Scrunched Up Face

In college, Elara Hayes was invisible, a quiet wallflower, mocked and overlooked. One drunken night, she made the mistake of sleeping with the golden boy, Leonard Shaw. By morning, he denied it, mocked her, and turned the entire campus against her. She left, broken and disgraced. Years later, Elara is no longer the girl he humiliated. She's now the face behind a rising fashion empire, cloaked in elegance, success, and unshakable poise. When fate brings Leonard back into her life at a prestigious award ceremony, he doesn't recognize the woman he once destroyed. But she remembers everything. And this time, she’s not here to be ignored, she’s here to rewrite the story. On her terms.

As a vampire, I once saved a stray wolf pup, my mortal enemy, from the streets. Little did I know that ten years later, he would lead his pack of wolves to destroy my clan and trap me in an ancient castle. Seeing my cold demeanor, he brought in a human woman as a substitute. The substitute, arrogant from her favoritism, treated me like a mere imitation, mocking me as though I was a seductress trying to mimic her appearance. She slashed my face with silverware, crushed my limbs with her boots, and then presented my bloodied form to Alex. "Honey, that wretched woman is using black magic to impersonate me. Look, she even has the same birthmark on her face!"

When I started college, my new roommate secretly used my phone to take a selfie. She sent it to the guy I was in an online relationship with and added the caption: [Baby, do you think I'm beautiful?] My boyfriend replied with a giant question mark, followed by a voice message full of curses. "Just thinking about dating someone with that face makes me want to puke!" "Let's break up, you ugly freak. Stay far away from me!" By the time I got out of the shower and tried to explain, I realized he had already blocked me. My roommate, holding her own phone, smugly told me, "The streamer I've had my eye on just added me. He says he wants to start an online relationship." When I looked at the account, I saw it was none other than my ex-boyfriend.

At my wedding, a video of my fiancé cheating was exposed. I didn't make a scene; just turned around and walked away, left him to clean up the mess himself. I went back to my room and kissed my younger boyfriend. We were halfway through when we got interrupted. My fiancé stormed in, face red with shame and rage. "Is this really the time? All you can think about is kissing?" I smacked my lips, still savoring the moment. "Weren't you the one who introduced us?"

The sun hit my face through the window as I woke up, and reality crashed in—I lost my virginity to a stranger. My mind spun back to last night, to what I overheard outside the VIP lounge. My boyfriend’s voice, Liam’s laugh, Maya’s mocking tone—burned into me. “I can’t believe she actually thinks you’d date her. Such an ugly duckling thinking she could be a princess,” Maya sneered. And Liam… the man I gave five years of my life to… laughed with her. “When I’m tired of playing, I’ll let you know. I love this game, even if it’s taken so long.” Two years chasing him, five years dating him—just a stupid game. My love was never love to him. One drink. One dizzy stumble back to my hotel room. One man who felt both familiar and like a stranger. And one night that changed everything. Now, I don’t know his face. But I can’t forget the way it felt.

In Reychelle City, a contest was held to crown the most beautiful woman. After my cousin scarred my face, she seized first place with ease. What she never expected was that this year's contest wasn't for fame; it was to select the future wife of the Third Prince, a ruthless, bloodthirsty eunuch. That very afternoon, gifts poured in by the cartload. My betrothed panicked. That night, he tore up our engagement contract and carried my cousin into the bridal chamber. The next day, she trailed her lacquered fingertips across my cheek and sneered, "Alicia, with your ruined face, who would ever want you? Perhaps the beggar at the street corner might take you in." I caught her wrist, let out a cold laugh, and said, "Who told you I would marry a beggar?" Before her stunned eyes, I pushed open my parents' chamber doors. "Mom, since Maggie doesn't wish to be the prince's consort… let me take her place." Three years later, before the eyes of a shocked court, the Third Prince entered the grand hall with me at his side, with two children in tow. No one had foreseen it. This body of mine, blessed with the rarest gift of fertility, was the perfect match for a man believed incapable of siring heirs.

My father-in-law said he wanted to experience "how the young folks have fun these days," so I took him to my wife's newly opened upscale cocktail bar for a quiet drink. I’d just finished ordering him a custom cocktail when a man from a booth across the room swaggered over, glass in hand. His eyes scanned the drink menu on our table, and a condescending smirk twisted his lips. "Only ordering the cheapest well drinks?" he sneered. "Brought the old man here to enjoy the free air conditioning? Trash like you belongs in a dive bar. Who even let you in here?" Anger burned in my chest. I stood up, my jaw clenched. "We're paying customers. What's it to you?" But before I could say another word, his face darkened with pure rage. He snatched the half-finished beer bottle from our table and raised it high above my head. "My girl owns this place!" he snarled. "Even if I crack your skull open, I can afford the payout! You filthy pauper—either get on your knees and lick my shoes dry, or get the hell out of my sight. You're an eyesore." The beer dripped down my face. My hands trembled with fury as I wiped it away. Then, a cold calm settled over me. I opened my phone, switched to the camera, and went live. "Alright, everyone," I said into the screen. "You won't want to miss this. We're going live to catch my cheating wife and see the double life she's been leading."

After the tragic death of my best friend, I took her younger brother in and treated him like my own. Everyone knew how much Zach Lawson meant to me, so much so that I vowed not to marry because I could not bear leaving him. The day he turned eighteen, he got on one knee and asked me to marry him. With tears of joy streaming down my face, I took the bouquet from him, only to realize they were made of writhing snakes. Everyone laughed at my misfortune. It was an artfully crafted joke, at my expense. Thalia Lewis laced her arm through Zach's and grinned. "Sorry about that, Sydney. It was just an innocent prank. Zach is willing to do anything to make me smile!" Zach gave me a look of utter disgust. "Is this what you think of me? You're my sister! How can you even think of marrying me? This is vile! Is this the reason you took me in? Have you been secretly pining for me since the start?" My whole life had come crashing down around me. I was overcome with shock, misery, and despair, until Connor Grey showed up and asked for my hand in marriage.

When I died with a smile on my face, right before my brother's eyes, he looked as if the anguish might tear him apart. Yet, for twenty-one years, he hadn't stopped wishing I would meet this exact end. It all traced back to my fifth birthday—the day I had innocently hoped our parents would come home from their business trip to celebrate with me. They rushed back that night but never made it. A car accident took both their lives. From that moment on, my brother resented me, despised me. He didn't just stand idly by as our cousin snatched up my work as her own; he encouraged it. And when my landlord threw me out, it wasn't a random cruelty—it was my brother pulling the strings. All he had ever wanted, from the very beginning, was to see me die a miserable death. But when he finally got his wish… why did he cry, pleading for me to come back, begging me to call him 'brother' one last time?

“I stood by you when all your family members were against you, when your family members mocked you because the doctor said our child cannot be born I still took the risk and went under the knife to give you a child, you have forgotten who stood by you all these years and just because of a crooked lie and confusion you became so blind and stand before me to threaten me with a divorce paper, I'll sign these papers but I promise you that you'll regret this action someday and for your family members that did this to me, time shall tell” Sarah’s husband’s family teamed up and set her up on bed with a stranger, forged a fake DNA result which says that the child she had for her husband is not his, and lastly they succeeded in causing her husband to Divorce her. He wrote her a cheque of one million dollars as a settlement for their eleven years of being together, but Sarah rejected the cheque and left, she stumbled across the cold, egoistic Army General of the Country and they ended up striking a deal, to be his Acting bride while he gives her power and authority. With these two worlds apart, a heartbroken single mother that's looking for a shield and a roof over her head, a cold powerful Army General who only cares about country affairs and power, what happens when they start developing strong feelings amidst their fake marriage, and Williams comes back to claim his wife and his son. watch as the rich rivals against each other, and power against power, who will Sarah end up choosing a husband she once loved, or the cold General who's slowly stealing her heart.