Novels by Paul Writes

The Shallows was a world apart from the sterile glass towers and marble floors Adrielle once commanded. Here, the scent of whiskey mingled with the haze of cigar smoke and perfumed desperation. Neon lights flickered in muted blues and reds, casting sharp shadows on faces carved from ambition and secrets. The crowd was a whirl of silk and steel — powerful men and women who made the city’s fortunes and its ruin in whispered deals and smoldering glances.Adrielle stepped into the club with the calm certainty of a predator entering her hunting ground. Her heels clicked against the polished concrete, sharp and deliberate, echoing through the cavernous space. She wore black like armor: a sleek dress hugging every calculated curve, her midnight-black hair swept back in a ruthless style that matched her steel-gray eyes. Eyes that missed nothing. Eyes that now belonged to someone reborn, remade in betrayal and fire.She was no longer the broken woman who’d collapsed in the rain outside the man

ADRIELLE~I shut my eyes, trying to cage in my breath, trying to block out the sound of his voice, but his words clung like shards in my ears, cutting deeper each second. My chest shook with sobs that refused to be silenced, my body trembling as if I were standing in the dead of winter, stripped bare.The sight of them scorched itself into me – him standing there, his arm welded around her waist like it was all her from the start, like I never existed. That was the truth, wasn’t it? This was him. No mask, no sweetened lies. Just the man behind it all. The bitter reality slid down my throat like glass, and my heart bled for it.I forced my body to stand, every muscle aching, every movement slow and humiliating. Valen didn’t lift a finger to help me, didn’t even flinch. He just stared, eyes blank, as if I were some stranger interrupting his evening. My foot slipped halfway up and I grabbed the doorframe, my nails digging into the wood.Tears stung as they streamed. My voice cracked, but

ADRIELLE~The words slipped from my mouth in a soft, broken whisper, but he didn’t hear me. Or maybe he didn’t care.“Fuck! Your pussy tastes so good, Nessa!” His voice boomed through the house, shameless, guttural.The woman’s breasts bounced in time with the violent rhythm of her hips as she rode him, her head tilted back in a loud cry. She ground down harder, over and over, until her moan split the air.“Take it,” Valen groaned, voice fractured with pleasure. “Take it, Nessa!” His palm slammed against her ass again and again, the sharp sound mixing with her cries.The longer I watched, the more my insides hollowed out. My chest burned as though someone had shoved hot iron through my ribs. Tears surged up and spilled freely, blurring my vision.And then I remembered. Doctor Jay’s voice. The truth pressing its claws into me.It was truly him. My husband.“VALEN!”The scream ripped from me before I could think.Her gasp was small, fleeting. Instead of fear, her expression shifted quic

ADRIELLE~Time didn’t just pause, it fractured. Everything inside me stalled: my breath, my heartbeat, my brain. I stared at Doctor Jay like I hadn’t heard him right. Like maybe the world had glitched and would fix itself in a second.But it didn’t.His words kept echoing in my skull: “Your husband... he has married another.”No, it couldn’t be. There had to be a mistake. He was confusing me with someone else, another patient who’d lost everything and gotten stuck in this cruel joke of a life. Not me. This wasn’t my story. It couldn’t be.Valen? My Valen? He’d never cheat. Never. He wasn’t like the gold-digging men who clung to me for my father’s wealth. He was different. Tender. Earnest. He’d stayed because he loved me. Valen saw me – not my last name, not the companies, not he legacy. Me. And he showed it in ways that felt pure. Thoughtful surprises, handwritten notes, days he skipped meals just to get me something pretty. Even when he didn’t have much, he gave like he had everyth

ADRIELLE~The beeping.That was the first thing I heard. It was soft and steady, like a lullaby pretending everything was fine. Then came the smell: antiseptic, bleach, something faintly metallic. Blood?I blinked against the harsh white light, every inch of my body heavy, like wet sand packed too tight. My limbs didn’t feel like mine. Something tickled beneath my nose – a cannula. My mouth was a desert, my tongue coated in metal. I tried to swallow, but it scraped like sandpaper.“Ma’am Adrielle?”A voice, gentle. Feminine.I turned my head slowly. A nurse stood beside me, dressed in pale blue scrubs, her expression wrapped in pity.“You’re awake,” she whispered, like the truth might snap me in two.“Where...am I?” My voice came out brittle, barely audible.“You’re in the hospital, ma’am.”Hospital?My gaze drifted around the room – sterile walls, IV stand, heart monitor. My brain struggled to catch up. Hospital? Why?She saw it – the fog in my eyes, the cracks in my understanding– a