The Secret Wife Makes A Spectacular Comeback
On our third anniversary, I spent hours cooking my husband's favorite meal, waiting for him to come home.
Instead of a greeting, I overheard him and his mother in the living room, planning to evict me. He was an A-list actor, and I was his secret wife—a "failed PR investment" they now wanted to erase with a $250,000 NDA.
He told me my trailer-park background was a stain dragging his career down. Later, when I suffered a severe allergic reaction to a sleeping pill and nearly died, he didn't care. He stormed into my hospital room, accused me of faking a suicide attempt for attention, and called my late mother a pathetic drunk. Even the arrogant ER doctor treated me like a desperate, hysterical housewife wasting medical resources.
I gave up three years of my life to be his unpaid maid and his shadow, only to be thrown away like garbage. But what my husband didn't know was that the mysterious, top-tier creator "Xen" he was desperately trying to sign a life-changing deal with to save his career... was actually me.
I ripped the IV out of my arm, bleeding onto the hospital floor, and smiled at him.
"I'm going to watch you fall."
I hired the most ruthless divorce lawyer in LA to take half his fortune, and quietly canceled his dream contract. This time, I'm going to watch his gilded life burn to the ground.
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Chapter 2
The manila envelope sat on the coffee table between them. The word "CONFIDENTIAL" was stamped in red ink on the front. Carma stared at it. The letters blurred for a moment before snapping back into focus.
"Sign it, Carma." Kendall tapped his fingers against his thigh. "Take the money. Go back to Ohio. It's the best deal you're going to get."
Mildred swirled her brandy. "Don't be foolish, girl. That money can buy you a very nice little house in whatever flyover state you choose. It's more than you ever had."
Carma reached out. Her fingers brushed the rough paper of the envelope. She picked it up and pulled out the stack of documents inside.
She read slowly. The legal jargon was dense, but the meaning was clear. She was to have no contact with the media. She was to relinquish all rights to the Kirby name. She was to admit that the marriage was a mistake. And in return, she would receive a one-time payment of $250,000.
A quarter of a million dollars. For three years of her life.
She flipped through the pages. She saw the schedules she had managed for him. The scripts she had annotated for him late at night. The fan mail she had sorted. The family gatherings she had catered. The dry cleaning she had picked up. All of it reduced to a payout that wouldn't even cover a month of his mortgage.
"Stop stalling," Kendall snapped. "My lawyers aren't going to negotiate with someone who doesn't even have a credit card in her own name."
Carma looked up. A strange feeling was uncurling in her stomach. It wasn't sadness anymore. It was something sharper. Something cold and clear.
She smiled. It felt unnatural on her face, stiff and brittle.
She gripped the stack of papers with both hands. And she pulled.
The paper tore with a loud rip. Kendall flinched.
She tore it again. And again. She tore the NDA. She tore the settlement agreement. She tore the pages that called her a mistake. The sound of shredding paper filled the silent room. Scraps fluttered to the floor, landing on the expensive rug like confetti.
"Are you out of your mind?" Kendall roared. He lunged forward, but Carma threw the remaining scraps right at his face.
"I'm not signing this," she said. Her voice was ice. "If you want a divorce, fine. But the agreement will be drafted by my lawyer."
She turned on her heel and walked away. She didn't look back at the shock on their faces. She climbed the stairs, her legs steady, her heart pounding a rhythm of pure adrenaline.
She reached the master bedroom and locked the door. She leaned against it, breathing hard. The anger was still there, buzzing under her skin. She needed to use it.
She walked to the closet and pushed aside a row of Kendall's suits. Hidden behind a shoebox was a small safe. She punched in the code and pulled out a black phone. Not her personal phone. This one was strictly business.
She dialed the number from memory.
"Ethan Hunt speaking." The voice on the other end was upbeat, loud. Background noise of clinking glasses and laughter filtered through the speaker.
"It's me."
"Xen! My favorite person!" Ethan's voice dropped an octave in excitement. "Tell me you're ready. The CAA gala starts in an hour. Marcus Thorne is practically salivating. Kendall Kirby is ready to sign his life away for The Poison Ivy. This is the big leagues, baby."
Carma walked to the window. She looked out at the lights of Los Angeles sprawling below her. The city that had chewed her up and spit her out.
"Cancel it, Ethan."
The line went silent for a beat. "Cancel? Cancel the gala? Xen, are you sick? This is the deal of a lifetime. CAA is offering you the moon!"
"I don't want the moon," Carma said. Her voice was flat. "I'm not signing with CAA. And I am absolutely not working with Kendall Kirby."
"What? Why?" Ethan sounded panicked. "Kendall is using this as his Oscar follow-up! He needs this IP to transition to producing. If you pull out, he's dead in the water."
"Then let him drown." Carma watched a plane blink across the sky. "I don't work with hypocrites. Tell Marcus Thorne that Kendall Kirby doesn't deserve my work."
"Xen, wait-"
She ended the call. She turned off the phone and put it back in the safe. Her hands were shaking, but her mind was crystal clear.
Downstairs, the silence was shattered by the shrill ringtone of Kendall's phone. She heard him answer, his voice muffled through the floor.
Then, a roar. "What do you mean she canceled? Marcus, what the hell are you talking about?"
Carma sat down on the edge of the bed. She listened to the muffled shouts drifting up the stairs. Kendall was screaming about betrayal and sabotage. He had no idea that the woman he just called a stain was the very key to his future.
And she had just locked the door.
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7.3
I found out my husband of three years had cheated on me and his mistress is the one who told me-because he didn't have the balls to do it himself.
I move out and get a new apartment, a job as a bartender, and try to move on with a broken heart. I wonder where it all went wrong, if I hadn't been enough for him, if I'd been stupid for marrying him in the first place.
I'm at work one night when he walks inside-the most beautiful man I've ever seen. He sits at the bar and a forest fire burns between us. I was depressed the moment before he entered, but the second I look at his blue eyes, I forget the dumpster fire that my life has become. I invite him back to my place and it's the most passionate night of my life. I expect to never see him again.
I just want him as an anti-depressant-but he wants me all to himself. I just got my heart ripped out of my chest so I want something easy and no-strings-attached, but he wants all the strings because he's hooked.
I don't get much of a say in the matter, and that's not surprising when I learn why-because he's the Butcher. The crime lord of all crime lords, the boss that overshadows all of Paris, that makes everyone abide by his rules-or pay.
And now I'm his.
8.1
At sterlinggate university, only one rule matters:
Monsters do not belong.
Yuna never meant to become one.
After being publicly humiliated by her boyfriend , Yuna's emotions spiral out of control, she had a tough encounter with her bully, Megan, triggering a secret she was never meant to awaken. She isn't just a werewolf.
She is a kitsune.
A nine-tailed fox believed to be extinct.
A creature every wolf has been trained to hunt.
When her transformation is exposed, the university goes into lockdown. Hunters flood the campus. Silver charms are distributed. And one order is made clear:
"Kill the kitsune".
The only person willing to protect her is Noah Phillips,the star wolf of the university... and the son of the chief hunter leading the execution.
As danger closes in and her powers grow harder to control, Yuna must choose:
hide and survive, or rise and fight back.
Because if the wolves discover the truth...
They won't just kill her.
They'll start a war.
7.6
When the Pollard family kicked Alyssa out into the freezing rain, Walter threw a ten-thousand-dollar check into a dirty puddle.
"Take it and get out. Don't ever come back," he sneered.
Her adoptive mother and stepsister stood on the mansion's porch, mocking her as a worthless country girl who tarnished their wealthy name. They laughed, claiming she wouldn't even be able to afford community college and would be begging on the streets in a week.
They looked at her cheap clothes and worn backpack with absolute disgust.
They were completely unaware that for the past five years, Alyssa was the secret mastermind who had built their failing gallery into a multi-million-dollar investment empire.
Every key investment, every fortune they made, came from the anonymous notes she had slipped into their unread books. They genuinely believed they were business geniuses, while treating the true architect of their wealth like a stray dog.
Looking at their smug, arrogant faces, Alyssa didn't feel a shred of sadness, only a cold, sharp irony.
They actually believed they had raised her.
She stepped close, whispered the master code to Walter's most secret offshore account, and watched the blood completely drain from his face.
"I raised you," she said, turning her back on the mansion without hesitation.
Walking into the storm, she pulled out a heavily encrypted phone and gave a single, cold order.
"Initiate a full hostile takeover of the Pollard Group."
It was time to end this little game and step into her true life—as the world's most elusive medical genius, and the long-lost billionaire heiress of the Summers dynasty.
9.0
"You and your baby are mine whether you want it or not."
Renata Neroni's life was shattered the moment she discovered her boyfriend and stepsister's betrayal. In a rare lapse of judgment fueled by grief and alcohol, she spent a single, anonymous night with a stranger, unaware that she had just surrendered herself to Domenico Veronesi, the most formidable figure in the global underworld.
That night left Renata with more than just a memory; she was pregnant with the heir to a mafia empire.
As her father, desperate to free himself from the debts, prepares to marry her off to a man nearly his own age, Renata finds herself trapped. Her only escape arrives in the form of Domenico himself. Asserting his claim, he interrupts the arrangement and brings Renata to his secluded estate.
Within the fortified walls of the Veronesi estate, the man known for his cold, merciless exterior reveals a singular obsession: the protection of Renata and their unborn child.
However, Domenico's readiness to provide is met with a wall of ice.
Despite his efforts to provide for her, Renata's resentment initially hardens into a wall of silence.
To her, Domenico is simply another powerful man attempting to control her fate. However, as she is forced to navigate the inner workings of his life within the mafia world, she begins to see the man behind the fearsome reputation.
Renata discovers the deeper layers of Domenico, a loyalty and a hidden vulnerability regarding their child, and the fear that once defined her begins to dissolve.
8.0
My sister Rosalie always played the role of my gentle protector. On the night of my engagement, she insisted I take a secluded canyon road for my own safety.
In my past life, I didn't know it was a deadly trap. I fell for the staged ambush and the rival mobster, Julian, who took a fake bullet to "save" me.
Because of my blind trust, my entire Falcone bloodline was annihilated overnight. My father was beheaded, my brothers were gunned down, and my sweet little sister was left to die in a filthy alley. I was even brainwashed into betraying my new husband, Damien Moretti. I shot the only man who truly protected me right through the heart, just before Rosalie drowned me in a freezing lake, laughing as she confessed she was just a bastard child stealing my life.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very night my nightmare began. I was trapped in a penthouse, a lethal drug melting my sanity, pinned beneath Damien. But after he brutally sweat the poison out of my veins, he didn't look at me with love. He handed me a Plan B pill with a gaze full of ancient, chilling hatred.
"Swallow it," he commanded, his voice a sheet of ice.
He remembers. The Dark Don remembers the past life where I murdered him. But this time, I won't be a pawn. I wiped the blood of my traitorous maid from my hands, ready to drag my fake sister straight to hell.
9.1
The heavy oak doors of the Crane estate splintered under the battering ram. Annetta was just putting her five-year-old daughter to sleep when the SWAT team stormed the nursery.
They told her that her husband, Major Alek Crane, was killed in action overseas. But instead of a hero's funeral, he was branded a national traitor, and the feds were seizing every penny of their wealth.
Lead investigator Issac Rocha dragged Alek's charred remains into the grand hall just to mock him. He stripped Annetta of her wedding band, confiscated her winter coat, and officially exiled her, her daughter, and her hostile mother-in-law to a freezing Appalachian death zone. In the federal holding cell, the extended family turned on Annetta, calling her a cheap commoner and leaving her to shiver on the concrete floor. They were dumped in an abandoned mining town with nothing but canvas jumpsuits to die in the snow.
Annetta knew Alek was framed in a ruthless political hit. Issac Rocha wanted them to rot in the mud and freeze to death, completely forgotten by the world.
"We are going to live, and we are going to burn Issac Rocha to the ground."
But Issac made one fatal mistake. He didn't know the quiet, submissive daughter-in-law had spent the last three years secretly building a military-grade doomsday bunker right in the heart of that very mountain. Stepping past the freezing mud, Annetta initiated the biometric scan, and the massive steel blast doors slowly swung open.