My Family Pretend Death For a Substitute She-wolf
Evelyn Whitman wakes from a five-year coma to a shattered world: her family has replaced her with Nina, a wolf they dote on, and her childhood mate Elliot now adores the newcomer. When Evelyn demands Nina's removal, a "tragic crash" kills her parents and Nina-or so she's told.
For three years, Evelyn drowns in guilt, enduring endless torment from her brother Ryan and Elliot, who blame her for the deaths. But a terminal cancer diagnosis and a chance glimpse of her "dead" family celebrating Nina's birthday reveal the horrifying truth: it was all a lie. They faked their deaths to break her, to force her to accept Nina.
With only months to live, Evelyn uncovers layers of betrayal, from Nina's malicious schemes to her loved ones' cold complicity. As her body fails, she must decide: surrender to despair, or exact a final reckoning?
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Chapter 2
Five years ago, I, Evelyn Whitman, got into a car wreck to save my family. Ended up a vegetable, trapped in my own body. Five years later, I finally woke up, but the world I knew was gone.
My parents, George and Marianne, and my brother Ryan had a new she-wolf in their lives-Nina Whitman, their adopted pup. They doted on her like she was the moon itself. Even Elliot Graves, my childhood mate, the wolf who swore we'd be eternally bound, couldn't take his eyes off her. They said they took her in because they missed me so much. But I couldn't stomach it. I demanded they send Nina away.
Big mistake. On the way to drop her off, a crash happened. My parents and Nina died on the spot-or so I thought. From that moment, Ryan and Elliot turned on me, their love curdling into hate. They blamed me, said if I hadn't forced Nina out, three lives wouldn't have been lost. They tormented me, punished me, and I let them. I thought I deserved it.
Three years later, I was a battered shell, my body broken and my spirit shattered. Then the healer dropped the bomb: late-stage cancer. One month left to live, tops.
But then, stumbling past a hotel, half out of my mind, I saw something that stopped me cold. There they were-my "dead" parents, Ryan, Elliot-all gathered around a table, laughing, celebrating Nina's birthday. She was glowing, a crown on her head, looking every bit the princess. I stood outside, frozen, like lightning had struck me.
Before I could process it, I overheard Elliot ask Ryan, "Evelyn's learned her lesson. How long are we keeping up this charade?"
Ryan smirked. "Let's tell her the truth on her birthday next month. Let her stew in pain a bit longer. Teach her not to mess with Nina again."
My mother sighed. "Evelyn's too stubborn. She needed this lesson to accept Nina."
My father nodded. "After this fake death, she won't dare cross Nina again."
My blood ran cold. It was all a lie. They weren't dead-they'd faked it to force me to accept Nina, to drown me in guilt and suffering. My parents, my brother, my mate-the wolves I loved most-had played me for a fool. All for her.
The kicker? I wouldn't live long enough to see their so-called mercy.
Inside, they were all smiles, but I couldn't watch anymore. I stumbled out of the hotel, my head spinning with the nightmare of the past three years. Every day, I'd drowned in guilt. I dreamed of that burning car, my parents screaming, Nina's terrified eyes haunting me. I took every punishment Elliot and Ryan dished out. I let Elliot choke me while snarling, "You killed them." I knelt in the memorial hall for three days and nights at Ryan's command. I wrote "I'm sorry" until my fingers bled.
But it was all fake.
I ran home, collapsing as I stumbled through the door, blood spilling from my mouth. In the bathroom, I hunched over the toilet, crimson mixing with tears. Shaking, I swallowed some pain pills and flushed the evidence. Then the door slammed open.
"You ignoring me now? Playing dead for who?" Ryan's voice was ice, his shadow looming in the doorway. "Trying to dodge your atonement again?"
Elliot frowned, eyeing me on the floor. "What're you doing down there?"
I looked up, numb. "What's my punishment today?"
They exchanged a glance. Elliot's voice was flat. "Go to Northside and get a cake for Lena."
I laughed, a bitter, broken sound. Lena-the she-wolf they brought home a month after Nina's "death." She looked just like Nina. Back then, I thought they were just clinging to a stand-in for their grief. Now I knew better. Lena was Nina. They didn't even bother changing her name much.
"Fine. I'll go," I said. I was too tired to fight, too close to death to care.
Northside's bakery had a two-hour line. I stood there, weak under the blazing sun, my vision flickering. The first cake I brought back? Lena said it was "too cold." The second? "Too sweet." The third? "Ugly shape." By the seventh, I finally got a "perfect" one, only to get hit by a scooter on the way back. The driver sped off, leaving me limping home, legs bleeding.
"Here's your cake," I said, handing the bag to Lena.
She opened it and screamed. "Blood! There's blood!"
Elliot and Ryan rushed in. Lena, eyes wet, threw herself into their arms. "Elliot, Ryan, if she didn't want to get it, she could've just said so! Why ruin it with blood to gross me out?"
Their faces darkened as they saw the stained box. "You did this on purpose?" Elliot's voice was a low growl.
I leaned against the wall, legs throbbing from the crash. "No. On the way back. I got hit by a scooter. The blood's mine."
"A crash?" Ryan sneered, stepping closer. "You think I'm an idiot? You're standing here, perfectly fine after a 'crash'?"
He grabbed my wrist. "Since you love lying, let's make it real. Boys, drag her to the lawn."
Two enforcers grabbed me, hauling me like livestock to the backyard. My knees scraped raw on the gravel path, but no one cared. In the center of the lawn, Elliot and Ryan sat in a black Maybach, the engine's roar like a death knell.
"Elliot, Ryan." I struggled to stand. "I swear-"
Before I could finish, the car gunned forward.
Crash!
Pain exploded through me. I flew through the air like a ragdoll, slamming into the grass meters away. Blood sprayed from my mouth, my vision fading to black as I passed out.
When I came to, the sharp sting of antiseptic burned my nose. My eyes fluttered open, the ceiling's fluorescent lights blinding me.
"How's she bleeding so much?" Elliot's hushed voice came from outside the room. "We barely tapped her!"
"Yeah," Ryan said, disbelief in his tone. "We controlled it."
The healer sighed, exhausted. "She's in the final stages of cancer. It's spread everywhere. That hit? It's only speeding up her end."
I lay there, the truth sinking in. My mate, my brother-they didn't know they were killing me faster. And I didn't care anymore.
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9.4
Ever since she could remember, Maya Connors has always been the smart, shy girl that sat at the back of the classroom. She tackled every task with a boundless zest, except when it came to boys and relationships. Being eighteen and never once had a boyfriend, she was adamant that it would stay the same until she graduated.
But sometimes, you have to expect the unexpected - such as falling for Ethan Morrison, a boy who was way too handsome and way too out of her league.
Despite coming from very different social circles, a school trip to Europe was all it took as to her dismay, she found him incredibly charming.
But when Maya ventures out of her shell and falls too deep, she realizes that it's too late to go back. With her heart laying on the line, she's about to face a whirlwind of emotions, drama, and secrets.
7.2
Blaire woke up in a Manhattan penthouse, her body covered in bruises and her innocence stolen.
Before she could process the terror, her adoptive sister Danita burst in, acting heartbroken and accusing Blaire of shamelessly seducing the powerful Kamryn Lane. Kamryn threw a one-million-dollar check at Blaire's bleeding face, calling her a calculating gold digger.
That night, Blaire overheard a conversation in the family study that shattered her entire reality.
"Once she gives birth to the Lane family's seed, we'll stage an accident, drain her blood, and transplant her healthy heart into your chest."
Her adoptive mother and Danita were celebrating the success of their trap. She wasn't an adopted daughter; she was a living organ bank and a disposable surrogate. Even her adoptive brother, Calhoun, knew everything, trapping her in the dark hallways with a sick, possessive obsession to ensure she never escaped.
The horrific truth suffocated her. The family that had taken her in had raised her like livestock for slaughter. How could they smile at her every day while planning to carve out her heart?
Terrified but burning with a desperate will to survive, Blaire swallowed a Plan B pill to ruin their surrogate plot and fled the estate. To get the money and power she needed to crush her adoptive family, she pulled out Kamryn Lane's business card. This time, she would make a deal with the devil.
9.2
I did everything for Damian, my childhood best friend. His promise-"Get in shape, Lena, and I'll take you to prom"-was the only thing that mattered. I starved myself and ran until I collapsed, all for the future he dangled in front of me.
But on his birthday, clutching the cake I' d baked, I overheard the truth. The promise was a cruel joke. To him and his real girlfriend, Gigi, I was just a "fat pig" whose desperate attempts to impress him were "hilarious to watch."
They didn't stop there. They framed me for bullying, and Damian publicly denied ever caring for me. He then got my Stanford scholarship revoked with a malicious report and stood by as Gigi plastered my most private love letters all over school.
I became a pariah, a "delusional, conniving bitch." The boy I had loved my whole life, the one who was supposed to be my protector, had orchestrated my complete and utter destruction for a laugh.
Yet he still expected me to follow him to college. So when he called on move-in day, buzzing with excitement for our shared future, I let him ramble on about our plans. Then, I calmly cut through his fantasy.
"I'm not here, Damian."
7.8
My mother was dying, her last wish to see the man I'd secretly married three years ago. But as I frantically called his phone, which went straight to voicemail, he was busy marrying my childhood rival in a lavish ceremony right outside the hospital.
He publicly denied knowing me, his wife of three years, the secret benefactor who built his entire tech empire from the ground up.
To humiliate me further, he allowed his new bride to broadcast a video of my deepest, most private trauma to all their wedding guests, dismissing my pain as "gossip."
My mother died heartbroken from his betrayal.
But they made a fatal mistake. They thought I was just a poor, pathetic wife they could discard.
They didn't know I was the anonymous, globally feared tech mogul they'd been trying to impress all along. And I just gave my second-in-command a single order: "Burn it all down."
8.4
For seven years, I have been the submissive commoner wife of Julian, the New York Mafia boss.
When he finally realized what he had ruined and stabbed himself with a dagger, begging for my forgiveness, I simply turned and walked away.
I endured his endless betrayals and cruelty for only one reason: he paid for my grandmother's life-sustaining treatment.
But while he was busy buying diamonds for his new mistress, the pressure of his emotional abuse caused me to lose our child.
His mistress broke into my grandmother's hospital room and threw explicit photos of her and Julian in my grandmother's face. My grandmother died from shock.
Julian knew nothing about this.
“Go home, Sienna. You’re pregnant. Stop making a scene, or I’ll cut off your grandmother’s medical bills tomorrow.”
When I found him, he arrogantly thought I was just throwing a tantrum.
He didn't know our child was gone.
He didn't know that my grandmother had passed away.
In front of all his men, I poured a glass of whiskey over his head, left the signed divorce papers on his table, and then boarded a one-way flight to Germany.
I will leave him forever.
9.8
She married the man who destroyed her family to find the evidence that would bury him. He married her to save a billion-dollar inheritance. Neither planned to fall , and neither planned to find out the truth would hurt worse than the lie.
Elara Vaughn is twenty-six, brilliant, and furious. When her father is arrested for a forty-million-dollar fraud she doesn't believe he committed, she does the only thing her forensic accountant's mind can construct: she walks into the office of the man the world says is responsible, and proposes a deal.
One year of marriage. She gets access to the executive archives that hold the real evidence. He gets a legal wife before his thirty-fifth birthday , the one condition standing between him and a hidden two-billion-dollar subsidiary.
Rowan Vale agrees. He is not a man who loses. She is not a woman who trusts. Their contract is airtight. Their chemistry is not.
But the ledgers Elara finds don't say what she expected. And the man she married to destroy is beginning to look dangerously like the only honest person in the room.
Some truths cost everything. Some people are worth it.