I Was His Secret—Now I’m Gone

Five years in the shadows—five years loving Carter Whitaker, her stepbrother, in a secret that poisons Mariah’s every breath. When a careless conversation reveals Carter’s cruel betrayal, Mariah’s world implodes: she’s nothing more than a tool for revenge, discarded for the woman he truly loves. Humiliated in front of family and strangers, haunted by a scandalous photo and her mother’s cold ambition, Mariah spirals toward rock bottom. Every hope is crushed, every escape blocked—until the day she vanishes, leaving only silence behind. Will anyone notice she’s gone, or was she never more than a ghost in her own life?