer, casino mastermind, and acclaimed designer. When Colin tried to reclaim her, another man pulled Brinley close. "She's already carrying my child. You can't move on?"