237 Book(s) Related to jon bellion

I died once.

In my last life, someone posted my photo on the company's anonymous forum, claiming I slept my way to the top.

The comment section exploded.

Colleagues whispered behind my back and pointed fingers.

A blurry video convinced everyone the woman in it was me.

I explained. I cried. I begged.

No one believed me.

The company forced me out. My parents kicked me out.

I walked to my death, condemned by everyone.

Then I opened my eyes.

Everything went back to the beginning.

The same post, the same accusation, the same man swearing in the comments he'd seen it all himself.

This time, I'm getting my revenge.

On my due date, my husband Russell locked me in an underground freezer at minus ten degrees.

The Pembroke family's unbreakable rule: the first-born male inherits the entire mafia empire. My sister-in-law Natasha and I were both pregnant, our due dates only one day apart. To ensure his brother's child was born first, Russell made this insane decision.

"My brother and Natasha's baby has to come first—this is what you owe them!" He ignored my desperate pleas and violent contractions, coldly shoving me into the freezer.

But that wasn't enough. They forcibly injected me with labor-delaying drugs. I curled up in agony on the freezing concrete floor, feeling my baby slowly slipping away, tears of despair streaming down my face.

My baby, Mommy is so sorry...

Everyone knows my husband is obsessed with me.

He's gone against the board for me, walked away from billion-dollar deals, dropped millions at charity galas. Everyone said I'd married into a fairytale. I believed it too.

Until the anonymous email.

In the photo, he was kissing a little girl's forehead—three years old, maybe four. He looked at her the way fathers do.

Three years of marriage. Countless failed IVF attempts. Then finally—I was pregnant.

I was about to tell him when his phone buzzed. He left immediately—for another woman and her child.

I was the only one who didn't know.

If the love was fake, if the marriage was fake—then I could disappear too.

In two days, the typhoon hits. My car will go off the cliff into the ocean. No one survives that.

I'll disappear from his world forever—me and the baby he doesn't know about.

I'm eight months pregnant, throwing up so violently I can taste bile, three "miracles" growing inside me.

Until that night at their celebration dinner, when I leaned against the wall and heard laughter from inside the private room.

I could hear the amusement in my husband Frank's voice: "Let's up the bet—another million. I'm betting two boys, one girl."

His mistress Ava giggled: "You already know the results."

"Of course," he said casually. "They're my children. Of course I know."

Then I heard it.

They talked about my womb like I was some kind of breeding machine.

They clinked glasses, debating "whose eggs were worth more."

They were even betting on "which baby would come out first."

And there I was, outside the door, my swollen feet barely holding up my aching, stretched body.

Inside, they were laughing and celebrating.

Celebrating their perfect little surrogate, carrying my husband's babies with his mistress.

Right then, the nausea just... stopped.

I just felt cold.

And slowly, a plan started forming in my head.

I used to believe my husband was my hero. When Julian Miller’s empire was falling apart, I made a desperate choice to save him. I spent a night in the suite of his fiercest competitor, Arthur Vance. Julian called me his hero and said he trusted me.

But he was lying to me for five long years.

Everything changed in an instant. Watching our daughter hang from a broken roller coaster, Julian didn’t attempt to save her. Instead, he reached for his phone to call his mistress.

To him, she wasn’t a child in peril; she was just a chance to wipe out a 'mistake' and start fresh with someone who had been in our lives since the very beginning of our marriage.

Now, people see me as a heartbroken mother and an ashamed wife. Julian thinks he’s buried me under his web of lies and his influence. But he overlooked one crucial point: I have nothing more to lose, and I'm ready to settle a score.

With the one man Julian fears most by my side, I’m stepping back into the light. And by the time I’m through, he’ll understand that the woman he treated like a pawn is the very one who will bring his whole world crashing down.

After Nicholas got engaged, his assistant handed me a plane ticket.

"Leave. Don’t ever show your face in Silverlight City again."

"Otherwise, Mr. Jackson has more than enough ways to ruin you."

All those years I spent by his side, I was admired by everyone, living in the spotlight.

Yet when I finally left, I was reduced to a pitiful, laughable sight.

I said, "Fine."

But that very night, the flight plunged from over thirty thousand feet in the air.

I’m Maria, thirty years old, my body like a forgotten vine, aching to be watered and revived. Once, I thought marriage was my safe harbor, but my husband—that useless bastard—not only left me unsatisfied in bed, he betrayed my heart, screwing around with another woman. My pussy has long been dry, yet desire burns in my chest, forcing me to flee that cold, empty home and seek refuge in the vineyards of Provence, desperate for a breath of life.

Here, I met Julian. That evening, under the grapevines, he fucked me hard. I know this is just the beginning. My body and soul will be reborn in this steamy affair.

I'm a forensic audio specialist. I make a living digging up the truths people deliberately erase from static and noise.
My 19-year-old brother was accused of pushing a billionaire's bride to her death at her wedding.
The police presented their "smoking gun" recording. I heard exactly twelve seconds missing from it.
Those twelve seconds hold the truth about how the bride really died—and the billionaire family's dark secret that will get both me and my brother killed.
They smashed my equipment, threatened my life, bribed the cops, and tried to bury the truth forever.
But what they don't know is—
Some voices refuse to stay silent. Even when they're cut out.

“Why is Elara dying on my stream?”

Sienna Vale laughed in front of half a million viewers while my heroine glitched on-screen, wearing the ring I designed and speaking the line I wrote.

Caleb didn’t ask if I was okay. He shoved the emergency laptop toward me and said, “Fix it before the investors panic.”

So I opened the live build.

But instead of saving his launch, I patched one line into the game credits:

Created by Maya Reed.

"Yes baby, just like that. Oh fuck yes! Yes!"

I opened my mouth as utter shock and pain filled my body. My husband was fucking my step sister on our wedding night. Hot tears dropped from my eyes as the wet sounds and moaning grew louder and louder.


Larissa, the esteemed Luna of the Tokenmoon pack, had it all. A loving husband and a strong pack. But it was all a lie. Stefan, her alpha husband, was the devil. He maltreated and abused her constantly while cheating on her with her step-sister. To make matters worse, he rejected her and sent her away. Heartbroken, Larissa was lost until she stumbled across her second chance mate. . . Kaden.

Kaden, handsome as sin and the alpha of Griffen-howl pack is a broken man. When his wife runs away with another man, while abandoning him and his son, he vows never to believe in love. But when a homeless woman, Larissa comes into his territory, it appears that he might be breaking those vows. She is his second-chance mate but will he be able to believe in love again?

Steamy, dirty stories with a kinky, forbidden twist. Each story is about 20,000 words so sit back, grab some holy water and relax! It's time to sink in 11 deliciously dark and twisted love tales! Highly erotic and brimming with dark desires, don't say I didn't warn ya!

18+ Forbidden Temptations (Steamy Collections Erotica)
Coach and Cheerleader
Principal and Student
Step-brother and Step-sister
Teacher and Student
Step-father and step-daughter
Father’s best friend and 18 year old daughter
Professor and college student
Secretary and Ceo
Maid and master
Younger boy and older woman
Doctor and female student

“Mariam.” Diesel, one of the arrogant Triplet, yelled her name, she was already shivering on the floor and the triplet surrounded her naked with their dicks fully erect and hard.

“You got some nerves trying to report us to the Principal, have you forgotten who we are? We rule Dranovile and this is your punishment, we will fuck you until you pass out.”

“You will always be our toy, bitch.”

“Please.” She cried.


Mariam, an innocent teenager who always sleepwalks and ends up in the woods, lost her virginity having no clue who did it.

She doesn't know who her parents are, but lives with her grandma. Her grandma finally got a job for her, she is to work as a maid for the Herndon family and her school fees will be paid by them. Little did she know she was going to be caged and bullied by the Triplet Alpha's

What will be her fate? How can she get her revenge?

WARNING: This story is rated 18. Strong language, sex, violence, and other content in the story may be offensive to some readers and not suitable for young children.*

Bound by duty, torn by fate.

When Raven Elowen is forced into an arranged marriage with the cold and enigmatic Alpha Kael Rathmore, she vows to keep her heart guarded. But as a sinister rogue threatens their packs, their fragile alliance is tested at every turn. Secrets from the past and whispers of an ancient prophecy loom, forcing them closer.

“I’ll protect you, no matter the cost,” Kael promises.

“And if I don’t need saving?” she counters.

As danger closes in, Raven must decide, trust the man she swore to hate or risk everything for a love that could destroy them both.

"You will have to satisfy him, wife"

My husband hates me enough to offer me to another man for one night. But when that night shatters everything he thought he knew about me, his hatred turns into something far more dangerous obsession.

A collision of two worlds brought them together. Two single parents, with different personalities and distinct parenting styles.
Henderson Bain a playboy billionaire cares about nothing else aside from his daughter, Itzel who is a spoilt brat all thanks to her father.
Lena Cohen is hunted by her past but despite that, she is an amazing mother to Trent, a sweet well well-behaved boy but life wasn't rosy for them.
Henderson Bain is having a hard time searching for a nanny for Itzel until shows up though qualified, Henderson refuses to offer her the job because of their first encounter but seeing how Lena and Itzel get along, he decides to employ her.
Lena and Henderson were two worlds apart but one thing they never saw coming was them falling for each other.
Will they finally let go of their past, and give love a chance? Or try to suppress their feelings for each other? And what if their past comes knocking at their doors once again?

"I'll marry you."
Lauren Greene never thought those words would escape her lips. But with her mother's life hanging by a thread and emergency surgery costing more than she could ever afford, desperation left her with only one choice—marry a crippled stranger.
Alexander Magnus, the reclusive billionaire heir who lost his parents in a tragic hit-and-run and survived the accident that left him disabled, had spent twenty years abroad rebuilding himself. He returned home ready to take over his father's empire—and marry the woman he had loved silently for years, Melissa McCarthy.
But on the day of their court wedding, Melissa never showed up.
Instead, Alex crossed paths with Lauren, a woman willing to trade her freedom for a chance to save her mother.
Their marriage of convenience was meant to be nothing more than a transaction—until real feelings began to slip through the cracks.
And just as Lauren and Alex start to find a fragile rhythm together, Melissa suddenly returns, determined to reclaim Alex as hers.
Tom Devon—the ruthless billionaire rival who has fallen for Lauren—steps into the picture, vowing to take her away.
With jealousy rising, secrets unraveling, and Lauren's mother's shocking death pointing fingers toward Alex, their world threatens to crumble.
Will Lauren fight for the man she's beginning to love? Or flee, like she always has?
And can Alex and Lauren survive the chaos closing in around them or is their happy ending destined to shatter before it even begins?

I glared when his hand reached again to my neck. Our faces only an inch apart. His big hand was almost wrapping it whole. His thumb massaging my throat like a feather. "And when I thrust inside of you, I want to hear you scream my name. Every name of mine."
"Dante. Adriano. Sol. Di. Angelo." His thumb stroking the center of my neck while uttering every name he owned. His eyes hooded in heat, lust clouding the windows of his soul. "And when you cum, it'll be Dante you moan."

Hailynn Fleury is a talented painter. Growing up as an orphan, she and her best friend Ethan, always wanted to get back to the people that helped and cared for them. When one of her friends convinced her to auction her paintings at one of her charity events, it didn't take much persuasion knowing the money would go to the orphanage.
On the night of the auction, her future took another turn when she saw a handsome man holding a gun. Later finding out that he was a mafia boss with an intention of keeping her from thereon. Witnessing him pulling a trigger to someone would have been the mafia boss' wisest decision to never let her go. Except that he couldn't touch the girl knowing the promise he had with his cousin. Dreams of bedding the girl is no longer an option. But how will he treat his ragazza, really?

Find out how both of their lives took a turn- with the aspiring artist and the Italian mafia boss.

“You disgust me.”

I blinked back the tears that wanted to fall and forced myself to move forward. This was just another challenge I had to face, another hurdle in my mission.

I couldn’t let Hunter break me, no matter how much he seemed to enjoy tormenting me. I would survive this. I had to. Even if it meant swallowing my pride and scrubbing floors until my hands bled.


As an Omega from a rival pack, Faelen Earhart’s mission is clear: infiltrate the ruthless Howle Wulf Pack and pose as a servant. But blending in proves harder than expected, especially when she catches the eye of Alpha Hunter Blackethorn—a notorious playboy who loathes weakness and makes Faelen’s life a living nightmare. Despite his cruelty, Faelen finds herself drawn to him, sparking a dangerous attraction that’s as thrilling as it is confusing.
When Faelen uncovers an imminent attack from her own pack, she faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to her pack or protect the man she’s come to care for. Her warning changes everything, forcing Hunter to confront his own feelings. In the battle that follows, Faelen’s courage will redefine her loyalty, Hunter’s heart, and the future of both packs.

“Since you suck at stripping, why don’t we skip that part and go over to the main thing!.” Lucas suggested as he tries to suppress a laugh.

“S-sure!.” Kimberly stuttered and moved closer to him. She cursed herself for not knowing how to do something as simple as stripping.

With her heart beating very fast, Kimberly stood in front of Lucas confused on what to do next.

Lucas pulled her closer until she is plastered on his body and placed his right hand on her butt while his left hand moved inside her shirt and cease her bare skin.

Kimberly immediately panicked and pushed Lucas away from her.

“Sorry, I can’t do this. I am not a prostitute!.” Kimberly uttered and picked up her bag amd rushed out….


Kimberly needs to pay the fifty thousand dollars her mom owe to loan sharks in a week time or face the consequences.

Left with no choice, Kimberly decided to sell her body in order to get the money.

Warning: Mature content!

He let his hand squeeze her breast gently through the gown she wore, then he applied a little bit of force. He heard her make a whimpering sound into his mouth and he swallowed it up. He released her hands and pushed her to himself with his hand while caressing her breast.


His unwilling slave…

Fiery and innocent, Lady Roksolana was once the esteemed and privileged daughter of the sultanate king. Until she was captured by the enemy, the all powerful and devilishly charming Sultan, Sheikh Jamal Aamil.

The ruthless king…

Worshipped as a god by his people, sinfully hot Jamal takes ahold of Roksolana during an attack and back to his palace. Drawn to her exotic beauty, he tries to bends her to his seductive whims. Except that Roksolana refuses to suppress her bold spirit for any man, especially such an arrogant one like Jamal, who sees her as nothing but his possession, a jewel in his harem and a slave to slake his pleasure on.

Bound together by desire…

Soon, Roksolana finds herself succumbing to his sensual touches and in the process falls in love with him. But with another danger in the air, ememies scheming wicked plots and his favorite mistress raging with jealousy, will these two be able to find love in the midst of all the chaos?

A thrilling tale of love, lust and desire.

Warning: Mature Content

“You should never feel shy around me Céline..." He trailed off as his eyes moved from her face to the mound of soft skin peeking out from atop her shirt. His fingers moved dangerously low, creating a path from her neck to her cleavage.

Goosebumps formed on her skin, wherever his cold fingers traced. Céline held her breathe, her folds getting wet.


Innocent, beautiful but heartbroken Celine Fayet is out for revenge. Unable to find peace until her parent's death is avenged, she chooses one wickedly enticing option to get the money she so desperately needs; marry Damien Culhane, sexy multi-millionaire.

Except that Damien, drop dead gorgeous with his panty dropping smile, has no plans of getting married. Content with his playboy ways, he cruises among the elites, leaving a trail of aching hearts wherever he goes. Until he meets stunning Celine who makes him want to have a rethink.

In a clash of stunning attraction, these two begin to play wicked sensual games and even as Celine knows that the deal between them is businesslike, she finds herself falling head over heels for Damien.

But when she discovers a deadly secret, something that makes her choose between vengeance and Damien, devastated Celine is stuck between her head and her heart. Who should her loyalty lie with? Damien? Or her dead parents?

A thrilling tale of love, lust and revenge.

After being forced into a blind date with a wealthy crippled businessman, Olivia’s defiance sparks an unexpected connection with the aloof billionaire, Herbert Wyatt. One impulsive kiss shatters both their worlds—his allergy to touch vanishes, and her life spirals into chaos. When Herbert demands she take responsibility for his first kiss by marrying him, Olivia’s faces a whirlwind of secrets, passion, and dangerous love.


“You took my first kiss,” he whispered. “You’ll have to take responsibility for that.”
Her breath caught. “Wh-what?” she stuttered, unsure if she heard him right.
He smiled faintly, his fingers tracing the side of her face. “You heard me.”
She blinked rapidly, her heart pounding. “How am I supposed to take responsibility?”
Herbert’s gaze softened for a moment, though his tone remained firm. “Marry me.”

Innocent Sally Greens is made to replace her sister Renae at the altar in a bid to secure a very important partnership between her family and The ruthless Colbert Family. Her marriage is doomed before it even begins and soon enough she finds herself entangled in a web she created. On one hand is her loving obsessed husband and on the other hand is the promise she made to Renae in exchange for a sisterly love. The story uncovers a lot of dark secrets about the main objective of the marriage, family ties and deep rooted betrayal from hidden characters. Will innocent Sally evolve into a ruthless character to protect the ones she love?.

On the eve of a forced marriage meant to bound her to the power hungry alpha twins, Rhea Morwen chooses rebellion, refusing to become a political pawn.

She's claimed by a fearless immortal Lycan instead. One who dares to call her his "mate."

But Rhea is no ordinary omega. She has a secret that far surpasses all others.

Things are in disarray. Love turns into betrayal, and Rhea finds herself torn between a ruthless Lycan guarding her heart, possessive alpha twins who now need her to survive, and the one man who once betrayed her for love.

Four mates. One prophecy. And a fate written in blood.
The question is not who she will choose… but who will survive her?

“ Go fuck yourself Leonardo” She muttered
“ Nah Isabella, if I am going to be fucking anyone it will be you princess” he replied teasingly
“You wish, and I will say it again, go fuck yourself,” she said again but this time louder
“Say fuck one more time, princess, just say it,” he said in a threatening voice as he walked closer to her.
“Fuck yourself,” she said it again before she could stare back at him again.
The air crackled with tension as his lips forcefully met her, a collision of passion and desire. His hands gripped her waist tightly, pulling her closer as he devoured her mouth hungrily. She tried to stop him but she couldn't, his hands were so strong and all the senses in her body wanted that kiss more than anything. The kiss was intense, and the world melted away around them as they lost themselves in the overwhelming sensation, leaving them breathless and longing for more.

Isabella Rossi, a calm sheltered Nineteen-year-old is kidnapped by a dangerous Mafia lord Leonardo Romano who had taken fancy of her the first time they met when she was just fourteen when he came for a meeting with her Dad. Leonardo Romano uses her as leverage to find out about the past that led to his father's death while still trying to claim her. As she learns more about her father's past and the secrets he may be hiding, Isabella navigates her growing feelings for the man who wants to claim her as his own. Will she succumb to the allure of power and danger, or will she uncover the truth behind her father's link to the mafia boss and the real reason behind her kidnap?

“I regret giving birth to a fat useless fool like you, I am ashamed to call you my daughter, just get useful by seducing Parker's brother, and then you can be useful to me.”
“Mom, please stop doing this, I beg of you.”
“You are such a burden to me, I curse the day I gave birth to you, look at my friend's daughter, looking classic but you, you looking like a pig and you won’t stop eating, now I am going to be stuck in poverty because no good looking man will want to marry an old cargo like you.”
“Look at me, I will always protect you.”
“Let’s dispose of her body, this will be our little secret.”
I was beaten, bullied, drugged and killed by the Sinful knights, my birth mother despised me with passion, and the only man who was my first love named Parker used to be my knight in shining armour but after the kiss, I found out he was not different from the others. That old fat ugly nerd version of me is dead and reborn as the lady all men want in their lives. I am returning after six years, just for one goal, to bring doom to the Sinful Knights, they will kneel at my feet and lick my toes, I will prove to them I am the queen and this is my note to them all, “DEAR SINFUL KNIGHTS, YOU ARE MINE!!”

WARNING: This story is rated 18. Strong language, sex, violence, and other content in the story may be offensive to some readers and not suitable for young children.*

Elara was a weak omega, content with just nursing her feelings for the ruthless Mafia leader and Alpha, Luca Blackstone. When it is revealed that they are in fact mates, she is not prepared for the brutal rejection she gets from him. Heartbroken and filled with rage, she leaves Blackstone pack and works to redeem herself before all those who underestimated her. When fate brings them back together in the most unimaginable way possible, she must decide if it’s worth giving the man that broke her heart a second chance or forever closing her heart to the idea of love.
Luca Blackstone had just two principles which he ruled by; power and dominance. After being betrayed by the woman he’d once given everything to, he signed his heart away to the devil and became a cold, ruthless Don since then. He rejects Elara when the revelation happens. She’s nothing more than a weak omega and he wants nothing to do with her. At least that’s what he thought. When she comes back in a way he never expected, he finds himself regretting his decision and resolves to get her back. Fighting for her love will be harder this time, especially as sinister forces threaten to break them apart completely.

"Am actually a werewolf!" I said to her with my heart beating very fast because I am actually afraid of her reaction.

"Yeah right and I am a vampire!". Claire said while rolling her eyes. She obviously didn't believe me.

But I am determined to tell her today because it's actually took me a lot of courage to be doing this right now.

"Claire am not joking, am actually a werewolf". I tired to convince her again.

"Then prove it" She stated.

"Alright! But promise me that you won't run away!". I said to her and she nodded her head.
Well here goes nothing! I took a deep breath and transformed into a wolf and kept my eyes closed waiting for her reaction. The next thing I heard is a scream and the sound of someone falling. I open my eyes to see that Claire has fainted. Well at least she didn't run away. I quickly transformed back to my human form and lifted her body and took her inside the house.


Alexander finally found his mate after waiting for two years. He managed to befriend her but the only problem is, how he is going to explain to her that he is a werewolf.

Claire thought her whole life was over when her dad made them move from Australia to United States but knowing a new adventure await her.

Nora Vale inherits three million dollars and a ruined seaside motel from an aunt her family called impossible.

She tells no one. Not even Rowan, her exhausted mechanic husband, who has spent years letting his family drain him dry.

Instead, Nora tells one dangerous lie: her design studio has collapsed, and she has lost everything.

Rowan does not blame her. He does not leave. He takes her hand and says, "Then we rebuild. You and me."

But the inheritance is not just money. Harbor Mile Motel hides records of a predatory company buying coastal properties through debt, fear, and family pressure. Rowan's brother is involved. Nora's aunt may not have died as quietly as everyone believed.

Now Nora must learn that money can buy time, repairs, and lawyers, but it cannot buy trust. And Rowan must decide whether the woman who lied to test his love is still the woman he wants to build a future with.

Rhea Morgan, a partially deaf investigative journalist, uncovers a blood-soaked conspiracy involving corrupt political systems and her own mysterious heritage.
Kellan Thorne is an exiled Alpha vampire who is on the run from the rest. Both Ree and Kellan’s lives intertwine but they soon discover that what they share might soon be torn by dark secrets that have been buried for long.

Olivia

Sold to pay off a debt, sinfully hot Matteo has thrown me into his dark mansion, with no intention of letting me go. He's dominant, ruthless, cold… And he's also something wicked—a sexy as hell alpha male.

I should run the second he puts his rough hands all over my innocent body. I shouldn't let him tear my panties off. But I do. He's going to break me, turning me into his slave. He demands complete obedience, and I want to resist. I do. But my dark, rebellious heart won't let me.

Matteo

I've never wanted to ruin someone as much as I want to ruin her. She's the picture of innocence. Soft skin free from the toil of real work, pretty lips for sucking and the defiance in her eyes. I can't wait to break her. To make her beg for mercy. To cry out my name when I steal the one thing she's never given to another man.

She thinks she can charm me into letting her go. But she doesn't recognize the way the devil dances in my soul. I never expected her to become my obsession. But she is. And now I need to get rid of her before she consumes me.

Celine's secretly crushing on Aaron, the new young teacher. She got bullied for getting close to him, but fate brings them closer. Things twist when she discovers her mom's lover is Aaron's dad – he'll be her stepbrother! How can Celine accept this reality when she's already in love? Will she risk her mom's happiness for love, or keep crushing in secret and avoid him... especially after the threatening letter?

Travis Savage and I were a notorious public pair, bound together by nothing but hatred.

In the glittering, indulgent world of Chicago, he was an untouchable mafia king who ruled with absolute power, making and breaking rules on a whim. And I? I was the wife he loathed above all others in his criminal empire.

It all started when my parents lost their lives saving him, gunned down by his rivals. After their deaths, he kept me close as I grew up, and eventually, our marriage became what everyone expected. For a long time, he was my only anchor in this lonely world.

Once, he’d knelt before me and sworn to protect me for the rest of my life.

Now, he hated me.

He hated that I refused to sign the divorce papers, that I stood in the way of him running off with Renee Sutton — the orphan girl he claimed to have rescued off the streets.

He let her walk all over me and flaunt herself openly in front of me. To get back at them, I leaked their sordid secrets overnight across all of Chicago: their flirty messages, their hotel stays. Word spread through both the criminal underworld and high society alike, leaving the pair mocked and shunned by everyone.

Our marriage had rotted away years ago, worn thin by endless mutual resentment. It was stagnant, foul, and long dead.

Until three days ago.

A string of ambushes left Travis a hunted man. While swerving to avoid an oncoming truck, he was involved in a devastating car crash.

He lay unconscious in the ICU for three full days. When he woke, he claimed he’d forgotten every ounce of the nine years of hatred between us. In his mind, he was still nineteen — the age when he loved me with everything he had.

He Thought I'd Wait Forever. I Wore White for Someone Else.

Nora canceled the wedding venue on a Tuesday. The deposit was nonrefundable. She let it go.
Eight years she'd held that stretch of coast — the cliff, the white tent, the January date they circled and let slide every spring. She slid the ring off at the kitchen counter and dropped it in the drawer with the dead batteries and old takeout menus. It didn't feel like heartbreak. It felt like setting down something she'd carried too long.
Adrian would find out. Not tonight. He still thought her silence was a thing to be coaxed out of. He still thought she'd always be there.
She'd already decided she wouldn't. By the time he understood, she'd be on that coast in a white dress — and the man beside her wouldn't be him.

The Alaskan winds cut across my face like knives, but only one thought consumed me—why hadn't Madison shown up to get me? In ten years, my sister had never failed to be there.

Until I walked in on my brother-in-law tangled up with some blonde bitch, and my world shattered. "Fallen through ice in a blizzard"? What a goddamn lie. They cut open her eight-month pregnant belly to steal her baby—while she was still conscious. They let her suffer for 47 excruciating minutes before she died.

I didn't break out of the psych ward to cry about it. I came back so these monsters can pay their blood debts in full. They think I was born wicked? Fine. Let me show them exactly how it feels to have your living body sliced open.

I suffered from a severe congenital heart defect.

And my mother, Jamie, had terminal bone cancer.

My family was not a happy one. It marked the third year since my father, Nelson, had openly and unapologetically betrayed their marriage.

That morning, my mother swallowed a handful of painkillers and forced herself to stand up from her wheelchair.

She asked her best friend, Zoey, who was also my attending physician, to forge a medical report.

Zoey trembled with anger, her tears dropping heavily onto the paper.

"Jamie, are you crazy? Your bones are being eaten away by cancer cells every single day. You're in so much pain you bang your head against the wall all night. Why would you fake a clean bill of health?"

"Do you think that bastard Nelson will change his mind and come back to you just because you pretend to be healthy?"

I thought I was the perfect wife and mother, until I heard my husband outside his office, laughing, calling me a "prison warden" and planning to use our daughter as cover while he ran off to Tuscany with his grad student.

Everything fell apart. Then my daughter, in front of everyone: "That's just our annoying nanny."

I tried to hold on to what was left of our family, but my daughter shoved me down the stairs. I lost the baby, and my husband just checked his watch while I bled out on the floor.

They locked me in and left for Italy.

Alone in the hospital, they told me I'd lost the baby and had "memory damage."

Now they're back, expecting the same obedient wife.

She's gone.

And I'm done loving them.

I used to be the nation's top lock-picking expert. I saved countless lives.

But I couldn't save my own daughter.

At the dock, two children were strapped to bombs.

The girl had less time—I should've saved her first.

But my husband Damien held a knife to his throat, forcing me to save the other one first.

His illegitimate son.

I compromised.

The moment I opened the lock, the kidnapper ripped off the girl's hood.

I never expected her to be Rosie.

My five-year-old daughter.

She looked at me.

Her lips moved, forming the word "Mommy."

Then the explosion tore through everything...

He proposed to me the day he woke up from coma.

I was so happy, and thought I would finally have my happily ever after.

I was wrong.

Three years later, I was slapped with divorce papers, and lost my baby.

My husand had chose my sister, and abandoned me.

And that was his worst mistake.

I thought that after twenty years with the Sterlings—even as an adopted child—I'd at least count as family. But the day they found their biological daughter Victoria, they announced they were throwing me out and planned to humiliate me at the family gathering. Based on what right?

Even more disgusting was how my almost-fiancé Blake immediately started fooling around with Victoria, eager to watch me get kicked to the curb!

When everyone was lining up to step on me, it was Alexander—the one I'm supposed to call "stepbrother"—who protected me. In his apartment, when he stood behind me gripping my hand as I chopped vegetables, his breath grazing my ear before he finally bent down to kiss me... my heartbeat went completely erratic.

My biggest regret? Trusting my husband with my mother's life.

The day the mudslide hit, I was on my knees. Begging him to send a helicopter.

He told me to wait. Twenty minutes. But when the helicopter came, it went for his adoptive sister Vivian instead.

I held my mother in the ruins. Her body was shutting down. I waited. Waited until she went cold in my arms.

When he finally showed up at the hospital, the first thing he said? Accused me of faking it. Said I just wanted attention.

In that moment, my heart died too.

Later, I found out Vivian wasn't even sick.

She said "I don't feel well"—that's all it took. And he left my mother and me to die.

Called me a lunatic. In front of everyone. All for her.

I was ready to leave. For good. Then someone shattered my mother's ashes.

On the day I got engaged to the heir of an elite old-money family, my own birth mother spread vicious lies about me in front of the entire crowd. She claimed I’d lived a wildly promiscuous life while studying abroad, and had even secretly given birth to a stillborn child with no known father.
Afterwards, she took my hand and sobbed out an apology, saying she’d only wanted to test whether my fiancé truly loved me enough to stand by me. I was foolish enough to believe her, and drank the calming tea she’d personally handed me.
When I opened my eyes the next morning, everything was destroyed. I lay in my bedroom, disheveled and half-dressed, and the man beside me was none other than my younger sister’s boyfriend.
In the end, my fiancé married my sister. And I was mercilessly disowned and cast out by my own family.
But twenty years later, every single one of them would come to regret what they’d done.

I remember that frost-covered train door like it was the last thing I ever saw. Because it was.
The escape spot I’d spent three years scraping together? My fiancée was sitting in it, wearing my parka. Her brother had my hiking boots on his feet. Her mother clutched the medical kit I’d carried six miles through ash-covered roads. And Caleb Frost—the ex she’d sworn was just “someone from the past”—stood in the seat that should have been mine, lifting my silver emergency flask in a toast.
While I froze out in the subzero ash storm, my lungs burning like they were filled with shards of broken glass, they turned their backs to me under the warm yellow light inside.
Then I woke up.
The calendar read May 3, 2041. Exactly one year before the Yellowstone chain eruption would turn the northern hemisphere into a frozen grave.
On the TV, experts were still downplaying the volcanic tremors, insisting there was no immediate risk to the public. My fiancée walked into the bedroom wearing one of my white shirts, carrying coffee in the blue mug she’d bought with my card. She reached for my forehead, asking if I’d had a bad dream.
None of them know I’ve already died once.
They’re still plotting how to make me pay for her brother’s failed investments, how to sneak texts to her old boyfriend, how to use me as their most obedient, most useful doormat until the world ends. I’ve sold the downtown office towers, mortgaged the lakefront house, bought the abandoned geothermal station no one wanted in the dead mountains, and signed a stack of engineering contracts they’ll never bother to read.
They still smile and thank me, tell me I’m the best fiancé in the world.
They have no idea who will be holding the key to the door, when the sky goes dark forever and the snow never stops falling.

“Smile, Natalie,” Callum whispered before he walked onstage.

So I smiled while he thanked another woman for the crisis plan I had written. I smiled when he pinned my grandmother’s sapphire brooch to her dress. I even smiled when his message came in, canceling our nineteenth appointment at the county clerk’s office.

Then I walked out with our unsigned marriage license papers in my purse and called the one CEO he hated most.

By the time Callum realized I wasn’t waiting anymore, I had already taken my name, my work, and my future back.

It had only been seventeen minutes since my wife passed away. My daughter was sobbing on the phone.

"Dad, they're trying to drive me out."

I stared at the medical report in the doctor's hand.

The first natural antibody carrier.Toxin levels in the blood: zero.

The same poison that killed my wife, that killed my six-year-old son…had left me completely unharmed.

The doctor lowered his voice."Mr. Miller, you have to stay. They're sending people to pick you up."

I let out a cold laugh.

"My daughter is trapped in the basement storage room right now. Is anyone here going to help her?"

Silence fell over everyone.

I grabbed the glass water cup from the bedside table.

"Five years ago, they handed me a disciplinary penalty and fired me from the rescue team. Everyone said I was good for nothing."

The cup smashed against the floor.

I picked up the longest shard of broken glass.

"Today, I'll show you all how a useless man saves lives."

My family's company went bankrupt, and my father was critically ill.

I dropped out of school and worked multiple jobs every day.

Debt collectors beat me and broke my ribs, but I couldn't afford painkillers.

Every penny I earned went to expensive medicine, all to save my father.

Until I saw my father, who should have been bedridden on oxygen, holding a champagne glass at a hotel banquet hall.

His words pierced through, "Five years, the punishment she earned."

The bankruptcy was fiction. The illness, theater.

All orchestrated because his stepdaughter suffered from depression, and I was her entertainment.

When the doctor finally spoke to me, "Days. You have only days."

I laughed.

The dying one had never been my father.

It had always been me.

I once believed that love could transcend life and death.

Until the terminal stage of Moon Eclipse Disease, when my husband personally gave the life-saving opportunity to my younger sister—that orphan girl I had rescued.

He said the pack needed a gentle Luna like her.

My son clung to her, calling her 'Mom.' My parents crowned her with what should have been mine.

Fine, so you all want me dead?

Then I'll stake everything on one final gamble.

After I die, I want every single one of you to be tortured by the truth.

Four years ago, I left my boyfriend when he had nothing.

Now, he's a billionaire. And he's forcing me to marry him—just for revenge.

Every day it's a different girl. Now there's a pregnant influencer he flaunts in my face, destroying what's left of my dignity.

"Kneel and beg her, and I'll give you money." He holds another woman and smirks at me.

I don't cry. I don't scream. I just swallow the blood rising in my throat.

He doesn't know my brain tumor is terminal. I have thirty days left.

I've already signed the organ donation papers. I just want to die in peace.

I stopped loving him a long time ago.

Three years ago, on their way to attend my graduation art exhibition, the cruise ship carrying my fiancé and my family caught fire.

Over the past three years, I downed sleeping pills countless times, desperately wanting to follow them into the afterlife. Every single time, my adopted sister, Serena, saved me, crying hysterically as she shoved her fingers down my throat to make me throw up.

"They are already gone! Harper, you can't keep living in the past. You have to live on for their sake!"

After fainting from yet another high fever and being rushed to the hospital, I was diagnosed with terminal leukemia.

The doctor said I had a month left, at most.

I refused their advice to find a bone marrow match. Clutching my family's belongings, I decided to go back to our old estate in the suburbs for one last look.

While I was walking in a daze, a little boy running wildly crashed hard into my legs.

A male voice that had haunted my dreams for years rang out from behind me. "Alistair, if you keep running off, what will you do if Mommy and Daddy don't want you anymore?"

In an instant, it felt like I had been plunged into freezing water. I froze in place.