His Promise, My Shattered World
My world revolved around Jax Harding, my older brother's captivating rockstar friend.
From sixteen, I adored him; at eighteen, I clung to his casual promise: "When you're 22, maybe I'll settle down."
That offhand comment became my life's beacon, guiding every choice, meticulously planning my twenty-second birthday as our destiny.
But on that pivotal day in a Lower East Side bar, clutching my gift, my dream exploded.
I overheard Jax' s cold voice: "Can't believe Savvy's showing up. She' s still hung up on that stupid thing I said."
Then the crushing plot: "We' re gonna tell Savvy I' m engaged to Chloe, maybe even hint she' s pregnant. That should scare her off."
My gift, my future, slipped from my numb fingers.
I fled into the cold New York rain, devastated by betrayal.
Later, Jax introduced Chloe as his "fiancée" while his bandmates mocked my "adorable crush"-he did nothing.
As an art installation fell, he saved Chloe, abandoning me to severe injury.
In the hospital, he came for "damage control," then shockingly shoved me into a fountain, leaving me to bleed, calling me a "jealous psycho."
How could the man I loved, who once saved me, become this cruel and publicly humiliate me?
Why was my devotion seen as an annoyance to be brutally extinguished with lies and assault?
Was I just a problem, my loyalty met with hatred?
I would not be his victim.
Injured and betrayed, I made an unshakeable vow: I was done.
I blocked his number and everyone connected to him, severing ties.
This was not an escape; this was my rebirth.
Florence awaited, a new life on my terms, unburdened by broken promises.
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Chapter 2
Jax figured Savvy' s quiet disappearance from the bar was some kind of tactic.
He thought she was smart, playing hard to get after overhearing him.
He didn' t get it, not really.
He couldn' t imagine the depth of her hurt.
He was more annoyed that she' d almost ruined his pre-show buzz with Chloe.
"See? Total headcase," he muttered to his bandmates after she' d gone.
"Good thing Chloe's got that plan," their bassist, Mark, said, always eager to agree with Jax.
"Yeah, engagement, baby, the whole nine yards. That'll send her running for the hills," Jax said, trying to sound confident for Chloe' s benefit, who was now looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
Chloe just smiled, a cool, calculating curve of her lips. "It' s good PR, darling. Rockstar finds true love. Settles down. The labels eat that up."
Ben found me a few hours later, after their showcase.
I was huddled in my dorm room, tear-streaked and shivering, despite the heat blasting.
"Sav," he started, his voice hesitant. "Jax told me you were at the bar."
I didn't look at him.
"He' s an ass, Sav. What he said, what he' s planning… it' s messed up."
"You didn't stop him," I whispered, my voice raw.
"I tried to talk to him before, when he first mentioned this 'scare Savvy off' idea with Chloe. But he wouldn't listen."
He ran a hand through his already messy hair. "He's completely snowed by Chloe. She wants into the industry, bad. And Jax… Jax thinks she' s his ticket, and maybe something more."
I remembered Jax in the booth, his eyes on Chloe, a look I' d never seen him give anyone.
A look I' d always dreamed he' d give me.
"He' s really with her, isn't he?" I asked, needing to hear it, to make it real.
Ben nodded slowly. "Yeah, Sav. He is. For a while now, pretty serious."
The words were like another punch to the gut.
He tried to say more, something about Jax being an idiot, about how I deserved better.
But Chloe called Jax' s phone then, her voice audible even from across the room where Ben had set it.
Jax, who had apparently come with Ben but lingered outside my door, picked up instantly.
"Hey, babe. Yeah, showcase went great... Yeah, I'm just checking on something... No, no, almost done."
His voice, so different from the one he used with me, even when he was being kind.
He poked his head in. "You good, Savvy?" Not really looking at me, his attention already halfway back to Chloe.
I just stared at him.
"Right. Well. Ben, Chloe wants to go celebrate. You coming?"
He was gone before Ben could even answer.
Ben sighed. "See? He' s obsessed. I tried to tell him you weren' t some psycho fan, that you genuinely cared. But his buddies, Mark and Lee, they just egg him on. 'She's just a kid, Jax. Chloe's a woman.'"
It was clear. I was an inconvenience. A loose end.
The next day, I walked to the international student office.
My hands were steady as I filled out the application for the Florence study abroad program.
The scholarship I' d been offered earlier in the year, the one I' d almost dismissed because it meant being even further from Jax.
Now, it felt like an escape hatch.
Florence. A new city, a new life.
As far away from Austin and Jax Harding as I could get.
A few days later was Ben's twenty-fifth birthday.
A party at some friend's upscale SoHo loft.
I didn't want to go. The thought of seeing Jax, of seeing them, made me feel sick.
But Ben pleaded. "Please, Sav. It' s my birthday. Just for a little while."
So I went, trying to paste on a brave face, my artfully ripped jeans and band t-shirt feeling like a costume.
The loft was crowded, loud, filled with people trying too hard.
And then I saw them.
Jax, with Chloe Davenport draped on his arm.
She was beautiful, in a sharp, glossy way. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, a smile that didn' t quite reach her eyes.
They made a beeline for me. My stomach twisted.
"Savvy!" Jax said, a little too brightly. "So glad you could make it. There's someone I want you to meet."
He gestured to Chloe. "This is Chloe Davenport. My fiancée."
Fiancée. The word hit me harder than I expected, even though I knew it was part of the script.
Chloe extended a perfectly manicured hand. Her grip was firm, cool.
"Jax has told me all about you, sweetie," she said, her voice dripping with condescension.
"It's cute you had a little crush, but he's a grown man now. We're even thinking about starting a family soon."
She patted her flat stomach meaningfully.
"You'll find someone your own age, I'm sure."
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7.7
Not only was I drugged, blinded and assaulted. I was deceived into carrying a baby by a stranger I never knew. Then he appeared and took my child away.
I was sent to a militia by the father of my child. I thought I was rescued but I was recruited to be a weapon for killing. Who was manipulating me, I didn't know. The answers were far from what I knew.
Forced to blend into the world that I could never believe I would be to, a place where brutality reigned, kill or be killed was the only language. I have survived but he has to pay for everything he did to me, because I believed every phase of my life was set by him and him alone. Have I really survived?
Who would have thought, he existed twice in the same world? Do I really know who I should take revenge on? Him or the person I would sacrifice everything for?
Was my mother the one who orchestrated everything? What kind of pawn am I?
8.3
Betrayed at the altar. Replaced by her own sister.
On what should have been the happiest day of her life, Amara loses everything-her fiancé, her dignity, and her future.
But that same night, a dangerous man steps out of the shadows with an offer she can't refuse.
Marriage. Power. Revenge.
Now bound to a ruthless CEO, Amara is ready to destroy everyone who betrayed her.
There's just one problem...
Her new husband knows more about her past than he should.
And the closer she gets to revenge-
the more she realizes she may have married the man who ruined her in the first place.
9.3
She sells flowers. He spills blood. And he will stop at nothing to make her his. Elena Rossi has always lived quietly among roses and lilies, dreaming of love as gentle as the petals she arranges. She thought she found it in Daniel, the man she planned to marry. Until her wedding day when a dangerous stranger walked into the church and shattered everything. Adrian Volkov is a king in the underworld, a man feared for his ruthlessness and power. But to him, Elena is not just a prize. She is an obsession. A storm he cannot live without. And he will burn the world and anyone in it, to claim her. Torn from the life she knew, Elena resists him, manipulates him, and even runs from him. But Adrian is relentless. His love is dark, his touch both punishing and tender, and his obsession inescapable. When betrayal and bloodshed close in, Elena must face the truth: She doesn't just fear him. She doesn't just hate him. She loves him. Petals and Blood is a haunting, passionate tale of obsession, betrayal, and the dangerous kind of love that blooms in shadows.
7.6
Dumped by her fiancé just days before their wedding, only to watch him marry someone else-what would you do? Cry yourself to sleep, or dress to kill for revenge?
That was Elaina's reality. She's no Cinderella, yet she lost a shoe while recklessly crashing her ex's wedding. Her revenge plan went up in flames, but fate had other ideas, throwing her into the path of Alister-a man who is handsome, charismatic, and dangerous... and ironically, the person closest to her ex-fiancé.
Amidst heartbreak and vendettas, Alister paints her world in new colors, turning Elaina into a modern-day Cinderella. But will this story end in "happily ever after," or is Alister merely leading her into a much more dangerous game?
7.2
Allie Patterson poured fifteen years into her husband Grayson’s tech startup, living in a cramped San Jose apartment. Every penny, every late night coding session, was for their shared future, built on his constant claims the company struggled, always on the verge of its big break.
Then, a grant deed arrived: a stunning $4.2 million Atherton villa, paid in full, listing Grayson and an unknown Kacey Schmidt as joint tenants.
Her coffee mug shattered as Allie’s world imploded. Driving to the mansion, she found Kacey in silk pajamas, flaunting a massive pink diamond and, beneath it, Grayson’s grandmother’s heirloom ring – the one he’d tearfully claimed to have lost years ago.
Kacey purred, "He's in the shower. We were so tired last night."
The words were a serrated knife, twisting, confirming years of lies.
Humiliation and rage burned out, leaving a terrifying, absolute silence. All her sacrifice and trust were a cruel, elaborate joke, orchestrated by the man she loved.
Allie calmly took photos, then gave herself one minute in her beat-up car to mourn. When it passed, her tears stopped, replaced by cold, calculated murder in her eyes. She typed a text to Grayson:
"Come home early tonight. I have a surprise for you."
7.8
The moment I saw my husband massaging his dead brother's pregnant mistress's feet, I knew my marriage was over.
He moved her into our home under the guise of "family duty," forcing me to watch as he prioritized her comfort over our vows.
The final betrayal came when she stole and deliberately broke my mother's priceless necklace.
When I slapped her for the desecration, my husband struck me across the face to defend her.
He had violated a sacred honor code by putting his hands on the daughter of another Don-an act of war.
I looked him in the eye and swore on my mother's grave that I would bring a bloody revenge upon his entire family.
Then I made one phone call to my father, and the demolition of his empire began.