Waiting in the shadows
Maya Bennett never expected to cross paths with Lucas Thoreau again not after high school, not after life pulled them in different directions, and certainly not inside a corporate boardroom years later.
Their reunion is cold. Professional. Controlled.
But beneath the silence lies unfinished history.
Now a medical student struggling to build her future, Maya finds herself caught between her steady boyfriend Josh and the dangerous pull of Lucas the powerful CEO whose presence awakens everything she tried to bury. What begins as coincidence slowly spirals into betrayal, obsession, and devastating secrets.
When lies surface, friendships shatter, and one woman's jealousy turns deadly, Maya is forced into a nightmare she never saw coming losing her freedom, her reputation, and almost her unborn child.
Lucas must confront the consequences of his silence. Sophie hides a truth capable of destroying lives. Josh's loyalty is tested by greed and temptation. And Maya must learn that survival sometimes means letting go of the man you love.
In a world of wealth, deception, and broken trust, Waiting in the Shadows is a gripping story of first love, second chances, and the painful cost of believing the wrong person.
Because sometimes, love doesn't save you.
Sometimes, it leaves you waiting in the shadows
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Chapter 8
Nadia never meant to uncover anything. It started as curiosity, the kind that usually faded as quickly as it appeared. She had always been observant, someone who noticed small changes in people, the way their tone shifted slightly, the way they paused too long before answering simple questions. Since the Bath trip, Sophie had been different in ways Nadia couldn’t ignore. Too attentive to Lucas. Too invested in Maya’s relationship. Too emotional whenever Lucas entered a room.
At first, Nadia told herself it was nothing unusual, just Sophie being protective of her brother’s emotional space, especially with his complicated connection to Maya. But over time, it began to feel wrong. Sophie didn’t just watch Lucas like a sister would. There was something sharper in her attention, something possessive, almost territorial, as if she was measuring every interaction he had with Maya and storing it away.
One afternoon, everything shifted.
Sophie was in the shower, the sound of water running steadily through the apartment. Nadia’s phone had died, and she reached for a charger on the bedside table. That was when Sophie’s phone lit up beside it. A notification appeared on the screen that made Nadia freeze.
Paris Medical Clinic – Follow-up Appointment Confirmation.
Paris.
Sophie had never mentioned going to Paris recently. Nadia’s curiosity sharpened immediately, replaced quickly by unease. She told herself she wasn’t going to snoop, that it didn’t matter, that she was overthinking things. But her fingers still moved before her thoughts could stop them. She unlocked the phone using a passcode Sophie had once casually shared.
What she found made her sit down slowly.
Emails. Medical records. Clinic documents. Pages of information that didn’t fit together at first glance. And then voice notes.
Nadia pressed one without thinking.
Sophie's voice filled the room, fragile and broken beneath the attempt at control.
“I lost his baby… he doesn’t know. He can never know. If he finds out, he’ll hate me.”
Nadia’s stomach dropped instantly.
She opened more files, hands beginning to shake as she scrolled through messages to a Paris clinic, dated appointments, procedural confirmations. Slowly, the truth took shape in a way she couldn’t avoid anymore.
Sophie had been pregnant years ago.
Lucas’s child.
And she had ended the pregnancy without telling him.
Worse than that, she had carried that secret alone and continued to stay in his life as if nothing had ever happened.
Nadia leaned back against the wall, struggling to steady her breathing. This wasn’t just secrecy. This was something heavier. Something obsessive. And the worst part was the realization forming in her mind—Maya was unknowingly standing right in the middle of all of it.
That evening, Nadia asked Sophie to meet her privately in the stairwell of their apartment building.
Sophie arrived smiling like nothing was wrong.
“What’s up?” she asked lightly.
Nadia didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she held up the phone.
The smile disappeared instantly.
Colour drained from Sophie’s face.
“You went through my phone?” she whispered.
“That doesn’t matter,” Nadia said firmly. “You lied. You were pregnant. Lucas’s baby.”
Sophie stepped back as if the words had physically hit her.
“That was years ago.”
“You aborted his child,” Nadia continued. “And you never told him.”
Sophie’s lips trembled violently.
“You don’t understand.”
“And now Maya is with him,” Nadia added. “That’s why you hate her.”
That broke her completely.
Tears spilled down Sophie’s face.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t tell him.”
Nadia shook her head.
“You took something from him and let him live without the truth. Maya deserves honesty. Lucas deserves the truth.”
Sophie dropped to her knees.
“I’ll lose him,” she whispered brokenly.
“You never had him,” Nadia said quietly.
Sophie slowly stood, her expression emptying, something hollow settling behind her eyes.
“You don’t get to destroy my life,” she said faintly.
“I’m not destroying anything,” Nadia replied. “Your lies already did.”
For a moment, everything was still.
Then Sophie moved.
It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t calculated. It was panic, raw and uncontrolled.
Her hands shoved forward.
Nadia stumbled backward.
The stairwell echoed with a sharp impact, followed by silence that didn’t feel real.
Nadia fell down the stairs.
Her body hit the lower landing and didn’t move again.
Maya arrived minutes later.
She had come looking for Nadia after missed calls, a growing unease she couldn’t explain. She stepped into the stairwell and stopped immediately.
Nadia was there.
Still.
Unmoving.
Blood pooling beneath her head.
For a moment, Maya couldn’t process what she was seeing. Then she dropped to her knees.
“Nadia…”
Her hands shook violently as she touched her shoulder.
No response.
Behind her, a scream shattered the silence.
“Maya! What did you do?!”
Sophie stood at the top of the stairs, hysterical, shaking, pointing.
Maya turned slowly, confusion and shock breaking through her expression.
“What?”
And then Lucas arrived.
He took in the scene in seconds.
Maya kneeling beside Nadia.
Sophie crying uncontrollably.
Blood on the stairs.
Everything in him went still.
He moved instantly to Sophie, pulling her into his arms as she collapsed against him.
“She pushed her,” Sophie sobbed. “They were arguing. Maya lost control.”
Maya stood up slowly, shaking her head.
“No—Lucas, I just got here.”
But sirens were already approaching.
People gathered.
Voices overlapped.
Phones recorded fragments of the moment.
CCTV footage later showed Maya entering the stairwell minutes before the incident.
The rest was missing.
Nadia’s phone had been wiped clean.
But a draft message remained open.
What you did today wasn’t okay.
No name attached. No context.
Just that.
Lucas couldn’t look at Maya.
Maya couldn’t find her voice.
And when the police arrived, she didn’t resist.
She was arrested.
That night, Maya sat alone in a cell, staring at a wall that didn’t give her answers or comfort. Lucas did not come. Sophie stayed beside him, shaken but silent, holding onto the only version of the truth that remained intact for her.
And somewhere outside those walls, the real truth disappeared completely with Nadia.
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8.0
BLURB
She had fought so hard to be able to bear her husband a child for years but all her efforts proved abortive and just when she thought that all her problems were finally over.
She was faced with a brutal betrayal from her husband, taking away her family company, cheating on her and most especially tied her in the marriage.
But everything takes a drastic turn when she realizes the baby she is carrying doesn't belong to her husband, rather a cursed werewolf who could never have a child.
Thrown into the world of the werewolves, Daisy realizes she is more than she thinks, but will she be able to navigate the challenges that awaits her?
8.8
I discovered I was pregnant with twins from my marriage to Ell Steele, the ruthless CEO of the Steele Group. But he saw me as a gold-digging nobody, unworthy of his heir.
He stormed into our penthouse with his lawyer, slamming down abortion consent forms and a divorce NDA, offering five million to terminate and vanish. "You're not fit to carry my child," he spat, gripping my jaw.
I refused the abortion, signed the zero-payout divorce to keep my company insurance for my dying mom's ICU bills, but stayed on as an admin assistant. Brittany, his mistress, spilled coffee on my reports, got me demoted to the dusty sub-basement sorting old files.
She framed me for attacking her, security dragged me out, slamming me into doorframes that cramped my belly. Trapped in a sabotaged freight elevator, I nearly miscarried in the dark, gasping for air while Ell rescued me—only to find my prenatal pills and rage.
At the gala, I warned Brittany the Angel's Tears necklace—Georgina's flawed design—was cracking. She accused me of theft; Ell ordered me stripped and searched publicly. It snapped anyway, shattering the diamond, but he blamed me, firing and blacklisting me on the spot.
Beaten down, humiliated, body aching from their cruelty—how could my husband, who I once loved, destroy me without a shred of doubt? What made him so blind to my pain?
Dragged from our home in the rain, a black Rolls-Royce Phantom pulled up. The butler bowed: "Madame Aura, your suite awaits." As Ell watched from his Maybach, I initiated the hostile takeover—time to bankrupt them all.
7.1
It was supposed to be her sister's wedding. But in an instant, Aurelia was forced to take her place becoming the bride to a man she barely even knew.
To pay off her family's debt and protect her parents' dignity, Aurelia spoke her vows to Gian, a cold man who never wanted her there in the first place.
Without love, without the blessing of her own heart, Aurelia married Gian Alvaro, the man who was meant to be her sister's husband. The frigid reception, the disappointed looks from Gian's family, and a silent wedding night marked the beginning of a life she never wished for.
Their marriage began with obligation. But as Gian's gaze slowly softened and the walls around him began to crumble, Aurelia found herself facing an unsettling truth. Love doesn't always come easy... and the secrets behind this marriage are far from fully revealed.
8.0
After divorcing my cheating husband, I thought I had found my savior in his powerful business partner, Cole.
For three years, he pampered me like a queen, building a perfect, golden cage of devotion.
But on the day I happily discovered I was pregnant, I overheard him talking to my ex-husband's mistress.
"Elinor is just a convenient tool. If she gets pregnant, I'll fake a paternity test and annul the marriage so she leaves with nothing."
My entire marriage was a meticulously crafted lie to secure his position and protect the woman he truly cared about.
Before I could quietly escape, Cole orchestrated a brutal attack.
I was dragged into a dark alley, beaten until my ribs fractured, and my unborn child was violently ripped away from me.
As I lay bleeding out in the freezing rain, my heart shattered into dust.
I didn't understand how the man who kissed me every morning could coldly order his thugs to beat me to death just to appease his real lover.
They left me there to rot, thinking they had finally erased the naive fool who got in their way.
Three years later, the world still believes Elinor Marsh died in a tragic car accident.
But when Cole and his elite circle attend a high-profile Interpol reception, they don't expect the new Chief Liaison Officer to step onto the stage.
I am Helena Fu now, and I have returned to burn their empire to the ground.
9.0
For eight years, Riana Regalia played the perfect Luna.
Loyal wife. Elegant hostess. The silent shadow behind the powerful Alpha Wesley Winters.
When she walked down the aisle, it was for duty, not love.
Her husband gave his heart to another, his fated mate, and her half-sister.
Her own daughter grew to adore the woman who stole her place.
***
The day she signed our divorce papers, she stopped hiding.
The struggling fashion label he mocked? Now a global empire.
The lonely Luna he had ignored became his most powerful rival.
Alpha Wesley thought he was freeing himself from a gold-digger.
He never imagined she'd become the number one threat to his empire.
***
Now, he wants a second chance. His pack is in chaos. And his so-called fated mate is scrambling to salvage his reputation.
But this Luna doesn't answer his calls anymore. She's too busy counting her billions.
He underestimated the quiet wolf.
Now the world will learn who the true Queen is.
9.2
I discovered the dark secret my stepmother Beatrice had been hiding for years.
When I threatened to expose the truth to the mafia, my half-brother Angelo and step-sister Carmella locked me in an abandoned Brooklyn warehouse.
Carmella stood there in my mother's expensive silk dress, her voice sweet and venomous as she confessed how she had meticulously stolen my life and my father's love.
Angelo looked at me with cold indifference, pouring gasoline over my feet before striking a match.
"You're insane for threatening to break the code of silence," they laughed, leaving me to burn alive to protect their stolen thrones.
My own father turned a blind eye, letting his trueborn daughter turn to ash just to maintain the illusion of his perfect family.
The smell of charred flesh filled my throat. Until I died, I didn't understand. I had bled for our survival, even taking a bullet for the terrifying Moretti Matriarch.
Why did my father let the bastard children of a Chicago bootlegger steal my inheritance and murder me?
Opening my eyes again, the phantom heat of the inferno faded into a cool New York afternoon.
I was seventeen again, sitting in the backseat of a Cadillac, just returning from my three-year exile in Switzerland.
This time, I wouldn't just scream. I would marry the terrifying Prince of New York and watch my stepmother's entire bloodline burn.