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?
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Chapter 3
Scarlet used to think that she was someone who couldn't be angry for too long, but after the situation with Emily and Henry, she had come to realize that she had just never been in a situation where she needed to be angry for a long time.
Currently, she was watching Emily walk down the altar to where Henry stood with a massive smile on his face, and every fiber of her being was boiling with so much anger that she felt like she could explode at any moment.
She wanted to avoid standing out too much, so she made sure to wear something casual that wouldn't draw any attention to her because the last thing she wanted was to get caught in this place. She didn't even want to imagine the look people would have on their faces when they saw her there, attending her sister's and her ex-husband's wedding.
She knew she was already a laughingstock to many people, but she certainly wasn't ready to get caught and watch them laugh in her face.
The fact that nobody seemed to see anything wrong with what was happening here made her even more upset because it was public knowledge that he and she had just divorced four months ago.
Now all of a sudden, he was marrying her sister, and the typical moral police that usually saw a problem with anything and everything were quiet and supportive.
The hypocrisy!
When Henry and she first got married, she saw several news outlets and articles questioning her character and claiming that she simply married him because of his money, even when they had no idea how they got married in the first place. Their marriage happened so suddenly because neither one of them had expected that they were going to be getting married to each other. Because of this, everybody else assumed that she rushed the marriage because she was a gold digger who wanted to cement herself into his family and have a taste of his family fortune.
It was very upsetting at first because she didn't even want to marry him of her own free will, and yet, she was getting dragged by people who had no idea who she was over something that she had no control over.
She hadn't seen any article, not one, criticize the fact that these two people were getting married, and for every article that she had read in the last few days, they kept praising Emily and indirectly shaming her by writing that she was nothing like her because she was a genuine person who fell in love and helped Henry get out of his previously loveless and forced marriage.
How ridiculous, right?
So, right now, her father, who had walked her down the aisle about a year ago, to marry Henry, was walking her younger sister down the aisle to marry the same man that his first daughter had married not too long ago.
She was seated way behind, but she could see every one of her family members staring at Emily with massive smiles on their faces, and it reminded her of the day she was getting married and how they all had similar smiles on their faces like they were genuinely happy for her.
The situation just made her realize that they weren't happy that she was getting married; they were just happy because of who she was getting married to and how her marriage to him was going to elevate their status in society. It took her a while to realize it, but now she knew that the only thing they wanted was to keep Henry Jones as their son-in-law, even if he had to divorce one daughter to shamelessly marry the other daughter.
They didn't care what people thought, and people also weren't concerned with the weird situation because Henry's family was a big-shot family in the country, and no one would want to get on their bad side simply because of their unsolicited opinion.
Emily and her dad continued making their way down the aisle, and she just kept watching them with the feeling of emptiness and hurt growing inside her. After what felt like a decade, Emily finally arrived at the altar, and she watched her dad place her hand on Henry's with the same smile he had on his face on her wedding day.
"Dearly beloved," the priest started, "we're gathered here today to witness the lovely union of two wonderful people who are about to be joined in holy matrimony."
Hearing him use the words 'lovely' and 'matrimony' made her have the sudden urge to puke.
He kept going on and on about how God had brought them together and blah blah blah, and her eyes kept rolling continuously. She was pretty certain that anyone who saw her right now would think that she was a bitter witch who wasn't happy for them, and even though it was true that she was the farthest from being happy for them, she had very valid reasons not to be.
The more she heard him speak and the more she saw the reaction on people's faces, the more it dawned on her that everybody in this hall except herself was a bloody hypocrite because about 80% of the people here right now were also present for her wedding, and they were simply repeating the same reaction they had when Henry and she were getting married.
The fake smile, the fake gasp, the teary eyes, and the most common one of them all, the showering of comments on how they envy you, how they wish to be in your shoes, how beautiful you look, and how happy they are for you. The comments and the lies were just never-ending.
Bloody hypocrites!
"Now, you shall recite your vows to each other, promising before God and man what your partner will always mean to you," the priest encouraged, and her heart clenched a bit when she realized that she would have to hear him making vows to her sister, just a year after vowing to always be with her.
"I, Henry Jones, take you, Emily Parker, to be my lawfully wedded wife, my best friend, my companion, and the love of my life from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family, and friends, I vow to be a faithful partner to you, to love and to cherish you in sickness and good health, in the good times and the bad, to love and support you unconditionally and to respect you for as long as we both shall live," Henry recited and hearing it directly from his lips broke her heart even more.
It made her sad, but even more than that, she was mad because he didn't even put any effort into his vows. He repeated almost the same things that he said to her when they got married, and it pissed her off to realize just how much he didn't regard her or their wedding, that he even went ahead and repeated the same vows he made to her, to her sister.
"I, Emily Parker, take you, Henry Jones, to be my lawfully wedded husband. To love and to cherish you, to be with you through the good and the bad times, to support and encourage you in everything you do, and to respect and honor you for as long as we both shall live," Emily said in her vows, and she couldn't help but scoff at both of them.
Two liars, cheats, bastards, fools, idiots, and betrayers, that deserved to rot in hell were getting married, and she was unfortunate enough to witness such a disgusting event.
She could feel herself getting angrier and angrier, and she knew that was her cue to leave so that she didn't end up reacting in a way that would expose her because the last thing she wanted was for everybody there to find out that she also attended this sham of a wedding.
She stood up quietly after a while and proceeded to walk out of the hall. She bowed her head, carefully covering her face with the scarf over her head while walking briskly out of the place.
She had successfully managed to leave the wedding hall, but just when she was about to heave a sigh of relief that she didn't get caught, a hand grabbed her arm suddenly, and when she looked up to see who it was, she was met with the face of a man that literally almost took her breath away.
So angel-like humans exist? She wondered internally, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to be bolting out of there at full speed.
"Who-" she was about to ask after snapping out of it, but he cut her off before she could say anything else.
"Forgive my audacity, beautiful, but I'm going to have to ask you to come with me," he said in the most calm and respectful tone ever, and before she knew what was happening, she was getting pulled away by some strange guy.
Sadly, she couldn't scream for help because that would only call attention to her, and she'd get caught, so she had no choice but to allow herself to get dragged to heaven knows where.
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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.