The Architect Who Rose Anew

The Architect Who Rose Anew

Qing Shui

5.0
Comment(s)
6.1K
View
22
Chapters

A magazine cover celebrated me as "The Architect Who Built an Empire." It was supposed to be a triumph for me and my husband, Axel. Instead, it was the beginning of our end. His adoration turned to ice overnight. He demanded I hand over my life's work-my museum project-to Bryn, a young intern he had suddenly taken under his wing. He stole my project, publicly shamed me, and threatened to destroy my career. He sided with her lies, even as I lay bleeding on the floor of a gala while he chose to save her from a falling chandelier. The final blow came when I miscarried our child. He dragged me from my hospital bed, accused me of faking it for sympathy, and abandoned me in a cold, derelict warehouse. This was the man who once swore he'd always champion my dreams. He had become a monster, and I was left with nothing but the ashes of the life we built. But as I fled the city with nothing but a single bag, a new resolve hardened within me. They thought they had broken me. They had no idea what they had just unleashed.

Chapter 1

A magazine cover celebrated me as "The Architect Who Built an Empire." It was supposed to be a triumph for me and my husband, Axel. Instead, it was the beginning of our end.

His adoration turned to ice overnight. He demanded I hand over my life's work-my museum project-to Bryn, a young intern he had suddenly taken under his wing.

He stole my project, publicly shamed me, and threatened to destroy my career. He sided with her lies, even as I lay bleeding on the floor of a gala while he chose to save her from a falling chandelier.

The final blow came when I miscarried our child. He dragged me from my hospital bed, accused me of faking it for sympathy, and abandoned me in a cold, derelict warehouse.

This was the man who once swore he'd always champion my dreams. He had become a monster, and I was left with nothing but the ashes of the life we built.

But as I fled the city with nothing but a single bag, a new resolve hardened within me. They thought they had broken me. They had no idea what they had just unleashed.

Chapter 1

Elouise Herring POV:

The magazine cover hit me like a slap across the face, even though my face was the one smiling back, caught mid-laugh, my arm linked through Axel' s.

The headline screamed, "Elouise Herring: The Architect Who Built an Empire."

Underneath, a smaller, almost an afterthought, read, "And the Man Who Stands Beside Her."

It was supposed to be a triumph.

For us. For our shared vision. It turned out to be the beginning of the end.

Axel' s hand, usually warm and reassuring on my back, felt like a block of ice when he touched me that morning.

His eyes, usually full of that intense, possessive adoration that had once drawn me in, were now cold and distant. I saw the anger simmering just beneath the surface.

He hated being the man in my shadow. He hated that the world saw me, not him, as the empire builder.

"You need to step back," he said, his voice clipped, devoid of the soft intimacy it usually held in our bedroom. He wasn't asking. He was commanding. "The museum project. Hand it over to Bryn."

My breath hitched. The museum. My museum. The project that was my soul poured onto paper, years of sketches, sleepless nights, every line a piece of me. Bryn Nolan, the intern, was barely out of architecture school.

"Are you serious?" My voice was a whisper, thin and reedy. It felt like I was drowning in the sudden chill of the room.

He didn't answer me.

His gaze drifted to the doorway, where Bryn stood, her innocent eyes wide, her lower lip caught between her teeth.

She looked like a startled fawn, but I knew better.

I' d seen that fragile act before. Axel, the ever-chivalrous CEO, saw only vulnerability.

He wrapped an arm around Bryn's shoulders, pulling her close, a gesture he hadn' t offered me since the magazine hit the stands.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed tight by an invisible hand, unable to breathe from the pain. This wasn't the man I married. This wasn't the Axel who swore he' d always champion my dreams. This was someone else, someone cruel and calculating.

"Elouise, listen to me," Axel said, his voice low, a dangerous rumble that used to thrill me, now sent shivers of fear down my spine.

"You have until the end of the week. Transfer everything. Every file, every contact, every idea. Or I will make sure you never work in this city, in this industry, again. I will crush your career, piece by piece."

His words were like a bucket of ice water, drenching me from head to toe.

Bryn leaned into him, her head resting against his chest, a soft, almost imperceptible smile playing on her lips. She looked up at him, then glanced at me, a flicker of triumph in her eyes.

This wasn't about the project. This was about power. This was about replacing me.

I looked at him, searching for even a hint of the man who once told me I was his muse, his equal. "Axel, how can you do this? We built this together. You always said..."

He cut me off, his voice flat. "I said a lot of things. Times change. Bryn needs this opportunity. She's fresh. Undiscovered. She' s exactly what the Horne Group needs to show it's not just Elouise Herring's architectural firm." He squeezed Bryn's shoulder. "She's loyal. Something you seem to have forgotten how to be."

Loyal? He called me disloyal because a magazine recognized my talent? My mind flashed back to our early days. He'd stood on a construction site, mud splattering his expensive shoes, watching me sketch. "You're a force of nature, Elouise," he'd whispered, his eyes blazing with admiration. "Don't let anyone ever tell you to dim your light." He' d said that to me. He' d promised to be the wind beneath my wings.

The power balance had shifted so subtly, I hadn't even felt it until the ground gave way beneath me. First just suggestions, "Maybe you should slow down, darling." Then more direct interference, "That client isn't right for us, Elouise. Bryn can handle it." Now, this. He wasn't just interfering. He was dismantling.

"Bryn is an intern, Axel," I said, my voice rising a little. It was a desperate plea for him to see beyond his shattered ego. "She doesn't have the experience for a project of this scale. It's reckless."

He chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. "Oh, she'll learn. And I'll be there to guide her. She's eager. Unlike some people who seem to think they know everything." He glanced pointedly at me.

His coldness pierced deeper than any physical blow. I remembered the bruise on my arm from a year ago. A careless shove during an argument, quickly followed by lavish apologies and flowers. He' d sworn he' d never hurt me again. Now, he was doing it with words, with glances, with Bryn as his weapon.

"You want me to just hand over four years of my life?" My voice trembled. "To her?"

"It's not four years, Elouise. It's a stepping stone for Bryn. And a lesson for you." His eyes narrowed. "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be. You know what I'm capable of."

The memory of that bruise throbbed. The fear, cold and sharp, coiled in my stomach. I looked at Bryn. She smiled, a small, knowing smirk that contradicted her innocent facade. She knew. She had won.

Axel turned away from me, pulling Bryn with him, whispering something in her ear that made her giggle. They walked out of the room, leaving me standing alone, the silence deafening. It felt like he had ripped out my heart and stomped on it.

Moments later, I heard the elevator ding. Then, the front door closing. They were gone. He hadn't even waited for my answer. He knew I would comply.

I stepped out of the office, my legs feeling like jelly. The hallway was bustling with employees, all pretending not to notice me, not to notice the wreckage of my life. My assistant, Clara, hurried over, her face a mask of concern. "Elouise, are you alright? The press is outside, they want to ask about the magazine."

The press. They had loved me just yesterday. Now they would feast on the scraps of my humiliation. I could already hear the questions, the whispers, the judgment. My vision blurred. I tried to walk, to escape the suffocating weight of their stares, but my feet tangled beneath me.

I fell. Hard. My hands scraped against the polished marble floor. The sharp pain brought a sudden clarity to the haze of my mind. It wasn't the fall that hurt. It was the feeling of being utterly alone.

My mind involuntarily replayed a scene from my childhood. My father, drunk, his hand raised. My mother, shielding me, taking the blow. The helplessness. The terror. That same terror now clawed at my throat.

Just then, the glass doors of the lobby slid open. Axel and Bryn. He was laughing, his arm still around her, pulling her close as if to protect her from the throng of reporters. She looked up at him, her eyes shining, then she pressed a kiss to his jaw. A public display. A deliberate act of cruelty.

A cold, hard clarity settled over me. This wasn't about the magazine. This wasn't even really about Bryn. This was about control. About breaking me. And he had succeeded. But in breaking me, he had also set me free. My love for him, once a roaring fire, had just been extinguished. There was nothing left but ash.

I finally understood. He didn't love me. He loved what I represented, what I could represent, as long as it was his achievement. He loved the idea of me, until I outshone him. And now, he was gone. And I needed to be gone too.

I looked down at my scraped hands, then up at the retreating figures of Axel and Bryn. A faint, almost imperceptible, smile touched my lips. They thought they had won. They had no idea what they had just unleashed.

Continue Reading

Other books by Qing Shui

More
The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

Modern

4.5

I sat in the gray, airless room of the New York State Department of Corrections, my knuckles white as the Warden delivered the news. "Parole denied." My father, Howard Sterling, had forged new evidence of financial crimes to keep me behind bars. He walked into the room, smelling of expensive cologne, and tossed a black folder onto the steel table. It was a marriage contract for Lucas Kensington, a billionaire currently lying in a vegetative state in the ICU. "Sign it. You walk out today." I laughed at the idea of being sold to a "corpse" until Howard slid a grainy photo toward me. It showed a toddler with a crescent-moon birthmark—the son Howard told me had died in an incubator five years ago. He smiled and told me the boy's safety depended entirely on my cooperation. I was thrust into the Kensington estate, where the family treated me like a "drowned rat." They dressed me in mothball-scented rags and mocked my status, unaware that I was monitoring their every move. I watched the cousin, Julian, openly waiting for Lucas to die to inherit the empire, while the doctors prepared to sign the death certificate. I didn't understand why my father would lie about my son’s death for years, or what kind of monsters would use a child as a bargaining chip. The injustice of it burned in my chest as I realized I was just a pawn in a game of old money and blood. As the monitors began to flatline and the family started to celebrate their inheritance, I locked the door and reached into the hem of my dress. I pulled out the sharpened silver wires I’d fashioned in the prison workshop. They thought they bought a submissive convict, but they actually invited "The Saint"—the world’s most dangerous underground surgeon—into their home. "Wake up, Lucas. You owe me a life." I wasn't there to be a bride; I was there to wake the dead and burn their empire to the ground.

Shattered Vows: The Mob Wife's Revenge

Shattered Vows: The Mob Wife's Revenge

Mafia

5.0

My husband was the Don of New York, and for ten years, I was his perfect trophy wife. I designed his buildings, kept his secrets, and stood by his side as the envy of the city. But the moment his mistress marched into my casino with a secret son, my decade of loyalty meant nothing. The boy demanded my grandmother's bracelet—which was dangling from his wrist. When I reached to take back what was mine, Emilio didn't defend me. He shoved me. Hard. I crashed backward into a wall of shattered glass. While I lay bleeding on the marble floor I had hand-picked, losing our unborn child, he didn't even look at me. He was on his knees, wrapping his suit jacket around another woman's son to shield him from the debris. In the hospital, the cruelty only worsened. "It was an accident, Elana. Leo was scared." He dismissed the death of our baby as collateral damage. He had given my family heirloom to his bastard child and chose them over me without hesitation. I realized then that the Omertà—our sacred code of silence—was a lie. He had built a warm, loving shadow family while I was just a useful decoration waiting in a cold mansion. He wanted to bury me in that life forever. So, I decided to give him a funeral. I staged my suicide off the cliffs of the estate, letting the freezing ocean swallow Elana Thomas. Now, everyone thinks the Don's wife is dead. But in Zurich, a new woman named Elena is very much alive, and she’s coming back to burn his empire to the ground.

Second Chance, Deadly Trap

Second Chance, Deadly Trap

Fantasy

5.0

One moment, I was just Sarah, pulling weeds from my tomato patch under the hot Nebraska sun, living the quiet farm life I' d painstakingly built. The next, a chilling wave of memory, raw and horrifying, washed over me – memories of another life, a past I' d lived and died. And with that horrific clarity, I saw him again: Mark, my husband, the man who disappeared seven years ago, now limping up our driveway, playing the pathetic, broken-down prodigal son. My heart didn't leap; it solidified into a cold, hard stone, because I remembered everything he'd done in that other life. I remembered how we' d welcomed him in, how my in-laws had drained their life savings, how I'd sold my mother's last keepsakes, all out of love and misguided pity. I remembered how he' d squandered every penny on his secret city wife and her gambling debts, then, when the money ran out, tried to sell our farm out from under us. I remembered the barn burning, the livestock screaming, the loan sharks he brought to our door, leaving us with nothing but ashes, debt, and the bitter taste of his laughter as he drove away. None of us survived that first time. Now, he was back, with the same tattered clothes and the same practiced look of sorrow, mouthing the same fake emotions: "Sarah, I finally made it home." My blood ran cold with the memory of starving in the winter, of seeing my mother-in-law cry, of the life he had so casually incinerated. I would not let it happen again. This time, I would not be the same naive country wife; I would make sure he walked into a trap of his own making, a trap from which he would never escape.

Digital Detox Survival Challenge

Digital Detox Survival Challenge

Romance

5.0

The last thing I remembered was the cold, not from the biting wind in the remote forest, but the icy grip of utter betrayal. My own family, my sister Ashley, my parents, stood by a luxury RV, watching me. Ashley screamed for the camera, a performance of feigned terror, then shoved me hard, sending me stumbling towards the grim-faced survivalists waiting in the shadows. I later learned, in the brief, hellish time before I died, that the video of my "accident" went viral. Ashley' s follower count exploded, millions celebrating my demise, fueled by my family's lies about my supposed tech addiction and instability. They raked in donations and sponsorship deals, building a life of grotesque luxury upon my very corpse. Then, there was only crushing darkness. Until now. My eyes snapped open to the familiar white ceiling of my bedroom. My heart hammered, a trapped bird, but there were no wounds, no lingering chill of death. Frantically, I grabbed my phone, and the date glowed back, October 12th-the very day they coerced me into the "digital detox survival challenge." I was back. A hysterical laugh bubbled from my throat, a wild, unhinged sound. "You' re finally awake, Ashley has the most wonderful idea," my mother, Brenda, cooed, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. Ashley appeared, phone already rolling, a predatory smile on her face. "Sissy! We need a family trip, a real bonding experience!" They stood there, these soulless monsters who profited from my murder, smiling. Last time, I fought, I pleaded, I was worn down by their emotional blackmail, used for my skills, then discarded. But this time would be different. A slow, chilling smile spread across my face, one that didn't reach my eyes. "That sounds like a fantastic idea," I said, my voice smooth as glass. I would play my part, be the compliant daughter, the sister who had finally seen the light. And then, deep in the wilderness, far from any help, I would make them pay. I would give them the authentic survival content they craved, just not in the way they expected. The hunt was on.

Unraveling Fifty Years of Silence

Unraveling Fifty Years of Silence

Romance

5.0

At seventy, my body failed, but my mind was sharp with the bitterness of a fifty-year marriage to a woman I was certain never loved me back. My final words, a rasping confession of lifelong regret, were, "If I could do it all over again, I would never love you." Then, darkness, a profound silence, and suddenly, light flooded my vision as I shot awake, an eighteen-year-old in my childhood bedroom, strong and healthy. This was my second chance, and I vowed to rewrite my bitter past, starting with Jocelyn Anderson, the ice queen who had unknowingly broken my heart for half a century. I meticulously planned to shun her, using my knowledge of the future to build an empire, while deliberately acting aloof and uninterested, pushing her away at every turn. But then, she inexplicably transferred to my school, sat next to me in class, and shockingly appeared on the football field with Gatorade. My carefully constructed aversion shattered as I accused her of loving another, blinded by the phantom pain of my first life's perceived betrayal. Just as I walked away, broken-hearted and accepting my fate, her trembling voice hit me like a physical blow: "You think you're the only one who remembers?" "You were my husband for fifty years, Ethan," she whispered, her words confirming the impossible. But then Wesley Fowler, whom I believed was her lover, arrived, pulling her away and reigniting the crushing certainty that she was still lying, still choosing him. How could this be happening again, even with a second chance, even with her claiming to remember? The universe seemed to be playing a cruel joke, ensuring my sorrow spanned two lifetimes, leaving me with an agonizing question: if we both remembered, why was she still choosing him, still living the lie that destroyed us? I fled, seeking escape in Maine, only for her to follow, confronting me with a truth so profound it would either heal my soul or shatter it completely, forcing me to confront the fifty-year misunderstanding that defined my existence.

You'll also like

My Alpha's Heartless Contract Wife

My Alpha's Heartless Contract Wife

Rabbit
5.0

"Anya, a 'wolfless' in a world of powerful werewolves, was invisible, drowning her sorrows and desperately lonely. One drunken text, a desperate cry for attention, accidentally reached the Alpha, pulling her into his terrifying orbit. Now, she's trapped, a pawn in his game, forced to warm his bed while he waits for his true mate, her heart breaking with every stolen moment. As a 'wolfless' in the Blackwood Pack, Anya felt like an outsider, always yearning for a connection. One night, in a drunken haze, a misdirected text meant for her best friend landed in Alpha Declan Blackwood's inbox: ""Send me something hot."" Minutes later, the most powerful, terrifying man in the Pack stood at her door, claiming her with a possessive kiss that ignited a dangerous, unwanted fire. The next morning, his cold indifference shattered her world. Publicly humiliated and instantly fired, Anya became a pariah. Her dying mother's urgent need for a million-dollar heart transplant left her with an impossible choice: accept the Alpha's cold, transactional marriage proposal or watch her mother die. She became his ""placeholder"" wife, a contract, not a partner, all while battling a confusing attraction to the man who treated her as property. Why did he demand her, only to remind her constantly of her worthlessness, especially when everyone knew he waited for his true mate? Her world crumbled when she overheard Declan tell his returning ""true mate,"" Kristin Larsen, that Anya was ""just a substitute."" Despite the crushing betrayal and a strange, unyielding pull, Anya, fueled by her mother's desperate need, vowed to survive this gilded cage and reclaim her life before she lost herself completely."

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

Nap Regazzini
4.6

I woke up in a blindingly white hotel penthouse with a throbbing headache and the taste of betrayal in my mouth. The last thing I remembered was my stepsister, Cathie, handing me a flute of champagne at the charity gala with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Now, a tall, dangerously handsome man walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips. On the nightstand sat a stack of hundred-dollar bills. My stepmother had finally done it—she drugged me and staged a scandal with a hired escort to destroy my reputation and my future. "Aisha! Is it true you spent the night with a gigolo?" The shouts of a dozen reporters echoed through the heavy oak door as camera flashes exploded through the peephole. My phone lit up with messages showing my bank accounts were already frozen. My father was invoking the 'morality clause' in my mother’s trust fund, and my fiancé had already released a statement dumping me to marry my stepsister instead. I was trapped, penniless, and being hunted by the press for a scandal I hadn't even participated in. My own family had sold me out for a payday, and the man standing in front of me was the only witness who could prove I was innocent—or finish me off for good. I didn't have time to cry. According to the fine print of the trust, I had thirty days to prove my "rehabilitation" through a legal marriage or I would lose everything. I tracked the man down to a coffee shop the next morning, watching him take a thick envelope of cash from a wealthy older woman. I sat across from him and slid a napkin with a $50,000 figure written on it. "I need a husband. Legal, paper-signed, and convincing." He looked at the number, then at me, a slow, crooked smile spreading across his face. I thought I was hiring a desperate gigolo to save my inheritance. I had no idea I was actually proposing to Dominic Fields, the reclusive billionaire shark who was currently planning a hostile takeover of my father’s entire empire.

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Xiao Hong Mao
5.0

I lived as the "scarred ghost" of the Stephens penthouse, a wife kept in the shadows because my facial burns offended my billionaire husband’s aesthetic. For years, I endured Kason’s coldness and my family's abuse, a submissive puppet who believed she had nowhere else to go. The end came with a blue folder tossed onto my silk sheets. Kason’s mistress was back, and he wanted me out by sunset, offering a five-million-dollar "silence fee" to go hide my face in the countryside. The betrayal cut deep when I discovered my father had already traded my divorce for a corporate bailout. My step-sister mocked my "trashy" appearance at a high-end boutique, while the sales staff treated me like a common thief. At home, my father threatened to cut off my mother's life-saving medicine unless I crawled back to Kason to beg for a better deal. I was the girl who took the blame for a fire she didn't start, the wife who worshipped a man who never looked her in the eye, and the daughter used as a human bargaining chip. I was supposed to be broken, penniless, and desperate. But the woman who stood up wasn't the weak Elease Finch anymore; she was Phoenix, a tactical predator with a $500 million secret. I signed the divorce papers without a single tear, walked past my stunned husband, and wiped the Finch family's bank accounts clean with a few taps on my phone. "Your money is dirty," I told Kason with a cold smile. "I prefer clean hands." The cage is open, the hunt has begun, and I’m starting with the people who thought a scar made me weak.

The Billionaire's Secret Twins: Her Revenge

The Billionaire's Secret Twins: Her Revenge

Shearwater
4.4

I was four months pregnant, weighing over two hundred pounds, and my heart was failing from experimental treatments forced on me as a child. My doctor looked at me with clinical detachment and told me I was in a death sentence: if I kept the baby, I would die, and if I tried to remove it, I would die. Desperate for a lifeline, I called my father, Francis Acosta, to tell him I was sick and pregnant. I expected a father's love, but all I got was a cold, sharp blade of a voice. "Then do it quietly," he said. "Don't embarrass Candi. Her debutante ball is coming up." He didn't just reject me; he erased me. My trust fund was frozen, and I was told I was no longer an Acosta. My fiancé, Auston, had already discarded me, calling me a "bloated whale" while he looked for a thinner, wealthier replacement. I left New York on a Greyhound bus, weeping into a bag of chips, a broken woman the world considered a mistake. I couldn't understand how my own father could tell me to die "quietly" just to save face for a party. I didn't know why I had been a lab rat for my family’s pharmaceutical ambitions, or how they could sleep at night while I was left to rot in the gray drizzle of the city. Five years later, the doors of JFK International Airport slid open. I stepped onto the marble floor in red-soled stilettos, my body lean, lethal, and carved from years of blood and sweat. I wasn't the "whale" anymore; I was a ghost coming back to haunt them. With my daughter by my side and a medical reputation that terrified the global elite, I was ready to dismantle the Acosta empire piece by piece. "Tell Francis to wash his neck," I whispered to the skyline. "I'm home."

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

Qing Shui
4.5

I sat in the gray, airless room of the New York State Department of Corrections, my knuckles white as the Warden delivered the news. "Parole denied." My father, Howard Sterling, had forged new evidence of financial crimes to keep me behind bars. He walked into the room, smelling of expensive cologne, and tossed a black folder onto the steel table. It was a marriage contract for Lucas Kensington, a billionaire currently lying in a vegetative state in the ICU. "Sign it. You walk out today." I laughed at the idea of being sold to a "corpse" until Howard slid a grainy photo toward me. It showed a toddler with a crescent-moon birthmark—the son Howard told me had died in an incubator five years ago. He smiled and told me the boy's safety depended entirely on my cooperation. I was thrust into the Kensington estate, where the family treated me like a "drowned rat." They dressed me in mothball-scented rags and mocked my status, unaware that I was monitoring their every move. I watched the cousin, Julian, openly waiting for Lucas to die to inherit the empire, while the doctors prepared to sign the death certificate. I didn't understand why my father would lie about my son’s death for years, or what kind of monsters would use a child as a bargaining chip. The injustice of it burned in my chest as I realized I was just a pawn in a game of old money and blood. As the monitors began to flatline and the family started to celebrate their inheritance, I locked the door and reached into the hem of my dress. I pulled out the sharpened silver wires I’d fashioned in the prison workshop. They thought they bought a submissive convict, but they actually invited "The Saint"—the world’s most dangerous underground surgeon—into their home. "Wake up, Lucas. You owe me a life." I wasn't there to be a bride; I was there to wake the dead and burn their empire to the ground.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book