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From Rags to Riches (Again)

From Rags to Riches (Again)

Gavin

5.0
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11
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For seven long years, I, Ethan Vanderbilt, the heir to a vast real estate empire, played the part of a humble city planner. I sacrificed my ambitions, poured my family's wealth into funding my fiancée Chloe's "struggling artist" career, all for her, all for love. Tonight, at her prestigious art preview, my world shattered when she unveiled her centerpiece: a "wedding photo" of her and her best friend, Leo, eyes locked in an intimate smile that screamed betrayal. Leo, her "tragic muse," whose "degenerative heart condition" I suddenly realized was nothing but a manipulative lie designed to trap her. My entire seven-year relationship, our engagement, felt like a cruel, expensive joke. Chloe dismissed my shock, telling me I was "unsupportive" and that this public display of infidelity was merely "art" and a "powerful statement." How could she casually toss away years of my devotion, my secret identity, the life I' d put on hold for her, for this preposterous charade? But in that moment of profound clarity, a cold resolve settled over me. My bohemian charade was finally over. I pulled out my phone and texted my mother a single, decisive message: "Mom, I'm ready. I'll marry Sophia Sterling."

Introduction

For seven long years, I, Ethan Vanderbilt, the heir to a vast real estate empire, played the part of a humble city planner.

I sacrificed my ambitions, poured my family's wealth into funding my fiancée Chloe's "struggling artist" career, all for her, all for love.

Tonight, at her prestigious art preview, my world shattered when she unveiled her centerpiece: a "wedding photo" of her and her best friend, Leo, eyes locked in an intimate smile that screamed betrayal.

Leo, her "tragic muse," whose "degenerative heart condition" I suddenly realized was nothing but a manipulative lie designed to trap her.

My entire seven-year relationship, our engagement, felt like a cruel, expensive joke.

Chloe dismissed my shock, telling me I was "unsupportive" and that this public display of infidelity was merely "art" and a "powerful statement."

How could she casually toss away years of my devotion, my secret identity, the life I' d put on hold for her, for this preposterous charade?

But in that moment of profound clarity, a cold resolve settled over me.

My bohemian charade was finally over.

I pulled out my phone and texted my mother a single, decisive message: "Mom, I'm ready. I'll marry Sophia Sterling."

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The Unwilling Wife

The Unwilling Wife

Short stories

5.0

The organ music swelled, painting my white wedding dress in shades of blood red. I was marrying Julian Thorne, a man who despised me, believing the lies that had ruined my reputation. This wasn't a marriage; it was a sentence, orchestrated perfectly by my stepsister, Sophia, who had always wanted Julian for herself. Everyone saw Eleanor Vance, the brilliant architect, as the luckiest woman alive, but my heart was a cold stone. As the word "I do" escaped my lips-a whispered surrender-a blinding white light engulfed me. I woke up in my old bedroom, the floral wallpaper still on the walls. My phone read October 12, 2014-ten years ago, the day of my first wedding, the one that never happened. Relief surged through me; I wasn't Julian Thorne's wife. But then dread set in as Sophia's text buzzed on my smaller, older phone: "Julian's family is coming for dinner tonight, you have to make a good impression!" It was all starting tonight, the very dinner where Sophia would introduce me to the Thornes, setting off the chain of events that would lead to my forced marriage. The contempt in Julian's eyes was already there, seeing me as a social climber, exactly the image Sophia had carefully crafted. I was trapped again, a ghost in my own life, burdened by a future I knew was coming: the Thorne family's imminent financial ruin, and my own career sacrificed to support them. But this time, I wasn't the naive girl to be manipulated. I knew all their secrets, and I would not spend another ten years as Eleanor Thorne. I would fight.

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