Zhen Xiang
13 Published Stories
Zhen Xiang's Books and Stories
The Wolf's Gambit: The Heiress's Revenge
Modern It was our fifth anniversary, and I sat alone in a Michelin-starred restaurant, staring at a diamond ring that felt more like an anchor than a promise. I kept telling myself Caleb was just busy, rationalizing the sharp, spasmodic pain in my stomach as mere nerves rather than my body's final warning.
But when I went to his penthouse to surprise him, I found the double doors ajar. Through the gap, I watched my fiancé devouring Beatrice Blackwood on the sofa-the woman who had the family backing and confidence I supposedly lacked. He wasn't working; he was celebrating our anniversary by replacing me.
The fallout was a calculated humiliation. The tabloids branded me a "pathetic orphan," and my Uncle Richard didn't care about the betrayal. He slammed his hand on his desk, claiming I was having another "psychotic episode" and accusing me of paranoia. He threatened to pull the plug on my mother's life support unless I went to the Hamptons to beg Caleb for forgiveness.
My family even tried to force me onto heavy antipsychotics to keep me quiet for the sake of a corporate merger. I was being sold to a man who hated me by the very people who were supposed to protect me. I didn't understand why they wanted me broken, or why a mysterious stranger in an elevator had suddenly paid my mother's astronomical medical bills in full.
Everything changed at a dinner where my uncle tried to trade me to a predator for a real estate deal. I didn't cry; I shattered a wine bottle and held the jagged glass to the man's throat. That's when Julian Blackwood, the most feared man on Wall Street, walked in and seized the house, the debt, and me.
"I take my contracts seriously, Vanessa," he whispered, pulling me into his armored car as my family was thrown onto the street.
I had escaped my uncle's cage, but as I looked into Julian's storm-gray eyes, I realized I had just traded a common bully for a beautiful, deadly king. Married To A Monster's Shadow
Modern My husband, the world-renowned photographer Evan Briggs, told the world I was his muse. For ten years, I was the silent architect of his empire, the perfect wife who managed his life so he could create his art. He claimed he kept my beauty just for himself, a privilege no one else could see.
On our anniversary, I found his secret studio. It wasn't my beauty he was capturing. It was hers. Thousands of explicit photos of a model named Dahlia, a collection spanning a decade. The last picture was dated that very morning.
When I confronted him, he called me emotional and chose her.
But his ultimate betrayal came at his gallery opening. Dahlia had me drugged and assaulted while men took humiliating photos.
All while Evan was in the next room with her, ignoring my screams.
He didn't just betray me. He abandoned me to the wolves.
Lying in a hospital bed, I realized the man I married was a monster. And I wasn't just going to divorce him. I was going to burn his entire world to the ground. The Vow of Vengeance, The Veil of Love
Romance The air at my welcome-home party was thick with the smell of old money, but I smelled only betrayal.
After years building my empire overseas, the last thing I wanted was to play nice with the ghosts of my past.
Then I saw her, my ex-girlfriend, leaning into Andrew, my half-brother, the constant reminder of my mother's tragic death.
The smile froze on Jen's face when she saw me, a flicker of panic in her eyes, but it was too late.
I cut her off, my gaze cold enough to shatter glass, and made it clear: he was nothing, a cheap copy, and she, unworthy.
What followed was a brutal, calculated war waged in boardrooms and on national television, where I systematically dismantled Andrew's life, exposing him for the parasite he was.
But driven to desperation, he played his final hand, pushing me off a cliff into darkness, leaving me for dead, just as his mother had killed mine.
I woke up weeks later in a hospital bed, the world buzzing with the scandal, but it was a single image that consumed me: Gaby Chadwick, the reclusive heiress, a woman I barely knew, praying for me, her silent vigil a public spectacle of devotion.
Why? Why would she sacrifice her untouchable anonymity for me?
I decided then and there to make her mine, proposing a cold, strategic merger, a union of power and dynasties.
She accepted, but then, with unnerving calm, used my own words against me, creating a wall of polite distance, turning our marriage into a corporate contract.
I had won the war, yet I was lost, trapped in a loveless arrangement of my own making, desperate to break through her serene facade.
Then, hidden away in a journal, I found it: a decade of silent adoration, deep, unwavering love for me, a love that transcended any business deal.
I had been blind, a fool.
Now, the real story begins. His Masterpiece of Revenge
Billionaires The smell of freshly painted cherry-red and victory filled my garage. My venture capital firm might build empires, but this 1969 Mustang Mach 1 was my anniversary gift to myself-a reminder of where I came from.
For my wife, Nicole, I' d acquired a fortune-costing, reclusive artist' s painting, a bridge between our worlds.
But as I reached for my phone, a notification flashed: Instagram. Ryan Chavez, Nicole' s latest art foundation project, a kid with "mediocre talent." The air froze in my lungs.
There, in his studio, hung my painting, framed by his smug pose and a caption thanking Nicole for the "life-changing gift."
I called her. Her voice, smooth as silk, turned dismissive. "It' s just a painting. He needed the encouragement. It' s for the good of the foundation." She hung up, leaving me standing there, the symbol of us casually given away.
Loyalty, respect-the foundations of my life-shattered.
She said it was "just a painting." Fine. Then her favorite sculpture, my first anniversary gift to her, was "just a sculpture" too, as I donated it to a rival museum.
Her rage was immediate, venomous. But what truly sealed it was seeing her with Ryan on her arm at the gala, publicly declaring I didn't matter.
This wasn't just about a painting or a sculpture. This was war. She had underestimated me.
I knew her secrets, her family's weaknesses. And I was about to use every single one of them. His Last Regret: A Wife Undone
Romance The first word from Dr. Cole was "Leukemia," and it felt like a death sentence delivered under fluorescent lights, far from the small, coal-mining town I' d never escaped.
I had been with Liam for nine years, forever dependent on him, even as his calls grew shorter and his voice colder – I knew he was cheating, but I clung to us.
Then, during a call about our anniversary, I heard it: a soft, musical voice asking, "Liam, honey, who is that?" and the line went dead, leaving me with the cold, hard proof of his betrayal.
My world shattered. How could the man who promised he' d never leave me be so easily replaced, so carelessly abandon the life we'd built, especially now, with my own life slipping away?
That night, clutching the crumpling diagnosis, I decided: I would die first, before he saw me as a burden; I would disappear, and he' d never know what he'd lost. A Reckoning in Flames
Fantasy My life was beautiful: a loving husband, Ethan, a precious baby on the way, and the serenity of our lake house getaway.
Then, during a quiet afternoon, Ethan's ex, Olivia, found her daughter Daisy drowned in the lake, turning on me with a shaking finger, screaming, "You did this! You let her drown!"
Ethan, my husband, the man who once adored me, instantly believed her monstrous lie, his eyes cold, his family's powerful influence ensuring my pleas were dismissed as weak, condemning me without trial.
Weeks later, our newborn son, Noah, died from a preventable illness after Olivia's dubious "home remedy" was chosen over hospital care, and in my raw grief, Ethan demanded I carry a child for them-a cruel "penance" for "my crimes," threatening to destroy what little remained of me if I refused.
Imprisoned in a forgotten wing of the mansion, physically and mentally reduced to an incubator, I was haunted by the unspeakable injustice, struggling between despair and a flicker of rage as Olivia gloated, revealing the chilling truth: she herself orchestrated Daisy's "accident" to reclaim Ethan and ruined my life for her own gain.
My body became an empty shell, my mind retreated beyond their reach, but the shocking truth Olivia confessed was unknowingly witnessed, eventually setting a deadly chain of events in motion that would expose her monstrous heart and unleash a final, fiery reckoning for the Cole family's dark secrets. Twenty-Four Hours to Live Again
Romance Eleanor Vanderbilt, the scion of a powerful dynasty, found herself in a moment of gilded tradition, presented with a curated selection of aristocratic bachelors, poised to make a choice that would shape her future.
Yet, as her fingers hovered over the portrait of Ethan Hayes, the man her heart once chose, a searing flash of blinding light propelled her into a terrifying past life, revealing the unimaginable truth: this charming fiancé had callously condemned her to a brutal death.
She vividly remembered every agonizing detail: abandoned on a freezing Manhattan skyscraper rooftop, a blade against her neck, Ethan's dismissive laughter echoing as she desperately begged for help, enduring hourly cuts and slow bleed-out for twenty-four horrific hours until her life, and the innocent one newly growing within her, agonizingly slipped away.
The profound injustice of his calculated betrayal, the soul-shattering cruelty concealed beneath his polished facade, fuelled an unyielding fury that demanded retribution and a desperate understanding of why her closest confidant became her executioner.
Now, miraculously granted a second chance on the very day it all went wrong, Ellie, armed with searing memories and an iron will, defiantly rejects her predetermined tragic destiny and, instead, chooses Jackson "Jax" Knight – the family's disowned "black sheep" and the last person to offer her a flicker of hope – determined to rewrite her past and carve out a path of vengeance and true survival. You might like
Beneath His Ugly Wife's Mask: Her Revenge Was Her Brilliance
Lukas Difabio Elliana, the unfavored "ugly duckling" of her family, was humiliated by her stepsister, Paige, who everyone admired. Paige, engaged to the CEO Cole, was the perfect woman-until Cole married Elliana on the day of the wedding. Shocked, everyone wondered why he chose the "ugly" woman.
As they waited for her to be cast aside, Elliana stunned everyone by revealing her true identity: a miracle healer, financial mogul, appraisal prodigy, and AI genius.
When her mistreatment became known, Cole revealed Elliana's stunning, makeup-free photo, sending shockwaves through the media. "My wife doesn't need anyone's approval." Marrying Her Was Easy, Losing Her Was Hell
Michael Tretter "Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress.
With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap.
Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell.
On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered.
When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling." The Humble Ex-wife Is Now A Brilliant Tycoon
Flory Corkery For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted.
Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke.
Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph.
Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!"
With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off."
A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!" The Queen Returns: Pampered By Her Three Powerhouse Brothers
Kleon Samorodnitsky After five years of playing the perfect daughter, Rylie was exposed as a stand-in. Her fiancé bolted, friends scattered, and her adoptive brothers shoved her out, telling her to grovel back to her real family. Done with humiliation, she swore to claw back what was hers. Shock followed: her birth family ruled the town's wealth. Overnight, she became their precious girl. The boardroom brother canceled meetings, the genius brother ditched his lab, the musician brother postponed a tour. As those who spurned her begged forgiveness, Admiral Brad Morgan calmly declared, "She's already taken." Traded Husbands, Tangled Hearts: Can Destiny Be Changed?
Mia Caldwell In their previous lives, Gracie married Theo. Outwardly, they were the perfect academic couple, but privately, she became nothing more than a stepping stone for his ambition, and met a tragic end.
Her younger sister Ellie wed Brayden, only to be abandoned for his true love, left alone and disgraced.
This time, both sisters were reborn. Ellie rushed to marry Theo, chasing the success Gracie once had-unaware she was repeating the same heartbreak.
Gracie instead entered a contract marriage with Brayden. But when danger struck, he defended her fiercely.
Could fate finally rewrite their tragic endings? Rejected Heiress: My Heartless Family's Regret
Cassandra For seventeen years, I was the pride of the Carlisle family, the perfect daughter destined to inherit an empire. But that life ended the moment a DNA report slid across my father’s mahogany desk.
The paper proved I was a stranger. Vanessa, the girl sobbing in the corner, was the real biological daughter they had been searching for.
"You need to leave. Tonight. Before the press gets wind of this. Before the stock prices dip."
My father’s voice was as cold as flint. My mother wouldn't even look at me, staring out the window at the gardens as if I were already a ghost. Just like that, I was erased. I left behind the Birkin bags and the diamonds, throwing my Centurion Card into a crystal bowl with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot. I walked out into the cold night and climbed into a rusted Ford Taurus driven by a man I had never met—my biological father.
I went from a mansion to a fourth-floor walk-up in Queens that smelled of laundry detergent and struggle. My new siblings looked at me with a mix of fear and disgust, waiting for the "fallen princess" to break. They expected me to beg for my old life back, to crumble without the luxury I’d known since birth.
But they didn't know the truth. I had spent years training in a shark tank, honing survival skills they couldn't imagine. While Richard Carlisle froze my trust funds to starve me out, my net worth was climbing by millions on an encrypted trading app.
They thought they were throwing me to the wolves. They didn't realize they were just letting me off my leash. As the Carlisles prepared to debut Vanessa at the Manhattan Arts Gala, I was already making my move.
"Get dressed. We're going to a party." 
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