8229 Book(s) Related to the great mage returns after 4000 years reddit

My name is Jack Morris, a bottom-rung janitor on the docks.
Every day, people walk all over me, and I live on moldy bread.
Until one day, an old man I saved handed me a photograph. "This is my granddaughter. She's being held at the Black Swan Casino."
That used to be my place. Ten years ago.
Her father was a brother who died in my place.
I was once the king of the underground.
And now, at the banquet celebrating the tenth anniversary of my death, they're treating that old man's granddaughter like a toy.
If my disappearance only made those animals more brazen...
Then they can finish that drink and celebrate their own deaths next.

Melia Bournemouth thought she had lost everything when her father died and a tragic accident left her in a wheelchair.

Her only comfort was her devoted husband, Mathew. But when Melia discovers Mathew is secretly liquidating her last remaining assets to build a life with his pregnant mistress, her grief turns into cold, hard rage.

Desperate for retribution, Melia turns to the only man Mathew fears: Illya Cosgrave, a ruthless and dangerous billionaire with a dark reputation. But as they plot to dismantle Mathew’s empire from the shadows, Melia realizes Illya isn't just a weapon for revenge. He harbors a secret connection to her past that changes everything.

Now, Melia must decide: will she remain the victim, or will she rise from her chair and burn her ex-husband’s world to the ground?

In the sixth year of my life as a Scale-Stripper, I finally gathered the hundredth vial of Dragon Breath Essence.

I knelt before the altar, cradling the crystal bottle in both hands. The golden light swirling within it cast a warm glow across my scarred knuckles. Six years — six years of wandering the most dangerous battlefields of the Five Clans and the plague-ridden wastelands, using dragon breath to heal the wounded. For every person I saved, I had peeled away a living scale from my own flesh, baring the raw, bleeding meat beneath.

Seven scales left on my back.

Only seven.

But as long as it saved my brother Lucien, it was worth it.

Six years ago, during the Dragon Slaughter War, our parents had been assassinated by humans. An ancient curse had struck Lucien; his scales were crumbling away, day by day. He told me that only a hundred vials of Dragon Breath Essence could break the curse.

I held the crystal bottle out to him, my voice trembling with barely contained emotion. "Lucien, a hundred vials. We finally have enough."

Lucien took the bottle and glanced at it.

Then he tossed it off the altar without a second thought.

I went rigid.

Lucien stood at the top of the altar.

"I was never cursed," he said.

My hands were still cupped in the shape of holding the bottle, all ten fingers suspended in midair.

"Our parents never died, either."

"The Dragon Slaughter War six years ago, I planned it. The only one left crippled, with broken wings, was you."

Four months pregnant, I walked into the OB-GYN clinic filled with joy—this was the child Archer and I had waited three years for.
But the moment the ultrasound report was handed to him, his gentle gray eyes twisted violently.
"Abort it. We absolutely cannot keep this child."
My stepfather watched coldly. The stepbrother who doted on me most slapped me hard across the face. My own mother wielded the scalpel and removed my uterus.
Half a month later, they picked me up from the hospital with roses, only to turn around and lock me away, feeding me psychiatric drugs until I died.
Reborn, I thought that as long as I hid the report, I could save my baby.
But they forced me onto the operating table once again.
It wasn't until I saw the report with my own eyes—
That I finally understood why my child had to die.

His eyes are open, they are black. His wolf is out with him, there is lust in them. He looks straight at me.

He grabs me by the waist and slams his lips down hard on my mouth.

His tongue slips into my mouth without any trouble and is fucking my mouth with his tongue. He turns us, so we are heading towards something, he still slides his tongue in my mouth.

Fuck this feels so good.

I have wanted him since he came back home.

I am slammed against a tree, hard, he lifts me up by the waist. I wrap my legs around him. I am not wearing any underwear under this dress, I wanted to get fucked by him tonight and I am. He leaves my mouth and starts kissing down my neck, I can feel one hand going to my pussy, and he sticks his finger in. I am wet, he growls into me. He goes for his zipper, he pulls down his pants and boxers so they are on his thighs, and he keeps sucking and kissing my neck. I can feel his hard cock under me, he is really big and hard. He pulls back and lines his cock up with my soaking wet pussy. He rams himself hard.

Panther shifter Izzy has the power so rare that it magnifies with every emotion she has. However, she has been through so much in the last 10 years. She was abandoned by her werewolf father and had to deal with her mother’s death. Her auntie Kat then took her in and they had to move around a lot over the years after a tragic time. Now Kat wants Izzy to stay with her in the town that she left ten years ago. When she arrives, everything comes to light. Secrets and everything from the past comes at her all at once and she has to deal with her fated mate, the Alpha Blake.

-WARNING-This story may contain content that some may find disturbing.

“If you can’t satisfy me with your mouth, then you’ll have to satisfy me some other way.”

He ripped off her flimsy clothing and tossed the shredded fabric aside. Visenya panicked as she realized exactly what he was implying.

“Let me try again…with my mouth. I think I c...”

“Quiet!” His voice echoed off the walls of his bedchamber, silencing her on the spot.

This wasn’t the way she had imagined her first time would be. She pictured passionate kisses and gentle caresses from a man who loved and cherished her. Lucian wouldn’t be loving, and he certainly didn’t cherish her either. She had been cursed with a mate who was bent on revenge, wanting nothing more than to watch her suffer.


Ten years had passed since Dragons ruled over the world…since Visenya took her place as Lycan Queen. Vampires were forced into the shadows now that hunting and enslaving humans was punishable by death. The world was finally at peace…until Dragon Lord, Lucian woke from his induced sleep to discover that his entire race had been massacred by Visenya’s father. Visenya is stripped of her kingdom and forced to live out the rest of her days as Lucian’s slave. The cruelest joke of all is, Visenya learns that the mate she has been so faithfully waiting for all these years, is none other than the vengeful Dragon Lord himself.

Consumed by their hatred for each other, is it enough to fight the intense mate bond between them? Will Lucian push Visenya to her absolute limit, just to regret it all in the end?

I was captured by the one man I should fear most.

Commander Ruel is the Alpha King’s deadliest weapon. A war-forged Alpha feared by armies and obeyed by thousands. Cold. Ruthless. Untouchable.

The moment his hand touches mine, everything changes.

He says I'm his prisoner, yet he keeps me chained beside his bed every night.

He says he doesn't want me, yet his wolf growls whenever another man gets too close.

Every day he fights the mate bond.

Every night he comes back to me anyway.

The man who shows mercy to no one becomes terrifyingly protective when it comes to me.

What neither of us expected is the truth hidden in my blood.

He was raised to destroy my kind.

I might be the last of them.

Now a kingdom wants me dead, a traitor wants his throne, and the only man capable of protecting me is the Alpha whose touch feels dangerously like home.

But if Ruel discovers what I truly am, he may become the one thing I can never survive.

On the night before her wedding, Aria’s world shatters. She catches her fiancé in bed with her best friend. Desperate and reckless, she drives headlong into a raging storm… only to awaken in the body of the frail, dying daughter of the Alpha in her favorite werewolf novel—a girl doomed to perish before the story even begins.

Once a brilliant doctor and a masterful strategist, Aria refuses to accept weakness. She will not be the pitiful creature everyone expects. When she uncovers a deadly conspiracy threatening her clan, she vows to rewrite her fate. Even if it means facing Kael—the cold, lethal Lycan King feared by all.

The moment their eyes meet, something burns between them: a bond neither can deny. He calls her his mate. She calls him her enemy.

Three Kings. One throne. And a mate they never wanted—until she became their greatest weakness.
Ripped from her bed and thrown into a world of blood and treachery, Zirah’s fate is sealed, a forced marriage to one of the three Lycan Kings, each more monstrous than the last.
These kings, cursed by their sins, pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, and gluttony are at war, fighting to claim their father’s throne. But the last thing any of them want is a queen.
To them, Zirah is nothing but a pawn, an object to be used, discarded, or destroyed.
But they underestimate her.
If they think she will cower, they are wrong.
If they believe she will bow, they will bleed.
And if they want to break her, they’ll have to survive her first.

"No matter what happens to you, never marry a mortal, even if your life is at stake!"

"But why—"

“No buts! Just carry out my orders without arguing!”

Goddess Atvertha has been warned by her mother, Goddess Avtexia, to stay away from the mortal nation — a dirty, brutal, and murderous nation. The Moon Goddess just tried to obey, although inwardly she felt strange at the warning.

Goddess Atvertha's heart began to waver when she met a man who was dying in the forest. She, who has never known love, now feels a strange flutter in her heart.

What about the fate of the Moon Goddess after that encounter? Who is that stranger man and what will happen to the two of them?

" What are you?" Amelia stuttered, moving backward until her back touched the wall.

"What am I? Well, I am an Alpha in the werewolf world," Bruce D'Amelio spoke up, a sly smirk dancing at the corner of his lips.

"An Alpha? I am doomed!" Amelia turned pale as she watched Bruce turn into a big black wolf with golden eyes, right in front of her eyes.


On the day of her wedding to her fiancé, Tristan, Amelia discovered that he had been cheating on her with her best friend, Lilith.

Desperate to save herself from marrying a cheater like Tristan, Amelia found herself a new husband - a stranger she met in the wedding hall's restroom.

Without even knowing what he was, she proposed a contract marriage.

What would Amelia do once she found out that the man she married was not an ordinary man?

How would she react if she saw him transform into a big black wolf?

Is there anything you can do about it if your fated mate happens to be the son of the people who you believe killed your parents?

"I, Hades Alexios, the future Alpha of Silver Bow Pack, rejected you, Gloria Alvander as my mate," he stated while looking at me.

I didn't flinch and accept the rejection without hesitation, “Then thanks for your rejection, I, Gloria Lavender, the daughter of Shadow Mystic Pack’s Alpha King, accepted your rejection,”

Gloria was adopted by the Alpha and Luna of the Silver Bow Pack when she was young. And was trained to be a female soldier loyal to the Pack. Although she was regarded as a Beta, she had more power and speed than an Alpha.

The future Alpha of the Silver Bow Pack, Hades Alexios, a possessive and badman, turned out to be Gloria’s mate when she was going to be 18. However, Gloria was rejected by Hades because he prefer a noble mate, not just an adopted girl who was rumored to be someone else's bastard.

As soon as he found out that she was the daughter of the once powerful Pack, he regretted it. He knelt down to apologize and beg her to come back, but Gloria had already met her second chance mate, Apollo Harris. The Alpha of Crystal Blood Pack, the man who had loved at first sight with Gloria in their childhood.

"If I could have stopped this sham of a marriage, I would have."
My chest tightened painfully. Ronan?
"There should have been another way. I was supposed to be the Luna. I'm your mate!"
Mate. I knew the word. But hearing it from her made it feel different, important, and sacred. My mind searched desperately for another explanation. She was someone else, maybe a friend, or a relative, just anyone, but Ronan spoke.
"I know, baby."
My stomach dropped. Baby. He called her baby.
"That human is nothing to me."
I stepped closer before I could stop myself, and then I saw them, his arms around her. My eyes widened when I saw my husband crashing his lips on her.
The woman's fingers tangled in Ronan's shirt as they kissed fiercely, and she moaned his name.
My world went completely silent, and the music downstairs disappeared, everything did. Because the man I had just married was holding another woman like she was the only person in the world who mattered.
How did my life become this? I closed my eyes and took a breath.
My father traded me away. My fiancé abandoned me. And barely an hour after our wedding, my husband made it painfully clear that I was nothing more than a political bargain.


Josie's future is destroyed when she's forced into an arranged marriage with the infamous Lycan King, a man who despises humans and is hopelessly devoted to his fated mate.
Ronan never wanted a human wife. Josie never wanted a husband who would never choose her. But as betrayal, political conspiracies, and an enemy threatens them, the line between duty and desire begins to blur. Fate chose Sadie. His pack chose Josie. In the end, Ronan will have to choose for himself.

Three years ago, Elisa Jordan gave her heart and body to her fated mate, Rhys Jordan, the future Alpha of the Helves Pack. Their last night together was passionate and unforgettable, a night filled with love and memorable promises as he was about to leave for his three years studies abroad.
He promised to return after three years, marry Elisa and become the Alpha.
But by morning, he was gone. No goodbye. No trace. Just silence and the cruel ache of abandonment. His family refused to tell Elisa which country or college he had gone to but they still insisted on his promise. He will return.
After three years of waiting, Elisa decides to move on with a heavy heart. She gains admission to study in New York University, thousands of miles from home. But fate isn’t done with her. When she steps into her first class, he finds Rhys standing there on the podium. Her new professor.
But he stares at her like he has never seen her before.
Then one day, she accidentally sees Rhys kneeling by the altar of the college chapel in a long priest robe, praying. The mate she has been waiting for three years is now a werepriest and a professor. What hurts most is that he looks at her like he doesn’t recognize her but hates her for no reason.
Or is there a reason for this? A reason she does not know?
Could it be Rhys having a new life and forgetting about his past? Or a long-lost twin brother no one knew anything about?

KANE
Even if I spend every night buried between her trembling thighs.
Even if she clings to me like I’m her salvation.
She’s still just a slave— a filthy little Omega with a scent that makes my cock ache.
Nyx is weakness. And this bond?
It is f*cking insult to everything I am.
I should’ve killed her the second I realized what she was.
Instead, I’m addicted.
To her gasps. Her tears. I am curious.
For the first time in my life, I want to claim something. The soul and body that was never mine to take.

**
NYX
Kill the Alpha. Save my mother. Walk away.
Three long months. One target.
End Kane Blackheart— the Devil of Blackhollow. The ruthless Alpha bathed my pack in blood and shattered my world.
I wasn’t prepared for fate’s cruel twist.
Disguised as a powerless Omega, I become his maid. His plaything. His obsession.
He touches me and I forget how to hate. Every stolen glance weakens me, every punishing touch blurs the line between pain and pleasure.
Falling for my mark isn’t just dangerous, it’s betrayal written by blood.

I burn through eighty years of my life raising three dogs that turn around and tear into me.

My vampire husband, Damian, used to be an outcast covered in festering sores, cursed to fear the sun. I cut my wrist and gave up thirty years of my life so he could become the most powerful man among the bloodlines, in control of half the world's wealth. Cold and ruthless to everyone else, he only ever bares his fangs for me.

Knox, the werewolf boy I grew up with, was born with a genetic flaw that kept him from ever shifting. I gave up another twenty years so he could have the strongest bloodline of all. Wild and reckless, he used to swear he'd carry me on his back for the rest of his life.

Julian, my human brother, got burned beyond recognition saving me from a fire. I spent my last thirty years giving him back a face people would pay a fortune for. He used to send crates of his paintings to my room, the kind of work people would kill to own.

Then a woman named Daphne shows up, and all three of them lose their minds over her.

And somehow I become the jealous, vicious wife everyone wants gone.

She cries that I pushed her, so they drive blades of blood straight through my bones.

She says I'm cruel to the staff, so they break my legs in front of a crowd.

And when I'm dying, they drain my blood to keep her alive.

If you're all going to treat the life I gave you like trash, then I'm taking it back. The strength, the face, the life. All of it.

[God, I take it back. I want everything I gave them returned to me.]

In their eyes, I’m a limping janitor who can’t even hold a cup of hot coffee steady.
The head of security can grind his polished boot on my fingers whenever he wants. The gorgeous CEO looks at me with pure disgust for a coward. Even the front desk girl can yell at me as she pleases.
I sprawl on the carpet like an old dog—stuttering, shrinking, obedient.
But they don’t know that if I wanted to, snapping their necks would take only 0.6 seconds.
Three years ago, I was the Seventh Fleet’s sharpest one-man operator. To uncover a cross-border money-laundering network worth tens of billions, I faked my death and lay low inside this filthy corporate empire, mopping floors for three years.
Until today—when that arrogant European mafia titan dropped to his knees in front of my dirty mop bucket, in full view of the entire company.
That’s when I knew.
Three years of disguise were finally about to be torn apart.

At twenty-two, Danielle Hartford struggled to manage the matrimonial firm she inherited from her mother. A surprise email from Vincent Cromwell requesting her agency for their services seemed like the blessing she needed.
However, when the seventy-two-year-old Cromwell demanded a bride for himself, Danielle was disappointed. She had expected it to be for his drooling hot grandson, Knox Zachary Cromwell, the one she nurtured a crush on.
Knox tried everything in his power to stop his grandfather from getting married to produce an heir. When nothing worked, he proposed a deal to Danielle to give him a male heir in return for a huge amount of money.
Her love for him, her need to save her business, made her give in.
However, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
Soon, Vincent Cromwell married against his grandson's wishes. Thinking it was an underhanded ploy, Knox destroyed Danielle’s business.
Danielle left the city forever with her daughter, handing him his male heir.
Would Knox ever realize what he had done?

Dear readers, this book has come to an end. Thank you for sticking with me and reading all this time. I highly recommend another amazing novel of the same genre:
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On my wedding day, I found another woman's sexy lace bra in my husband's car, with semen still on it...

For three years, she nursed her paralyzed husband, risked her own life testing experimental drugs, and nearly destroyed her health to pull him back from the brink of death.
But on the very day he fully recovered, he held his first love in his arms and declared, “I will take care of her and our child for the rest of my life.”
Heartbroken, she asked for a divorce. In return, he coldly froze all her bank accounts and forced her out of the house with nothing, sneering, “You are nothing without me.”
It was not until she hid her pregnancy test and walked away for good that he finally panicked.

One month before my wedding, I was trying on the wedding dress I'd designed myself when a message from a friend popped up: [Diana, get over here! Your fiancé just lost at Truth or Dare and has to kiss your rival.]

I was just the mate of the Alpha fated mate and the nanny to my child, not his Luna.
I dedicated my life to him, but he never loved me—this was all because I was just a wolfless omega.
Until his ex returned, everyone, including my mate and even my child, looked down on me. Everyone believed she should be the Luna.
I turned and walked out of the house, choosing to live for myself.
Three months later, I became the world’s most renowned white wolf healer, appearing on television.
Son (shocked): "Dad, is that... my mom on TV?"

Barbara thought that she had married an ordinary man, but who knew that this man transformed into the CEO of her company.
Not only that, he was also the most mysterious successor of the richest empire in Asia.
In front of others, he was the decisive, cold-blooded leader of the business empire. While in front of her, he spoiled her very much.

Flash Marriage with My Best Bro After My Identity Was Exposed.
Some secrets have been buried for 26 years.
Some feelings have been hidden for 8.

I'm Aria Sterling. Or rather, just Aria.
On what should have been an ordinary day, my world was completely turned upside down. The Sterling family's baby-swap scandal broke, and I lost everything: my name, my inheritance, my penthouse, and my place in the family.
For the sake of profit, my fiancé, Julian, chose to get engaged to the real heiress—a rising star in the entertainment industry. He asked for my "understanding," expecting to come back and marry me once he got what he wanted.
But when I woke up with a massive hangover at a bar, I found out I had slept with Orion, my best friend from years ago. To make matters worse, I was suddenly labeled the "other woman" ruining someone else's relationship, and my career was hanging by a thread.
Just as I was racking my brains over what to do, he said, "Let's get married."
What am I supposed to do now?

My marriage to Matthew was a transaction, a substitute—everything except love. When his white moonlight came back, I was abandoned, diagnosed with gastric cancer, and carrying his child. His late regret could never bring back my life, nor could it keep our unborn baby.

For seven years, I told myself James wasn't cold; he simply loved quietly. Then my car died after midnight, and he told me to call a cab. When I earned the promotion I had chased for two years, he forgot my message. But when his ex said she felt sick, he left work with medicine in one hand and her exact coffee order in the other. That was when I understood: my husband knew how to care. He had simply never chosen to care for me. By our anniversary, I would stop waiting, leave his gift on the table, and move out. Only then would James begin to love me—and by then, it would be too late.

He broke down the morgue door, his guttural scream echoing off the cold tiles as he yanked open drawer after drawer.

"Emily!"

Ethan's hands shook violently as he pulled it open. She lay inside, a white sheet draped over her face. With trembling fingers, he peeled back the fabric. Her face was paper-white, lips bloodless, her eyelashes casting faint shadows. So still.

This wasn't the Emily he knew. The Emily he knew could smile, could cry, could clumsily try to warm his frozen heart. But now, she was just a corpse. A corpse because of him.

"Cancer... stage four..." he whispered, drowning in a tidal wave of panic.

He remembered all those times she had clutched her stomach in agony, and he had mocked her. He remembered demanding she give her heart to his lover. He remembered her final silent words through the surgical glass: "I hate you."

"AHHH—!!" A raw scream tore from his throat. He slammed his fist into the metal drawer, blood blooming across his knuckles.

He collapsed beside her, pulling her stiff, freezing body into his arms. She was so light. Like holding air.

"Emily, I was wrong. I was so wrong," he choked out, crying for the first time in years. "Wake up. Hit me. Hate me. I'm begging you..."

But death is the most absolute silence of all. How far will a man go when he realizes he murdered his only salvation?

My fiancé accused me of not caring about family.
To appease him, I planned a family vacation.
But the night before we left, he informed me that he'd given my first-class seat to his childhood sweetheart.
And me? He stuck me in coach on a flight flagged for possible terror threats.
Everyone in his family thought I should just go along with it.
That was the moment I woke up.
I tore up the itinerary and booked myself a trip to Hawaii instead.
Then I turned off my phone and let them sweat over the hotel bill.
It wasn't until their reservation got canceled that they finally started to panic.

"You are nothing but a mistake I need to erase."

With those words, Alpha Kane Pierce rejected me, his pregnant mate, and exiled me to die. He chose a powerful alliance; I chose survival.

Five years later, the broken Omega is gone.

Now, I am Luna Sage—the most powerful Moon Healer in the world, and a mother to secret twins with silver eyes just like his.

When a deadly plague strikes his pack, the man who destroyed me crawls back, begging for my help. He doesn't recognize the woman he discarded. He doesn't know the children playing in my clinic are his heirs.

He wants a cure. I want him to suffer.

"Bite me." Chase Sterling's whisper was a blade against my skin.

I should pull away.
I should hate him.
But my wolf is howling yes while my heart screams no.

"Say stop," he breathes against my pulse, "and I'll stop."

Liar.

We both know he can't stop.
The bond won't let him.

And neither can I.


Ten years ago, they found my father with his throat torn out
on Silvermoon land.

The Sterlings called it "trespassing."
I called it murder.

They gave us hush money and a warning:
Keep quiet, or the Beta's daughter is next.

So I learned to be invisible.
To swallow my rage.
To survive.

Until someone slipped a note into my locker:
They lied about how your father died.


Chase Sterling.

Future Alpha. Golden boy. Untouchable.

The moment our eyes met, the bond snapped into place—
a collar I never asked for, a chain I can't break.

He says he didn't know.
He says his father is innocent.
He says he'll help me find the truth.

But every time he touches me,
I feel my father's blood on his hands.


Now I'm trapped between two impossible choices:

Accept the bond and betray everything I am.
Or break it—and lose the partner who can prove
my father's killer walks free.

The worst part?

When Chase whispers "mine" against my skin—
I want to believe him.

Emily's life was shattered by the ultimate betrayal. In her past, she was a devoted sister and wife, but the flames of treachery consumed her, leaving her to die in a fire set by her own husband and sister.

However, the moon had other plans, granting her a second chance at life. Reborn on her 18th birthday, Emily awakens to the cruel truth of her sister's envy and her husband's sinister intentions. Determined to rewrite her destiny, Emily rejects her deceitful mate, only to discover her soul is intertwined with that of the enigmatic Lycan King Benson Doorson, the sworn enemy of her ex-husband.

What will Emily choose? Love or revenge?

On our third anniversary, I gave my husband my pregnancy test results as a gift. What I got back was a photo—a man's hand on a woman's chest. The wedding ring on his finger told me everything I needed to know. He was my husband. And he was cheating.

The plan was simple: Break the nephew by seducing the uncle.
Wesley Vance didn't just break my heart; he tried to sell my dignity. So, I went after the only man he feared. The man who owned the city, the empire, and Wesley’s future.
Lance Lawson. He’s cold. He’s untouchable. He’s my ex-boyfriend’s uncle. I thought I was the one setting the trap. I wore his shirts, haunted his penthouse, and chipped away at his legendary control until the ice finally cracked.
But I made one fatal mistake. I thought Lance was a man I could use and discard. I didn't realize that once you wake a predator, he never goes back to sleep.
Now, Wesley is gone, the Vance family is in ruins, and I’m trapped in a gilded cage of my own making. Because Lance doesn't want my loyalty. He wants my soul.
I wanted revenge. I got an obsession.

"Let’s divorce."

After three years of marriage, my husband’s true love has returned. He ended our three-year marriage with his own lips. Just like that, I was ruthlessly abandoned, and everyone is laughing at my misery.

I hid the news of my pregnancy and vanished from his world completely. I thought my sacrifice would give him the happiness he wanted. I never expected that when we met again, my ex-husband would confront me with bloodshot eyes.

"Whose child is this?"

——

As for the story after I left, I heard a different version. From the moment I disappeared, my ex-husband went insane searching for me all over the world...

My husband swore I was the only woman he would ever love.
Then my half-sister handed me her ultrasound. His baby. Growing inside her.
Three years of marriage. Three years of building everything together. Gone in one moment.
I should have thrown the proof in his face.
But my doctor gave me news that made his betrayal feel like nothing.
So I did something he will never expect.
I disappeared.
Let him search. Let him lose his mind.
He will never find me.

"Use me to get back at your ex. Make him jealous. Even if he doesn't love you, he won't handle seeing you with someone else. Especially someone like me."
I blinked at him, confused. "Especially someone like you? Why would he be jealous? He doesn't even like me."
He smirked. "Trust me. Derek will lose his mind watching his ex-wife move on. He'll wonder if you ever loved him... and why you replaced him so easily. That's when he starts running back."
"Deal?"
His eyes glittered with danger. My brain screamed run. But I still found myself nodding.
"Deal."
Vanessa Holland thought signing divorce papers with Derek—a man with the emotional depth of a teaspoon—was the worst day of her life.
She was wrong.
Rock bottom has a basement... and Ryker Holland is waiting there, handsome, ruthless, and armed with a plan.
Ryker, Derek's half-brother and the real power behind the Holland empire, offers Vanessa a deal she's not supposed to refuse: Make Derek jealous enough to crawl back in humiliation, while Ryker secures the CEO throne he's been denied.
But this isn't kindness. Ryker is petty. He is cruel. And he wants to destroy Derek—piece by piece.
Vanessa is the perfect weapon: a discarded wife with nothing left to lose... and maybe just enough vengeance in her heart to play along.
Except fake dating Ryker doesn't stay fake for long.
Emotions blur. Lines cross.
The man she should fear becomes the one she can't stay away from.
Now Vanessa must decide: Is she Ryker's pawn? Or has she learned how to play the Hollands better than either brother ever expected?
Two brothers. One broken heart.
Revenge never looked this tempting...
And the Holland boys are going down—
one will break, and the other will enjoy every second of it.
Disclaimer: Contains morally grey characters, power games, manipulation, emotional cruelty, and a whole lot of chemistry. Reader discretion advised.

Will a man learn to love me if I’m good to him long enough?

I tried for seven years to warm his heart.
I thought if I just held on a little longer, he’d finally see me.
Because I loved him so deeply.

But what did I get in return?
His endless tenderness for another woman.
I pretended I didn’t care, until pneumonia landed me in the hospital.

On the day I was discharged, I found him standing there with our daughter, his whole world focused on caring for that woman.
Even my daughter, whom I’d raised with everything I had, wished that woman was her mother.

In that moment, my heart died completely.

I left the divorce papers, gave up custody, and walked back into the chemical industry.
So what if seven years of marriage had worn me down?
I was still the top genius in my field.

But the divorce I’d wanted so badly never went through.
The man who once couldn’t have been colder to me now held on to me tighter than ever.
Our daughter refused to leave my side.

When he found my divorce papers,
the always cold and arrogant man pushed me against the wall and growled:

“Divorce? You’re mine. For life.”

<>



Vanessa thought rock bottom was signing divorce papers with Derek Holland, a man with the emotional depth of a teaspoon. Turns out, rock bottom had a basement, and Ryker Holland was waiting for her down there with a smirk and a plan.

Ryker, Derek's older half-brother (aka the family's dirty little secret), shows up offering Vanessa a deal: help her make her ex-husband, Derek Holland, jealous enough to come crawling back. In exchange, he secures his position as CEO.

But Ryker isn't doing this out of kindness. He is petty and cruel. He would do anything to trample all over Derek, and now he has the perfect weapon. Vanessa, freshly dumped and just desperate enough to play along. And if she happens to enjoy making her ex suffer too? Well, that's just a bonus.

As Vanessa sinks deeper into Ryker's twisted world of fake romance, secrecy and family dysfunction, things start getting real. Because fake love? It's a lot easier to control than real feelings. And Ryker has no idea what to do when the game stops being a game.

Is Vanessa walking into a trap or building one of her own? Either way, the Holland brothers are going down. One's going to break, and the other's going to enjoy every second of it.

_Disclaimer:

This story contains morally complex and flawed characters, who often operate with hidden motives and questionable ethics. Themes explored include emotional manipulation, gaslighting, power imbalance, dual identities, and blurred lines between love, control, and obsession. Certain scenes may be intense or unsettling. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

In my last life, when the apocalypse hit, I forced more than fifty young tenants in the Silver Bay Apartments into a single fighting unit: sealed doors, rationing, rotating watches, quarantine—I bought us thirty days of safety with iron rules.
But when rescue was finally near, they dumped all their hunger and fear on me. My ex, Claire, and the gym rat Mason stirred up the crowd, beat me until I couldn’t stand, and locked me outside the door to the rooftop—leaving the horde to close in.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before everything began.
This time, I won’t step up. I won’t save anyone. I’ll hide what I need to survive—and watch them destroy the building themselves.

I'm the forgotten eldest son of the Cross family.
My parents see me as a walking blood bag for my brother Colin, while my wife views me as a sinner destined to spend my life atoning for my mistakes.
When Audrey pressured me to donate a kidney, I agreed.
Not only did I agree, but I also liquidated all my assets and transferred them to my lab.
They thought I was foolish, that I was still begging for their love.
In reality, I was just tying up loose ends.
The night before the surgery, I coughed up a pool of blood.
Audrey laughed coldly over the phone: "Stop the act, Evan. You just want to dodge responsibility. You'll go to any lengths for attention."
The surgery was a "success."
Colin got the kidney he'd always dreamed of.
And I died in the recovery room.
My soul floated in the air as I watched Audrey push open the hospital door, wearing a smile that dripped with pity, ready to put on a show of "redemption."
"Evan, I know you've been wronged. Let's start over..."
The only response to her was the white sheet covering my lifeless body.

On our fifth anniversary, Caspian gifted me a luxury yacht bearing my name. Everyone said I was the luckiest woman alive.
But when I finally conceived his child and prepared to share the news, his mistress sent me photos—him cradling a baby she'd given him, his eyes filled with a tenderness I'd never seen.
Five years of waiting, five years of infertility—all an elaborate lie.
He once whispered in my ear: "Even if every man in the world betrays his wife, I never will. You're my life. Without you, I can't survive."
I quietly packed, left behind my pregnancy report and all the evidence, and drove away. Three hours later, he received the call: my car exploded on the highway. No survivors.
From that day on, the most powerful man in Valen City lost his mind completely.