Sophia

After an arranged marriage for family interests, Aria's fiancé vanished on the day of their contract ceremony, leaving her to endure three years alone.

During her time wandering, she met a down-and-out alpha and gradually fell for him.

But later, witnessing Isabella nestled against him, she mistook it for his affections having shifted elsewhere and left.

By the time Marcus finally realized that Aria was the woman from his dreams, she had already disappeared.

A plane crash led Marcus to believe both mother and daughter were dead.

Five years later, Marcus ran into Aria and their daughter at a local elementary school.

Marcus stared at Aria in shock. "You... you're alive?"

Aria responded coldly, "Sorry to disappoint you."

"Aria, I thought you were dead... I've been searching for you and our daughter for four whole years!" Marcus's voice trembled as he struggled to steady himself.

"Searching for us?" Aria laughed bitterly. "Don't you already have a new mate? Isn't Isabella perfect for you?"

"That's different. I never forgot about you..."

"Enough, Marcus. We're over, aren't we?"

When fated mates meet again, will they be able to hold onto each other this time?

"You're nothing but bad luck! You're just as vile and worthless as that wretched mother of yours!" My father's roar echoed through the room, punctuated by the sharp crack of his belt.

Through my tears, I tried to defend myself: "That's not true! My mom is a good person—she's a police officer!"

He let out a cold laugh: "Good person? Your mother was nothing but a slut! How dare you talk back to me!"

I turned desperately to my stepmother: "Please, make him stop..."

She just gave me a cold glance and walked away.

The beating continued until he was too exhausted.

When I became an adult, I finally escaped that house of horrors.

I thought that by working through college, writing novels to pay off my loans, life would finally get better.

But then...

I woke up on my neighbor's floor, clutching a blood-soaked knife, with blood splattered everywhere.

Had I killed someone?

This couldn't be happening... I would never hurt anyone!

When everyone saw me as a murderer, when the whole world turned against me...

He was the only one who stood by my side.

"I believe you," his voice rang out firmly in the courtroom.

Why does he want to help me?

In my previous life, when the CEO got drugged and mom wanted to be his "cure," I desperately stopped her.

Another woman helped him instead, and he married her.

Mom lost it and sold me to South American traffickers.

"If you hadn't interfered, Ethan would've married me. You ruined my perfect life. Why should you be happy?"

I endured years of torture until I took my own life.

I woke up on the same day - when the CEO got drugged.

This time I smiled. "Go for it, Mom. "

Everyone said I was Alexander's disposable stand-in—at his beck and call whenever he pleased.

I went to beg him to come home in the dead of night, only to get beaten up by his people.

Alexander said coldly, "Just a substitute who never knows her place."

They mocked my lovesick obsession, saying I deserved whatever I got. "Throwing yourself at him to be his replacement—pathetic and worthless. Nothing to pity there."

Until the moment I slammed down the divorce papers—

Alexander stared at me in shock, thinking I was playing hard to get.

But really, I was just chasing my own light.