betrayal

In the fifth year of Gwyneth Payne's marriage to Asher Crowe, he tells her thrice that he wants to bring Liana Quayle along with them when they migrate. Gwyneth puts down the dishes she's just prepared and asks him why. He's frank with her. "I don't want to keep this from you anymore. Liana lives in the residential area beside ours. She's spent nine years with me, and I owe her too much. I must bring her with me when we migrate." Gwyneth doesn't cry or kick up a fuss. Instead, she books a ticket for Liana on their flight. Asher thinks she's finally seen sense. On the day they leave the country, Gwyneth watches Asher and Liana board the flight. Then, she turns and boards another flight that will take her back to her parents' home.

The year my boyfriend is dead broke, I leave him. Later, he becomes a mafia boss and uses every means at his disposal to marry me. Everyone says that I am the first love he can never forget, the wife he cares about the most. However, he then starts bringing home a different woman every night, making me a laughingstock. Still, I don't cry or make a fuss. I quietly stay in my own room, never interrupting his affairs. Elton Carter is furious. He pins me beneath him, kisses me harshly, and growls, "Aren't you jealous?" He has no idea that I'm gravely ill. He could buy half the city with violence, threats, and money. He could buy my freedom, my marriage… and each night bring a different woman home, oblivious to the truth. Little does he know, I have just seven days left to live.

Just because I forget to bring my mate's lover back—leaving her alone in the wilderness for three hours—he flies into a rage and throws me into an abandoned well in the desolate countryside. "You need to experience the torment that Belinda was put through." The well is deep and narrow, forcing me to curl up in my wolf form. I struggle to breathe. I plead for mercy and beg for forgiveness. However, all he does is tell me off icily. "Stay there and repent for your sins. You'll only understand the dignity required of a Luna once you learn your lesson from this." He orders his men to seal the well with a large boulder. I let out anguished howls and roars as I claw my way upward. However, I only fall back down over and over again. The walls of the well are covered in my claw marks. I continue like this until I can't make a sound through my parched throat. … Half a month later, my mate's heart softens when he sees the birthday gift I've prepared in advance for him. He decides to end my punishment. Unbeknownst to him, worms and snakes have already gnawed my body beyond recognition at the bottom of the well.

Seraphina once believed she was the vampire prince Alistair's one true love. Five years ago, he rescued her and declared her his soulmate. But when she was attacked by werewolves while pregnant, he sent all the healers to her stepsister Isabella, who had forged a "life bond" with him, causing her to miscarry. Over five years, he favored Isabella—stealing Seraphina's paintings, giving her the studio key, and planting flowers that Seraphina was allergic to. After the truth came out, she faked her death and escaped under the alias Phoebe Miller. She later became an art restorer, was discovered by gallery owner Julian, and rebuilt her life independently. Isabella died in prison, and Alistair, consumed by regret, became an arbiter. A year later, her Light and Shadow series succeeded, and holding Julian's hand, she finally found a peaceful life.

Victoria Hayes, the billionaire founder of Hayes Technologies, gives birth on the same day as her trusted assistant and best friend, Melissa Voss. Out of guilt for Melissa's late husband, Victoria welcomes Melissa and her younger brother Jason into her home. But on the night the babies are born, Victoria catches Melissa secretly switching their newborn daughters, vowing to let her own child grow up rich while Victoria's daughter suffers. Quietly, Victoria switches the babies back. Eighteen years later, Victoria's daughter Ava has grown into a brilliant, kind young heiress, while Melissa's biological daughter Evelyn has been abused, starved, and humiliated by the very mother who thinks she is punishing Victoria's child. At Ava's birthday gala, Victoria prepares to name Ava as the future head of Hayes Technologies. Melissa chooses that moment to reveal the “truth” and claim Ava as her daughter, hoping to steal the company through her. But Victoria has been waiting eighteen years for this trap to close. And once Melissa falls, Victoria discovers an even darker enemy: the husband sleeping beside her.

My girlfriend was a police officer. One day, I got kidnapped, and the explosives on my body were ten minutes away from detonating when the kidnappers ordered me to call her. Instead of worry, all I got was relentless scorn and a tongue-lashing. "Caleb, are you seriously doing this right now? How could you be so petty and jealous when a life is on the line?! Lucas' cat is in danger. It has been stuck on a tree for three days, and that cat is as important to him as his own life! "If I don't save them in time, you'll be the one at fault!" Over the line, I heard the voice of a young man that sounded, to my ears, anything but genuine. "Thank you Jamie, you're the best!" That man was my girlfriend's childhood friend, Lucas White. Before the bomb exploded, I sent her a final message. [I hope we never see each other again. Not in this life, and not in the next.

I had been married for eight years when I inherited a fortune worth hundreds of millions that my grandfather left to me and my mafia boss husband. However, just as the lawyer was finalizing the transfer, we discovered my marriage certificate was fake. That meant the entire inheritance could only go to me. “Ms. Rivers, according to the system, you were divorced a year ago. Your husband, Zayn Levine, is legally married to… Whitney Sanders. According to the papers, you're single. In other words, Mr. Levine has no right to claim the inheritance.” Whitney, the woman Zayn had once loved before she went abroad, the one he never forgot. I stared at the lawyer’s message, unable to accept it. All of Zayn’s affection and tenderness over the years had been nothing but a lie. I had planned to tell him on our anniversary that after eight long years of marriage, I was pregnant. It was the miracle we had both been waiting for. Yet it seemed like he had never really been looking forward to it at all. As I gently rested my hand on my belly, I told myself that even if my twins grew up without a father, they would be just fine. In this place built on nothing but lies, the only thing left for me to do was run away.

"I never meant to betray my husband. But when you’re running for your life and trapped between your two forbidden stepsons — one whose body burns like fire, the other whose darkness pulls you under — resistance becomes impossible. On horseback, on a storm-tossed boat, and in a rattling night train with Damien sitting right there… I let them touch me. I let them ruin me. And worse — I started wanting it. Needing it. Now I’m just kilometers away from safety, yet I know I’m already completely lost. Because the woman who arrives at that safe house won’t be Damien’s loyal wife anymore. She’ll be her stepsons’ filthy, willing whore."

Before her wedding, Sophia Bennett discovers that her fiancé, Noah Harris, has been secretly involved with her stepsister, Serena Bennett, who is already pregnant with his child. To her shock, Noah even demands that she accept their relationship. Heartbroken, Sophia enters into a marriage of convenience with Ethan Carter, the second son of the powerful Carter family, who has been pretending to be paralysed while secretly lying low to uncover the truth behind his past.As Sophia secretly gathers evidence of Serena's schemes against her and helps Ethan with his “recovery”, Ethan quietly protects her at every turn. As they grow closer, their relationship gradually develops into genuine love, until Ethan is forced to reveal the truth about his disability when he risks exposing himself to protect Sophia. After discovering Serena's affair, Noah finally regrets his betrayal and turns against her, while the Bennett Family falls into ruin. Serena's attempt to take revenge on Sophia ultimately fails, leading to her arrest. Noah is left to spend the rest of his life alone, while Sophia and Ethan finally find their way to each other and begin a happy life together.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, I nestled in the arms of my vampire husband, Alaric, and offered my neck to his lingering kisses. My breath caught as my hand fumbled in my pocket for the pregnancy test crystal. It glowed faintly, showing a clear positive result. I planned to reveal my pregnancy as my final surprise for the night: we were going to have a half-vampire child of our own. Alaric's confidant, Roman, grinned suggestively and asked in the Old Tongue of the Kindred: "Your Highness, and what of your childhood friend, the beautiful pureblood Elise? Does she satisfy you?" Alaric's mocking laughter rumbled against my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied in the same Old Tongue: "Like fire, wild and intensely hot. The harder you bite, the sweeter she yields." His fingertip was still tracing the bite marks on my neck, but his gaze was far away. "Just be sure to keep this quiet. I'd be ruined if my dear wife found out." The clansmen chuckled, raising their blood-filled goblets to pledge their secrecy. The warmth in my blood ran to ice. They had forgotten. Born of a noble human line that had intermarried with the Kindred for generations, I was fluent in their Old Tongue. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect hostess's smile plastered on my face, but the hand gripping my glass began to tremble. Alaric probably thought that if I found out, I would cry and demand to know why he treated me this way, just as I had before. But what he didn't know was that this time, everything was different. The marriage contract was void. I sent a message to my father: "Father, I've lost the bet. I am coming home to inherit the family estate."

Martin Byron, betrayed by his brother Max and his fiancée, was disowned and exiled to his late mother's dilapidated courtyard. There, he found a water jar linked to 1980 and Erica Lucas. Trading future intel and scarce supplies for Erica's hoard of vintage treasures, Martin built a swift fortune. As Max teamed up with Alan Donne to plot against him, Martin leveraged his foresight, preparation, and the backing from Rusk Group's Rita Rusk, to turn their schemes against them. In the end, the villains choked on their own bitter fruit.