Secret Wife is A Hero
I was Asset 7, a "ghost" kept in a high-security facility with no memory and paralyzed vocal cords. My only value was my silence, making me the perfect disposable tool for the world's elite.
Everything changed when I was sold to Culver Lancaster, a media billionaire drugged with a dangerous synthetic aphrodisiac. His staff needed a woman who couldn't talk, couldn't sue, and didn't exist in any official directory.
They scrubbed my skin raw like a piece of meat and threw me into a dark penthouse with a man who had lost his mind to the drug. Culver didn't treat me like a human; he choked me against a door and used my body as a shield against his own madness. When I tried to run, his security hunted me down with dogs, and Culver threw me into a freezing wine cellar. I spent days in total darkness, starving and dehydrated, lapping dirty water off the floor just to stay alive.
I lay on that cold stone, wondering why my life had become a series of cages and scars. I couldn't even scream to let the world know I was dying. How could a man claim to protect me while treating me like a disposable object?
But when Culver finally came to the cellar to feed me, I didn't surrender. I bit him hard enough to draw blood, watching the shock in his eyes as I communicated the only way I could.
Now, I wear the silk uniform and the velvet mask he bought for me, playing the role of his obedient "Shadow." Culver thinks he owns a broken girl he can lock in a velvet panic room, but I'm a weapon who just found her target. Every kiss is a reconnaissance mission, and I'm going to burn his empire to the ground.
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Chapter 4
The door opened, Julian stepped in, his gaze sweeping over the room. He noted the blood on the sheets, the smell of sex and sweat. His expression didn't change.
Culver was standing by the window now, wrapped in a black robe, looking out at the dark grounds.
"Clean this up," Culver said without turning around. "Take her to the Guest Cottage."
Julian paused. "Sir? The protocol is to return the asset to the facility."
"She's a mute," Culver said. "And she's... durable. Keep her."
Julian signaled to the guards in the hallway.
They entered and wrapped Arla in a wool blanket and carried her out.
They shoved her into the back of a golf cart, took her to a small stone house covered in ivy.
Julian followed, tossing a bundle of fabric onto the sofa.
"Maid's uniform," he said. "There are no personal items here, food will be delivered."
He stood by the door, his hand on the knob.
"Rule one: You do not leave this building. Rule two: You do not attempt to contact the outside world. Rule three: You are available when he calls."
Julian stepped out. The heavy oak door slammed.
Arla waited. She counted to sixty, then, she moved.
She dropped the blanket and stood up, the trembling in her legs was gone. She walked to the center of the living room and looked up.
Corner of the ceiling: a small red light. Camera.
Bedroom: another red light. Camera.
She walked into the bathroom, checked the corners. Nothing, the only blind spot.
She turned on the faucet, letting the cold water run. She splashed her face, scrubbing away the sweat and the smell of him.
A memory flashed-a man's voice, low and rough. Always leave yourself a back door, Arla.
Arla. That was her name, she held onto it.
She began to explore the kitchenette.
The drawers were empty of sharp objects, no knives, only round-tipped butter spreaders.
She opened the junk drawer.
There.
A single paperclip, wedged in the corner.
She palmed it instantly, she brought her hand to her mouth, pretending to cough, and slipped the metal clip under her tongue.
In the main house study, Culver sat in front of a bank of monitors.
"Dr. White says she was admitted a year ago," Julian said, reading from a tablet. "Car accident, traumatic brain injury."
Culver zoomed in on the camera feed from the cottage. Arla was curled up on the sofa, looking small and harmless.
"A car accident doesn't leave whip marks," Culver said. "Dig deeper, I want to know where she came from."
On the screen, Arla shifted. Underneath the cushion, unseen by the camera, her fingernail was scratching a map into the fabric of the sofa base-the layout of the estate she had memorized from the cart ride.
Culver pressed the intercom button.
"Sleep well, little mute," his voice echoed in the cottage.
Arla looked up at the camera, she gave a weak, trembling smile. Under her tongue, the paperclip pressed sharp against the soft tissue.
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8.4
Kloe Guthrie dragged her crystal-encrusted wedding gown down the penthouse corridor, exhausted but ready to finally be alone with her new husband, Justen.
But as she passed the presidential suite, a familiar, cloying perfume stopped her. Through the cracked door, she saw Justen brutally thrusting into her cousin, Candyce.
"Like fucking a corpse with Kloe," Justen grunted, his voice thick with lust. "Worth it for the trust fund control, though."
Candyce giggled, mocking Kloe's pathetic gratitude.
Shattered, Kloe stumbled backward in the dark, only to be caught by Julian Larsen—Justen's billionaire best man.
Instead of offering sympathy, Julian trapped her against the wall. He forced her to listen to her husband's cruel mockery, then dragged her into the opposite suite, tearing off her wedding dress and dismantling her dignity piece by piece.
Everything she had believed for four years was a meticulously calculated lie.
She was nothing but a boring prop to the man she loved, a naive fool meant to be drained of her family's immense wealth and laughed at behind closed doors. The humiliation and betrayal burned through her veins like acid.
"You could cry," Julian whispered against her neck, his eyes predatory and dark. "Or you could make him regret he was ever born."
Instead of running from the man cornering her in the dark, Kloe looked at the destroyed remains of her life, grabbed Julian's collar, and pulled him in.
This time, she would make them all pay.
8.3
Zarelle Feymere-heiress to the most powerful werewolf dynasty in the world-made one mistake: she fell for an Alpha who saw her as nothing more than a rare blood bag.
For three years, she endured the humiliation of a loveless mating, her veins tapped like a commodity to sustain the woman Calden Ashmoor truly loved, Thessaly. His fated mate, who rejected him to marry his brother.
When a web of lies and betrayal is uncovered, Zarelle does the unthinkable: she walks away.
Now, stripped of her disguise as a docile omega, the true daughter of the Missatian Pack returns to claim her birthright-and her revenge.
Calden always thought he'd married a nobody.
He never expected his discarded mate to come back as a queen.
7.8
She lost everything that day;
Her three years of marriage,
Her best friend's trust,
And her two weeks old baby.
...
"I want a divorce. I'm not in this marriage anymore." His voice dropped, as he moved closer.
'Divorce?' My world tilted.
"Yes, my lawyer will send you the papers to sign."
"No," I whispered, broken. "You can't be serious. Don't tell me you believed that lying bitch? This can't be happening. Not now. How could you bring this up today? We just buried my Papa a few hours ago, Lucian!" My voice was barely a whisper, alien even to my own ears, like my whole world was just, falling apart right there and then.
...
The price of Lyra Jones's love was everything.
She sacrificed her burgeoning career to become a devoted full-time housewife, only for her three-years marriage to Lucian White Jr. to explode in spectacular fashion.
On the very day of her father's funeral, a betrayal of shattering cruelty occurred: her childhood best friend, Aryan, delivered a fatal lie that cost Lyra her husband, her reputation, and tragically, her week-old pregnancy. Abandoned and utterly broken, Lyra fled.
Now she is back. Five years have passed, and Lyra has claimed her crown as the multibillion dollar CEO and Heiress of the Jones corporation.
She didn't return for closure; she returned for retribution. And she will not rest until Lucian is stripped of his empire and Aryan is exposed to the world.
They thought they buried the wife. Now, can they survive the CEO?
Start reading now to witness the most ruthless corporate revenge of the year.
7.2
My grandfather sold me to a man named Maverick to settle his gambling debts. I stood on the private platform at Union Station, a human payment waiting to be collected.
But he never came. An hour later, his assistant called to say the deal was off. I was told to disappear by morning or face the consequences.
My family blamed me for their ruin and threw me out onto the street. Homeless and disowned, I had no choice but to take a low-level job at Prosperity Group, the biggest investment firm in Chicago. I needed to survive.
I never understood why he rejected me. I had followed every rule, worn the red dress he demanded, and waited like a lamb for slaughter. Why would he agree to save my family only to destroy us at the last second?
On my first day, I was called into the CEO's office. The man behind the desk was Damien Maddox, the city's most ruthless billionaire. He looked at me with a chilling familiarity. He was the man who had bought me. And he was the man who had thrown me away.
9.4
Content Warning : This story contains mature themes and explicit content intended for adult audiences (18+) Reader's discretion is advised.
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An accidental act of heroism reshaped Sera's life entirely. She lost her sight saving the grandmother of a stranger. In return for her goodness, she was forced into marriage with the old woman's grandson, Lucian Vitale. He was a mysterious businessman with no interest in love, and as people whispered, colder than ice. Given her circumstances, Sera had no choice but to accept. She became his pretend wife, bound by contract. It was a kind of relationship she'd never imagined living.
Sera had never planned to fall for a man she'd never seen. But with every touch, every murmur from Lucian, she was slowly pulled under by longing and feelings that should never have taken root. In darkness, she learned to love-and to bleed.
Then came the day her vision returned. She heard a truth that shattered her world and tore at her heart. Frightened beyond reason, Sera ran and vanished. She carried a secret in her womb: the child of their passionate nights together.
Four years slipped by. A man stepped back into her life. Same voice, same scent, same way his hands found hers... but he did not know her. He had amnesia. Can Sera escape the man who once meant everything to her? Or is this fate's way of calling them back to settle what they began-in their beds, their hearts, and the secrets that still wait to be told?
Between lies, desire, and memories... will they choose each other still?
7.7
I sat in a Louis XV-style chair that cost more than my entire education, picking at the peeling leather of my thrift-store handbag. Across the mahogany table, Council Bartlett didn't even look at me; he just checked his watch, treating our marriage like a corporate merger that needed to be finalized before the market closed.
To the world, I was a gold digger hitting the lottery, but I was actually a woman with a secret I guarded more fiercely than a state secret. I had one week to show a social worker a stable home with a husband, or they would take my four-year-old nephew, Leo, and put him back into the system forever.
The ink was barely dry on our marriage certificate when my world started to fracture. My aunt called, screaming for help as her drunk husband broke into her house, forcing me to leave my new "billionaire husband" in my cramped Queens apartment to handle a domestic nightmare with a baseball bat and pepper spray. When I returned, smelling of cheap whiskey and sweat, I found Council’s mother—the ice-cold Hortense—waiting on a video call. She didn't just want a business arrangement; she wanted an heir, and she’d already sent a box of fertility drugs to my kitchen counter to prove it.
I was living a lie in a tenement building, caught between a man who treated me like a line item and a social worker who viewed my life as a "phantom." Council was sleeping on my lumpy sofa, his expensive legs dangling off the end, while I locked the bedroom door every night. I didn't want his money; I just wanted my boy. But how could I survive a war where the enemy lived in a penthouse and the casualties were measured in custody hearings?
Just as Council saw me holding Leo and the "Ice King" finally began to thaw, his phone buzzed with an anonymous threat.
"I know you're faking it. Pay me 100k or the press gets the story."
The blackmailer was someone inside the Bartlett estate, and the "shield" I had built for Leo was about to become our cage.