The Fiancé Who Chose Another

My fiancé, Jacob, crashed another woman' s wedding. I found out from a viral video while preparing his favorite dessert to celebrate our upcoming IVF cycle. It was Kierra Gates, the "struggling artist" he always claimed to pity. This wasn't the first time. Three years ago, he beat a man bloody for her, a public scandal that nearly broke us. I stood by him then, swallowing the humiliation and my friends' warnings. I even forgave him for the miscarriage his violent outburst caused. He swore it was over, that our future, our family, was all that mattered. But as I watched the video of him snatching her from the altar, his promises echoed like a cruel joke. He' d abandoned me again, on the cusp of our dream, for the same woman. My love for him, a fifteen-year constant, finally ran dry. This wasn't just another betrayal; it was the end. I picked up the phone, my hand steady. "I'd like to cancel my IVF appointment," I told the clinic. "And schedule an abortion. As soon as possible."

Chapters

Chapter 2

Audra Walker POV:

The click of the front door in the dead of night was a sound I' d been anticipating, dreading, for hours. I' d been sitting in the darkened living room since the sun set, the only light coming from the muted glow of the television screen, where the viral video of Jacob' s latest public spectacle played on a loop. It was a silent, damning accusation. My body felt stiff, heavy, as if carved from stone, every muscle aching from the long, agonizing wait.

Jacob stepped into the room, his shadow stretching before him like a guilty confession. His eyes, in the faint light, met mine. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The air was thick, suffocating, with the unspoken weight of his betrayal. The television screen behind me flickered, showing him in HD, a frantic, desperate puppet on a public stage.

He saw it. His gaze dropped to the screen, his shoulders slumping. He walked slowly, mechanically, towards the remote, his hand shaking as he pressed the power button. The screen went black, plunging the room into deeper silence, but the image remained seared into my mind.

Then, he did it. The familiar, theatrical gesture. He dropped to his knees, right there on our expensive Persian rug, his head bowed. A pathetic, desperate figure. I watched him, my heart a hollow space in my chest. There was no surge of anger, no fresh wave of pain. Just a weary, almost detached amusement. How many times had I seen this act? How many times had I fallen for it?

"Audra," his voice was hoarse, thick with a performative remorse that no longer moved me. "Audra, I' m so sorry. It was… it was a mistake. A terrible mistake." He looked up, his eyes pleading, brimming with unshed tears. "It won' t happen again. I swear. It was the last time. I just… I couldn' t let her. She was being forced, Audra. Forced into a marriage. For her family' s medical debts. I just pitied her."

He stumbled over the words, a rehearsed script. "I hadn' t seen her in months, I promise. Not since… after the last time. But then I got the message, she was desperate, cornered. I just… I had to help. It was pure pity, Audra, nothing more." He stretched out a hand towards me, palm up, as if offering his heart on a platter.

Pity. The word scraped against my soul, a dull, rusty blade. How many times had that word been his shield, his excuse, his weapon against me? I knew his pity. Oh, I knew it intimately.

My voice, when it came, was flat, devoid of emotion. "Your pity, Jacob, has always come at a steep price. My sanity. My dignity. My hope. Our future." I watched his eyes flicker, a shadow of discomfort crossing his face. He hated it when I was calm. My anger he could fight, my tears he could soothe. My cold detachment, he couldn't touch.

"Your pity funded her art education, didn' t it? When she 'couldn' t afford it.' Your pity bought her that fancy studio in the arts district, a place she claimed was essential for her 'struggling artist' soul. Your pity led you to assault a man three years ago, turning you into a public spectacle and me into a laughingstock." I ticked off the points on my fingers, each word a slow, deliberate hammer blow. "Your pity caused me a miscarriage, Jacob. Three years ago. Do you remember that one? Or was that just collateral damage in your grand display of compassion?"

His face crumpled, the tears finally spilling over. "Audra, no. You know that wasn' t my intention. I love you. I always have. Kierra… she was just a responsibility. A burden I felt I had to carry."

"A burden?" I scoffed, a humorless sound. "You seem to enjoy carrying that particular burden, Jacob. In fact, you throw yourself into it with a passion you rarely show for anything else. For our relationship. For our future." My gaze was steady, unflinching. "Your pity, Jacob, is far too generous. It overflows for everyone but the woman you claim to love."

He flinched, his shoulders hunching further. He reached out, trying to take my hand, to pull me into his embrace. "Audra, please. Don' t say that. Let me hold you. Let me make this right."

I pulled my hand back, a swift, decisive movement. The contact was abhorrent. "Don' t touch me."

He froze, his hand suspended in the air. His eyes, red-rimmed and panicked, searched mine. "Are you… are you really giving up, Audra? After everything? After all these years?" He dropped his head, his voice a broken whisper. "Please, Audra. Please don' t do this." He sank back onto his knees, a truly pathetic sight.

I looked down at him, my heart stubbornly silent. "The one who started giving up long ago, Jacob, doesn' t get to ask for loyalty now. You lost that right a long time ago. Don' t pretend otherwise."

Continue to next part

The hum of the sterile lab usually quieted my mind. It was a specific frequency—sixty hertz of white noise that signaled safety, precision, and control. But tonight, standing at the frosted glass doors of Sector 4, the sound wasn't a hum. It was a thump. Bass. Heavy, rhythmic, and completely foreign to a Class-5 clean room. I swiped my badge. The light blinked red. *Access Denied.* My stomach tightened. I keyed in my override code, my fingers trembling slightly not from cold, but from a sudden, sharp spike of adrenaline.

Action Modern Mystery

9.7

Auctioned to the devil [M × M]

9.7

Trigger Warning: This book contains dark themes including captivity, violence, abuse, and explicit scenes. Please read responsibly. Sold like a commodity. Claimed like property. Desired like an obsession. Tobias Shane thought he had lost everything when his uncle betrayed him-until he was stripped, chained, and auctioned to the highest bidder. Benjamin Shaai, New York's most feared mafia boss, didn't come for a pet. But when he sees the quiet fire in Tobias' eyes, he wants him. Buys him. Owns him. What begins as a cruel arrangement of pain and pleasure turns into something neither of them expected. But Tobias carries a secret-one that could collapse empires. As enemies circle and betrayal festers from within, the devil finds something he never wanted... a heart. But loving Tobias might be the one war Benjamin can't win.

Action LGBT+Mafia Modern

8.8

El hijo de la reina de la mafia

8.8

Trilogía Carluccio: Libro 1. Una madre para mi hijo. Libro 2. El padre de mis hijos. Libro 3. El hijo de la reina de la mafia. Alexandre Carluccio regresa a Italia después de veinte años, con el único objetivo de vengar a todos aquellos que intentaron asesinar a su abuelo, sin imaginar que en medio de esta guerra que se ha desatado por obtener el poder, encontrará algo más que venganza. Yelizaveta Belucci, es en apariencia una chica frágil que necesita ser protegida por todos aquellos que se cruzan con ella, nadie imagina que debajo de esos ojos verdes se esconde una mujer peligrosa y tan despiadada como su padre, uno de los más grandes capos de Italia. Un amor tierno y pasional que pondrá en peligro la vida de ambos, pero que los llevará a conocer el amor verdadero.

Action Mafia Romance

8.0

From Prison To Power: Rise Of The War Goddess

8.0

Scarlett Hayes thought marrying James Whitmore would finally make her family see her as more than a burden. Instead, it destroyed her life. Framed for crimes she didn't commit, betrayed by the people she trusted most, and sentenced to prison while pregnant, Scarlett lost everything in a single night. Then came the cruelest blow of all. After giving birth in chains, she was told her baby had died. The people responsible believed she would spend the rest of her life rotting behind bars. They were wrong. Five years later, Scarlett returns. No longer the discarded daughter of the Hayes family. No longer the broken woman they left behind. Now she is Commander Scarlett Hayes-a decorated war hero, the unseen force behind a global intelligence empire, and a woman powerful enough to make governments tremble. She comes back for one reason only: revenge. Her ex-husband, the stepsister who stole her life, and the family who buried her alive are about to learn exactly what happens when a woman with nothing left to lose takes back everything they stole. But as Scarlett tears through the secrets of her past, one truth threatens to change everything- the child she mourned for years may not be dead. And the mysterious man connected to the night that changed her life has been watching from the shadows all along.

Action Fantasy Romance

7.3

Ninety-Nine Times, Then No More

7.3

This was the ninety-ninth time I caught my husband, Chase Vargas, with another woman in our five-year marriage. I stood in the hotel doorway, numb, tired of the cheap perfume and his cold, familiar eyes. But this time, his mistress, a blonde woman, hissed, "He told me all about you. The pathetic wife he's stuck with because of some business deal. He said he can't stand the sight of you." Her words, meant to hurt, were things I already knew, things Chase had made sure I understood. Still, hearing them from a stranger felt like a new humiliation. She lunged, scratching my face, drawing blood. The sting was a surprising jolt in my numb world. I wrote her a check, a routine part of this pathetic scene. Then my phone rang. It was Chase, calling from across the room. "What are you doing? Are you making a scene? Clean it up and get out. You're embarrassing." He thought I had orchestrated this, that I was the embarrassing one. The betrayal was casual, complete. "I'm tired, Chase," I said, the words finally coming from a place I thought had died. "I want a divorce." He laughed, a cruel sound. "A divorce? Elena, don't be ridiculous. You love me too much to ever leave me." I hung up. He then handed me a signed divorce agreement, telling me his true love, June, my adopted sister, was back. He wanted me to play the dutiful wife for her welcome-home concert. My heart, which I thought had turned to stone, felt a final, crushing blow. He wasn't divorcing me because I wanted it. He was divorcing me for her. I signed the papers. The ninety-ninth time was the last time he would do this to me.

Action Modern Romance

7.5

Saved by The Billionaire

7.5

A single reckless action is all it takes to destroy and ruin literally everything in a person's my life. Anna's Life. She gave herself to a stranger... and the next morning he disappeared without a trace. She later out I was pregnant with his child. Her family and friends completely condemned,abonded and left her all alone. And that was the beginning of her misery and the start of something she never for once saw coming.

Action Billionaire Modern

The Fiancé Who Chose Another

Chapter 2

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