The Stolen Name, My Fiery Comeback

The Stolen Name, My Fiery Comeback

Gu Chen

5.0
Comment(s)
View
11
Chapters

The day my husband' s stepsister announced her pregnancy wasn' t the first time my world shattered. It had already been destroyed when his reckless driving killed our daughter, Lily. I was forced to play the perfect, grieving wife, trapped in a deal with his powerful grandfather: one year of silence for my freedom. But then they stole my daughter's name for their newborn son. They named him Lily. It was a sacred name, meant for the child I lost, and they twisted it into a monument of their betrayal. The final insult came when his mistress wore my late mother's blazer to their son's celebration, parading my last precious memory like a prize. They expected me to remain the silent, dignified victim they had created. They thought I was too broken to fight. They were wrong. I walked into that banquet ready to burn their world to the ground, and I started with the clothes on their backs.

Chapter 1

The day my husband' s stepsister announced her pregnancy wasn' t the first time my world shattered. It had already been destroyed when his reckless driving killed our daughter, Lily. I was forced to play the perfect, grieving wife, trapped in a deal with his powerful grandfather: one year of silence for my freedom.

But then they stole my daughter's name for their newborn son.

They named him Lily.

It was a sacred name, meant for the child I lost, and they twisted it into a monument of their betrayal. The final insult came when his mistress wore my late mother's blazer to their son's celebration, parading my last precious memory like a prize.

They expected me to remain the silent, dignified victim they had created. They thought I was too broken to fight.

They were wrong. I walked into that banquet ready to burn their world to the ground, and I started with the clothes on their backs.

Chapter 1

Althea POV:

The day my husband' s stepsister announced her pregnancy wasn' t the first time my world shattered, but it was the one that finally froze the pieces in place.

Ashli stood there, her hands cradling her belly, a smug smirk playing on her lips as she looked directly at me. Hudson, my husband, stood beside her, his face a mask of false concern, though his eyes betrayed a flicker of something that might have been shame. Or maybe it was just indigestion. I couldn' t tell anymore. My vision blurred around the edges, the ornate patterns on the carpet swirling into a dizzying vortex. The air in the room felt thick, heavy, like trying to breathe underwater.

I had always been the type to fight, to scream, to demand answers when my heart was being ripped from my chest. That was the old Althea, the one who still believed in a future, in fairness, in the power of love. But that Althea died in a car crash alongside our daughter, Lily. Now, there was just a hollow shell, emptied of hope, filled only with the echoing silence of grief.

A strange calm settled over me. It was a cold, desolate peace, like the quiet after a storm has taken everything. I simply nodded, a slow, deliberate movement that surprised even myself. I watched Ashli' s triumphant smile falter, replaced by a flicker of confusion. Hudson' s brow furrowed, his weak-willed mind surely scrambling to decode my unexpected composure.

I was supposed to rage. I was supposed to weep. I was supposed to confirm all their nasty predictions about the hysterical wife. But I didn't. Instead, I walked over to Ashli, a polite, almost serene smile on my face. I extended my hand, my voice surprisingly steady. "Congratulations, Ashli," I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "Hudson, you must be thrilled."

The silence that followed was deafening, thicker than the expensive velvet curtains adorning the Marks family mansion. The servants hovering in the background exchanged bewildered glances. Ashli, always the manipulator, recovered quickly, grasping my hand with a theatrical squeeze. Her smile returned, wider now, laced with a new kind of victory. "Thank you, Althea," she purred, her eyes shining with malicious glee. "It means so much to have your support."

My public display of unexpected grace sent ripples through our insulated social circle. Suddenly, I was the enigmatic, impossibly strong woman, enduring unimaginable pain with saint-like composure. The tabloids, always hungry for scandal but even more so for a fresh angle, dubbed me "The Unbreakable Althea." They spun narratives of my unwavering devotion, my selfless sacrifice for the Marks family legacy.

It was all a lie, of course. A brutal, humiliating lie.

The paparazzi, like vultures circling carrion, camped outside our gates, snapping photos of me leaving Lily's untouched nursery, my face carefully blank. They caught me attending charity galas, my arm linked with Hudson's, my smile fixed and lifeless for the cameras. Each headline, each glossy photo, was a fresh wound, a testament to the gilded cage I was trapped in. My private torment became public fodder, turning my agony into entertainment.

I became a perverse symbol. Women who had been cheated on, who had endured similar betrayals, sent me messages of misplaced admiration. "You're so strong," they wrote. "I wish I had your courage." They saw a martyr. I saw a pawn. My newfound "fame" felt like a cruel joke, a mockery of everything I had lost.

Ashli, meanwhile, basked in the glow of public sympathy for her "delicate condition," playing the victim to perfection. She' d post saccharine updates about her pregnancy, subtly weaving in tales of my "unwavering support," further cementing her image as the innocent woman caught in a complex love triangle. I was a prop in her twisted narrative, a stepping stone to her desired throne.

The whispers followed me everywhere. At exclusive club lunches, the wives of prominent businessmen would cast pitying glances, their eyes filled with a mixture of disdain and morbid curiosity. They saw me as a woman who had lost everything, including her dignity, clinging to a broken marriage for the sake of wealth. A pariah. A shame.

Nine months passed, each day a slow, agonizing crawl. Ashli' s belly grew, a constant, undeniable monument to Hudson's betrayal and Lily's absence. The day the contractions started, the house buzzed with a nervous energy that felt alien and unwelcome. I sat in the sterile waiting room of the private hospital, the scent of antiseptic burning my nostrils, a chilling sense of detachment washing over me.

Hours later, the double doors swung open. Hudson emerged, a tired but undeniably relieved smile on his face. Ashli, pale but radiant, was wheeled out behind him, a tiny bundle clutched to her chest. He walked straight to me, his hand reaching out, a familiar, empty gesture. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, a performance for the hushed onlookers, for the lurking shadows of the paparazzi, for the illusion of a united family.

"Althea," he murmured, his voice soft, an artificial tenderness coating each syllable. "Thank you. For everything. For your support."

My stomach churned. He pulled me closer, his voice dropping lower, a stage whisper meant to convey intimacy. "The baby is healthy. All because you were so understanding. So strong." His words felt like a physical assault, a brutal twisting of the knife. My strength was the cost of my daughter's life, and now he was thanking me for enabling his new happiness.

He leaned in further, his breath warm against my ear. "Don't worry," he promised, his voice laced with the same old, empty reassurance. "Your position hasn't changed. You're still my wife. My one true love." His hand tightened on mine, a possessive grip that felt like a trap. "I love you, Althea. Only you."

The world saw a woman accepting her fate with grace, securing her future with quiet dignity. They saw a loving wife, forgiving her wayward husband. They saw a woman accepting a new child into her family. They saw everything but the truth.

The truth was, I was trapped. Barrett Gregory, Hudson's grandfather, the ruthless patriarch of the Marks dynasty, had orchestrated it all. After Lily's death, after Hudson's negligence caused the accident, Barrett had presented me with an ultimatum. Stay, act the part, protect the family's public image, and in one year, after the new baby's first birthday, I would be granted a quiet, financially secure divorce. A gilded cage, indeed. And now, the baby was here. The final count had begun.

I closed my eyes, the faint cry of a newborn echoing in the distance. One year. Three hundred and sixty-five days. Then, I would be free.

Continue Reading

Other books by Gu Chen

More
The Surgeon's Revenge: My Ex-Husband's Regret

The Surgeon's Revenge: My Ex-Husband's Regret

Modern

5.0

The view from our twenty-million-dollar penthouse was stunning, but all I could see was the cracked screen of my phone. A single message from a contact named Sienna had just appeared: "Game On." For four years, I had worn the shapeless beige cardigans and played the quiet, submissive wife the elite Rutledge family demanded. "Dorothea is back in the city," my husband Hunter said, refusing to meet my eyes as he pushed the divorce papers toward me. He offered a "generous" settlement, patronizingly claiming that with my felony record and "creative resume," I’d be living on the streets without his charity. He had no idea that while he was rehearsing his breakup speech, I was already zipping up a duffel bag filled with cash and a passport in a name he didn't recognize. His sister Kamala didn't even wait for me to pack before she was in our bedroom, calling me a leech and trying to destroy the only photo I had of my mother. I didn't cry or beg; I simply dropped Hunter’s favorite three-million-dollar Ming vase, watched it shatter, and walked out the door with a cold smile. That night, I traded my sensible flats for a crimson silk dress and lethal heels, leaving Hunter’s jaw on the floor when he saw me at an exclusive club. He watched in horror as I smashed a vodka bottle over a harasser's head, still believing I was a broken woman who needed his protection. He didn't know the truth until his grandmother finally revealed that I was the anonymous investor who had rescued their company from bankruptcy. I had gone to prison to protect his father's reputation, wearing the shame for years so their family name wouldn't implode. Hunter fell to his knees in the driveway, begging for a second chance and promising to dump his mistress, but the anger in my heart had already turned to ice. The man I had sacrificed my life for was now just a stranger I used to know. "The opposite of love isn't hate, Hunter. It's indifference." I climbed into a purple supercar as my phone buzzed with a call from Mount Sinai Hospital. My medical license was reinstated, and a high-profile trauma case was waiting for my hands. Iris the housewife was dead, and Dr. Gutierrez was finally back in play.

The Wife I Refused to Save

The Wife I Refused to Save

Modern

5.0

My wife was dying, and I refused to save her. That's what everyone in the hospital believed, and what the headlines would scream. The hospital called; Sarah, my wife, was in critical condition after a severe car accident, needing a specialized, uninsured procedure costing half a million dollars. I said no. The word hung heavy in the air. This wasn't just Sarah's life; it was a choice between her, and the future of my company and hundreds of employees. My terrified in-laws pleaded, "You're comparing your company to your wife's life? To the mother of your child?" My six-year-old daughter, Lily, tugged at my pants, her innocent eyes filled with tears. "Daddy? Is Mommy going to die?" I told her I had to protect the company for our future, a necessary cruelty. My mother-in-law shrieked accusations, calling me a monster, flinging accusations of how Sarah sacrificed everything for me. The crowd gathered, their judgment a palpable weight. They whispered, "He won't pay to save his own wife. What a scumbag." A part of me smiled behind my mask of indifference. Let them judge. They were watching the wrong movie, completely unaware of the real plot. Then, my daughter held out her pink piggy bank, offering all she had. "Daddy, I have money. You can use my money to save Mommy." I knew this was the part I dreaded most, the collateral damage of a wicked plan. This entire tragic drama was meticulously orchestrated, but not by me. And I was about to expose every single one of them.

You'll also like

Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

SHANA GRAY
4.3

I died on a Tuesday. It wasn't a quick death. It was slow, cold, and meticulously planned by the man who called himself my father. I was twenty years old. He needed my kidney to save my sister. The spare part for the golden child. I remember the blinding lights of the operating theater, the sterile smell of betrayal, and the phantom pain of a surgeon's scalpel carving into my flesh while my screams echoed unheard. I remember looking through the observation glass and seeing him-my father, Giovanni Vitiello, the Don of the Chicago Outfit-watching me die with the same detached expression he used when signing a death warrant. He chose her. He always chose her. And then, I woke up. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in my own bed, a year before my scheduled execution. My body was whole, unscarred. The timeline had reset, a glitch in the cruel matrix of my existence, giving me a second chance I never asked for. This time, when my father handed me a one-way ticket to London-an exile disguised as a severance package-I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart, once a bleeding wound, was now a block of ice. He didn't know he was talking to a ghost. He didn't know I had already lived through his ultimate betrayal. He also didn't know that six months ago, during the city's brutal territory wars, I was the one who saved his most valuable asset. In a secret safe house, I stitched up the wounds of a blinded soldier, a man whose life hung by a thread. He never saw my face. He only knew my voice, the scent of vanilla, and the steady touch of my hands. He called me Sette. Seven. For the seven stitches I put in his shoulder. That man was Dante Moretti. The Ruthless Capo. The man my sister, Isabella, is now set to marry. She stole my story. She claimed my actions, my voice, my scent. And Dante, the man who could spot a lie from a mile away, believed the beautiful deception because he wanted it to be true. He wanted the golden girl to be his savior, not the invisible sister who was only ever good for her spare parts. So I took the ticket. In my past life, I fought them, and they silenced me on an operating table. This time, I will let them have their perfect, gilded lie. I will go to London. I will disappear. I will let Seraphina Vitiello die on that plane. But I will not be a victim. This time, I will not be the lamb led to slaughter. This time, from the shadows of my exile, I will be the one holding the match. And I will wait, with the patience of the dead, to watch their entire world burn. Because a ghost has nothing to lose, and a queen of ashes has an empire to gain.

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
5.0

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book