Mga Maiikling Kuwento at Nobelang Homewrecker Tragic Love

My husband, Caleb Price, and I, Sienna Hart, have been married for many years. Our relationship is going strong, and our son, Tobey, is thoughtful and kind. I've always believed we would spend our whole lives together. What I don't expect is that Caleb would hurt me and Tobey three times because of the same woman. The first time, we agree to celebrate Tobey's birthday, but Caleb forgets his promise because he has to pick up his first love, Lila Monroe, from the airport. When I return home from a business trip, all I find is my heartbroken son. The second time, Caleb secretly takes our son and Lila to the amusement park. He doesn't know that Tobey is allergic to peanuts, and he ends up in the hospital. The third time, Caleb repeatedly promises to pick Tobey up from school alone, but when Caleb hears that Lila is ill, he tells Tobey to go home by himself. On the way home, Tobey is kidnapped. After he's rescued, he spends three days in the hospital in critical condition before pulling through. Each time, Caleb apologizes with utmost sincerity and swears that there won't be a next time. Maybe he's forgotten, but I once told him that I'd only forgive him three times. So, when he finishes apologizing and thinks life will return to the happy days it was before… It doesn't. Yes, I forgive him, but I'm also taking Tobey and leaving him—forever.

Kieran Blackwood hated two things: being slow and waiting. As the youngest Alpha in the Blackwood Pack, he expected everything to be done fast. I was his fated mate—and the slowest wolf in the pack. My wolf didn't awaken until I was nineteen. While others needed five seconds to shift, I needed ten. Kieran never yelled at me. He just kept telling me to hurry up, to keep up, to be more like Valerie. Valerie Blackwood was the widow of Kieran's older brother, Marcus. Five months ago, Marcus died saving Kieran at the border. With his dying breath, he made Kieran promise to take care of Valerie and their unborn pup. Soon, Valerie could do no wrong, and I could never do anything fast enough. Still, I believed Kieran loved me. During the first three months of my pregnancy, he never missed a single Healer's appointment. He even promised he'd never miss an important moment in our pup's life. Then the Blood Moon came. Valerie and I went into labor on the same night, and there was only one dose of Moonveil Elixir left—the potion that could protect a mother and her pup during a dangerous Blood Moon birth. My daughter's heartbeat was failing. I begged Kieran to save her. He gave the Moonveil to Valerie. He stayed by her side while she delivered Marcus's son. I gave birth alone. My daughter didn't breathe for ninety seconds, and I nearly died. Kieran never came to see us. That was the night I finally stopped waiting for him.

The day I go hiking at the same time as my wife's first love, Conrad Hayes, we both end up being bitten by a venomous snake. There's only one dose of antivenom in the first-aid kit. Whoever gets it has a chance of surviving. As the venom begins coursing through our veins, my wife, Nicole Sterling, the head of the emergency department, doesn't hesitate for even a second. She injects the antivenom into Conrad. She even gives him our only stretcher and satellite phone. "Conrad has a heart condition. He won't make it off the mountain without it. You work out all the time. You'll be fine. Just hold on a little longer." Heavy rain has made the mountain roads impassable, and I'm not rescued until the following afternoon. By then, the venom has spread throughout my body. My right leg is already necrotic, my kidneys are failing, and doctors have no choice but to amputate the leg above the knee. Nicole signs the consent form for my surgery without so much as a flicker of emotion. "It's only a leg. You can still live normally with a prosthetic. "You're already my husband. You don't need your legs to make a living. Conrad's a dance instructor. He can't afford to lose his." I swallow the metallic taste of blood in my throat and let out a cold laugh. So, this is what my life is worth to her—not even as much as her first love's dancing career. That night, I call a number I haven't dialed in five years. "I'm sorry, Astrid. I lost," I choke. "Come get me. Pull all of your investment out of Sterling Hospital. "And have the divorce papers ready."

Before the Visconti family's truce banquet began, only two seats remained empty at the long table. One was at the far end. The other was to the left of Lucas Visconti, the man I'd married under contract. Three months earlier, to settle a blood debt hanging over my father, I'd signed a marriage contract and become the secret wife of the youngest Mafia boss in New York. According to the seating chart approved and sealed by both families' consiglieri, Sophia Vitali, their negotiator, was supposed to sit at the far end. The list hadn't been changed, but the place cards on the table had been swapped. I had just started toward Lucas when he looked up. "Sophia, take this seat." The banquet hall fell silent. Enzo, the Vitali family's consigliere, stiffened. "Is this a gesture of goodwill, or are we to understand that Sophia is now under your personal protection?" Adrian, Lucas's consigliere, spoke under his breath. "Boss, the official seating chart hasn't been amended. We can still fix this." Roman Hayes, the underboss, also stopped the estate manager from setting out any more silverware. But Lucas overruled the objections. Sophia's brother Dominic had taken a bullet for Lucas six years ago and died of his wounds three days later. "She's here for the negotiations. I take full responsibility." Enzo demanded that the incident be entered into the truce minutes and reserved the right to suspend the talks. Lucas didn't back down. Throughout dinner, he fielded every toast meant for Sophia, using the negotiations as his excuse. When a waiter knocked over a champagne flute and broken glass sliced my wrist, he didn't even turn around. I slipped off the obsidian ring reserved for the Visconti inner circle and set it on the table. Adrian and Roman's expressions changed in unison. Lucas had forgotten the one thing that mattered: the secret wife he'd kept in the shadows was the only person who could unlock every dark secret of both families.

Garrick Langdon and Josephine Hawthorne had been together since their school days, all the way through to their wedding. They had once been the envy of everyone around them, a couple everyone considered a match made in heaven. In the fifth year of their marriage, Josephine had an affair. Garrick gently set a stack of damning photos on the desk in front of her. He did not yell or demand an explanation. He simply said, his voice remarkably calm, "Either he goes, or I take the kids and go." It was the first real storm they had faced since their wedding. In the end, Josephine chose her family. Life seemed to return to normal. Josephine came home on time every day, doted on the children, and treated Garrick with tenderness and care. But an invisible crack had formed between them, and things could never go back to the way they had been. One day, Garrick finished an interview early and decided to surprise the kids by picking them up from daycare himself. He had just reached the daycare gate when he saw his five-year-old twins, Caleb and Ruby, rush forward like two joyful little birds. With delighted laughter, they threw themselves into the arms of a tall, thin man in a gray coat. The man crouched down and welcomed both children into his embrace with a warm, affectionate smile. Garrick stopped dead in his tracks. His chest tightened inexplicably. The man was Silas Morrison, the very man Josephine had cheated on him with. Why was he there?

On my first night shift at the new hospital, I saw my newlywed husband, Nathan Lloyd. He was supposed to be on a business trip. He was kneeling at the operating room entrance while a pregnant woman in labor was lying on the emergency bed beside him, experiencing heavy bleeding. Nathan gripped my hand, his pleading cries echoing in my ears, "Doctor, I beg you to save her!"

Silas Blackwood, the Alpha of a rival pack, raided our camp on the night I was meant to seal my bond with my fated mate. He'd decided that if he couldn't have me, he'd rather destroy me. In that brutal, bloody fight, he was badly wounded, and I lost my memory. Bleeding badly, he pulled me into his arms and filled my head with lies, insisting that I was his mate. For the next five years, Silas kept me hidden in his pack and at his side as his mate, treating me like his greatest treasure. Then, at the pack's full-moon banquet, a young woman appeared. She had the same brazen confidence I once had, and she looked unnervingly like my former self. In front of the entire pack, she released a rich mahogany scent mingled with Silas's, then stroked the slight swell of her belly in open challenge. "The Alpha and I have spent more than one night together. "He even gave me the necklace that's been handed down for generations. And..." Her smile widened, brazen and triumphant. "I'm carrying his pup. Four months along. "So you lose. As punishment, Silas is mine for the next six months. He promised he'd stay with me until the pup is born." Everyone in the hall kept their heads down, barely daring to breathe. Only Silas looked up, his clouded gaze moving between us. I didn't care to hear his excuses. I picked up my champagne and took a calm sip. "Sure. He's all yours." Silas's face went rigid. He had no idea my wolf had awakened. Every memory had returned. Long before Silas, I had already met my true fated mate: Elias Ward, the Alpha King who ruled the Northern Kingdom. He was incredibly powerful, obsessive to the core, and he never let a wrong go unpunished. And I was exactly the same. Goodbye, Silas. Forever.

Five years into our marriage, everyone s aid I'd married the perfect husband. Noah was gentle, attentive, and endlessly patient, the kind of man romance novels are built around. He pampered me until I hardly had to think about the practical details of life. But the one person he couldn't stand was my best friend, Kayla. Once, Kayla came over for dinner and ordered two extra dishes. "Do you have to be so picky about dinner? Isn't Leah doing enough already?" His expression frosty, he took the apron from my hands, then served the roasted cod and creamy butternut squash Kayla loved. When Kayla got caught in a downpour on her way home from a business trip, she asked me to pick her up at the airport. "Can't she call a cab from the airport? Why does she have to make you drive all that way?" Scowling, he snatched the keys from me, pulled on his coat, and went to get her himself. There were too many moments like that. I told myself he cared too much about me to let my best friend take advantage of me. That was what I believed until the day Kayla and I were installing a wall sconce in the new apartment and I fell from the chair. Noah, who'd just gotten home, rushed straight to Kayla. His voice trembled. "How could you be so careless? Where else does it hurt? Don't move, I'll take you to the hospital." I lifted my right arm, mangled and bloody where the broken glass had cut it. But he'd already scooped Kayla up and rushed into the elevator. I stared around our newly furnished bayside apartment. The space beside the fireplace was still bare, the dining room chandelier not yet installed. There was no point finishing it now.

After another trip to the ER for a bleeding ulcer, I found a flower order in Lily Marshall's phone. The recipient wasn't me. I switched off the screen without a word. No shouting, no scene. Lily glanced at me and gave a soft laugh. "My husband really is the understanding type." She grabbed her coat off the couch and headed for the door. "Josh just got off work. I need to go pick him up." Josh Segel was a college kid barely out of school, the fifth lover Lily had taken since we married. I kept my voice level. "Go ahead. But we're getting a divorce." She barely registered it, too anxious to care. "Josh gets lost on his own. If I don't go, he'll cry." "So because he'll cry, you're walking out on your own husband?" "Don't start, Neil." She sighed, out of patience, and turned to pat my shoulder. "He's young. His feelings are delicate. You're the steady and mature one. Don't put yourself in the same league as him." "And if I stopped being so mature and tried to stop you?" Her eyes went cold. "Go ahead and try. But think it through first. Without this marriage, what are you going to pay for your treatment with?" I managed a bitter smile, took out my phone, and sent a message to her father with her watching. [I agree to the divorce.]

I cooked up a storm for our seventh wedding anniversary. However, my CEO wife took a couple of bites before leaving in haste for some work emergency. I trailed behind her, only to find her entering an upscale event space where she held a sip-and-see event for the twins she had through surrogacy. Pulling out a centurion card, she handed it to her male secretary and uttered solemnly, “You’ve done well, Dale. Everything I own will go to the children.” Dale, his eyes sparkling, pressed his lips against hers. “Ms. Markham, it’s my honor to have children with you.” With a scoff, I pushed open the door to the hall. I’d like to see how the guy managed to have children with a woman who was born with underdeveloped ovarian follicles.

I found out I was the villainess of a romance novel called Sunshine Donna when I was already pregnant. For twenty-two years, I'd chased Renato Gatti without a shred of shame. Then came three years of marriage, just the two of us, wrapped up in each other. I'd thought it was everything. Then his true love showed up. According to the story, I was supposed to fall apart. I'd torment the girl, sabotage their relationship, and in the process, destroy myself. A bullet through the forehead. That was how it ended for Gianna Milano. I looked up. Renato was across the room, phone in hand, the ghost of a smile on his lips. He'd met her. Fine. This time, I'd step aside. But when I asked for a divorce— He cried. He begged me to stay. He threw the entire East Coast at the problem, just to keep me from walking out the door.

Charles Hale wanted to prove he could succeed without inheriting the Alpha position, so he devoted almost all his time to his work on cruise ships. For ten years, I watched him work his way up from deckhand to captain. I was happy to support him and take care of him whenever he needed me. I asked him once, "When are you going to take me out on the water? I want to see the gulls and the huge waves with you." He rolled over, turning his back to me. "There are so many passengers on that ship. It's not exactly a place for a date." I didn't say anything. I filed it away and never brought it up again. Then one day, I stumbled across the private photo album he'd kept hidden for years. Thousands of photos, every one taken on deck, with waves and the sunrise in the background. And the same woman in all of them. She had her arms thrown wide, like she was trying to hold the whole ocean. Charles had written little diary entries on the backs of the photos, all the things he wanted to say to her. "I cherish every day I get to watch the sea with you. I hope it stays like this forever. The ocean, and you." The most recent photo was dated last week. In it, the sea breeze was tossing her long hair. I quietly shut the cabinet door and locked it again. Then I sat alone on the living room couch and stared at nothing until dawn. I picked up my phone and bought a ticket on an Alaska cruise. After ten years, I thought I could finally stop letting my life revolve around waiting for him to come home. No more crossing days off a calendar. No more checking the weather at sea to make sure he was safe. He didn't want to share his stars and his ocean with me. Fine. I'd go see them on my own, and the wind out there would be mine.

On the night before our engagement party, my fiancée went radio silent for five hours—just to buy her male assistant stomach medicine. When she finally came back, I gave her two choices: fire him, or call off the wedding. She disappeared for three full days. The next time I saw her, she showed up at our doorstep soaking wet. She threw her arms around me and said, "I don't want anyone but you." Then, on our wedding night, she vanished again. I'm an ER doctor. I got called in for an emergency. When I got to the hospital, I found out the patient was her assistant. He had a groin injury. My fiancée was standing by his bedside, disheveled, her clothes a mess. I didn't raise my voice. I just looked at her and said, "Cut ties with him right now. We can still make this work." Her eyes filled with conflict. She hesitated. Then she reached down and took his hand.

My mistress tries to take Scarlett Astin's place as my wife, so I kill her, burn her body to ashes, and bury her in the middle of nowhere. Five years later, I become a general manager. Scarlett gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and we settle into a happy life together. I gradually forget about the past. Then, after Scarlett is discharged from the hospital, she suddenly says, "Don't forget to invite Madeline Brown to the twins' sip and see. She's an old friend of yours, right? She took such good care of me during my hospital stay." A chill ran through me, and the hair on my arms stood on end. Madeline Brown is the name of my dead mistress.

Sheila Lindell, my fiancee, is the world's most renowned pyrotechnician. We have been together for seven years, and I have hinted countless times that I want to see a fireworks show made only for me. She always smiles and says, "I'll make you the most beautiful one for your next birthday." I arrive at the beach with high expectations on the night of my birthday, but when I get there, I see Sheila standing together with Jeremy Lund, her first love, under the fireworks. They burst over the sea, looking as brilliant as a dream that doesn't belong to me. I freeze in place when I hear someone nearby chuckle and say, "I heard Ms. Lindell puts on a fireworks show here every year for her first love. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars each time. I guess she really does love him." I stand at the edge of the crowd, watching them surrounded by the fireworks before feeling a sharp pang in my chest. Sheila presents me with a neatly wrapped box when I return home. "Happy birthday, Christian. I bought you a countertop dishwasher. You can leave the dishwashing to it from now on. Your hands won't have to stay in water all the time now." I look down at the neatly wrapped box and smile faintly. I have loved Sheila for seven years, yet I only need a single moment to let her go completely.

On the day of our wedding, Rowena Lane ditches me on the altar just so she can go to the hospital to take care of her childhood friend, Adrian Cole's son. As I meet the mocking gazes of the guests, I take the boutonniere off my chest before heading toward the hospital to demand an explanation from Rowena. But that's when I witness her holding Adrian's newborn son with blatant love in her eyes. Adrian says purposefully, "Rowena, today is your wedding day, yet you're here taking care of my baby for me. What if Justin gets mad at you for doing this?" "I can throw another wedding any day. But your baby being sick is a very critical matter. I'm seriously worried that you can't take care of him all by yourself. "From now on, I shall be the baby's mother. I swear that I won't let you two get bullied in this world." Later on, when I choose to marry someone else at another wedding, Rowena crashes into the scene like a madwoman. There, she begs me to give her another chance.

We'd been in love for eight years. Every night, my husband kissed my forehead and told me he loved me. Ever since I was a little girl, I'd been able to see how much people truly cared about me. For eight straight years, Evan Brooks's number had stayed at 100 percent. I knew better than anyone that he had really loved me. That changed the Friday we'd planned to go to a concert. I turned around to hug him and saw that the number above his head had dropped to 96. He felt me stiffen and immediately bent down. "Did I hurt you?" I shook my head, but I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye again. That afternoon, he'd just signed off on the hotel's show schedule, and he was excited to tell me about Chloe Morgan, a young dancer making a comeback after an injury. Evan had been helping her for three months. Before that day, it had never bothered me. That night, he stayed with me for the whole concert, and his phone didn't ring once. On the way out, he smiled and suggested inviting our friends to hear us read our vows again on our fifth anniversary. I said yes. I just didn't want to believe that eight years of love could start to change on such an ordinary night. After that, I waited for him to finish a phone call. I waited for him to show up for a photo he'd promised to be in. Every time, he had an explanation, and he truly believed he was only helping someone who needed help. 96. 82. 61. The weekend we went to the beach, he held my hand and said earnestly, "My feelings for you have never changed." I looked at the 61 above his head, and the tears came. "Let's cancel the vow renewal. I want to move out."

Sebastian was staring at his phone screen again, spooning oatmeal baby food from the microwave into our six-month-old son's mouth. A second later, the baby screamed, scalded, and the food and spoon clattered to the floor. Sebastian was still swiping through his phone. Without looking up, he said, "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention." Ever since Vivian, the high school homecoming queen, had re-added him, that line had become his catchphrase. I scrambled to get ice water to cool the baby's mouth, fighting back tears of panic. The baby screamed until he was nearly choking before Sebastian finally looked up at me. Then he looked back down and furiously refreshed his screen. "Don't just stand there. Do something, Joyce. You know how hard Coachella tickets are to get. I have to watch the countdown. Vivian's been prepping for this for half a year." His subtext was clear. Stop bothering him with his "real" priorities. I looked at the clear blisters burned into my baby's mouth, and a chill crept up from the soles of my feet. Sebastian thought his family would always be there, waiting in place. But this time, we weren't waiting anymore.

My best friend Bianca Russo was born to work a room, and my engagement to Matteo Rinaldi was almost entirely her doing. Before we made things official, Matteo personally picked me up for opening night at the opera. He opened the car door for me. "I hear you've been looking forward to tonight." "Bianca bought the tickets," I told him honestly. "I'm just keeping her company." Bianca pinched me from behind and nudged me into the passenger seat with a laugh. "What she means is, she's hoping you'll drive her home after the show." Even after Matteo and I got engaged, he would say openly at family dinners that I wasn't as sharp as Bianca. "Looks like once we're married, I'll have to keep a room for Bianca at the estate." Family members and their business partners chuckled, but my heart sank with every laugh. Bianca was also the one who'd suggested the venue for our first charity ball as an engaged couple. By Rinaldi family tradition, the opening dance belonged to the Don and his fiancée. I'd practiced day and night for two weeks, until the backs of my heels were rubbed raw and crusted with blood. But when the band struck up the opening number, Matteo held out his hand to Bianca. "We have important guests tonight. The opening dance has to go off without a hitch." He looked at me as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Bianca knows these people better than you do, and she knows how to handle an event like this. Watch from the sidelines for now. You can have the second dance." Bianca didn't take Matteo's hand right away. She sounded torn. "Why don't you let Elena do it? She's your fiancée." That was what she said, but her eyes never left Matteo's outstretched hand. "Do I really have to ask you twice, Ms. Russo?" Matteo raised an eyebrow. The chandelier light cast a shadow beneath his sharply defined brow. The moment they stepped onto the dance floor side by side, the conversation around the room died away. The spotlight fell on the two of them, and their slightly

After my dad's first love moved into our house and became my tutor, my mom never raised her voice at her again. She just coughed worse and worse, until one day I found the lab report she'd thrown out. Stage IV lung cancer. That afternoon, Dad came home with his arm around her, and walked right into Mom sitting on the couch. There was a flicker of guilt on his face. "Helena, if you've got something to say, just say it. Don't make a scene in front of the kid." Mom was eerily calm. She pointed at the woman and said, "She gets on her knees and apologizes to me three times. And you sign over half the company. Then we're done." Dad thought she'd lost it. But in the end he signed the share transfer. After that, Mom's pills kept multiplying and her appetite kept shrinking. But she hired the best lawyer in town, and over and over she taught me how to manage those shares once I was old enough. Dad never figured out the one thing that mattered. Mom was already on her way out.