How Does Countess End?

I’m Tessa Dean, the true heiress of the wealthiest family in United States! This time around, I’m gonna make both of you pieces of shit pay the price! On my wedding anniversary, I walked into my home carrying groceries and hope. Minutes later, a photograph destroyed my marriage. “You’ll seduce my brother whenever I’m away on business, right?” Curtis spat, his fingers tightening around my throat. “You’re such a whore!” I was pregnant. I was trembling. And I was innocent. But in the Deveraux family, truth means nothing—status means everything. Lauren, the woman who was meant to marry my husband, stepped forward with that calm, polished smile. “I’ll give you one day to divorce Curtis and leave Deveraux Manor.” Before I could defend myself, I was pushed. I hit the table. Blood spread across the tiles. At the hospital, I begged, “Please save my child.” My baby died. At the cemetery, Curtis looked at me with hatred in his eyes. “Who’s the father of this bastard?” When he poured my son’s ashes over my kneeling body, something inside me broke. But not completely. I’ll return and make them pieces of shit crawl on their knees and beg for mercy!

Sold by her family. Betrayed by her fiancé. Scorned by the world as a "Contaminated Ghost." Evelyn Carter was supposed to die in the dark. Instead, she survived—and she didn’t come back alone. She returned with a secret fortune and a marriage to the city’s most dangerous man: Dr. Lucien Hale. He is a cold-blooded genius who keeps the elite in a chokehold. He was never supposed to love anyone, yet he kneels at the feet of the woman everyone else rejected. Now, the hunt begins. Evelyn doesn't want her life back. She wants her family’s empire in ashes. And with Lucien by her side, she won't just get revenge. She’ll take the throne. "Touch her again," Lucien smiles at her enemies, "and I'll show you how a surgeon dismantles a soul."

Learning who the countess is may be one thing. But falling in love with her brings so much more. With people begging to be part of the harem, it is only a matter of time before Wyatt discovers what is behind the enchantress known as the Countess, and why people are dying, literally, to be part of her world.

Isis Lancaster doesn’t take no for an answer. A Spanish Count born into nobility and the ruthless heir to a powerful mafia. He was raised to believe that those without royal blood are beneath him, and that control comes from lies, deception, and a perfect mask. He mastered the art of pretending… until she arrived. Suddenly, the rules no longer applied. The walls around his heart began to crumble. His carefully constructed world, one built on power, fear, and loyalty, turned upside down, and the man who always got what he wanted found himself powerless before the one woman who could break him completely.

The day my brother, Chester Rodney, came to the orphanage to take me home, my boyfriend Dominic Huxley looked at me coldly and said, "If you choose to acknowledge your birth family, we're over." I knew he had his pride—he could never accept the difference in our social standing. So, for him, I turned my back on the family I had yearned for my whole life. In the decades that followed, I toiled without complaint, saving every cent to help him rise to success. By the time I was not yet fifty, overwork had worn me down. Lying on my deathbed, my breathing shallow and weak, I watched Dominic on television. He was now an acclaimed scientist, just awarded the nation's highest research honor. Tears welled in his eyes as he thanked another woman. "All these years," he said, "I never felt worthy of Alicia. But now, maybe I can use this award as the prologue to a love I've owed her for decades." The "Alicia" he spoke of was the woman mistakenly switched with me at birth—the false heiress the Rodney family raised as their own. The camera zoomed out. Alicia Rodney stood radiant, graceful, and perfectly preserved by years of luxury, blushing as she accepted the trophy. "I waited for you for decades," she said sweetly, "but marriage is still something I'll need to ask my brother about." Chester, who had long taken over the family, looked at her with an indulgent tenderness tinged with something unspoken. "I was adopted by our uncle back then for one reason—to protect Alicia. Making the only princess of the Rodney family happy has always been my life's mission." Only then did I realize—everything I thought I had chosen freely, every sacrifice I made without regret, was nothing but a trap, carefully woven by two men, all for Alicia. The betrayal pierced my heart. I died without peace. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Chester came to take me home from the orphanage. I glanced past the two men eyeing me with subtle disdain. Without hesitation, I stepped into the car. "Take me home," I said. This time, I'd send whoever stole my life back to the gutter they slithered from.

The day I learned the truth about my husband, Duke Alistair, and his adopted sister, Liana, I left. I abandoned my title, my home, and returned to my father's palace. A year passed. Then came news of chaos in the duchy. The servant Alistair sent spoke with desperation, “Your Highness, the Duke and your son are lost to reason. If you don’t return, I fear they will burn everything to the ground.” I looked at the blood I'd coughed onto my handkerchief. I nodded. "Fine. I'll go back." The doctor had already given me my diagnosis. Consumption. I had only a month left to live. So I went back. And I played the part of the perfect duchess. I no longer demanded Alistair's loyalty. I even found him three new mistresses who looked just like Liana and sent them to his bed after he had sent her away for me. I no longer made Damian study the arts of statecraft and not forced him to master his courtly duties. Instead, I supported his ridiculous dream of joining the Expeditionary Force. I took the pain they gave me. I wrapped it in the "understanding" they always craved. And I served it back to them cold. But it drove Alistair mad. He threw out the mistresses. He crushed me in his arms. His kiss was a punishment. He bit my lip, drawing blood. "I sent Liana away! What more do you want from me? How can I earn your forgiveness?" Damian cried and clung to my arm. "I'll never call Aunt Liana 'gentle' or 'beautiful' again! Mother, please. Just stop." They didn't understand. I wasn't making a scene. I just wanted to live out my last month in peace. And then, I wanted to die.