9611 Book(s) Related to synopsis of then she was gone a novel

He married her for her name. His first love fell for his wife.

Seraphina Ashbourne was born into one of London's most respected old-money families. But when the Ashbourne fortune collapses, all she has left is a powerful name, a talent for painting, and her grandfather's beloved exhibition hall, now days away from auction.

Then billionaire Cillian Laurent offers her a way out.

Three years of marriage.

$300,000 a month.

And the exhibition hall.

No love. No sex. No interference.

Cillian doesn't want Seraphina's heart. He wants the Ashbourne name for his ambitious new project. His heart already belongs to Saskia Moreau, his beautiful blonde childhood friend and one of the world's most sought-after models.

Seraphina expects Saskia to hate her. Instead, Saskia becomes fascinated by her.

She visits Seraphina's studio. Watches her paint. Flirts with her. Finds excuses to be near her.

What begins as harmless attraction soon becomes something neither woman can control. Saskia is falling for her best friend's wife, and she's falling hard.
Seraphina knows she should keep her distance. Saskia is the woman her husband has loved for years, and their marriage has an expiration date. But every stolen glance, every lingering touch, and every moment together makes it harder to remember that their marriage was supposed to be a loveless arrangement.

Cillian thought Saskia love him, he's wrong.

The woman he married for her name may become the one woman his first love can’t live without.

And Seraphina must decide whether saving her family's legacy is worth losing the woman who has become her heart.

On the day of her mate-bonding ceremony, 20-year-old Selene is kidnapped by a rival pack led by the cold and ruthless Alpha Lucien, who seeks revenge against her mate-to-be, alpha Dean, for a past betrayal. Selene's mother possessed a legendary sonic howl—a devastating power passed to Selene, though she was unaware of it. In captivity, Selene’s dormant werewolf powers awaken alongside the sonic howl, drawing Lucien’s interest as he plans to wield her as a weapon against Dean’s pack. As Selene grapples with her growing strength and conflicted feelings for Lucien, a rescue attempt forces her to choose between freedom and protecting her captor from a deadly coup within his own ranks. When a monstrous third-party threat emerges, Selene, Lucien, and Dean must unite to survive—culminating in a heart-pounding climax where Selene learns to control her power and redefine her destiny.

"His lips hovered dangerously close to my throat, his breath warm against my skin, as his gaze burned with a hunger that had nothing to do with feeding"

CAPTURED BY THE RUTHLESS VAMPIRE
I was human—fragile, terrified, and trapped in his world. A world where I was nothing more than a pawn, a prize to be claimed by the vampire who had captured me."

Sandra's perfect life is shattered by her husband's betrayal, and the threat of a monstrous creature. She found unexpected protection in the Wolf Prince, Diego. Together, they face an electrifying battle with a vengeful snake demon.

when mysterious deaths haunt them. Diego and Sandra must unravel a dark mystery that threatens their lives. Amongst the conflicts and sacrifices, love grows between them. Is their love strong enough to face a greater evil, one that involves evil demons and unimaginable sacrifices? In this epic story of love, betrayal, and the battle between good and evil, they will face the biggest test of their lives. Prepare to be trapped in an enchanting fantasy realm. Where wonder and danger always await.

Vera's life unfolded like a nightmare. She was dragged into the clutches of a ruthless Alpha, who forcefully mated with her, tormented her, and left her pregnant. Out of anger, Vera had a one-night stand with the king of all Alpha, Lycan King Leo. He craves her touch to shatter his lustful curse.

Vera's desperate bid for freedom lands her in a slave establishment, where she must confront her darkest fears.
Which of her Alphas will buy her first? They both need her and she hates the both of them?


Before I could react or reply, Anna struck me with the iron rod, Jerome used to discipline me, and I lost consciousness.

When I regained consciousness, my eyes took time to adjust to the darkness that surrounded me. The side of my head hurt and throbbed in pain. Moving my body, I heard the sound of chain clinks, and it didn't take me much time to realize where I was. Scrambling over the floor, my hand touched the iron bars, and my heart sunk in realization. I noticed the inscription boldly written on the walls, and I could hear the wails of women and children.

“I am back to the slave establishment!” I gasped, my eyes wide with horror as I clutched my belly in a futile attempt to shield my unborn children from the darkness that surrounded me.

Accused of a crime she didn’t commit and abandoned by everyone she trusted, Mira decides to drown herself.

Gary has just been told he has one hundred days before death claims him. He was preoccupied with the thought when he found Mira trying to take her own life.

He didn't hesitate to save her, but Mira Hale didn’t want to be saved. For her, death felt kinder than a lifetime behind bars.

Gary then offers Mira wealth, freedom, and his name in exchange for one hundred days of living without fear.

What begins as a contract turns into laughter, healing, desire, and a love neither of them planned to survive.

But when secrets surface and time stops being the enemy, Mira must choose between protecting her heart… or believing that some love stories are meant to last beyond their expiration date.

She's a Pack doctor. He's a fugitive Rogue.
For two years, Dr. Nora Caldwell has been healing wounds in the shadows—treating Rogue injuries off the books and gathering evidence that the official narrative is built on lies. But when she's assigned to hunt down a notorious Rogue leader, she realizes the man she's been falling for is the same one she's sworn to destroy, forcing her to choose between duty and truth.
Reth never meant to let her close. As a former operative turned underground revolutionary, he knows that love is a liability and trust is a weapon. But Nora sees past the armor, sees past the scars—and when she discovers what he's really fighting for, she has to make an impossible choice.
Fight for the system that trained her. Or fight alongside the man who could bring it all down—and risk everything she believes in.
In a world where the government manufactures enemies to justify genocide, where genetic purity is law, and where love becomes an act of treason—Nora and Reth must decide if their connection is worth burning everything for.
Sometimes, the most dangerous thing is choosing the truth.

I was strapped to a cold metal table in the basement, begging my mate to spare my life.
"Do it," he said, ignoring my tears. "You shouldn't have hurt Shari's puppy out of jealousy. This is the price you pay for harming my only heir."
A silvery liquid was injected into my veins, burning through my body and severing the bond between me and the wolf.
"NOOOOOO!"
A scream burst from my throat as tears streamed down my face, my wolf left me.
I became the most insignificant servant in the pack, while Alpha Zack, embracing his childhood friend, publicly declared his illegitimate son the Alpha heir of the pack.
Alpha Zack thought I would become insecure and weak, eventually submitting to become the mother of his illegitimate son and serving him and Shari, but he didn't know that my true identity was the most beloved daughter of the leader of the Bloodclaw Pack.
I dialed my father's number. I had 24 hours left before I could escape this damn hellhole.

A young couple recently moved in right across the hall from us.
The husband, Richard, works as an auditor at City Hall. His wife, Chloe, is the morning show host for a local TV network.
Chloe is about five-foot-three, with curves in all the right places. Her entire being radiates an unignorable, mature housewife charm—she is absolutely gorgeous.
Richard is a serious whiskey enthusiast and often invites me over to the patio for a couple of drinks, so our families quickly grew close. My wife, Sarah, and Chloe, in particular, became like sisters the moment they started talking about Sephora's new releases and luxury bags. They could easily gossip for an entire weekend.
And that... gave me an opportunity.

Five years ago, they stripped me of my rank and stopped my retirement pay. Now, with the Imperial army at the gates, they kneel at my door, begging for my services. My daughter is wearing last year's shoes, her big toe practically sticking out. My wife is still refilling coffee at a fast-food restaurant at 3 a.m. The neighbors call me "that welfare-dependent guy" behind my back. I pulled my five-year-old dismissal order from under the bill and slipped it under the door. "You've got the wrong person."

Tessa gave up everything for her husband—her career, her family, her dignity—only to be discarded when his past walked back into his life.
Broken, she signs the divorce papers and leaves.

Years later, she returns as a woman the world kneels before and Smith realizes too late that the wife he broke has become the reckoning he cannot escape.

She's back powerful, untouchable, and unforgiving.

This time, she isn’t asking for love.
She’s collecting debts.

This monster leaned in close, looking at me like I'm sort of ant, and roared right at my face.
I almost passed out from fright at the sight of the beast.
'Is this how I die?' I questioned as I shook fraily under the best.
When our eyes met, something stood out and for some reason, I instantly knew who it was.
It was Kieran Blackwood. The Exiled Alpha.

***

Lilith’s life has always been defined by duty. Raised by Alpha Zander after being orphaned, she is now bound to marry his son and become Luna of the Silverfang Pack, a fate she never chose. But on the day she’s forced to the altar, her world is upended when a rogue alpha, Kieran Blackwood—the Exiled Alpha feared across the land—attacks, leaving chaos in his wake and taking Lilith hostage.
In the shadow of old enemies and pack rivalries, Kieran is hiding secrets of his own, and Lilith might be the key to his redemption—or his downfall. As war looms and enemies close in, Lilith must decide where her heart truly lies... before it's too late.

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

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

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

But devotion has an expiration date.

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

So I walked away.

When I disappeared, he shattered.

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

I was born a princess of the Dragon Realm, destined for greatness.
In my past life, I married an amethyst dragon, Damien. Our union should have produced heirs worthy of legend. Instead, I bore him a Wingless One, the ultimate shame.
He didn't hesitate. One swing of his blade, and our child's cries were silenced forever. Then he dragged me, still bleeding from childbirth, to the Dragon's Maw. Threw me into the molten lava, my screams echoing as the flames consumed my flesh.
Meanwhile, my half-sister Isadora, a mere Bronze Dragon, married another Bronze, equally unremarkable. Yet somehow, she gave birth to an Amethyst Dragon.
She became our new Dragon Queen. I became carrion.
But death wasn't my end.
I opened my eyes on the day of the Choosing Ceremony. Damien stood before me. Then, with cold calculation in his eyes, he turned away. He chose Isadora.
He remembers too.
A smile curved my lips. Let him play his game. Because I know the truth now, a truth that will shatter everything.
How could a dragon who needs dark magic to maintain his wing color possibly father a dragon of true noble bloodline?

The aliens invaded. A toxic fog rolled in. New York turned into a living hell.
But I was forced into a tight spot. A strict Mother Teresa System bound itself to my soul.
I had to save everyone. Betrayers, killers, enemies—it didn't matter. If I didn't help them, the system would execute me on the spot.
Everyone mocked me.
They thought I was soft. The shelter captain stripped my weapons and threw me out into the dead zone.
They thought I was a dead man walking.
They were wrong.
They didn't know my system rewarded me with the ultimate Light ability.
So, get behind my blade.
I am going to save New York, whether it likes it or not.

I've signed five blood-bound annulment contracts with my mafia don husband, Killian.
Each and every time, he fed me the same line: "When this is over, we'll tie the knot again."
But every single one of those "things" was for the same woman: Seraphina Moretti.
We ended our marital bond for the first time, and I sobbed, begging him to tell me if his love for me had ever been real.
He clamped his hold on my jaw hard enough, enunciating every word coldly: "Elara, that doesn't matter."
When the second annulment rolled around, I was mocked openly at the family gala.
I locked myself away in the ensuite bathroom and sliced open my wrists; blood trickled along the tile grout.
My best mate tracked me down to find me trembling.
It wasn't the wound's ache making me shake, though—Killian was somewhere on the estate that very night, yet he never bothered to pop by and check on me once.
By the third split, I'd taught myself never to shed a tear in his presence.
On the fourth occasion, I even took it upon myself to ask him flat-out: "What sham do you need me to play along with now?"
He froze for the longest moment, said nothing at all in the end.
Now we're here for the fifth annulment.
He thought he only needs to click his fingers and I'll trot back to remarry him just as I've done all the previous times. What he did not know is this:
This time, I'm disappearing from his life for good.

Eight years ago, I was forced to marry Sicily's most dangerous man.

Louis De Santis, heir to the Santis crime family, decided he wanted me. Right in front of me, he brutally tortured and killed my fiancé Alessandro, then dumped the body in the ocean for the sharks. He used Alessandro's blood to write threats on the wall to my parents—I had no choice but to walk into that fortress he called home.

Louis was obsessed with me to the point of madness. He took bullets for me during family wars, got down on his knees and begged the family elders when they questioned his choice. Under that twisted kind of love, I gradually fell for him and gave him a son—Marco.

For five years, I thought I'd found happiness.

Until year eight, when the Corleone family sent their "peace offering"—Angelina Corleone. This innocent-looking woman effortlessly stole Louis's heart. He had the nerve to announce: "You two are going to get along."

I couldn't stand the betrayal, so I secretly reached out to other families to try getting rid of Angelina.

I got caught.

In his rage, Louis strung up 5-year-old Marco above the blast furnace at the steel mill.

"NO! Please! He's just a child!" I rushed toward Louis frantically, but his men held me back.

Molten steel roared inside the furnace at 2912°F. Scorching heat blasted upward as little Marco dangled just ten feet above the flames.

My heart nearly stopped.

"Mommy! Help me! It's so hot! So hot!" Marco screamed in terror.

"Put him down! Please!" I fell to my knees, begging desperately, "Kill me! Kill me instead! Don't hurt Marco!"

"Nod and let her stay, and I'll let him down." Louis coldly began counting down: "TEN!"

I watched Marco's little body writhing in agony from the heat.

"NINE!"

Sweat and tears blurred my vision.

"EIGHT!"

"I agree! I AGREE!" I broke down screaming, "She can stay! Please let Marco down!"

Louis smiled with satisfaction and stopped counting, about to signal his men.

Then—

"SNAP!"

The rope suddenly broke!

"NOOO—!"

Time seemed to freeze. I watched helplessly as Marco's tiny body plummeted.

"THUD!"

He fell into the furnace.

In an instant, he was gone.

I completely shattered, blood spurting from my mouth as I collapsed.

When I opened my eyes again, I'd gone back to the day Louis first brought Angelina home.

This time, I'm going to make him pay!

The kidnapper's boot sent the briefcase flying. Thirty million in cash scattered across the floor.
He pointed at me, then at the unconscious Camilla. "Not enough money. So you pick one to take home. The other stays."
Lorenzo stood among the bills, his face drained of color.
"I'm sorry. Camilla has a heart condition—she won't make it through the night here." He wouldn't meet my eyes. "You've always been the strong one. Once I get her to the hospital and pull together the rest of the ransom, I swear I'll come back for you."
The next second, Lorenzo gathered Camilla in his arms and walked out without a backward glance. The heavy iron door slammed shut with a boom that echoed through the space.
In the cavernous abandoned factory, it was just me and five thugs with brutal faces.
The leader dragged the flat of his blade across my cheek, his eyes dark with sick intent. "Well, well. Looks like your rich boyfriend just chose her over you. But hey, don't feel too bad, sweetheart—we're gonna keep you company."
Watching the twisted hunger in their eyes, I didn't scream or beg. I just glanced at the locked door. "Lorenzo's gone, right? Far enough away?"
"That p**y's probably halfway across the county by now." The leader grinned, reaching for my collar.
"Good." I let out a breath.
Snap.
The zip tie around my wrists gave way like thread. A massive shadow swallowed him whole.
In less than two seconds, a dragon nearly sixty feet long filled every inch of space.
I lowered my massive head, molten slitted eyes locked on the five frozen insects below.
Then I opened my fang-lined jaws and snapped them up one by one.

My mate lost his memory and fell in love with another woman.

Alpha Killian Cross forgot our five-year bond after a rogue attack. Sandra, the Omega who saved him, became his new obsession. I fought to restore his memories—and succeeded.

But the day he remembered me was the day Sandra killed herself. Killian blamed me for her death and chose to hate me instead.

When rogues attacked our pack, he died taking a hit meant for me. His last words? "I wish you'd never made me remember. I wish you'd let me love her."

Now I'm back—reborn to the day I first found him with Sandra. This time, I won't fight for his memories. This time, I'll let him keep his happiness with her.

Even if it kills me all over again.

I'd been married to Nikolai Konstantin for three years. In that time, I'd miscarried six times for him—nearly died on the operating table once.

Every time I woke up, this cold-blooded mafia boss would hold my hand and say, "I'm sorry you had to go through this. Should we try again?"

I thought he loved me.

Until my seventh pregnancy, when I saw that video—

My sister Scarlett curled up in his arms, crying: "Nik, she's had six miscarriages... what if something happens to her? It's all my fault. My heart condition won't let me carry a baby..."

Nikolai kissed the top of her head: "Don't worry, baby. Her body can handle a few more tries. I promised you a child, and I always keep my promises."

That was when I finally understood—

The child in my womb had NEVER been ours.

I'm the orphan the Aldrich family's steward took in. Edric is the heir to the Aldrich Group and the most powerful top-tier Alpha in Chicago.

We grew up together. I'm his fiancée.

The night of the charity gala, the photographer asked the executives and their partners to move in closer.

Edric gripped my shoulder, pushed me to the edge of the crowd, and pulled Valentina in beside him instead.

"Valentina and I are moving to the New York headquarters together next month. It makes sense for us to be in the shot together."

It wasn't the first time he'd pushed me aside.

When I brought him a question about a quarterly report, he said I was wasting his time.

When Valentina complained that reading files made her tired, he canceled a video call with European investors and rented out an entire amusement park to cheer her up.

When the two of them posed for a photo, everyone around them cheered.

All he could think about was taking Valentina to New York and leaving me behind in New Jersey, sure I would wait for him the way I always had.

What he didn't know was that I had already accepted a transfer to Los Angeles. Three thousand miles from New York.

This time, I wasn't going to wait for him to come home.

My name is Aria Vance, born with mismatched eyes.To the Silver Moon Pack, that made me a curse from the day I drew breath. Therefore, my parents threw me into the Mistwood the moment I was born.
That place exists for one reason—to hold everything the packs don't want.
Mutated wolves. Half-bloods. The maimed. Anything that didn't fit the mold got dumped there.
I was taken in by a black witch named Morwenna.
She taught me to heal, but I was fascinated by how to make a wolf's bloodline rot from the bone out, slow and quiet.
The day left, she clasped a blessed moonstone bracelet around it.
"Aria, your wolf was born bloodthirsty." She held my gaze. "Out there, don't ever let anyone see your real eyes."
For years after that, I went by "the Fir Healer," drifting from territory to territory. Heal, take payment, never linger.
I thought I'd spend the rest of my life like that.
Then the Vance family brought me back. It wasn't until the carriage that I understood—they wanted a scapegoat.
To marry me off in place of their fake heiress, Selena, to the crippled, half-mad Shadow Alpha—Cyrus.

Three years of doting affection was nothing but a meticulously rehearsed lie. Dante Vitale kept Isabella as his perfect human shield to guard Seraphina, the woman he truly loved. Every warmth was fake, every danger was arranged. When the truth shattered her world, she lost her child and narrowly escaped death. Presumed drowned, Isabella lays low, collects evidence, and allies with an old FBI classmate. She brings down the entire Vitale clan, ruins his power, and leaves him scavenging for food on cold streets. He weeps for her in the snow, yet she will never turn back.

Maeve and I dragged a dying animal out of the rain. We thought we were saving a life. Instead, we invited a monster to our door for a blood oath. In my first life, I accepted the oath and died screaming. In the second, Maeve took my place and was skinned alive. This is our third chance.

Everyone knows Adrian loves me more than life itself. When that car crashed, he threw himself over me and took the hit. First thing he said when he woke up in the hospital: "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Everyone says I married the best man in the city.

What they don't know is this man has married me ten times. And divorced me ten times. All for the woman he's never gotten over.

The first time, I got on my knees and begged him not to leave. He just looked at me with those cold eyes and said, "Don't embarrass yourself."

The fourth time, we were fighting in the car. Then we crashed, and I lost our baby.

By the seventh time, I stopped crying. Just signed the papers, packed my things, waited for him to come back like he always did.

My tears, my compromises, all those times I bent until I nearly broke. What did I get? Him coming back like clockwork, just to do it all over again.

This time, when he slides that tenth divorce agreement across the desk, I finally get it. Some people's hearts never had room for you in the first place.

So this time, I'm throwing him out. Him and this whole Mrs. Hayes charade. Straight into the trash where they belong.

I waited ten years for Ethan.
He was in London getting his PhD.
I was back in the States, teaching.
I taught alone, moved alone, sat alone in the ER with an IV in my arm.
He said that when he came home, he'd marry me.
But the day he came home, he brought her with him. The woman who'd followed him all the way to London.

I hid in shadows for six years while my vampire husband played duke with his mistress.

Lucian kept our marriage secret, called our daughter "the half-blood bastard," and rushed to comfort Seraphina's twisted ankle while five-year-old Vanessa nearly died from silver poisoning.

His precious lover had "gifted" my child deadly perfume. While I held my convulsing daughter, he was cutting cake with his real family.

So I handed him divorce papers during his next dramatic rescue mission. Fool signed without reading—too busy playing hero to notice he just legally abandoned his wife and child.

Now the mighty vampire Duke burns under holy sunlight, chasing us to territories his undead flesh can't survive.

Begging on scorched pavement for a second chance he'll never get.

My husband, the terrifying Mafia Don, dropped fifteen million dollars on a luxury yacht just to throw a lavish, high-profile birthday celebration for his precious first love.

And today marks exactly seven days since I died of an infection in a Detroit slum, simply because I couldn't scrape together a few cents for antibiotics.

At the banquet, an oblivious guest tactlessly brought up my name.

Alessandro dialed my number for the first time in five years.

"Genevieve, if you've suffered enough, crawl back here and beg Elena for forgiveness."

That is, until the estate doors were violently shoved open.

A scavenger walked in, leading a little boy whose face was an eighty-percent match to Alessandro's.

My daughter was choked until her face turned purple by the mistress's son, then nearly died after my ex-husband forced her to give blood.
She was beaten, cursed at, and abandoned on a bench outside the hospital.
And I could do nothing to help her.
Because I had already died eight years ago.
It wasn't until my daughter collapsed crying at my grave—and the story made the news—that my ex-husband finally learned the truth.
He had destroyed both me and the child we shared in the cruelest way possible.
And by then, there was no fixing it.

My best friend Sophie has a rich dad, a romance-novel addiction, and Daddy’s black card.

I have student loans and three part-time jobs.

So when Sophie decided to live out every love story she’d ever read, she hired me to play the villainess.

The mean girl who corners the class genius? Me. The spoiled heiress who won’t leave the campus heartthrob alone? Also me. Ten bucks per cringey text. Cash up front.

Easiest money I ever made.

Except the heartthrob never answered my fake flirting. He only answered when I accidentally told him the truth.

Now Sophie’s on romance number three, a bad boy with a Ducati, and I’m in a back alley in black eyeliner, pretending to slap her so he can swoop in and save her.

He doesn’t show.

Her last two heroes do.

The genius smirks. “Well, well. If it isn’t the two women who once loved me to death.”

“You’ve got it wrong,” the heartthrob says, and he’s not looking at Sophie. He’s looking at me. “That’s the gorgeous rich girl who swore she’d marry me.”

I was paid to be his worst nightmare.

Nobody paid me to fall for him.

No one has ever cleared Wish.
The Boss twists every wish into death.
I should have died first.
Instead, I kissed him.
After that, everyone who hurt me died. The other players called me the Boss's secret wife—and pointed a gun at my head.
To survive, I must uncover his past and make one final wish.
Get it wrong, and I'll be erased.
Get it right, and I may bring the monster back to life.

I once believed that if I was obedient enough, my birth family would finally love me. Instead, they gave everything to Anna, the fake heiress—my competition spot, my reputation, even my kidney.
Then I opened my eyes and returned to the year it all began.
This time, I won’t beg. I won’t yield. My achievements, my dignity, and my life belong to me.
When everyone called me vicious, Damian Sterling draped his jacket over my shoulders and asked in a low voice, “Am I an outsider?”
I leaned into him and smiled. “Of course not.”
But soon I discovered he was being slowly poisoned—and the culprit might be someone closest to him. Worse, the truth behind my death in my previous life may be darker than I ever imagined…

1

The day he proposed, Atticus knelt before me, holding the Hale family's heirloom necklace.
I thought I had finally survived the ordeal.
After eight years of unrequited love, being humiliated by his sister, nitpicked by his mother, and mocked by the city's socialites for being unworthy of the Hales... Until this very moment, when he personally fastened the heirloom around my neck. Everyone saw it. I, Clara, was finally accepted by the Hale family.
Tears in my eyes, I said yes, thinking it was the happiest moment of my life.
But just days after putting on that necklace, bizarre red rashes crawled up my neck. My pale skin rotted away piece by piece, and my internal organs went into irreversible failure.
The most absurd part? The exact same day I started rotting, his dying mother miraculously cured her terminal illness, and his sister's half-destroyed face was restored to flawless perfection.
Disfigured and barely looking human, I threw myself off the Harbour Bridge—
I opened my eyes, and I was back on the day of the proposal.

Five years into living with my stepbrother Gideon, the scholarship girl he sponsored moved into our house.
To repay his "generosity," she made a habit of slipping into his bed at night. By day, she took it upon herself to "fix" my antisocial, withdrawn personality.
Three days before St. George Prep's graduation ceremony, she brought me a glass of juice wearing that nauseating sugar-sweet smile.
"You know, Charlotte, your peanut allergy is probably psychosomatic. You just need some exposure therapy. Let me help you get over it."
That night, my throat closed completely. She'd deliberately laced my drink with concentrated peanut extract.
I convulsed on the cold hardwood floor, vision tunneling as oxygen fled my lungs.
In the last second before darkness swallowed me whole, I clawed desperately toward the half-open door.
Standing in the hallway were my boyfriend Dylan and my stepbrother Gideon.
They simply watched me suffocate. Then Gideon calmly reached out and shut the door.
I died from anaphylactic shock.
Three months later, as a ghost tethered to this world, I watched her stride onto Stanford's campus. Wearing my clothes. Carrying my acceptance letter. Burning through my trust fund.
Through the crowd, I saw Gideon—my ice-cold, unreachable stepbrother—gently cradle her face and press his lips to hers.
Then I gasped awake.
I was back. Three days before graduation.

I used to be the most envied female on the continent. Three mates: werewolf Alpha Kael, vampire lord Dorian, elven ranger Seth. All of them mine.
Then a half-elf drifter named Ayla showed up, and everything I had started belonging to her instead, one piece at a time.
Kael once pulled a fang from his own mouth to make me a necklace. The day it broke, he was too busy licking another female's cut finger to notice.
Dorian spent two weeks brewing me blood wine. Then he handed the cup straight to her, because apparently I "looked healthy enough to go without."
Seth carved me a charm from sacred elven wood. I watched her face take shape under his knife instead of mine.
They kept telling me I needed to grow up. So when a beast's poison was spreading through my body, and I blew the whistle they swore would bring them running no matter what—
No one came.
Three years later, I walked back into their world on a Siren prince's arm.
This time, they're the ones begging for my forgiveness.

Six months ago, my parents started fostering a girl named Lila Mercer.
Six months ago, Mom repainted the guest room and strung fairy lights over the bed. My room still has the same furniture I've had since I was twelve.
Six months ago, Dad started coming home for Sunday dinner. Not for me. I'd been eating alone at the counter for years by then.
Six months ago, Mom posted a photo of the two of them at the farmers market. Caption: our family is growing. I saw it during third period and locked my phone hard enough to crack the case.
So when I picked up the family iPad tonight and a notification popped up from an app I didn't recognize, I wasn't shocked. Just tired of being right.
The app was called Beacon.

My family ignored my calls while I was dying in our basement. They thought I was trying to ruin my younger sister's graduation.
That night, my brother finally came looking for me. My sister wanted the cookies I used to bake for her.
I was right beside him when he demanded that I come home.
He couldn't hear me. My body was still downstairs.

I was dead, and the whole world was celebrating for my sister.

For twenty-two years, I had been the hardest-working but most invisible daughter in the Sterling family, forever living in the shadow of my gymnastics prodigy sister.

Running a high fever, I begged my family to take me to the hospital, only to hear: "Don't you DARE ruin Bella's award ceremony!"

When I was tricked into the abandoned equipment room and used my last breath to call my boyfriend while lying in a pool of blood, all I heard was: "Grace, quit the drama! Bella's accepting her award on stage!"

On stage, thunderous applause erupted as Bella lifted the "Young Gymnast of the Year" trophy.

And I drew my final breath.

When they returned home triumphant, thinking I had run away in a tantrum, they had no idea I was already dead right under their noses.

There are no unmated males in our pack.
Every she-wolf in Hollowfen is promised to someone when she turns eighteen. We just don't get to know who until we walk into the Choosing Hall.
Girls go in wearing white. They come out flushed, shaking, barely able to stand. Some laugh. Some cry. None of them talk about what happens inside.
My sister Thessaly turned eighteen this spring. Gran told her she couldn't attend the Choosing.
She went anyway. She came back on shaking legs, with blood between her thighs and a smile she couldn't wipe off her face.

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.

To raise money for my younger brother’s surgery, I forged my degrees, polished my résumé, and forced my way into high society. In everyone’s mouth, I’m that woman—
the scheming bitch, the liar, the “evil bride” clinging to an old rich man.
They all think I’m obsessed with Mr. Grant, the financial shark’s mountain of assets.
Only I know the truth—what I’m really clinging to is my brother’s life.
No one expected that the first man I fell for at first sight…would be his heir, Adrian.
And yet in a blink of eyes, I became his “stepmom in name only.”
On our wedding day, everyone laughed at how shameless I was:
“She marries the dad and still dares to seduce the son?”
“Vicious little con artist—who knows what cheap tricks she pulled to marry in?”
Adrian was no exception.
He called me a liar, a manipulator, dumped all his hatred on me—said I’d do anything for money, that I was a tumor climbing up off their wounds.

Victoria discovered that I hadn't submitted any supplemental medical expense claims for two weeks.
She assumed I had finally been disciplined and had given up what she called "the exploitative nature of the lower class."
Little did she know, my backpack held the signed divorce papers and my mother's death certificate.
As I turned to leave, I was still wearing the discounted trench coat she'd casually given me three years ago when we got married.
What she didn't know was that I, a deep-sea geology genius from MIT, willingly endured three years of her humiliation and ridiculous rules, just so my mother could stay in her conglomerate's private hospital to prolong her life.
Now, my mother has died because of unpaid bills , and even her ashes are carried by me in a cheap canvas bag.
Now that my loved one is dead, there's no need for me to continue being her obstructive dog on Wall Street. The lives she owed with those approval forms, I will settle with the collapse of her entire conglomerate empire.

My wife is upstairs with another man—her first love.
But I don't want to fight about it.
I'm not staying here because of her.
Her father once saved my father's life. I'm here to repay that debt.
So they pushed even further.
She wants me to give way to her first love.
Give up my seat at dinner, my trust fund eligibility, my position as family consigliere, even our couple's travel tickets.
Fine. Have it your way.
I'm leaving to go back to being the Don I was meant to be.
Hope your family can survive the mafia wars without me.

At the parents' meeting, the daughter's diary was read aloud: "My father is the Grand Duke of the Night."
The room erupted in laughter.
The mentor, disregarding her daughter's dignity, tore up her diary, while the nouveau riche woman advised me , a liar, to "get out of this neighborhood."
I didn't say anything, I just stood up. Then, their knees were all shattered.

As the extreme cold apocalypse arrives, my most trusted protégé conspires with other shareholders to force me from power. Everyone is watching me become a laughingstock.

Just as I reach the brink of desperation and prepare to sign my resignation, countless scrolling comments suddenly cover my vision.

They're frantically displaying information about the future, such as—in three days, the apocalypse will end...

A torrential downpour of strong acid flooded the city, and mutated sea monsters slaughtered buildings. When Chloe, along with burly men from the rugby team, wielding fire axes, frantically smashed down the door, attempting to burn me alive and steal my bottled water, I had already welded the security door firmly into the load-bearing wall.
Faced with the pried-open door, I didn't waste any words and directly used a 20,000-volt electric spear to pierce the strong man's thigh! Then, I coldly pushed the blood-soaked floor outside.
The pungent smell of blood instantly attracted the skeletal behemoths from the water, turning the corridor into a horrific slaughterhouse. I listened coldly to their desperate screams in front of the monitor.
In this desolate wasteland, you think you can survive by stepping on me? Then feed the monsters with your flesh and blood !

“How cruel of you! You were the one who left when I was ready to fight for you. I searched the world for you, and now that I found you, you were betrothed to another man. Tell me how! How do I unlove you?”
Tears fall from both our eyes and the next thing we know, we are kissing each other, deeply and passionately, as if the two years of longingness for each other has finally been released.
_
Avery Anderson called "Ava" who is still a virgin in her early thirties is a career-oriented woman. She puts up her own business through her hard work and is envied by a lot of women because of her seven-year-long relationship with Seigfried Cohen, a hot bachelor in an accounting firm. Their relationship starts to fall apart as they get into a heated argument because of Ava's unfathomable sexual drive.
Determined to lose her virginity, she travels to Austria to unwind and get laid to whoever finds her attractive. There, she encounters a guy named Dmitri, a gorgeous sexy billionaire: an encounter that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
She will then, know a world, that she never expects to get addicted to.

A short contemporary domestic-drama romance. Clean to sweet. Happily ever after.

My husband's family slid the folder across the table — sign here, family helps family, it's just a signature.

What they didn't know: I had almost three million dollars in an account none of them could find. I silenced the alert before the number could glow.

They think we're the broke ones. For four years they've bled the kindest man I know dry, dressing every demand up as love and cashing it. So I let them keep believing it — and I built a wall they will never see.

They're about to find out what happens when you spend a lifetime underestimating the quiet one.

And this time, I'm not the one who pays.

"You're adopted, you know. Mom and Dad got you out of foster care."

My sister said that to me during a fight when I was eight.

I ran to my parents in tears, needing them to tell me it wasn't true. Instead, they pulled her into their arms and nodded at me.

"It's true. Your real parents didn't want you."

For the next fifteen years, I lived like a package that could be returned to sender at any moment.

I never fought with my sister and never asked for anything. I rushed to finish every chore and came in first on every test, all so they'd feel like keeping me was worth it.

This October, I flew home a few days early so I could stay a little longer.

My hand had barely touched the doorknob when I heard my sister's voice coming from the living room. She was telling a room full of relatives a funny story.

"My sister is honestly hilarious. We got into a fight when we were kids, and I just said she was adopted. And she believed me."

"Still believes it, actually. Best part is, it turned her into our very own little maid."

"You never told her?" one of the relatives asked, stunned.

It was Mom who answered, as casually as if she were talking about the weather.

"Why would we? Ever since she bought it, she's been an angel. She jumps on every chore before anyone even has to ask."

"Honestly, best joke we ever made. It's paid off big time."

A chill ran through me, and I froze outside the door.

So fifteen years of walking on eggshells was just a punchline to them.

I didn't storm in and demand an explanation. I stood right where I was, pulled out my phone, and signed the contract for a five-year assignment in Sweden.

If they loved this joke so much, fine. I'd give them exactly what they wanted.

The "outsider" would walk out of their lives for good.