2298 Book(s) Related to i never promised you a rose garden novel

They threw him in the river like garbage.
They should have made sure he didn't swim back.
Cain Devereaux gave ten years of his life to the Devereaux crime family. Ten years of loyalty, blood, and silence. He trained their soldiers. He buried their enemies. He kept their secrets even when keeping them meant destroying his own soul. And the moment he became inconvenient, his boss who was the man he called brother, put a bullet in his chest and tossed him into the river like a used cartridge.
He woke up in the dark with water in his lungs and a voice in his head.
The Ledger of Debts has been activated.
Every name. Every betrayal. Every humiliation logged and catalogued, waiting for collection. The System doesn't ask Cain to become a hero. It doesn't demand redemption or righteousness. It demands payment. And Cain is more than willing to be the instrument of collection.
One by one, the people who wrote him off will learn the truth they buried with him: that the most dangerous man in any room is the one you already think is dead.
The debts are due and Cain doesn't negotiate

'Why now, why him? I shouldn't have looked. I shouldn't have stayed. But my ears betrayed me. Adrain's lips on her - it felt like a knife twisting inside me. Why does it matter so much? He's my best friend's brother. He is trouble. And yet, my heart races whenever he is near. I hate myself for wanting what I can't have."

.....................................

Inez is a romance loving nerd navigating her love life. After catching her boyfriend, Ethan, cheating, she stays with her best friend, Irene, where she meets the playboy, Irene's brother, Adrain.

Despite their instant attraction, Adrain's playboy reputation and Inez's insecurities keep them apart. As Inez faces bullying, family drama, and danger, Adrain becomes her protector and secret crush. Will they overcome their past and Adrain's possessive nature to find love?

•Honoria•
I embarrassed the star quarterback of Crescent Bay high and I know he wants revenge.
Kayden Lachlan was the golden bad boy. A star athlete, with a killer body and a face girls soaked their underwear for.
One sleepy night while doing my assignment, I’d sent the wrong file in. And everything went to hell for him when those embarrassing photos of his training days hit the school papers.
He confronted me and demanded to know why I did it, but one wrong shove resulted in a kiss that changed things between us forever.
His eyes flash golden, and he vanishes off my radar.
Now Kayden won’t even look at me. That kiss meant something he’s hiding.
And I’m done being kept in the dark.

•Kayden•
I kissed Honoria Greyheart by accident, and the mate bond locked into place.
She’s human, hates my guts and has no idea what that kiss just did to the both of us.
One touch of her lips and she became mine permanently.
She doesn’t know I’m a werewolf. She doesn’t know our laws. And she doesn’t know she’s tied to me for life now.
I should tell her the truth of what she is to me now.
But if I do, she’ll run.
And I’m not sure if i’m quite ready to let her go yet.

She planned to give her virginity to her boyfriend.
Instead, she gave it to his best friend.
In the darkness, one mistake changes everything.
Now bound by a secret they swore to bury, Veda and Winslow must pretend nothing happened…
But some nights refuse to be forgotten.
And some feelings? Impossible to ignore.

Three months ago, I was kidnapped. When Alexander rescued me, I woke up in a hospital bed with my clothes disheveled and bruises covering my body. What happened during those hours? I don't remember any of it.

A week ago, I found out I was pregnant. He held me as I shook and told me that it wasn't my fault. That he failed to protect me. Even if the baby wasn't his, he'd raise it. He'd still give me the perfect wedding.

But the guilt ate me alive until depression took hold.

Every night, sleep stays out of reach. Nightmares find me the moment I close my eyes. I've tried to end it. Three times now. Each time, someone found me just in time.

After the third failed attempt, I make tea and head toward his study to apologize. Voices drift through the door before I reach it.

"Are you out of your mind? Evelyn's your fiancée!" His friend sounds disbelieving. "You actually hired someone to kidnap her? Made her think she was assaulted? Just so Lily could take her place? Do you know how messed up that is? What that does to someone?"

Alexander's voice comes out calm. "Lily got sick because of me. Her dying wish is to marry me once before she goes. If I didn't push Evelyn out of the picture, her father would never let Lily take her place."

All those nights. All those nightmares. All those times I scrubbed my hands raw until they bled. It was all a lie. A setup.

For another woman.

I pull out my phone and call my father.

"Dad. I'll agree to the arrangement."

Three years barren, and Jessamine walked on thin ice in the elite household. Her mother-in-law spat venomous curses daily, calling her a "worthless waste of space" and threatening to force her son into divorce.

She could still remember when Damien had severed all ties with his family to marry her—kneeling outside their door in the pouring rain, begging his parents to accept her: "Jessamine is my one true love! I can't survive without her!" Back then, she was the only woman who existed in his eyes.

But now, for the sake of family inheritance, he had the audacity to demand her consent for his childhood sweetheart Celeste to bear their child. Jessamine endured the soul-crushing agony of watching her husband entwined with another woman, night after torturous night.

Even more devastating—after Celeste delivered a daughter, Damien had the shameless nerve to declare: "The family still needs a male heir."

In that shattering moment, Jessamine finally saw the brutal truth.

A horrific car crash left me paralyzed.
The doctors said I'd never walk again. With no family left, my Aunt Martha and Uncle Thomas took me to their isolated farmhouse.
They cared for me, promising their treatments would help me walk again. After everything I'd been through, I thought I'd finally found safety.
Until today, when the feeling in my legs suddenly came back—but something told me not to tell them.

My husband used my cottage to cheat on me. Fine. I found out, I drove three hours, and I walked into my own house to find his mistress wearing my dead grandmother's sweater.
She told me to leave.
He showed up, kissed her in front of me, then grabbed my arm and shoved me into the door frame.
That's when I had the asthma attack. He's known about my asthma for five years.
My inhaler rolled across the porch floor. His mistress picked it up, held it out, and told me to sign a statement saying I'd caused all of this. Then she'd give it back.
He looked at me on the ground and said: She's performing.
I'm sitting on the floor of my own grandmother's house, gasping, and my husband is telling the neighbors I'm acting.
Nobody thought to ask whose family manages every property on this coastline.

For the tenth time, James Smith left me behind because of a call from his female student.
But it was as if I had become a different person—I no longer doubted that there was something ambiguous between James and his student.
Even on our wedding anniversary, when he abandoned me in the remote mountains for Sophia's sake, I bore no resentment.
Eventually, James began to sense something.
"Emily, you seem different," he said.
I shook my head with a smile.
Because I had simply made a different choice from the one in my past life.

🔥 Warning: Highly Addictive 🔥
This is an erotic college romance.
There will be sex.
There will be tension.
There will be morally questionable choices, whispered threats, and moments that may leave you clutching your pillow at 2 a.m.
If you blush easily, consider this your sign to proceed anyway.

“Make me cum, and I’ll think about letting you off.” He said spreading his legs with a smirk, his eyes daring me,watching to see how far I’ll go to protect my reputation.


What do you do when the school’s heartthrob holds your secret?.. and uses it to make you do his bidding?

Emma Carter never expected to get caught cheating on her final exam, and she certainly didn’t expect Ryan Blackwell… the golden-boy soccer star everyone worships… to be the one holding the power. Handsome, arrogant, and dangerously confident, Ryan knows exactly how to push her buttons… and he isn’t afraid to use them.

Every command, every touch, every whispered threat makes her pulse race in ways she shouldn’t feel. Fear and desire collide, and suddenly Emma is playing a game far hotter… and far more dangerous…. than she ever imagined.

Enemies at first, but the tension between them is electric, irresistible… and every secret shared brings them closer to a passion neither of them can deny.

When a botched attempt at love ends with Jake, Myra's crush of five years embracing an unknow woman at a party, fate allows her to meet and spend a night with charming older stranger, Hart.

Believing that being with Hart will help her forget the pain of her failed love, Myra decides to take a second chance at love, only to be pulled into Hart's unordinary life filled with twists and struggles.

Just as Myra starts believing in fate again, Jake reappears in her life witha secret between their families: a secret she needs to fulfil.

Read along to find out who is the destined prince of Myra's love story.

When a botched attempt at love ends with Jake, Myra's crush of five years embracing an unknown woman at a party, fate allows her to meet and spend a night with a charming older stranger, Hart.

Believing that being with Hart will help her forget the pain of her failed love, Myra decides to take a second chance at love, only to be pulled into Hart's unordinary life filled with twists and struggles.

Just as Myra starts believing in fate again, Jake reappears in her life with a secret between their families: a secret she needs to fulfil.

Read along to find out who is the destined prince of Myra's love story!

The night Julian Wright orchestrated his "rose ceremony," everyone expected a full meltdown.
They were taking bets—would I show up sobbing, or would I skip straight to the roof? After all, everyone knew I was broke. Without Julian's money, I'd be out on my ass.
But when Julian handed that rose to campus queen Chloe Miller, the ballroom doors never opened. No crying. No scene. The whole party lost its main event.
What nobody knew was that while Julian was busy playing bachelor, I was sitting on his half-brother's leather couch in nothing but an oversized white dress shirt. Bare legs tucked under me.
I glanced up at Vincent, catching my lower lip between my teeth. "Your couch is soaked. Where exactly are you planning to sleep tonight?"
Vincent Wright's throat worked. Hard. He dragged his gaze away like it physically hurt. When he spoke, his voice came out wrecked: "Stay put. I'll grab a towel."
A beat. Then rougher: "Need to get you dry."

I looked at the naked stranger lying asleep beside me. Lightning flickered, illuminating his muscular body only in glimpses. He was covered in mud and blood, and though in human form now, he still looked wild and monstrous. I’d never found myself lying beside any naked man before in my life. He pulled at my clothes, and I let him rip them off. The thunder came closer, booming right overhead. We kissed with frantic passion and grasped at every inch of each other. One of the only normal human girls at the Werewolf Noble Academy, I was at the bottom of the social order from the start. But even worse than that, just about everyone at school picked on me for being fat. One day I slept with a stranger in an accident. He is the second prince of the werewolf, and wants to marry me!

“You’re just a housewife with no job—you’d never dare divorce Dad!”
Her own son—— Sean Stuart said it.
And for seven years, Seraphine Lavien believed staying silent was love.

Once a rising star in fashion, she gave up her career to marry into wealth—to care for a demanding husband and their fragile son.
But her sacrifice earned only contempt:
Her designs stolen… and he said nothing.
Her pain ignored… while he praised another woman’s work.
Her name mocked as “the wife who doesn’t belong”… and still, he stayed silent.

Charles Stuart's silence broke her.

So she walked away—and rebuilt herself from ash to icon.

Now, as an award-winning designer commanding runways from Paris to New York,

she’s untouchable.

Until the man who let her burn alone shows up at her show, desperate:

“Please come back…”

Are you single? Or married?

I’m single ma’am

Why would a beautiful girl like you be single?

Well, I’d say it’s because I have to work hard to fend for myself so I could meet up with my bills. So I really wouldn’t have time for relationships.

Well, I want to offer you a contract.

What contract ma’am?

I want you to get married to my son and produce heirs for my family, he’s the only child I have and I wouldn’t want our name to be dragged to the mud because of his refusal to get married.

I’m a dying woman, I’m battling with cancer and I have just one year left for me and I wouldn’t want him to be unmarried while I leave this earth.

I’m ready to pay you five hundred thousand dollars monthly (500,000 USD) for staying with my son and a million dollars when you produce an heir.

What?

"I can’t wait anymore," he said in between breaths.

He looked down at me with those dark eyes and said, "I have to have you now,"

"Baby girl, you're so wet," he murmured to my ears.

Baby girl…? Somehow that made me drip even more!

"Baby girl, you feel so fucking good," he said through gritted teeth.

After finding out her boyfriend cheated on her, a distraught Emma went to have a one night stand with a sexy stranger at a bar. Little did she know, the handsome devil turned out to be the new art teacher at her school.

Will Emma survive the school year under the possessive watchful eyes of Mr. Hayes? And was their brief eventful encounter worth risking everything? Could love really grow in such a dark place? Find out, in Your Pet: The Teacher's Girl.

Warning: Contains Mature Content! Enter at your own risk

Carlisle has gained the power to enter erotic dreams.
In every dream, she becomes the object of the dreamer’s wildest sexual fantasies.

That’s how she discovers the messy secrets hidden beneath her quiet academy life—
The history teacher secretly longs for the class beauty.
The merman in the aquatic lab has a suffocation kink.
And the mysterious man guarding the clock tower… has tentacles.

But hey, it’s just dreams. No consequences, no memories.
Total freedom.
And Carlisle is starting to enjoy every second of it...

He won me in a bet. He broke me in a garden. Now the Alpha of Lead Claw is begging for my help and he doesn't know I survived.

Six years ago, Pete Leadsilver laughed when I told him I was pregnant. Hours later, his thugs beat me and threatened everyone I loved. I left with forty-three dollars and a secret growing inside me.

Today, I own D'Matt Laboratories. He needs my cure to save his dying pack. He doesn't recognize my name on the letterhead and he doesn't know his son exists.

He's about to learn both.

Ruth is a beautiful she-wolf who has had premonitory dreams all her life about an ancient vampire curse that would come to her lands and destroy everyone unless she married a man with the blood of a famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh. But the painter has died without leaving any descendants.

One night, Ruth dreams about the angel Ashtar, and Ashtar reveals to her in her dreams and performs spiritual healings to free her from being tormented by her premonitions.

Ashtar finally tells her that she is ready to meet the Angel Ashtar in this life. He gives her an unknown address, where she must leave all fears behind and dance with the wolves under the moon, and among those wolves, she will find the reincarnated soul of Vincent Van Gogh. With this union, they will be able to destroy the curse when the vampires invade.

Ruth uses her wealth to make a positive impact on the world. She is the daughter of the Alpha King, a beautiful and rich princess. One day, Ruth takes a path through the forest, connected with nature and practicing her spirituality, she has a dream, she dreams of the angel Ashtar. However, her practices are suddenly interrupted when she is kidnapped by a mysterious Alpha werewolf, Leon, who needs to receive a reward for kidnapping the princess. What Ruth doesn't expect is to end up falling in love with her kidnapper. Your relationship will grow based on trust and the certainty of your connection with the Universe. Until the Angel Ashtar comes to earth and tells Ruth which path she should take.

Who said women can never be Mafia bosses?

There's nothing more interesting than being a female Mafia, and a hot one.

Leah Kings, the lost daughter of a very powerful mafia family, Red phoenix, meets with her late father's underboss when she was put in prison by her ex-boyfriend's wife.

She is determined to get revenge on him and those who killed her parents. She never knew having a one night stand with her rival Mafia family would come with it.

Three years of a cold, indifferent marriage had nearly crushed Vanessa’s faith in love. Just when she thought her life had gone completely dark, an unexpected piece of news sparked a glimmer of hope—she was pregnant.

But fate had a cruel joke in store: she caught her husband in a passionate embrace with a trainee from his company, followed by the icy slap of divorce papers and the humiliation of being thrown out of her home. She had lost everything—her husband, her parents, even the life she had believed was secure.

Alone, and determined to protect the child in her womb, she fled her hometown—only to discover that she was the long-lost heiress to a business empire. Four years later, she returns, armed with wealth, power, and ruthless resolve. Everyone who ever hurt her will pay for their deeds.

This time, she will not be weak！

The table of hell has been set… Ex-husband, are you ready?

For twelve centuries, the exiled vampire king waited for the prophecy foretold to restore his fallen power. But never expected the girl destined to save him to be the reincarnation of the wife he lost.

Anastasia has spent 18 years of her life beneath her grandmother's watchful eye, hidden from a world she never knew wanted her dead. Sheltered. Obedient. Ordinary – or so she believed.

And the illness slowly stealing her life is not just a disease. It is an awakening.

The man she has quietly loved from afar – the impossibly perfect, untouchable Mr. William – is not who she thought he was either.

He is older than memory. A king without a kingdom. A vampire betrayed by his own brother, stripped of his power, and exiled from the ancient realm of Umbralord centuries ago.

And Anastasia is the one prophecy foretold would restore what was

She knows what she is to him:

A prophecy. A key. A sacrifice.

Anastasia knows there is no escaping destiny . So she makes him an offer.

For six months. He was to date her. Love her. Not out of duty or pity, but as if she truly belonged to him.

What neither of them knows is that the heavens have always been cruel. She was the nemesis placed into his perfect life from the beginning.

Because Anastasia is the reincarnation of the mate William lost twelve centuries ago – the same woman whose death ignited a war that nearly destroyed an entire kingdom.

And this time, fate is not letting go.

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.

After finding out that he had a year left to live. Alpha Logan Wolfie, requested for six months, where he could only live in a carefree and unhindered manner. In other to numb the pain and sadness in his heart before he fulfilled his mother's wish, to give her an heir who would become the next Alpha of the Pack.

"You will produce an heir before the curse takes over..."
Those are the very words of his mother. He hated commitment, and deep down in that dying heart of his, he wanted someone to love, even if it was just for a day before he died but he never thought that someone was a human girl.
Akira Ross, the woman, with zero knowledge about wolves and their existence, the woman that got the cure to his curse, just with the taste of her blood and lips.
Will Akira be able to cure the curse that runs in his bloodline and will she be able to accept the beast she loves is an Alpha?

"What the fuck? You Left hickeys on my neck?" I yelled, "Why didn't you tell me that you left those stupid pieces of stuff on my neck, I was practically telling the whole world that I had a passionate night?"
"Stupid! They aren't hickeys, I branded you?"
"What I do not understand?" I asked, he smirked, moving closer as his breath met my neck.
"I just stick my claim on you, you are mine now, that is my mate mark on you."

"I hate you," Aïssata spat, her chest heaving with fury as she glared at Koffi. "You think you can just claim me as your own?"

Koffi's dark eyes glinted with a mixture of frustration and something far more dangerous. "I don't want to, but I will. You're the key to everything, whether you like it or not."

In the heart of Silvercrest, where wolves rule and forbidden desires burn, Aïssata Doumbia is a woman torn between the life she's fought to build and the dark, magnetic pull of Koffi Mensah, the powerful Alpha whose presence alone makes her pulse quicken. She knows better than to trust the ruthless leader of the pack, but the chemistry between them is undeniable, impossible to ignore.

As tensions rise between the packs, a deadly prophecy begins to surface—one that ties Aïssata’s fate to Koffi's in ways she never expected. Forced to confront their growing attraction amidst a web of betrayal, power struggles, and deadly secrets, Aïssata must decide: Can she embrace her destiny, or will she risk everything to tear herself free from Koffi’s world?

But when the truth is finally revealed, Aïssata finds herself standing at the edge of a cliff—her heart, her power, and her very life in the hands of the one man she can't stand... and yet, can't resist.

"I’ll do whatever it takes to claim you," Koffi whispered, stepping closer, his breath warm against her ear.

And just as their lips almost touched, a roar echoed in the distance, freezing them both in place. Someone else was coming for her...

Astrid finds her cousin having an affair with her mate, her sweetheart and although she was willing to ignore what she had seen and go on with being Alpha Halfdan's mate, she got rejected by him and was forced to sign a divorce paper.

Astrid had no other choice but to do as they said. She is pained and heartbroken that all she craved for was a drink. One drink to clear her head,one drink to end her misery.

But getting to the bar, she gets captured by the stunning sight of an unknown Alpha. Just to get revenge on Alpha Halfdan, she drinks to stupor and has a one night stand with the stranger she met at the club.

But little did she know that just a night could make or mar her...
What happens next?

"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.

Zara Torres has three rules at Harlow University: no athletic dorm drama, no boring elective classes, and absolutely, under no circumstances, no hockey players.

She's broken all three before October.

Now she's stuck writing a semester-long profile on Declan Mercer starting center, criminally good at skating backward, and the most inconveniently interesting person she's met since arriving at Harlow. He's easygoing where she's structured, instinctive where she's methodical, and somehow always exactly where she isn't expecting him to be.

Which, as it turns out, is a problem.

Zara knows how to land on her feet. She's been doing it since the fall that broke her wrist and her confidence in one clean moment two years ago. She doesn't need a hockey player dissecting her skating footage at midnight or texting her things that are too honest for seven AM.

She definitely doesn't need him to be right.

But just as something real starts forming between them something unscripted, something she didn't prepare for a single email pulls the assignment and threatens to take everything with it.

Some edges are sharper than they look.

And some falls are worth the landing.

After eight years in the military, Frank Moore returned to New York.

He had intended to attend his comrade's sister's wedding, only to witness her being utterly humiliated by mafia thugs, forced to drink their foot-washing water.

Enraged, Frank crippled the young thug's legs, condemning him to a wheelchair for life.

Faced with assassins from both the underworld and above, Frank made a phone call.

Hundreds of elite mercenaries descended from the sky, and the entire New York mafia fell to their knees in terror.

The tide in New York was about to turn!

Warning!!! Rated. 18+
{She was my tool for revenge, but I ended up falling for her}
"I'M sorry, but I beg of you don't sell me out like the others please, remember I'm your family right?" she cried.
"How many times am I gonna tell you that you are not in any way related to me Gianna? I found you in the orphanage and took pity on you, the fact that I nursed you up till this moment does not make you my family. I only took good care of you because I know one day you gonna bring me so much money and that day is today so go get ready. You have already been bought my dear Gianna", she nulled with a wicked grin on her face.
Seventeen and still bubbling, already blessed with all womanly features endowed in the right places, Gianna was adopted by an Aunt Christa, when she clocked two.
Aunt Christa was a restaurant owner, more like a delivery slut restaurant, and in there, Gianna served her diligently and faithfully.
Then, the time came when she needed to fulfill that which had been on her mind for like fifteen years, and what was that? To sell her off, to make up money to cover up expenses spent,... and to make more money.
Guess who bought her?? Greg Starr, a 24 year old young entrepreneur, and a Mafia King under cover, very ruthless and heartless.
She was bought to be his tool for revenge, purchased to get back at Clemson, the brother she never knew she had, and his enemy from the past.
And then what happens his female folks?Cassandra Mayor and Beverly Kingstown? Are they all going to just fold their arms and watch this little fragile beauty take their man away?
The worst of it all, she got pregnant for him; got pregnant for a beast in human form.
Was he happy when he got to hear the news? Did he agree to keep the baby? What about her? Was she happy to keep the baby of a ruthless Mafia King?

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.”

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.

<>



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.

“You watched me burn… and chose to save your lover?” I whispered, hatred blazing in my eyes.
“Then I will watch you and your empire turn to ashes.”
“Wife, come home,” the cold Don said warmly. “The bed is empty without you.”
“Mommy, please come home,” my son cried with big fat tears. “I want to hug you to sleep.”
I laughed bitterly. “I hate you both.”
“Yes, Mommy,” they said at the same time, “we love you too.”
“WHY ARE YOU TWO NOT FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT?”
—----
Once, Elena Moretti was the perfect Mafia wife. Silent, loyal, and willing to sacrifice everything for her husband and son. And for that devotion, she was repaid with betrayal and death.
Reborn in the fifth year of her marriage, just before everything spirals out of control, Elena refuses to love blindly again.
This time, she chooses herself.
She divorces the man she once worshipped.
She walks away from the child who loathes her and calls another woman “Mom.”
But fate is treacherous.
The cold Mafia Don who slowly realizes he has lost the only woman who ever truly loved him.
The son who begins to feel the emptiness left by his mother’s absence.
Join Elena’s journey of self love, healing and a second chance at love.

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.

Three torturous years hauling bodies on the mortuary night shift, and I'd finally scraped together the cash for my brother Charles's heart transplant.
He just waved it off.
"My heart is fine. Mom and Dad didn't die in that gang war, either. I orchestrated the hit. You were the only casualty."
Nearby, my husband, Gerald, casually lit a cigar to deliver his own confession. "I never went bankrupt. 'Laying low' was just my excuse to avoid squeezing into that dingy funeral home dorm with you. I've been at the Long Island estate."
"I was going to punish you for another three years," Charles added, "but the stench of formaldehyde on you is nauseating. We couldn't take it anymore."
I froze, still clutching the credit card. Charles plucked the plastic from my numb fingers and shoved his phone screen in my face. A banking app stared back at me.
Balance: exactly zero.
"My name is still on the joint account," he sneered, tossing the card into the trash. "I drained it this morning. That blood money you made bagging stiffs is being handed out to street junkies as we speak. We'd never touch that filth."
Before the sheer absurdity of it could suffocate me, my parents walked in. Flanked by bodyguards, they kept their distance, eyeing me like a plague rat.
"You thought being the biological daughter gave you the right to ruthlessly bully Violet. We simply wanted to put you in your place."
"Swear you'll never cross Violet again, and you can remain a Falcone," my mother added coolly. "Otherwise, you're dead to us."
In the stifling silence that followed, my phone buzzed. A text from my oncologist.
[Mrs. Castello, the results are back. It's terminal. Do you consent to initiating the hospice and DNR protocols we discussed?]

My husband bought a necklace for the woman who killed my mother.

When I saw my foster sister Rebecca Rebecca wearing that emerald necklace with Aaron at the party, I knew history would repeat itself. Seven years ago, my mother lost everything the same way—her husband, her dignity, and finally her life.

I wouldn't follow in her footsteps.

So after slapping Rebecca across the face, I told everyone I was divorcing him and walked out with my suitcase.

Rebecca thought she'd won again. Aaron thought I was just being hysterical.

Neither of them saw it coming—

This time, I'd make them pay.

To please his mistress, Callum ordered me—pregnant—to dance barefoot in the black salt ice cellar.

When I stumbled back to the doorway to warm myself, the mistress covered her mouth and retched.

"I'm pregnant. I can't stand this death-stench of winter."

Only because I was a princess of the Winter Realm, born carrying frost in my veins.

Callum flew into a rage and had me locked inside a frost-crystal cage, sunk to the bottom of the ice well. No one was allowed to release me without his command.

"A princess of winter, afraid of the cold? What a joke!"

No matter how I struggled or begged, he couldn't have cared less. He and his mistress treated it as entertainment. And just like that, I froze to death at the bottom of that well.

What he didn't know was that although we winter-born are forged in bitter cold, when we carry a child, every drop of magic goes to protecting the baby. We have no defense left for ourselves. The very ice that shaped us becomes the thing that kills us.

Two days later, he was finally satisfied and ordered them to pull me up.

But I could never come back up again.

At twenty-nine, Dominic Brooks owns this city's underworld.

This year, I'm pregnant again. Finally.

But on our daughter's death anniversary, he doesn't show. Five hours. Nothing.

I find him at our casino with some girl draped all over him. The same girl I pulled out of a trafficking ring two years ago.

She's laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "His wife won't stop crying about that dead kid. God, he's so over it."

He kisses her. Right in front of me.

Three days later, he tears up our daughter's grave. His mistress wants a swimming pool.

The shovel comes down. My unborn baby goes with it.

Years ago, Dominic taught me the rules of our world. How we handle traitors.

Time for a reminder.

I once thought I’d married the perfect husband, Kael, pouring all my heart and soul into trying to have a baby—until the birth certificate and adoption agreement in the study safe shattered every beautiful lie.
He and my dearest friend, Celeste, had long ago secretly had an illegitimate child,
and even plotted to trick me into being his foster mother, keeping me in the dark for the rest of my life.
What was even crueler was that on the very day I uncovered the truth, the doctor gave me the news—I was pregnant.
Once I faced the harsh truth, I resolutely faked a shipwreck to flee, going into hiding with my unborn child and leaving my old life behind.
He searched the entire world to find me, casting aside all his pride to beg for my forgiveness with a humble heart—but he could never win me back, not ever.

I was dead, and the whole world was celebrating for my sister.

For twenty-two years, I had been the hardest-working but most invisible daughter in the Sterling family, forever living in the shadow of my gymnastics prodigy sister.

Running a high fever, I begged my family to take me to the hospital, only to hear: "Don't you DARE ruin Bella's award ceremony!"

When I was tricked into the abandoned equipment room and used my last breath to call my boyfriend while lying in a pool of blood, all I heard was: "Grace, quit the drama! Bella's accepting her award on stage!"

On stage, thunderous applause erupted as Bella lifted the "Young Gymnast of the Year" trophy.

And I drew my final breath.

When they returned home triumphant, thinking I had run away in a tantrum, they had no idea I was already dead right under their noses.

I gave Arthur a thousand years. A thousand years to secure his throne as God-King.

And on the day of our engagement ceremony, he announced he was marrying someone else.

In my past life, I bled myself dry for him.

He told me Lilith needed Seraphim blood to live. I believed him. He bound me to the Divine Punishment Pillar and carved open my chest, one cut at a time.

He massacred my entire clan, calling it "treason."

I only learned the truth as I was dying. That pitiful "saint" was a demon from the Abyss all along.

Now that I'm reborn, watching him sit on that throne makes my skin crawl.

I destroy our engagement in front of everyone and take the entire Seraphim clan with me.

This time, I'm only here to watch him destroy himself.

Everyone knows my fiancé, Alex, is the kind of madman who would call off a billion-dollar merger just for me.
For years, he convinced the world I was his one and only, risking the wrath of the board just to keep me by his side.
But that kind of devotion is mostly for show.
In reality, he already had a legal wife—and a baby on the way, carrying his blood.
When I learned the truth, I went straight to my best friend.
"Maya, help me stage a car accident. One where the body can't be identified," I said calmly. "It's the only way I can truly escape Alex."
The night I disappeared, he spent hours kneeling by the burned-out wreck.
He destroyed a high-profile marriage alliance, drove his pregnant wife to madness, and became a complete wreck himself.
But when he finally found me—
He realized I didn't love him anymore.

My neighbor Beck Morrow was the best high school point guard this state had seen in years.
The night before the state championship—three college scouts in the stands—he decided to stay home with his girlfriend instead. She wasn't feeling well.
I called his coach.
He played. He got the scholarship. He built a company worth eight figures before he turned thirty, and I spent five years writing every algorithm that company ran on.
He repaid me by throwing a ball at my head during a training session. Then his lawyers sent a letter explaining that I had no legal claim to any intellectual property developed under my employment contract, effective immediately, and that my position was being terminated.
Then I woke up. It was the first week of senior year again.

“I, alpha Ri Dylan, reject you as my mate, Mona Ryan. I have affairs with many women, Mona. Stronger women who are very different from you, I am not a one-mate kind of guy, and believe me when I say this; this rejection will favor you more than it will me because I am not the wolf you would want to be mated with.”

On her 18th birthday, Omega Mona felt the mate pull and was encouraged by her parents to go and meet her mate for the first time. Upon meeting him in the forest, he was devastated to hear that her mate was alpha Ri Dylan of the Lycan pack, the alpha that most wolves feared and hated. She then ran away and didn't say a word to him because of her surprise and disappointment.

“He's no good to reckon with, he's dangerous, he's not trustworthy, and he's the last person in this world you should have any business with.”
Mona has been warned severally about Ri Dylan. What will she do when finding that the goddess has arranged this big, bad, and dreaded alpha who rejected her to be her fated mate?