8031 Book(s) Related to thanks for all the fish meaning

Sabrina devoted seven years of her life to a marriage built on hope, sacrifice, and repeated heartbreak.
But just when she discovers she is pregnant again, her husband Leon shatters her world with one sentence: "She's carrying a healthy baby, Sabrina… and she deserves to be with the father of her child." Thrown aside for Zara—his first love, now heavily pregnant with his child—Sabrina spirals into a life-threatening tragedy the moment Leon turns his back.
As she fights for her life in the hospital, the only man who runs to her side is Cole, Leon's best friend… the man who has silently loved her for years. While Leon builds a new family with Zara, Cole bleeds, fights, and risks everything to keep Sabrina alive.
Betrayed and broken, she finds unexpected solace in Cole Lander—her husband's best friend. Will Sabrina find the strength to start over, or will her pain consume her?

Ten years ago, Heaven's War God Kevin fought an earth-shattering battle against the Demon King. Kevin was ambushed and gravely wounded, falling from Heaven to the mortal realm.

A young girl named Alice found the blood-soaked Kevin by the river while gathering herbs and treated him with medicinal plants.

Moved by her kindness, Kevin decided to stay in the mortal world to repay her debt, but he discovered that using his power would attract the Demon King and bring destruction to the human realm.

Kevin voluntarily sealed ninety-nine percent of his power and stayed by Alice's side, helping her gather herbs and heal people.

Two years later, Kevin confessed his love to Alice and they became husband and wife, opening a clinic in a small town where they saved countless lives and were known as the "Holy Couple."

For three years, everyone at Spire Academy believed Liam loved me. Until I uncovered his secret plan: steal my academy recommendation to save Anna, and keep me waiting on the sidelines. He handed my future to another girl and threw me to a mad duke to be dissected. I escaped death by leaping into the Rift of Silence, only to be pulled from the abyss by Arnold, an ancient night lord. When Liam finally realized his sin, he begged for a second chance. But the girl who waited for him in the dark died in the rift. I have a new life, and I will never look back.

I once believed his oath wholeheartedly. I sacrificed all my power to lift him onto the Alpha King’s throne. What a cruel twist: the man who swore to die for me became my executioner.
He cast me aside for another female, and my past life ended in endless sorrow and destruction.
Now I am reborn, and I am no longer the naive girl who loved blindly.
I shatter the token of our blood oath in public, ending our bond forever.
To the shock of all onlookers, I do not seek another chance with him. I turn and pledge myself to the new Alpha King.

Since when is eating a snack before dinner a capital crime? All because of a bag of gummies, my parents beat the hell out of me, and a judge coldly sentenced me to death. I was absolutely convinced the candy was laced! It wasn't until moments before my execution that I accidentally found out the truth: my family... were never actually my family to begin with.

A madman attacked the concert hall. I threw myself over my son, taking every blow meant for him. My spine shattered in three places.

My husband Arthur subdued the attacker and rushed us to the hospital—the picture of a devoted, loving spouse.

It was only after hearing his conversation with the doctor that I finally saw his true colors.

My crippling injury was merely collateral damage. My son Ethan? Nothing but a living cornea donor for Mia—the cherished daughter he had with his first love.

He treated my child like spare parts, never knowing Mia isn't even his blood.

On my daughter’s 100-day celebration, I found explicit messages between my husband and his secretary.
During our fight, he “accidentally” pushed me off the second floor, trapping me in a wheelchair forever.
He fired the secretary and cared for me personally, winning everyone’s praise and pity.
Only I knew he took secret late-night calls, his eyes full of disgust when he looked at me.
Until his mistress moved in, and my daughter screamed at me: “Just die.”
I smiled and pulled out a hidden voice recorder from my wheelchair.
Three years of silence, all for this moment.
James, your karma has come.

Thirty thousand feet in the air, inside the sealed cabin of a commercial airliner, my five-year-old daughter vanished into thin air while I took a thirty-minute nap.
I tore through the lavatories, the galleys, and every overhead bin. The only thing I found was her stuffed bunny, the one she never let out of her sight.
What was even more terrifying was the crew and the passengers. As if perfectly rehearsed, they all insisted I had boarded the plane alone. They even gaslit me in front of everyone, claiming I was mentally unstable and had hallucinated a daughter.
They took turns pushing me, trying to force me into self-doubt and submission. Not a single person offered to help me look. The entire plane was covering up a sinister crime.
If this plane was going to hide my child and protect the guilty, then I would tear this hypocritical aircraft apart with my bare hands.

In my last life, my mother-in-law locked me in the attic, and my wife openly cheated on me with the neighbor. Even when I was dying of terminal cancer, they bled me dry until my very last breath! Now that I've been reborn, the extreme-heat apocalypse is just around the corner. In this life, I'm living for myself. I spend every last cent of my savings stockpiling three years' worth of supplies and building a heat-proof survival villa! Now I can sit back and watch my mother-in-law's family struggle to survive in the deadly heat. Beg on their knees for my forgiveness? No! I will never forgive them!

A hundred years ago, that curse was meant for him. I'm the one who threw myself in front of it.
It cost me my elven heart, shattered on the spot—and a name I could never wash off. Traitor.
I never argued. Because the moment I speak the truth, the curse goes straight back to him.
So I stayed. I became his blood servant and let him drain me, one bottle at a time, to feed the woman he'd waited a century for. I told myself that if I endured long enough, someday he'd see my heart for what it was.
Then the healer told me my heart had thirty days left.
And he walked in, knife in hand, to say his beloved needed more of my blood.
This time, I'm not enduring anything.
I'm going to give him back this heart—at the exact moment he's most sure he's won.

To avenge his beloved, my husband locked me—pregnant—in a dog cage and sank it into the icy lake outside our house.
"Wendy spent ten minutes in the water. You'll stay in there for two days."
I screamed and pleaded, "I'm not lying! I really am pregnant! Please!"
But he towered over me, his eyes full of disgust. "You'll say anything to avoid punishment—even a lie like this?"
As the iron cage sank, the freezing water swallowed me—and took the unborn child with it.
Two days later, he had the cage hauled up, waiting for me to beg Wendy for forgiveness.
But all that was left inside was a curled, lifeless body, my dress soaked in vivid red.
I hovered above, watching coldly as he clung to my corpse, howling like a madman.
Eric, why are you crying?
Isn't this what you wanted?

In my last life, I fell for every word out of Ryan's mouth.
To save his shot at attending physician, I volunteered to take the fall for his medical malpractice case.
My license was revoked. I went from being a surgeon to being a housewife trapped in his family's home, wasting ten years of my life chained to a kitchen stove.
I thought my sacrifice would earn me his gratitude for the rest of our lives.
Turns out, he'd been sleeping with that doe-eyed little nurse, Lily, for God knows how long.
When years of exhaustion finally caught up with me and my heart gave out, I collapsed on the freezing basement floor.
My husband Ryan was upstairs, arms wrapped around Lily, sleeping in the master bedroom we'd bought with my dowry.
"That bitch is finally kicking the bucket. Once she croaks, this house is ours."

My stepmother married my father because she mistakenly believed he was an Alpha, and that was the beginning of my tragedy.
In my past life, I was falsely accused by my stepmother, betrayed by my mate, and abandoned by my father, who refused to believe me and sold me to an elderly Omega. In the end, I died with injustice in my heart.
But heaven has granted me a second chance. I have returned to the very day my stepmother framed me for her miscarriage.
This time, I won’t let them have their way.
I have gathered my entire pack to make meatballs together, waiting to put on a spectacular show—exposing the scandal of my stepmother, Odessa, and my mate, Beta Peregrine.

My Alpha was the one who started the fire—he lit it with his own hands, ready to burn his own children alive, just so his little mistress Beta Sasha could become Luna without a hitch.

I ran into the flames, carrying two unconscious pups on my back, and jumped from the fifth floor. My palms were scorched, skin torn, flesh charred.

I thought saving his “future heirs” with my own life might earn me a word of gratitude.

But when I woke up, the tribe’s medic looked at me coldly and said, “The Alpha is with Beta Sasha. She was... frightened.”

That was the moment I finally understood—I wasn’t his fated mate, not their mother, not even part of the pack.

I was just a vessel on their path to power. A body—if it didn’t burn, it could still be used.

Five years ago, during a passionate sexual encounter, Freya Myers stole sperm from a mysterious and dangerous man, intending to have a genetically superior child. That man was none other than Declan Castle, the ruthless, enigmatic CEO of the globally renowned Castle Group.

Five years later, Freya Myers returns to the city with a pair of exceptionally gifted twins, desperately trying to conceal their existence from the world. But when she interviews for an internship, she unexpectedly encounters Declan Castle—the very same man from years ago—as her interviewer. From then on, Declan Castle becomes a persistent, demonic force haunting her!

Five years ago, a single, desperate mistake changed Freya Myers's life forever. Intending to secure a future with the man of her dreams, she ended up in the wrong room, stealing the 'seed' of the wrong man. That man was Declan Castle—the cold, ruthless, and enigmatic CEO of the world-renowned Castle Group.

Now, Freya has returned to the city as a struggling single mother, hiding a pair of genius twins from the world. When she lands an internship at the Castle Group, she hopes to remain invisible. But fate has other plans. Declan Castle, a man who has remained mysteriously untouched by any woman since that fateful night, instantly senses something familiar about the new designer. He has spent years searching for the woman who 'ruined' him, and now that he has found her, he has no intention of letting her go.

Forced into a high-stakes marriage of convenience with the domineering CEO, Freya must navigate the treacherous waters of high society while desperately guarding her children's true identity. Between a scheming stepmother, jealous socialites, and a series of deadly secrets, the walls are closing in.

What started as a game of cat-and-mouse and a quest for revenge soon ignites into a passion that neither can control. In a world where power is everything and betrayal is a way of life, can Freya protect her heart and her children, or will the relentless Mr. Castle claim everything she’s been trying to hide?

One modern smartphone. Zero social skills. And a world of women who want his "magic."
Arthur lived seventy years as a "good man"a polite way of saying he died a virgin with a literal allergy to women. Touched by his purity, the Goddess Venus offers him a second chance in another realm of Venhus. But thanks to a divine blunder, Arthur wakes up as a 20 year old scrawny, powerless orphan in a world where women rule with magic and steel.
His only lifeline? A Spectral Smartphone that can order anything from Earth...from Glocks and Kevlar to Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The catch: the currency is Venus Points (VP), earned only through physical and romantic intimacy.
For a man who breaks out in hives during a handshake, Arthur is in a comedic hell. To survive greedy queens and demon mages, he must overcome his terror and "farm" points from the very women he’s spent a lifetime avoiding.
Building an empire is easy. Surviving the first kiss is the real boss fight.

My grandfather was a thief.

He did not steal money.

He stole my grandmother's name, her return papers, and the life that should have carried her out of the mountains.

Fifty years later, his granddaughter sat across from me in a law firm interview and smiled like the world already belonged to her.

I opened her file, saw the family name, and closed the folder.

"You didn't pass."

Three years ago, the night before my wedding, I was kidnapped and nearly killed.

When I woke up, Julian was crying over me. "The kidnappers hurt you so badly, Elsie. The doctors—they had to remove your uterus to save you. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

My world shattered.

I cried for a week straight. Cried until I had no voice left, until my eyes couldn't open from the swelling. I'd lost everything—my chance at motherhood, my chance at being whole.

But Julian squeezed my hand. "I love you, Elsie. You're all I need."

He married me anyway. Against his family's wishes, he married this broken woman.

For three years, he was perfect. Gentle. Loving. I thought I was the luckiest woman alive.

Until today.

Today, I learned the truth—

There was no kidnapping. No random attack.

It was all planned. Orchestrated by Julian himself.

For one reason only—to give my uterus to Chloe, my sister who was born unable to have children.

On my first day at St. Clair University, my roommate Lysandra laughed at me in French.

Wrapped in designer logos, she called me a nobody who did not even recognize luxury perfume.

She thought I could not understand her.

She was wrong. French was my first language.

I was also Iris Russell, the hidden heir to the Russell Group.

But I kept that to myself.

Then Lysandra set me up at a Michelin-starred restaurant. With the manager's help, she placed a fake $450,000 bill in front of me and demanded humiliating photos to erase the debt.

They expected me to break.

Instead, I opened my phone and started a livestream.

By the time Lysandra learned who I was, the whole internet had seen her trap.

"Sign the Brooklyn house over to Isla. I'll cover your tuition next semester."

Gabriel didn't look up. Just sat there in his leather chair like he was doing me a favor.

My mother grabbed my sleeve. "She has depression, Rachel. She just needs a studio. Why are you making this so hard?"

I looked at her, then at him. That house was the only thing my father left me when he died. The only thing. And my stepbrother was sitting in his leather chair, offering me a trade like it was nothing.

"That house is the only thing my father left me," I said. "You know that."

Gabriel finally looked up. "I know. Sign anyway."

My mother tightened her grip on my sleeve. I shook her off.

"Give me the pen."

I signed. Grabbed my suitcase — packed for three days — and walked out.

I had nowhere to go. I didn't care.

His fingers curled inside me as his tongue worked my clit with devastating precision.

"Come for me, sweetheart," Hayes whispered against my most sensitive place. When I shattered, crying his name, he didn't stop—kissing me through every tremor like a man starving for six years.

"You're mine now. My wife. No more running."

I'm Sienna—a broke artisan shoemaker fighting to save my studio. He's Hayes Sterling—NFL's golden quarterback worth millions. We were everything to each other in high school until his powerful family paid me to disappear, threatening to destroy his draft prospects if I didn't sign their NDA and walk away forever.

Six years later, fate makes him my most important client.

Every fitting reignites what we buried. Every touch reminds me why I left. When Hayes discovers the truth about my "betrayal," he doesn't just want answers—he wants me. His wife. His forever.

But his family hasn't finished with us yet.

Can love survive when the price of staying together might cost him everything he's worked for?

Antonella has always attracted everyone around her with her surreal beauty and allure. Surrounded by sycophants, she finally manages to make a loyal friend, Fanny, who was bullied for having disabilities.

Fanny was a great friend, but she also had four brothers who soon met the famous Antonella, leaving her burning with desire.

Nobody knew about Antonella's relationship with the four beautiful and naughty bad boys. She had fun with them, doing crazy things together, and experiencing everything that pleasure can bring.

#Reversedharem

“You were never meant to live, little queen,” His whisper sent a chill down my spine. “But you belong to us now.”
Aria should have died in that car crash. Instead, she wakes up in a palace and encounters four kings, all bound to her by a mark that burns like fire.
A vampire who wants her blood, a Lycan who wants her body, a Fae who wants her power and a Demon who seeks to break the ties binding them.
Each of them claims she’s theirs but none of them agree to share. As the kingdoms start to fall one by one and an ancient prophecy slowly awakens, she discovers that the greatest danger isn’t in the curse that binds them.
It’s in the way each of their touches makes her forget she ever wanted to escape.

EXCERPT:
"You are mine!", he screamed at me with a scowl on his handsome face,
"I wasn't yours when you rejected me that morning", I tried my best to mirror his features but I failed miserably. He placed a small smirk on his face, his scowl leaving as he closed the gap between us and placed his hand on my waist, making a shiver run up my spine,
"You were always mine, Brea", he pulled me closer to him and buried his head in my neck, inhaling my scent and defying my personal space, "And you will always be mine". I felt his teeth scraping my shoulder blade- he was going to mark me and I didn't have the willpower to stop him...
"Mummy!", my son's voice snapped me out of my intoxicated trance and I took a quick step away from the man who had always been a stranger to me. I gathered my boy into my hands and placed him on my hip before looking towards the man again. He had shock written all over his face as he blinked vigorously,
"Is that...", he drew off,
"Ours? Yes", I wanted to lie to him, tell him the child in my arms wasn't his, maybe he would feel the same pain I felt the day he rejected me...


Brea Adler, rejected by her mate and her entire pack is forced to leave after she could not put up with it anymore. She ends up in another pack with an Alpha, Brennon Kane who treats her like a queen and they instantly fall in love.

What happens five years later when her mate and former Alpha, Jax Montero visits her new pack to discuss pack issues? What happens when he finds out she has a child for him?

I’m a cleaner—the kind hired to make problems disappear: eliminate targets, wipe scenes, erase evidence.

Three years ago, I walked away. I took a desk job at a consulting firm, spending my days sorting files and filling spreadsheets.

To everyone else, I was an easy mark. The project lead mocked me in meetings, stole credit, and dumped every mistake on my head—always in public.

Then came the department banquet.

My enemies showed up.

The same lead who’d been riding me all year ignored my warning and blocked the hallway, drawing a crowd.

The next second, the bomb went off—and the banquet hall was sealed.

That’s when everyone finally understood who the quiet office clerk really was.

“No woman has ever made this cold heart race,” he murmurs.
“Except you.”
......

Valentine’s Day was supposed to be the night I told my best friend Ethan how I felt.
Instead, I kissed his dangerous twin.

A month later my mother married their father. Elias became my stepbrother.
He still has private photos of me I never knew existed. When I find them, trust nearly shatters. He destroys them—but forgiveness is harder.

While I fall for the wrong brother, Ethan’s jealousy turns darker. He uses what he knows about Elias’s past, and about Vivian, the older woman who once left real scars, to make me doubt everything.

Vivian contacts me herself. She doesn’t want him back. She only warns me about the difference between being wanted and being possessed.

My mother demands I end it for the family. Ethan threatens to expose us.
Everyone has decided what I should do.

I spent three years waiting for Ethan to choose me.
I will not let anyone else choose for me now.

Even if the brother I choose is the wrong one.

She was spoiled and the only daughter of Italy’s most feared Mafia empire. But I was never supposed to fall for the one man paid to protect me.
Luca Bianchi. My father's most trusted bodyguard. A man with secrets darker than his tailored suits and eyes that have haunted me since I was sixteen. When threats close in and betrayal strikes from inside our mansion, my parents send me away with the one man I swore I hated.
But this isn’t just about stolen glances and red lace. Because someone is hunting me.
And Luca might be the only one who can save me.
He’s the bodyguard. I’m the heiress.
And in this deadly game of bullets and betrayal…
I might just be the one who gets claimed.

I’m a convenience store owner.

When the acid rain apocalypse hit, it ate through metal, wrecked power, and turned clean food and water into currency.

Last time, I made one mistake: I opened my door to my ex, Claire Voss, and her lover, Derek Hale. They didn’t come for shelter—they came for my stash. The blade in my abdomen taught me what mercy buys in a broken world. I killed them, but as my vision faded, the radio crackled with one final update: the disaster was ending.

Day thirty. I didn’t live to see morning.

Then I woke up—one week before it began.

This time I do only one thing: lock myself in my underground storage room with exactly thirty days of food and water, and wait for the rain to stop.

But Claire is hoarding again, louder than ever—embezzling money, emptying my shelves, trying to starve me in the first week so I’ll crawl back begging.

That’s when it hits me:

She thinks the apocalypse lasts forever.

She has no idea it only lasts thirty days.

Kael Varez spent his entire life being treated like dirt, mocked for being poor, humiliated for being fatherless and discarded by the woman he loved the moment a richer man appeared.

But on the night his dying mother whispers a terrifying secret, Kael’s world changes forever because the assassins hunting him believed that he is the missing heir to a brutal underground empire built on blood, power and fear.

Now, trapped in a deadly world where loyalty is bought and betrayal hides behind every smile, Kael must survive ruthless enemies, dangerous alliances and a family that wants him erased before he can uncover the truth about who he really is but the deeper he falls into the darkness, the more he begins to change.

So when the bastard everyone once despised finally rises, will he destroy the empire or become something even worse than the men hunting him?

In a world ruled by powerful werewolf bloodlines, one name was never meant to exist again.

Elias Ashford.

Born during the terrifying Blood Moon Eclipse, Elias was feared from the moment he took his first breath. Whispers followed him his entire life cursed child, monster, omen of destruction. Even his own father, the ruthless Alpha Darius Ashford, hid dark secrets about the night Elias was born.

But everything changes when Elias meets Vivienne Silvercrest the daughter of a rival bloodline and the girl tied to him by a forbidden bond older than history itself What begins as a dangerous mate connection soon awakens something ancient buried deep beneath the werewolf world.

An ancient kingdom erased from history A forgotten throne A power capable of destroying gods As mysterious enemies known as the Black Moon Order rise from the shadows, Elias discovers the horrifying truth:

He is not just a cursed Alpha.

He is the reincarnation of the First Alpha the legendary King of the Void, a being so powerful the Moon Goddess herself betrayed and sealed him centuries ago Now the seals are breaking Monsters buried beneath the earth are awakening Ancient prophecies are coming alive.

And Vivienne may be the only person capable of either saving Elias or destroying him forever.

Bound by love, hunted by fate, and surrounded by betrayal, Elias and Vivienne must uncover the truth behind the curse before the world falls into darkness again.

But some curses were never meant to be broken.

And some kings were never meant to return.

Aria lost her ten fingers and her entire future to a pair of fake lovers in her past life. Reborn before the crucial music competition, she abandons her role as a shadow pianist and picks up her abandoned violin again. With bleeding fingers and a death wish for revenge, she teams up with Adrian, the ruthless piano tyrant of Juilliard Prep. They burn down the perfect reputation of the hypocritical genius who once ruined her. Broken strings can be re-tuned. Broken talent always plays louder than lies.

They built a hundred-year name on a scholarship they stole from a dead girl.

This morning that name landed on my desk. Brooke Hale, applicant. One signature away from the federal clerkship her family has won, somehow, in every generation since 1962.

I'm the one who signs.

I wrote three words instead. Recommend denial. Then I sat with my hands flat on the file so they'd stop shaking.

The Hales think it's a cold case. A girl named Iris, ruled ineligible sixty years ago, gone quiet, gone poor, gone.

They don't know Iris was my great-grandmother.

They don't know I kept the letter.

When Iris went to prison for her boyfriend, she discovered that he was about to marry Alpha's daughter.
It turned out that he had been using her all along and then abandoned her...
Iris fell into despair, but unexpectedly, she crossed paths with Marcus, Alpha's son and her former patient.
She became her ex's brother-in-law's wedding companion?! The most notorious playboy in the Pack?

"There is no us. There hasn't been for six years."
"You dropped divorce papers at my feet, Aidan. In front of cameras and everyone who mattered. Your mistress called me trash, and you stood there and said nothing."
"He is not yours, Aidan. He has a father. If I had been pregnant with your child back then, I would have gotten rid of it. You don't deserve anything from me."
Six years ago, Evelyn believed she had the perfect marriage.
On the night Aidan Smith celebrated his greatest achievement, she was ready to reveal the happiest news of her life. She was pregnant with his child.
Instead, she was publicly humiliated.
Aidan believed a cruel lie and chose his mistress over the wife who had loved him for years. In front of cameras and high society, he ended their marriage without knowing he was leaving behind a child who would change everything.
Heartbroken, Evelyn disappeared and started over.
Six years later, she returns as Evelyn Cole, a world renowned fashion designer and billionaire CEO. She built an empire, raised her son alone, and became the woman no one can look down on anymore.
Then fate brings her back into Aidan's life.
When the truth finally comes out, Aidan realizes the woman he abandoned was the greatest treasure he ever lost.
He wants his ex wife back.
But Evelyn Cole no longer belongs to him. And this time... he will be the one begging for her love.

Catherina Hanshaw Dalton has spent six years believing she lived a fairytale, married to billionaire Xavier Dalton, cherished by him, and building a life rooted in devotion, even amid one heartbreak she cannot control: their inability to have a child. Though Xavier assures her she is enough, Catherine senses his quiet disappointment, a wound deepened by the venomous hostility of his mother, Lydia Dalton. Lydia never misses a chance to insult Catherine’s infertility, idolize Xavier’s sister Mia and her children, or imply Xavier married beneath his status. Catherine endures it all, clinging to the one constant comfort, Xavier always defends her. Or so she believes.
This Christmas, however, Catherine’s dread of another humiliating Dalton family gathering turns into confusion. Lydia is gracious….kind, even. The manor is full of relatives, business partners, and esteemed guests, including Hunter Powell, Xavier’s ruthless business rival. The brief moment when Cathy’s eyes meet Hunter unsettles her, but nothing prepares her for Lydia’s “special Christmas gift.”
During the toast, Lydia presents Caroline Turner…a beautiful young woman who is allegedly four months pregnant through surrogacy…with Xavier’s child.

Eight years ago, I was the heir to a powerful dynasty—the man set to inherit an empire.

On the way home from a business deal, our convoy was ambushed and I was taken. My fiancée arrived with the ransom, and the kidnappers gave her a choice: save one man. She saved my closest friend—and left me bleeding in the ruins.

They thought I was dead. They went on camera, announced my “tragic death,” took my company, split my legacy, and lived on my name for eight long years.

But I didn’t die. A gray-zone mercenary unit pulled me out of a pile of bodies. I changed my name and climbed from the bottom of their world—training, bleeding, killing, leading—until I became one of their commanders.

Today, my fiancée is marrying my best friend. The invitation arrived with my name on it. I board a first-class flight under a new identity and head straight for their wedding.

Halfway through the ceremony, the priest asks if anyone objects.

I stand up. “I object.”

I didn’t come back to give my blessing. I came back to collect.

Noah, usually inseparable from his father, had spent the entire week insisting that only I take him camping. His declared mission: mastering "real survival skills"—a not-so-subtle jab at his dad's preference for cushy glamping.
Liam played along, hamming it up as he swung our son goodbye. But beneath the teasing jealousy, something felt off. He packed the trunk too fast. Checked the gas without being asked. Almost assembly-line efficiency.
And that line about a last-minute client flying in from Chicago? Didn't sound like bad luck. Sounded like an excuse.
All week, he never pushed back. Just quietly, almost eagerly, waited for us to leave.
I figured he wanted the house to himself: scotch, cigars, silence.
Then the call came—and I got it.
He hadn’t cleared the house for peace and quiet.
He’d cleared it for her.

During the Yearbook photoshoot, the photographer smiled and gestured for the couples to move closer together.
But Daniel pressed his hand against my shoulder and pushed me straight to the edge of the group, then turned and pulled Harper to his side.
"Harper and I are this year's Valedictorian and Salutatorian. It makes sense for us to stand together—it'll look better for the Yearbook spread."
This wasn't the first time he'd pushed me away.
When I brought him my AP Calculus mistakes, he barely glanced at them before saying my foundation was too weak—don't waste his time.
But when Harper, ranked second in our class, brought him basic algebra questions and played dumb, he didn't notice a thing.
He'd even FaceTime with her until two in the morning, patiently breaking down every single step.
When I wanted to study with him at the library, he'd frown and say I was breaking his focus.
But when Harper dropped just two points on a quiz, he'd skip track practice entirely to take her to the beach and cheer her up.
Right before the photographer pressed the shutter, he couldn't help teasing, "You two are a couple, right? You look like prom king and queen material!"
Daniel looked at Harper, his smile proud and tender. "We're always on the same wavelength."
Harper blushed and ducked her head as the guys from the team whistled and hollered around them.
I stood outside the noise, gripping my phone so hard my knuckles went white. The camera app I'd opened hours ago had already timed out.
The dark screen reflected the dress I'd tried on for hours last night, and the curls I'd ironed over and over again.
God, how stupid of me.
The spot beside him was never meant for me.
And now? I don't want it anymore.

I thought I'd signed up for an immersive dating show.

Turns out it was a 99.9% death rate, globally livestreamed horror game.

And me? Half-blind without my contacts, desperate to go viral, I somehow talk my way through a death game like it's a romance.

I mistook blood for ketchup, human eyeballs for sashimi, a murderous child ghost for a kid who just needed some love.

Worst part? I fell for the guy running the place, the one who could kill you without blinking, and tried to get his number within the hour.

My teammate hissed at me, shaking. "You wanna die, fine, just don't take us with you!"

I just waved him off. It's a dating show. Relax.

My daughter Lily was shot dead while she was performing on her own stage.
I rushed forward to shield her, and a speaker crashed down onto my right shoulder. The bone shattered.
My husband, Vincent, “shot the gunman dead” at once and sealed off the entire opera house.
When I woke up in the hospital room, the pain almost suffocated me. My right shoulder was wrapped in thick bandages, and when I tried to raise my arm, all I felt was a numb.
“…This isn’t what we agreed on.” The doctor’s voice was low and unsteady. “We only needed her blood sample for matching. Why did it have to go this far?”
“Lily’s blood type is a perfect match. This is the best possible outcome,” Vincent said. “I married Elena for this moment. I’ve been waiting for it.”
The doctor was silent for a few seconds. “But she’s your daughter… There’s no need to sacrifice a life, even if she is a Salaceno.”
Vincent cut him off. “You know how long an artificial heart can last. Camila’s daughter won’t hold out for long. I can’t put her through another surgery.”
“Camila’s child is the one I should cherish.”
At that moment, my blood ran cold. In his eyes, my daughter was nothing but an organ container.
He had no idea. All that talk about protecting his precious daughter—she wasn't even his.

They told me the baby was gone, but they didn't tell me my heart was being carved out, too.

I woke up on the operating table, paralyzed. Through my blurred vision, I saw my beloved husband, Marco, trembling with excitement as he held my medical chart.

"Her blood is perfect," he whispered. "It is a perfect match for Isabella. We can proceed with the transplant now."

"Finally. It wasn't in vain that I brought her back." My revered father let out a sigh of relief. "If it weren't for this day, how would someone who wandered outside for so many years be qualified to step into this house again?"

When my husband said "I love you," he actually meant "Your heart is perfect for the woman I truly love."

I couldn't scream; I couldn't move.

I could only watch helplessly as the silver scalpel pierced toward my chest, while my sister, Isabella, lay on the operating table next to me, smiling in her sleep.

I was never a long-lost daughter, nor was I a beloved wife.

I was just a mobile blood bank waiting to be slaughtered.

At the engagement party, Julian tore up our agreement on the spot, selling me for a single dollar to Callum, a man rumored to be a bloodthirsty, crippled psychopath.

Our mutual friend frowned.

"Are you out of your mind? Sylvia stayed by your side through your hardest three years, and you're really going to send her off to be tortured by a freak like Callum?"

Julian casually swirled the whiskey in his glass.

"It's just a little punishment. Rosie is carrying my child and needs a title, but Sylvia is too damn proud. Not only did she refuse to step down, but she also upset Rosie and affected her pregnancy."

"Callum is a twisted cripple. Give it three hours, and she'll break down completely. By then, she'll obediently accept Rosie's existence and even willingly stay as my hidden mistress."

The friend looked at my retreating back and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you afraid you'll push her too far, that she'd rather stay with that psycho than come back to you?"

Julian let out a light scoff.

"Absolutely impossible. She loves me so much she'd give her life for me. Even if she takes a trip to hell, she'll only beg me to be her savior."

I picked up that one-dollar coin from the floor, without a single tear or tantrum.

Later, Julian broke into Callum's estate like a madman, begging me to go back with him.

But the disabled man from the rumors simply stood up, pulled me securely behind him, and sneered, "My wife. Is she someone you are even fit to touch?"

"I gave you a life… and you took mine with it."

She woke up in a sterile hospital room, her body aching, her womb empty.
The child she carried—gone.
No name. No face. No goodbye.

To him, it was just a transaction. A contract. A child born of benefit.
To her, it was the beginning of everything—and the end of herself.

Years passed. Her heart hardened. But fate, cruel and poetic, dragged him back into her orbit.
Only this time, there are secrets.
And bloodlines.
And a storm of revenge, waiting to unravel them both.

In a world where love is a luxury and hatred is inherited, how do you survive the one man who cost you everything… yet still makes your heart ache?

“TRANSMISSION is riveting, unexpected, and firmly rooted in strong psychological profiles backed with thriller and sci-fi elements: what more could readers wish for? (Just the quick publication of Book Two, Arrival.)”--Midwest Book ReviewFrom #1 worldwide bestselling fantasy author Morgan Rice comes RETURN, book #4 in a long-anticipated science fiction series. Can Kevin and Chloe survive alone in outer space? Can Luna, alone on planet Earth, avoid capture?All hope seems lost for Kevin and Chloe as their escape pod hurtles into nothingness, as they run out of rations and supplies.All hope seems lost for Luna as the aliens outnumber and encircle her.If there any hope left for humanity?“Action-packed …. Rice’s writing is solid and the premise intriguing.”–Publishers Weekly, re A Quest of Heroes“A superior fantasy… A recommended winner for any who enjoy epic fantasy writing fueled by powerful, believable young adult protagonists.”–Midwest Book Review, re Rise of the Dragons“An action packed fantasy sure to please fans of Morgan Rice’s previous novels, along with fans of works such as THE INHERITANCE CYCLE by Christopher Paolini…. Fans of Young Adult Fiction will devour this latest work by Rice and beg for more.”–The Wanderer, A Literary Journal (regarding Rise of the Dragons)Also available are Morgan Rice’s many series in the fantasy genre, including A QUEST OF HEROES (BOOK #1 IN THE SORCERER’S RING), a free download with over 1,300 five star reviews!

In this damned wasteland, nobody wants to travel with a burden.
But there were four filthy little ones who stubbornly insisted on following me, refusing to fight back or retaliate.
I looked at them, then at the approaching horde of zombies in the distance, and tossed a loaded pistol in front of them.
"Want to follow me? Fine."
I coldly placed a knife to the neck of the outermost zombie. "Here, if you want me, the lone wolf, to take you along, you'll have to prove you're not trash!"
"Take it and shoot it in the head! That's the only ticket to joining my team!"
The sixteen-year-old girl, tears streaming down her face, gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.
I knew I could never shake them off again.

He never planned to touch her, let alone crave her.

When ruthless billionaire Roman Thorne is forced into a strategic marriage, he chooses Elena Sinclair, quiet, obedient, and easily controlled.

Or so he thought.

Behind her innocent eyes is a sharp tongue, a hidden past, secrets, and curves that haunt his nights. Elena has no intention of being anyone’s trophy wife. She plays by her own rules, and Roman’s cold detachment only fuels her fire.

Now Roman wants more than her name on his paperwork. He wants her moaning his name in the dark. He wants her loyalty. Her heart. Her everything.

Too bad Elena didn’t come to be owned.

In my family, "democracy" was just a gilded word for bullying.
Every time there was a conflict between me and my adopted sister, Ivy, my fiancé and my brother would settle it with a family vote.
The location of my marital home? I lost, 3-1.
The guest list for my wedding? I lost, 3-1.
 
And when Ivy wanted the massive south-facing master suite in my new house to build her walk-in closet?
"Let's vote to keep things fair," my fiancé, William, declared.
I was a rising architect at Boston's most prestigious firm, yet I didn't even have the right to design my own marital home.
The result was unanimous. The bride's bedroom would be half the size of the adopted sister's closet.
 
Out of more than a hundred family votes over the last ten years:
My fiancé's votes for me: Zero.
My own brother's votes for me: Zero.
 
I finally realized this game was rigged from the start. I didn’t say a word. I just packed my bags.
Let them play their little voting game without me.