After getting turned down for the ninth time when she proposed, Phoebe Thurman lay beneath Oscar Gilliam. She stared up into his eyes, dark and glazed over with raw desire. Fighting off the tingly heat spreading through her body, she'd decided to give their three-year relationship one last try. But before she could say a word, Oscar reached his peak. He trembled all over and pulled Phoebe tight in his arms, then pressed a satisfied kiss to her forehead. "I've got things to do later. Order yourself something to eat if you're hungry, and don't wait up for me tonight." Phoebe watched his back as he pulled away and left. A sharp, bitter ache welled up in her chest, drowning out every other feeling. She never told Oscar that this had been their last chance—her final try. Phoebe finished packing her suitcase and tucked it into the closet. That was when she spotted Oscar's phone lying on the closet shelf. She knew he was swamped with work and needed his phone handy for client calls. Without a second thought, she hurried off to deliver it to him. But the second she stepped into the hallway to Oscar's office, she heard his friends' harsh, mocking laughter. A man said, "No one pulls off dating tricks like Oscar, seriously. Nanette Odom, the school beauty, said she doesn't want a rookie. So you got yourself a temporary girlfriend to practice your moves. Three years in, Phoebe's head over heels for you, and even Nanette praises your skills." Another man chimed in right after, "Heard Phoebe proposed to you again today. That's nine times in total, right? Man, she's obsessed with you. I can't wait to see her face when she finds out she's just your practice dummy—she'll be absolutely crushed." Oscar recalled the pain in Phoebe's eyes when he'd left her earlier. He shot his friends a sharp, warning glance. Then he said, "Not a word of this to Phoebe until she proposes to me a tenth time."

Half an hour ago, I got an emergency call from Whitecross General. Nora, the supreme Chief of the Bonehowl Pack and my husband Severin's birth mother, was dying. The only thing that could save her was the Bone-Kernel, a sacred treasure of the pack that Severin kept on him at all times. I burst into the villa, frantic and disheveled, only to find Severin gently draping a blanket over his precious Freya's shoulders. My voice came out hoarse. "Severin, give me the Bone-Kernel. Mother is running out of time. The hospital is waiting. It's the only thing that can save her." Severin's voice was ice. "Lydia, the Bone-Kernel is for Freya's treatment. As for your mother, she can wait." I rushed to correct him. "Not my mother. The one in the emergency room is your..." Severin cut me off, impatient. "I said, let the outsider wait. Once Freya is done with it, I'll have someone deliver whatever scraps are left to the hospital." He shielded Freya and walked away without a single look back. He never even bothered to hear the name. He had no idea that the outsider he couldn't spare a second thought for was his own birth mother. Nora. A long time later, I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. Then I laughed. If Severin had chosen to personally cut off his own mother's last lifeline, then so be it. The supreme throne of the Bonehowl Pack, from this day forward, should rightfully be mine.

When my husband broke his promise again, my son, Leo Espinoza, only said, "Go deal with it, Don Vito." I looked quietly at the stunned godfather, knowing that all the time I'd spent helping Leo and myself let go had not been wasted. We were finally free of him. My husband, Vito Espinoza, was the godfather of the Arieana Mafia that controlled the southern coast of Arieana. ７-year-old Leo used to be so attached to his father. He once pestered Vito repeatedly to take him out to sea fishing, only to be flatly refused with the excuse. "As the Godfather, I bear heavy responsibilities and cannot indulge in pleasure." Yet a few tearful pleas from Caroline Howard, the widow of a gang member, easily shattered all his principles. He put aside all his affairs and personally drove a yacht to accompany Caroline and her son for three days. Caroline immediately posted the photos and videos on social media. The caption was piercing. Caroline: Someone who truly cares about you will give you all their love and time. We had a quarrel, and Vito didn't feel apologetic. He said Caroline had lost her husband, that looking out for the vulnerable was the family's code, and as the Don's wife, I should be more understanding. I didn't argue further and quietly filed for divorce with the court. During the 30-day period for the procedure, I slowly helped Leo see the reality clearly. For 28 whole days, Vito stood us up over and over to be with Caroline and her son, Tony Howard. Leo had once idolized his father, but Vito's repeated neglect slowly shattered that admiration. Right then, he told Vito coolly, "Go stay with your other son. Mom and I will be just fine at the charity gala on our own."

I had spent 3 years cut off from the outside world while working on a top-secret project for the National Defense Directorate. Just as I was about to transfer my 30-million-dollar bonus to my husband, who worked in investment management, the Sacred Heart Academy alumni chat exploded with people tagging me.   Tiffany Sterling, our former cheer captain, flooded the chat with photos of a 10-carat diamond ring and a yacht.   Tiffany: My fiancé is going to bid on the Tear of the Deep for me at Sotheby's tomorrow night, and money is no object! I'll stream the whole thing on Instagram. @Claire Walker, you have to come. Stop hiding in that lab like a nerd. You probably haven't seen this much money in your life.   News of Tiffany's engagement dominated the chat. I had no interest in joining the spectacle, so I replied in the chat.   Claire: I'm busy with work. I can't make it.   The chat immediately erupted in jeers.   A: What kind of miserable job makes you work weekends?   B: This is hilarious. She's obviously too broke to show her face.   Tiffany jumped in.   Tiffany: Remember what I told you back then? I always knew I'd end up better off than you.   Someone else was even nastier.   C: The cheer captain is marrying into money while the top student can barely pay her bills? Claire, you could always work as a maid for one of the rich families in town. At least then you'd get a glimpse of how the other half lives.   Tiffany pretended to play peacemaker.   Tiffany: Come on, everyone. You should all be there to share in my happiness.   Then she posted an engagement photo.   The moment I saw it, I froze. The man smiling with his arm around her was Leo Astor, my husband. Only 30 minutes earlier, he had called me in tears, begging me to transfer 30 million dollars for an "emergency."   I took a screenshot and replied with a cold smile.   Claire: Of course I'll be there. I'll bring the two of you a special gift.

My son Oliver was the Alpha's own son, and he was a once-in-a-century Star of Fortune. Whoever kept him close came into extraordinary luck. With Oliver at his side, my husband's claim to Alpha King had been all but locked in. And still, over and over, he chose to spend his days helping a widowed Omega raise her boy, telling me she needed him more than we did. I would have given everything to put him on that throne. I was done giving. I filed for divorce, took my son, and decided to go after the title of Alpha King myself.

My grandmother was fighting for her life in the operating room, and the hospital was demanding immediate payment. With shaking hands, I checked my phone. My paycheck had just arrived: 15 dollars. I checked five times. It wasn't 15,000 dollars. It was only 15 dollars. I called the Finance Department. Serena Crawford answered with a giggle. "Oops. I misplaced the decimal point. We'll add the difference to your next paycheck. Don't be so petty." Then I called Damian Blackwood, my boyfriend and the company's CEO. He dismissed it. "Serena was only joking. Don't take it so seriously. She's a shareholder's niece, and it was one small mistake. Stop picking on her. We need to cut her some slack." "Damian, my grandmother is having surgery today." He tried to placate me. "Pay it yourself for now. I'm in an investor meeting." Serena's coy laugh came through in the background. Before I could say another word, he hung up. Grandma's medical bills had already drained my savings. In the hospital corridor, I called everyone I knew, begged for loans, and maxed out my credit cards. Even then, I couldn't raise the 10,000 dollars the hospital required for surgery. Grandma died. I cried until I had no tears left. Then I wiped my face, managed a bitter smile, and went to work as usual. Damian saw me and smiled. "Your grandmother's okay now? Good. At least you still made it to work." I slipped my resignation letter into the stack of documents waiting for his signature. He signed it without even looking. I smiled back. "Damian, now it's my turn to play a joke on you."

James Victor, my powerful CEO husband, had erased every trace of our marriage for two whole years, all so he could protect his precious first love, Yvonne Lane, who had returned to the country after the Lane family went bankrupt.   For two long years, everyone only knew Yvonne as the woman standing beside him. No one had ever known that I was the real, legal Mrs. Victor.   It wasn't until Yvonne won the Best Actress award that James finally came to see me, carrying an enormous bouquet of fresh red roses.   "Hey, honey. I kept my promise to her. Let's pick a date to make our marriage public, okay?"   I had just walked in after a date when I heard those words, and for a moment, I couldn't understand what he was talking about.   I must have stared at him for too long, completely frozen.   The corner of his lips lifted into a smug, amused smile.   "What? Are you so happy that you've lost your voice? Didn't I tell you before? Once Yvonne got her career back on track, we'd make our relationship public."   I said nothing.   Two years had been more than enough to change everything.   Take that title of Mrs. Victor that I used to dream about every single day.   I didn't care about it anymore.

I was the human wife my vampire husband refused to acknowledge. At the family banquet, he left with his arm around his pregnant first love, and I could only watch. I followed, hoping to speak with him alone, but heard moans coming from the master bedroom. "Easy. Don't hurt the baby," she whispered. "The Hastings heir isn't that fragile," he replied. "Once he's born, you'll marry me, right?" she asked. "Yes. You'll be Countess soon enough," he answered. I clenched the pregnancy test result in my pocket, turned, and walked away. The ten-year contract was up. I could finally leave him for good.

My daughter was supposed to crush the triennial Cub Awakening Challenge and earn her status as an Alpha. But because my Alpha husband was nowhere to be found, the trial officials made her wait another three whole years. I stormed over to confront him, only to find that my so-called husband was already acting as a father to another child. The second I realized he would never cut ties with Catherine, his widowed ex-girlfriend, and her wolf cub Kane May, even my own wolf spirit let out a low, questioning growl deep in my chest, as if demanding I do something to fix this mess. Fine, if that's how it's going to be. I'm an Alpha too, after all. I don't need anyone's help. I'll make sure my daughter Lia Voss crushes that widow's kid at the Cub Awakening Trial and prove my daughter deserves her spot as an Alpha, no handouts needed.

Three years ago, my fiancé carefully orchestrated a car accident to fake his own death, then fled overseas with his lover, who had committed massive financial crimes, to escape justice. I was left alone to hold together a company teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, working day and night until I'd run myself into the ground. Once the coast was clear, he made a high-profile return with his lover. Thinking I'd stayed single for three years, waiting faithfully for him, he was ecstatic, eager to win me back. I simply replied, "I never intended to marry you." To retaliate, he publicly proposed to his lover and began planning a grand wedding. He even forced me to watch their wedding on the very day of the ceremony. To his shock, I collapsed on the spot, coughing up blood. He thought I was overwhelmed by grief and called off the wedding in a panic. The truth was, I was just ill. My days were numbered.

As the sole heiress of a powerful mafia family, I conceal my identity and attend high school in obscurity, craving nothing but a peaceful, ordinary life. Yet the housekeeper's daughter flaunts my family's exclusive resources to fake a wealthy status and tyrannizes her way through school. Everyone fawns over her while belittling me. I hold back and endure all the unfairness, solely to repay the housekeeper who once saved my life, unwilling to escalate the conflict. But everything changes when forged nude photos of me spread wildly across the campus, and I even receive a teacher's disciplinary warning for alleged poor conduct. Since they refuse to show any gratitude or restraint, I have no choice but to strip off her fake disguise completely.

After three years of secretly hooking up with my brother's best friend Damian, he was finally taking me home. I was over the moon, certain that we were about to go public. Then his phone rang. A syrupy sweet voice came through the line. "Damian, I'm back." It was her. The one he'd never gotten over. Without a word, he dumped me on Route 66, ignoring all my desperate begging. He just narrowed his eyes and spoke cold as ice, "Elena. I was only taking you home because my grandfather's will says I have to be married by 22 or the company goes to someone else. We were a situationship. You crossed the line."

I was the sole child of a legendary mob kingpin, yet I fell head over heels for a penniless nobody. Hiding my formidable lineage, I stood by his side through thick and thin, leveraging my intellect and cunning to forge his empire from the ground up out of sheer nothingness. He swore to give me a fairytale wedding, only to break his vow the moment success went to his head. Later, he cast me aside to claim the hand of an heiress to a massive conglomerate. In his arrogant eyes, a woman of "no background" like me was merely fit to play the role of a secret, disposable mistress. I didn't utter a single word of complaint; instead, I embedded a top-tier encrypted failsafe deep within the company's core architecture, locking down every system tight. Without him ever suspecting a thing, every string of his entire livelihood was quietly transferred directly into my palm. And the devastating cost of betrayal was a lesson he would be learning very soon.

My twin sister fell for my Alpha husband. So she and my entire family murdered me. While he was away on border patrol, she used forbidden witchcraft to sever our mate bond—so she could replace me carry his pups instead. Even my parents backed her, hoping her union with him would strengthen their empire. He walked through the door. She rushed over and started stripping off his clothes, one by one. But she had no clue—the man standing in front of her was far worse than any monster she'd ever heard of.

My husband claimed he didn't want me to suffer the pains of childbirth, insisting we remain strictly childless. I had got pregnant eight times, and he had made me get eight abortions. The day I was discharged from the hospital after the eighth procedure, my husband couldn't hold back and made love with me all night. Afterward, looking thoroughly satisfied, he sighed, "Aria, no one fits me like you do. You can take me seven times a night—not like someone who's had kids. It's like wearing a wet sock. I lose it before we even begin." My blood ran cold in a split second. This bastard was giving himself away. He definitely had someone on the side. And that side chick had already given birth. While he was in the shower, I snooped through his phone for the very first time. Over the past three months, he had over 50 packages sent to Unit 101, Building 8 of Rosewood Apartments. I closed my eyes. I knew that address all too well. It was where my best friend lived.

As soon as my sight returned, I went online to search for ways to surprise my husband. Instead, a pinned post on his dark web account made my blood run cold. Arthur Blackwood: [What Is It Like to Sleep with a Blind, Amnesiac Mafia Heiress?] The poster's tone was arrogant and filthy. Arthur Blackwood: [Blind and docile. Even if you're in the same room with another woman, she'll just sit there, obedient as a doll, letting you do whatever you want. Dragging a once untouchable mafia heiress down into the mud and using her any way you like is addictive as hell.] I scrolled down and saw one high-definition photo after another, all secretly taken. My entire body shook with rage. The woman in those photos, wearing the Vayne family's emerald necklace and posed like an object on a lavish carpet, was me.

Every year on our wedding anniversary, my husband personally designed a diamond ring for me.   For our fifth anniversary, Sebastian Shaw made the celebration grander than ever. He did it all to please me, his deaf wife.   Everyone envied me. They said I was the luckiest woman alive and should be grateful beyond measure.   I had planned to tell him that my hearing had recovered.   But when I stepped out of the dressing room in my custom gown, I heard him flirting with his assistant.   "You shameless little minx. Last night, you were bold enough to climb naked into the bed Celeste and I shared and keep me there until midnight."   He was talking to Lydia Vale, his new assistant.   The young woman wore a perfectly composed professional expression, but her voice was soft and coy.   "It's not like she can hear us anyway. Besides, Sebastian, weren't you excited too?"   Beside them, one of his friends scoffed.   "I really don't understand you. You can have any woman you want. She is no longer the eldest daughter she used to be. Her own family cast her aside. Why are you still holding on to a deaf, washed-up wife?"   Sebastian's face darkened instantly, and his voice turned cold enough to cut.   "She became this way because of me. The title of Mrs. Shaw belongs to her and no one else. If anyone disrespects her again, do not blame me for showing no mercy."   The moment he noticed me, the coldness in his eyes vanished.   Sebastian looked at me with tenderness and signed, "Celeste, you look beautiful. At the gala in seven days, everyone will be looking at you with envy."   I smiled. "Okay."   Seven days remained until the gala, and seven days remained until the deadline of my pact with my father.   That gala would be the last time in my life that I stood by Sebastian's side.