Jillian Chinnici
15 Published Stories
Jillian Chinnici's Books and Stories
The Dying Wife's Final Gift
Modern The doctor told me I had weeks to live. But the real death sentence was seeing my fiancé's hand slip into my best friend's outside the hospital room. They thought I didn't see.
They had already turned my little brother against me, the boy I raised. He called her "Mom" now.
At their engagement party, held in my house and paid for with my money, he looked me in the eye.
"I hate you!"
My own family praised her for being a "natural mother," while the world celebrated their love story. They saw a weak, dying woman, too broken to fight back. They thought they had won.
So I gave them everything they wanted-my company, my fortune, my blessing. But I also left behind one final gift, a dead woman's last words. When I die, they will inherit my empire, but they will be forever branded by a legacy of eternal shame. Married To The Vulture Of Wall Street
Modern I had exactly forty-five minutes to get married, or I would lose the voting shares needed to stop my father from laundering millions through our family foundation. Everything was riding on this one legal signature at the City Clerk’s office.
But just as I reached the front of the line, my phone buzzed with a high-definition photo of my fiancé, Preston, tangled in sheets with a junior associate at a SoHo hotel. The man I was about to tie my life to was a fraud, and my deadline was ticking toward zero.
When I shoved the evidence in his face, he didn't even flinch. Instead, he gripped my wrist until the bone ground together, whispering that I was just a "junkie" fresh out of a Swiss clinic and that no one else would ever marry a liability with a personality disorder. My father was already standing by with a fraudulent medical affidavit, ready to force me into a conservatorship and strip me of my freedom the moment the clock hit 5 PM.
They had spent years using my fake "instability" as a leash, treating me like a broken doll while they bled the company dry. I was the only one with the evidence to take them down, yet I was being discarded like a sunk cost by the very men who were supposed to protect me.
I looked at Preston’s smug face and realized I didn't need a husband; I needed a predator. I scanned the room and spotted Dominik Mack, the "Vulture of Wall Street," a man who specialized in hostile takeovers and stripping men like my father of everything they owned.
I walked straight up to the most dangerous man in New York and offered him a business transaction.
"Do you want to get married?" I asked.
He looked at my trembling hands, then at the man chasing me, and adjusted his collar with clinical detachment.
"Deal," he said.
I didn't just find a groom; I found an accomplice. This wasn't a wedding anymore—it was a declaration of war. My Guardian's Cruelest Love Game
Modern For seven years, I loved my guardian, Kendrick Page. He was my protector, my family, my entire world.
The day I confessed, he called my love "unhealthy" and kicked me out.
Then he brought home his fiancée, Chrissy. She took my room and my memories before revealing their engagement was a "charade"-a cruel game Kendrick designed to prove I was a burden and drive me away for good.
His final act of cruelty was asking me to be his maid of honor.
The man who raised me hadn't just rejected me; he had orchestrated my complete humiliation just to be free of his responsibility.
Heartbroken, I escaped to Boston to start over. I met Adolfo Joyce, a brilliant, intense mentor who saw the pain I tried to hide. But just as I started to feel safe, he cornered me, his eyes holding a shocking secret.
"Amirah," he whispered, his voice low and urgent. "What is your mother's name?" The Genius Omega's Secret: The White Wolf Bloodline
Werewolf For ten years, I served as the Alpha’s hidden partner, using my research to make his pack rich, waiting for the day Ethan would finally Mark me.
Instead, I found him on the balcony, cradling another woman’s baby bump.
He announced Chloe as his Luna because she was carrying his "heir."
But I knew the truth. As the head researcher, I had seen Chloe’s medical files—she had a hysterectomy years ago. It was physically impossible for her to be pregnant.
I rushed to the banquet to warn Ethan that he was being deceived.
He didn't listen.
"Silence!" he roared, using the Alpha Command to force me to the ground until my knees shattered on the marble floor.
He branded me a traitor to protect his mistress.
But the cruelest twist wasn't his betrayal. It was the secret I carried in my own womb.
I was the one pregnant with his true heir.
While I lay broken in the dungeon, Ethan authorized a surgery to harvest my kidney to "save" Chloe’s failing health.
In doing so, he killed his own child to sustain a lie.
With the last of my strength, I looked at the stone ceiling and severed our bond.
"I, Ava Miller, reject you, Ethan Reed."
He thought I died in that cell.
He was wrong.
I returned a year later, not as a servant, but as the Luna of the most powerful rival pack.
And when Ethan saw me on the global stage, holding another Alpha's hand, he fell to his knees and screamed my name. Her Neglect, My Undying Haunted Soul
Romance I was the biological daughter, yet my mother looked at me with disgust while worshipping my adopted sister, Carina.
When I vanished for two months, my mother laughed it off as a "tantrum" designed to ruin my grandmother's jubilee.
She only stopped laughing when the detective slammed a forensics report on the table.
"Your daughter didn't just die, Mrs. Fowler," the officer said, his voice cold. "She was buried alive by the elements. It took her three days to suffocate in that ravine."
My mother turned pale, stammering that she never got a call for help.
The detective' s eyes narrowed. "Oh, she called. Five times. Someone answered the last one, listened to her scream, and then deleted the log to cover it up."
The room went dead silent.
Slowly, my mother' s horrified gaze turned toward Carina, the "perfect" daughter, who was trembling violently in the corner.
My ghost watched from the shadows of the interrogation room as the realization finally hit her.
She hadn't just neglected me; she had raised the monster who left me to die. My Second Chance, His Regret
Romance A pact sealed by my father' s death dictated that on my twenty-second birthday, I would marry a Kline and crown the next CEO. For years, I chased Brett Kline, convinced my unrequited love would eventually win his heart.
But at my birthday party, he gave the bracelet meant for me to my stepsister, Juliana, right in front of everyone.
"Get used to it, Faith," he sneered. "I'm about to be CEO. I can't be tied down to just one woman."
He called me shameless and vicious, a disgrace to my family name. He humiliated me, cheated on me with Juliana, and demanded I accept his affairs if I wanted to be his wife.
His cruelty escalated until he slapped me in public and even tried to stab me on my wedding day.
In my last life, this blind devotion led to a miserable marriage. He slowly poisoned me, and I died alone while he lived happily with my stepsister.
But when I opened my eyes again, I was reborn and back at that party, the moments before he was about to give my gift away.
This time, I knew the truth. And I knew I wouldn't be choosing him. Beyond Betrayal: A Second Chance At Vengeance
Modern The cold, damp concrete was the last thing I remembered.
A guard' s boot had connected with my ribs, a brutal punctuation to a life spiraling out of control.
They said I tried to kill Liam, my best friend.
A frame job so perfect, even I almost believed it.
My art career had evaporated.
My finances were a joke.
I was a magnet for every piece of misfortune the world could throw at me.
Meanwhile, the Peterson family thrived.
My fiancée, Chloe, was a local celebrity.
Her father shot up the corporate ladder.
Her aimless sister landed a six-figure job.
And Derek Stone, Chloe' s deadbeat ex, became a tech mogul overnight.
Their good fortune mirrored my ruin.
It wasn't coincidence, I realized too late.
It was a transaction.
They were feasting on my life, my luck, my very soul, through some dark ritual disguised as love.
Then, darkness.
An endless, silent fall.
Until a sharp, piercing ring jolted me back.
It wasn't a prison bell.
It was the clinking of champagne glasses.
My eyes snapped open.
I was standing on a plush red carpet, holding a champagne flute, wearing the suit I' d bought for my engagement party.
Chloe Peterson stood before me, radiant in a white dress, a smile as bright and as fake as I now knew it to be.
The same smile she gave me in the courtroom when they read the guilty verdict.
I was back.
Back in the grand ballroom of the Peterson family mansion, on the very day my life had been signed away.
The day the ritual began.
The rage, the betrayal, the memory of dying alone on a prison floor churned inside me.
"Just a bit dizzy," I said, my voice steady, betraying none of the chaos in my mind.
This wasn't a repeat.
It was a second chance.
And I was going to burn their entire empire to the ground. Her Legacy, My Fight
Modern The first call came as a familiar comfort, my mentor Professor Anya Sharma' s name on the screen, a stable part of my solitary life, her lab my sanctuary.
Then, her voice shattered that peace – a choked whisper, tight with a fear I' d never heard, followed by a man's angry shout, a crash of glass, and dead silence.
I rushed to the police, my heart hammering, only to be met by Detective Miller' s dismissive skepticism as he took down details of Anya' s research and the powerful CEO, Damien Vance, pressuring her.
Hours later, standing over Anya' s body in the morgue, the official explanation of a botched robbery felt like a cruel joke; the specific, brutal injuries screaming of a deliberate execution, not a random mugging.
My grief curdled into a cold, hard rage, a chilling certainty that Damien Vance was behind it, a suspicion Miller coldly brushed aside, reminding me I had no proof against one of the city's most powerful men.
Then, the trap sprung: a grainy security photo of me at the crime scene, my fingerprints everywhere, painting me as the prime suspect in the murder of the woman I loved like a mother.
My apartment was tossed, not for valuables, but for Anya's encrypted hard drive, her life's work, the dangerous truth she died to protect, now clutched in my trembling hands.
Hunted, isolated, and accused, a single, burning thought solidified: If the system wouldn' t deliver justice, I would find it myself, even if it meant stepping into the lion's den.
I walked into the charity gala, a ghost in a borrowed dress, offering myself as a pawn to Damien Vance, becoming his personal assistant, willing to sacrifice everything to destroy him from within. When Vengeance Blooms
Fantasy Five years ago, I threw the man I loved into a freezing river, a desperate act to save him from a corporate poison. I watched him float away, believing I was saving his life, not realizing I was shattering his heart.
Then, he came back. Ethan, now a ruthless logging magnate, stormed into my forest home, transforming my world into a hell of pure, calculated revenge. He saw only my "betrayal," not the sacrifice.
He systematically destroyed me. He flayed my iridescent skin for his lover's grotesque art piece, forced a miscarriage that stole our child and my physical connection to life, then left me to die, broken and bleeding on a cold floor. My family, my people, all suffered because of his blind hatred.
How could the man I loved become such a monster? How could he believe the lies when I gave up everything for him? My last breath was a whispered curse, a burning hate for a man who had ripped away my love, my future, and my very essence.
But death was not my end. My soul, a tormented echo, remained tethered to him, trapped, watching his own descent into madness and destructive vengeance. Now, his final, fiery act has unleashed a silent, deadly plague upon the ancient forest, the Heartwood, threatening to erase my people from existence. And I, a ghost with the cure, must find a way to save them. Reborn With A Vow: Never His Again
Billionaires The lights of the press conference should have been the shining start to Sarah Miller's new life as Rick Harrison's fiancée.
Instead, a searing memory ripped through her mind: the cold muzzle of a gun pressed to her temple, three deafening explosions, and Rick screaming accusations before she bled out on his penthouse floor.
He was supposed to be beside her, but Rick was already across the room, on one knee, proposing to Tiffany Hayes – his goddaughter, his secret lover, the very woman for whom he'd murdered Sarah in their previous life.
The room erupted, not with applause, but confused murmurs, which quickly turned to snickers and open mockery as Rick declared her pathetic, desperate, and nothing without him, abandoning her at the podium.
His words, once capable of shattering her, now registered as mere noise.
This wasn't humiliation; this was a second chance.
An unshakeable vow echoed in her reborn soul: "If I get another chance, I will never love Rick Harrison again."
With a newfound calm that felt alien yet profoundly right, Sarah reached for the abandoned microphone.
"Actually, Rick," her voice was steady, "I was about to make an announcement of my own."
What followed shocked everyone: a public resignation, a chilling call to his biggest rival's CEO, and a daring acceptance of both a Chief Strategy Officer role and a personal proposition that would rewrite not just her future, but Rick Harrison' s entire empire.
What did Sarah say that day, and how will she use her second chance to reclaim her destiny, and perhaps, destroy the man who became her murderer? My Sweet Escape
Romance It was my rehearsal dinner, sparkling with chandeliers in a historic Philadelphia hotel, filled with the promise of a perfect future with Mark, the man I had loved for seven years.
Then, just as the evening began winding down, Mark leaned in and shared a long, passionate kiss with my maid of honor, Jessica, right there for everyone to see.
My fiancé, the man I was marrying tomorrow, had just publicly humiliated me, dismissing it with a grin as "old times," while Jessica, my best friend, tearfully begged me not to "make a scene."
When I tried to leave, Mark physically seized me, threatening to cancel our entire wedding if I dared walk out, then his family and mine blamed me for the disruption.
The betrayal escalated at a forced family dinner when Jessica presented a cake made with an ingredient she knew I was severely allergic to, nearly killing me, only for Mark to blindly side with her staged injury and lash out at me again.
How could the people closest to me systematically betray, gaslight, and endanger my life, while my own family continued to blame me for reacting to their cruelty?
As I lay in the hospital, stripped of my dignity and support, I decided I would no longer be a victim, choosing to expose their lies and leave everything to build a new life entirely on my own terms. A Lie: He Called Me Seraphina
Romance For seven years, I was Seraphina Hayes, living in a forced haze, my memories stolen, my face not my own.
My seven-year-old son, Leo, had just innocently questioned why his father, Ethan Montgomery, was celebrating his anniversary gala with another woman who looked like me.
He didn't know the chilling truth: the woman on TV was indeed the real Seraphina, back from her faked death.
Then, in a single horrific moment, my world shattered: Leo floated lifelessly in the deep end of our pool, a silent victim of Ethan' s brutal "punishment."
His death was a shockwave, tearing through the veil of amnesia, flooding my mind with the agonizing truth-my name was Elara Vance, not Seraphina.
I stumbled into Ethan's cruel reality, reeling from the loss, only to be met with his furious denial that Leo was dead, insisting it was a trick from the "impostor" me.
He violently scattered my son's ashes onto the floor, dismissing them as "just dust" and a "sick game."
He believed a forged DNA report presented by the real Seraphina, condemning Leo as not his own, mocking my grief.
My mother-in-law, Eleanor, who had engineered my forced marriage, later collapsed and died, another casualty of Seraphina's sinister manipulations, leaving me utterly alone.
The man who stole my life, erased my identity, and was responsible for my son' s death now stood triumphantly by the woman who orchestrated my pain, while I was dismissed as insane, a liar, and a harlot.
How could a mother plot such a terrible deceit, how could a father deny his own child, and how could I, the true victim, be blamed for everything?
But in the wreckage, a new resolve ignited: I would reclaim my name, expose their monstrous lies, and ensure that the truth of Leo's life, and my own, would be heard, no matter the cost. Beyond the Rumors: My Billionaire Savior
Romance I, Sarah King, had loved Ethan Cole since we were kids. He stumbled through his family ranch door, uniform torn, eyes wild, muttering about a strange gas, and collapsed. My medical training kicked in; I held him close, fighting to save his life.
The next morning, Brittany Miller, Ethan's childhood crush, burst in, ignoring me completely. She cried about a "dangerous" billionaire, Mr. Harrison, who had "selected" her and begged Ethan to marry her for protection.
Still groggy, Ethan looked from Brittany to me, then turned to her, promising marriage. My world tilted; he would marry me out of obligation to save her. When Brittany later "died" and a note blamed me, Ethan's consuming rage turned on me. In front of everyone, he publicly shamed me, accusing me of driving her to her death, destroying my reputation in our small town.
The injustice, the utter betrayal, and the public humiliation crushed me, leaving me in a profound darkness. How could he, the man I saved, the man I loved, be so blind, so cruel, and believe such heinous lies?
Then, I gasped awake, sitting bolt upright in bed, the sun streaming in. The calendar showed the exact date Ethan returned. It wasn't a dream; it was a memory, a life I had already lived, and I vowed not to live it again. This time, Brittany would be his savior and his wife, and I would willingly offer myself to the fearsome Mr. Harrison in her place. You might like
Phoenix Of Ruin: My Second Life Comes With A Better Man
Maple Breeze Ashley gave Nicolas ten years of love and five years of loyalty as his perfect housewife, only to be repaid with betrayal, humiliation, and death at the hands of him and his mistress.
After being reborn, she vowed to make them pay.
She tore apart the mistress, kicked her useless husband aside, and returned as the heiress of a top-tier family.
Surrounded by billions, luxury, and a parade of elite bachelors, Ashley became the woman everyone wanted-including a cold, powerful tycoon.
When Nicolas came begging for forgiveness, she smiled coldly. "Fuck off! My man is worth a hundred of you." The Unwanted Wife Is A Zillionaire
Reilly Mcardle For seven years, I played the perfect, hidden wife to billionaire August Chambers while working quietly as an ER nurse.
Three days before our marriage contract expired, he stormed into my emergency room carrying a bleeding woman. It was Allena, his cousin's fiancée.
She had suffered a ruptured corpus luteum from their violent, aggressive sex. Instead of hiding his affair, August ordered me to clear the floor and threw a massive check at my face to buy my silence. Later, his friends trapped me in a VIP club. When a waiter tripped, August violently shoved me aside just to protect Allena from a spilled cup of coffee. I crashed into a glass table, a sharp edge slicing deep into my arm.
"Apologize to her, and I'll have my driver take you to the hospital."
As my blood soaked into the white rug, he stood over me, demanding I get on my knees for his mistress. He didn't know I had faked a miscarriage five years ago to secretly raise our daughter far away from his cruelty. He also didn't know the money he flaunted was pocket change compared to my hidden AI tech empire.
I calmly tied a tourniquet around my bleeding arm with my teeth and wiped my blood directly over his heart onto his custom suit.
"I'm done with you."
The submissive nurse was dead, and it was time to let him burn in the ruins of his own lies. Flash Marriage to the Tycoon, I'm Spoiled Rotten
Hollow Echo Cast out by an "elite" family and mocked by high society, Elena shocked everyone by marrying the most powerful man in town.
They assumed it was a temporary arrangement-after all, he had said, "The agreement is for two years. After that, we're done."
Yet after the wedding, he refused to let her go. "Elena, you can't leave me."
As he doted on her, rumors shattered one by one. A renowned painter, top hacker, and tech mastermind-her true identities stunned the world.
When a luxury empire announced their lost heiress, all eyes turned to her. "Why did she look exactly like Elena?" No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return
Xiao Xiaosu I went to the City Clerk's office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk's pitying look told me my entire life was a lie.
"The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single."
The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate.
Gray's text to her was the final blow:
"Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we're done with the charade."
I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray's life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance.
How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury.
I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street."
"I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray."
If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world. Cheated On Me? I Married a Tycoon
Rum Runner I spent three years building my husband, Axel Farrell, into Silicon Valley's ultimate "family man." As his lead PR strategist, I carefully managed his public image, making sure the world saw him as a perfect, devoted husband while I worked in the shadows of our estate.
The illusion shattered when he came home one night smelling of sandalwood and roses, with three deep fingernail scratches carved into his back. When I tried to check his phone, the passcode we had used for years-our wedding anniversary-had been changed.
The betrayal got worse the next morning when his mother called me a "defective product" and tried to force me into a fertility clinic. Axel didn't defend me; instead, he shoved me against a marble bar at a public gala to protect his mistress in front of the world's elite. By the time I tried to leave, Axel had frozen my bank accounts and filed a forged legal petition to have me declared mentally incompetent.
He planned to have me legally kidnapped and locked in a private psychiatric ward just to stop me from filing for divorce. He even blocked every major law firm in the city from taking my case, leaving me with no money, no identity, and no one to turn to.
I couldn't understand how the man who "saved" me from the mud years ago could be the same monster now trying to legally erase my existence. Was our entire marriage just a grooming process to exploit my genius for his billion-dollar empire?
As the deadline for my forced commitment approached, I stopped crying and opened my laptop. I leaked the video of his affair to every tech journalist in the country, watching his stock price crash in real-time.
"Axel thinks starving me out will make me crawl back to him," I whispered as I walked into the headquarters of his biggest rival.
"But he forgot that the most valuable part of his company is in my head."
I was no longer the abandoned wife; I was the one who was going to take his throne and burn it to the ground. Abandoned Ex-Wife: Now Untouchable
Tao Yaoyao My five-year-old daughter was dying in the ICU, her heartbeat replaced by the continuous, electronic scream of a flatline. I gripped her cold hand, my throat sealed shut by a terror so absolute I couldn't even cry out.
I dialed my husband Grayson's private number, the one reserved only for me and his assistants. He declined the call instantly. A second later, a text buzzed against my palm:
"In a meeting. Do not disturb. Stop calling."
Five miles away, Grayson was at a luxury gala, adjusting his silk tie and laughing with Belle Escobar. He told her I was just being "dramatic" and using our daughter's "fever" as an excuse to avoid the event. He had no idea Effie's heart had already stopped.
When I finally reached our penthouse, soaked from the rain and carrying Effie's small socks in a plastic bag, Grayson didn't even look at me. He snapped at me for ruining the hardwood floors and asked if I'd left Effie with the nanny just to "feel sorry for myself."
Three days later, while I buried our daughter in a small, lonely ceremony, Grayson was at the Hamptons. Belle posted a photo of him golfing with the caption: "A mental health day with the boys." He didn't even attend the funeral, but he returned home demanding I clear out Effie's room to make a study for Belle's son.
The injustice burned through me until there was nothing left. I swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, desperate to join my daughter. But instead of the darkness, I woke up to blinding lights and the scent of Grayson's expensive cologne.
I was standing in a ballroom, wearing a blue silk dress I had already burned. Above me, a banner read: "Happy 5th Birthday Kaiden & Effie."
I was back, exactly one year before the tragedy. This time, I wasn't going to be the grieving wife. I was going to be their worst nightmare. Seven Years A Fool, One Day A Queen
Stella Montgomery Everyone knew Kristine loved Colton. Still, his heart clung to a woman overseas-someone he spent most days with, now pregnant with his baby-and Kristine still asked him to marry her.
On their registration day, however, he never came; his "true love" had flown back.
Seven years of loyalty later, Kristine walked away, blocked him, and left his city.
Colton didn't blink-until he saw her at the courthouse, arm-in-arm with another man, and the proud CEO went pale. He went after her, desperation overtaking him.
"I'm sorry. Please give me another chance."
She snapped, "Could you stop? I'm already married." Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge
Xiao Hong Mao I lived as the "scarred ghost" of the Stephens penthouse, a wife kept in the shadows because my facial burns offended my billionaire husband's aesthetic. For years, I endured Kason's coldness and my family's abuse, a submissive puppet who believed she had nowhere else to go.
The end came with a blue folder tossed onto my silk sheets. Kason's mistress was back, and he wanted me out by sunset, offering a five-million-dollar "silence fee" to go hide my face in the countryside.
The betrayal cut deep when I discovered my father had already traded my divorce for a corporate bailout. My step-sister mocked my "trashy" appearance at a high-end boutique, while the sales staff treated me like a common thief. At home, my father threatened to cut off my mother's life-saving medicine unless I crawled back to Kason to beg for a better deal.
I was the girl who took the blame for a fire she didn't start, the wife who worshipped a man who never looked her in the eye, and the daughter used as a human bargaining chip. I was supposed to be broken, penniless, and desperate.
But the woman who stood up wasn't the weak Elease Finch anymore; she was Phoenix, a tactical predator with a $500 million secret. I signed the divorce papers without a single tear, walked past my stunned husband, and wiped the Finch family's bank accounts clean with a few taps on my phone.
"Your money is dirty," I told Kason with a cold smile. "I prefer clean hands."
The cage is open, the hunt has begun, and I'm starting with the people who thought a scar made me weak. The Humble Ex-wife Is Now A Brilliant Tycoon
Flory Corkery For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted.
Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke.
Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph.
Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!"
With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off."
A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!" The Placeholder Bride's Secret Billionaire Revenge
Luo Ye For two years, I was the invisible force behind tech billionaire Kieran Douglas, convinced that our "private" romance was his way of protecting us from the tabloid spotlight. I managed his mergers, warmed his bed, and waited for a future that didn't exist.
The illusion shattered at 6:00 AM when a Page Six alert debuted Kieran's "real" romance with socialite Aspen Schneider. Before I could even process the betrayal, Kieran sent me a cold, professional text: "Order flowers for Aspen. Pink peonies. Her favorite."
When I tried to walk away, my own mother called me a disgrace and threatened to lock my inheritance forever unless I married a sixty-year-old businessman to save her failing estate. At a high-society gala that same night, Aspen intentionally crushed my burned hand in front of the cameras, while Kieran stood by and dismissed me as a "mediocre assistant" who had overstayed her welcome.
I stood in the cold New York rain, drenched in champagne and humiliation, realizing that every sacrifice I made for Kieran was a joke. I was a ghost in a penthouse that was never mine, discarded the moment his "soulmate" returned. To the world, I was just a placeholder whose time had run out.
But Kieran forgot one thing: my father's multi-million dollar trust fund unlocks the moment I legally marry. I didn't need love; I needed a signature and a shield. I walked into a discreet law firm and signed a marriage contract with a man I believed was the city's most notorious, scandal-ridden playboy.
I thought I was marrying a degenerate "beard" to buy my freedom and secure my revenge. I didn't realize the man who signed that paper wasn't a playboy at all, but Gaston Collins-the most powerful and dangerous man on Wall Street-and he had no intention of letting our fake marriage stay fake. 
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