Shadowed By Her, Now Free

Shadowed By Her, Now Free

Norrra

5.0
Comment(s)
199
View
11
Chapters

For seven years, I lived in Chloe Adams' s shadow, the architect of her fame, ghostwriting her witty captions and composing jingles, content to be the loyal friend. Then, at her engagement party, Chloe announced her new brand deal, her arm linked with reality TV star Brody Hayes. "It' s time for you to find your own spotlight, you know? Away from me." Her casual dismissal, meant to be a gentle nudge, landed like a physical blow, firing me from her life. Everyone in the room watched, waiting for me to nod, to accept my role as Chloe' s devoted groupie. But something inside me snapped. "No," I said, the word cutting through the celebratory hum like glass. Chloe' s perfect smile faltered. "I' m just done. Done writing your posts, done composing your jingles, done being your shadow." Her face blotched red, the gracious influencer replaced by a furious toddler. "You can' t be 'done' !" she hissed. "I' m not done with you!" I thought I was finally free, but her fury escalated. She shoved me, then roared, "Your parents gave me a key years ago, remember? What' s yours is mine." I rushed home to find my sanctuary invaded, my studio defiled. A stranger strummed my grandfather' s prized vintage Martin guitar, another giggled, scrolling through my private files. Rage burned through me. As I called 911, Brody snatched my phone and smashed it. "He thinks he' s so much better than us just because his parents have money," Brody declared, manipulating the crowd. Chloe' s eyes blazed. I felt a sharp sting as she slapped me, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. Helpless, I watched as she grabbed a bottle of sticky red liqueur and upended it over my head. Laughter and jeers erupted, phones flashing, recording my humiliation. Then, I saw it: Brody wore my mother' s hand-carved wooden bird necklace, a sacred link to her memory. "Chloe gave it to me. Said it was just some trinket she found lying around. A good luck charm." "It' s a cheap piece of wood. Stop making a scene over nothing. You' re embarrassing yourself." My mother' s last gift, the most precious thing I owned, dismissed as "nothing." A raw, desperate cry escaped me. "That was my mother' s. It was a gift from my dead mother!" Her face went dead white. "You shut your mouth!" she shrieked, striking my head. Brody whispered to Chloe, eyes on my open laptop. "His laptop is still on. The application portal is still open." My college applications. My future. "NO!" I screamed, struggling against the men holding me. "Don' t you touch that!" But I was forced to watch as Chloe, with a cruel smile, clicked, erasing my Yale application, my entire dream. "This is Yale," she snarled, holding up my laptop before letting it smash to the floor. A piece of the broken screen sliced my cheek, the warm trickle of blood a final punctuation. "The application deadline is in fifteen minutes," Brody chimed. "Tough luck, man." Hope died. "Lock him in the basement until morning." The basement. My deepest, primal fear. "Chloe, no. Please. Not the basement. Do anything else. Please!" I begged, dignity gone. But Brody' s whisper sealed my fate: "He' ll ruin everything." Chloe' s eyes hardened to stone. "Do it." They dragged me, struggling, pleading, towards the yawning black maw. I tumbled down the creaking stairs, landing on the cold, damp concrete. The door slammed shut above me. The click of the lock echoed in the suffocating darkness. I woke in a hospital bed, Maria, our housekeeper, explaining she' d found me. My parents burst in, back from Paris. "I' m so sorry we let this happen. We brought a monster into our home. Into your life." "It' s okay, Dad. She didn' t ruin anything." "I got my acceptance letter from Juilliard two months ago. A full scholarship." The only thing Chloe destroyed last night was the last bit of affection I had for her. Thousands of miles away, Chloe' s card was declined. She tried to call me. Voicemail. She tried again. Voicemail. She swore I was playing games. Meanwhile, at Juilliard, I stood on stage. "You are the protagonist of your own life. Don' t ever let anyone else hold the pen." Chloe Adams, abandoned and broke, would keep waiting for me to come crawling back.

Introduction

For seven years, I lived in Chloe Adams' s shadow, the architect of her fame, ghostwriting her witty captions and composing jingles, content to be the loyal friend.

Then, at her engagement party, Chloe announced her new brand deal, her arm linked with reality TV star Brody Hayes.

"It' s time for you to find your own spotlight, you know? Away from me."

Her casual dismissal, meant to be a gentle nudge, landed like a physical blow, firing me from her life.

Everyone in the room watched, waiting for me to nod, to accept my role as Chloe' s devoted groupie.

But something inside me snapped.

"No," I said, the word cutting through the celebratory hum like glass.

Chloe' s perfect smile faltered.

"I' m just done. Done writing your posts, done composing your jingles, done being your shadow."

Her face blotched red, the gracious influencer replaced by a furious toddler.

"You can' t be 'done' !" she hissed. "I' m not done with you!"

I thought I was finally free, but her fury escalated. She shoved me, then roared, "Your parents gave me a key years ago, remember? What' s yours is mine."

I rushed home to find my sanctuary invaded, my studio defiled.

A stranger strummed my grandfather' s prized vintage Martin guitar, another giggled, scrolling through my private files.

Rage burned through me. As I called 911, Brody snatched my phone and smashed it.

"He thinks he' s so much better than us just because his parents have money," Brody declared, manipulating the crowd.

Chloe' s eyes blazed. I felt a sharp sting as she slapped me, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth.

Helpless, I watched as she grabbed a bottle of sticky red liqueur and upended it over my head.

Laughter and jeers erupted, phones flashing, recording my humiliation.

Then, I saw it: Brody wore my mother' s hand-carved wooden bird necklace, a sacred link to her memory.

"Chloe gave it to me. Said it was just some trinket she found lying around. A good luck charm."

"It' s a cheap piece of wood. Stop making a scene over nothing. You' re embarrassing yourself."

My mother' s last gift, the most precious thing I owned, dismissed as "nothing."

A raw, desperate cry escaped me. "That was my mother' s. It was a gift from my dead mother!"

Her face went dead white. "You shut your mouth!" she shrieked, striking my head.

Brody whispered to Chloe, eyes on my open laptop. "His laptop is still on. The application portal is still open."

My college applications. My future.

"NO!" I screamed, struggling against the men holding me. "Don' t you touch that!"

But I was forced to watch as Chloe, with a cruel smile, clicked, erasing my Yale application, my entire dream.

"This is Yale," she snarled, holding up my laptop before letting it smash to the floor.

A piece of the broken screen sliced my cheek, the warm trickle of blood a final punctuation.

"The application deadline is in fifteen minutes," Brody chimed. "Tough luck, man."

Hope died.

"Lock him in the basement until morning."

The basement. My deepest, primal fear.

"Chloe, no. Please. Not the basement. Do anything else. Please!" I begged, dignity gone.

But Brody' s whisper sealed my fate: "He' ll ruin everything."

Chloe' s eyes hardened to stone. "Do it."

They dragged me, struggling, pleading, towards the yawning black maw.

I tumbled down the creaking stairs, landing on the cold, damp concrete.

The door slammed shut above me.

The click of the lock echoed in the suffocating darkness.

I woke in a hospital bed, Maria, our housekeeper, explaining she' d found me. My parents burst in, back from Paris.

"I' m so sorry we let this happen. We brought a monster into our home. Into your life."

"It' s okay, Dad. She didn' t ruin anything."

"I got my acceptance letter from Juilliard two months ago. A full scholarship."

The only thing Chloe destroyed last night was the last bit of affection I had for her.

Thousands of miles away, Chloe' s card was declined. She tried to call me. Voicemail. She tried again. Voicemail.

She swore I was playing games.

Meanwhile, at Juilliard, I stood on stage. "You are the protagonist of your own life. Don' t ever let anyone else hold the pen."

Chloe Adams, abandoned and broke, would keep waiting for me to come crawling back.

Continue Reading

Other books by Norrra

More
The Fixer's Secret: Taming My Husband

The Fixer's Secret: Taming My Husband

Modern

5.0

I spent three years playing the role of the perfect, silent wife to Julian Sterling, the most volatile billionaire in Manhattan. To the world, I was just a socialite; in reality, I was a high-stakes crisis negotiator known as "The Fixer," living a double life to survive a marriage that was nothing more than a cold, clinical contract. The illusion shattered when Julian publicly humiliated me at his private club, flaunting his mistress while his mother issued a brutal ultimatum: produce an heir by next week, or my family's remaining assets would be wiped out. But the true betrayal lay hidden in a secret file in my parents' safe. I wasn't chosen for love or status; I was a "genetic stabilizer," a biological filter purchased to breed the mental instability out of the Sterling bloodline. My own parents had sold me like a lab rat, trading my life to unfreeze their bank accounts. Julian treated me like a "slab of meat" while chasing the ghost of a woman named Seraphina, and my mother-in-law viewed my womb as nothing more than a corporate asset. I realized then that every person I had ever trusted had placed a bounty on my DNA. "I'm not jealous, Julian," I told him as he pinned me down in a hospital room, his eyes wild with the Sterling madness. "I'm just the one holding the bill." When a secret request came in for a "ghost negotiator" to defend Sterling Industries against a hostile takeover, I didn't turn it down. They had no idea that the elite specialist they were hiring to save their empire was the same wife they had spent years trying to break. I'm done being the cure for this family. This time, I'm the poison, and I'm going to make sure they pay every cent they owe me.

From Rejected Omega To The Royal White Wolf

From Rejected Omega To The Royal White Wolf

Werewolf

5.0

I stood in the rain, watching my ex-mate place fresh white roses next to a toxic silver chain on my headstone. The epitaph read *Beloved Daughter*, which was laughable. Five years ago, I called my father from a mangled car wreckage, bleeding out. Instead of sending an ambulance, he asked if the car was salvageable. Then Clayton took the phone. He didn't offer help. He used the Alpha Command to reject me while I was dying, all because I was a "weak" wolf and his new favorite, Ainsley, needed his attention. They left me to die in the gutter to protect their reputation. Tonight, I walked into their desperate charity gala, wearing a dress worth more than their entire failing pack. My father didn't weep with relief at my resurrection. He looked at me like a stain on his carpet. "You ungrateful brat!" my aunt shrieked, slapping me across the face hard enough to draw blood. "You were supposed to stay dead! You're ruining Ainsley's night!" They signaled security to dump me in the alley, thinking I was still the powerless girl they broke. They didn't notice the air in the ballroom turn heavy with ozone. They didn't feel the crushing weight of a true predator entering the room. Until the double doors exploded inward. A man with eyes like molten gold stepped through the dust, his terrifying aura forcing every wolf in the room to their knees. He looked at the red mark on my cheek and let out a roar that shook the chandeliers. "WHO TOUCHED MY MATE?!" My father trembled on the floor, looking between the enraged Alpha King and me. "Mate? But... she is nothing." I smiled, my eyes flashing silver. "Hello, husband," I whispered. "Let the execution begin."

Too Late For Regret: My Lost Heir

Too Late For Regret: My Lost Heir

Modern

5.0

I spent three years being the perfect, quiet wife to Julian Sterling, dimming my own light to fit into his cold Manhattan penthouse. On our anniversary, I sat in the dark with a secret that would change our lives forever—I was finally pregnant with the heir he always wanted. But Julian didn't come home to celebrate. He threw divorce papers on the table and told me his first love, Harper, was dying of stage four cancer. "It is her last wish," Julian said, his voice cold and detached. "She wants to be Mrs. Sterling before she dies. It is the only thing she has ever wanted." I signed the papers and walked away without taking a dime of his billions, but fate wasn't done with me. A few days later, our paths crossed in a crowded hospital lobby. Julian, blinded by his need to protect Harper from the paparazzi, saw me as an obstacle in their way. To clear a path for her, he shoved me aside with enough force to send me flying. I hit the sharp corner of a marble desk and collapsed. As I lay on the floor, I watched Julian hesitate for a fraction of a second before choosing to comfort a wailing Harper instead of helping me. He held her hand while I bled out on the cold stone, losing the child he never even knew I was carrying. In the operating room, the truth finally came to light: Harper wasn't dying. She was faking her symptoms with bribes and stage makeup, and Julian had sacrificed his own son’s life for a performance. When he showed up at my bedside crying and begging for a second chance, I realized that the woman he married was gone. I pulled off my platinum wedding ring and dropped it onto the metal tray with a hollow clink. "Take it," I whispered. "It is too heavy. I cannot carry it anymore." Julian thinks he has lost a wife, but he has actually created a storm. I am no longer the quiet girl he broke; I am a Vanderbilt, and I am going to burn his entire world to the ground for what he did to my baby.

Betrayal's Cost: A Husband's Revenge

Betrayal's Cost: A Husband's Revenge

Billionaires

5.0

Ethan Hayes was in a late-night board meeting, his tech empire soaring, built on logic and precision. Meanwhile, his beautiful socialite wife, Amelia, was at another party, her laughter echoing, a champagne flute always in hand. He valued loyalty; she had other agendas. That night, a tagged photo on social media confirmed his long-held dread: Amelia, head on a younger man's shoulder, Leo Vance, an art student. This wasn't the first time, but it was the most blatant betrayal. He drove to their penthouse, only to find Amelia and Leo tangled on the couch, laughing. "Ethan. You're home early." Her voice was cool, dismissive. "Don't be scared, Leo. He won't do anything," she whispered, loud enough for him to hear. The final nail in the coffin of their marriage. The next day, what little rage he expected to feel was absent. Just cold clarity. He was done pretending. He met Dr. Maya Sharma, an astrophysics candidate his foundation was sponsoring. Brilliant, resilient, and unfairly defunded. "The truth is, your funding was specifically pulled and given to another, less promising project. Why did you lie about that?" He pressed. Maya confessed her funding went to Leo Vance, because Amelia, on the university board, had pulled strings. The humiliation deepened when he found Leo Vance, Amelia's lover, smugly preening in his private closet, wearing his silk robe. "She said you wouldn't mind. That you're used to sharing." The insult, casually delivered, hit harder than any blow. He wanted to scream. He was a man who valued control, and Amelia had turned him into a spectacle in his own home. He had become a stranger, an invisible guest. He had endured her betrayals for years, choosing convenience over self-respect, and now he was paying the price. But a new path had opened. He funded Maya' s project, and with a cold, calculated smile, set a plan in motion to reclaim his life. "Enjoy the penthouse," he' d told Amelia. "I won't be needing it anymore." This was his fight, and he was ready.

Father's Day: A Slap In Public

Father's Day: A Slap In Public

Modern

5.0

Father' s Day usually means family, gifts, and forced smiles. As an architect, I build strong foundations, but my relationship with my father felt like glass. This year, I was going to his studio apartment, not just with a gift, but to retrieve my mother' s vintage watch-the last thing I had of hers. But before I even got inside, a call shattered the fragile peace. "Brenda," my father' s new, live-in girlfriend, was already on the offensive. She claimed the watch was hers, a "payment" for her "service." My father, when I finally reached him, only sighed-that familiar, weary sound of avoidance. He defended her, told me to calm down, and refused to get involved. "Just… not today, Olivia. Let' s not fight on Father' s Day." The humiliation only escalated a few days later, at my daughter Lily' s elementary school art fair. Brenda and her sullen son, Chad, launched a public attack, accusing me of trying to steal from my "poor, sick father." Their performance drew stares and whispers, painting me as the heartless, ungrateful daughter. Then, with my daughter trembling by my leg, Brenda threw herself to the ground, screaming that I had pushed her. Chad lunged, ready to strike, but my husband, Mark, intervened. Just as I was trying to leave, Brenda grabbed my ankle, shrieking, "You' re not going anywhere!" Suddenly, my father appeared. Relief surged, thinking he would stop this madness, defend me. Instead, he rushed to Brenda' s side, asking, "Are you okay, my love?" Then, his eyes cold with disappointment, he turned to me. "Olivia, how could you do this to Brenda?" -and he slapped me. In public. In front of my daughter. As I stood there, reeling, Brenda, clinging to his arm, cooed, "Tell her, darling, tell your ungrateful daughter the truth." My father looked at me, his face hard, unforgiving. "Brenda is not my girlfriend, Olivia," he declared. "She' s my wife. We got married last month." The world tilted. My own mother' s watch, a wedding gift to this woman? He actually looked me in the eye and said, "If you want to remain my daughter, you will respect my wife and you will forget about that watch." "Or you can keep fighting, and you can consider yourself disowned," he paused, letting the threat hang. "The choice is yours." A cold, clear calm settled over me. There was nothing left to fight for. I pulled out my phone, opened my banking app, and looked him dead in the eye. "How much is it worth?" I asked. "The watch. How much do you want for it? Name a price. I' ll buy it from your wife." His face went pale as Brenda whispered a price in his ear. "Fifty thousand dollars," he choked out. "Done," I said, showing him the confirmation screen. "For my own mother' s watch. Now it' s mine again." The gift, the illusion, the pretense of family-all gone. My father made his choice. Now, it was time for me to make mine.

You'll also like

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Gujian Qitan
5.0

I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.

The 5-time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King

The 5-time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King

Stina's Pen
4.9

COALESCENCE OF THE FIVE SERIES BOOK ONE: THE 5-TIME REJECTED GAMMA & THE LYCAN KING BOOK TWO: THE ROGUES WHO WENT ROGUE BOOK THREE: THE INDOMITABLE HUNTRESS & THE HARDENED DUKE *** BOOK ONE: After being rejected by 5 mates, Gamma Lucianne pleaded with the Moon Goddess to spare her from any further mate-bonds. To her dismay, she is being bonded for the sixth time. What's worse is that her sixth-chance mate is the most powerful creature ruling over all werewolves and Lycans - the Lycan King himself. She is certain, dead certain, that a rejection would come sooner or later, though she hopes for it to be sooner. King Alexandar was ecstatic to meet his bonded mate, and couldn't thank their Goddess enough for gifting him someone so perfect. However, he soon realizes that this gift is reluctant to accept him, and more than willing to sever their bond. He tries to connect with her but she seems so far away. He is desperate to get intimate with her but she seems reluctant to open up to him. He tries to tell her that he is willing to commit to her for the rest of his life but she doesn't seem to believe him. He is pleading for a chance: a chance to get to know her; a chance to show her that he's different; and a chance to love her. But when not-so-subtle crushes, jealous suitors, self-entitled Queen-wannabes, an old flame, a silent protector and a past wedding engagement threaten to jeopardize their relationship, will Lucianne and Xandar still choose to be together? Is their love strong enough to overcome everything and everyone? Or will Lucianne resort to enduring a sixth rejection from the one person she thought she could entrust her heart with?

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

Catherine
5.0

I spent four hours preparing a five-course meal for our fifth anniversary. When Jackson finally walked into the penthouse an hour late, he didn't even look at the table. He just dropped a thick Manila envelope in front of me and told me he was done. He said his stepsister, Davida, was getting worse and needed "stability." I wasn't his wife; I was a placeholder, a temporary fix he used until the woman he actually loved was ready to take my place. Jackson didn't just want a divorce; he wanted to erase me. He called me a "proprietary asset," claiming that every design I had created to save his empire belonged to him. He froze my bank accounts, cut off my phone, and told me I’d be nothing without his name. Davida even called me from her hospital bed to flaunt the family heirloom ring Jackson claimed was lost, mocking me for being "baggage" that was finally being cleared out. I stood in our empty home, realizing I had spent five years being a martyr for a man who saw me as a transaction. I couldn't understand how he could be so blind to the monster he was protecting, or how he could discard me so coldly after I had given him everything. I grabbed my hidden sketchbook, shredded our wedding portrait, and walked out into the rain. I dialed a number I hadn't touched in years—a dangerous man known as The Surgeon who dealt in debts and shadows. I told him I was ready to pay his price. Jackson and Davida wanted to steal my identity, but I was about to show the world the literal scars they had left behind.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book