I Quit Being a Trophy Wife to Reclaim My Empire
My husband openly mocked me at a glittering gala, then touched another woman with the tenderness he once saved for me. That night, I ripped off the diamond necklace that felt like a noose, left my gilded cage, and vanished into the city. I was done being his trophy; I was ready to reclaim my life.
Elara Vance existed as Ethan Sterling's trophy wife, her brilliance suffocated by his glamorous, controlling world.
At a Met gala, Ethan's public flirtation with an intern and dismissive ""fix your face"" command shattered Elara. Her quiet ""No"" sparked defiance.
Elara abandoned her opulent life with a ""I quit"" note. Ethan froze her assets, expecting her return. Instead, Elara, using hidden crypto, plotted a return to academia as Ethan's desperate control escalated.
Injustice burned. Ethan saw only his reflection. His betrayal hardened into icy indifference, fueling a fierce resolve for freedom.
A symbolic snip of her long hair severed the past. Elara applied to Columbia, a scientist reclaiming her future from the gilded cage.
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Chapter 6
Elara sat in the back of a cab, her body trembling. The adrenaline dump left her feeling cold and nauseous.
Her phone buzzed.
Julian: I'm sorry about that. Are you okay?
Elara typed back with shaking fingers.
Elara: I'm fine. Thank you. For... everything.
Julian: Lease is in your email. Digital sign is fine. Key is with the super.
She closed her eyes. She had a home.
Ethan stormed back to his office. He kicked the door shut.
"Get Carter in here!" he screamed.
His assistant—a new one, since he fired the last one—scurried away.
Carter entered, looking wary. "Ethan, man, there's a video..."
"I don't care about the video!" Ethan paced, rubbing his bruised ego. "Who is that guy? That doctor. Find out everything."
Carter sighed. He pulled up a file on his tablet. "I already checked. Dr. Julian Vance. He's a tenured professor at Columbia Medical and the lead surgeon in Neuro-Trauma. He brings in more grant money than God. And yes, he's Elara's cousin's brother."
Ethan screamed in frustration and swept a Ming vase off the console table. It shattered into a thousand pieces.
"He humiliated me," Ethan seethed. "He stood up for her."
"Maybe you should let it go," Carter suggested softly. "The optics are bad, Ethan. #ToxicEthan trending."
"I am not toxic!" Ethan roared. "I am her husband!"
"Ex-husband," Carter corrected.
Ethan glared at him. "Not yet."
Elara arrived at the apartment in Queens. It was on the third floor of a brick walk-up. She unlocked the door.
It was small. A studio with a kitchenette. The floor was hardwood, scratched but clean. There was a single window that looked out over a fire escape, but if she craned her neck, she could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.
It was empty. Dusty.
She dropped her bag on the floor.
"It's mine," she whispered.
She didn't have furniture. She sat on her coat in the middle of the room. She opened her laptop and signed the lease. She transferred the deposit from her crypto wallet.
Balance: $12,400.
It was tight. But she had a job starting tomorrow.
Ethan sat in his office, watching the video on repeat. He watched Julian step between him and Elara. He watched Elara walk away.
He zoomed in on her face. She didn't look back. Not once.
Serena saw the video on TikTok. She was sitting in her dorm room, painting her nails.
She watched Ethan grab Elara's arm. She watched the intensity in his eyes.
"He's obsessed," she realized. "He doesn't care about me. He just wants to win her back."
She couldn't let that happen. She needed the Sterling name. She needed the money.
She picked up her phone. She messed up her hair. She pinched her cheeks until they were red.
She dialed Ethan. She forced a sob into her voice.
"Ethan?" she cried. "Ethan, please pick up!"
Ethan answered, sounding weary. "What is it, Serena?"
"I think someone is following me!" she lied. "There's a black car outside my dorm. I'm scared, Ethan. After what happened with Elara... I'm scared she sent someone!"
Ethan sat up. He felt a wave of annoyance. Elara wouldn't send anyone. But the press might. And if Serena got hurt on his watch, the PR nightmare would be catastrophic.
He rubbed his temples. He didn't love Serena. He barely liked her right now. But he had a role to play. The protector. The hero.
"Stay there," he said, his voice flat. "I'm coming."
He grabbed his jacket. He needed a distraction. He needed to be the hero again.
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7.8
On their wedding anniversary, Emma saw her husband holding a pregnant woman in his arms.
The man who once promised her forever spoke without emotion. "She's pregnant. Let's get a divorce."
With her mother-in-law and the mistress scheming together, Emma cut all ties and left without a second glance.
After the divorce, she shed the image of a plain homemaker.
Genius doctor, jewelry designer, secret hacker, lost heiress-Emma stunned all as she reclaimed her life.
Her ex begged for another chance, but Emma, now holding the richest man's hand, simply smiled. "Who are you again?"
8.9
I gave up my family's billion-dollar fortune to build a company from scratch with my college boyfriend, Bryant. I fought my father for him, believing our love was the one thing I could count on.
Then his childhood sweetheart, Kiley, came back to town, and I discovered the devastating truth: I was never his true love, just a convenient stand-in he chose because my smile reminded him of hers.
He moved her into his office, let her humiliate me, and even bought her a custom wedding gown in my name, trying to pass it off as an anniversary gift when I found it.
The night he came home smelling of her perfume and used his dead mother's memory to manipulate me, something inside me finally broke.
"You're all I have left," he whispered, holding me tight.
He thinks I'm the same naive girl who fell for his lies. But with my own family's empire now on the brink of collapse, I've already accepted an arranged marriage. And before I go, I'm going to burn his entire world to the ground.
9.7
Isla Hart has one priority: survival. Drowning in bills and personal struggles, she needs money, fast. So when Lucien Cross, a powerful and emotionally distant CEO, offers her a lucrative deal to pose as his fiancée, she accepts. The rules are clear: no emotions, no attachments, and no complications. It's strictly business.
Lucien Cross has built his life on control. Wealth, power, and influence are effortless to him-but love is a liability he refuses to entertain. With a critical merger at stake, a fake engagement is just another calculated move. Isla is meant to be temporary, a convincing presence by his side until the deal is secured.
But proximity has consequences.
As Isla steps into Lucien's world, she begins to see beyond the cold exterior, the loneliness, the pressure of his empire, and the past he keeps buried. And Lucien, despite himself, finds his carefully ordered life unraveling. Isla isn't just playing a role anymore. She challenges him, softens him, and awakens feelings he never planned to have.
When the truth behind their engagement starts to surface and old secrets threaten Lucien's empire, the line between contract and reality shatters. Isla is forced to face the one thing she promised herself she'd avoid: love.
Now, with everything on the line, reputations, power, and hearts, Isla must decide whether love is worth the risk. Because this time, love was never in the contract. And the fallout could cost them both everything.
9.7
Gemma expected the tearing agony of the bullet wound that had just ended her life.
Instead, her trembling fingers met the cool, smooth friction of heavy silk.
She stared into the mirror. Her face was flawless, completely devoid of the jagged scar that had marred her cheek for the last five years.
It was exactly ten years ago. The day of her engagement party to the ruthless billionaire, Brion Hubbard.
In her past life, her "best friend" Katelyn convinced her to run away with a scheming scumbag.
Katelyn claimed Brion was a heartless tyrant who would ruin her. Gemma had foolishly believed those fake tears.
That choice led to her family's bankruptcy, her brutal disfigurement, and ultimately, a fatal bomb explosion.
The only person who tried to save her was Brion, his blood-soaked body shielding hers from the blast.
She even realized too late that the strawberry cream cakes she always made for him were full of dairy.
He wasn't leaving to cheat on her. He was locking himself in a medical bay, fighting fatal allergic shock, just to accept a tiny scrap of her affection.
Gemma had been so incredibly blind. Why did she trust the venomous snakes who destroyed her, while hating the man who died for her?
Hearing Katelyn frantically knocking on the dressing room door, urging her to run away again, a towering hatred surged through Gemma's veins.
This time, she wasn't going to run.
She was going to expose the traitors, take back her family's wealth, and claim the tyrant for herself.
9.6
I was the devoted PR manager and secret girlfriend of A-list actor Vance Sterling for three years.
Just minutes after he promised me a romantic dinner, I caught him sleeping with a wealthy Los Angeles socialite.
When I confronted him, he didn't apologize. Instead, he mocked my status, froze my bank accounts, and left me completely homeless on the rainy streets of the city.
Blacklisted in Hollywood and utterly destitute, I ended up having a reckless, revenge-fueled one-night stand with the socialite's ruthless billionaire fiancé, Jory Elliott.
But my nightmare had just begun. My younger brother accrued a half-million-dollar gambling debt with a brutal cartel, and they threatened to chop off his fingers.
Jory stepped in and paid the ransom, only for my brother to beg the billionaire for more gambling money, calling me a selfish bitch for not milking him dry.
Then, Jory threw a marriage agreement at my face.
"Act as my devoted wife for two years, and I will wipe the debt and give you ten million dollars."
I gave my youth to an actor who discarded me like trash, and my own flesh and blood only saw me as a walking ATM.
Did these powerful men really think my dignity was just another corporate asset to be bought and traded?
I looked into the cold, calculating eyes of the billionaire who thought he owned me.
I threw the contract right at his chest and stepped out of his Maybach into the freezing rain.
I would rather rot in the gutter than be a pet bought with a checkbook.
8.5
Aileen transmigrated into a dark, unfinished novel as the villainous, abusive wife of a powerful billionaire.
The moment she opened her eyes, her husband's calloused hand was crushing her throat, and her six-year-old stepson was pointing a box cutter at her face, screaming for her to die.
A cold system voice suddenly exploded in her brain, forcing a mandatory mission: save the villainous father and son, or face immediate death.
To survive the system's strict Out-Of-Character warnings, Aileen had to keep playing the role of the deranged, hateful wife.
She was despised by everyone. Her husband threatened to drag her to an asylum, and her terrified stepson scrubbed the floor with his own pajamas just to avoid her wrath.
Things escalated when the novel's original female lead publicly framed Aileen in Central Park, throwing herself onto the grass and clutching her pregnant belly.
"She pushed me. She tried to hurt the baby!"
Archer rushed over, shoved Aileen aside with absolute disgust, and looked at her with the eyes of a murderer.
Aileen felt a bitter wave of exhaustion. She had discovered the original owner's hidden antipsychotic pills; the woman wasn't just evil, she was severely mentally ill and completely broken by this loveless marriage.
Yet, no one cared, and her husband would always choose to believe his childhood sweetheart's fake tears.
Since everyone in this world was convinced she was an unpredictable lunatic, she decided to give them exactly what they expected.
Aileen turned her back on the ridiculous scene, a cold smile forming on her lips.
She was going to stage a massive, undeniable psychological breakdown, using her "insanity" as the perfect shield to play the system and rewrite her fate.