The CEO's Ex-wife Has Multiple Identities
Anna Hendrick experienced the devastating loss of a pregnancy.
Her decade-long devotion to Ethan Smith led her to abandon her university studies in her second year to become his wife. For three years, she dedicated herself to their marriage, working tirelessly. Only the discovery of a clandestine document revealed the painful truth: she was simply a pawn in Ethan's elaborate game with his first love, his cherished Becca Drew.
In the sterile confines of a hospital room, after hearing of Ethan's romantic getaway with Becca, Anna initiated divorce proceedings.
The formerly underestimated housewife underwent a dramatic metamorphosis.
She blossomed into a sought-after designer for a prestigious jewelry house; the exclusive tutor of a globally renowned pianist; a formidable racing champion; the esteemed daughter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; and the powerful CEO of a publicly traded company valued at billions...
As Anna's admirers multiplied, Ethan began to pursue her with persistent and unwanted attention.
Exasperated and seeking respite, Anna simply disappeared from his reach.
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Chapter 5
Anna allowed herself a rare luxury: sleeping in.
This was partly a result of her late night, but more significantly, she was no longer bound by the demanding routine of sourcing the freshest ingredients at dawn or preparing an elaborate, multi-course breakfast for Ethan.
Content with a simple bag of instant noodles, Anna satisfied her hunger. Afterward, she visited the bank and wrote a check for 1,405,537, clearly marking it for medical expenses.
Leaving the bank, Anna headed to Puma Coffee, where she arranged dinner with her close friend, Lucy Goldberg.
Since marrying, Anna had effectively severed ties with her classmates and friends, dedicating herself entirely to her role as a dutiful wife in the Smith household. It had been three years since she last saw Lucy.
Reflecting on those years, Anna felt a pang of regret for the opportunities she'd missed and the time she'd lost.
Anna settled into her reserved seat, awaiting Lucy's arrival.
Lucy currently worked as a vocal coach at a reputable training center in New York City. Anna suspected the dinner invitation was not only to reconnect but also potentially to offer job leads.
As expected, Lucy soon subtly guided the conversation toward the possibility of Anna teaching piano at the school.
"Thank you, Lucy," Anna responded with a lighthearted smile and a dismissive wave. "But I've sworn off the piano. I've already found a different path."
"Really?" Lucy inquired, her curiosity piqued. "Perhaps a jewelry design firm? It would be a natural fit!"
Anna waved her hand again. "No. I didn't even finish college, and those companies have strict requirements."
"But it's hard to find jobs without qualifications these days!" Lucy murmured, before passionately defending Anna. "Ethan Smith is such a rat! He cheated on you, and you left with next to nothing. If I hadn't extracted those millions from him, I'd feel like I let you wasted years for nothing!"
Anna stifled a laugh. Just then, her phone signaled the arrival of a new message.
"It must be from Ethan! Let me have him!"
Anna opened the message. It wasn't from Ethan.
As she replied, she said to Lucy, "I don't have concrete proof that Ethan cheated, really..."
Whether or not Ethan had been physically unfaithful, his heart had clearly betrayed her, even to the point of abandoning his own child.
Thinking of the baby who only survived for two months in her womb, before being killed by his own father, Anna's expression hardened.
"I just want to escape Ethan, and my old life."
"So?" "So?"
"So, I applied here."
Anna sent Lucy a link. Seeing Anna's excited expression, Lucy assumed it was a great job, but upon clicking the link, she found-
"A Juvenile Detention Center?"
Lucy's expression darkened, but Anna's face remained bright.
Lucy's lunch break was limited, and the two women parted ways after their short, rushed visit. Anna returned to her residence, but instead of going inside, she retrieved an envelope from the building's package locker.
At that moment, another message arrived, this time from Ethan.
It contained no text, only a photo: a picture of shredded paper scattered across the floor.
The photo was taken in the Smith Group's CEO's office.
Ethan sank into his chair, gripping the edge of his desk. The torn divorce agreement, which he had ripped apart with his own hands, lay at his feet.
"Mr. Smith, all the stomach medicine I could find is here..." Oscar stammered, only to witness Ethan sweep the medications off the desk.
"It's useless. The more I take, the worse it gets." Ethan clutched his stomach, sweat beading on his forehead.
He hadn't had his traditional medicine in days, and his stomach was rebelling. The sight of the divorce agreement Anna had sent that morning had only intensified the pain.
Oscar watched Ethan with growing concern.
The traditional medicine that Ethan needed was a special recipe from an old doctor. Only Anna knew the exact proportions, heating techniques, and brewing time, and she always prepared it herself.
"Mr. Smith, what if... I call Miss Anna?"
Oscar asked hesitantly, only to be met with a sharp glare from Ethan.
"What did you call her? Anna?"
"Miss Anna!" Oscar was confused.
Everyone around Ethan referred to Anna as "Miss Anna."
It was in that moment that Ethan realized that Anna had been "Miss Anna," and not "Mrs. Smith," for the entire three years of their marriage.
Ethan reached for his phone, curious about Anna's reaction to the shredded divorce agreement. Anna didn't call back, but Becca did.
Late in the evening, Anna arrived alone at the extravagant Violet Hall in New York City.
She had carefully chosen her outfit.
The blue Chanel-style suit was a statement piece from her pre-marriage wardrobe.
The doorman greeted Anna with a polite smile, which she returned. As she reached for her purse, she heard a voice she'd hoped to avoid.
"Miss Anna, what a surprise! What brings you here?"
Anna turned to see Becca approaching with her two closest friends.
Becca was meticulously dressed in a pink, fairytale-like dress, her pink diamond necklace catching the light.
"Becca, who is this? A friend?" Emily Giveon eyed Anna. "Is she here for the FY celebration?"
"Impossible," Priscilla Scott scoffed. "FY is a high-end luxury, international brand. They invite all the elite. Look at what she's wearing... She's probably a delivery person!"
Anna observed Becca and her friends, realizing they had been aware of her identity all along.
"Emily, Priscilla, don't be rude to Miss Anna..." Becca began, feigning generosity, "I heard from Ethan that Miss Anna married right after college and spent years as a housewife. She mostly wore an apron and rarely went anywhere besides the market, so she never had the chance. It's understandable she's unsophisticated and lacks a sense of fashion, unlike designers like us at FY."
"You work at FY?"
Seeing Anna's apparent surprise, Becca proudly presented her business card.
"Becca is a rising star in the jewelry design world. FY's HR department is really optimistic about her."
"You're just a housewife, do you even know what HR means?" Anna glanced at Becca's business card: "FY Jewelry Design Department Intern."
Amidst the taunts of Emily and Priscilla, Becca expected Anna to be humbled by the business card, but Anna simply smiled.
"Well, you're excellent."
Emily immediately rolled her eyes. "Why are you pretending to be so calm? You must be jealous of Becca!"
Seeing Anna turn to enter the building, Priscilla shouted, "Delivery people can't go that way."
Becca covered her mouth and giggled. She and her friends squeezed through, forcing Anna aside.
"See? You need an invitation to get in." Emily showed her invitation, allowing Becca to pass first.
Becca carefully lifted her pink dress and walked in like a princess, holding her head high and puffing her chest.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, your invitation only allows you to go through the employee entrance," the waiter stopped Becca.
Becca flushed with embarrassment, but Emily and Priscilla quickly spoke up, "Becca is an FY employee!"
"That's right, it's better to use the employee entrance than to not be able to get in at all."
Becca and the other two finally made way. Anna again approached the VIP entrance, withdrew an envelope from her purse, and handed it to the waiter.
The waiter's eyes widened, and his smile became even more respectful.
"Miss Anna, this way, please..."
Under the shocked gaze of Becca and her two friends, Anna entered the auditorium through the VIP passage.
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7.4
Helena woke up in a sheer silk slip, trapped inside the romance novel she had read the night before.
She was the doomed villainess.
And she had just executed the most pathetic plot in the book: hiding in the closet to seduce her cold, ruthless legal guardian, Hayward.
It was the exact move that got the original Helena thrown out on the street to die.
"Helena, your time is up. Get out."
Hayward's freezing voice came from the other side of the door.
He didn't just reject her. He threatened to strip her of her trust fund and permanently lock her in a psychiatric ward.
Everyone in the massive estate despised her, treating her like trash.
To force her to break, Hayward exiled her to the company's worst design department, a graveyard for corporate failures.
At the same time, her innocent step-sister, the novel's female lead, was being cornered and harassed by a predatory manager.
Helena was suffocating under the original owner's ruined reputation.
She was surrounded by hostile eyes, everyone just waiting for her to throw a tantrum and completely self-destruct.
Why should she be forced to pay the ultimate price for the original villain's deadly mistakes?
Instead of screaming or begging, Helena wrapped herself in an oversized coat and played the perfect, submissive lunatic to survive.
She completely flipped the script and took the terrified female lead under her wing.
When that manager tried to lay a hand on her new sister, Helena didn't hesitate to crush his foot with her stiletto.
7.2
Ade had sacrificed the life she loved, the things she liked doing to please James. But it was never enough for him. Somehow, the one woman he just couldn't get, was the price, she was the gem.
And so once the opportunity presented itself, Ade became a past chapter of his life. A reject.
Betrayed and scorned, Ade is on a quest to reclaim her life back and face off adversaries.
But now what is she to do with the two men in front of her. One of them her ex James who can't seem to forget her and keeps stepping in her way, and the other, a billionaire who wants her at all costs.
8.6
I met him on a rainy afternoon when we were both young, uncertain, and standing on the edge of adulthood.
Adrian Cole wasn't rich then. He wasn't powerful. But from the moment his eyes found mine, something inside me knew my life would never be the same.
We fell in love slowly... then all at once.
He was my first kiss under streetlights, my safest place, my greatest heartbreak.
And the man who walked away.
Years later, Adrian returns - no longer the struggling boy I once knew, but a billionaire CEO with power, dominance, and a dangerous intensity that still makes my heart tremble.
He says I've always belonged to him.
But love isn't that simple.
Not after betrayal.
Not after loss.
Not after the night that shattered us both.
Now he wants a second chance.
And this time... he refuses to let me go.
7.1
My father sold me to a monster to settle a debt. One minute I was a debutante at a gala, and the next, I was being hunted through the service corridors by my own stepmother’s security.
I scrambled into a dark penthouse to hide, only to be pinned against the wall by a man whose body felt like a wall of searing heat. He smelled of rain and expensive cedar, his voice a low, pained growl as he gripped my wrist so hard the bone nearly ground together.
The next morning, the "Wall Street Monster" arrived at our estate to collect his prize. My father signed the contract without reading a single page, trading me for a wire transfer while my sister laughed at my impending doom.
"I heard he uses knives in bed," Kacy whispered, "Hope you have thick skin, sis."
A balding, cruel man claimed to be my husband, but it was the silent bodyguard standing in the shadows who caught my tray when I stumbled. His touch sent a jolt of electricity through my veins, and his voice was the same gravelly baritone from the dark room the night before.
I was terrified, caught in a web of lies about a disfigured beast who supposedly broke women for sport. I didn't understand why this "bodyguard" was looking at me with such predatory intensity, or why he was the only one who stepped in when my father tried to shove me.
Then, inside the car, the bodyguard took off his sunglasses to reveal piercing blue eyes and a face that was devastatingly handsome.
"I am Gideon Blackburn," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous rumble. "And in this house, there is only one rule: Never lie to me."
The monster wasn't who they said he was, and he was about to show my family exactly what happens when you try to destroy something that belongs to him.
8.4
I was the pack's lowest Omega, scrubbing floors by day, but secretly waiting for the night my Fated Mate, the Alpha Heir Desmond, would finally claim me.
Instead, he brought home a billionaire heiress and looked at me with cold, dead eyes.
"I choose power," he sneered, rejecting our soul-bond in front of everyone. "An Omega can never be my Luna."
To seal his business deal, he sold me off like cattle to Kennedy Simmons—the "Crippled Alpha" rumored to be a broken, rot-filled monster.
On my last night in the territory, his new fiancée pushed me off a yacht.
As I drowned in the freezing water, I watched Desmond dive in.
He swam right past me to save her.
That was the moment my heart finally stopped beating for him.
They thought sending me to Seattle was a punishment. They thought I would wither away and die in the hands of a beast.
But they didn't know two things.
First, Kennedy Simmons wasn't a monster; he was a King waiting to be healed.
Second, I wasn't a weak Omega. I was a White Wolf, a legend thought to be extinct, capable of miracles.
Three months later, Desmond stood outside my gates, bankrupt and desperate, begging for a second chance.
I looked down from my balcony, wrapped in the arms of my true Alpha, and smiled.
"Get off my property," I commanded, my eyes glowing white. "Or I'll finish what the ocean started."
8.8
"I've been through heartbreak, and I don't desire love. Even if I marry you, I won't give you love." Lisa stared pointedly at him, " Are you okay with this, President Joseph?"
"Then...Let's sign a one-year contract. If after one year we still don't find ourselves compatible, we break it off."
****
The Heiress, Lisa Morgan came back home after an ultimate betrayal from her husband of three years, but her father wouldn't let her into his home unless she agreed to his condition.
"Take over the company and marry Joseph Bronson, or leave and never come back again!"
As a woman who only cares about survival right now, her choice was obvious but she never expected the turbulence that came after.