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My sister drugged me, dressed me as her, and sent me into the room of the Alpha she was supposed to marry.

Everyone believed Adrian Blackmoor was broken.

Silver restrained him. The Council watched him. Even my sister believed he was too dangerous to touch—and too ruined to recognize the woman beneath the veil.

She wanted to become Blackmoor’s future Luna.

She just did not want to pay the price that came with the title.

But Adrian knew I was not her the moment I stepped into his room.

He did not expose me.

Instead, my sister continued wearing the title of Blackmoor’s future Luna, while I became the one sent back whenever Adrian needed calming.

The Council wanted a Luna who could keep their most dangerous Alpha under control.

My sister wanted a substitute who would bear every risk in her place.

My family wanted a daughter who never questioned the life they had chosen for her.

Everyone expected me to obey.

Everyone except Adrian.

The man they called broken was the first person who ever treated my choice as something that mattered.

Little by little, he returned what my family had taken from me long ago—

the right to decide my own fate.

They placed me on the board believing I would always remain their sacrifice.

They never imagined that the piece they had thrown away would one day overturn the entire game…

…and write new rules for everybody.

Life is something which doesn't happen according to our wish, but thrills us with it's unexpected twists and turns.

For most of the girls,life is an everyday challenge. From her birth,she faces problems in many forms- girl discrimination, love, lust, betrayal, s*xual harassment, acid attacks and many more. This book is a war against acid attacks on girls.

Everyday we read about acid attacks on girls, in newspaper. In this book, let's see how RUDRANI fights with fate, life, society and wins her life.

The real men never fall for outer beauty of a girl. He will try to read her heart and loves her as she is. Let's see whether ASHUTOSH is a real man to understand RUDRANI or a normal guy who hurts her as everyone do.

Love is a magical word which had power even to tranform a life of a person who doesn't have any hope on life. It can heal a heart or break a heart. Let's see whether ASHUTOSH heals RUDRANI or further breaks already broken her heart one more time.

Love is something which we love a lot. But in this book let's learn to love ourselves first to be loved by anyone else. Let's start being in a position where we share love to others than expecting love from others. Let's see love from a different side. Let's see a girl who is strong enough to decide her own fate. A Romantic journey which includes many emotions and dreams.

Join me in the beautiful and never experienced love journey of RUDRANI and ASHUTOSH.

I LOVE YOUR TEARS- He healed her Heart which was broken by him.

She was broken; he healed her.

She was betrayed; he taught her to fight back.

She was selfless, and it was taken as an advantage by everyone; he made her strong and smart.

She was immature; he changed her thought process.

She was a failure; he brought a successful and inspirational woman out of her.

She lost trust in love; he showed her what true love is.

She thought she was a broken bottle and useless; he encouraged and supported her to become an inspirational woman and source of life for many women who were broken and betrayed.

Jwala, the one who inspires every woman. Agni, who encouraged her. If life throws challenges at you and troubles you at every point, never give up. CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGES AND TROUBLE THE TROUBLES.

The concept in brief:
Patience, sacrifice, kindness, tears make a person strong, but not weak. Every success starts with failure. Any great story contains tears. Pain makes a person know their hidden capacity. Never ask God why me because God or fate gives problems only when you are capable of facing them. A stone which was depleted by a sculptor turns into a beautiful sculpture. A person who suffers most becomes most successful person on the Earth.

Girls are not vulnerable; they are strong. They inherit qualities like love, sacrifice, patience, and kindness which enhance the beauty of their heart but often misinterpreted as their weakness. They bear pain because of their kind heart, but they can create miracles if they are left freely without binding their legs. Read the book to find out how a naive girl Jwala, who faced worst circumstances, became an independent woman with encouragement from the love of her life, Agni.

The story of a girl Roopa who aspired to join the Indian Police Service and then the Intelligence Bureau, which is a part of the National Investigation Agency of India (NIA). Joining NIA is nothing, but being ready to give up life at any time for the safety of the nation. It is highly risky and confidential. Maintaining secrecy and being prepared to accomplish the mission assigned at any time is the primary duty of the team of NIA.

Roopa joined the NIA clearing the Civil Services, the seventh toughest exam in the world, which is unknown to her parents. As her parents opposed her goal to join the Police Department, Roopa achieved her goal, hiding it from her family. Her parents got her married to Preetam, who is handsome and wealthy. He married her with love, but his love turned into anger when he came to know the secret of her profession.

The entire nation except her parents, husband and in-laws appreciated Roopa for her courage, sincerity and never give up attitude. However, her family accused her saying she is reckless, selfish and cares least for the family.

Let us join in her journey where Roopa inspired every girl and changed the mindset of every parent, in-laws and husband.

Detective Lana Cross has paid her dues in the department. Raised in foster homes, beaten down by life, and hardened by trauma, she's clawed her way up in a system designed to keep her out. Her last big case catching Vincent Greaves, aka the Skull Artist should’ve earned her a promotion and peace of mind. Instead, it left her scarred and sidelined.

The Skull Artist’s crimes were beyond anything the city had seen: victims were killed, their skulls removed, and crime scenes turned into sickening “exhibits” abstract expressions made of flesh, bone, and blood. Greaves claimed it was all part of “revealing what lies beneath.” Lana caught him, barely, and the case was buried.

But now, just when she’s told her promotion is on the table, another body turns up displayed exactly like Greaves’ original work. Except Greaves is still locked in maximum security.

The case threatens to unravel everything she’s fought for. And as the press explodes and her department hesitates, Lana is told she can have her promotion… if she solves this new case.

What turned out to be a joke from him was forcing me to sign the divorce papers. I refused to sign until I knew why, he became cold, aloof me a lot and paid no attention to me anymore. 8 months ago, I signed a contract marriage with one of the richest billionaires in town. Not until I saw him shamelessly romancing with his ex-girlfriend, they were happy together, so I concluded inside of me, I signed the divorce papers and flee into the dark night alongside with a miracle.
Pregnancy! 3 years later, I returned to the city as a successful businesswoman alongside my son I kept away from the world. My mission is to revenge.World turns in my favor when his company became bankrupt and needed shareholders. My miracle has come, I'll anonymously reap him off everything he ever cherished. What happens when our parts crossed, and he founds out I had a child with him."Come back home WIFEY, you left with my heart." I heard his screeching faint voice begged me.BUT, will I ever forgive him for cheating on me?

She was sold at a very young age to a ruthless man, who had no feelings, or pity for others.
She became his slave, his toy of pleasure, and maltreated her a lot in the most horrible ways.
Likewise, she hated him, for the pain and everything he's done to her.
What happens when she finds out she's pregnant by the same man who made her life a living hell?
A curse or a miracle?? Find out…

What turned out to be a joke from him was forcing me to sign the divorce papers.

I refused to sign until I knew why, he became cold, aloof me a lot and paid no attention to me anymore.

8 months ago, I signed a contract marriage with one of the richest billionaires in town.

Not until I saw him shamelessly romancing his ex-girlfriend, they were happy together, so I concluded inside of me, I signed the divorce papers and fled into the dark night alongside with a miracle. Pregnancy!

3 years later, I returned to the city as a successful businesswoman alongside my son I kept away from the world.

My mission is to revenge. World turns in my favor when his company became bankrupt and needed shareholders.

My miracle has come, I'll anonymously reap him off everything he ever cherished.

What happens when our parts crossed, and he found out I had a child with him.

"Come back home WIFEY, you left with my heart." I heard his screeching faint voice begged me.

BUT, will I ever forgive him for cheating on me?

Alexia James was one of the richest women in the world and she was married to Henry Lee.

Their marriage was just two weeks when Alexia began to get love messages from a secret admirer.

Each day when she goes to work, someone was always dropping love letters for her. Her car was always decorated with love quotes and beautiful flowers that she loved. Alexia wanted nothing more than to find the secret admirer.

But, what if this secret admirer was more than what Alexia could ever imagine.

Rejected for transforming from vampire to human, Evan was sold into slavery by her brother to protect her from their parents’ execution.

From a slave, she became a maid in the service of Duke Ezekiel, who claimed her as his own. He fed on her blood—blood that tasted unlike any other. Suspicion gnawed at him; this girl was no ordinary human. She was something greater, something the world itself was searching for. And if that was true, he swore he would be the only one to possess her.

I took my sister’s place to save my family. Now I am living a life that could destroy me. I never wanted anything to do with the mafia. But when my twin sister vanished without a word, I stepped into her world and became her… the wife of Rowan, a man people fear and never question.
Every day, I live a lie. His son, Dante, looks at me like I am his mother, and something inside me breaks every time he says in a low voice that l look like his mom. But not everyone is fooled.
Rowan’s family watches me too closely. They see what does not belong and they are waiting for me to slip so they can get rid of me for good.
I tell myself I can handle it. That I just need to survive long enough to protect the people I love.
But I am losing control. Because the man I was never meant to love is starting to look at me differently. And the worst part is… I think I am falling for him too.

I’m Aurora. I died at the hands of my family.
“You were born a walking curse to this Pack. Taking Nora’s place and marrying Liam is what you owe us!” My mother, Patricia, bound my arms and legs with a rope dusted in silver powder. My sister Nora raised a silver-laced dagger and drove it straight into my heart. “Your name, your mate, everything belonged to you is mine!” Then she used a face-shaping spell to transform into my appearance, took over Black Moon manor, and waited for my Alpha mate, Liam, to come home.
I became a ghost and was pinned to her side by a soul-sealing array, forced to watch her clumsy imitation. “Liam, I made your favorite wild-berry oatmeal.” But a wolf’s nose never lies. Liam frowned and stepped away. “That artificial perfume on you… that isn’t her.” I watched him spend sleepless nights after his Wolf-Soul Stone shattered. I watched him uncover the truth that my old injury on my left foot was gone, and “I” was no longer allergic to silver-scale fish. Only then did I understand: the Alpha who looked cold had already carved me into his heart.
Not until he dug up what was left of my body, two undeveloped twin pups still hidden inside me, did Liam finally break. With eyes burning red, he roared, “What you owe me… what you owe Aurora… you’ll pay with your lives!” When dawn rose, my soul dissolved into the morning light. All I wished for, in the next life, was to meet him somewhere without betrayal, to be two ordinary wolves who could protect our children, together.

In my past life, when the apocalypse broke out, I braved the pressure and opened the fortress gates to take in my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, who had nowhere else to go.
They shoved my wife and me straight into a horde of zombies.
My wife and I were reborn seven days before the apocalypse. I turned my head and saw the same fear and coldness surging in her eyes as mine:
"This time, don't open the door."
"Never." I smiled coldly.
Not only would I keep the door shut—I would watch with my own eyes as those bloodsucking ingrates, who had drained me dry in my past life, were slowly devoured by hunger and despair right outside the gate.

In my previous life, my wife was addicted to black market gambling on football, which caused us to lose everything.
To make matters worse, a zombie horde then broke out.
We had no shelter and were quickly torn apart by a horde of frenzied zombies.
After being reborn, she planned to run off with all the money, then dump me and elope with her lover.
What she didn't know was that I had awakened the ability to read minds and knew all her plans.

"Hey everyone, I know you all saw the picture of Victoria and me on the school's page
but that's just a picture, my real girl is right over there," he said and pointed at me
as everyone including the guy videoed Jones.
Jones walked to me, "And to prove she's my real girlfriend
I would kiss her right in front of everyone," he said before I could do anything
Jones grabbed me and kissed me as everyone except Victoria and her girls cheered us.
After the kiss, Jones walked to the guy videoing us and collected his phone,
then he posted the video on the school's social page.


Angie is an ordinary good girl, currently in her final year of high school. She enjoys spending time with her friends and cherishes her life, but she has never experienced the sweet taste of love. That is until a new student named Jones joins their class. Jones is a tall, charming boy with striking grey hair that catches the attention of nearly every girl.

Angie also finds herself drawn to Jones - it's the first time she's ever felt this way about someone. Love truly works wonders, especially when it's reciprocated by the one you adore. Together, Angie and Jones share some incredibly tender moments that make their hearts flutter. However, love can be a double-edged sword that brings pain and heartbreak along with its sweetness.

Classic high school romance ensues as they navigate through feelings of love, hate, jealousy and anger - all emotions that are common during this phase of life.

Join Angie on her journey through senior year as she experiences all these emotions firsthand!

Married for seven years, I lived my life like an absolute joke.
For the sake of my brother, my wife personally uprooted the roses I had so painstakingly cultivated. To please her uncle, my daughter pointed at my nose and called me a "bad daddy."
The entire family even held a vote to force me to donate my bone marrow. My wife, Elena, raised her hand without a second thought: "You'll just lose a little bone marrow. Liam will die without you."
In that moment, my heart died.
The surgery was a success.
As the anesthesia wore off, Elena was holding my hand tightly. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice trembled with remorse: "Aaron, I was a jerk before. As long as you were willing to save Liam, I will love only you for the rest of my life."
She thought I would be as pathetically grateful as a dog, begging for her affection and humbly forgiving her.
But I merely frowned in disgust and pulled my hand back as if shaking off garbage.
In the dead silence, I looked at this tearful woman before me and asked, politely yet confused:
"Excuse me, ma'am... who are you?"

At fifteen, my parents died on their way of volunteer teaching in underprivileged areas. I was adopted by the Miller family’s Don, Vincent and was brought up by himself. For ten years, he hauled me out of the mud, gave me a home, gave me favor no one else got and taught me what a “family” was supposed to mean.
On my eighteenth birthday, I climbed onto his bed and kissed him.
He called me disgusting with a face like ice. Later, he brought Isabella home, forced me to be her bridesmaid, and made me go with her to pick out wedding dresses and jewelry.
One shove from her was all it took for him to lock me in a pitch-black confinement room and he even had the light removed.
That was when I finally understood: everything I had could be taken back from me at any moment.

Freya, an abused Omega trapped in a brutal Beta household, hides her true nature behind a fake Alpha mask, dreaming of escape and belonging. A magical potion grants her the scent of an Alpha, letting her infiltrate the elite Crescent Moon Academy—home of the fiercest, most powerful werewolves. But living a lie becomes more dangerous when Silas, the Academy's playboy Alpha prince, starts noticing her. His unexpected attention throws Freya into a whirlwind of rumors, secret moments, and rising tension with his jealous fiancée, Elena. As the danger around them grows, Freya finds herself facing dark magic, betrayal, and a fight for survival she never imagined. But with courage, the help of loyal friends, and the love of a prince, she transforms from a scared girl into a pack-saving heroine. When the truth about her Omega blood is revealed, will the world that once hated her now accept the girl who saved them all?

Warning: Smut! Smut!! Smut!!! Rated 18. Captured by an Alpha Daddy for Christmas contains possessive alpha behavior, forced proximity, age-gap romance, plus-size heroine, daddy-dom dynamics, jealousy, obsessive protectiveness, power imbalance, and holiday-season intimacy. Not suitable for readers under 18.
Dumped a week before Christmas, Annabelle "Belle" Evans forfeits her plan to spend Christmas with her narcissistic boyfriend in New York, and agrees to travel back home to Big Bear Lake with her perfect model sister and her nerdy brother-in-law. But a funny Christmas wish has other plans for her. When their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Belle wanders off for help and finds herself cornered by a wolf in the snowy woods. Just when she thinks she's about to be torn to pieces, a massive stranger appears—tall, broad, and sinfully hot, his eyes glowing amber in the moonlight.
He saves her life—and claims her as his.
"You'll be safer here," Jaxon murmurs, his gaze cold yet magnetic. "The full moon rules these woods. You'll be free once it's over."
"When will that be?" Belle asks, heart racing.
"After Christmas," he replies, leaving her unable to look away.
In his secluded cabin, every glance, every touch ignites a fire she hadn't expected. He's possessive. Obsessed. Dangerous. He's everything she wished for when she jokingly wrote to Santa for a "hot werewolf boyfriend." And the way he looks at her curves, the way his presence overwhelms her, makes her question what's real and what's forbidden. Now she's trapped in his arms, a prisoner to his touch, his heat, his growl, and the wild, wicked love burning between them might just make this her best Christmas ever.

“He’s failing math." I blinked, staring at Ms. Debby from across her desk. I was the best student, and Evan Anderson was the catastrophic failure. And now, I had to tutor him.

Evan Anderson was everything this school worshipped. Tall, sharp features, blue eyes, and wavy hair. He was arrogant, annoying, and a stupid jerk. I couldn't bear to be in the same space with him. But I needed the recommendation letter for my dream college.

I set the rules. He broke them. He showed up late, ignored my teachings, and acted like he owned the place. He was infuriating. But as we spent more time together, I saw a different side of him. A side that was vulnerable, quiet, and surprisingly sweet. When his crazy girlfriend attacked me, he was the one who defended me. He was the one who held me when I cried.

Now, I'm sitting in his room, and he's sick with a fever. He pulled me onto his bed, wrapping his arms around me tightly. "Are you real?" he whispered, his sleepy eyes searching my face. "Why do you have to be so beautiful?"

What is happening between us?

"Men are scum and if I were God, I wouldn’t even create them."
Elena is everything she had ever wanted to be, a chef and a proud sister who confidently raised the child her mother left behind before being murdered by her father.
Daniel is charming in every way, has a Greek god like face, and is from a wealthy family but he has one problem however, he is not interested in women.
They both meet for a business deal and it is love at first sight for Daniel but not Elena it is not until he risks his life to save hers that sparks start to fly. Slowly, he melts this heart she thought she never had and they fall in love.
What happens when in the midst of all this, secrets from Daniel’s past start to unfold, secrets that threaten to ruin their relationship? Will their newly found love story make it through the trials and temptations?

Astra Vito thought her life couldn’t shatter more than when she buried her father, but grief isn’t the only storm waiting for her. Her cheating ex won’t let go and her father’s debts threaten to strip her family of everything. And worst of all, the dangerous Mortis clan wants her hand in marriage as payment.
But when Vincent Ross, her brother’s best friend and the man she has secretly loved for years steps in, everything changes.

Vincent is ruthless, rich, and feared as the youngest Don in the Ross Empire. To the world, he is untouchable. To Astra, he is the man she once had a crush on, the man she should never want.

Pulled between loyalty to her family and her forbidden attraction to Vincent, Astra is caught in a web of lies, danger, and desire. Will she surrender her life to a loveless fate, or risk it all for the man who was never hers to love?

But Vincent has already decided Astra is his. And he will burn Los Angeles to the ground to protect her.

The Wizards of Hoods was a schools for talented beings, even humans attended. But soon the humans saw magic as a old stuffs, they found a new God just like the Wizards would say,technology. The humans believed so much in their technology that they killed witches and any one with special powers.
They believed ones you special you become a treat to the society. But if you can find your way to the school you get trained on how to use your power.
Soon the shadow’s returned with a partner, the worst enemy of the Wizards of Hoods. The attack started from the Home of the Hoods, Rivers. The shadows preyed on their people while the Wizards were busy with their nightmare, the Lord of Darkness.
Hood Kripson a young trainee in the school, saw it like an action film in real life, the punches flying and body flying all over. But neither did he know that the faith of the people would soon be on him and his friends.
When the Wizards saw their was no way to win the war, they decided to lock their self in with the demons while their people ran to the human world that does not accept being with powers. But they were ambushed at night and only few made it to the human world with the help of Hood Kripson.
Hood Kripson made it to the human world in half, he was damaged and dying, he could survived but he thought he would just lead the shadows to the peaceful world. But in less than few seconds, he felt a power surge hit him, and then he knew it happened, the Wizards of Hoods were down and now it was left to him so he did the same.

Bethany Wayne is a simple twenty four year old nurse at a junior high school. Like every other person at her age, she is desperate to find a mate. She hopes that they will be simple, loving and understanding. She hopes that they will accept her and fulfill her dreams of having a happily ever after.

Not long after her twenty fourth birthday, her mate finally makes an appearance.
What she doesn't expect is her mate is The Carson Gray. The richest, most eligible bachelor in town and the epitome of beauty. And worst of all, The Carson Gray is a brother to one of the students at the junior high school and one of the new school board members.

To avoid the unnecessary chaos, she seeks help of an old friend who helps her mask her scent in case she runs into Carson unexpectedly.
It seems to work for a while and as she and Carson keep running into each other in pretty unpleasant encounters, she realizes that she made the right decision. There is no way Carson Gray is capable of being her dream mate. He is arrogant, cold, heartless and narcissistic.

The medicine seems to mask Bethany's scent for a while until it's a birthday party of one of Carson's and Bethany's mutual friends. She forgets all about the medicine and goes swimming, and the water successfully wipes off all the scent- masking medicine.

Carson obviously finds out and to say that he is angry is an understatement.
He wants to know why Bethany denied him a chance of being his fated mate. He wants to know why Bethany thinks the worst of him. He has so many questions which Bethany answers in all honesty.

She tells him how irritating he is, how much of a showoff.

There’s nothing more exciting than fate, nothing more desirable than forbidden love and nothing more consuming than the burning desire of a lover.

First daughter and pride of the Blue Hive, Clarissa Mark was a blessed girl loved by her father and every member of her pack.

Brought up in a happy home, she had everything she wanted and people who would do anything to provide what she needed. She was confident about her future and to make it more exciting, she found love.

A lover so passionate that he ignited feelings she couldn’t process and it made her feel like she was on top of the world.

The only problem was the man responsible for making Clarissa lose all her reasoning.

Clarissa believed she knew everything about her new lover, Gabriel Lance. She knew He was off bounds, being the heir of the rival pack- Blood Moon but she couldn’t listen to her head. She saw a good in him no one else saw and was determined he was not like everyone in her pack claims.

He was different, a charmer and a passionate mate and he loved her with all his heart.

She was so positive of his love for her but everything changed when she came back from her one month vacation, pregnant and mated to the one person she should never have had something to do with.

Her father, who loved her more than anything was willing to accept her back as long as she got rid of the forbidden child which she blatantly refused to.

Clarissa left the pack she knew as her home as she couldn’t bare to loose the child and her father couldn’t bare to raise such a shame and damnation in his house.

I begged my mom for ten dollars, but she smashed my head with a frying pan instead.

The next day, my mother posted on a forum asking:
"Hi everyone. My eldest son lied about the end of the world just to get ten dollars. I want to ask, how can I sell him on the underground black market to pay off his younger brother's $20,000 debt?"

The moment I saw that post, any remaining love I had for them died instantly. I snapped my phone's SIM card in half.

What she didn’t know was that a world-ending acid flood would descend upon New York tomorrow.

I had begged so bitterly for that ten dollars just to trigger the Ten-Million-Fold Return System to build a three-billion-dollar Doomsday Ark.

Since she didn’t want it, I gave the throne of the Ark Queen to the female classmate who casually tossed me some charity.

Betrayed to death by my own brother, I was reborn before the apocalypse descended.
He rushed to seize the god-tier [Copy] talent first, leaving the trash [Purification] talent for me.
He thought that with this talent, he'd have no worries and reign supreme in the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, I quietly closed the last door of my fortress.
He didn't know that his prized copying ability had a fatal flaw.

Five years into my marriage, I took off my Donna necklace at the Rossi family’s New Year’s Eve banquet and Noah still thought I could never leave him.
He stood by the long table with his mistress, Amelia, and said in front of every capo, “Some people will never measure up to her. Not even close.”
I didn’t cry. I didn’t make a scene. I just turned and walked away. On my way out, my cousin Lucas, my fixer, handed me a cup of coffee.
Three days later, he brought me two pieces of news.
Amelia was four months pregnant. And Noah was trading family territory to get his bastard child recognized by the family.
“What are you going to do?” Lucas asked.
I stared out the window, thinking about the red lipstick stain on Noah’s shirt. Thinking about the smug look in his eyes when he told me, “I only helped her because I felt sorry for her.”
“Wait,” I said. “Wait until they think they’ve won.”
What Noah didn’t know was I was still holding one last trump card.

"Daddy... so cold... and it hurts..." When my precious daughter Mia whispered these words in her weak voice, my heart felt like it was being torn apart.
The life-saving medicine was just ten meters away, but that damned anti-magic barrier had become an insurmountable chasm between life and death.
What made me even more furious was that the vampire guarding the gate not only extorted my life savings, but also demanded I kneel like a dog and lick his boots before he would open the door.
He didn't know that if the door stayed closed, it wouldn't just be my daughter who died—his son and mother would perish too!

We’ve been married for five years. Then, she got pregnant with someone else's child.
In front of everyone, she said: "Ethan doesn't want this baby. You've always wanted one, right? Fine, take it and raise it."
In that moment, I finally understood: she wasn’t incapable of loving someone—she simply never saw me as a human being.
I took off my wedding ring, left it on the tray, and bought a one-way ticket to the North. My family said I wouldn't survive in the frozen North; she said that without her, I was nothing.
Three years later, she tracked me down using the GPS hidden inside that ring. She pushed open the door to my attic room, finding only a note I’d left: "Don't look for me. We're square."

In their eyes, my wife Emma—an Ivy League tenured professor in biological sciences—is ruthless, rational, and obsessively clean.
For seven years, even when she washed her hands, she would only ever touch the right-side sink—hers.
Until that night at 3 a.m., when I pulled a strand of sandy-golden short curl—hair that belonged to neither of us—out of my men’s shower loofah.
And around the neck of a pre-med student named Lucas, I saw the antique silver cross my dying father left in my hands.
When I confronted her, my always-icy wife protected the little homewrecker, slapped me across the face, and called me a jealous, controlling chauvinist.
She thought I’d swallow it like a coward.
But she forgot: as a top cardiothoracic chief, the thing I do best is cutting out tumors.

After I retired, I was willing to do the dirtiest work at a small auto repair shop—just to give my sick daughter an ordinary childhood.
I endured my mother’s insults, my eldest brother’s wage cuts, my younger brother’s extortion.
But they actually joined forces to steal my daughter’s life-saving money for gambling, then sold me into an illegal mine to pay off their debts.
When the iron chain locked around my wrist, when my daughter cried in despair, the killing intent that had slept in my blood for three years finally woke up completely.
They had no idea I was once the iron-blooded God of War—commander of a million troops, the name that made enemy nations tremble.

At the Morello family’s Christmas dinner, I stood beside Vincent, waiting for him to announce our engagement.
Instead, in the very next second, he walked in holding a little boy and claimed him as his son.
And the woman he said he was going to marry? Scarlett Morello. The one he had always introduced as his “sister.”
The whole room erupted in applause. I stood there frozen, like a nail hammered into the floor.
Later, in his study, he took my hand and said, “Scarlett is dying. Late-stage breast cancer. She only has six months left. After she’s gone, I’ll marry you.”
But there was no guilt in his eyes. No love, either.
Then he told me to go to his villa that afternoon, to take care of the woman who was supposedly “dying.”
I opened the photo he sent me. Scarlett was lying in a hospital bed, pale-faced, an IV in the back of her hand.
A professional tennis player who had been playing in an exhibition match three weeks ago, and who had dropped three grand at Louis Vuitton on Fifth Avenue just five days ago.
But sure. She was “dying.”
At three in the morning, I was curled up by the front door of my apartment, crying so long I lost track of time.
Then my phone lit up. A text from an unknown number:
[Elena, I’m downstairs. When we were kids, you told me that once I controlled the docks on the East Coast, you’d marry me. The docks are mine now. Does that promise still stand?]
I pulled back the curtain and there he was. Ethan Vitale, my first love, leaning against the door of a black Cadillac, lifting a hand in a lazy wave.
Three years ago, when he left New York, he was only a Capo.
Now, he was the Don of the Vitale family.
He didn’t rush me. Didn’t pressure me to come downstairs.
He came for one reason only, to let me know he was back.
I wiped away my tears and texted back:
[It still stands.]
Because I wanted to see for myself just how long that woman could keep up her act.

When the apocalypse struck, my brother Leo didn't hesitate to choose the offshore sanctuary.
In our past life, faced with a choice between a powerful inland warlord commanding a massive army and a leader clinging to a solitary island, Leo snatched up the first option.
But when a zombie horde overran the mainland and defenses collapsed, he fled to my island for refuge.
Jealous of how well I was surviving the end of the world, he and our parents knocked me unconscious in the dead of night and threw me into the ocean to drown.
Now that I've been reborn, Leo immediately took our parents to the maritime base, leaving the "dangerous" mainland to me.
He thinks the ocean is a natural barrier that guarantees his safety, that he can sit back and relax while the world burns.
But there's one thing he doesn't know.
Zombies aren't just static, mindless walking dead—they evolve.
And when they do, that offshore sanctuary will become a floating hell with no way out.