When Love is not enough
Broken and shattered, Andre Torello contemplated suicide. Love failed him, it pierced his heart and left him bleeding. There's nothing left to hold on to, nothing is left when love has failed him. His fiancee left him, she kept him waiting while she walked the aisle with a richer man. He thought love was stronger than wealth and riches, he'd always believed that nothing can break love but it's all a fallacy.
But what if love is waiting at the door? What if all he needed to do was glance in a different direction, but it was too late, Andre concluded. There's no love anywhere again. He'd been shattered by love; he is not ready to give in to its deception anymore. Love is cruel. But more than a lost love, something else was waiting, a throne and a lover and Andre Torello had only one option, accept it or get ruined forever.
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Chapter 1
Andre returned from the night shift, his teeth shattering. It's the height of the cold season, the snow was dropping and he felt like he was going to freeze. His heavily insulated snow pants kept him warm but not enough to spare him from the cold.
His hood shielded his face by protecting his head and neck. He needed to do this third job to meet up with the demands of his fiancée. Christmas was in a couple of days and finally, he'd done with the job for the month.
He adjusts the water heater before turning the shower on. He heard his phone ringing in the bedroom but was not in a hurry to answer it. He took his time before stepping out of the bathroom.
His mom had prepared a hot coffee for him, he saw it placed by his bedside, the aroma of black coffee filled the entire room, the steam of it writhing away. He chose another outfit with a zipper pocket and head warmer as he took a sip from his coffee and stepped out of the room.
He had hardly sat down to have breakfast when his friend dashed in, his eyes red and desperation written all over it. He glanced at Andre and his eyes went moist. Alice glanced at Felix and then at her son Andre and doesn't understand why they both stared at each other without a word.
"Where's your phone,Andre?" Felix asked, hastiness in his tone. If he could have just answered his phone a while ago, perhaps he could have been able to stop them.
"My phone..." he repeated and realised it's still in the bedroom. "In my room" he said, standing up to come closer.
"I called you earlier Andre..." Felix trailed off and helplessly threw his hands to his side in a dejected manner. Oh gosh, how could he not have known or heard about it.
"Yeah..my phone rang but I was bathing" Andre replied and Felix pulled him saying "Come along, it's urgent..." he said and dragged him out, he sat on his bike and ordered Andre to sit down quickly.
Andre sighed softly. On this cold morning, Felix was going to get him frozen by riding at such a speed.
Obediently, Andre sat down and Felix swerved the bike and started going at a high speed. He got to the garden plaza and saw different varieties of cars all lined up like a convoy and dignitaries all stormed out, shaking hands with a couple.
Felix parked and said "I brought you to see for yourself. They're married now. You can't stop them, they're a couple now but I want you to see them" he said, gesturing for Andre to look in the direction the couple were.
Andre was lost, what is Felix saying, Married, couple. What is his business with that? Weddings were common around the December period, just before Xmas. Bringing him to see a married couple was not worth it on a cold morning like this.
Anyways he glanced at the couple and he sighted Regina Logan and her husband James. They were dressed exquisitely and he wondered if the couple were...
He hadn't concluded his thoughts when he saw her, the bride turned her head and their eyes locked. Andre stood rooted. His eyes wide opened in shock and his body shivered uncontrollably.
"What is going on, Felix" he thought but didn't realise that the words slipped out of his lips and his friend glanced at him, his eyes clouded with tears "a wedding just took place Andre"
Andre's complexion had turned pale. He couldn't believe his eyes, Jasmine is the bride, his own fiancée of three years? He was breathing hard now, laboured breathing as his chest rises and falls rapidly, visibly seen through his clothing.
The couple sighted him and they both walked towards him. Jasmine intertwined her hands around her husband's elbow and walked queenly like a bride truly. Her long expensive wedding dress was flowing behind her, being held by the chief bridesmaid.
Felix gently stretched his hand and took Andre's hand. He saw how he was breathing and he held his hand perhaps he could share in his heartbreak.
Jasmine's gaze was cold and indifferent as if he was a stranger. For a moment, her gaze faltered but as quickly as it did, it resolved back to being indifferent. Some of the guests saw him. They laughed and sneered in mockery.
"Yeah, the ambitious fiance who doesn't go for a slum like himself" someone mocked, sizing him from head to toes. No one can compete with Patrick West for anything that catches his fancy.
Andre was breathing with difficulty, he couldn't talk back. He was feeling drained already. "Jasmine, what's going on here? Why are you in a wedding dress?" Andre asked. He doesn't understand just yet what is going on.
Jasmine chuckled and asked "I don't expect you to understand what it means to see a woman in a wedding dress, you've always been blind to reality all your life" she sneered but there's something fleeting in her eyes, a hesitation but she can't help it.
Jasmine's parents came and said "listen Andre, we want a happy life for our daughter. We had to support her in her choice of a husband. Kindly go away, don't create a scene here" James Logan pleaded.
"Today is Jasmine's happiest day, don't ruin it for her. If you truly love her like you claimed, just go away. We will compensate you for all you've spent. Don't just do something silly" Regina Logan added, staring hard at Andre.
Andre gently turned his face to glance at Regina Logan. Did she say if he loves her like he claimed? Has his confession and feelings been a claim all along? He'd never claimed anything, just a pure expression of what he felt for his woman.
"Does he think any woman will leave a successful man like Patrick and choose him instead? How could he be living in a fool's paradise?" Another person from the sidelines mocked.
"Why are you trying to coax him? I can handle losers like him. Just stay away from us if you want to live a happy life henceforth. Otherwise, if you try to do anything silly, we'll put you behind bars and forget about you" Patrick threatened.
Jasmine glared at him in pure disgust. A weight of humiliation crushed Andre but he stood still with his gaze on Jasmine alone.
"Jasmine, I love you. You can't just forget about me, about us together. You know I can't live without you. You know that you are the only one that compliments my life and gives me hope and happiness. What are you doing? Please stop this nonsense, Jasmine" Andre pleaded.
He didn't seem to hear what other people were saying. He only wants to hear her words. She's the only one who has captured his life in love and he wants to remain that way with her for the rest of his life. No one else matters to him, just Jasmine.
"I loved you, but in the past. I love Patrick and we're married. I advise you to find someone without an identity like yourself and fall in love with her. What we shared and our feelings, dreams are long thrown into the thrash bin. You should have known that three months ago.
I can't settle with someone like you who was picked up from the orphanage. Mrs Alice was kind enough to give you a roof over your head and your stupid mind thinks you can make me yours? I can't settle for poverty and ruin my future with a hustling bastard like you.
And yes, I'm not missing words, you're a bastard otherwise, how can you be so grown up and not know your identity or where you came from. We're not meant for each other, We're not compatible and we cannot paddle life together.
Patrick is rich and can take care of me and my parents. Our future is settled and secure and I don't have to worry about anything. Just leave from here already. And yes, one more good news for you, Patrick and I are expecting a baby, I'm two months gone, you're so good-for-nothing" Jasmine sneered.
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9.1
After my second chance at life, I took the initiative to sever all possible ties with Rhett.
When he chose to live in the east of the city, I bought a house in the west, putting a whole town between us.
On the rare occasion he brought the child to my house for a meal, I would lock myself in my room and pretend to be sick, refusing to see him.
When I heard he had volunteered to transfer to our area to work at the factory, I immediately submitted my resignation letter that very night.
Seizing the opportunities of the economic boom, I headed south.
In my previous life, I had loved him for forty years, and for forty years, he had belittled me.
He constantly compared me to his unattainable ideal, blaming me for ruining his dream of becoming a factory director.
Even as I lay dying, he shamelessly planned his wedding with his perfect fantasy.
My stepson, whom I had raised with care, was busy helping with the wedding preparations, abandoning me to face death alone.
Having lived through such a failed life once, I swore I would never endure it again.
8.4
I had been locked in a freezing cellar for three days, starving and waiting for my husband, Marco, to save me.
Instead, the iron door opened to reveal his mistress holding a toddler with Marco's exact face.
Marco wasn't sterile like he had claimed for years. He just wanted my De Luca family trust funds.
With my husband watching coldly, his mistress and a corrupt doctor pinned me to the concrete floor.
"We're going to carve you up until you're unrecognizable, then throw you in the lake," she laughed.
The most chilling part wasn't the affair. It was the realization that my mother-in-law, the mafia matriarch I had served faithfully for three years, had personally signed my death warrant to save their crumbling empire.
The scalpel sliced deep into my cheek, permanently destroying my face as warm blood poured down my neck.
I had given them everything. I used my family's money to pay off his secret gambling debts and endured endless insults about being a barren wife, only to realize the entire family viewed me as nothing but a pig to be slaughtered for cash.
In the suffocating darkness, I didn't pray for mercy. I swore a blood oath.
I didn't die in that cellar. Saved by a legendary rival boss, I stood outside the Falcone estate three weeks later.
I pushed open the heavy oak doors to my own memorial service, the jagged red scar on my face silencing the hall.
"I'm afraid your plans to inherit my estate will have to be postponed," I smiled at my terrified husband.
8.3
My husband watched as my skin melted, scalded by boiling soup, yet his hands were busy comforting my attacker. Five years of marriage, built on a foundation of my family's power, crumbled with a single, brutal act of betrayal. He bought me off with a penthouse and a trust fund, but I tore out my IV and threw his charity back in his face.
It was our fifth anniversary, but my husband, Ethan, remained distant, avoiding any talk of Chicago or the mafia protection my family once offered him. He then pushed a black velvet box across the table.
Inside was a Separation and Property Division Agreement, not a diamond. He told me to sign for Ilene's security, offering millions. When I refused, Ilene hurled boiling soup. Ethan shielded her, not me, as the scalding liquid melted my dress.
With second-degree burns, he blamed me, ordering me from our home for Ilene’s comfort. My family saved him, yet he sacrificed my body and marriage for another woman.
The love I felt turned to ash. What kind of debt demanded my flesh and marriage?
I ripped the IV from my arm, hurling his "charity" keys back. My diamond ring placed on the agreement, I walked away. From today on, Ethan, you and I are dead to each other.
9.7
For three years, I believed I had the perfect, flawlessly submissive wife.
But right as I was about to sign a fifty-million-dollar divorce settlement to make her go away quietly, I suddenly heard a sharp, ecstatic voice echoing inside my skull.
"Freedom! Long live freedom! I finally shook off this absolute bastard!"
I snapped my head up, only to see Iris sitting across the table, her delicate shoulders trembling as she sobbed into her hands, looking like a shattered woman losing her entire world.
It wasn't a hallucination; I could actually hear her inner thoughts. The realization hit me like a physical blow. My fragile, heartbroken wife was a calculating hypocrite who mentally cursed me out while physically begging me to stay. When I later dragged her out of a nightclub where she was partying half-naked, I heard her true thoughts about our intimacy—she considered our nights together a mere "complimentary clause" in our business contract. Even the loving, home-cooked French dinners I cherished were exposed through her mind to be microwaved Michelin-star takeout.
For three years, I had prided myself on being a dominant, attentive husband, yet I was played for an absolute fool. How could she fake every single tear, every single touch, with such terrifying perfection while viewing me as nothing more than an ATM?
Looking at her cowering on my penthouse floor, clutching an anniversary Birkin bag she secretly planned to sell for a Porsche, a dark rush of power blinded me.
I wasn't just going to let her walk away with my millions anymore; I was going to use my new ability to rip off her mask and utterly destroy her.
9.0
As the building crumbled around us, my husband, a paramedic, held the only oxygen mask.
He gave it to his high school sweetheart, not to me, his wife who was struggling to breathe.
Pinned under a beam, I gasped that I was pregnant. He told me to stop being dramatic and left me to die, taking our son with him. My own son agreed, telling his father I always "bounce back."
I lost our baby, alone in a hospital room, while they fussed over her "anxiety attack" across the hall. They had chosen her, leaving me and our child in the rubble without a second thought.
When he finally confronted me, it wasn't to apologize, but to demand I stop my "games." So I gave him exactly what he and our son had wished for.
"I'm divorcing you," I said calmly. "And you can have Jax. I no longer want to be his mother."
8.9
NOT LIKE THIS!!!
Talia Grey never expected to meet the man she abandoned like this! A wife trapped in a marriage where the furniture are of more value than her being.
She used to be the rich kid, he was the pauper! Now he stands before her as heir to a powerful empire - cold, untouchable and dangerously handsome.
Meanwhile Ethan Reed has spent five years drowning himself in work enough to forget about her, not until one meeting shatters it all.
Five years ago, Talia Grey walked away from the only man she ever loved; bound by duty and fear. Now, his grandfather's 80th birthday and retirement celebration has brought him back to her city.
"You're.....rich?" Talia's voice dropped, her hands trembling beneath the table as she recounted the contours of his face, but Ethan scoffed with a clenched fist.
His now cold gaze pierced the eyes of the once naive young lady he'd give his all for....... "why? Are you going to divorce your husband and jump back to me? You're still so crazy over wealth....you disgust me Lia"
She felt an arrow to her chest...
He hates her for breaking him like that.... But what about her?!
Talia has never known love and acceptance till she met him, yet he lied to her!
She can't believe she gave her life to protect a lie.
Their once structured and fated lives become disrupted again. She's married, he's getting engaged....but both hearts have refused to stop aching and yearning for each other.
The question remains.... Is the universe teasing them or are they about to complete the pages of their unfinished love story????