After Saving His Mistress, My Husband Left Me Crippled

The ground wouldn't stop shaking. I braced myself against the doorframe as another violent tremor rocked the hospital wing, dust cascading from the ceiling in fine streams. The magnitude-7.2 earthquake had struck without warning, transforming Seattle General's east wing into a crumbling deathtrap. "Dr. Hayes, you can't go in there!" The safety officer grabbed my arm, his face pale beneath his helmet. "The structural engineer says it could come down any minute." I shook off his grip, my stethoscope swinging against my chest. "There are still patients trapped in there. I can hear them." Through the chaos of alarms and distant screams, I could indeed hear faint cries for help beyond the partially collapsed corridor. My department wasn't even assigned to this zone—I'd been across campus when the first tremor hit—but that hardly mattered now. "At least take this." The officer thrust a hard hat into my hands, resignation in his eyes.

Chapters

Chapter 2

Consciousness came and went in waves. Each time I surfaced, the pain crashed over me anew—white-hot agony radiating from my spine. The weight of the beam crushing me made every breath a battle. I could taste blood in my mouth, metallic and warm. The dust from the crumbling ceiling coated my throat, making me cough weakly, each spasm sending fresh bolts of pain through my body.

My husband had left me here to die.

The thought kept circling in my mind, impossible yet undeniable. Michael's cold eyes flashed in my memory. The way he'd turned away, Amber tucked protectively against his chest while I lay impaled and bleeding. The betrayal cut deeper than the steel through my spine.

"Dr. Hayes! Victoria! Stay with me!"

James Carter's voice broke through the fog. His face appeared above me, features tight with determination. Sweat streaked through the dust on his forehead as he barked orders at the rescue team that had defied Michael's command.

"We need to stabilize the beam before we move her," James instructed. "Get me a backboard and a cervical collar. And where the hell is that portable ultrasound?"

"Dr. Michael Hayes ordered us to wait," someone said hesitantly.

"And I'm countermanding that order," James snapped, his usually gentle voice hard with authority. "This woman is dying. Move!"

I tried to speak, to thank him, but only a wet cough came out. James's eyes met mine, and he squeezed my hand gently.

"I've got you, Victoria," he said softly. "We're getting you out of here."

The rescue was a blur of pain and voices. I remember the agonizing pressure as they worked to stabilize the beam, James's constant reassurances, the terrifying moment when they lifted the weight from my body and blood rushed to fill the void. Through it all, one thought kept me tethered to consciousness: Michael had chosen Amber over me. He had left me to die.

By the time they carried me out on a backboard, a small crowd had gathered at the emergency bay entrance. Cameras flashed—the local news covering the earthquake rescue efforts. Through pain-blurred vision, I saw Michael pushing through the crowd, his face a mask of concern that didn't reach his eyes.

"Let me through! That's my wife!"

The rescue team had just set me down when Michael reached us. Without consulting anyone, he grabbed the end of the beam that still protruded from my back.

"Michael, don't—" James started to say.

But it was too late. With a swift, theatrical motion—perfectly positioned for the cameras—Michael yanked the steel rod from my body. The pain was so absolute, so all-consuming that I couldn't even scream. My vision whited out as fresh blood poured from the wound.

"She needs immediate surgery!" I heard James shouting, his voice distant through the roaring in my ears. "What the hell were you thinking? You've just caused secondary trauma!"

"I'm her husband," Michael replied coldly. "I know what I'm doing."

The last thing I saw before unconsciousness claimed me was Amber standing behind Michael, her eyes fixed on mine, the ghost of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

I woke to the steady beep of monitors and the sterile smell of antiseptic. Dr. Margaret Wilson stood at the foot of my bed, her formidable presence somehow comforting. The grim set of her mouth told me everything I needed to know before she spoke.

"The beam caused a near-complete transection of your spinal cord at L1," she said without preamble. "We've stabilized you, but the damage is extensive."

"Will I walk again?" My voice was a rasp, barely audible.

Margaret's eyes softened slightly. "I don't know, Victoria. The secondary trauma when the beam was removed..." She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.

"Michael," I whispered.

"Is not allowed in this room," Margaret said firmly. "Not after what he did."

I closed my eyes, letting the tears fall freely. Everything I had sacrificed for him—my position at Johns Hopkins, the invitation to London's Royal Hospital—all of it thrown away for a man who had left me to die beneath the rubble.

"Rest now," Margaret said, her hand briefly touching mine. "You're going to need all your strength for what's coming."

As I drifted back into medicated sleep, one thought crystallized in my mind: If I survived this, if I ever walked again, it wouldn't be toward Michael Hayes. It would be away from him.

Continue to next part

Raised by wolves, trained by bandits, forged in violence, she was a cold-hearted warrior, but forced to conceal her true gender to survive in the city of Los Angeles. Confined in an orphanage, she became entangled with Lucas Blackwood. Casey Angeles eventually found herself selected to be trained at the world's largest military training base (M base), an opportunity that seemed unimaginable given the base's policy of only accepting males. Lucas Blackwood, the director of the M base and the mysterious eldest son of the Blackwood family, is a legendary figure in both the business and underground worlds. But despite being a paragon, he has a secret illness that hinders him from getting close to a woman, so he has the greatest shock of his life when he encounters and discovers Casey's gender, yet His illness doesn't break out. What will happen when they both get entangled with each other and Lucas finds himself getting attracted to the disguised Casey? Will Casey's secret be discovered? Will her Cold heart eventually be thawed? Will Lucas forgive her deceit after finding out the secret? How did she not trigger Lucas's illness despite being a female?

Action Modern Mystery

8.4

Doctor's Terms for Redemption

8.4

The sharp smell of antiseptic and decay burned my nostrils as I dug through another bin of medical waste. My surgical scrubs—once pristine white—were now stained with unidentifiable smears of red and yellow. Five years of rigorous training had taught me to keep my composure under pressure, but right now, I was dangerously close to losing it. "Where is it?" I muttered, tossing aside a blood-soaked gauze pad. "It has to be here." The pathology report had been misplaced by a new intern—a rookie mistake that could cost my patient weeks of crucial treatment time. Without that report confirming the cancer markers, we'd have to start the testing process all over again. Mrs. Peterson didn't have weeks to spare. "You're contaminating yourself, Dr. Morgan," said Marcus Chen, the anesthesiologist who'd volunteered to help me search.

Action Modern Mystery

7.5

His Regret, My Unbought Freedom

7.5

My husband left me to die in a fire, choosing to save his mistress while I lost our baby in the flames. But my suffering had only just begun. He and his lover then tried to poison me, swapping my life-saving medication for tranquilizers. When that didn't work, he orchestrated a car crash that shattered my legs, leaving me crippled and helpless. His final act of cruelty was on his yacht. He watched as his mistress framed me, then locked me in a room with a group of thugs who left me for dead. I threw myself into the ocean that night, choosing the cold, dark water over the monsters on that boat. I survived. I rebuilt my life, found a man who cherished my broken pieces, and was about to get married. Then, August crashed my engagement party. He told me he'd destroyed his mistress and was giving me his entire fortune. He thought he could buy his way back into my life. He was about to learn that some things can't be fixed with money.

Action Modern Romance

9.4

My Boss's Costly Game of Love

9.4

For five years, I poured my soul into my career and my secret lover, my boss Hudson. But for the fifth time, he gave the promotion I bled for to my incompetent rival, Kaitlyn. My world shattered when I overheard him callously admitting our entire relationship was just a "cost-effective strategy" to keep me motivated without the director's salary. The humiliation didn't end there. He physically forced me into a deeper bow before Kaitlyn, re-injuring my back. When I finally quit, his revenge was swift: an assignment to a notoriously dangerous remote site. That night, I was brutally attacked. My desperate emergency call to Hudson went straight to voicemail. A notification later revealed why: he was on stage at a company party, singing a love duet with Kaitlyn while I was fighting for my life. The man I loved had left me to die. After I cut all ties and finally started to heal, he showed up at my parents' door, begging for forgiveness. This time, I wouldn't just walk away. I would make him face every lie he ever told.

Action Modern Romance

8.1

Platform Seven

8.1

At my father’s funeral, my childhood friend Larry drove his SUV straight through my father’s portrait, screaming, “Your father deserved to die!” A week later, I smashed his mother’s urn on the docks and told him, “So did yours.” He stole the money meant to save my mother’s life. I blinded his sister in one eye. For nine long years, we tore into each other, clawing and ripping until nothing was left but exhaustion. In the end, he fled to Northern Myanmar. I stayed behind as the city’s top bounty hunter—codename “Moon Goddess.” … The day of my father’s funeral, Larry roared up in a black SUV like a madman. He plowed through rows of white funeral wreaths, shattered my father’s black-and-white portrait, and finally—amid the screams—slammed hard into the coffin. The heavy casket lurched with a sickening scrape. My mother fainted on the spot. Standing in the wreckage in my black mourning clothes, I watched coldly as the red-eyed boy behind the wheel rolled down his window and gave me a cruel smile. “Ellie,” he spat. “Your father deserved to die.” I didn’t speak. I just stood there, calm, as his bodyguards dragged him out and pinned him to the ground, where he thrashed and roared like a trapped animal. A week later, his mother’s ashes were to be interred. I went to the docks alone. When no one was looking, I snatched the rosewood urn. Under Larry’s furious, wide-eyed stare, I ran to the windiest spot on the pier and hurled it down. *Crash.* Gray-white powder scattered, caught by the sea wind, vanishing instantly into the murky water. I looked straight at him and said, slow and clear, “Larry. So did yours.” That day, he tried to kill me. If his father’s men hadn’t held him back, I’d be fish food at the bottom of the sea. And so began our nine-year war. I’d denied his mother peace in death. In revenge, when my mother lay critically ill and desperate for money, he pulled the rug out from under us—stealing every last cent that could have saved her. I blinded his half-sister in one eye. So he arranged a car accident that put my mother in a wheelchair for life. We were like wild beasts, tearing into each other with the sharpest claws, leaving nothing but ruin and blood behind. Nine years. The war only paused when I was twenty-eight—the year he fled to Southeast Asia. I stayed in Seaport City and became its top shadow operator: the bounty hunter called “Moon Goddess.” On the surface, I ran a little dessert shop named Moonlight. And Larry? Once the golden boy of Seaport City, he remade himself as the most ruthless arms dealer in the gunfire and chaos of Southeast Asia. I thought we’d never see each other again. Until the Seaport City news reported that the infamous Mr. Larry—the man who’d raised hell across Southeast Asia—was coming home in style, fiancée in tow.

Action Modern Romance

9.7

Scarred Under Moonlight

9.7

She was never meant to be ordinary. From the moment she was born, every whisper of the wind and every flicker of the fire in her eyes foretold that she would be the first female Alpha in her pack's long history. A leader not only strong in body but unshakable in spirit. She grew up knowing that her path was destined to be great an Alpha who would lead her people with pride, protect her territory with honor, and carry the weight of her pack on her shoulders without faltering. She was strong. She was untouchable. She was unbroken. But destiny has a cruel way of testing the ones it favors most. On the night before her eighteenth birthday the sacred day when her wolf would finally awaken and her true power would rise her world was shattered beyond recognition. Under the pale glow of the moon, what should have been her moment of hope and transformation became a night of betrayal and violation. Scarred in both body and soul, she was torn apart by someone she thought was nothing more than a passing stranger, a mere human. A man whose face haunted her dreams and whose touch carved fire into her skin. But the truth is darker than she ever imagined. Her attacker was no ordinary human at all. He carried within him the blood of legends. He was the last heir of the royal Bloodline Pack a lineage older, stronger, and more feared than any other. His identity had been hidden by an ancient spell, a witch's craft woven so carefully that no wolf could scent what he truly was until the veil was lifted. And the veil was only meant to fall when the rightful heir was ready to claim his throne. That night, under the cursed moonlight, his secret was revealed. Now, bound to him by a fate she cannot escape, her scar is more than just a reminder of her pain. It is a mark of destiny, tying her to the one wolf she should hate most the Alpha Prince who broke her. But fate is crueler still, for her choice is not simple. She is hunted by enemies lurking in the shadows, packs hungry for blood, and secrets that threaten to consume everything she loves. The world around her teeters on the edge of chaos, and the burden of her choice grows heavier with every heartbeat. 🔥 If she rejects him, if she clings to her rage and allows her hatred to fester, she might break the bond. She might free herself from the mate who stole her innocence and scarred her under the moon. But the cost will be devastating. The packs will fracture. War will rise. And the ones she loves the ones she has sworn to protect will stand unshielded in the storm. 🔥 Yet if she surrenders, if she dares to yield to the bond she never asked for, she will be choosing the very wolf who destroyed her. To stand beside him as his mate, to embrace the Alpha Prince as her protector, means to accept the weight of his crown and his scars. It means sacrificing her revenge for the sake of safety, for the sake of the pack, for the sake of what she holds most dear. Under the moonlight, scars burn. They ache. They whisper of a night that should never have been. But love or revenge burns hotter. And in the end, she must decide which fire will consume her. Will she rise as the Alpha she was destined to be, or will fate's cruel hand twist her story into something darker? Only the moon knows. Only her heart can choose.

Action Fantasy Werewolf

After Saving His Mistress, My Husband Left Me Crippled

Chapter 2

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