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 9
At 1:00 AM, Claire's phone buzzed on the nightstand.
It was a text from Joshuah. Just a GPS pin drop and a single sentence: Mr. Guthrie is consuming a significant amount of alcohol.
The location was a hyper-exclusive, underground nightclub in Soho.
Claire remembered the red warning asterisks on the medical report. She didn't bother changing out of her slip dress; she just threw a heavy trench coat over it, shoved her bare feet into boots, and ran out the door.
When she pushed through the heavy, soundproofed doors of the club, a wall of deafening, chest-rattling bass hit her.
The room was bathed in strobing neon lights. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, expensive perfume, and vaporized alcohol. Bodies writhed on the dance floor in a chaotic mass.
Claire pushed her way through the sweaty crowd, taking elbows to the ribs, her eyes scanning the dark perimeter for the VIP booths.
In the deepest, most secluded alcove, she found him.
Cooper was slouched back on a curved leather sofa, surrounded by his wealthy friends. Kendall was pressed tightly against his side.
In Cooper's hand was a massive crystal tumbler filled to the brim with dark, straight liquor. He raised it to his lips, tilting his head back.
Claire's mind went entirely blank.
She lunged across the low glass table. Her hand shot out and clamped around the crystal glass just as the liquid touched his lips.
She yanked it hard.
The whiskey splashed violently out of the glass, soaking the front of Cooper's white dress shirt.
Cormac, sitting across the table, immediately signaled the DJ.
The heavy bass cut out instantly. The sudden, dead silence in the VIP section was deafening.
Every single person in the booth stared at Claire. They looked at her disheveled hair, her coat thrown over a nightgown, panting like a madwoman.
Cooper slowly lowered his empty hand. He looked down at his ruined shirt, then slowly raised his eyes to Claire.
His gaze was murderous.
"Who gave you the right," he asked, his voice dangerously soft, "to walk in here?"
Claire gripped the sticky glass, her knuckles white. "Please," she begged, her voice trembling. "For your grandfather's sake. Put the alcohol down. You can't drink this."
Hearing her use Sterling as a shield again pushed Cooper over the edge.
He leaned back into the sofa, crossing his long legs. A cruel, vicious smile spread across his handsome face.
He pointed a long finger at a young, terrified male waiter holding a tray nearby.
"You want me to stop drinking?" Cooper asked loudly, ensuring everyone in the booth could hear. "Fine. Go kiss the waiter on the mouth. Right now. Do it, and I won't touch another drop tonight."
The booth erupted. The men howled with laughter, whistling and slamming the table.
Kendall covered her mouth with her hand, pretending to be shocked, but her eyes danced with pure, malicious glee.
The young waiter froze, his face turning bright red, looking around in panic.
Claire stood paralyzed. The humiliation washed over her in freezing waves. She stared at her husband, searching for any sign that he was joking. There was none. He wanted to break her.
Cooper casually reached for a fresh bottle of tequila on the table, wrapping his hand around the neck.
Claire closed her eyes. She thought of the erratic green lines on the EKG monitor, and the frail old man in the hospital bed. Her dignity meant absolutely nothing.
She turned around. Moving like a mechanical doll, she walked slowly toward the trembling waiter.
The jeers and whistles grew louder, echoing in her ears.
She stopped in front of the boy. She rose up on her tiptoes.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips against the very edge of the waiter's cheek for one agonizing second.
The blinding flash of a smartphone camera went off, capturing the exact moment of her total degradation.
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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.