The Presumed Dead Ex-Wife's Spectacular Comeback

On the night of her seventh wedding anniversary, Annabelle waited by a cold dinner, only for her husband Julian to kick the doors open, carrying his bleeding sister-in-law, Jocelyne. Jocelyne had committed a horrific drunk driving hit-and-run, and Julian demanded Annabelle sign a plea deal and go to prison to protect the family's stock prices. What truly broke Annabelle wasn't Julian's ruthless betrayal, but her own twin sons. Her own flesh and blood stood fiercely in front of Jocelyne to protect her. "Nobody even likes you anyway, Mother. If you go to jail, everything stays normal." Julian stripped her of every cent, locked her in a remote estate, and chased her to the edge of a cliff with his bodyguards when she refused to be their scapegoat. Looking at the man she had loved for seven years and the children she had devoted her life to, her heart turned to ice. Why was her endless sacrifice rewarded with being a disposable shield for a manipulative liar? Standing on the jagged cliffs, she played the dashcam audio proving Jocelyne's guilt to a suddenly horrified Julian. "You don't deserve the truth." Then, she stepped backward off the cliff into the raging black ocean. Two years later, she returned to the city as an untouchable, powerful elite, walking right past a broken, miserable Julian without a second glance.

Chapters

Chapter 4

Rain lashed against the dirty window of the cheap motel on the edge of Manhattan. Lightning flashed, illuminating the peeling, water-stained wallpaper.

Annabelle sat on the edge of the sagging spring mattress. It groaned under her weight. She rubbed a rough towel over her dripping wet hair.

Her cheap prepaid phone vibrated on the chipped nightstand. The screen lit up with an email notification from a Legal Aid Society lawyer.

She opened the attachment. It was the finalized divorce agreement.

She scrolled through the harsh terms. She was waiving all rights to marital assets. She was leaving with exactly what she brought into the marriage: nothing.

Without a second of hesitation, she traced her electronic signature on the cracked screen and hit send.

Annabelle stared at the blank screen of the cheap phone. The silence of the motel room was deafening. A sudden, suffocating wave of longing for her children crashed over her. Her hands trembled as she manually dialed the familiar landline number of the penthouse. She just needed to hear their voices one last time. The line rang twice before someone picked up.

Annabelle's heart gave a violent, painful squeeze. "Mom?" Leo's voice came through the speaker. He was crying hysterically. A loud crack of thunder boomed in the background. "I'm scared."

Annabelle's throat tightened. Tears instantly flooded her eyes. "Leo, baby, it's okay. I'm here. Don't be afraid of the thunder-"

There was a scuffling sound. The phone was snatched away.

"Why did you abandon us?" Theo's voice was ice-cold. It sounded exactly like Julian.

"Theo, I didn't abandon you," Annabelle choked out, pressing a hand to her chest. It felt like her ribs were cracking. "I had to leave."

"Aunt Jocelyne says you're a selfish, crazy woman," Theo said mechanically. "She says you only care about yourself."

Hearing Jocelyne's name from her son's mouth made the blood freeze in Annabelle's veins.

"I never want to see you again! You're a bad mom!" Leo screamed in the background.

The line went dead. The dial tone buzzed loudly in the quiet motel room.

Annabelle sat paralyzed. The phone slipped from her numb fingers and hit the stained carpet.

Another crack of thunder shook the room, drowning out the agonizing sob that ripped from her throat.

She buried her face in her hands. She cried until her lungs burned, until her stomach cramped with physical pain. She mourned the death of her motherhood.

Five minutes later, she stopped.

She stood up. Her joints felt stiff. She walked into the tiny, moldy bathroom and splashed freezing water on her face.

She looked in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot, but the vulnerability in them was gone. They were sharp. Lethal.

Her phone lit up again. A text message from Alistair, Julian's executive assistant.

Julian requires your presence at the Ware Group headquarters tomorrow at 10 AM to discuss the divorce terms.

Annabelle wiped the water from her chin. The last shred of affection she held for that family had been brutally murdered by that phone call.

She typed a single word: OK.

She opened her suitcase and pulled out her only tailored black business suit.

She hung it on the shower rod and began meticulously ironing out every single wrinkle with the motel's cheap iron.

She unzipped a hidden compartment in her bag. She pulled out a thick folder containing Jocelyne's medical records and private club bills she had gathered over the years. Along with them was a sealed yellow envelope. For months, she had been paying a private investigator to track Jocelyne's erratic late-night movements, anticipating a disaster. The PI had emailed her the final batch of photos just hours before the crash. She shoved them into her briefcase.

She sat in the dark room, listening to the rain, waiting for the sun to rise. She was going to war.

Continue to next part

Five years ago, he had abandoned her, betrayed her, destroyed her company when she had trusted him and needed him the most. Five years later, Evelyn was back for revenge. She would return everything he had done to her tenfold, and to do that, she needed to live in the same house with him again. "Ex-husband, let's sign a marriage contract again!" Evelyn demanded after barging into her ex-husband's party. "Okay." **** She had sworn to frustrate and destroy his life as they live under the same roof but who can tell Evelyn why everything was different from what she had expected? Who was this man cajoling her every request? Why is her ex-husband who's supposed to be an enemy looking at her dotingly? Ex-husband, this was supposed to be a fierce revenge battle, not a love battle!

Action Modern Romance

9.5

Doctor vagina's son

9.5

I had no choice but to return for vengeance. That man, who was supposed to be my father, abandoned my mother at the altar in favor of another woman. I despised him. He never bothered to look for me. My mother repeatedly told me that I reminded her of him. She always says, "I am a carbon copy of my father, and possibly worse." "Like a father, like a son," they always say. But this time, I returned to show him that "A son can defeat his father." And to do so, I had to be better. That is why I, Knight Angelo Knight, decided to become a gynecologist. But, in order to break his heart, I had to get my hands on either his wife, Bella, or Julia, the young girl he had raised for years. By the time I realized I wasn't just hurting him, but also her and myself... And it was a second chance that I pleaded for. But would she be able to forgive the man who dragged her to his bed to exact vengeance? And played games with her emotions? And, worst of all, took her virginity?

Action Modern Romance

7.5

His Betrayal Forged Her Empire

7.5

I run my family's political dynasty with an iron fist. From my father’s Senate votes to my own calculated engagement, every move is mine to control. Then, in a single evening, my ambitious stepmother made her play. She used our housekeeper as a spy and orchestrated a scandal involving my fiancé and stepsister, designed to shatter my reputation and power. They thought they could break me. Within twelve hours, the spy was dead on the marble floor of my foyer. My fiancé’s family was blackmailed into silence. My stepsister was exiled to a Swiss boarding school, and I stripped my own father of his authority for his weakness. As for my stepmother, Bronte, I had her declared mentally unstable and forcibly taken to a remote facility in Montana, completely cut off from the world. Everyone saw a cold-hearted coup, but they didn't know the secret I held. I had proof that Bronte had systematically orchestrated my brother’s death years ago, all to position her own son to inherit everything. This wasn't about power; it was vengeance. But winning the war at home has put me on a much deadlier board. Now, I'm preparing for a dinner with Eldridge Marsh—the most dangerous man in Washington—who wants to decide if I'm a player he can use, or a threat he needs to destroy.

Action Billionaire Modern

8.5

His Obsession, My Revenge: A Mafia Second Life

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.

Action Mafia Modern

9.7

MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING WHO KILLED MY FATHER

9.7

She came to kill him. He made her his queen. Valeria Romano spent five years with one purpose ... destroy Lorenzo De Luca, the mafia king who murdered her father. She trained in silence, sacrificed everything, and finally had him in her crosshairs on a cold Sicilian night. Then he showed her the truth. Her father's killer was never Lorenzo. It was the man who held her at the funeral. The man she called every week for five years. The man who handed her the wrong name and watched her walk toward the wrong target while he rebuilt his empire on her father's grave. Her uncle Marco. Now Valeria is bound to the enemy she came to destroy ... in a contract marriage she didn't choose, inside a world she doesn't yet understand, hunting a man who has been ten steps ahead of everyone for twenty years. But Marco has never faced a woman who has nothing left to lose. As the truth unravels and the bodies pile up and the line between hatred and something far more dangerous begins to blur ... Valeria must decide who she is willing to become to protect the people she loves. Because in Lorenzo De Luca's world, power is everything. And she is about to become the most powerful thing in it. Some wars are fought with guns. The deadliest ones are fought from the inside.

Action Mafia Romance

8.8

My Bigamist Ex Could Only Watch Me Shine

8.8

Serena, six months pregnant, continued to save lives on the battlefield, despite her severe illness. Her husband, Logan, who had once chosen her over his family, gave her life-saving medicine and prenatal care items to his lover, Amy. When the artillery struck, he let go of Serena's hand without hesitation to protect another woman, leaving Serena to collapse on the battlefield. Later, Serena earned the respect of everyone in the midst of conflict with her medical skills. Her ex-husband, eyes filled with remorse, knelt before her, saying, "I married her out of gratitude, I won't divorce..." Before Serena could respond, a gun was already aimed at Logan's forehead by the undisputed leader of the safe area. "Sign the divorce papers. She's with me now."

Action Modern Romance

The Presumed Dead Ex-Wife's Spectacular Comeback

Chapter 4

You may also like