My Death Was Just The Start
My wedding was tomorrow. I was a crisis counselor who had finally found peace with my loving fiancé, Dexter, and my best friend, Barbara.
A late-night call about a forced marriage led me to a hotel penthouse, where I found them naked in bed together.
It was all a cruel, three-year "savior game." They were bored heirs, and I was their project. They destroyed my career, caused me to lose our baby, and put my mother in the hospital.
They forced me to be a bridesmaid at their wedding-the one that should have been mine.
In front of hundreds of guests, they exposed my traumatic past and then tried to marry me off to a drunken stranger as a joke.
As I stood there, broken, a text from Barbara arrived.
"Your mother saw the livestream. She had a heart attack. She's not going to make it."
With nothing left, I ran to the 20th-floor window and jumped. They thought they had erased me. But my death was just the beginning.
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Chapter 4
Ella Robles POV
I awoke to the sterile scent of disinfectant and the dull ache in my head. My eyes fluttered open. I was in a hospital bed. Dexter sat beside me, his head in his hands. He looked up, his eyes bloodshot.
"Ella," he whispered, standing. He reached for my hand, but I pulled it back. My body felt heavy, bruised. The pain in my abdomen still throbbed.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice raspy.
He hesitated, then took a deep breath. "You... you lost the baby, Ella."
My world stopped. The baby. Our baby. Dexter and I had been trying for months. We had just found out last week. A tiny, precious life. Gone. The words crashed over me, suffocating me. I felt a scream rising in my throat, but no sound came out. My body trembled uncontrollably.
Barbara entered the room, a bouquet of lilies in her hand. She looked at me, a flicker of something in her eyes-pity? triumph? "It's for the best, Ella. You're not stable enough for a child. This is a blessing in disguise."
My vision turned red. "You!" I shrieked, my voice raw. I lunged at her, my hands reaching for her throat.
Dexter grabbed me, holding me back, his strength overwhelming. "Ella! Stop!"
"She killed my baby!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face. "She pushed me! She used me as a shield!"
"It was an accident!" Barbara cried, shrinking behind Dexter. "The crowd! It was chaotic! You fell!"
"Accident?" I choked, struggling against Dexter's grip. "You used me! You let me fall!"
Dexter tightened his hold. "You need to calm down, Ella. You're still recovering." He looked at Barbara. "Barbara, maybe you should leave."
"Wait, Dexter," Barbara said, stepping forward, her composure returning. "I'm willing to offer a settlement, Ella. For your… condition. A large sum. Enough for you to start fresh, far away from here." She looked at me with cold, calculating eyes. "And in return, you'll sign a non-disclosure agreement. You'll disappear. You'll never speak of this, or us, again."
My blood boiled. They wanted to buy my silence. To erase me. "I won't sign anything!" I screamed. "I won't disappear!"
Dexter' s face hardened. "You will, Ella. For your own good." He released me, his eyes cold. "Apologize to Barbara. Now."
"Apologize?" I stared at him, disbelief washing over me. "For what? For losing our baby? For being used and betrayed? For being pushed down the stairs?"
"For attacking my fiancée," Dexter said, his voice flat. "Apologize, or you'll regret it."
"Never," I spat. My voice was weak, but my resolve was solid.
Dexter's jaw tightened. "Fine." He turned to Barbara. "Let's go."
They left, their footsteps echoing down the hall. I lay there, shattered, the world a blur of pain and rage. My mother. I had to see my mother. She was in the cardiology ward, her heart condition fragile.
I forced myself out of bed, my body screaming in protest. The pain in my abdomen was excruciating, but the thought of my mother pushed me forward. I stumbled out of my room, clutching the wall for support.
As I reached the elevator, a shadow detached itself from the wall. A man stepped in front of me. His face was scarred, his eyes filled with a familiar, predatory gleam. My stepfather.
"Look what we have here," he sneered, his voice a low growl. "Little Ella. The good girl. Still causing trouble, I see."
My blood ran cold. The sight of him, his voice, triggered a cascade of terrifying memories. The fear, the helplessness, the years of abuse. I froze, my breath caught in my throat.
"Dexter found me," he said, enjoying my terror. "He paid me a visit. Told me all about you. Your rich boyfriend. Your fancy job." He grabbed my arm, his grip like iron. "He said you needed a reminder of your place. A lesson. And he offered me a nice sum to deliver it."
"Leave me alone!" I cried, trying to pull away. The pain in my abdomen flared, a sharp, stabbing sensation.
He laughed, a cruel, guttural sound. He punched me in the stomach. Again. And again. I crumpled to the floor, gasping for air. The pain was unbearable. I curled into a ball, trying to protect myself. It felt like I was back in my childhood bedroom, enduring the familiar torture. My body was numb, but my mind screamed.
"Ella!" A weak voice called out. My mother. She had witnessed the attack. She stood at the end of the hallway, her face ashen, clutching her chest. "Stop! Leave her alone!"
"Mom!" I cried, trying to reach her. My stepfather turned, his eyes narrowing. He grabbed a nearby IV stand and threw it at her. It struck her chest. She gasped, collapsing to the floor.
"Mom!" I screamed, a raw, primal sound tearing from my throat. I lunged at my stepfather, a surge of adrenaline overcoming my pain. I pushed him, clawed at him, anything to get him away from my mother.
He shoved me back, effortlessly. I fell, hitting my head against the wall. Dazed, I looked up. Dexter stood at the end of the hallway, watching, his face impassive. Barbara was beside him, a smirk on her lips. They sent him. They arranged this.
"Please!" I choked out, my voice broken. "Stop! Please! My mother! She's ill!"
My stepfather laughed, a triumphant chuckle. "That's better, little girl. Know your place." He kicked me one last time, a brutal blow to my ribs. "Dexter says, you'll be a bridesmaid at his wedding. And you'll keep your mouth shut. Or your mother dies." He pointed at my unconscious mother. "We have ways."
He leaned closer, his breath hot and stale. "And if you try anything, Ella, anything at all, your mother will pay. And you'll lose everything." He smiled, revealing yellowed teeth. "Understood?"
Tears streamed down my face. My body convulsed with silent sobs. I nodded, defeated. "Understood."
He turned, gave Dexter and Barbara a nod, and walked away. Dexter and Barbara watched him go, then turned their backs and disappeared down the hall. I lay there, broken, my mother unconscious beside me, the hospital corridor silent and empty around us, except for my own ragged breathing.
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9.7
Luna Elena Frost was never chosen, only assigned.
Bound to Alpha Alaric Ashbourne through a cold contractual marriage, she endures three years as a Luna in name only. He never comes home, never defends her, and never looks at her, while his heart belongs to another woman.
At his grandmother's funeral, Alaric publicly dissolves their marriage, humiliating Elena before the entire pack. In that moment, she finally understands the truth. She was never wanted.
But the Moon has not abandoned her.
A forgotten night resurfaces. Her long-silent wolf begins to awaken. And secrets buried within her bloodline start to surface, drawing danger from every direction.
Cast out by the pack that once used her, Elena must flee, survive, and uncover her true power.
Only then does the Alpha realize his mistake.
By the time he turns back in regret, the Luna he rejected may already be gone forever.
8.3
I was the long-lost Donovan heiress, finally brought home after a childhood in foster care. My parents adored me, my husband cherished me, and the woman who tried to ruin my life, Kiera Reese, was locked away in a mental facility. I was safe. I was loved.
On my birthday, I decided to surprise my husband, Ivan, at his office. But he wasn't there.
I found him at a private art gallery across town. He was with Kiera.
She wasn't in a facility. She was radiant, laughing as she stood beside my husband and their five-year-old son. I watched through the glass as Ivan kissed her, a familiar, loving gesture he’d used with me just that morning.
I crept closer and overheard them. My birthday wish to go to the amusement park had been denied because he’d already promised the entire park to their son—whose birthday was the same day as mine.
"She’s so grateful to have a family, she’d believe anything we tell her," Ivan said, his voice laced with a cruelty that stole my breath. "It's almost sad."
My entire reality—my loving parents who funded this secret life, my devoted husband—was a five-year lie. I was just the fool they kept on stage.
My phone buzzed. It was a text from Ivan, sent while he stood with his real family.
"Just got out of the meeting. So exhausting. I miss you."
The casual lie was the final blow. They thought I was a pathetic, grateful orphan they could control.
They were about to find out just how wrong they were.
7.8
Alexis signed the divorce papers, leaving her with no assets, no alimony, and just the clothes on her back.
To forget her abusive husband Carlos, she got drunk and bought a high-end gigolo for the night with her last 800 dollars.
But the man she slept with wasn't an escort. He was Jarrett Hughes, a ruthless billionaire CEO.
And while she was gone, her ex-husband was busy destroying her entire life.
Carlos framed her with fake photos of her cheating to justify the penniless divorce.
Then came the real nightmare.
Carlos and her own aunt secretly drained her family's corporate accounts, driving her father to jump off a building.
At the hospital, her grieving mother blamed her for the tragedy, violently attacking her in the ER.
To top it off, her cousin Josie—who was secretly sleeping with Carlos—held her father's ashes hostage.
"Crawl on your knees and pick it up, or the ashes go in the river," Josie sneered, throwing cash into the freezing slush.
Stripped of her marriage, her father, and her dignity, Alexis sat bleeding in the snow.
She couldn't understand why the people she loved most had coordinated such a brutal slaughter against her.
But Carlos and Josie made one fatal mistake.
They didn't know the "gigolo" Alexis had accidentally bought was the most powerful man in New York.
Alexis looked at the towering billionaire standing behind her, a vengeful fire burning in her eyes.
"I need you to get my father's ashes back," she said, pulling him into a kiss right in front of her ex-husband. "I don't care what it takes."
7.6
Kaylee's family was drowning in debt, and her stepmother locked her inside a freezing bedroom.
To save their bankrupt company, they decided to sell her off to a sixty-five-year-old man with a disgusting reputation.
They cut off her allowance and confiscated the only precious keepsake her dead mother had ever left her.
"Put on the engagement dress, or I will smash your mother's crystal box into a million pieces."
Terrified of the old man, Kaylee risked her life by jumping out of the second-story window into a violent storm.
She hit the muddy ground hard, twisting her ankle and tearing her skin on rusted iron gates as she escaped into the pitch-black night.
Dragging her bleeding bare feet across the cold sand, her lungs felt like they were filled with broken glass.
She didn't understand why she had to be the sacrifice for their endless greed, or how they could be so cruel as to hold her dead mother's memory hostage.
She had absolutely nowhere to go, and the old man's cars were already pulling into the estate to claim her.
Cornered by the blinding headlights of a motorcade on the beach, she threw herself at the feet of Ernest Blackwell, the most ruthless billionaire in New York.
"Marry me! You need a wife, and I need a husband right now!"
To buy her freedom and crush the family that sold her, she chose to sign a twenty-million-dollar fake marriage contract with the devil himself.
9.7
Eliana Rivera is the firstborn daughter of business tycoon Cassian Rivera. When her father's company falls into debt, he marries her off to the arrogant and ruthless billionaire, Alexander Grayson, as part of a business contract and under the threat of blackmail.
Alexander, the billionaire CEO, never planned to marry, but the pressure of blackmail forces him into a union with a woman he barely knows. Although Eliana doesn't see Alexander as her ideal partner, she agrees to the marriage out of a sense of duty.
Once engaged, however, he barely acknowledges her presence and harbours disdain for her because of her father's actions and their relationship. But as they navigate their newfound relationship, the unexpected desire for each other's touch ignites-a twist neither of them planned, leading them toward an unforeseen love.
9.7
"Sign it. You're no woman if you can't give me an heir."
Niamh gave Marcus two years of her life, her unwavering loyalty, and her silent love. In return, the billionaire CEO served her divorce papers and a one-way ticket to the gutter.
Cast out into a rainy night with nothing but the clothes on her back and twelve dollars, Niamh’s story should have ended there.
Instead, she stumbled on a stranger in the rain.
In an attempt to save him, he kisses her senseless. He is the last Lycan King standing, and a man of terrifying power, yet he is haunted by a seven-century curse.
When the king has a taste of Niamh in the pouring rain, he knew he had to keep her for himself, even though she was human and it was against the laws of their kind not to mingle with humans.
The King needs her essence and Niamh realizes she could use her body to get what she wanted; revenge on Marcus and his mother for humiliating her and making her waste her time.
Now, the woman Marcus discarded is rising as a global conglomerate queen and a Divine Enchantress as assigned by the Moon Goddess.
While her ex-husband’s empire crumbles into bankruptcy and his body rots with a shameful curse, Niamh is learning that being "claimed" by the King is much more than the contract she'd initially made with him.
He wanted to use her as his cure. She wanted to use him for her revenge.
But in the Lumina Realm, the Goddess has other plans.