435 Book(s) Related to tully hart dad

She was never the daughter anyone expected to be sent up that mountain.

For a hundred years, Ironhold has paid the Dragon King a strange yearly tribute, one daughter of the royal house, sent to serve at his court. Everyone assumed it would be Bryn's beautiful older sister. Instead, to save her, Bryn puts on her sister's cloak, packs her own forge tools, and rides into the mountain herself.

She expects a monster. She finds a king who has spent a century turning himself into one on purpose, guarding a burned wing of his castle that no one is allowed to enter, and a grief he's never let anyone near.

But the treaty that brought her to him was never goodwill. It was payment for something her own family has hidden for generations, and the truth, once it surfaces, could burn down everything they've built.

I snapped photos of pale yellow baby clothes I’d bought at Target, posted them on Instagram captioned “Juno's wardrobe.”
Right after I put my phone away, my mother-in-law Genevieve called and berated me. She claimed I’d lost my mind after our stillbirth, insisted I wasn’t pregnant, and demanded I delete the post.
As soon as we hung up, my water broke.
Six hours later, I woke up worn out on a hospital delivery bed at Devereux Memorial Hospital. No baby cried anywhere.
My husband Elias sat beside me with bloodshot eyes. He pulled a lifelike silicone fake pregnancy belly out and set it on my lap, begging me to accept I wasn’t actually carrying a child. I screamed that I’d given birth and demanded to know where my baby Juno was.
Dr. Beckett and a team of doctors walked in, diagnosing me with pseudocyesis—phantom pregnancy. They said I’d only worn a silicone pad to fake a belly. My parents stood nearby, staring at me with shameful pity.
They forced me onto a psychiatric ambulance. I was locked in a windowless ward, drugged nonstop, tormented by the loss of my daughter, until every ounce of my will faded away...

My husband told me our daughter was brain-dead. He put a pen in my hand and told me to sign the organ donation form. He said it was the merciful thing to do.
I signed.
Then I watched her heart get cut out and transplanted into another child — his mistress's son.
He'd been planning it for months. The fake diagnosis, the doctor who happened to be his college girlfriend, the night his mother lured me away from the hospital so they could drug my little girl.
When I found out the truth, he killed me for it.
But somehow, I woke up back at that desk. Same pen. Same form. Same lying face waiting for my signature.
This time, I'm not signing. This time, they pay.

The Dragon's Stolen Bride: A Heart Between Two Worlds
GENRE
Fantasy Romance, Dragon Shifter Romance, Mistaken Identity, Royal Romance

Five years ago, Emma Holloway made the cruelest choice of her life—breaking the heart of the only man who ever truly loved her. She let him walk away without knowing the truth. Now? She’s broke, desperate, and hiding behind a fake name just to land a job.

Only it’s not just any job. It’s at Harrington Enterprises.

And her new boss?
Cole Harrington. The man she pushed away. The man who built an empire… and never forgot the woman who betrayed him.

Cole is colder now. Powerful, unreadable, and engaged to someone else. But when he sees her again—“Emily Grace,” as she now calls herself—he plays along. Smiling in public. Testing her in private. Pushing boundaries she’s too vulnerable to defend.

She needs the paycheck. He wants answers.
But neither of them are prepared for what happens when secrets start unraveling, and emotions long buried come roaring back.

Because Cole isn’t just back for business.

He’s back for closure.
Or revenge.
And maybe... her heart.

Ava Monroe is struggling to pay for her college fees. After a terrible loss in business when her family went bankrupt overnight, Ava saw all her dreams shatter right in front of her eyes. It doesn't help that her family is obsessed with becoming wealthy again. The shock of being poor had turned them into something Ava could no longer recognize. However, eager for some quick money, Ava works as an escort over the summer before college begins. The money is good, and she hasn't had any strange experiences yet. That has to be worth something, right?

Brian Reinhold is rich, successful and soon turning forty. But his home is anything but happy. After losing his sixteen-year-old daughter in a car crash, Brian doesn’t know how to go on with life anymore. Nothing makes sense. Nothing makes him lively. His friends believe Brian needs a break. A long pause in his hectic life so he could grieve and make amends for the sadness that is dousing him from inside. But instead of packing his bags and moving to his hometown, Brian thrusts himself more into work and pretends that moving on is a choice, not binding.

But life takes a toll when the next client on Ava’s list turns out to be Brian Reinhold. The dear daddy of Valerie. Ava’s best friend. Now, Ava doesn’t know why the idea of sleeping with a man double her age is electrifying. Brian Reinhold might be forty soon, but he looks anything but old. His arms are a thing of beauty and his charming grey eyes can suck you in so deep that reality gladly withers away. But this arrangement has cons of its own. And truth has the power to destroy the lives they both care for.

"And.. you are?"
"Camila..."
Lawson frowned. "What..."
Camila’s gaze hardened. "I didn't walk back from the dead for a friendly chat or to rehash how thoroughly you all ruined what was left of my life..." She held her chin up as if trying to keep herself from breaking her fragile composure. "I came to settle the score."


Camila thought she had lost everything when she received the shock of her life. But when she was forced to fake her own death and assume a new identity, she realized she had been accidentally given a second chance.
This new life came with a new discovery that Camila, the once shameful and disgraceful wife of the wealthy and powerful Miller family, turned out to be a force to be reckoned with, a rival worthy of respect, and a woman not to be underestimated.
Not even her husband stood a chance.

They killed his whole family. They left the boy alive, thinking he was nothing. A pup with no den, they said. The city would eat him soon enough.

They were wrong about that. The city did not eat him. It forged him.

Ten years later, Kaelen comes home to Charter. He is not a boy anymore. He carries a cold magic that was born from his own pain and suffering, the ability to pull bad memories out of places and make them real for a while. A scream trapped in a wall, the shadow of a victim, the last feeling of someone who died wrong: it is all fuel for him now.

But the power is wild and untamed. Every time he uses it, it hurts him and costs him something valuable. His enemies are still here, rich and comfortable, three of the most powerful people in the city. They do not know he is coming for them. They are about to learn.

To destroy them, Kaelen must first master himself. He must grow stronger and learn the full depths of his power. Because the echoes do not just haunt his enemies. They haunt him too. And the stronger he becomes, the less of his original self remains behind.

Renee thought marriage meant forever. But to Clark, she was nothing more than a burden… a mistake he planned to erase. The night of the fire, he made his choice: to leave her behind, to let the flames consume her, and to start over without the wife he once vowed to love for a mistress he once introduced as “Just a Friend”.
But fate had other plans.
Pulled from the ashes by Andrew Kinsley… the man who’d always loved her in silence…Renee was given a second chance at life. Now stronger, sharper, and no longer blinded by love, she returns not as Clark’s wife, but as his nightmare.
With Andrew at her side, Renee is ready to dismantle everything Clark treasures… his career, his reputation, his family… piece by piece.
Because some betrayals don’t deserve forgiveness. They deserve fire.

I married a rapist.
After the wedding, I played the perfect wife. I always took off my makeup after he fell asleep, and reapplied it before he woke up.
My husband loved showing off on his livestream, bragging that women should know their place.
One viewer sent a warning in the chat:
[Run, man. Only vengeful spirits do their makeup in the middle of the night—when their resentment is strongest, the makeup lasts longer!]
I covered my face and grinned wickedly.
Oops, forgot concealer. My corpse marks are showing.

They call it an "alpha team," boasting about our million-dollar AI equipment. I thought I just had terrible luck at work—the scanner bruising my arm, the coffee maker intentionally scalding me. Trapped by a $500,000 resignation penalty, I must survive tonight’s overtime. But in the dark copy room, the shredder is... breathing.

Can an injured wolf and a broken witch heal each other . . .Alice Sheffield tore her soul into pieces and hid them to escape a soul-eating demon. Free at last, she longs to rebuild herself as something new and stronger, but she doesn't know how. Then a catalyst for change enters her life. Ewan Shaw was shot with an ensorcelled silver bullet that has tainted his blood and bound his wolf beyond his reach. He retreats to his friend's rural farm to lick his wounds and contemplate his lack of prospects. Renowned for his cold detachment, he is fascinated by broken Alice and the heat she stirs within him. Then fate presents an opportunity. In bringing an old foe to justice, Ewan might find a path for his life and a way for Alice to confront her demons. But to do that, two broken people must heal each other, or shattered pieces will be lost forever.

He doesn’t know I watched him for years.
Not from afar. Not casually.
Obsession isn’t casual.

I was fourteen the first time I saw him.
He was eighteen, beautiful, untouchable, everything I decided I needed.

So I made a plan.

I befriended his brother.
I won his mother’s trust.
I moved into his orbit so seamlessly, he never questioned it.

Now, I’m his wife.
He calls it fate.
He tells people we were meant to be.
But he doesn’t know the truth was designed.

He doesn’t know about the notes.
The maps.
The screenshots.
The years of silence, waiting, stalking, perfecting the version of me he would fall in love with.

But secrets don’t stay buried forever.
And the deeper you bury a lie, the louder it screams when it surfaces.

Because he just found my old phone.

And the man I stalked for a decade…
Is now stalking me.

Was it ever love, or just revenge in disguise?

Adeline had one choice: marry Grayson Archer, the ruthless billionaire, to save her dying mother and erase her father’s gambling debts.

Five years as his contract wife meant enduring cold indifference, sharp words, and a life overshadowed by his manipulative family. When the contract ends, Adeline shocks everyone—especially Grayson—by walking away.

But Grayson isn’t ready to let her go. Determined to win her back, he devises a new plan, only to discover feelings he never expected. Just as their fragile bond begins to heal, a devastating secret from his past and a betrayal Adeline can't forgive threaten to destroy everything.

Can love survive the ultimate test, or will Grayson lose the only woman he’s ever truly wanted?

Four years of scholarships. Four years of straight A's. Four years with Leo—my first love, my forever. I thought I had it all figured out. Study hard, graduate, build a life with the boy who promised me the world. Except the world he promised me was a lie.

Because why is my broke boyfriend wearing a designer suit in a restaurant I couldn't afford in ten lifetimes? And why is he kissing a girl dripping in diamonds?

Heartbreak tastes like betrayal. But I don't have time to fall apart—I have a lesson to teach. Sophia Voss, daughter of Wall Street's most elusive billionaire, is waiting.

What I don't expect? Her father, Elias Voss, cornering me in his room. His thumb catching my tears, tilting my chin up until I'm drowning in those gray eyes.

"He's a fool," he murmurs, his breath warm against my temple. "A boy who couldn't see the woman right in front of him."

His hand slides to my waist. My resistance crumbles. Then he leans in, his lips brushing my ear:

"You're so tight, Miss Reed. Perfect."

Wait—is he talking about my teaching? Or something else entirely?

One night becomes one mistake becomes his mouth claiming mine, growling, "Marry me."

By day, I'm still her tutor. By night? I'll be Mrs. Voss.

Some lessons happen after hours—and my new husband grades on a curve.

Ten years of rules built her whole life. One boy she should never have looked at twice tears it all down.

Elena Hart believes every loss of control comes with a price. She watched her mother gamble everything on love—and she watched that gamble lose, completely. So, since the age of eighteen, she has trusted exactly one thing: rules. Rules carried her from scholarship girl to a tenure-track seat in Calloway University's psychology department, the kind of position people claw each other apart to get. Three more years through review, and she'll finally have a life no one can take from her.
She just can't make a single mistake.

Then, on the first day of the semester, a name appears on her roster—Eli Bennet.

Her best friend's little brother. The boy she's watched grow up since he was fifteen. Now twenty-one, sitting in the back row of her lecture hall, cap pulled low, eyes fixed on her without a flicker of hesitation. He enrolled in her course. He applied to her research program. Every single thing he does "happens" to place him directly in front of her.

Cameron Mikael Rutten is a vampire detective who makes sure to avoid cases related to magic. But when his mother is murdered, his quest to find the killer draws him deep into West Mount's homicidal cases and dark underworld.

Cameron realizes he must ignore faction policies while evading a dangerous enemy even as he gets entangled with a female coworker. However, things take a drastic turn when he has to make a balance between being a vampire that other dangerous creatures wants and his new horrible self, being a dybbuk.

Three years ago, Ye Chen was the unrivaled genius of the Azure Cloud Sect—until the woman he loved betrayed him, shattered his dantian, and stole his Spiritual Bone to climb higher. Cast into the Spirit Beast Stables as a cripple, he is beaten, starved, and forgotten.

But when his blood awakens an ancient ring, everything changes.

The Supreme Overlord System binds to his soul, repairing his body and granting him heaven-defying power. In mere breaths, he reclaims lost cultivation. In a single night, he crushes his first enemy.

The sect believes he is trash.

They are about to witness the birth of a god.

And Ye Chen has a debt to collect.

I died the night before my wedding, betrayed by the man I loved and the friend I trusted more than anyone. I thought death would be the end.
Instead, I woke up in another woman’s body. The same queen that ordered my death. And the mother of two pups who now look at me like I am their whole world.

But the cruelest twist is Alpha King Lucien Silver. The man who once loved the girl I used to be… and now stands beside me as my husband without knowing who I am. And with every passing day, I feel myself falling for him all over again.
But this second life is not a gift. Every time I fail, time drags me back to the beginning. I remember every betrayal, every death. And with each rebirth, my soul cracks a little more.

This is my last chance to change fate. If I die again, I will disappear forever.

At seventy-two, Richard Hayes finally asked my mother for a divorce.

He thought he was setting himself free.

He did not know Eleanor Hayes had been waiting ten years for him to say the words.

By sunset, his new woman would be calling my mother cruel.

By winter, he would be standing on her porch with two suitcases and nowhere soft to land.

And my mother, who had spent nearly half a century opening doors for him, would finally learn how peaceful a locked door could sound.

Twenty years ago, four-year-old Alicia vanished from a park, falling from Connecticut's wealthiest heiress to an orphan overnight. Twenty years later, her birth parents find her working at a coffee shop, bringing her back to a life of luxury.

But behind the fairy tale reunion lurks deadly danger. A mysterious guardian angel named Gabriel begins sending her prophetic warnings about her family's impending doom. Yet Alicia, drunk on newfound happiness, dismisses these as mere hallucinations.

The price of her disbelief is devastating. Her father dies in a horse-riding accident at the country club. Months later, her mother perishes in a car crash on her way to a charity gala. Shattered by grief and guilt, Alicia leaps from a hospital rooftop in despair...

Only to wake up back on the day her parents found her.

This time, she vows to heed Gabriel's every prophecy and save her family. But as she follows the angel's guidance, she discovers that fate's wheels may not be so easily stopped...

The real test has only just begun.

When the armored car had room for only one passenger, Damian Russo chose me.

I was saved, but Lilia Brown didn't make it. She bled out in the crossfire, her body left in the rubble. Damian pretended he didn't care and married me as planned.

For three years, he made me pay for her death—beating me, starving me, blaming me for the fact that she was gone.

In the end, he drove us both off a cliff instead.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the docks on the night of the ambush. This time, I stepped aside and let him save the woman he truly loved.

My husband is sleeping with my own sister. Cliché, right? I drove to Black Pine Lake to catch them, but stumbled into a brilliantly twisted murder trap instead. Now, the cops think I am a jealous, psychotic killer. Declan believes he dug the perfect grave for me. But did he?

Five years ago, I stepped in front of a crossbow bolt for Lucian Vael, and he turned me into a vampire before I had the chance to say no.
He told me I was the first person he'd loved in six hundred years. He bought a castle and named it after me. He reserved a spot for me in his family's crypt so we'd lie there together when the time came—right beside his parents, in the inner ring where only blood and the most beloved go.
While I spent four years bleeding myself dry over ancient rites, trying to carry his child, he was across the city watching another woman do it on her first try. Using my research to get there.
He named one of the twins Soren. That was the name I'd chosen.
The night I found out, I was seven weeks pregnant.
I didn't tell him.
I called Mira and said: I need him to think I'm dead.

The day I died, my sister wore the wedding dress I had always dreamed of, and married my boyfriend.
My family felt no sorrow over my disappearance.
My brother suspected I deliberately avoided blessing my sister.
My silent father believed I was malicious, unwilling to see my sister surpass me.
My mother called me ungrateful and demanded I apologize to my sister.
They didn't care if I was alive.
They were only worried that my absence would sadden my sister by denying her my blessing.

Loving him will cost them everything…

Not loving him will cost more.

Derek has one goal: survive high school without drawing too much attention or pissing off his pack’s alpha.

As the youngest son of the alpha, his life is governed by lycan hierarchy, tradition, and politics. With no signs of awakening a lycan spirit, his only value is what he can do for the pack’s image. He knows he’s only ever one misstep away from exile… or worse.

Then, he finds a boy trapped in a locker on orientation day, and everything changes.

Derek shouldn’t want Nikolias. He’s off-limits. A risk Derek can’t afford.

So why does it feel like he’s the only thing worth fighting for?

Nikolias has just lost everything: his parents, his home, and any sense of peace. Sent back to the town his family left years ago to live with his prejudiced and controlling uncle, who wants nothing to do with anything—or anyone—not human, he’s trying to do everything in his power to get out quickly.

But then he meets Derek again, and all of his plans vanish in the soft, yearning flecks of gold in Derek’s green-hazel eyes. He’s drawn to Derek in a way that’s impossible to deny, and he thinks Derek feels the same way, despite the danger their relationship holds for him.

As Moonshadow's politics turn deadly, Derek and Nikolai are caught in the crossfire of a war that had started long before they were born, and their bond becomes a threat and a lifeline that neither can afford to sever.

Because the heart wants what it wants….

And it never asks permission.

TW: Graphic Violence, Suicide Ideation, Suicide Attempt, Child Abuse, Cult-Like Behavior

"I need you to find my son. Luna is here...or maybe a doppelganger and is playing dead in my arms and I know it's not true. Gather all the men, lock down the city." I said as there was a sob from the other end of the call.

"Luna's....dead?" My Beta's voice broke on this.

"Stop playing these tricks with me, Thorne..she is not dead. Find my son. She will wake up once she sees him."

"Alpha Xenois, your son is in the morgue..."


Luna has tried her best to make her forced marriage to Xen work for the sake of their child. But with Riley and Sophia- Xen's ex-girlfriend and her son in the picture. She fights a losing battle.
Ollie, Xen's son is neglected by his father for a very long time and he is also suffering from a mysterious sickness that's draining his life force.
When his last wish to have his dad come to his 5th birthday party is dashed by his failure to show up, Ollie dies in an accident after seeing his father celebrate Riley's birthday with Sophia and it's displayed on the big advertising boards that fill the city.
Ollie dies and Luna follows after, unable to bear the grief, dying in her mate's hands cursing him and begging for a second chance to save her son.
Luna gets the opportunity and is woken up in the past, exactly one year to the day Sophia and Riley show up.
But this time around, Luna is willing to get rid of everyone and anyone even her mate if he steps in her way to save her son.

On the night of the charity gallery opening, I caught Lucas and Lila tangled together in the storage closet.
He pulled the girl tight against his chest and sneered, “Stella, you’re eight whole years older than me. You’ve controlled my life for five years—when are you gonna realize you can never hold onto me?”
Lila giggled, snuggling deeper into his arms. “You’re past your prime, ma’am. Why cling to someone who was never yours to begin with?”
Snickers and mocking laughter rippled through the onlookers.
I gave a slow, hollow smile.
For five years, I single-handedly kept Scott Enterprises afloat, mopped up every mess he made, and buried every scandal spawned by his endless string of flings.
Still, he hopped from one girl to the next, weaponizing our age gap to mock and hurt me, over and over again.
Then he shoved me hard. I crumpled to the floor in a pool of my own blood, watching him bolt out with another woman in his arms, not a single glance thrown back my way.
I knew right then the baby was gone.
Everyone whispered how pathetically I’d bent over backward for love.
No one ever learned the truth: I endured everything only because his face mirrored my late fiancé, Elias.

All nobles mocked me for rejecting the talented common mage and picking a brutal gladiator with no magic as my escort. They called him a filthy hound unworthy of serving an Oberlin lady. But only I remember—this scarred man died twice for me in my past life. Reborn before my family’s ruin, I swear bloody vengeance on Cedric and Liliana, who poisoned my father and stripped my skin. I endure searing magic backlash, fight bloody death matches, and burn all traitors alive. The shadow they sneer at will become the indestructible shield of my reign.

Every night, dragging noises come from the floor above.
The neighbor claims he just can’t sleep, yet he stares at my window and grins in the dead of night.
Later, he dies.
But at two in the morning, I still get a text message from him.
Someone else warns me: Don’t go to the sixth floor.
The police say this building doesn’t even have a sixth floor.
Yet I’ve seen people go up there with my own eyes.
Where exactly does this so-called sixth floor lead?
Who really died?
And who on earth is the one texting me?

My husband bought a necklace for the woman who killed my mother.

When I saw my foster sister Rebecca Rebecca wearing that emerald necklace with Aaron at the party, I knew history would repeat itself. Seven years ago, my mother lost everything the same way—her husband, her dignity, and finally her life.

I wouldn't follow in her footsteps.

So after slapping Rebecca across the face, I told everyone I was divorcing him and walked out with my suitcase.

Rebecca thought she'd won again. Aaron thought I was just being hysterical.

Neither of them saw it coming—

This time, I'd make them pay.

When I was reborn, and my Alpha husband's ward clamped a muzzle around my neck as a joke...
I didn't shift into my wolf and tear her arm off like in my past life.
I ripped off the bloody muzzle and gave Roman a smile.
"If you think this is a joke, keep indulging her."
And I walked away without looking back.
Because my death in my previous life was too miserable.
After our fallout, Roman used his Alpha authority to freeze my accounts overnight.
Exiled, I was diagnosed with terminal silver poisoning.
Dying in agony, I swallowed my pride and crawled back to the Pack gates.
But he let Chloe force me to my knees and refused to open the doors.
In the end, my wolf spirit shattered, and I froze to death.
I only understand after dying: love and dignity are worthless.
Survival and money are all that matter.

Blake's keeping me locked up in a villa outside the city, with a dozen bodyguards watching me around the clock. They won't let me step foot outside my room.

He once promised Vanessa, the woman he never got over, that he'd give her company shares and his estate. Now she's back after her divorce, pregnant, crying to Blake that I threatened her, told her to give up what he promised, and that I wanted to hurt her and her baby.

Blake believed her.

He's convinced I'm evil and gold-digging. He locked me up here while he stays at the hospital, never leaving Vanessa's side.

I'm going into sudden labor, crying and begging him to let me go to a hospital. I swear I never wanted those things, never hurt her.

Blake just sneers. "You're such a liar. I don't believe a single word from someone as vicious as you. After Vanessa delivers, I'll get you a doctor. Stop trying to fool me."

But when he finally sees my body, he completely falls apart.

I died. At my sister's eighteenth birthday party, the moment the champagne tower came crashing down.

While she stood under the crystal chandelier in her gown, soaking up congratulations from three hundred guests, I was tied up in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The wound in my stomach was still bleeding.

I called my family. Only my brother picked up, sounding pissed off and disgusted. "What's your problem now? This is her big day. You better not ruin it."

I tried to explain. He hung up.

That was the ninety-ninth time they'd hung up on me.

Also the last.

They thought I was throwing a tantrum, deliberately skipping my sister's special moment. Called me ungrateful, said they regretted bringing me back from that backwater town two years ago.

Well, now they're off the hook.

Problem solved.

Ten years ago, my mate faked his death in the war and ran off with his childhood sweetheart.
No goodbye. No contact since.
All he left me were two things — a debt of six hundred and eighty thousand, and a notice declaring him lost, stamped four years later by people who'd never met him.
The bank took our den. I moved into a shared burrow-flat at the edge of the settlement.
Three jobs after hours. Sold blood. Scrubbed latrines. Tested tonics for the healers until my nose stopped working right.
Ten years to pay off the debt. A desk at the Missing and Fallen Registry Office, once the ceasefire finally came.
My first case file was a man the law had already declared dead.
He said he'd been young and reckless. Walked out. Never looked back.
Now his family's land was due a war reparations payout, and he needed his name restored to collect it.
I stared at the name on the form. Recognized it instantly.
Smiled.
"Insufficient documentation. Application denied."

In Chicago, the Belinni name is not spoken—it is feared.

Dan Belinni was raised inside violence, trained in the blood-soaked discipline of the Outfit until he became its sharpest weapon. At nineteen, he is already known for illegal fights, brutal enforcement, and a temperament that turns any challenge into punishment. He doesn’t believe in mercy. He doesn’t believe in love. He believes in control.

Milena Lima has spent her life surviving, not living. An undocumented immigrant in Chicago, she works herself to exhaustion just to stay afloat and protect the only stability she has left—her friend María. But when she loses her job and her visa expires, Milena becomes invisible to the law and vulnerable in ways she never imagined.

Desperate, she steps into a Belinni-owned nightclub, hoping to earn enough to survive another week. One stage. One performance. One decision.

That is all it takes for her to cross paths with Dan Belinni.

He is not a man who lets go.
And she is not a woman who submits.

But beneath survival and violence lies a truth neither of them is ready for—Milena is tied to a mafia legacy she never chose, one that makes her both a target and a claim in a world where women are never just women.

When their worlds collide, obsession replaces restraint, and a single night changes everything.

Because in Dan’s world, love is not given.

It is taken.

I was seventeen when I fell desperately in love with Orion Blake. He didn’t see the Holt heiress or the fortune. He saw me. Our love was forbidden, fierce, and all-consuming. In his arms, I believed forever was real. Until the night my father caught us and a gunshot that shattered my world. They broke me that night,my body and soul. But from the ashes of my pain, a vow was born: I would destroy the Holt family from the inside. Slowly. Painfully. Completely.
For years I played the perfect daughter. The cold, brilliant CEO. The obedient heiress. All while sabotaging everything my family held dear. Then my father forced me to marry Roman Kade, the ruthless CEO of KA Global, the man single-handedly dismantling my family’s empire. A man who looked at me with dark hunger and barely contained fury. A man whose touch sets my skin on fire even as he seems determined to break me. But Roman Kade has secrets of his own. Dangerous ones. The way he watches me… the familiar intensity in his eyes… it feels too personal. Too knowing. He thinks he’s the one in control. He thinks he can ruin me, but he has no idea I’ve been planning my revenge for years and he has no idea how deep my devotion runs… or how far I’m willing to go for Orion and for the child we lost. This forced marriage was supposed to be my prison but Instead, it’s becoming a battlefield where love, hate, and buried secrets collide. Because some loves refuse to die and some vows were never meant to be broken. When I had promised forever, i really meant forever. It was all for him. No one could have me, if i couldn't have Orion Blake.

“When you think that life cannot get better, Blake Pierce comes up with another masterpiece of thriller and mystery! This book is full of twists and the end brings a surprising revelation. I strongly recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader that enjoys a very well written thriller.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Almost Gone) ALMOST DEAD is book #3 in a new psychological thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. After the disastrous fallout from her last placement in England, all 23-year-old Cassandra Vale wants is a chance to pick up the pieces. A high-society, divorced mother in sunny Italy seems to be the answer. But is she? With a new family come new children, new rules, and new expectations. Cassandra’s determined to make this one last - until a horrifying discovery pushes her to a breaking point. And when the unimaginable occurs, will it be too late to pull herself back from the brink? Who, she wonders, is she becoming?A riveting mystery replete with complex characters, layers of secrets, dramatic twists and turns and heart-pounding suspense, ALMOST DEAD is book #3 in a psychological suspense series that will have you turning pages late into the night. Book #4 in the series will be available soon.

Three months before I marry billionaire Adrian Vale, I receive a text from an unknown number.

DON’T MARRY MY HUSBAND.

The sender claims to be Celeste Vale—Adrian’s first wife.

There’s only one problem.

Celeste has been dead for four years.

I assume someone is playing a sick joke until the messages reveal secrets no stranger should know. Details about Adrian’s body. His first marriage. The night Celeste died.

Then one message warns me not to eat a box of chocolates arriving at my office.

The chocolates are poisoned.

Suddenly, Adrian’s protection becomes suffocating. Security follows me everywhere. I’m moved into the sprawling estate where Celeste once lived. Doors are locked. Cameras fail. Someone enters my bedroom while I sleep.

And the dead woman keeps texting me.

But the most terrifying discovery isn’t that someone wants me dead.

It’s an old photograph hidden among Celeste’s belongings.

A photograph of me taken eight years before I ever met Adrian.

Adrian recognizes it.

Because our first meeting wasn’t an accident.

Now I don’t know who to trust—the dead woman warning me away from my fiancé, or the dangerously powerful man who admits he searched for me long before I knew his name.

Adrian swears he didn’t kill Celeste.

I want to believe him.

But the deeper I dig into his family’s past, the more women I find who vanished, died, or were silenced after learning secrets they were never meant to know.

And Celeste may have died trying to make sure I wasn’t next.

To save my wife’s family, I buried my name, wore myself down, and let a few strands of my hair turn gray while caring for her on the edge of death.

Three years later, she slipped into custom Chanel and slapped a divorce agreement down in front of me.

With her arm wrapped around a so-called old-money heir from Wall Street, she mocked me as a worthless nobody who couldn’t even afford a luxury handbag, a bottom-feeder who was never fit to stand beside her.

I signed my name without a word and watched her leave in triumph.

What she didn’t know was that the man preaching investments was nothing more than a Ponzi fraudster facing multiple charges.

And when the conference room door closed, Manhattan’s most feared ice-cold attorney bowed to me at a perfect ninety degrees and welcomed me to unlock the seventy-billion-dollar trust fund and take back control of the entire conglomerate.

A few months later, inside a women’s maximum-security prison in Brooklyn, she was dressed in a filthy, tattered prison uniform, sprawled across a floor slick with dirty water, sobbing as she was beaten and begging for my forgiveness.

I simply lifted my whiskey and calmly switched off the surveillance feed.

The moment I saw my name on that wedding invitation, I was already dead.

On Highway 23, a steel rebar had pierced straight through my chest. I was two months pregnant.

I called my fiancé Michael seventeen times. The first sixteen, he hung up without a word. On the seventeenth, his voice dripped with impatience: "Marrying Sophia is just for show. Stop making a scene."

The man who once knelt outside my family's estate for three days and nights, swearing to love me for a lifetime—he wouldn't spare me a single second more.

With my last breath, I dialed the funeral home. "I'm calling... for myself."

Flames consumed my body. My soul drifted toward the engagement banquet that should have been mine. When the killer's phone lit up, the name on the screen was Sophia...

When he destroyed my entire family, he never once thought of me.

So now, let me watch with my own eyes as this wedding becomes their funeral.

Ryan loves me deeply—at least that's what everyone says. Seven years together, we look like the perfect couple to outsiders. But only I know he's betrayed me three times.

The first time was three years ago. His brother died saving him, leaving behind his widow Sophia—Ryan's unforgettable first love. He married her behind my back. When I found out, I completely fell apart. I have dignity. I refuse to be the other woman. I wanted to leave, but he begged on his knees. "This is just to take care of my sister-in-law. Once I find the truth about my brother's death, I'll divorce her. Then we can get married."

I believed him. I forgot that a man never lets go of a lost love he's gotten back.

The second time was at last year's company anniversary. In front of everyone, he introduced Sophia as his wife. I watched them on stage, a knife through my heart. That night he explained, "It's just for show. Once everything's over, we can be together."

I believed him again.

The third time was two weeks ago. Surveillance footage showed Ryan with Sophia entering a hotel room. I rushed to confront him, but heard her voice outside his office. "Ryan, I'm pregnant. It's your baby."

Through the crack in the door, I see him hesitate. In that instant I understand.

He's going to keep her.

He spots me and rushes out in a panic. "It was an accident! Let me explain! After she has the baby, I'll give her money and make her leave. She won't be in our lives anymore!"

In that moment, I finally wake up. There will be no future for us.

The mafia boss chose me as his decoy—a body double for the woman he loves.

Eight years. Three bullets, one car crash, one explosion. The doctor said ten more minutes and I would've died on that operating table when they took my kidney. I gave him a son. He let me play "the boss's wife" in public.

Until he cleared every obstacle for her and decided to marry her.

Her wedding photos replaced mine in the master bedroom. He has her initials tattooed on his arm. When I questioned him, he had his men slap me at a charity gala, forced me to admit "I'm just a stand-in." When I touched her, he took away my custody, declared she was "the true lady of this house."

The punishments got worse. When he threatened to cancel my mother's insurance, I finally learned to shut up.

He pulls me close, whispers in my ear: "She gave up everything for me. Not like you—you were born to take bullets for me."

"Deal with it. She's not replacing you. This is her house now."

Even my son took her side.

"Stop being dramatic! Natalie actually loves us! You're nothing!"

But their pure, innocent Natalie? She unplugged my mother's ventilator while I was locked in the basement. Let his enemies slip poison into my drink during the last job.

When Grayson found me, all he said was: "She's pregnant and emotional. Go rearrange the flowers at the wedding venue."

I wipe the black blood from my lips. Look at him quietly.

"I'm dying."

My stepsister and I tumbled down the stairs together. As someone with a blood clotting disorder, my spleen ruptured—I was bleeding internally, desperate for surgery to stop it.
But my mother—the renowned chief of surgery—pulled every specialist from the ER. To consult on my stepsister's condition.
All she had was a sprained ankle. Not even a scratch. Yet mom insisted on running every test in the book. And me? Left alone on that cold floor, bleeding out, half my body already soaked in blood.
I clutched at her pants, begging her to save me. But she kicked my hand away and looked at me with pure disgust.
"Lily, are you really so desperate for a man's attention that you'd pull a cheap stunt like this? Your sister's foot is swollen—and you have the nerve to fake your death here?"
In the end, I died alone in a corner of that ignored ER.
But when they wheeled my cold body out of the morgue—and they finally learned about my clotting disorder—
That mother who claimed to hate me completely lost her mind.

I was just on the phone with my husband. He was stuck in traffic, apologizing for being late to our anniversary dinner. Forty minutes later, detectives are at my door, claiming he died in a crash three days ago. If Silas is dead, who just sent me a text?