The Ice Queen's Secret Superstar Husband

Katy Riddle was Hollywood’s untouchable "Ice Queen" and the secret wife of Oscar-winning Best Actor, Arther Knowles. To the world, they were distant. But in the shadows, she ran his most obsessive fan account under the alias 'Chi-Chi'. Her perfect double life shattered when a leaked Gala video went viral. The footage destroyed her cold persona, showing her staring at Arther with raw, starving adoration. But the real nightmare was the final frame. The camera zoomed in, exposing a frayed, black braided string bracelet hidden beneath her diamonds. Five years ago, as a nobody, she had dropped that exact handmade token at Arther's feet in a chaotic airport crowd. "Take it down! I refuse to look like a desperate groupie!" Katy screamed at her agent. She threw millions to aggressively scrub the video from the internet, terrified her husband would discover her pathetic secret and ruin their marriage of equals. Thinking she was safe, she wore a heavy disguise and sneaked into his exclusive fan meet. But when Arther walked on stage, her heart stopped. Tucked discreetly beneath his shirt, resting against his chest, was that exact same cheap black bracelet. Why was the Best Actor wearing a crazy fan's trash? Before she could process the shock, Arther's dark eyes bypassed the screaming crowd and locked directly onto her masked face. A slow, dangerously possessive smile spread across his lips, proving he already knew exactly who she was.

Chapters

Chapter 4

Katy walked down the long, carpeted hallway of the backstage area. Her high heels sank into the thick fabric. She stopped in front of the door with a gold star and her name printed on it.

She reached for the brass handle.

The door to the dressing room right next to hers swung open. Rex Vance stumbled out. He held a half-empty glass of whiskey.

He saw Katy. A greasy smile spread across his face. He whistled loudly and stepped directly into her path.

Katy rolled her eyes. "Move, Rex." She pushed her hand against her door handle.

Rex slammed his palm against the doorframe, blocking her arm. He leaned in close. He smelled like cheap alcohol and expensive cologne.

"I saw the way you were looking at Arther out there," Rex whispered, his voice mocking. "You looked like you wanted to eat him alive."

Katy's heart stopped. Ice water flooded her veins. Her stomach twisted into a tight knot.

She forced her face to remain completely blank. She dug her thumbnail into the side of her index finger.

"Are you hallucinating because your last movie bombed?" Katy asked. Her voice was a flat, sharp blade. "Or do you just obsess over women who are out of your league?"

Rex's smirk vanished. The muscles in his jaw ticked. His eyes turned dark and angry.

"Watch your mouth, Riddle," Rex sneered. "You won't be on top forever. People fall hard in this town."

Katy let out a harsh, dismissive laugh. She raised her hand and slapped his arm away from her doorframe. The smack echoed in the hallway.

"At least I don't have to pour drinks for producers to get screen time," Katy said.

She pushed her door open, stepped inside, and slammed it shut in his face.

She heard Rex curse loudly. Something hit the wall outside. Katy leaned her forehead against the cool wood of the door. She closed her eyes and dragged air into her burning lungs.

Aisling, her makeup artist, stood frozen in the corner of the room.

Katy opened her eyes. The fear was gone. The professional ice queen was back. She walked over to the vanity chair and sat down.

"Get me out of this silver thing," Katy ordered. "Put me in the black velvet. Now."

Aisling rushed forward. She unzipped the silver gown. Katy stepped out of it and pulled the heavy, strapless black velvet dress up her body. The fabric clung to her curves like a second skin.

Katy looked at herself in the bright vanity mirror. She looked untouchable.

"Change the lip," Katy said.

Aisling wiped away the soft pink gloss. She painted Katy's lips a deep, aggressive blood red.

Katy stood up. She smoothed her hands down the velvet skirt. Not a single wrinkle.

She grabbed her black clutch from the table. She took a deep breath, preparing to walk back into the war zone.

Her hand gripped the door handle. Rex's words echoed in her skull. You looked like you wanted to eat him alive.

She ground her teeth together. She couldn't show a single crack in her armor.

Katy yanked the door open and took a massive step out into the hallway.

The lights in the corridor seemed dimmer. A massive wall of black fabric blocked her path.

She couldn't stop her momentum. Katy crashed hard into a solid, unyielding chest.

Her forehead slammed against a hard collarbone. A sharp pain shot through her skull. She let out a soft gasp as the impact sent her stumbling backward.

A strong, heavy hand shot out. Long fingers wrapped tightly around her waist. The grip stopped her fall instantly, pulling her back into the heat of the body she just hit.

The sharp, clean scent of cedarwood filled her lungs.

Katy's breath hitched. She knew that scent.

She slowly tilted her head up.

She stared straight into a pair of dark, bottomless eyes.

Arther Knowles stood there, looking down at her. His hand was still gripping her waist. A tiny, almost invisible smirk played on his lips.

Katy's brain shut down completely. Every wall she had just built shattered into a million pieces.

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I was lying in the emergency room with acute gastroenteritis on my birthday, but my mother ordered me to rip out my IV needle. She threatened to freeze all my accounts if I didn't show up to my adopted sister's high-society matchmaking party. When I arrived, dragging my weak body, I caught my fiancé Julio protecting his mistress. Worse, my adopted sister Billie framed me for stealing my own grandmother's heirloom earrings just to play the victim in front of New York's elite. I refused to be their stepping stone and projected the evidence of Julio's affair on the massive ballroom screen. In a rage, my father cursed me, and my mother slapped me across the face so hard my mouth bled. During the ensuing physical struggle, my adopted sister, the mistress, and I all plunged into the freezing outdoor swimming pool. My fiancé desperately swam to save his mistress, while my own brother rushed to pull my adopted sister above the water. I stopped kicking and let my heavy, soaked clothes pull me down to the bottom of the black pool. Why did my own flesh and blood treat me like garbage? After a mysterious bodyguard pulled me from the water, I watched my family frantically wrap the other two women in warm blankets. I didn't shed a single tear. "I am no longer a part of this family. I never want to see any of you again." I publicly canceled the engagement, turned my back on the wealthy estate, and walked away into the freezing winter night.

Modern Mystery Romance

8.2

Left To Burn: The Heiress's Ruthless Comeback

8.2

Trapped in a deadly fire at my own engagement party, my lungs burned as I reached a shaking hand out to my fiancé for help. He stopped and looked right at me through the thick smoke. But instead of saving me, he wrapped his jacket tightly around my stepsister and ran, leaving me to burn. I barely survived. But when I woke up in the hospital, my father and stepmother didn't even ask about my injuries. They threw a stack of legal documents right onto my bed. "Sign the papers, Avah. Step aside. Jaclyn is far better suited to be Kain's wife." My fiancé then stormed into the room, publicly humiliating me with false rumors of an illegitimate child and threatening to bankrupt my company. Four years of swallowing my pride to be the perfect, obedient pawn for our family business, all for nothing. They threw me to the wolves without a single second of hesitation, expecting me to just lower my head and cry like I always did. But the fire had burned that pathetic version of me away. I ripped out my IV, letting the blood drip onto the sheets, and tore their contracts straight down the middle. "The engagement is over." I threw my million-dollar ring right at my ex's chest, then picked up the phone to call my trust lawyer. They wanted to take everything from me, so I was going to make them bleed.

Billionaire Modern Romance

7.6

Shattered Vows: Falling For His Worst Enemy

7.6

For three years, I played the perfect, docile wife to Brendon Jimenez, desperate for the real family I never had as an orphan. But during a high-society gala, I peeked through a cracked door and caught him sleeping with my best friend. When I packed my cheap canvas bag to leave the penthouse, my mother-in-law blocked the door. She dumped my clothes on the marble floor, called me a stray dog, and slapped me so hard my mouth bled. Brendon just stood there, watching his mother humiliate me. To keep me trapped as his perfect public prop, he even faked his mother's heart attack in a VIP hospital suite. "Get on your knees. Kneel down right now and beg my mother for forgiveness until she decides to accept it." I gave them my youth and unconditional loyalty, only to realize this prestigious old-money family was nothing but a rotting corpse built on dirty secrets. I didn't cry, and I certainly didn't drop to my knees. Instead, I pulled out my phone right in front of him and called my lawyer. "File for an at-fault divorce. I have proof of his infidelity with Kaelynn Hudson. I want him ruined." Then, I touched the matte black card hidden deep in my clutch. It belonged to Kile Barrett, the ruthless billionaire shark my husband feared most, and I was going to use him to tear the Jimenez family apart.

Billionaire Modern Romance

7.7

The Disguised Girl: Captivating The Billionaire King

7.7

Dasia's twin brother, Gerald, was an e-sports prodigy, the rising star of the Glory team. But during a crucial moment, he was framed by his own teammates. They orchestrated a trap that completely destroyed his reputation and left his right hand brutally crushed. Instead of getting him medical help, the club threw him out into the freezing rain, bleeding and disgraced. The manager labeled him useless trash and slapped him with a five-million-dollar termination fee to bleed him dry. Stripped of his pro status, the wealthy bullies at his prep school relentlessly targeted him, mocking his crippled hand and beating him down. Dasia watched her twin brother cry in his room, his life and dreams shattered by the people he trusted. A violent, suffocating rage boiled in her chest. How could they smile while crushing his hand? Why should the victim be treated like a rotting piece of garbage while the perpetrators get rich and celebrated? She didn't shed a single tear. She stood in front of the mirror, took a pair of scissors, and ruthlessly hacked off her waist-length hair. She wrapped her chest in coarse medical bandages until her ribs screamed, and pulled on his oversized black hoodie. "Everything you took from him, I am going to take back with interest." The girl in the mirror was gone. She was Gerald now. She secretly passed the brutal online tryouts for Glory's biggest rival, the elite Blackflame team, and signed their official contract. The revenge had officially begun.

Action Billionaire Modern

8.4

The Jilted Heiress's Dazzling Phoenix Rebirth

8.4

For thirty years, Javen and I were inseparable childhood sweethearts, and for the last three, we were the perfect engaged power couple. But at our engagement celebration, hiding behind a velvet curtain, I overheard him telling his best man that our entire relationship was a corporate sham to protect his real girlfriend, Keely. He laughed, calling my lifelong devotion a "convenient crush" that kept his strict parents off his back. Worse, the horrifying truth about my car crash three years ago was soon revealed. Javen didn't just lose control of the wheel. He deliberately swerved to avoid hitting Keely, who had run into the road during a jealous tantrum. The impact crushed my side of the car, killed our unborn baby, and left me permanently infertile. He sacrificed our child to protect his mistress, then played the devoted fiancé while I grieved in the hospital. I had given him thirty years of unwavering love, only to be treated as a disposable human shield. How could the man who wiped my tears be the same monster who orchestrated my absolute destruction? I didn't shed a single tear. I calmly projected their secret texts and videos onto the ballroom screen, publicly broke off the engagement, and walked out into the night. It was time to build my own jewelry empire, and I was going to let his powerful older brother help me burn Javen's world to the ground.

Billionaire Modern Romance

9.8

The Presumed Dead Ex-Wife's Spectacular Comeback

9.8

On the night of her seventh wedding anniversary, Annabelle waited by a cold dinner, only for her husband Julian to kick the doors open, carrying his bleeding sister-in-law, Jocelyne. Jocelyne had committed a horrific drunk driving hit-and-run, and Julian demanded Annabelle sign a plea deal and go to prison to protect the family's stock prices. What truly broke Annabelle wasn't Julian's ruthless betrayal, but her own twin sons. Her own flesh and blood stood fiercely in front of Jocelyne to protect her. "Nobody even likes you anyway, Mother. If you go to jail, everything stays normal." Julian stripped her of every cent, locked her in a remote estate, and chased her to the edge of a cliff with his bodyguards when she refused to be their scapegoat. Looking at the man she had loved for seven years and the children she had devoted her life to, her heart turned to ice. Why was her endless sacrifice rewarded with being a disposable shield for a manipulative liar? Standing on the jagged cliffs, she played the dashcam audio proving Jocelyne's guilt to a suddenly horrified Julian. "You don't deserve the truth." Then, she stepped backward off the cliff into the raging black ocean. Two years later, she returned to the city as an untouchable, powerful elite, walking right past a broken, miserable Julian without a second glance.

Action Modern Romance

The Ice Queen's Secret Superstar Husband

Chapter 4

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