Best Runaway Stories & Novels Collection

My boyfriend, Jasper Lennox, swore he'd make Tallulah Rowley pay for humiliating me.
His plan: build her up, then tear her down. Give her my VP title, a sports car, a condo—so the fall would hurt more. "Be patient, babe. It's all part of the game."
So I was patient. Even when Tallulah whispered that my five-year-old sister, Marnie, was secretly my illegitimate kid, and Jasper stopped asking about ...

The summer I turned eighteen, Ethan took my virginity.

It hurt, but I lay awake all night, secretly happy. I thought my six-year crush had finally paid off.

Until the next day, when I stood outside the hockey team's locker room and heard the guys inside whooping.

"Damn, Captain, you finally slept with Ava."

I froze. I was about to slip away quietly when Ethan's careless voice drifted out:

"I ...

My boyfriend of three years, Blake, had promised to propose at my twentieth birthday party.

But that night, he walked right past me with the ring and got down on one knee in front of my stepsister, Chelsea.

The whole room clapped. I just stood there, frozen, in the white dress I'd picked out for my engagement.

Everyone was just waiting to watch me fall apart.

Then Grayson, heir to the Hale fam...

I spent eight years loving a man who couldn't recognize my face, only to realize his "face blindness" magically cured itself for his intern.
"Name three features of your bride," my bridesmaids teased at the altar.
Arthur didn't hesitate. "She has dimples... and a crescent scar near her temple."
Laughter filled the chapel, but I stood frozen in my wedding gown. I have no dimples. I have no scar. B...

I was nine months pregnant when a sudden, agonizing cramp twisted through my abdomen.
But my husband, Nathaniel Voss, the Don of the Voss mafia family, had ordered his men to lock me inside the estate's underground holding cell.
All because he wanted to make sure I wouldn't give birth before another woman.
That woman was Isabella, the widow of his late brother.
And she was due to deliver her baby ...

Ask anyone in Westbrook who the richest man in town was, and the first name out of their mouth would be Graham Thorne.

Hardly anyone knew he'd been married for years. Or that his wife was me.

For five years, every time he went off to see his first love, Vivian Hale, another priceless necklace showed up in my jewelry case.

By the time the ninety-ninth one went in, he finally sensed something was...

For six years, I was the secret wife of Logan, the coldest billionaire in New York.

He never acknowledged me in public, and he treated our five-year-old daughter, Mia, like she was invisible.

I thought he was just carrying old wounds.

Until his first love, Serena, came back to New York with her son.

Suddenly Logan had all the time and love in the world. But only for Serena and her son.

When M...

My husband, Dante, is the most feared Mafia don on the East Coast.

On our wedding day, a car bomb nearly killed him.

He survived. But the doctors told me the trauma had split him in two. He'd developed a second personality.

That other personality called himself Dario. He was false and cruel, his heart full of nothing but his first love, Bianca, and he treated me like an old piece of furniture g...

Dante finally noticed that I'd stopped telling him things.

When I bought a new dress for the Autumn Gala, I didn't send him pictures and ask which one he liked. When the Moretti family held its annual Winter Gala, I attended alone as Mrs. Moretti. And when the doctors said the bullet fragments lodged beneath my shoulder blade had to come out, I scheduled the surgery by myself.

No call. No text. ...

On Family Day at his private school, the teacher asked the children to give each member of their family a score.

On his card, my son, Leo, wrote:

"Dad, 100. Aunt Bianca, 100."

"Mom, 0. I hate her."

For three years I had fought my ex-husband, Damon, in court with everything I had. I gave up every cent of alimony just to win custody away from him.

But now, looking at that card, I was suddenly, ...

Arthur used a glitch in the particle collider's data to make a temporal jump.
He was going back to the past to win back his first love.
I secretly went back with him.
And then I watched with my own eyes as the man I'd personally trained into the perfect lover held his first love's hand and confessed with all his heart:
"I didn't know how to love before. Now I've finally learned."

I loved Kael Duskmane for fifteen years. I was his stepsister, quiet and loyal, always waiting for him to see me.
He never did. And in my first life, that love cost me everything.
Now I’ve been given a second chance, on the very day he asks me to give up my white wolf to save his fated mate.
I don’t argue. I don’t beg. I say yes, on one condition: when it’s done, I leave Duskfall Pack for good.
He...

When my husband admitted he'd fallen for Ophelia—the girl my parents raised in my place—I divorced him and went home to the woman who raised me.
Darius tried everything to win me back. I said no every time.
Then Mom's heart gave out. The ambulance pulled up to our door, and Darius stepped in front of it.
"Bronwyn, I know you can't stand Ophelia. I'll put her on a plane tonight. Just come home, and...

In the seventh year of my father's affair, my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Her first reaction was to get down on her knees and beg the doctor not to tell my father.
Dr. Eleanor was so angry she cried.
"Rosa, who are you trying to be, some kind of saint?"
"You think this will make that bastard break down sobbing and see the light?"
"Punishing someone else by dying? Have you lost al...

A year ago, I stood at the altar in my wedding dress, about to marry into the Vitale family.

We were halfway through the vows when my fiancé, Theo, turned and ran out of the church.

His adopted sister, Bianca, had climbed onto the roof of the estate and sworn she'd jump if he didn't come back.

The pews were packed with people from all the major families, and every one of them was waiting to wat...

The biggest regret of my life was falling in love with my Zio, Lucian Moretti.
When I was ten, my father took a bullet for the Moretti family. At the funeral, that tall man held me, an orphan now, in his arms and promised to keep me safe for the rest of my life.
When I was fifteen, I was bullied at my private school. He showed up and made the girls who'd tormented me get down on their knees and ap...

Palesa Mokhosi, 24, is a broke architecture graduate in Maseru. Her mother needs emergency surgery: R350,000 in 7 days.

Michael Thorne, 32, is the ruthless CEO of Thorne Holdings. His board wants him out. His grandfather's will is clear: marry and stay married for one year, or lose his billion-rand empire.

A failed job interview becomes a proposal: "Marry me for one year. R5 million upfront....

I dropped a small fortune online on an incubus.

The listing described him as handsome and aloof, with eight-pack abs and a lean, powerful waist.

Above all, it said he was capable.

That final point sealed it for me. I didn't think twice before paying.

But the moment my order went through, customer service messaged me.

Customer service: [Hi, are you there?]

Me: [Yes, what's up?]

Customer serv...

Ten years after the bombs fell. Ironhaven.

Jo is the most valuable — and most defenseless — kind of person in the wasteland. A Tier-4 Water Purifier: someone who can turn irradiated sludge into something people can actually drink. Under the Legal Attachment Act, anyone without combat ability must be registered under a stronger person's name to survive. Her name is listed under her comatose bo...

"Get the fuck away from me.."

"J-Jace, please. Your shoulder is badly hurt. Let me help. That's my job."

"Don't touch me, witch," he spits out bitterly without looking at her, his resentment toward her palpable.

They're both exes with a messy history. But one happens to be the injured star player, while the other is the team's physical therapist.

Bailey attempts to touch him despite his initia...

We were never fated mates. Our marriage was a political deal between two pureblood packs, and I was foolish enough to fall in love with my husband anyway.
For five years, Kieran Blackwood told me his wolf couldn’t read emotion. So I forgave him. The missed dinners. The nights he never came home. I even took a silver bullet for him, and all he said was, “Don’t get blood on the carpet.”
Then I went ...

"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 m...

Four years ago, I gave birth to my son, Leo, at a private hospital.
But when I woke up from the anesthesia, there was no baby waiting for me.
Instead, there was a bank card loaded with an enormous amount of money.
I stared blankly at Adrian Moretti, who was standing by the hospital room door.
"Why are you giving me money? Where's Leo?"
He avoided my gaze.
Meanwhile, Serena Vale, who was sitting co...

I married him when he couldn’t even open his eyes.

Four years I sat beside Evanthe Blackwood’s bed. Keeping him alive while his family held their breath.

The marriage was a contract. A legal arrangement. Nothing more.

Nobody warned me that four years of silence could break a person open.

Nobody told me that loving a man who couldn’t reject you was the most dangerous kind of loving there was.

...

"I had the hospital put your mother back on treatment. Now behave yourself, and quit making up excuses to get money out of me."

The call came from my husband, Silas Crane.

The Don of the Crane family had noticed I hadn't gone to his assistant for money in five whole days. He probably figured I'd finally been trained to be a proper Donna.

Before he hung up, he added, "I know life's tough for peo...

The year Kaelen Sterling loved me most, he walked away from his family's empire and eloped with me to Europe. 
But on the day he collapsed from washing dishes in a cramped diner, coughing up blood, I took the three-million-dollar check from his mother.
I stood there and watched his family's security drag him onto a private helicopter. 
He clung to the cabin door until his nails were ripped raw and...

My boyfriend of five years was actually Gideon Pryce, Vale City's wealthiest heir—and our entire relationship was just a gold-digger test.
Then he handed me the receipts. Every dollar he’d spent on me in five years. He wanted it back.
He didn’t know about the ultrasound in my purse. Eleven weeks. A rare complication. One surgery that afternoon was my baby’s only chance, and I’d scraped together ev...

The eighth time I caught Matteo with another woman, I had an ultrasound photo in my purse.
Sixteen weeks. A tiny curled shape, and a heartbeat the technician had let me listen to twice because I couldn’t stop crying the first time. On the way home I’d bought a silver frame for it. I was going to leave it on his pillow.
Instead, I opened the door of our bedroom in the Falcone penthouse and found a ...

I was reborn on the exact night Uncle Nico was dosed with a aphrodisiac.
This time, I didn't act as his cure. Instead, I made the call to his true love.
In my past life, I fell desperately in love with my uncle, a mafia boss with no blood ties to me.
When I found out he had been drugged, I completely ignored his orders to call Cecilia and offered myself to him instead.
A month later, I ended up pr...

After my fiance died in a car accident, I spent five years living alone. I never remarried.
My family and friends urged me to move on. Even my therapist told me I shouldn't spend the rest of my life punishing myself. In my dreams, Adrian begged me again and again to stop blaming myself and let him go.
Eventually, I agreed to go on a blind date.
On the Easter that followed, I went to the cemetery t...

On the day of my final interview for the Yale scholarship, my childhood best friend, Carter, handed me a carton of chocolate milk.
I drank every drop, touched that he’d remembered. When I woke up, the hair I’d been growing for ten years was scattered all over the floor.
The prettiest girl in school twirled her scissors and smiled at him. “Your mom’s sleeping pills work great. I practically shaved ...

It was my fifth engagement party, and my fiancé, Adrian, didn't show up. Again.

Guests from every family showed up, and one by one, they left again.

Adrian was the Don of the Severino family. We'd been engaged for three years.

His father, Vincent, New York's old Godfather, had arranged the match himself. Every family in the city knew I'd be the next Severino Donna.

My mom, Diane, didn't rush i...

Every anniversary, my boyfriend pretends to propose to me—just because his adopted sister thinks it’s hilarious.
One year, the ring box held nothing but a "Dream on" note. Another, he dropped to one knee—just to tie his shoe. Last year, he finally slid a real ring onto my finger. The band was lined with silver. While I screamed, he and Myrtle laughed themselves breathless. In the ER that night, he...

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,...

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 carefu...

For as long as I could remember, my family had insisted Vivian needed more because I could take more.
The pony I loved. The occasions meant to celebrate me. Time with my mother. If my twin wanted any of it, I was the one expected to go without.
Our induction into the Mafia Family was meant to be the exception. We were both daughters of Don Moretti. A crown was supposed to be waiting for each of us...

The five of us wanted to go to a concert.

I used four devices, with every ticketing app I could find open, and managed to get five tickets.

But on the day of the show, when I met everyone outside the arena, my best friend had brought another girl.

“This is Lily, my coworker. She's been a Luke Morgan fan for twenty years!” Jenna said. “When she heard we had five tickets, she asked if we could sp...

A computer glitch opened my boyfriend's group chat.
After a cheating story went viral, his friends had talked him into faking an affair to test how much I trusted him.
At the same time, they were sending their richest, best-looking friend to seduce me. They wanted to see how easily I'd take the bait.
My boyfriend couldn't get enough of his little cheating game.
So I pretended to fall for it.

The five of us had an unwritten rule: we never discussed plans. We guessed.

What to eat, where to go, who was paying—everything was a guessing game.

They called it the kind of connection you developed after ten years together.

Somehow, I was always the only one who got it wrong.

Two weeks before our fall vacation, I asked the group chat, “Where are we going?”

All four of them gave the same an...

Ninety-nine times.

That was how many times Bianca used me to test her mob-boss fiancé.

Ever since I was brought back to the family, the fake heiress tried to prove that Roman Falcone would always choose her over me, the real daughter.

She locked Roman and me in the same room. She passed his expensive gifts right to me. She even made me wear the exact same dress as her to see who he would look a...

Our company's year-end retreat was a ski trip to Silver Peak, and it took until day three for Cole, the guy I'd been in love with for years, to finally ski a run with me.

We were only halfway down a green run when he pulled up at the bottom of a pitch and shook his head, clearly annoyed.

"Your balance is awful. I've shown you a hundred times and you're still doing the same thing."

One of our co...

"Ms. Hayes, Avery got into a fight in the art studio. She hit the son of our biggest sponsor. You need to come here right away."
I immediately dropped the landscape plans I was working on and rushed to the arts center.
When I pushed open the office door, two children were standing side by side against the wall.
A man in a perfectly tailored designer suit stood with his back to me, his posture stra...

"I ain't lost, and I sure as hell ain't yours."
I ran from a gilded cage and a man who thought love meant ownership. Blackpine was supposed to be my safe haven, a place to vanish, to breathe, to start over.
But I didn't find freedom. I found him.
Kael Vance, President of the Iron Vipers MC, covered in ink and power, a beast on two wheels and the devil in disguise. He rules this town with an iron f...

Contains mature content
When the company's helicopter goes down over the Pacific, struggling intern Ariana Tokes never expects to wake up on a deserted island stuck with her domineering and cold billionaire boss, Nathaniel Coop. He's demanding. He's used to controlling everything.
But the island doesn't care about money, power or titles. Together, they must fight to survive storms that try to te...

She was always off limits. Until one forbidden summer, shy Elena surrendered to her brother's best friend, the emotionally guarded Damien, in nights so hot they burned every rule to ash. Then he shattered her. Called their unborn child a bastard and walked away. Five years later, Damien comes face-to-face with the little boy who looks just like him and the woman he never stopped craving. Now the m...

Maya's life turned upside down when a fertility clinic mishap left her pregnant with a stranger's baby. This stranger turned out to be Kelvin Sinclair, the famous billionaire in L.A.
Given the pressure his family was putting on him regarding a heir, Kelvin was left with no other option than to take Maya in against her will to stop her from terminating the pregnancy despite that they were already ...

I had a fever when my sister poured my hot soup down the sink. My mother watched, then told me to draw another blind-box card if I wanted dinner.

At our engagement dinner, my sister drew the name of the man I'd loved for years. I drew Luca—the driver everyone laughed at. Adrian promised to help me draw again. That night, I caught him removing every card with his own name from the box. So when the...

On the night of Seraphine Vale’s eighteenth birthday, she is meant to become Luna through an arranged marriage to a man, her Alpha, who only desires her because she is the living spitting image of his murdered mate. She flees, and within hours her entire family is slaughtered on his orders. She’s branded a deserter , a rogue, and hunted across the wild lands. In the process, she is captured by ...

Three years together, and the texts I'd sent Nolan Garrett could probably fill an entire medical chart.

Pasta or salad for dinner. Rain boots or sneakers when it was pouring. I ran everything by him.

Then one night, right in front of me, he muted my texts.

"Can you grow up a little?" He didn't even look up. "Not everything has to go through me."

After that, I really did stop asking.

I signed ...

At the company gala, in front of everyone, the man I'd been with for ten years asked me if he could have the first dance with the new intern.

I didn't argue.

I didn't make a scene.

I stepped aside, turned around, and walked out.

For ten years I'd been there.

The tiny apartment with no heat. The credit card debt I helped him pay off. Every rung of the ladder he climbed to get where he is.

I...