The Red Queen's Spectacular Rise After Betrayal

The Red Queen's Spectacular Rise After Betrayal

Shen Xiyan

5.0
Comment(s)
11
View
110
Chapters

For five years, I was the woman in the shadows, the secret partner Evander Mathews promised to marry once his company was stable. On our fifth anniversary, I waited in our Manhattan penthouse with chilled wine, only for him to leave abruptly for what he called a "merger emergency." In his haste, he left his wall safe open. Inside, I found a marriage contract signed three days ago. The groom was Evander, but the bride was my sister, Daneen. Then came the message that shattered my world-a photo of their hands intertwined and a text from my sister. "Sister, thank you for borrowing him for five years. But he is home now." I looked at the rows of white silk dresses in my closet and finally understood the truth. I was never his lover; I was a living memorial, a placeholder he had curated to look and smell exactly like the sister who had spent our childhood abusing me. He knew about the scars on my back, yet he was choosing the woman who gave them to me. When Evander sent his assistant the next morning to pay me off with a diamond necklace, he expected me to disappear. He thought the girl he had kept hidden for half a decade would never have the courage to step into the light. He was wrong. I grabbed the fabric scissors, hacked off the long hair he adored, and dialed a number I had kept hidden for years. "I'm ready to collect that favor," I said to the man on the other end. "Get me into the gala tonight. I'm going to show them exactly what they tried to bury."

Chapter 1 1

The condensation on the wine glass was the only thing moving in the room. Gisele Mueller stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of the Manhattan penthouse, the city lights below blurring into a stream of gold and red that looked nothing like freedom. It was their fifth anniversary. Five years of being the woman in the shadows, the secret muse, the partner Evander Mathews promised he would claim publicly once the board stabilized.

The bathroom door clicked open. Steam rolled out, carrying the scent of cedar and expensive soap. Evander walked into the living room, a towel low on his hips, water droplets tracing the defined lines of his abdomen. Gisele felt that familiar pull in her chest, a physical ache that she had mistaken for love for half a decade. She turned, lifting the two crystal glasses she had poured ten minutes ago.

He took the glass. His fingers brushed against hers. The contact was electric, a jolt that traveled up her arm and settled heavily in her stomach. He smiled, that rare, soft smile reserved only for this apartment, and pulled her toward the Italian leather sofa. The leather was cool against her legs as they sat, the silence comfortable, heavy with the promise of the night. He kissed her, tasting of mint and red wine, his hand sliding under the hem of her silk dress.

The phone on the marble coffee table buzzed.

It wasn't a ring. It was a violent vibration against the stone, a harsh, mechanical intrusion. Evander froze. His hand stopped moving on her thigh. He pulled back, his eyes shifting from her face to the screen. The name flashing there was innocent enough: "Dr. Lewis."

But the air in the room shifted. The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. Evander's pupils contracted. He stood up abruptly, the towel almost slipping, his demeanor shifting from lover to CEO in the span of a heartbeat.

Sorry, he said, his voice clipped. It is the company. An emergency with the merger.

Gisele felt the rejection like a physical blow to her solar plexus. She set her wine glass down, her hand trembling slightly. Tonight is our fifth anniversary, Evander. Can it not wait?

He was already walking toward the study. He didn't look back. Don't be difficult, Gisele. This is important.

He closed the study door. The lock clicked.

Gisele sat alone on the sprawling sofa. She looked at the lipstick stain on the rim of her glass. It looked like a wound. The silence of the penthouse was deafening now, amplified by the sudden absence of his warmth. She waited. Her mind replayed the look in his eyes when he saw the phone. It wasn't concern for business. It was guilt.

Ten minutes later, Evander emerged. He was fully dressed in a charcoal suit, his tie perfectly knotted. He walked over and kissed her forehead, a dry, perfunctory gesture that felt more like a dismissal than affection.

Go to sleep, he said, checking his watch. Don't wait up.

The front door closed with a heavy thud. The lock engaged.

Gisele sat there for another hour. The wine turned warm. The city lights outside seemed to mock her. Finally, the need to do something, anything, other than drown in her own anxiety forced her up. She walked into the study. He had left in such a rush. Usually, he was meticulous, but tonight, the room felt chaotic.

She moved to the desk to organize the files for his morning briefing, a habit born of five years of acting as his unofficial assistant. That was when she saw it. The wall safe behind the painting was not flush with the wall. The digital panel was dark, but the heavy steel door was ajar by a fraction of an inch.

He had been distracted. He had been panicked.

Gisele reached out. Her fingers felt numb. She shouldn't look. She knew she shouldn't look. But her hand moved of its own accord, pulling the heavy door open. Inside, amidst stacks of cash and bonds, lay a single blue folder. A yellow sticky note was attached to the front: "Finalized - Priority."

She pulled it out. The paper felt heavy, substantial. The cover page bore the seal of the State of New York. "Draft - Premarital Asset Allocation & Engagement Contract."

The air left her lungs.

She flipped the page. The groom's signature was sharp, aggressive: Evander Mathews. Her eyes dragged across the page to the beneficiary's line. She expected a blank space. She expected a draft.

The signature was looping, childish, familiar. Daneen Mueller.

The date was three days ago. The day Evander had told her he was in Chicago for a tech conference.

The folder slipped from her fingers. It hit the plush carpet without a sound, but to Gisele, the impact shattered the world. She fell to her knees, her hands scrambling to pick it up, to reread it, to find the mistake. There was no mistake. Behind the contract was a detailed itinerary for a "Proposal Gala." It outlined media strategies, ring selection, and titles. It referred to Daneen as the "Mathews Matriarch."

Gisele's name was nowhere.

She was the ghost. She had always been the ghost.

Her phone on the desk buzzed. A text from Evander. Won't be back tonight. Complications with the acquisition.

Gisele read the words. A dry, jagged sound ripped from her throat. It was a laugh, devoid of humor. Acquisition. That was what this was. He had acquired the sister with the status, while keeping the sister with the talent in the dark.

She shoved the papers back into the safe. She wiped the handle with the hem of her dress. She closed the painting. She walked into the bathroom and stared at the mirror. The woman looking back was pale, her eyes wide and hollow. She didn't scream. She didn't break the mirror. She just turned on the tap and washed her hands, scrubbing them until the skin turned red, trying to wash off five years of lies.

Continue Reading

Other books by Shen Xiyan

More
The Fallen Heiress's Debt to the Billionaire

The Fallen Heiress's Debt to the Billionaire

Modern

5.0

I was once the princess of the Upper East Side, but now I’m just "debt wrapped in pretty skin." To keep my father alive in a federal penitentiary, I signed a contract I didn't fully understand. I thought it was about restoring my family's name, but producer Barnett Orr treated it like a bill of sale for my soul. Inside his limousine, the air smelled like gasoline and fear. Barnett didn't want a star; he wanted a victim. He bruised my jaw and ripped my vintage silk gown to shreds, laughing because he knew I couldn't fight back without signing my father's death warrant. "Don't forget who owns you, Felicity," he whispered. When he dragged me into Dewitt Knight’s penthouse party, I was a walking disaster. I huddled in Barnett’s oversized jacket, my lip bleeding and my spirit shattered. The elite crowd didn't see a victim; they saw a fallen girl selling herself for a role. A former rival poured red wine over me, and the room erupted in cruel laughter while Barnett told everyone he was just "testing my commitment." I looked up at the balcony, locking eyes with Dewitt Knight. He was a god in a bespoke suit, looking down at me with cold, lethal disgust. He didn't see the bruises or the desperation. He only saw a transaction he found beneath him. "So the rumors are true," he said, his voice cutting through the music. "The Aguilars really will do anything for money now. Even this." I was trapped between a monster who wanted to break me and a man who thought I was trash. No one cared that my father's life depended on my silence. When Barnett cornered me in a guest room later that night, his belt jingling like a death knell, I realized no one was coming to save a girl like me. I fought back with a crystal vase, shattering it against his shoulder, but I was drowning in my own terror. Just as Barnett lunged for my throat, the door was kicked off its hinges. Dewitt stood there, finally seeing the blood on the carpet and the map of purple bruises on my bare back. He chased the monster away, but I didn't feel safe. I locked the guest room door, wedged a chair under the handle, and slept with a silver letter opener pressed against my skin. When I crept into the kitchen at midnight and found him waiting in the shadows, I aimed the blade at his heart. "In this house, no one hurts you," he promised, his voice a low velvet rumble. But in a world where I had already been sold once, I knew that even protection came with a price I couldn't afford to pay.

Caged Love

Caged Love

Romance

5.0

The camera flashes were blinding, a storm of light. My fiancé, Ethan, stood at the podium, his hand clutching mine, whispering sweet nothings for the reporters. He declared his eternal love, sacrificing his ambitions for my "crippled" self, the pianist whose dream was tragically cut short. But an hour earlier, I'd overheard him and my best friend, Bella. "Her hands… are they permanently damaged?" Bella whispered. "Completely," Ethan confirmed, his voice chillingly cold. "The 'accident' was flawless. She\'s a cripple, Bella. You have nothing to worry about." My world shattered. The car crash, the botched surgery-all a meticulously planned lie. My supposed recovery was overseen by Dr. Ben, who had helped Ethan ensure I would never play again. I lay in a hospital bed, my bandaged hands a testament to their cruelty, left to grapple with the shocking betrayal. How could the man who promised me forever, the one I loved, orchestrated such a heinous plot? The deeper I looked, the more horrifying truths unravelled: I was drugged for months to appear unstable, and the tragic miscarriage I suffered wasn\'t natural-he had murdered our unborn child. The love I thought was real was a delusion, a carefully constructed cage. With nothing left to lose, and fueled by a cold, searing rage, I stopped merely existing. I was no longer a victim. I was a survivor, and I would make them pay. My escape wasn't just about leaving; it was about orchestrating their downfall, piece by agonizing piece.

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book