The Placeholder Wife: A Billionaire's Secret

The Placeholder Wife: A Billionaire's Secret

Rafaela Kokkotou

5.0
Comment(s)
5.6K
View
24
Chapters

It was my 30th birthday, and I was patiently dining alone at a Michelin-star restaurant, waiting for my finance titan husband, Julian, to arrive. Suddenly, my phone screen flickered to life, displaying a TMZ headline that stopped my breath: "Julian Vance Spotted with Returning Socialite Chloe Sinclair – Old Flames Rekindled?" A video showed Julian, my husband, shielding Chloe from the rain and cameras, his arm protectively around her. Shock, cold and sharp, spread through me, as the bitter taste of betrayal filled my mouth. This wasn't just a business meeting; it was a public declaration of his true affections. The table was set for two, but the untouched food grew cold as countless minutes ticked by, each one deepening the suffocating loneliness I felt. Five years. Five years I had spent waiting; five years I had been a placeholder for the woman he truly loved, the one he married me to forget. Then, a text from Julian cemented my despair: "Raincheck on birthday. Next year." There would be no next year for us. My quiet endurance finally gave way to a hardened resolve. I signaled the maître d', trading the lavish, uneaten meal for a sturdy umbrella. I walked out into the Manhattan rain, a clear decision forming in my mind: this was the end. But for me, it was also a new beginning.

The Placeholder Wife: A Billionaire's Secret Introduction

It was my 30th birthday, and I was patiently dining alone at a Michelin-star restaurant, waiting for my finance titan husband, Julian, to arrive.

Suddenly, my phone screen flickered to life, displaying a TMZ headline that stopped my breath: "Julian Vance Spotted with Returning Socialite Chloe Sinclair – Old Flames Rekindled?"

A video showed Julian, my husband, shielding Chloe from the rain and cameras, his arm protectively around her.

Shock, cold and sharp, spread through me, as the bitter taste of betrayal filled my mouth.

This wasn't just a business meeting; it was a public declaration of his true affections.

The table was set for two, but the untouched food grew cold as countless minutes ticked by, each one deepening the suffocating loneliness I felt.

Five years. Five years I had spent waiting; five years I had been a placeholder for the woman he truly loved, the one he married me to forget.

Then, a text from Julian cemented my despair: "Raincheck on birthday. Next year."

There would be no next year for us.

My quiet endurance finally gave way to a hardened resolve.

I signaled the maître d', trading the lavish, uneaten meal for a sturdy umbrella.

I walked out into the Manhattan rain, a clear decision forming in my mind: this was the end.

But for me, it was also a new beginning.

Continue Reading

Other books by Rafaela Kokkotou

More
Love, Lies, And A Second Life

Love, Lies, And A Second Life

Horror

5.0

The air in the room was stale, thick with the smell of antiseptic and despair. They told me I was sick, that grief had broken my mind. My mother-in-law, Martha, would visit, her concern a chilling mask, whispering to doctors how I was hallucinating, a danger to myself and my son, Billy. "She doesn' t understand that David is gone," she' d insist, loud enough for me to hear. But the real horror wasn't my madness; it was the truth. Three days after my husband, David, a decorated police officer, was supposedly killed, I stood at his memorial, expected to mourn. The man in the casket wasn't David. It was Mark, his identical twin, missing the faded scar David always had. That night, I found David, not dead, but alive in our summer cabin, with his childhood sweetheart, Emily Peterson. He confessed it all with chilling indifference: Mark was killed in a shootout, and David seized the chance for a new life, free from me and Billy. "I never loved you," he said, as if explaining a simple math problem. "It was always Emily." I tried to tell everyone-his mother, his captain-but they looked at me with pity, already conditioned by Martha and David' s lies. They had me committed to a white room, and David married Emily. My four-year-old son, Billy, was left in their care, crying for me every night. Then came the unbearable news: Billy was dead, a "tragic accident" from an overdose of cough medicine. My world shattered. Desperate, I fashioned a noose, remembering Billy' s bright laugh, the life David had stolen. My only regret was that David would never face justice. I kicked the chair away. Darkness took me. Then, a blinding light, and I was back on my living room couch, the day David was supposedly killed. I wasn' t dead. I was back. Martha' s face, a mask of practiced sadness, now held a triumphant curl. I heard David' s voice from the hallway, "Is she stable?" "She' s fragile, but she bought it," Martha replied. "She' ll break, just like we planned. We' ll have her committed, and Billy will be ours." "Good," David said. "Make sure she doesn' t get near the body. Mark didn' t have my scar." This time, I was not the grieving widow. I was the executioner.

You'll also like

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Xiao Hong Mao
4.5

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.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
The Placeholder Wife: A Billionaire's Secret The Placeholder Wife: A Billionaire's Secret Rafaela Kokkotou Billionaires
“It was my 30th birthday, and I was patiently dining alone at a Michelin-star restaurant, waiting for my finance titan husband, Julian, to arrive. Suddenly, my phone screen flickered to life, displaying a TMZ headline that stopped my breath: "Julian Vance Spotted with Returning Socialite Chloe Sinclair – Old Flames Rekindled?" A video showed Julian, my husband, shielding Chloe from the rain and cameras, his arm protectively around her. Shock, cold and sharp, spread through me, as the bitter taste of betrayal filled my mouth. This wasn't just a business meeting; it was a public declaration of his true affections. The table was set for two, but the untouched food grew cold as countless minutes ticked by, each one deepening the suffocating loneliness I felt. Five years. Five years I had spent waiting; five years I had been a placeholder for the woman he truly loved, the one he married me to forget. Then, a text from Julian cemented my despair: "Raincheck on birthday. Next year." There would be no next year for us. My quiet endurance finally gave way to a hardened resolve. I signaled the maître d', trading the lavish, uneaten meal for a sturdy umbrella. I walked out into the Manhattan rain, a clear decision forming in my mind: this was the end. But for me, it was also a new beginning.”
1

Introduction

06/06/2025

2

Chapter 1

06/06/2025

3

Chapter 2

06/06/2025

4

Chapter 3

06/06/2025

5

Chapter 4

06/06/2025

6

Chapter 5

06/06/2025

7

Chapter 6

06/06/2025

8

Chapter 7

06/06/2025

9

Chapter 8

06/06/2025

10

Chapter 9

06/06/2025

11

Chapter 10

06/06/2025

12

Chapter 11

06/06/2025

13

Chapter 12

06/06/2025

14

Chapter 13

06/06/2025

15

Chapter 14

06/06/2025

16

Chapter 15

06/06/2025

17

Chapter 16

06/06/2025

18

Chapter 17

06/06/2025

19

Chapter 18

06/06/2025

20

Chapter 19

06/06/2025

21

Chapter 20

06/06/2025

22

Chapter 21

06/06/2025

23

Chapter 22

06/06/2025

24

Chapter 23

06/06/2025