9158 Book(s) Related to then she was gone: a novel reviews

My husband used my cottage to cheat on me. Fine. I found out, I drove three hours, and I walked into my own house to find his mistress wearing my dead grandmother's sweater.
She told me to leave.
He showed up, kissed her in front of me, then grabbed my arm and shoved me into the door frame.
That's when I had the asthma attack. He's known about my asthma for five years.
My inhaler rolled across the porch floor. His mistress picked it up, held it out, and told me to sign a statement saying I'd caused all of this. Then she'd give it back.
He looked at me on the ground and said: She's performing.
I'm sitting on the floor of my own grandmother's house, gasping, and my husband is telling the neighbors I'm acting.
Nobody thought to ask whose family manages every property on this coastline.

For eight years, I’ve been invisible in my own home.
No cake. No presents. Nobody remembers I’m allergic to the shrimp I cook every week. My husband, Derek, a respected cardiologist, hides behind his silence. My six-year-old son has learned to look right through me. And my mother-in-law, Barbara, has a "weak heart" that flares up every time I open my mouth.
So on my thirty-third birthday, when my best friend sends dinner from Fiorella’s, the restaurant I haven’t let myself set foot in since my wedding, it should be one small, good thing.
By the time I set the table, my family has eaten every bite.
The next day, Barbara clutches her chest in front of her entire card club, and suddenly I’m the monster who nearly killed her. Derek bundles his mother and our son into the car and leaves me standing in the driveway, drowning in whispers.
So I follow them.
From the back seat of a stranger’s car, I watch my "dying" mother-in-law stroll into Fiorella’s, laughing. Derek is right behind her. And my little boy asks if they can play "the sick game" again.
Eight years of lies, and I was the only one in this family who didn’t know it was a game.
Now I’m done playing.

Chloe Hudson gave up everything—including her health—for a man who never loved her. Married to Hank Collins only in name, she's endured a year of cold rejection while he lavished his love on another: her own half-sister, Irene. Just when Chloe decides to walk away, a twist of fate changes everything—she's pregnant. But instead of joy, her news is met with cruelty. Hank demands she abort the child, claiming only the woman he loves deserves his baby.
Heartbroken but not broken, Chloe chooses to fight—for her child, her dignity, and a future beyond betrayal. As secrets unravel and loyalties are tested, a familiar figure from her past steps in: Ryan Cooper, a man who once loved her and never stopped.
Will Chloe finally find the love she deserves? Or will her past drag her down before she can rise?

Selene thought Silverpine Academy would be a new beginning. A prestigious school for elite shifters seemed like the perfect place to bury her haunted past and strange visions. But from the moment she arrives, destiny refuses to stay quiet.
During a combat class, Selene is seized by a waking vision from Astrid—the ancient wolf goddess—and collapses in front of her classmates. When Elias, the intuitive and charming council member, helps her up, their touch releases a surge of magic that stuns everyone. Suddenly, the academy is buzzing with rumors, and Selene is no longer invisible—especially not to Elias or Soren, the cold, brooding Lycan heir whose wolf refuses to ignore her.

When we moved to the estate on the hill, all the bedrooms had already been assigned.
My parents had the primary suite.
My brother, Adrian, had the east wing.
The south suite, with its view of the Hudson—the nicest room in the house—was marked Grace's Room.
There was no room with my name on it.
In the hall, a worker was fastening brass plaques to the bedroom doors.
Not one of them read Claire.
Ten years earlier, Grace's father had been my dad's underboss. He had gone into a burning warehouse to rescue Adrian from the Bellinis. He hadn't come out.
Standing over his coffin, Dad had declared that Grace would be his daughter from then on.
What the Don said was law in our family. Somehow, though, I was always the one expected to cover the cost of that promise.
I asked Mom where I would sleep.
“You're going off to grad school soon, aren't you?” she said, as if it were obvious. “What would you need a bedroom for?”
Then she turned back to the pink curtains she was choosing with Grace.
Adrian knelt on the floor, lifting different fabric swatches for them to see.
Nathan, my boyfriend of three years, was putting up Grace's paintings. He insisted on hanging each one himself; apparently the movers couldn't be trusted with them.
Sitting on a packing box, I finally got it.
Nobody had overlooked me by accident.
They thought Grace should have the room, the family, even the boyfriend I had believed was mine.
I brought up the agreement on my phone.
A federal research site in the Nevada desert. Classified work.
A five-year commitment, with no outside contact.
I added my signature.
Ten days from now, I would be out of their lives. And I wouldn't be coming back.

Elena Wakefield has spent three years trapped in a one-sided relationship with Emmanuel Mitchell—a man who loves her sister, but uses her body. After countless heartbreaks and three forced abortions, she's pregnant again… and desperate to keep the baby. But when Emmanuel demands she get rid of it—for Lilith's sake—Elena realizes she's never truly mattered.
What begins as quiet endurance spirals into betrayal, manipulation, and bloodshed. Lilith, the perfect daughter and Emmanuel's beloved, returns not just to reclaim her place—but to destroy Elena piece by piece.
When Elena loses everything—her child, her dignity, her future—there's nothing left to fear. And when they come for her kidney to save Lilith, she finally says no.
This time, Elena won't beg.
She won't kneel.
She'll make them bleed.

This year, out of nowhere, my mate Dominic told me to take two months off and go to Ashvale with our son, Finn. Eight years, and he'd never once given me a single day off.
I thought he'd finally noticed how tired I was.
Then Maren found a letter in his study. It was from his Beta, laying out the whole plan. Move his old flame Camille and her daughter into the main house. Hold a mating ceremony the moment I was gone.
I don't know how long I stood there holding that letter before I could think straight again.
If my mate wanted to bring her home and pick up where they left off, that was his business.
I packed our son's things for Ashvale.
I just wasn't planning on coming back.

She’s fire wrapped in silk. He’s ice laced with fangs. And when they collide, the world burns.

In the velvet shadows of Vancouver’s most dangerous secrets, RedLine — an underground club pulsing with magic, blood, and desire — is where vampires come to indulge. But when Katalim, a woman cloaked in mystery, steps into this world, everything changes.

Locked away for years, she’s finally free — but not safe. Katalim isn’t just a witch — she’s a weapon. Her power? The ability to channel raw sexual energy, bending it to her will. It’s intoxicating, addictive… and feared.

Enter Ryder Cornwall — cold, untouchable, and loyal only to the Coven. He’s assigned to protect her. But from the moment he tastes her magic, he wants more. Her scent drives him mad. Her secrets haunt him. And her body? It might just ruin him.

As their chemistry erupts into obsession, enemies close in. Katalim’s past is darker than anyone imagined. And Ryder must decide — break every rule for her, or watch her be claimed by a monster from the shadows.

Twisted Fate is paranormal erotica at its most wicked—dripping with forbidden heat, dangerous magic, and a love so intense it might destroy them both. It is perfect for readers who like their vampires dominant, their witches dangerous, and their romances deliciously dirty.

On our seventh anniversary, my fiancé left me standing outside the courthouse so he could drive another woman to the hospital. It was the ninety-ninth time he'd called off our wedding for her.
That night, he booked the restaurant where we'd had our first date. He wore the tie I'd given him. For a few minutes, I let myself believe he finally understood.
Then he asked me to eat faster. She wanted dessert.
So I stopped counting. I signed my transfer papers, packed up seven years, and boarded my flight without looking back.
By the time he realized I wasn't bluffing, I was already gone. Now he's the one left waiting, and all the roses in the world won't bring me back.

I found the lie on a Tuesday.
Five thousand dollars. Every month. Going to a woman with my husband's last name.
When Flynn came home and saw me sitting on the office floor surrounded by bank statements, he didn't even try to deny it. He just stood there and told me he couldn't explain.
Three years of marriage and all I got was "I can't".
So I left.
Three months later I met Dominic. Flynn's biggest business rival. Charming, warm, patient in all the ways Flynn never was. He made me laugh for the first time in months. He made me feel like myself again.
He felt like the right choice.
Except he wasn't.
Now I'm pregnant, furious, and standing in the middle of two men who both claim they love me.
They're both asking me to trust them.
But they both already broke that trust.

My adopted sister, Cordelia, conspired with her biological mother to harvest my organs alive, yet she had the audacity to claim I paid thugs to rape her.
My biological parents didn't bother to ask for the truth. They cursed me, calling me a vicious bastard, and threatened to break my legs.
My fiancé, Caspian, coldly announced the cancellation of our engagement, declaring he would marry the very murderer who killed me.
I had been dead for exactly three days. No one cared. My body was rotting back in a moldy storage room.
Through it all, my soul was trapped in the manor, forced to witness this absurd farce.
But what they didn't expect was that when they finally learned of my death—
Everyone went completely insane.

Four years ago, I left my boyfriend when he had nothing.

Now, he's a billionaire. And he's forcing me to marry him—just for revenge.

Every day it's a different girl. Now there's a pregnant influencer he flaunts in my face, destroying what's left of my dignity.

"Kneel and beg her, and I'll give you money." He holds another woman and smirks at me.

I don't cry. I don't scream. I just swallow the blood rising in my throat.

He doesn't know my brain tumor is terminal. I have thirty days left.

I've already signed the organ donation papers. I just want to die in peace.

I stopped loving him a long time ago.

On my first day as an intern, everyone decides Avery Hart must be the chairman's daughter.

She has his last name, expensive clothes, and no interest in correcting them.

By lunchtime, people are already treating her like she owns the place.

I came here to earn a job, not argue about someone's family tree.

Then our supervisor hands Avery the team lead role and she orders me to redo a mountain of old files and bring her coffee.

When I refuse, he takes her side.

Why is he so determined to keep her happy?

But I am the chairman’s daughter.

My husband Eric couldn't speak after a car accident three years ago. Three years of silence. Not one word.

To pay for his rehab, I worked four jobs at once—worked until I was coughing up blood, until I collapsed. Winter nights, Leo and I huddled under one threadbare blanket. When my son spiked a fever and I had no money for medicine, I stayed up all night pressing wet rags to his burning forehead.

Eric? His only communication was cold texts, ordering me around. When Leo reached for a hug, he'd push him away like our son didn't exist.

I endured it all. Because deep down, I believed the accident was my fault.

Until that night.

I was hauling equipment at Selena's concert—Selena, the pop star everyone knew—when a mystery guest in a mask stepped on stage. They sang together, voices blending like they'd done this a thousand times.

That voice. That lightning-shaped scar on his elbow.

My "mute" husband of three years.

I followed him backstage. Through the door, I heard Selena's laugh: "Congrats, Eric. Your mute act is almost over—you won the bet."

Three years of sacrifice.

All of it just a game. A bet with his first love.

I was raised with the criminal underground’s most notorious crew turned government-sanctioned mercenaries in Texas and Colorado, known as the Death Kings. My uncle is one of them known as the Gator King. Now I walk in his footsteps, leading a crew of my own with his backing. To my family, my nickname is Seraphim, but in my kingdom, I’m the Viper King. Now the boys who left me, who swore they would stay by my side to protect me, are back in town. They are attempting to become like C.H.A.O.S. who run Palomino Bay, Texas. That will not happen because Grêle, Louisiana, is my stronghold. I have the backing of my father's MC and together along with my Serpents the city is ours. The person they need to protect is themselves because it isn’t me.
…They don’t know my secret, but I know theirs…

“Claudia,” a die-hard fan of the novel Solo Hunter,
is reborn into a powerless and fragile body… even weaker than F-rank!

But wait! He, who was supposed to be a side character doomed to die,
somehow survives thanks to “Alan Miller,”
the gorgeous male lead whose actions are nothing like what the novel described.

To make matters more confusing,
Claudia turns out to be the long-missing heir of the prestigious Heart Family,
gone without a trace for 8 years!
Is this really the same story he once read?

Now that the original plot no longer applies,
how will he survive in this perilous world?
And what exactly… does the novel’s mysterious male lead want from Claudia?!

They gave him 24 hours to hand over the girl.
He gave them 30 seconds to regret .

Jack Cole was supposed to be nobody—just another quiet college student.
No records. No past. No trace he ever existed.

But when a powerful family tries to take his cousin as part of a dirty deal…
and a billionaire heiress becomes the target of a professional kill team…

Something buried comes back.

The campus?
Just his cover.

The truth?
He’s a weapon trained for war—
the kind governments deny, and enemies never see coming.

Now the richest family in the city wants him dead.
A private army is moving in.
And a global biotech empire is pulling strings from the shadows.

They think they’re hunting him.

They’re wrong.

Jack isn’t running.
He’s choosing who dies first.

I grew up with traumatic mutism, and my husband Ronald despises that I am mute. He had prepared divorce papers right after our wedding.
He even slept with my cousin, then brought her to me and announced, "Missy is pregnant."
I decisively signed the divorce papers and left forever.
When I left, Ronald regretted it, offered me everything, and begged me to remarry him.
I replied icily, "The person I love was never you."
Continuously updating, with 3 chapters added daily.

"You're going to meet your mate someday." I whispered.
"Olivia."
I forced a smile and lifted my head. "And it's fine. I'll be rooting for you all the way."
He cut me off with a soft "Liv."
I blinked away my tears. "No, listen to me. We need to accept that this won't last forever. You could find her on your next trip out of town, and I'll be forgotten."
I swallowed the lump formed in my throat. "I just hope we'll still be friends."
His face twisted in pain as he rested his forehead against mine, his hands trembling as he cupped my cheeks. "You'll always be my best friend."
"And you'll always be mine."
I pressed my lips against his, needing to taste him, to feel his lips on mine, to know that at this moment, he was mine.
Olivia Martins has always been an outcast in the Nightshade pack.
She's an omega, and the pack she grew up in never failed to remind her that she'd never be one of them.
It wasn't so bad growing up—she had her best friend by her side.
Caspian Storm, son of the alpha of the Nightshade pack, befriended her when they were both little, and they've been inseparable ever since.
Their friendship started out sweet and innocent, but it developed into more.
Olivia knew that it couldn't last forever because Caspian would find his mate—and what they had would come to an end.
Yet, she couldn't guard her heart.
And when her worst fear comes true, she flees.
Will Olivia and Caspian find their way back to each other?
Or will the threat of Caspian finding his mate keep them apart?

Five years in captivity. They said Nora would be free after five years of working for the mafia king but they lied. Now Nora is forced to work permanently for the dangerous mafia king, executing dangerous cons with Noah, her only ally and her most dangerous temptation. The one man who makes her feel human again. But in a world built on lies, trust can be deadlier than betrayal.

The biggest dream of every werewolf is meeting their mate.

The incredible scent, the surreal sparks that lit up on every touch, the amazing firework feel on every kiss, the contented feeling while in the arms of their mate, the pride of wearing their mark and bearing their pup and above all the bliss of showering each other with unconditional love.

Life of every werewolf is a blissful fantasy story.

But every theory has few exceptions right?
Obviously yes!

This story revolves around such an exceptional she-wolf who had a strong reason to despise the idea of MATES. She wants to live like independent humans. She never wanted a random man showing up in her life out of nowhere in the name of ‘Mate’ and dragging her out of what she built all her life. Her idea of a life partner filled with love, not with mate bond. She has her goal and she wanted to fulfil it in her own way without any compromises. But that doesn’t stop the mighty Moon God to bless her with an irresistible mate.

Learning from our past mistakes is a good thing.
But all the decisions out of such learning need not be correct!

Some mistakes will make us happy.
Some mistakes lead us to the thing which we have been dying to get.

Will she commit the mistake that could fulfil her wishes or will she stick to her decisions to write the pages of her own life which has more mysteries than she could ever imagine?

Give a try to my book and join her life journey :)

All I wanted was five dollars for boba from my older brother.

Our university's freshman leadership program included outdoor fitness training. By the afternoon break, I was exhausted enough to beg.

“Your favorite sister is dying out here. Send milk tea. Please.”

No answer. I tried again.

“Ignoring me now? Found yourself a better little sister?”

This time, his account replied immediately.

“Brother this, brother that. Is that the only way you know how to get a man's attention?”

I thought he was being weird. Then I woke from a nap to find my picture and our messages on the campus gossip page.

A senior I'd never met had posted them.

“My boyfriend left his spare phone with me while he's away on business. Look what I found. She's a freshman here. Already chasing someone else's man, and she can't even afford a five-dollar drink.”

Someone offered fifty dollars to find out what else “Boba Girl” would do.

The senior replied, “Fifty? Five would cover it.”

I saved screenshots and a recording of the post, so angry I could barely hold my phone steady.

If this was the woman my brother planned to bring into our family, he and I needed to talk.

When I was ten, my parents faked a messy divorce and turned my life into a sick reality show.
They split up me and my twin sister, Romy. She got the Alpine mansion and my mother's luxurious lifestyle.
I was dumped in a moldy basement, scrubbing diner plates and clinging to my physics books to survive my father's "gambling addiction." 
For eight years, I starved to pay off his staged debts. Then, on our eighteenth birthday, Romy casually texted me a link to StreamLens, an exclusive voyeur site for bored billionaires, followed by a few stabbing messages:
[Surprise, sis. Mom and Dad never actually split. We're perfectly happy ]
[It's honestly sad watching you skip meals, but you know how it is.]
[You were the "older sister," so they chose you to be the one raised in the dirt.] 
I clicked the link. The site's #1 live feed was a giant split screen titled: "The Twin Experiment: Raised Poor vs. Raised Rich—Which Sister Comes Out on Top?" 
On the left: me, freezing in a leaky cellar. On the right: Gareth and Marissa playfully hugging Romy on a velvet sofa, slicing into a massive birthday cake. The debt, the loan sharks, my absolute misery—it was all just entertainment. 
Through the feed, Romy stared straight into the hidden camera, flashing a sickly-sweet smile. 
“Smile for the cameras, sis. Your suffering bought us this gorgeous house.”

I was married to Vera for three years.

In those three years, every time we fought, I was the one who backed down first. She got used to being indulged, and she got used to using the silent treatment to make me fold.

Then a blizzard grounded my flight. I didn’t make it back for her birthday. She filed for divorce out of spite and left the country.

Three years ended without dignity.

A year after the divorce, Vera returned with a new jewelry brand and a high-profile comeback. Everyone assumed I was still waiting for her—she assumed it too.

At dinners, she hinted at reconciliation, using our old story to build hype for her brand. The circle started whispering that I’d end up back by her side.

I corrected it, again and again. She ignored every word.

What she didn’t know was that I already had someone new—and we were preparing to get engaged.

When she saw the engagement planning booklet, she convinced herself it was my signal to take her back.

I explained. She insisted.

Until the day of the engagement, when she stormed into the venue…

She called him a shameless con man. She didn't know he was a killer the whole underworld feared.

Elizabeth Williams doesn't trust charming men—especially ones who show up out of nowhere claiming to be her savior. Caesar doesn't care what she thinks. He's not here to charm her. He's here to keep her alive, one way or another.

She sees an arrogant fraud chasing her money.
He sees a woman too stubborn to admit she needs him.

Neither one is ready for what happens when the mask finally comes off.

Amelia Russo is a weapon of the state. As a military captain and the daughter of a legendary general, her life is governed by duty, honor, and one mission: eliminate "The Shadow," the faceless myth ruling Verona’s bloody underworld.

Lorenzo Ren Moretti is a master of deception. To high society, he is Luca D'Angelo, a charming billionaire CEO. To the streets, he is a cold-blooded monster with icy blue eyes and a past carved in tattoos. He commands fear. He demands absolute loyalty. And he has never met an enemy he couldn't break.

Until he meets her.

When Amelia crosses paths with the enigmatic billionaire Luca, an intoxicating, forbidden game of cat and mouse begins.

"I absolutely love your huge, thick cock, James. Just let me ride it tonight, and I'll pay you to be my secret whore," my wife's sister-in-law purred, climbing into my bed completely naked, her wet, dripping pussy grinding against my thigh.

I threw her naked body onto the floor like trash. For three years, I played the pathetic, submissive househusband to my arrogant wife, Emily. I endured their endless humiliation, hiding the fact that I was the billionaire heir and lethal ex-special forces agent keeping their pathetic family alive.

But today, the three-year contract hit zero.

When a rival mafia boss kicked down our door, threatening to massacre everyone, my wife's sister Rhea desperately ripped her dress open, exposing her heavy, bare breasts, begging the boss to fuck her raw right there on the floor if he spared her life.

I’d had enough.

I stepped forward, snapping the necks and shattering the bones of a dozen armed guards, leaving them choking on their own blood. As my fleet of twenty armored Rolls-Royces surrounded the villa, my true identity was finally revealed.

Seeing my unimaginable power, Rhea crawled to my feet, shoving her massive tits against my leg, begging to suck my cock and share my bed with my wife.

I slapped her across her slutty face, tore up the marriage contract, and walked out.

Behind me, Emily collapsed, sobbing hysterically. "If I had just spread my legs for him... if I had just let him breed me and fill my womb with his heir, I would be the queen of the world..."

She's begging for my seed now, but should I lock her in my basement and make her pay for the last three years?

One drunken night. One baby. One Don who married me out of duty.

I was the family doctor, a nobody, when I got pregnant with Don Rafael Salvatore’s child. I thought if I stayed quiet, stayed good, and made myself useful, he would eventually love me and our daughter.

Seven years later, I’m still waiting.

Rafael never let Nina call him “Daddy.” When she was two, she said it by accident in public, and he made her walk home alone. She fell again and again, and he never looked back. When she was four, she slipped in the middle of an amusement park, and he dropped her hand. She was lost in the crowd for hours. She was found shaking in the bushes.

Still, my little girl kept hoping. Every time he tossed her a crumb, she held on to it like treasure.

Then Jasmine Hale, his first love, came home with her daughter, and everything changed. Suddenly Rafael had time. He smiled. He picked Nina up. He even gave her a teddy bear, which, I found out, Jasmine’s daughter had thrown away.

That night, Nina gave him three last chances.

He missed the first when he looked straight past her and chose another woman’s child. He missed the second when he skipped her parent-teacher night to play blocks with Jasmine’s daughter. And the third? He finally showed up, only to stand by while Nina’s class monitor title was handed to someone else.

So I signed the divorce papers, sent them off from the airport, and took our daughter far away.

"Everyone in Cedar Hollow can tell you exactly what I did. I just can't."

Twelve years ago, Vanessa Dalton walked out of Larkspur Quarry alone, covered in her best friend Jo Calloway's blood. Jo's body was never found. Vanessa never remembered what happened. The evidence disappeared with the storm, but the town reached its own verdict long ago: she was guilty.

Now a renowned forensic genealogist who solves decades-old cold cases using DNA, Vanessa is forced to return home when her dying mother leaves her no choice. She's spent years helping strangers uncover the truth, while refusing to investigate the one mystery that destroyed her own life.

Sheriff Scott Bradley wants her gone. His father ruined his career trying to prove Vanessa murdered Jo, and Scott inherited both the badge and the hatred. But when someone steals a hidden box of evidence from the Calloway case, and Vanessa begins remembering fragments that contradict everything Cedar Hollow believes, a second car at the quarry, another voice calling her name, and Jo alive long after the moment she was supposed to have died, they're forced into an uneasy alliance.

As Vanessa and Scott reopen the town's darkest secret, every new clue exposes another lie. Someone has spent twelve years protecting the truth, and they'll kill to keep it buried.

Because Jo Calloway wasn't the only person who disappeared that night.

I mined in a medieval pit, lived on moldy black bread, with whip scars across my back and iron chains around my ankles. The lord treated us like livestock.

I thought that was simply how the world worked—until I forced open a hidden passage and crawled into a white corridor that should not have existed: cold fluorescent lights, metal doors, surveillance cameras, as if the skin of the age had been ripped away in an instant.

That was when I understood: the Middle Ages were only a set, everyone around me was acting, and I was nothing more than a toy for the amusement of the rich.

They cloned the real-life rivals they could never defeat, threw them into different “scenarios,” and tortured them for pleasure.

They thought they could keep me in the dark forever.

What they don’t know is that I’m ready to get out—and tear this entire human-toy industry out by the roots.

The day my husband Alaric drained fifty years of my starlight, the unformed child in my womb, stripped of the life force that sustained it, began tearing through me in a frenzy.
The priest knelt before the obsidian altar, begging. He said I was a rare starborn bloodline—that bearing a child was already a gamble with my life, and forcibly draining fifty years of starlight would cost me not only the baby, but my magic channels entirely.
Yet Alaric, standing over me as I lay chained to the altar in silver links, only spared me a cold glance.
"Ellara's wasting curse has struck. She needs these fifty years more than you do. Seraphina, you've always been strong—don't hide behind some pathetic jealousy."
He didn't know the starborn never lie.
As he took my starlight to save his childhood sweetheart, I lay alone on the cold stone, feeling my life drain away, letting blood soak through my gown.
So be it. As he wishes.
He didn't want this child, and I no longer wanted him.

Tags: MxM, friends with benefits, unrequited love, jealousy, Dl, secret, interracial, first love.

Demi and Alex have been best friends for as long as anyone can remember. They know each other’s habits, flaws, and breaking points. What they don’t know is how to undo the night they crossed a line neither of them saw coming.

Drunk, Curious, Complicated.

Demi is hiding who he is. Alex insists he’s straight. And somehow, they keep ending up in each other’s beds anyway.

They call it friends with benefits, why?, because calling it anything else would force them to face the truth. But feelings don’t follow rules, and denial only works until it doesn’t.

Set in the uneasy final stretch of senior year, this is a story about desire, denial, and the terrifying risk of wanting someone who might never want you back the same way.

Three years in a loveless marriage with Leo Cox, Mona thought she could win his heart with her unwavering devotion, but Leo showed no love or concern towards her. Eventually she got tired, filed for divorce and left after founding out Leo was cheating on her— but she was already pregnant for him.

Leo assumed Mona was merely playing hard to get-after all, he bet she'd be back, begging for reconciliation. But no one saw it coming; after the divorce, Mona transformed into a confident woman and Leo is stunned by her transformation.

Now, Leo is drowning in regret, desperately chasing after Mona-but by this time, it was already too late.

He started contemplating every day, wondering if breaking a leg or going bankrupt would be enough to capture her attention.

I was a wolfless Omega, and Ethan was the only home I had ever known.

So when his fertility report came back, I changed it and let his pack blame me for five barren years.

Then he moved his pregnant cousin into our house, and his mother forced a mate-severing potion into my hand.

They thought I had nowhere to go.

They didn’t know I wasn’t an orphan—I was the lost daughter of the Sterling royal line.

Nor did they know the pup his mistress carried could never have been his.

I left as Leah Carter, the Luna they threw away.

I returned as Princess Vivienne Sterling.

And the heir they celebrated?

A lie I was about to expose before the entire pack.

To marry Vincent Romano, I survived twenty-eight near-death experiences over five years.
The first: city hall's foundation collapsed — three broken ribs. The second: a truck rollover — my right leg nearly amputated. The twenty-seventh: a chandelier in the bridal shop, three days unconscious.
All of Seren City laughed at me. Romano's most cursed bride-to-be. Yet I loved him still.
Until the twenty-eighth time.
When the bomb detonated outside city hall, I threw myself over Vincent on instinct. The blast shifted my organs and shredded my back. The day my stitches came out, I felt no relief at having survived.
Because I stood outside the study and heard his voice.
"Her organs were badly damaged. She almost actually died." Antonio's horror was audible. "Vincent, you used to treat her so well—"
"People change." A pause, then quieter: "I did want to marry her once. But before Amelia, I had no idea what it meant to truly want someone. I acknowledge the debt — I just can't spend my life repaying it." Another pause. "Father won't agree, and she won't let go easily."
"So." His voice turned to ice. "The only clean way out is to make her give up on her own. As long as Cassandra refuses to break the engagement, the accidents must continue. Until she walks away."

My girlfriend told me she was part of a social experiment. Her task was to get close to a target, and if she quit, she’d owe a crushing penalty.

So she kept canceling on me, staying out all night, and letting another man hold her—then came home in tears and said she had no choice.

I believed her for three years.

What she never knew was that I was the hidden heir to a billion-dollar family empire. While we were together, I was under a private family test and forbidden to reveal who I really was.

The day that test ended, I took back my name.

The first thing I did wasn’t return to the boardroom. I went straight to the lab behind her so-called experiment.

The man in charge turned the screen toward me. “We never had any massive penalty. The contract is clear. She could have quit at any time.”

Three years. No forced mission. No trap she couldn’t escape.

Every line she crossed, she chose to cross herself.

I didn’t confront her. I just took my things, ended the relationship, and walked away.

She thought I was just angry.

She had no idea that after reclaiming my identity, the first thing I did was uncover every lie she had ever told me.

At the Aurelia International Youth Violin Competition, someone had hidden steel needles in my daughter's violin and bow. Her fingers streaming blood, she lost her footing and fell from a railless platform thirty feet up. Both her hands and arms were shattered.
I ran to her like a madwoman, desperate to call an ambulance, but the other girl's mother had her people pin me to the floor.
"You stole my daughter's violin? This is what happens to thieves!" she sneered.
But that violin was the one my husband had specially commissioned for our daughter in Paris!
"Save my daughter first! We can sort out everything else later!" I fought with everything I had.
A slap cracked across my face.
"A worthless life. If she dies, she dies!"
"I'm the wife of Dawnfrost's CEO, Mr. Sterling. I can afford it!"
The blood in my veins turned to ice.
Yale Sterling? That was my husband.
Perfect. Just perfect.
Yale had the nerve to keep a mistress behind my back, and to let her spend my money to buy my daughter's life!
If I didn't tear you two apart piece by piece today, I'd have carried the name "Reaper of Wall Street" for twenty years for nothing.

I gave up my Harvard Ph.D. and lived in the slums for five years as a corpse restorer, all to save my dying boyfriend.
But when I brought the $72,000 I literally bled for to his VIP ward, I found him drinking champagne.
"Thanks for faking the medical records, Doc," Ethan smirked. "Her sob-story money is paying for my Senate run nicely."
His glamorous campaign manager, Sloane, chimed in: "Just be careful, Ethan. What if she figured out your family background and is just playing the long game? She might be a gold digger climbing the political ladder."
"Please," Ethan scoffed in disgust. "Marry a woman who scrubs dead bodies every night? I'll throw her out the minute the election is over."
A gold digger? Me? Climbing his ladder?
I looked at my calloused hands, then calmly messaged the most terrifying political patriarch in Boston.
"Dad, you were right. I'm coming home, and I'll marry the Federal Prosecutor.”

I’m a billionaire heir, and I used to say yes to my girlfriend no matter what.

She swiped my card like it was hers, partied until sunrise, and while I lay in a hospital bed, I was still cleaning up her messes.

She never visited me once—yet I couldn’t let her go. I would have given her everything.

Until an accident made me realize the truth: my love wasn’t real. It was hypnosis.

Her father wanted control. He bribed my psychiatrist and rigged my treatment—so the moment I saw her face, I’d lose control, give in, and hand over whatever they wanted.

All that devotion was manufactured.

Now the hypnosis is gone. She thinks I’ll keep being her ATM.

She has no idea that the first thing I did after waking up was make her—and her father—pay.

Intro: When she found the wolf cub, she touched him and saw a vision—the grown version of him standing atop a mountain of corpses, ten thousand wolves prostrate at his feet. She named him Little King. Sixteen years. She taught him to fight, to control his transformation, to ride atop pain. The first full sentence he ever learned was "Whoever hurts you, I'll kill." On a blizzard night, he curled up at her door and kept watch through the whole night, just to say, "I was afraid you'd be cold." She almost said, "Don't leave me." But what came out in the end was something else.

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.”--Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone)“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery! The author did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side that is so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)Women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this case: Special Agent Riley Paige.Riley is on paid leave herself, recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined. In a frantic race against time, she finds herself pushed to her limit, her job on the line, her own family in danger, and her fragile psyche collapsing.Yet once Riley Paige takes on a case, she will not quit. It obsesses her, leading her to the darkest corners of her own mind, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted. After a series of unexpected twists, her instincts lead her to a shocking climax that even Riley could not have imagined.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE GONE marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.Book #2 in the Riley Paige series is now available!

I clutched the diagnosis paper that read "Stage 4 Gastric Cancer," my knuckles turning white. For twenty-two years, no matter how bad things got, Ethan always said he could handle it. But this time, my call only reached his voicemail.

I still remember that snowy night when I was seventeen. Under that tree, he squeezed my hand and promised, "You don't have to be strong anymore. Just lean on me." He said he'd marry me once he became successful, vowed to protect me for a lifetime. I believed him—believed him so much that today I drove frantically to his recording studio, desperate to tell him about my diagnosis.

But the scene through the cracked door shattered every hope I had. The sight of him entangled with Victoria hurt worse than any diagnosis. Later, when he handed me divorce papers, I coughed blood into my tissue, and he didn't even glance my way.

How did the man who promised to protect me forever become the one pushing me into the abyss? I'm dying, and even my last shred of hope is being crushed. Is this really how it ends?

A seventeen years old Sera Calix was never meant to set a foot in Virelade Academy, the country's most prestigious elite all boys school. But a paperwork error gave her a chance to escape a life of serving the masters and she'll do anything to hold onto it. Even if it means disguising herself as a boy!.

The plan was to keep her head down, graduate and disappear but the problem was Kael Ashbourne, her new roommate, her worst nightmare and on top of that he's the son of the president, the same man where her mom works for.

As secrets build, Sera struggles to survive a world that was built to shut her out. But the biggest danger wasn't being caught but it's the way Kael looks at her like he already knows she's lying.

She's living a lie...
And only one person can expose her... Kael Ashbourne!

“My husband is back. We’re breaking up.”

I slid a bank card loaded with one million dollars across the table to Leon, convinced it was nothing more than the end of a simple arrangement.

Three years ago, my husband, William Grant, disappeared on our wedding day, leaving me to become the laughingstock of Oakland. While everyone believed he was dead, I sacrificed everything to save the collapsing Grant family and keep their empire alive. Then he returned—with a pregnant mistress on his arm—and had the audacity to demand that I take care of the woman carrying his child.

That was the moment I decided our marriage was over.

What I never expected was that the male escort I had been keeping for the past three years wasn't an escort at all.

Leon was actually Roderick Harris—the mysterious billionaire behind the Harris Group, the most powerful and untouchable business empire in Oakland.

And just hours before discovering the truth, I had handed this ruthless business tycoon a one-million-dollar breakup fee... and told him never to contact me again.

While my cheating husband believed I would lose everything without him, and everyone waited to watch me fall, the man I had cast aside stepped back into my life, his dark eyes locking onto mine with dangerous intensity.

“Violette... what makes you think you're the one who gets to decide when this is over?”

After the woman Adrian Cole had always loved pushed her out of a helicopter as it lifted off, Summer Bennett handed in her notice.
She remained the most dependable assistant in Cole Group's executive office. But everyone noticed small changes.
She no longer carried Adrian's coffee into his office herself. Lunch came from the company cafeteria instead of the private chef who had prepared his carefully balanced meals. At business dinners, she stopped drinking on his behalf to protect his bad stomach.
Even when the pain nearly made him pass out, she simply called an ambulance and went back to work. Before, she would have crouched beside him in a panic, rubbing his back and trying to ease his discomfort.
In the hospital, Adrian watched her deliver a perfectly businesslike update.
Her dated hairstyle, heavy black glasses, plain features, and dull complexion were exactly the same.
But when she looked at him, there was no warmth left in her eyes.

"Dad, I think something is wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm smelling four."

"Four?"

"Yes, there are four different scents. I don't know how to explain it but they all have the same earthly scent, but something else to it. What does that mean?"

"You have four mates."

"Four mates? That can't be real, I have never heard of that before." Avery was in a state of panic now, which caused her to involuntarily transform back to her human form.

That "poor pregnant woman" downstairs is currently waddling around Linden Court with her forty-week baby bump, sobbing to the neighbors. She claims the noise of me screwing men in the middle of the night is so loud it's killing her unborn baby.
In my past life, no one in this building believed me. In the end, she used a pair of rusty pruning shears to pin me, dead, to my own living room floor.
Reborn into a new life, I stare at the bulletin board where my face is crossed out with red marker, and I let out a cold laugh.
This time, I absolutely refuse to be the idiot who gets stabbed to death.

"Gods Alyssia, any man would be foolish to pass you up" whispers the voice of the mystery man. His lips leaving soft yet firm kisses along my neck as he holds me.

"Then my ex must be foolish" I reply back, a shiver running through me the lower he kissed.

"I might be foolish too" is all I hear as he kisses me. Fire rushing through my veins at the intensity of his kiss. Cause after all, this was only a one night deal, and after tonight I would never see him again. Right?

================================

Alyssia, 3rd year college student at Trinity returns home one night from studying only to find her boyfriend, Brian of 3yrs cheating on her with the Dean's daughter Lyra.

Zac, newly dubbed College Professor is new to Trinity and after a night of drinking meets Alyssia his soon-to-be student and recent love affair. Drawn to her beauty, Zac tries everything to avoid her, unaware that their one night of passion would lead to Alyssia now pregnant with his child.

"Sophie, come out for dinner."
Mom’s voice seeped through the crack of the door.
I walked over to stand behind the door, when my sister Susan suddenly sent me a message.
"Run away right now. Mom’s lost her mind. She’s going to kill you!"
I stared at those words, my heartbeat racing rapidly.
Moments later, my phone vibrated again in my hand.
The exact same message popped up one after another on the screen:
"Run away right now. Mom’s lost her mind. She’s going to kill you!"
"Run away right now. Mom’s lost her mind. She’s going to kill you!"
"Run away right now. Mom’s lost her mind. She’s going to kill you!"
I was just about to ask her what on earth was happening, when the screen shifted.
The contact recalled a message.
The contact recalled a message.
The contact recalled a message.
……
Two seconds later, Susan sent another message:
"Sophie… you didn’t see any of that, did you?"

In everyone's eyes, Bertha and Derek had the wrong marriage. Married for three years, Bertha thought she would melt Derek's icy heart but she was wrong. Derek's heart only goes out to Laura - his ex-girlfriend. Derek treats Bertha poorly. One day, she saw her husband having an affair with Laura. Unable to continue anymore, she decided to divorce Derek. She will not waste her youth on a heartless man, someone who has trampled on her heart many times. After the divorce, Bertha returned to her parents' home, becoming the heir to the fortune left by her parents. No one knows her true identity. A life like a queen awaits her. As for Derek, he thought that Bertha's life would be miserable after the divorce until one day, he found Bertha and said. “I want to remarry with you. What are conditions?" Hearing Derek's words, Bertha just smirked, looking at him with disdain.