4982 Book(s) Related to my wife is a beautiful ceo

Viona Leander is certain that she carries the memories of Nadine Myer, a journalist who died a month ago, so she can take revenge on the fiancé who betrayed her with her own friend.
After going to great lengths to seek vengeance, she discovers that the real reason she awakened in Viona’s body was never revenge at all. It was to heal the heart of a man she had broken over and over again.

Luana Andrade, a determined university student, sees her world crumble when her scholarship is suddenly canceled. Without means to continue her education, she returns to her family's flower shop, vowing revenge against Fred Oliver, the man who took her chance at success.
Fred proposes an unlikely contract: Luana will pretend to be his girlfriend to make his ex-fiancée jealous, and in return, he will help her continue her studies.

Neah was pregnant the night she desperately kept calling her husband while writhing in pain. But instead of answering her cries for help, Dave chose to stay in his meeting.

And that night, they didn’t just lose their baby—they lost their love for each other too.

Two years later, Dave is finally at the peak of success as the top CEO candidate, while Neah is slowly rebuilding the life and heart he once shattered. But when fate brings them together again, Dave realizes that all his achievements mean nothing without the woman he once neglected.

But what if their broken marriage wasn’t caused by his neglect alone… but by the people who secretly destroyed them from the shadows?

And when Dave finally learns the truth, will there still be a family waiting for him… or is he already too late?

I stared at my stepfather with the intense feeling going under my wet soaked undies .

“ you are so wet for daddy you little slut “ he whispered biting softly at my ear lobe .

I swallowed the unknown lump on my throat and looked helplessly at my step father and the words that I had been dying to say slipped out of my mouth .

“ fuck me daddy , fuck me like a dirty little slut “

His hand slides up my thigh under the dinner table while our parents talk about wedding plans.

"Stop," I whisper, but my voice breaks on the word.

Damon leans close, his breath hot against my ear, his voice a low growl only I can hear. "Your heartbeat says you don't want me to stop, little wolf."

He's my stepbrother. My hockey captain. My Alpha. And the mate the Moon Goddess bound me to before I even knew I was a werewolf.

I spent years believing I was human. Then his golden eyes found mine across a crowded rink, and something inside me woke up—something hungry, wild, and desperate for him. Now we steal moments in the dark, his body pinning mine against locker room walls, his teeth grazing the spot on my neck where his mark belongs. One bite and I'm his forever. One slip and our families shatter.

But the bond doesn't care about consequences. It pulls me to his bed, to his truck, to the deep woods where he teaches me to shift and I teach him to be gentle. Every full moon, the ache to complete the bond gets worse. Every secret kiss tastes like a goodbye we're too weak to say.

And now there's a second heartbeat inside me. His pup.

The pack will call it an abomination. Our parents will call it a betrayal. But when Damon presses his palm to my belly and whispers, "You're mine, Sky. Both of you. Let the world burn," I know I'll risk everything for him.

Because some bonds aren't meant to be hidden. Some are meant to start a war.

Twenty-five years ago, a deadly virus swept across the world, wiping out countless humans and driving female beastfolk to extinction. Since then, women have become the rarest treasure in existence—cherished, protected, and granted the power to choose any beast mate they desire.

As one of the few remaining human women, Faye Sinclair is supposed to live a life of privilege. Surrounded by powerful alphas, worshiped by society, and pursued by men who would fight wars for her, she seems to have everything.

But beneath the perfect world built for women lies a secret no one dares to speak aloud. And when Faye begins pulling at the threads holding society together, she discovers that the greatest power in the Beast World belongs not to kings, warriors, or rulers—but to the woman brave enough to rewrite the rules.

I thought I had the perfect love story—until I caught my boyfriend with his arms wrapped around my best friend.

But the betrayal went even deeper. Convinced I had stolen her identity, he drugged me and threw me to a pack of monsters.

Desperate to survive, I clung to the only lifeline left to me—his adoptive father, Blackwood.

A man of unimaginable power and ice-cold cruelty, he became my last chance at escaping hell.

After one night with him, I ran for my life, swearing to forget the nightmare forever.

But when I saw him again, he only smirked and drawled,

“Sleep with me and run, Chloe? Who taught you your manners?”

Being married to Gabriel Bowen for two years, Nicole never faced a problem for being a plus sized woman. He always made her understand he liked his women thick.

Until one evening she decides to surprise him early from work. But as she steps into their apartment, she notices something’s off.

Gabriel is home, but he isn’t alone. She walks up to the bedroom where she finds her husband’s head buried between the legs of a red haired woman who is nothing close to being thick.

Unapologetic about it, he straight up asks for a divorce . After the divorce shatters her, she disappears… only to return a year later with a transformed body, sharpened confidence, and a legal mind ready for war.

I stood there frozen while my worst enemy wrapped his arm around me and told the entire room I was his girlfriend.
Lila Bennett has been secretly in love with her stepbrother Mason for years. No one knew. Except Knox Ryder, the arrogant hockey bad boy who has made her life miserable since high school.

Then Mason brings home his new girlfriend. Sienna, the same girl who tormented Lila throughout high school. When Sienna finds Lila’s private, very explicit story clearly written about Mason, she is ready to ruin her forever.
In one heartbeat, Knox steps in. He pulls Lila close, kisses her cheek, and declares they are together. Now they are fake dating to protect her humiliating secret.

The more time Lila spends with the cold, tattooed hockey star she used to hate, the more she sees the warm, fiercely protective heart underneath. He might be the only person who truly sees her. And the only one who can heal the heart she thought was ruined.

But when the lines between fake and real start to blur, Lila must decide if she is brave enough to risk everything for the boy she never saw coming.

"Who’s there?” thundered one of the suited men.

“Shit, run!”

Without hesitation, she turned and fled for her life.

With a calm, almost chilling expression, Grant only said two words:

“Kill her.”

And thus, the chase began.

One detective out for revenge.
One mafia lord out for blood.

Angelina Gusta lives a double life.

By day, she’s a sharp, unassuming accountant at Detroit’s most powerful corporation. By night, she’s the Moon Demon, an undercover journalist hunting the truth behind her father’s murder. In her relentless quest for justice, a single night changes everything.

Grant McRae — her impossibly handsome boss, the man she secretly admired — is the ruthless leader of one of Detroit’s most dangerous mafia gangs.

Torn between her vow to find her father’s killers and her growing feelings for Grant, Angelina decides to play it safe, keeping her cover intact. But the deeper she goes, the more she realizes she’s stepped into a deadly web of betrayal — one that could destroy them both.

This is a gripping tale of betrayal, a labyrinth of deceit, and a love tested against the darkest sides of loyalty and humanity.

He was my dad’s best friend. Until he vanished. Now he’s my boss… and the one man I’m not supposed to want.

When I walk into Ryder Vane’s office, resume in hand, I don’t expect him to recognize me. He doesn’t.
Not the little girl he once read bedtime stories to.
Not the daughter of the man he betrayed.
Not the secret I’ve been keeping since the night everything fell apart.

Ryder is Hollywood royalty—brilliant, commanding, impossible to ignore. And he just hired me as his assistant.

I wanted distance. Closure. Maybe a little revenge.
What I didn’t plan on was the sparks. The stolen glances. The late nights that blur the lines between right and ruin.

He’s twice my age. My dad’s ex–best friend. And completely off-limits.

But secrets don’t stay buried in this town.
And when the past comes crashing back with a stalker’s note and a kiss I can’t take back…

The biggest scandal won’t be what’s in the tabloids.
It’ll be what’s in my heart.

She came to destroy a king but didn’t expect to fall for his son.
Mira Ashveil had one purpose inside king Veyrath’s palace, and that was revenge.
The king had stolen everything from her. Her family, her identity, and her throne.
Mira decided to stay invisible for eleven months waiting, planning, and training to become the kind of woman the king would never see coming.
Then his son sees and claims her.
Cold, unreadable Casein Myth makes her his personal maid, pulling her closer to the throne than she ever planned. She tells herself that he was just another stepping stone to achieve her goals and she almost believes it.
But some doors change the moment you walk through them.
When they discover the secret of who they really were… when they discover that secret was bigger than revenge… what do you think will happen?

He stepped closer to me, his hard body invading my space.

The door that felt like support suddenly felt like a trap. There was nowhere for me to run to as his scent filled my senses.

“I’m sorry, Aurora,” his voice low, his eyes blazing with the promise of something dark.

“What are we doing, Conan?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“We are doing anything you want us to do,” his voice was low and seductive.

My breath caught as his thumb brushed my bottom lip.

“Conan—” I whispered, but he didn’t let me finish.

His lips slanted against mine, hungry and demanding.

He was the sailor, and I would gladly let him guide me.


SHE NEEDED A MIRACLE. HE OFFERED A CONTRACT.

Aurora’s world is crumbling—her only son is dying, and the life-saving bone marrow surgery costs $1 million. An amount she can’t afford with her salary. When her new boss Conan grey, slides a $10 million marriage contract across her desk, she thinks it’s a cruel joke.

Until she catches her boyfriend cheating.

Heartbroken and desperate, aurora signs the contract, stepping into a world of wealth secrets, and a man whose touch is ice—but whose past may burn everything she’s trying to save.

Will a deal made in desperation destroy her… or give her everything she never knew she needed?

When your fiancé and step-dad clash at your engagement party
Your step-dad, young and handsome, has been single since he took you in 🤔
You thought he hated you, thinking you were just a burden
But on the eve of your wedding, your fiancé abuses you, and you have nowhere to run 😩
So you escape to your step-dad's house for shelter… only to find out, after all these years, he wants you every day 💖🔥

I’ve loved Tristan for as long as I can remember. My best friend, my secret crush… and now, my stepbrother.

Living under the same roof should have been awkward. Instead, it’s terrifying. Every glance, every teasing word, every protective gesture makes my heart race. How can I resist him when he’s right there, closer than ever, and yet forbidden?

Sam's world shatters the day his father is murdered, leaving him in the hands of his late father's half-brother — Marcus — a terrifying mafia alpha werewolf who becomes his legal guardian. As the years pass in the violent shadows of their empire, an intense and forbidden tension builds between them, finally exploding when Marcus binds Sam to him with an ancient blood pact, marking him as his omega. Trapped in a merciless world where the weak are slaughtered, Sam can't bring himself to truly hate the man who now owns him. But deadly secrets, pack wars, and a dangerous new rival named Lucas — a brooding alpha who stirs feelings Sam shouldn't have — threaten to destroy everything.
Caught between loyalty, betrayal, and raw desire, Sam must choose: fight to break the bond that chains him… or surrender to the unexpected strength and love hidden in the arms of the one man he was never supposed to want.

I died once—pushed in front of a bullet for my adopted sister by my own brother.
Now I'm back.
And I'm done being the family doormat.

My so-called family stole my tennis spot, sabotaged my career, and handed everything to their precious adopted daughter. This time? I walked out, took back my club, and I'm playing the WwA tournament on my own terms.

They broke me once.
They won't get a second chance.

Their whole relationship was a bet.

She was THE bet. Not the girl. Not the girlfriend. The bet, scrawled on a napkin in a locker room while his teammates laughed. Whoever could sleep with the quiet nerdy girl first won. And Ryan Beckett? He won easy.

She found out in a group chat. Every detail and the humiliation swallowed her whole, even worse when he didn't even have the decency to feel bad about it.

Lena doesn't know hockey. But she knows statistics, probability, and exactly how to turn a losing player into a weapon. And Cole Beckett — Ryan's older, meaner, asshole older brother, is one bad season away from losing everything.

She finds him first.

The deal is humiliating to propose and she knows it. Be her fake boyfriend. Make Ryan lose his mind watching her on his brother's arm. In return, she'll do what no coach has managed: she'll get Cole to that championship.

But what started as a plan to make her dumb ex livid becomes something even more igniting, far more than she could have imagined.

Caught finger-fucking her pussy and moaning her father-in-law’s name, Bella is instantly claimed by Jax Voss — the huge-cocked, dominant patriarch who fucks her senseless. While her husband cums in minutes, Jax destroys her cunt for hours. Soon she becomes his personal cumslut, addicted to the rough, filthy breeding her own husband could never give her.

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't fuck your brains out right now?" he ask and I shudder.
"Nnn... Nooo! I don't have a reason," I stutter.
"Good! I am about to forget you are my princess and fuck you like a slut," he promises as he fucks me.
"I am a slut, only for you," I murmur.


I have always had a crush on my dad's best friend but Jack never saw me as a woman and rather he always referred to me as a child and treated me just like one. Just that, something ws soff in the eau he looked at me and spoke to me from time to time. I could feel the need in his voice and fire in his eyes.

So when my parents had to leave for some days and he was asked to take care of me I knew that was the only chance I will ever get at making my feelings known to him and to know whether or not what I saw was real ot if I wasn't Hallucinating. The first few nights were tough and he kept off saying I was off limits to him, but what if I am not and he is only trying to send me away bechause of the lady I saw him kissing the other night?

"Everyone is watching, don’t make a fool of me,” My tone turns sinister, provocative. “It’s just an I do. Say. It.”
“No! I can’t!” she breathes out.


Viktoria Malchov was only a child when her world ended in blood and gunfire—one Christmas night that wiped out her entire family. Seven years later, she has learned to survive.
To bury the screams.
To forget the past.
Until the day she’s forced into a marriage she never chose… to a man she has never met.
Or so she thought.
Because the man waiting for her at the altar is not a stranger.
He is her past.
Her only surviving relative—Maksim ‘Misha’ Malchov.

Tessa has just kissed stepbrothers Mason and Bennett.
They decide they don't like sharing and now she has to choose between them.

"Bennett is calm and cruel.
Mason is reckless and rude.
I've been a good girl and stayed out of their way,
but they'll do everything in their power to force me to do
the one thing I've never been able to do.
Choose between the Slade brothers.
They'll have to kill me first.
I've seen what they're capable of.
So maybe they can..."

She's my best friend's sister, which meant she was off-limits. But I could never keep my distance, because I had always wanted Mia.
I tried hard to resist my feelings for her, yet, I couldn't. So, I walked away, thinking it was the right thing to do.
Now, ten years later, I've made a name for myself. I'm a billionaire with everything I ever dreamed of—except for one thing: Mia.
When I see her again, she's not the shy girl I once knew. No, she's confident, strong, and still the one person who has the power to make me lose control.
However, she's also cold and distant, treating me like just another client, a stranger. She has every reason to hate me. But this time, I'm not walking away.

"Let me show you what it feels like to be a woman again, Dahlia. Just for tonight, Seb doesn't have to know... You know I can keep a secret," Zane smirks darkly.

I swallow hard, my eyes darting between his gaze and his lips as an intense wave of forbidden heat sears through me.


Dahlia Sterling has been engaged to her boyfriend, Sebastian Thorne, after five years of dating.

To the outside world, they seem like the perfect couple. And in many ways, they are. But behind closed doors, Dahlia's sex life with Sebastian is miserable and unfulfilling.

Despite countless counseling sessions and therapeutic efforts to fix the problem, nothing changes, especially since Sebastian constantly shames Dahlia for struggling with what he believes is a sex addiction.

Everything changes when Dahlia crosses paths with Sebastian's estranged older brother, Zane Thorne — a man who has secretly been in love with his brother's fiancée for years.

Zane once believed Dahlia was genuinely happy with Sebastian — That was the only thing that kept him from pursuing her initially. But the moment he realizes the truth, he makes it his mission to rescue her from her misery. By fucking her brains out and awakening emotions in her she can no longer ignore.

Now, she's caught between the Thorne brothers. One is her fiancé—her Mr. Sunshine, who could never love her the way she yearns to be loved. The other is his complete opposite—a man who would burn the world to the ground if it meant putting a smile on her face.

NB: This book is purely a dark romance. R18+.

This istory is about the forbidden love between Maddison más her boss and father's best friend. A forbidden love that leads her yo commit César things to forget those social projudices se grew up with.

What happens when the king of the school needs the one girl he once broke?

Elowen Bennett’s life has always been simple, quiet days, a small circle, and staying invisible enough to survive high school unnoticed. After a brutal betrayal by her boyfriend and her best friend, she’s done trusting people.

Especially him.

Alaric Hayes, the hockey captain, golden boy, and the same person who made her middle school years unbearable.

So when he suddenly wants her close… too close, it doesn’t make sense.

But Alaric isn’t doing this for fun.

Under his father’s orders, he needs something from Elowen, something tied to a dangerous past and a secret that could destroy both her and her mother. Getting close to her is just part of the plan.

Pretend to care. Gain her trust. Get the information.

Simple.

Until it’s not.

Because the more time he spends with her, the harder it becomes to remember this was never supposed to be real.

And when the truth finally comes out…

Elowen won’t just lose her heart.

She might lose everything.

On the night of her wedding, Helen Smith was attacked by a stranger.
Since then, every night has been a nightmare she cannot escape.

By day, she plays the role of the perfect wife, caring for her gravely ill husband whom she barely knows.
By night, she’s haunted by fear, shame, and a faceless man who takes what he wants in the dark.

Trapped in a golden cage of secrets and silence, Helen begins to question everything: her marriage, the man she married, and the terrifying truth that may be hiding just beneath the surface.

Because in this house, nothing is what it seems.
And the greatest betrayal is yet to come.

After a devastating accident erased six months of her memory, Jasmine Reyes returns home only to find a mysterious boy watching her from the window across the street every single day. She thinks he's obsessed. She doesn't remember that she once loved him or that the accident that nearly killed her was never an accident at all. As buried memories resurface, Jasmine uncovers a deadly conspiracy, a forgotten first love, and a truth powerful enough to get them both killed.

PROLOGUE
WYNTER'S POV
I ran blindly through the bushes, looking back every few feet I got, the twigs scratched at me and the leaves roped round my feet but I didn't care. The owls were hooting loudly and mysteriously but I couldn't hear it, all I heard was the insane pounding of my heart.
I fell all of a sudden and wanted to bounce right back on my feet but the pain was more than I could ignore. I could hear their voices somewhere behind me and they were fast approaching mercilessly. I didn't even know when I let out a loud groan from all the pain i felt. I was injured and in a highly critical condition and was adding more injuries by the second.
My hair stuck to my scalp in cold sweat and my whole body shook in fear but I knew I had to keep moving. With all the strength in me, I rose to my feet with a gasp.
"She's over there! Get her!! No one's returning without getting her!!! And she's definitely not getting away!" The Leader screamed behind and I turned, taking another path crying as i went.
I stopped as blood flowed freely from my injuries. I needed to hide. I looked around frantically but there seemed to be nothing but tall trees i couldn't hope to climb. Then i felt it in my pocket, the shot I had taken before it all started. I brought out the syringe with shaking hands as tears ran freely down my face.
I held the needle to the vein on my arm knowing fully well that it could kill me as I was too weak for it. It was supposed to make me numb and cold for a few minutes but apart from

I thought escaping my yandere ex-girlfriend was the hardest thing I’d ever do.
Then, the apocalypse began.
For six grueling months, I slaved away in a survivor shelter, doing everything to survive.
But gratitude doesn’t exist in the wasteland.
To secure rations, the shelter leaders decided to betray me, trading me away like cattle to a rival superpower base.
As I was dragged out, leaving my old shelter to its inevitable doom, I braced myself for the worst at the new base.
But when I was brought before their ruthless, all-powerful leader, the blood in my veins ran cold.
Sitting on the throne was the very woman who used to drug me, cage me, and possess me.
My psycho ex.
And she’s been looking for me.

My boyfriend was pretending to be poor.
I figured it out not long after we started dating. He would throw away body wash bottles the second the pump stopped working, and he dumped out the gray water I’d been saving to flush the toilet. When I caught him, he gave me this perfectly innocent look. "Aren't you just supposed to pour dirty water down the drain?"
We’d pass a street food cart selling those cheap processed sausages—three bucks for one, five for two. He’d squeeze my hand and say, "Look, babe, we're saving a whole dollar." He played the part of the thrifty boyfriend flawlessly.
I never called him out on it. Mostly because I was sitting on a secret of my own—one I had no intention of sharing.
That was, until I woke up in the middle of the night and saw him texting his buddy in the dark.
His friend had sent: Girls like her are just for fun. Let me test her out for you. I flash a little cash, and she'll come crawling.
He stared at the screen, hesitating for what felt like forever. Finally, he typed a single word: Yeah.
I just closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
The very next day, his rich little buddy strolled into the coffee shop where I worked. He slid a sleek bank card across the counter. "There’s thirty grand on this," he said. "Consider yourself bought."
Rich people always love testing the moral fiber of the poor.
But who made the rule that they're the only ones allowed to give the test?

For three years, Caleb Vance and I were the two most mismatched people at Hometown Beans.
We fought every single day, couldn't stand the sight of each other — even Frank, our boss, just assumed it was a matter of time before we tore the place apart.
But I never expected that after one of our fights, an accident would cost me my memory.
And I definitely never expected to wake up to find the man I hated most in the world, his eyes red, telling the doctor:
"I'm her boyfriend. We've been together for three years."
Except I remember perfectly well that we were never together.
So when I decided to fake amnesia, I had no idea I was about to uncover a secret that would upend three years of bad blood between us.
And it all started the day Frank announced he'd be handing Hometown Beans over to one of us.

In my previous life, the apocalypse struck. I entrusted my last hope of survival to my best friend of twenty years, but the moment the zombies swarmed, he unhesitatingly pushed me into the horde to be his shield. My girlfriend of three years, standing high above, watched coldly, her face filled with relief at shedding a burden.

In the excruciating pain of being bitten to death, I was reborn 72 hours before the apocalypse.

Looking at the messages from that despicable couple on my phone, I calmly blocked and deleted them, then cashed out all my assets, hoarding three million US dollars worth of top-tier weaponry and massive amounts of supplies. The apocalypse

arrived as expected. When my scheming girlfriend and betrayed brother were chased like dogs by zombies, kneeling before my fortress, frantically begging for mercy,

I sat atop a mountain of supplies, holding an infinitely replicating spatial ring, a gun pressed against his kneecap, and sneered: "Want to live? Never in this lifetime."

In this life, I will not be a saint; I will be the sole king of this post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The agony of flesh being torn apart still burned in my memory.
But I had been reborn.
I tremblingly touched the face in the mirror. Whole, unmarked. Was this real?
Just moments ago I had been struggling on death's edge, and now I stood in an 18-year-old body. Everything felt too surreal.
The entire pack still thought I was that naive Seraphina, forever living in the shadow of my pureblood sister Zorvaya. They didn't know I had seen the darkest truth.
The door suddenly burst open, and Zorvaya walked in carrying a cup of hot tea.
"Seraphina, don't stress yourself." Her voice carried an air of superiority. "Given your... situation, the Moon Goddess would be more forgiving."
Looking at her flawless smile, I was nearly sick to my stomach. This face, this expression—I had witnessed it countless times in my past life.
"About fated mates and all..." Zorvaya gently stroked my shoulder. "It's not something you absolutely have to follow. If you find Alpha Torin too domineering, choosing a gentler Alpha would be a good option too. I'll stand by you either way."
Stand by me? I nearly laughed out loud.
In my past life, I had been blinded by these very words. I had given up other opportunities and chosen my fated mate Alpha Torin, only to become a tool to mask his true feelings.
The truth hadn't surfaced until Zorvaya's birthday celebration. When the rogue wolves' claws had targeted her, that man who had claimed to love me for years hadn't hesitated to push me toward the pack.
As I collapsed in a pool of my own blood, the wolf claws having torn deep gashes across my flesh, I watched Torin cradling Zorvaya protectively while she clutched her belly in panic.
"Save Zorvaya! Quickly, save her! The child in her belly..." Torin had immediately rushed her to the medical room.
No one had paid attention to me lying in a pool of blood. In everyone's eyes, only Zorvaya had mattered.
"It's all my fault," Zorvaya had said weakly. "If I hadn't gotten pregnant, Seraphina wouldn't have been lashing out in jealousy..."
What? She had actually claimed I was lashing out in jealousy?
"Seraphina, I'm sorry... I'll make it up to you in the next life." Torin had given me one last look, his eyes full of guilt.
Next life?
You got me killed, and you still wanted me to give you a chance in the next life? Dream on!

My mom tricked me into a blind date on my thirtieth birthday.

I got stuck in traffic and showed up thirty minutes late, fully expecting a lecture about manners.

Instead, I heard a man's voice through the door.

"So she's thirty. And?"

"You say she's too picky. Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"You don't like how much she works. Are you signing her paychecks?"

I pushed the door open.

He was in a black shirt, glass of water in hand, perfectly calm. My aunt's face had gone purple.

He saw me and stood up.

"Hi. I'm your blind date."

"I've already been through your relatives once."

"Anything you'd like to add?"

My husband and parents wanted me dead. All because my sister was "dying."

They shoved a divorce agreement and an experimental surgery consent form at me.

I was supposed to be her donor.

But they didn't know I was the one actually dying.

Three days ago, they told me I had terminal bone cancer.

One month to live.

So when they threatened me into some back-alley surgery, I smiled.

I was already dying anyway.

"You're too brilliant, Lyra. It makes me sick. I had to ruin MIT for you, just so you'd never leave me."

I died in a puddle of my own blood on a rainy night, watching the boy I’d known for eighteen years walk away with Alice, the varsity cheerleader. No ambulance. Just taillights disappearing into the dark.

But instead of fading to black, I blink and find myself staring at my Common App dashboard. Three hours left until submission closes.

The MIT Aerospace Engineering major I bled for is gone, secretly replaced by some trash-tier community college. This time, I don’t scream or throw a fit. I just fix the application and hit save.

Keep that garbage school, Will. Let's see if they still accept you from behind bars.

Oak Creek thinks my brother, Cole, is a saint. He saved the family legacy and adopted the orphaned daughter of a killer out of the goodness of his heart.
What they don’t know is the price of his halo: Me.
To keep his 'good guy' image, he sacrificed his real sister. He gave her my bed, my home, and my parents.
When I was driven out of town, sleeping in a vandalized trailer, he left me a note: Come home and apologize.
I did come back. But not to apologize.
I'm holding the microphone at the town's biggest festival, looking down at the two thousand people who threw trash at me.
I have a stack of receipts, an unedited tape, and the truth about how my parents really died.
Are you ready to meet the real Hale family?

Just before Easter, my husband, Ethan Cole, surprised me by arranging a weeklong trip to Switzerland.
In ten years of marriage, it was the first time he had ever planned a vacation for me.
I thought he had finally remembered that I was human, too, and needed a break.
Then, one day, I accidentally overheard a conversation between him and our daughter, Ella.
"Daddy, if you and Sophia have a wedding, what will happen to Mommy?"
Ethan chuckled softly.
"It's just a ceremony. Nothing about our lives will change. Ella, keep this a secret for Daddy, and when I get back, I'll buy you that Barbie Dreamhouse you've always wanted."
I stood outside the door, feeling as though every drop of blood in my body had turned to ice.
So that was what this trip was really about.
It wasn't his way of making up for neglecting me. He was simply clearing his schedule so he could marry another woman.

My boyfriend was a mafia heir. One word from him could open those gates.
But I stood outside in the rain while he celebrated another woman's birthday. My calls went unanswered. Inside, four plates circled the cake. None was mine.
Upstairs, she'd taken my room too.
“You don't mind helping her out,” he told me.
He hadn't asked.
That night, I reopened the job offer I'd turned down to stay with him. This time, I hit Reply.

"Arthur, please! Send someone to Black Forest—Noah's been taken by rogue shifters! They'll kill him!" I hit the marble floor hard, blood trickling from my forehead.

My mate, the most feared enforcer in this territory, couldn't be bothered. He was too busy looking for his lover's precious pet.

"Eve, you're sick—lying about our kid to get attention?" He gestured dismissively. "Throw her in the cells until she stops this bullshit."

He locked me up all night.

Next morning, he let me out, figuring I'd gotten the message.

He didn't know that thirty minutes ago, the gate guards brought a blood-soaked box.

Our son's head was inside.

On the live gala broadcast, everyone called Vanessa Hart “Mrs. Caldwell.” And the real Mrs. Caldwell — me — sat at home, watching him let it all happen.
I have loved Ethan for more than a decade, only to get a marriage built on a deal. He married me to save my family. He kept me around because I was still useful. What he never realized was that I had a heart, and it could break beyond repair.
When I finally turned and walked away, he discovered the woman who had always waited for him was gone.
Now he drowns in regret. But will I ever go back to him?

The day my sister and I came back to life, we made one call: swap fiancés.

Last time, Dad burned every favor he had to lock down two marriage deals for the family. One with a mafia family that runs the West Coast. The other with a corporate CEO.

My sister married the mafia leader. She was too gentle, too kind for a world that ran on blood and backstabbing. The man had a childhood friend who played soft and helpless but was vicious as hell underneath. That woman tormented my sister for decades before finally arranging an "accident" that killed her.

And me? I got the polished CEO.

Sounds good, right? Except we tortured each other from day one. He was all rules and manners, always talking like he was giving a speech. Me? I blow up fast and if I can throw a punch, I will. Every day was the same standoff. He'd pull back, I'd push forward, and nobody gave an inch.

We spent our whole lives being polite and miserable.

Then one day, my sister and I woke up on the afternoon they announced the engagements.

When my year-end bonus came in, I bought a pair of engraved matching bracelets for the man I'd been with for eight years and had them shipped to his office.
The tracking said delivered. He waited a full day before sending me a voice message, asking if I'd bought him a gift.
I said no, and asked if someone had sent him something. He brushed it off. Said he'd ask around.
When I pushed, he said it was a pair of running shoes from a coworker, and he'd already sent them back.
That night he kept his phone on him. He even took it to bed.
Once he was asleep, I unlocked it with his finger.
His old Messenger chats had all been cleared. I searched one word: gift.
The messages came right up. The other person was Mia Novak. He called her "baby."
I tapped her profile picture. It was a wedding photo.
The groom was Nathan Boyd, the man I'd been with for eight years.

At the school's field day, my six-year-old son pointed straight at me and shouted for everyone to hear, "I'd rather be alone than with her! She's the worst mom in the world!"
He hated that I couldn't afford expensive toys, hated that we lived in a tiny apartment, hated that I was just a useless woman.
Then he turned and ran straight into the arms of the woman who destroyed my family, calling her name in the sweetest voice, just because she handed him an ice cream.
My ex-husband leaned against his luxury car, sneering, "Nora, if you admit you were wrong, I'll let you come back. We can get married again."
Looking at their smug faces, I finally let go of the hands I'd been gripping tightly for four years.
"All right," I said, smiling as I signed away custody, "Since you two love each other so much, I hope you and your perfect little family enjoy every minute together."
They thought I was playing hard to get, but they had no idea—this time, I really meant it.

In my past life, simply to buy a smile from his mistress, Lilianna, Valerius insisted on shutting down the territory's ultraviolet defense grid on the night of a meteor shower.

 

I fought him tooth and nail. In return, he shattered my legs and threw me into the dark like a bag of trash.

 

The horde swarmed in. It took three agonizing hours of being eaten alive by a dozen ghouls before I finally bled out.

 

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in front of the control room's master lever.

 

If fate brought me back, it wasn't to play the pathetic saint again. This time, I'm going to step aside and quietly admire the symphony of death they compose for themselves.

I awaited my seven-year-old son's birthday, yearning for my husband’s return, only to stumble upon him celebrating at a bar, tenderly kissing his childhood sweetheart.
I initially believed this to be yet another instance of his favoritism, until I overheard a devastating conversation and realized the truth: the precious son I had nurtured for seven years was not mine, but a product of his union with his childhood friend.
The marriage I had fought so hard to preserve was, from the very beginning, a deceitful scheme orchestrated against me.

My birthday was never truly mine.

Everyone was busy making sure she was comfortable, happy, and protected.
When she deliberately handed me chamomile tea—knowing I was allergic—they told me not to hurt my sister’s good intentions and forced me to drink it.

My brother accused me of being jealous and locked me in the basement.

They all forgot about me to celebrate her birthday, even my fiancé.

Lying there, I realized something worse than pain—I was replaceable.

That was the day I understood the truth about my family.
I was dying on “my” birthday, and no one chose me.

Someone posted a positive pregnancy stick next to my student ID on the school's anonymous forum.
By first period, eight hundred people thought I was the campus slut. By lunch, the lacrosse captain stood up in the cafeteria and told everyone he was the father. By Friday, my full-ride scholarship was frozen and the dean told me to "keep a low profile."
I've never even kissed anyone.
Margaux Aldridge — Ashford Academy's golden girl, my so-called friend — showed up with tissues and a shoulder to cry on. She even talked to her daddy on the board about getting me a "quiet transfer" so I wouldn't have to suffer a public hearing.
So generous. So kind.
She even handed me a withdrawal form. My name already filled in. Just needed a signature.
She really thought I'd sign it.

The ultrasound photo caught fire slowly, curling at the edges before the flame swallowed it whole.
I watched it burn in front of my mother's grave.
Eight weeks. That was how far along I had been.
Three days ago, on the anniversary of her death, I came here to talk to her. To tell her she was going to be a grandmother.
Instead, I found my husband fucking his ex-girlfriend against the oak tree twenty feet from her headstone.
I lost the baby that night.