Clara Winter
13 Published Stories
Clara Winter's Books and Stories
The Disguised Girl: Captivating The Billionaire King
Romance Dasia's twin brother, Gerald, was an e-sports prodigy, the rising star of the Glory team.
But during a crucial moment, he was framed by his own teammates. They orchestrated a trap that completely destroyed his reputation and left his right hand brutally crushed.
Instead of getting him medical help, the club threw him out into the freezing rain, bleeding and disgraced. The manager labeled him useless trash and slapped him with a five-million-dollar termination fee to bleed him dry. Stripped of his pro status, the wealthy bullies at his prep school relentlessly targeted him, mocking his crippled hand and beating him down.
Dasia watched her twin brother cry in his room, his life and dreams shattered by the people he trusted. A violent, suffocating rage boiled in her chest. How could they smile while crushing his hand? Why should the victim be treated like a rotting piece of garbage while the perpetrators get rich and celebrated?
She didn't shed a single tear. She stood in front of the mirror, took a pair of scissors, and ruthlessly hacked off her waist-length hair. She wrapped her chest in coarse medical bandages until her ribs screamed, and pulled on his oversized black hoodie.
"Everything you took from him, I am going to take back with interest."
The girl in the mirror was gone. She was Gerald now. She secretly passed the brutal online tryouts for Glory's biggest rival, the elite Blackflame team, and signed their official contract. The revenge had officially begun. Runaway Lover: Escaping The Ruthless Billionaire
Romance For fifteen years, I thought my mother had died in a tragic fire.
Then the wealthy Ross family's butler knocked on my door, revealing she was alive—locked away in the psychiatric annex of their massive estate.
I rushed into the lion's den to save her, only to run straight into Graydon Ross, the ruthless billionaire CEO.
He looked at my cheap clothes with pure disgust, convinced I was a bottom-feeding scammer trying to extort his family.
"Throw this bitch out into the snow."
He ordered his armed guards to drag me away, completely cutting off my only chance to see my mentally broken mother.
But as he violently grabbed my collar to throw me out, I saw a custom eagle-head cufflink hanging from his coat pocket.
My blood turned to ice, and a wave of paralyzing terror crashed over me.
Eight months ago, I accidentally slept with a masked stranger in a pitch-black hotel room and fled before dawn.
That cufflink belonged to him.
The man who took my virginity—the Wall Street tyrant I had been hiding from—was Graydon Ross.
If he ever found out I was that woman, he would literally destroy my life.
But to save my mother, I couldn't be thrown out.
When his grandmother suddenly appeared, I dropped to the floor, exposed the dark bruises Graydon had just left on my wrists, and sobbed.
I framed the billionaire for assault to secure my place in the mansion, forcing myself to live right next door to the monster whose bed I had fled. His Ninety-Nine Betrayals, My Freedom
Modern My fiancé, a Navy SEAL Commander, postponed our wedding 99 times for my manipulative sister. For our 100th attempt, I put my foot down. This date, or no date.
He called two weeks before the wedding to cancel again. But this time, he threatened my career to force my compliance.
Then I overheard the truth. He was planning to marry my sister-a "temporary" arrangement to get her into an exclusive therapy program.
After he divorced her, he'd come back to me. I was his "certainty." His backup plan.
My own mother supported it, slapping me when I refused to play along.
"You will be a proper wife," she hissed.
I had spent five years as a placeholder, my life put on hold for their drama. I was done waiting.
I hung up the phone, canceled the wedding permanently, and volunteered for a three-year, off-the-grid assignment. But first, I took my wedding dress and a pair of scissors. My Marriage: A Million Lies
Modern My marriage to the cold New York tycoon, Eli Drake, was supposed to be an impossible love story. I was the rebellious artist who had chased him across continents, believing I' d found my soulmate.
Then I overheard a conversation that shattered everything. Our three-year marriage was a lie, a charade designed to protect his fragile sister-in-law, Kala. I was just the "lightning rod," strong enough to take the hits meant for her.
The worst part? He' d secretly had a vasectomy, letting me endure his family' s scorn for being "barren" while he knew the truth all along.
It all clicked into place: the public humiliations, the framed financial crimes, the "accidents" that left me scarred. They systematically broke me, forcing me to give a piece of my own skin to heal Kala and staging a car crash that landed me in prison.
Eli' s justification was always the same: "Kala is delicate. Not like you." He thought I was strong enough to take it, that my defiance was a tool he could use.
He exiled me, thinking I was broken and forgotten. He was wrong. I reinvented myself as the celebrated artist 'Lark.' And when he came crawling back, begging for forgiveness on a global stage, I knew my moment had come. My revenge would be a masterpiece. His Mafia Princess's Revenge
Mafia My husband, Don Lorenzo Bianchi, the man who once took ninety-nine lashes for me, had just locked me in a guest room. I was four months pregnant with our child, the heir to his mafia empire.
My crime was throwing a glass of wine on his mistress, a woman he had moved into our home.
She cornered me in the garden, gloating that once the baby was born, he would give it to her to raise as her own. Later, she shoved me down the grand staircase, then threw herself down after me, screaming to my husband that I had tried to kill her.
As I lay in a pool of my own blood, Lorenzo rushed past me, scooping her into his arms and carrying her away without a single backward glance.
To force me to apologize, he had my parents brought to my hospital room and brutally whipped until they collapsed at his feet.
He was no longer the man who had 999 crystals sewn into my wedding dress. He was a monster who believed every lie she told and punished me for her crimes. How could the man who swore to love me forever become this cruel stranger?
But he didn't know the truth. Days before the fall, I had secretly terminated the pregnancy. I took the urn containing our child's ashes, filed for divorce, and disappeared from his world forever. The Alpha's Rejected White Wolf Mate
Werewolf It was the night of my first solo art exhibition, but my Alpha mate, Cameron, was nowhere to be seen. The air was thick with champagne and praise, but every compliment felt like a slap, calling me "the Alpha's mate," not an artist.
Then I saw him on the news feed. He was shielding another woman, an Alpha Female, from camera flashes. The whispers in the room confirmed it: their packs were merging, sealed by a new mating. This wasn't just him being late; it was a public execution of our bond.
His voice cut into my mind, cold and detached. "Kacie needs me. You're an Omega, handle this." Not an apology, just an order. That was the moment the last thread of hope I’d clung to for four years finally snapped.
He hadn't just forgotten me; he had systematically erased me, even taking credit for the billion-dollar app born from my secret visions, dismissing my art as a mere "hobby."
But the quiet, submissive part of me died that night. I walked into a back office and sent a message to my lawyer.
I told her to draft a Rejection Ritual document, disguised as an Intellectual Property transfer for my "worthless" art. He would never read the fine print. With the same arrogance he used to shatter my soul, he was about to sign his own away. His Obsession Became My Perfect Escape
Romance I've been married to Emit Arnold for three years. It was a shotgun wedding, forced after I woke up in his bed, drugged and confused. On that same day, the woman he truly loved died in a car crash, and I was instantly recast as the villain who had stolen her life.
Now, my adopted sister, Gigi, a hauntingly perfect copy of his dead lover, lives with us. He adores her, while my own children run past me to throw their arms around her instead.
He humiliates me in front of our family, suggesting I'm unstable and need to be sent away "to rest." The final blow came at the annual charity gala. He took the sapphire necklace he once gave me, the last symbol of a love I thought we had, and fastened it around Gigi's neck for the whole world to see.
Watching him gently brush a stray hair from her face, a gesture once reserved only for me, I knew it was over. He wasn't just ignoring our marriage; he was publicly executing it.
That night, I walked out into a raging storm. The next morning, I collapsed on a cold bathroom floor, miscarrying a child I never knew I was carrying. As I cleaned myself up, alone, I felt the last of my love die. My divorce summons was served on Gigi's birthday. His Unknowing Bride
Romance Ava Green was dying, her body failing her with terminal illness.
She returned to her hometown, seeking a peaceful end, only to confront the ghost of her first love, Liam Carter.
He greeted her with a smirk and a diamond on another woman' s finger, his words laced with venom, tearing down her childhood home before her eyes.
Liam, manipulated by his mother, believed Ava had abandoned him for money eight years prior, blind to her selfless sacrifice to save their beloved teacher.
She died, heartbroken and alone, leaving him consumed by a guilt that twisted his life into a lonely monument to her memory.
But death was not the end.
Two years later, Ava woke in a stranger' s body, a rebellious punk teen named Riley, thrust back into the city she' d fled.
With fragmented memories and a dead girl' s vengeful wishes burning on her skin, she found herself face-to-face with Liam again.
He didn't recognize her, yet offered an unexpected marriage of convenience, unknowingly fulfilling her desperate need for a way to complete Riley' s final, unfinished business while navigating a love that refused to die. 104 Sundays of Lies
Modern My world reset every Sunday, leaving me a blank slate for my loving fiancé, Ethan, and my best friend, Maria, to carefully guide.
Every week, Ethan would patiently show me home videos of our happy life, our engagement, and explain my amnesia, reassuring me of his devotion after my rock-climbing accident.
But a crude tattoo mysteriously appearing on my ankle, spelling "HE'S LYING," hinted at a truth my conscious mind couldn' t hold.
Then I found a hidden note: "THE PILLS ARE SLEEPING DRAFTS. DON' T TAKE THEM." My heart sank as I realized the "vitamins" Maria gave me nightly were keeping me trapped in this cycle.
I started pretending to take them, creeping out of bed one night to hear Ethan and Maria laughing, discussing how they were siphoning millions from my family, and planning their Bali escape.
That agonizing discovery was nothing compared to seeing them passionately kissing on the couch, my fiancé and my best friend.
A wave of pure, white-hot rage, unlike anything I'd ever felt, consumed me.
When I confronted them, Maria shoved me, sending my head crashing against the coffee table.
I woke up in a hospital, staring at Ethan, and then it hit me: the floodgates opened. Two years of forgotten betrayals, 104 cycles of lies, every single horrifying detail slammed back into my mind.
He hovered over me, thumb drive in hand, ready to reset me again.
"No," I whispered, forcing my voice to tremble. "Should I know who you are?"
Relief washed over his face. He thought I was broken again, unsuspecting.
But this time, I remembered everything. And he had no idea the game had just irrevocably changed. The Scorned Fiance: Reclaiming His Crown
Billionaires I barely had two pennies to rub together, living in a small back-house room the Petersons let me use, but at least I had Tiffany.
Tiffany Peterson, my beautiful fiancée, was my world.
That was, until she didn't come home from whatever party she' d gone to.
The next morning, Julian Astor III, New York' s notorious playboy, appeared.
He smirked, waving Tiffany's silk scarf in my face.
"Found it in my penthouse this morning. Tiffany left in a bit of a hurry. You'll be seeing a lot more of her."
Tiffany confirmed it all, not a trace of remorse on her face.
Our engagement? "A formality, darling. Julian is my future."
Later, Julian returned to my room, his goons beating my only friend, Mike, just for asking questions.
Julian then detailed intimate acts with Tiffany, twisting the knife.
When I confronted the Petersons, my adoptive parents, they sneered: "You're a nobody, Alex. An orphan we took in out of charity. You will go along with it."
My supposed family, the people who raised me, were selling me out, orchestrating my humiliation for their social climb.
My world shattered.
How could this be happening?
The woman I loved, my adoptive family, all conspiring to humiliate and discard me like trash.
Why?
What had I ever done to deserve such betrayal and cruelty?
Broken and devoid of hope, I started packing my worn duffel bag – the only thing left from my parents.
Then, something fell out: a faded photograph of a woman with my eyes, wearing a unique crescent-moon pendant.
A stranger named Chloe Vanderbilt later saw it and whispered of "a prominent family, a lost heir, connected by a crescent symbol."
Was there more to my past than I knew?
And could this secret be my only way out of this nightmare? The Genius They Cast Aside
Modern Ethan Miller' s brilliant mind offered him one dream: an elite NSA program at Stanford, a world away from his suffocating family life. But when he returned home, his mother, stepfather, and even his long-time girlfriend Sarah shockingly demanded he surrender his coveted college spot and every resource to his manipulative stepbrother, Kevin, who weaponized his fabricated illnesses.
Their betrayal quickly escalated; Gary's physical abuse, Sarah's public abandonment and her giving his precious grandmother's locket to Kevin, shattered any lingering hope. The ultimate humiliation came when Sarah, with his family' s terrifying approval, proposed a grotesque "commitment ceremony" with Kevin, expecting Ethan to offer his "blessing" as his final punishment.
How could his loving family and the girl he adored turn him into a sacrificial lamb for a calculating manipulator? Was his very existence merely a tool for Kevin' s twisted ascent, leading to nothing but endless despair? Ethan' s heart turned to a cold, empty void.
On the day he was meant to be publicly broken, Ethan silently chose a radical path: accepting a covert NSA program, effectively "dying" to his past, to forge a new life far beyond their reach. The Imposter's Game
Modern Saturday mornings were sacred, spent in my garage, polishing my cherished cherry red '69 Camaro.
My wife, Emily, had just confirmed her performance check at Sam's Autoworks before our road trip.
Life was good, almost perfect.
Then the phone rang.
Detective Rourke.
My Camaro was involved in a fatal hit-and-run, he said.
Impossible!
It was supposed to be safely at Sam's.
But according to the police, it never arrived.
At the scene, my world crumbled.
My beautiful muscle car was a twisted wreck.
Three body bags lay on the asphalt, one terribly small.
A furious crowd pointed at me, screaming accusations: I was the driver, laughing, making vile comments, fleeing the scene.
Emily arrived, her face aghast as Rourke showed her video stills of 'me' at the wheel.
"How could you?" she wailed, slapping me.
I was condemned, a monster in the eyes of the world.
My wife left me.
My parents were targeted and killed in retaliation.
I was beaten to death in prison, still grasping for answers, knowing I was innocent.
How could such a perfect frame-up happen?
What impossible force made me the culprit when I wasn't?
Then I opened my eyes.
It was Saturday again.
My clock read 8:03 AM.
I was back.
This time, even when the car was stolen despite my precautions and the accident happened again, I wasn't helpless.
With the memories of my nightmare life, and a deeper understanding of my car’s unique security, I finally had a fighting chance to reveal the chilling truth behind the monster who stole my life. Ninety-Nine Lashes: A Heiress's Reckoning
Romance To escape my suffocating family and regain my mother's inheritance, I, Ava Monroe, struck a desperate deal: forced marriage to Liam Sterling, a Texas rancher comatose from a polo accident.
But the true agony was knowing my secret crush, Ethan Hayes, my stoic head of security, was blindly infatuated with my step-sister Chloe, seeing her as an angel and me as nothing but entitled and cold.
He orchestrated my public humiliation, allowing Chloe to take credit for my good deeds and gifting her my mother's precious heirloom necklace after outbidding me at auction; he believed every one of Chloe's theatrical lies, even when she accused me of malice, leading him to directly orchestrate a brutally personal act of violence against me—ninety-nine lashes that left me physically and emotionally scarred.
How could the man I'd secretly loved be so cruelly mistaken, so completely manipulated, turning into my tormentor? My spirit, already worn by years of my family's psychological abuse, was shattered by his utter disdain.
Yet, just before my escape to Texas, I overheard Chloe's cynical confession: every lie, every manipulation, her contempt for Ethan, and her role in destroying my mother's legacy. It was the final, devastating blow that confirmed my decision to abandon my old life—and the poisonous people in it—forever. You might like
Shielded By The Ruthless Military Boss
Mo Yufei I was an intern nurse working exhausting shifts, yet my mother constantly forced me into blind dates with wealthy, arrogant men to secure our family's social standing.
During a terrifying hospital lockdown, an assassin disguised as a doctor held a scalpel to my throat. I was almost killed, but a high-ranking military colonel threw his own body down a flight of concrete stairs to shield me.
I survived with cuts and bruises, but when I went home, my mother didn't care about my near-death experience. She was only furious that I had rushed out on my blind date with Preston, a rich financial analyst.
She forced me to meet him to apologize. When Preston grabbed my arm, bruised me, and mocked my attack as a pathetic lie, my mother still took his side.
"Men get angry," she told me coldly. "It's your job not to provoke them. You will beg for his forgiveness, or you are no longer welcome in this house."
I had narrowly escaped an assassin, yet my own family was willing to feed me to a monster just for a fat paycheck and neighborhood gossip.
My heart went completely dead.
So, when the intimidating Colonel appeared, offering me maximum military protection through a sudden marriage, I didn't hesitate.
I walked back into my parents' house and calmly slapped a crisp marriage certificate onto the coffee table.
"I won't be apologizing to Preston. I got married today." Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father
Madel Cerda I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector.
That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world.
The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor.
The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist.
Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch-a titan of industry and my best friend's father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared.
"Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb.
Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen.
"Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back."
I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe. While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her
Katie Oettgen As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole.
I begged him for help, my vision blurring.
But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background.
"Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again."
He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm.
I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube.
Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry.
Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled.
"You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up."
He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research.
I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym.
They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive.
They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity.
I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding.
I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it.
Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house.
The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born. Too Late, Mr. CEO: Watch Me Shine
Nieves Gómez Kayla stood outside the CEO suite, holding a custom suit for her fiancé, Brennon. They had spent seven years building a tech company from a freezing garage into a billion-dollar empire.
But through the cracked door, she heard the breathy laugh of Evelin, the newly hired director. Then came Brennon's low, careless voice.
"The wedding's a PR milestone for the IPO, nothing more."
Kayla's blood turned to ice.
"She's comfortable. Makes sense on paper," Brennon continued. "But you, Evelin. You understand ambition."
The betrayal hit her like a physical blow. She had written the core code that made him a billionaire. She had stayed up until 4 AM debugging while he slept on a futon. Now, he was mocking their relationship to his mistress and handing over her life's work to a woman who couldn't even read a data log.
Seven years of loyalty, reduced to a PR stunt. She didn't cry. Instead, a cold, violent clarity washed over her. Why should she let him keep the crown she forged?
Without a word, she pulled the three-carat diamond off her finger and dropped it into her bag. She walked out of the building, drafted her resignation, and accepted a VP position at his biggest Wall Street rival. It was time to show Brennon what happened when the real genius behind his empire decided to tear it down. One Night With My Billionaire Boss
Nathaniel Stone I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn.
Beside me lay Ezra Gardner-my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers.
He didn't offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement.
"Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins."
He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend's apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I'd spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes.
I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe.
"Showtime, Mrs. Gardner."
Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend's face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down. Pampered By The Cold Mind Reading Tycoon
Hen Bu I woke up from a coma in the hospital, universally condemned as the vicious daughter who pushed the beloved fake heiress, Georgina, down the stairs.
My ruthless billionaire brother, Angelo, stood over my bed with cold eyes, ready to destroy me for hurting his precious sister.
But as I looked at him, a terrifying prophecy from my coma flooded my brain. Our entire family was doomed.
In the original timeline, Georgina would team up with corporate rivals to bankrupt the company, frame Angelo, and send him to federal prison, while our parents would abandon me to die miserably.
Lying there, I didn't dare speak. I just desperately cursed my idiot brother in my head.
"This stupid brother is still yelling at me for that fake heiress. He doesn't even know he's going to be framed and sent to prison next month!"
I just wanted to stay quiet, let them ruin themselves, and run away from this toxic family.
But strangely, Angelo didn't strangle me. Instead, his attitude took a shocking turn.
He abruptly fired the driver plotting to kill him, destroyed the abusive fiancé of a family ally, and publicly humiliated Georgina at a high-society gala.
He even shielded me from our abusive parents, declaring to the world that I was the only sister he would ever protect.
I was completely terrified and confused. Why was the tyrant brother suddenly acting like a protective beast?
It wasn't until he flawlessly crushed a massive corporate attack using the exact financial secrets I had just complained about in my mind that a horrifying realization hit me.
He could hear my inner thoughts! Too Late: The Masked Heiress Returns
Annabell Seto Chloe Beaumont's adopted sister, Victoria, handed her a glass of champagne with a sweet smile right before the violent car crash.
Victoria and Chloe's fiancé, Asher, left her in the freezing rain with broken ribs and a dislocated arm, certain she would die.
When Chloe dragged her bleeding, mud-caked body back to the estate three days later, her family didn't offer a shred of comfort.
Instead, Victoria squeezed out fake tears, claiming Chloe had gone insane.
"Mother! Chloe came back and started saying these crazy things, and then she attacked me!"
Her stepmother slapped her, her brothers called her a disgrace, and her father coldly watched as they accused Chloe of faking her horrific wounds for attention.
They even conspired to marry her off to a dying, reclusive heir just to clear the path for Victoria's grand engagement.
Looking at their disgusted faces, Chloe's usually warm eyes turned to ice.
She finally understood that her own family never cared if she lived or died; they only wanted her out of the way.
But she wasn't the weak, naive girl they thought they had broken.
Using her hidden skills, Chloe meticulously painted a grotesque, permanent-looking burn scar across her cheek.
She picked the lock of her bedroom door and headed straight for Victoria and Asher's lavish engagement party.
If they wanted to treat her like a ruined monster, she would use that mask to tear their perfect, glittering world to shreds. Bought The Billionaire For One Night
Cait A week before my wedding, I went to the airport parking garage to surprise my fiancé with a luxury watch.
Instead, I caught him having sex in his car with my best friend and maid of honor.
Devastated and desperate to forget, I went to an exclusive club and blew my $50,000 trust fund to buy a one-night stand with a gorgeous stranger.
But the nightmare was just beginning.
At work, my cheating best friend stole my hard-earned promotion, and my ex shamelessly defended her.
Worse, the escort I had paid for sex turned out to be the ruthless new CEO of my airline.
He tormented me on a flight to Paris. When I was robbed of my passport and wallet on the freezing streets, he forced me to be his gala date just to get my life back.
But the ultimate trap was waiting for me in New York.
A secretly taken photo of me leaving the CEO's penthouse leaked on the company forum.
"I knew she got that Paris trip for a reason."
My ex and my former best friend led the charge in the comments, framing me as a shameless gold digger who slept her way to the top.
I was stripped of my flying credentials, suspended from the job I loved, and publicly humiliated.
I didn't understand why the CEO was playing these cruel games, or who had orchestrated this perfect trap to ruin my life.
Standing outside the airport with my career in ashes, I realized crying wouldn't save me.
I wiped my tears, accepted my mother's invitation to a high-society mixer, and prepared to make everyone who set me up pay the price. 
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