Bittersweet Morgan Elizabeth

After another one of Winifred Clayton's dramatic suicide threats, Edgar Snider secretly starts a relationship with her behind my back under one condition—I can never find out about it. He says, "I can be with you, but Wanda is everything to me. Whatever happens between us, she can never know." Winifred pretends to agree. Then, she sends me a video of her and Edgar living together, my son included. "No matter what happens, Edgar will never leave me. So stop deluding yourself—you were never a match for me." What she doesn't know is that I never plan to compete. In just one month, I'll be on a flight to Avernia, gone from Edgar's life for good.

On the day Raina Whitmore makes the Helios Rich List, she smiles for the cameras and declares, "I wouldn't be here without my secretary, Kieran Vale. He's the most important person in my life." While she confesses her love in the interview, I lie in a hospital bed, worn out and fading. I'm her husband, the one who's held her company together all these years. But I don't get a single word of thanks. My daughter, Talia Hart, even looks at me with pure disdain. "Dad, you've held Mom and Uncle Kieran back long enough. It's time you let go and let them be together." Rage surges through me. My chest tightens, and everything goes black. When I open my eyes, I'm back 30 years earlier, standing in the Whitmore residence to choose my fiancee. This time, I don't hesitate. I skip right over Raina and choose her aunt, Elara Whitmore.

I was the true-born Luna heir, mistakenly switched at birth, while another had been raised in my place. When I was thirteen, my birth pack found me, bringing me home after a lifetime of being misplaced. But instead of the happiness I deserved, I was met with nothing but betrayal. My birth parents favored their adopted daughter over me. My destined Alpha was stolen by my so-called sister. The Beta mate who saved me from despair turned out to be part of a carefully laid scheme. Unloved by my own parents. Provoked by my sister. Abandoned by my Alpha. Deceived by my Beta. Happiness was never meant for me—so why should any of you have it? Since I can't have it, I choose to leave;

I married Emory, my fated mate. But he never loved me. His first love, Ophelia, was stricken with the Lunar Blight. Her dying wish, she said, was to have a mating ceremony with Emory, to become his Luna. I refused. From that day on, to Emory and our son Leo, I was nothing but a selfish, cruel woman. Leo would intentionally feed me things I was allergic to. He’d pretend to get lost during the winter hunt, leaving me to search for him in a blizzard for a day and a night until I nearly died… It was all to keep me from disturbing Emory and Ophelia. So when he started crying and throwing a tantrum, demanding I go catch him a Silver-Frost Rabbit from the dangerous depths of the forest at night, I finally said no. “You don’t have to keep making me sick anymore,” I told him. “I won’t bother your father and Ophelia again.” Because I’m terminally ill. My wolf is fading. I’m going to die soon.

"Take off your clothes. Spread your legs." "...What? Why?" The voice cut through the silence, and my heart seized. I instinctively covered my stomach. It was the first anniversary of my marriage to Alessandro, the Don of the Santoro family. I was pregnant and had wanted to surprise him. But his secretary, Liliana, had blindfolded me and brought me to this unfamiliar place. "Donna, stop playing the victim. Seducing men is your specialty, isn't it?" "Tonight, in this underground auction house, you are the final item on the block." A chill shot down my spine, and my voice trembled. "Are you insane? I'm the Donna of the Santoro family! I'm carrying his heir! Alessandro will kill you..." Liliana scoffed and ripped off my blindfold. Blinding lights bore down on me. I squinted, and gradually, a man sitting in the VIP section came into view... It was Alessandro! I stared in disbelief as he slowly extinguished the cigar in his hand. "Pregnant? Whose bastard are you carrying?" "It's yours!" I cried out. "Liar!" He raised his hand, and a report was tossed at my feet. The bold letters "PROBABILITY OF PATERNITY: 0%" burned my eyes. He came closer and gripped my chin. "Liliana was right. Women like you are rotten to the core." "My love was never enough to satisfy your greed." "And I, Alessandro, will never raise another man's bastard." Later, he finally learned the child was his. For the first time, the man who was always so composed, arrogant, and in control knelt before me, his voice trembling. "Celeste, I'm begging you... even if you can't forgive me, please, let me make it up to you." But I felt nothing for him anymore.

I never expected my husband, Tony Baldino, to confess that he had cheated on me again. Six months ago, I discovered his affair. The pain was sharp, but I had resolutely signed the divorce papers, only for him to tear them up in desperation, crying at my doorstep through the rain. He swore he would never hide anything from me again, begging for a second chance. Soaked and humiliated, the high-and-mighty don of the Baldino family looked like a child abandoned by his own. Seeing him and feeling the life growing in my womb, I softened and forgave him. However, only half a year later, he betrayed me once more. This time, before I could discover it, he confessed. “It only happened once with Jane. You’re still the one I love. Don’t worry, she won’t take your place as Mrs. Baldino.” His honesty was intact. He hid nothing from me. Yet he had forgotten one thing. When we reconciled, I had made him a promise of my own. “Tony, you should understand by now that I am decisive. Once I make a decision, I will never return. I’d even vanish from your life. This time is the only exception.” Since he refuses to divorce me, I will disappear in another way.

"I agree to the divorce," I said as I dialed my mother-in-law's number. "Matteo Bellandi will never agree to divorce me, so you need to arrange a new identity for me. I need to disappear completely. He must never find me." Despite six years of marriage, I never conceived a child. In the Mafia world, how many men remarried for the sake of an heir? Yet Matteo always stood firmly at my side. To have a child, we tried everything—ninety-nine rounds of IVF that resulted in ninety-eight failures. The final pregnancy ended in fetal demise. Matteo held me and said, "Whether we have a child or not, I will always love you." Everyone said he was deeply devoted and that I was fortunate. Even I believed it. I believed it was my body that was defective. I believed I was the one holding him back. Until that day, when I went to the hospital for a follow-up exam. I saw him with my own eyes, pushing a mobile hospital bed into a VIP suite. On the bed lay a young woman named Sienna Vale, who had just given birth, holding a pair of twins—a boy and a girl. The congratulations inside the room were sharp and piercing. They praised his good fortune and Sienna's superior genes. They said the children were born to inherit the Bellandi empire. They mocked my education and my background and said I could not produce a "high-quality" heir. "Who do you think you are, daring to speak about her? My wife is not someone you get to judge. If I hear one more word of disrespect toward my Donna, you'd better weigh the consequences yourself," Matteo rebuked them coldly, preserving my dignity as Donna. In that moment, I finally understood that the marriage I had been so proud of was nothing more than a joke in everyone else's eyes. If that was the case, I would end this love story everyone envied with my own hands.

For five years, my relationship with Vampire Lord Dominic had endured every trial set by my grandfather—the reigning Vampire King. He had finally been prepared to pass the Vampire King’s throne to me— until the truth surfaced: my bond with Dominic was never real. The Sterling family’s wealth—worth hundreds of billions—and the Vampire King’s crown could be inherited by me alone. “Miss Sterling,” the Council archivist informed me coldly,“the Blood Registry confirms that your Blood Bond was formally dissolved one year ago.” “Dominic Costa’s registered Bloodbound Consort is… Ava Morgan.” “You are currently listed as unbound.” “Which means,” the message concluded,“Lord Dominic Costa is disqualified from inheriting the Sterling family’s assets, titles, or the Vampire King’s throne.” Ava Morgan.Dominic Costa’s human companion. I stared at the message sent by the Sterling Council Elders, unable to steady my breathing. So all these years—his devotion, his exclusivity, the affection he claimed was meant for me alone— had been nothing but a carefully constructed lie. I had planned to tell him about my pregnancy on the fifth anniversary of our Blood Bond. After all, for five years of marriage, this child had been the future we both claimed to long for. But now, it was clear—perhaps he had never been waiting for a child at all. I rested my hand against my abdomen and thought quietly: my twins do not need a father to exist. As for a man who built our love on deception— the only thing left for me to do is to leave.

Ever since my CEO husband returned from his business trip, he's been acting strange. His hugs are stiff, and his kisses are empty. Even when we're intimate, something just feels off. When I ask him why, he just smiles and says he's tired from work. But everything falls into place the moment I see his first love stepping out of his Maybach, her body covered in hickeys. That's when I finally give up. I don't argue or cry. I just smile… and tear up the 99th love coupon. Once, he wrote me a hundred love letters. On our wedding day, we made a promise—those letters would become 100 love coupons. As long as there were coupons left, I'd grant him anything he asked. Over the four years of our marriage, every time he left me for his first love, he'd cash in one. But what he doesn't know is that there are only two left.

Everyone said Kane adored me. That for me, he'd tame the wild rage of an Alpha, soften every growl, and sheath every claw. Ten years. Ten damn years of chasing, spoiling, protecting. I was convinced I’d be his Luna—his mate, his forever. But betrayal doesn’t come with a warning. It cuts sharp and deep. And it never just comes once. The first lie, I forgave. The second, I bled. The third? It broke something in me I’m not sure I’ll ever get back. And then came the words that snapped the last thread holding me together. "Julia, can't you just stop being so difficult? Stop acting like the world revolves around you." That was when I knew. The man who once walked through fire for me…Had turned into the very beast I needed saving from. The love I thought I had—it wasn’t love. It was a gilded cage, pretty from the outside, but still a prison. And if I was ever going to be free, I'd have to be the one to smash it open. Even if it meant setting the wolf on fire with it.