
Introduction
Then comes Ezra. A quiet, charming art student with a haunting gaze and rumors clinging to his name. They say he was involved in the mysterious death of his teacher. But in his silence, Aveline finds something dangerously alive. The warmth, the attention, the raw emotion she thought she had lost forever.
As their connection deepens, so do the cracks in her perfect facade. Ezra’s eyes feel too familiar. Adrian’s sudden obsession with the boy feels too strange.
And when the brushstrokes of truth begin to emerge, Aveline realizes she’s trapped in a masterpiece of deceit. Painted by the man she married, and colored by the boy who might destroy them both.
Love. Guilt. Obsession.
Some secrets aren’t buried in words, they’re painted in the way someone looks at you.
Chapter 1
The sky faded to a dense, heavy grey, as if mourning Liam. Aveline stood by the small coffin, fingers gripping the edge of her damp black coat. The air was thick with earth and chrysanthemums. Everyone whispered, but to her, the world had lost its sound since the accident.
The coffin was lowered. The grating ropes made Aveline's chest tremble. She held her breath, trying not to cry, but the tears still fell.
Across the grave, Adrian, her husband, stood rigid in a neat black suit. His face was completely expressionless. He seemed calm, stiff, as if he were attending the funeral of a stranger. Not a single tear fell from his eyes, despite the fact that the person in the coffin was his own son.
Aveline looked at him, hoping to see a fraction of the same pain she felt. But there was nothing there, just a blank stare piercing the overcast sky.
She bit her lip. The wound on her leg, a remnant of the accident, still throbbed. Although she was still limping and had to walk with crutches, the physical pain was nothing compared to the huge hole in her chest.
After the priest finished praying, people began to place flowers on the coffin. One by one, their steps receded, leaving Aveline and Adrian still standing silently beside the damp earth.
"He... should still be alive," Aveline finally whispered, barely audible.
Adrian did not answer. Only his eyes were fixed straight on the wet ground.
"Why, Adrian?" Aveline's voice trembled. "Why him, and not me?"
A long silence. Then Adrian's voice, flat, almost breathless. "It was an accident, Aveline. There's nothing we can do."
Those words pierced her sharper than a knife. Accident. It was so easy for him to call it that.
Aveline stared at her husband's face. The face she used to love, the face that now felt distant. Since that night, since the ambulance sirens and the shattering glass, something in Adrian had changed. He stopped hugging, stopped talking, even stopped grieving.
When the ceremony ended, guests offered brief hugs and empty condolences. Adrian accepted everything with mechanical politeness, while Aveline just nodded without hearing.
But as she turned to leave, her gaze was caught. Amidst the crowd starting to descend the cemetery hill, someone stood alone beneath a pine tree. A young man she didn't recognize.
He might have been seventeen or eighteen. He was tall, with narrow shoulders, his black hair wet from the rain. He wore a black jacket that prevented Aveline from seeing where he went to school.
Their eyes met. That gaze froze Aveline. There was something strange there. Not just pity, but warm and penetrating, as if the young man knew her.
Aveline quickly looked away, trying to remember if she had ever seen that face before. No. A foreign face. But somehow it felt familiar.
When she looked back in that direction, the young man was gone.
Only a faint shadow walking away among the gravestones
Adrian's black car drove slowly away from the cemetery. The rain was still falling, leaving thin streaks on the window glass. Aveline stared out the window, seeing the reflection of her own pale face.
In the driver's seat, Adrian was silent. The sound of the engine was the only noise.
It had been like this for days since the accident. No conversation, no touch. Their house felt like a museum. There was only a cold, quiet atmosphere, full of untouchable memories.
"I saw a strange boy at the funeral," Aveline said suddenly, still looking out the window.
Adrian glanced briefly. "Who?"
"A boy. He was standing alone there. As if he knew us, but I'm sure I've never seen him before."
Adrian didn't answer.
Aveline turned to him. "Do you know him?"
"Of course not." His voice was flat. "Many people come to funerals. Maybe he's one of your students?"
"He didn't look like my student."
"Stop it, Aveline." Her husband's tone was rigid. "Don't look for reasons to keep thinking about things that aren't important."
Not important. Aveline stared at the wet road ahead of them. Not important, that was the same word she heard every time she tried to talk about that night. About the car lights going out for a split second, about the strange sound from the engine before they finally hit the tree.
Adrian always answered with the same line. We both survived. Just let it go, forget it.
But nothing was "over." Their son was dead, and in Adrian's eyes, there was nothing to regret.
Their house on the outskirts of the city looked the same as before the accident. The small garden was well-kept, the porch light glowed softly. But when Aveline stepped inside, the air felt empty.
Liam's photo frame still hung on the wall, the boy's bright smile felt like an open wound.
Aveline touched the frame's glass with a trembling finger. "I'm sorry, sweetie," she whispered.
Adrian passed behind her without a word, putting away his coat and heading straight for the study. The sound of the door closing was soft, but to Aveline, it sounded like a wall thickening between them.
She stood for a long time in the living room, staring at the softly glowing lamp.
Her leg still hurt. The small surgical scar on her ankle was still fresh. The doctor said she was lucky to be able to walk again, even if she had to use a walking aid for a while. But luck felt like a mockery.
The rain stopped toward evening. Aveline stood at the window, seeing her reflection in the glass. Her eyes were swollen, her face tired. In the distance, across the street, someone was standing beneath a flickering streetlight.
The young man.
His jacket was the same, his hair messy, and Aveline recognized the look in his eyes. He stood still, staring at the house. The next moment, the streetlight went out briefly, and when it came back on, the figure was gone.
Aveline took a step back, her breath caught. Was she hallucinating? Or was the boy really following her?
She looked toward Adrian's study. The light from behind the thin door showed her husband was still there, busy with his computer as usual. There was no sign that he had seen anything.
Aveline finally closed the curtains, trying to convince herself that it was all just the effect of fatigue and unhealed grief. But deep in her heart, something was beginning to grow. A faint, cold, and disturbing suspicion.
That Liam might not have truly "left because of fate." And that the young man staring at her from the darkness knew something she did not.
Last Chapters
#32 Chapter 32 The Beginning of Aveline’s Story
Last Updated: 1/11/2026#31 Chapter 31 Two Names, One Shadow
Last Updated: 1/11/2026#30 Chapter 30 A Bitter Revelation and a Message from the Shadows
Last Updated: 1/2/2026#29 Chapter 29 Shadows of the Past
Last Updated: 1/2/2026#28 Chapter 28 Wound Sealed With Tears
Last Updated: 1/1/2026#27 Chapter 27 Buried Data
Last Updated: 1/1/2026#26 Chapter 26 The Trails Begin to Connect
Last Updated: 1/1/2026#25 Chapter 25 Aunt Martha's Ban
Last Updated: 1/1/2026#24 Chapter 24 The Embers That Almost Burned
Last Updated: 1/1/2026#23 Chapter 23 The Shattered Marriage
Last Updated: 1/1/2026
You Might Like 😍
The Biker's Fate
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Dani," he pressed. "Do you get me?"
"No, Austin, I don't," I admitted as I pulled my robe closed again and sat up. "You confuse me."
He dragged his hands down his face. "Tell me what's on your mind."
I sighed. "You're everything my parents warned me against. You're secretive, but you're also honest. I feel wholly protected by you, but then you scare me more than anyone I've ever known. You're a bad boy, but when I dated a so-called good one, he turned out to be the devil, so, yeah, I don't get you because you're not what I expected. You drive me crazier than anyone I've ever met, but then you make me feel complete. I'm feeling things I don't quite know how to process and that makes me want to run. I don't want to give up something that might be really, really good, but I also don't want to be stupid and fall for a boy just because he's super pretty and makes me come."
Danielle Harris is the daughter of an overprotective police chief and has led a sheltered life. As a kindergarten teacher, she's as far removed from the world of Harleys and bikers as you could get, but when she's rescued by the sexy and dangerous Austin Carver, her life is changed forever.
Although Austin 'Booker' Carver is enamored by the innocent Dani, he tries to keep the police chief's daughter at arm's length. But when a threat is made from an unexpected source, he finds himself falling hard and fast for the only woman who can tame his wild heart.
Will Booker be able to find the source of the threat before it's too late?
Will Dani finally give her heart to a man who's everything she's been warned about?
Accardi
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.
Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.
Badass in Disguise
"Jade, I need to check your—" the nurse began.
"OUT!" I snarled with enough force that both women backed toward the door.
Once feared by Shadow Organization that drugged me to replicate my abilities into a more controllable version, I had escaped my restraints and detonated their entire facility, ready to die alongside my captors.
Instead, I woke up in a school infirmary with women arguing around me, their voices piercing my skull. My outburst froze them in shock—clearly they hadn't expected such a reaction. One woman threatened as she left, "We'll discuss this attitude when you get home."
The bitter truth? I've been reborn into the body of an overweight, weak, and supposedly dim-witted high school girl. Her life is filled with bullies and tormentors who've made her existence miserable.
But they have no idea who they're dealing with now.
I didn't survive as the world's deadliest assassin by allowing anyone to push me around. And I certainly won't start now.
The mafia princess return
A pack of their own
My Possessive Alpha Twins For Mate
My drunk stepfather remained indifferent, his weight suffocating, making it hard to breathe as my heart raced.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and two figures burst in.
"Get off her!" a deafening roar echoed.
I didn't expect the twin brothers who'd bullied me at school to come charging in like gods to save me.
After my grandmother passed, I had to move in with my mom and stepdad, who treated me like a servant. I prayed every day for my 18th birthday to come, so l could leave and escape this broken home.
However, on my first day at my new school, l encountered the legendary twins everyone feared.
To make matters worse, the Moon Goddess revealed they were both my mates!
After helping me out with my stepdad, my twin mate cornered me, played with my hair, and whispered possessively, "You belong to us, our little mate..."
Omega Bound
Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life.
Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
THE ALPHA'S NANNY.
Lori Wyatt, a shy, broken twenty two year old with a dark past is given the deal of a lifetime when she is asked to be the nanny of a newborn who lost her mother at childbirth. Lori accepts, eager to get away from her past.
Gabriel Caine is the Alpha of the revered Moon fang pack and the CEO of Caine Inc. A drunken one night stand leads to the birth of his daughter and he finds her a nanny following the death of her mother. When he meets Lori, he finds out that she is his mate and vows to protect her from his enemies.
The two of them cannot stop the instant attraction between them. Lori, who believes she is unworthy of love, cannot explain why the powerful billionaire is after her and Gabriel who is totally smitten with her is unsure of how to be totally honest with Lori about him being a werewolf.
Fate has brought them together and now together they must fight for their love, amidst the conflicts between packs and secrets that Lori’s past holds.
Will their love survive?












