The Abandoned Wife And Her Secret Heir

The Abandoned Wife And Her Secret Heir

Shore Tour

3.5
Comment(s)
23.4K
View
24
Chapters

I was staring at a high-resolution photo of my husband burying his face in another woman's neck when his text came through. "Pizza or Thai?" He wasn't just cheating. The photos showed him playing house with a woman named Serena and a little boy who had his exact nose. He had told me he wasn't ready for children, yet here he was, giving his world to a secret family. When I confronted them at his company gala, Serena didn't apologize. She smirked, ripped the wedding ring off my finger, and shoved me hard. I hit the floor with a sickening crunch. Pain exploded in my stomach. "Help me," I gasped, clutching my belly. "My baby." Michael looked at me. Then he looked at Serena and the boy. He made his choice. He turned his back on his bleeding, pregnant wife and escorted his mistress out the emergency exit to avoid a scandal. He left me there to die. He didn't know that the "son" he was protecting was a rental-a prop Serena hired to trap him. And he didn't know that the baby he left to die on the gallery floor was the only real child he would ever have. I didn't go home to cry. I sent him a receipt for a cremation service for "Baby Boy Hayes," withdrew half our savings, and vanished. He thinks he's free. He has no idea I'm still alive, and I'm taking his real son with me.

The Abandoned Wife And Her Secret Heir Chapter 1

I was staring at a high-resolution photo of my husband burying his face in another woman's neck when his text came through.

"Pizza or Thai?"

He wasn't just cheating. The photos showed him playing house with a woman named Serena and a little boy who had his exact nose.

He had told me he wasn't ready for children, yet here he was, giving his world to a secret family.

When I confronted them at his company gala, Serena didn't apologize.

She smirked, ripped the wedding ring off my finger, and shoved me hard.

I hit the floor with a sickening crunch. Pain exploded in my stomach.

"Help me," I gasped, clutching my belly. "My baby."

Michael looked at me. Then he looked at Serena and the boy.

He made his choice.

He turned his back on his bleeding, pregnant wife and escorted his mistress out the emergency exit to avoid a scandal.

He left me there to die.

He didn't know that the "son" he was protecting was a rental-a prop Serena hired to trap him.

And he didn't know that the baby he left to die on the gallery floor was the only real child he would ever have.

I didn't go home to cry.

I sent him a receipt for a cremation service for "Baby Boy Hayes," withdrew half our savings, and vanished.

He thinks he's free.

He has no idea I'm still alive, and I'm taking his real son with me.

Chapter 1

Liv POV

I was staring at a high-resolution photo of my husband burying his face in another woman's neck when his text came through, asking what I wanted for dinner.

The timestamp on the email read three minutes ago.

The subject line was blank.

There were five photos in total, each one a distinct slide in a presentation of my life dismantling.

In the first, Michael was laughing. It wasn't the polite chuckle he saved for dinner parties; it was a head-thrown-back, unguarded roar of joy I hadn't witnessed in two years.

In the second, a woman with dark, cascading hair was wiping sauce from his chin.

In the third, they were strolling through a sun-drenched park, their bodies angling toward each other like magnetic poles.

But it was the fourth photo that made acid burn the back of my throat.

Michael was holding a child. A little boy.

The boy had Michael's nose. He had the stubborn set of Michael's chin.

I didn't just recognize the features. I knew that child.

I dropped my phone on the kitchen counter. The clatter echoed like a gunshot, shattering the silence of the house.

Two weeks ago, Michael had casually mentioned a college friend. He'd said the friend had a son named Jason, flashing a picture on his screen for a micro-second before swiping away.

It wasn't a friend's son.

My hands started to shake. It wasn't a simple tremor; it was a violent, bone-deep vibration that made my teeth chatter.

I looked around our kitchen. The granite countertops we had spent weekends selecting. The imported espresso machine he insisted was an investment.

It all looked like a stage set now. Props for a play that had already ended.

My phone buzzed again, vibrating against the cold stone.

*Michael: Liv? Pizza or Thai?*

The banality of it made me want to retch. I didn't reply.

I walked to the bathroom and splashed freezing water on my face, gasping as the cold hit my skin.

I stared at my reflection. Pale skin. Eyes blown wide with shock. The face of a woman playing house while her husband built a life elsewhere.

The last few months flooded back in a sickening montage.

The late nights at the office. The hushed phone calls he took on the balcony, sliding the glass door shut. The way he flinched, subtly but unmistakably, whenever I brushed his shoulder.

When I brought up trying for a baby last month, he told me he wasn't ready. He said he wanted to focus on his career. He said he wanted to give me the world first.

He was already giving his world to someone else.

I needed to see it.

I couldn't rely on pixels on a screen. Digital images could be faked, or old, or misunderstood. I needed the visceral, flesh-and-blood reality of it to kill the tiny, pathetic hope still breathing in my chest.

Tonight was his company's anniversary gala.

He had told me not to come. He said it would be boring, a snooze-fest of speeches. He promised to make an appearance and come home early.

I grabbed my keys.

I drove to the downtown hotel on autopilot. My higher brain functions had shut down, leaving only a primal, animal instinct to hunt for the truth.

The ballroom was suffocatingly crowded.

I stayed in the shadows near the entrance, clutching my purse to my chest like a shield. I didn't check my coat; I wasn't staying.

I spotted him instantly.

He was on stage, looking devastatingly handsome in his tuxedo. The stage lights caught the gold glint of his wedding band-a prop he hadn't bothered to remove.

He was holding a microphone.

"I want to thank my family," Michael said, his voice smooth as velvet. "Everything I do, I do for the people I love. They are my rock."

Applause rippled through the room.

I felt a coldness seep into my marrow that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.

He walked off the stage.

He didn't head for the bar. He didn't move toward his business partners.

He made a beeline for a secluded alcove near the emergency exit.

The woman from the photos was waiting.

She was wearing a red dress. It was tight, it was loud, and it was an unapologetic declaration of presence.

She wasn't hiding.

Michael leaned in close. He didn't touch her, but the intimacy was palpable in the air between them. It was in the gravitational pull of his body, the hungry way his eyes traced her lips.

Then I saw it.

He checked his watch.

It was a vintage Patek Philippe I had bought him for our third anniversary. I had scrimped and saved for six months to secure it.

In the photo I received, there had been a distinct, jagged scratch on the crystal face.

I squinted, my breath held.

A beam of light from the hallway hit his wrist.

The scratch was there.

It was real. It was now.

A group of his colleagues walked past me, oblivious to the ghost in their midst.

"Michael is such a stand-up guy," one of them said, swirling his drink. "A real family man. You don't see that often in this industry."

I wanted to laugh until I choked. I wanted to scream until the windows shattered.

I did neither.

I stood frozen as Michael whispered something to the woman. She giggled, a light, intimate sound, and brushed her hand against his arm.

Then he turned and walked out the emergency exit. She followed him three seconds later.

He was leaving.

He wasn't coming home for pizza or Thai.

He was going home with her.

The noise of the gala faded into a dull, underwater roar.

I remembered the way he used to look at me. I remembered the promises he made at the altar.

*For better or for worse.*

He had unilaterally dragged our life into the worst, and he hadn't even had the decency to warn me.

I turned on my heel and walked out of the hotel.

The valet brought my car around.

I sat in the driver's seat for a long time, the engine idling.

I thought about the nursery we had talked about painting a soft, buttercup yellow.

I thought about the list of baby names hidden beneath the liners in my nightstand.

I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror.

"You are a fool, Liv," I whispered.

The words tasted like ash on my tongue.

I put the car in gear.

I wasn't going home to cry. I wasn't going home to wait for a husband who didn't exist.

I was going to find out exactly how deep the rot went.

I dialed my mother's number.

"Mom?" I said when she picked up.

My voice cracked, splintering under the weight of the truth.

"Liv? What's wrong?"

"I need help," I said, my grip on the steering wheel turning my knuckles white. "Michael is lying to me."

Continue Reading

Other books by Shore Tour

More
The Stolen Sapphire: His Fake Girlfriend

The Stolen Sapphire: His Fake Girlfriend

Modern

5.0

I returned to New York after three years in Paris, sick and broken, with nothing but a venomous vow to reclaim my life. I looked like a total disaster in my scuffed boots and ripped jeans, a far cry from the Stanton heiress I once was. On the flight home, a glossy magazine headline hit me like a physical blow: my half-sister Aryana was celebrating a fairytale engagement while wearing my dead mother's sapphire pendant. The necklace was my only legacy, stolen by the interlopers who had usurped my place the moment I vanished. Things spiraled into a nightmare before I even landed. I accidentally spilled milk all over a powerful billionaire, Denis Stephens, and then fainted directly into his arms during turbulence. At the hospital, my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend mocked my illness, snapping photos of me looking like a "pregnant" mess to ruin my reputation. When I finally fought my way to the family manor to snatch the necklace back, my father tried to hit me, and my ex accused me of becoming a whore in Europe. I couldn't understand how my own father could freeze my bank accounts and treat me like a criminal while my sister played house with my mother's jewels. I was back in the orbit of the Manhattan elite, but I was a pariah with a target on my back and a body that was failing me. Then, the final blow came. I rear-ended a Bentley belonging to Denis Stephens-the same man I'd humiliated on the plane. With six figures in damages and zero dollars in my pocket, I was completely at his mercy. "You're going to be my date tonight," He commanded, pulling me into a high-stakes game of fake romance and cold revenge that I wasn't sure I'd survive.

You'll also like

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

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.

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

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.

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband's Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn't find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn't even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father's legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn's party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara's health and managing every detail of Caden's empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I'd drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause-if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I'd forgotten.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
The Abandoned Wife And Her Secret Heir The Abandoned Wife And Her Secret Heir Shore Tour Modern
“I was staring at a high-resolution photo of my husband burying his face in another woman's neck when his text came through. "Pizza or Thai?" He wasn't just cheating. The photos showed him playing house with a woman named Serena and a little boy who had his exact nose. He had told me he wasn't ready for children, yet here he was, giving his world to a secret family. When I confronted them at his company gala, Serena didn't apologize. She smirked, ripped the wedding ring off my finger, and shoved me hard. I hit the floor with a sickening crunch. Pain exploded in my stomach. "Help me," I gasped, clutching my belly. "My baby." Michael looked at me. Then he looked at Serena and the boy. He made his choice. He turned his back on his bleeding, pregnant wife and escorted his mistress out the emergency exit to avoid a scandal. He left me there to die. He didn't know that the "son" he was protecting was a rental-a prop Serena hired to trap him. And he didn't know that the baby he left to die on the gallery floor was the only real child he would ever have. I didn't go home to cry. I sent him a receipt for a cremation service for "Baby Boy Hayes," withdrew half our savings, and vanished. He thinks he's free. He has no idea I'm still alive, and I'm taking his real son with me.”
1

Chapter 1

05/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

05/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

05/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

05/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

05/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

05/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

05/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

05/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

05/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

05/12/2025

11

Chapter 11

05/12/2025

12

Chapter 12

05/12/2025

13

Chapter 13

05/12/2025

14

Chapter 14

05/12/2025

15

Chapter 15

05/12/2025

16

Chapter 16

05/12/2025

17

Chapter 17

05/12/2025

18

Chapter 18

05/12/2025

19

Chapter 19

05/12/2025

20

Chapter 20

05/12/2025

21

Chapter 21

05/12/2025

22

Chapter 22

05/12/2025

23

Chapter 23

05/12/2025

24

Chapter 24

05/12/2025