215 Book(s) Related to coralines dad

Seven days before the apocalypse, my vampire parents forced me to hand over three million to buy a house for my baby brother in full.

As an actuary, I knew that order would collapse in seven days and the money would become worthless. So I not only readily agreed, but also used their family's records as collateral to raise millions in high-interest loans, building an impregnable, top-secret fortress.

Seven days later, an unexpected change occurred.

The debt-collecting gangs and the endless horde of zombies drove them to the brink of despair. Meanwhile, I sat in a temperature-controlled safe house, sipping freshly ground coffee, calmly watching the cannibalistic karmic retribution unfold on the security camera.

In the apocalypse, there is no family affection, only the probability of survival.

“Take the money and disappear.”

I froze, my breath catching in my throat. “What…?”

“You heard me.” His forest-green eyes, once warm and captivating, were icy and unyielding now, cutting through me like shards of glass. “Take the money and get the fuck out of my life. I don’t want you, Amber.”


Rejected and disowned by her own family for being an Omega, Amber Queen's life has been the definition of difficult.
She is unexpectedly marked during a night of passion with her mate, who also turns out to be her best friend's boyfriend.
Rayne rejects her despite the bond and casts her aside in favor of being with his boyfriend.
Now Amber is alone, pregnant and stuck with a bond that's slowly going to kill her as Rayne continues his relationship with Reed, abandoned by everyone who was supposed to love her.
Follow Amber's journey as she fights her way through hardship and rises to the top. She's determined to make them pay. Each and every last one of them.

18+ Content, ABO (Omegaverse) story.

“Take the money and disappear.”

I froze, my breath catching in my throat. “What…?”

“You heard me.” His forest-green eyes, once warm and captivating, were icy and unyielding now, cutting through me like shards of glass. “Take the money and get the fuck out of my life. I don’t want you, Amber.”


Rejected and disowned by her own family for being an Omega, Amber Queen's life has been the definition of difficult.
She is unexpectedly marked during a night of passion with her mate, who also turns out to be her best friend's boyfriend.
Rayne rejects her despite the bond and casts her aside in favor of being with his boyfriend.
Now Amber is alone, pregnant and stuck with a bond that's slowly going to kill her as Rayne continues his relationship with Reed, abandoned by everyone who was supposed to love her.
Follow Amber's journey as she fights her way through hardship and rises to the top. She's determined to make them pay. Each and every last one of them.

18+ Content, ABO (Omegaverse) story.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) FOREVER AND A DAY is book #5 in the bestselling romance series The Inn at Sunset Harbor, which begins with book #1, For Now and Forever—a free download!35 year old Emily Mitchell has fled her job, apartment and ex-boyfriend in New York City for her father's historic, abandoned home on the coast of Maine, needing a change in her life and determined to make it work as a B&B. She had never expected, though, that her relationship with its caretaker, Daniel, would turn her life on its head.In FOREVER AND A DAY, Emily is stunned to finally, after 20 years, meet her missing father—just a week before her wedding. Their reunion changes both of their lives, and unlocks the key to the house’s many secrets, and to Emily’s missing memories.Spring has finally arrived at Sunset Harbor, and with just a week to go until the big wedding date, the wedding preparations are busier than ever, including Daniel’s surprise talk of a honeymoon. Will Emily and Daniel have their dream wedding? Or will someone appear to tear it apart?Meanwhile, Chantelle’s custody battle comes to a pitch, and as Memorial Day looms, they must figure out what to do with Trevor’s house. Yet amidst all of this, another issue weighs most heavily on Emily’s mind: will she herself ever be pregnant?FOREVER AND A DAY is book #5 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, keep you turning pages late into the night—and make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #6 will be available soon.“A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)

My wife was forced to don a wedding dress to marry my sworn enemy, while my three-year-old daughter was locked in an iron cage suspended above the raging sea.

And I, the dignified Commander-in-Chief of the Blackwater Fleet, was forced to wear a dog collar, kneeling on broken glass and licking up red wine like a crippled stray dog.
All because embedded in their necks were biological bombs, the detonator held in the hands of my enemy.

The elites of the entire island ruthlessly mocked my cowardice, trampling me underfoot in ultimate humiliation.

That was until the climax of the maritime wedding, when my enemy smugly pressed the detonator, only for the collars to flash a safe green light—the full-frequency signal decryption was complete.
Amidst the dead silence of the crowd, I snapped the forged steel chains binding me and slowly stood tall.

The next second, ten nuclear-powered submarines violently breached the ocean surface, and tens of thousands of heavily armored death squads descended from the sky.

Looking at my enemy, now terrified to the point of incontinence and shattering his own knees to frantically kowtow and beg for mercy, I picked up that very dog chain and slipped it around his neck.

The day manager Gregg shoved me into the freight elevator shaft, the nuclear winter outside had only just begun. As he slammed the gate shut, he said, "No one will find you dead down there; the insurance payout is enough to cover the shortfall." I died in the darkness at thirty degrees below zero. Then, I woke up. I was back on the afternoon he threw the contract in my face. This time, I didn't sign. I shoved the contract into the paper shredder, snatched the brass key ring from Supervisor Miller, locked every exit of the warehouse, and re-routed the entire building's heating system into my own command bunker. As Gregg licked ice off the frozen floor on the security monitor, I was sitting in the guard room, heating up a can of pork. Outside, the first snowflake fell. And this time, the ones who would be freezing to death were them.

On my son's seventh birthday, he hid behind my husband's first love and shouted at me, "You're a bad woman! She's my real mom!"
My husband was even crueler. He threw me out of the house without a second thought.
"To me, you were nothing but a surrogate."
Heartbroken, I walked away—and later adopted an abandoned little boy.
Years passed, when my husband finally learned the truth about the woman he had always protected, he came to me with our biological son, both of them kneeling before me in tears, begging for forgiveness.
Holding my adopted son's hand, I smiled calmly.
"Sorry. I only have one son."

For the past ten years, I've been the worst-ranked cleaner in the Hero Association .
The S-class war god regarded me as an ant, wantonly trampling on my dignity on this floor.
Until that day, the SSS-level villain broke out of prison, massacred the headquarters, and the high and mighty gods knelt in pools of blood like dead dogs, howling in despair.
I silently picked up the mop and walked up to the arrogant villain: "You've dirtied my floor, please cooperate with the cleaning."
The next second, the concept vanished, reduced to ashes! The entire audience was shocked: "I told you to mop the floor, and you wiped the villain away?!"

Seventy-two hours before my wedding, I stood in front of the fitting mirror at a bridal shop.

My best friend sent me a social media post, and the red exclamation mark in the message box stung my eyes sharply.

The post’s title read: Guys, my boyfriend is getting married to his current partner. What should I do?

The comment section had already erupted into chaos.
“Dude, are you out of your mind? You’re the other woman here!”
“You’re the homewrecker and you dare post this to get roasted? Where’s your shame?”

The poster was firing back furiously, every word oozing unapologetic madness:
“We’ve been inseparable since we were kids! His first love, first kiss, first time—all mine!”
“He doesn’t even like that old hag; he’s only marrying her out of obligation!”
“Who’s the real mistress, anyway?”

I should have swiped past it like a silly joke, but my gaze was locked onto the poster’s profile picture.

It showed two hands laced together. Peeking out from the man’s wrist was a dark green watch dial—a Richard Mille Valentine’s Day limited edition. It was the seven-figure engagement gift I’d bought him by selling my mother’s last precious heirloom, the only one of its kind in the world.

My heart was squeezed tight by an icy hand, plummeting to the bottom in an instant.

I tapped into the account’s homepage. The second my finger swiped open the photo album, a dizzying, world-spinning sensation crashed over me.

In the photos, the man holding the girl closely was none other than Lu Yanchen—my fiancé, who was supposed to marry me in three days.

I stared at the screen. All the wedding hopes and love I’d saved up over three years shattered into nothing but dust at this moment.

I couldn’t believe it, yet I had to. The man who’d loved me for three years and sworn to protect me forever had been lying to me from start to finish.

BLURB
"You're the only one who can wake me. Now you'll carry my curse, and my crown."
When Aria Silverthorn's fiancé and stepsister publicly accused her of being Omega-born fraud, stripping her rank and dignity, she lost everything. Cast into the Forsaken Lands to die, she survived three months of hell—and desperation drove her to the forbidden Moonfall Crypt, where Alpha King Kael Nightfang has been entombed for five years.
The Council claims he died heroically. The truth? They poisoned him with wolfsbane silver, trapping him in death-sleep when he discovered their corruption.
When Aria touches his tomb seeking shelter, the impossible happens. He wakes—but only she can anchor him to life. Only her touch keeps him from slipping back into the void. Their bond is immediate, undeniable, and dangerous.
Kael should be dead. The Council made sure of it. For five years, his consciousness has been trapped between life and death, aware of every agonizing moment.
Until Aria.
She's his anchor. His prison. His salvation. And he's not letting her go, not when she's the key to his revenge and reclaiming his throne.
But their bond goes deeper than magic. They're true mates,a connection so rare it hasn't occurred in centuries. A bond the Council will kill to prevent, because true mates can challenge their entire corrupt system.

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.

When Aria Cross finds her dead father's gambling debts, she thinks bankruptcy is her worst nightmare. She's wrong. Four dangerously handsome mafia heirs arrive at her door, saying she's payment for a blood debt that goes back generations. Stolen from her ordinary life, Aria becomes the obsession of the Romano brothers, the Petrov heir, and the mystery Nakamura prince.
Each man offers her something different: Marco's fierce protection, Dmitri's wild desire, Kai's gentle strength, and Luca's dark secrets. But in their world of bullets and deception, love is the most dangerous game of all. As rival families circle and old enemies resurface, Aria must decide—will she run from their deadly kingdom or claim her place as their queen?

It's the year 2063 and the whole world stood in fear awaiting the impact of the approaching comet which scientist believed its impact will have significant changes in the whole world.
Simultaneously, another strange signal was discovered transmitting from one remote village in Nigeria; a democratic republic located in West Africa.
The special America intelligence unit quickly arranged a three men squad to visit the area and find out what is transmitting and it's connection with the approaching comet. On landing at the venue some hours later, the squad were amazed to discover that the only object of reverence on the location was a Scepter that was believed belong to a mythological Demigod.

The sect of aliens known as the hurras invaded the earth with the aim of destroying humanity for there atrocities against mother earth. To them , human are destroying a place that have been existing even before they were created. Through pollution, deforestation, hatred and bloodshed, human seemed to be moving towards self destruction, they are here to make it quick. There first mission is to destroy the Scepter

Ruth is a beautiful she-wolf who has had premonitory dreams all her life about an ancient vampire curse that would come to her lands and destroy everyone unless she married a man with the blood of a famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh. But the painter has died without leaving any descendants.

One night, Ruth dreams about the angel Ashtar, and Ashtar reveals to her in her dreams and performs spiritual healings to free her from being tormented by her premonitions.

Ashtar finally tells her that she is ready to meet the Angel Ashtar in this life. He gives her an unknown address, where she must leave all fears behind and dance with the wolves under the moon, and among those wolves, she will find the reincarnated soul of Vincent Van Gogh. With this union, they will be able to destroy the curse when the vampires invade.

Ruth uses her wealth to make a positive impact on the world. She is the daughter of the Alpha King, a beautiful and rich princess. One day, Ruth takes a path through the forest, connected with nature and practicing her spirituality, she has a dream, she dreams of the angel Ashtar. However, her practices are suddenly interrupted when she is kidnapped by a mysterious Alpha werewolf, Leon, who needs to receive a reward for kidnapping the princess. What Ruth doesn't expect is to end up falling in love with her kidnapper. Your relationship will grow based on trust and the certainty of your connection with the Universe. Until the Angel Ashtar comes to earth and tells Ruth which path she should take.

“You’re mine now.” His voice was a dark promise.

To save her sister from a brutal marriage, Isabella Romano makes a desperate bargain. But her hero is no knight, he’s Dante Moretti De Luca, the ruthless mafia king known as "Il Diavolo".

Now, Isabella is bound to the devil himself in a marriage of convenience. Trapped in his gilded world of power and violence, she must navigate deadly rivals and her own family’s betrayals. Dante is as controlling as he is dangerously alluring, and the line between protection and possession blurs with every passing day.

As a war ignites on their doorstep, Isabella must confront a terrifying truth: the only man she fears might be the one she cannot survive without. Can she trust the devil to keep her safe… or will his obsession be her ruin?

After finding her boyfriend's betrayal with her best friend, 25yearold Elena Carter's night spirals further when she finds a seriously wounded man in a shadowy alley. Against her better judgment, she brings him home, only to find Lucian Blackthorn is no man at all—he's a centuriesold vampire with powerful enemies.
Elena's act of mercy sparks an ancient vampire bond—the Life Debt—binding their fates together. But what she doesn't know is that Lucian knowingly orchestrated their meeting, and she's a pawn in a dangerous game spanning centuries.
As Elena develops unexpected abilities and learns her own supernatural lineage, she's drawn deeper into Lucian's world of ancient feuds, forbidden magic, and deadly politics. With vampire hunters closing in and secret enemies within the supernatural community, Elena must question everything—including her growing feelings for Lucian.
For in the world of immortals, nothing is as it seems, and the truth behind the Life Debt is darker than Elena could ever think. Will she accept the darkness within herself to save them both, or will Lucian's secrets destroy them?

I woke up and my husband hated me. My daughter was afraid of me. Everyone said I caused the accident.

But I remember the truth. Marcus was driving, not me. When that truck hit us, I threw my body over Iris to protect her. Yet when I woke from three months in a coma, everyone believed I was the criminal.

To save Marcus's life, I donated my liver. Now my body runs on an artificial system while he lives with my organ inside him and slaps me across the face.

My four-year-old daughter calls me "the bad woman."

My husband says I don't deserve the Sterling name.

And my "sister" Jade, she orchestrated everything, yet became the one they love.

In the end, I died in the desert.

When they find out, will they grieve or celebrate?

I was eighteen, working double shifts at a restaurant, when four men walked in and stared at me like they'd seen a ghost.

They said I looked exactly like someone they'd lost. Vivian Bailey. Missing three years. The love of their lives.

That night, they kidnapped me. I tried to escape, but every attempt failed.

For six months, they dressed me in her clothes, made me sit in her chair at dinner, called me by her name, closed their eyes when they kissed me. I was a breathing doll, a replacement they could touch but never truly see.

But as time passed, something shifted. Martin noticed I took my coffee differently than she did. Lawrence brought me mystery novels instead of her romance books. Dennis stopped flinching at my laugh. Philip actually smiled at my sarcasm.

They started saying my name. Eliana. Not hers.

I found myself falling for the illusion of tenderness. I almost convinced myself this twisted captivity could become something real.

Until they got Vivian's call for help.

I kept a list. Ninety-eight times my husband chose another woman over me.

Missed birthdays, ruined anniversaries, broken promises—all for his "patient" Sophia, who seemed to have a medical emergency every time we had plans.

"It's just my job, Emma," he would say. "You understand."

Ryan thought he could have his cake and eat it too. He was wrong.

After an incident, I was determined to leave him, and before I left, I gave him an unforgettable "gift."

So after this weird plague, basically all the alphas disappeared. Only a few packs had alpha bloodlines left, so they formed an alliance. Whoever could produce an alpha pup in the younger generation becomes the next pack leader.

I'm Natalia from Moon Stone pack. My dad's the alpha, I've got alpha blood, but I can't shift. So everyone treats me like garbage. My mom died young, dad remarried this beta luna who had Stella, my half-sister who's just a beta but gets treated better than me.

In my past life, at the mating ceremony, Damon picked me. I thought I'd won. Turns out the bastard was actually an omega using black magic to fake being beta. When we mated, we had an omega pup instead of an alpha heir.

What does this piece of shit do? Blames ME. Says I faked my alpha bloodline. Then he kills me and my baby and dumps our bodies with the rogues.

But I'm back. It's the mating ceremony again, except this time Damon's going after Stella instead of me. Which makes me think, did that asshole get reborn too?

I'm alive.

When I jolted awake to see March 15th on my phone, I could barely believe it—I should have been dead since August 18th! Marcus, my Alpha husband, had murdered pregnant me with his own hands for his "childhood sweetheart" Freya's fake death.

Reborn to the night it all began, I heard the familiar pleading downstairs: "Please, Alpha Marcus! My daughter is dying!"

This time, when Marcus fed me that lie about "special wolf poison" to trick me into breaking our mate bond, I smiled and agreed.

When wolfsbane burned through my veins, I heard my alpha say: "Save Yvonne first."

He said I was strong enough. I could wait.

So he gave the only antidote to the omega and left me dying.

Three months ago, Mason rescued her from rogues. "She reminds me of you when you were younger," he said.

I chose to believe him. To trust our fated bond, to dismiss the pack's whispers as paranoia. Even when he spent more and more time with her in his office. Even when he started treating her the way he used to treat me, gently organizing her papers, patiently correcting her words.

Now he almost killed me.

When I finally crawl out of bed, it's my turn to fight back.

I heard my fiancé Henry's laughter echoing down that hotel hallway.

"I only went after Maya to piss off Dennis."

Eight years. I chased Dennis for eight years.

When I finally gave up on him, when Henry spent years pursuing me, when he proposed with fireworks lighting up the entire beach—I thought I'd finally found someone who loved me.

Three weeks until the wedding.

I flew to his city with his favorite chocolate cake, ready to surprise him on his birthday.

Then I heard the truth.

"Those eight years she spent obsessing over Dennis made me sick."

"I'll just skip the wedding. Let her stand there in that white dress in front of everyone."

Fine. I'll let him think he's won.

Then on our wedding day, I'll be the one who disappears.

When my parents and my fiancé Gilbert asked me once again to donate my kidney to my cousin Yvonne, who was hospitalized with kidney failure, I didn't cry or scream.

I simply said one word: "Okay."

My parents and Gilbert were stunned. They rushed to have me sign the voluntary donation form, afraid I’d change my mind.

Some days later, they sent me to the operating room.

Dad said, "Yvonne will finally be saved. We're so proud of you."

Mom said, "After the surgery, we'll make it up to you."

Gilbert looked tenderly at Yvonne and said, "When you're better, where should we travel?"

What they didn't know was that the day I agreed, I'd just received my diagnosis, stage four cancer. Three months to live.

As I lay on the cold operating table, as the anesthesia began to take effect, I only wanted to know one thing:

If I die on this operating table, will they regret it?

My best friend Cecilia framed me, causing me to miscarry at six months pregnant. My husband Zach destroyed the evidence I found to protect her reputation. To keep me silent, he even threatened me with my mother's life.

Pain wasn't just a feeling, it was a rusted, serrated blade dragging inch by excruciating inch from my gut to my sternum.

I forced my eyes open against the harsh, unforgiving fluorescents of the ICU. Gauze. So much gauze, heavy and soaked with my own blood.

"Recipient's heart is stable. No signs of rejection."

The nurse’s hushed voice bled through the crack in the door.

"But bed one... the delay was too long. Her uterus was necrotic. We had to remove it."

I bit down on my cracked lip until I tasted copper.

So this was it.

The grand finale my beloved family had orchestrated for me.

I think I'm dead.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in an abandoned amusement park, and my body was sitting on that slowly turning carousel.

I was only ten years old. I don't know how I died.

Detective Sarah, the blonde officer, promised to find the truth. So I followed her, watching her peel away layer after layer of lies—

In my diary, I wrote down all my fears and all my waiting.

On the phone, Mom sent that video of me laughing.

In the autopsy report, evidence of long-term abuse filled every page.

Mom had been saving money for three years, saying she'd take me away. That afternoon she picked me up from school and said, "We're really leaving this time."

Then what happened? Why did I die at the amusement park? Why was Mom's first reaction after my death not to call the police, but to—

I thought Mom came to save me.

Until I saw the text message she sent...

Four months pregnant, I went to the bar to bring Connor his wallet, only to overhear a conversation that made my blood run cold.

"She's so controlling. Billy and I can barely breathe," my husband told his friends. "I'm taking Kelsey to the countryside for three months of therapy. I'll just tell Nadia it's a parent-child program abroad."

The worst part? My ten-year-old son Billy would cover for him.

Then I had a miscarriage. In my darkest moment, Connor said he'd use experimental hypnotherapy to help me "forget the pain" so I wouldn't suffer or cling to them while they vacationed for three months.

I agreed.

But when he got everything he wanted, he regretted it.

A vampire can only share a blood pact with one mate. My husband, Duke Vincent, and I have been in love and bound by our pact for ten years. Back then, he swore his loyalty to me before the vampire gods.

But today, as his cursed first love lies dying, he hands me a vial of the oblivion draught and forcibly breaks our bond.

"Elara, Camilla is dying. Just give me three days. Let me fulfill her dream of a blood wedding."

"I don't want you to hurt. This draught just causes temporary amnesia. Once the wedding ends in three days, I'll go to the capital and get the antidote. You'll remember me, and we'll bind a much grander blood pact."

I stare at his uncompromising expression. Then I take the vial and swallow the potion without a second thought.

What Vincent doesn't know is that I brewed this oblivion draught myself.

There is absolutely no antidote.

In three days, I'll not only forget him completely, but I'll also head to the human capital to start my new job at the Royal Potion Workshop.

I've caught my fiancé Henry cheating ninety-nine times. And every single time, I forgave him.

That's because I have this rare condition—short-term memory loss. Every morning, I wake up with no memory of what happened the day before.

But then, out of nowhere, a car accident actually cured me.

I was so excited. I rushed over to tell Henry the good news, but stopped cold when I heard him outside the door, joking around with his friends:

"Didn't Judy get sick because she walked in on you and Kenna having sex?"

I'm the only daughter of a mafia leader. I married Marco, an outsider, against my father's wishes.

Six months ago, my father died in a car accident. Marco took over part of the family business. One day when I was feeling down, I passed through the slums and saved a girl named Gianna who was being beaten for stealing food. I took her in as my assistant and treated her like a sister.

But when I was six months pregnant, I walked into the company break room and found Gianna in lingerie, seducing Marco.

I ordered my guards to send her back to the slums immediately.

Marco tried to plead for her. I cut him off coldly: "I don't want to see her again."

He went silent for a moment but didn't oppose my decision.

Over the next three months, Marco seemed warm and caring on the surface but grew increasingly distant. I thought he was just busy with work and decided to help him after the baby was born.

My due date is this week.

Last night, Marco lulled me to sleep like always, his voice so gentle.

But now when I wake up, I find myself lying in the middle of a deserted forest.

And my husband, holding Gianna whom I had sent away, looked at me arrogantly and said, "Since you love sending people away so much, I suppose it shouldn't be a problem for me to send you here to give birth, should it?"

No one would believe that Lorenzo Moretti's wife—the mafia Don's wife—

had to kneel in his study and beg him to approve three hundred thousand dollars to save her brother's life.

All because he thought a woman from Brooklyn's slums needed constant reminding of her place.

Just last night, kidnappers sent photos of my brother's severed finger, and I got on my knees begging him to sign that goddamn form.

His trusted advisor Sofia stamped "REJECTED" in red ink, sneering: "Insufficient proof."

Lorenzo didn't know I endured this humiliation because I once loved him.

Now Sofia told me my brother was dead, dumped in the Hudson River.

I don't need to be his caged canary anymore.

My husband and I couldn’t get pregnant after we got married, and we really wanted a baby of our own,

We tried IVF, and after three failed rounds I finally got pregnant,

But then my husband and my parents suddenly started pressuring me to get an abortion...

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.

My daughter was taken by rogues, and my husband didn't care.

But when his childhood friend went missing in another attack, he spared no expense searching for her.

I searched for our daughter alone. When I died in the wilderness, I'd been looking for fifty years.

As I bled out that day, I had only one thought—I'm sorry, Lily. I'm so sorry I couldn't find you.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself fifty years in the past, the night before the nightmare began.

I found my husband's vasectomy certificate while sorting medical bills. The procedure was done a year ago. But I was six months pregnant now.

I stared at the date on the paper and my hand just... stopped. I kept checking it again and again, but it was still the same. I was freaking out. I looked down at my bump showing through this baggy sweater, and my hands started shaking.

I got in my car and drove straight to my husband's private club. I needed answers about this, now.

A month before my boyfriend Samuel and I were supposed to get married, he asked me to let another woman wear my wedding dress and move into my house.

It all started three months ago when his "old friend" Dahlia returned from overseas, supposedly with less than a year to live. A week ago, Samuel told me that Dahlia's dying wish was to become a bride before she passed away, and he was the chosen groom.

I kept saying no. But he brought it up every single day, insisting he had to help Dahlia because she had helped him when his company was in crisis three years ago, and he needed to fulfill her wish.

I was furious.

But in the end, I gave up the house and left him.

"I need you to erase Elena Cavalli completely," I said, sliding an untraceable check across the table.

People say my husband Vito Cavalli broke every mafia code for me. The heir who knelt before all five family bosses and named an ordinary woman his godmother.

For three years, he convinced the world we were in love. He told the press I was why he went legitimate, why he gave up the gun.

But devotion has an expiration date.

While I basked in his affection, believing I was cherished, he was climbing into another woman's bed.

So I walked away.

When I disappeared, he shattered.

He tore through every corner of the globe hunting for me. But the woman he'd once traded his empire for didn't love him enough to turn around.

Everyone knows how much Gideon Moretti loves his wife Isabella.

We built this empire together—from street enforcers to rulers of all five boroughs of New York. He promised me the world.

I believed him.

For five years, I took bullets for him. Bled for him. Sacrificed everything so he could become the king of this city.

Then, just days before our fifth anniversary—on the same day I found out I was pregnant—I saw a video.

Gideon, in a bridal boutique, his hand on another woman's waist. Helping her choose a wedding dress.

Daisy. His first love.

Turns out, she's been back for two months. Every "business trip" he took? He was with her.

I made my decision that night. I would leave. Take our baby and disappear.

My child would not grow up in a house built on lies.

I was at my favorite artist's concert, phone up, recording the Kiss Cam segment. My boyfriend Mason said he was three hours away having dinner at his parents' house and couldn't make it, even sent me a selfie as proof.

Then the Kiss Cam found him.

On the giant screen, Mason wore the exact same gray vintage rock tee and black ripped jeans from his "family dinner photo," his arm around a blonde girl with her head on his shoulder.

The arena erupted: "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

He looked like he'd seen a ghost, frantically trying to block the camera.

My phone's location alert read: "Mason is nearby (0.1 miles)."

Three years of us, exposed as a massive lie in front of thousands of cheering strangers.

Seven years ago, Alpha Matthew's fiancée Elvira ran off with another alpha. I was just his assistant back then, harboring a secret crush but never imagining we could be together.

That night I picked him up from the bar. He was drunk and had been drugged. One night later I was pregnant, and Matthew became convinced I was the one who drugged him, that I'd schemed my way into becoming his luna. He hated me, but still gave me the title of secret mate. No mating ceremony, just a contract. My son and I lived in the guest wing of his estate for seven years.

Last night he drunkenly spun Liam around in circles. My son thought he was finally being accepted. But I heard the name Matthew was murmuring—Elvira. She was coming back, with her son.

I held my transfer request to the Eastern Region. This time, we're done waiting.

Humans aren't supposed to survive carrying a vampire's child. The immortal blood drains you dry.

Valentine was a pureblood vampire Duke. I was just a mortal. But I was stupid enough to think love was stronger than biology.

Four years ago, I tore myself apart on the birthing bed to bring a half-blood into this world, only to wake up staring at Valentine’s back.

His late father’s favorite concubine, Cecilia, had already snatched my baby from the cradle. And my husband acquiesced to it all.

"He looks just like me," Cecilia purred, tracing my newborn's cheek. "Thank you for giving birth to my son."

Then she tossed a blood jade onto my sheets, like I was some cheap baby-making machine.

I didn't take the payoff. I grabbed the heavy stone and hurled it straight at Valentine’s face.

For four agonizing years, I fought to get my baby back. I hired mercenaries, rogues, and shadow-smugglers, bleeding myself dry to breach the Duke’s estate. Every single attempt failed.

Until tonight. A terrified servant smuggled out a whisper that stopped my heart: Cecilia had fed my son "diluted holy water"—a twisted sacrament meant to literally burn the human half out of his organs.

I didn't hire anyone this time. I tore through the gates myself. I took a guard’s spear through the shoulder and let cursed brambles shred my arms to the bone, just to drag my dying boy out of a burning greenhouse.

But when the agonizing pain of the holy water woke him, Luke looked at me with pure, unadulterated disgust.

"It’s your fault! It’s your filthy human blood!" My four-year-old son spat the words like venom. "Mother Cecilia says if we just burn out this curse, I can be the true heir! If it weren't for you, Father would have claimed me by now! I hate you!"

I froze.

When I finally spoke, my voice was a raw, inhuman scrape. "Call me Mom one last time, and I'll walk out of your life forever."

The biggest mistake of my life was falling in love with my childhood best friend, Cole Blackwood.

I grew up with Cole. He was my childhood best friend. When my mom died in a car accident in high school, his mother Lillian, my mom's best friend, saw that my stepmother didn't like me and took me in. She arranged our engagement. Cole protected me from bullies in high school. I fell for him. We secretly married at eighteen.

Shortly after the wedding, he was kidnapped. That's when everything fell apart. I threw myself off a cliff to draw the kidnappers away and save him. I was in a coma for three months. But when I came back to him, weak and broken, he thought some woman named Sophia Vanderbilt had saved him instead. He started hating me for "abandoning him" and grew cold. I tried to explain. He only believed what Sophia told him. My words meant nothing. 

Cole wanted to divorce me, but his parents refused to allow it. I refused too. Sophia drugged him to get pregnant and trap him into marriage, but he stumbled into the wrong room. He slept with me instead. I got pregnant. She faked videos to make him think they'd been together. She forged evidence that I'd cheated. He wouldn't listen to a word I said. 

Then we were both kidnapped and held hostage on a rooftop. Cole chose to save Sophia. I fell. I lost the baby. After Sophia was rescued, she went to the hospital for a checkup. They found leukemia. She needed a bone marrow transplant. I was the only match, but after everything, my body was too weak. Cole used the "debt" I owed his family to force me to donate. 

I refused. Sophia "died." Cole locked me in a psychiatric hospital and tortured me until I died. 

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day he demanded my bone marrow. This time, looking at his desperate eyes, I said yes and decided to divorce him and leave him for good.

In my past life, just one day before the national evaluation camp that would make or break his career, my hockey-prodigy best friend faked an illness. He was ready to throw away his entire future just to go party in Chicago with a cheerleader.

Thinking I was doing him a favor, I stepped in. I tipped off his coach, saved his career.

Years later, he became a multimillion-dollar superstar. His way of thanking me? Framing me with doctored charity records and sending me to federal prison. He even smiled as he delivered the final, crushing blow:

"I planned that crash on the icy road, Kassia. Your parents' lives were just the price you had to pay for sticking your nose where it didn't belong."

Now, my eyes snap open to the deafening cheers of our high school hockey arena.

Sitting right next to me, that same cheerleader is eagerly plotting how to corner him after the game.

I died the night I refused to postpone the engagement party.

The morning after my death, my parents were still having breakfast with my sister Blair, excitedly planning her award ceremony.

Before I died, the only person who answered my desperate call was my mother. I was being chased by kidnappers at the time, and I begged her to save me, telling her I was dying. But she said, "Stop being so dramatic! You're just trying to get our attention. If you want to die so badly, then go ahead and die."

That was my last call for help before the line went dead, and then I was struck by a car.

I lay on that dark road, bleeding profusely. They thought I was just sulking, hiding away to get attention. They thought if they ignored me, I would come back and apologize to them.

They didn't know I was already dead.

I saved a dying mobster three years ago. Vincent Ricci—New York's most feared Godfather.

He decided I was his. Private jets, five-million-dollar proposals, the whole nine yards. I fell for it.

The night before our wedding, his enemies took me. Three days of torture left me blind. Everyone said he'd never marry damaged goods. He married me anyway and spent three years treating me like a queen.

Yesterday I fell down the stairs and my sight came back.

But that's when I found out about my perfect husband's dirty secret.

I've been with Michael for five years, stood by him as he clawed his way up from nobody to mafia boss.

He promised me we'd get to city hall and make it official once he made it to the top, and today's supposed to be the day we finally register our marriage.

He's already postponed our registration eight times before because of his first love, Yvaine Price.

This is attempt number nine, and I'm not giving him a tenth.

In my past life, the night before the National Cheerleading Championship finals, my "best friend" Lily, the scholarship student I'd been sponsoring, handed me a brownie she claimed she'd "baked herself."

She knew I had a deadly peanut allergy. Yet she'd loaded it with concentrated peanut butter.

When I collapsed on the locker room floor, hives erupting across my skin, my throat swelling shut until I couldn't make a sound, Lily just covered her mouth and nestled into my boyfriend Liam's arms, whimpering: "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I'm such an idiot. I mixed up the peanut butter with chocolate... you won't blame me, right?"

Of course I blamed you.

The quarterback I'd loved for three years didn't call 911. Instead, he frowned down at me convulsing on the ground.

"Chloe, stop faking, okay?" Liam's voice dripped with annoyance. "Lily already apologized. Why do you have to put on this dramatic show to scare her? You're always so controlling."

Controlling?

My airway was closing. My lungs were on fire. I was dying, and I couldn't force out a single word to tell him.

They didn’t call an ambulance until I stopped moving, but by the time it got there, it was too late. I was already dead.

When the police questioned him, Liam gave false testimony to protect Lily. He claimed I was afraid of losing the competition, so I tried to use an allergic reaction to avoid competing, but accidentally ingested too much of the allergen and died.

The man who said he loved me let me die with the reputation of a coward.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on that day.

When my CEO husband threatens divorce for the 99th time, this time trying to force me to hand over a million-dollar project to his assistant Chloe, I finally stop fighting.
I give him the project without a word.
He's thrilled. Thinks I've finally accepted my place. To reward me, he announces we'll throw a grand celebration for our fifth wedding anniversary.
Chloe finds out and falls apart. Locks herself in the supply closet. Can't bear the thought of watching us celebrate five years of marriage.
Arthur panics. Suddenly the anniversary party becomes a "client dinner" he can't reschedule. He'll take Chloe instead—she's been handling that account, after all.
"You understand how business works," he tells me. "We can celebrate privately later."
I see the photo she posts: Chloe in the restaurant he booked for us, wearing the dress he picked out, his hand covering hers across the table.
I tell him I understand.
He's satisfied. Promises we'll do something even better next month.
He doesn't know I've resigned. Doesn't know he signed the divorce papers three days ago when I slipped them into his contract stack.
We don't have a next month.

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

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

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

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

Those sweet words I knew so well completely destroyed me.

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

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