The Invisible Wife’s Silent Sacrifice
Claire spent every waking moment protecting the transplanted heart beating inside her billionaire husband, Cooper. Though his grandfather forced their marriage, she loved him enough to endure his endless coldness.
When she received a frantic text saying Cooper was in a fatal car wreck, she ran through a freezing storm to save him. But she pushed open the VIP club doors only to find no doctors. Instead, Cooper was making out with his mistress, Kendall, while his wealthy friends erupted into malicious laughter at Claire's soaked, panicked state. It was all a cruel prank.
To force a divorce, Cooper treated her like garbage. He threw the custom meals she secretly cooked for his failing liver into the trash, giving Kendall the credit. When Claire begged him to stop drinking hard liquor for the sake of his fragile heart, he made a sickening demand.
"Go kiss that waiter on the mouth right now, and I won't touch another drop."
To keep him alive, Claire swallowed her pride and kissed the terrified boy while cameras flashed.
But her total degradation didn't earn his mercy. Cooper called her a sickening gold digger and walked out with his mistress, leaving Claire to the wolves. His best friend poured a sticky martini over her head, tore the strap of her dress, and raised a massive fist to smash her face. She had sacrificed her soul to keep his heart beating, only to be destroyed by it.
Just as the fist swung down, the heavy oak door was kicked off its hinges. Cooper stood in the doorway, his eyes burning with a terrifying, primal fury. He had only returned for a forgotten phone, but seeing another man's hands on his legal wife ignited a possessive rage that was about to burn the entire room down.
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Chapter 7
The underground parking garage of the Guthrie Group tower was damp and smelled of exhaust. Claire stood in the shadows behind a concrete pillar, clutching the warm bento box against her chest.
The VIP elevator chimed. Joshuah stepped out, wearing a sharp navy suit, his eyes scanning the dim garage until he spotted her.
He walked over, his posture stiff. He looked at Claire with a complicated mix of pity and professional distance.
"Mrs. Guthrie," he said formally. "What is this about?"
Claire held out the black bento box. "I need you to take this up to Cooper. It's his lunch."
Joshuah instantly took a half-step back, shaking his head. "Absolutely not. With all due respect, ma'am, if I bring him food from you, he will fire me on the spot. You know he won't touch it."
"I know," Claire said, biting down hard on her lower lip. The sharp sting of pain grounded her. She tasted blood. "That's why you aren't going to tell him it's from me."
Joshuah frowned, confused. "Then who?"
"Tell him..." Claire's throat closed up. She forced the words out past the agonizing lump in her airway. "Tell him Kendall sent it."
Joshuah's eyes went wide. His jaw actually dropped. He stared at her as if she had just lost her mind.
"You want me to lie to the CEO," Joshuah said slowly, "and give his mistress the credit for the food his wife cooked?"
"Yes."
"Why would you do that?" he asked, genuine shock bleeding through his professional facade.
Claire looked at him, her eyes pleading, desperate. "Because his grandfather is watching his health. If he doesn't eat properly, Sterling will find out. Please, Joshuah. Just do it."
They stood in silence for thirty agonizing seconds. Finally, Joshuah let out a heavy sigh, reached out, and took the box.
Ten minutes later, on the 60th floor.
Cooper sat behind his massive glass desk, rubbing the center of his chest with two fingers. A dull ache had been radiating there all morning.
Joshuah knocked twice and entered, placing the sleek bento box on the desk.
Cooper scowled at it. "What the hell is that?"
Joshuah swallowed hard. "Lunch, sir. Miss Kendall Hess had it delivered for you."
The dark storm clouds in Cooper's eyes vanished instantly. The tight lines around his mouth relaxed into a soft, genuine smile.
He reached out and pulled the box toward him. He popped the lid. The steam rose, carrying the delicate scent of the perfectly seasoned fish.
He picked up the chopsticks and took a large bite.
Outside the office, standing in the hallway, Claire peered through the slight gap in the frosted glass blinds.
She watched him chew and swallow. Her chest tightened, her eyes burning with unshed tears, but a massive weight lifted off her shoulders. The heart was getting what it needed. She turned and walked away toward the elevators.
Inside, Cooper swallowed the food. He immediately picked up his phone and dialed Kendall's number.
"Hey, beautiful," he said, his voice dropping an octave, rich with affection. "The lunch is incredible. Thank you."
Across the city, sitting in a velvet chair at a luxury nail salon, Kendall froze. She stared at her manicurist for a full second, her brain racing.
But her survival instincts were elite. She didn't miss a beat.
"Oh, baby," Kendall cooed into the phone, her voice dripping with honey. "I'm so glad you like it. I just want to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Eat every bite for me, okay?"
She hung up the phone. Kendall looked at her own reflection in the salon mirror. A slow, greedy, and utterly triumphant smirk spread across her face.
Back in the office, Cooper looked at the half-empty box, feeling like the luckiest man in the world.
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9.7
I ran through the freezing rain, desperate to escape the Pennington estate. My adoptive family had raised me for one purpose: to be sold off as a bargaining chip in a wealthy arranged marriage.
But before I could reach the highway, I was cornered. Not just by my family's cruel guards, but by Hollis Wall—a terrifying, ruthless billionaire who snapped my tormentor's wrist and dragged me into his car. He didn't want a ransom. He threw a prenuptial agreement in my lap.
I thought he was insane until he took a scalpel to his own arm, and a burning agony ripped across my flawless skin. Because of a near-drowning accident three years ago, our nervous systems were linked. Every time I bled, he felt the agony. He locked me in his fortress to keep me safe, but when I finally escaped back to my adoptive parents, they didn't protect me. Instead, my adoptive father smiled and showed me a live video of my biological father on life support, a guard's hand hovering over the plug.
"You will marry Douglas Cherry tomorrow, or your father dies," he sneered.
My own family was willing to murder my only real flesh and blood just to secure their wealth. I collapsed onto the cold marble floor, my heart crushed in a vice of absolute, suffocating despair.
"I'll marry him," I sobbed, surrendering to the darkness.
But miles away, in his dark study, the ruthless Hollis Wall violently collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as my severe panic attack bled directly into his chest. Our twisted bond was killing him, and I knew he would tear the city apart to find me.
7.7
Eva Brooks, a 25-year-old woman, was set up by her best friend. Her fiancé broke up with her and demanded compensation for allegedly cheating on him.
Eva had a one-night stand with the richest CEO in Dominic City, Ethan Owen. He was arrogant and offered her a job as his secretary.
As his secretary, Ethan couldn't shake his fondness for Eva. He became obsessed with her, worrying that she was cheating on him.
He broke up with his fiancée to become engaged to Eva, but will his fiancée let him go? Will Eva accept a relationship with her boss?
9.4
Six years ago, Breanna was shoved into a pitch-black hotel suite by her own uncle.
She was forced to endure a brutal night with a drugged stranger just to keep her grandmother's ventilator running.
Nine months later, she gave birth in a cold underground clinic.
But her uncle immediately snatched the crying newborn from her trembling hands, coldly announcing the baby had died.
For six years, Breanna lived in agonizing grief, working as a lowly hotel cleaner just to survive.
But a cruel setup threw her directly into the path of Elliot Finch, the arrogant billionaire from that dark night.
He did not recognize the woman whose life he had completely ruined.
Instead, he looked at her like she was rotting garbage, had his guards drag her into a wet alley, and mercilessly got her fired.
"If I ever see your face again, I will make sure you cannot get a job cleaning toilets."
Breanna was suffocating from the injustice, stripped of her dignity and her family's only lifeline.
Yet, when she instinctively protected a traumatized little boy from bullies, she discovered he was Elliot's son.
The boy clung to her neck, crying and desperately begging his father to let her stay.
But Elliot just threw a massive check at her chest, violently accusing her of brainwashing a sick child for a meal ticket.
Looking at the toxic disgust in his eyes, something inside Breanna finally broke.
She picked up the check, ripped the millions into tiny shreds, and let them rain down on his expensive shoes.
"Keep your dirty money."
She turned her back on the crying boy and the stunned billionaire, deciding she would no longer be their victim.
9.3
"Adrian, why would you lie to me? Why would you let her push my mum like that?"
Yvonne's voice trembled, holding back tears.
Adrian smirked. "Wake up, Yvonne. You really thought I wanted you when Tricia was right here?"
That was how Adrian-her first crush, the boy she thought cared-chose to humiliate her in front of everyone as she was the cleaner's adopted daughter.
But fate had other plans.
Because the Diamond Belfort brothers-the heirs everyone adored were coming to their school in search of their missing heiress- baby sister. But the queen bee steals the chance that should have been hers. Then again, secrets don't stay buried forever. With her true identity waiting to explode, Yvonne must decide to rise from the ashes, claim her place, and bring down everyone who tried to destroy her.
Because the real heiress doesn't beg.
She takes rather.
Now, Yvonne is done playing small. It's her time to rise, reclaim her crown, and make everyone regret ever doubting her.
7.8
On the day she married, Alina unknowingly took the place of the Hayes family's daughter and became Kellan's wife, the richest man in town who was rumored to be disfigured.
Everyone mocked their doomed marriage, expecting misery and disgrace.
Instead, Alina revealed brilliance no one expected-a renowned jewelry master, financial genius, and medical prodigy.
The woman the Hayes family ignored was actually the heiress they should have treasured.
As regret consumed them and her ex begged for another chance, Kellan stood beside her, now devastatingly handsome.
"Alina and I are perfect together. Stay away from my wife."
9.4
Aria Mcgee was the unwanted second daughter of a decaying Long Island family.
To save their bankrupt corporation, her father and older sister drugged her. They shoved her into a town car and delivered her to a ruthless Wall Street billionaire's bed like a piece of meat.
They expected her to be the perfect sacrifice. The original Aria had no access to her own trust fund and was forced to live in a windowless broom closet. Even worse, a cold, synthetic System voice echoed in her skull, demanding she play the tragic, helpless female lead. It ordered her to endure her family's abuse and suffer the billionaire's humiliation to force a pathetic romance plotline.
"Host must follow the tragic trajectory and achieve the ultimate painful romance."
But the soul that woke up in that bed wasn't a weak, frightened girl. She was a dead Hollywood Oscar-winning actress. Why would a top-tier professional ever agree to play the weeping victim in such a garbage, B-list script?
Instead of trembling in fear as the System commanded, Aria looked at the billionaire and smiled. Using her flawless acting skills, she shattered his ego, extracted a hundred thousand dollars, and walked right out the door. Now, she was heading back to the Mcgee estate, ready to rip her money from her father's greedy hands and burn her sister's life to the ground.