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 4
Emily Mays had never cared about looking put together. Emily's apartment in Silver Lake was a mess. Canvases were stacked against the walls, paint tubes littered every surface, and the couch was covered in fabric swatches. It was chaotic, loud, and utterly alive. It was the exact opposite of the Kirby mausoleum.
Emily pulled Carma inside and wrapped her in a hug so tight it squeezed the remaining tension out of her shoulders.
"Welcome to the revolution," Emily said, pulling back to look at her. "You look like hell."
"Thanks." Carma dropped her bags by the door. "I feel like it."
"Sit." Emily pointed to the only clear spot on the sofa. She went into the tiny kitchen and came back with a chipped mug filled with hot cocoa. Marshmallows bobbed on the surface. "Drink. It's magic."
Carma wrapped her hands around the warm mug. The sweetness hit her tongue, and for a second, the tightness in her chest loosened. She took a deep breath.
The phone on the coffee table vibrated. The screen lit up with the name "Mildred Kirby."
Emily reached for it. "I'll hang up on the old bat."
"No." Carma put down her mug. "Let her talk." She picked up the phone and hit the speaker button.
"Carma Forbes!" Mildred's voice was a shrill scream. "You ungrateful little witch! You think hiring some fancy lawyer scares us? Come back here this instant and sign the papers!"
"Hello, Mildred," Carma said, her voice calm. "My lawyer has already instructed me to direct all communication through her office. This is the last time we will speak directly."
"Communication? Who do you think you are?" Mildred sputtered. "You want half of Kendall's money? You don't deserve a cent! You're nothing but a glorified maid!"
"Goodbye, Mildred." Carma hit the end call button. She tapped the screen, blocking the number. The silence that followed was deafening.
Emily burst out laughing. "Oh my god. That was beautiful. You blocked the dragon."
Before Carma could smile, the phone rang again. This time the screen showed "Tinsley Kirby." Kendall's younger sister.
Carma answered on speaker. "What do you want, Tinsley?"
"Carma? Where are you?" Tinsley's voice was whiny and demanding. "I have my debutante party next week. My dress needs altering, and you haven't picked up the dry cleaning. Get back here and do your job!"
Carma stared at the phone in disbelief. "Tinsley, do you really think I'm still going to run your errands?"
"Uh, yes? You're my brother's wife. That's your job. Now stop being a brat and come home."
"My job is over," Carma said. "And soon, I won't be your brother's wife at all. Find another maid."
She hung up and blocked the number. A strange, giddy feeling bubbled up in her chest.
Emily clapped her hands. "Yes! Burn it down! Who's next?"
The phone rang a third time. "Kendall."
The giddy feeling vanished. Carma stared at the name. She hesitated, then swiped to answer.
"Carma." Kendall's voice was low, controlled anger. "What game are you playing? You're embarrassing yourself."
"I'm not the one who should be embarrassed, Kendall."
"Stop this." His tone shifted, trying to sound reasonable. "We had three years together. Are you really going to ruin it over money? Is that all I meant to you?"
Carma let out a bitter laugh. "You offered me a quarter of a million dollars to disappear. You tell me what the marriage meant to you."
Silence. Then, the threat. "Don't push me, Carma. My PR team can destroy you. One phone call and you'll be the most hated woman in America."
Carma's spine stiffened. "Do it. Let's see how the public likes the story of an Oscar winner who hides his wife for three years and then tries to buy her off on their anniversary. I'm sure the academy will love that."
The line went dead. Kendall had hung up.
Carma stared at the screen. She didn't hesitate. She blocked his number. Then she went through her contacts. She deleted his family, his agent, his publicist. Every number tied to the Kirby name vanished from her phone.
She set the phone down on the table. The screen was blank. No more calls. No more demands.
"Clean slate," she whispered.
Emily handed her the mug of cocoa again. "To freedom."
Carma took a long sip. It tasted like victory.
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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.