The CEO's Secret Son, My Betrayal
After years of failed fertility treatments, I finally got the news I' d been dreaming of: I was pregnant with my husband' s baby.
That same day, I discovered my perfect CEO husband, Harrison Ellis, had a secret. A five-year-old son with his high school sweetheart, a woman from his past I thought was long gone.
This wasn't just an affair; it was a parallel life he'd meticulously hidden for years. He gave the private island he promised our baby to his other son. His entire family celebrated the boy's birthday, calling the other woman "Mrs. Bradshaw" while I watched from the shadows, completely invisible.
He told me I was his everything, that he'd never betray me. But every promise was a lie, every touch a performance. I was just a placeholder in a life that was never truly mine, a trophy wife to maintain his perfect public image.
To protect my unborn child from his world of lies, I had to disappear completely.
So I faked my own death in a fiery plane crash, leaving him with only a pregnancy report and the video of his betrayal to remember me by.
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Chapter 4
Jacquelyn Spencer POV:
The private dining room at Éclat was opulent, as expected. Crystal chandeliers dripped from the ceiling, reflecting off the polished crimson walls. My best friends, Clara and Mia, were already seated, their faces alight with laughter. Fay, ever the pragmatic one, was nursing a glass of sparkling water, a knowing look in her eyes.
"Look who finally decided to join us!" Clara teased, her gaze sweeping past me to Harrison, who entered just behind me. "We thought Harrison had you locked away in a gilded cage."
"He never lets her out of his sight anymore," Mia chimed in, a playful smirk on her face. "Ever since the pregnancy news, he's become even more possessive, if that's possible."
Harrison, ever the charmer, laughed easily, taking a seat beside me. "Can you blame me? My wife is the most beautiful, brilliant woman in the world. And she's carrying my heir. I have to protect my treasures." He winked, then pulled several small, elegantly wrapped boxes from his coat pockets.
"For my favorite ladies," he announced, distributing them with a flourish.
Fay raised an eyebrow, but Clara and Mia gasped as they unwrapped their gifts. Delicate diamond necklaces, each glittering under the soft light.
"Harrison, these are… insane!" Clara breathed, her fingers tracing the intricate design. "They must cost a fortune."
"Only the best for my wife's closest friends," he replied smoothly, radiating an aura of effortless generosity. "You keep Jacquelyn happy, and I'll make sure you're well taken care of."
"You're too kind, Harrison," Mia gushed, already fastening her necklace around her throat. "Jacquelyn, you're so lucky to have him. We're lucky to know you!"
I offered them a polite smile, one that didn't quite reach my eyes. Lucky. The word tasted like ash in my mouth. He wasn't doing this for them. He was doing this for himself. To secure his image, to buy their loyalty, to ensure they continued to believe his perfect façade.
"Jacquelyn's happiness is my life," he said, his hand finding mine under the table, squeezing it possessively. The irony was so sharp, it almost made me laugh.
Clara and Mia chimed in with more praises, declaring me the luckiest woman alive. I just nodded, a hollow echo in my chest, feeling my "luck" slipping away like sand through my fingers.
Just then, the door to our private room swung open, revealing a figure silhouetted against the bright hallway lights.
Britt Bradshaw.
She stood there, a vision in a scarlet dress that clung to her curves, her blonde hair perfectly styled, her smile predatory. She looked around the room, her gaze lingering on each of us, a calculated pause before she spoke.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she purred, her voice dripping with faux innocence. "Wrong room, I suppose. I thought this was the Ellis corporate meeting." Her eyes, however, were fixed on me, a triumphant glint in their depths.
Clara and Mia exchanged uneasy glances. They knew Britt. Everyone in our social circle did, at least superficially. The air in the room instantly thickened, heavy with unspoken tension. Britt, however, seemed utterly unfazed. She simply glided into the room, a venomous snake entering a birdcage.
She settled herself into the empty chair directly opposite me at the table, crossing her legs, her gaze sweeping over the diamond necklaces still clutched in Clara and Mia's hands.
"Ah, Bijoux Étoile," she said, her voice lilting, recognizing the brand instantly. She picked up one of the empty boxes, turning it over in her manicured fingers. "Such exquisite pieces. My favorite. After all, it's my company, isn't it?"
My breath hitched. Bijoux Étoile. Harrison had invested heavily in a boutique jewelry line a few years ago. He had always said it was a smart, diversified investment. He' d even presented me with some of its designs, claiming they were the first prototypes.
"Harrison has been such a wonderful partner," Britt continued, her eyes briefly meeting his, a fleeting spark of shared conspiracy passing between them. Then her gaze snapped back to mine, her smile sharp, exposing teeth. "The best partner. He truly values my vision."
The room tilted. My chest constricted, a vice grip tightening around my lungs. The air seemed to vanish, leaving me gasping for breath, unable to move, unable to speak. The world blurred around the edges, and I felt the familiar darkness threatening to claim me once more.
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7.4
I woke up to find that I had lost five years of my memory.
I was told that I had been married to Caspian, the ruthless Godfather of the New York Mafia, for five years.
I had harbored a crush on him for a long time, so marrying him should have been good news.
But the terrible truth was, he didn't seem to love me.
After losing my five years of memory, he felt like nothing more than a stranger to me.
"Break the blood oath, Caspian," I said. "We're getting a divorce."
Yet later, he would pace outside my door late at night, refusing to leave: "Darling, just look at me one more time, please?"
8.2
To save my brother's life, I married a dead billionaire.
My new home was a freezing, high-tech mausoleum where I was ordered to hold a year-long vigil beside Byron Hyde's cryogenic pod.
But I wasn't alone in the dark.
Every night, a terrifying shadow smelling of whiskey and sandalwood pinned me to my narrow bed.
It tore my clothes and brutally claimed my body, leaving me bruised and trembling until dawn.
When I begged the housekeeper for help, showing her my torn skin, she just smiled cruelly.
"It seems the master's spirit has accepted you."
I thought I was being haunted by a vengeful ghost, until Byron's arrogant nephew broke into the tomb to assault me.
His tampering triggered the life-support system, and the heavy lid of the pod hissed open.
Byron Hyde sat up, his eyes lethal and his skin shockingly warm.
He was alive.
Looking at his broad shoulders, I caught the faint scent of whiskey and sandalwood.
The horrific truth hit me like a physical blow.
My nightly tormentor wasn't a ghost. It was my living, breathing husband.
When I confronted him, his eyes were cold and clinical.
"That was a necessary test. I had to know if my wife would break."
A white-hot rage choked me, but I didn't scream or run.
He slipped the priceless, heavy sapphire of the family matriarch onto my finger, offering me absolute power over the treacherous relatives who wanted us both dead.
To fight a monster, you can't be a victim.
I looked into his deep, dangerous eyes and accepted the ring.
If this was a cage, allying with the keeper was the only way to find the key.
8.4
Everly spent four years playing the perfect, accommodating wife to Carson Moss, swallowing every grievance just to secure medical treatments for their sick daughter.
But at a high-society banquet she exhausted herself organizing, Carson's pregnant mistress crashed the party.
The woman shoved an ultrasound of Carson's "real heir" directly into Everly's frail grandfather's face.
The shock triggered a massive heart attack.
Carson refused to use his private helicopter to save the dying old man, choosing to protect his mistress and his company's IPO instead. Her grandfather died on the hospital table.
Instead of remorse, her mother-in-law demanded Everly publicly cover up the murder.
"You will do exactly as I say, or I will freeze every single cent of the medical trust fund paying for your crippled daughter's treatments."
When a battered Everly returned to the estate, she discovered her three-year-old daughter covered in dark bruises and pinch marks. Her in-laws were deliberately torturing her disabled child.
Everly couldn't comprehend how a family could be so utterly heartless. Her only family was murdered, her child was abused, and her husband threw a five-million-dollar check at her face as hush money.
They thought she would just break and quietly disappear.
But when a terrifyingly powerful billionaire unexpectedly blocked Carson's security team from locking her up, Everly finally saw her window.
She grabbed her sleeping daughter and ran out into the freezing storm, making a blood-bound vow to make the entire Moss family bleed.
8.5
I woke up in the tangled black silk sheets of the Mafia Don's bed, my skin still burning from his ruthless touch in the dark.
The heavy door burst open, and his pristine wife, Bianca, looked at my bruised collarbones with visceral hatred.
Instead of having me killed for soiling her husband's bed, she offered a devil's bargain.
"You will take my place in his bed. You will be a shadow in the dark."
In my past life, I foolishly accepted, thinking her money would pay for my dying mother's hospital bills. I didn't realize the untouchable Mafia Queen was barren and just needed a disposable incubator. After I endured the Don's violent possession and birthed the Moretti heir, they cut off my mother's medicine. Then, they dragged me to a remote warehouse and suffocated me with a wet mattress to bury their dirty secret forever.
Until my last agonizing breath, I didn't understand why my absolute submission and suffering were rewarded with such a brutal, meaningless death.
Opening my eyes again, I was back on the morning after the Don first claimed me.
I knelt on the Persian rug, weeping tears of fake gratitude as Bianca handed me the cash. But the moment my escort looked away, I didn't take her fertility herbs. I bought a bitter root from an alley witch to keep my womb empty. This time, I won't give the Don a child. I'll become his darkest obsession, and use his lethal power to burn this entire family to the ground.
9.1
Five years ago, I was a world-renowned concert pianist. Now, I'm an auto mechanic with a mangled right hand, hiding from a past my ex-husband, Carter, dismisses as a "tantrum."
He drags me to a charity gala where his mistress, Alexandrea, puts me on the spot, demanding I play for the city's elite-a cruel, public humiliation she knows I can't perform.
When I refuse, Carter shoves me to the ground in a rage. He still thinks our daughter, Lily, is alive, and he uses her as a weapon.
"Behave," he hisses, "and maybe we can bring Lily back home."
Bring her home? The sheer ignorance is staggering. He has no idea our daughter froze to death in the same car crash that destroyed my hand.
But just before the gala, my best friend uncovered the final, devastating truth. It wasn't an accident. They sabotaged my car and left us for dead.
Tonight, I'm not just attending a party. I'm orchestrating a funeral. Theirs.
7.9
For nine years, I was the "Wolfless Wonder," the shame of the Reyes Pack. I swallowed bitter suppressants every morning to hide my identity as a rare White Wolf, enduring my husband’s coldness just to stay by his side.
But tonight, Alpha Dominick shattered whatever bond we had left. He walked into the Annual Gathering with his mistress, Chastity, clinging to his arm, pregnant and smug.
When Chastity staged a miscarriage and blamed me, Dominick didn't ask for the truth. He dragged me to the hospital.
"She needs blood," he snarled. "O-Negative. Like yours."
He used the Alpha Command to force me onto the table. He watched as they drained me dry to save the woman destroying my life.
"Alpha, her heart rate is dropping!" the doctor warned. "It will kill her!"
Dominick didn't even flinch.
"Keep going," he ordered. "Take what you need until Chastity is safe."
As the machine beeped and darkness took me, the submissive wife died.
I woke up in the morgue holding cell and made a choice. I signed the divorce papers, set the penthouse on fire, and vanished into the night. He thought I burned to death.
He didn't know I escaped.
Months later, he tracked a ghost to a vineyard in London. But he didn't find the broken girl he sacrificed.
He found the White Wolf, glowing with silver magic, standing beside a new mate who actually cherished me.
Dominick fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Annis, come home. I command you."
I looked down at him and smiled.
"Your voice doesn't work on me anymore, Alpha. You killed the part of me that listened."