Mr. Sterling, Your Ex-wife is a Famous CEO
Five years ago, Arabella Sterling vanished without a trace, disgraced, heartbroken, and branded her billionaire benefactor's dirty secret.
What the world never knew was that she'd also been his wife.
Or that the man she loved-and the son she gave everything for-chose another woman over her.
Now, she's back as The Reformer, a world-renowned business strategist celebrated for resurrecting dying empires.
Her newest client? The Sterling Group.
Her ex-husband's empire.
Adrian Sterling has spent years trying to atone for the lies that destroyed them both.
But when Arabella walks into his boardroom, colder, sharper, untouchable...he realizes redemption may come at a cost he can't pay.
Because this time, she's not here to save him.
She's here to ruin him.
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Chapter 3
The crowd pressed in around her, but Arabella barely felt them.
Everything sounded distant-like she was underwater.
Cameras flashed. Voices shouted. Her name echoed again and again.
But her mind was somewhere else entirely... stuck on the thought of bringing shame to what Victor cherished most-the Sterling name.
Her fingers trembled at her sides, cold despite the heat of the crowd.
A faint ringing filled her ears. Her heart thudded unevenly, like it couldn't decide whether to keep going or give up.
For once, she wondered, "How have I ever offended Serena?"
For Adrian and Catherine, she could fathom their hatred. It came from the company shares Victor had used to force Adrian into the marriage. And subsequently, his death.
But Serena was different. Yes, Arabella had loved him first, but he'd chosen Serena. He'd always chosen Serena
So why? Why was she bent on humiliating Arabella at every chance she got?
Arabella wanted to scream. She wanted to run... to just disappear.
But she couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't even breathe.
"Please stop!" Serena's voice cut through the chaos like a sword, bringing momentary silence to the room and snapping Arabella out of her daze.
Serena locked eyes with Catherine, whispering something between them.
Then she walked up to Adrian on the podium, gently rubbing his clenched fist. "Don't worry, Adrian. I've got you," she whispered.
"On behalf of the entire Sterling Group, I apologise for the disruption," she began, her voice calm, commanding, and convincing.
"I know there have been a lot of whispers surrounding us," she paused, linking hands with Adrian, who looked like he was barely recovering from the shock. "Especially since we've never publicly talked about our child."
She swept her gaze around the room before letting it land on Arabella, who was still trembling with fear. "Adrian and I had Axel through surrogacy, and Arabella helped us carry him."
Her words sounded so certain that Arabella doubted herself for a moment.
Then a reporter asked, "So why is Ms. Arabella claiming him as her son?"
Serena looked up at Adrian, who was already looking down at her, unsure of what she was planning.
She then looked at Catherine, exchanging a slight nod, before turning back to the reporters.
"It is with utmost regret that I announce Arabella Sterling has been mentally unstable for a while now."
Blood drained from Arabella's face as she clenched her dress tightly.
She looked up at them, and their gazes were already fixed on her.
The initial shock on Adrian's face vanished the moment he caught Arabella's gaze.
One corner of Serena's mouth lifted in a mocking curl, as if daring Arabella to correct her.
Murmurs erupted within the crowd-some critical, others filled with sympathy.
Reporters immediately followed with questions.
"Is this true?"
"Mr. Sterling, can you say a word about this?"
Arabella looked up at Adrian, her eyes filled with hope.
Maybe... just maybe he would say something in her favour.
But before he could open his mouth, a feminine voice cut in.
"Serena is right."
Catherine wheeled toward Arabella, drawing everyone's attention.
"After causing such a terrible accident that destroyed our family forever, Arabella has become more and more delusional by the day."
She looked directly at Arabella as she added, "Anything to steal the inheritance from its rightful owner."
The flashes intensified, as did the questions.
Everyone knew about the accident, but the accusations that followed were wild, adding fuel to the tension in the room.
"Mrs. Sterling, what do you mean by that?"
"How did it happen?"
Serena stepped forward, positioning herself just behind Catherine's wheelchair.
"Why don't you ask the gold digger who is trying so hard to seduce her own 'brother' and marry into the family that raised her?"
"Or better still," she paused, the curl on her lips unmistakable as she glanced from Arabella to the child beside her.
Arabella's eyes widened as she immediately understood what Serena was about to do.
"No... not Axel. Don't drag him into this..." her heart pounded violently
But her pleas fell on deaf ears.
"...ask my son who his real mother is."
Camera flashes exploded as attention turned back to Arabella and Axel.
Reporters shouted over one another.
"Ms. Sterling, how long have you been ill?"
"Young Sterling, can you tell us who your mom is?"
"Are you seducing your brother?"
The questions were endless, but no one seemed to care.
Arabella pulled Axel close, shielding his face from the flashing lights.
She was lost, barely gasping for air. The only thing stopping her from breaking down was the child in her arms.
Just as she felt herself about to collapse, Axel wiggled free from her grip.
Arabella's breath went shallow, her lips trembling as she tried to hold him back, but he moved away.
His eyes were red with tears as he stood amid the crowd. This was nothing a five-year-old should have to endure, yet none of the adults around him seemed to care.
"Axie," Serena called gently, though the smile on her face was strained and brittle.
His hands curled into the sleeves of his jacket, fingers disappearing as if he wanted to hide them, before he ran to Serena and wrapped his arms around her.
"That woman is crazy. She is not my mom," he said quickly, glancing over his shoulder.
Arabella felt the words strike her chest; sharp, precise, right where it hurt most.
The murmurs around the room faded into distant noise.
For a moment, she didn't move. Didn't breathe. Her body went still the way it did when something inside her cracked and she couldn't afford to let it show.
It was one thing for him to favour Serena at home, but to denounce her in public? She never thought she would live to see this day.
"Do you have no shame?"
"Are you after the company?"
The questions were cruel, the murmurs accusatory-and she stood in the middle of it all.
The noise overwhelmed her, her legs too weak to keep her standing.
Just as she started to lose her balance, Adrian's voice cut through the chaos.
"Enough!"
And it stopped.
The questions, the noise, the flashes- all fell into silence as Adrian pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of Arabella.
A glimmer of hope sparked in her eyes.
Maybe he was going to help her. Tell everyone she wasn't crazy, that Axel was their child.
"Adrian..."
Adrian turned sharply, lifting Axel into his arms before facing the crowd.
"I do not want to see pictures of my son or..." he paused, glancing over his shoulder, "...Arabella outside of this room." His voice was sharp and commanding. "This is our family's business, which I do not wish to make public."
Gavin Bush, Adrian's personal assistant, immediately stepped forward to address the crowd, though his eyes lingered on Arabella's trembling form for a moment longer than necessary.
Adrian then walked back to Arabella, leaning in close, his voice dropping to a whisper.
"This is where it ends, Arabella."
His tone was calm, but it sent a chill down her spine.
As she watched the two most important people in her life walk away, Arabella's vision blurred.
The floor tilted.
And then she was falling.
The sound of her body hitting marble echoed through the hall.
Adrian paused mid-stride. For one brief moment, his shoulders tensed.
He glanced back.
Their eyes met.
Then he tightened his grip on Axel and walked out.
And Arabella, lying on the cold floor surrounded by strangers and cameras, finally understood.
He was never going to save her.
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7.2
I am a resident surgeon, secretly married to Dr. Barrett Walters, the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery. It was a transactional marriage; he paid my mother's mounting medical bills, and I was his secret, obedient wife in the dark.
But at the hospital, he was a cold-blooded tyrant who deliberately made my life a living hell. During a major medical conference, he viciously tore apart my successful surgical repair, looking me dead in the eye as he called me incompetent in front of all my colleagues.
The humiliation didn't stop there. With his tacit approval, the senior residents bullied me, assigning me every brutal night shift. When his beautiful, wealthy heiress "girlfriend" visited the ward, he publicly mocked my background to make her smile.
"Some people get in through the back door. They're not fit for the front lines."
Even when I was forced to work as a secret banquet waitress to cover the medical copays he ignored, he found me, ruined the job out of pure possessive jealousy, and then fined my meager resident salary the very next morning just to show his absolute control.
I endured his punishing kisses and cruel rebukes, sacrificing my dignity just to keep my mother alive. But I couldn't understand why he had to destroy every shred of my peace. If he wanted the perfect heiress, why did he refuse to let me go?
Staring at his cold, controlling eyes in the stairwell, my exhaustion finally overpowered my fear. I was done being his victim, and it was time to tear up this contract.
7.7
Eva Brooks, a 25-year-old woman, was set up by her best friend. Her fiancé broke up with her and demanded compensation for allegedly cheating on him.
Eva had a one-night stand with the richest CEO in Dominic City, Ethan Owen. He was arrogant and offered her a job as his secretary.
As his secretary, Ethan couldn't shake his fondness for Eva. He became obsessed with her, worrying that she was cheating on him.
He broke up with his fiancée to become engaged to Eva, but will his fiancée let him go? Will Eva accept a relationship with her boss?
7.8
Andrea was trapped in a suffocating marriage with billionaire Gregory Morse, forced to live as the pathetic substitute for his dead fiancée.
When armed intruders broke into their estate in the dead of night, she called her husband in pure terror.
"Stop playing these cheap, attention-seeking games," Gregory sneered with disgust, and hung up the phone.
She barely escaped with her life, but the cruelty only escalated. At the family mansion, his dead fiancée's sister deliberately scalded Andrea's hand with boiling tea. Instead of defending his wife, Gregory publicly humiliated her, ordering her to clean up the mess while calling her a stray dog.
That night, hiding in the dark wine cellar, Andrea overheard a chilling confession.
Gregory admitted to his brother that he knew Andrea was completely innocent of the car crash that killed his fiancée. He knew she had been framed.
Why did he marry her? Just to use her as a psychological punching bag to vent his twisted grief. He watched her suffer every single day, treating her like disposable trash, while violently threatening anyone who showed her an ounce of kindness.
He thought she was just a useless, helpless shadow who would quietly endure his torment forever.
He had no idea that behind her submissive facade, she was secretly Madame Lan, the apex predator of the global fashion world. And now, she was ready to burn his empire to the ground.
8.7
Emerson worked grueling twelve-hour shifts just to keep her five-year-old son, Leo, alive. Her only lifeline was her partner Alden, who was willing to give up his wealthy family to protect them.
But when Leo's bone marrow completely failed, the doctor delivered a death sentence. The only way to save him was a two-million-dollar treatment, or having another child with his biological father.
That father was Finnegan Mcconnell, the ruthless billionaire who had accused Emerson of faking her pregnancy and abandoned her five years ago.
Desperate for the medical fees, Emerson submitted her designs to Finnegan's company.
Instead of advancing the money, Finnegan tore her portfolio to shreds and trapped her as a prisoner in his estate.
To force her complete submission, he systematically destroyed her reality. He framed Alden with federal charges, leaving him facing twenty years in prison.
Alden's mother stormed into the pediatric ICU, violently strangling Emerson against the wall.
"Beg Finnegan to let my son go! You are a curse!"
Even Emerson's own adoptive mother showed up at the hospital, just to publicly mock her dying child.
Emerson was suffocating in despair. Finnegan already had a beautiful new wife and a five-year-old daughter—absolute proof he had been cheating while she was pregnant and alone.
He had his perfect family. Why did he have to hunt her down and sever every lifeline she had left, just to watch her drown?
With her son's heart monitor fading and Alden locked in a cell, her pride finally shattered.
Emerson walked into the top-floor executive office and dropped to her knees at the devil's feet, but the desperate mother looking up at him was preparing for a devastating revenge.
7.5
I am the biological daughter of the wealthy Fitzpatrick family, but I spent my childhood eating out of dumpsters.
When I was finally brought back to the estate at age seven, I thought I would experience my parents' love.
Instead, my biological parents looked at my dirty clothes with raw disgust. They only cared about Hallie, the fake daughter who lived like a princess.
The moment I walked in, Hallie hurled a heavy ceramic cup at my head, slicing my hand open.
"Get out of my house!"
My father didn't even look at the blood. He raised his hand to strike me, accusing me of bringing trailer park rules into his home.
In my past life, I dropped to my knees and begged for their forgiveness. I endured their abuse, hoping they would eventually love me.
But they let the maids humiliate me, let Hallie steal my identity, and eventually threw me back onto the streets to die. Even my playboy Uncle Byron, the only person who ever showed me mercy, was driven to suicide by them.
I didn't understand why my own flesh and blood hated me so much, or why a vicious liar deserved everything while I was treated like a jinx.
Opening my eyes again, I was back on the exact day I first returned to the estate.
As my father raised his hand to hit me, I didn't cower.
Instead, I looked at the family patriarch and pointed directly at my notorious, alcoholic uncle.
"I want him to be my new guardian."
9.8
When I woke up on the muddy bank of the freezing river, I unlocked a brutal, unfiltered preview of my actual future.
For the past six months, I had been the town's ultimate joke, chasing after a city boy who looked at me like a diseased insect. Everyone thought I jumped into the river because he rejected me.
But the nightmare didn't stop there. In the future I foresaw, my entire family was destroyed. My eldest brother was handcuffed and dragged into a squad car. My second brother died in a pool of blood on the asphalt. My parents passed away from sheer grief and humiliation, and our farm was foreclosed.
Meanwhile, Bart Hawkins—my family's sworn enemy, the boy everyone accused of pushing me, but who actually jumped in to save my life—became a billionaire tech mogul. I ended up starving to death in a damp, moldy basement, completely alone.
I finally understood that I was just a pathetic, tragic side character meant to drag my family into hell. My own sister-in-law, Felicie, had been stealing our food and money, laughing at my misery behind my back.
But right now, my mother was still alive, my brothers were safe, and the farm was ours.
When Felicie walked into my bedroom, playing the devoted sister-in-law with a bowl of clear, meatless broth while a stolen roasted chicken thigh leaked grease through her apron pocket, I didn't play along.
"What's in your pocket, Felicie?"
This time, I was going to tear that horrific future apart with my bare hands.