Tamarah Lupton

Four years ago, Beatrix McClure was the sole heiress to a massive trust, kidnapped and presumed dead in a fiery warehouse explosion. When she finally fought her way back to New York, she found her beloved cousin Denita standing at the altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Denita was wearing a couture bridal gown, marrying the billionaire titan Jaziel Small, and living lavishly on Beatrix's stolen inheritance. Beatrix had discovered it was Denita who wired two million dollars to the underground mercenaries who orchestrated the hit. She crashed their wedding of the century, throwing the authenticated wire transfers right into the flashing cameras of the press. But instead of seeking justice, Jaziel shielded the murderer. He used his limitless black card to pay off Denita's embezzled debts in front of federal marshals, threatened to bankrupt Beatrix's allies, and ordered her to leave the country in three days. Beatrix couldn't understand why the ruthless CEO was protecting the woman who destroyed her life. Was her murder just a convenient stepping stone for his corporate empire? And if he truly cared for his new fiancée, why did he shatter a crystal glass with his bare hands and lose his mind with violent jealousy the moment another man touched Beatrix's shoulder? Beatrix looked at the man who once held her secrets and the cousin who stole her life, her heart turning to absolute ice. "I won't stop until you both have nothing left."

I was two years into a contract marriage with Caleb Kensington, a billionaire I had never even met, just waiting for my five-million-dollar divorce settlement to finally escape my toxic family. But just three months before the divorce, I was drugged at a party and woke up in a hotel bed next to a strange, muscular man. Terrified of losing my settlement due to a strict fidelity clause, I fled in a panic, accidentally taking his custom-made shirt. The very next morning, my monstrous mother-in-law stormed into my apartment, found the shirt, and publicly humiliated me as a cheating, gold-digging whore. My greedy father and stepmother then cornered me, threatening to stop paying my sick mother's hospital bills if I didn't crawl back and beg the Kensingtons for forgiveness. I was violated, slandered, and pushed to the absolute edge by the people who were supposed to protect me. Desperate to make my family back off, I threw out an impossible bluff. "I'll only go back if Caleb Kensington comes to get me himself." I knew the notoriously ruthless and reclusive billionaire would never show his face for a fake wife like me. But that night, a black Bentley pulled into my driveway, and the man who stepped out to tear up my divorce papers was the exact same stranger from the hotel room.

On our seventh anniversary, I walked into my fiancé Brad's office with our marriage paperwork, ready to surprise him with a trip to City Hall. Instead, I found him half-naked with Sienna, a manipulative socialite client. When I caught them, he didn't even apologize. He gaslighted me, secretly stripped my legal protections from our new corporate contract, and brazenly promoted his mistress to be my direct assistant just to humiliate me. The nightmare peaked when Sienna's thug of an uncle assaulted me at a lounge. I fought back, smashing his hand to defend myself. Brad burst into the room, but he didn't check if I was hurt. He looked at me with pure disgust, protected my attacker, and demanded I apologize. "You are making a spectacle. You're embarrassing the family name." I stared at the man I had loved and built a company with for seven years. He knew my deep trauma of being an abandoned foster child, yet he chose to throw me away like garbage to please his new toy. The injustice and sheer cruelty of it made my blood run cold. But I swore long ago I would never be a victim again. I dumped him on the spot, walked out, and blackmailed him to get my rightful money back. While he thinks he's getting ready for our lavish high-society engagement gala next week, I am meticulously setting a trap to broadcast his embezzlement and dirty affair to the entire board of directors.

Kassie’s world shattered when she caught her boyfriend cheating, only to learn he had dated her just to strip her bankrupt father’s remaining assets. In a drunken haze of heartbreak, she grabbed a man in a hotel hallway and slept with him, convinced it was her ex. But the morning light revealed a terrifying truth: the cold, ruthless stranger was Ethan Reynolds, her ex’s untouchable billionaire cousin. Desperate to make her ex pay, Kassie tried to seduce Ethan. But the elite surgeon saw right through her clumsy game. He tossed a hundred-dollar bill at her in a café, looking at her with pure disgust. Even when he saved her from her ex's violent attack in a parking garage, his eyes held nothing but icy contempt. He shoved a box of Plan B into her hands before abandoning her on a freezing Brooklyn street. "Make sure you clean up any potential mess. I don't leave loose ends." When Ethan returned from Europe weeks later with a flawless, aristocratic heiress by his side, Kassie finally understood. His cruel boundaries weren't for everyone; they were reserved only for girls like her—poor, desperate, and broken. She deleted his number, accepting her humiliating defeat and ready to disappear from his world forever. But as a sudden, violent wave of nausea hit her, she stared at the calendar in her cramped bathroom, her blood running cold. She had never taken that pill, and she was exactly one month late.

I was in the kitchen of the Vance mansion, slicing black truffles worth more than my car while my mother-in-law, Victoria, mocked my "backwoods" origins. My back throbbed from standing for six hours, and my head spun from the chronic anemia I’d developed since marrying into this family. Suddenly, my phone vibrated with a call from my husband, Julian. He didn't ask if I was okay or if I’d eaten; he simply ordered me to get to the hospital because his "fragile" friend Caroline needed another emergency blood transfusion. "Her hemoglobin is low, Seraphina. Get to St. Luke's now." I looked down at my left arm, which was a roadmap of bruises and needle marks hidden beneath my sweater. When I tried to tell him that the medical guidelines forbade donating again so soon, Julian’s voice turned dangerous. "I don't care about guidelines. She’s in crisis, and your anemia is manageable. Are you really going to be this selfish after the life we gave you?" Seconds later, a photo arrived from an unknown number. It showed Julian sitting on Caroline’s hospital bed, tenderly feeding her apples. The text underneath was a visceral slap in the face: "He wouldn't even eat dinner with you, but he's feeding me. Thanks for the refill, blood bag." At that moment, something inside me finally snapped. I realized that to the Vances, I wasn't a wife or even a human being—I was a biological spare part, a servant they kept around only to be drained dry for a woman who was faking her illness. I untied my apron, dropped it into the trash, and walked past a screaming Victoria toward the front door. I picked up the phone and dialed the one number I had been forbidden to contact since my wedding day. "Mr. Henderson, it's Seraphina Sterling. Prepare the divorce papers. And if they contest it... burn their entire empire to the ground."

My husband' s mistress pushed me overboard while I was pregnant. I lost our baby and had an emergency hysterectomy, leaving me barren. When my husband finally visited the hospital, it wasn't to comfort me, but to tell me to get ready for a party. "You'll need your strength to face the cameras," he said, annoyed that I hadn't touched my food. His grandmother was even worse. She slapped me, calling me a "shameless hussy" for failing to keep my husband in line. "You failed to produce a male heir," she spat. "You're useless, Elisa. Utterly, completely useless!" They thought I was the same woman who would silently absorb their cruelty. But the woman who loved him died with our child. I was just a tool they were ready to discard. So I stopped her hand mid-air. "We're done," I said, pushing the divorce papers and a small voice recorder across the bed. "A man who lets his mistress murder his unborn child... that's not a good look for your 'legacy,' is it?"

It took seven years for Ethan to convince me I was the center of his universe, and exactly seven weeks for his "business partner," Chloe, to prove I was just a placeholder. I was the woman who ironed his shirts and managed his schedule, yet she was the one he comforted at 2 AM. But the real end didn't come with a fight. It came with an explosion. At a family gathering, a gas heater malfunctioned. Glass shattered, and fire erupted. In that split second of life or death, Ethan didn't look for me. He threw his body over Chloe. He shielded her from the flames, cocooning her in his arms, whispering frantically to her while I stood twenty feet away, watching my boyfriend of seven years act like I didn't exist. When I confronted him later, he didn't apologize. Instead, he let Chloe carve her initials over ours on our anniversary tree. When I tried to stop them, he shoved me into the dirt to comfort her over a broken nail. "You are dead to me, Ava," he screamed. "Jealousy makes you ugly." He thought I would beg. He thought I was an appliance he could unplug and plug back in whenever he wanted. He was arrogant enough to believe I would always be there, waiting for his scraps. He was wrong. While he was playing hero to his mistress, I didn't cry. I booked a one-way ticket to Portland, snapped my SIM card in half, and vanished. By the time he realized the silence in his apartment wasn't peace, but abandonment, I was already gone.

To keep my boyfriend Alex in law school, I begged my father to pay his tuition. But the day I moved to the city to be with him, I found him cheating with my best friend, Ivy. The betrayal didn't end there. My father, a respected union leader, was framed for misusing funds-the very money he'd borrowed for Alex-and died in disgrace. My mother had a mental breakdown from the grief. As I cared for my mother, I neglected my own health, only to be diagnosed with terminal cancer. Returning to my hometown to die, I ran into Alex and Ivy again. Ivy, now pregnant with Alex's child, sneered at me. "Your father begged me to leave Alex alone," she said, a cruel smile on her face. "So I reported him. He died because of you, Clarisa. You're the one who killed him."

The last thing I remembered was the freezing water filling my lungs. My adoptive parents, the Millers, had sold me, a tool for their precious biological son. They took money from Olivia Hayes's family, the very girl who made my high school years a living hell, and used it to force me out of school, arranging a marriage to a man twice my age. Then, a sterile, mechanical voice echoed in the void, "Host soul detected. High levels of grievance and resentment. Revenge System activating." My eyes snapped open. I wasn't at the bottom of a lake. I was back in my classroom, the day it all started, the day Olivia Hayes framed me for cheating. The system's voice revealed a shocking truth: "You are Ava Hayes, the true heiress of the Hayes family. The woman you know as Olivia Hayes is actually Olivia Miller, the biological daughter of your adoptive parents. A deliberate swap was made at the hospital eighteen years ago." My tormentor was their real daughter, and I belonged to the wealthy family she pretended to be a part of. The sheer irony was suffocating. Olivia, my "sister" in this twisted reality, continued to mock me, ordering me to do her "brother" Liam's homework. Liam, the lazy, entitled leech, expected me to be his personal servant. In my past life, this refusal led to my destruction. But this time, I saw the resemblance between Olivia and "Mom" Miller, the woman who sold me. A cold smile touched my lips. "You're right. Family is so important. You know it's funny. Liam looks so much like his dad, but you… you look exactly like his mom. Almost like you're her real daughter." Planting the seed of doubt, I knew they would soon learn how to play my game. The old Ava was gone. This time, I was setting the board.

I poured every spare dollar from my part-time jobs and scholarships into a scuffed-up piggy bank, dreaming of a future with Chloe and a promise ring that would seal our love. But then I heard her laugh-a laugh that wasn't for me. Just an hour after I ended things, saying "We're over," my best friend, Liam, walked up, clueless as ever, showing off an expensive watch Chloe had helped him pick out, a watch that screamed what a joke my cheap promise ring was. I ducked into a stairwell, my heart pounding, and pulled out my phone. In our shared photo album, I found a selfie of Chloe and her friends at a fancy rooftop bar. Zooming in, I saw it-my piggy bank, next to a bottle of champagne, being used as an ashtray. The memory hit me: overhearing Chloe brag to her friends about using me as "A tool, a pawn to make Liam finally notice me," all while calling me "a little charity case" and "so boring." My world shattered. Two years, all a lie, a game where I was just a prop in her drama with Liam. The cheap daisies I held for her surprise visit were crushed in my hand, my stomach churning with nausea. I spent the night walking, my mind a blank, howling void. The pain solidified into a cold, hard resolve: I had to disappear. Five years of isolation. No friends. No family. No Chloe. To me, it sounded less like a punishment and more like a rescue. I went to see Professor Davies and signed up for the Ares Project.

For three years, I, the actress Ava, poured my heart into loving Ethan. I proposed to him 99 times, each met with a casual rejection, yet I clung to the hope that my devotion would eventually win him over. But one night, a chilling discovery shattered my deluded reality. I overheard Ethan whispering words of passionate love, not to me, but to a photograph of his niece, Mia. My heart slammed against my ribs. My boyfriend, the man I lived with, was obsessed with his much younger niece, and I was merely a convenient cover for their forbidden relationship. The full horror of his deceit hit me like a physical blow. Before I could process the betrayal, Mia, the object of his twisted affection, brutally shoved me down a flight of stairs, leaving me for dead and comatose. When I woke, broken and disoriented, Ethan confirmed my worst nightmare: he had given my healthy kidney to Mia during my coma, essentially dismembering me to save his obsession while I was helpless. The ultimate violation-a piece of my body, the most profound gift, forcibly stolen and given to the very person who tried to end me, all by the man who claimed to protect me. This wasn't just a betrayal; it was a total dehumanization. Yet, in that moment of utter devastation, a cold, unyielding resolve ignited within me. I had to escape, to reclaim my life from the monster who had taken everything.

For fifteen years, Ethan was my world, my protector, the golden boy next door. But our fairytale shattered into a nightmare when I discovered his multiple betrayals: a secret affair, public denial of our relationship, and worst of all, his absence at my grandmother's funeral, the woman who raised me, because he was with another woman, Vivian. The pain was unbearable; I tried to end it all, waking up in a hospital bed only to hear him defend his mistress and witnessed his callous disregard for my suffering. He paraded Vivian around, singing "our song" with her at the community show, then gave her our cherished time capsule, and finally, went live to brand me as a delusional stalker, all while his new affair meticulously spun lies to destroy my reputation and budding career. But I wouldn't be silence; I planned my comeback on national radio, forcing him to face the truth and exposing his manipulative mistress once and for all.

I was Chloe, the Ashtons' beloved adopted daughter for eighteen perfect years, secure in my identity as I eagerly awaited SATs and an Ivy League future. But then came the dream: a chilling premonition of a stranger, Olivia, claiming my parents, sabotaging my SATs, and tearing my world apart. I woke up terrified, dismissing it as stress. Until that evening, the doorbell rang. There she was. Olivia. Tearful, shaky, telling Mom and Dad Ashton, "I think you're my mother." My blood ran cold. Just like the dream, she settled in, a constant, unsettling presence. To my parents, she was perfect. To me, her eyes were cold, filled with malicious glee. She whispered lies, implying my life should have been hers, painting my biological family as poor and neglectful. She tried to sabotage my SATs, disabling my alarms and offering tainted food, and even snatched my cherished locket from my neck. A terrible feeling washed over me as the dream unfolded, every detail unnervingly accurate. How could this be happening? Why was she so bent on destroying me? It wasn't just unfair; it felt supernatural. But through my dread, a strange clarity emerged: this wasn't just a nightmare. It was a warning. I remembered dream-Olivia, the one who smiled as my world crumpled. This time, I wouldn't let it happen. Armed with foresight, I wouldn't just survive; I would fight back. I knew this was just the beginning, but I also knew exactly how to change the ending.

My marriage to Andrew Lester was a fairy tale. I was Maria, a kindergarten teacher, and he was a real estate tycoon, giving me a life of luxury with our beloved five-year-old son, Caleb. He adored us, said we were his whole world, and I believed every word. Until a rain-slicked road in the Hamptons. One moment, Caleb was singing; the next, there was a deafening crunch. I woke in a hospital, searing pain through my body, Andrew' s face etched with what I thought was profound grief. He told me Caleb didn't make it, a tragic hit-and-run. But then, drifting between consciousness and hell, I heard voices outside my room. Andrew' s, cold and stripped of grief, asking, "Is it done?" A surgeon replied, "The liver was a perfect match for your son. Ryan is in recovery." Ryan? My blood ran cold, moments before another chilling revelation: "And the other matter? The hysterectomy was performed as you instructed." Andrew's casual cruelty solidified my nightmare: "Good. Be careful with her when she wakes. My wife is sensitive to pain." My husband, the love of my life, had murdered our son, harvested his liver for a secret child, and sterilized me to ensure that bastard would be his only heir. My world didn' t just break; it had been a calculated lie from the start. Lying there, with the fresh stitches on my abdomen a brutal testament to his betrayal, my grief transmuted into a cold, bottomless rage. He wore our son's handmade bracelet, a symbol of pure love now reeking of ultimate treachery. I knew then: I would endure this monster. I would play his game. And I would take everything from him, just as he had taken everything from me.

The call came from my half-brother, Andrew, offering me a lifeline: marry a comatose heiress for $150,000 a month. I, Ethan Clark, the black sheep of the family, agreed instantly, eager to escape my cramped apartment and dead-end life. My new wife, Nicole Anderson, was a "Tech Princess" in a persistent vegetative state, surrounded by machines in a luxurious hospital suite. I started talking to her, planning how to spend her money on classic cars and parties, feeling a smug satisfaction at my newfound fortune. But then, a sharp, indignant voice echoed in my head: "You will do no such thing with my money, you lazy, gold-digging parasite." It was Nicole. My comatose wife. And she was sassy. Trapped in her own body, Nicole was telepathically directing me-scratching her back, giving me life advice, even coaching me through a viral video and a press conference that saved her company's stock. I went from resentful caretaker to faithful prince in the public eye, even fending off my brother' s attempts to buy me out and my ex-girlfriend' s desperate grab for attention. Suddenly, a paparazzo scandal at her bedside triggered something impossible. Nicole sat bolt upright, her eyes blazing with rage, and in a terrifyingly clear voice, ordered everyone out. She was awake. But the cold, calculating CEO stared at me with no recognition, no sign of the fiery woman I'd known in my mind. "Who are you?" she asked, and then: "I want a divorce." How could the woman who saved me, who became my secret partner, look at me like a stranger? What had happened to the Nicole who knew my heart, trapped within her own?

I was just a grieving widow, navigating the unbearable silence left by my husband, Ethan, trying to figure out how to move on with my shattered life. Then, a single knock at my door didn't just alter my morning; it utterly annihilated the fabric of my entire world. His ex-girlfriend, Jessica, stood there, not alone, but with a little boy and a marriage certificate in her hand - a document dated years before mine, proving the gut-wrenching truth: Ethan, the man I adored, was a bigamist. In that instant, everything I thought was ours – my home, our savings, every shared dream for a future – evaporated, legally belonging entirely to her. I was thrown out, stripped of everything save for the clothes on my back, carrying only a permanent limp, a painful, ironic souvenir from the day I' d actually saved his life from a mine collapse. The crushing weight of his betrayal, the searing public shame, and the utter, soul-destroying injustice of it all swiftly became an unbearable burden. My world imploded, swallowed by deceit. Then, a sudden, blinding flash, followed by all-consuming blackness, as a brain aneurysm explosively ended my cheated existence. I died, my life brutally cut short, the ultimate price paid for his monstrous lies. But why me? Why was I the one condemned to such a cruel and undeserved end, while he seemingly escaped consequence? I woke with a violent gasp, the familiar floral pattern of my bedroom wallpaper swimming into sharp focus. My leg still throbbed with a familiar ache, but a far greater terror gripped my heart. The calendar displayed August 14th, 1992. The day before my wedding. I was alive. I was back. And this time, I wouldn't just prevent my own destruction; I' d dismantle his perfect, deceitful life piece by agonizing piece, starting today.

My husband Mark and I built DreamWeaver Games from a college dorm room. He was the CEO, I was the lead developer – the one who actually made the games. Our company was our dream, our life, for years. But then, he started spending company money, our money, on lavish gifts and dinners for Chloe, our flirty PR manager. When I questioned the "marketing expenses," he gave me the silent treatment for three months. One morning, he dangled a brochure for a luxury resort, promising a "reconnecting" getaway – only to cancel last minute. He gave my first-class ticket and the entire luxury booking to Chloe, claiming it was for "company business," a crucial publisher meeting. Later that night, Instagram exploded with photos of Mark and Chloe, clinking champagne at my resort suite. They beamed as a "power couple," their captions mocking me and everything we built. It was a punch to the gut, a public humiliation. How could the man I loved, my partner in every sense, so carelessly betray and humiliate me? The silent treatment, the blatant affair, the open mockery – I was bone-tired of fighting, of being dismissed. My heart, once full of dreams for us, felt dead inside, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity. That night, as their "power couple" selfies mocked me from my phone, I knew it was over. No more fighting for him, no more fighting for DreamWeaver. It was time to fight for Sarah, and I already had my first move in motion.

Maggie was dumped by her boyfriend and unexpectedly gained a domineering boyfriend that same day. He flirted with her everywhere, loved her to the core, but always liked to call Maggie "Meg" in bed. Maggie thought this was his special quirk. Later, Maggie saw Megan's grave. Only then did she realize that there was no inexplicable deep love, only calculated manipulation.

To help her husband build his business empire, Veyra worked two jobs, skipped meals, and sacrificed everything she had. When her mother desperately needed life-saving treatment, she couldn't even scrape together the money. Then, on a New Year's Eve flight, fate seated her beside her husband's mistress. That's when she discovered the cruel truth. Her husband had secretly amassed millions long ago. The wedding ring that belonged to Veyra now glittered on another woman's finger. The $500,000 that could have saved her mother's life had been spent instead on luxury gifts and pocket money for his lover. She lost her baby. She lost her mother. And finally, she lost every illusion about the man she'd loved for years. After leaving the airport, Veyra walked into a bar, kissed the most dangerous-looking stranger she could find, and spent one reckless night in his arms. By sunrise, she disappeared without leaving so much as her name. She thought it was nothing more than a farewell to her broken past. She was wrong. The stranger was Dorian-the most powerful, mysterious billionaire in the business world. Meanwhile, her cheating husband finally realized what he had thrown away. He begged on his knees, signed a postnuptial agreement worth billions, and swore he would give up everything if she would come back. But just as Veyra began plotting to reclaim everything that had been stolen from her, a mysterious car accident brought Dorian back into her life. Only then did she learn the truth. He wasn't a stranger at all. He was her ex-husband's older stepbrother. Now two powerful men are fighting for the same woman-one consumed by regret, the other determined to make her his. Sorry, cheating ex... I choose your brother.

One lab error. Two betrayals. And a billionaire who doesn't believe in accidents. Emily Vance thought she was carrying a miracle. After her fiancé, Julian, ended up in a coma following a horrific car crash, she underwent IVF to keep his legacy alive. It was supposed to be her anchor. Instead, a clinical mix-up reveals that the child in her womb isn't Julian's at all. It belongs to Alistair Wolfe, a man whose name is synonymous with ruthless power and a heart made of ice. The nightmare doesn't stop at the doctor's office. When Julian finally wakes up, he doesn't call for Emily. He calls for her stepsister, Chloe, revealing a secret affair that turns Emily's years of loyalty into a joke. Backed into a corner by a family ready to sell her to a predatory debt collector to save their failing business, Emily is left with a devastating choice. Her doctors warn her that this is her last chance at motherhood. To keep her baby and escape her family's reach, she has to make a deal with the wolf at the door. Alistair Wolfe wants his heir. Emily wants protection. No love. No strings. Just a temporary union until the child is born. But as Emily moves into Alistair's world, she quickly learns that playing the wife of a man like Alistair is a high-stakes game where the heart is the first thing you lose.

To revenge herself on her unfaithful fiancé Kevin, Isidora hides her striking beauty behind a plain disguise, and targets his uncle - the most formidable man Kevin fears. After one reckless night, Isidora leaves cash as payment and says lightly, "You were good last night." She tries to leave quietly, but is pulled into his arms. "You think you can walk away after this?" he says, his tone low and possessive. Cedrick is a feared, untouchable titan on Wall Street - elegant, aloof, and completely uninterested in women. Not even the most beautiful socialites in the city can catch his eye. When gossip spreads that he was seen pressing a woman against a wall and kissing her fiercely, no one believes it. When the rumors name Isidora, the crowd scoffs. He rejects even the most beautiful women, so why would he notice a plain girl like her? All doubt disappears when they see the dignified Cedrick drop to one knee to help Isidora with her shoe, pleading softly for just one kiss. When Kevin finally sees Isidora's true beauty and begs for forgiveness. But Cedrick kicks him out at once, slams a marriage certificate on the table, and says sharply. "Call her Aunt."

Amelia sat alone at the City Marriage Bureau, watching the clock tick down to closing time. Fifteen minutes before the doors shut, a phone call shattered her last flicker of hope. Her fiancé, Kayson, wasn't coming. He had abandoned their wedding registration because Kamila-her stepsister-had twisted her ankle. It was his ninth broken promise. When Amelia returned home, there was no comfort. Her biological mother sneered at her humiliation, shielding the stepsister while ordering Amelia to apologize to Kayson. "Who would she marry without Kayson?" her mother mocked. "Let's see how long she survives out there without his money." Meanwhile, Kayson arrogantly dismissed her absence. Finding out she had vanished, he just laughed it off with his assistant. "It's just a tantrum to force my hand," Kayson smirked. "She still can't live without me." After nine years of absolute devotion, she was nothing but a convenient placeholder to the man she loved, and a worthless joke to her own family. The suffocating weight of their betrayal finally snapped something inside her. She packed a single suitcase, threw away nine years of anniversary gifts, and permanently blocked Kayson's number. Standing in the freezing wind, she pulled out her phone and dialed the private number of Kayson's biggest, most ruthless rival. "Mr. Thornton, what you said seven months ago... does the offer to marry me still stand?" Ten minutes later, a sleek black Maybach pulled up to the curb.

I was Landon Mercer's secret girlfriend and loyal assistant for four years. I thought my absolute devotion would eventually win his heart. But he casually announced his engagement to a wealthy heiress, reminding me I was just a convenient nobody from an orphanage. When I got trapped in a horrific car crash and begged him to call an ambulance, he just hung up on me, annoyed that my bleeding was ruining his romantic getaway. He even blackmailed me with my orphanage's land lease, forcing me to attend his engagement party as a prop. At the party, his elite family and friends brutally humiliated me. They deliberately crushed my broken arm, poured red wine over my head, and kicked me into a freezing pond. When Landon finally pulled me out, he didn't care that I was suffocating and turning blue. "Are you out of your mind? You come out here and cause a scene during my engagement party?" He threw a stack of cash at my shivering body, furious that I had embarrassed him in front of his wealthy guests. Looking at the hundred-dollar bills floating in the muddy water, my four years of foolish love completely died. To him, I wasn't even human; I was just a cheap toy he could abuse and pass around. I didn't cry, and I didn't beg. I dragged my soaked, battered body into a car and headed straight to the penthouse of his biggest billionaire rival. It was time to burn Landon Mercer's world to the ground.

For seven years, Rose Bennett was Ryan Knight's secret wife. While all of New York believed Samantha Hikk would become Mrs. Knight, Rose silently endured a cold marriage to a man who never loved her. Until one night, Samantha is rushed into Rose's emergency room pregnant. and Ryan is the one protecting her. That is the night Rose stops loving him. What Ryan never knew was that Rose had already given birth to his daughter years ago after he rejected both mother and child without hesitation. So Rose walks away-with only two suitcases, a hidden daughter, and the shattered remains of seven years. But the woman Ryan abandoned is no ordinary wife. Rose is the hidden genius behind Aetheris Medical AI, the revolutionary system about to change the entire medical world. As Rose rises to the top, becoming untouchable, powerful, and impossible to replace, Ryan finally realizes the devastating truth- He didn't lose a woman who loved him. He lost the only woman he would ever love. And by then, even their daughter no longer calls him father.

SEVEN DAYS BEFORE MY WEDDING, I walked into our bedroom and found my neurosurgeon fiancé plowing my cousin on our bed. Six months later, Oliver and Vanessa are married, my humiliation is office coffee-break gossip, and I've done everything possible to disappear off the face of the earth. Then I find out my grandmother is dying. This birthday might be her last, and I refuse to let my ex take that from me too. Problem is, going means facing my own personal nightmare head-on: Oliver and Vanessa, happy and married, right in front of me, while the rest of my family looks at me like I'm a walking tragedy. That's when Simon Hart-my billionaire boss, arrogant as hell, and the only man who can irritate me, make me laugh, and dismantle every single one of my defenses in the same conversation-makes me an absolutely ridiculous proposal. "Just think about it." He spreads his hands. " You're tired of everyone pitying you. I'm rich as fuck, handsome as hell, and charming as fuck. Who's going to feel sorry for you when you show up with Simon Hart on your arm?" The problem is, he's right. I need a boyfriend to survive my grandmother's birthday weekend without turning back into the official family disaster. And Simon needs a serious girlfriend to prove to all of New York that the city's most eligible bachelor has finally settled down. It was supposed to be simple. Fake dating. Two events. Some convincing touching. Absolutely zero feelings. Until we added new terms to the agreement. No-strings sex. No jealousy. No expectations. Just sex. And it worked perfectly. Right up until everything went completely off the rails.

"Spread your legs," the cold, handsome doctor ordered. To escape her ex-boyfriend's wedding invitation , Alana Martin attended an elite gala, wore a borrowed gown , and ended up spending a wild night with a dangerously handsome stranger. Panicked, she fled the next morning -only to end up in the hospital days later with severe inflammation. But when the curtain pulled back, the "doctor" examining her intimate areas was the exact same man from that night! Worse? He was looking at her with a wicked smirk, "You stole my first night, ignored my note , and now you're playing the amnesia game? I'm the victim here, little lady. Take responsibility."

Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé. Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now-billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn't mind. I'd crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one? Wrong. One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That's when it hit me-he didn't love me. He didn't even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn't even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup. So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster-my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise. Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Enter him. Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I'd met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes. It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised. But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life. And, as it turned out, the best decision I'd ever made. Because my one-night stand isn't just some random guy. He's richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with. And now, he's not letting me go.

My four-year-old daughter was dying of leukemia, waiting desperately for a bone marrow transplant. I begged my billionaire husband to just call the registry or visit her, but he claimed he was too busy with board meetings to care. Until the hospital informed me that my daughter's life-saving bone marrow had been suddenly reallocated to another patient. When I walked down the VIP hallway, I found my husband. He wasn't at a board meeting. He was gently peeling an apple, playing the loving father to his widowed mistress's daughter. When my pale, sick daughter called out for him, he instinctively stepped back in disgust. I later discovered the mistress had bribed the hospital to swap the registry numbers, stealing my daughter's marrow for her own child. When I demanded a divorce, my husband laughed in my face. "You haven't worked a day in four years. You're a purchased asset. You don't get to walk away." He threatened to freeze my accounts, assuming I would be starving on the streets and begging to come back. His family and the mistress publicly mocked my background, waiting for me to be utterly humiliated. They thought I was just a useless, penniless housewife who relied entirely on his last name to survive. They didn't know I never needed a single cent of his money. I packed my bags, took my daughter, and made a single phone call. Three days later, at his family's elite banquet, my husband waited to see me beg. Instead, the most powerful corporate magnate in North America walked right past him, bowed to me at a perfect ninety-degree angle, and spoke. "Welcome back to the throne, Madam."