Husband's Lies, Mistress's Son
My world crumbled when I saw my husband, Arthur, across the street with his mistress, Karin, and a son who was his spitting image. For years, he' d told me he wasn' t ready for a family. It was all a lie.
But the true horror began at my own awards ceremony.
Karin' s son, coached to hate me, rushed the stage and attacked me. The assault caused me to miscarry the baby Arthur swore he never wanted. As I lay bleeding on the stage, my husband didn't help.
He shoved me aside, his eyes blazing with fury.
"You monster!" he roared, scooping up his son and leaving me shattered in front of everyone.
Later, Karin cornered me, her voice a triumphant whisper. "I made sure you'd lose the baby." Then, she pushed me off a cliff into the churning ocean below.
But I didn't die. A fisherman pulled me from the water, broken but alive. As the world mourned the "accidental drowning" of Elenora Dawson, I made a call to the Vienna Conservatory.
"I accept."
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Chapter 7
I followed the breadcrumbs. The child's drawing, the dates on the back of the family photos, the casual mentions Arthur had let slip. It led me to a high-end country club on the other side of the state. A private, members-only event. Leo's fifth birthday party.
I stood outside the ornate gates, peering through the wrought iron. Banners fluttered, bright balloons bobbed in the breeze. The sounds of children's laughter and a magician's booming voice drifted towards me. There he was. Arthur, smiling, holding Leo's hand, Karin by his side, resplendent in a designer sundress. The perfect, happy, his family. My heart, long since turned to stone, didn't even flinch.
Then I saw it. A game set up on the sprawling lawn. A large, grotesque caricature of my face was painted on a target board. Children, Leo among them, were gleefully throwing beanbags at it, trying to knock over the "Elenora" target. Leo hit it squarely, his face alight with vicious triumph. "Ugly lady falls down!" he shrieked, as the cardboard me toppled over.
A cold, hard knot of rage tightened in my gut. They were teaching him to hate me. Actively, joyfully, cruelly.
Karin, catching my eye through the fence, smirked. Her eyes, usually so calculating, now held an open, triumphant challenge. She turned to Arthur, pulling him close, her lips brushing his. A slow, possessive kiss, meant for me to witness. A public display of her victory.
Later, Leo proudly displayed a new drawing. It was a more detailed version of the family portrait, this time with him, Arthur, and Karin holding hands, standing on what appeared to be a grave. My grave.
I had to end this.
I found Karin by the buffet table, alone for a moment. "Karin," I said, my voice low, cutting through the festive din.
She turned, her eyes narrowing. "You have a death wish, Elenora? I thought I made myself clear."
"I have something for you," I said, extending a hand. In it, a thick envelope. "Arthur's signed his half. You just need to sign yours." It was the completed divorce agreement, now bearing Arthur' s signature, obtained discreetly through Clara, who had her ways.
Her eyes scanned the document, a flicker of surprise, then greedy satisfaction crossing her face. "Finally making the smart choice, are we? Giving up on that pathetic illusion of a life you had with Arthur?" She laughed, a triumphant, sneering sound. "You know, he barely put up a fight. Just signed it and asked if you were 'okay.' What a fool. Just like you."
"Just sign it, Karin," I said, my voice trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the raw desire to be free of her.
She scribbled her signature with a flourish, her eyes still fixed on mine, full of malice. "Consider yourself erased, Elenora. You never existed." She tossed the signed papers back at me, a dismissive gesture. "Now, get lost. Before Leo sets his sights on you again."
I clutched the papers, the signed divorce agreement, not as a symbol of loss, but of liberation. The knot in my chest, the constant pressure, began to loosen. A profound sense of relief, cold and clear, washed over me. I was free. Free from Arthur's lies, free from Karin's venom, free from the ghost of a child that would never be.
A new life awaited. A real one. One entirely my own.
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8.4
Title: 365: The Architecture of Yearning
Five years. That's how long Sebastian Moretti has been a ghost, haunting the streets of London in search of the girl with green eyes who shattered his cold, Sicilian heart.
To the world, Sebastian is the "King of Shadows"-a man of ice, blood, and absolute power. But in the silence of his private villa, he is a man hollowed out by a single, obsessive memory. He didn't just want a woman; he wanted the soul of the girl who didn't even know his name.
When he finally takes her, he gives her a choice that feels like a sentence: 365 days to fall in love with him, or she goes free.
Elara Vance was a woman of logic, a quiet architect building a life out of glass and steel in London. She never expected to be the centerpiece of a mafia king's obsession. She should hate him for the gilded cage he's built for her. She should run from the darkness that follows him like a shroud.
But as the days bleed into nights, the lines between captive and queen begin to blur. Behind Sebastian's terrifying dominance is a raw, agonizing yearning that pulls at Elara's soul. In the heat of the Sicilian sun and the unfiltered intimacy of the midnight hours, she discovers that the man who stole her is the only one who truly sees her.
As a Russian war looms and betrayals surface from within, Elara must decide: is she a prisoner of his walls, or the architect of his heart?
In a world where every touch is a claim and every kiss is a battle, 365 days might not be enough. Because once the monster falls in love, he doesn't just want your time.
He wants your forever.
9.4
My brother and his wife slapped the contract on the table, forcing me to marry Alpha Stone. He was a cruel monster known for breaking his mates' bones, and I was just the price for a new trade route.
Right before I surrendered, the legendary Blackwood Pack arrived. But they didn't offer a glorious rescue. They claimed I was the fated mate of Kaelan, a disgraced, wolfless Omega.
My family laughed in my face, eagerly taking the dowry and throwing me out like garbage. They mocked my miserable future, sending me off to a crumbling shack in the woods. When they later summoned us back to publicly demand a humiliating "tribute" to bleed us dry, they waited for me to break.
"Couldn't handle life in a shack with an Omega? Come crawling back already?" my sister-in-law sneered.
But I refused to let them shame him. I didn't understand why the Moon Goddess gave me an Omega, but Kaelan was kind, giving me the only bed while he slept on the cold floor. Why did my family value a cruel Alpha over a gentle soul? I declared to their faces that his loyal spirit was worth more than any title.
Then, a vicious rogue wolf threatened us at the local market.
My "wolfless" husband stepped in front of me and grabbed the rogue's wrist.
Suddenly, a suffocating, terrifying Alpha King's aura exploded from Kaelan, bringing the rogue to his knees in pure terror.
I stared at my quiet, supposedly weak mate in absolute shock. Who exactly did I marry?
8.1
HOSTILE OATH
8.1
Vivian bears the weight of an ancestral curse, a yoke forged in darkness, which was meant to be broken. A future ravaged by war and chaos loomed, threatening her destiny but Vivian's path was not yet set to answer to her inheritance. Ignorant of her true identity, she couldn't control the powers she possessed, losing loved ones in the process and consumed by self-guilt. Yet, from the ashes of despair, she felt the rage and determination to harness the powers consuming her in her shadow and forge a new path; maybe she could get back all she had lost in all possible ways she could.
Prophecy were made, and a formidable force stirred, rising to challenge her claim. When a greater threat arose, Vivian faced a brutal reality: prepare for battle or succumb to the shadows but there was a price to pay.
She was left with two options; reclaim her birthright or shatter the chains of destiny!
9.6
I was his possession. The entire world knew that Jackson Walters, the ruthless tech mogul, had destroyed my life to claim me.
Then he brought home his new intern, Kaila, and sat me down.
"I've decided," he said casually, "I want you both."
When I fought back, he dragged me to a remote warehouse to teach me a lesson. My parents were bound and gagged, suspended by ropes over a massive, grumbling wood chipper.
He gave me ten seconds to accept Kaila, or he'd drop them. "I agree!" I screamed in surrender. But it was too late. A frayed rope snapped, and I watched my parents plunge into the machine's grinding teeth.
The horror of it all killed me. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back in his bed. The date on my phone was the day he brought Kaila home. This time, I wouldn't fight him. I would be his perfect, obedient wife. And while he was distracted, I would fake my own death and disappear forever.
7.8
I returned to Boston after three years, not for forgiveness, but to die.
My family, who blamed me for my mother's death, had cast me out, replacing me with a quiet, grateful orphan named Gabriela. She stole my father's love, my brother's affection, and my childhood sweetheart, Corey.
Now, terminally ill, my only wish was to reclaim my mother's wedding dress, a final piece of her to hold onto. But Gabriela was wearing it to marry Corey.
When I confronted her, she destroyed my mother's locket and cursed me to drop dead. In a blind rage, I slapped her. She shrieked, stabbed her own arm, and framed me for the attack.
As my family and Corey looked on with disgust, calling me a maniac, my body gave out. I collapsed, coughing up blood, my secret illness revealed in the most brutal way possible.
"You always blame me," I gasped, the words bubbling out with blood. "But I was just... dying."
Their faces filled with dawning horror, but it was too late. I was already gone.
Until I opened my eyes again, and my mother, who had been waiting for me all along, took my hand. "We'll be reborn," she promised, her eyes blazing with fury at the family who had destroyed me. "Together. As mother and daughter, again."
8.9
Eleanor POV:
My husband, Adrien, was my shield against the world, the only one who understood the trauma that haunted me after my family was murdered. I clung to him, my fierce loyalty a desperate attempt to keep the monsters at bay.
Then he brought home Daphne, a quiet barista he called innocent. I saw the manipulation in her downcast eyes, but he saw only purity.
His affection turned to violence. He threw me against a wall, his words cutting deeper than any blow.
"You disgust me," he spat.
He let her get pregnant, and when I lost our child in the chaos, he accused me of murder. "You killed my child!" he roared, his love replaced by a chilling hatred.
He bound me, broke me, and left me for dead in a burning helicopter, choosing to save her instead. I was the monster, the madwoman, the one who deserved to be destroyed.
How could the man who swore to protect me become my greatest tormentor?
But I survived. After faking my death to escape his hell, I watched him mourn me with crocodile tears while building a new life with my replacement. Now, I'm back to reclaim my name, my fortune, and to make him understand what a real monster looks like.