Simp No More and He Lost It

Everyone knew in her social circle that Verena was free-spirited and outspoken, notorious for frequently changing boyfriends. But no one expected that at a friend's gathering, she would fall head over heels for the introverted and distant physics professor, Lanny. After months of unsuccessful pursuit, Verena felt defeated. "My family has arranged a marriage for me, so I won't bother you anymore," she said. Lanny, usually calm and composed, lost control in an instant. "Don't get married. I promise I'll date you." They were together for two years, during which Verena enjoyed a blissful romance. However, while planning their wedding, she discovered that Lanny's true love was her half-sister! She quietly canceled the wedding and vanished from Lanny's life. Yet, he became frantic, desperately searching for her whereabouts.

Chapters

Chapter 4

"No need, " Verena said, ending the call.

From now on, she and Lanny would walk their separate paths. Forget marriage, they weren't even friends anymore.

For several days straight, Lanny stayed at the hospital to take care of Bethany. He never once came home.

Meanwhile, Verena packed up everything she owned, booked a moving truck, and then bought a ticket to Eurendale. She needed a real break, far away from all this mess.

In minutes, her closet was half-empty. All that remained were Lanny's suits, shirts, and neatly arranged ties.

Soon, the night of the charity gala arrived.

The ballroom glittered with gowns, tuxedos, champagne, and perfectly practiced smiles.

Verena hadn't expected to run into Bethany here.

As the event's guest jewelry designer, Verena was seated beside the brand's CEO, a clear sign of status and respect.

Before long, it was time to present the designers' works.

Several jewelry pieces flashed onto the massive screen.

Just as the host was about to introduce them, the entire room stiffened. There were two identical designs.

One was credited to Verena, and the other was Bethany.

"Someone must've uploaded the wrong image."

"But they look identical, even the micro-diamond layout is the same!"

"So who copied who?"

Whispers spread like wildfire, slipping through the crowd in seconds.

After checking backstage, the host returned with an awkward smile. "It appears both designers submitted these themselves. Sometimes creative inspiration overlaps…"

Verena rose from her seat. "That's my design. She copied me."

Her icy gaze locked onto Bethany.

"Miss Johnson, that's an unfair accusation," Bethany retorted calmly. "Before my accident, I won an international award for emerging designers. You say I plagiarized you? Do you have proof?"

"Of course." Verena smiled faintly. "I can produce every 3D draft and revision I've made. Can you?"

She opened her laptop, scrolling through the design software.

But the folder that should have contained dozens of draft files was completely empty.

Verena froze.

Tension crept through the whole ballroom.

"Miss Johnson, still looking?" Bethany scoffed.

She connected her laptop to the big screen. Moments later, her own "drafts" appeared.

She looked at the sketches on the screen, each one refined and reworked countless times, then said, "Inspiration doesn't come easy. You can steal a file, sure… but you can't steal talent."

A wave of shock rippled across the hall.

People glanced at Verena with mixed pity and criticism.

"My inspiration came from my father. When I was little, he won me a toy necklace at a carnival. I've kept it all these years," Bethany continued as she gave Verena a sweet, mocking smile. "Some people who've never known a father's love, I suppose they'll never understand."

Verena clenched her jaw. Bethany had struck precisely where it hurt deliberately.

But Verena never cared about that deadbeat man's affection.

"You claim this is your design?" Verena asked, walked up to the screen, and zoomed in on the 3D model.

Enlarged over and over, the pendant finally revealed two faint letters.

VJ.

"I always embed my initials into my drafts," Verena said coldly. "So tell me, are you Verena Johnson? Or do you admire me so much you put my initials in your 'original' design?"

Bethany was speechless.

Her lips parted slightly as she stared at the giant screen, her mind going completely blank. She couldn't form a single word.

Her silence said everything.

At this moment, the brand's CEO stood up, expression dark. "We are a century-old luxury jewelry house. We respect originality and condemn plagiarism in all forms. Please escort Miss Nash out."

"I—"

Bethany struggled, but security was already walking her out in disgrace.

The gala ended past ten.

In the parking garage, Verena spotted Bethany still there, clearly waiting for her.

"You stole the drafts from my hospital room that day, didn't you?" Verena demanded. "Shameless much?"

"The shameless one is you." Bethany's eyes burned. "You seduced Lanny while I was unconscious. Can't live without a man, is that it? Even a man I didn't want isn't yours to take!"

Verena shrugged. "No interest in Lanny anymore. You can have him."

"Gladly," Bethany said as she stepped closer, voice dropping dangerously. "The hotel staff said the security cameras here are broken. Not fixed yet."

Before Verena could process those words, Bethany splashed something across her.

Gasoline.

In the next heartbeat, Bethany flicked a lighter to Verena's hair.

With a fwoom, flames roared to life, scorching through the dimness of the parking lot.

Continue to next part

On our wedding night, my Fated Mate, Alpha Cedric, left our bed to care for his mistress. He told me our marriage was just an obligation. But the real betrayal came months later on a rooftop. When Rogues demanded a trade, Cedric didn't hesitate. He chose to save Jayden because of her "heart condition," handing me—his pregnant wife—over to the killers. "You are stronger," he said as he pushed me toward them. I fell from the building. I survived, but our unborn pup didn't. Instead of comfort, I woke up to handcuffs. Cedric believed Jayden’s lies that I staged the kidnapping for attention. He threw me into the dungeon, shackling my wrists with silver cuffs that burned my flesh, while Jayden poisoned my food with wolfsbane. He stripped me of my title and dignity, never realizing that the "fragile" woman he protected was the true monster. He didn't know about the glowing rune on my chest counting down the seconds I had left. He didn't know I was the legendary White Wolf, and my time was up. On my final night, I asked for one last ride on the Ferris wheel where we first met. At midnight, as Cedric rushed back to the amusement park, he didn't find a body. He found only my empty clothes and a text message on the seat. "Don't look for me, Cedric. I'm giving my wolf back to the moon." As he watched the security footage, he finally saw me dissolve into stardust and ascend to the sky, leaving him alone in a world that suddenly felt too quiet.

Mafia Romance Werewolf

8.6

A Second Chance At True Love

8.6

On our third wedding anniversary, I planned to tell my husband I was pregnant. Instead, I watched him get down on one knee and propose to another woman. In the ensuing chaos, he shoved me down a flight of marble stairs. I woke up in the hospital, losing our baby. The doctor called him, begging him to come. "Tell her to stop this pathetic act," I heard my husband's voice say over the phone. "I don't have time for her games." He hung up. He was at the same hospital, comforting his mistress over a minor burn while our child died. After three years of lies and five broken promises, I finally woke up. I left him a box with the ultrasound photos and my miscarriage diagnosis, signed the divorce papers, and disappeared from his life forever.

Mafia Modern Romance

8.5

Dangerous Love: My Pet Princess

8.5

"And that is the reason why I said those words. I like your fear, not because it is a normal thing. I love it because deep down you are a monster like me, schiava. You fear me on a primal level, you can feel my power and dominance, and you know you aren't the strongest here. So you don't fear Renzo Valentino the human, you fear the monster that lurks inside." My life changed the night of my birthday. What started as a funny dare ended with blood and having a price on my head. I thought Renzo was the hero who saved me that night, but he was the devil who owned me forever. I, Misha Yakov, princess of the Russian mafia became Renzo Valentino's slave. He broke me, tortured me, and molded me into something new, something I hated and craved at the same time. I, Misha Yakov became my master's pet.

Horror Mafia Romance

8.7

Ex Begs Back-After Letting Another Wolf Claim My Kid

8.7

I've spent years as the Blake pack's punching bag-all because of a lie about my dad. Veronica, the she-wolf I once loved, the mother of my little Ivy, spat on me daily. "You're a rogue," she'd snarl, slamming me into walls. "Ivy will never know you're her father." Preston, that snake, made it worse. He paid thugs to beat me, whispered lies to turn the pack against me. But when Veronica locked me in a basement with rabid dogs? That's when I knew I had to die-or fake it. I chose the latter. Now I'm free. Camille's in my arms, our daughter Lila clinging to my leg, her laugh brighter than the moon. But Veronica found me. "Owen, I love you," she sobbed, dragging me to a binding ceremony. I stared at Camille, at Lila's sleeping face. "Some wounds don't heal, pup."

Mafia Romance Werewolf

7.1

His Mafia Queen, My Substitute Heart

7.1

My perfect marriage to Don Dante Moretti, the most powerful man in the New York mob, ended the moment my father died. I was twenty-four, pregnant with his heir, and I believed I was his queen. But for two days, while I planned a funeral alone, my husband was unreachable. Then a friend sent me a photo. Dante in London, his hand tangled in the hair of the woman beside him. It was my cousin, Valentina. He came home with lies about a dead phone and a difficult summit. That night, I found his private journal, and my world disintegrated. He had married me because I had "Valentina’s eyes." I was a substitute. Our unborn child wasn't a product of love. It was a project. A girl he planned to name Elena, after Valentina, calling her a "perfect, tiny piece of the woman I can never truly possess." I wasn't his wife. I was a stand-in. The love I felt for him didn't just die. It was murdered. The next morning, I slid a folder across the kitchen island. "Donation forms," I said. He didn't even look before scrawling his signature on what were actually our finalized divorce papers. His arrogance was my weapon. As he slept beside me that night, smelling of lies and my cousin, I made an appointment at a private clinic. He wanted a legacy? I would give him nothing.

Mafia Modern Romance

8.2

Mafia Princess's Vengeance for Lost Heir

8.2

At my ten-week ultrasound, I was supposed to be celebrating the future of the Falcone family. I was Isabella Falcone, wife to the most powerful Don in the south. But when the nurse called my name, the man who stood up beside his pregnant mistress was my husband. In the sterile silence of that waiting room, he chose her. He later confessed he was being blackmailed by her family-a weakness that was a death sentence in our world. That night, he moved his mistress into our home, into my bedroom, and locked me away like a prisoner in the staff quarters. He wasn't imprisoning his wife; he was guarding an asset. He needed the legitimate heir I carried to save his crumbling empire. His betrayal was absolute when his own mother and my adoptive parents arrived while he was away. They forced me to sign divorce papers, then told me they were taking me to a clinic. His mother pulled out a gun and pointed not at my head, but at my stomach. "We're terminating this complication," she said coldly. As they dragged me from the house, my world went dark. But through the haze, I saw a fleet of black cars blocking the gate. An army of men poured out, led by a face I had only ever seen in a photograph. Days earlier, locked in my room, I made a single phone call to the only man more powerful than my husband: my biological father, the head of the Chicago Outfit. And he had come to collect his daughter.

Mafia Modern Romance

Simp No More and He Lost It

Chapter 4

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