Ranchland Refuge: Where Love Grows

Ranchland Refuge: Where Love Grows

Adelheid Rufo

5.0
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The recurring nightmare was a constant torment, a horrifying glimpse into my future. Every night, I watched myself trapped, broken, married to Ethan Vanderbilt, his cruel eyes and chilling smile haunting my sleep as Brittany Miller, his manipulative girlfriend, whispered poison in his ear. But this time, it hit differently. I jolted awake, heart hammering, but the terror wasn't just residual dream-fear. The details were sharper, the pain more intense. It wasn't just a bad dream; it felt like a memory, a terrifying premonition burned into my soul, a stark warning of the life awaiting me as Mrs. Ethan Vanderbilt. My familiar East Coast bedroom did nothing to calm the dread. My engagement, meticulously planned by our influential families and celebrated by society, was no longer a gilded cage – it was a death sentence. I couldn't breathe. I saw my very spirit withering in a silent, opulent prison, completely at his mercy. How could my aunt, bound by her powerful Senator husband and their family alliances, only see an "advantageous match" when I saw a monster? They feared the scandal of breaking the engagement; I feared losing my entire self. "What's more important?" I choked, "His career, or my life? Because I' m telling you, marrying Ethan will destroy me." The fear was a cold knot in my stomach, but a desperate, burning resolve ignited. I couldn't accept this fate. I had relived my end, and I refused to walk that path again. Looking at my pale, haunted reflection, I whispered, "No. I won't let him. I'll change it." My desperate fight for freedom began at that very moment.

Introduction

The recurring nightmare was a constant torment, a horrifying glimpse into my future.

Every night, I watched myself trapped, broken, married to Ethan Vanderbilt, his cruel eyes and chilling smile haunting my sleep as Brittany Miller, his manipulative girlfriend, whispered poison in his ear.

But this time, it hit differently.

I jolted awake, heart hammering, but the terror wasn't just residual dream-fear.

The details were sharper, the pain more intense.

It wasn't just a bad dream; it felt like a memory, a terrifying premonition burned into my soul, a stark warning of the life awaiting me as Mrs. Ethan Vanderbilt.

My familiar East Coast bedroom did nothing to calm the dread.

My engagement, meticulously planned by our influential families and celebrated by society, was no longer a gilded cage – it was a death sentence.

I couldn't breathe. I saw my very spirit withering in a silent, opulent prison, completely at his mercy.

How could my aunt, bound by her powerful Senator husband and their family alliances, only see an "advantageous match" when I saw a monster?

They feared the scandal of breaking the engagement; I feared losing my entire self.

"What's more important?" I choked, "His career, or my life? Because I' m telling you, marrying Ethan will destroy me."

The fear was a cold knot in my stomach, but a desperate, burning resolve ignited.

I couldn't accept this fate. I had relived my end, and I refused to walk that path again.

Looking at my pale, haunted reflection, I whispered, "No. I won't let him. I'll change it."

My desperate fight for freedom began at that very moment.

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5.0

My family was crumbling, clinging to the last vestiges of a once-great name. My upcoming marriage to Ethan was supposed to save us, his new money cushioning our fall. But rumors painted Julian Thorne, a reclusive tech billionaire, as a monster who ruined women, and his people chose my beautiful half-sister, Hailey, as his next "companion." Then Ethan, my fiancé, panicked, pulling me into a desperate elopement. In a cheap motel room, he revealed his true plan: I was to pretend we'd been secretly married before Hailey's selection. He needed me as a convenient shield, a deniable wife, so he could keep Hailey, and her potential connection to Thorne, on a string. My stomach churned; this wasn't love, it was a transaction. Back home, my family, desperate to "save" Hailey, demanded I support Ethan's lie, threatening to cut off funding for my cherished art project. They called me "strong" when they wanted me to bear their burdens, to be a doormat. The disgust was a bitter taste in my mouth, realizing I was just a pawn in their cruel, self-serving games. Why was I always the one sacrificed, always the "strong" one meant to suffer in silence? The thought of living Ethan' s fabricated life, a life of quiet humiliation and deceit, suddenly felt infinitely worse than facing any rumored monster. A cold fury rose in me, sharp and clean. I would not be their pawn, their disposable currency. Looking my father dead in the eye, I declared, "If Hailey is too delicate for Mr. Thorne, then I will go in her place." I' d rather face a monster with my eyes open than be a fool' s secret.

Sold To The Monster: My Silent Nightmare

Sold To The Monster: My Silent Nightmare

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5.0

I’ve spent eighteen hundred days as a silent ghost in the Crawford estate, a place where the air smells of expensive cigars and terror. My father, Senator Jed Bowen, sold me to Alek Crawford to pay off his gambling debts, trading his daughter’s life for a seat in the Senate. Alek doesn’t just want my service; he wants my complete submission. He tracks my every move through cameras and bruises my skin just to see if I’ll flinch. He thinks he owns me because he holds the contract, and his mother ensures I’m kept in my place with slaps and insults. When a scandal involving my half-sister and Alek’s brother hit the news, the house turned into a war zone. Alek cornered me in the dark, his hands stained with blood and ink, whispering that I was nothing but a receipt for his family's money. He’s been forcing me to take pills for years, believing they’ve kept me drugged and mute. "She needs to speak again," he told a surgeon over the phone. "Whatever it takes." He thinks he’s fixing a broken toy, but he’s actually planning to carve the silence into my throat permanently. He has no idea that I’ve been switching those pills for years, or that I’m more awake and more dangerous than he could ever imagine. I’ve endured the biting cold and the crushing weight of his obsession, waiting for a single sign that my nightmare could end. Tonight, a secret message reached me in the rain, confirming that the only man I ever loved has finally finished his mission. Kole is coming back for me. The contract review is tomorrow, but I’m not planning on signing anything. I’m planning on taking back everything they stole from me, starting with my voice.

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Ying Suhua
4.3

I was three days away from marrying the Underboss of the Fazio crime family when I unlocked his burner phone. The screen glowed toxic bright in the dark next to my sleeping fiancé. A message from a contact saved as 'Little Trouble' read: "She is just a statue, Dante. Come back to bed." Attached was a photo of a woman lying in the sheets of his private office, wearing his shirt. My heart didn't break; it simply stopped. For eight years, I believed Dante was the hero who pulled me from a burning opera house. I played the perfect, loyal Mafia Princess for him. But heroes don't give their mistresses rare pink diamonds while giving their fiancées cubic zirconia replicas. He didn't just cheat. He humiliated me. He defended his mistress over his own soldiers in public. He even abandoned me on the side of the road on my birthday because she faked a pregnancy emergency. He thought I was weak. He thought I would accept the fake ring and the disrespect because I was just a political pawn. He was wrong. I didn't cry. Tears are for women who have options. I had a strategy. I walked into the bathroom and dialed a number I hadn't dared to call in a decade. "Speak," a voice like gravel growled on the other end. Lorenzo Moretti. The Capo of the rival family. The man my father called the Devil. "The wedding is off," I whispered, staring at my reflection. "I want an alliance with you, Enzo. And I want the Fazio family burned to the ground."

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

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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.

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