Scars of Betrayal: The Heiress They Tried To Erase
Kelsie's biggest regret in life was getting involved with Judge, the icy Captain. She pursued him for three years, married him for two, thinking she'd warmed a stone, only to be met with nothing. Her mother-in-law disliked her, her husband was indifferent, and a fragile "white moonlight" would occasionally try to get her attention. Until she witnessed Judge and Angelique meeting secretly at a hotel, her heart shattered, and then she discovered she was pregnant. Kelsie sneered, threw down the divorce papers, and decisively ran away, disappearing without a trace. When they met again, she was a successful single mother, surrounded by suitors. In the pouring rain, the once aloof man humbly stopped her car, pleading in a hoarse voice, "Kelsie, come home with me." The car window rolled down, and a little boy, nine-tenths like him, coldly warned in a cute but fierce tone, "Want to date my mommy? Ask me first!"
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Chapter 5
Judge sat up on the edge of the bed, wheezing slightly. He looked at Kelsie with shock, and then, slowly, anger.
"What the hell was that?" he rasped.
"Get out," Kelsie said, pointing at the door. She backed into the corner of the room, putting the armchair between them.
He stood up, straightening his uniform. He wiped his mouth, checking for blood. "Five minutes ago you were enjoying that."
"That was a physiological response," Kelsie spat. "That wasn't love. That was you manipulating me."
"I was trying to give you what you wanted!" he yelled, throwing his hands up. "You've been nagging me for a baby for years!"
"Don't you dare," Kelsie said, her voice low and dangerous. "Don't you dare act like this is a gift. You're scared. You're scared because I saw that text. You're trying to trap me."
"I am not trying to trap you!"
"Then tell me who she is!" Kelsie screamed. "Tell me who 'A' is! Right now! Unlock your phone and show me the messages!"
Judge went still. The air in the room grew heavy. He looked at Kelsie, his face closing down like a shutter.
"I can't," he said calmly. "It's a violation of privacy. It's police business."
"Bullshit!" Kelsie threw a pillow at him. It hit his chest harmlessly and fell to the floor. "HIPAA doesn't apply to you! You're a cop, not a doctor! Since when do witnesses text the Captain of the precinct about their pain at nine p.m.?"
"Since the witness is under extreme duress," he said, reciting the line like a script. "She's in a protection program. I can't compromise that."
Kelsie laughed. It was a hysterical, broken sound. "You expect me to believe that? You think I'm stupid?"
"I think you're paranoid," he said coldly. "I think you're letting your insecurities ruin our marriage."
The gaslighting was so blatant it was almost impressive.
"If I'm so paranoid," Kelsie said, "then divorce me. Let me go."
His eyes flashed. "Don't say that word."
"Divorce," Kelsie said clearly. "Divorce. Divorce."
He stepped toward her, his finger raised. "Stop it."
"Give me my phone," Kelsie said.
He stared at her for a long moment, his chest heaving. Then, he reached into his pocket. He pulled out her phone and her wallet, tossing them both onto the mattress. They bounced once.
"Sleep here," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Don't leave this room. We have dinner with Kara tomorrow. You will be there, and you will act like my wife."
He turned and walked out. He slammed the door so hard the frame rattled.
Kelsie slid down the wall until she hit the floor. She pulled her knees to her chest.
She didn't cry. She was done crying. She felt... hollow. Scraped clean.
She reached for her phone and turned it on. It buzzed with missed calls and texts from Kia.
I'm okay, she texted Kia. Pick me up in the morning.
Kelsie sat there in the dark, listening to the house.
The silence was absolute, a heavy blanket. The master bedroom was just across the hall. She crept to the guest room door, her heart pounding, and pressed her ear against the cool wood. His door must have been left ajar.
She held her breath.
Judge's voice came through, muffled but audible. The tone was different. It wasn't the cold, commanding bark he used with her. It wasn't the angry shout.
It was soft. Gentle. Almost pleading.
"I'm here," he was saying. "I know... I know it hurts... breathe... I'm coming to see you tomorrow... I promise... you're safe..."
Kelsie closed her eyes.
He wasn't talking to a witness. You didn't promise a witness you were coming to see them with that kind of tenderness.
He was talking to her. To A.
And in that moment, listening to her husband comfort another woman through a few inches of wood and drywall, Kelsie's heart finally, quietly, broke.
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7.9
Elena Crane wakes up in a hospital bed after barely surviving a resort fire, only to discover the devastating truth. The kidney she donated to her husband Leo three days ago wasn't for him. It was for his mistress, Lydia. Worse, she overhears Leo instructing a doctor to kill her within five days and make it look like surgical complications so he can collect two hundred million dollars in life insurance. Their entire five year marriage was an elaborate scheme to steal her organs and murder her for money.
What Leo and Lydia don't know is that Elena is actually Roberta Alfred, the legendary jewelry designer and billionaire heiress who abandoned her empire for love. After enduring multiple murder attempts, including being locked in a morgue and losing her uterus to forced hysterectomy, Elena escapes. She divorces Leo, claims the insurance money herself, and returns home to reclaim her identity and her family's billion dollar empire.
9.5
Janice had seen Karl's affection and felt his betrayal.
On their anniversary, while she was in pain and bleeding, Karl left her on the street to see his lover.
She bore it and tricked him into signing the divorce papers. "I want you gone!"
After divorce, she reclaimed her status as a billionaire heiress, with her three brothers doting on her and making her a rich darling.
When Karl saw what he'd thrown, he regretted it. He tore up the divorce papers. "I don't agree to the divorce!"
Declan moved through high society as an untouchable man. Janice avoided him, but they kept meeting.
At a party, her ex harassed her. Declan came and saved her.
She thanked him, only for him to whisper, "Don't thank me. Marry me?"
***
9.1
For ten years, Ran hid in the shadows as Hollywood star Jincheng Lu's secret girlfriend and assistant, starving herself to pay for his acting classes.
On their tenth anniversary, she sat in a cheap apartment with $9.87 in her bank account, watching him slide a massive diamond ring onto a wealthy heiress's finger on live television.
When she called the number she had memorized for a decade, she only heard a cold busy tone. He had blocked her.
Despair swallowed her whole. She forced down a handful of sleeping pills with stale whiskey and died alone on the cold bathroom tiles.
His mother found her rotting body three days later, calling her a "filthy bottom-feeder" before ordering a cleanup crew to dispose of her existence like industrial waste.
Jincheng didn't even ask if she suffered. He just ordered his PR team to digitally erase her ten years of sacrifice from the internet.
"Make sure the press release is airtight. She was an unstable former assistant. She had a history of mental illness. That's it."
Until her heart stopped completely, she didn't understand. She had abandoned her status as the hidden heiress of the wealthy Qin family to build his empire from the ground up.
How could he erase every trace of her without a second thought, using her corpse as a PR shield for his perfect new life?
Opening her eyes again, the sharp smell of hospital antiseptic burned her lungs.
She hadn't just died. She had woken up in the body of a notorious, D-list reality TV influencer who shared her exact name.
Looking at her new face in the mirror, a cold smile spread across her lips. She was going to tear his perfect life apart, piece by bloody piece.
9.8
I sat in the VIP waiting room of the fertility clinic, clutching the report that confirmed my implantation was a success. After years of struggling, I finally had a reason to make my marriage with Garnett work.
But when I went to find him in the lounge, I heard a woman’s laughter coming from behind the door. It was his mistress, Alison. I froze as I heard Garnett’s cold, dismissive voice.
"She’s just an incubator."
"Once the heir is born, we kick her out. The trust fund only requires a legitimate heir born to my wife. It doesn't require the wife to stick around afterwards."
The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. I soon discovered the clinic had botched the procedure—the baby I was carrying wasn't even Garnett’s. It was donor sperm from Sterling Sharp, the most powerful tech mogul in the world.
When my in-laws forced me to move into their estate for "monitoring," I realized I was entering a cage. Garnett and his mistress were paying the family doctor to inject me with hallucinogens to mimic a mental breakdown. They planned to declare me legally incompetent and commit me to an asylum the second I gave birth.
I stood in the shadows of the East Wing, realizing my husband wasn't just stealing my child—he was trying to delete my mind. The people I called family were poisoning me daily, waiting for me to break so they could claim a legacy that wasn't even theirs.
They wanted a madwoman, so I decided to give them one. I turned the doctor into my double agent, faked every symptom of a breakdown, and began building a secret empire from the shadows. Garnett thinks he’s trapped an incubator, but he’s actually locked himself in with a nuclear weapon.
8.0
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, mine didn't.
I came back with a marriage certificate bearing a stranger's name, a ring worth more than my parents' love ever was, and a son whose father I've never seen, never known, never remembered.
I went to Vegas for a racing competition. I won. I celebrated. And somewhere between the victory and the sunrise, my life changed forever.
For six years, I've lived with the consequences of one reckless night. I built an empire. I raised my son. And I searched for the man who changed my life without even knowing it.
Then fate laughed in my face.
My sister married my ex-fiancé-the man I was promised to since childhood. The man I was supposed to become Mrs. Windsor for. The man who now wears my family name... and looks far too much like my child.
Every time I'm near him, the past presses closer. Every glance feels like a question I'm terrified to ask. I shouldn't notice him. I shouldn't feel anything. He is my sister's husband.
But some secrets refuse to stay buried.
Because the truth about Vegas isn't just in the ring on my finger or the child in my arms.
It's standing right in front of me.
And when it finally comes out, it won't just destroy a marriage, it will burn an empire to the ground.
8.6
As the eldest daughter of the Sharp family, I was treated worse than a stray dog, while my younger sister Seraphina was their precious princess.
When the family needed someone to marry a dying billionaire heir, they naturally chose me to take her place.
To force my consent, my brothers held a peanut butter sandwich to my face—knowing it was a lethal allergy—while dangling my EpiPen just out of reach.
On speakerphone, my own mother sighed in annoyance.
"Let her die. It might be for the best."
I choked out an agreement just as my throat closed up. But the forced engagement broke my sacred mystical vow, causing me to violently cough up my own lifeblood.
Seeing the blood, Seraphina dramatically fainted. My brothers instantly carried her to the hospital, stepping over my dying body and leaving me to bleed out on the cold marble floor.
I had to use a forbidden blood rune, draining my last ounce of strength, just to survive the night.
Even the mystical Order I served offered no comfort, calling only to demand I secure ten billion dollars for them or forfeit my soul for eternity.
Abandoned by my blood family and my spiritual master, I was completely alone, left with nothing but a broken body and a ticking clock.
But they made one fatal mistake: they let me live.
I turned to the dying heir they forced me to marry, a man plagued by a dark curse only I could cure.
"I will be your wife, and I will save your life," I told him.
In exchange, I would use his unimaginable wealth and power to make everyone who threw me away pay the ultimate price.