Chapter 6 Injuried

Ava Miller' s marriage to Ethan Hayes was a hollow shell. He was charming in public, a ghost at home, leaving her alone in a king-sized bed feeling the gnawing loneliness of a woman yearning for connection. One evening, she found his emails. A thread titled "Us" with her friend Chloe Vance revealed his shattering confession: "My dearest Chloe, this waiting is torture. I dream of the day we can finally build the future we talk about." Ethan coldly admitted he married Ava for "image," adding "Nothing physical has happened with Chloe. Not yet." Later, he ruthlessly offered a full divorce settlement in exchange for Ava' s kidney to save Chloe, making her literally pay for her freedom. Post-surgery, Ava witnessed Ethan' s unwavering devotion to Chloe, a cruel contrast. His ultimate indifference solidified during a restaurant fire when he shielded Chloe, leaving Ava to escape alone without a backward glance. How could a man be so utterly heartless? The final blow: Ethan' s drunken confession that Ava "meant nothing" and their marriage was Chloe' s scheme to stay close. This calculated betrayal snapped every last tie. With stark clarity and profound relief, Ava walked away, ready to reclaim her life and find genuine love.

My name is Sarah Miller, and I was on top of the world. Graduating college, a prestigious journalism internship lined up, and madly in love with Ethan Hayes-the powerful, charming heir. Life was perfect. A fairy tale, really. Then, at my graduation party, Ethan dimmed the lights. He projected intimate photos and videos of us onto a giant screen. My world shattered. His cruel smile gone, he announced it was all revenge. My journalist father, he claimed, had ruined his first love, Olivia, with an exposé, leaving her in a vegetative state. That night, my father died of a heart attack. My mother followed weeks later. My internship vanished. I was ostracized. And I was pregnant with Ethan' s child. Five years later, my daughter Lily developed aggressive leukemia. Desperate, I became Ethan' s personal assistant, enduring his and Olivia' s endless torture, even sexual exploitation, just to pay for Lily's treatments. He even desecrated my father' s grave. How could I have loved such a monster? How could one man inflict such unending, calculated pain on an innocent family? I was just a pawn in his twisted game of vengeance, paying for a 'sin' that wasn't even mine. The humiliation, the despair, the sheer injustice felt suffocating. With Lily dying, I entered a high-risk medical trial to fund her last hope, fully expecting to die. And I did. Then, I woke up. It was the day before everything went wrong. And so did Ethan.

I gave it all up. My reputation as "Rex," the undefeated legal titan of LA, my multi-billion dollar cases, the power, the respect. For three years, I was just Ethan Miller, Olivia Hayes's devoted husband, the "house-husband" who cooked, cleaned, and managed her life, hoping she'd finally truly see me. But her world revolved around Julian Vance, her celebrity ex-boyfriend. Every conversation, every decision, every raw emotion was for him. I thought I'd hit rock bottom when she casually bought me a new suit, only for me to realize it was a gift for Julian. Then, at Julian's lavish birthday party, he publicly confessed his "undying love" for Olivia. She cried, heartbroken, while I stood by, dismissed as her "support" and the punchline of a cruel joke. Not once did she defend me. I'd quietly driven myself to the ER after she fussed over Julian's tiny scratch instead of my bleeding, deeply cut hand. I'd listened to her colleagues pity me, calling me a "saint" for tolerating her obsession. But that night, seeing her openly weep for a man who wasn't her husband, after all I' d sacrificed... a freezing clarity washed over me. Why had I wasted three years? Why had I become invisible? How could I have been so blind? My foolish support had only enabled her toxic obsession. When I walked out of that party, I wasn't just leaving Olivia; I was burying Ethan Miller. Rex was coming back, and he was bringing hell with him. Olivia Hayes was about to learn the true cost of underestimating patience, and the man she so carelessly discarded.

I loved Isabella fiercely, my childhood sweetheart, the sunshine of my life. Our families were bound, our futures intertwined. I thought we were destined. Then came the betrayal. She shattered my family's legacy, my parents' health, and finally, my very life. As I lay dying, brutally tortured, I saw her, cold and triumphant, with Daniel Chen-the man she loved, whose 'death' she believed I orchestrated. My last, agonizing thought: This was never my story. I was just the villain, a disposable pawn for their destined romance. My parents ruined, my loyal dog, Max, cruelly taken on her orders-all for their 'happy ending.' The cosmic injustice hit harder than any physical torment. How could my entire existence be nothing more than a manipulated plot device? A tragic footnote in someone else's grand love story? The sheer absurdity, the profound unfairness, was suffocating. But then, I gasped. I wasn't dying. I was back. Years before my horrific end. I remembered this exact moment: the breaking point. This time, I knew the script. And I would burn it all down before it burned me again. My life, my rules.

Stella Rossi believed she had it all: engaged to the brilliant tech mogul, Ethan Cole, with a future of love and shared ambition. But after his sudden death, her world shattered. She uncovered his chilling secrets: a hidden devotion to his ward, Chloe, a cruel plot to prevent Stella from having children, and a will leaving her penniless, burdened by his company's catastrophic debts. At Ethan's funeral, a mob of AI disaster victims, blaming Stella, brutally attacked her, leaving her for dead. As darkness claimed her, one thought burned: "If I had another chance, I'd never marry you." Then, light. Stella gasped awake, weeks before the wedding, her dying wish granted. This time, she wouldn't be a victim of his betrayal. With cold clarity, she cancelled the engagement, reclaiming her dreams and severing ties with the man who ruined her. But Chloe, Ethan' s cunning "light," wouldn' t let her go so easily. From destroyed legacies to a burning apartment, Stella faced Chloe's vicious sabotage and Ethan's unwavering, blind devotion to his ward. With a bloodied arm, a symbol of her agonizing defiance, Stella cut all ties. She vanished, dedicating herself to a top-secret astrophysics project, leaving behind the monstrous reality she' d twice endured.

My husband, Ethan Hayes, was a powerful, arrogant man, openly flaunting his mistress, Chloe Vance. Everyone pitied me, the quiet, obedient wife, living in his shadow. But they had no idea. Every humiliation, every cruel dismissal, every moment of neglect was a calculated step in my secret, desperate plan. I married Ethan for one reason: to have a child. Not his child, but Caleb's. Caleb, his identical twin, the man I loved more than life itself, tragically taken too soon. Ethan was merely a vessel, a living replica of my soulmate. When that pregnancy test turned positive, my mission was complete. I filed for divorce, expecting his usual dismissiveness. He waved me off, telling me to "handle it," too consumed with Chloe's trivial demands. He even pushed me down the stairs when Chloe falsely accused me, leaving me bleeding, gasping for our baby. But the final straw came when Chloe, with Ethan' s blessing, shattered a small, invaluable snow globe-Caleb's last, unfulfilled gift to me. He thought my tears, my quiet "devotion," my carefully curated items were for him. He never saw the truth, never understood his own arrogance blinded him to the woman he truly possessed. How could he? His ego was too vast. So, when the divorce was finalized, I called him. "I never loved you, Ethan," I told him, each word a shard of ice. "You were just a means to an end. The child I carry is Caleb's legacy, not yours." I walked away, leaving him and his empty world behind, to start anew in San Francisco, with Caleb's child, and finally, my own freedom.