He chose my stepsister. I chose his rival
Scarlet's world shattered the night she discovered her husband in her bed with her own sister.
The betrayal was brutal. The humiliation, unforgivable. And what hurt the most? Neither of them felt a single ounce of remorse.
Within months, her husband divorced her and married the very woman who helped destroy her life, her sister.
They thought she would break. They thought she would disappear quietly.
They were wrong.
Ryan Marchetti-cold, calculating, and dangerously powerful, has spent years waiting for the perfect chance to destroy his business rival. Marrying that rival's ex-wife is the ultimate move. Strategic.
For Scarlet, marrying Ryan isn't about love. It's about revenge.
A calculated alliance. A public statement. A promise that she will rise from the ashes they left her in. Together, they become the scandal that shakes empires.
But revenge is never simple.
Because behind Ryan's icy control lies a secret, one tied to her past, to her ex-husband, to the very marriage that ruined her life. A truth so explosive it could unravel everything she thought she knew.
Was she just a pawn in Ryan's war from the very beginning?
Or is the man she's slowly falling for capable of betraying her too?
In a game fueled by vengeance, power, and buried truths, Scarlet must decide:
Will she let betrayal destroy her again...
Or will she risk her heart for the one man who might truly love her?
Chapters
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Chapter 1
Scarlet POV:
It was already 10 p.m., and Henry had still not gotten back from work, causing me to worry. I tried to call him several times, but he wasn't picking up his calls, which made me very worried. He never took this long to pick up my calls, and whenever he had to stay out late, he would always inform me beforehand. I'm not one to overthink, but for some reason, I had a bad feeling that something wasn't right, and it made me restless. I made up my mind to head to his office. After driving for about half an hour, my black sedan car finally came to a halt in front of my husband's company.
I walked into the company and noticed that there weren't that many people around, but I had expected it since it was already past 10 p.m., and most of the employees would have gone home by this time, except the security guards.
I arrived in front of his office and slowly turned the doorknob, just in case Henry was busy in his office and didn't want to be interrupted.
"Ahh. Harder, baby. Keep pounding me right there!" I heard it as soon as I turned the door open halfway.
I froze on the spot, not wanting to believe that what I was hearing was real. I sharply inhaled and exhaled, pushing the door open further so that I could confirm whether or not I was really just hearing things or if what I thought was happening was happening.
I finally gathered the courage to push the door open completely, and my eyes grew ten times wider when I was met with the familiar faces of both my husband and my younger sister, having sex on his office table. They didn't even notice that I had walked in on them because they were too engrossed in having sex and moaning like two crazed people.
"Henry, Emily," I managed to call out.
Henry and Emily halted and turned their heads when they noticed someone had walked in on them. Henry had a surprised look on his face, as he wasn't expecting me to suddenly show up, but as for Emily, she had a nonchalant look on her face, almost as though she had been waiting for me to finally find out.
"Scarlet," Henry stuttered, pulling himself out of Emily, who let out a soft moan.
"What's going on here? What are you and my sister doing in your damn office?" I asked, saying the first words that came to mind.
"I...I don't know what to tell you, but I hope you understand," Henry responded, causing me to furrow my brows in confusion.
"W...what did you just say?" I asked, hoping I heard wrong. I was trying not to stutter, but I was too furious to help myself.
"Exactly what you heard. I know you're hurt right now, but this is something that you were bound to find out about sooner or later. It's high time you know that Henry and I love each other, and we hope you'll understand," Emily chimed in, not bothering to pretend to be sympathetic towards me, her sister.
I wanted to say something, but nothing was coming to mind, and I just stood there, replaying Emily's words over and over again in my head.
"Let me do the talking, babe," Henry whispered to her.
"What exactly do you want to say to me? What explanation can you give me for something so obvious?" I questioned, raising my voice a little more than I intended to.
"I know nothing I say will make you feel any better, but I need to be honest with you. Our marriage wasn't supposed to happen, and you know it. I forced myself into this marriage even though I loved someone else-your sister. We've been together for a while now," he confessed, his words like a dagger to my heart.
The urge to cry overwhelmed me, but I fought back the tears. "So, you're telling me that all this time we've been married, you and my sister have been together behind my back? Is that it?" I asked, my voice shaking with emotion.
"It's the truth. As painful as it is, your marriage with me was never real. My heart has always been with Emily. I hope you can understand that," he replied, his words like a final blow.
"I hope you two rot in hell," I muttered shakily before turning to leave. But Henry's last words made me pause briefly.
"I hope you find your happiness," he said, a feeble attempt at consolation. Enraged, I ripped off one of my heels and hurled it at him with all my strength.
"Damn you!" I screamed furiously, storming out of the office and slamming the door behind me. With only one heel on my foot, I walked back to my car and let out the tears I had been holding.
***
Three Months Later...
"I am at peace, I'm happy, I'm alive. I'm... I'm..." I paused.
"You're what, Scarlet? Keep going," Isabella, my close friend and therapist, encouraged. We'd been in her office for over half an hour, and I couldn't seem to finish that sentence past "I'm alive."
Therapy had become a lifeline for me in the last few weeks since my divorce from Henry was finalized. Isabella was the only person I could confide in.
"I get what you're trying to achieve, but I can't fake positivity right now," I admitted honestly, and she sighed.
"Can you tell me exactly what comes to mind when you think of your sister?" she asked, her gaze piercing.
"I hate her," I replied after a few moments of contemplation.
"Care to explain why?" she inquired, and I scowled.
"Why should that even be a question? I hate her because she betrayed me by sleeping with my husband," I retorted.
Bella sighed. "I need you to be very honest with me, Scarlet. Do you only hate her for the affair and betrayal, or is there something deeper fueling your anger?"
"I don't think any other reasons matter. It's all because of what she did with my husband," I snapped, not wanting to delve into unnecessary details.
"Let me ask you this, and be honest. Before the affair, has your sister ever done anything that made you almost hate her?" Isabella probed.
I sighed. "We're sisters. Of course, she did things that upset me, but I never hated her for it. We fought like siblings do," I replied.
"That wasn't the answer to my question. Has there been a time when you truly resented or almost hated your sister for something she said or did to you?" She pressed, and I hesitated.
"Emily and I grew up together. Two years after my mother died, my dad suddenly brought her mother into our lives. They got married, and she was born a few months later. We did everything together, but as we grew up, things changed. We stopped talking as much, and her attitude toward me shifted. She made me feel like I was to blame for my mom's death and said hurtful things about my appearance. I chose to ignore it because I loved her," I admitted, my voice wavering.
"Okay, I hear you. There's something I found out today, and I want to share it with you before you hear it elsewhere. It might be a shock, so stay calm," Isabella said, leaving me bewildered.
"What are you talking about? What's this news?" I asked, eager to know.
"You've been off social media, right?" she inquired.
"Yes, I deactivated my accounts, but what does that have to do with anything?" I replied.
"Take a look at this," she handed me her phone, and I glanced at the screen. The first thing I saw was a picture of Henry and Emily.
'Billionaire and business mogul, Henry Jones, set to wed Emily Taylor this Saturday!'
A surge of anger, disappointment, and embarrassment washed over me. Tears welled up, but I also felt an overwhelming desire to confront them.
"Can you believe this? It's only been a month since my divorce from that bastard, and they're already getting married," I exclaimed, my voice trembling and my eyes fixed on their picture.
"I understand you're upset, but please try to calm down," she advised.
"Don't tell me what to do, Bella!" I snapped, my anger misplaced. "Do you realize how painful it is that they didn't even consider me once and act like I never existed?" I said, my voice filled with pain.
Isabella sighed.
"So what will you do? Your anger is justified, but will it change anything?" she asked, and I chuckled bitterly.
"I won't let them get away with this betrayal. I won't sit quietly while they have their happily ever after," I vowed, my determination unwavering. "Thank you for trying to help, Bella, but my anger and pain won't subside until I see Emily and Henry pay for making me a fool," I declared, getting up to leave, but she stopped me.
"Don't let them have so much power over you," she urged.
"They already do, but not for long," I replied, gently removing her hand and leaving her office.
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7.1
Aria Graves was the perfect Luna.
After seven years of a marriage built on lies, She didn't break when the truth surfaced-she burned. Her revenge was clean and her rejection final.
But fate wasn't done with her.
To protect his own secrets, her father used her mother's life as leverage and forced Aria to take her sister's place, sending her to the Silverfang Pack as a living offering to their ruthless Alpha King, Damien Rothwell.
Cold, commanding, and scarred by war, Damien should have killed her. Instead, he claimed her.
Yet the King is not the only one who wants her.
His half-brother, Ethan Rothwell, once the blind boy Aria taught to read, now returns a man who sees her more clearly than anyone else.
Now Aria stands between two brothers-one bound by duty, the other by love.
In a world where loyalty bleeds and desire burns, she must choose: the Alpha King who could ruin her, or the brother who would burn the world to save her.
7.7
The Cameron family clinic smelled like lemon polish and impending death. For three years, I'd been a vessel in a cold, forced marriage to Underboss Kade Cameron. But today, the doctor's words would shatter everything.
"No heartbeat," Dr. Finch declared, then, "Stage IV gastric cancer. Terminal." A double death sentence. As the world tilted, a news alert flashed: Kade, my husband, parading his mistress, Carla Shaw, across Europe-"a love that defies family lines."
Dying and carrying his dead child, I overheard nurses gossip Kade wanted me gone for his "true love." I chose to feel the D&C agony, cleansing him from my soul. Stumbling out, Kade accused me of killing his child, then rushed Carla, feigning illness, to OB/GYN, ignoring my bleeding and dying state.
Back at the mansion, I vomited blood, my body failing. Kade watched with disgust, dismissing my terminal diagnosis as a "performance." He called me "collateral," a "debt payment," then left me for his mistress. The last shred of loyalty shattered, replaced by chilling clarity.
I signed the divorce papers he dismissed as a "tantrum," leaving his ring. No longer a Cameron, no longer his possession. With Fluffy, I made one call, choosing to die on my own terms, finally free.
9.2
For four years, I was the Silvercrest Pack's biggest joke—a scentless, wolfless Omega who somehow became the Alpha's Luna.
I thought I was just naturally defective, until our fourth anniversary, when I overheard my husband Adrian talking to his Beta.
"I’ve been having the kitchens slip a silver-based compound into her meals since the day I marked her."
He confessed the poison was meant to suppress my inner wolf and keep my womb permanently barren. He only married me as a power play to make his highborn mistress, Seraphina, jealous. While I wept over my empty cradle and apologized to his family for my broken body, he was using pack funds to buy her custom luxury goods, tossing me the leftover wrapping paper. When I finally confronted him about the silver and tried to leave, he flew into a feral rage. He violently smashed my head against the marble vanity, leaving me bleeding on the floor, and locked the bedroom door behind him.
I lay there in the cold, staring at the pool of my own blood. My entire life, my endless pain, and my unborn pups were nothing but a cruel, calculated joke to the man who was supposed to be my Mate.
But Adrian didn't know I wasn't just a brainless Omega.
I wiped the blood from my face, climbed down the balcony trellis into the freezing rain, and pulled out an encrypted burner phone.
"The cage is broken. Initiate Phase Two."
7.3
I was never supposed to step into his world.
I was just a daughter trying to survive the wreckage of a father's mistakes. A quiet girl living a small, careful life-until one night shattered everything I thought I knew about fear, power, and possession.
They say the mafia doesn't forgive.
They say debts are paid in blood.
They never warned me that sometimes, the price is a woman.
Luciano De Luca.
The name alone makes men lower their voices and avert their eyes. A king without a crown. A devil in a tailored suit. He rules the underworld with calculated brutality, commanding loyalty through fear and obedience through bloodshed. To him, mercy is a weakness-and love is a lie told by foolish men before they die.
Luciano is not a man you reason with. He is power, violence, and control wrapped in a deadly calm. A mafia king who destroys without mercy and takes without permission.
When my father fails to pay his debt, Luciano takes me instead.
I become his collateral.
His punishment.
His possession.
Trapped in his world of blood and secrets, I am nothing more than a reminder of betrayal-kept under his watch, bound by his rules, and stripped of every illusion of freedom. Luciano made it clear from the start: I am not his guest. I am not his lover. I am not free. I am his possession. He watches me like a predator studying prey-cold, assessing, waiting for me to break. He expects fear to reduce me to nothing. He expects me to beg. To submit.
But I don't.
And that defiance ignites something far more dangerous than hatred in him.
But somewhere between the locked doors and the whispered threats, I realize something dangerous: the man who owns me is far more broken than he wants the world to know.
Luciano De Luca is ruthless-but he is not heartless. He is controlling-but barely. And every time I challenge him, every time I look him in the eyes without flinching, something dark and volatile stirs beneath his calm exterior.
Luciano doesn't love. He claims. He controls. He owns.
Yet the more he tries to crush my spirit, the more obsessed he becomes. His protection turns violent. His control turns suffocating. His eyes follow me like a promise and a threat all at once.
He says I am his weakness.
His mistake.
His curse.
Yet when enemies circle too close, it is Luciano who shields me with his body. When danger threatens, it is his voice that growls warnings, his hands that tighten possessively, his presence that promises violence to anyone who dares touch what is his.
Because once a mafia king decides you belong to him...
escape is no longer an option.
I am trapped in a golden cage built from power, luxury, and danger-but the greatest threat isn't the guns, the blood, or the men who would kill for him.
It's the way Luciano looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching.
The way his control fractures when I'm hurt.
The way his name feels dangerous on my lips.
Because loving a mafia king is not a fairy tale.
It's a war.
A war between survival and desire.
Between freedom and obsession.
Between the girl I used to be and the woman his darkness is shaping me into.
The deeper I fall into his world, the more I uncover secrets buried beneath his cruelty-betrayals that made him this way, scars that never healed, enemies that would destroy us both if given the chance. And as the line between captor and protector blurs, I'm forced to face a devastating truth:
The man who owns my body may soon own my heart.
But loving Luciano De Luca comes at a cost.
Because in his world, love is a liability.
And the moment he chooses me...
is the moment he paints a target on my back.
Will I escape the man who claims to own me?
Or will I surrender to the darkness that refuses to let me go?
In a world ruled by blood, power, and betrayal, one innocent woman will discover that the most dangerous thing of all...
is being loved by a ruthless mafia king.
7.7
Reborn: Lord of the Undead Dominion
Tagline: When a legendary necromancer returns to his childhood, the world that betrayed him will kneel.
Once a peerless human powerhouse on the cusp of ascending to the 12th Rank, Royan met a brutal end at the hands of treachery during his final transcendence. But fate granted him a second chance-he awakens in his five-year-old body, with a century of arcane wisdom, mastery of necromancy and alchemy, and the burning fire of vengeance in his veins.
In the magical world of Amelia, where races rise and fall by a millennium-old cycle, humans defied destiny to claim dominance. Now reborn, Royan hides his ancient soul behind a child's facade, wielding unmatched spiritual power and forbidden knowledge to rewrite his fate. He'll protect his family from the shadows, gather loyal warriors and fearsome undead companions, and unearth the conspiracy that cut his first life short.
From summoning skeletal legions to forging legendary artifacts, from outwitting scheming nobles to challenging the gods of old-Royan's path is paved with blood, bone, and unyielding ambition. The world thought him fallen, but the Necromancer Lord has returned. This time, he won't just survive-he'll conquer the dominion that was stolen from him, and reign over Amelia as its undead sovereign.
If you crave fast-paced action, epic world-building, and a protagonist who turns weakness into strength with wit and overwhelming power, this dark fantasy saga is for you. Dive in and witness the rise of a rebirthed legend-where death is just the beginning of conquest.
9.5
On her second wedding anniversary, Andrea Reed discovers the ultimate betrayal.
Her husband wants a divorce. Her stepsister is his mistress.And the family empire she protected is nothing more than a prize they've been plotting to steal. Before she can fight back, Andrea is pushed off a cliff-pregnant, broken, and filled with regret.
But death isn't the end. She wakes up five years in the past. Her father is alive. Her inheritance is still in her hands. And the man who killed her is smiling like he's in love.
This time, Andrea won't be naive. She plays the perfect fiancée while secretly collecting evidence, turns traps into public humiliation. She lets her enemies destroy themselves from within.
And when a powerful, dangerously enigmatic billionaire-Samuel Kingswell-crosses her path again, Andrea realizes something even more terrifying than betrayal: In her first life, she chose the wrong man.
In this life, she will choose power and revenge, make them beg before they fall. Because this time, the woman they tried to kill is no longer a victim.
She is the hunter.