THE BAD BOY OF KING ALLEN

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Xiao Hong Mao

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.

Modern Revenge

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Tessa blinked her a hundred and one times before finding lifting her eyelashes that seemed extra heavy that morning. She groaned as she pulled herself out of bed. The wall clock on the locker beside her read a few minutes past 5am and Tessa sighed softly while walking towards the bathroom.

There was only one reason why Tessa woke up as early as 5am on school days. So that she could get to school early and find somewhere to hide before she became the butt of their jokes r even bullied in itself.

She stared at herself in the mirror in front of her while brushing her teeth. The dye of her hair was beginning of wear off and she mentally reminded herself to either wash the dye off or re-dye her hair. Re-dying her hair seemed to appeal more to her and within minutes, Tessa was done washing her teeth. She ran her hands through her hair and she finally got a good look at herself in the mirror.

There were dark circles underneath her eyes from sleeping late and waking up early, lack of sleep. Her coffee brown eyes were slightly sunken in and her straight nose seemed to have an edge. She pursed her small pouty lips against herself in the mirror before shaking her head.

She looked way too easy and that was why she was always bullied. She didn’t have the confidence or the energy to fight back either so instead of allowing them to constantly bully her all the time, Tessa found another option.

Avoiding them.

And for the past two to three months, she had been able to flawlessly avoid these bullies. She always arrived very early to school and hid somewhere; she never came out unless the classes had started and somehow she was able to escape their radar like that.

As it had been working for the past two months, Tessa planned to continue like that, she didn’t have any other plans in order to escape their bullying so she had to continue with this one.

By few minutes to 7 am, Tessa was already making her way down the streets towards the bus stop. There were already few people at the bus stop waiting for the 7am bus. The woman with the crying child, the sophisticated lady who was all dressed up for work, the woman with two super naughty kids and a few other people.

Tessa realized that for the past two months, she never failed to see these particular people while waiting for the 7am bus. She gave a nod in greeting and it was the just the women with kids that replied her. The other sophisticated lady was busy glancing at her watch from time to time. As soon as the bus arrived, everyone filed in a straight line and got on the bus while sliding their bus cards st the door.

Tessa slid her hands into the pockets of her hoodie with her other hand dangling beside her. There was soon a problem, the mother of the two naughty children was having a hard time sliding her bus card. The counter showed red each time she slid it across. There was not enough card in the card to go round.

“I re-filled it yesterday” the woman complained while wearing a distressed face. She couldn’t afford to come down from the bus, she was going to be late for work and her children were going to be late for school as well. She looked towards the person in front of her for help but the latter didn’t say anything before walking towards her seat.

Tessa swallowed her saliva as she smiled at the woman and slid her card “For all of us she muttered quietly and everyone turned to her immediately. The woman had tears in her eyes as she grabbed Tessa’s hand and thanked her.

“Thank you so much” she said and Tessa nodded before walking to the end of the bus and finding her usual seat beside the window. She plopped down on the chair while looking outside at the cars that moved with the early morning clouds.

As expected, very few students were in the school as Tess walked into the school compound, she rolled her eyes at the huge blocked inscription beside the walls of the school compound. MACPHERSON HIGH SCHOOL.

Macpherson High School was the school for the rich of the rich, it was owned by the Macpherson family, one of the biggest and most popular family in America and its environs. As much as it was only rich kids that attended Macpherson, there was still hierarchy and societal status. And it was the societal status and hierarchy that left the slightly unsocial Tessa at the bottom of the food chain where she can easily be bullied.

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