Barclay Hsu
13 Published Stories
Barclay Hsu's Books and Stories
His Unwanted Wife Is Another Man's Treasure
Mafia The exact moment Marcus Thorne, the most violent Capo on the East Coast, chose to leave our anniversary dinner to answer his mistress's call, I didn't cry.
"Business," he rumbled, ignoring the untouched meal I had cooked.
"Don't cause a scene, Ellie," he commanded before walking out the door.
I later found out his "business" was a polo match with Izzy. She posted a photo of them laughing, her hand on his chest, wearing the shirt I bought him.
When I tried to leave, he humiliated me publicly. He kissed her on stage at a gala, just to prove he could. He told his men I was merely acting out.
"Ellie is the furniture," he laughed. "You don't throw away antique furniture just because you bought a new TV."
But the final blow came when a bomb detonated at a family gathering.
Marcus didn't look for me. He dove to cover Izzy with his body.
He actually stepped over my bleeding leg to carry her to safety, leaving me in the dust and debris.
He thought I was trapped. He thought I was dependent on his money and his name. He thought I would be waiting at home when he was done playing hero.
He was wrong.
I signed the divorce papers, destroyed my wedding ring, and boarded a one-way flight to Italy.
Three months later, when he finally tracked me down in Tuscany, he fell to his knees in the street, begging me to come back.
But I just held the hand of the man standing next to me—a man who treated me like a partner, not a prop.
"You are trespassing," I said coldly.
"Go home, Marcus." The Billionaire's Cruelest Lesson
Romance Everyone in the city said I was the luckiest woman alive. I was the diner waitress who saved the amnesiac tech billionaire, Hudson Scott. He fell in love with me, and when his memory returned, he married me against his family's wishes, telling the world I was his one true love.
But that was a lie. The man I loved vanished the day the billionaire came back. In his place was a possessive monster who saw me as a possession, and he had just found a new obsession: an artist named Ginger.
That’s when the punishments began. Tonight, because Ginger claimed I’d glared at her, he dragged me to a derelict warehouse. My sick mother was tied to a chair, surrounded by open cans of gasoline.
He flicked a lighter open, giving me ten seconds to confess to a lie. The man who once worked odd jobs to buy her medicine was now threatening to burn her alive because another woman cried.
But it was all a sick performance. Just as he tossed the lighter and flames erupted, his men dragged my mother to safety. “See what happens when you’re not a good girl?” he whispered, before leaving with Ginger.
As I carried my mother out of that hellhole, I made a call to a number I hadn't used in years.
“Cason? I need your help. I need to disappear.”
This time, his world would be the one going up in flames. Shattered Promises, New Beginnings
Romance My fiancé, Liam, and my brother, Ethan, both fell for the same woman, Chloe. One day, Liam was the man I was going to marry. The next, he looked at me like a stranger.
At our engagement party, Liam was an hour late. Then, a picture surfaced of him and Chloe eloping. My world crashed down.
To make things worse, Chloe, bandage-clad and tearful, dramatically entered, claiming Liam pushed her. Liam and Ethan, completely taken in, turned on me. "It was Ava," whispered Chloe, and Liam shoved me, causing me to fall and hit my head, bleeding on the floor. My own brother stood over them, his back to me.
Two days later, Liam and Chloe showed up, accusing me of my own assault, the man I loved defending the woman who had just lied about me. They were convinced I was the villain, while Chloe was the damsel.
I was hospitalized days later with a ruptured appendix, but when I called Ethan, he coldly dismissed me, saying I was "being dramatic," too busy bringing Chloe breakfast. The hospital informed me that my own brother had disowned me.
How could two men I loved and trusted so completely be so blind, so cruel? How could my brother abandon me, his only sister, for a woman he'd barely known?
I survived. I gathered the last of my strength and resolve. I decided then and there that I wouldn't just disappear; I would rebuild myself, piece by painful piece, into someone they wouldn't recognize, and they would live with the consequences of their betrayal forever. The Betrayed Wife's Sweet Revenge
Romance The heavy iron gate groaned open, and I stepped out, expecting freedom.
After a year inside, I longed for my fiancé, Liam, and our son, Noah.
But the drive home to our familiar house revealed a chilling transformation: the paint was wrong, my rose bushes were gone.
Then Mrs. Gable, our neighbor, delivered the first blow:
"Liam has had his hands full, you know. It was a blessing he had Sarah to help him, especially with her being pregnant and all."
Sarah. My brother' s widow. Pregnant. My heart seized.
The key didn' t fit, but the door was unlocked.
Inside, my home was alien-cold, modern, bare of our memories.
And then I saw it: a baby' s playpen, a high chair. Not ours.
Creeping to the back patio, I saw Liam, his arm around Sarah, her hand on a very pregnant belly. They looked like a perfect family. My perfect family.
Then their words:
"Are you sure she won' t cause any trouble? She' s supposed to get out this week."
"Don' t you worry about Olivia. I know her. She' s loyal to a fault. She took the fall for us once, she' s not going to make waves now. She knows her place."
Us. The word twisted in my gut.
The truth hit me: Liam hadn' t made a mistake. Sarah had falsified the architectural plans. They had conspired.
Liam had begged me to take the blame, promising a future, swearing he' d wait. I believed him. I sacrificed a year, my reputation, my career, for a monstrous lie.
The betrayal shattered my heart, but beneath the pain, a cold, hard anger ignited.
They thought I was broken, a loyal fool.
They were about to learn how wrong they were. From Betrayal To Billions: Her Return
Modern The last thing I remembered was the cold, unforgiving pavement rushing up to meet me.
A screech of tires, a flash of headlights, and then a profound, empty silence.
My life, a cascade of public humiliation and private despair, was over.
It all started at the fashion show, the one where my former best friend, Chloe, stood on the runway, wearing a dress that was a near-perfect copy of my signature design.
My own design.
Chloe' s powerful family painted me as a jealous, unstable wannabe.
My revered mentor turned his back on me.
Then Mark, my fiancé, delivered the final blow, breaking our engagement, calling me a failure.
I lost everything: my reputation, my love, my financial stability.
My death was a footnote in a story that was no longer mine.
How could I have been so naive, so blind?
How could they have moved so ruthlessly to destroy me, to steal everything I had?
The crushing loneliness, the descent into poverty and obscurity, all culminating on that dark, wet street.
Then, a sharp, disorienting pull.
I gasped, my eyes flying open.
I was sitting in the front row of the annual Laurent Gala, my hands smooth, my dress my own design.
On stage, Chloe was bowing, wearing the stolen dress.
It was the night my life had spiraled into ruin.
I was back.
I had been given a second chance.
Not this time. The Cuckold's Revelation
Romance My flight home felt endless, a week away from my pregnant wife, Emily, feeling like a year.
I pictured her glowing, her smile lighting up the house, ready to welcome me back.
But the moment I walked through the door, my world began to fracture.
The house was eerily silent, a strange smell in the air, and an overflowing trash can spoke of neglect.
Then, Emily' s weak voice called from upstairs, her face pale and clammy, clutching her stomach in pain.
At the hospital, a doctor' s cryptic words about "strenuous activity" and needing to be "gentle" left me bewildered, a knot of unease tightening in my chest.
I brushed it off, attributing it to stress, clinging to the flimsy explanation when I found a strange bruise on her collarbone-one she vaguely claimed was from clumsiness.
But the flimsy facade shattered when I found cigarette ash in our master bathroom sink.
I don't smoke, and Emily despises it, making her flimsy explanation about her stepfather stopping by ring hollow.
My mother-in-law later confirmed my stepfather-in-law quit smoking years ago, sealing the growing dread in my stomach.
Then, my own mother mentioned a new white sedan Emily was seen getting out of, driven by a man-a car I certainly hadn't bought.
The pieces clicked into a terrifying mosaic: the doctor' s warning, the bruise, the ash, the unknown man, the mysterious car.
But nothing prepared me for the final blow at the doctor' s follow-up: "The fetus is measuring closer to twelve weeks, Mr. Davis."
Twelve weeks.
A full month older than it should be, a month when I was working fourteen-hour days, thousands of miles away.
My world imploded.
The doctor wasn't accusing me; he was warning me about her affair.
The baby wasn't mine.
My wife had cheated, and the life I thought we had built was a cruel, elaborate lie.
The man who was supposed to be a father was now the biggest fool.
I was a cuckold.
And I was going to find out everything. A Genius's Desperate Play
Young Adult My MIT scholarship was locked, courtesy of a national coding competition. My future was set.
But then I overheard a conversation in the high school computer lab, one that shattered my quiet certainty.
Jenny, my childhood best friend, and her powerful "Syndicate" gang-the police chief's kid, the judge's daughter-were planning to cheat on the upcoming AP exams, using stolen data from Jenny's cousin. They found me, and everything changed.
They threatened my father' s life-saving transplant, my mother' s safety, everything I held dear. With their parents controlling this town, I had no one to turn to.
They forced me to decrypt the stolen files, to create the perfect answer keys, then Jenny deliberately smeared my fingerprints all over the USB drive. "Insurance," she called it. A perfect frame.
So, I did the only thing I could. I walked into the SAT, held up that incriminating drive, and publicly confessed to a crime I didn' t commit, a crime so big it had to be federal.
I watched my MIT dream vanish. I saw the rage in Agent Morris' s eyes, the pity in my guidance counselor's, and the raw despair on my mother' s face as I admitted guilt.
Why would I sacrifice everything-my future, my reputation, my family' s hope-for a ludicrous hack I didn't even do? Why would I burn down my own life and confess to a story so absurd, it made me sound insane?
Because I wasn't just confessing. I was setting a trap. And they were about to walk right into it. The Sergeant Major's Surprise Bride
Romance My father' s eyes always gleamed when he spoke of the family pact.
Whichever daughter got the higher SAT scores and into a prestigious university would marry Mark Johnson, the town' s golden boy.
The loser would marry David Wilson, a rumored delinquent from the poorer side of town. This wasn't just a family discussion; this was a replay.
In my first life, I was the smart one. I got the top scores, the prestigious university acceptance. I married Mark, lived in a beautiful house. But "golden boy" Mark turned into a monster.
After my sister Jessica, forced to marry David, died of an overdose, Mark blamed me. He became cruel, then violent.
When I was pregnant with his child, he pushed me from our balcony.
"If you hadn't rigged the scores, Jessica would be alive!" he' d screamed, his face twisted. Then darkness.
I remember the fall, the pain, the utter betrayal. My perfect life had been a terrifying lie. Killed by the man I married, carrying his child. How could a dream turn into such a brutal nightmare?
But then I was back. Living it all again. This time, I remembered everything. This time, I would not repeat the past. This time, I would not marry Mark Johnson. Even if it meant marrying the outcast, David Wilson. A Mother's Sacrifice, A Billionaire's Game
Romance For three years, I, Sarah Miller, poured my heart into my relationship with Ethan Hayes, believing we were a team facing his mounting debts and recent job loss from a struggling tech startup.
My loving mother, Mary, despite her own battle with severe emphysema, tirelessly worked extra shifts and sacrificed her precious few savings to help us.
In a final, heartbreaking act of selfless devotion, Mary even cashed out her life insurance policy, giving every last penny-$60,000-to Ethan to settle his financial woes, just days before she tragically succumbed to her illness.
Her dying wish was for me to use that money to help Ethan, to ensure his future, to be happy.
But at my administrative job, a subsidiary of a company called Innovate Solutions, a conversation overheard from a conference room plunged my world into a nightmare: Ethan was a "tech scion," talking about the "Hayes fortune" and a "test" of my loyalty.
He wasn't broke; he was a multi-billionaire CEO, and his fabricated poverty was a cruel, elaborate psychological experiment.
My mother's agonizing death, her ultimate sacrifice, had been nothing more than a pawn in his sick game.
Every act of kindness, every sacrifice we made for him, was a lie.
How could the man I loved, the man my mother gave her very life for, be such a manipulative monster?
Overwhelmed by grief and a betrayal so profound it choked me, I refused his fake explanations and lavish offers.
I walked out of his opulent office, resigned from my job, and cut every tie, determined to find a future free from his monstrous deceit. His Faked Death, Her Real Grief
Romance I woke up, reborn into my transactional marriage with Amelia, flooded with agonizing memories of my past life – how I, Ethan Miller, shamefully used her, flaunted an affair, and never saw her fierce, hidden love until my dying breath.
This time, I vowed to right every wrong, to love her as she truly deserved.
But my chance at atonement shattered when Amelia, my chillingly cold wife, threatened my parents' retirement savings.
She forced my mother, Sarah, to undergo a dangerous bone marrow transplant for Julian Vance, her beloved artist, leaving me locked away, utterly helpless.
After Julian's surgery, Amelia's calculated cruelty escalated into a nightmare.
She flaunted Julian, mocked my every attempt at change, deliberately poisoned me, and then subjected me to brutal "re-education" – electroshock, scalding my hand with boiling water.
When Julian framed me for her grandfather's injury, Amelia' s chilling rage turned into an unimaginable ordeal, culminating in her threatening my innocent parents' lives, dangling them over a dangerous precipice.
How could this be the same woman who died fighting for me?
The Amelia I' d come back to cherish, whose love I desperately wanted to earn, had become a terrifying stranger, a monstrous tormentor. Was she reborn too, driven by past pain, or had she simply become pure evil?
As the horrifying truth of her unadulterated hatred dawned on me, and my parents' lives hung in the balance, my vow of atonement dissolved.
There was only one way out, one final act of self-preservation: I had to fake my own death, vanish, and ensure Amelia believed I was gone forever. The Heiress They Left to Drown
Modern My life was a perfectly curated display: a philanthropic heiress, a devoted husband, and annual galas that outwardly celebrated our unwavering love.
But beneath the glittering facade, I stumbled upon a chilling truth: my charming husband Julian and my beautiful sister Liv were not just having a secret affair, but meticulously plotting to strip me of my family's fortune, revealing our entire marriage was a calculated lie, designed solely to gain control of my inherited shares.
Julian had always prioritized Liv, abandoning me during my health crisis or fleeing to her side whenever she summoned him, yet nothing prepared me for the night my sister Liv maliciously shoved me into our estate' s ornamental pond.
As I struggled to breathe, watching my heavy gown pull me under the shockingly cold water, I saw my husband, my father, and even my college sweetheart all swim past me without a glance, their sole focus on rescuing Liv, who theatrically thrashed and feigned distress in the shallow end.
I was left to sink, utterly and completely abandoned.
My entire life, it seemed, I' d been the overlooked second choice: my parents showered Liv with affection, my first love chose her vivacity over my quiet nature, and now my husband, the man who had promised unwavering devotion, had merely used me as a pawn for her ambition.
How could every single person I ever trusted consistently choose her over me, again and again?
As the dark water enveloped me, a strange, profound peace solidified my resolve: the suffocating, theatrical performance of my past life was finally over.
I would burn down every painful lie, completely erase Ava Chen, and painstakingly sculpt a new identity, a new life, a true sanctuary where I was the main character, never just an afterthought in someone else's story. The Wedding Day Abandonment
Romance My wedding was set to be the picture of perfection.
I stood at the altar, my best man beside me, surrounded by white roses and loved ones, our song just minutes from playing.
Then, Chloe's maid of honor rushed towards me, face ashen, uttering words that shattered my world: "Ethan, she’s not coming."
Chloe had abandoned our wedding, our future, for Damien—her perpetually 'struggling' ex who always needed 'saving.'
My disbelief turned to cold dread when I found them: Damien lounging comfortably, beer in hand, while Chloe justified prioritizing his 'panic attack' over our vows.
The humiliation intensified when I later discovered she’d secretly drained twenty thousand dollars from our joint savings, the down payment for our future home, all for him.
Five years of my life, my steadfast loyalty, my love—reduced to a manipulative game.
The sheer audacity of her betrayal, the calculated deceit, left me reeling, questioning every moment we shared.
How could the woman I loved so completely throw it all away for a pathetic, freeloading ex-boyfriend?
But from the ashes of my broken heart, a cold resolve formed: I would completely sever ties and reclaim my life, unknowingly paving the way for a shocking confrontation with Damien and a chance encounter that promised to reset everything. Awakening: Sculpting My Destiny
Romance Upon awakening, I realized that the movie star boyfriend in front of me, who was begging me not to break up, would eventually lead to my tragic death on the streets for the sake of the innocent female lead. So, after he was put on ice, I decisively accepted the pursuit of the CEO. Within a year, the CEO transformed me from an unknown nobody into a popular movie queen. At the awards ceremony, I was surprised to see Pei Ze, who had made a comeback, as the award presenter. When a reporter asked him, "Do you have any encouraging words for the actress Jiang?" Pei Ze sneered, "Work harder on President Lu's bed," or "Just crawl back to my bed." You might like
Rejected by the Son, I Chose the Don
Rabbit On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up.
As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress.
The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me.
The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one.
With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered.
I chose the one man they never expected.
I chose his father, the Don himself.
My Husband's Brother Owns My Secret
Rabbit My marriage to Joshua Caldwell was a prison sentence. I was a Hartman trophy, sold to the powerful family who had destroyed mine.
Then I discovered he was cheating. His mistress was pregnant with the child he denied me, and he was stealing my secret song lyrics to build her career. When I confronted him, he called me a spineless liability and threatened to destroy what was left of my family.
To make matters worse, a one-night stand with a stranger turned out to be with my husband's brother, Anthony Caldwell-the Don of the city. He knew all of Joshua's secrets and used them to trap me in a twisted game, seeing me as nothing more than an asset.
They both thought I was a broken doll they could control.
I wrote a song for his mistress, a beautiful execution with a single, impossible note I knew would destroy her voice.
She sang it, and now her career is over.
Now the Don has summoned me to Chicago, not knowing the woman he thinks is his asset is the one who just burned his brother's world to the ground. Betrayed, I Married the Feared Cripple
Hu Minxue Three days after my fiancé publicly dumped me for my stepsister, the Supreme Don issued a command that silenced the entire estate.
I wasn't being cast aside. I was being sold to Damien Russo.
The "Broken Don." A crippled, scarred monster rumored to have murdered his last two wives.
My adoptive mother, Elena, didn't cry for me. She smirked.
To her, I was finally being disposed of.
She was so confident I was walking to my death that she decided to loot my corpse before I even left.
She forged documents to steal my entire inheritance—my biological mother’s trust fund—to pay for my stepsister’s lavish wedding to my ex.
"She won't need money where she's going," my stepsister laughed, wearing a dress bought with my stolen funds.
They thought they were sending a lamb to the slaughter.
They thought I was too weak, too stupid, and too afraid of the monster to fight back.
But they made a fatal mistake.
With my aunt’s help, I didn't just find the proof of their embezzlement; I found a weapon.
I’m not running from the monster. I’m going to marry him.
And when I hand him the evidence that the Herrera family stole from his bride, he won't be my executioner.
He will be my vengeance. Reborn, I Ruined Their Perfect Life
Priority I spent five years laundering my family's wealth and buying military-grade weapons to crown my husband, Alistair, the Don of the Chicago Mafia.
But the night before his coronation, he drove an Italian stiletto into my stomach.
He sneered that a Don needed a true Mafia Queen, and that was always meant to be his "fragile" friend, Kylie.
As I bled out on the Persian rug, he revealed the sickening truth.
The night I was found in a rival Irish boss's bed two years ago wasn't a setup by our enemies. Alistair had ordered his own mother and sister to drug and frame me.
He just needed me terrified enough to sign over my merchant trust fund to prove my loyalty.
My entire marriage, my sacrifices, and my stolen wealth were just stepping stones for him and his mistress.
I had bled for him and won him the city, only to be slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb so he could hand my empire to another woman.
Before the flames I started consumed us both, I swore I'd drag his entire family to hell.
Opening my eyes again, the suffocating smoke was gone, replaced by the scent of lavender and the bitter taste of chloral hydrate.
I was back on the exact night of the frame-up two years ago.
Outside the door, my sister-in-law was whispering, waiting for the Irish boss to arrive so they could ruin me.
This time, I was going to make sure she was the one in that bed. The Enforcer's Jilted Princess
Bone Possolo Tomorrow was my wedding day to Jason Brennan, the heir to a powerful Mafia family.
My family, the Falcones, had even taken in an orphaned girl, Elena, treating her like my own sister.
But in my nightmare of a past life, I choked on my own blood, poisoned by the arsenic Elena slipped into my food every day.
As I lay agonizingly close to death, Jason stood over me with a cold laugh, holding Elena in his arms.
"We just needed the Falcone wealth, Bella. And the docks."
Then came the gunfire. I was forced to watch them slaughter my father and my brother, tearing my family out by the roots.
After my death, Elena even spread vicious rumors that I was a barren spinster, twisting their foul betrayal into a tragic tale of noble sacrifice to completely destroy my legacy.
The metallic tang of my own blood was so real I could still taste the ash.
I didn't understand why the girl my family sheltered for eight years would repay our charity with such venom.
And I understood even less how the man who swore to love me could orchestrate my brutal murder without a shred of hesitation.
Bolting upright in bed, drenched in cold sweat, I realized I had returned to the night before my wedding.
This time, I wouldn't just cancel the engagement. I would hand their treason directly to the Mafia's most terrifying Enforcer, and watch them burn. The Ugly Substitute Bride of the Mafia King
Finn Mercer My adoptive family, the Castillos, treated their biological children like royalty, but used me as a disposable pawn.
To secure a mafia alliance, they forced me to take my beautiful sister's place and marry Don Damien Moretti, a man rumored to be a ruthless, bloodthirsty monster.
They thought they were sending me to my execution. At our engagement banquet, my mother and sister deliberately gifted me a cheap, counterfeit gown to humiliate me in front of New York's elite.
When I publicly exposed their lie, my father demanded I apologize. My mother even raised her hand to slap me in front of everyone.
"You are a vicious curse! You ruin everything!"
They eagerly waited for the Don to execute me on the spot for embarrassing them.
I had spent years secretly saving their company from bankruptcy and supplying the underground experimental drugs that kept my brother's mafia career alive.
Yet, they threw me to the wolves without a second thought, disgusted by my very existence.
But they didn't know that just an hour before the banquet, I had saved a bleeding, masked stranger in a dark alley-who turned out to be Damien Moretti himself. The Dark Don's Captive Mafia Queen
Wo Ruo I was kidnapped by the most dangerous mafia boss in Chicago, and the whole city wept for my heartbroken fiancé.
Julian Hayes, the righteous Assistant District Attorney, played the tragic hero perfectly in the press.
But the truth was, he orchestrated my kidnapping himself.
For years, he manipulated me into draining my mother's untouchable mafia fortune to fund a rival mobster. Once he got the money, he threw me to Damien Moretti, the ruthless Dark Don, to be ruined.
Julian did it all so he could cleanly break our engagement and marry my illegitimate half-sister, Mona, taking my birthright along the way.
For a month, high society pitied the defiled girl locked in a monster's gilded cage, while my father eagerly prepared to hand Mona my legacy.
They all thought I was weeping in the dark, waiting to be killed by a cold-blooded savage.
They didn't realize the monster they threw me to was exactly the weapon I needed.
When Mona sneaked into my gilded cage to gloat and demand I sign away my inheritance, I didn't cry.
Instead, I grabbed her silver letter opener, ruthlessly sliced my own arm open, and let out a terrified scream.
Damien descended like a god of death, violently hurling Mona against a stone fountain just for spilling my blood.
I looked at the Don, my arm dripping crimson, and made a devil's bargain.
"Let me go back to my father's house to wage my Vendetta. When I'm done, I will be your wife."
The beast smiled and agreed. Tomorrow, my betrayers will learn what happens when you throw a princess to a monster, and she comes back a queen. Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles
Dorine Koestler I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved.
He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again.
"Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion.
That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports.
For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian.
In return, he treated me like furniture.
He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste.
I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home.
So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco.
I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage.
But I underestimated Dante.
When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat.
He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away. 
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