3491 Book(s) Related to love me of you dare

Detective Iris Hale has spent twelve years building an impeccable reputation—logical, relentless, untouchable. In a city where most cases involve infidelity and insurance fraud, she's the department's rising star, poised for promotion to Homicide Chief. Then the "Reaper Murders" shatter her carefully constructed world.
Seventeen bodies in three months. Each victim carved with an elegant "R" mark post-mortem, their faces frozen in expressions of euphoric terror. No DNA. No witnesses. No pattern—except the killer's obsession with perfection. The city spirals into paranoia, and the department hands Iris an ultimatum: catch the Reaper or watch her career burn.
But when Iris discovers a mark identical to the victims' carved into her own childhood diary—dated fifteen years ago—the investigation becomes horrifyingly personal. Someone has been watching her since she was seventeen. Someone who knows the darkest secret she's buried: the night she accidentally killed her abusive stepfather and made it look like suicide.
Enter Dr. Ronan Ashford, the enigmatic forensic psychologist assigned to her task force. Brilliant, unsettling, and possessing an uncanny ability to predict the killer's next move, Ronan becomes Iris's only anchor in the chaos. He sees past her professional armor to the guilt she's weaponized into ambition. Their intellectual chemistry ignites into something dangerous, something neither can afford—especially when Iris begins noticing that Ronan's theoretical profiles feel less like deduction and more like confession.
As bodies pile up and the Reaper's messages grow intimate—notes addressing her by childhood nickname, crime scenes staged at locations from her past—Iris faces an impossible truth: the killer isn't just obsessed with her. He's been crafting her into his masterpiece for over a decade. Every case she's solved, every criminal she's caught, every moral compromise she's made—all calculated steps in his grand design.

Rachel Wood is uprooted from her home and enters a new high school, in 10th grade, in an affluent suburb in Westchester, New York. She struggles with meeting new friends, finding a boyfriend, avoiding the cliques of mean girls, and meets a mysterious boy from her school, Benji, and knows he is different from everyone. As their romance deepens, will she give up everything to find out his secret?

Cora Snow has always been the outcast of the Lincoln Pack. At twenty, her wolf remains dormant, leaving her weak, overlooked, and an easy target for ridicule. She’s invisible, until the night her wolf finally awakens.
That same night, Cain, the Alpha’s enigmatic son, returns to the pack, accompanied by Cora’s sister, the golden image of everything Cora is not. Fate strikes cruelly: Cain, her destined mate, rejects her before she can even speak. Humiliated and broken, Cora flees, disappearing into the shadows of the wilderness. And no one, neither her pack nor her own family bats an eye. To them, she has always been nothing.
But Cora is far from nothing. What begins as a quiet spark of survival quickly ignites into a force no one could anticipate. The weak wolf they scorned is about to become the most powerful, feared, and untouchable creature the pack has ever known. And when destiny calls, the girl they laughed at will have the power to rewrite everything.....including Cain’s heart.

Gina's perfect life was turned into a live horror scene when she witnessed her husband fucking her sister. The worst part? She was pregnant and was ready to tell her husband only for her to realize they had been trying to make her infertile for years. Upon discovering their betrayal, they pushed her down a cliff and left her to die. Surprisingly, she was saved by a stranger who found her washed up on his beach. This stranger however wanted something from her. A marriage contract that could destroy the lives of the ones who tried to kill her. Except, this stranger also wanted her sister.

At twenty-nine, Dominic Brooks owns this city's underworld.

This year, I'm pregnant again. Finally.

But on our daughter's death anniversary, he doesn't show. Five hours. Nothing.

I find him at our casino with some girl draped all over him. The same girl I pulled out of a trafficking ring two years ago.

She's laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "His wife won't stop crying about that dead kid. God, he's so over it."

He kisses her. Right in front of me.

Three days later, he tears up our daughter's grave. His mistress wants a swimming pool.

The shovel comes down. My unborn baby goes with it.

Years ago, Dominic taught me the rules of our world. How we handle traitors.

Time for a reminder.

At the annual charity gala, I stood in the spotlight as the student representative.

My roommate, Harper, suddenly stormed the stage, publicly accusing me of being a sugar baby who seduced her father.

"That diamond necklace around her neck was bought with my dad's money!"

I instantly became public enemy number one. The crowd erupted into a frenzy of boos, and the administration, caving to the pressure, prepared to expel me on the spot.

Facing the out-of-control screaming and the countless live-stream cameras shoved in my face, I pulled out my phone and dialed the so-called "sugar daddy" right there in front of everyone.

"Dad," I said coldly. "Since when did I get a new 'sister'?"

The day I found out I was dying, Alpha Griffon Knight broke up with me. Our relationship was a contract, but when his true love came back, he didn’t need me anymore. He canceled our contract and told me to get lost. I thought that after five years, his frozen heart would thaw for me. How wrong I was. So I packed my things and left. Without telling him… I only had three months left to live.

Griffon Knight’s private jet landed at the airport at 7:00 p.m., just as the sun was starting to set, vivid orange and red giving way to the bright light of the moon. Within a half hour of his arrival, he requested that I be brought to his downtown penthouse.

For three years, I was nothing but an invisible wife. While my billionaire husband, James, showered his mistress with millions, I watched my family get driven to ruin.

Heartbroken, I left the signed divorce papers and fled. But the ultimate nightmare came in a foreign hospital: doctors told me my newborn daughter had died at birth. My world went dark.

Six years later, I returned. Not as a pathetic housewife, but as a world-renowned medical genius, flanked by my two brilliant twin sons.

Then, the sickening truth unraveled. My daughter wasn't dead. She was stolen, locked in the Martin mansion, and abused into autism by James's mistress. Now, the mistress wants me dead, while James is suddenly desperate to trap me by his side, demanding a second chance.

This time, I won't run. The stolen years, the torture of my daughter, and the ruin of my family—I’m going to make you pay it all back, with interest.

I was a penniless nobody looked down upon by everyone. My wife was bullied along with me because of that. People treated us like beggars, bullying us as they pleased, forcing me to lick their toes, and making me eat with dogs.
Then one day, a stranger came to me and said, "Your father left you a fortune of five hundred billion dollars..."

For five years, Celia was nothing more than Alpha king’s secret lover, wearing her disliked dress and perfume, just because he like it on her.
—until She overheard the truth: “She’s just a replacement. A gold digger.”
"I chose her, just becuase she seems like you. She's your Substitute. Never deserved be a luna."
Shattered, she walks away, vowing never to look back.
But then—her instincts sharpen, her senses heighten, and Soren’s scent clings to her skin.
...Mate.
Impossible. A wolfless girl like her could never be the Alpha King’s fated mate… right?
*
On the first day she left, he wasn’t worried. “She’ll come back.”
“Don’t bother with it. She was just a substitute lover. A worthless gold digger.”
But after a week… a month… three months… his panic set in.
“Lock down the entire pack—find her at all costs…
—Find my Luna!”

In a city where magic and darkness intertwine with ancient secrets and futuristic technology, two siblings marked by a hidden past seek redemption. Izabella, a young witch with a deep connection to the moon, and Brandon, a banished wizard with uncontrollable power, become entangled in a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their world. The arrival of an enigmatic vampire, Lord Lucien, unleashes a forbidden passion between him and Izabella—a desire that defies old alliances and ignites a dangerous game of seduction. As forces of night and light clash in an epic battle, an ancient prophecy called "Miss Atomic Bomb" reveals that only the union of love and sacrifice can save their destiny. Amid secrets, betrayals, and forbidden love, the protagonists must confront their own demons to prevent total destruction from consuming Luminara.

I clicked the anonymous link, and my world shattered. There was my perfect fiancé, in a live stream, entangled with the woman who was supposed to be my maid of honor—my best friend.
He was the hero who donated his bone marrow to save my life. Now, he was defiling our future marriage bed in the most vile betrayal. I thought this was their twisted idea of a game, until I dug deeper and uncovered the truth: our "fateful" connection three years ago was nothing but a calculated lie.
My savior, my soulmate, the father of my child... it was all a facade. Now, I've vanished into the night, carrying a secret they know nothing about—his child. Their little show was just the beginning.
My revenge? It's just getting started.

I gave up my Harvard Ph.D. and lived in the slums for five years as a corpse restorer, all to save my dying boyfriend.
But when I brought the $72,000 I literally bled for to his VIP ward, I found him drinking champagne.
"Thanks for faking the medical records, Doc," Ethan smirked. "Her sob-story money is paying for my Senate run nicely."
His glamorous campaign manager, Sloane, chimed in: "Just be careful, Ethan. What if she figured out your family background and is just playing the long game? She might be a gold digger climbing the political ladder."
"Please," Ethan scoffed in disgust. "Marry a woman who scrubs dead bodies every night? I'll throw her out the minute the election is over."
A gold digger? Me? Climbing his ladder?
I looked at my calloused hands, then calmly messaged the most terrifying political patriarch in Boston.
"Dad, you were right. I'm coming home, and I'll marry the Federal Prosecutor.”

When my husband pushed the divorce papers in front of me for the hundredth time, demanding I sacrifice myself for my sister, I didn't cry or make a scene. I simply signed my name, willingly giving up the man I'd loved for eight years to Ivy.

A few days later, Ivy got drunk and drove into a state senator's only son during a street race, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Once again, I stepped forward to take the blame and bear all the consequences.
When they later suggested I donate my kidney to Ivy, I readily agreed.

Mom and Dad said I'd finally grown into a mature and responsible sister.

Even my cold husband stood by my hospital bed and, for the first time in so long, gently stroked my cheek. He whispered, "Don't be afraid. The surgery will be a success. When you recover, we'll go traveling."

But he didn't know that whether the surgery succeeded or not, I wouldn't be going anywhere with him.

Because I was already terminally ill, with little time left.

After one year of marriage, her husband discovered Ella's two children from outside.
Ella was unable to defend herself and chose divorce.
After leaving with nothing, her ex-husband Joshua came to Ella, saying the children were his.
To bring the two children back to the Thomas family, Joshua appeared in front of Ella every day, enthusiastically trying to win over the children.
"Ella, remarry me, and from now on I'll do whatever you say."
Ella pulled the children closer, "Sorry, ex-husband, I have a new husband now."
At that moment, Joshua felt like the sky was falling.
How could his wife and children be with another man.

Five years ago, James publicly called off their engagement and personally sent Nora to prison.
On the day of her release, James dragged her to the hospital: "Evelyn was in a car accident and needs a kidney transplant. Give her your kidney."
She had congenital heart disease - donating a kidney would be a death sentence. When she refused, James used every means to force her.
On the day she entered the operating room, her heart stopped and resuscitation failed. It was said that James, who had desperately wanted her dead, cried at her grave for three days and nights.
Later, James saw Nora again at the Smith family home.
She was already married to his older brother Michael, holding a five-year-old child, having become Michael's beloved and pampered little wife.
James: "Nora, I know I was wrong."
Michael: "Get lost. This is your sister-in-law."

I was dragged to the stand of the MRI Memory Court by my own flesh and blood.

Their demand? To forcibly extract my kidney to keep their uremic adopted daughter alive.

A guilty verdict meant losing not just my bodily autonomy, but my freedom for the rest of my life.

Bathed in the global spotlight, my parents performed as tragic heroes, while their adopted saint cried a river of deceit.

They thought they had cornered the perfect victim, waiting for the world to send me to the slaughter.

But the moment the memory holograms ignited and reality bled through, the hunters instantly became the hunted.

"Come back to me, Ivy," the man whom she used to love with all her heart said.“No, no,” Ivy shook her head and backed away from him. Her body trembled as fear consumed her whole being. He was the reason her baby was gone! He was the reason for all her suffering!

Ivy thought she was the luckiest woman in the world - she was married to the man of her dream.But that was just her illusion. On the day she received her pregnancy report, she found her husband in bed with his best friend. Before she had the chance to tell him about her pregnancy, she was forced to divorce and her family was driven to bankruptcy by that one man she loved.Since then, her life went south.
She married a governor in another country whom everyone thought was a gentleman. Everyone envied her, but no one knew he was a sadist who loved to abuse her.Five years later, the man she used to love met her by chance and begged her to come back.But would she be able to give her heart again, when all she felt toward him was fear and hatred? Knowing that he was the sole reason her life had turned to be what it was today with endless suffering?

"Men are visual creatures. Put on this sexy nightgown, lie on the bed, and trust me—he won't be able to resist!"

My best friend sent me a lace nightgown with cutouts.

I traded my usual innocent look for something different. The sheer fabric clung to my curves, revealing just enough to be tantalizing.

We'd been married for three years. The first time we made love was only a month ago.

Kian had been drunk. He was gentle as he entered me.

But now, as I shyly reached for Kian's hand in silent invitation, he coldly turned me down.

He'd rather lock himself in his study, pleasuring himself while calling out another woman's name.

His first love.

No one would have imagined that Darius would risk his life for the ordinary girl, and even lose more...
But he gained her. Enough. That is all he wanted.

Mystica comes from the royal family called Leone Clan. It was known as the most outstanding clan among fairies' who ruled the Sylph kingdom for centuries.
Before she lost her memories, she was declared to sit on her mother's throne and take over the leadership of their clan to continue their legacy and carry the responsibilities to take care of all the creatures that belong to Sylph kingdom be it on the inside or from the outside.

Darius, who was born from the most renowned clan of dragons, is known as the highest and superior type among royal bloodlines.
Wherever he goes, a lot of female dragons would always there surround him, luring him to sleep with them. Be it at their Cage Empire or the Midnight Escape Club exclusively for royal-blooded dragons, aroused smells from drakainas always lingered around him but he wasn't interested. Not even an ounce of arousal he felt inside.
When it comes to finding their fated mates, dragons are the most sensitive creature in the Mystical Realm. A single night of desire meant forever to them. It wasn't called a hopeless romantic but called unfairness. Unlike werewolves, they couldn't reject the very first person that they slept with for the very first time because the dragon's mark would naturally appear after having a steamy session be it a drakaina or different types of shifters. In this case, choices are not negotiable rather the traditional union has to be made after that therefore, he always shows his aloofness and indifference towards any female creatures and the woman in front of him was no exception...
Is that true?

Second book of 'The Nerd Can Fight' Series

You'll need to read the first book to understand this one

After Adam's memory loss, Cassandra struggled to keep her distance in an attempt to protect the person she loves.

This time, she doesn't have a choice in fighting the dangerous battle anymore. For the sake of the people she loves, she's forced to endanger her own life, fighting her way to the top.

Cassandra survived high school but who was to say that her story ends there. Trouble was piling up and she's determined to start sweeping.

This is the story of a girl who was fighting through life with everything she's got when everyone else tried to hold her down.

Warning: Heavy flow of profanities ahead. Read at your own risk

On the day of her wedding, 18-year-old Evelyn Monroe's life comes to a tragic end under mysterious circumstances. However, fate grants her an extraordinary second chance—she awakens in her 16-year-old self, two years before her death. Armed with memories of betrayal and heartbreak, Evelyn is determined to rewrite her destiny. She resolves to break off the toxic engagement that once led to her demise, reclaim her autonomy, and navigate the treacherous waters of high school alliances. Along the way, she encounters Liam Bennett, a brooding and enigmatic classmate with secrets of his own. As Evelyn and Liam's paths intertwine, she faces a dilemma: can she trust this mysterious figure, or is he part of the conspiracy that led to her fatal wedding day?

In the seventh year after I broke my fated mate's heart and he went abroad to study, he finally returned home with his new fiancée to meet his parents.
On that exact same day, the hospital finally pronounced my seven-year battle with Core Degeneration a failure. I was sent home to wait for death.
Seeing me sitting in a wheelchair on the street, supported by my mother, a mocking smile appeared on Kaelen's lips.
"It’s been seven years, and you've fallen so low you can't even walk?"
Listening to his disgusted voice and smelling the Alpha pine scent I once loved so much, I panicked, hurriedly yanking down the sleeves of my coat to hide the dense, ugly needle marks on the back of my hand.
"It's nothing. I fell and broke my leg, that's all," I lied quietly.
Kaelen sneered, pulling a beautiful Omega woman,Sloane, closer to his side. She smelled exactly like I used to—vanilla and rain.
"Since you're so free," he drawled, his eyes cold, "I'm getting married soon. Why don't you be Sloane's bridesmaid?"
I just smiled calmly. "No thanks. I'm going somewhere very far away soon."

In her past life, Arabella Oberon was the lowest-ranking member of the Oberon family.

She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.

Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.

Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.

Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,

"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"

When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.

Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.

No more soft-heartedness.

No more groveling.

Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.

Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.

And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.

Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.

Alex has never known peace. Between a sick younger brother, parents whose love curdled into daily war, and a cheating ex who turned violent, she learned early that survival means never trusting too deeply and never hoping too much.
When one night of terror drives her into the path of three dangerous men who look like sin sculpted in flesh, her world shifts in ways she never could have imagined.
Reed, Rhett, and Rhys.
Three brothers with eyes like night and a power that hums in the air around them. They rule Denver's underground, their names whispered with equal parts reverence and fear.
Until Alex collides with their world.
What should have ended in disaster becomes something far worse. When her family is forced to relocate for her grandfather's funeral, Alex uncovers the unthinkable truth. The same three men who saved her, the ones who etched fear and forbidden desire into her mind, are her step-uncles.
Now she is trapped inside their mansion, surrounded by luxury that feels more like a cage than a refuge. The house is thick with tension. Reed's gaze is sharp and challenging. Rhys's words brush too close to danger. Rhett's quiet attention carries a weight she does not want to examine too closely.
They are older, powerful, and each of them carries a darkness that draws her in despite everything she knows she should resist.
Beneath the cold marble walls and glittering wealth lie secrets her father refuses to explain. Secrets about why he left this family years ago and what kind of empire his half-brothers truly built.
The Alcatraz brothers are not just men. They are predators in tailored suits, bound by blood and sin, ruling the underworld and loyal only to each other.

“You’re dripping,” he groaned. “You hear that? You’re making a mess all over me.”


He's the school's willful billionaire bad boy— hot, tall, handsome who made her fall and loosen herself for him just to find out it was all a lie.

A bet.

Well, two can dance a tango, right?

A comeback is all she needs. One that would make the so-called dangerous bad boy fall to his knees.

It wasn't just a game to him.

What if there's something more…

A facade he's hiding behind?

WARNING: Contains strong vulgar languages, sexual scenes, erotic contents, triggering situations, and lots more.

Everything she believed in was a lie.
Keira and Alden were Chosen Mates who built the powerful Stormfang Pack together—until she discovered their Mate Bond was a witch's illusion, and the child she raised was actually his with his true Fated Mate, the Omega Rena.
Broken and ready to leave, a secret letter reveals she is the long-lost daughter of Mooncrest Pack's Alpha, the sole heir to a legacy she never knew.
As her dormant Alpha blood awakens in rage, she vows to reclaim her birthright.
But when Kaelan, the cold and calculating Alpha King, approaches her and claims, "You are my Fated Mate," Keira is thrown into deeper confusion.
Why would he say that? And in a world built on deception, can a bond that begins as strategy ever become real… or is it just another layer of the game?

"She was MINE before. How could I have known she would find another man so quickly?"
Dresden Wade was pretty sure the goddess was punishing him. Married for half a decade to his childhood sweetheart without a child, he is desperate for a chance to fight his wrongs when he sees her again.
His TRUE mate. The woman he scorned and humiliated all those years ago.
Except that now, she is standing holding hands with another Alpha.
Mara Reid wants nothing to do with the surly, arrogant Alpha that used to be her mate. He had made the earlier parts of her adulthood traumatic to say the least.
So why did meeting him again feel like coming home?
Why did her traitorous heart skip whenever he called her name?

Catherina Hanshaw Dalton has spent six years believing she lived a fairytale, married to billionaire Xavier Dalton, cherished by him, and building a life rooted in devotion, even amid one heartbreak she cannot control: their inability to have a child. Though Xavier assures her she is enough, Catherine senses his quiet disappointment, a wound deepened by the venomous hostility of his mother, Lydia Dalton. Lydia never misses a chance to insult Catherine’s infertility, idolize Xavier’s sister Mia and her children, or imply Xavier married beneath his status. Catherine endures it all, clinging to the one constant comfort, Xavier always defends her. Or so she believes.
This Christmas, however, Catherine’s dread of another humiliating Dalton family gathering turns into confusion. Lydia is gracious….kind, even. The manor is full of relatives, business partners, and esteemed guests, including Hunter Powell, Xavier’s ruthless business rival. The brief moment when Cathy’s eyes meet Hunter unsettles her, but nothing prepares her for Lydia’s “special Christmas gift.”
During the toast, Lydia presents Caroline Turner…a beautiful young woman who is allegedly four months pregnant through surrogacy…with Xavier’s child.

As a housewife, I never forgot a single milestone: every wedding anniversary, my husband’s 7th career anniversary, and the birthdays of my husband and daughter. Yet, my own birthday was always ignored. Both my husband and daughter only cared about that outsider woman. Finally, one day, I chose to walk away and revive my vintage shop business. Now... they are the ones filled with regret.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on her, Olivia!" He growls at me in anger.
Inwardly, my wolf whimpers in pain; Enzo may not have been our fated mate, but we had formed a mate bond with him.
I have never seen Enzo act this way before. He was naked but didn't care about his appearance. He had never fiercely protected me this way before.
"Our marriage is over. I'm sick of you anyway. I, Alpha Enzo, reject you, Olivia, as my mate and Luna." Enzo's voice was filled with hatred. "Sign the divorce papers and put an end to this ill-fated relationship."
My wolf submitted to the alpha command in Enzo's voice, and I couldn't do anything to stop myself from signing the divorce papers against my will.
I had made Enzo the alpha of this pack and given him everything; not once did I dream that the powers I handed over to him would one day be used against me.
I'm tired of being cheated on.
It's payback time, alphas.


She has been betrayed and hurt by love not just once but twice.
The first man to betray Olivia was her mate, Hunter; he slept with another woman before they could get engaged.
The second man who stepped on Olivia's heart was Alpha Enzo, her husband. He did it the day she was about to share the news of her pregnancy with him.
Olivia made Enzo an alpha, but he made her an unhappy woman after marriage and then forced her to divorce him. He stole everything and left Olivia with nothing.
Left with nothing but a baby, Olivia is offered a deal from her ex-mate, Hunter. A contract marriage. But this time around, Olivia refuses to be a fool who gets used and dumped by men when they are done getting what they wanted.
Olivia wants revenge on the two men who had ruined her life and broken her heart; however, with hidden secrets and past misunderstandings, will Olivia's cold heart and cruelty be justified? Or will she regret her decision for revenge?

Seren Han was just another broke student eating instant noodles and mocking bad romance webnovels online—until a ridiculous accident killed her mid-rant.

When she wakes up, it’s inside the very story she was criticizing. Worse, she’s not the heroine destined for love, but Seren Nightwind, the villainess omega fated for rejection and disgrace at the Mate Ceremony.

And then comes the System.

Quests. Penalties. Ridiculous missions like “Laugh at the heroine” and “Seduce the Alpha.”

Every command pushes her closer to ruin, but refusing carries consequences she can’t ignore.

Trapped between the Moon Goddess’s script and the System’s threats, Seren has only one question:

How do you survive when the story itself wants you to lose?

Caroline Mercer once believed kindness could be proven by sacrifice. She took in two orphaned children, gave them schools, doctors, tutors, rooms beside her daughter's nursery, and a path into the Mercer name.

Years later, those children returned as witnesses against her. Sloane Vale smiled for the cameras while calling Caroline a monster. Nolan Vale handed federal investigators a beautiful stack of forged evidence. Caroline's husband was broken, her company was seized, and her only daughter, Evelyn, died after being traded into a marriage meant to protect everyone else's reputation.

Then Caroline opened her eyes on the morning the Vale children first arrived at her door.

This time, she would feed them. She would house them. She would educate them. She would keep every receipt, every doctor's report, every legal notice.

But she would never again give strangers the keys to her child's future.

I thought ten years of childhood sweethearts could weather any storm.

Until that night when Charles rushed out after her call, leaving me alone in bed with his child growing inside me, not knowing how to tell him.

Seraphina Blackwood, tech dynasty heiress, threatened Charles with her father's billion-dollar empire to marry her. And me? Just an orphan girl who seemed to mean nothing in Silicon Valley's power games.

When I watched him remove our wedding ring, when I saw their sweet photos at the hospital, when I lay bleeding on the floor and he chose her... I finally understood that maybe love really can't survive against money.

But what I didn't know was that while I started my new life in Switzerland, there was a man secretly protecting me with his kidney, his heart, his everything...

Until his assistant appeared at my little bakery, desperation in his eyes: "Ms. Thorne, please, you have to save him!"

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.

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

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

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

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

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

I jumped from the church balcony.

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

This time, I said yes.

Dante, from now on, we're done.

The day I died in a foreign country, my boyfriend was in the spotlight with another woman.

He's the man I built from nothing. Five years ago, I saved a broke orphan fresh out of college from the gutter. He said he wanted to be famous, wanted to make it to the top of the hockey world. In exchange, he became my boyfriend for five years.

I gave him the best coaching staff money could buy. Bought an entire hockey franchise and made him the centerpiece. Called in every favor I had to make him MVP.

But while he enjoyed everything I gave him, he refused to make our relationship public. Said it would "hurt his brand." He could make headlines with reporters and models, but nobody could know I existed.

He even said on national TV: "Those owners who just throw money around are pretty boring. Hockey is about skill, not money."

So why did he lose his mind when he found out I was dead?

My daughter Lily was shot dead while she was performing on her own stage.
I rushed forward to shield her, and a speaker crashed down onto my right shoulder. The bone shattered.
My husband, Vincent, “shot the gunman dead” at once and sealed off the entire opera house.
When I woke up in the hospital room, the pain almost suffocated me. My right shoulder was wrapped in thick bandages, and when I tried to raise my arm, all I felt was a numb.
“…This isn’t what we agreed on.” The doctor’s voice was low and unsteady. “We only needed her blood sample for matching. Why did it have to go this far?”
“Lily’s blood type is a perfect match. This is the best possible outcome,” Vincent said. “I married Elena for this moment. I’ve been waiting for it.”
The doctor was silent for a few seconds. “But she’s your daughter… There’s no need to sacrifice a life, even if she is a Salaceno.”
Vincent cut him off. “You know how long an artificial heart can last. Camila’s daughter won’t hold out for long. I can’t put her through another surgery.”
“Camila’s child is the one I should cherish.”
At that moment, my blood ran cold. In his eyes, my daughter was nothing but an organ container.
He had no idea. All that talk about protecting his precious daughter—she wasn't even his.

They told me the baby was gone, but they didn't tell me my heart was being carved out, too.

I woke up on the operating table, paralyzed. Through my blurred vision, I saw my beloved husband, Marco, trembling with excitement as he held my medical chart.

"Her blood is perfect," he whispered. "It is a perfect match for Isabella. We can proceed with the transplant now."

"Finally. It wasn't in vain that I brought her back." My revered father let out a sigh of relief. "If it weren't for this day, how would someone who wandered outside for so many years be qualified to step into this house again?"

When my husband said "I love you," he actually meant "Your heart is perfect for the woman I truly love."

I couldn't scream; I couldn't move.

I could only watch helplessly as the silver scalpel pierced toward my chest, while my sister, Isabella, lay on the operating table next to me, smiling in her sleep.

I was never a long-lost daughter, nor was I a beloved wife.

I was just a mobile blood bank waiting to be slaughtered.

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.

In bed, he gripped my hips, whispering, "Principessa." In public, he was Cosimo—the ruthless mafia don who dismissed me with an icy, "Piccola."
For three years after he bought me, he never touched me. But a year ago, when Caterina returned, everything changed. He became a man possessed, tearing my dresses to shreds in the dead of night, claiming me with wild fury. He even promised to marry me in seven days.
On a storm-drenched afternoon, clutching my positive pregnancy test, I rushed to his private club to surprise him.
But as my hand touched the doorknob, Cosimo’s cold warning drifted through the door.
"Marcellino, know your place as a double. My things—especially Serenella—are strictly off-limits."
My blood ran cold. I peeked through the gap.
Cosimo sat on the sofa, completely indifferent. And by the pool table stood a man with a face identical to his.

To help his life-saving benefactor, he personally pressed a pregnant me on the operating table to draw bone marrow.
I cried and begged him, "James, I'm pregnant. It's your child. Don't do this to me..."
But he had a look of disgust in his eyes. "Elizabeth, you'd lie about something like that just to get out of helping Mandy?"
Until there was a river of blood in the operating room and that unformed child turned into a pool of bloody water, he finally panicked.
Later, when he knew that the person who saved him in the fire ten years ago was actually me, he held my ashes and knelt outside the operating room for a full three days.

My brother was jealous after I won a $50 million lottery jackpot, so he tricked me into believing an extreme ice-age apocalypse was coming.
Because I trusted him, I spent every last dollar my parents and I had—fortifying the house and stockpiling supplies.
Two weeks later, he told me that there was no coming apocalypse. It had all been a lie.
Just when I was drowning in despair, hail started falling in the middle of summer.
The deep freeze apocalypse had really begun.