The Unwilling Wife

The Unwilling Wife

Ellene Millstein

5.0
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The organ music swelled, painting my white wedding dress in shades of blood red. I was marrying Julian Thorne, a man who despised me, believing the lies that had ruined my reputation. This wasn't a marriage; it was a sentence, orchestrated perfectly by my stepsister, Sophia, who had always wanted Julian for herself. Everyone saw Eleanor Vance, the brilliant architect, as the luckiest woman alive, but my heart was a cold stone. As the word "I do" escaped my lips-a whispered surrender-a blinding white light engulfed me. I woke up in my old bedroom, the floral wallpaper still on the walls. My phone read October 12, 2014-ten years ago, the day of my first wedding, the one that never happened. Relief surged through me; I wasn't Julian Thorne's wife. But then dread set in as Sophia's text buzzed on my smaller, older phone: "Julian's family is coming for dinner tonight, you have to make a good impression!" It was all starting tonight, the very dinner where Sophia would introduce me to the Thornes, setting off the chain of events that would lead to my forced marriage. The contempt in Julian's eyes was already there, seeing me as a social climber, exactly the image Sophia had carefully crafted. I was trapped again, a ghost in my own life, burdened by a future I knew was coming: the Thorne family's imminent financial ruin, and my own career sacrificed to support them. But this time, I wasn't the naive girl to be manipulated. I knew all their secrets, and I would not spend another ten years as Eleanor Thorne. I would fight.

Introduction

The organ music swelled, painting my white wedding dress in shades of blood red.

I was marrying Julian Thorne, a man who despised me, believing the lies that had ruined my reputation.

This wasn't a marriage; it was a sentence, orchestrated perfectly by my stepsister, Sophia, who had always wanted Julian for herself.

Everyone saw Eleanor Vance, the brilliant architect, as the luckiest woman alive, but my heart was a cold stone.

As the word "I do" escaped my lips-a whispered surrender-a blinding white light engulfed me.

I woke up in my old bedroom, the floral wallpaper still on the walls.

My phone read October 12, 2014-ten years ago, the day of my first wedding, the one that never happened.

Relief surged through me; I wasn't Julian Thorne's wife.

But then dread set in as Sophia's text buzzed on my smaller, older phone: "Julian's family is coming for dinner tonight, you have to make a good impression!"

It was all starting tonight, the very dinner where Sophia would introduce me to the Thornes, setting off the chain of events that would lead to my forced marriage.

The contempt in Julian's eyes was already there, seeing me as a social climber, exactly the image Sophia had carefully crafted.

I was trapped again, a ghost in my own life, burdened by a future I knew was coming: the Thorne family's imminent financial ruin, and my own career sacrificed to support them.

But this time, I wasn't the naive girl to be manipulated.

I knew all their secrets, and I would not spend another ten years as Eleanor Thorne.

I would fight.

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Betrayed By Love, Reborn In Fire

Betrayed By Love, Reborn In Fire

Billionaires

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Eleanor Vance, tech titaness, finally leaned back, champagne in hand, on her Monte Carlo terrace. Six months into hard-earned semi-retirement, her empire was thriving, and today, her daughter Sarah and son-in-law Mark were officially taking the reins. A notification shattered the peace. "VANCE TECH SHOCKER: NEW HEIRESS ANNOUNCED AS FOUNDER' S DAUGHTER BRANDED A FRAUD." Her blood ran cold as she saw the image: Mark, arm around a smug stranger named Lily Miller, the Vance Tech logo looming like a tombstone. Sarah' s phone went straight to voicemail. "Sarah, darling, it' s Mom. Call me back the second you get this." Mark answered, voice sickeningly cheerful. "Eleanor! Enjoying the Riviera, I hope?" Then, dropped a bombshell: "Sarah Vance is not, in fact, Eleanor Vance' s biological daughter. She is an illegitimate child… The true inheritor… is my daughter, Lily." Eleanor watched live footage: Sarah, her dress torn, screaming "He' s lying! I' m her daughter! Mom, he' s lying!" as security dragged her away. Mark' s smooth voice narrated: "Sarah has been… unwell." The camera zoomed on Sarah' s anguished face, then a guard shoved her out. The world vanished for Eleanor; only a burning rage remained. She hurled her glass, shattering it against the wall. "Get the jet ready," she commanded, voice dangerously calm. "Get me everything you can find on Jessica Brown and Lily Miller. Dig." "I' m going home," Eleanor vowed, her eyes like flint. "And I' m going to burn their world to the ground." How could Mark, her trusted son-in-law, conspire with Jessica, a former employee fired for corporate espionage, to publicly destroy her daughter and steal her legacy? The deeper horror: the faint red welts on Sarah' s back in the video; this wasn' t the first time he' d hurt her. Why hadn' t Sarah called? What kind of hell had her child been living in while she was sipping champagne across the world? The guilt was crushing, but the fury burned brighter. Eleanor wouldn't just fight; she would annihilate. "When we land, we go directly to headquarters." Mark thought he' d won; he just triggered the war of his life.

Her Escape, His Eternal Loss

Her Escape, His Eternal Loss

Romance

5.0

The familiar ache pulsed behind my eyes, a constant companion in the sterile white room where sheets matched my pale, bruised skin. They had given me electric shock therapy again, leaving my mind a fog of agony. A key turned, and in walked Ethan Miller, the man I was supposed to marry, his face handsome but cold, etched with pity and disgust. "Still acting like this, Chloe?" he snapped, accusing me of hurting a nurse-a lie I was too broken to fight. Then Liam Thorne, my half-brother, joined him, an insincere mask of concern plastered on his face. "See, Ethan? She' s completely gone," Liam purred, blaming my supposed violent tendencies on the stress of his "illness." Ethan, my savior turned accomplice, instantly sided with Liam, his trust absolute. But then Mark Evans, a childhood friend turned doctor, assessed my condition, his voice serious as he unveiled the severe trauma and abuse they' d inflicted on me. Liam quickly deflected, accusing me of self-harm, a narrative Ethan chillingly affirmed. Liam then proposed transferring me to a private institution, the 'Thorne Wellness Center' -a name that sent a jolt of terror through me, a prison designed just for me. Desperate, I pleaded with Ethan, "Please, don' t take me there. I' ll do anything." He hesitated, a flicker of the old Ethan visible, and agreed to take me home. But Liam intervened, whispering manipulations, leading me back into the trap. I screamed as orderlies grabbed me, but it was too late. They injected the sedative, and I went limp, my savior watching as he condemned me. The torture at Thorne Wellness Center was worse than I could have imagined, leaving my mind fractured, my body starved. When Ethan finally came to pick me up, he was horrified by the skeletal, lifeless woman I had become. In that moment, a plan formed in my fragmented mind. I had to escape, even if it meant jumping from a second-story window. Under the cover of darkness, I slipped from my gilded cage, running, barefoot and silent, into the night.

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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."

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