4543 Book(s) Related to one two buckle my shoe agatha christie

Six years ago, my world shattered when my boyfriend of three years, Elias, brutally discarded me for a strategic marriage, declaring that love doesn't build empires.
Now, I'm a fierce crisis manager, hired to rehab the public image of Jaxon Laurent—the NHL's most notorious bad boy and a walking PR nightmare. He's arrogant, reckless, and infuriatingly gorgeous.
But when a family tragedy leaves me fighting for custody of my traumatized eight-year-old niece, our professional boundaries blur. Jaxon needs a squeaky-clean image to save his career; I need a husband to save a little girl.
Our deal is simple: a fake marriage with strict rules. No real feelings, just a solid front for the cameras.
Until my toxic ex returns, as the opposing custody lawyer.
Before Elias can utter an arrogant word, Jaxon walks down the stairs shirtless, sliding a possessive hand around my waist. Staring his own brother down with a cold smirk, he murmurs, "You're staring at my wife too long, brother."
Suddenly, I realize two things: The arrogant ex who swore I'd never find anyone better is about to eat his words... and my fake husband wasn't saving his career. He's been waiting for me for six long years.
We swore this was just a game. So what happens when the biggest crisis I have to manage... is falling for the man who was never faking it?

The night High Alpha Rhazien Vaelborne took Seraya for the first time, she thought the Moon Goddess had answered her prayers.

Then he chose another woman as his Luna, she realized the Moon could be just as cruel.

Branded a bond thief, declared scent-cursed, and condemned to exile, Seraya should have died beyond the borders of Wolfsbane Bastion.

Instead, she was found by the one wolf the Council had spent years trying to erase.

Corvan Vaelborne. An exiled Alpha. A cursed bloodline.

A man whose mates were never meant to survive.

But the more their forbidden bond grows, the more ancient secrets buried beneath Bastion begin to awaken.

Now the Council wants her dead. Rhazien wants her back.
And the child she carries may become either the salvation of their world or the reason it burns.

How far will two Alphas go to claim one omega and what happens when she chooses neither?

Eliara has always lived at the bottom of the Black Crest Pack.

After her stepfather’s death, pack law forced her under the same roof as her two alpha stepbrothers.

The future rulers of the Black Crest Pack and billionaire CEOs of the most powerful tech corporation in the region.

They hate her.

They strip her of status, turn her into a servant, and remind her daily that she is nothing more than an omega with no protection.

When her mother’s mate's bond weakens and illness strikes, Eliara loses the last protection she had.

Whatever little status she once held vanishes overnight.

What no one knows is that Eliara carries a forbidden secret.

A rare healing power her mother warned would get her killed if discovered.

The alphas are hiding secrets too.

Cursed by the Moon Goddess, they weaken and collapse every full moon, their wolves silent and their throne at risk.

When a violent confrontation leaves the alphas dying before their pack, Eliara makes a choice that changes everything.

She heals them.

The bond snaps.

And Eliara learns the truth too late.

Her cruel stepbrothers are her destined mates.

Before she can escape the consequences of that bond, Alpha Eric Lewis enters the picture.

Alpha Eric Lewis, the Alpha General, billionaire, and their greatest enemy steps in with an offer they can’t refuse.

To save their throne and erase their debts, the twins are forced to give up the one thing they never wanted but can no longer live without.

Eliara is offered as a bride.

Rejected by her mates.

Married to their enemy.

Bound to a man who wants her power and her heart.

Now the alphas must chase the omega they broke.

Because losing Eliara won’t just destroy them.

It will bring their pack to its knees.

Erica accidentally witnesses Max making love to Kora, her enemy. At the same time, while hiding under the bed, Erica heard the whole plan of the couple's destruction. For a minute out of control, Erica scuffled with the couple. To stop Erica's madness, Max hit Erica so hard that she lost consciousness. After seeing Erica lying motionless. The frightened couple carried Erica outside the emergency exit of the apartment building, to create a fake scene where Erica fell down the stairs.

Erica, after waking up, finds her way home. Unexpectedly, as soon as she entered the house, she was arrested by the police for assaulting and assaulting Kora. To avoid jail time, Kora and her mother forced Erica to sign a deed of ownership of the property, which Erica was allowed to inherit when her parents died.

When Erica discovered the whole plot of Kora and her mother, it was too late. Erica had to accept the request of Kora and her mother, to avoid being wrongfully imprisoned.

Losing everything, even being kicked out of the house. Erica resolves to take back what belongs to her and makes Kora and her mother pay the price.

Erica begins a new life, accidentally meeting and saving Ansel, the heir to a large corporation.

How will Erica's life change, when she becomes Ansel's benefactor?

She cursed the Demon King. He has spent centuries hunting her.
Maeve has no memory of the life that made her the most wanted witch in the Lore. She only knows she has never stayed in one place for long and that monsters seem to find her wherever she runs. Then a stranger walks into her shop. He was cold and beautiful and very very dangerous. The Demon King.
One kiss is enough for King Eldon to realize the impossible. His greatest enemy has returned. She is the witch who cursed him in another lifetime. The woman who stole his future, shattered his kingdom and vanished before he could make her pay.
She remembers nothing. But demons only recognize their true mate after the bond is tested and every instinct tells Eldon she might be the one fate has denied him for centuries. He swore he would never forgive her. She swore she would never belong to a demon.
Now the only woman who can save his kingdom may also be the one destined to destroy it again.

BOOK 2 in Mated to my Ruin series. Can be read as standalone.
BOOK 1–Mated to my Ruin: A Dragon’s Debt

My little sister and I each bear a Heart-Seed Mark etched into our chests.
Inside each seed grow Heartbeat Petals—currency that can trade for anything under the boughs of The Heart-Root, the ancient devouring tree.
At eight years old, I plucked one petal to cure Mom’s terminal cancer.
At ten, I tore out another to mend my older brother’s shattered bones after his brutal fight.
At twenty-four, I sacrificed my third and final petal to wake my husband’s sister from a car-crash-induced vegetative state.
Now, two disasters struck at once: my father died in a horrific car wreck, and my husband’s mistress lost their unborn baby.
Both sides of my family flocked to The Heart-Root, all fixated on stealing my petals for their own wishes.
I tried to step aside and let my younger sister go first to make the trade, but Mom shoved me hard.
“Every bit of love we’ve poured into you these years, every petal came from us! You’d really hold out and refuse to save your own father? Ungrateful girl!” my mom snapped.
My husband’s mom cut in sharp as a knife: “A good wife knows her place. It’s your duty to bring that baby back for your husband. If only you’d given him a son yourself.”
They tied me tight to the tree trunk. I watched a girl standing nearby get torn apart by black, writhing vines when she had no petals left—her flesh dissolved straight into the tree’s roots to feed it.
But my Heart-Seed didn’t have a single petal left either...

My daughter was murdered on her eleventh birthday during a brutal snuff livestream on the dark web.

The chat was flooded with the sick revelry and obscene tips of twisted buyers.

"Break her legs a little more."
"I want to hear her cry out."

Lying in a pool of blood, my daughter cried out in sheer despair: "Mom... save me... it hurts so much..."

Watching my daughter take her last breath amid violent convulsions, I clawed at my own fingers until they were torn and bloody.

The police told me it was her elegant ballet instructor, Serena, who had sent her to hell. And the one who helped Serena cover her tracks was my husband, David.

In my utter despair, I swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills.

When I opened my eyes again, I had been thrown back to the very day I was supposed to take my daughter to her ballet class.

Sitting in the passenger seat, dressed in her ballet tutu, my daughter looked at me with eyes full of anticipation.

"Hurry up, Mom. Ms. Serena said we're rehearsing the solo for Swan Lake today."

The blood in my veins instantly ran cold.

Two years ago, my best friend Maddie knelt in front of me, crying as she borrowed $50,000.
The very next day, she vanished off the face of the earth. No explanation, no apology, not even a single text message.
I was left carrying her toxic debt. I lost my fiancé, and I lost my ability to trust anyone.
Until one late night, a call came in from an unknown number originating in an abandoned mining district in West Virginia.
On the other end of the line, Maddie said she was getting married. She had the money ready—every last cent.
The wedding venue was a ruined church deep in the mountains, abandoned for a decade. The time: Friday, midnight.

My daughter died on her fifth birthday.
Her first real wish—the first one she was old enough to make herself—was to go to the beach with Daddy.
Gideon promised he would take her.
She waited for him all day. She was still asking for him when she took her last breath.
He never came.
I brought her ashes to the beach she'd always dreamed of. Let her finally see the ocean.
That's when I heard it—a woman's moan, low and breathy, coming from behind the rocks.
Then his voice. Then his name on her lips.
"Between me and Lily, who do you love more?"
"You. Obviously."
He was fucking his mistress on our daughter's dream beach—while I stood there holding her ashes.
When I finally confronted them, I didn't get an apology. I got a slap across the face.
And when his mistress caught my eye and smiled, I realized something.
She knew exactly when my daughter would die.

"You were like a starved beast last night," I complained, spreading jam on my toast.
Gideon's hands froze mid-knot on his tie. He turned to me, his eyes filled with utter bewilderment.
"Nadia, are you out of your mind? I was in the study finishing up that proposal last night. I crashed on the couch at three in the morning. I never even went into the bedroom."
The knife dropped from my hand onto the table.
If the man I made love to all night wasn't my husband.
Then... who was it?

The very day she came back into her home country, she heard the most absurd news. "Your sister is getting married with Mr. Stephenson".
"What did you say?" She couldn't believe it. At the engagement party, she was shocked to see her sister getting engaged to her fiancé.
"Daniel, remember this, I dumped you! Did you hear that? I dumped you, not the other way round."
.....
Who could have guessed that after being betrayed by her fiancé and sister and being labelled as a home wrecker, someone would still want to marry her?
"Don't you want to get revenge on your fiancé for what he did?" Nathan Clemon asked Hilda.
"What has that got to do with you?" She snapped back.
"It has got everything to do with me. I am the only person who could help you achieve that whiles giving you the happiness that any woman would wish in this world."

The man I had a one-night stand with is the CEO!
"Romantic relationships between employees are strictly forbidden"
Karina's chaotic love life starts when she lands her dream job only to fall in love with her colleague on the first day. Things get more complicated when the CEO finds out about her forbidden relationship. Drunk and heartbroken, Karina spends a steamy night with a stranger only to find out that it is her Devil CEO boss. Karina navigates the complicated web of lust and lies with her unwavering determination to reach her career goals. What will happen to Karina and her love life when the Devil CEO demands that she becomes his ‘personal secretary’?
My other works: Forbidden Heat, Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion, The Alpha Prince's Purchased Maid, Substitute Wife for the Mafia King, Lust Contracts and Conquering the Emperor

Eighteen-year-old Irene was preparing for her SATs when she woke up in the middle of nowhere with a splitting headache... and a little boy who refused to stop calling her mum.

At the police station, the truth hit harder than the pain in her head: seven years had passed. She was married. She had a son. And her husband was the one person she never wanted to see again... her high school bully, Nelson Clark.

Trapped in a future she couldn’t remember, Irene discovered that her life had taken a terrifying turn two years ago, turning her loved ones against her and pushing her to the brink of divorce. As buried secrets resurfaced and hidden enemies closed in, Irene had to separate betrayal from truth before history repeated itself.

Was Nelson Clark truly the villain of her high school years…? And when the truth finally came to light, would Irene survive long enough to face the consequences?

Find out in this drama-filled love story...

That night in the velvet shadows of the masked club, I was nothing but a body for sale.
My own brother auctioned me, and the man who bought me claimed every inch of my skin with a hunger that felt like fire. He was a nameless stranger in the dark, leaving me with nothing but bruised lips and a memory I tried to bury.

The next morning, the mask was gone.

Standing before me was Ethan Blackwell, the ruthless billionaire who ruined my family and the man I’m now forced to marry.
Now I’m trapped in his penthouse, playing the part of the perfect wife while carrying a secret that’s growing inside me.

Here is the English translation, tailored to match the gritty, dramatic, and satisfying tone typical of apocalyptic revenge web novels:

In my previous life, I was drained to the bone by the so-called "Doomsday Evolution System," forced to watch as my best friend and fiancée stepped over my corpse to scavenge my supplies.

When I opened my eyes again, I had regressed to exactly three days before the apocalypse. When that faint blue, glowing "cheat" materialized once more, I decisively took a step back, watching my enemies fanatically claim it for themselves. They thought they had grasped the key to ruling the doomsday. Little did they know, they had just swallowed a parasite that would devour its host.

Then, the extreme cold descended, and toxic spores blotted out the sky.

Using my knowledge of the future, I struck a deal with a female black-market boss, packing an underground bunker with tons of supplies and heavy firepower. Sipping hot coffee in front of the control room monitors, I sat back and enjoyed the show. I watched my enemies be systematically stripped of their sanity, sacrifice their companions, and ultimately degenerate into mindless, mutated lumps of flesh driven only by base instincts.

In this man-eating apocalypse, I refuse to touch any bizarre parasitic "gifts." Thick alloy doors and an endless supply of ammunition—that is the only true law of survival in the wasteland.

When my husband's eight-year-old "nephew" Noah was diagnosed with acute leukemia, the whole family begged for my help.

They needed my six-year-old daughter, Molly—the only perfect match.

Against my instincts as a head nurse, I agreed.

But the second Molly's stem cells were harvested, their gratitude vanished.

To avoid paying for my daughter’s mandatory sterile recovery room, Noah's mother live-streamed a crying fit in my lobby, accusing me of medical extortion. My husband, Grant, stood by in utter silence.

Without the isolation bed, my baby girl contracted a severe infection and died. My mother-in-law simply sneered outside the ICU, "Dead is dead. Better than wasting more money."

Three months later, Noah relapses.

Now, my phone is blowing up. The same people who watched my daughter suffocate in her own fluids are desperately begging me to use my hospital registry access to save him again.

Standing by Molly’s tiny headstone, I look down at the confidential DNA report I pulled from the hospital database.

They think I don’t know Noah is actually Grant's illegitimate son. They think I'll just hang up and cry.

Instead, I swipe to answer the call. It's time to make them pay.

My chosen mate used his Beta authority to give the entire moonbloom compound to his fated mate's daughter.
The healer had said to split it—half for each child. Both would live. He overrode her. Gave the full dose to Rosalie Blackwell.
He wanted a full recovery. Just not for ours.
Three days later, my daughter Wren's organs shut down. She died on her birthday, still asking why Daddy wasn't there. The dress I'd made her—white with little silver wolves along the hem—she never got to put it on.
That same day, his fated's daughter walked out of the healing hall completely cured. He even threw a feast for the whole pack.
I collapsed at the border of Thornecrest territory. The healers told me it was cancer. Late-stage. Nothing left to treat.
Now I sat alone in our empty house with Wren's unworn birthday dress across my lap and drafted the dissolution papers.

After twenty years of knowing and loving my destined mate, Alpha Martin, we were finally about to get married.
On the eve of the wedding, He skillfully picked out the lipstick shade I wanted from my makeup bag.
That's when I knew: Alpha Martin had someone else.
That girl was wearing the custom evening gown I'd prepared for the wedding banquet, clinking glasses with Alpha Martin in a mate's toast.
Our friends surrounded her, respectfully calling her "Luna."
I didn't cause a scene. Instead, I called the hospital.
"Dr. Fabian, please dispose of the eggs I had frozen."
Then I sent a message to that girl.
"Yvonne Jimenez, would you like to marry Martin Daniels in my place?"

Sofia Jones is a seventeen-year-old human who has never met her father. Her mother is never around because she would rather spend her time at the club than with her daughter. She isn't the most popular girl in school and only has one friend, Ella. Sofia has been in love with her best friend's twin brother since middle school, but she knows they can never be together, not only because he is the most popular boy who has been bullying her since freshman year but also because he is her best friends brother.

Ethan Black is the most popular boy in school. He is the Quarterback of the football team, and he can have any girl he wants, except for the one he has been in love with since the fifth grade, Sofia. She is his twin sister's best friend, but that is not the only reason he can't have her. Ethan Black is a werewolf, along with his twin sister and the rest of his family, and Sofia is a human who knows nothing about werewolves. Ethan has been bullying her since freshman year. He feels it is better to push her away than to stay close to her. He knows he will meet his Mate soon since his eighteenth birthday is coming up, but something shocking happens. He discovers that Sofia is his Mate.

Now, he is determined to make Sofia his, but will he be able to do that after the way he has been treating her? How will Sofia react when she discovers werewolves and other supernatural beings exist? What happens when the Vampire King takes a liking to Sofia and wants to make her his? Who will Sofia end up with?

You will have to read to find out!

Betrayal.

A young woman, Elena Mendez, was deceived and murdered by her fiancé and her best friend. However, instead of dying, her soul was sent back to the day before her wedding, giving her the chance to relive her life. Only this time, with enough knowledge about the future to change her destiny. Now she seeks revenge against those who have wronged her, and she approaches her ex-fiancé's rival to help her take revenge on her ex-fiancé and best friend but in the process of vengeance spirals into a different web of emotions and now they see their self falling for each other but won't admit.

Will their relationship be all about vengeance or will something magical come out of it?

As soon as he made sure the door was locked, he slammed his lips on mine again, devouring me and punishing me. He bit my lips hard and a metallic taste filled my mouth.

I don't want to think about the blood now as I try to match his needy pace.

He cupped my breast with his free hand and pinched my nipple. Hard.

This man doesn't have a single patient bone in his body. The way he dominated me made me feel so good that I came faster than usual.

He removed his finger and undid his belt. He sat me on a table and thrusted in me in one go.

I gasped at the sudden movement and wrapped my legs around his torso, taking in his full length.

He fucked me for a long time that I forgot all about my problems and was moaning loudly.

I am sure all the guards standing outside heard my moans because I didn't even attempt to keep it low. . . . After finding out about her boyfriend's betrayal, Iris decided to drown her sorrow in booze.

One thing led to the other and she ended up having a one night stand with a stranger. Days after Iris's reckless decision, she found out that her one night stand was her twin sister's fiance.

he was also her mate. Iris must choose between making her family happy or going after her heart. After being forced into an engagement with one of the Smith twins, Darius Acrux was determined to destroy the entire White Rock pack and its Alpha.

But things took a different turn when he found out that his future sister-in-law was his mate. Two people faced with the decisions of their family's happiness or their own heart desires.

"You think I'm the devil for wanting my wife's baby sister spread open and begging. But you came here, Felicia. You texted me back and you ran here. You let me finger fck you against a hotel wall like a desperate little whre while Eva's probably acting like the perfect wife at home."
Felicia Lawson thought college would be her escape but nothing prepared her for Ian, her sister's husband or for Jake, the charming upperclassman who made her believe in something real again.
While Felicia battles guilt and longing, her roommate Zara hides secrets darker than love, a mafia lineage that's about to pull her into a marriage with a dangerous don.
"You're going to marry me, little sunflower."
Zara's eyes snap open, the water sloshes as she jerks against my grip, but the chain on her ankle rattles like a laugh. She can't go far. She can't go anywhere.
"Fuck you," she spits, voice raw from screaming at the ceiling all night. "I'd rather die."
He smiled. It was small and polite, the kind he used to give people who betrayed him right before he buried them in the ground. "That can be arranged. But first…"
Massimo curled his fingers inside her. "You're going to come on my hand," he said calmly, "and then you're going to say yes."

Sienna Cruz thought being forced into a cold marriage with Biker Don Kanan Maddox was the worst fate imaginable, until she was slaughtered alongside her family and unborn child by her own husband.
But fate decides to give her a second chance and she’s transmigrated into the body of a lethal street fighter known as Siren. Sienna now has the skills to match her vengeance and she returns underworld with a simple mission: find her ex-husband. Gain his trust. Destroy him from the inside out.
Kanan becomes obsessed with Siren the moment she enters his world, never suspecting she’s the ghost of the woman he failed to love, the wife he murdered.
But as Siren tears through his criminal empire, she begins to uncover cracks in the carefully constructed lie of his cruelty. The massacre was professional, cold, and flawless... too flawless for a monster driven by simple greed.
She came back to kill her enemy, but she might be playing right into the hands of a monster.

"Sweetheart, it was only a bet. Who could break the cursed pheromone slut first?"
Kaira Morgen believed love would save her. Instead, it destroyed her.
On her eighteenth birthday, Kaira discovers her boyfriend Reis never loved her. Their relationship was only a cruel bet between Alpha heirs to humiliate the "wolfless" Omega. When they come to claim their prize, Kaira's twin sister Kim sacrifices herself to save her, leaving Kaira with nothing but grief and a thirst for revenge.
But death is not the end.
Blessed by the Moon Goddess, Kim's soul awakens within Kaira, giving her a power beyond imagination. Now, Kaira carries two wolves inside her, one born from vengeance and the other sworn to protect.
Returning to her father's kingdom, Kaira expects refuge. Instead, King Victor strips away her royal title and forces her into servitude. Broken but determined, she begins plotting revenge against those who destroyed her.
Her fate changes when she meets the Draven triplets, three cursed Alpha Kings. Aven, whose touch brings death. Eryx, the silent scholar hiding deadly secrets. Cassian, the ruthless heir with a heart of ice.
They see only a powerless Omega. They do not know she carries a rare hybrid bloodline capable of breaking their curse.
At Cromwell Academy, Kaira uncovers a conspiracy tied to her own family.
With two wolves awakening within her and three Alpha Kings bound to her destiny, she will rise from the ashes and destroy everyone who tried to erase her.

I've been married to my husband Jake for three years. In that time, I've been pregnant twice.

But each time, I lost the baby.

What took my children wasn't a medical condition, but a painting.

A black bird, painted by Jake's ten-year-old blind brother, Billy.

My in-laws claimed he had the gift—a psychic born with sight beyond sight. And the black bird was an omen. It marked my baby as cursed, a threat to the family.

To save my second child, I got the best amniocentesis report money could buy, proving the baby had no genetic defects.

It happened again anyway.

At three in the morning, I woke to the agony of another miscarriage and stumbled to the studio door.

That's when I found out the truth.

I had been Lucan Ferretti's wife for five years. I had also been the woman who took a bullet meant for him.
Four years of fertility treatments. Four years of empty rooms where a nursery should have been. Then, the day I finally get a positive test, I find something else: two secret sons, funded by my husband's money, waiting in a house I was never supposed to find.
Their names? The ones Lucan and I picked out together, years ago, in a hospital parking lot.
That night, I sat alone with the positive test still in my hand, memorizing the names he'd already given to someone else's sons.
I could have confronted him. I could have screamed, thrown things, demanded a divorce.
Instead, I find a text message. His mistress has already ordered a hit — on me, timed for our anniversary, dressed up to look like enemy retaliation.
She wants me dead before I can tell anyone I'm carrying his child.
Fine.
She can have exactly what she asked for.

I came back to New York for one reason: to meet the man my mother arranged for me to marry.
I never made it to dinner.
His "sister"—the woman he'd been protecting since childhood, the one he clearly loved more than he'd ever love a fiancée he'd never met—snatched a twelve-thousand-dollar dress out of my hands at a Fifth Avenue boutique and had me thrown out. When I called him about it, he told me I should be grateful to be marrying into his family at all. Then he hung up.
An hour later, she accused me of stealing her ring. Had me pinned against the wall. Told his men to strip me down and film it for "evidence."
Nico laughed when I told him the whole Ferrante family would answer for this.
"With what? You?"
My name is Sera Vitti.
That's all I'll say.

In the fifth year of my mating to Alpha Manfred,his childhood sweetheart, Jessica Bell, was splashed across every tabloid in the territory.
Pregnant. Unmated. And accused of shattering another couple’s bond.
The rumors hit like a rogue’s ambush. But it was his reaction that truly gutted me.
“Jessica’s father once saved me, She has no pack, no family left. Everything she’s accomplished… she clawed her way to it. Alone.”
My fingers clenched tighter around the pregnancy test tucked away in my purse.
“And the only way to protect her now,” he continued, not even looking me in the eye, “is for me to marry her. To claim the pup as mine.”
A muscle twitched in my jaw. Goddess, my wolf let out a low growl inside me, begging to lunge forward and leave claw marks down his perfectly tragic face.
“And what about me?” I asked, barely more than a whisper. My voice cracked.
The Silver Claw Pack and the Eclipse Pack—my pack—had been allies for over a century.
“How do I explain this sudden rejection to

Amelia is starting high school with her best friend Lola — confident, magnetic, fearless Lola — the girl who makes the world feel manageable. While Amelia juggles grief, an absent father, and the heavy responsibility of raising her younger brothers, Lola is her escape. Her courage. Her voice. The version of herself she wishes she could be.
But when a body lies at Amelia’s feet, and her hands are covered in blood that isn’t hers, one question echoes louder than the rest:
How did it come to this?
As the school year unfolds, cracks begin to show — in friendships, in family, and in Amelia’s own mind. The lines between loyalty and control blur. Between truth and perception. Between who she is… and who she thinks she needs to be.
Because some friendships don’t just shape you.
They consume you.
And when the illusion shatters, there’s always something left behind.

“Where did you hide the body?”

That was the first thing he asked me. Not my name. Not why I was kneeling in the snow beside the grave.

Two years ago, I falsified a DNA report to protect my father. The mistake buried a woman’s justice—and raised a man’s revenge.

Vale Creed, the billionaire who built his empire on truth, doesn’t believe in forgiveness. He believes in leverage.

Now, he knows what I did.

His sister’s death, my father’s secret, one impossible lie.

And his proposal? Not love.

A contract. A punishment. A marriage.

Christmas is coming, and I’m trapped in his glass mansion—where every room hides a memory, every kiss feels like evidence, and every heartbeat sounds like a confession.

But the deeper I fall, the closer the truth gets to killing us both.

During the shipwreck, my fiancée, to save my "white moonlight" (my unrequited love), forcibly pried open my bleeding fingers and snatched my last life jacket.
"He can't swim, you hold on a little longer."

At that moment, I gave up completely and let myself sink into the cold, deep sea.

Later, I returned from the ashes and became an unapproachable tycoon.

She went bankrupt and became a beggar, but amidst the heavy snow, she watched my wedding of the century, knelt on the street, and breathed her last in remorse.

Belated affection is ultimately worth less than grass.

Ava Davis's POV:

I had just walked out of the abortion clinic when I got a call from John Williams' assistant.

"Ms. Davis, we've got a problem. Mr. Williams was photographed with four women at the same time, and the pictures are all over the internet. Reporters have blocked the company entrance."

I closed my eyes, feeling utterly exhausted.

My lower abdomen still ached, like something had been carved out of my body, but what hurt more was my heart—already battered and bruised by this marriage.

"Got it. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

After hanging up, I stuffed the medical records into my bag and walked out of the hospital. The sun outside was so bright I could barely open my eyes.

I raised my hand to shield them, suddenly remembering the first time I met John—the sun had been just as harsh that day.

I was only eighteen then, still a student, handing out flyers on the street when I got heatstroke. I was dizzy and about to collapse when John happened to pass by and caught me.

I remember his eyes—clear as lake water. His high cheekbones, thin lips pressed together with a hint of careless detachment.

In that moment, I fell. Like something had struck my heart, and from then on, there was no turning back.

Looking back now, I was pathetically stupid.

I'd been John's secretary for three years, helping him handle countless scandals. Few people knew that I'd actually been married to him for three years.

In our first year of marriage, he brought a female celebrity home for the night.

I remember sitting in the living room that night, waiting until 3 AM, hearing laughter from the bedroom.

I didn't push the door open. I just sat on the couch all night.

After that, it happened more and more, until I went numb.

I gave up five years of my marriage for nothing.

My son is dead. He died on his fifth birthday, waiting for his father to come home. But instead of his dad, a car accident took him. And his father? He was a thousand miles away, with another woman.

For five years, I put up with my husband's coldness and his family's constant humiliation. I thought having a child would melt his icy heart. I was wrong—so terribly, laughably wrong.

He couldn't even focus at our son's funeral—his eyes were only for his old flame, his "true love." It wasn't until I was on my deathbed that he finally shed those fake tears of regret. But it was too late. My child was gone. My love had died. And soon, I would be gone too.

This marriage, this whole life—it's all been one big joke. I just want to find my son as soon as I can. To tell him that his mother never gave up on him. To promise him that in another world, we'll never be apart again.

The dealership called to inform me that my Rolls-Royce Starlight Headliner had been replaced with a pink one and was ready for pickup.
I was bewildered. I hadn't driven that car in ages—why would anyone change the headliner without my knowledge?
I confronted my husband, who managed our garage, demanding an explanation.
"Honey, maybe they got their wires crossed. I'll swing by the dealership later and sort it out."
I wasn't about to waste my breath. Instead, I called my friend directly—she happened to own the dealership.
"William's having an affair. I'm going to catch him red-handed."

ADRIAN Cole had it all. Wealth, power, a beautiful wife, and a daughter who adored him. But one mistake… one affair… and one phone call from his mistress was enough to shatter the perfect life he thought he controlled.

When Amelia walked away, she didn’t just leave her husband behind, she carried a secret of her own, a secret that would change everything.

Now Adrian is left chasing shadows of the woman who once loved him, realizing too late that money and pride can’t heal the wounds of betrayal. But the road back to Amelia’s heart isn’t just blocked by her pain, it’s poisoned by the jealousy of her own sister, whose hidden hatred runs deeper than anyone could imagine.

Caught between regret, family betrayal, and the fight for the woman he once took for granted, Adrian must prove that his love is real this time. But what if Amelia’s forgiveness is the one thing he can never buy back?

A story of betrayal, heartbreak, and redemption. Will love survive when it’s already too late for sorry?

"I need an accident—one that looks fatal," I said calmly into the encrypted phone. "It's the only way to escape him."
Rumors swirl that this man—the underworld boss who controls half of Europe’s shadow economy—loves me beyond reason.
They say he defied his entire family for me. That this ruthless killer laid down his weapons just to cook me a meal.
For years, he made the world believe I was his one weakness—and even I almost believed it.
But instinct in a life-or-death moment doesn’t lie.
When bullets shattered the car window, he yanked the steering wheel on reflex—shielding my adopted sister in the passenger seat while leaving me, his wife, fully exposed to the hail of gunfire.
As I lay bleeding, desperately trying to protect our unborn child… he was busy cradling her in his arms.
While I endured everything for our future, he signed over the estate—the one he promised would be our retire place—to that lying sister.
That’s when I knew: some loves are just performances for the living.
So I gave him exactly what he wanted.
I left behind a positive pregnancy test—six weeks along—and drove straight into the deep ocean, staging the most brutal finale right before his eyes.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) FOREVER, PLUS ONE is book #6 in the bestselling romance series The Inn at Sunset Harbor, which begins with book #1, For Now and Forever—a free download!35 year old Emily Mitchell is still reeling from the surprise news that she is pregnant. Just married, she and Danielle have no time to process the news as they are thrust into doctor appointments, preparing for the baby’s arrival—and, in a surprise party, the revelation of their baby’s gender.Summer has finally returned to Sunset Harbor, and Emily and Daniel have their hands full with the overflowing inn, their gut renovation of Trevor’s house, the building of a new spa, and Chantelle’s reacting to the baby news. They barely have time to settle into life as newlyweds when Emily gets a call from her dad: he wants them all to visit him in England. Surprising herself, Emily agrees.A life-changing trip to England culminates in shocking news, and Emily finds herself reeling. Daniel withdraws, and as summer comes to a close and her pregnancy develops, she wonders: will she ever be able to settle into this new life?And will life with Daniel ever be the same again?FOREVER, PLUS ONE is book #6 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, keep you turning pages late into the night—and make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #7 will be available soon.“A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)

“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 a long-anticipated science fiction series debut. When SETI finally receives a signal from an alien civilization, what will happen next?A 13 year old boy, dying of a rare brain disease, is the only one able to hear and decode signals from outer space. SETI confirms it is a real signal.What is the message? How will the world react? And most of all: are the aliens coming?“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)Book #2 in the series—ARRIVAL—is also available for pre-order!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!

Three years ago, I married Rex Cavano—New York's most dangerous mafia don—for this face. Not for love. Because I looked like his stepsister Isabella, the woman his family tore from him and sent to Rome.

I thought time would make him forget her. Until three months ago, when she came home a widow, and I finally understood: a substitute is always just a substitute. When the original returns, the fake gets thrown away.

So I made a decision.

I tricked him into signing divorce papers and accepted a job in a war zone in Colombia.

I'm leaving. Taking our child with me—a secret he'll never know—disappearing from his world forever.

Chloe Ashford destroyed me once.

She pretended to be my best friend, eagerly setting me up with her stepbrother Vincent—when really, I was just a cover for their twisted relationship.

She fattened me up, used me, and when she got bored, tossed me aside. A broken nose during gym class, nearly drowning by the pool, framed and cyberbullied until the whole internet turned against me. I dropped out. Had a complete mental breakdown. And then I jumped.

But when I opened my eyes again, that line was playing on repeat—"Let me introduce you to my stepbrother."

Somehow, I was back. That same party night.

Everyone said I killed my mother.

So Dad and Carter hated me from the start. They only had love for Vivian.

On my eighteenth birthday, Vivian drugged me and I was nearly raped. That's when Nolan Blake showed up—business tycoon, my savior. He claimed me as his in front of everyone and warned anyone who dared mess with me would pay the price.

After that, Vivian bullied me? He made her apologize. Dad humiliated me? He made him shut up. Carter mocked me? He destroyed all of Carter's business deals.

No one had ever protected me like that. I fell HARD.

Three months later, I walked down the aisle in white.

Nolan spoiled me rotten. I became the woman the whole world envied.

Until the day I was five months pregnant.

At a family party, the balcony railing gave way. I was falling, screaming—then Nolan caught me. His arm broke. I only had minor injuries.

Everyone said how LUCKY I was—a husband willing to break every bone for me.

Until I stood in the hospital corridor and overheard that conversation—

"Aurora is the only match for Vivian," Charles's voice came from the hospital room. "Vivian's kidney failure is getting worse. We can't wait anymore!"

"You think I don't KNOW that?" Nolan lowered his voice. "But she's already pregnant! Pregnant women can't donate organs!"

"That's why we staged the fall," Carter said coldly. "It was supposed to make her miscarry—"

"ENOUGH!" Nolan's roar cut him off. "I want to save Vivian MORE than ANY of you! She's the one I love. But you can't hurt Aurora like this. I have my own plan—after she gives birth, I'll make her donate 'willingly.'"

After hearing those words, I collapsed trembling in the hallway.

So that was why he married me. Not because he loved me, but to save Vivian. Everything he did for me—his tenderness, his protection—it was all for HER.

Just like Dad and Carter, he loved Vivian.

Not me.

I touched my slightly rounded belly as silent tears streamed down my face.

If no one wanted us, then we'd disappear.

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.

In seven years of marriage, I miscarried five times. I nearly died on the operating table.

My husband, Lorenzo Castellano—the mafia king who controlled the entire East Coast—gripped my blood-stained hand and choked out: "It's okay. You're all I need."

I believed him.

Until our anniversary, when I smelled her perfume on his shirt and discovered the truth: his sister-in-law had given him a three-year-old son—those same deep brown eyes I'd bled five times trying to create.

The cruel irony? Just the day before, two pink lines had appeared on a pregnancy test.

That night, the explosion lit up the entire ocean, our private yacht burning like a funeral pyre.

The man who made all of New York's underworld tremble finally learned what it meant to lose.

He lost his wife.

And the child he would never know existed.

Ten years loving Liam Rockefeller cost me everything.

He said the football team jumped him—so I charged in and took the punches. He sobbed that his stepbrother would destroy him at Yale—so I ripped up my acceptance letter. He held me at midnight whispering "I'm so lucky to have you"—and I thought that meant forever.

Three months later, I heard him laughing in the locker room—laughing about me.

"Iris is like a fucking puppy, so easy to fool. Now that the Yale spot's open, Emily can go with me."

The bullying was staged. The tears were fake. Those intimate embraces—just tools to control me while he fucked his side piece.

He thought I'd still stand in front of him even with a broken nose. He thought I'd never wise up.

I wised up.

In his stepbrother Sebastian's bed.

Twenty years ago, four-year-old Alicia vanished from a park, falling from Connecticut's wealthiest heiress to an orphan overnight. Twenty years later, her birth parents find her working at a coffee shop, bringing her back to a life of luxury.

But behind the fairy tale reunion lurks deadly danger. A mysterious guardian angel named Gabriel begins sending her prophetic warnings about her family's impending doom. Yet Alicia, drunk on newfound happiness, dismisses these as mere hallucinations.

The price of her disbelief is devastating. Her father dies in a horse-riding accident at the country club. Months later, her mother perishes in a car crash on her way to a charity gala. Shattered by grief and guilt, Alicia leaps from a hospital rooftop in despair...

Only to wake up back on the day her parents found her.

This time, she vows to heed Gabriel's every prophecy and save her family. But as she follows the angel's guidance, she discovers that fate's wheels may not be so easily stopped...

The real test has only just begun.