From Abandoned Stand - in to Triumphant Star
Anna Bruce, a struggling actress, meets William Hank, who offers her a deal: in exchange for her companionship, he'll provide her with acting opportunities.
Anna accepts, and over five years, they grow close, but William's long - lost love, Elizabeth, returns.
He abandons Anna, and Elizabeth frames her, ruining her career.
Anna goes abroad, works hard, and becomes successful.
William discovers Elizabeth's betrayal, tries to win Anna back.
After returning to her home country, Anna exposes Elizabeth, clears her name, and resumes her career.
In the end, while Anna forgives William, she decides to end their relationship......
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Chapter 2
Five years ago, in a cramped, less - than - ten - square - meter rental apartment.
The sky outside was just beginning to lighten when the alarm clock on the bedside started blaring like crazy, one shrill ring after another. Anna Bruce jolted awake from her sleep.
"Shit!"
She quickly reached up to steady her head.
Due to staying up late filming the previous night, her head was still groggy, and her eyes were sore and bloodshot.
But the moment she thought of her mother in the hospital bed and her younger brother still in school, she instantly sobered up.
"Anna Bruce, come on! You can definitely become an Oscar - winning actress!"
She carried out her daily pep - talk ritual in front of the chipped and blurry mirror.
She tried to force a smile, but the reflection showed a pale - faced girl with heavy dark circles under her eyes and bloodless lips.
On the film set, the sun was blazing hot that day, and the temperature was extremely high.
It made people feel dizzy.
At the moment, Anna Bruce, dressed in a palace maid's costume, was kneeling on the cobblestones...
Beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down her cheeks continuously, soaking her collar and back.
Ellen Lincon, wearing a gorgeous imperial concubine's costume and high - heeled flower - pot shoes, "clacked" towards her, her eyes filled with contempt and disgust.
"Greetings to the Imperial Concubine. May you live a long and prosperous life!"
Anna Bruce recited the lines as per the script.
Suddenly, "Slap!"
Ellen Lincon raised her hand and landed a hard slap.
"You slut! How dare you seduce the Emperor? I'll teach you a lesson!" Her shrill voice echoed on the set.
Anna Bruce's face was slapped to the side, and her cheek burned with pain.
A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of her mouth.
"Damn it!" The crew members on the set gasped.
They were all wondering why Ellen would hit so hard.
Hadn't it been agreed that they could use a fake - hit technique? Ignoring the pain, Anna Bruce was about to continue with the scene when Ellen said, "Director, I don't think my emotions were intense enough just now. How about... I give it another try?"
As she spoke, her eyes fluttered, sending a flirtatious look towards the director.
"Sure, Ellen. Get ready, and we'll shoot this scene again."
By now, Anna Bruce understood that the director was in cahoots with Ellen.
It seemed that the torment she was about to endure today was inevitable.
Ellen Lincon's delicately - made - up face was filled with smugness. She took a step closer and taunted, "You think you can compete with me for the role? Look at yourself! What do you think you are?"
Anna Bruce held back her tears.
She was in desperate need of money.
If she lost this role, she didn't know when she'd get another chance to be in a movie.
For the sake of her family, she had to swallow her pride.
The second time, the third time...
Ellen Lincon kept deliberately making things difficult, hitting her harder each time.
"What, can't take it anymore? If you can't stand it, get the hell off the set!"
Ellen sneered as she kept slapping.
Anna Bruce's cheeks were now swollen, blood was seeping from the corner of her mouth, and her body was swaying unsteadily.
Sensing that things might get out of hand, the director finally called out, "Cut!"
Anna Bruce stumbled to a corner of the set.
It was the actors' meal time.
She picked up the work - meal filled with cheap vegetarian dishes. Suddenly, she felt an intense sense of being watched, which sent a shiver down her spine.
She spun around and looked around, but all she saw were the busy figures of the crew members on the set.
Maybe she was just too tired these days and was hallucinating.
Ha! A nobody like her, who would pay attention?
Anna Bruce shook her head with a bitter smile, mocking herself...
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9.7
On my seventh wedding anniversary, my husband, Camden, publicly announced his affair with his much younger personal trainer, Kai. The video went viral before I even woke up.
But the real betrayal wasn't the affair. It was the sudden, horrifying realization that two years ago, he forced me to terminate our long-awaited pregnancy because it was "bad timing" for his new relationship with Kai.
He and Kai humiliated me in my own home, shattering the glass sculpture I'd spent months creating for our anniversary. "It's just glass," Kai sneered. "Easily replaceable." Camden then tossed the broken pieces into the trash, along with the last of my love for him.
Years of swallowing his betrayals, of enduring his cruelty, finally came to an end. The woman who once crumbled at his feet was gone, replaced by a cold, profound emptiness.
I watched him stand there, smug and triumphant with his new lover, completely oblivious to the storm he had unleashed. He thought he had broken me, but he had only forged me into something new, something unbreakable.
"Fine," I said, my voice a calm whisper that cut through his arrogance. "Divorce me."
This wasn't just the end of a marriage. It was the beginning of his ruin.
8.6
One touch, and I was lost."'
His voice was a whisper against my ear, his breath hot on my neck.
"He cannot touch you the way I do, Bella. He does not know your body like I do. You are mine. Every inch of you, every hidden place, every moan you make. And nothing, not even your mother, will keep me from owning this pussy."
His words burn against my skin, like a promise and a threat at the same time.
"You're mine. And I don't share."
*******
Isabella Moretti made one mistake.
One night that should have stayed buried.
One moment with the man she was never supposed to want; her stepfather, Damian Blackwell.
She runs to New York. A fresh start. A shot at her journalism career and a life where she can forget the way his hands felt on her body.
But Damian doesn't believe in letting go. Not when it's what he wants.
When her mother announces Isabella's engagement to her friend's son and asks her to come home to meet her new husband, she thinks maybe she's finally escaped. Until she sees her stepfather-to-be's face.
It's him. Damian Blackwell
Damian isn't just the man whose body she wants; he's hiding something dark enough that could actually launch her career into the world. Or destroy everything she's ever loved.
Now Isabella's trapped between impossible choices:
Her mother's approval, love and a "perfect" future
The man who owns every forbidden part of her soul
But some fires don't just burn.They consume everything.
A dark stepfather romance where the lines between ambition and desire blur beyond recognition.
8.5
I was cheated on by my scumbag boyfriend.
On the night I got blackout drunk, I married a stranger, and when I woke up, I only found a marriage certificate and a black card.
He took care of my scumbag ex for me, gave me a canary diamond ring, but refused to show his face-he only called me baby on video calls.
I ran to my best friend's house to hide, only to find that the billionaire next door, who made my heart skip a beat, had the exact same scent as him.
My best friend cried and begged me: "He's Augustus, a tyrant who eats people alive!"
But only I knew that the man who pressed me against the terrace railing, leaned down to kiss me, and whispered "I'll protect you" softly.
Fifty thousand dollars to sneak photos of his private office? I'll go.
Not for the money, but to ask him to his face-
Gus, how many secrets are you hiding? And how long have you been craving me?
7.8
I was the orphan Marcus Thorne took in. He was my guardian, my savior, and the man I foolishly fell in love with.
But when he caught me sketching his portrait, he didn't see devotion. He saw a mess.
He called my feelings "inappropriate" and told his fiancée I was just a "minor household issue" before shipping me off to Italy to get rid of me.
He thought I would pine for him. Instead, I erased him.
I blocked his number, deleted his photos, and sent him a check for every single cent he spent on me with two words: *Debt paid.*
Three years later, Marcus showed up in Florence. He looked wrecked, desperate, and furious that his "property" had walked away.
He tried to order me home. He tried to claim he finally loved me.
He expected the girl who used to worship him to fall into his arms.
But I looked at the man who broke my heart and felt absolutely nothing.
"You don't love me, Marcus," I said, stepping back into the arms of a man who actually valued me.
"You just hate losing."
And for the first time, I watched him crumble while I walked away.
9.7
After eight years of marriage, Claudia sacrificed her own treatment and gave up her dance career to save Dylan, leaving her with a permanent leg injury-and ultimately becoming a gilded bird confined beneath his wings.
She felt trapped like a cherished, yet confined trophy, enduring the cold intimacy of her husband, unaware that the man she spent blindfolded nights with was a beggar's stand-in. Dylan remained faithful to Nora, his true love suffering from a terminal illness.
Upon becoming pregnant, Claudia stumbled upon the truth. She discovered she had been deceived, and that her unborn child's umbilical cord blood was coveted for its potential life-saving properties. This revelation sparked her awakening.
With her father by her side, she embarked on a path of revenge, exposing Dylan's deception and the dark secrets of his company, leading to the freezing of his assets.
During this journey, Claudia reclaimed her passion for dance, underwent professional rehabilitation, and uncovered the truth behind Nora's feigned illness and her conspiracy to have Dylan harmed in the past.
As Dylan faced betrayal from all sides, his company went bankrupt, and he eventually lost his sanity. Nora ended up in prison, paying the price for her actions.
Claudia not only returned to the stage, shining brighter than ever, but also found unwavering support and true companionship with Greg.
Once deceived and hurt, she broke free from her shackles, experiencing a rebirth and renewal in both her career and personal relationships, opening a new chapter in her life.
9.4
I spent the night with a stranger...
Who got me pregnant...
And turned out to be my boss...
Whoops, sorry, did I say "boss"? I meant a MOB boss.
To be fair, I didn't know he was my boss when I slept with him.
I thought he was just the kind stranger offering me a place to stay.
But one night in Misha Orlov's hotel room got me way more than I bargained for.
It got me champagne that tasted like starlight.
Satin sheets as soft as a dream.
And a man with silver eyes who showed me how it felt to come undone.
And then, in the morning...
He was gone.
That's I needed to get my life together anyway.
After all, my ex-not-quite-husband (it's a long story) just emptied all our bank accounts and disappeared, taking my home and my money and my job with him.
So I'm starting from a blank slate.
I find myself a new apartment.
A new job.
And I put both Misha and my husband behind me.
At least, I thought I did.
Until Day 1 of orientation.
When I learn that Misha Orlov is my new boss.
That's bad enough.
What's worse is what came next.
A car crash.
A doctor's appointment.
And two pieces of unsettling news.
Congratulations, the doctor says. You're pregnant.
Congratulations, Misha says. You and I are getting married.