Too Late For His Desperate Proposal

For seventeen years, I loved my best friend, Holden King. I was the quiet girl who always had a bandage for his scraped knees, secretly believing we were meant to be. But he shattered my world with six words: "She's my sister. That's all." He fell for the cruel and glamorous Fabiola, even taking her to our secret meadow. Her jealousy was a poison. She faked a pregnancy to trap him, then hired a man to attack me in an alley. The trauma ruptured an aneurysm in my brain, and I went blind. Through it all, Holden defended her. He refused to believe she was capable of such evil, choosing the monster he'd known for months over the girl he'd known his whole life. My savior, a kind doctor named Jace, offered me a future, and we planned a fake wedding to give my terrified parents hope. But as I stood blind at the altar, Holden crashed the ceremony. He fell to his knees, a diamond ring in his hand. "I love you, Chloe," he cried. "Marry me."

Chapters

Chapter 5

Chloe Waller POV:

A few nights later, I was walking home from a late study session at the library, the strap of my portfolio digging into my shoulder. As I passed the city' s most exclusive jewelry district, a flash of movement in a brightly lit storefront caught my eye. I stopped dead in my tracks.

It was Holden and Fabiola. They were in Cartier, standing at a private viewing counter, looking at rings.

Fabiola held up her hand, a massive diamond winking on her finger. She was beaming, turning her hand this way and that, admiring the sparkle. "Put it on for me, Holden," she cooed, sliding the ring off and handing it to him.

Holden took the ring and, with a tender smile that twisted my insides into a painful knot, he slid it onto her finger. He did it without a single ounce of hesitation, his movements full of a gentle reverence I had never seen from him before.

My heart didn' t just break. It plummeted into a dark, bottomless abyss.

For seven years, I had loved him. Seven years of quiet devotion, of unwavering support, of secret, hopeless pining. And it had all been erased by six months. My seven years couldn' t compete with her six months.

Fabiola' s gaze flickered towards the window and our eyes met. Her smile tightened, and a flash of pure venom crossed her face before being replaced by a mask of saccharine sweetness.

She quickly grabbed Holden' s arm, preventing him from turning around. "Oh, baby, we should get a little something for Chloe, too," she said loudly, her voice dripping with fake generosity. "As a thank you for being such a supportive friend."

Holden, oblivious, beamed. "That' s a great idea, Fab."

His easy agreement was another twist of the knife. Fabiola' s mood soured instantly. She made a quick excuse and dragged Holden out of the store, her grip on his arm like a vice. Before he could spot me, she pulled me into the dark, narrow alleyway beside the shop.

"We' re picking out our engagement ring," she hissed, her face inches from mine, her sweet facade completely gone. "We' re getting engaged."

The portfolio I was holding slipped from my numb fingers, crashing to the ground. The sound echoed in the sudden silence.

"You' re… getting engaged?" I whispered, the words feeling like sandpaper in my throat.

She nodded, a cruel, triumphant smile spreading across her face. "Yes. And you can be my maid of honor, if you want. A front-row seat to our happiness."

My vision started to tunnel. The edges went dark and fuzzy, and a dull, heavy throbbing began behind my eyes.

"Congratulations," I choked out, the words automatic, meaningless.

I watched them walk away, hand in hand, disappearing into the twilight. I stood in that alley for a long time, the cold seeping into my bones, my legs numb and tingling.

The world had gone quiet. The city sounds faded into a dull roar.

A scuffling sound from the far end of the alley broke the silence. A man stumbled out of the shadows, reeking of stale beer and muttering curses under his breath.

My heart lurried. I tried to move, to run, but my legs felt like they were filled with cement. I stumbled and fell to my knees.

"Well, well, what have we here?" the man slurred, his eyes, dark and predatory, fixing on me. He took a staggering step closer.

Panic, cold and sharp, finally cut through my stupor. I scrambled backwards, my hands scraping against the rough pavement.

"Get away from me!" I cried.

He lunged, his grimy hand clamping over my mouth, his other arm wrapping around my waist like a band of steel. He started dragging me deeper into the darkness.

"You' re a pretty little thing," he rasped, his foul breath hot against my ear. "Just be a good girl and no one gets hurt."

Terror gave me a surge of strength. I bit down on his hand, hard. He roared in pain, his grip loosening for a fraction of a second. It was all I needed. I wriggled free and ran.

I didn' t get far. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back with brutal force. My vision exploded in a shower of white stars, and then everything went black.

As my consciousness faded, a single, hazy thought flickered through the darkness. A figure. A man' s silhouette, running towards the mouth of the alley.

"Hey! Get away from her!" a voice yelled.

Then, there was only silence.

Continue to next part

Two Alphas. One destiny. Kael Draven, the feared Alpha King, rules his territory with iron claws and a heart guarded by centuries of pain. Ryker Storm, wild, untamed, and fiercely independent, has always refused to bow to anyone... until fate forces them together. When a forbidden bond ignites between them, desire and rivalry collide in a dangerous dance. Packs will fight. Secrets will surface. Hearts will shatter. And only one thing is certain: neither man will leave unclaimed. Passion. Power. Fate. Will they conquer the bond-or destroy each other first?

Action LGBT+Romance Werewolf

9.6

DANGEROUS CRAVINGS: SINFULLY TANGLED WITH MY STEPBROTHER

9.6

Ezran Williamson never asked for a new family, especially not one that comes with a stepbrother he can't stand. At twenty-one, Ezran is sharp-tongued, rebellious, and determined to graduate and build a future in programming on his own terms. But when his mother remarries a powerful businessman, his carefully controlled life collides with Lucian Banks, his cold, dominant, and dangerously untouchable stepbrother. Successful, older, and infuriatingly composed, Lucian is everything Ezran hates. Slowly, hatred turns into tension, tension becomes chemistry, and chemistry ignites something neither of them is prepared to face. What begins as resistance slowly unravels into a forbidden obsession, one that defies family, morality, and control. As secrets surface and pressure mounts, Ezran and Lucian are forced to choose between duty and desire, legacy and love, because some feelings don't fade and some obsessions are worth every consequence.

Action LGBT+Mafia Modern

9.8

His Illness Was A Weapon

9.8

For six years, my marriage was a clinical trial. I was the doctor for my husband Jackson' s severe contamination OCD, enduring endless cleaning rituals just for a touch. Then I found a used condom wrapper in his car. I soon learned he was breaking every single one of his pathological rules for his mistress-kissing her feet, sharing greasy pizza. His "illness" was a lie, a weapon used only against me. When I confronted him, he chose her. To protect his reputation, he threatened to cut off my mother's life-saving cancer treatment. The price for her life? I had to publicly announce I was barren and welcome his mistress and their child into our home. My six years of sacrifice, my entire life, had been a lie designed to control and humiliate me. I was nothing more than a disposable tool. The next day, in front of a room full of reporters, he handed me the script for my public humiliation. I tore it to pieces. Then I stepped up to the microphone and said, "I am here today to announce that my marriage to Jackson York is over."

Action Modern Romance

9.6

I Divorced Him After He Chose Her

9.6

After three years of marriage, she realizes she was always the second choice. When his first love returns, he abandons her during a life-threatening crisis to save the other woman. Heartbroken and disillusioned, she chooses to leave him and sign the divorce papers. However, as she moves on and rediscovers her own strength, he becomes obsessed with winning her back. Now, she must navigate a dangerous path between past regrets and a new future.

Action Modern Romance

9.4

MY HIDDEN IDENTITY OF BETRAYAL AND REVENGE

9.4

I used to believe love meant enduring. Staying. Shrinking myself so someone else could grow. I told myself it was worth it-hiding who I was, working jobs I never had to work, pretending my life was smaller than it was. I loved him. I thought that was enough. It wasn't. He chose her. My best friend looked me in the eyes and took everything I had built with him. And I remember standing there, wondering how I could feel so empty when my heart was still beating. For a long time, I blamed myself. For trusting too much. For giving too much. For not being enough. But I'm tired of carrying guilt that was never mine. I am not broken. I was betrayed. And there's a difference. I'm going back-not to beg, not to explain-but to take back the parts of myself I abandoned. My name. My power. My voice. They don't know who I really am, and that might be the only advantage I have left. Then he appears-calm, powerful, watching me like he sees the cracks I try to hide. And suddenly, revenge doesn't feel as simple as it used to. Neither does healing. This is my second chance. Not to love recklessly... but to choose myself, even if it changes everything.

Action Mystery Romance

9.6

Revenge Marriage: The Jilted Ballerina's Comeback

9.6

I stood in the ballroom of the Pierre Hotel, holding a champagne flute that felt like a fragile anchor against a rising tide of anxiety. Across the room, the crowd of New York's elite parted as my fiancé, Campbell Brock, stepped onto the stage to announce a historic merger-and a shocking engagement to someone else. "I am proud to announce my engagement to Kandice Rose," he said, pulling the "real" daughter of the family into his arms while looking right through me as if I were a ghost. I dropped my glass, the crystal shattering at my feet, but the public humiliation was only the beginning. By the next morning, I was a viral meme dubbed the "Meltdown Girl," and the American Ballet Theatre had suspended me from my position as principal dancer for "moral turpitude." My bank accounts were frozen, my reputation was in tatters, and Kandice was on a livestream tearfully claiming I was a jealous foster girl who had tried to seduce Campbell behind her back. I had spent four years building a life with this man, only to be discarded like a piece of old wallpaper the moment a better business deal came along. How could the man who promised me a future turn me into a national joke overnight, and why was the world so eager to believe I was the villain in my own tragedy? When my high school best friend, the notorious billionaire playboy Charlton Bernard, found me drinking tequila in a dive bar, he didn't offer me a shoulder to cry on. He slid a marriage contract across the table and pressed a black titanium credit card into my hand. "Marry me for a year, Daphne," he said, his eyes burning with a dark, protective intensity that made my heart race. "We'll join their reality show as newlyweds and show the world exactly who the real winner is." I looked at the card, then at the man who had always been my shadow, and realized that being sensible had only gotten me dumped on a stage. "Let's go get married."

Action Modern Romance

Too Late For His Desperate Proposal

Chapter 5

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