
The Love I Threw Away
Agatha Christie · Ongoing · 7.1k Words
Introduction
For six years we pretended to be strangers at work while he remained ice-cold toward me and our daughter Wren at home. When his celebrity ex-girlfriend Seraphina returned from overseas, I watched him come alive for another woman—attending her parties, rushing to her side at midnight.
Meanwhile, our five-year-old daughter waited every night for a father who never came home.
The day Wren nearly died from his careless gift, I finally signed the mate bond dissolution papers.
This time, he's lost us forever.
- Accidental Pups
- Affair
- Arranged marriage
- BXG
- Beast
- Chasing the Ex
- Cheating
- Crush
- Divorce
- Ex-wife
- Fated Mate
- Feel-Good Story
- Female Growth
- Healing
- Lies
- Love After Marriage
- Lovesick fool
- Magic Realism
- Marriage
- Office Romance
- Redemption
- Scumbag
- Secret Baby
- Silly
- Single Mother
- Strong Female Lead
- Unattainable Love
- Unrequited Love
- Uplifting
Chapter 1
Because of his grandfather's dying wish, Supreme Court Chief Justice Garrick Vance—the most powerful beast-shifter in the city—was forced to marry me, a human court clerk who had secretly loved him for years.
For six years we pretended to be strangers at work while he remained ice-cold toward me and our daughter Wren at home. When his celebrity ex-girlfriend Seraphina returned from overseas, I watched him come alive for another woman—attending her parties, rushing to her side at midnight.
Meanwhile, our five-year-old daughter waited every night for a father who never came home.
The day Wren nearly died from his careless gift, I finally signed the mate bond dissolution papers.
This time, he's lost us forever.
Maeve's POV
"Thorne, are you sure about this? A permanent clerk position at the Supreme Court? Do you know how many people would kill for this job?"
Anna, the HR director, asked me this question for the third time, clearly baffled by my decision.
"I'm sure." I slid my resignation letter across the desk. "My mate and I are ending things. I want to take my daughter and move somewhere better for humans."
Anna sighed, her eyes softening with sympathy. "Probably for the best. I've watched you raise that kid alone all these years. That man's a piece of work. High-ranking shifters are all the same—cold as ice and selfish as hell."
I gave her a tight smile. "He's always... tied up with work."
Anna signed the documents. I took the copy and said quietly, "Just don't report this to Chief Justice Vance yet, okay?"
"Why not?"
"Let me keep some dignity here. I don't want the big shots knowing until everything's finalized."
She shrugged. "Fine. I'll sit on it for a week."
I walked out of the office and slipped the documents into my bag.
Anna had no clue that the deadbeat mate she'd just trashed was the very man who ran this whole damn city—Chief Justice Garrick Vance.
Six years ago, I signed a mate bond with him.
It happened because of his grandfather's dying wish. The old man had been the previous Chief Justice, and a wrongful case involving human-shifter territory disputes had eaten him alive with guilt—especially since it got my parents killed. On his deathbed, he grabbed my hand and insisted his grandson bond with me as some kind of compensation.
Desperate for protection in this brutal shifter city, I said yes.
But Garrick always believed I was just some opportunist who played his dying grandfather to climb the social ladder. For six years, nobody at the courthouse knew we were mated—or that we had a five-year-old half-blood daughter.
I mean, who'd believe the almighty Chief Justice Vance had anything to do with some nobody human clerk?
I packed up and headed for the exit. Outside, I spotted a black sedan.
Garrick stood beside it, still in his black robes, every inch the intimidating alpha he was.
"Garrick, we need to talk—"
His eyes narrowed the second he saw me. "Whatever it is can wait. I'm busy."
I reached for his sleeve. He jerked away like I had some disease.
"Don't forget our deal, Maeve." His voice was ice-cold. "At work, you're just another clerk. We don't know each other."
The hidden marriage rules. No showing we're together at the courthouse. Six years of playing stranger, and all I got was him looking at me like garbage.
A red sports car screeched up to the curb.
International superstar Seraphina jumped out and threw herself into Garrick's arms, kissing his cheek.
"Garrick, babe! I've been waiting FOREVER! You can't miss my party tonight!"
Seraphina—his childhood sweetheart who'd gone overseas to become famous and just came back covered in glory.
The ice-cold Chief Justice melted for her, actually smiling as he smoothed her hair.
It felt like someone punched me in the chest.
Seraphina noticed me in my cheap uniform. "Who's this?"
Garrick didn't even glance over. "That's Maeve from records. Nobody important."
"Nobody important."
Seraphina giggled and grabbed his arm. "Come on then! Let's go!"
Garrick let her drag him to the car. They roared off, leaving me choking on exhaust fumes.
I let out a harsh laugh. Maeve, what did you expect? He's never seen you as anything more than dirt on his shoe.
I pulled out my phone and sent one last text: Wren's craft showcase tonight at 8. School auditorium.
I stared at the screen. One minute. Five minutes. Just like always—nothing.
I took a shaky breath and headed for the light rail to the human district.
At Wren's school, she came running over with a clay figurine clutched in her hands.
"Mommy! Look what I made! It's Daddy!"
She held up the little black-robed figure, her eyes shining. "Is Daddy really gonna come tonight? All the other kids have their mommy AND daddy..."
Her famous father had never shown up to a single thing. Not once in five years.
My throat went tight. To keep that light in her eyes, I lied. "He'll try his best, sweetheart."
Seven PM, backstage at the showcase.
Wren fussed over her display, making everything perfect.
"Mommy, will Daddy like my present? I tried really hard to make the robe the right color like in his pictures."
"He's gonna love it, baby."
"When's he getting here?" Wren kept peeking toward the entrance. Every time she heard footsteps, her little ears would perk up, then droop when it wasn't him.
Other parents filled the auditorium with chatter and laughter while Wren stood alone at her booth, still waiting.
My phone buzzed. Garrick: Running late with court stuff. Be there soon.
Wren practically bounced. "Mommy, look! Daddy's coming! He didn't forget!"
She put her clay figure front and center, beaming with pride.
The show started. First speech, second activity, third judging round...
Still no sign of him at the entrance.
Wren's turn came up. She stood in the wings, gripping her dress, staring at the empty VIP seats.
"Mommy, where's Daddy gonna sit? Did he get lost?"
"Maybe he's stuck in traffic, honey." The lie tasted like ash.
"Wren needs to go on now," the teacher said.
Wren looked down at her clay figure. "Mommy... is Daddy really not coming?"
I pulled her close. "It's okay, baby. Mommy's here. I'll always be watching."
She smiled through her tears. "Yeah. Having Mommy is enough."
She walked onto that stage all by herself. I sat there trying not to cry.
My phone lit up with breaking news:
Garrick in a designer tux, arm around Seraphina at some fancy party, both of them laughing and clinking champagne glasses.
The headline made me sick: Superstar's Homecoming! Chief Justice Makes Rare Public Appearance. Childhood Sweethearts Reunite.
No court business. No emergency. He'd just picked her over his own daughter without a second thought.
Wren finished her presentation alone. No daddy cheering. No hugs.
She ran back to me with her little figurine. "Mommy, did I do good?"
"You were absolutely perfect."
"I wish Daddy could've seen..." Her voice cracked.
I held her tight, my tears soaking her shoulder.
Later, back at the mansion that never felt like home, I tucked Wren into bed and pulled out the dissolution papers. The ones where I gave up any claim to his money or property.
I signed my name without hesitation.
Garrick Vance—we're DONE.
Last Chapters
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The Contract Wife: Marriage Of Malice
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
I didn't tell him to stop.
Instead, my fingers curled into his shirt, clutching the fabric as though it was my only anchor. Something in him snapped—something he had been holding back for too long. His mouth found mine in a kiss that wasn't tender, but hungry, desperate.
I gasped into him, his hand sliding up to cup my jaw, holding me as if afraid I might vanish.
"You drive me insane," he breathed against my mouth, his lips trailing to my throat. "I can't lose you, Ella. Not you."
My head fell back, a soft sound escaping me as his fingers memorized my waist. My anger melted beneath his desperation.
"James..." I whispered, more plea than protest.
His hand caught mine, fingers threading together tightly. "I'll bring him back. I swear it. Just... don't turn away from me. Please."
The word please—low, ragged, almost broken—undid me more than anything else could have.
Ella never imagined she would marry the man she had secretly loved for years in such a way.
When her brother Theo faced twenty-five years in prison for massive embezzlement, the ruthless business tycoon James Lancaster offered her a deal: marry him in exchange for her brother's freedom.
This wasn't a fairy tale proposal, but a carefully orchestrated revenge. Because in James's heart, Ella was the culprit who had killed his sister Cecilia. He wanted her to pay the price—to atone with a lifetime of suffering.
The Unwritten Princess
My name is Mia, and everything I touch is dying.
The flowers beneath my mother's window turned black overnight. The herbs I gathered at dawn rotted in my hands. When the court wizard finally told me the truth—that someone cursed me, that my presence would kill everyone I love—I realized the prophecy everyone believed was never meant to save the kingdom. It was meant to destroy me.
So I ran. Not to fulfill some destiny, but to survive it.
Now I'm traveling with a hunter who lost his companions to the same curse I carry, chasing fragments of a prophecy the Fae sing differently. An elf took a baby from the palace the night I was born. And somewhere between the lies I've been told and the truth I'm hunting, I'm starting to suspect: What if I'm not the princess from the prophecy at all?
A pack of their own
COLD (Ruthless Player)
“Please… Nick, wait.” He pulled out, thrusted back in. “How much? Twenty thousand? Fifty? Hundred?” With every question, he thrust harder and harder. My neurons are frying with the confusing feeling in my brain. Torn between pleasure, fear, and panic. I couldn't utter a single sentence to save my life.
His cold eyes pinned me in place while he plundered my body with deep thrusts, which only added to my confusion. My dumb body mistook the mixed signals, my pussy becoming even wetter than before.
“I hope she'd paid you well, because I'm going to fuck you all night long, hard,” he growled. “Sleep, then do it all over again. I want to feel you come for me, Andrea, want to feel you squeeze my cock, milking me.
Begging for me to give you the high only I can, I'm going to fucked you until I fuck all my wife's money's worth, I want you to remember how hard I took you while you're meeting her.” I sobbed, moaned, and tried to scramble out under him.
“No, please…Nick, let….let me explain.” Nick abruptly pulled out. His eyes were cold but hooded.
Andrea was sent to take down billionaire magnate Nicklaus Montgomery.
Her mission was simple: get close, seduce him, find the proof, and disappear. Instead Andrea finds herself exposed—cornered into signing a contract that binds her to Nicklaus's side as his lover. Now she’s living in his world of wealth, danger, and secrets… and the deeper she falls into his bed, the harder it becomes to remember what side she's on.
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
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.
Glimmerdrop: The Crownwake Series
"This is your last chance to push me away."
At the fiercely hierarchical Haldorian Academy, magic-less commoner Hettie just wants to remain invisible. But Zadok, the academy's most untouchable elite, backs her into a corner she can't escape.
His fatal obsession sparks ruthless revenge: Dana, a high-tier wind mystic, turns paper into deadly blades during combat class, nearly blinding and disfiguring Hettie in a bloody attack .
The massive class divide and brutal bullying force Hettie to draw a line, demanding their romance be kept strictly underground .
That forever unattainable golden boy pinned her against the tree trunk, his scalding and aggressive kiss accompanied by a hopeless surrender: "You're going to be my doom ."
Worse still, Hettie discovers her parents’ dark secrets are dragging her into a deadly conspiracy of betrayal . Survival clashes with forbidden desire. In this deadly, cross-class temptation, whoever gives in first is doomed!
A Queen Among Tides (Book 5 in the Gods' Saga)
Shocked to find he's been bound in more ways than one to Sebastian, the future King to the Kingdom of Atlesper, Lemuel resists Sebastian's advances at every turn, believing this may be one pairing Goddess Zarseti got wrong.
Lemuel will have to face his past in hopes of starting a new future, but an overly flirtatious King is the least of his worries when he learns Sebastian's parents are convinced that a conniving usurper disguised as a curvy blonde, is the future king's true soulmate.
A Queen Among Tides is the 5th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Gen Coming Soon)
I Found the Babies
"When..." He growled in my ear, "When we will be getting married, I will be your only king, do you get my point? Only one queen, no misters or mistresses. Just me, just you, and yeah, our babies."
I shivered.
Alyssa Reynolds found herself in a situation, while returning home from work, and she had three choices:
Simply walk away and forget that you ever heard the sound of wailing infants.
Call the police and inform them about the innocent wails.
Follow the sounds of the wails and take the matter in your hands, deciding what to do later.
Being a kindhearted soul and a sucker for babies, she found herself choosing the third option, finding the two little lives.
Two little lives that changed her whole life, her love life included. Her life now revolved around the babies as diapers, vomit and shit seemed to surround her.
Just when she thought that now it's just her and the babies, her whole world flipped over and she found herself living under the same roof as the egotistical, obnoxious and hot-as-hell Terence Powers, the business tycoon who was not going to let the woman fend off for herself and the babies alone.
Ruined : You will always be mine.
“Fuckkk”, I couldn’t help but scream.
“You need to learn to be obedient” he said as he kept thrusting into me. When I felt his hands on my clit my body shook.
“Asher please, it’s too much”.
“No. if I really wanted to punish you, I would give you all of me”, he said against my ears and my entire body froze. Suddenly he moved and I was standing again. This man was insane.
I felt him behind me. “Ten Lashes for your disobedience”, he said
“Asher please”,
“No”. His voice was cold and void of any emotion.
Asher was what I wanted , what I truly craved until it was too late. An orphan should never fall in love with someone out of their reach. I thought loving him was the right thing to do until he revealed his true identity and Ruined me. I was ruined for everyone one else . I could still feel his touch, it was as if it was etched into my skin. I tired to avoid him but fate wouldn't let it happen.
The Sterling's were the most powerful in Havenwood and Dorian Sterling was off limits.
As an orphan finding out you still have people looking for you is hard to take but when it turns out to be people of wealth and standing I took the other road and ran, but running led me right back to the place I was avoiding and the person I was avoiding.
Asher and Dorling Sterling one and the same. When his first love shows up and along with everyone that has set out to ruin me, I prayed that he could protect me.
Timeless Us
The world she knew is gone.
Her husband, Nathan, is no longer the young man she left behind—he’s successful, respected, and living with a new family.
But when the woman who disappeared twenty-three years ago suddenly returns…
can love survive the years that were lost?
Vengeance of the Forsaken Luna
"Bella." Ethan's tone shifted, taking on that warning edge I knew too well. "Faye is vulnerable right now. She's terrified you'll resent her, that this will divide the pack. The last thing she wants is for this baby to come between us."
"Then you shouldn't have done it." I met his eyes squarely, letting him see the ice in mine. "Go back to your son."
"For fuck's sake." He dragged a hand through his hair. "How many times—it was artificial insemination. They used my sperm, yes, but Faye and I never—"
Bella let out a cold snort. Such brazen lies. Her mate had an affair with his brother's partner, and his entire family helped force her out with nothing, all to make way for the mistress to take her rightful position. Poor fool—he thought she was just an unwanted adopted daughter, easy to dismiss and control. He never knew the computer genius he'd been searching for was his own Luna.
Since he'd tainted himself, Bella was done. She rejected him and reclaimed what was hers, rising to the top with help from Victor, who'd been secretly in love with her for years.
When Ethan tried winning her back: "You don't want our child growing up fatherless."
Bella smiled mockingly. "The child's father isn't you."












