213 Book(s) Related to charlie wade aurous hill

After my twin sister and I were accepted into the same elite university, our parents fully sponsored the freshman welcome banquet.

They told the university president, "This way, even at school, they can feel that parents will always be their unconditional support."

On the night of the banquet, my mother pressed a piece of paper into my hand.

"Elara, go to the podium. Read the address, and while you're at it, introduce your sister's upcoming toast. She needs the spotlight tonight."

Forcing down the tremors of an impending panic attack, I nodded submissively. "Thank you, Mother and Father, for arranging all of this. I'll read it right now."

Just as I was about to turn and read the address, a voice called out, stopping me.

"Elara, read the gratitude statement first. Remember, there's no such thing as a free dinner."

My father's voice cut through from the main table, ringing with an undeniable tone of command.

I froze at the podium.

Even though it was a perfectly heated banquet hall...

I felt a bone-chilling frost.

Dante Ashford is my stepbrother, and the one person I should never have fallen in love with.

When I was ten, my parents died saving his family. The Ashfords took me in. He was good to me back then. Somewhere along the way, I fell for him.

When I was eighteen, he nearly died in an ambush. I donated blood, then a kidney to save him. I was unconscious for three days. When I woke up, Vivian Ross sat by his bed—and he believed she was his savior.

After that, he pushed me away. Vivian became his fiancée.

In my past life, Vivian's crimes brought disaster to our family. Dante got on his knees and begged me to take her punishment. I refused. She died anyway. Then he pretended to love me, planned our wedding—and on that day, his assistant announced to everyone: "This wedding was a lesson to show Miss Elena Hayes what it feels like to be abandoned by the whole world."

I jumped from the church balcony.

When I opened my eyes, I was back at that moment—him on his knees, begging.

This time, I said yes.

Dante, from now on, we're done.

"You're pathetic." Sophia's manicured nails dug into my shoulder. "A wolfless freak who thinks she can fight back?"

The storage room door slammed shut. The lock clicked.

My inhaler was in my locker. My lungs seized. Darkness crept in.

"Help..." I wheezed. "Please..."

But they were already walking away, laughing.

Lynette, the most feared Alpha in the Canadian territories who ruled through blood and ice, dies in an ambush—only to wake up as Elara Grey, a seventeen-year-old wolfless Omega who just suffocated to death from bullying.

The original Elara's life was pure torment. Humiliated by golden boy Blythe Harrison and his girlfriend Sophia Reign, then left to die gasping in a locked room. But that's not the worst part her family faces:

"Your adorable little family," the scarred mercenary held up their photo. "The black market's offering a million for you, Lynette. But them? They're just a bonus. I'll make sure they suffer as well."

Now Lynette's lethal instincts awaken in this fragile, asthmatic body.

She'll protect this family and destroy everyone who dared to hurt them—one brutal lesson at a time.

"You taste sweet." He chuckled darkly from between my legs.
This time, a full on scream left my mouth. It was too overwhelming. I groaned, burying my face into the pillow beside me. Chanting his name.
He became aggressive, grinding his tongue against my clit. I moaned as he started to work the tip of his tongue into me. It was driving me to madness. He used his mouth to pleasure me, seemingly without a care as to how much pleasure it actually brought me and something about that made me feel even more desperate, made my body crave it even more.

I let out a relieved groan,I lay still with heart racing and tried my best to catch my breath. His warm hands stroked my body again, trailing up my body. I shook from the pleasure of his fingers wrapping around my nipples.

They said I shouldn’t exist.Heaven calls me a sin. Hell calls me a weapon. I stopped caring what they thought a very long time ago.
Geminia, half light, half shadow, Half hell half Heaven if anything like that was ever possible but i was proof that the universe has a twisted sense of humor. My blood burns with Heaven’s fire and Hell’s fury, and some days, I can’t tell which side is louder. I was meant to keep balance between them… but balance went straight to hell the second he showed up.
The Angel of Death himself.When he looks at me, it’s like the world holds its breath. He shouldn’t want me, and I sure as hell shouldn’t want him… but tell that to my heartbeat every time he says my name. The power I’ve been controlling reshaped me into something else..something neither Heaven nor Hell could touch and it could and would never be undone.

In my last life, my younger brother made a contract with an S-rank ghost, but it turned out to be completely useless, while I contracted a B-rank ghost, the Starving Ghost, which could not only devour monsters but also consume other awakened humans' ghost servants to evolve.
Under my protection, my family went from scavenging for scraps to living in a luxury mansion inside the government safe zone.
But on the eve of a ghost tide attack, I was prepared to stay behind and defend the base while sending my parents, my sister, and my younger brother away first.
Instead, they killed me, all to take my Starving Ghost so they could have an easier time surviving on the road.
After I died, they didn't even have time to tame the Starving Ghost before it devoured every one of them.
When I opened my eyes again, I had somehow returned to the day we formed our ghost contracts, and this time, my younger brother chose the Starving Ghost.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I used to believe the most beautiful sound in the world was a baby's first cry.

Until I watched my three children die, one by one, at the hands of a woman with the sweetest smile.

Her name was Isabella, my husband's cousin. She would tenderly offer tissues after my miscarriages, frantically call for help when I fell down the stairs, thoughtfully make soup to comfort me after I lost each child.

She was such a talented actress. So convincing that even my mafia don husband said, "Isabella is more suited to be the lady of this house than you are."

But they didn't know—

A docile sheep, once it learns the wolf's rules, becomes far more dangerous than any real wolf.

When Dominick smashed Antonio's skull with the holy chalice, when Isabella screamed through her miscarriage in the basement, when blood splattered across the Virgin Mary's face...

The global freeze descended, and the apocalypse arrived right on cue. I seized all the critical supplies and evacuated first, leaving "the perfect base" behind for the two traitors who backstabbed me. They thought it was heaven, but little did they know that the entire fortress was a precision trap constructed of deception, scarcity, and despair. As the outdoor temperature plummeted to minus eighty degrees, I sat by the window, roasting venison and watching them through high-definition infrared, coldly observing as they lost their humanity in the desperate fight for a single bowl of sawdust.

I was once the supreme ruler of the global underworld, stepping down from my throne just to cook hot meals for my daughter. Yet, my arrogant brother-in-law mistook my silence for weakness. He smashed my home, tried to hand my wife over to a Mafia Don for his own career, and even stole my Black-Gold Skull Coin as a tribute!
Fine. You want to play? I'll grant your wish.
With a single keystroke, I initiated the DEFCON-1 combat protocol. Instantly, one hundred thousand of the world’s most elite mercenaries went berserk, locking down the entirety of New York City!

"Let's get married here, today. I'll give you a home, a family, and after you give me an heir, you'll walk away with a hundred million dollars."
After being humiliated on her wedding day and finding her fiancé in bed with his secretary, Angel's world shattered. With nowhere to go and no one to turn to, she found herself standing before Salvatore, a man desperate for a bride to fulfill his dying grandfather's wish.
A contract marriage. One year. One heir. No love.
But as the days turn into nights filled with tension and stolen glances, the line between obligation and desire begins to blur. Beneath Salvatore's cold demeanor lie secrets, a vengeful ex, and enemies determined to destroy them both.
What started as a fake marriage soon becomes a dangerous game of passion and power — and the price of falling in love might be far higher than either of them ever imagined.

Alpha king’s sex slave is an emotionally engrossing beautiful book, filled with well detailed character description to give readers an exciting perspective of each character in the book. Their flaws, strengths and aggression are easy to feel by readers. You’ll love and unlove the protagonists and fall in love.

Aaron Buckley the city's first trillionaire is met with the biggest devastation of his life losing the love of his life to mysterious death, and suffers years of loneliness, and the trauma of her death. He is compelled to hire a mother for his twin daughters Paige, and Piper. A contract bride, and a contract mother for his daughters.
No intimacy. No shared feelings. No sleeping in his bedroom. They are to act as the perfect couple in public and avoid each other in private and her job was to cater to the kids until the time elapses and she quietly leaves with the money never to be seen or heard from again.
What becomes of this strange situationship, and what happens when old debts emerge?

“I don't want to see this angelic face of hers that deceived me and murdered my child, she disgusts me, she is nothing but a worthless, good for nothing, liar. I was so good to her and this is how she repays me? I fucking loved her, I changed who I was for her sake. I put up with her annoying and embarrassing ass but you know what, take her back to Ryan if you must, I'm sure he was so relieved when I took her off his hands but even I regret taking her.”
Camilla composes herself, finding her balance but still a crying mess. “You don't mean that, you're just mad. You love me, remember?” she mummers, her gaze drifting to Santiago. “Tell him he loves me and he's just mad.” she begs, when Santiago doesn't respond, she shakes her head, her gaze falling on Adrian again and he stares at her with disdain. “You said you love me forever.” she whispers.
“No, I fucking hate you right now!” He yelled.
*****
Camilla Mia Burton is a Wolf less seventeen-year-old with insecurities and fear of the unknown. She is a half-human part-werewolf; she's a powerful wolf even though unaware of the power within her and has a beast too a rare gem. Camilla is as sweet as she can be.
However what happens when she meets her mate and he is not what she dreamed about?
He is a cruel cold-hearted eighteen years old Alpha. He is ruthless and in disapproval of Mates he wants nothing to do with her. She endeavors to change his perception of how he sees things, yet he loathes and rejects her pushing her away but the mate bond proves to be strong. What will he do when he regrets rejecting and hating her?

"Good luck to your present Luna," I said bitterly. "And if you haven't found her yet, good luck with that too. I never loved you more than a friend. And today, I'll repeat it: I don't love you. I never did, and I never will—not in a million years. What happened between us is in the past. It was never meant to blossom. Let me go. I don't belong here. Not in this pack. Not ever…"
Before the words could fully escape my lips, a deafening crash rocked the cell. The wall split with a deep dent—his fist buried in the concrete.
Tagon.
He stood there, breathing heavily, knuckles bloodied, eyes shadowed with fury. A low growl rumbled from his throat.
What kind of man had he become?
It was hard not to remember the past. Hard not to recall the good days, when he was the sweetest man I had ever met. I had been foolish then, thinking his affection was real… thinking that my tainted blood could somehow be made pure through his love.
But there were only two times he ever truly lost control: the day we met—when he found me crying—and the day I told him… Never mind.
He clicked his tongue sharply and spoke with chilling finality:
"As long as you live, you'll always be under my dominance. I own you—your life, your blood, your soul. You are mine to command. You are my slave. And that is your fate."

Synopsis

In a single devastating evening, he lost it all. His promising career, his hard-earned place at a top-tier university, and the woman he planned to marry. Framed for a crime he didn’t commit, brutally beaten by those he once trusted, and cast aside like trash, Damien Vale stood on the crumbling edge of an abandoned overpass, ready to let the darkness claim him.

Until a crimson interface ignited in the air before him:

[Rebate System Activated]

Every connection he forges, every calculated risk he takes, and every ounce of influence he invests in the right people will return a hundredfold — in power, wealth, secrets, and absolute control.

From the lowest pit of betrayal and ruin, Damien is about to rewrite his destiny. What was taken from him will be returned ten times over. Those who destroyed him will watch everything they cherish crumble. Armed with an unstoppable system and a merciless new mindset, he will build an empire from the shadows, surround himself with unstoppable allies, and savor every second of his ruthless comeback.

Damien Vale is no longer the man they broke.
He is the storm they never saw coming

He’s holding me, cradling me in his arms like something precious. His grip is firm, possessive, and in that moment, I’m not sure if I should feel terrified or… something else entirely. My heart races, and I hate that I like the way his hands feel on me. I hate that the warmth of his chest against my side makes me feel safe. I hate all of it. I open my eyes, just a sliver, enough to see his profile—his jaw clenched, his eyes focused on the road. He turns his head, and I shut my eyes again, heart pounding.

Did he see me?


Grace Miller is an orphaned first-year criminal law student. She lost her family in a mysterious accident years ago, and life has never been the same for her. For Grace, only two things matter, she hates crime, and she loves Sophia- her friend she met in a camp back in high school. So when Sophia asks, no, begs her to come to Italy with her for her 21st birthday, she just cannot say no. There is only one problem, she doesn’t know anything about the Moretti family's mafia connections.

Alessandro (Alex) Moretti is the man the world fears. He is the new don of the Moretti Mafia family, having taken over after his father's death a few years ago. Alex is feared and respected as a ruthless, arrogant, and indestructible leader. He handles the family's business with precision and has little patience for socializing, especially with people trying to gain his favor or women trying to get in the Moretti bed, left and right.

Alex is used to dealing with enemies and threats, but Grace is a challenge he didn't see coming. With a vendetta against criminals and a determination to uncover the truth about her family's mysterious death, Grace is everything Alex should avoid. But when his sister warns him to keep his distance from her due to her hate of crime and criminals, he is sure Grace is lying just to get his attention, and he makes it a challenge to break her act- even if it means that he has to put on one up himself.

But once Alex begins playing the role of a non-criminal to get closer to Grace, he just can't have enough, and it is too late, too soon.

18th birthdays are always a milestone, but I didn’t expect mine to be THIS big of a milestone. Finding out my life isn’t what I thought it was, my parents aren’t who I thought they were, and my whole life got turned upside down. I have more family than I ever knew about, or honestly, I knew about but had my memories of them taken. Everything is about to change as my life fills with people and things I thought only existed in books and movies. Here’s to 18. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Betrayed and humiliated, I discovered my one-year marriage was a meticulously crafted lie. My husband, the man I gave my fortune and heart to, had legally married his manipulative adoptive sister, all while using me as a stepping stone to wealth and power. Cast aside like trash, I was left with nothing but a thirst for vengeance.

But they underestimated me.

I am no damsel in distress. I am the heiress they thought they had broken.

Dead after saving a family from a zombies attack, Maya finds that she has been rebirth to a peaceful world where zombies are just fictional stories used to scare bad kids. Living comfortably is her new goal. But the current body she used, Finola, seemed to have been engaged with someone before she finally used the body.

Forced by her 'family', Maya must marry a crippled man who is notorious for his bad temper and rumored to be dead soon enough. But that's not the only problem she has right now. Evan, her husband seems to have a lot of people who want to take his life all the time.

Using her previous life experience, Maya starts her new life as a wife of a cold billionare from that day on!

#genius #apocalypse #sweetlove #rebirth #pastpaced #thestrongactingweak #arrangedmarriage #richfamily #liveaftermarriage

In order to pay for the high tuition, poor girl Felicia Jones worked two jobs every day to make a living, until she met a rich man named Henry, who was full of confidence and powerful aura, and his identity was mysterious and dangerous. Felicia fell into his temptation and couldn't extricate herself, until she discovered the dark world behind him, she was completely scared...
Should she continue to entangle with a big boss in the dark world? Or run away wisely? But when she realized this problem, Henry had already imprisoned her tightly in his world.
"Oh, dear little baby, do you want to run away now? It's too late."
His words were like the whisper of a devil, full of charm that makes people want to commit crimes...

A wild night six years ago cost her everything—her family, her home, and nearly her life. She fled with a secret, returning now with four children in tow: three healthy, brilliant boys, and a daughter desperately in need of a miracle.

The father? He's the ruthless CEO who dominates the corporate world, a man who has no idea he has a family. To get the DNA proof she needs, she must infiltrate his life. But he sees her as a cunning seductress, and his cruel fiancée—her own stepsister—is hell-bent on ruining her.

With time running out, her four little masterminds launch their own operation: "Operation: Claim Our Daddy." They're ready to go to war for their mom, but are they any match for the most powerful man they've ever met?

On the anniversary of her mother's death, Scarlett White was taken out of the treatment center. She begged Brandon Robinson to let her see her mother for just a moment.
He coldly smiled and said, "We're not going to the cemetery. You need to go to the hospital to donate a kidney to Elizabeth."
What she thought was love shattered in an instant. Scarlett looked up, tears streaming down her face, and said, "I'll donate the kidney, but I must get a divorce!"
He laughed in anger, "What you owe her can never be repaid in this lifetime!"

Dedicated three years to marriage, I shed the aura of the genius venture queen, pouring all my connections and resources into helping Simon Coldridge, who had nothing, ascend to the position of CEO. I thought this was a testament to our love, until that stormy night when he hung up on my call for help, yet gently opened the car door and styled the hair of the poor student I had funded.
When I confronted him, he disdainfully said, “You’re Mrs. Coldridge. Don’t take her seriously.” He might have thought I would continue to tolerate it like before. When I threw my ten-carat wedding ring into the trash and withdrew funding from the project he valued most, he finally understood that the Aurora Montague who loved him to the point of losing herself was already dead.

Amelia Davis was married to Frederick Hastings for three years, but that period paled in comparison to the decade he had spent enamored with his first love, Amber Roberts. On the day she found out she was pregnant, Frederick asked for a divorce. Without a word, she simply took the divorce papers and left. However, Frederick was taken aback upon discovering her pregnancy after her departure. In a rare display of emotion, the typically composed Frederick panicked, desperately pleading for Amelia's return as if he were in a state of frenzy...

After a drunken one-night stand, I made the biggest mistake of my life—I slept with my boss, Alexander Brown. He's my father's business partner, a man who terrified me with just an icy stare.

I fled in a panic, but a resume I left behind led him to the wrong person—my cousin, Elodie. While I lived in fear and guilt, she seized the opportunity to take my place, accepting the marriage he offered out of a sense of responsibility.

What no one knew was that our reckless night had already sown its seed. I was pregnant.

Believing he was committed to her, I planned to secretly get an abortion and disappear from his world, even inventing a "fiancé" to fend off his growing suspicions.

But Alexander was no fool, and his sharp instincts began to tear through my web of lies.

He could never have imagined that the timid, overlooked intern he barely noticed was not only the woman from that passionate night, but also the mother of his child.

I want a divorce because now I have found my fated mate. My husband, Gray, pushed me away, it seemed that I was slapped by fate.

Who told me to go against the idea of the werewolf mate and marry someone who is not my fated mate?

My life fell into darkness when my husband took his fated mate back to our Pack.

Something much worse had happened, I was poisoned by my dearest husband and his fucking fated mate.

When I was thrown out of the Pack like a dog, I was thinking if I could ever rebirth I vow to snap their necks!

When innocent and quiet Elena Romano is forced to take her rebellious sister’s place in an arranged marriage to Lorenzo DeLuca, the ruthless heir of the DeLuca crime family, she steps into a world she never imagined.
Her sister, Isabella, was supposed to be the bride, meant to seal a truce between two powerful mafia families. But when Isabella runs away the night before the wedding, their desperate father threatens Elena to take her place or suffer the consequences.
Lorenzo, expecting a fiery and cunning bride, is shocked to find Elena—a soft-spoken but sharp-witted woman who wants nothing to do with the mafia world. He is cold, calculating, and sees her as just another pawn in the power game. But as the days pass, he realizes there’s more to her than meets the eye.

⚠️ Warning: Explicit sexual content

“But you are my step uncle,” she said, taking steps backwards as I got closer. A rush of adrenaline coursed through my body.

“If only you know how excited my cock gets when you remind me of that,” I groaned, running a hand through my hair. I saw how she swallowed, how she pressed her thighs together and I smiled.

“I would end this if I deep my hand into your needy cunt and find you dry as dessert,” I leaned towards her, sniffing in her scent, resisting the urge to close my eyes and revel in it. “But if by any chance you're aroused by this, I will take you against this wall,”


One reckless night changes everything for Nyx Wyatt.
A stranger in the dark awakens something she never knew she possessed… and the next morning, he walks into her home with a name that should make him untouchable.

Travis.
Her uncle.
Her mistake.
Her obsession.

Nyx tries to run from the memory, but Travis doesn’t let her. His protectiveness is unsettling. His presence is consuming. And the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to pull her in.

Then danger begins circling her life silent, deliberate, and aimed with terrifying precision.

Nyx doesn’t know who Travis really is.
She only knows one thing:

Every threat that comes for her… comes through him.

When she’s forced to choose between the boy who wants her and the man she should fear, Nyx steps into the arms of the one person she shouldn’t trust.

Because loving Travis is dangerous.
Leaving him is impossible.
And the truth about him… might destroy them both.

Star Davis stopped letting people in at fourteen, the year her father left without a fight or an explanation — just a quiet withdrawal that taught her exactly what happened when you trusted someone with the real version of yourself.
So she built rules. Four of them. Written in the front of a notebook she carries everywhere.
Alex Carter was never supposed to get past the first one.
But he did. Slowly, without asking permission, in libraries and coffee carts and late nights that ran longer than either of them planned. He got past all of them. And somewhere in the middle of a semester Star didn't expect, she stopped guarding herself so carefully around him.
What she doesn't know is that he has a secret. A bet made in September, a deadline in December, and teammates who were watching from the beginning.
What he didn't expect is that it would stop mattering — and that by the time he understood why, it might already be too late.
She gave him everything she never gives anyone.
He just hasn't told her what it cost.

Isabella’s world shattered the day she discovered that her destined mate, Alpha Williams, had betrayed her with her best friend, Norah. The betrayal cut deeper when Williams rejected her, branding her a weak she-wolf unworthy of his side. Heartbroken and abandoned, Isabella left the pack, carrying a secret he never knew—his child.

Fate, however, led her into the hands of a powerful Alpha who not only saved her but transformed her into the strongest she-wolf ever known. Ten years later, Alpha Williams learned the truth: Isabella had borne his child, and she had risen far beyond the fragile girl he once scorned. Desperate, he sought to win her back, but Isabella’s heart now belonged to the man who rebuilt her life.

Yet, old wounds ran deep. To Alpha Williams—and to Norah—Isabella vowed revenge for the pain they caused. But when the moment comes, will she follow through… or choose a different path?

Two rival families found themselves in a pickle whe two of their members fall in love.

She's his baby sister's best friend. He's her childhood crush.
They both know its forbidden, and hearts will be crushed if they pursue their desires, but can they resist? Or will they risk everything?

Livie---My first kiss with James
“Fuck it.” He growled, then grabbed my face and kissed me. Hard.
I gasped in shock, and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, massaging my tongue with his. My body was on fire as he pulled me closer to him, pressing my body against his.
Moving his hands from the sides of my face, he ran his fingers through my hair before grabbing it in his fist, tugging just enough to make me want more.
Every nerve in my body was begging to be touched,

James---My second kiss with Livie
“Livie, wait.” She turned, locking eyes with me, and I knew then I had to have her.
“You know this is a terrible idea,” I said as I closed the distance between us.
She shook her head, saying, “I don’t care.”
We stood there, eyes locked, the intensity between us growing.
Finally, I pulled her to me as I dipped my head down, allowing my lips to reach hers.
As she deepened the kiss, I knew there was no way I could resist this woman.

I thought I was the happiest woman in the world... until I clicked on that video.

The moment the screen lit up, my entire world came crashing down.

The woman on the bed was Calista - that girl who grew up with us since we were kids. And that hand caressing her skin was wearing the wedding ring I had personally put on Matteo's finger.

"I've missed you so much..."
"You drive me crazy, baby..."

Those sweet words I knew so well completely destroyed me.

Everyone said we were the perfect couple, but who knew this marriage was built on nothing but lies?

Since he's so good at acting, I guess it's time I gave him a show of my own. I'm going to make sure everyone sees what this "perfect husband" really is...

The day I died, I found a locked box in my husband's closet.

Inside were thirty years of lies.

Gray Reed saved my life when I was eight. Everyone said I owed him everything. At eighteen, I gave him my college applications to "help revise" - he was my guidance counselor. He told me, "Livy, you're not competitive enough. Stanford's too hard. Consider community college instead."

I believed him. I stayed in our small town, took over the family Mexican restaurant, married him. Thirty years later he died, and I discovered the truth—

He photocopied my entire application and gave it to his first love, Elysia Hunt.

She used MY application to get into Stanford. Built a Silicon Valley empire on MY life.

While I spent thirty years trapped in this town, married to the man who stole my future.

But when I opened my eyes, I was back in September 1995, first week of senior year, eighteen years old—

This time, no one steals my dreams.

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

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

To save Maggie and her baby, Dante forced me to abort mine.

Five yeas ago, we were hosting a family dinner when I walked into the study and found my father with his mistress.

He looked at me, voice flat and cold: "Alice Russo, you don't tell your mother about this. Trust me, you can't handle the fallout."

I didn't listen. Ran straight to my mother in tears and told her everything.

That night, Mother had her people remove the woman from the property.

The next morning, the woman's daughter Anya ran my mother down with her car at the docks.

That's when I realized, I was completely alone. Because my dad is taking his bastard daughter's side.

I called Victor Castro, my husband, 99 times. He never answered once.

I had a breakdown at the family tribunal. They physically removed me and had me committed to a psychiatric facility in Sicily, the worst kind of place you can imagine.

Five years later, Victor finally spoke to me.

The transport stopped outside the facility that day. Sunlight hit my eyes.

Two guards helped me to the car. My father stood there with a line of his men behind him.

In the crowd, I recognized Peter Thompson, one of my mother's most loyal people.

He gave me the smallest nod. Something flickered in his eyes.

I kept my expression neutral and got in the car.

The door closed. Victor sat across from me.

He lit a cigar and said it without any preamble:

"The day Anya ran your mother down at the docks? I paid for her legal team. I provided the witnesses. I signed the autopsy report myself."

Louis and I missed each other for five years before we finally reconciled.

But after only three years together, he passed away from cancer.

When I opened my eyes again, I had traveled back to the year when he hated me most.

Louis was saying harsh words to me, decisively breaking up:

"Emily. I never want to see you again."

I grabbed his collar and kissed him, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

Louis: ???

I said: "Even if we break up, we can still be friends with benefits, can't we?"

I was born a princess of the Dragon Realm, destined for greatness.
In my past life, I married an amethyst dragon, Damien. Our union should have produced heirs worthy of legend. Instead, I bore him a Wingless One, the ultimate shame.
He didn't hesitate. One swing of his blade, and our child's cries were silenced forever. Then he dragged me, still bleeding from childbirth, to the Dragon's Maw. Threw me into the molten lava, my screams echoing as the flames consumed my flesh.
Meanwhile, my half-sister Isadora, a mere Bronze Dragon, married another Bronze, equally unremarkable. Yet somehow, she gave birth to an Amethyst Dragon.
She became our new Dragon Queen. I became carrion.
But death wasn't my end.
I opened my eyes on the day of the Choosing Ceremony. Damien stood before me. Then, with cold calculation in his eyes, he turned away. He chose Isadora.
He remembers too.
A smile curved my lips. Let him play his game. Because I know the truth now, a truth that will shatter everything.
How could a dragon who needs dark magic to maintain his wing color possibly father a dragon of true noble bloodline?

My ribs are the hottest thing in town—there’s always a line out the door—but they’ve got no idea the secret that makes them so damn good is…

I used to think I had the perfect family.
My husband Nico started coming home less and less, always saying he had a meeting. But the truth was, he had another woman, Alessia. And it had been going on for a while.
The affair I could've handled. What really killed me was that my son Leo and my daughter Mia had known all along. They'd even started calling his mistress "Mom."
They thought I was clueless. But I'd known for months, his assistant had told me everything.
I tried so hard to win them back. I did more for them, cared more, tried harder. But they kept choosing Alessia.
That day, I stopped trying.
They could all have each other—Nico, Alessia, Leo, Mia.
I hoped they'd be happy together.

I heard that recording and couldn't believe it. My husband had been having an affair for a whole year, and my six-year-old Jerry had been covering for him this whole time.

Later, at Jerry's birthday party, I overheard his friends: "That's Jerry's nanny. His real mom works overseas."

My son told everyone I was just the nanny.

That day, standing in the hotel hallway, Jerry looked at me and said: "Can you promise to never come find me again? So Michelle can officially be my mom?"

My blood ran cold.