Follow
Chapters
Share
A Father's Wrath Novel Cover

A Father's Wrath

Six months post-divorce, Leomund Herbert discovers his toddler, Ginny, trapped in a sweltering car during a livestream hosted by his ex-wife, Shanon Reich, and her influencer boyfriend. Rather than helping the suffocating child, Shanon extorts her audience for gifts to fund the rescue. Leomund intervenes, saving his unconscious daughter from the heat. Now, he vows to make Shanon pay for her negligence in this high-stakes modern action mystery.
Chapters
Share

Chapter 1

Six months after our divorce, my ex-wife, Shanon Reich went viral with her new influencer boyfriend, Tobias Hunt, gaining over ten million followers.

One day, by sheer accident, I scrolled into their livestream and saw my three-year-old daughter, Ginny Herbert, trapped inside a car.

She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. Her little face was flushed, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. She looked utterly helpless.

Shanon didn't smash the window, nor did she call the police.

Instead, she laughed brightly at the camera.

"Thank you to our top fan for the moneybag gift!"

Then she grinned and said, "Send another moneybag! I'll smash the window once I get it, okay?"

I lost my mind.

I raced over like a madman and wrenched the car keys out of her hand.

"Leomund Herbert! Are you insane?" she screamed. "Do you know how much this stream is worth? It's just a little heat! She's not going to die!"

I held my daughter in my arms. Her tiny body was limp, and she was barely conscious.

With reddened eyes, I pointed at her and shouted, "Shanon Reich! You will pay for this!"

While waiting for the restaurant to finish an order, I mindlessly opened a short-video app to kill time.

Then, I heard a voice I knew all too well. I frowned and looked closer.

It was my ex-wife, Shanon Reich.

She was livestreaming with her influencer boyfriend, Tobias Hunt. Both of them were crying dramatically in front of the camera.

The stream title hit me like a punch to the gut.

[40°C Heat! My Daughter Is Trapped in a Car!]

I clicked in immediately, and there she was.

My three-year-old daughter, with Shanon, Ginny Herbert, was trapped inside the car, pounding helplessly against the window.

The inside of the vehicle looked like a furnace.

Ginny's little face was flushed bright red, sweat soaking her hair flat against her forehead.

She was crying and screaming inside the car. The desperation in her voice felt like knives twisting in my chest.

I clamped a hand over my mouth, forcing myself to stay calm.

Shanon, how dare she!

We were divorced for less than six months, yet already shacked up with that influencer. And now, she would risk her own daughter's life for views?

"Break the window! Hurry!" I typed with shaking fingers.

The comment section exploded.

"Call the police! The kid's going to get heatstroke!"

"What are you waiting for? It's 40 degrees! She's going to die!"

And Shanon's reaction? She laughed.

As the viewer count surged, she didn't smash the window, nor did she call for help.

Instead, she beamed at the camera.

"Thank you to our top fan for the moneybag gift!"

Then she added sweetly, "Send another moneybag. I'll smash the window once I get it, okay?"

Rage, despair, and terror crashed over me in waves, drowning me whole.

I called her over and over again. Once, twice, and thrice.

There was no answer.

The background of the livestream looked vaguely familiar, but I could not think. I immediately forwarded the stream into our food delivery riders' group chat.

Within moments, my coworker Richard Carrie replied.

"It's the parking lot behind Tahoma Street! Go! The kid looks like she's about to pass out!"

The second I saw the location, I ripped the delivery box off my scooter. The food spilled all over the ground.

The restaurant owner ran out, cursing.

"I'll pay you back later!" I shouted, already sprinting away.

Shanon better pray Ginny was okay.

Otherwise, I would have made sure she paid with her life.

Richard kept tagging me in the group chat.

The livestream footage was becoming harder and harder to watch.

Ginny almost stopped crying.

Her little face was turning a frightening purplish-red. Her tiny body curled up on the back seat, barely twitching.

And Shanon? She was still posing in front of the camera with her influencer boyfriend.

"Oh, we're anxious too!" she said coyly. "But the keys are locked inside the car! Don't worry, my dears! I'm her biological mother! How could I possibly let anything really happen to her?"

I ran like a madman, my heart hammering so hard it felt ready to burst out of my throat.

Tahoma Street. Damn it, why was this alley so long?

There!

I leaned on the horn and drove straight at Shanon, who was still livestreaming.

She fell to the ground from the impact, screaming in pain.

"Ahhh! Are you crazy? Do you even know how to drive?"

When she realized it was me, panic flashed across her face.

"Leomund Herbert! What are you trying to do?"

I ignored her and rushed to the car, slamming my palms against the window, shouting Ginny's name, hoping she would hear me and hold on.

Through the glass, I saw her small body collapsed across the back seat, completely motionless.

You may also like

A Mirror Too Honest  Novel Cover
7.0
‎ ‎ ‎Sophia Hayes has perfected the art of control. In the high-pressure world of The Metropolitan, she's the youngest senior journalist ever hired-an achievement built on ruthless discipline, flawless execution, and a reputation that makes even seasoned reporters double-check their facts before speaking to her. She is sharp. Unshakeable. Precise to the bone. Her life runs on deadlines, color-coded calendars, and emotional walls tall enough to withstand anything. ‎ ‎Dean Mercer is everything she isn't-and everything she doesn't have time for. A wildly successful illustrator whose comic series Love Is a Mess has a cult following online, Dean lives in a world where structure is optional and inspiration is everything. His apartment is chaos. His sleep schedule is chaos. His heart is chaos. He creates brilliance in messy strokes but hides his deepest truths behind humor, charm, and a smile that masks more wounds than he lets on. ‎ ‎So when the magazine pairs them for a high-stakes project-a revolutionary feature blending investigative journalism with illustrated storytelling-everyone expects disaster. Sophia expects worse. ‎ ‎Their assignment: explore modern love through real stories across the city. Raw, unfiltered, unpredictable love. ‎ ‎Exactly the kind of assignment that makes Sophia want to run. ‎ ‎Dean arrives late to their first meeting with coffee stains and excuses. Sophia arrives with a binder thick enough to double as a weapon. Dean studies her timeline like it's written in a foreign language. Sophia studies Dean like he's a problem she needs to solve before he derails everything she's built. ‎ ‎Their partnership begins in sparks-sharp, heated, dangerous sparks. ‎Arguments disguised as discussions. ‎Discussions disguised as power struggles. ‎Power struggles disguised as creative differences. ‎ ‎But tension has a habit of twisting into something else when the nights grow long. ‎ ‎As they dive into the city-interviewing strangers whose love stories survived decades, storms, heartbreaks, second chances-something shifts between them. Slowly. Quietly. Against both of their wills. ‎ ‎Sophia begins to see past Dean's easy humor to the man underneath-the one who fears failing the people he cares about, who draws comics because it's the only way he knows how to tell the truth. And Dean sees the cracks in Sophia's armor-the vulnerability she protects like a secret, the softness she doesn't show, the fire in her that the world misunderstands as coldness. ‎ ‎Their conversations deepen. Their arguments soften. Their laughter blends. ‎And the chemistry-the kind they both pretend not to notice-tightens around them like an invisible thread. ‎ ‎But the closer they get, the heavier the air becomes. Because both of them are hiding something. ‎ ‎Sophia hides her fear of losing control. ‎Dean hides his fear of being the reason someone gets hurt. ‎ ‎And the feature they're creating-meant to uncover the truth about modern love-begins exposing truths they never meant to reveal. About each other. About themselves. ‎ ‎Their late-night work sessions grow intimate, electric. Their stories blur with the stories they're collecting. Dean sketches Sophia without meaning to-capturing expressions she never lets the world see. Sophia writes notes about him she can't bring herself to delete. Something real starts forming in the space between them, fragile but undeniable. ‎ ‎Until the past they both buried finds them. ‎ ‎A mistake from Dean's life-one he thought he'd left behind-reaches the editorial floor at the worst possible time. A detail with enough weight to derail the feature, shatter their progress, and wound the one person who finally saw him clearly. ‎ ‎Sophia's instinct is survival. Run before she gets hurt. Seal her heart before it cracks open. Dean's instinct is retreat. Protect her from the version of himself he fears is still true. ‎ ‎Deadlines tighten. Trust fractures. ‎Their work stalls, their communication splinters, and the connection they've been dancing around threatens to snap under the strain. ‎ ‎But desire doesn't listen to logic. ‎And hearts don't obey deadlines. ‎ ‎Even as they pull away, they keep orbiting each other-drawn back together by an ache neither can extinguish. Their arguments deepen into something rawer, heavier. Their silence holds more meaning than their words. ‎ ‎They must choose: ‎fight for the story that could define their careers... ‎or fight for the connection that could rewrite their futures. ‎ ‎And when an unexpected message, a truth revealed too late, and one irreversible decision collide, they're forced to confront the question their feature was meant to answer: ‎ ‎What does love look like today- ‎and can two people living at opposite rhythms find it before it slips through their fingers? ‎ ‎On the edge of losing their partnership... ‎their second chance... ‎and each other... ‎ ‎
Confession of an Affair Novel Cover
8.6
During a high-stakes meeting, a doctor's professional life is upended when her case notes are replaced by a document titled "Confession of an Affair." The patient’s family publicly brands her a homewrecker, accusing her of endangering lives to steal another woman's place. The confrontation turns violent, leaving her concussed. When her husband arrives from surgery, she challenges his loyalty. He identifies the accuser as the true mistress, defending his wife and calling security.
I Burned the Past, and He Burned for Me Novel Cover
8.4
To gain immortality, the Bryant patriarch slaughtered a witch clan, triggering a curse that turns his heirs into monsters at twenty-three. Only marrying a witch descendant can break the spell. After being murdered by the man she saved, Cynthia wakes up on the day of the bride lottery. This time, she refuses to swap places with her sister, Ella. Without Cynthia's hidden powers, she watches to see how the powerless Ella and her treacherous lover will survive the looming transformation.
I Think Married the Wrong Man... Not Knowing He Owns Bangkok Novel Cover
7.6
Luna thought she married a quiet, ordinary man to escape her family and an ex-fiancé plotting against her. Ethan Cole seemed harmless, but behind the scenes, he controls Bangkok's most formidable empire. As strange events unfold and rivals fall, Luna begins to see the hidden power of the man she married. Secrets, love, and vengeance entwine, revealing a truth that will shake her world-and her heart.
If You Didn't Kill Your In-laws, Who Did? Novel Cover
8.4
Finn is the primary suspect in the brutal murder of his in-laws, a crime that has rocked Cardinal City. His own wife, Police Chief Linda Reese, is the one who arrested him. As the killings continue with savage cruelty, Linda uses a sci-fi memory-decoding device to prove Finn's innocence and stop the slaughter. However, when she explores his mind to uncover the real killer, the truth she finds is so devastating that it leaves her completely shattered.
Pampered By The Assassin Family Novel Cover
9.1
I drowned in freezing pool water, the mocking laughter of the elite Savage family echoing in my ears. When I opened my eyes, I was an eight-year-old orphan again, right on the day those monsters came to adopt me. Terrified of repeating my hellish past, I ran down the hallway and desperately grabbed the shirt of a random, dumpy IT guy, begging him to take me instead. I thought I had chosen a weak, boring suburban dad to hide behind. But I was completely wrong. My new mom greeted me with a ceramic tactical knife hidden in her apron. My clumsy dad sliced dinner ribs with the terrifying precision of a seasoned hitman. My ten-year-old brother was a dead-eyed sociopath who immediately calculated my bone density. They were a family of lethal underworld monsters, yet they frantically pretended to be a normal, pathetic household just for me.