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My boyfriend called, "Baby!" as he jumped out of bed and scrambled to pull his pants off the ground. "Please, I can explain my love." Shutting my eyes, I inhaled deeply and tried not to cry when I realized that my dream of the man not being my boyfriend had been dashed. "What?" I asked, "What do you want to explain?" How did you lie about having a business meeting while you were in bed enjoying yourself with my best friend, even though I told you I was in serious pain, is that it?" I stood there, my heart pounding, and tears streaming down my face...
Ariana Cole stepped out of her car, her body aching from exhaustion. The dull throb in her abdomen reminded her of the pain she had been enduring all day, a sharp contrast to the warmth and comfort she had hoped to find in Liam's arms. She had called him earlier, her voice weak as she told him about her worsening condition. He had sounded rushed, dismissive even, as he claimed he was in a "business meeting" that couldn't be interrupted.
Now, standing in front of his penthouse door, something felt... off.
She reached for the handle, the key in her grip slick with sweat. She hesitated. The air was eerily silent, except for the faint hum of the city beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. Then-
A muffled giggle.
Ariana's heart clenched. She knew that sound. Knew it intimately. It was a laugh she had heard a thousand times over late-night cocktails, whispered secrets, and inside jokes.
Sienna.
Ariana's breathing shallowed. She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to turn the key. The lock clicked open, the sound slicing through the silence like a warning shot.
She stepped inside.
The penthouse smelled of lavender and musk-a scent she didn't recognize. The living room was dim, only the glow from the city lights illuminating the sleek furniture. Her pulse thundered in her ears as she took slow, deliberate steps toward the bedroom.
A quiet moan. A breathless whisper. Sheets rustling.
Her vision blurred at the edges, her stomach churning. Still, she moved forward, the pull of truth stronger than her dread.
The bedroom door was slightly ajar. Through the narrow gap, she saw movement-bare skin against silk sheets, limbs entwined. A low, intimate chuckle. Liam's chuckle.
The room tilted. Ariana gripped the doorframe, her fingers digging into the wood. Her breath came in uneven gasps, a storm raging inside her, but she refused to crumble. Not yet. Not before she saw.
With a final surge of determination, she pushed the door open.
Time slowed.
There, tangled in the bed she had once considered her sanctuary, were Liam and Sienna.
Sienna's head was thrown back, her golden hair fanned out on the pillows like a mockery of innocence. Liam hovered over her, his bare back shifting as he pressed kisses along her collarbone. The sheets were a mess of tangled limbs, silk against sweat-slicked skin.
For a split second, neither of them noticed her. And for that split second, Ariana's world crumbled.
The man she had loved for years. The best friend she had trusted with everything. Together. Like this.
Then Sienna's eyes fluttered open.
Ariana saw it-the moment realization struck, the split-second widening of her pupils, the flicker of horror before she scrambled away, clutching the sheets to her chest.
"Liam!" Sienna gasped, shoving at his shoulder.
Liam turned, confusion morphing into panic when he saw Ariana standing there. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again, as if scrambling for an explanation.
"Ariana-"
She laughed. A sharp, humorless sound that burned in her throat.
"Wow," she whispered, stepping further into the room. "This is... unbelievable."
Liam shot out of bed, yanking the sheet around his waist. "Baby, this-this isn't what it looks like."
Ariana arched a brow, arms crossing over her chest to keep from shaking. "Oh? Because it looks like my boyfriend is screwing my best friend while I was out dealing with excruciating pain and thought I could count on him."
Sienna flinched. "Ari, please-"
"Shut up," Ariana snapped, her voice shaking. "Just... shut up."
She turned to Liam. "What do you want to explain? How you lied about your 'business meeting' while you were busy with her? Or how, when I called you earlier, barely able to stand from pain, you barely pretended to care?" Her voice cracked, but she refused to cry.
Liam raked a hand through his hair, his movements frantic. "I-I made a mistake."
Ariana laughed again, but this time, there was venom laced in every syllable. "A mistake?"
Liam took a step toward her, his eyes desperate. "Baby, listen, I swear to you, this meant nothing. It was-"
"Meaningless?" she interrupted, shaking her head. "You expect me to believe that? My best friend? In our bed?"
Sienna whimpered, still clinging to the sheets. "Ariana, please, you have to understand-"
"Oh, I understand perfectly," Ariana said, her voice calm now. Too calm.
Sienna's lip trembled. "I never wanted to hurt you."
Ariana's gaze locked onto hers, cold and unforgiving. "But you did. You both did."
Silence hung between them, heavy and suffocating. Liam's face was twisted in guilt, but there was something else lurking beneath the surface-fear.
Good.
Ariana took a step closer instead of leaving. She wanted to see them squirm. Wanted them to feel even a fraction of the humiliation and pain that clawed at her chest.
She tilted her head, studying Liam. "How long?"
His lips parted, hesitation flickering in his eyes.
"Don't lie," she warned, voice razor-sharp.
Liam swallowed hard. "Ariana, please-"
"How long?" she demanded, her voice rising.
Sienna let out a quiet sob. "It just happened-"
"Liar," Ariana spat, her gaze snapping to her. "How long, Sienna?"
Sienna shrank under her glare, her fingers tightening around the sheets. "A few months..."
Ariana sucked in a sharp breath, her hands clenching into fists. Months. Not days. Not weeks. Months.
She felt something inside her snap. The last fragile thread holding her together burned away into nothing.
A slow, eerie smile curled her lips. "You know what? I should be grateful."
Liam's brows knitted. "What are you talking about?"
Ariana let out a small, humorless chuckle. "I was blind. So, so blind. And now? You've both given me clarity."
She walked over to the nightstand, grabbing Liam's expensive Rolex-the one she had bought for his last birthday. She held it up, inspecting it as if it were some foreign object, then with a flick of her wrist, she hurled it across the room.
It smashed against the wall.
Sienna yelped. Liam flinched.
Ariana stepped forward, her gaze burning. "You don't get to explain. You don't get to beg. You had your chance, Liam. You too, Sienna."
Her voice dipped lower, chilling. "I want you both to remember this moment. Because I will. And when you least expect it... I'll remind you what betrayal feels like."
Sienna trembled. Liam opened his mouth, but for once, he had no words.
Good.
Ariana turned away, but this time, she wasn't retreating. No, she was planning.
She wasn't leaving yet.
Not until she had all the information she needed to destroy them both.
Lia Rivera is tired of being tongue-tied, blushing, and falling over herself every time Ethan Park walks by. So, she comes up with a brilliant (read: terrible) idea: humiliate herself enough in front of him until she's cured of her feelings. But as she dives headfirst into Operation Uncrush, things spiral - instead of pushing Ethan away, she accidentally becomes the weirdly endearing girl he can't stop thinking about. Now she's stuck between actually getting over him... or falling harder than ever.
Betrayed. Humiliated. Left with nothing but a shattered reputation. When Serena Lancaster, once the darling of high society, is publicly cast aside by her ex-fiancé, she swears never to let another man have power over her. Desperate to rebuild her life, she takes a job at Weston Sinclair's empire-the one man who has every reason to despise her ex. Cold. Ruthless. Untouchable. Weston built his billion-dollar legacy on control, and falling for his reckless nephew's ex is the last thing he should do. But from the moment Serena steps into his world, she becomes his obsession-one he refuses to deny. He should keep his distance. He should let her go. But when Serena's past threatens to destroy her, Weston makes a choice. She's his now. And he'll never let her go.
"Where am I?" She whispered desperately " If I am reborn...I won't have mercy on those evil scums" Then a flash of bright light......
After three years of loveless marriage, Kira was slapped with divorce papers. She has shown him her unrequited love throughout her entire marriage with him, but he decided to turn blind eyes all because of his lover. Distraught and heartbroken, Kira choose to sign the divorce papers with bitter heart. But then and there, she promised herself that when she's back, he will come crawling to her, but she will make him pay for hurting her. Join Kira as she transform to a wealthy heiress and soared as the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar empire, a remarkable healer and make her ex-husband pay!
"I've warned you from the beginning. Don't marry him, but you won't listen." Darcy stood close to me and smiled with concern. "You're not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze." My whole body trembled at her words. "Have you no shame?" I asked. "Take a good look at yourself, Heather." She stared at me in the mirror. "You can't even glance at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of gazing at that scar?" Heather Bailey got a surprise from her husband: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn't believe Blaze intended to divorce her. She was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman. After signing the divorce papers, shockwaves caught her up. Her flower shop was burned to the ground. Her father's company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers from influential families, she started her revenge on Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted, but that was just the beginning.
When Zora was sick during the early days of her pregnancy, Ezrah was with his first love, Piper. When Zora got into an accident and called Ezrah, he said he was busy, when in actual fact, he was buying shoes for Piper. Zora lost her baby because of the accident, and throughout her stay at the hospital, Ezrah never showed up. She already knew that he didn't love her, but that was the last straw for the camel's back, and her fragile heart could not take it anymore. When Ezrah arrived home a few days after Zora was discharged from the hospital, he no longer met the woman who always greeted him with a smile and cared for him. Zora stood at the top of the stairs and yelled with a cold expression, "Good news, Ezrah! Our baby died in a car accident. There is nothing between us anymore, so let's get a divorce." The man who claimed not to have any feelings for Zora, being cold and distant towards her, and having asked her for a divorce twice, instantly panicked.
Lindsey's fiancé was the devil's first son. Not only did he lie to her but he also slept with her stepmother, conspired to take away her family fortune, and then set her up to have sex with a total stranger. To get her lick back, Lindsey decided to find a man to disrupt her engagement party and humiliate the cheating bastard. Never did she imagine that she would bump into a strikingly handsome stranger who was all that she was currently looking for. At the engagement party, he boldly declared that she was his woman. Lindsey thought he was just a broke man who wanted to leech off her. But once they began their fake relationship, she realized that good luck kept coming her way. She thought they would part ways after the engagement party, but this man kept to her side. "We gotta stick together, Lindsey. Remember, I'm now your fiancé. " "Domenic, you're with me because of my money, aren't you?" Lindsey asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Domenic was taken aback by that accusation. How could he, the heir of the Walsh family and CEO of Vitality Group, be with her for money? He controlled more than half of the city's economy. Money wasn't a problem for him! The two got closer and closer. One day, Lindsey finally realized that Domenic was actually the stranger she had slept with months ago. Would this realization change things between them? For the better or worse?
Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."
"Sign the divorce papers and get out!" Leanna got married to pay a debt, but she was betrayed by her husband and shunned by her in-laws. Seeing that her efforts were in vain, she agreed to divorce and claimed her half of the properties. With her purse plump from the settlement, Leanna enjoyed her newfound freedom. The constant harassment from her ex's mistress never fazed her. She took back her identities as top hacker, champion racer, medical professor, and renowned jewelry designer. Then someone discovered her secret. Matthew smiled. "Will you have me as your next husband?"