His Promise, Her Ruin

His Promise, Her Ruin

Meng Xinyu

5.0
Comment(s)
9.8K
View
21
Chapters

Tonight was supposed to be the greatest night of my career. I was the frontrunner for the Pinnacle Prize, the highest honor in architecture. But the award went to a complete unknown-my fiancé's first love, the widow of his older brother. My fiancé, Kason, the man who was supposed to build my winning design, had given my life's work away to her. He said she needed it more. He then forced me to mentor her, letting her take credit for my projects. During a promotional shoot, he stood by and watched as she slapped me again and again under the guise of "getting the shot right." When I finally slapped her back, he had me fired and blacklisted from the entire industry. He didn't stop there. He pushed me to the ground in a hospital hallway, causing me to bleed, and then abandoned me. He did all this while I was carrying his child. Lying on that cold hospital floor, I made a decision. I took my unborn baby and disappeared. I flew to a new country, changed my name, and cut off all ties. For five years, we were ghosts.

His Promise, Her Ruin Chapter 1

Tonight was supposed to be the greatest night of my career. I was the frontrunner for the Pinnacle Prize, the highest honor in architecture.

But the award went to a complete unknown-my fiancé's first love, the widow of his older brother. My fiancé, Kason, the man who was supposed to build my winning design, had given my life's work away to her.

He said she needed it more. He then forced me to mentor her, letting her take credit for my projects. During a promotional shoot, he stood by and watched as she slapped me again and again under the guise of "getting the shot right."

When I finally slapped her back, he had me fired and blacklisted from the entire industry. He didn't stop there. He pushed me to the ground in a hospital hallway, causing me to bleed, and then abandoned me.

He did all this while I was carrying his child.

Lying on that cold hospital floor, I made a decision. I took my unborn baby and disappeared. I flew to a new country, changed my name, and cut off all ties.

For five years, we were ghosts.

Chapter 1

The air in the grand hall was thick with anticipation. I smoothed the front of my silk gown, my heart pounding against my ribs. Tonight was the night I' d been working toward my entire career. The Pinnacle Prize. The highest honor in architecture.

My design, "The Sunstone," was the frontrunner. It was more than a building; it was my soul rendered in glass and steel.

A respected colleague, Arthur Vance, patted my shoulder.

"Congratulations in advance, Clara. A well-deserved win. Sunstone is a masterpiece."

I gave him a grateful, if nervous, smile. "Thank you, Arthur. Let's not jinx it."

He chuckled. "There's no jinxing genius."

My fiancé, Kason Hanson, was supposed to be by my side. He was the most powerful real estate mogul in the city, the man who was going to build Sunstone. But he' d called an hour ago, saying he was caught in a last-minute meeting. He promised he' d make it up to me.

The host stepped up to the podium. "And now, the moment we've all been waiting for. The Pinnacle Prize for Architectural Excellence goes to..."

I held my breath, a smile already forming on my lips.

"...Hazel Garrett for 'The Willow.'"

The name hit me like a physical blow. It didn' t make sense. The Willow was a derivative, uninspired design. Hazel Garrett was a nobody.

A wave of cold washed over me. My hands went numb. I felt the eyes of the entire hall on me, the favored candidate who had just been publicly snubbed.

I managed to clap, my movements stiff and robotic. I sank back into my seat, the plush velvet feeling like stone. The forced smile on my face felt like it was cracking.

My gaze swept the crowd, searching for something, anything to make sense of this. And then I saw him.

Kason.

He wasn't in a meeting. He was sitting in the third row, his powerful frame perfectly tailored in a dark suit.

He wasn't looking at me. His eyes were fixed on the stage, on the woman walking toward the podium.

Hazel Garrett. My fiancé' s first love. The widow of his older brother.

His presence here wasn't for me. It was for her.

The whispers started around me, a low hum of confusion and suspicion.

"Hazel Garrett? Who is she?"

"I heard she has a connection to the Hanson Corporation. The primary sponsor."

"This feels... wrong. Sunstone was the clear winner."

My mind pieced it together with brutal clarity. Kason had done this. He had given my prize away.

I remembered a conversation from weeks ago, Hazel crying in our living room about her stalled career and how she' d never achieve her dreams. I remembered Kason holding her, whispering a promise.

"I' ll make it happen for you, Hazel. I swear it. I owe you."

He owed her. For a past event shrouded in guilt, a story he never fully told me. A story where he believed Hazel had saved his life.

Ten years of my life. The endless nights, the sacrifices, the singular focus on my craft-all of it culminated in this moment. A moment he had handed to her on a silver platter because she was fragile and he felt guilty.

The ceremony ended in a blur. I sat frozen until the hall began to empty.

Kason finally found me, his expression unreadable.

"Clara."

I stood up, my voice dangerously calm. "Why, Kason?"

He had the audacity to look confused. "It' s just an award. It doesn't diminish your talent."

"It was my award," I said, my voice trembling now. "It was the Pinnacle Prize. You don' t just give it to someone."

"Hazel needed it more. It' s a stepping stone for her."

His casual dismissal of my life's work made something inside me snap.

"She needed it? What about what I needed? What about what I earned? I poured a decade of my life into my work to get here! My integrity, my name, my future-that' s what that award represented!"

I was shaking so hard I could barely stand. The words were a torrent, a dam of hurt and betrayal breaking open.

"It's not just an award! It was everything!"

I was so choked with emotion I couldn' t speak anymore.

For a second, I saw a flicker of something in his eyes. Regret, maybe. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

"I'll get you other awards, Clara. Bigger projects. Just let this go."

A hollow promise. Patronizing. He didn't understand. He didn't care.

"I don't need you to get me anything," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper. "I earned this on my own."

Just then, a breathless voice called out.

"Kason!"

Hazel Garrett, clutching the heavy golden trophy, ran toward us. She threw her arms around Kason's neck, ignoring me completely.

She pulled back, her eyes shining. "I can't believe it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Kason' s face softened as he looked at her. He smoothed her hair back.

"You deserved it, Hazel. Your talent deserves to be seen."

Deserved it. The word echoed in the empty hall, a mocking laugh at my expense. She hadn't spent a single sleepless night refining her design. She hadn't fought for every line, every angle, every piece of her soul that I had poured into mine.

She had just cried, and he had made her dream come true.

I couldn't watch another second. I turned and walked away, the sound of their happy chatter chasing me out into the cold night.

Continue Reading

Other books by Meng Xinyu

More
The Cold CEO's Unwanted Genius Wife

The Cold CEO's Unwanted Genius Wife

Modern

5.0

I stood in the darkest corner of the Pierre Hotel’s ballroom, my cheap polyester dress itching against my skin while my wristband buzzed with a DARPA Priority Red alert. In front of the city’s elite, my fiancé Bryce Calloway took the stage, not to toast our future, but to publicly end our engagement and announce he was with my sister, Chloe. The room turned on me instantly, a hundred pairs of eyes pinning me down with pity and disgust as they physically backed away like I was contagious. When I returned home, my mother shattered a crystal vase at my feet, screaming that I was a humiliation and a "dropout" who didn't deserve a cent of the family fortune. Chloe and Bryce mocked me, laughing when I told them I had a mission with the National Security Agency, convinced I was either a pathological liar or a low-level criminal. They watched in horror as a black, unmarked military helicopter descended on our backyard to extract me, yet they still chose to believe I was being arrested for drug trafficking. They saw a pathetic girl who couldn't even parallel park, never realizing I was Dr. Nova Vance, the lead physicist behind the world's first successful fusion reactor. To secure funding for my research and gain a "fortress" of a name, I signed a thirty-day marriage contract with the arrogant billionaire Roman Knight. He treats me like a fraud, convinced I’m a gold-digger who failed out of college, while I quietly run global energy simulations from his guest bedroom. He has no idea that the "loser" he’s forced to live with is the same anonymous grandmaster who has been ruthlessly crushing him in online strategy games for months. "The contract is active," I told him, looking past his expensive suit. "But don't expect me to be your maid."

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Genius Wife's Ultimate Cold Revenge

The Billionaire's Genius Wife's Ultimate Cold Revenge

Beatrice Wells
4.3

My five-year-old daughter was turning blue in my arms, her body rigid with a 104-degree fever. I called my billionaire husband, Clifton, dozens of times as I rushed to the hospital, but he declined every single call. While I was screaming at doctors and fighting to save our child’s life, a news alert flashed on my phone. Clifton was at the Met Gala, looking devastatingly handsome as he intimately draped his tuxedo jacket over the shoulders of his mistress, Eleanora. The nightmare didn't end at the hospital. Clifton used a secret clause in our prenup to snatch Lily from her bed and move her to a private facility without my consent. When I finally found her, my own daughter shrank away from me in terror. "Go away, bad Mommy!" she sobbed, while the mistress fed her oatmeal and whispered that I was the one who made the doctors hurt her. Clifton stood by and watched, telling me I was too "hysterical" to be a mother. But then I discovered the real reason they were hiding her. My husband was illegally using my late mother’s rare bone marrow samples to treat Eleanora’s secret blood disorder. Now that those samples are failing, he is taking Lily to a secluded castle in Germany to harvest our daughter’s marrow for his mistress. I sat in the dark, watching them play happy family with the child they plan to sacrifice. I realized then that my marriage wasn't just a lie—it was a biological harvest. They think I’m just a broken trophy wife who doesn't understand the science they are using to destroy me. They have no idea that I am "Ghost," the anonymous medical genius behind the very research they are trying to steal. As we board the private jet to Germany, I’ve stopped crying and started calculating. If they want to play with life and death, I’ll show them exactly what happens when a mother stops being a victim and starts being a predator.

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison
4.6

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
His Promise, Her Ruin His Promise, Her Ruin Meng Xinyu Modern
“Tonight was supposed to be the greatest night of my career. I was the frontrunner for the Pinnacle Prize, the highest honor in architecture. But the award went to a complete unknown-my fiancé's first love, the widow of his older brother. My fiancé, Kason, the man who was supposed to build my winning design, had given my life's work away to her. He said she needed it more. He then forced me to mentor her, letting her take credit for my projects. During a promotional shoot, he stood by and watched as she slapped me again and again under the guise of "getting the shot right." When I finally slapped her back, he had me fired and blacklisted from the entire industry. He didn't stop there. He pushed me to the ground in a hospital hallway, causing me to bleed, and then abandoned me. He did all this while I was carrying his child. Lying on that cold hospital floor, I made a decision. I took my unborn baby and disappeared. I flew to a new country, changed my name, and cut off all ties. For five years, we were ghosts.”
1

Chapter 1

19/08/2025

2

Chapter 2

19/08/2025

3

Chapter 3

19/08/2025

4

Chapter 4

19/08/2025

5

Chapter 5

19/08/2025

6

Chapter 6

19/08/2025

7

Chapter 7

19/08/2025

8

Chapter 8

19/08/2025

9

Chapter 9

19/08/2025

10

Chapter 10

19/08/2025

11

Chapter 11

19/08/2025

12

Chapter 12

19/08/2025

13

Chapter 13

19/08/2025

14

Chapter 14

19/08/2025

15

Chapter 15

19/08/2025

16

Chapter 16

19/08/2025

17

Chapter 17

19/08/2025

18

Chapter 18

19/08/2025

19

Chapter 19

19/08/2025

20

Chapter 20

19/08/2025

21

Chapter 21

19/08/2025