He Chose His Ex, I Chose Vengeance
On the day I was supposed to marry Giovanni Moretti, he publicly declared I was his brother’s girl.
He called off our wedding at the last minute. His ex, Sofia, had amnesia after a car crash, her memory reset to a time when they were still deeply in love.
So he cast me aside in my wedding dress to play the part of her devoted boyfriend.
For a month, I was forced to live as a "guest" in the Moretti estate, watching him dote on her and rebuild their past, all while promising he would marry me as soon as she recovered.
Then I overheard the truth. Giovanni had the cure for her amnesia locked away in his safe.
He wasn't trapped. He was indulging, savoring a second chance with the love of his life. He was confident I was his property, that I would simply wait until he was done. He told his men he could have us both.
He used his brother's name to humiliate me. Fine. I would use his brother's name to destroy him.
I walked into the office of the true power in the family, Don Domenico Moretti. "Your brother said I am your companion," I told him. "Let's make it real. Marry me."
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Chapter 4
Isabella POV:
The whispers followed me like shadows, clinging to my skin. I kept my face a placid mask, my posture straight. Let them talk. Their words couldn't hurt me anymore.
The party reached its crescendo when a servant brought out a sky lantern. Sofia clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, Gio! It's beautiful. Let's make a wish together."
They held the lantern between them, their heads bent close. "I wish," Sofia said, her voice carrying in the quiet night, "that we can be together like this, forever."
She looked up at him, her eyes shining with adoration. "Kiss me, Gio," she whispered. The guests around them started to cheer, a chorus of "Kiss her! Kiss her!"
Giovanni's eyes flickered toward me for a fraction of a second, a hint of conflict in their depths. But the pressure of the crowd, the weight of Sofia’s expectant gaze, was too much.
He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
It wasn't a hesitant, polite kiss. It was deep and hungry. A kiss that spoke of years of pent-up longing. I saw his hand tighten in her hair, pulling her closer.
I couldn't watch. I turned away, the image burned into my mind, and started walking toward the darkness at the edge of the garden.
"Going somewhere, Isabella?" a sharp voice cut through the air.
I stopped. A group of Sofia’s friends, women I barely knew, had surrounded me. Their smiles were predatory.
"It's over," the leader, a redhead named Chloe, said with a sneer. "Can't you take a hint? Their love is fate. You were just a placeholder."
"You should leave quietly," another one added. "Don't make a scene. It's pathetic."
I said nothing. I tried to walk past them, but they blocked my path.
"Look at you," Chloe taunted, her voice dripping with venom. "So calm. You think you're better than us? Giovanni used to write Sofia poetry. He flew to Paris for a day just to buy her favorite macarons. He never did anything like that for you."
Her words were meant to be daggers, but my heart was already numb.
"He's done with you," Chloe hissed, her face close to mine. "And so are we."
She shoved me hard. I stumbled back. Another girl grabbed a glass of red wine from a passing tray and dumped it over my head. The cold liquid streamed down my face and soaked the front of my dress. Then, strong hands grabbed my arms and dragged me toward the ornamental lake at the edge of the property.
They threw me in.
The icy water shocked the air from my lungs. It was deeper than I expected. My heavy dress pulled me down, tangling around my legs like a shroud. I kicked and struggled, my head breaking the surface for a moment.
Through the splashing water, I saw Giovanni. He had seen the commotion. His eyes were wide with alarm. He started running toward me. For a second, a tiny, stupid flicker of hope ignited in my chest.
Then Sofia screamed. "Gio! Help! I slipped! My ankle!"
She was on the ground by the lake's edge, clutching her leg, her face a mask of pain. It was a lie. A blatant, manipulative lie.
Giovanni stopped dead. He looked from me, drowning in the lake, to Sofia, crying on the shore.
He hesitated for only a heartbeat.
Then he turned his back on me and ran to her.
The last thing I saw before the dark water closed over my head was the sight of Giovanni lifting Sofia into his arms and carrying her away from the lake, away from me.
I woke up in a hospital bed. The harsh smell of antiseptic filled my nostrils. A nurse told me one of the estate guards had pulled me out. I had almost drowned. My heart had stopped for nearly a minute.
Giovanni visited once, for five minutes. He stood by the door, looking uncomfortable. He said he was glad I was okay and that he had to get back to Sofia, who was deeply traumatized by the "accident."
The next day, Sofia herself came to see me. She brought a bouquet of cheap carnations.
"I'm so sorry about what happened," she said, her expression a perfect blend of innocence and concern. "Chloe and the others told me it was just a silly prank that went too far. They didn't mean for you to get hurt."
A prank. They called nearly killing me a prank.
"Don't worry about it," I said, my voice flat.
She perched on the edge of my bed, chattering away. "So, tell me more about your new fiancé, Dom. He seems so serious all the time."
"He is," I said.
She sighed dramatically. "It's so different with Gio. He's so passionate. I remember one time, he got into a fistfight with another guy just for looking at me for too long. He loves so fiercely." She smiled, lost in a happy memory, a memory that was a lie.
Her words were a confirmation of what I already knew. Giovanni was capable of a deep, all-consuming love. He just hadn't felt it for me.
"It's a shame I can't remember the accident," she said, her expression turning thoughtful. "Gio refuses to talk about it. Says it's too traumatic for me." She leaned closer. "What really happened that day, Bella?"
The question hung in the air between us. This was my chance to tell her everything. To shatter her perfect fantasy.
Before I could answer, the door swung open. Giovanni stood there, his face tight with alarm.
"Sofia, the doctor is here to see you," he said, striding into the room. He shot me a look, a clear, silent warning. Don't you dare.
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8.7
Bloodhoundhearts
8.7
Aiden is the Bloodhound the Council's most feared assassin, a vampire prince whose soul has been hollowed out by centuries of shadow and state-sanctioned slaughter. Elena is a Seer of the Vance line a woman of the mountain whose silver flame was meant to heal, not to spark a revolution. When their paths collide in the high spires of a corrupt capital, they don't just find love; they ignite a war that spans from the depths of the Sunken Vaults to the spectral currents of the Forbidden Coast.
Now, fleeing the ruins of a broken empire, they carry the ultimate secret: Caelum, a child of the Harmony. Born during a solar eclipse, he is the Third Way a hybrid heir with the power to either unite the warring forces of light and dark or become a beacon of chaos that levels the continent.
With the mechanical genius of a mad inventor, the iron will of a blacksmith's son, and the cryptic guidance of a five-hundred-year-old Oracle, Aiden and Elena must protect their son from enemies both ancient and new. From the obsidian breach-engines of the Council to the void-stained magic of Lyra, the first fallen Seer, the hunt is on.
In a realm where blood defines destiny, can a monster become a father? Can a healer survive the abyss? And when the choice comes to sacrifice half of his soul, will the Child of the Harmony have the strength to forge a new dawn?
8.1
My husband, Alpha Kaeden, once looked at me with adoration. But after he brought Clemmie home, his eyes turned cold, glazed over by the "herbal tea" she fed him.
Now, I lay chained to a steel table in the dungeon, the smell of my own burning flesh filling the air.
Kaeden stood over me, indifferent to my screams. He ordered the guards to electrocute me through silver cuffs—the poison of our kind—even though he knew I was carrying his pup.
But torture wasn't the end goal. I froze when I heard the doctor’s question.
"The transplant carries risks, Alpha. Taking a heart from a living donor..."
Clemmie didn't just want my husband; she wanted my heart to cure her "sickness" and steal my White Wolf power.
I waited for Kaeden to refuse. Instead, he rubbed his temples and delivered my death sentence.
"Harvest the heart. Dispose of the rest."
"And the fetus?" the doctor asked.
"Incinerate it."
Those words killed me faster than the silver. I died on the operating table that night, my heart flatlining for three minutes to stage my death.
Kaeden thinks I am ash in a jar. He thinks he saved his mistress.
But when I opened my eyes in the safe house, they weren't brown anymore. They were glowing silver.
Beside me, my daughter slept, alive and radiating ancient power.
The weak Luna is dead. The White Wolf has risen.
And I am going home to take back my pack.
9.6
For four years, I believed my fiancé, Damari, was fighting for us. I watched him endure his grandfather' s cruel punishments-exile, financial ruin, public humiliation-all because the old man supposedly refused to approve our marriage. I waited, believing his sacrifice was the ultimate proof of his love.
Then I found the real document hidden in his office. It wasn't a rejection. It was an approval, stamped and dated, with a tiny, forged "not" scrawled in different ink.
The entire four-year struggle was a lie.
When I confronted him, he crumbled. He did it for his obsessive assistant, Cydney.
"She can't live without me, Augusta," he pleaded. "She needs me."
My world collapsed. His devotion wasn't for me; it was a performance to appease another woman. All his "sacrifices" were just a cruel way to keep me waiting while he played the hero for someone else.
So when he abandoned me one last time to run to Cydney's side, I made my choice. I packed my bags, left New York, and started a new life, determined to never be anyone's second choice again.
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.
8.5
At 3:12 AM, a call from the NYPD shattered the silence of my dorm. My childhood sweetheart and the city’s golden heir, Liam Sterling, was in custody and needed me to bail him out.
I rushed to the precinct, trembling as I swiped my father’s emergency credit card for five thousand dollars, only to watch Liam walk out and head straight for another woman. He had landed in a cell because he’d started a brawl to protect Jade—a girl with pink hair and a jagged attitude—while I was just the "best friend" he called to clean up his mess.
In the backseat of the cab I paid for, I watched the man I loved pull her into his lap, treating me like an invisible chauffeur. When I finally demanded the truth, he didn't apologize; he reminded me that our families were tied by a multi-million dollar merger and that I was "like a sister" to him. My own mother echoed his coldness, telling me to stop being dramatic because our family was secretly bankrupt and we needed the Sterling money to survive.
I spent years being his "good girl," even recording a fake video for the press claiming he was a hero who fought to defend my honor. But the illusion shattered when I saw the photos of him with Jade on my birthday—the same night he told me he was working late to secure our future.
"I love you, Zoe. Like I love my dog. You’re loyal, but you’re boring."
I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was his shield. He used the trauma of the day he "saved" my life to keep me in his debt, never realizing that the chains of gratitude had finally snapped.
As the Sterling empire began to crumble under a sudden leak of scandals, I didn't run back to Liam. Instead, I looked at the encrypted message from his dangerous, outcast brother, Julian, who had been waiting in the shadows. He didn't just offer me a way out; he offered to buy my family's debt and claim me as the collateral.
7.3
What happens when you fall for the wrong brother?
Nicole's safe relationship with Liam begins to shatter after a forbidden encounter with his dangerous brother, Adrian, the same man who stole Liam's CEO position and became his sworn enemy. What starts as guilt turns into haunting desire as Adrian becomes obsessed with her, refusing to let her go. Caught between loyalty and temptation, Nicole is pulled into a ruthless game of power, betrayal, and forbidden passion where loving either of the brothers could destroy them all.