Scapegoat

In my previous life, the person I trusted most—my own sister—betrayed me. When her lover's financial fraud was exposed, she pushed all the blame onto me. Overnight, I became the villain everyone despised. Even my father abandoned me. "We don't have a son who would destroy the company like this!" With my reputation ruined and my future destroyed, I chose to end my life on a cold, rainy night. However, fate gave me a second chance. When I wakes up, I finds myself back on the eve of the project that started it all. This time, I refuses to let anyone control my destiny. Sitting in the office, staring at the glowing computer screen, I ignores the mocking laughter of my coworkers—and sends out my resignation letter. If the world once turned me into a scapegoat… Then in this life, I'll take control of the game itself.

Natalia Adamantine was the prized jewel of the capital of the Kingdom of Ducroft. As such, she was married to the Duke of Kristen, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, tied to the Kin. Ten years later, she is throwing herself off a building, ending the misery of her life. Now, she's brought back to the past, the day she is being married to her husband. Unable to refuse the marriage, she plots a way to escape her fate and create a new life for herself. Marvis Jane was an orphan with a secret who had his life change when the Crown prince of the empire makes him his secret weapon. Even though he would give his life for the crown prince, he soon becomes the scapegoat for the crown prince and is branded the murderer of the imperial family. He is rescued from the brink of death by a passerby who had as much distrust for him as he did for her. Faced with an uncertain future, the two grudgingly work together, creating a bond unbroken by time or magic.

I was the greediest stand-in in high society, and my motto was simple. As long as cash kept coming, my dignity could take a back seat. For Frederick Jameson, I played the role of his obedient pet, so when his true love accused me of stealing her necklace, I just bowed and apologized. With Samuel York, I served as his lab rat, testing drugs meant for his sweetheart's condition until they left me with a bleeding ulcer. And for Theodore Xander, I acted as a scapegoat, getting pushed out to take the blame of extortion for his crush. They all assumed I was hopelessly in love with them, even forcing me to sign a confession at their joint engagement party. That was when the system's voice chimed in, "Host, the portal home is now open." I wiped the blood from my lips, splashed my wine into their faces, and grinned brightly. "Game over, losers!" Right in front of everyone, I leaped straight into the sea. Later, word spread that the three big shots scoured the entire ocean just to find my body.

"Say you love me," Gabriel growled, his body slamming into mine with brutal force. I bit my lip hard, tears welling in my eyes. ‘No,’ I managed to whisper, my voice barely audible. He thrust harder, as if trying to consume me. "Just say it. Pretend for once." "Never." I swallowed the moan rising in my throat. In the midst of his frantic thrust, we both reached a climax. It was absurd-- two people who hated each other so deeply, yet perfectly attuned in bed. We'd known each other for ten years, but Gabriel’s hatred for me was palpable. He blamed me for the deaths of his mother and brother, making me the scapegoat for his grief and rage. He made things difficult for me, treating me like his personal plaything. But I loved him, secretly. A love poisoned by pain and humiliation, suffocating me all the time. Then, one day, he pressed a trembling kiss to my lips and pleaded, "Camille, don’t leave me. Never."

They took everything from me before I was old enough to remember: my name, my family, my life. Raised as the Ashfords’ scapegoat daughter, blamed, beaten, humiliated while my perfect sister shone, I thought I was worthless. Until a masked stranger broke into my father’s study and called me by a name I had forgotten: Celeste. Vincent Torres is everything the Ashfords pretend to be: powerful, untouchable. He says my life with them is a lie. That I was never meant to be theirs. That he can help me take back my name, my inheritance, my future. All I have to do is marry him. A contract. Nothing more. I’ll become the wife my sister always wanted to be. I’ll infiltrate the world that should have been mine. And together, we’ll destroy the family that destroyed me. But somewhere between the contract and the vows, between the lies and the truth, I forgot the most important rule: Never fall for your weapon. Especially when he might be just as broken as I am.

​"I bought you for three years, Spring. That means for 1,095 days, your body, your soul, and your very breath belong to me." ​To the world, Spring Willow is the luckiest woman alive—married to the legendary billionaire August Harrington. To August, she is nothing but a shadow of the woman he lost, a scapegoat for a tragedy she didn’t cause. ​The terms of their "marriage" are written in blood and cold hard cash: -​$300,000 a month for her grandmother’s life. ​One hundred rules she must never break. And most important ​rules of all: Never expect his heart. ​Spring expected the coldness. She expected the cruelty. But she didn't expect August’s hatred to morph into a suffocating, dangerous obsession that refuses to let her go; even after the contract ends. ​Just as Spring prepares to break under his weight, a new shadow emerges. Another power player, equally ruthless and twice as determined, offers her a way out. ​The contract was signed in pain, but the ending will be written in fire. When revenge turns to possessiveness, who will Spring choose: The man who owns her, or the man who wants to steal her away?

Mary Anne Monferrer was a rebellious daughter of the sinking empire facing bankruptcy which was the Monferrer Hotels. She lived a cruel life with her family, and was treated like an outcast. Her parents were heartless, and wanted her to taste their wrath as they blamed her in the death of their favorite daughter. She was forced to be sold, and was soon to be the sixth wife of Señor Adolfo Gutuangco, an old pervert man that used his power as a Billionaire to taste and impregnate every virgin woman that he wanted. Her parents wanted her to be their scapegoat just to save themselves and their sinking empire in the scandal and bankruptcy. She didn’t agree with what her manipulative parents wanted. They should be the one who needed to deal with their own dilemma. With that, she ran away from hell, and let herself be drunk in Arum to forget her miseries and pain in the family. She even shamelessly seduced a stranger that caught her attention, and asked to have sex. However, the heated one-night stand Mary Anne shared with the hot stranger would make accidentally pregnant with his babies. And little did she know that her world turned upside down, because the man that devirginized her was Daxton Delvecchio, a Multi-Billionaire that had a dark secret for being a Mafia Boss.

For thousands of years, the tale of the Lycan beast who lurked the forbidden forest had been told. Every five hundred years, six females were allegedly sacrificed from the wolf village to the beast and it was rumoured that their bodies were left to rot at the entrance of the forest for all to see. Many times, this tale was retold to scare the young wolves from venturing into the forest and keep them in check, because no one wanted to be a scapegoat in the hands of the unforgiving and murderous beast. Nola Reynolds has always been a headstrong fiery pure blood who has always believed there was no Lycan beast and all the tales about him were just made up myths and fairy tales, aimed at scaring the younger ones. Little does she know that one night was all it was going to take to change her life forever. Things take an unsettling turn for Nola when she, alongside five other girls, are chosen on the night of the full moon. She is faced with the most shocking revelation of her life standing before her, in flesh and blood— The Lycan Beast. Is it her fate to run away and free herself from the hands of the predator, or does she have to give in to her sweet, twisted story of beauty and the beast?

Kai Tanaka is Seattle’s best rescue swimmer, the man they send into black water when the storm decides to take a life. He’s built for cold, built for chaos, built to bring people back. Until one rescue goes wrong. A body disappears. The footage goes missing. And Kai becomes the quiet scapegoat the Coast Guard can sacrifice to keep the institution clean. Suspended and watched, he’s barely holding on when Luca Reyes drags his name into the light. Luca is a true-crime podcaster chasing the truth behind that same night, because his younger brother was on the boat that never came home. Luca thinks Kai is hiding something. Kai thinks Luca is feeding off tragedy. Their first meeting is sharp and ugly. Then Luca is nearly killed for asking the right questions. Kai pulls him from the wreckage and realizes this isn’t internet noise. Someone is laundering bodies through the sea, and they’re using Kai as the fall guy. The only way to keep Luca alive is to disappear with him to an off-grid cabin on the San Juan Islands, where the wind never stops and secrets sound louder. Forced proximity turns into hunger. Suspicion turns into heat. And the closer they get to the truth, the more they realize the storm isn’t the worst thing chasing them.

I was only ten years old when Timoteo Panno found me on the streets of Sirithi. He's the Don of the Panno family, the strongest mafia family in the country. He's also the one who taught me how to protect myself. When I turn 18 years old, I become his lover as well as the weapon he's most proud of. Timoteo isn't interested in other women. I'm the only one staying by his side for many years. We've been with each other for four years. Everyone thinks I'll eventually become the Madre of the Panno family. That is, until Nadia Bellucci accidentally kills her fiance and desperately needs a clean identity to wash herself of all suspicions. As she clutches her chest that houses her heart, which is now weakened from the time she has saved Timoteo's life, she whines coquettishly, "Timoteo, I don't want to go to prison…" With a smile on his face, Timoteo doesn't hesitate to push me out as the scapegoat to take the blame for Nadia. "You've always been a pawn who gets abandoned all the time, so you might as well do it one more time."