I Donated My Bone Marrow to Save His Mistress

The steady beep of the heart monitor pulled me from a dreamless sleep. For a moment, I forgot where I was, my mind still clouded from the anesthesia. Then the familiar antiseptic smell hit me, and reality crashed down like a wave. Mount Sinai Hospital. Recovery room. My sixth abortion. Not by choice. Never by choice. I blinked at the stark white ceiling, feeling hollow in every sense of the word. My hand moved instinctively to my abdomen, fingers spreading protectively over the emptiness where my child had been just hours ago.

Chapters

Chapter 2

The Hamptons estate was supposed to be our sanctuary, a place where the Sterling family could escape Manhattan's suffocating pace. But like everything else in my marriage, this sprawling beachfront property had become another stage for Sarah's manipulations and Marcus's blind devotion.

I sat on the terrace, a book open but unread in my lap, watching the Atlantic waves crash against the private shoreline. Two weeks had passed since my procedure at Mount Sinai—since I'd lost my sixth child and donated bone marrow to save Sarah. My body was still healing, inside and out, but Marcus had insisted we come to the Hamptons for the weekend. Sarah needed "fresh air" for her recovery.

The autumn breeze carried a chill that made me pull my cashmere wrap tighter around my shoulders. From my vantage point, I could see Sarah lounging by the infinity pool, her thin frame draped across a chaise lounge despite the October temperature being too cold for swimwear. She'd been watching me, I realized, her eyes following my movements with that calculating gaze I'd come to recognize.

I returned to my book, determined to ignore her presence. That's when I heard the splash and the scream.

"Help! Marcus! MARCUS! SHE PUSHED ME!"

My head snapped up to see Sarah thrashing in the deep end of the pool, her arms flailing dramatically as she screamed accusations between gasps. I froze, confusion and disbelief paralyzing me. I hadn't moved from my seat, hadn't been anywhere near the pool.

The terrace doors burst open as Marcus charged outside, his face contorted with fury. His eyes locked on Sarah struggling in the water, then darted to me, instantly assigning blame without question.

"What have you done?" he roared, rushing past me to the pool's edge.

"I didn't—I was sitting here the whole time," I stammered, rising to my feet. "Marcus, check the security cameras. I never left this spot!"

He ignored me completely, reaching to pull Sarah from the water. She clung to him, her body shaking with exaggerated sobs as she buried her face against his chest.

"She pushed me, Marcus," she whimpered. "She waited until you went inside and then she pushed me. She knows I'm weak from the treatment."

Marcus's eyes were glacial as he turned to me, Sarah still wrapped in his protective embrace. "The cameras don't matter. I know what you're capable of."

The injustice of it burned through me. "Marcus, that's impossible. I was sitting right here! You can see from the house—"

"Enough!" His voice cut through the air like a whip. "You want to play games with my sister's life? Fine. Let's see how you like the water."

A chill that had nothing to do with the autumn air ran through me. "What?"

"Get in." He pointed to the pool, his expression unrecognizable. This wasn't my husband anymore—this was Sarah's puppet, dancing to her strings. "Get in the pool, Isabella."

"Marcus, it's freezing—"

"GET IN!" he roared, causing even Sarah to flinch in his arms.

Slowly, I removed my wrap and stepped toward the pool in my silk blouse and linen pants. My heart hammered against my ribs as I descended the steps into the frigid water. The cold stole my breath instantly.

"All the way in," Marcus commanded. "Swim laps. Ten of them."

"I can't swim well—you know that," I pleaded, the water now at my waist, my clothes heavy and clinging.

"Should have thought of that before pushing someone who's fighting for her life," he said coldly.

I saw Sarah's face over his shoulder, the ghost of a satisfied smile playing at her lips before she buried her face against him again with a theatrical sob.

The water enveloped me completely as I pushed off, my limbs already stiffening with cold. I struggled through the first lap, then the second, my waterlogged clothes dragging me down, my lungs burning. By the third lap, my muscles were cramping painfully. Marcus watched from the edge, unmoved by my obvious distress, while Sarah had mysteriously recovered enough to sit up and observe my punishment.

Halfway through the fourth lap, my strength gave out. My head slipped beneath the surface, water flooding my nose and mouth. I flailed, panic consuming me as I sank deeper, the world above distorting through the chlorinated blue.

The last thing I saw before darkness crept in was Marcus, still standing at the pool's edge, making no move to save me.

Continue to next part

After catching her boyfriend banging her coursemate, Luna ends up in a club with her friend, in a bid to forget it all. There, she meets this dashing guy who she jumps on without hesitation and requests for wild sex. It was supposed to be a one-night stand— one hell of a one-night stand that gave her shivers, but what she wasn't expecting was to meet him again. Not as the one who helped her brother secure a business deal and the one in whose house she would be spending the next thirty days. His name is Xander Storm— a dashing billionaire and one of the most eligible bachelors in Bayview. The shock goes both ways because the two of them relished the one-night stand and acknowledged that it felt more than one— but weren't expecting to see each other again. What will these thirty days be like? Will they pretend it never happened, or will they give in to the growing feelings that gnawed at their hearts? What will Xander's growing feelings for Luna mean for his revenge against the death of his parents, and for his enemies?

Billionaire Modern Romance

8.5

DISCARDED WIFE, MY HUSBAND'S WORST NIGHTMARE

8.5

Ten years of marriage. Lara Castellano believed it meant something. Until the night her husband walked through the door with another woman… and their baby. Humiliated and betrayed, Lara soon discovers the truth is even worse than infidelity. Her husband didn’t just betray her. He used her. For years Andre Castellano has been manipulating everything—her health, her family, even the circumstances surrounding her father’s death. But Andre made one fatal mistake. He believed Lara would remain the quiet, loyal wife he could control. Instead, she disappears… and begins building a plan powerful enough to destroy him. With secret allies, hidden financial moves, and truths Andre never expected to surface, Lara begins a silent war. And by the time he realizes what she’s doing— it’s already too late. Because the woman he discarded is no longer his wife. She is his worst nightmare.

Billionaire Modern Romance

9.3

Flash Marriage To The Secret Billionaire

9.3

My mother called me a defective product and insisted I marry Preston Finch, a man who treated our first date like a corporate merger. During our lunch, Preston demanded I clean his car like a servant, his arrogance snapping the last thread of my patience. I threw my iced coffee right into his lap, sending the cafe into a stunned silence as he screamed insults about my background and the cost of his designer pants. My mother didn't care about the abuse; she only cared that I had lost a "catch," calling me an embarrassment and threatening my future while my flower shop faced imminent foreclosure. Trapped by debt and my family’s relentless cruelty, I felt like a drowning woman with nowhere left to turn. Just as I hit rock bottom, Connor Powers—my brother's old roommate—stepped in, his icy gaze promising a brutal end to my misery. "Let's get married," he said, offering a cold, calculated contract that would shield me from my family forever. I signed the papers, unaware that I had just tethered my life to a man whose world was far more dangerous than I could have ever imagined.

Billionaire Modern Romance

8.2

I Hid His Heir from My Alpha

8.2

For two years, I was the Alpha's secret wife, a duty he resented. But the positive pregnancy test in my hand was a miracle, a blessing from the Moon Goddess. This baby, our heir, was supposed to be the bridge that finally mended our broken mate bond. That night, he left without a word. I saw on a gossip site that he'd gone to pick up his ex-lover, Isadora. Reaching for him through our bond, I wasn't met with his usual coldness, but with her emotions bleeding through him-triumph and smug possession. The next morning, I went to his office, ready to tell him about our baby, believing our child could fix us. But I stopped when I heard him talking to our Pack Healer about me. The healer said I looked fragile, that he should care for his mate. My husband laughed. "You seem to care for her more than I do," Demetri said, his voice dripping with ice. "Do you want me to give her to you? Take her. She's of no use to me." My world shattered. I wasn't just unloved; I was a thing to be discarded. I looked down at the pregnancy report, the proof of the life inside me, and made a vow. He would never know about our child, and I would sever our bond myself.

Billionaire Romance Werewolf

8.7

My Fake Bankrupt Husband Is A Tycoon

8.7

I was trapped in a greasy diner by my own mother. She was forcing me to marry my abusive cousin because he had paid her twenty thousand dollars. To escape, I used a contract marriage app and begged a complete stranger to marry me at City Hall that very day. Ethan drove a cheap Ford and wore a plain suit. I thought he was just an ordinary guy needing a fake wife. When my mother found out, she brought thugs to destroy my flower shop—my only home and livelihood. To protect Ethan from her endless extortion, I shielded him and screamed that he was bankrupt and drowning in credit card debt. My mother fled in disgust, and Ethan took me into his apartment for the night. But out of trauma and habit, I locked my bedroom door, muttering that he must be old and desperate. He stormed out into the freezing night, leaving me terrified that I had ruined my only lifeline. I didn't understand why he was so furiously offended, completely unaware that my "broke" husband was actually the most ruthless billionaire in New York, and I had just trampled his massive ego. The next morning, his face was a mask of ice as he dragged me back to City Hall to annul the marriage and get rid of me. "Annulment. Now," he demanded. But the clerk just popped her gum and slid a pink paper across the counter. "State law changed. Mandatory thirty-day cooling-off period."

Billionaire Modern Romance

7.8

Pregnant, Then Betrayed by Fiancé

7.8

My phone buzzed with a notification, the screen lighting up with a social media alert. Normally, I'd ignore it during my lunch break, but the preview caught my eye—Travis's name alongside some congratulatory comments. Curious, I tapped on the notification, and my world collapsed in an instant. There he was—Travis Webb, my fiancé of five years—down on one knee at La Maison Rouge, the city's most romantic restaurant. The diamond ring in his hand caught the candlelight, sparkling almost as brightly as Fiona Turner's eyes as she covered her mouth in theatrical surprise. "Fiona Turner, you've been my dream since we were children," Travis's voice came through clearly in the video. "I promise to love you forever, to give you the life we always talked about. Will you marry me?" My hands trembled so violently I nearly dropped my phone. The comments beneath the video blurred through my tears: *Congratulations to power couple Travis Webb and Fiona Turner! #RelationshipGoals* *The business mogul's fairy-tale proposal is EVERYTHING!

Billionaire Modern Romance

I Donated My Bone Marrow to Save His Mistress

Chapter 2

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