1530 Book(s) Related to after 10 years of chopping wood

After five years of marriage, Dylan returned home drunk and shoved a divorce paper into Jessica's hands, ordering her to sign it.
Jessica Albert is a kind, compassionate woman from a well-respected home. She did all she could to support her husband to become a great man after his family's downfall. But what did he use to pay her back with?
Dylan Robinson, a billionaire CEO of DY Group, is a dark-skinned man, very attractive. Upon his first love's return to their city, he changed and filed for a divorce.
Will Jessica agree to divorce her husband, the man that she loves the most?
Will Jessica sit back or move away to her family house and watch Dylan bring his first lover into their marital home?
Read to find out how Jessica handled her husband and see who came back begging her to forgive him and return back home to him.

Our engagement has gone unfulfilled for ten years.

My parents saved his family in that yacht accident. With their dying breath, they asked his family to look after me. In return, we go to city hall every year, trying to fulfill this obligation.

Ten attempts. Ten failures.

Elevator malfunctions, food poisoning, home invasions, car crashes... Every single time, I get hurt at the worst possible moment while he walks away without a scratch.

This makes ten. A truck slams into the passenger side, my head smashes against the window, and he's already running across the street, pulling that woman into his arms.

On my way to find him after they stitch me up, I hear his assistant's voice in the hospital corridor:

"Mr. Ashford, the truck driver's been taken care of. Money'll hit his account like we agreed... but is this really fair to Miss Bennett? It's been ten years, every single year—"

William's voice comes out low and tired. "I don't have a choice. Her parents saved me, but I'm in love with Emma."

I look down at the diagnosis. ALS. Late stage.

Turns out I've been trying to marry a lie this whole time.

Aurora Baylee, a vampire, is in an illicit relationship with a werewolf. Her father and all the vampires strongly opposed the relationship. She decides to go with her boyfriend Igor. However, the father manages to capture them and punish Aurora to ashes.

Life passed for a thousand years. Aurora returned to life as an ordinary human. She is a company owner engaged in hospitality and she is also a hitman. She goes on a mission and reunites with Igor.

Igor is sure that Aurora is his lover. He struggled to get it back. However, everything he did didn't work out, and Aurora didn't believe everything Igor said. Just when Igor almost made Aurora believe, Marcus came, who was Aurora's father in the past. Marcus intends to finish off Aurora and Igor because of past grudges that destroyed all his people.

Will their thousand-year love have a happy ending? Or did Marcus again manage to finish off Aurora like a thousand years ago?

For seven years of marriage, I've been silent in front of my wife.
It's not that I don't have anything to say; it's just that she can hear everyone's voice—except mine, which seems to trigger her sensitivity.
I've tried everything to change my voice, even going under the knife to fix my vocal cords.
But no matter how hard I try, she just ends up in pain, covering her ears.
I've broken down countless times, feeling like I've let her down.
Until the day of our daughter's birthday.
My daughter stood at the front door, grinning, and said, "Mom, can I pretend to be voice-sensitive like you?"

On the day of our seventh wedding anniversary, I tried to send a work email using my husband's account, but the connection was too poor to go through.
When I clicked into the drafts folder, a glaring message caught my eye:
"Tingzhou, I've prepared a new battle outfit~ Ready to drain you dry."
Seconds later, that draft vanished, replaced by a new one:
"Naughty girl, get the ultra-thins ready and wait for me."
Only three people knew the password to this email account: me, my husband, and his first love...
Watching their increasingly explicit flirtations,
tears streamed down my face uncontrollably.
Turns out, no matter how many years you spend by someone's side, it all crumbles the moment their first love returns.
I steadied my trembling fingers, sent the email, and cleared the history.
Then I dialed a number that had been dormant for seven years.
"I give up. I'm willing to come home for the arranged marriage."
On the other end came my godfather's familiar, authoritative voice,
"Get rid of anything that shouldn't be left behind. Make it clean."
My hand trembled as it touched my lower abdomen. "Okay."
"Someone will pick you up in three days."

Ten years of secret love, and what did I get? Watching him fall for another woman at MY art exhibition.

The most ridiculous part? He turned to me and said, "Harper, you have to help me win her over."

I orchestrated their romantic encounters, taught him how to charm women, even told him what flowers she liked. I was the perfect wingman, watching them fall in love while I licked my wounds in the dark.

Until Dr. Avery confronted me with one devastating question: "Do you really think he doesn't know you love him?"

When I finally screamed "I've loved you for ten years!" at Mason, his response froze my blood:

"I know. I've always known."

Turns out, my ten years of devotion were nothing more than a free emotional dumping ground to him—the convenient girl who would never leave. He enjoyed my care while pretending not to see my love, because that was safest, easiest.

Pathetic, right?

A woman wastes ten years loving a man, only to end up pushing him into someone else's arms.

Until Blake appeared.......

"I have no sexual experience, I'm a virgin."
"Virgin?"
"Yeah," I said,"remember how I mentioned that to you in the hospital when I got naked?"
"If you're a virgin," he said again, fixing his gaze on mine,"what are you doing here?"
"I want you to be my first time."

Engineering student Nube Queen mistakenly entered the office of Hades Parker, a millionaire, attractive, and prestigious doctor. She thought he was the gynecologist. As she nervously undressed, she experienced the worst embarrassment of her life. He told her that he was, in fact, the pediatrician.

She escaped the office, hoping to never encounter him again. However, a twist of fate occurred when a new professor joined the university, and this new professor happened to be the charming doctor Hades Parker.

The attraction that Dr. Parker exerted on Nube became tormenting, and she agreed to embark on a forbidden relationship with sensuality, passion, and lust. As their forbidden relationship deepened, Nube grew increasingly eager to unveil the true identity of Hades Parker. However, he hesitated to open his heart to her, fearing that things could spiral out of control. He was concerned that their illicit relationship might be revealed, leading to a scandalous at the university.

Will love conquer all when their relationship was exposed?

I spent two years quietly building something I thought was worth building.
Full recovery support after birth, someone checking in on meals, leave approved the moment you asked for it. I worked out a deal with the best facility in the city and covered the difference myself, out of my own account. Not a cent of company money.
I did it because I'd watched a good employee disappear from the company the year she got pregnant. No announcement. Her desk just cleared out one day.
Then one of them posted about it.
She called it surveillance. A golden cage. The comment section called me a predator. By morning it was trending.
Here's what none of them knew: not a single dollar of that program belonged to the company.
So I listened to what they wanted and gave them exactly that.
I shut the whole thing down.

When my CEO husband threatens divorce for the 99th time, this time trying to force me to hand over a million-dollar project to his assistant Chloe, I finally stop fighting.
I give him the project without a word.
He's thrilled. Thinks I've finally accepted my place. To reward me, he announces we'll throw a grand celebration for our fifth wedding anniversary.
Chloe finds out and falls apart. Locks herself in the supply closet. Can't bear the thought of watching us celebrate five years of marriage.
Arthur panics. Suddenly the anniversary party becomes a "client dinner" he can't reschedule. He'll take Chloe instead—she's been handling that account, after all.
"You understand how business works," he tells me. "We can celebrate privately later."
I see the photo she posts: Chloe in the restaurant he booked for us, wearing the dress he picked out, his hand covering hers across the table.
I tell him I understand.
He's satisfied. Promises we'll do something even better next month.
He doesn't know I've resigned. Doesn't know he signed the divorce papers three days ago when I slipped them into his contract stack.
We don't have a next month.

I was once the "Abyss Sovereign" who made the entire dark world tremble.

To protect her, I willingly buried my true name and spent five years as a humble mechanic in a wealthy family.

I swallowed countless cold stares and humiliations, seeking only a moment of peace.

But these fools, for the sake of family interests, dared to push her to the brink of destruction!

Since retreat only invites further aggression, I have no choice but to don once more that blood-stained crown.

When my steel torrent crashed through the manor gates, those privileged elites who once trampled me underfoot could only tremble desperately in the mud!

When the Whites went bankrupt, Katherine was "sold" by her ex to tycoon Alexander for $1M. He trapped her, took her nightly but ignored her, clung to his childhood sweetheart, and spied on her — until a study diary revealed his 12-year unspoken love behind the cold control.

On the third day of the apocalypse, I was bitten by a zombie while saving a child and was abandoned outside the camp by everyone, left to die.

Three years later, I became the legendary "Masked Monster," secretly protecting those who had betrayed me.

They nailed me to a cross, preparing for a public execution.

Until the Corpse King invaded.

I tore through my chains and charged into certain death, all to protect a girl who still remembered my name.

She raised her gun with tears streaming down her face, aiming at my head.

My husband Ronald's best friend Clyde died three months ago, and with his last breath, he made Ronald promise to take care of his pregnant widow, Jennifer. From that moment, Jennifer invaded our lives, and I was only four months pregnant at the time.

Then Jennifer got caught in a gang shootout. She needed an emergency blood transfusion, and she had this rare blood type—Rhnull. Turns out, I'm Rhnull too.

To save Jennifer and her baby, Ronald forced me to abort mine.

Dear readers,
If you enjoy this novel, I’d recommend another book of the same genre: .
My first love dumped me for a million dollars, forcing me into an arranged marriage. Five years later, when he tried to meet me again, my husband found out...

I almost died on the operating table trying to give Alexander Volkov a child, unaware he already had a pair of illegitimate twins with his childhood sweetheart.
My heart stopped when I saw the DNA results. Alec, the man who made the New York underworld tremble, the man who flew back on a private jet just to hold my hand, was a flawless liar.
I turned my face away, tears soaking the hospital pillow. My hand drifted to my belly. God had finally decided to give me a break after five years of needles and agony—I was pregnant. But now, it felt like the cruelest joke.
He pulled me into his arms, smelling of expensive cologne and... baby formula.
"Tell me what's wrong, honey. Whoever made you unhappy, I'll make them pay."
I stared into his lying eyes and made my decision.
I would vanish with his unborn child, leaving him to rot in eternal regret.

"Mommy's just a housewife! I don't want Mommy anymore—I want Aunt Jessica!"

Those words from my eight-year-old son, Jimmy, hit harder than any physical blow. I stood frozen in our living room, surrounded by the shards of the vase I’d just smashed. My husband, Robert, didn't even flinch. He just pulled Jessica closer, his hand resting possessively on her waist.

"Stop being dramatic, Scarlett," Robert sneered, his eyes cold. "Jessica is my soulmate. She understands my work. You? You just clean."

Eight years of devotion. Eight years of sacrificing my career to build this home. And now, my husband and son were looking at a stranger with the love that belonged to me.

I tried to reach for Jimmy, but he pushed me away with his small, angry fists. "Bad Mommy! Aunt Jessica buys me candy! You're just an ugly hag!"

My heart twisted until it snapped. I watched them leave for Jessica's award party—an award for a paper I practically wrote but couldn't claim. I was left alone in the silence of the house I paid for, bleeding from the glass cuts on my hands.

Later that night, at the hospital, after I’d been injured by Robert’s own hand, the nurse asked Jimmy who I was. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "I don't know her. Jessica is my mom."

That was the moment the old Scarlett died. I wiped the blood from my face, picked up my phone, and dialed my lawyer.

"Mr. Owens," I whispered, my voice trembling but resolute. "Let's redraft the agreement. I don't want custody. They can have each other."

When I woke up, I was locked at a round table, surrounded by four strangers.

A masked clown said: "Tonight there are only four gifts. The extra person... who could it be?"

The clown invited us to play a game.

The rules were simple—Liar's Poker.

Liars die. Those successfully challenged also die.

In the first round, the tattooed brute beside me lost and was dragged into the "Meat Grinder Ferris Wheel."

I heard the sound of his bones being crushed by gears.

The clown wiped blood from his hands, laughing: "Children who lie must be punished, you know~"

"Did you enjoy the game Penny prepared for you all?"

The moment he uttered "Penny's" name, everyone's faces broke out in cold sweat, because she had been dead for three years.

And everyone present... including me...

Remembered clearly.

I retired for three years, restraining my edge, thinking compromise could bring peace.

But what I got in return was my sister's abduction, my family's estate seized, and my benefactor hanged from the city gates!

Even the Council turned a blind eye, mocking me as bottom-tier trash without even a shred of magic.

Since mortal reasoning won't work, then I'll shatter the rules of this world myself!

After a one-night stand with him, I left hundreds of dollars for him.
I thought we have no relations any more, but in reality, he was actually my fiancé’s brother!
I never imagined I would develop feelings for him.
It’s a forbidden love, a secret that can’t be spoken...

"You have a ….." His hand moves towards my mouth, skimming over my bottom lip. I'm frozen. Never has a man affected me like this.
Pulling his hand back, he holds his finger up for me to see. Even his hands are perfect. I imagine what it would feel like to have hands like that caress my body. The thought sends a shiver down my spine. But it soon vanishes when I notice the small piece of chocolate sitting on the tip of his finger. I'm immediately consumed with humiliation. My eyes widen and my mouth gapes when he places his finger in his mouth, sucking the chocolate off.
"Yummy" he says as he nods his head.
Emily, adopted at eleven years old by a very rich socialite after ten years of being placed from one foster home to the other. She was given a life of luxury and groomed for seven years for a role she didn't know about. At eighteen, she began her life as a sex-worker, lacking companionship and love, she never experienced it until she had a one-night stand with a handsome stranger. One-night of passion that changes everything. 
Damian grew up privileged, he had it all; looks, money, charm, success and endless array of beautiful women who threw themselves at him. He then met Emily, a breath of fresh air. 
Their one-night-stand together ignited something in him, he wanted to own and possess her, but Emily had other plans. 
Will he be able to get what he wants? Will he be able to claim her? Or will her secrets crush or destroy any chance they have at being together?

He left without breathing a word of it to you, and you still believe he's gonna come back? How sure are you?"

I didn't speak, cause I'm not sure..

"What if he doesn't come back until your baby is born? Let's say two years later?"

"I don't know" I shook my head.

Arthur sighed.

"I spoke with my dad before coming here, he said it'll be dangerous for you if you keep it"

Doctor Morris is his dad, I forgot to mention that.

"It's better you abort now, it might cost your life..you know about your cervical condition"

I blinked and looked away from him, my gaze focused on the rain.

"That's all the more reason I shouldn't abort it. Who knows if I'll ever be able to conceive again?"

He didn't say anything after I said those words.. he sighed.

"I told you not to trust college boys, but you paid no attention.. now you've been played" he grumbled.

He opened an umbrella, which I didn't know he was holding.. then led me to his car.

He opened the door for me and I slide into the passenger door, he rushed to the driver's side as I was fastening my seatbelt.

"Whatever your decision is, I'll stand by you!" He said.

I donated a kidney to my adopted sister.

Seven days later, I lay on the cold hospital bed, listening to my fiancé and family laughing down the hall.

They were popping champagne to celebrate my adopted sister's discharge.

No one remembered I had just had surgery. No one remembered my nut allergy.

When someone handed me a plate of almonds, I smiled.

I shoved them into my mouth, handful after handful, and swallowed them down. Then I told them I was done fighting for their love.

My fiancé demanded I postpone our wedding. My brother beat me until I bled and locked me on the rooftop to die.

After being abandoned eighty-eight times, I finally learned how to love myself—by cutting everyone who failed me out of my life.

Dante felt like a million needles were inserted in his body as he passed by Viviana without reaching out to her. Her familiar scent infiltrated his nostrils and brought back the memories of her he could never get rid of.
“Cazzo!” He hissed in Italian, his heavy steps fading away.

Viviana turned around to face the man that just passed by her. He felt and smelt oddly familiar, his physique looking as striking as one whom she had locked someplace in her heart, promising never to think of him…but always doing the opposite.
That intimidating stride, that purposeful gait…
She was about to turn back to take a clearer and better look at him when her boss called her attention.
“You look exceptionally lovely today” Jacob said, a little sultrily and she eye-rolled mentally but elongated the smile on her face. Any more now and Joker's face will seem like a joke when hers is compared.

“Thank you sir and you are definitely not looking bad yourself”

Piper gave up her dream and served as waitress to raise her sister's abandoned baby.,
She bumped into her prince EX, Nicholas, in the crazy Luna choosing game.
Nicholas: How could you hide my little girl?!
Piper: EXM? She's not yours!
Nicholas: You had a child with someone else right after we broke up?!

After sleeping for a thousand years, I returned to the ancestral castle that was supposed to be mine.
Only to find my throne torn down and turned into an auction block for the black market, my territory carved up clean by traitors.
And my only pureblood descendant in this world was actually being auctioned off like livestock—covered in blood, chained up with a cheap dog collar around his neck.
The entire room of nobles and elites mistook me for the lowest kind of half-blood trash, mocking me as a rat too stupid to know when he was dead.
The usurper, eager to curry favor with the Abyss, shouted that he would drain me dry and offer my blood as a tribute to the three pureblood princes deep within the Abyss.
Then the void split open, and those three supreme princes—the untouchable monsters the world worshiped—truly descended.
Under the horrified gaze of more than a thousand nobles and elites, those three ancient monsters threw themselves at my feet, scrambling and crawling, wailing in terror without even daring to raise their heads:
"Your unworthy descendants... welcome the Ancestor's return!!!"

For seven years of marriage, I don't dare make a sound around my husband.
All because he can hear everyone's voices—everyone's except mine. He says he's allergic to mine.
I've tried everything to change my voice—even had vocal cord surgery.
But no matter how hard I tried—every time he'd just cover his ears like I was hurting him.
I've cried myself to sleep so many times, feeling guilty.
Until our son's birthday.
Standing by our front door, our little boy grinned up at his dad and asked, "Dad, can I pretend to be allergic to mom's voice too? Just like you?"

Three years ago, a private plane crash took my father, my mother, my brother Carter, and Grayson, the man I'd loved for seven years and was about to marry.

To hold onto everything they left behind, I cried until my eyes were raw, destroyed my stomach, and fought my way through boardrooms and Wall Street vultures.

On countless nights, I held their photographs and cried until I passed out.

What I never understood was why Willow, the foster sister we'd taken in, vanished without a trace after the crash.

Until today, three years later, when I drive back to the family estate with a diagnosis in my bag telling me I have three months to live.

I push open the heavy door and hear laughter. I see my family—the family that's supposed to be dead—gathered around Willow and her three-year-old son, singing happy birthday.

Turns out no one in this world ever loved me at all.

Why do they all get to live while I'm the only one who have to die?

Twenty years ago, he took the blame for my murder, was branded with the Silver Flame mark, and banished to the wilderness. Twenty years later, I escaped from a prison-like marriage and searched the world for him. He wasn't there in the Alaskan blizzards. He wasn't there in the deep mountains of Romania. Under the polar night in the Arctic Circle, I called his name into the darkness. No one answered. Until a hunter told me: deep in the Yukon, someone had seen a lone wolf with the Silver Flame mark.

Betrayal cuts very deep, but who says revenge can't be sweeter and satisfying?

Married to the one man who once claimed he loved her wholeheartedly, Claire is broken when she finds out about her dear husband’s endless escapades. To make matters worse, he had also been cheating on her with his secretary and had gotten her pregnant, yet he tortured her physically, mentally and emotionally and wasn't remorseful about it.

Determined to take revenge on him for the intentional pain he had caused her over the years, she set out to shatter his world completely. She does the unthinkable, and is about to turn the tables in the most shocking way.

Piera was genuinely in love with Orion despite the difference in their social status.

But when his sister shows up while he was on a business trip with a photograph of Orion and his fiancée, Piera packed her things and left without a backward glance.

Orion came back to find the apartment empty, and struggles to understand why she left.

But five years later, they crossed paths on Riverside Park, and the secret Piera had been hiding is now in plain sight.

Can Orion successfully win her back again?

In Shadows of Desire, Seraphina Blake’s professional life at Urban Vision magazine takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious new investor, Lucian Castell, enters the scene. Charismatic, powerful, and dangerously intense, Lucian is everything she both desires and fears. What starts as a professional connection soon spirals into a battle of control, where Lucian’s obsession with Seraphina grows deeper by the day.

As secrets from Lucian’s past surface, including his ties to a dangerous mafia empire, Seraphina finds herself caught between attraction and a chilling awareness of the power he holds over her. Their connection becomes a game, one where both are playing to win, yet neither is prepared for the consequences.

In this dark romance filled with tension, passion, and betrayal, Seraphina must navigate a world where trust is scarce and danger lurks behind every desire. Will she succumb to Lucian’s obsessive pull, or will she find a way to regain control? Shadows of Desire is a gripping tale of power, passion, and the shadows that threaten to consume them both.

Everyone knows that Qin Sicheng is desperately in love with me. To cure my depression, he gave up the opportunity to study abroad and stayed by my side.
But on the day of my birthday banquet, he disappeared.
When I found him in a corner of the back garden, he was pitifully clutching the hem of my best friend Qiao Anran's dress.
That man—usually so devoted and obedient to me—now had red-rimmed eyes and a trembling voice.
"Anran, how much longer do I have to keep acting? Lin Jiaqi is already better. Please, just look back at me, won't you?"
Qiao Anran closed her eyes, her face twisted in pain, then coldly pushed him away.
"Qin Sicheng, I'll say it again: as long as Lin Jiaqi is alive, you can only be her husband. This is what you owe me, and what I owe the Lin family."
I covered my mouth, staring at the diamond ring he had just given me, my heart shattering completely.
So the husband who had always loved me so deeply—it was all an act.

Ten years ago, James lost everything—his parents murdered, his life shattered. Left for dead, he clawed his way back to become the Reaper, the undisputed King of the Underworld.

Now he returns to settle the score. But the moment he arrives, a billion-dollar bounty goes live. Every mercenary, assassin on earth wants his head.

Yet James doesn't run. He waits. Because the bounty isn't just a price—it's a clue. Someone wants him dead before he uncovers the truth about who really killed his parents. And the deeper he digs, the more the walls close in.

On the day I received my late-stage gastric cancer diagnosis, the business proposal I’d pulled three all-nighters to finish was being fed straight into a paper shredder by my husband, Lu Ting.

Amid the deafening roar of the machine, his voice was cold and unapologetic: “Put Yingying’s name on this plan. She just got permanent employment and needs this achievement to get a firm foothold.”

I said nothing. My fingers crumpled the diagnosis report in my pocket. I turned around, opened the ticket-booking app, and booked a seven-day, six-night ultra-luxury customized honeymoon package for Lu Ting and his mistress Zhou Yingying—an overwater villa in the Maldives, with first-class flights for the entire trip.

When Lu Ting saw the order, he curled the corner of his mouth at me for once, speaking in a patronizing tone: “Finally being sensible. I’ll bring you a bag when I get back.”

I said quietly, “No need.”

You two will never come back.

My husband abandoned a billion-dollar deal and flew back overnight for me.

Everyone envied Mrs. Harris and her perfect life.

Only I knew that when he knelt by my bed, holding my hand, his cuff was still stained with another woman's breastmilk.

He thought I'd just taken a fall.

He didn't know that while he was cradling his bastard child with that tender smile, our baby had already dissolved into a pool of blood and left me forever.

This time, I won't make a scene. I won't love him anymore.

I slipped the suicide note I'd written long ago into the drawer.

And on this rainy night, I began planning a "death" that would belong to me alone.

After Divorcing a Billionaire, Secretly Giving Birth to His Triplets

For three years, Chloe Stanhope endured her marriage with Quintus Ellington, only to conclude in divorce, earning herself the mocking title of a forsaken elite wife throughout the city of Phoenix. Six years later, Chloe returned to her homeland, accompanied by a pair of twins, and underwent a miraculous transformation into an internationally renowned healer. Now, she finds herself pursued by countless suitors, each vying for her hand in marriage. The first suitor pleads, 'Miss Stanhope, do your children need a father? I promise to care for them as if they were my own." The second suitor declares, 'Dr. Stanhope, I was captivated by your beauty and brilliance at first sight. I am willing to devote my life to loving you. Quintus Ellington's failure to appreciate you is simply his own blindness."

My mad mother, in her final moments, pressed a set of Russian nesting dolls into my arms.
"These cost me thirty years of my life. In return, they'll give you three ways out of death."
The first doll told me to go to a bar and bring home the third strange man I met.
The second doll, she said to open on the eve of my wedding. There was no note inside. Only a photograph — my groom, killing a woman wearing the exact same wedding dress as mine.
Three years later, on the eve of another wedding, I opened the last doll. I read the note, smiled, and dropped it in the trash.
It was only later that I understood —
This mad woman saw more clearly than anyone sane in this world.
Mom, I'm sorry.

The night Declan Ashford announces his chosen mate, everyone in the pack expects me to show up and fall apart.
I don't go.
What I do instead: I'm sitting on the floor of Cael Voss's dorm room in a training jacket that isn't mine, asking whether his mattress is filled with rocks. Cael is Declan's packmate at the academy. His equal in rank. His roommate. The last person I had any reason to call tonight.
I called him anyway.
Here's what he doesn't know: I'm not actually Beta. My real rank was sold before I was old enough to understand what that meant. I've been suppressing it for years.
Here's what I don't know: he's had something of mine under his pillow for two years. Something small. Something I spent three days looking for before I gave up.
Neither of us has said anything about it yet.

This is my story of how to lose a mob boss in ten days.

I have a
I’ve been arranged to marry a monster.

Run away? Good idea. Tried that. Didn’t work.
Because in my family, my father makes the rules.
And he says this wedding is happening .

But he still has a soft spot for me, his last remaining daughter.
So he offers me a deal.
Take ten days.
Get to know Sasha.
See if you change your mind.

Yeah, right.
Sasha Ozerov is a beast in Brioni.
He’s ruthless, flawless, utterly unconcerned with mortals like me.
All he wants is what our marriage would bring
My family’s power and the city in the palm of his hand.

But maybe, if I can make him back out of the deal…
I’ll keep my freedom.
So I set out to do everything I can to drive him crazy.

I have ten days to make my husband hate me.
What happens if I start to love him instead?

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!" --Vampirebooksite.com (Turned)CRAVED is Book #10 in the #1 Bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, which begins with Book #1, TURNED! In CRAVED, 16 year old Scarlet Paine struggles to find out exactly what she’s becoming. Her erratic behavior has alienated her new boyfriend, Blake, and she struggles to make amends, and to make him understand. But the problem is, she can barely understand herself what’s happening to her. At the same time, the new boy in school, the mysterious Sage, comes into her life. Their paths keep intertwining, and although she tries to avoid it, he directly pursues her, despite the objections of her best friend, Maria, who has her own eyes set on Sage. Scarlet finds herself swept away by Sage, who takes her into his world, past the gates of his family’s historic river mansion. As their relationship deepens, she begins to learn more about his mysterious past, his family, and the secrets he must hold. They spend the most romantic time she can imagine, on a secluded island in the Hudson, and she is convinced she has found the true love of her life. But then she is devastated to learn Sage’s biggest secret of all: he is not human, either, and he has only a few weeks left to live. Tragically, just at the moment when destiny has brought her greatest love, it also seems fated to tear them apart. As Scarlet returns to the high school parties leading up to the big dance, she ends up in a huge falling-out with her friends, who excommunicate her from their group. At the same time, Vivian rounds up the popular girls to make her life hell, leading to an unavoidable confrontation. Scarlet’s forced to sneak out, making matters worse with her parents, and soon finds pressure building from all sides. The only light in her life is Sage. But he is still holding back some of his secrets, and Blake resurfaces, determined to pursue her. Caitlin, meanwhile, is determined to find a way to reverse Scarlet’s vampirism. What she finds leads her on a journey to find the antidote, deep into the darkest corners of rare libraries and bookstores—and to an ancient discovery she can hardly imagine. But it may be too late. Scarlet is changing rapidly, barely able to control what she’s becoming. She wants to be with Sage—but fate seems set on tearing them apart. As the book culminates in an action-packed and shocking twist, Scarlet will be left with a monumental choice—one that will change the world forever. How much is she willing to risk for love?

I'm crouched on this fucking balcony clutching a pregnancy test, hands shaking like a leaf—two blazing red lines staring me in the face. I was such a goddamn fool thinking I'd tell Remy about our baby tonight. What a sick joke!
The banquet hall's roaring below and there's that bastard on stage, arm wrapped around Olivia, shouting "This winery has NO future without her!" Each word slams into me like a sledgehammer. TEN FUCKING YEARS! When he was drowning in debt, I sold every piece of Mom's jewelry to save his ass!
Then the son of a bitch hurls a box of abortion pills at me like I'm garbage: "Kill it, or Olivia's daddy pulls his money."
I'm glaring at that box and it hits me—ten years of my life pissed away on this piece of shit, and now even the innocent baby growing inside me is worth less than his blood money! I gave him everything and he's ready to murder our child for a fucking check!

At the bar, I watched Ethan get publicly dumped and made a crazy proposal fueled by liquid courage—a three-month fake dating contract.

I thought this was my only chance after twenty years of secret crushing. Until his ex showed me the text: "With Mia? Pretty convenient. She's been following me around since we were kids."

So I was just a tool.

The day we broke up, he shouted with red eyes: "I've been crazy about you for twenty years!" I thought he was acting, until his mom handed me a worn journal—

That careless comment I made at thirteen, "I'm never marrying Ethan," he'd remembered for twenty whole years.

Every page of that diary was filled with my name...

On the seventh wedding anniversary, I woke up in the lounge and found a big word "BITCH" sprayed with red paint on my chest.
The culprit, holding a spray-paint can, had a naive-looking smile on her face and said, "I'm doing you a favor. Your white outfit's way too boring."
I was just about to take action when my husband rushed in to protect her, frowning and scolding me: "She's just a little girl; she doesn't know any better. Do you have to be so petty?"
At this moment, looking at the man in front of me who had risen because of my family's influence, I suddenly laughed.
He probably forgot who had given him this overwhelming wealth.
I unscrewed the red-tipped thick paint pen and walked step by step towards the trembling girl.
"Your face is boring, too. Let me do you a favor."
As for my husband?
I'll make him know that without me, he's worse than a dog.