what happens when the scapegoat leaves

Four years of marriage. One signature—his own—that set me free, though he never realized what he was signing. I was Sophia Moretti, the invisible wife of James Moretti, heir to the city’s most powerful mafia family. But when his childhood sweetheart, the dazzling and privileged Vicky, returned, I finally understood: I had always been temporary. So I played my final move. I slid the papers across his desk—divorce disguised as routine university forms. James signed without a second glance, his fountain pen scratching across the page as carelessly as he'd treated our vows, without noticing he was ending our marriage. But I walked away with more than my freedom. Beneath my coat, I carried his unborn heir—a secret that could destroy him when he finally realized what he'd lost. Now, the man who never noticed me is tearing the world apart trying to find me. From his penthouse to the underworld's gutters, he's turning over every stone. But I'm not some trembling prey waiting to be found. I rebuilt myself beyond his reach—where not even a Moretti can follow. This time, I won't be begging for his love. He'll be begging for mine.

In the previous life, Evelyn Lester found that her roommate, Felice James, had planted malware on her phone and stolen her money. In the end, Evelyn was pushed off the roof by Felice and died. After Evelyn came back to the first day of college, Felice suggested traveling abroad again. This time, Evelyn put her smartphone in the dorm and took an ancient phone instead. She couldn't wait to see what Felice would do when she couldn't pretend to be wealthy again.

Skyler Reid spends three years being the kind of husband most people only read about. He cooks, he tends the house, he keeps the light on when his wife Ruby works late, he asks for nothing in return. She is a celebrated lawyer with a demanding career and he builds his entire life around making sure she never has to worry about coming home. It works, until it doesn't. When Ruby's first love Brandon Lowe resurfaces with a divorce case that needs handling,everything shifts. She pours herself into his affairs without question, and when Brandon frames Skyler with a flimsy accusation, she doesn't pause to ask for his side. She just turns on him. Skyler looks at the woman he has quietly loved and served for three years and realizes she has never once looked back at him the same way. He stops fighting for something that was never quite his and lets go. Only then, when the warmth is gone and the light is finally off, does Ruby understand what she had in her hands and chose not to hold.

Yasmin Cole loses everything to the stepmother and stepsister who spent years quietly dismantling her life from the inside. Her own father throws her out. She survives years of displacement with one thing intact, which is the intention to come back. When she does, she is ready. The moment she sees her stepsister on the arm of her former fiance Shaun Wyatt, she doesn't flinch. She recognizes it immediately for what it is—the perfect opening. They handed her exactly the weapon she needed to take everything back.

Rachel Sheldon's world was turned upside down when she was drugged and woke up in the bed of Barrett York — the most powerful man in the city. When she discovered she was pregnant, Rachel disappeared from the spotlight, determined to raise the child in secrecy. But on the very day she gave birth, Barrett found her. Fiercely independent, Rachel was unlike any woman Barrett had ever met — and he couldn't stay away. As he launched a relentless pursuit, Rachel's hidden identities were revealed one after another, each more surprising than the last. Drawn to her strength, Barrett began to fall — and so did Rachel. Slowly, she opened her heart to the man she had once tried to escape. What had begun as an accident just might have become forever.

When Lynn died, Minna's father met a tragic end at the hands of her half-sister, who shoved him off a high-rise building in front of her own eyes. The man Minna loved most, Ethan, was the one who personally ensured her imprisonment. Enduring three years of torment behind bars, Minna was left shattered by Ethan's parting words: "Take good care of her." Determined to reclaim all that was lost, Minna emerges from her incarceration, vowing to restore what was taken away.

Ice-cold CEO Maddison Perkins adopts a gifted little boy named Arthur to safeguard her family's company. At just six years old, Arthur is not only a child prodigy with incredible strength, but also fiercely protective of his mom. Time and again, he steps in to defuse crises—and in doing so, chips away at Maddison's guarded heart with his boundless love and warmth. When Uncle Brendon makes move after move to bring them down, Maddison and Arthur team up,outsmarting him at every turn to protect what's rightfully theirs.

As the most powerful man in Rivton City, Barlow Sapir hated the most when women threw themselves at him. However, the first time he met Elvira Ann, the latter solemnly declared, "I'm not interested in you, Barlow Sapir." The second time, she swore to God, "I won't sleep with you." Then there was the third time… the fourth time… But little did Elvira know, Barlow Sapir desired nothing more than her love. The more she tried to get rid of him, the more he yearned for her. What could she do?

Xandra Quinn has only ever had her grades. So when school heartthrob Robert Miller confesses publicly, she shocks everyone by saying yes. She knows it's a trap set by her jealous rival Amelia Moore, but why refuse? Xandra stops studying, openly wasting time with Robert, while Amelia celebrates her "victory." What she doesn't know—Xandra already has a Harbard offer. On exam day, Amelia mocks her, only to find Xandra revealed as the national top scorer—with a perfect score.

The doctor said I only had three days left to live. Acute liver failure. My only hope was an experimental clinical trial. It was extremely risky, but had the faintest sliver of a chance to survive. But my husband, David, gave the last available spot... to my adopted sister, Emma, also my daughter’s godmother. Her condition was still in its early stages. He said it was the "right decision," because she “deserved to live more.” I signed the papers to forgo treatment and took the high-dose painkillers prescribed by the doctor. The cost? My organs would shut down, and I would die. When I handed over the jewelry company I’d poured my heart into, along with all my designs, to Emma, my parents praised me, saying, “Now that’s what a good big sister should do.” When I agreed to divorce David so he could marry Emma, he said, “You’ve finally learned to be understanding.” When I told my daughter to call Emma ‘Mom,’ she clapped her hands and said, “Emma is such a gentle and kind mother!” When I gave all my assets to Emma, everyone in the family thought it was only natural. No one noticed anything was wrong with me. I’m just curious. Will they still be able to smile when they find out I'm dead?

Born into wealth as a corporate puppet, Leah conceals her icy brutality beneath a facade of gentleness. To escape a toxic engagement and her controlling family, she plots a murder. When Shelly—a desperate underground fighter she once saved—crashes back into her life,drowning in gambling debts, Leah makes her a deal: become her obedient "dog." At first, Leah sees Shelly as a toy, but in this game of control and surrender, this sharpest blade becomes her only weakness. What begins as mutual exploitation spirals into an obsession that could destroy them both.

Kain Harris runs a small shop. He seems unremarkable. He is not.His abilities have quietly compounded into something the outside world, where the highest known level is thirty, has no framework to measure—wooden carvings that manifest as divine forms, comics that accelerate transcendence, a dog that devours celestial bodies, catfish soup that breeds dragons. His wife is a CEO. His admirer is a martial saint. His neighbors are the greatest cultivators in the nation, and they all know exactly what he is. The world beyond his street does not. When it eventually finds out, it will need a moment.

My father's adopted daughter was only locked in the cramped storage closet for around fifteen minutes, yet he punished me by tying me up and throwing me inside. He even sealed off the ventilation with towels. "As Wendy's older sister, if you can't take care of her, then you should also experience how scared she was," he declared coldly. He knew I was claustrophobic, but my desperate pleas for mercy, my terror, were met with nothing but heartless reprimands. "Let this be a lesson on how to be a good sister." As the last sliver of light disappeared, swallowed by the oppressive darkness, I struggled helplessly. A week passed before my father finally remembered my existence and decided it was time to end my punishment. "Let's hope this week served as a good lesson for you, Jennifer. If this happens again, you will no longer be allowed in this house." He would never know that I had already taken my last breath in that suffocating room. My body had begun to rot in the darkness.

Joe Holt, the fearsome legend of the mafia underworld in the past, has recently gotten released from prison after serving his sentence. He washes his hands of his sinful past and decides to become a law-abiding citizen so that he can spend the rest of his life with his wife, Lily Archer, in peace and quiet. He even finds himself a job as a delivery trucker in order to earn honest money.One day, Joe happens to come across an owner of a BMW, who's used to bullying others in his daily life. The owner wastes no time in jeering and humiliating Joe verbally.When Joe's old friends receive word of the incident, they hurry over in an attempt to back him up, but Joe merely waves a hand calmly and refuses their help. He intends to stick to his principles by not causing any chaos and conflicts.Joe is bent on severing all ties with the mafia underworld as well as his past. All he wants to do now is protect his family and live out his life in peace and stability.

Joe Holt, the fearsome legend of the mafia underworld in the past, has recently gotten released from prison after serving his sentence. He washes his hands of his sinful past and decides to become a law-abiding citizen so that he can spend the rest of his life with his wife, Lily Archer, in peace and quiet. He even finds himself a job as a delivery trucker in order to earn honest money.One day, Joe happens to come across an owner of a BMW, who's used to bullying others in his daily life. The owner wastes no time in jeering and humiliating Joe verbally.When Joe's old friends receive word of the incident, they hurry over in an attempt to back him up, but Joe merely waves a hand calmly and refuses their help. He intends to stick to his principles by not causing any chaos and conflicts.Joe is bent on severing all ties with the mafia underworld as well as his past. All he wants to do now is protect his family and live out his life in peace and stability.

Adrian Thorne transmigrates into the body of the First Emperor and promptly discovers that being the emperor in name means nothing when you're young and Lucian Vane is pulling every string. Adrian is a throne warmed by a puppet. Then the system activates: one hundred days of check-ins, each delivering something extraordinary. Day one: four divine guardians and a personal corps. Day two: a thousand elite soldiers. Day three: a legendary immortal strategist. Day one hundred—today—the system congratulates him on achieving the cultivation of a terrestrial immortal. Lucian has no idea what he's been sitting next to.

When heartbroken travelers Eileen and Leon cross paths amidst betrayal and rejection from their own relationships, a tipsy encounter leads to a night of unexpected passion. What starts as a drunken fling seems to be fading away once their journeys end. Howver, fate has other plans as Leon becomes Eileen's unlikely guardian angel, appearing whenever she faces a crisis. Eileen discovers she's carrying Leon's child and the two decides to give their romance a shot. But Leon's ex, Molly, reenters the picture... Will she be the wrecking ball that shatters their new romance, or the catalyst for discovering true love?

Adrian Thorne transmigrates into the body of the First Emperor and promptly discovers that being the emperor in name means nothing when you're young and Lucian Vane is pulling every string. Adrian is a throne warmed by a puppet. Then the system activates: one hundred days of check-ins, each delivering something extraordinary. Day one: four divine guardians and a personal corps. Day two: a thousand elite soldiers. Day three: a legendary immortal strategist. Day one hundred—today—the system congratulates him on achieving the cultivation of a terrestrial immortal. Lucian has no idea what he's been sitting next to.