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
Share
Chapter 6
It had been almost four days since Scarlet met Ryan, and the encounter had occupied her thoughts continuously. As much as she acknowledged that accepting his offer was risky and embarrassing, she couldn't help but contemplate the potential benefits of his proposal.
If there was one thing she had to concede, Ryan was correct in identifying her as a scornful woman.
Since witnessing Emily and Henry's wedding, she has struggled to sleep well at night. Recurring nightmares haunted her, featuring the joyous exchange of vows between her sister and ex-husband, despite the profound betrayal it represented.
The emotional toll that the entire situation took on her was excruciating, especially since they showed no pretense of caring about her or her feelings. After seeing that she had become nonexistent to them, her desire to exact revenge on both of them and make them regret turning her into a laughingstock consumed her.
Ryan's offer proved to be tempting, presenting an opportunity for her to gain the power necessary to confront Henry and Emily. Since her own family had now abandoned her and she had no one else to turn to, Ryan seemed like her best bet at getting the payback she desperately wanted. And after days of contemplation, she decided it was time to respond.
Ryan had provided his business card for her to contact him, and she had concluded that peace was unattainable unless she sought revenge on her ex-husband and sister. Retrieving his business card from her bedroom, she made her way to the kitchen and picked up her phone to make the call. After a few deep breaths, she found the courage to dial his number. As the phone rang, each second felt like an eternity. Finally, the call was answered by a feminine voice, presumably Ryan's secretary.
"Good afternoon. This is the office of Mr. Marchetti. Who is this, and how may I help you?" the secretary inquired.
Exhaling deeply, Scarlet responded, "I'm Scarlet. Scarlet Parker. Mr. Marchetti had personally given me his business line to call him concerning a proposal, and I would like you to let him know that I'm ready to give him a response."
"Okay, madam. Please give me a second to confirm," the secretary replied, leaving Scarlet in suspense as silence enveloped the other end of the call. She nervously awaited the call to be transferred back to Ryan so she could convey her readiness to accept his marriage proposal.
She tapped her fingers nervously on the kitchen counter, hoping and praying that her delay hadn't caused him to change his mind about wanting to help her.
She knew for a fact that he wasn't doing it because he cared about her in any way. Regardless of whatever reason he had, he was offering her a position to become the wife of one of the wealthiest men in the country, and that wasn't an offer that came every day.
"Mr. Marchetti has agreed to speak with you, madam." The secretary's voice finally came back, and she let out a nervous sigh she didn't realize she was holding.
She couldn't be confident that he still wanted to help her, but she had to believe that he had agreed to speak to her because the offer was still very much open.
"Thank you," she said, but she wasn't even sure the secretary heard her since the line went dead, and she knew that her call had been transferred.
"Hello, Miss Parker." Ryan's familiar voice spoke next, and her breath hitched momentarily when she heard him speak.
For some reason, she was feeling a lot more nervous than she expected herself to be, unsure if it was fear of rejection or uncertainty about making the right decision.
She wanted revenge against Henry and Emily, but was marrying a stranger the right way to go about it? Would her decision turn out to be her worst mistake ever? What if Ryan's reason for wanting to marry her turned out to be more unbelievable than she expected? Could she go through with this in the long run? Was marrying him the only way to get back at the people who betrayed her?
All these thoughts plagued her mind, and she couldn't help the nervous feeling she had.
"Miss Parker? Are you still there?" His voice snapped her out of her reverie, and she sighed before returning her focus fully to why she had called in the first place.
"I'm calling you concerning the offer you made me the last time we met," she said, leaving the pleasantries aside.
She almost wanted to ask if the offer was still available, but she decided not to, not wanting him to think that she was desperate for his help.
"Okay. Have you made up your mind?" he asked, sounding calm and almost unbothered.
"Yes, I have. I..." she was saying, but he cut her off.
"Whatever your decision is, I promise that I'll respect it, but I don't think this is something that we should discuss over the phone. I'm going to send a driver to come pick you up later this evening. We'll have dinner together and discuss whatever needs to be discussed. Is that fine?" he interjected.
Although Scarlet didn't understand why they couldn't just talk about it over the phone, she realized that Ryan must have his reasons. Since she was seriously considering accepting his marriage proposal, having dinner with him seemed like a reasonable idea to get a glimpse of who he really was.
"That sounds just fine to me. What time is your driver going to be arriving?" she asked.
"Does 6 p.m. sound good enough to you?" he asked.
"It's perfect."
"Good. The driver will call you when he arrives, and I'll see you later this evening. Also, Scarlet, thank you so much for calling. I appreciate it," he expressed.
Even though she wasn't sure why he was thanking her when he didn't even know her response yet, she felt some kind of relief because it sounded like he hadn't changed his mind yet.
"You're welcome, I guess," she reluctantly replied.
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
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.