He Saved His Mistress, Not His Wife

I was trapped under a massive oak bookcase, my leg shattered, dust filling my lungs. My husband, Dante, the Underboss of the Chicago Outfit, finally found me. But just as he lifted the heavy beam to free me, his earpiece crackled. It was news about Sofia, his childhood friend and the woman he truly loved. "She scratched her arm on the car door, Boss. She's hyperventilating. She won't board the jet without you." Dante froze. He looked at me, bleeding on the floor, secretly ten weeks pregnant with his child. Then he looked at the door. "It's just a broken leg, Elena," he said coldly, slowly lowering the crushing weight back onto me. "You are a doctor. You know it's not fatal. Sofia needs me." He ran to comfort a woman with a papercut, leaving his wife and unborn child to be buried alive in the rubble. I miscarried alone in the dark, tracing the number of a divorce lawyer on the floorboards in my own blood. Three days later, while he was peeling grapes for Sofia in a VIP hospital suite, I packed my medical degree and a single gym bag. I didn't go to a hotel. I boarded a military cargo plane to a war zone in South Sudan. By the time the Ice Prince realized his castle was empty, I was already thousands of miles away, and I wasn't coming back.

Chapters

Chapter 7

The diagnosis was ulnar nerve compression with potential severance.

Serious, but fixable—if you had the right surgeon.

I stood in the sterile corridor outside Dante's room.

Matteo, the Consigliere, blocked my path.

He looked like a funeral director, but possessed the soul of an accountant.

"We have a problem, Elena," Matteo stated flatly.

"Sofia needs surgery," I replied, crossing my arms to hide a tremor. "I saw the chart."

"She needs Dr. Rossi," Matteo corrected. "He is the only one who can restore full mobility. She is a pianist. She writes. Her hands are her life."

"Dr. Rossi is fully booked for the next six months," I argued. "He is in Switzerland."

"I know," Matteo said smoothly. "But there is one slot open next week. A cancellation."

My blood turned to ice.

I knew that slot.

It was *my* slot.

I have a genetic kidney condition—polycystic kidney disease. It was a slow killer, but it was actively destroying my right kidney. Dr. Rossi was scheduled to perform a partial nephrectomy to save the organ.

I had waited five years for this appointment.

"That is my slot, Matteo," I said, my voice tight.

"I know," he replied, his expression unchanging. "We need you to give it to Sofia."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"My kidney," I choked out. "Versus her pinky finger?"

"It is her hand, Elena. And it is about optics," Matteo insisted. "Sofia is a public figure. If she is crippled on a Cavallaro mission, the press will destroy us. We need her happy. We need her whole."

"And me?" I asked, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. "Do you need me whole?"

"You can wait," Matteo said dismissively. "Your condition is... manageable. Dialysis is an option."

Dialysis.

He was suggesting I tether myself to a machine for the rest of my life just so Sofia could play the piano.

"No," I stated firmly.

Matteo sighed.

He opened the file he was holding, anticipating the resistance.

He pulled out a photograph.

It was a picture of a cemetery—a small, overgrown plot on the edge of the city.

Luca's grave.

"The city is rezoning this area," Matteo explained calmly. "They want to build a highway. We have been holding off the permits with bribes."

He met my gaze.

"If the Family stops paying the bribes... the bulldozers come next week. They will dig him up. They will pave over him."

I felt the blood drain from my face.

"You wouldn't."

"Dante agrees it is necessary leverage," Matteo said.

The door to the hospital room opened.

Dante appeared in a wheelchair, pushed by a nurse.

He looked pale, but his eyes were hard as flint.

"Do it, Elena," he commanded.

He had heard.

He knew they were threatening to bulldoze my brother's grave.

"You are blackmailing me," I whispered, horror coating my tongue. "With my dead brother."

"It is for the greater good," Dante said, his voice void of emotion. "Sofia was injured under my protection. I owe her this."

"You owe me a husband!" I screamed.

The nurse flinched.

Dante didn't even blink.

"Make the call, Elena," he said softly. "Transfer the appointment. Or Luca gets paved over."

I looked at him.

I looked at the man I had shared a bed with.

He wasn't a man anymore. He was a monster in a three-piece suit.

"Fine," I whispered, defeated.

I took out my phone.

I dialed Dr. Rossi's office.

My hand shook so violently I almost dropped the device.

"Cancel my surgery," I told the receptionist, my voice hollow. "Give the slot to Sofia Ricci."

I hung up.

Dante let out a long breath.

"Thank you," he said. "You are doing the right thing."

I looked at him, hatred burning in my chest.

"I hope she plays a requiem for you," I said.

Continue to next part

June was an ordinary architect struggling to pay rent, completely estranged from her high-society mother. But one night, she was kidnapped and beaten in an abandoned warehouse by Gage Becker, the city's most ruthless billionaire, who demanded payback for her mother's sins. Gage pointed a high-definition camera at June's battered face and video-called her mother, threatening to release the footage and ruin her upcoming billion-dollar wedding. "I will never throw away a billion-dollar marriage for a useless daughter." Her mother's cold voice echoed through the warehouse before the line went dead. From that moment, Gage systematically destroyed June's life. She was publicly humiliated and forced to hack off her own hair with a cigar cutter. She was blacklisted from every firm in the city, evicted by her landlord, and violently mugged in a freezing New York blizzard. Curled up in an icy tunnel waiting to die, June felt a suffocating despair. She hadn't spoken to her mother in months. Why did she have to endure this hell for a woman who didn't even care if she lived or died? Why was a monster like Gage so obsessed with driving her to the grave? When Gage's armored Maybach pulled up, he stepped into the snow to mock her, waiting for her to finally surrender and beg for his mercy. But the absolute humiliation snapped the last thread of June's sanity. Instead of crying, she lunged forward with feral energy and sank her teeth directly into the devil's flesh.

Action Modern Romance

7.7

I'm Pregnant, And It Isn't My Husband's

7.7

Olivia Pearson is just a pawn – a wife bought to rescue her father's ailing business. Her husband, Sebastian, maintains his icy grip over her life and escape feels like a pipe dream. But when Olivia uncovers the secrets of his empire filled with lies and illicit dealings, she decides to take control. The more she tries to figure things out, the more she realizes that the only person who can assist her might be Ethan Blackwood, Sebastian's brother, and the man who has captured her heart. Now Olivia is sandwiched between two brothers. The choice to make is simple but painfully difficult; the husband who owns her or the difficult, yet enticing lover who comes with freedom. It remains to be seen what is more perilous: that decision, or the consequences that follow. THIS IS A SIZZLING NEW ROMANCE – NO HANDS!

Action Modern Romance

8.0

Lost Princess's Vengeance

8.0

Betrayed by her own blood, Princess Elara barely escaped the brutal coup that claimed her throne and family. Now living in exile, she hides her royal identity while mastering the forbidden arts of war and ancient magic. Driven by a cold desire for retribution, she gathers a band of outcasts to reclaim her stolen birthright. Elara must navigate a landscape of political treachery and dark monsters to finally confront the usurper king.

Action Adventure Fantasy

7.6

Moonlight Claimed

7.6

AKARI TANAKA didn't know she was a werewolf until she inherited a murder. Summoned to a remote Carpathian town, she learns she's the last heir of an ancient alpha line-and her great-uncle's suspicious death has thrown the local packs into a war for succession. As her own latent power violently awakens, Akari is caught between a ruthless rival alpha who wants to control her and a fanatical uncle whose faked death masks a plan to sacrifice her in a ritual that will rewrite reality. To prevent a genocide of her own kind, Akari must forge an alliance with her enemy, master the wolf within, and confront the monstrous truth of her bloodline. The price of leadership is sacrifice. The cost of failure is annihilation. But in Lupinara, the greatest predator isn't the wolf... it's the past.

Action Mystery Werewolf

7.6

Replaced By A Mistress: The Wife's Revenge

7.6

I went to the City Clerk's office to update my passport, desperate to feel alive again after losing my ability to draw. Instead, the clerk handed me a reality that killed me. "Mrs. Crosby," she whispered, her face drained of color. "You aren't married to Bennet. The divorce was finalized three years ago. On October 12th." The date hit me harder than a physical blow. October 12th was the day my right hand was crushed. The day Gianna Skinner, a woman obsessed with my husband, shattered twenty-seven bones in my drawing hand with a marble bust. Bennet, the most ruthless Don in New York, had promised me justice. He swore he locked Gianna in a dungeon to rot for hurting his "Angel." But the screen in front of me told a different story. He had married Gianna the very same day he divorced me. I drove to the Lake House where she was supposed to be suffering. I didn't find a prison; I found a modern glass palace. There they were, sitting on a swing set I had designed. Gianna wasn't rotting. She was laughing in his lap, wearing a silk robe. "She is so pathetic," Gianna purred, tracing his jaw. "Five years and she still thinks she is the Lady of the house." Bennet chuckled, the sound dark and terrifying. "She is broken, Gianna. A bird with no wings. She has no value to the Family anymore, except as a trophy on my shelf. She is my pet. You are my fire." My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from Bennet. "Happy Anniversary, my Angel. Tonight, I give you the world." He wasn't giving me the world. He was building a cage out of lies. Through a bugged ring, I later heard his endgame: he planned to institutionalize me for "mental instability" so he could bring Gianna into the light. I didn't go home to cry. I went to my office and opened a secure browser on the dark web. *Subject: Protocol Erasure.* *Target: Harper Cline.* *Execution: Immediate.* Bennet thought he had broken his pet. He was about to realize he had just unleashed a lioness.

Action Modern Romance

8.4

Rise of the Rejected Luna

8.4

She was to be set out as a debt to be paid. He is known to be the ruthless Alpha of a pack, feared by many and dared by none. By ancient rites and moonlight ceremonies, turning eighteen means everything to werewolf shifters. It is aligned with their tradition, holding a great celebration. For Kiara, it should be a day to be merry, the day she finally confirms her bond with her boyfriend and future Alpha, Jason. Rather, it becomes the moment her world is blurred. "I, Jason, hereby reject you as my Luna." Ridiculed as a "freak" for her inability to shift, Kiara is publicly rejected by the boy she loves - replaced by her sister, Erina, and humiliated in front of the entire pack-Heartbroken, backstabbed, and renounced by everyone including her family. Kiara is sent out against her will to live with Alpha Ryder, who had provided a handsome loan to her parents to cure an ailment. Her stay at the Alpha was prolonged and intriguing. She discovers that she has never been a freak but rather descended from the Lunaries. The drama unfolds, tragedy awaits, torn between love and war. She learns great strength and endurance. She becomes a body of attraction to the Alpha. Would her stay in the new pack be worth her first rejection or would she be consumed by it?

Action Romance Werewolf

He Saved His Mistress, Not His Wife

Chapter 7

You may also like