7655 Book(s) Related to the dukes dark lady ch 1

Eryndor, a Phoenix demi-God, lives among humans as a wealthy businessman. Feared, envied, and unstoppable, he avoids the politics of gods and angels.

Until Seraphiel, the archangel who saved him as a child, brings a mission he cannot refuse. Zariel, ruler of the Underworld, is plotting a rebellion that could destroy all realms. Help stop him, and your dying parents can be reunited in their next life, Seraphiel says.

To succeed, Eryndor must kidnap Lyra, the Shadow Princess and Zariel’s daughter. She is supposed to be his enemy, but she is unlike anyone he has ever met. Fierce, defiant, and mysterious, Lyra challenges everything he believes about loyalty, power, and love.

As they are forced together, Eryndor and Lyra must decide if their hearts will remain enemies or risk everything for a chance at love—and survival.

He was a genius. He read through an entire library in six months.

He thought he had it all — a good family, a bright future, and a life everyone believed would lead to greatness. He believed it too. Until everything was stripped away from him.

His entire family was killed in a single day, yet powerful figures quickly ruled it a suicide. The public slandered their name, and he was left alone to bear the weight of the shame.

And then came the bullying. The whispers, and the cruel stares. Until he could not take it anymore.
So, he disappeared without a trace.

Ten years later, he is back. No longer the brilliant, innocent boy they once knew, but a man sharpened by pain, silence, and vengeance.

And he will do anything tho destroy everyone who ruined him.

She buried her parents, shedding tears of blood as the only family she had left was gone. She was left alone in a brutal world but that wasn’t the scary fact. She was a cursed individual who has to live forever without dying.
The curse of immortality will force her to live and watch her beloved ones dying, while she remains powerless to stop it.
A woman who has a cold heart and is not moved by anything, will her heart be moved by the disciple she took in?
Will she be able to finally open her heart to someone and love like any other person?
Will she be able to break the curse plaguing her?

Cassandra Cole was twenty and desperate.

No job. No home. No money. No family support.

One night, after being stranded, she ended up sharing a bed with a stranger in a hotel she stumbled into. The man was intoxicating sharp jaw, midnight eyes, authority dripping from him. She thought it would never happen again, so she let herself get lost for one night.

But when she woke the next morning and saw 20 dollars left on the bedside table, she shattered.

She believed he paid her.

She believed she meant nothing.

She took the money angry, humiliated, broken and walked out.

She didn’t know she was pregnant.

And she didn’t know the man was Eric Kingston, the heir to Kingston Enterprises, who thought she disappeared before he could even ask her name. The 20 dollars was a mistake: he meant to leave it for room service. But when he returned, she was gone, leaving only confusion and a scent he couldn’t forget.

Cassandra left the city for a countryside town, raised her son alone, and built herself up from nothing. Four years later, needing bigger opportunities, she moved back to the city and landed a job at the biggest corporation in the country.

Kingston Enterprises.

She didn’t know the man she was about to work for was the same stranger from that night.

And he didn’t remember her he only remembered flashes, the softness of her voice, the way she whispered her name, the heat, the innocence. But her face… he forgot after years of burying the memory.

Cassandra lied and pretended they’d never met.

Ten years ago, Justin Ben watched helplessly as his mother was murdered before his eyes while the people responsible destroyed his family overnight. His little sister disappeared during the chaos and was left to survive alone on the streets, while Justin himself vanished from Boron City completely.

Everyone believed the frightened boy died long ago.

But they were wrong.

Ten years later, Justin finally returns, no longer as the weak teenager they once hunted, but as the legendary God of War whose name alone terrifies armies and powerful men alike.

Now, the people who betrayed his mother and stole everything from his family are about to face the nightmare they created.

This time, Justin is not returning for forgiveness.

He is returning for revenge.

"You just don’t get it, do you? She’s nothing more than a fucking pawn. I’ll marry her, take her money, and then toss her aside like the trash she is."
THE REBIRTH OF THE BETRAYED VILLAIN

All along he didn't love love.

They didn't love me.
I was nothing. Just an object to be used and discarded when they were done.

A rich heir and a part-time barista—same world? Not even close.
——
Isabella struggles in Christopher's arms. "Let go of me! Two years ago, you were just toying with me. Didn't your friends say I smelled like poverty? What do you want now?"
Desire smolders in Christopher's eyes, his voice rough with restraint. "Behave, or I can't promise what I'll do..."

Belle is just Anna's little sweet daughter who really loves Leonardo, the cruelest Beast Mafia of this era. That 4-year-old girl really thought that the man wearing a pirate mask on the right side of his face was a prince in her storybook. But who would have thought that it all seemed like a new version of the story from the fantasy book Princess Belle, The Beauty and The Beast?

But this isn't about the Love story between Belle and The Beast. But it's about Leon, The Beast Mafia who has a crush on her mother, Anna Skye. Although initially, Anna was just a woman who was used as a bet between Leon and Jervanos. But in the end, Leon definitely has a big feeling for Anna. But what about the bets and Leon's cruel and petty attitude as a mafia? What's their story? Let me give you this story.

Seven years ago, Mara Vale signed a confession for the man she loved.

Grant Mercer promised it was the only way to save their future. He said the hit-and-run was an accident, that his family would hire the best lawyer, that she would be home before their baby learned to walk. Instead, Mara gave birth in prison, lost her son to Grant's polished lies, and watched him build a new life on the story of being ruined by a criminal ex-fiancee.

Now Mara is free, broke, and trained in the one craft no one in Grant's glittering world respects until they need it: the restoration of damaged photographs, burned paper, and things people thought were too ruined to speak.

When Grant's wealthy new wife hires Mara to save the Hart family archives, Mara steps into a house built on reputation, money, and locked boxes. Inside those boxes are old newspapers, altered confessions, receipts, signatures, and ashes that remember the truth better than any person dared to.

Grant stole Mara's name, her son, and seven years of her life. He is about to learn that some things cannot return to what they were, but they can still be restored.

Mara Vale was the intern everyone forgot.

She carried coffee into rooms where decisions were made, fixed printers no one thanked her for, and watched her ideas appear under another woman's name. At Vane & Co., she was told to be grateful for the badge that barely opened any doors.

Then, one stormy night in the sealed archive, Mara found a file the board had hidden for twenty years.

It said the company was still searching for its missing heiress.

It said someone had buried the real girl inside the lowest rung of the business.

And beside the photograph of a vanished child with Mara's eyes, someone had written one instruction in red ink:

Do not let her rise.

The last thing Kael remembered was the knife in his back.
Not a metaphorical knife—an actual blade, six inches of obsidian steel, buried between his shoulder blades by the woman he was supposed to marry. Princess Elara of the Celestial Court. The Golden Rose of the Nine Heavens. The most beautiful woman in the realm, and the most treacherous.
He'd died on the steps of the Temple of Eternal Light, surrounded by cheering nobles who thought they were witnessing the execution of a demon spy. They weren't wrong, exactly. Kael was from the Underworld. But he wasn't a spy.
He was the Crown Prince.
And now, three hundred years later, he was back.

On our wedding night, my husband confessed that he had been unfaithful with my sister.

In response, I revealed that I had murdered my stepfather.

He laughed and said, "My dear, your story is so convincingly crafted."

It was only when he discovered—

Every detail within the narrative was, indeed, a stark reality.

Including the poison that was now coursing through his veins.

In Cape City, where secrets linger in grand mansions, Williams Donald faces different family problems, his marriage to Julian Peterson was hell, he almost Lost his two legs as a result of falling upstairs when his wife threatened him with a knife, he became paralyzed. Later the mysteries surrounding his father's death, Mr Donald confronts a money laundering scandal led by Mr. Andrew Peterson. Enduring humiliation and tragedy, Williams discovers his father's hidden legacy, propelling him on a quest for justice. Can Williams break free from deceit, or will the Peterson mansion crumble under its dark past?

A modern-day romance.

Billionaire Ace Brightly is the owner and CEO of Pure Fashion Industries, with a reputation for being cold and arrogant. Everyone tries their best to avoid him at all costs.

Then enters Zurielle Summers.

After a run-in, first meeting, she stands up to him and doesn’t take his disrespect. She has no idea he is the CEO. She scolds him in front of his staff and their reactions are priceless.

Thinking she is employed at his company, Ace makes it his mission to find out who she is and what sector she works in. Every time they run into each other it's a disaster; arguing with each other while the staff watch on as though it's an episode of their favourite soap opera.

From biker gangs, to glitz and glamour, this story has it all. Tragedy, drama, humour, romance, fashion and most of all Love, Vogue and a hot CEO.

When Hazel Parker moves in next door to the Forest Ranger, she feels an instant attraction but feels hurt when he rejects her initial advances. However, an encounter in the forest with him changes everything when she learns his true identity.

Strong Sexual Content

Excerpt:

Rhett slowly brought his hand up and ran it up Hazel’s body without touching it, just mere centimeters away. When he got to her neck he stopped and then reached in and grabbed Hazel’s jaw and turned her face back towards him. “You don’t have to be scared of me Hazel. I don’t want to hurt you. Show yourself NOW!” he demanded.

“You’re going to have to learn to listen,” Rhett said as he pulled her head to the side. Then, he suddenly thrust forward and sunk his teeth into her neck.

Victoria Sy’s seemingly ideal life falls apart as she discovers her husband’s infidelity. Fueled by a desire for vengeance, she embarks on an unexpected revenge mission with Zander, her husband’s mysterious half-brother. As Victoria embraces her newfound freedom, she must navigate the perilous waters of love, betrayal, and self-discovery, redefining what it means to be genuinely alive.

Jess has a secret that she has been keeping from her family. She is an agent for the Department of the supernatural. She has been working for them since she was 16, but now aliens have landed, and Jess knew that they were coming, and she knows what they want. She has to get her family away from civilization and into the mountains where they will be safe. What Jess does not expect to find in the mountains is her boss Kieran, the man who broke her heart back when she first joined the department. Jess has to train her family how to fight while keeping her feeling under control as she prepares for war. She must work alongside her friends, family, Kieran and civilians to make sure that the aliens leave and that they will not or cannot come back.

Maya Greenley has always been a hopeless romantic, or at least that's what her best friends tell her.
Between acing her classes and preparing for post-grad school, Maya doesn't have time for 'romance'. That is until she sees Alexander Grey, a mysterious but swoon-worthy man with dark eyes and a wickedly charming smile.
Maya knows she shouldn't feel anything toward him, it was wrong, forbidden even and he was absolutely off-limits. And it was because the charming man is not only years older than Maya, He's also her Psychology professor.


"Do you know what you do to me?"
"No…" she answered in a small voice.
He rolled her hardened nipple against the tip of his fingers and Maya closed her eyes when he pressed a small kiss on the hollow at the base of her throat. "You're a distraction, Maya, so very distracting."
She could no longer hold back her moans and the sound vibrated through her throat, her hips bucking against his hand while his fingers brushed over her sensitive flesh.
"Don't come until I tell you to."

In a desolate coastal area in Northern Sweden, the cruise ship, Ocean Gala, is docked whilst carrying 1,800 asylum seekers. Far-right groups are gathering on the dock to protest against the floating refugee camp and as a brutal home invader begins to roam the area, the local Chief of Police calls upon a team of cadets from the newly established Scandinavian Academy of Criminal Profiling. This group is led by the aging detective, Conrad Løwe, but its most valuable asset – and biggest challenge – is Nadia Elmkvist. They meet Hampus Cedergren – a local police officer who most definitely does not welcome the group, particularly Nadia and her methods of interrogation.

I cover my breasts with my arms and stay gazing at the fire. This all feels intensely good, my body feels as if it has been waiting a life time.
He even untied my braids and moves the loose hair away from my neck. My private area feels like it is pulsating. I close my eyes as he heavily kisses the side of my neck.

"I will be gentle at first. Come to bed." At first.

I hear him take a few steps back and stop. With a brave, deep breath I slowly turn around.

I see the red flames in his eyes as they grow wide, glued to the sight of my heavy breasts. I see his cock twitch.

"Fortune has favoured me."

"Come to me, wife."

Love is deadly they say.

Elizabeth the transformed Elizabeth fights to rein in her wants as Dominic is at her side and she is ravenous for blood.

Dominic's desire for the golden girl competes with his need for retribution against Katherine.

After losing Elizabeth, Katherine is distraught and will stop at nothing to win her back. even if it means becoming into something he previously detested.

Getting what they desire can cost them their lives.

Tatina Maria has been sold to an exclusive auction house to cover her parents debts to the vampire authority. Her father gambled away everything and now he is forced to even sell his oldest daughter to save his life. The vampire authority comes to collect her on her 21st birthday. She will be sold to the highest bidder. Drew Bastine could not wait to get his hands on Tatina. She is a hybrid half fairy and half vampire. She will fetch him a big payday. What will happen to Tatina once she is sold into slavery for the rest of her life.

Detective Elena Cross has spent twelve years hunting killers.

She never expected one to start exposing the people hiding behind the law.

When a respected judge is found dead inside an abandoned courtroom, his hands stained red and a confession pinned to his chest, Elena is assigned to lead the investigation. The evidence reveals that the judge accepted bribes, buried violent crimes, and protected dangerous men.

Beside his body is a note addressed to Elena.

Then another corrupt official dies.

And another.

With every murder, the killer uncovers a network of police officers, lawyers, doctors, and judges who have spent years silencing victims and destroying evidence. His notes warn Elena about the people surrounding her, reveal secrets no outsider should know, and guide her toward crimes her own department is desperate to conceal.

When Elena follows one of his clues, she catches a powerful attorney falsifying documents. But the evidence vanishes, and the man walks free.

Hours later, he becomes the Confessor’s next victim.

I gave him to you alive. Your people gave him back to me.

Now Elena must choose who to trust: the officers who swore to uphold the law or the murderer who has never lied to her.

But when an innocent witness is killed using the Confessor’s methods, Elena realizes someone inside her department is copying his crimes.

To expose the truth, she may have to work with the killer she was sworn to arrest before the people closest to her silence them both.

The same golden September morning the town pathologists' teenage daugher is discovered hanging off a tree in the woods above Assisi (Umbria, Italy), the high-powered planning director of Perugia narrowly escapes death in a paragliding accident.  Commissario Lorenzetti senses foul play.  The police department is overstretched and he asks his best friend and fellow investigator Sister Lucia to look into the suicide.  But will her judgement be clouded by her own guilty secret? This is a story about leaps - real and metaphorical, taken and not taken.

Angela currently plunges into poverty that forces her to went into prostitution where she sells her body to keep her two younger siblings alive, paying their school fees and put food on their table at least twice a day.

Despite experiencing the whip of life, she didn't lose hope. She believes one day she will be freed from prostitution, she will feel loved, respected and cared for. She still believes there's someone who will come to hold her hand and help her to get out of the mud. And the person who's going to save her is her childhood friend who went abroad to study way back seven years ago.

What if her childhood friend came back all of the sudden? Is she will going to reveal her secret as a prostitute just to make her save by him? Or hide it just to make her man stay in her life?

Is it possible for a prostitute like her to have a happy ever after to a knight shimmering shining armor like in books and fairytales?

Let's find out in The Prostitute.

One night. One mistake. Or was it fate?
Riley was shattered—betrayed by the two people she trusted most. In the heat of heartbreak, she found herself in the arms of a dangerous stranger, never expecting to see him again.
He was a ruthless mafia king who built his empire with blood, sweat, and bullets.
Years later, she’s raising not one, but nine daughters. She never told him. Until now.

Evangeline May arrived in small town Brookeville hoping to find peace within from her former life. After starting college at Maybury University, life began to seem simple again. Until Finley Brooks, the charmer at Maybury, decided to become her personal tormentor. As dark secrets, and Evangeline’s past resurfaces, she soon finds out Brookeville was more than she bargained for. Evangeline must decide who to trust when it seems everyone has something to hide.

When John McKinley brought his items into Susan's checkout line, she had no idea how her life was about to change. She had her suspicions early on, but didn't really know what kind of man John was. She was destined to find out as she let her suspicions lead her into the dark world John lived in.

The Hope Harbor Lighthouse has drawn two people together, where a chance at love waits—if they’ll take it. Looking for an escape from her busy life, Emily Cooke retreats to a quaint beachfront house to take stock of her life. As she moves into her rental, her new neighbor rumbles into the driveway next door on his vintage motorcycle—and ignores her neighborly wave. Wes Taggert left behind a lucrative career that destroyed his faith in humanity. All he wants now is to be left alone, undisturbed. When news spreads that the historic lighthouse is slated to be demolished, Wes goes to a meeting of locals determined to rescue the crumbling landmark. His new neighbor is there. He can’t seem to ignore her. Sparks fly as they team up to save the historic lighthouse. But when their surprising chemistry ignites deeper emotions, emotional wounds are exposed.

“On your back,” Aurora snarled, her claws raking down his chest, drawing crimson lines that healed in glowing brands. Jazz bucked beneath her, his massive cock throbbing deep in her clenching pussy, fangs bared in submissive ecstasy. “Taste me first. Worship this pussy like it's your undoing,” she commanded, grinding down as his tongue plunged into her slick heat, devouring her cream. “

Aurora Moon is a wolf who doesn’t bow to anyone. As the fierce princess of House Varex’s werewolf mafia, she’s sworn to protect her pack in a city ruled by supernatural crime families. But when an ancient relic binds Aurora’s fate to a vampire’s, all her feral strength can’t guard her heart. Jasper “Jazz” Azelle is a silver-tongued vampire from a rival House a man who wears submission like a tailored suit, and power like a hidden blade. He enters Aurora’s life as an enemy, yet a cursed artifact’s whisper soon entwines them in a prophecy neither can escape.

Alpha Vishous and his girlfriend Ava are werewolves living in a pack. To become the Luna of their pack, Ava has to complete some rituals that may leave her helpless and completely at the mercy of a pack of dangerous wolves and their God.

Destiny is not your ordinary girl.
Besides the fact that she straggles two world’s.
She is also the spirit the powers that be have been waiting for.
That’s right.
Destiny is a spirit. Not born on this plane of existence.
She hails from beyond the veil. Where a soul goes when the vessel can no longer hold it.
Spirits like Destiny are called shadow agents.
A shadow agent hunts down and returns the souls that flee back to the mortal side of the veil. Where these souls start to cause trouble.
The Powers that be have sensed uneasiness for a while now and need Destiny to accept. Well. Her destiny.
All Destiny will have to aid her in her task is a sassy best friend and a talking, scruffy white cat.
Destiny will need all her skills, all her courage and wits if she is going to prevail and bring the missing souls home.

My marriage to Matthew was a transaction, a substitute—everything except love. When his white moonlight came back, I was abandoned, diagnosed with gastric cancer, and carrying his child. His late regret could never bring back my life, nor could it keep our unborn baby.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, I received a bouquet of red roses from my husband, Gabriel.

The problem was, I was severely allergic to roses — something I'd told him countless times.

"Same order number, two deliveries," the delivery man said casually, glancing at his clipboard.

My blood ran cold.

The man who'd claimed he had to work late — who couldn't even spare me a simple "Happy anniversary" — was at that very moment holding another woman in his arms. Nine hundred and ninety-nine roses. A designer handbag. Diamond jewelry. And on his face, a tender smile I hadn't seen once in five years of marriage.

For him, I had given up everything. I'd gone from being the pampered darling of the Rivers family to a wife crammed into a tiny apartment, comparing prices across three different grocery stores just to stretch every dollar. I'd filed down every sharp edge I had. Swallowed every last ounce of my pride.

And yet here he was — while I was still carrying his child — lavishing the very best of everything on someone else.

Gabriel, you dare betray me?

Then that CEO seat? Consider it gone.

A once-formidable heiress, dulled and diminished by love, was about to reclaim everything she'd lost. The masks were coming off.

And the reckoning was just beginning.

Every July, my husband left for a business trip to France—so for seven full years of marriage, we never once got to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
This time, I flew all the way to France to surprise him, and mid-flight, I stumbled across a social media post.
My dream girl finally agreed to be with me. How do I make the frumpy, worn-out wife back home file for divorce on her own?
The OP poured out his grievances in the comment section:
When my dream girl suddenly moved abroad, I married her former best friend to keep me company through the hard times, just so I wouldn’t lose touch with her completely.
Now she’s finally said yes to being with me, and I’ve made enough to give her the lavish, privileged life she deserves.
I want my wife to find out about my affair herself so I can get a clean divorce without a fight, but she’s so painfully oblivious. I’ve come home reeking of my dream girl’s perfume on purpose, and every single July I fly here to France for our private time together, watching the lavender bloom in Provence with her. She never noticed a thing.
Perfume. July. France.
Those matching details made my fingers go numb. A deafening buzz exploded in my skull. A bone-deep chill washed over me, and I prayed with everything I had that it was all just a terrible coincidence.
Until I read the final line.
Just got a spending alert from her supplementary credit card—she bought a flight to France. I’m heading to pick up my dream girl now, might as well keep an eye out for her, just in case.
The plane touched down. When I stepped into the arrivals hall, I lifted my head almost instinctively.
There stood Shen Sinian, the man I hadn’t seen in two weeks, in a crisp, tailored suit, a bouquet of roses in his hand, locked in a passionate kiss with a woman with a stunning, willowy figure, her back to me.
He opened his eyes by chance, and through the crowd of travelers, his gaze locked directly with mine.

"Starting price for my wife—one dollar!" James announced, pointing at the dog cage where I lay curled up like a dying animal.

The crowd at the wedding erupted in laughter. "Five dollars!" "Ten!" They threw bids like trash, mocking the woman who used to be Mrs. Windsor. Lillian, wearing my stolen necklace, poked me through the bars with a metal rod. "Look at you, Aurora. You're nothing but filth." I closed my eyes, accepting my fate. My husband had sold me. My dignity was gone.

Suddenly, a cold, authoritative voice cut through the noise.

"Two hundred million."

Silence fell over the hall. Every head turned. Walking through the doors was a man radiating power—Louis Smith, the newly found heir to the Smith empire. The man I had pushed away ten years ago. James turned pale. "Mr. Smith... this is a joke..."

Louis didn't even look at him. He walked straight to the cage, his eyes burning with a terrifying mix of rage and tenderness. He ripped the lock off with his bare hands and pulled me into his arms. James tried to block him. "She's my wife! You can't just take her!"

Louis smirked, his voice dripping with ice. "Your wife? I just bought her. She's mine now."

He once saw her as nothing but a cheap plaything. Four years of closeness was nothing more than “practice before marriage.”
Cast out on a snowy night, publicly humiliated, her career destroyed… She licked her wounds in silence and dialed her family’s satellite phone.
When they met again, she was the largest shareholder of the Corporation. He was forced to bend his pride and call her “Auntie” in a trembling voice.
You took away all my dignity once. Now I make you too low to reach me.

Jonathan’s way of loving was always paying in silence. After we broke up, he cleared my shopping cart, stocked up enough makeup remover to last me three years, trying his best to make up for it. But during those three years when I willingly waited for him to propose, he never said a word. Until one day, he found a small note I’d written in pencil three years ago in that wedding planning book: “It’s okay, I can wait.” He cried all night staring at that line, and the next day, he bought 17 copies of the same book. On the title page of each one, he wrote neatly: “Wait for me.” It turns out, the stupidest person takes three years just to learn to say “I love you.”

For the sake of the so-called family heir, my husband Killian is prepared to kill my child!
That day, Killian locked me in an underground cold storage at ten degrees below zero, all because there is an ironclad rule in the Vittorio family.
The first-born son shall inherit the family’s Mafia empire.
My eldest brother’s wife Ira and I got pregnant at the same time.
To ensure his elder brother’s child is born first, Killian made this insane decision.
"My brother and Ira’s child has to be born first. This is what you owe them!"
He ignored my pleas and forcibly injected me with labor-delaying medicine.
"Allowing this child to be born at all is already the greatest mercy I can grant you."
Killian said to me with undisguised disgust.
I curled up in agony on the icy concrete floor, feeling the little life in my womb fading away bit by bit, shedding tears of utter despair.
"My baby… Mommy is so sorry for you…"

Xie Yijin hated me more than anyone in this world.

He called me vicious as a scorpion, said I schemed about everything, stole all that belonged to Lin Wanwan, and destroyed the one he held dearest.

Xie Yijin shielded Lin Wanwan tightly behind him.
The eyes that once looked at me with such tenderness were now frozen over with unmelting ice.
He pointed straight at me, every word cutting like a blade:

"Shen Zhiyi, why don’t you just die?!"

I froze in place, my fingertips ice-cold.
Unconsciously, I still clutched that crumpled, yellowed candy wrapper.

He had given it to me when he was seven years old,
saying that when I grew up, he would marry me
and buy me candies for the rest of my life.

But now…
he only wanted me dead.

"Jump, Stella. No one wants an ugly monster like you," my mother said coldly, blocking my escape route.

Behind me was the freezing, raging river; in front of me were the people I loved most, now forcing me to die. Jennifer smirked, clutching the trophy that belonged to me. "I'll take good care of Ethan for you," she whispered. I looked at their faces—twisted, cruel, triumphant. I didn't jump to die; I jumped to be reborn. As the icy water filled my lungs, I made a pact with the devil. I will crawl back from hell, and I will drag you all down with me.

During the senior executive meeting, an intern slapped a 15-yuan McDonald's receipt right in my face.
"Vice President Xu has been embezzling company funds for personal meals! A parasite like her, who’s been fleecing the company, must be fired!"
My boyfriend of eight years looked at me with a feigned, agonized expression. "This incident has caused an abysmally bad impact. You will be suspended pending an internal investigation."
I stared at his hand wrapped around the intern's waist, then calmly removed my employee ID badge.
I turned to my assistant and ordered, "Freeze the five million yuan in the company's account. That's just the pocket money I casually deposited there last week."

"Mommy's just a housewife! I don't want Mommy anymore—I want Aunt Jessica!"

Those words from my eight-year-old son, Jimmy, hit harder than any physical blow. I stood frozen in our living room, surrounded by the shards of the vase I’d just smashed. My husband, Robert, didn't even flinch. He just pulled Jessica closer, his hand resting possessively on her waist.

"Stop being dramatic, Scarlett," Robert sneered, his eyes cold. "Jessica is my soulmate. She understands my work. You? You just clean."

Eight years of devotion. Eight years of sacrificing my career to build this home. And now, my husband and son were looking at a stranger with the love that belonged to me.

I tried to reach for Jimmy, but he pushed me away with his small, angry fists. "Bad Mommy! Aunt Jessica buys me candy! You're just an ugly hag!"

My heart twisted until it snapped. I watched them leave for Jessica's award party—an award for a paper I practically wrote but couldn't claim. I was left alone in the silence of the house I paid for, bleeding from the glass cuts on my hands.

Later that night, at the hospital, after I’d been injured by Robert’s own hand, the nurse asked Jimmy who I was. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "I don't know her. Jessica is my mom."

That was the moment the old Scarlett died. I wiped the blood from my face, picked up my phone, and dialed my lawyer.

"Mr. Owens," I whispered, my voice trembling but resolute. "Let's redraft the agreement. I don't want custody. They can have each other."

He broke down the morgue door, his guttural scream echoing off the cold tiles as he yanked open drawer after drawer.

"Emily!"

Ethan's hands shook violently as he pulled it open. She lay inside, a white sheet draped over her face. With trembling fingers, he peeled back the fabric. Her face was paper-white, lips bloodless, her eyelashes casting faint shadows. So still.

This wasn't the Emily he knew. The Emily he knew could smile, could cry, could clumsily try to warm his frozen heart. But now, she was just a corpse. A corpse because of him.

"Cancer... stage four..." he whispered, drowning in a tidal wave of panic.

He remembered all those times she had clutched her stomach in agony, and he had mocked her. He remembered demanding she give her heart to his lover. He remembered her final silent words through the surgical glass: "I hate you."

"AHHH—!!" A raw scream tore from his throat. He slammed his fist into the metal drawer, blood blooming across his knuckles.

He collapsed beside her, pulling her stiff, freezing body into his arms. She was so light. Like holding air.

"Emily, I was wrong. I was so wrong," he choked out, crying for the first time in years. "Wake up. Hit me. Hate me. I'm begging you..."

But death is the most absolute silence of all. How far will a man go when he realizes he murdered his only salvation?

They kept me shackled before the Gates of the Abyss, force-feeding me toxic sludge and draining my final drop of blood, all to maintain their hypocritical "order." They called me the "Ultimate Anchor," unaware that the moment a watchdog decides it’s done playing the dog, the beast in the cage finally wakes up. From the very second I seized the laws of physics, this entire headquarters of the Defense Bureau became my private mausoleum. Your high-and-mighty Director? He’s currently kneeling in my cycle, begging for the sweet release of death. As for that Void Rift that makes the world tremble? Sorry, I just ate it for dinner.