Sold To The Shadow King: Reborn Revenge
My husband, Hansford Burris, told me tonight was the most important night of his campaign. He handed me a glass of champagne, his face a perfect mask of concern, telling me to drink up so I could relax before meeting the "Shadow King" of D.C. who could secure his political future.
I didn't know the golden liquid was laced with a high-dose sedative and hallucinogens. He hadn't brought me to this luxury hotel to celebrate; he had brought me here to be sold, trading my body to a stranger in exchange for a seat of power.
In my past life, I trusted him. I drank the poison, woke up shattered, and spent the next five years being tormented by his abusive mother and publicly replaced by his mistress. I was eventually cornered and murdered by the very man I had supported with my family’s fortune, my death staged as a tragic accident to gain him sympathy votes.
To him, I wasn't a wife or a partner. I was just an "asset" with a shelf life, a merchant’s good to be traded away. As the life left my body, I couldn't understand how the man who promised to love me forever could watch me choke without a hint of regret.
Opening my eyes again, I was back in the St. Regis Hotel on October 14th, exactly five years ago. Hansford was standing there in his polished Armani suit, extending the same glass of drugged champagne toward me.
"Gina, darling? Are you alright? Here. Drink this. It will help you relax."
Looking at his handsome, lying face, I felt a cold clarity wash over me. I wasn't the naive rabbit he remembered. I took the glass, but I didn't swallow a single drop. This time, I was going to burn his world to the ground.
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Chapter 5
Gina had just changed into a pair of slacks and a cashmere sweater when the door to her bedroom flew open.
Mrs. Higgins marched in without knocking. She held a ring of brass keys in her hand.
"Mrs. Burris," Higgins announced, her nose in the air. "Old Mrs. Berger has instructed that, for your own safety given your... mental state... I am to hold the keys to your room. You are not to lock your door."
It was the beginning of the imprisonment. In her last life, Gina had handed them over, weeping.
Gina sat at her vanity, brushing her hair. She watched Higgins in the mirror.
"Get out," Gina said calmly.
Higgins scoffed. "This is the Burris house. You do as you are told."
Gina spun around on the stool. She picked up her phone and tapped the screen.
"Mrs. Higgins," Gina said. "You've been employed here for twenty years. Your salary is $150,000 a year."
Higgins frowned. "What of it?"
"I have your tax returns here," Gina lied smoothly, though she knew the facts from the future audit that had happened in her previous timeline. "And I have the invoices from the catering company you use. You've been inflating the costs by 30% and splitting the difference with your nephew, who owns the company. That's about $500,000 in embezzlement over five years."
Higgins' face drained of color. The keys jingled in her shaking hand. "That's... that's a lie! Mrs. Elberta trusts me!"
Gina stood up and walked toward her. "Also, the three cleaning staff you hired last month? They are undocumented. You're paying them below minimum wage and pocketing the rest. That is a federal felony, Higgins. Human trafficking, tax fraud..."
Gina stopped inches from the woman's face.
"If I call the IRS and ICE right now, do you think Hansford will protect you? Or will he throw you to the wolves to save his campaign?"
Higgins backed away, hitting the doorframe. Sweat beaded on her upper lip.
"Vesper," Gina called out.
Vesper stepped out of the walk-in closet, holding her phone. "911 is dialed, ma'am. Shall I press send?"
Higgins' knees gave way. She slumped against the wall. "No! Please, Mrs. Burris! Don't!"
The commotion had drawn attention. Two maids were peeking down the hallway, eyes wide.
"I can be generous," Gina said, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. "Pack your bags. Leave the estate within the hour. Tell Elberta you have a family emergency and you are resigning effective immediately."
"But..."
"One more word," Gina hissed, "and you will spend your retirement in federal prison."
Higgins dropped the keys on the floor. She scrambled up and ran down the hall, sobbing.
Gina looked at the maids down the hall. They quickly lowered their heads.
"Vesper," Gina said, loud enough for them to hear. "Pick up the keys. You are in charge of the household staff now."
"Yes, ma'am." Vesper bent down and retrieved the keys. "Effective leverage. Legal threats are cleaner than violence."
"Violence has its place," Gina said, turning back to her room. "But fear is sustainable."
From downstairs, Elberta's voice shrieked up the stairwell. "Gina! Get down here this instant!"
Gina checked her reflection in the mirror. She looked perfect.
She opened the top drawer of her vanity and took out a small glass vial. It was a relic from her past, a concentrated caffeine extract tucked into the lining of her emergency medical kit-a gift from her doctor father she'd always carried. Harmless to most, but to an elderly woman with a known heart arrhythmia, it was chaos in a bottle.
She slipped the vial into her sleeve.
"Showtime," she whispered.
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8.0
She only wanted to save her brother.
He only wanted an heir to secure his empire.
A contract bound us.
A heartbeat changed us.
I thought the ruthless Alpha was the devil in a tailored suit.
Instead, he became the man fate chained me to... the one my body recognises before my heart will ever dare.
But power demands sacrifice, and love was never part of our deal.
He promised protection, not affection.
I offered my womb, not my soul.
Now I carry his child...
And the secret of who I really am could destroy us both.
7.1
The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen.
My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive.
The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest.
I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman.
But Chelsea wouldn't stop.
She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property.
I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength.
As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run.
Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan.
"She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."
9.2
My world shattered twice. First, the ocean claimed my son. Then, the mountain road took another, a direct sacrifice to the man I loved and the woman he chose. In the hospital, beeps marked the emptiness where my second son used to be, echoing the first loss, both involving Holden and Giana.
During the car crash, I was pinned, bleeding, and trapped. Holden, my partner, looked me in the eyes, then chose to save Giana, abandoning me and our unborn child.
Soon, I overheard Holden praising Giana for turning our tragedy into a PR win. His hollow apologies and focus on Giana’s "miracle work" reignited the brutal memory of her push and his past denials.
A decade of sacrificing my life and two children for a man who saw me as a liability left a bitter taste. His choice was clear; only profound abandonment remained.
But this time, I was choosing me. From my profound loss, a dangerous spark ignited: I would not just survive; I would find freedom and make him pay.
7.3
Clara came home from a fourteen-hour board meeting to the sound of a piercing scream in the playroom.
When she rushed in, she found her husband, Chadwick, kneeling on the floor in a panic.
But he wasn't looking at their five-year-old son, Leo, who had a massive bleeding welt on his forehead.
Instead, Chadwick was trembling as he held the nanny's daughter, Autumn, who barely had a microscopic scratch.
"She needs ice. And antibacterial ointment," Chadwick snapped, carrying the nanny's daughter away and leaving his bleeding son behind.
From that moment, the nightmare only escalated.
Chadwick ordered Clara to cook a three-hour meal for the nanny's kid, threw away Leo's favorite toys because Autumn sneezed, and even secretly took the nanny and her daughter on Leo's promised Disney trip.
The final humiliation came at the Met Gala.
Right before their sponsor speech, Chadwick received a frantic call from the nanny claiming Autumn was having a panic attack.
He abandoned Clara in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, sprinting out of the ballroom.
Clara stood completely alone, the humiliation eating through her veins like acid.
She couldn't understand how a father could call the nanny's kid his "little princess" while watching his own son cry.
Why was he treating his own flesh and blood like garbage just to play savior to another woman's child?
Suddenly, the blinding camera flashes were blocked by a massive shadow.
Erasmo Chase, the heir to New York's largest financial dynasty, stepped out of the darkness and shielded her.
"A man like that is unworthy of your grief, Ms. Best," he whispered, pressing a silk handkerchief into her trembling hand.
Looking at the sharp profile of the powerful man beside her, Clara's shock hardened into a lethal, cold fury.
She was going to dump her family's shares, crash the board, and make Chadwick lose absolutely everything.
8.8
Mate's VENGEANCE
8.8
To destroy him, I've traded my pride for a maid's uniform.
My plan is simple: infiltrate his estate, seduce him into breaking his royal engagement, and lead his enemies to his doorstep. I want to see his pack burn. I want to see the light leave those storm-grey eyes as how he did to my mate
8.8
My little boy died on the operating table during a minor, routine surgery.
That exact same night, my billionaire husband bought out the Hudson River for a massive, million-dollar fireworks show.
It wasn't to mourn our child. It was to celebrate his first love's son being discharged from the hospital.
When I confronted him with our son's death certificate, he sneered and accused me of hiding the boy to get his attention.
He held his mistress in our home, watched her fake a panic attack, and threatened to bankrupt my family if I didn't get on my knees and apologize to her.
But the most horrifying truth came from a terrified hospital nurse.
My son's anesthesia was deliberately kept low during the procedure to keep his tissue viable to save the mistress's child.
He was awake and in agonizing pain while his own father planned a grand celebration for another man's son.
I couldn't understand how a father could be so completely heartless.
How could he sacrifice his own flesh and blood just to please a woman who constantly manipulated him?
Looking at the ashes on my son's favorite toy, my paralyzing grief evaporated, replaced by a cold, unyielding rage.
I arranged my little boy's funeral alone in the freezing rain, left my wedding ring on the counter, and walked straight into the private hotel suite of my husband's most ruthless business rival.
"Let's take him down," I said.