Zhao Da
8 Published Stories
Zhao Da's Books and Stories
His Starlight, Her Fiery Reckoning
Romance I was the secret lover of my CEO, Kristofer Gordon. He called me his "Starlight," and I, a brilliant but naive software engineer, believed him.
Then he publicly chose his fragile childhood friend, Elenor, revealing I was nothing more than a disposable secret.
The cruelty didn't stop there. He bought my late mother's necklace for Elenor, who taunted me by putting it on a stray dog. When I snapped and attacked her, Kristofer had me arrested and beaten in jail.
Lying in a hospital bed, I learned the final truth from a gloating Elenor: Kristofer had secretly filmed every intimate moment we ever shared, holding the tapes as blackmail.
He wanted to break me. He wanted me to suffer.
But the woman he thought he destroyed died that day. I walked out, set his mansion on fire, and disappeared.
This time, I would be the one in control. His Unwanted Fiancé Is A Genius Heiress
Billionaires Karmen lived suffocating under a tight chest binder and a grotesque silicone scar, forced to disguise herself as her degenerate twin brother, Kem. Her only job was to maintain a fake corporate engagement with the ruthless billionaire Earl Calderon.
But her abusive father suddenly escalated his demands. He ordered her to steal Earl's revolutionary AI patents, threatening to cut off her mother's life-saving medical trust and abandon the real Kem in a locked Swiss psych ward if she failed.
The task was a death sentence. Earl absolutely despised "Kem." He treated her like a repulsive parasite, constantly threatening to break her neck. When he accidentally caught her without her wig, he mistook her for a deranged cross-dresser, forcing her to glue the dirty fake scar back onto her raw, inflamed face in sheer disgust. At home, her father hurled glass ashtrays at her, violently yanking her collar.
"Do whatever you have to do in that bedroom, Kem. I don't care how disgusting it is. Just get the signature."
Trapped between a fiancé who loathed her very existence and a father ready to sacrifice their family for greed, Karmen endured the agonizing physical pain of her disguise. She was exhausted, terrified, and running out of time as her brother's life hung by a thread.
But they all underestimated her. When the Calderon matriarch forced Earl to link his ultra-secure private phone with "Kem" to fake their romance, she unwittingly handed over the master key. Karmen wasn't just a helpless victim; she was the elite hacker Nyx, and she was going to tear their empire apart from the inside. He Chose The Mistress, I Took Everything
Mafia On the night of our fifth anniversary, I wasn't drinking champagne. I was standing in the shadows of my husband's study, clutching an encrypted drive I found taped behind our wedding photo.
It contained the blueprints to a life Dante was building with another woman—Sofia Ricci, the daughter of our sworn enemy.
He wasn't just cheating on me. He was using the Port Redevelopment project I had spent two years designing to launder the money he needed to run away with her.
When I confronted him, Dante didn't beg for forgiveness. He looked at me with the cold indifference of a Capo and told me to fix my face for dinner.
The humiliation didn't stop there.
He forced me to share a car with his mistress while my ankle was swollen and throbbing from a fall. He fussed over Sofia’s "delicate" motion sickness while ignoring my pain completely.
"Elena is sturdy," he dismissed.
Sturdy. Like a mule. Like a table he owned.
He even stripped me of my rank, handing my multi-million dollar operation to Sofia simply because she had a "vision" for glass walls.
He thought I was just a compliant wife, a placeholder to keep his books clean while he played house with his true love.
He forgot that while he was the muscle, I was the architect.
So, at the Family Gala, wearing a backless revenge dress, I didn't just ask for a separation.
I threw a glass of champagne in his face and announced to the entire underworld that the accounts were empty.
I didn't just leave him. I took the encryption keys, the money, and his entire future with me. The Heiress You Threw Away
Romance "We' re done, Ava." Ethan' s words hit me like a physical blow, shattering the future we' d planned. He stood in the penthouse doorway, a stranger, offering me a bizarre payoff: the absurdly luxurious apartment, a sports car, and ten million dollars.
A "thank you for the past four years," he mumbled, avoiding my eyes, before dropping the bombshell: he was getting married, an arranged family alliance that had "nothing to do with me."
Just last night, he' d whispered my name with desperate passion in my small, cheap apartment, making love to me in what I thought was a new beginning. But this morning, he was gone, replaced by a lawyer, delivering "gifts" from "Mr. Hayes." My four years of love, reduced to a transaction.
He thought money could fix this, buy my silence. The irony was crushing. He called me a poor, smart girl, working my way through college on scholarships, having no clue his ten million was pocket change. He didn't know I was Ava Riley, the sole heir to Riley Tech.
Why would the Ethan I knew, the man who despised the arrogance of the rich, agree to a forced marriage? Something was terribly wrong. I stared at the keys in my hand, then at my phone. The heartbroken girl was gone.
"Noah," I said, my voice cold and steady. "I need you to find someone for me. Ethan Hayes. I want to know everything. Especially who he' s engaged to." Betrayed Bride, Vengeful Heart
Billionaires My wedding day. It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, standing side-by-side with my best friend, Sophia, marrying into the powerful Beaumont family.
But then, a scream cut through the music. Isabella Stone, a family friend, pointed a trembling finger at our fathers, accusing them of unspeakable acts.
Just minutes into our new lives, Liam and Ethan Beaumont, our new husbands, turned to monsters. They let their security beat our fathers mercilessly on the cold stone patio, ignoring our pleas, their faces devoid of the love we thought we shared. The sounds of fists hitting flesh, their grunts of pain – it was agonizing.
Then Isabella whispered to us, her voice filled with chilling glee, that our fathers were still alive when they were left to bleed out. Liam and Ethan had actively prevented the ambulance from reaching them, sealing their gruesome fate. My world shattered. My kind, gentle father, dead. All because of a monstrous lie.
In the sterile hospital waiting room, as Sophia and I grappled with the unspeakable truth that our fathers were truly gone, we overheard Liam and Ethan. Their every word dismissed our pain, their only concern being for Isabella, the architect of our devastation. It was then I knew: the love I thought was real was a delusion.
Grief turned to icy rage. A catering assistant, a terrified teenager, offered us a video, undeniable proof of Isabella' s calculated performance. The truth was finally within our grasp. It was time to fight back. Discarded After Thirty Years: His "True Love" Was A Lie
Billionaires I spent three decades by Marcus Thorne's side, his loyal companion, the quiet force behind his empire. My life was a gilded cage, filled with whispered promises and the subtle comfort of being cherished.
Then, at the annual gala, he shattered it all. On stage, he introduced "Isabelle Vance" as his "true love," casting me aside like forgotten debris. He ripped the silk gown he'd designed for me, a brutal symbol of his sudden, chilling contempt.
My fall was instant and brutal. From Thorne Tower's mistress, I became a servant, enduring Isabelle's sadistic whims and Marcus's cold indifference. They subjected me to "mental recalibration," a systematic torture designed to erase my very memories of affection, pushing me into the abyss of Thorne City's dreaded Rehabilitation Center and ultimately, Section Zero.
How could a man I gave 30 years of my life to so readily condemn me to hell? Was every memory a lie? The injustice burned, fueling a tiny, desperate flame within me even as they tried to break my spirit.
Just when all hope seemed lost, a defiant prisoner named Elias offered an unexpected escape. Now, as the truth about Marcus's manipulative "true love" finally shatters his world, he desperately seeks my forgiveness. But I am no longer the woman he discarded; my fight for freedom has truly begun, and this time, it's on my terms. The Blood Bank Bride
Romance For seven long years, I, Ava Chen, willingly served as a human blood bank for Chloe Vance, the sickly heiress beloved by Ethan Cole, the man I secretly adored.
My architectural dreams at Columbia were constantly sidelined, all for the unrequited hope that Ethan might one day see me.
When Chloe desperately needed a life-threatening bone marrow transplant, I demanded Ethan marry me to agree, but during my near-death flatline, his callous words echoed: "If Ava doesn't make it, so be it."
I jolted awake, not truly dead, yet Ethan's chilling indifference had irrevocably shattered my foolish, wasted devotion.
Later, I was brutally beaten by Chloe and her clique, left for dead, and even then, Ethan ordered my critically injured body to be 'drained' for Chloe's blood.
How could I have been so hopelessly deluded, so utterly blind to the callous man I loved, or the manipulative viper he protected?
The stinging reality of his cruel pragmatism, repeated over years, finally pierced through my heartbreak, leaving only incandescent rage.
In that moment of ultimate despair, a cold, unyielding resolve transformed me: no more sacrificing myself for them.
I would reclaim my life, starting with a daring, unexpected act that would ensure Ethan truly received what he deserved, marking my definitive escape from their toxic grasp and a new dawn for myself. You might like
While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her
Katie Oettgen As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole.
I begged him for help, my vision blurring.
But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background.
"Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again."
He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm.
I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube.
Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry.
Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled.
"You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up."
He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research.
I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym.
They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive.
They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity.
I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding.
I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it.
Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house.
The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born. Too Late, Mr. CEO: Watch Me Shine
Nieves Gómez Kayla stood outside the CEO suite, holding a custom suit for her fiancé, Brennon. They had spent seven years building a tech company from a freezing garage into a billion-dollar empire.
But through the cracked door, she heard the breathy laugh of Evelin, the newly hired director. Then came Brennon's low, careless voice.
"The wedding's a PR milestone for the IPO, nothing more."
Kayla's blood turned to ice.
"She's comfortable. Makes sense on paper," Brennon continued. "But you, Evelin. You understand ambition."
The betrayal hit her like a physical blow. She had written the core code that made him a billionaire. She had stayed up until 4 AM debugging while he slept on a futon. Now, he was mocking their relationship to his mistress and handing over her life's work to a woman who couldn't even read a data log.
Seven years of loyalty, reduced to a PR stunt. She didn't cry. Instead, a cold, violent clarity washed over her. Why should she let him keep the crown she forged?
Without a word, she pulled the three-carat diamond off her finger and dropped it into her bag. She walked out of the building, drafted her resignation, and accepted a VP position at his biggest Wall Street rival. It was time to show Brennon what happened when the real genius behind his empire decided to tear it down. Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father
Madel Cerda I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector.
That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world.
The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor.
The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist.
Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch-a titan of industry and my best friend's father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared.
"Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb.
Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen.
"Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back."
I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe. One Night With My Billionaire Boss
Nathaniel Stone I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn.
Beside me lay Ezra Gardner-my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers.
He didn't offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement.
"Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins."
He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend's apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I'd spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes.
I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe.
"Showtime, Mrs. Gardner."
Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend's face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down. His Twisted Game, My Dangerous Love
Elroy Notman Vesper's marriage to Julian Sterling was a gilded cage. One morning, she woke naked beside Damon Sterling, Julian's terrifying brother, then found a text: Julian's mistress was pregnant. Her world shattered, but the real nightmare had just begun.
Julian's abuse escalated, gaslighting Vesper, funding his secret life. Damon, a germaphobic billionaire, became her unsettling anchor amidst his chaos.
As "Iris," Vesper exposed Julian's mistress, Serena Sharp, sparking brutal war: poisoned drinks, a broken leg, and the horrifying truth-Julian murdered her parents, trapping Vesper in marriage.
The man she married was a killer. Broken and betrayed, Vesper was caught between monstrous brothers, burning with injustice.
Refusing victimhood, Vesper reclaimed her identity. Fueled by vengeance, she allied with Damon, who vowed to burn his empire for her. Julian faced justice, but matriarch Eleanor's counterattack forced Vesper's choice as a hitman aimed for her. He Thought I Was A Doormat, Until I Ruined Him
SHANA GRAY The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her.
Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead.
A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living.
Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body.
Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back. The Betrayed Heiress And Her Genius Comeback
I. HAWKINS I skipped my final lab review in Geneva and endured a fourteen-hour flight to surprise my husband for our fourth wedding anniversary.
Instead, looking through the window of our beachfront estate, I saw him playing the perfect, loving father to a "tragic widow's" daughter, kissing the widow with practiced, casual intimacy.
Fleeing in pure panic, I got into a horrific car crash.
Waking up in the VIP hospital room, I kept my eyes shut and heard my husband talking to his best friend right beside my bed.
"She's just a party girl who knows how to swipe a black card. I only play the part because I need her father's proxy vote for the IPO."
"Every time I have to touch her in bed, it feels like a corporate obligation. It makes me sick."
Later, even my own father demanded I step down from my company role and publicly welcome the mistress, just to protect the family's investment in the upcoming ten-billion-dollar IPO.
Four years of marriage and quiet humiliations, all reduced to a calculated lie. They all thought I was just a brainless, hysterical socialite who could be easily manipulated and discarded.
They didn't know that the core anti-aging algorithm his entire empire relied on was secretly built by me.
I calmly pulled out my phone and texted my divorce lawyer.
"I want him bankrupt. On the day his company rings the bell, I am going to burn his entire life to the ground." Married to the CEO by Morning
Hydro Therapy After my boyfriend of four years publicly humiliated me at a charity gala, calling me a "charity case," I drowned my sorrows at a dive bar and had a one-night stand with a stranger.
I woke up the next morning in a luxury hotel suite to find out the stranger was Christian Porter, the most ruthless billionaire on Wall Street.
Worse, paparazzi had photographed us leaving the bar. He coldly informed me that the photos would create a scandal that could tank his company's upcoming IPO, costing him hundreds of millions. As if my world wasn't collapsing fast enough, I got a call that my younger brother had been arrested for assaulting my ex in my defense.
Christian didn't want my apology; he wanted a solution. He slammed a prenuptial agreement on the table in front of me.
He gave me an ultimatum: sign a two-year marriage contract to turn the scandal into a corporate fairy tale, or he would ruin me. Trapped, I agreed. But when my furious brother confronted him at the police station, Christian looked him dead in the eye and said something that left me breathless.
"I didn't marry her to solve a problem," he said, his voice echoing in the small room. "I married her because I've been in love with her for ten years." Bound By The CEO's Cruel Contract
Sibeal Sallese I was the orphaned "parasite" of the Tyler family, taken in only to be abused for fifteen years after my parents died in a tragic car crash.
To finally escape their control, I sold my first time to my ruthless billionaire boss, Ellsworth Mosley, for one million dollars.
I thought it was a clean transaction.
But the next morning, covered in severe bruises he left on me, I was handed a brutal contract with a fifty-million-dollar penalty.
He didn't just buy my silence; he bought me.
My nightmare only worsened when my adoptive family found out about my connection to the billionaire.
Instead of disgust, they invited me to a hypocritical family dinner.
"Talk to Mosley, convince him to invest in our failing business," my adoptive father demanded shamelessly.
His son, who had tormented me for years, even grabbed my hand.
"Do this, and we can be officially engaged. You'll finally be a real Tyler."
They wanted me to whore myself out to save the family that had treated me like a stray dog.
I shattered my wine glass, cursed them to go bankrupt, and walked out into the rain.
As I reached the door, my phone vibrated with a terrifying summons from Ellsworth.
But it was the panicked whisper behind me that froze my blood.
"She knows about the brakes on her parents' car. If anyone finds out what we did, we'll go to prison."
They murdered my parents.
I gripped my phone, accepting the devil's call.
Since I was already bound to a monster, I would use his power to drag them all to hell.