His Betrayal, My Steel-Legged Return
The first time my husband tried to have me killed, he used our eight-year-old daughter as the bait.
After I discovered his affair with a woman whose college tuition I was paying, he staged our daughter's kidnapping to lure me into a trap.
I woke up in a hospital, my legs amputated, my womb removed, a permanent cripple.
My husband, Eugene, played the part of the grieving spouse perfectly, promising police he' d find the monsters responsible.
But I overheard him whispering to our daughter in the hallway.
"You were so brave," he praised her. "You made Mommy believe you were in danger. It was the only way to stop her from leaving us."
Her reply destroyed what was left of my soul.
"I like Brenna better anyway. She's prettier than Mommy."
They thought they had broken me, leaving me a shattered shell of a woman. So I let them believe it. I faked my own suicide and vanished. Now, three years later, I've returned. Standing on two legs of polished steel, I'm the CEO of a robotics empire, and I'm here to burn their world to the ground.
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Chapter 3
Evelyn POV:
A tense silence filled the room. Detective Miller's pen hovered over his notepad. Eugene's face froze, the mask of the grieving husband cracking for a fraction of a second.
Hollis, ever the performer, burst into a fresh wave of sobs. "It's all my fault!" she wailed, rushing to the other side of the bed. "I shouldn't have wandered off in the park! Bad men took me and then they hurt Mommy!"
"Shh, sweetie, no," Eugene said, instantly snapping back into character. He pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair. "It's not your fault. It's those monsters. Don't you worry, the police will catch them." He looked at the officers, his expression a careful blend of sorrow and paternal strength. "She's been through a terrible ordeal. She's blaming herself."
The detective's face softened with sympathy. "Of course. We understand. Young lady, you're a hero for getting your mom help."
The officers left soon after, promising to check back in. The moment the door clicked shut, Eugene's demeanor changed. The performance was over.
"What was that, Evelyn?" he hissed, his voice low and menacing.
I ignored him and looked at Hollis, who was still clinging to his leg, peering at me with wide, watchful eyes.
"Hollis," I said, my voice raspy. "Did the bad men hurt you?"
She shook her head, her lower lip trembling. "They just... they put me in a car. And they told me to call you. They said if I was a good girl and did what they said, they wouldn't hurt you too bad." She buried her face in Eugene's trousers. "I'm sorry, Mommy. I was so scared."
For a heart-stopping second, I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe this was all a terrible misunderstanding, that my daughter was a victim, not a conspirator. The maternal instinct to protect her, to absolve her, was a powerful, physical ache in my chest. But the memory of her words, "Brenna is more fun," was a wall of ice that instinct couldn't penetrate.
I looked away from her, back to the architect of my ruin.
"I'm not changing my mind, Eugene," I said, the words tasting like metal. "The divorce is happening. And you're not getting a dime."
His face contorted with a flash of rage. "Are you insane? After everything that's happened? You're still on about this?"
"Especially after everything that's happened." I held his gaze. "Sign the papers, or the first call I make when I get a new phone is to the foundation's board of directors."
"You wouldn't dare."
"The only thing I was afraid of was losing my daughter," I said, my voice hollow. "Now it seems she was already gone."
He flinched as if I'd slapped him. He looked down at Hollis, then back at me, his expression a mixture of fury and frustration.
"I have to go," he said abruptly. "I have... I have things to take care of. Business." He practically fled the room, dragging a confused Hollis with him.
Left alone in the sterile silence, I felt the full weight of my new reality crash down on me. My body was broken, my family was a lie, and my heart... my heart was a barren wasteland.
A few hours later, my new phone, a courtesy from the hospital, buzzed on the bedside table. A text from an unknown number.
Evelyn, I was so horrified to hear what happened. Eugene told me everything. I can't imagine what you're going through. Please know I'm thinking of you.
There was no signature, but I knew who it was from. Brenna. The audacity was breathtaking.
I just want you to know, a second text followed, that whatever you think is going on between me and Eugene, it's not like that. He's been a mentor, a friend. He talks about you all the time. He loves you and Hollis so much. He's just a good man trying to help a girl who came from nothing.
A good man. The words were so obscene I almost laughed.
You've done so much for me, Evelyn, the third text read. I owe you everything. I hate to see you treat him this way. He's been working so hard, trying to keep up with your family's expectations. You should appreciate him more.
I stared at the screen, a cold rage building inside me. This wasn't an apology; it was a power play. She was staking her claim, painting me as the ungrateful, hysterical wife.
I thought of the day I'd met her. She'd stood in my office, her cheap clothes clean but worn, her eyes burning with an ambition that was almost frightening. I had seen myself in her, a younger version, before life had softened my edges with privilege. I had wanted to give her the world.
And in return, she had helped my husband take mine away.
The fable of the snake came back to me, its fangs dripping with my own misplaced kindness.
My fingers trembled as I typed a reply.
Stay away from me. Stay away from my husband. Stay away from my daughter. The next time we meet, you will see a different woman.
I blocked the number and threw the phone onto the empty side of the bed, my heart hammering with a fury that was almost as painful as my injuries.
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8.8
To repay a debt, Elliana hid her real abilities and married into a powerful family, quietly helping her husband conquer the business world.
Three years later, he coldly announced, "She's back. We're getting divorced."
Elliana dropped the act. No longer willing to pretend, she stepped out as a legendary healer, a supermodel, the head of a global conglomerate, a top luxury designer, and a master restorer.
Her ex begged for forgiveness, but Elliana never looked back-she chose his far more impressive uncle instead. "You're just not worth it."
8.9
I leaned over her, brushing a kiss on her lips. "One last thing. Do you want me to gag you, or are you good?"
She tilted her head, smirking. "What, are you worried my moans might be too loud for your neighbors?"
I laughed outright. "Honestly? I don't give a damn how loud you get. In fact, I want you to be as loud as you want. The louder, the better and that means, I'm doing a good job." I winked, then moved past her, settling between her thighs.
*****
In a marriage reduced to cold silence, Lena Marsh's anniversary ends with an empty chair and a breaking point.
Then Adrian Blackwood steps in, her billionaire boss's dangerously seductive brother. His gaze strips her bare, promising to ruin her with slow, filthy touches that leave her trembling and soaked. One forbidden night, and she's addicted to the way he claims her body like it's his birthright.
But obsession has eyes everywhere. Her boss watches with possessive hunger, his stare dark and unyielding, and he wants her locked away from everyone, especially his brother. And when her husband Noah finally wakes up, he fights dirty to reclaim what he ignored, his renewed passion bruising and desperate.
Caught between three men who crave her in wildly different ways, a reborn husband, a reckless lover, and a controlling boss, Lena isn't just tangled in lust. She's the match. And when secrets ignite, she could burn their entire empire to the ground.
7.6
For three years, I was Keagan Steele's passionate secret, the "Wild Rose of Beverly Hills" who finally tamed the city's coldest billionaire. I thought our love was real, a quiet world built away from the glitz.
Then I overheard him call me a "placeholder," a three-year experiment until his true love returned. That true love? My vicious stepsister, Alba.
He abandoned me after a car crash, choosing to save her while I bled in the wreckage. He watched as my stepmother beat me with a horsewhip, even suggesting she use it to break my spirit. He even broke my wrist to give Alba a locket that belonged to my dead mother.
When a falling light fixture threatened Alba, he dove to save her, taking the hit himself. His body, shielding hers, was the final, brutal proof: I was nothing.
But as I lay broken, a chilling thought took root. If I was going to be the villain of their story, I might as well play the part. And this time, I would burn their world to the ground.
9.6
Five years ago, my fiancé, tech billionaire Jaxon Kent, went missing. When I reported it, I became the laughingstock of Seattle. The police told me his real fiancée was an actress named Kamila.
But I was the one living with him, hidden away in his coastal villa. I was his secret, his ghost, while she wore my identity for the world.
After a fall at the police station, a miracle happened: I regained my sight. The first thing I overheard was Jaxon telling a doctor not to let my vision be restored.
He said he' d fallen for my replacement. That a blind, dependent wife was better for him now that his substitute was pregnant with his heir.
He had built me a castle not to protect me, but to imprison me. He had given me the 'Eternal Heart' diamond, then sold our love for a cheap copy.
My life was a lie. My future was stolen. And the man I loved was a monster.
So I set the castle on fire. As the flames consumed the monument to my stolen life, I whispered to the inferno, "Your love is tainted, Jaxon, and I don't want it anymore."
8.7
I died in the terrifying plunge of Flight 815. But when I opened my eyes, I was lying in a luxurious bathtub, completely unharmed.
The door opened, and my husband Jordi walked in—looking fifteen years older, his eyes glacial. He pinned me to the wall, his thumb pressing against my windpipe, demanding to know who hired me to play his dead wife.
I managed to prove I was the real Isadora, biologically still twenty-eight years old. But my nightmare had just begun.
My twenty-three-year-old son Hector looked at my unaged face with pure hatred.
"Get this cheap replica out of my father's house, or I'll have him declared incompetent!"
My twenty-year-old daughter Blossom, now a spoiled stranger treating Jordi like a personal ATM, screamed at me over the phone.
Even Jordi's ambitious female colleague showed up at our estate, treating me like a temporary toy she could easily replace.
In the space of a single breath, I had lost fifteen years. My children had grown up without me, learning to hate instead of grieve. Now, they looked at their real mother as if I were a monster trying to steal my own inheritance.
But I didn't return from the dead just to be pushed out.
I put on my old green silk dress, stepped in front of the female executive, and smiled.
If they want to treat me like a threat, I'll fight them all to get my family back.
8.9
Warning: contains mature content
Elena has long harbored a secret crush on her enigmatic billionaire boss, Andrew Blake. One night in San Francisco turns a routine business trip into a forbidden, passionate affair.Back home, Andrew faces pressure from his family: if he doesn't marry before his stepbrother Matthew, he could lose the company. Determined to secure his inheritance, he offers Elena a contract marriage and she accepts.But life gets complicated. Matthew is her ex, his fiancée is her best friend, and a betrayal orchestrated with a scandalous video shatters Elena's world. Humiliated, she disappears, determined to build a new life away from Andrew and Matthew.Yet escaping a billionaire isn't easy. Torn between revenge and forgiveness, past and future, Elena must decide: can her heart truly heal before it's too late? especially when the truth about the betrayal surfaces?