
I'M JUST HIS WIFE
rizamaelibres71 · Completed · 139.3k Words
Introduction
But secrets have a way of surfacing. When Roxanne notices the bruises on Rigella’s arm, concern turns into fury. Rigella tries to lie—tries to protect the man who’s been hurting her. But it isn’t long before the truth claws its way out in the form of another violent encounter. Ivan ambushes her in the restroom, slaps her, and reminds her of her place: a wife only on paper.
Escaping into Roxanne’s arms, Rigella is forced to confront the wreckage of her marriage. Torn between the pain of staying and the fear of breaking her son Ice’s heart, she begins to question if love—especially from Ivan—was ever truly hers.
As the chapter closes, a thunderous knock at Roxanne’s door sends Rigella’s heart racing. Ivan is here. And this time, she can no longer run from the truth.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Rigella's POV
I put a hand over my mouth to contain my tears. I had just witnessed my husband enjoying a romantic lunch with his mistress at a posh eatery. Their table was right in front of the glass wall, so I could clearly see how sweet they were to each other—without a doubt. He doesn’t even like dining at places like that—unlike me.
I wiped my tears away and looked away before entering the restaurant. This was where my closest friend, Roxanne, and I had planned to have lunch. She promised to meet me since she missed me terribly—it had been over a week since we last saw each other.
I entered carefully, covering my long hair. I smiled when I saw Roxanne already seated at our usual table. I had missed her—terribly. She was more than just a friend; she was like a sister to me. When she saw me, she stood up with a warm smile. I hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek.
As soon as we sat down, she called the waiter and placed our lunch order. Then, she arched an eyebrow, looked at me, and asked, “How are you, best friend?”
I instinctively hid my right arm as she kept staring at it. I had failed to cover it properly. Ivan had gotten upset with me the last time he came home drunk.
Roxanne scowled and got out of her chair. She came over and gently took my hand off my arm. When she saw the bruise, she bit her lip tightly and gave me a serious look.
She stopped and asked angrily, “What’s this? What did he do to you?”
I quickly pulled my arm back and bowed my head. I looked up at her and forced a smile as I came up with an excuse.
“It’s not that bad, Roxy. I slipped in the kitchen yesterday and hit my arm on the table.”
She interrupted me before I could continue and sat back down, still giving me that serious look. My palms were already sweating with anxiety. I knew what could happen to Ivan if Roxanne found out the truth.
I turned to face her and tried to change the mood. I smiled and scooted my seat closer.
“Roxanne, I’m telling the truth. I’ve never lied to you, right? Trust me.”
Her brows arched. “Are you sure?”
Just then, the waiter approached with our food.
“Yup,” I replied quickly. “Oh, the food’s here! I’m really hungry.”
We started eating as soon as Roxanne’s orders arrived. We chatted while eating, and we even talked about my son, Ice. It hurt me that I had left him out of today’s plans. He was in first grade and had school.
After we finished our meal, Roxanne ordered dessert and even got takeout for Ice. I excused myself to use the restroom—I’d been holding it in for a while. As I left, Roxanne was speaking to someone on her phone.
But to my surprise, as I stepped out of the comfort room, someone suddenly dragged me back inside. My eyes widened when I saw who it was—Ivan.
He slammed the door shut behind us. My heart dropped.
“Ivan, you're hurting me!” I cried, his grip on my arm growing tighter. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
“I don’t care! Maybe you followed me here!” he spat. “I told you before—you’re just my wife on paper. You have no right to watch all my movements!”
My sobs turned into broken breaths. I couldn’t breathe properly from crying.
“It’s just a coincidence. This is also where Roxanne and I were supposed to meet...”
Before I could say more, he slapped me hard. My back hit the cement wall. I sank to the ground, covering my mouth to stifle my sobs.
“Remember this, Rigella—I’ll hurt you again if Lara ever sees you. Now, get out!”
I quickly stood up and ran out of the comfort room. As I approached Roxanne, I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket to wipe my tears. Her expression changed to a deep scowl when she saw me.
“Ella—” she began, but I cut her off, grabbing my bag with trembling hands.
“Let’s get out of here, Roxy. Please, let’s go.”
She asked, alarmed, “What happened?” But I didn’t answer.
We took the other exit, avoiding the chance of running into Lara or Ivan. I couldn’t stop questioning myself. Was it still right? Was it still proper for me to cling to a marriage that had no hope?
---
We were now in Roxanne’s car, still parked. It was getting late, but we weren’t going anywhere. I was still crying, still shaken, and not ready to talk. But the pain was unbearable.
Ivan was right—I was merely his wife on paper. But why? Why did he continue to treat me this way even after seven years? Had he come to hate me so much that he now hurt me physically?
Maybe I was to blame.
We got married too young—me at eighteen, him at nineteen—just because I told his parents he got me pregnant. At that time, he was in love with Lara... the woman he still loved.
It was painful—unbearably painful.
Roxanne broke the silence. “Rigella, we’re not leaving until you tell me what happened.” She only used my full name when she was serious.
I wiped my tears and looked at her. I knew she was right. My parents were in the U.S., and my older brother didn’t care. Roxanne was the only one I had.
I sniffled before I began. “Ivan was there earlier... at the restaurant. He dragged me into the restroom... then he hit me. He told me not to go near his girlfriend, Lara.”
As I finished, she slammed her hands against the steering wheel, blinking back tears. I saw the sympathy—and the rage—in her eyes.
“Is that why your cheek was red?” she asked, voice trembling.
I nodded silently, tears flowing again. She hugged me and gently stroked my back and hair. I cried harder from the comfort she gave me.
At least I had one person left. I didn’t know what I would do without Roxanne. I might’ve ended my life already... if not for Ice.
My son.
He wouldn’t let me go. I wanted him to still have his mother. I had thought about ending it all, many times, but I couldn’t—not while he needed me. I imagined him crying, confused, because I was gone.
He was my strength. Roxanne and my parents were my strength, too. They gave me a reason to keep going, to survive everything Ivan did to me.
“He’s not worth your precious tears,” Roxanne said gently. Her voice was calm and soothing. “Please stop crying.”
After we calmed down, I invited Roxanne to visit my condo. She insisted that I stay at her place for now. I didn’t want to see Ivan either—not in my condition.
Everything was just too much.
---
I wanted to give up, but I couldn’t. I still loved Ivan. But I had every right to leave him.
What stopped me was Ice. I didn’t want him to grow up without a complete family. I had experienced that pain myself when my parents split up because of my mother’s gender identity. Thankfully, they reconciled by the time I was in senior high.
I wanted Ice to grow up with both parents—even if it meant I had to carry the pain.
When we got to Roxanne’s condo, I called Ice’s nanny using the landline. I couldn’t help but worry about him.
After a few rings, she answered.
“Hello?”
I took a deep breath. “It’s me, Rigella.”
“Rigella, where were you?” she said, sighing. “It’s already late. Ice has been looking for you. We’re worried.”
“I’m at Roxanne’s condo for now. I’m... I’m not going home tonight.”
There was a pause. She knew what that meant.
“Daughter, maybe you should come home. Ivan is already back, and he’s very angry that you didn’t pick up Ice. He picked your son up himself.”
“But Nanny, I already told you—I’m not going home tonight,” I said, crying again.
She sighed audibly. “Then come home tomorrow, okay? Ice won’t go to school if he doesn’t see you. But... if you need to stay, that’s fine.”
I smiled weakly. “Yes, Nanny. I’ll be home early tomorrow. Please tell Ice I love him... and read him a bedtime story.”
“All right, daughter. I’ll take care of it and prepare dinner for them.”
“Thank you, Nanny. Good night.”
---
After the call, Roxanne asked me to help her cook dinner. We ate together, and when she joked that crying made me hungry, I genuinely laughed. It felt good, even for a moment.
After dinner, we settled in the living room and watched a romance film—just like old times. But soon, we heard a knock at the door.
It wasn’t just a knock—it was loud, forceful, like someone was trying to break in.
Roxanne stood up to check. I felt anxious, a cold shiver running down my spine.
She returned quickly, her face uneasy.
She didn’t have to say anything, but she did.
She groaned, “It’s... It’s Ivan. He’s outside.”
My heart began to pound.
Last Chapters
#74 Chapter 74
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#73 Chapter 73
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#72 Chapter 72
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#71 Chapter 71
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#70 Chapter 70
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#69 Chapter 69
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#68 Chapter 68
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#67 Chapter 67
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#66 Chapter 66
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#65 Chapter 65
Last Updated: 1/23/2026
You Might Like 😍
Shattered Girl
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Was that too much?” I could see the worry in his eyes as I took a deep breath.
“I just didn’t want you to see all my scars,” I whispered, feeling ashamed of my marked body.
Emmy Nichols is used to surviving. She survived her abusive father for years until he beat her so severely, she ended up in the hospital, and her father was finally arrested. Now, Emmy is thrown into a life she never expected. Now she has a mother
who doesn't want her, a politically motivated stepfather with ties to the Irish mob, four older stepbrothers, and their best friend who swear to love and protect her. Then, one night, everything shatters, and Emmy feels her only option is to run.
When her stepbrothers and their best friend finally find her, will they pick up the pieces and convince Emmy that they will keep her safe and their love will hold them together?
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.
On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...
Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.
George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.
His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"
Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.
When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.
"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"
George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"
"I'm afraid that's impossible."
Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
Goddess Of The Underworld
When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Invisible To Her Bully
A Lesson in Magic
Rise of the Banished She-Wolf
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.
The Forbidden Throb
Mine changed in the time it took to open a door.
Behind it: my fiancé Nicholas with another woman.
Three months until our wedding. Three seconds to watch it all burn.
I should have run. Should have screamed. Should have done anything except stand there like a fool.
Instead, I heard the devil himself whisper in my ear:
"If you're willing, I could marry you."
Daniel. The brother I was warned about. The one who made Nicholas look like a choir boy.
He leaned against the wall, watching my world implode.
My pulse thundered. "What?"
"You heard me." His eyes burned into mine. "Marry me, Emma."
But as I stared into those magnetic eyes, I realized something terrifying:
I wanted to say yes to him.
Game on.
The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate
"You're like a sister to me."
Those were the actual words that broke the camel's back.
Not after what just happened. Not after the hot, breathless, soul-shaking night we spent tangled in each other's arms.
I knew from the beginning that Tristan Hayes was a line I shouldn't cross.
He wasn't just anyone, he was my brother's best friend. The man I spent years secretly wanting.
But that night... we were broken. We had just buried our parents. And the grief was too heavy, too real...so I begged him to touch me.
To make me forget. To fill the silence that death left behind.
And he did. He held me like I was something fragile.
Kissed me like I was the only thing he needed to breathe.
Then left me bleeding with six words that burned deeper than rejection ever could.
So, I ran. Away from everything that cost me pain.
Now, five years later, I'm back.
Fresh from rejecting the mate who abused me. Still carrying the scars of a pup I never got to hold.
And the man waiting for me at the airport isn't my brother.
It's Tristan.
And he's not the guy I left behind.
He's a biker.
An Alpha.
And when he looked at me, I knew there was no where else to run to.
The mafia princess return
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?












