His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure

His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure

Barclay Hsu

5.0
Comment(s)
7.1K
View
23
Chapters

The exact moment Marcus Thorne, the most violent Capo on the East Coast, chose to leave our anniversary dinner to answer his mistress's call, I didn't cry. "Business," he rumbled, ignoring the untouched meal I had cooked. "Don't cause a scene, Ellie," he commanded before walking out the door. I later found out his "business" was a polo match with Izzy. She posted a photo of them laughing, her hand on his chest, wearing the shirt I bought him. When I tried to leave, he humiliated me publicly. He kissed her on stage at a gala, just to prove he could. He told his men I was merely acting out. "Ellie is the furniture," he laughed. "You don't throw away antique furniture just because you bought a new TV." But the final blow came when a bomb detonated at a family gathering. Marcus didn't look for me. He dove to cover Izzy with his body. He actually stepped over my bleeding leg to carry her to safety, leaving me in the dust and debris. He thought I was trapped. He thought I was dependent on his money and his name. He thought I would be waiting at home when he was done playing hero. He was wrong. I signed the divorce papers, destroyed my wedding ring, and boarded a one-way flight to Italy. Three months later, when he finally tracked me down in Tuscany, he fell to his knees in the street, begging me to come back. But I just held the hand of the man standing next to me-a man who treated me like a partner, not a prop. "You are trespassing," I said coldly. "Go home, Marcus."

His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure Chapter 1

The exact moment Marcus Thorne, the most violent Capo on the East Coast, chose to leave our anniversary dinner to answer his mistress's call, I didn't cry.

"Business," he rumbled, ignoring the untouched meal I had cooked.

"Don't cause a scene, Ellie," he commanded before walking out the door.

I later found out his "business" was a polo match with Izzy. She posted a photo of them laughing, her hand on his chest, wearing the shirt I bought him.

When I tried to leave, he humiliated me publicly. He kissed her on stage at a gala, just to prove he could. He told his men I was merely acting out.

"Ellie is the furniture," he laughed. "You don't throw away antique furniture just because you bought a new TV."

But the final blow came when a bomb detonated at a family gathering.

Marcus didn't look for me. He dove to cover Izzy with his body.

He actually stepped over my bleeding leg to carry her to safety, leaving me in the dust and debris.

He thought I was trapped. He thought I was dependent on his money and his name. He thought I would be waiting at home when he was done playing hero.

He was wrong.

I signed the divorce papers, destroyed my wedding ring, and boarded a one-way flight to Italy.

Three months later, when he finally tracked me down in Tuscany, he fell to his knees in the street, begging me to come back.

But I just held the hand of the man standing next to me-a man who treated me like a partner, not a prop.

"You are trespassing," I said coldly.

"Go home, Marcus."

Chapter 1

Ellie Vance POV

The exact moment Marcus Thorne, the most violent Capo on the East Coast, chose to leave our anniversary dinner to answer his mistress's call, I didn't cry.

Instead, a cold clarity washed over me. I realized my life wasn't a fairytale; it was a hit job, and I was the target.

I sat at the head of the mahogany table, surrounded by the predators of the New York underworld. The crystal chandelier overhead likely cost more than an average annual salary, yet it failed to outshine the cold, heavy stone weighing down my left hand.

A diamond that felt less like a promise and more like a shackle.

Marcus stood up. The scrape of his chair against the floor echoed like a gunshot in the suffocating silence of the room.

"Business," he said. His voice was a low rumble, the kind that usually made my stomach flip with desire. Tonight, it just made me feel sick.

He didn't look at me. His eyes were fixed on his phone.

Three years ago, this man had looked me in the eyes in the secret garden of the Thorne estate. His hands, stained with the blood of his enemies, had cupped my face with a gentleness that terrified me.

"I will burn the world before I let anything hurt you, Ellie," he had sworn. "You are mine to protect."

I had believed him. I was the daughter of the Vance family; he was the heir to the Thorne empire. Our union was supposed to be the steel beam holding up the bridge between two criminal dynasties. I thought I was the prize. I thought I was his light.

I was a fool.

"Marcus," his father rumbled from the other end of the table. "Sit down. It's your anniversary."

Marcus glanced at the screen again. I knew who it was. Izzy. The 'consultant' I met at the charity auction last month. The woman with lips painted the color of arterial spray and eyes that dissected me and found me wanting.

"It's a crisis," Marcus said, his jaw tight. "I have to go."

He walked over to me. The room held its breath. My uncles, his cousins, the soldiers lining the walls-they all watched. This was theater. This was power.

He placed a hand on my shoulder. His grip was firm, possessive, yet completely devoid of warmth.

"Be good, Ellie," he whispered, loud enough for the table to hear. "Don't cause a scene. Stay here and don't make trouble for me."

It wasn't an apology. It was a command.

He turned and strode out. The heavy double doors slammed shut, sealing my humiliation inside.

I looked down at the empty chair beside me. The plate of untouched osso buco-his favorite-steamed mockingly.

Across the table, my cousin smirked. My mother-in-law looked down at her lap, feigning interest in her napkin. The pity in the room was a physical weight, pressing against my chest, crushing my lungs.

They knew. Everyone knew.

For months, I had been the dutiful wife. I designed the interiors of the family's "legitimate" hotels, pretending my art mattered, pretending I was needed. I stayed up late in my studio, painting shadows, while Marcus stayed out late "handling business."

I had cooked this dinner. I had worn the dress he liked. I had tried to talk to him this morning, only to be cut off by the buzzing of his phone and his impatient sigh.

"I'm busy, Ellie. Izzy needs help with the gala logistics."

Izzy needed him. I needed him. He chose her.

The silence in the dining room stretched until it snapped something inside me.

I stood up. My legs shook, but I locked my knees.

"Ellie, sit," my father hissed.

"No," I said. The word tasted foreign, like ash.

I looked at the empty doorway. The ghost of Marcus-the man I thought loved me-lingered there. But the man who just walked out? He was a stranger. He was a businessman, and I was just a depreciating asset.

I wasn't a wife. I was a political bridge. And bridges are made to be walked on.

I turned and walked out the side door, into the cold night air. I didn't go to our bedroom. I went to my studio.

I grabbed a canvas. It was a portrait of us, half-finished. I snatched a palette knife.

With a scream that no one heard, I slashed the canvas. Once. Twice. Again and again, until the image of Marcus Thorne was nothing but ribbons of paint and fabric.

I walked over to the desk and swept the blueprints for the new Thorne hotel onto the floor. I grabbed a lighter.

The flame flickered, small and insignificant against the darkness of the mafia world. But as I held it to the corner of the architectural drawings-the designs Marcus claimed to love-I felt a spark of something else.

It wasn't sadness. It was the ignition of hate.

I pulled the necklace off my neck-the platinum chain he gave me on our wedding night. I squeezed it until the metal bit into my palm.

I walked to the trash can in the corner and dropped it in. The clink of the metal hitting the bottom was the loudest sound I had ever heard.

Continue Reading

Other books by Barclay Hsu

More
Shattered Promises, New Beginnings

Shattered Promises, New Beginnings

Romance

5.0

My fiancé, Liam, and my brother, Ethan, both fell for the same woman, Chloe. One day, Liam was the man I was going to marry. The next, he looked at me like a stranger. At our engagement party, Liam was an hour late. Then, a picture surfaced of him and Chloe eloping. My world crashed down. To make things worse, Chloe, bandage-clad and tearful, dramatically entered, claiming Liam pushed her. Liam and Ethan, completely taken in, turned on me. "It was Ava," whispered Chloe, and Liam shoved me, causing me to fall and hit my head, bleeding on the floor. My own brother stood over them, his back to me. Two days later, Liam and Chloe showed up, accusing me of my own assault, the man I loved defending the woman who had just lied about me. They were convinced I was the villain, while Chloe was the damsel. I was hospitalized days later with a ruptured appendix, but when I called Ethan, he coldly dismissed me, saying I was "being dramatic," too busy bringing Chloe breakfast. The hospital informed me that my own brother had disowned me. How could two men I loved and trusted so completely be so blind, so cruel? How could my brother abandon me, his only sister, for a woman he'd barely known? I survived. I gathered the last of my strength and resolve. I decided then and there that I wouldn't just disappear; I would rebuild myself, piece by painful piece, into someone they wouldn't recognize, and they would live with the consequences of their betrayal forever.

The Betrayed Wife's Sweet Revenge

The Betrayed Wife's Sweet Revenge

Romance

5.0

The heavy iron gate groaned open, and I stepped out, expecting freedom. After a year inside, I longed for my fiancé, Liam, and our son, Noah. But the drive home to our familiar house revealed a chilling transformation: the paint was wrong, my rose bushes were gone. Then Mrs. Gable, our neighbor, delivered the first blow: "Liam has had his hands full, you know. It was a blessing he had Sarah to help him, especially with her being pregnant and all." Sarah. My brother' s widow. Pregnant. My heart seized. The key didn' t fit, but the door was unlocked. Inside, my home was alien-cold, modern, bare of our memories. And then I saw it: a baby' s playpen, a high chair. Not ours. Creeping to the back patio, I saw Liam, his arm around Sarah, her hand on a very pregnant belly. They looked like a perfect family. My perfect family. Then their words: "Are you sure she won' t cause any trouble? She' s supposed to get out this week." "Don' t you worry about Olivia. I know her. She' s loyal to a fault. She took the fall for us once, she' s not going to make waves now. She knows her place." Us. The word twisted in my gut. The truth hit me: Liam hadn' t made a mistake. Sarah had falsified the architectural plans. They had conspired. Liam had begged me to take the blame, promising a future, swearing he' d wait. I believed him. I sacrificed a year, my reputation, my career, for a monstrous lie. The betrayal shattered my heart, but beneath the pain, a cold, hard anger ignited. They thought I was broken, a loyal fool. They were about to learn how wrong they were.

The Cuckold's Revelation

The Cuckold's Revelation

Romance

5.0

My flight home felt endless, a week away from my pregnant wife, Emily, feeling like a year. I pictured her glowing, her smile lighting up the house, ready to welcome me back. But the moment I walked through the door, my world began to fracture. The house was eerily silent, a strange smell in the air, and an overflowing trash can spoke of neglect. Then, Emily' s weak voice called from upstairs, her face pale and clammy, clutching her stomach in pain. At the hospital, a doctor' s cryptic words about "strenuous activity" and needing to be "gentle" left me bewildered, a knot of unease tightening in my chest. I brushed it off, attributing it to stress, clinging to the flimsy explanation when I found a strange bruise on her collarbone-one she vaguely claimed was from clumsiness. But the flimsy facade shattered when I found cigarette ash in our master bathroom sink. I don't smoke, and Emily despises it, making her flimsy explanation about her stepfather stopping by ring hollow. My mother-in-law later confirmed my stepfather-in-law quit smoking years ago, sealing the growing dread in my stomach. Then, my own mother mentioned a new white sedan Emily was seen getting out of, driven by a man-a car I certainly hadn't bought. The pieces clicked into a terrifying mosaic: the doctor' s warning, the bruise, the ash, the unknown man, the mysterious car. But nothing prepared me for the final blow at the doctor' s follow-up: "The fetus is measuring closer to twelve weeks, Mr. Davis." Twelve weeks. A full month older than it should be, a month when I was working fourteen-hour days, thousands of miles away. My world imploded. The doctor wasn't accusing me; he was warning me about her affair. The baby wasn't mine. My wife had cheated, and the life I thought we had built was a cruel, elaborate lie. The man who was supposed to be a father was now the biggest fool. I was a cuckold. And I was going to find out everything.

A Genius's Desperate Play

You'll also like

He Thought I Was A Doormat, Until I Ruined Him

He Thought I Was A Doormat, Until I Ruined Him

SHANA GRAY
4.5

The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

Nap Regazzini
4.6

I woke up in a blindingly white hotel penthouse with a throbbing headache and the taste of betrayal in my mouth. The last thing I remembered was my stepsister, Cathie, handing me a flute of champagne at the charity gala with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Now, a tall, dangerously handsome man walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips. On the nightstand sat a stack of hundred-dollar bills. My stepmother had finally done it—she drugged me and staged a scandal with a hired escort to destroy my reputation and my future. "Aisha! Is it true you spent the night with a gigolo?" The shouts of a dozen reporters echoed through the heavy oak door as camera flashes exploded through the peephole. My phone lit up with messages showing my bank accounts were already frozen. My father was invoking the 'morality clause' in my mother’s trust fund, and my fiancé had already released a statement dumping me to marry my stepsister instead. I was trapped, penniless, and being hunted by the press for a scandal I hadn't even participated in. My own family had sold me out for a payday, and the man standing in front of me was the only witness who could prove I was innocent—or finish me off for good. I didn't have time to cry. According to the fine print of the trust, I had thirty days to prove my "rehabilitation" through a legal marriage or I would lose everything. I tracked the man down to a coffee shop the next morning, watching him take a thick envelope of cash from a wealthy older woman. I sat across from him and slid a napkin with a $50,000 figure written on it. "I need a husband. Legal, paper-signed, and convincing." He looked at the number, then at me, a slow, crooked smile spreading across his face. I thought I was hiring a desperate gigolo to save my inheritance. I had no idea I was actually proposing to Dominic Fields, the reclusive billionaire shark who was currently planning a hostile takeover of my father’s entire empire.

The Fallen Heiress's Debt to the Billionaire

The Fallen Heiress's Debt to the Billionaire

Shen Xiyan
5.0

I was once the princess of the Upper East Side, but now I’m just "debt wrapped in pretty skin." To keep my father alive in a federal penitentiary, I signed a contract I didn't fully understand. I thought it was about restoring my family's name, but producer Barnett Orr treated it like a bill of sale for my soul. Inside his limousine, the air smelled like gasoline and fear. Barnett didn't want a star; he wanted a victim. He bruised my jaw and ripped my vintage silk gown to shreds, laughing because he knew I couldn't fight back without signing my father's death warrant. "Don't forget who owns you, Felicity," he whispered. When he dragged me into Dewitt Knight’s penthouse party, I was a walking disaster. I huddled in Barnett’s oversized jacket, my lip bleeding and my spirit shattered. The elite crowd didn't see a victim; they saw a fallen girl selling herself for a role. A former rival poured red wine over me, and the room erupted in cruel laughter while Barnett told everyone he was just "testing my commitment." I looked up at the balcony, locking eyes with Dewitt Knight. He was a god in a bespoke suit, looking down at me with cold, lethal disgust. He didn't see the bruises or the desperation. He only saw a transaction he found beneath him. "So the rumors are true," he said, his voice cutting through the music. "The Aguilars really will do anything for money now. Even this." I was trapped between a monster who wanted to break me and a man who thought I was trash. No one cared that my father's life depended on my silence. When Barnett cornered me in a guest room later that night, his belt jingling like a death knell, I realized no one was coming to save a girl like me. I fought back with a crystal vase, shattering it against his shoulder, but I was drowning in my own terror. Just as Barnett lunged for my throat, the door was kicked off its hinges. Dewitt stood there, finally seeing the blood on the carpet and the map of purple bruises on my bare back. He chased the monster away, but I didn't feel safe. I locked the guest room door, wedged a chair under the handle, and slept with a silver letter opener pressed against my skin. When I crept into the kitchen at midnight and found him waiting in the shadows, I aimed the blade at his heart. "In this house, no one hurts you," he promised, his voice a low velvet rumble. But in a world where I had already been sold once, I knew that even protection came with a price I couldn't afford to pay.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure Barclay Hsu Mafia
“The exact moment Marcus Thorne, the most violent Capo on the East Coast, chose to leave our anniversary dinner to answer his mistress's call, I didn't cry. "Business," he rumbled, ignoring the untouched meal I had cooked. "Don't cause a scene, Ellie," he commanded before walking out the door. I later found out his "business" was a polo match with Izzy. She posted a photo of them laughing, her hand on his chest, wearing the shirt I bought him. When I tried to leave, he humiliated me publicly. He kissed her on stage at a gala, just to prove he could. He told his men I was merely acting out. "Ellie is the furniture," he laughed. "You don't throw away antique furniture just because you bought a new TV." But the final blow came when a bomb detonated at a family gathering. Marcus didn't look for me. He dove to cover Izzy with his body. He actually stepped over my bleeding leg to carry her to safety, leaving me in the dust and debris. He thought I was trapped. He thought I was dependent on his money and his name. He thought I would be waiting at home when he was done playing hero. He was wrong. I signed the divorce papers, destroyed my wedding ring, and boarded a one-way flight to Italy. Three months later, when he finally tracked me down in Tuscany, he fell to his knees in the street, begging me to come back. But I just held the hand of the man standing next to me-a man who treated me like a partner, not a prop. "You are trespassing," I said coldly. "Go home, Marcus."”
1

Chapter 1

10/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

10/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

10/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

10/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

10/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

10/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

10/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

10/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

10/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

10/12/2025

11

Chapter 11

10/12/2025

12

Chapter 12

10/12/2025

13

Chapter 13

10/12/2025

14

Chapter 14

10/12/2025

15

Chapter 15

10/12/2025

16

Chapter 16

10/12/2025

17

Chapter 17

10/12/2025

18

Chapter 18

10/12/2025

19

Chapter 19

10/12/2025

20

Chapter 20

10/12/2025

21

Chapter 21

10/12/2025

22

Chapter 22

10/12/2025

23

Chapter 23

10/12/2025