My Love Was Gone

My husband, Rodger Hayes, was a renowned chief negotiator, famous for his integrity and firmness within the circle. When my son and I were kidnapped, with three hostages at the scene, the kidnappers agreed to release only one. Among the women and the boy, Rodger should have chosen to save the boy first. Yet, I heard him saying in Spanish fluently, "Release the woman in white." His first love, Jolene Chapman, was freed, while my son, Jacob Hayes, died from a gunfire. Later, Rodger explained the situation flatly. "The kidnappers chose to release Jolene." I cradled Jacob's ashes and smiled sadly. Rodger didn't know that I was fluent in Spanish, as I had been a special forces member. His lies crumbled before me. My phone vibrated, and I confirmed the encrypted message. "Falcon returns to base."

Chapters

Chapter 3

Returning home, I found Rodger already there.

He was sitting on the couch. When he saw the urn in my hands, his eyes flickered with unease.

Yet, in the next moment, he had regained his icy composure.

He didn't comfort or embrace me. He simply stood up and said lightly, "Nicole, Jacob is dead, and he cannot come back to life. But we must carry on. You have to find a way to move on."

He asked me to move on.

I lifted my gaze to him.

I remembered three years ago when Jacob had a sudden high fever at midnight, convulsing and twitching.

At that time, Rodger was in another city dealing with a complicated international negotiation worth billions.

In a panic, I called him and cried, "Jacob is gravely ill."

Without hesitation, he canceled the negotiation and flew back overnight.

He rushed into the hospital room and pulled me into his embrace. He said in a hoarse voice, "Don't be afraid. I'm back. Nothing is more important than you and Jacob."

The warmth of his embrace still haunted my memory, but the air felt bitterly cold now.

I forced a faint smile and replied in a low voice, "Alright. I'll try to find a way to move on."

Rodger assumed I had come to terms with things and visibly relaxed. The tension between his eyebrows eased a bit.

A few days later, Jolene moved into our home under the pretext that she needed company for her trauma.

Rodger didn't ask for my opinion.

But what difference would it make?

I no longer had the energy to question it.

He had often ranted about Jolene after he was drunk.

He condemned that she had left him without hesitation. He complained that she was brutal and heartless.

Now I realized that his "hatred" for Jolene was merely another form of lingering attachment.

One day, when I returned home and opened the door, I was stunned.

Jacob's room had been completely different.

His favorite dolls, Legos, and toy cars were all gone.

The starry wall mural I painted was covered by a giant white canvas.

In the center of the room stood an easel.

Jolene was sitting in front of it, humming as she mixed paints.

When she saw me, she wasn't surprised at all and even smiled. "Nicole, hi. Look! I tidied up the place a bit. Isn't it much neater now? Since it was just a spare room, I figured it would make a good art studio for me."

A surge of anger clouded my vision and blurred everything before me. "Who gave you permission to touch Jacob's things?" My voice trembled.

"I…" Jolene feigned innocence. "I saw those things were old and taking up space, so I helped you get rid of them."

"Bring them back to me." I forced out each word.

"They're all thrown away." Jolene spread her hands. "The garbage truck took them this morning."

"I said bring them back to me!" I screamed, lunging at her.

Rodger burst in at that moment.

He grabbed my arm and pushed me away. "Nicole, what's gotten into you?"

His shove sent me reeling, and my back slammed against the doorframe as I collapsed to the floor.

He didn't even glance at me. Instead, he anxiously checked on Jolene. "Are you alright? Did you get injured?"

"I'm fine, Rodger." Jolene immediately nestled into his embrace. She trembled slightly, and her voice was perfectly tinged with grievance. "I just wanted to tidy up the room and make a memorial painting for Jacob… I didn't expect such a strong reaction from her…"

As she spoke, she sneaked a provocative glance at me.

Did she want to make a memorial painting?

I propped up my weakened body and looked at the enormous white canvas.

On it were swirling shades of gray, like dense fog or the ashes of something burned out.

My gaze froze suddenly.

I stared fixedly at the palette beside the easel.

Among the paints, there was some gritty, bone-like grayish-white powder not fully mixed.

A chilling realization shot up my spine and seized my mind.

My eyes darted frantically around the room.

It finally landed on the nightstand where Jacob's urn should have been.

It was empty.

The small black velvet box that held my entire world was gone.

A jolt of horror struck me and split my sanity instantly.

I raised my head, and my eyes turned bloodshot as I locked onto Jolene. I asked in a trembling voice, "What did you use to paint this?"

Jolene peeked out from Rodger's arms as she smiled innocently.

She pointed at the gray painting. "Of course, I used Jacob's ash. Rodger said you wouldn't let go of that box, so you couldn't move on. So I thought I could turn him into art. So he'll always be here with us in another way. Look! The hues of his ash are hauntingly beautiful."

Continue to next part

The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen. My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive. The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest. I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman. But Chelsea wouldn't stop. She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property. I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength. As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run. Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan. "She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."

Action Fantasy Sci-Fi

9.0

From Ashes To Altar: Her Vengeance

9.0

My mother was killed in a hit-and-run. My husband, Haywood, told me to drop the investigation. Then my father died because Haywood froze my assets, refusing to pay for his life-saving surgery. "My mother was murdered!" I screamed at him. "You want me to just... forget that?" He told me he knew who the driver was and threatened to ruin me if I didn't stop. He used his power to destroy my career, publicly shame me, and even had me thrown into a cellar full of venomous spiders, leaving me for dead. The final blow came when he forced me to lie on a live stream at my mother's grave, confessing to crimes I didn't commit. As I collapsed, he had his men scatter her ashes into the mud. I lost everything. My family, my dignity, my truth. They thought they had broken me. They were wrong. As I boarded a flight out of New York, I hit 'Go Live' on a global stream. "My name is Celina Alvarado," I began, my voice steady. "And I'm here to tell you everything."

Action Modern Mystery

8.7

LOVING THE ENEMY ALPHA

8.7

Aria Blackwood grew up as the Alpha's daughter. Everyone expected her to lead. She was taught to stand tall, never bow. Then came her eighteenth birthday. In front of the whole pack, her mate rejected her. Rafe Daniels didn't just break her heart-he shattered the bond and turned it into a battlefield. Five years later, Silver Crest has fallen. Aria's father is gone. Her pack has surrendered. And Aria? He keeps her alive for one thing: to serve in the house of the man who wrecked her world. Rafe calls it mercy, this humiliation. He thinks she's beaten. Let him think it. She drops her gaze, but she catches every whisper. She carries out orders, but she's always plotting. And that mate bond-they both feel it burning, whether they want it or not. Aria just turns that fire into something sharper. Revenge. She was never supposed to kneel. She was born to rule. And she's going to take her throne back-even if she has to destroy the man fate chose for her.

Action Romance Werewolf

8.9

Pregnant With The Ruthless Billionaire's Secret

8.9

Aubree Hamilton was the top-tier executive assistant to Wall Street's most ruthless titan, Beck Franco. A month ago, she made a catastrophic mistake and spent the night in his bed. Thinking she had erased the mistake with a morning-after pill, she panicked upon his return and lied about being engaged to push him away. But Beck, a man who despised disloyalty above all else, immediately suspended her and ordered her escorted out of the building. Her nightmare only escalated when her toxic ex-boyfriend attacked her on the street, tearing her purse open and exposing the empty morning-after pill box to the public—and to Beck, who was watching from his penthouse. After having his security rescue her, Beck trapped her in his car, ruthlessly tearing apart her fake engagement. Later in her apartment, the suffocating tension between them almost ignited into a kiss, but a violent wave of nausea suddenly hit Aubree. She shoved him away with all her strength and violently threw up in the bathroom. Beck took it as the ultimate physical disgust. He walked out, deeply humiliated and dangerously obsessed, unleashing his resources to investigate her every move. Left alone and trembling, Aubree finally checked the crushed white box. The pill she took had expired a month ago. Staring at the two bright pink lines on the pregnancy test, she made a desperate vow: Beck Franco could never know she was carrying his child, and she had to disappear before he found out.

Action Billionaire Mystery

9.7

Rising From Ruin to Build a Trillion-Dollar Empire

9.7

Betrayed by his wife and best friend, once-successful entrepreneur Ethan loses his fortune and dignity. Left in poverty, he discovers a hidden family legacy that grants him unprecedented resources. Driven by a thirst for justice, Ethan begins a ruthless climb back to the top. As he dismantles his enemies' lives, he constructs a massive global conglomerate. It is a high-stakes journey of calculated revenge and the birth of a trillion-dollar empire.

Action Billionaire Modern

9.5

Shattered Vows: The Genius Doctor's Revenge

9.5

As the fetal monitor screamed in the delivery room, Danae begged the nurses to call her billionaire husband to save their dying baby. Instead of Adrian, his chief lawyer arrived with a chilling directive: all emergency interventions were explicitly denied. While security guards pinned her arms to the mattress, Danae was forced to listen to her baby's heartbeat flatline. The lawyer simply dropped divorce papers on her bed and walked out. A sympathetic doctor helped Danae fake her own death to escape the family. Stripped of her assets and kicked out into the freezing rain, she tried to drown herself with her child's ashes, only to be saved by a mysterious benefactor. Three years later, Danae returned as a top medical researcher. But at a high-profile symposium, she crossed paths with Adrian and his new fiancée—a cheap lookalike of Danae. The woman maliciously staged a bloody miscarriage using a restricted chemical, perfectly framing Danae's lab for the crime. Adrian pinned Danae against the wall, his eyes black with rage, vowing to make her beg for death. Three years ago, he let their real child die without even answering the phone. Now, he was ready to destroy her over a fake pregnancy. Just as Adrian's private guards dragged her away to be locked up, the hospital doors were violently kicked open. A rival billionaire stepped in with a team of ruthless lawyers, shielding Danae behind his back and declaring war.

Action Modern Romance

My Love Was Gone

Chapter 3

You may also like