475 Book(s) Related to torrid ever after

No one can imagine what I went through on my wedding night.
My husband and I went from first love to marriage, but I was forced to lose my virginity to a completely anonymous man...
That night, my husband was next door, passionately making love with another woman all night long.
The next day, however, all he did was selfishly shift all the blame onto me and angrily accuse me of betraying him.
He never touched me afterwards and every day he brought a different lover to have sex in our bedroom, which was a punishment to me in his words.
I was tired of being forced to listen to the sound of their lovemaking, until one day, I met the man who took my virginity, and the passion was kindled again...
Continuously updating, with 3 chapters added daily.

Is love something that fades away? I used to think not. But here I am, Wendy Knight, stuck in a loveless marriage with a husband who has rekindled an old flame, and a mother-in-law who seems to live to make me miserable. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I got diagnosed with liver cancer...
Little did I know, a childhood friend had been quietly watching over me all these years. He's drop-dead gorgeous, incredibly wealthy, and powerful, and he showers me with tender, unwavering care. As for my cheating ex-husband? Let him regret and stay out of my life!

Natalie Brooks, the young lady of the Brooks family, hid her identity to marry Samuel Morgan for love. The three-year cold marriage ended with a divorce when his first love, Lily, returned. Natalie left proudly, returning to her home, the most powerful Brooks family in New York, with her four talented brothers.
Natalie gradually transformed into a strong businesswoman. Samuel was surprised because Natalie was completely different from the image of the weak wife she had been before. He began to waver, remembering the years of living together, but was still surrounded by Lily's weak pretense.
Although Natalie was divorced, she still had lingering feelings, but she chose to strongly confront him, determined to prove her worth. From here, she continuously confronted Samuel and Lily, both to regain what she had lost and to force them to regret ever looking down on her. Meanwhile, Lily always played the role of the "weak girl", taking advantage of Samuel's pity, but she increasingly revealed her jealousy and hypocrisy. Natalie's brothers – especially Nathaniel Brooks and Henry Brooks – were fiercely protective of their sister and wanted Samuel to repent for what he had done to Natalie.

“Klaus, I love you…” I spread my legs, wrapping them tightly around the alpha’s waist.
After learning I was pregnant, I stripped naked and let my alpha husband fuck me hard.
Klaus sucked on my nipple, growling: “Emma, ​​you bitch! You’re so alluring!”
After a passionate sex I wanted to show him the pregnancy test results, but Klaus coldly said: “Let’s get a divorce, Emma. Nancy needs me.”
——
Klaus thought Emma would always wait for him, love him.
But from the day she signed the divorce papers, Emma’s heart died.
She gave up all possessions, left the wolf pack, and never looked back.
Klaus went mad.
This supreme alpha chased after his ex-wife countless times, just wanting her to look at him one more time.

“Please Erica, give me the chance to prove that I love you.” Dante begged.

A mate was the best thing all Lycan’s got from the moon Goddess but it wasn't the same for Erica.
Erica had been married to Dante for four years and in these four years she had endured all the pain of her childless and pain-filled marriage to her mate.

Erica wasn’t a high ranked werewolf like Dante had always wanted but she loved him and wished she’d be happy with him but Erica’s wish seems to never come true as she’s divorced, rejected and thrown away from his pack.
Being divorced was one thing but being divorced with his child was another.

Six years later, Erica Returns with her 5 years old triplets.
Will Erica fight the mate bond which seems to grow stronger with her possessive ex mate, or will she choose to love the man who is ready to set the world ablaze for her?

Reborn into the world of Greek mythology, she becomes the youngest daughter of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of youth, Hebe. What? She is the weakest and most powerless goddess of youth? The most dispensable cupbearer of the gods? A trophy of the great hero Heracles? Hebe declares that this is impossible. She will use modern scientific wisdom to create her own glory, trampling anyone who dares to humiliate her underfoot!

She married a monster to save her family. Now she's trapped in a gilded cage of blood and betrayal.

Cassandra never imagined her wedding vows would bind her to Alexander—Wall Street vampire lord by day, apex predator by night. As his exclusive blood source and unwanted wife, she endures his cold brutality while her half-sister Serena, newly turned and dangerously beautiful, schemes to steal everything Cassandra never truly had.

When Alexander's jealous rage nearly kills her, Cassandra realizes the cruelest prison isn't the gothic manor or silver chains—it's loving a man with no heart. But overhearing Serena's deadly conspiracy with enemy clans changes everything. The upcoming Blood Moon Ball will end in chaos, blood, and her planned murder.

Perhaps being destroyed is exactly the freedom she needs.

In a world where vampires rule the night, one human woman must decide: break free or break completely.

Evelyn Reed gave up her rising career as a brilliant lawyer to marry Liam Vance, the charming heir of a powerful billionaire family. She believed love was enough. She believed loyalty meant something.

Then Liam asked for an open marriage.

He is having an affair with her friend Chloe—who is now pregnant. Amid this devastating reality, Evelyn makes a stunning discovery: she is also carrying Liam's child.

His cold betrayal shatters everything she built. Humiliated and heartbroken, Evelyn decides she will no longer be the quiet, obedient wife.

When she crosses paths with Alexander Davenport, Liam’s biggest rival, everything changes. Alexander is disciplined, dangerous, and impossibly focused. He sees Evelyn’s fire. He sees her brilliance. And when she proposes a deal that could ruin Liam, he agrees without hesitation.

Their risky partnership begins as strategy, but their growing closeness stirs feelings neither of them planned. And as old enemies rise and new secrets surface, Evelyn must face a choice…

Will she remain trapped in this humiliating arrangement, or risk losing her heart, her child, and her future to reclaim her power?

When Owen cheated, he thought Avery would never leave him.
“Avery, I was wrong. Please give me another chance,” he begged, filled with regret.
But another man stood by Avery’s side, firmly holding her hand.
“She’s mine now. You don’t deserve her,” the mysterious billionaire declared.

The night Owen kissed another woman in a bar, Avery’s heart shattered. Determined, she filed for divorce. Owen brushed it off, convinced she couldn’t survive without him.
But after the divorce, Avery rose from the ashes. She conquered multiple industries, earning admiration and respect from everyone around her.
Now, as Owen tries to win her back, he realizes it’s too late—Avery has found someone new, a powerful and enigmatic tycoon who’s ready to protect her at all costs.

She spent years hiding how she felt about the one guy she could never have…
until college turns the untouchable hockey captain into the only person who can either destroy her or claim her.


Sloane Harper has loved Noah Brooks in secret for as long as she can remember.
He’s her older brother’s best friend, the golden captain of the university’s hockey team, and the one rule every guy on campus knows better than to break.
To Noah, Sloane was always just “Harper’s little sister” — off-limits, invisible, safe.
He built his entire reputation on one unbreakable rule: never touch the sister of the only person he trusts.
But freshman year changes the game.
Sloane walks onto campus sharper, bolder, and impossible to overlook. Every time Noah sees her in the stands, in the halls, or waiting after practice, that rule starts cracking.
What used to feel like loyalty now feels like the one thing he’s no longer strong enough to fight.
Because the real problem isn’t that he wants her.
It’s that he’s starting to need her more than the team, more than the rule, more than his best friend’s trust.

I'm Jennifer, a stay-at-home mom. I gave up my art career eight years ago to take care of my family. My husband Julian and my son Garry, they're my whole world.

But lately, I've noticed them getting closer to Mia, Julian's secretary. Little things. Garry asking where "Miss Mia" is. Julian mentioning her at dinner. I told myself it was nothing. I kept quiet. I put up with it.

Until last week, when Garry broke his arm playing hockey. The school called Mia, not me. She was listed as his emergency contact.

That's when I knew I was done.

In my last life, Natalie insisted on stepping out of the car to feed a wild grizzly.

I tried to stop her. Daniel shoved me into the bear's path instead — to save her.

The grizzly's teeth tore through my throat. My blood sprayed hot across the snow.

And there was Daniel, my boyfriend of three years, holding Natalie close. Not a scratch on her.

He even raised his phone to film me being ripped apart, then posted it on TikTok with the caption: "She gave her life to protect us." The donations poured in for weeks.

Now my eyes are open again. Natalie's pushing the car door open, sandwich in hand, ready to hand-feed the cubs.

This time, I don't scream. I don't stop her.

I just watch her lean halfway out the door — and lock it behind her.

From a young age, I understood that my asthma was a shackle for my entire family. My parents took turns caring for me, their hearts gripped by the fear of any sign of respiratory distress. In their fervent concern for my health, they even compelled my sister, Sophie, freshly accepted into university, to postpone her studies and return home to assist in my care.
At Sophie's eighteenth birthday celebration, I lingered at the edge of the crowd, my chest constricted, and my throat felt as if it were ensnared by invisible hands. I gently tugged at my mother's sleeve, my voice barely a whisper: "Mom, I... can't breathe. I want to go back to my room..."
In an instant, my mother whirled around, her eyes ablaze with fury, as though she had awaited this moment of eruption. She seized my inhaler and hurled it into the farthest corner of the room.
"If it's this painful, then go die!" she shrieked, her words cutting like a knife. "Stop using your illness to hold us hostage!"
The inhaler tumbled to the floor, rolling away like a forgotten piece of trash. I stared at it blankly, a sudden laugh escaping my lips.
And then, I truly died. Yet, in the wake of my passing, those who once found me a burden descended into madness.

Everyone in town said I dumped my blind boyfriend because I couldn't stand being poor.
Five years later, I'd become a blind drifter myself, relying on handouts just to eat.
And he'd become one of Silicon Valley's hottest rising tech moguls.
He recognized me, but pretended he didn't.
He wanted me on my knees. Wanted me begging. Wanted me to pay for "abandoning" him.
Until he found out the person who gave up everything for him back then was no one else...
But me.

On Christmas Eve, my life took a turn, a negative turn.
My boyfriend, the one I had loved for three years, was cheating on me with his cousin. The woman I had spent three Christmas Eves celebrating with. The same person who had always cheered me up whenever I was stressed. How can someone be so two-faced?


"There's nothing we need to talk about. Everything seems clear to me, Raphael," I said.
"What you saw that day was a misunderstanding. It was nothing." He lied with determination.
"You, naked, wrapped around Rachel, your cousin, was a misunderstanding? What do you take me for? A fool?" I spat, unleashing all the rage inside me.
"Amy, I'm not lying to you. You misunderstood what you saw. If you had waited, I would have explained everything." He pressed on, trying to make me believe him.
"Fine. Explain it to me. Tell me why you and Rachel were naked, tangled up together on the same bed," I countered.
"It was a rehearsal, a rehearsal for a sex scene she wants to act in after the holidays," Raphael said shamelessly.
A smile flickered on my lips as I stared at him. This man had the audacity to lie to my face.
"Get out, Raphael. Get out of my sight," I commanded.

Forty-eight hours before my wedding, I was kidnapped and gang-raped, surviving by only a thread in the depths of despair.   When my mafia boss fiancé and my police detective best friend stood guard by my hospital bed with bloodshot eyes, I heard him suddenly switch to Navajo and ask her, "The death row inmates from the dark web—were they dealt with cleanly?"   My best friend chuckled, replying in the same language. "Don't worry. The guys who put their hands on Maya have been wiped out. Dead men tell no tales."   "Sacrificing Maya alone gave you the perfect excuse to wipe out the rival family and swallow the southern smuggling network, while earning me a high-level promotion. It was a damn good deal."   Amidst tearing, agonizing pain, it felt as if I had been plunged into an ice cliff.   They thought I could never understand this obscure tribal language, so they brazenly feasted on the spoils of victory built upon my very flesh and blood. But what they didn't know was that, to surprise my fiancé during our wedding vows... I had been secretly studying Navajo for an entire year.

"I want a divorce. "
The day before her third wedding anniversary, Fiona sees her husband walking to the obstetrics wing with his arm around his ex-girlfriend, Rowena. Rowena is pregnant.
Heartbroken, Fiona rejects Micah, her husband, her mate, the Lycan Prince of the Alastair Kingdom, and leaves the pack.

However, to Fiona’s surprise, after being rejected, Micah goes crazy looking for her all over the world.
Until one day, when he sees her walking down the street holding a little girl, he pins her against the wall.
“Is she my daughter?” Micah hisses.

Molly thought she had the perfect life with her husband. But everything shattered when she discovered his mistress’s pictures hidden inside the house, he claimed to have built for her. The final blow? The mistress wasn’t a stranger at all, but her own sister!
Heartbroken, she signed the divorce papers and woke up drunk in front of her college sweetheart, Giovanni Dawson, who now ruled the underworld. Giovanni wants to help her take revenge and win her heart, but can she trust him after he broke her heart once?
And oh, he comes with a mysterious four-year-old boy who is determined to keep every woman out of his life for good.

For three years, Amber Hargrove had been trying to please her ex-husband and his family, only to have him beat her for his mistress. At that moment, she finally understood that this man would never love her.

So, she decisively divorced him and returned home to inherit his fortune.

Yes, she was worth millions.

She accepted her family's arrangement and married a wealthy man; after all, it was just a marriage of convenience, and she would never love anyone again.

But a year later, she texted the wealthy man to file for divorce. The butler immediately rushed in, flustered:

"Madam, the master has fainted again. The doctor instructed me not to mention sensitive topics like the stock market crash, the company's shrinking net worth, or divorce."

Huh? She couldn't even mention divorce? What was he trying to do?

My ex-husband betrayed me.
My new husband saved me.
“Trust me,” he whispered against my lips.
I wanted to.
But every answer I find about my past leads back to him.
And I'm starting to wonder...
Was meeting him really fate—or part of a secret planned long before I knew the truth?

For two years, Serena believed she was the luckiest woman alive. Her husband Leo worshipped her—he was tender, protective, and swore he'd never let anyone hurt her. He even refused to touch her, claiming she was too precious.

Then, on their wedding anniversary, she walked into his private club and heard him whisper to another woman: "Take care of our baby."

The woman was his brother's wife.

Everything—the gentleness, the restraint, the so-called love—had been an elaborate performance. And when Serena demanded a divorce, Leo didn't beg. He didn't apologize. He smiled and said: "Your grandmother wouldn't want that."

Now Serena must fight her way out of a marriage designed to cage her, a family that wants her silent, and a past that still has teeth. But the man who appears from the shadows to help her… is the same one who abandoned her years ago.

And he has secrets of his own.

Olivia was brought to the Shadowcrest Pack by her adoptive mother, who along with her stepbrother, showered Olivia with love and care. However, she is far from being treated as a pack member. With the upcoming Pack Gathering, Olivia hoped to successfully transform and meet her mate, proving that she was not a "dirty half-breed" but a pureblood werewolf. Tragically, the only two people who care her, her adoptive mother and brother, were murdered before her eyes. Olivia vowed to seek vengeance.

Before the Pack Gathering could start, Ethan, the Alpha of the unaccredited and mysterious Mysticvale Pack, made a dramatic entrance with his followers. He, too, harbors unresolved secrets.

What dangers will Olivia encounter when she meets Ethan? How will their relationship evolve? Can Olivia achieve her revenge? Will Ethan be able to uncover the truth behind his father's death?

“Dad… please… help me…” I pleaded, my shattered ribs piercing my lungs, blood soaking the stretcher.
But Richard, the hospital's top surgeon and my biological father, didn't even glance at me. Instead, he rushed to the next bed.
“Don't be afraid, Chloe. I'm here,” he cooed to his stepdaughter, who merely had a tiny scratch on her arm. “Get the best equipment over here now!” he roared.
As the heart monitor flatlined and my soul left my broken body, I realized the chilling truth: in the choice between life and death, my father gladly let me die.

I am the sole heir to the Hartwell fortune.
But this birthday dinner — the one meant to sign the family trust into my hands on my twenty-second year — was being ruined by the housekeeper's daughter.
Brianna had done it on purpose. She'd stolen the archival couture gown my late mother left behind, then thrown herself into the champagne tower and pinned it on me.
"Oh God, Audrey, why did you push me?" She was already crying, her voice pitched for the crowd. "I know you hate seeing me in this dress, but your father was the one who insisted I wear it. Please don't make me leave."
In my last life, I'd stood there sobbing, waving my hands, trying to explain.
For that, I'd been stripped of my inheritance on the spot, committed to a psychiatric ward, and in the end, every fingernail torn out one by one, I'd died in agony.
But I'd been reborn.
Now I looked down at Brianna crumpled among the shattered crystal, playing the victim, and I didn't waste a word.
I crossed the floor, stood over her, drew my arm back, and slapped her across the face as hard as I could.
"Shut your mouth."

When I woke up with a hangover, I found a handsome and naked stranger sleeping beside me.

I’m Tanya, a surrogate’s daughter, an omega with no wolf and no scent.
On my 18th birthday, when I planned to give my virginity to my boyfriend, I found him sleeping with my sister.
I went to the bar to get drunk, and accidentally had a one-night stand with the handsome stranger.
I thought he was just an ordinary werewolf, but they said he was Marco, the alpha prince and the most powerful Lycan in our kingdom.
‘You slut, you’re pregnant! Fortunately, Rick is kind enough to let you be his mistress and save you from shame.’ my stepmother said, tossing a pregnancy strip on the table.
Rick was an old pervert. No she-wolf could keep up with his sexual demand. No she-wolf could survive with him more than 1 year.
When I was in despair, Marco came to my rescue. He got down on one knee, took out a ring and said he would marry me.

I thought Marco married me because he loved me, but later I found that was not the truth…

Dear readers, this book has come to an end. Thank you for sticking with me and reading all this time. I highly recommend another amazing novel of the same genre:
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On my wedding day, I found another woman's sexy lace bra in my husband's car, with semen still on it...

For three years, she nursed her paralyzed husband, risked her own life testing experimental drugs, and nearly destroyed her health to pull him back from the brink of death.
But on the very day he fully recovered, he held his first love in his arms and declared, “I will take care of her and our child for the rest of my life.”
Heartbroken, she asked for a divorce. In return, he coldly froze all her bank accounts and forced her out of the house with nothing, sneering, “You are nothing without me.”
It was not until she hid her pregnancy test and walked away for good that he finally panicked.

Blake pinned me against the edge of the desk, his fingertips scorching, papers scattering across the floor. "Stop lying to yourself," he murmured coldly, "You need me."

I should have hated him—his father was the prime suspect in my parents' death, yet his touch made me tremble. "I hate you…" I gritted my teeth, but my voice was weak.

He smirked, his grip tightening, "Yet your body is responding to me." His fingers slid deeper, "So wet, and you still say you don’t want me?"

"Ah…Blake…" I arched my back, my sanity crumbling.

He chuckled softly, "Good girl."


After Emma's parents passed away, she was supported by the Reynolds family, particularly Gavin. She gradually fell in love with him. After knowing each other for ten years and being together for five, she accidentally discovered Gavin's ambiguous relationship with Sophia, his late brother's widow, just as she was about to marry him.

Then fate led her to an emotional entanglement with Blake from her partner company, but it also hinted that the car accident that caused her parents' deaths seemed to be related to Blake's father...

The man who healed her wounds might be the son of the man who destroyed her life. Thunder roared as Blake’s key turned: "Emma?" Standing before the evidence, her heart was torn. When love and vengeance collided, what would she choose?

One month before my wedding, I was trying on the wedding dress I'd designed myself when a message from a friend popped up: [Diana, get over here! Your fiancé just lost at Truth or Dare and has to kiss your rival.]

Eight years of marriage — she thought she'd married love itself.
Until the day she watched her husband's Bentley rocking on the roadside, and knew exactly why.
She played it cool. Maneuvered him into signing the divorce papers without a clue, then waited for her billion-dollar exit.
But before she could walk free, someone poisoned her drink and staged a crash that nearly killed her.
The man who saved her wasn't the husband who swore he loved her — it was Erwin, cold, dangerous, and ruler of a business empire.
The untouchable, legendary Erwin — shielding her, risking himself, again and again.
When Levi finally woke up to what he'd lost, he came back red-eyed and desperate: " I was wrong. Can we start over? I can't live without you."
Erwin simply tilted his head and kissed her — eyes cutting straight to Levi's ashen face:
"I don't think you understand. The moment you let her go, she became my wife."

I was just the mate of the Alpha fated mate and the nanny to my child, not his Luna.
I dedicated my life to him, but he never loved me—this was all because I was just a wolfless omega.
Until his ex returned, everyone, including my mate and even my child, looked down on me. Everyone believed she should be the Luna.
I turned and walked out of the house, choosing to live for myself.
Three months later, I became the world’s most renowned white wolf healer, appearing on television.
Son (shocked): "Dad, is that... my mom on TV?"

Barbara thought that she had married an ordinary man, but who knew that this man transformed into the CEO of her company.
Not only that, he was also the most mysterious successor of the richest empire in Asia.
In front of others, he was the decisive, cold-blooded leader of the business empire. While in front of her, he spoiled her very much.

On the day she was meant to marry her fated mate, Raine received a desperate call from her twin sister's deathbed.
One wish. One plea.
"Please don't let him be alone when I'm gone."
So Raine did what she has always done: she became the sacrifice. She walked away from the Moon Goddess's chosen bond at the altar and married a stranger to honor a dying girl's final wish.
But her sister didn't die.
For three years, Raine has shared a bed with a man who never looks at her. A man who whispers her sister's name in the dark while waiting for a comatose woman to wake.
When the miracle finally happens and he demands a divorce, Raine doesn't beg.
She just leaves—carrying the secrets he was never man enough to deserve.
Now, he's back. The cold Alpha is on his knees, haunted by the ghost of the woman he threw away. Begging for a second chance, pleading for his Luna to return to his side.
But the woman he broke is gone, and a Queen has taken her place.
Raine has spent her whole life being the sister who sacrifices. The woman nobody fights for. But she isn't alone anymore, and she isn't looking back.
As he stands at her door, desperate for a family he discarded, she has only one answer for him:
"It's too late, Alpha. My sons and I don't need you."

Flash Marriage with My Best Bro After My Identity Was Exposed.
Some secrets have been buried for 26 years.
Some feelings have been hidden for 8.

I'm Aria Sterling. Or rather, just Aria.
On what should have been an ordinary day, my world was completely turned upside down. The Sterling family's baby-swap scandal broke, and I lost everything: my name, my inheritance, my penthouse, and my place in the family.
For the sake of profit, my fiancé, Julian, chose to get engaged to the real heiress—a rising star in the entertainment industry. He asked for my "understanding," expecting to come back and marry me once he got what he wanted.
But when I woke up with a massive hangover at a bar, I found out I had slept with Orion, my best friend from years ago. To make matters worse, I was suddenly labeled the "other woman" ruining someone else's relationship, and my career was hanging by a thread.
Just as I was racking my brains over what to do, he said, "Let's get married."
What am I supposed to do now?

Seven years of marriage turned to ash the moment I discovered my husband had arranged for his sister-in-law to carry his dead brother's child—using his own sperm to continue the family bloodline.
Lorenzo Corvino—New York's most ruthless don—would drive three hours through a storm just to get me imported cherries. He held me at my mother's funeral, crying until dawn. He hospitalized a man for disrespecting me at a charity gala.
I thought I was the center of his world.
Until the private investigator's flash drive revealed the truth: Lorenzo at the clinic for Claudia's prenatal appointments, his hand on her pregnant belly, whispering "Marco would be so proud."
In the end, on the Corvino family's scale of priorities, continuing his dead brother's bloodline would always outweigh his infertile wife.
The night the yacht exploded, the New York sky burned red. The news reported the mafia don's wife had perished in the flames. He collapsed on the dock, clutching the charred wreckage, breaking down completely.
But he didn't know—
That "dead" woman was across the Atlantic on the Amalfi Coast, one hand on her seven-week baby bump, protecting the secret he'd never discover.
Seven months later, when he stepped into my new life and saw the infant with his deep brown eyes cradled in my arms—
This man who'd built an empire on violence and fear finally understood what he'd truly lost.
And I'll spend the rest of my life making sure he knows: some betrayals are so deep, even "I'm sorry" is more than he'll ever deserve.

My marriage to Matthew was a transaction, a substitute—everything except love. When his white moonlight came back, I was abandoned, diagnosed with gastric cancer, and carrying his child. His late regret could never bring back my life, nor could it keep our unborn baby.

For seven years, I told myself James wasn't cold; he simply loved quietly. Then my car died after midnight, and he told me to call a cab. When I earned the promotion I had chased for two years, he forgot my message. But when his ex said she felt sick, he left work with medicine in one hand and her exact coffee order in the other. That was when I understood: my husband knew how to care. He had simply never chosen to care for me. By our anniversary, I would stop waiting, leave his gift on the table, and move out. Only then would James begin to love me—and by then, it would be too late.

I divorced the same man nine times.
The first eight times, I was the one sobbing, begging him not to go.
The ninth time, I was the one who slid the papers across the table.
He signed them, then told me we'd remarry once she left.
I said okay.
What he didn't know was that my flight was already booked.
This time, I was leaving for good.

Our engagement has gone unfulfilled for ten years.

My parents saved his family in that yacht accident. With their dying breath, they asked his family to look after me. In return, we go to city hall every year, trying to fulfill this obligation.

Ten attempts. Ten failures.

Elevator malfunctions, food poisoning, home invasions, car crashes... Every single time, I get hurt at the worst possible moment while he walks away without a scratch.

This makes ten. A truck slams into the passenger side, my head smashes against the window, and he's already running across the street, pulling that woman into his arms.

On my way to find him after they stitch me up, I hear his assistant's voice in the hospital corridor:

"Mr. Ashford, the truck driver's been taken care of. Money'll hit his account like we agreed... but is this really fair to Miss Bennett? It's been ten years, every single year—"

William's voice comes out low and tired. "I don't have a choice. Her parents saved me, but I'm in love with Emma."

I look down at the diagnosis. ALS. Late stage.

Turns out I've been trying to marry a lie this whole time.

An hour ago, at the company’s press conference, I had just helped my husband Carlisle quell the ninety-ninth scandal of his affair.
Now, he has my assistant Russell pinned against my office desk, kissing him, his hand slipping under Russell’s miniskirt and groping wildly.
In that moment, I’ve already planned the publicity spin for the hundredth time.
But I’m not sure if my dear husband Carlisle and his lover will make it that far.
Because the revenge banquet I’ve been preparing for three years is about to begin.

He broke down the morgue door, his guttural scream echoing off the cold tiles as he yanked open drawer after drawer.

"Emily!"

Ethan's hands shook violently as he pulled it open. She lay inside, a white sheet draped over her face. With trembling fingers, he peeled back the fabric. Her face was paper-white, lips bloodless, her eyelashes casting faint shadows. So still.

This wasn't the Emily he knew. The Emily he knew could smile, could cry, could clumsily try to warm his frozen heart. But now, she was just a corpse. A corpse because of him.

"Cancer... stage four..." he whispered, drowning in a tidal wave of panic.

He remembered all those times she had clutched her stomach in agony, and he had mocked her. He remembered demanding she give her heart to his lover. He remembered her final silent words through the surgical glass: "I hate you."

"AHHH—!!" A raw scream tore from his throat. He slammed his fist into the metal drawer, blood blooming across his knuckles.

He collapsed beside her, pulling her stiff, freezing body into his arms. She was so light. Like holding air.

"Emily, I was wrong. I was so wrong," he choked out, crying for the first time in years. "Wake up. Hit me. Hate me. I'm begging you..."

But death is the most absolute silence of all. How far will a man go when he realizes he murdered his only salvation?

My fiancé accused me of not caring about family.
To appease him, I planned a family vacation.
But the night before we left, he informed me that he'd given my first-class seat to his childhood sweetheart.
And me? He stuck me in coach on a flight flagged for possible terror threats.
Everyone in his family thought I should just go along with it.
That was the moment I woke up.
I tore up the itinerary and booked myself a trip to Hawaii instead.
Then I turned off my phone and let them sweat over the hotel bill.
It wasn't until their reservation got canceled that they finally started to panic.