Snooty

This summer, the temperature suddenly rose, and my sister-in-law suggested that the whole family go to Prastin for diving to escape the heat. I suddenly realized that the climate in Prastin this year was different from previous years, so I suggested staying for a few days and then going home. As a result, my sister-in-law angrily scolded me, saying, "Prastin is a summer resort. I don't know if you can shut up, you country bumpkin. In another month, the weather will get cooler. If we don't stay for a month, I won't go home." My mother strongly agreed on the side. After landing, they were ripped off at a seafood market by a shady business and held at knifepoint by thugs to pay a high bill, forcing me to give them money. Later, the Earth's magnetic field became chaotic, and the cool sea breeze turned into a scorching heat wave, turning the summer resort into a hell on earth. The airport stopped flights due to the high temperatures, and our family was trapped in a guesthouse. Despite the government's high-temperature warning, my sister-in-law insisted on going diving to cool off. As a result, in the extreme heat, a sudden high tide trapped her. In a critical moment, my brother pushed me into the water, and my sister-in-law grabbed my hair, using my head as a support, and was successfully rescued. However, I was swept into the seabed by scalding hot seawater and drowned. A rescuer who was salvaging my body also tragically died. Faced with the blame from those around her, my mother said, "It's all my daughter's fault for not listening and insisting on going diving. If she couldn't be saved, it's her own fault." After this incident, they finally realized the dangers of high temperatures. The three of them stayed in the guesthouse, worked together to endure the high temperatures, and finally received government rescue. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to when my sister-in-law suggested going to Prastin to escape the heat.

I was an Omega, the lowest caste of the Blood Moon pack, forced to scrub floors until my knuckles bled while the others mocked me. On the night of a grand banquet, I accidentally dropped a silver candelabra at the feet of our ruthless Alpha, Kael. But when our skin touched, the undeniable spark of fated mates hit us both. I thought my nightmare was finally over. Instead, his eyes filled with glacial contempt. "The pack requires a queen of iron and silver to stand at my side. Not a housemaid prone to accidents." Using his absolute Alpha Command, he forced me to my knees on the freezing stone floor and publicly rejected me. My soul shattered as the mate bond was brutally severed. Then, he banished me into the deadly Black Forest. On the night of my eighteenth birthday, burning with fever and the agony of a broken bond, I was torn apart by feral rogues in the freezing rain. As I lay dying in the mud, I couldn't understand why the Moon Goddess had played such a cruel joke on me. Why give me the most powerful Alpha as a mate, only to let him throw me away like trash to be slaughtered? But as the full moon pierced the clouds, my bleeding body didn't die. I shifted into a pure, luminous White Wolf—the last heir of a legendary bloodline. Five years later, I returned. Not as a broken maid, but as the Queen of a rival pack. This time, it was his turn to beg.

For ten years, I gave everything to Abe Hays. I put my architectural dreams on hold and worked like an unpaid maid to build his legacy, believing his promises of a future on my late parents' estate. Then yesterday, he threw me away like garbage for a wealthy heiress, leaving me homeless, jobless, and utterly ruined. When he cornered me on campus today, there wasn't a shred of guilt in his eyes. "My family took you in out of pity," he sneered. "You’re a penniless orphan, Chloe. You are nothing without me." It wasn't just a brutal breakup. It was a calculated heist to corporate-merge me out of my own family's land for his new resort project. But Abe made one fatal mistake. He didn't know that last night, drowned in tequila and heartbreak, I signed a marriage certificate. I accidentally married Alistair Sterling—a ruthless, untouchable titan of industry who controls the entire city's economy. And my best friend’s father. Before Abe could threaten me further, my best friend stepped in with a razor-sharp smirk. "Too bad about your resort, Abe. My dad bought that land yesterday as a wedding gift for his new wife. My new mom." Watching the color drain from my ex's arrogant face, I casually caught the keys to my new husband's Bentley. Abe wanted me to know my place. Now, he’ll have to watch me rule from a height he could never hope to reach.

As Aurora lay dying of organ failure in the freezing ICU, she used her last ounce of strength to call her husband on their son's fifth birthday. Instead of his voice, she heard the pop of champagne and the sweet laugh of his mistress, Jessica. Conrad snatched the phone, impatiently ordering Aurora not to "ruin the mood" with her irrelevant calls. But what truly pushed her into cardiac arrest was her five-year-old son's excited voice ringing through the speakerphone. "I wish for Auntie Jessica to be my new mommy!" "As long as you like it, Daddy will give you anything," Conrad promised without a second of hesitation. Aurora gagged on her own blood and flatlined, the heart monitor erupting into a piercing red alarm. She had swallowed her pride and wasted five years playing the perfect, submissive housewife, only to be thrown away like garbage by the two people she loved most. She couldn't understand why her absolute devotion ended with her dying completely alone on a sterile mattress. But she didn't die. Snatched from the jaws of death by a mysterious billionaire from her past, she woke up in a luxury suite, fully healed. Looking at her pale, cold reflection in the window, the pathetic old Aurora died. She packed her battered suitcase, signed a brutal postnuptial agreement waiving every single cent of her husband's wealth, and dropped the divorce papers on the table. This time, she was leaving for good.

Eliana, once a billionaire heiress, had given up everything to become the perfect ordinary wife for Dustin, meticulously erasing her elite past for him. She cooked, cleaned, and mastered the art of espresso, pouring all her energy into their quiet life. But as she brought him his coffee, she found a bottle of bright pink nail polish and a delicate shark-bone bracelet on his desk, jarringly out of place, instantly shattering her carefully constructed world. Dustin’s cold dismissal stung, yet her corporate upbringing kept her questions silent. Then, her phone buzzed with an anonymous text: "He likes my taste," followed by a photo. It was a woman's pink-nailed hand, intimately on Dustin's thigh in his car, his Patek Philippe watch with its tell-tale scratch mocking her—a watch she had nearly ruined her health to buy him. The elaborate birthday dinner she’d spent hours preparing burned, filling the kitchen with acrid smoke as her marriage turned to ash. Slumped on the freezing floor, a chilling clarity replaced her despair. She clutched the unopened pregnancy test, once a symbol of hope, now a cruel joke. Then, from Dustin's study, came a rare, indulgent laugh. He was on speakerphone with his mistress, Jami, promising her the bracelet, and then, the poisoned blade: "Her? She can't even remember what date it is. She just sits at home all day studying broken recipes." Today was Eliana's 30th birthday, forgotten and weaponized against her. The sorrow evaporated, replaced by cold, absolute resolve. Eliana stepped out from the shadows, her hand flat against the heavy wood, and shoved the mahogany door open with a resounding thud. "Is that so? I didn't realize my recipes were so boring."

Today is my fifth wedding anniversary. It's also the day my husband, Ethan, asked me for a divorce for the 38th time. He does this for Ilene, his childhood friend. The woman who crashed her car on our wedding day, leaving her unable to have children. Ever since, he's been repaying a debt of guilt, and I've been the price. For five years, I endured the cycle of divorce and remarriage. But this time was different. Ilene pushed me down a flight of stairs. Ethan found me bleeding and promised me justice. He swore he would make her pay. But days later, the police called. The security footage of the incident had been mysteriously erased. There was no evidence, no case. That night, Ilene had me kidnapped. As her men tore at my clothes in the back of a van, I managed to call Ethan. He rejected my call. I jumped from the moving van. And as I ran for my life, bleeding on the cold asphalt, I made a vow. This time, there would be no 39th remarriage. This time, I would disappear.

Clare Lynch thought she was celebrating her fairy-tale engagement. She happily drank the pink cocktail her best friend, Brianna, handed her. But the drink was laced with a powerful, burning drug. As Clare's legs gave out, she overheard Brianna whispering outside the door. Her best friend had hired two thugs to assault her on camera and completely ruin her life. Terrified and gasping for air, Clare hid in the VIP room and called her fiancé, Jaren, for help. "I feel sick. Something is wrong. Please come get me." But Jaren just sighed impatiently, busy comforting his mistress in the background. "Stop throwing tantrums for attention. Grow up." Jaren hung up the phone. When Clare finally escaped and begged her grandmother to cancel the wedding, the matriarch coldly refused. She told Clare that marriage was just a business transaction, and she had to endure Jaren's cheating because their family needed the Bolton's money. Betrayed by her best friend, abandoned by her fiancé, and sold out by her own blood. Clare's world completely collapsed. She was nothing but a bargaining chip, thrown to the monsters by the people she loved most. The sheer injustice of it burned her soul to ash. With her last ounce of strength, Clare made a desperate choice. She called Aurthur Bolton—Jaren's ruthless, terrifying uncle. When the most dangerous man in New York kicked down the door to save her, Clare made a silent vow. She was done playing the perfect victim. She would let the devil claim her, as long as he helped her burn her abusers to the ground.

My bank account was four hundred dollars in the red when my brother called me screaming from the most exclusive club in Manhattan. He said he was going to be killed or arrested, and I was the only one who could save him from the mess he’d made. When I arrived at The Onyx, I found my brother on his knees, accused of assaulting a high-profile socialite. But instead of begging for my help, he pointed a shaking finger at me and screamed, "It was her! My sister set the whole thing up because she wanted money!" The man watching the chaos from the shadows was Adrian Clemons—the billionaire CEO of the company where I worked as a lowly assistant. He didn't look at me with pity; he looked at me with a profound, exhausted disgust, as if I were a stain on his expensive rug. To save his own skin, my brother didn't just lie; he offered me up like a piece of tradeable property. "She'll do anything," he pleaded with the billionaire. "She’s clean, she’s obedient. Just don't send me to jail!" Adrian didn't call the police. Instead, he made a cold, terrifying business proposal: "Lend her to me for one year. I wipe your debt, and the cops stay away." My brother didn't even blink before he snapped, "Done. Take her." I was whisked away to City Hall in a silent Rolls Royce, signing a marriage license before I could even process the betrayal. I wasn't a bride; I was a "human asset" bought to help a cold-blooded monster secure his inheritance. The moment my hand accidentally brushed his during the signing, he recoiled as if I were contagious, his face turning a ghostly, panicked white. He made it clear that I was nothing more than a prop, a girl from the slums meant to spite his elitist mother. As the heavy iron gates of the Clemons estate slammed shut behind me that night, I realized I hadn't just saved my brother. I had entered a golden cage owned by a man who hated my touch, but owned my life for the next three hundred and sixty-five days.

For eight years, I gave up everything to protect my son from his deadly peanut allergy. This meant three months of crushing loneliness every winter while he and his father, Greg, lived in a separate "allergy-free zone." I called it lonely; my doctors called it seasonal depression. But the allergy was a lie. I overheard them through the apartment door-Greg, my son Josh, and Brittany, his high school sweetheart. They were feeding my son his allergen on purpose. "Just a little bit to keep the allergy strong," Greg coached him. It was their ticket for a secret life. When Josh was later hospitalized for a reaction, he cried for Brittany, not me. "Mommy's always sad," he whimpered, as she swept in to play the hero. Then I discovered the pills Greg gave me for my "depression" were actually powerful sedatives. He wasn't just lying; he was drugging me to keep me docile and confused. The final blow was our marriage certificate-a worthless fake. He had built my entire world on a foundation of deceit. So I walked out, leaving him to the mess he created, ready to reclaim the life he stole from me.

The pain hit me in the middle of a billion-dollar merger presentation. It was a sharp, twisting cramp, so intense it stole my breath. I excused myself, trembling, and called my husband, Ethan, who was supposed to be my rock. Instead, I heard the sounds of children laughing and music in the background. My desperate plea that "something's wrong... I think I'm bleeding" was met with dismissal. Ethan, playing dad to Olivia's son Liam, brushed me off, accusing me of being "dramatic" and "pathetic" for trying to ruin Liam's "Star Camper" award. He hung up, leaving me to slide down the hallway wall as a warm gush of blood soaked through my dress. Hours later, I woke up in a hospital bed. Our baby was gone. The doctor's kind, sad face confirmed the emptiness I already felt. I lay there, a hollowed-out shell, the pain too deep for tears. When the nurse presented the cremation authorization, I didn't hesitate. I signed my name, Chloe Davis, and then asked her to send the ashes to my husband, Ethan Miller, at his office. "And," I added, looking her straight in the eye, "can you include a gift card? Just write one thing on it: 'For your next family.'" He hadn't come to the hospital. He hadn't even called. Two days later, he came home, cheerful and oblivious, talking about how Olivia "really needed him" and how he' d brought me soup. He still didn't get it. He was standing in the middle of a graveyard, complaining about the price of flowers. The man I had loved was gone, replaced by a stranger. His casual disregard, constant betrayal, and the loss of our child ignited a cold, unwavering resolve within me. I took down the nursery, packing away every tiny reminder of a future that would never be. Then, I called my lawyer. I was filing for divorce, and this time, I wasn't just leaving him; I was taking everything back-my money, my career, my life-and he wouldn't even see it coming.

The freezing rain lashed at my face as David locked me out for the third time this week. My voice trembled as I begged, "David, please. It' s cold. Let me in." His only answer was the TV volume growing louder, a clear sign he didn' t care. Just five years ago, I was Sarah Miller, Wall Street' s "Golden Eyes," a financial genius with a fortress of wealth. Then David Smith arrived, charming and protective, convincing me to trade my career for a quiet life, a family, pouring all my assets into his hands. I even underwent a "special procedure" he insisted on-a bone marrow transfer that left me with a permanent chill and weakness, supposedly to protect his health and our prosperity. A year later, his college sweetheart, Olivia White, walked back into his life. Tonight, as I shivered on the porch, our 8-year-old son, Ethan, opened the door, his face a cold copy of his father' s. "Dad said you need to think about what you did wrong," Ethan announced, flatly. "Olivia is here. She' s way nicer than you." David and Olivia appeared, his arm around her, a smug look on his face. "Still out here, Sarah?" he sneered. "Maybe the cold will knock some sense into you. You' ve become useless. All you do is spend my money." "Your money?" I whispered, the words catching in my throat. "David, it was my money. My life' s work." Olivia laughed a sharp, unpleasant sound. "Oh, Sarah. That was a long time ago. You' re just a housewife now. David is the one making the real moves." He pulled her closer. "I' ve been investing our money into Olivia' s tech startup. It' s the future. It' s for Ethan' s education." The blatant lie stole my breath. I had seen the financials; her startup was a fraudulent mess. He was stealing from me to fund his affair. "You' re lying," I said, finding my voice. "That company is worthless. You' re throwing our money away on her." His face hardened. "Don' t you dare question my judgment. You gave up that life, remember?" Even Ethan parroted, "Yeah, Mom! Dad' s smart. Olivia is smart. You just cook and clean." Their words, twisting my son' s voice, finally broke me. I looked at David' s face and saw no love, just a manipulator who saw me as a bank account. My sacrifice wasn' t love; it was a successful transaction. The cold rain no longer bothered me. A clarifying rage settled deep within. The naive woman on the doorstep was gone, mourned by no one but herself. I stopped pleading. I stopped shivering. My eyes, clear and steady for the first time in years, saw him for what he was: a self-serving thief. Without a word, I turned and walked away, leaving him shouting, "Sarah! Where are you going? Get back here!" I didn' t look back. He thought I was a washed-up housewife, but he had forgotten about the Golden Eyes. They built their empire with my money. I was going to take it all back. And then, I was going to burn their world to the ground.

For five years, Mark and I were the perfect couple, or so I thought. He was the promising artist, and I, the talented interior designer. But for five years, he had never once talked about marrying me. His reason? His deceased brother' s widow, Olivia. He claimed his "duty" was to fulfill his brother' s dying wish: to have a child with Olivia. So, I endured, counting the nights he spent in her bed, the scent of her perfume clinging to him when he returned. On the sixtieth day, Olivia announced her pregnancy. Mark was ecstatic, promising me a wedding in one week. That same night, at a massive party to celebrate the pregnancy, I stood in the crowd, waiting for him to announce our engagement. Instead, he got down on one knee, pulled out a diamond ring, and proposed to Olivia. My heart shattered. He had publicly humiliated me. Later, the stinging reality of my betrayal was cemented by a text from Olivia: "He was never yours." I was no more than a placeholder, a fool warming his bed while he pursued his true agenda. The pain was unbearable, but a cold resolve flickered within me. When Mark, oblivious, later tried to gaslight me with more lies, I saw a hickey on his neck. He then ran off to Olivia, leaving me in the car to get a cab. Back at the apartment, he even offered me a smaller ring and then audaciously asked if Olivia, his pregnant fiancée, could move in with us, citing a high-risk pregnancy. He wanted me to care for her. The audacity was astounding. Yet, a strange calm washed over me. "Okay," I said, my voice steady. "She can move in." The next evening, Olivia faked a fall down the stairs, accusing me of trying to harm her baby. Mark' s face, contorted with rage, snarled at me: "If anything happens to this baby, I will destroy you. I swear to God, I will ruin your life." The last thread snapped. No anger, no sadness. Just peace. I was free. I walked to our bedroom, took my packed suitcase, and dropped the engagement ring into the trash. Then, I walked out.

Ethan Scott promised me a Texas-sized wedding, then drove off with a greasy-haired woman he called his "business partner," leaving me pregnant with his brother Caleb's child. I married Caleb, secured, and settled into our new life on the outskirts of town, far from the Scotts. A year later, Ethan and his mistress, Tara, rolled back in, broke and bitter, expecting to find me forlorn-instead they found me heavily pregnant on the porch. Tara, with a sneer, convinced Ethan I was a conniving gold-digger, trying to pass off another man' s child as his. Fueled by her lies, Ethan, his own brother, lunged at me, pushing our mother aside before dragging me into the dusty yard. He publicly humiliated me, screaming I was a "cheating whore," then kicked me to my knees, snarling he' d "beat the truth out of me." The horror escalated when he grabbed a hot fire poker, and Tara hissed for him to "brand" me. He shoved me into a filthy pigsty, where a sow charged, slamming into my side, tearing agony erupting through me. I screamed, bleeding heavily, realizing my baby was coming, right there in the mud, as Ethan and Tara laughed. I thought I was going to die, my baby too, abandoned to the filth. Just as darkness closed in, Caleb's truck screeched to a halt, and he emerged, a mask of pure, cold fury, his eyes finding me in the pigsty. He plunged through the mud, scooped me up, and as he carried me away, Tara dared to mock him, "You don' t have to pretend, Caleb! We saved you!" His reply, chillingly quiet, promised, "If she dies, I will kill you both with my bare hands."

My belly swollen, nine months in, I clutched the counter as a brutal contraction stole my breath. "Ethan," I gasped, "I think it's the baby. It's too early." He didn't even glance up from his phone, scrolling through pictures of Sabrina Chavez, the singer who' d stolen my song. "Not now, Jocelyn," he drawled, "I'm dealing with a crisis." He meant Sabrina's stylist sent the wrong shoes. Not impending premature birth. Another wave of pain hit, sharper. I saw red on my legs. But he took my phone and keys. "You're going to sit down, drink some water, and stop trying to sabotage the biggest night of my career." He left, the door clicking like a coffin lid. An hour later, I was bleeding on the floor, the storm had knocked out the landlines, and the front door was locked. When help finally came, it was Ethan' s mother, who called my pain "theatrics," then shoved me into the dark, damp storm cellar, filled with corrosive cleaner. My baby died there, in the acid, in the dark. I should have died. I did die, to the world. But my father, the reclusive music legend Jackson Fuller, saved me. Now, the old Jocelyn is gone, burned away. And from the ashes, a new one has risen. And she wants revenge.

The knot in my stomach wasn't just anticipation for my prenatal check-up; it was the chilling premonition of a nightmare revisited. My husband Mark, our town' s revered Fire Captain, conveniently had an urgent training, leaving his childhood friend Jessica to sweetly offer me a ride to the doctor. But I knew this day, every terrifying detail, because I'd endured it once before. In my first life, Jessica had deliberately caused a horrific car crash, and Mark, the man who supposedly saved me, later turned into our baby' s and my executioner. This time, I secretly called 911, determined to change my fate, yet the horror unfolded eerily similarly. Mark arrived, doting on a minimally bruised Jessica, completely ignoring my severe injuries as I hemorrhaged, publicly shaming me while I agonizingly lost our child. The entire town, blinded by his hero status, rallied around Jessica, swiftly branding me the unstable, jealous woman who had caused all the tragedy. Isolated and shattered, the profound injustice burned through me, leaving me incredulous at their collective delusion. How could the truth be so twisted, and their eyes so firmly shut to the betrayers living among them? But they underestimated the silent resolve of a woman who had already walked through hell and returned. When Jessica pulled her next theatrical ploy, I didn't just stand there; I made a discrete call, armed with undeniable evidence from my dashcam, ready to expose the monsters and finally claim the justice my innocent baby never received.

Chloe had just given birth to twins, lying exhausted in a cramped, bustling hospital ward. When she called her husband, Julian, he was busy partying with his actress mistress. He coldly hung up on her, having already drafted a brutal divorce agreement that would leave her with a pittance. Strangers in the next bed loudly mocked her pitiful state, gossiping about how Julian was dumping her. For years, Chloe had erased her own identity to fit into his elite world, only to be thrown away like garbage. She was completely alone, clutching her helpless babies, bracing herself to sign the cruel papers just to survive. She couldn't understand why her absolute devotion was met with such chilling indifference. Why did she have to suffer this ultimate humiliation while he celebrated with the woman who ruined her life? But then, a senior doctor noticed a unique mole on her wrist and ran a secret DNA test. The results were staggering: Chloe was the long-lost daughter of the billionaire Beaumont family. With her fiercely protective parents and three powerful brothers suddenly forming an impenetrable fortress around her, Chloe picked up her phone and texted her arrogant husband. "City Hall tomorrow at 10 AM. If you don't show up, my lawyer will handle everything. And trust me, you won't like their terms."

She married him out of desperation, becoming the perfect docile wife while he treated her like dirt beneath his shoes. But everything shattered the night she overheard him mocking her with his friends-and discovered the necklace she'd cherished, her only link to the boy who once saved her life, didn't even belong to him. It was all a lie. No longer the doormat he married, she discards her fake identity and reclaims her birthright as the hidden heiress of Salvadore City. Now she's on a mission: find the necklace's true owner among his circle of friends, no matter how many hearts she has to break along the way. But her husband isn't ready to let go. Convinced she's playing games to make him jealous, he's blindsided when divorce papers land in his hands. By the time he realizes the woman he dismissed was never who he thought she was, she's already moved on-living her truth, chasing her destiny, and leaving him choking on regret. Some cages, once opened, can never be closed again.

My stepmother’s bodyguards were seconds away from dragging me back to a life that was essentially a prison cell wrapped in silk. I couldn't even scream for help because the words always died in my throat—a clinical condition called selective mutism that felt like drowning on dry land. I had just discovered the sickening truth: my father was planning to sell me to a sleazy investor named Sterling to cover his company’s bankruptcy. They were going to drug me, ship me off to a private island, and strip away the only thing I had left—my late mother’s multimillion-dollar art trust. When I arrived at the manor, my stepmother Lydia handed me a glass of wine laced with bitter sedatives, her smile sharp as a razor. "Drink up, darling. It’ll make the transition to Mr. Sterling much easier." My stepsister Harper stood in the corner, wearing a dress bought with my mother’s stolen money, mocking my inability to speak. My father didn't even look me in the eye as he calculated my price tag, treating his own daughter like a piece of damaged, mute inventory. They thought because I didn't speak, I didn't hear them laughing about the "accident" that killed my mother or how they planned to burn her final restoration work. They assumed my silence was a sign of surrender, a white flag waved by a broken girl who would never fight back. How could the people who were supposed to be my family treat me like a commodity to be traded? Did they really think my silence meant I was weak, or that I didn't know every dirty secret they were hiding in their ledgers? I didn't drink the wine. Instead, I burst into the VIP suite of Carlisle Pierce, the most cold-blooded billionaire in New York, and slammed a crumpled napkin on his table with a desperate, last-second gambit. "MARRY ME. NOW. $1 MILLION."

On our third anniversary, my husband canceled our dinner, claiming a sudden work emergency. I tracked his phone to an exclusive French restaurant, only to find him tenderly fastening a blessed bracelet—one I had flown across the world to get for him—onto his college ex-girlfriend's wrist. The sheer shock triggered a violent placental abruption. Bleeding out in my car just across the street, I frantically called his number. Through the window, I watched him glance at his screen, frown in annoyance, and press decline to focus on his lover. While I was wheeled into a freezing operating room for an emergency C-section utterly alone, he took his mistress back to our marital bed. He didn't even bother to check if I was alive, completely oblivious that our premature daughter was fighting for her life in the NICU. I soon discovered our entire marriage was a sham. He had used my family's wealth to save his company, and now he was trading me to secure a massive business deal with his ex's father. The man I loved didn't exist; he only saw me as a disposable asset. "I'm going to make him wish he had never been born." After secretly securing my baby in a private retreat, I ordered a medical-grade silicone pregnancy belly to hide my flat stomach. I stepped back into our penthouse, ready to burn his precious empire to the ground.

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.

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."

On our third anniversary, I stood outside a luxury restaurant, holding a limited-edition watch for my husband, Liam. Through the window, I saw him intimately wiping cream from the lips of his first love, Clara. Just as I realized the diamond bracelet on her wrist was the one he lied about, a violent cramp ripped through my eight-month pregnant belly, and blood soaked my dress. "Liam... I'm bleeding," I gasped into the phone in agony. "I'm not falling for these games," he coldly replied, hanging up as Clara laughed in the background. I almost died on the operating table during an emergency C-section, spending my first night as a mother completely alone. While my premature daughter fought for her life in the NICU, Liam was busy sleeping with Clara, eventually bringing her to my home to wear my bathrobe and drink from my glass. When my best friend confronted him, he confidently claimed I was just throwing a tantrum on a Caribbean vacation. He couldn't even recognize me when we crossed paths right in the hospital hallway. The man I loved was dead to me. He later called, demanding I come home to play the perfect pregnant wife for an important family dinner. I didn't cry, and I didn't ask for a simple divorce. Instead, I strapped on a hyper-realistic silicone pregnant belly and smiled. If they wanted the devoted, pregnant Sterling wife, I would give them the performance of a lifetime before burning their world to the ground.

Five years ago, Sienna made the most devastating mistake of her life: falling in love with Nikolai. What for the naive young assistant was an unforgettable week of passion was nothing more than a fleeting distraction for the cold-hearted Russian tycoon before he returned to Moscow. When Sienna discovered she was pregnant, she tried to reach out to him, only to be met with cold indifference. Alone and heartbroken, Sienna vanished to protect her daughter. Now, Nikolai was colder and more lethal than ever. But his frosty exterior began to crack when he crossed paths with a four-year-old girl in a restaurant, a girl with the same defiant gaze and unmistakable ice-blue eyes as his own. Convinced that Sienna hid his heir on purpose, Nikolai unleashed his fury. He issued her an unforgiving ultimatum: either she moved into his mansion under his rules, or he'd take the child away from her forever. He believed he'd trapped a compliant captive, but he was about to discover that the tender-hearted assistant he abandoned had become a fierce mother willing to do whatever it took for her child.

Seraphina Hayes went from a billionaire heiress to a desperate daughter overnight. To pay for her dying father's surgery, she stood in the freezing rain to beg her ex-boyfriend, Liam, for help. Instead of helping, Liam threw a check into a muddy puddle to humiliate her. Left with no way out, Seraphina was forced to sign a brutal marriage contract with Julian Sterling—a ruthless billionaire who also happened to be Liam's uncle. But her new husband treated her like a bought possession. At Liam's grand engagement party, Julian forced Seraphina to wear a scandalous diamond necklace and enter alone. Then, he walked in with his famous ex-girlfriend on his arm. The entire ballroom mocked Seraphina as a discarded clown. Liam pulled her onto the dance floor, grinning as he whispered in her ear. "When he's done with you, you can always come crawling back to me to be my mistress." She stood surrounded by cruel laughter, her pride shattered. Why did Julian spend hundreds of millions to save her family, only to publicly execute her dignity? Was she just a cheap prop for his twisted games? But they underestimated her. Seraphina didn't break down. She leaned in, her voice like ice. "You're just the piece of gum I scraped off my shoe this morning. Disgusting, and easily forgotten." Leaving Liam pale and stumbling, she walked out of the ballroom like an untouchable queen, unaware that her ruthless husband was watching from the balcony, a dangerous spark of genuine interest finally lighting up his eyes.

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.