Short Romance Stories & Novels

The risks of my mom's heart transplant surgery are very high. My wife, Wendy Lowell, is known to be a miracle doctor. Everyone advises me to convince her to perform the surgery on Mom. But when I arrive at the hotel Wendy is staying at, I witness her assistant, Hayden Sterling, changing her panties for her. I glare at Wendy angrily. "Wendy, if you agree to perform the surgery on my mom right now, I'll let you off the hook this time!" But Wendy slowly wraps her arms around Hayden's neck right in front of me. "What are you looking at? Are you threatening me?" She picks up her phone on the spot. "Switch off the oxygen machine for Finn's mother right now." My eyes go bloodshot as I grip the door frame tightly. "Wendy Lowell, that's your mother-in-law! Karma will definitely bite you in the ass!" Wendy goes into an outburst as soon as she hears me. "Shut up! If it wasn't for the fact that the hag found out about me and Hayden, our affair wouldn't have gotten leaked to the public! "All I did is turn off your mom's oxygen machine, Finn! I didn't refuse the surgery! Once I've cooled off, I'll go ahead and carry out the surgery!" Then, Wendy orders her bodyguards to throw me out of the hotel. I scramble up to my feet in a wretched manner, though my hands have already balled into fists. Soon, I send a newly drafted text as an unknown number. "Dr. Lowell has suffered from bone fractures all over her body. She's currently at…"

As I lean into the arms of my sexy gym trainer, I randomly come across a forum post that displays my home's coordinates in its IP address. "Everyone, what should I do if I've accidentally ruined my boss' husband's luxurious custom-fitted suit when I was washing it earlier? I'm just an assistant, so there's no way I can afford to pay for it!" At first glance, I can tell that the post is made by Archie Carter, the personal assistant of Valerie Henderson, whom I've married via a marriage alliance. Someone leaves a scathing comment in the post. "What else can you do? Cough up the payment, of course! What's the point in making this post?" "You call yourself an assistant when in reality, you're nothing but a pretentious phony! You think you can get away with making mistakes just by crying about how poor you are?" Archie quickly replies, "I wanted to compensate for the damages, but when Ms. Henderson found out about it, she already made me 'compensate' using other methods. I used the whole night to pay the price, you know!" One can only imagine how wild the night could have been for Valerie and Archie. I just laugh before sharing the post to my admirers' group chat. "Whoever can knock off Henderson Group's stock price by five points gets to replace that useless wife of mine."

My dad's company has gone bankrupt. Because of that, the debt collectors keep turning up on our doorstep for money. They claim that they will break one of Dad's legs if he doesn't cough up the payment in three days. I sink down to my knees and beg my ultra-rich boyfriend, Julian Luther, to lend me 500 thousand dollars for the time being just to resolve Dad's crisis. This is my first time asking for money from Julian. Julian's brows are drawn together in a frown, but in the end, he still agrees to my request. He tells me that the finance department will transfer me the money in the afternoon. My attention is glued to my phone the whole day. I keep refreshing my bank account's balance on my banking app. Just like that, I wait from morning till nightfall. But that's when Julian suddenly goes out of contact. He doesn't pick up any of my calls nor respond to any of my text messages. Anxiety floods my senses the whole time. I keep telling myself that maybe Julian has something urgent to deal with. But my need to save Dad's leg triumphs over everything else. Left without a choice, I can only take the jewelry my deceased mom has left for me to the auction house to get them auctioned away. Unexpectedly, I bump into Julian and his childhood friend, Rachel Bailey, at the auction house. Julian is quick to dump a huge sum of money just to bid for a painting Rachel wants. Ironically, the final bidding price of that painting is 500 thousand dollars. It turns out that he has never forgotten about my plight. It's just that my plight is nothing compared to his crush's love for a painting.

[Free pass for letting Bianca hurt Jenna: 1 remaining.] That was the pinned memo in the phone of Dylan Nelson, my fiance. We had been together for five years. Bianca Shelly was his mentor’s daughter. He had quantified every slight Jenna suffered into a spendable allowance. Three days into our silent standoff, he took my engagement ring from the nightstand. I tried to stop him. “That ring was registered in my name for life.” He checked the note on his phone. His voice turned cold. “Bianca got rejected by the guy she was set up with. She’s been crying all day. She’s just borrowing it for a photo. Stop making this difficult.” An hour later, I received an alteration alert from the jeweler’s app. [Original recipient: Jenna Vogel. Recipient changed to: Bianca Shelly. Ownership status: Finalized and irreversible.] I finally recalled the small print at the bottom of his note. [If Jenna ends the relationship first, all free passes will automatically reset.] From the beginning, he had planned to sacrifice me over and over again. It was not that he did not understand what the ring meant. He was simply certain that I would never muster up the courage to leave him. That evening, Dylan texted to ask whether I was done being angry. I did not reply. I simply changed his contact name from “Babe” back to “Dylan Nelson”. I thought. “Dylan, that was your last free pass. This time, there will be no reset.”

My fiancee, Josephine Carter, tells me she is too busy with work to go home with me for Christmas just yesterday. But today, I find out that she has secretly booked a flight ticket to my hometown. I am delighted. Josephine has always been good at creating surprises during our relationship. I do not expect her to still be doing this now that we have practically been dating for years already. Just as I am about to tell my mom the good news, my stepbrother, Daniel Reed, suddenly announces in the family group chat that he is bringing his girlfriend home for Christmas as well. My relatives immediately start teasing him in the group chat, asking to see the beautiful lady. In the next second, photos of Josephine and him embracing like a couple appear in the chat. Daniel texts, "See? I told you she is gorgeous. Not only that, she's rich too." "Wow. You won the heart of such an amazing woman. That's impressive, Daniel." Daniel replies smugly, "Of course! She is totally in love with me." My breath catches in my throat, and the veins on the back of my hand bulge as I grip my phone. No wonder Josephine says she cannot come home with me after learning I am spending the New Year at my mother's place. She doesn't expect that we will run into each other. I close my eyes for a moment and send her one last message, "I have transferred back the 500 thousand dollars you asked me to manage for our wedding. It's over between us."

I'm a good luck charm to my wife by nature. After marrying me, Heather Seymour, who's crippled because of a car crash, miraculously stands up on her own and gets to ditch the wheelchair. On top of that, her business is booming as well. In less than half a year, she successfully establishes her own company. After Heather's company goes public, she tells me with a smile that she wants to give me a huge gift at the celebration party. I'm filled with anticipation, thinking that Heather finally wants to fulfill her promise of having a child with me. But instead, Heather is seen lacing fingers with her subordinate, Lucas Mallard, at the celebration party. Not only does she announce her relationship with Lucas, but she also tosses me a divorce agreement. Her expression remains icy as she says, "Randall Grahm, if it wasn't for the fact that I got into an accident when Lucas was studying abroad, I wouldn't have married you, to begin with! "Now that my legs have recovered, my company is listed, and I'm pregnant with Lucas' baby, it's high time for you to return the position as the CEO's husband to him! Our family of three will finally be whole again!" It turns out that Heather married me just so I can take over the responsibilities of taking care of her back then. Everyone thinks that I'll go ballistic from rage, so they can't wait to see me humiliate myself. But I just agree with the divorce with a smile before dropping my signature on the paperwork. What Heather doesn't know is that I'm only a good luck charm to her simply because of the system I'm bound to. Once the divorce is official, the things that I've given to her—that are exchanged from the system—will be taken back one by one!

My mother-in-law was somehow allergic to me. As long as I was in the house, her skin would break out in rashes, and she would struggle to breathe. The hospital could not find any specific allergen. They said it might be something to do with my scent. To give his mother some relief, my husband Keith asked me to stay in a hotel every weekend. I quietly packed away everything that was mine. I even stopped wearing my favorite perfume just so I could stay home for one extra day. However, her condition only grew worse. The days I was allowed to be home dropped from five days a week to three, and eventually to just one. I never complained. I only hoped she would get better soon. One day, I left work early to pick up a document from home. I heard laughter from inside the house. "Mom, your trick really works! Every time you cough, my brother kicks that woman out." It was Keith's god-sister Caroline, who had studied abroad. My mother-in-law laughed smugly. "Caroline, you're the best. You can cook, and you give great massages. You're nothing like that useless block of wood who's always in the way. "Keith, hurry up and marry Caroline already. Get rid of that woman!" Keith's voice was full of indulgence. "Mom, don't say things like that. Caroline, look at the perfume I bought you. You've worked hard lately." All strength left my body as I stood frozen at the door.

On the day I had acute heart failure, the hospital issued several critical condition notices in a row. While I was still conscious, my attending physician told me to call my family and say my last words. On instinct, I dialed Julia Mars, but no one picked up for a long time. It wasn't until later that I found a "private arrangement" contract posted on her alt social media account. The terms spelled out her decade-long friends-with-benefits relationship with her childhood friend, Ken Cohen. Her best friend commented under the post with congratulations: [Not bad, Counselor Mars, finally ready to go public with your little childhood buddy. If your husband finds out, you think he'll have a heart attack from the shock?] Julia replied, completely unfazed: [He won't die. And even if he finds out, so what? The doctors didn't dare tell him that his heart is useless. He needs a transplant. That requires a fortune, and he can't get by without me.] I spent a full week in the ICU clawing my way back from death's door. And in those seven short days, every last bit of love I had for her burned away to nothing.

I accidentally clicked on a viral post. [What’s one regret that you can’t get over in your life?] Everyone in the comments said things like not studying well or not purchasing a house when it was cheaper. I felt a little bored by it. I was about to scroll past when I accidentally came across a comment with the highest number of likes. The account had a profile picture that was very familiar to mine. [Five years ago, to elope with my first love, I faked my death to leave my husband. [And I used my husband’s research to help my first love kickstart his business. [Now, my first love is a billionaire, and my husband became a butcher.] Some people reprimanded her and her first love in the comment section. Others reminisced about their past. I scrolled to the end of the post and saw the latest reply. [I’m back in the city, and I’ve decided to meet him.]

It was the day of my wedding. Wendy Halton huddled up to me and whispered, "I slept with Joe." She pointed at the big screen, a smile curling her lips. "Summer dumped you so she could have Joe. I swore I'd make her drink from the well of betrayal. So, I slept with the man she loves." My eyes went wide with disbelief. It was then that I realized the screen wasn't showing our wedding photos. Instead, they were showing something far raunchier, filthier. It was Wendy, and she was going at it with Joe Noelson. Three years ago, I caught my then-fiancée, Summer Shaw, cheating with Joe, who happened to be the underprivileged student that I sponsored. That single moment snuffed out all hope I had for the world, but Wendy barged in like a beam of angelic light. Now, she had gouged open my chest with the same weapon Wendy destroyed me with. Tears fell before I could stop them. A frown creased Wendy's forehead. "Stop crying. I got revenge for you. You should be happy."

My wife, Ula Grove, was best friends with a man named Jordan Loof. On the day we all gathered to celebrate Eira, Jordan’s daughter’s birthday, our own little girl, Faye, made the silly mistake of taking a bite of the cake ahead of time. Ula flew into a rage and locked Faye in the basement. “Why do you have to compete with Eira over everything? You even made her cry on her own birthday! It was just a piece of cake, yet you acted as if you had never seen a cake in your life!” Ula then taped Faye’s mouth shut with adhesive tape. “Stay right here and think about what you’ve done. You’re not coming out until three days have passed.” The basement was pitch dark with no light at all, and there were poisonous spiders, too. Faye would not last half a day in there. I cried and begged Ula to let Faye go, but Ula remained unmoved. “What other tricks are you trying to pull? How many times do I have to tell you that Jordan has it hard enough raising a kid on his own? I asked you to be considerate, but you couldn’t! You and that little monster insist on doubling down on bullying a single-parent family!” I clutched her sleeve and begged her to just let Faye out. I even swore that I would take Faye and vanish from her life. Ula pulled away before kicking me to the floor. Then, she said coldly, “Since you can’t stand to be away from her, then go rot in there with her! I’m sending Jordan and Eira abroad in three days, so you two can stay locked up until there’s no way you can bully them anymore.” After Ula sent Jordan and Eira abroad to enjoy themselves, she finally remembered Faye and me. She picked out gifts and was about to come pick us up when she received a call from her assistant, Alex Quill. “Mr. Elwood and Faye are gone!”

My girlfriend, Sienna Caldwell, suddenly uploads a social media post, claiming that her family has gone bankrupt. That's why she intends to take her own life at the place where she and I first met. Without hesitation, I ditch everything on my schedule and rush off to look for Sienna. But that's when the mountain gets sealed off by a blizzard, resulting in me almost freezing to death there. After getting rescued, I see Sienna's first love, Declan Reeves, flaunting the fact that he has secured the internship position that's originally mine in a top-tier hospital. As for Sienna, whom I've been looking for everywhere, she's in the middle of celebrating Declan's success in a bar that she has spent a huge amount of money reserving for the night. I call my mentor, only to find out that I've missed the deadline for submitting my internship application. Now, no other hospital in this city will accept me as an intern. After that, I head over to the bar to look for Sienna and Declan. Everyone is worried that I might throttle them for what they've done to me. But this time, even when I've witnessed Sienna gifting our new apartment to Declan, I don't bother doing anything at all. Instead, I just pick up a wine glass with a smile. "He can move into the apartment tomorrow. I'll leave."

After my wife, Shannon Stewart, suggests that we each support our own parents, I set up a million-dollar retirement fund for my dad. However, when I review this month's household expenses, I notice that every single payment is made for the father of Sean Gardner, her childhood friend. "Sean's family is struggling. Why wouldn't I help them out? It's not like it's a lot of money." Shannon brushes it off. There are 13 separate expenses of around 100 dollars each in a single month. Yet when my dad needs 300 for medical bills, she prints out the receipt and tells me to reimburse the household account. Tired of arguing, I toss the statement aside and head inside. Then my dad's condition suddenly worsens, and he's hospitalized again. I rush to the bank to withdraw money from the retirement fund. "Your father isn't the beneficiary of this fund," the bank employee states coldly. "Are you sure you have the right account?" My mind goes blank. How is that possible? Every cent in that account is my hard-earned cash. The employee impatiently turns the computer monitor toward me. The account name on the screen clearly reads, "James Gardner's Retirement Fund." James is Sean's dad.

It started with a sudden downpour. I turned around to buy an umbrella. By the time I got back, Winston Sterling had already draped his overcoat across Sera Thorne’s shoulders. He pulled me under the umbrella, his tone gentle, as if soothing a spoiled child. "Sera can't handle the cold. Just let her have it this once, Nat. Be a good girl. Don't make a fuss." I looked down at my own shoulder, which was already completely soaked through. I didn't say a word. We had been building our startup for five years. Everyone always said Winston and Sera were the dual heart and soul of Sterling Tech. One wrote the code, while the other pitched the product. Meanwhile, I was the one managing the budgets, chasing down clients, advancing money for our office rent, and pulling all-nighters to grind out business proposals. Yet, all I ever got from him was a single, offhand sentence. "Nat, you're always the reasonable one." But I finally understood. It was always the reasonable one who got pushed out into the rain, time and time again. When the car door opened, Winston practiced an all-too-familiar routine, adjusting the passenger seat cushion for Sera. That was a lumbar support cushion I had bought for myself after injuring my waist. I threw the newly purchased umbrella straight into the trash can. Then, I pulled up my phone and clicked send on the equity exit agreement I had prepared long ago. Three minutes later, his reply came back as a brief, three-word text. "Don't be silly." What he didn't know was that at that exact same moment, I had also opened another email.

The impoverished student I had sponsored, Jacob Murphy, had accumulated a massive gambling debt. When the debt collectors had kicked the door open, my childhood sweetheart, Renee Austin, had shoved me forward instead. Her voice was cold and distant. “He’s Jacob Murphy. Take him away.” In the darkness of an underground casino, they tore out my fingernails, then smashed my ribs one by one with an iron rod. When the searing pain arrived, I groveled on the floor like a dog. I was weeping and screaming, without a shred of dignity. Then, they “mercifully” gave me one chance to call for help. Clinging to the last sliver of hope, I called Renee. Her voice on the other end sounded very cruel. “If you hadn’t set him up, how would Jacob have ended up buried in gambling debt? Even if you die at their hands, you deserve it.” The dial tone after she hung up became the last sound in my world. Later, I really did die, just as she had said. However, there was not the slightest trace of a smile on Renee’s face. It was as if she had gone mad. Her eyes were bloodshot as she searched every underground gambling den in the city. ‘Renee, why were you crying for me?’ I wondered.

“Lenny, I’m not telling you to hand over your engagement to Ava for nothing. I will make it up to you…” The familiar voice echoed in her ears, and the pain made Lena snap her eyes open. In a daze, she realized with a jolt that she had been sent back in time to exactly one month before her wedding to Henry. Her father, Chase Johnson’s earnest, pleading expression was identical to the one in her memories when he had forced her to give up her engagement. “Fine,” Lena said, her voice slightly hoarse as she abruptly cut him off. Chase could not hide the joy on his face. “Lenny, you’ve finally come to your senses!” A cold, detached look flickered in Lena’s eyes, and her lips curled into a faint, mocking smile. “I want one billion dollars–” “One billion? Have you lost your mind?” Before she could even finish her sentence, her father's face turned a deep, angry purple, the veins on his temples bulging out. Lena casually tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, taking her time to finish the rest of her sentence. “Plus, a legally binding document cutting all ties with you. We will no longer be father and daughter.”

Jeremy Goodman had a bet with his friends that he would win the aloof and beautiful Bailey Scott’s heart in a month’s time. She was the volunteer who was going to donate her kidney to me. Jeremy had spent a fortune on this. I watched as he slowly fell for her. He even ignored the board of directors’ objection and bought the club she worked at. However, he earnestly said, “Whatever that’s happening between Bailey and I isn’t real. Don’t worry, once I win this bet, I’ll propose to you.” I had heard that same promise many times. While he played hero saving the damsel in distress, Bailey overheard the terms of his bet as she stood outside of the private room. She threw a tantrum. Jeremy thought I had purposely let Bailey hear about the bet. In order to appease Bailey, he let her take my spot for the overseas exchange program, which I had spent a lot of effort applying for. “I have the ability to make her save your life, and I have the ability to call off the surgery too. “If there’s a next time, you know just what I’m capable of.” After hearing his chilling threat, I finally let go of this painful seven-year relationship. He broke my heart way too many times, so I hopped onto a flight and left the country.

To help my wife, Mia Lowell, through labor, I blew a fortune on the latest paternity-linked pain transfer device. Right before she went into the delivery room, Mia grabbed my hand. Tears streamed down her face. "Honey, if it gets too painful, turn it off. I can't stand watching you suffer." A nurse gave me one last reminder. "Sir, the device automatically transfers the pain to the baby's biological father through DNA matching. Please be prepared." The device switched on. I felt nothing. Not a twinge. Just as I started wondering if I'd gotten scammed, a scream ripped through the hallway. Ryan Duffy. My best friend dropped to the floor, clutching his stomach. "Aaaagh!" A second later, my boss Andy Drake, who'd stopped by with a fruit basket, staggered out of the elevator with both hands between his legs. Then came Luke Foley, a yoga coach seeing a doctor across the hall. He was flat-out rolling on the floor, howling. Inside the delivery room, Mia's weak voice drifted out. "Honey, thank you for taking all this pain for me!" I looked at the three guys writhing in agony. Then I quietly turned the device all the way up. Max load. Holding my breath, I shouted toward the delivery room. "I-I'm fine. I can still... take it."

I spent three years on a medical aid mission in Afrikad. During that time, my husband and I could only video call twice a year. In our third year, I missed him so much that I secretly flew home, hoping to surprise him. The moment I opened the front door, I froze. A wedding portrait I had never seen before hung in the living room. In the photo were my husband and another woman. Then, I heard a burst of chatter. As I looked closer, I realized the plants in the house had started talking again. The pothos stretched its vines toward the living room. “She’s back! She’s back! That woman is wearing the doctor’s pajamas again!” The spider plant snickered, “She claimed they were a gift from her best friend last week. That old hag comes up with a new story every few days.” The cactus grumbled, “Quit arguing. She’s bringing that other man over for dinner today. How do you think she’ll explain this to her husband this time?” The pothos replied, “She’ll probably call him her cousin. That’s what she said last time.” Just then, a woman walked out carrying a child. She was startled for a moment when she saw me. “Who are you?” I gave her a faint smile. “I'm Justin's mother.”

On our third wedding anniversary, my wife's first love came back to town. Right in front of everyone, he pulled out a piece of lingerie and handed it to her. "I always thought you looked your best in this," he said. As the crowd laughed, my wife didn't get upset—instead, she looked almost coy. "Well, that depends on who I'm wearing it for," she replied. Then she turned to me, her eyes dripping with contempt. "Why would I bother trying to impress a man with no romance in his bones?" Her first love shot me a smug look. I just smiled, raised my glass to him, and walked off. But suddenly, my wife didn't look so sure of herself anymore.