/0/63051/coverbig.jpg?v=a08e4e82bf7594e95d07201a305c53c5)
An unfortunate car accident left Ethan Benton, the scion of the Benton clan, in a vegetative state. His betrothed, wanting to call off the wedding, cunningly substituted her simple-minded sister to marry him. This was a cold and calculated plot for Vivian Swain, the naive daughter of the Swain family. Her newly wedded husband, shockingly, was in a vegetative state. As Vivian played the fool to execute her revenge, the vegetative man unexpectedly came into alive, "Mrs. Benton, how dare you change your clothes right in front of me? Do you think I am blind?" "Stay away from me! You such a liar! You were never paralyzed!" Vivian retorted. "Haven't you been fooling everyone all along as well?" Ethan countered, pulling the naive Vivian into his arms, and cornering her against the wall. "Who said my wife is a fool, huh?"
At the Swain family estate.
When Howard Swain, the head of the family, returned home, he found Fiona Bennett and Yolanda Swain, mother and daughter, in tears.
"Mom, I can't marry Ethan Benton. He's in a vegetative state! Marrying him would mean the end of my life. Please, I beg you. Let father go to the Benton family and cancel the engagement. If you insist on forcing me, I would rather die. I will jump off a building, hang myself, and slit my wrists! Anything is better than marrying a living dead man!" Yolanda blurted out, making a move to grab the fruit knife on the coffee table.
"Stop!" Howard, seeing his daughter about to hurt herself, quickly strode over to stop her. "Don't be so rash! What do you think you're doing?"
"Dad!" Yolanda sobbed, "I'm glad you're back. Today, I want to show you my determination. I would rather die than marry Ethan Benton."
"But we can't just let you do something foolish!" Fiona pleaded with Howard, "Howard, are you heartless? Yolanda is our daughter. Can you really bear to see her take her own life?"
Howard Swain felt helpless, "Fiona, you know our family's situation. We were already reaching above our station by arranging the marriage with the Bentons. If we renege on the agreement now that Ethan is incapacitated, it'll be the end for us."
Howard sunk into the sofa, "I don't want our daughter to suffer either, but I have no other way[1] . I hope you both can understand."
"What do you mean, 'no other way'?" Fiona saw that Howard was wavering and quickly offered a solution, "The engagement was with the eldest daughter of the Swain family. Now that Ethan is paralyzed, they won't care whether the bride is Yolanda or anyone else."
"What are you suggesting?" Howard was confused.
"Howard!" Fiona sat next to him, clutching his arm, "Did you forget that you have another daughter, two years older than Yolanda? She's the true eldest daughter of the Swain family. Technically, Yolanda is the second child."
"You mean Vivian? No way!" Howard immediately refused as soon as his wife mentioned their other daughter.
"Why not? If Vivian marries Ethan, Yolanda could be saved."
Howard glared at Fiona, "Have you lost your mind? Vivian is mentally challenged! You want to marry off a mentally impaired girl and make a fool out of the entire Benton family?"
"Howard! Vivian has been living in the countryside for years. Nobody outside knows she exists, let alone that she's mentally challenged. We could marry her off first, then make up some excuse about her becoming mentally impaired due to an accident. Nobody would know."
"Besides, Ethan is practically blind as a vegetable. He wouldn't know the difference. And with Vivian married, you won't have to take care of her anymore. Isn't that a win-win?"
Howard found his wife's reasoning compelling. He glanced at his precious daughter, who was threatening to take her own life, and finally nodded.
"Alright, I will send someone to fetch Vivian from the countryside."
...
In a remote village in Amorita.
William Johnson, the secretary, had fetched Vivian Swain.
Vivian was the daughter of Howard Swain and his ex-wife.
Back then, Howard was an unrecognized illegitimate child and a penniless young man. His ex-wife was a kind and gentle woman.
She not only bore him a child at a young age, but also helped him build everything from scratch. However, Howard, the unfaithful man, had an affair with Fiona Bennett after he made his fortune. After returning to the Swain family and being acknowledged as a legitimate son, he cruelly discarded his ex-wife and daughter.
Vivian had become mentally impaired because she had a high fever when she was young and they had no money to treat her.
In the excitement of Secretary William Johnson's announcement that they were heading to the big city, Amorita, to buy candy, Vivian Swain was so thrilled that she left behind her grandmother who had cared for her for decades.
Now, she was pressed against the car window, gazing at William with a giddy smile, her eyes as clear as a child's.
Feeling a pang of sympathy for the girl, Secretary Johnson handed her his cell phone, "Miss Swain, why don't you have a chat with your father, he's waiting on the other end of the line."  
Vivian, however, was too busy giggling to respond properly. Encouraged by Secretary Johnson, she even put the phone in her mouth and bit down, "Tasty, can I eat it?"
Quickly recovering his cell phone, Secretary Johnson stepped away and informed Howard Swain on the other end of the line, "Miss Swain is still the same. She doesn't even know what a cell phone is. She only knows how to eat."[2]
What he didn't know was that Vivian, standing behind him, was smirking at his retreating figure. Her clear, defined eyes sparkled with intelligence, nothing like the simple-minded girl she pretended to be.
...
If this were before Ethan Benton's accident, his wedding would surely have been a grand event. But the car accident had left him in a vegetative state, unconscious in his bed, unable to attend his own wedding.
As such, the Benton family held no wedding celebration, instead simply bringing Vivian to Ethan's mansion.
Fiona fearing that the bride's mental state would be revealed, shamelessly moved in with them on the wedding night.
Ethan's bedroom was on the second floor of the mansion. Despite his current vegetative state, tradition decreed that the bride and groom would share the room.
Housekeeper Jean Thompson led Vivian and Fiona up to the room. To hide Vivian's condition, Fiona covered Vivian's head with a heavy veil.
With her vision obscured by the heavy veil, Vivian could see nothing. But Fiona had a clear view of the man lying on the bed, his complexion pale. Medical equipment littered his bedside, indicating his dire condition.
Fiona sighed in relief once more, grateful she hadn't married off her own daughter.
But Vivian had other plans. The more Fiona tried to hide the truth, the more Vivian wanted it to be known. She lifted her veil, salivating as she exclaimed, "Hungry, momma. Vivian is hungry. I want to eat something. I want meat."
Fiona didn't expect Vivian to act out so suddenly. She had promised her candy if she stayed quiet after entering the mansion. How could she behave this way now?
Frustrated, Fiona hurried to cover Vivian's mouth and replace her veil, "Don't you know the rules? You can't lift your own veil!"
"What's wrong with the young miss?" Jean Thompson found the new bride's behavior odd.
"Oh, nothing," Fiona quickly dismissed, "She's just being her usual self. That's her true personality! She's always been a foodie since childhood. She's just hungry. Could you perhaps prepare some food for her?" Fiona hurriedly sent Jean away.
But Jean found the young bride's behavior less than charming, more akin to someone with a mental disability.
Once Jean left, Fiona pulled Vivian into the bathroom, a more secluded area where she planned to implement her plan!
Neither Fiona nor Vivian noticed that, after they entered the bathroom, Ethan suddenly opened his eyes on the bed!
After two years of marriage, Sadie was finally pregnant. Filled with hope and joy, she was blindsided when Noah asked for a divorce. During a failed attempt on her life, Sadie found herself lying in a pool of blood, desperately calling Noah to ask him to save her and the baby. But her calls went unanswered. Shattered by his betrayal, she left the country. Time passed, and Sadie was about to be wed for a second time. Noah appeared in a frenzy and fell to his knees. "How dare you marry someone else after bearing my child?"
"Sign the divorce papers and get out!" Leanna got married to pay a debt, but she was betrayed by her husband and shunned by her in-laws. Seeing that her efforts were in vain, she agreed to divorce and claimed her half of the properties. With her purse plump from the settlement, Leanna enjoyed her newfound freedom. The constant harassment from her ex's mistress never fazed her. She took back her identities as top hacker, champion racer, medical professor, and renowned jewelry designer. Then someone discovered her secret. Matthew smiled. "Will you have me as your next husband?"
"You're a creepy bastard." His eyes smolder me and his answering grin is nothing short of beautiful. Deadly. "Yet you hunger for me. Tell me, this appetite of yours, does it always tend toward 'creepy bastards'?" **** Widower and ex-boss to the Mafia, Zefiro Della Rocca, has an unhealthy fixation on the woman nextdoor. It began as a coincidence, growing into mere curiosity, and soon, it was an itch he couldn't ignore, like a quick fix of crack for an addict. He didn't know her name, but he knew every inch of her skin, how it flushed when she climaxed, her favourite novel and that every night she contemplated suicide. He didn't want to care, despising his rapt fascination of the woman. She was in love with her abusive husband. She was married, bound by a contract to the Bratva's hitman. She was off-limits. But when Zefiro wanted something, it was with an intensity that bordered on madness. He obsessed, possessed, owned. There'd be bloodshed if he touched her, but the sight of blood always did fascinate him. * When Susanna flees from her husband, she stumbles right into the arms of her devilishly handsome neighbour with a brooding glare. He couldn't stand her, but she needed him, if she was ever going to escape her husband who now wanted her dead. Better the devil you know than the angel you don't. She should have recalled that before hopping into Zefiro's car and letting him whisk her away to Italy. Maybe then, she wouldn't have started an affair with him. He was the only man who touched her right, and the crazy man took no small pains in ensuring he would be the last.
They don't know I'm a girl. They all look at me and see a boy. A prince. Their kind purchase humans like me for their lustful desires. And, when they stormed into our kingdom to buy my sister, I intervened to protect her. I made them take me too. The plan was to escape with my sister whenever we found a chance. How was I to know our prison would be the most fortified place in their kingdom? I was supposed to be on the sidelines. The one they had no real use for. The one they never meant to buy. But then, the most important person in their savage land-their ruthless beast king-took an interest in the "pretty little prince." How do we survive in this brutal kingdom, where everyone hates our kind and shows us no mercy? And how does someone, with a secret like mine, become a lust slave? . AUTHOR'S NOTE. This is a dark romance-dark, mature content. Highly rated 18+ Expect triggers, expect hardcore. If you're a seasoned reader of this genre, looking for something different, prepared to go in blindly not knowing what to expect at every turn, but eager to know more anyway, then dive in! . From the author of the international bestselling book: "The Alpha King's Hated Slave."
It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, but Carrie made the mistake of falling in love with Kristopher. When the time came that she needed him the most, her husband was in the company of another woman. Enough was enough. Carrie chose to divorce Kristopher and move on with her life. Only when she left did Kristopher realize how important she was to him. In the face of his ex-wife’s countless admirers, Kristopher offered her 20 million dollars and proposed a new deal. “Let’s get married again.”
Lucia Balstone thought she had chosen the right man to spend the rest of her life with, but he was the one who ended her life. Their ten-year marriage seemed like a joke when her husband stabbed her with a dagger. Fortunately, God is never blind to people's tears. Lucia got a second chance. She was reborn at the age of 22, before all the terrible things had happened. This time, she was determined to avenge herself and let those who hurt her pay! She made an elaborate list of her goals, and the first thing on her list was to marry her ex-husband's enemy, Alonso Callen!