Melodramatic Romance Short Stories & Bias Cheating Novels

After Lyra Beaumont, a financially disadvantaged student I sponsored, was sexually harassed at work, she came close to taking her own life. I paid to open a pottery shop for her so she could run her own business. When Forrest Croft found out, he spoke with open disdain. "There's no smoke without fire. Why do you insist on bringing someone like her into our lives? Don't blame anyone else if you end up getting hurt." I stared at him in disbelief. "Forrest, how can you say something so cruel?" After that argument, I left the country in a huff and spent two months abroad. There were 58 ceramic mugs in the display cabinet in our living room. During a video call, Forrest proudly announced what he had been up to. "Honey, I've been stopping by her shop every day to support her business. You must be happy now, right?" Seeing the tenderness in his eyes, I suddenly felt a little guilty for being so stubborn. I changed my ticket to the earliest available flight and rushed home, hoping to surprise him. But the moment I opened the front door, I heard wet, squelching sounds coming from our bedroom. "Forrest, you take a mug every time we're done. My hands are getting sore." "That's barely anything. I'm going to fill that cabinet." I stared at the 58 mugs in the cabinet, and suddenly the whole thing seemed absurd. Two months. Sixty days. Fifty-eight times. He had not just been supporting her business. He had been sleeping with her in my bed too.

On my final assignment of the year, I'm sent to cover dating rumors about the woman I've been secretly married to for five years. A headline claiming that Anna Green, Asteridge's famously aloof heiress, may have found true love quickly went viral. "The woman no one could win over finally made it official. I always thought she'd never marry." "Who could possibly have won her over?" Everyone gushes over her supposed new romance, unaware that she and I have been married for five years. Then Anna calls a press conference to clear up the rumors herself. Beneath the bright lights, she commands as much admiration as ever. When they call on me, I force myself to lift the microphone. My voice shakes. "Ms. Green, is there any truth to the recent rumors?" Anna looks at me for several seconds, then turns away. She locks fingers with Tyler Cooper and kisses him with every camera in the room trained on them. "Of course there is." The world around me goes silent.

My family was the wealthiest in River City, with assets worth trillions. On my eighteenth birthday, my brother, Calvin Chester, gifted me an entire jewelry production line while my parents built a private museum and named it after me. The greatest hardship I’d ever faced? Learning how to spend my inheritance. Then I met Dario Darwin. For him, I cut ties with my family and helped him build his empire from scratch. But when I was three months pregnant, he demanded I drink on behalf of his assistant, Fran Fallon, a woman “slumming it” as an intern while secretly being the heiress to another fortune. “Stop pretending,” he sneered. “You’re not like Fran, raised in pampered luxury. You’re older, so act like it and take care of your juniors!” Then, to the clients leering around the table, “My wife’s just being dramatic. She can hold her liquor. Don’t hold back—pour her another!” Amid their jeers, he left with Fran, abandoning me to a room of drunken men. Years of sacrifice, only to be humiliated. I scheduled an abortion and called him. “We’re done.” Through the phone, Fran’s simpering voice chimed in, “It’s my fault that Clea is upset… I should quit and go home to my family’s billions.” “Ignore her. She’s faking it,” Dario cooed back. On the day Dario signed the divorce papers, my parents and Calvin came to take me home. Our marriage came to an end, but his tragedy was about to begin.

The intern my husband brings home feeds our son hard liquor. My husband merely says I'm making a mountain out of a molehill when he finds out. Ultimately, our son dies. After his death, I leave the country to be with my parents. That's when my husband regrets everything.

I've been married to Joel Hoover for three years. But whenever we go out with my best friend, Cynthia Marsh, people assume they're the couple. At the mall, sales associates hand them the gifts meant for couples. At restaurants, servers ask if they want to take part in the couples' promotion. When we travel, strangers compliment them on what a great couple they make, then hand me a phone to take their picture. At first, it makes me uncomfortable, but Joel never corrects anyone. Cynthia always laughs it off. "Maybe we just happen to look like a couple. Don't read into it." She says it so casually that every time, I tell myself not to make a big deal out of it. Then Joel tells me he's finally taking me to meet his family at a holiday dinner. I spend three whole months getting ready. But the moment we walk in, his mother grabs Cynthia's hand, beaming. "Just look at these two. Don't they make a perfect couple?" The relatives immediately start teasing them too. "You two must kiss a lot. You're even starting to look alike!" The whole room erupts in laughter. I stand there, watching Joel. He doesn't correct anyone. He just reaches over and tucks a loose strand of Cynthia's hair behind her ear. That's when it finally hits me. Joel isn't staying quiet because he can't be bothered to explain. He just doesn't want me to be his wife.

A week before the wedding, my fiancée, Gracie Howell, suddenly starts gagging at the sight of food. I figure it's just pre-wedding stress. I bring it up to my younger brother, Luca Norton. He glares at the warm soup on the table and sneers. "Some women claim they're child-free, but they secretly want kids all along! She probably got knocked up behind your back and is gonna pin it on you!" I hand him the bowl with no green onions. "Nonsense. Gracie isn't like that." "The hell she isn't! The other guy could be standing right in front of you, and you'd still be smiling, serving him soup!" He acts all righteous and protective, like a loyal guard dog. I just shake my head and smile. Luca is wild and rebellious, while Gracie is quiet and traditional. They've always rubbed each other the wrong way, clashing every single time they meet. I'm used to it by now. Three days later, I take time off work to decorate our new home, only to find the front door ajar. The familiar bickering drifts out, laced with heavy, breathless panting. "You're about to be a dad, and you're still out doing reckless drag races? Keep it up, and I'll buy a chain to lock you to the bed." Gracie makes an empty threat. Luca scoffs, thrusting his hips with a cocky grin. "Worry about yourself, Gracie. After all, you're carrying my baby, while your dear fiancé thinks you're just stressed out and is dying of concern for you." The white roses slip from my hand and fall to the floor. I stand at the threshold, frozen. Who knew that all their bitter bickering was just a cover for passion? In that moment, the woman who promised to love me until we were a hundred is dead to me.

On their wedding day, right as Elena Emerton and Kyle Fenton were about to exchange rings, a woman rushed Kyle with a knife. Elena moved on instinct, throwing herself in front of Kyle. The blade sank into her chest, and she crumpled into Kyle's arms. As the woman was dragged away, she screamed, "Kyle Fenton, we're not done! How dare you get married?" That was when Elena recognized her. Allison Smyth. Kyle's sworn enemy for the past six years. Before anyone could react, Allison broke free and held the knife to her throat. "Kyle, I'm tired. Let's end this." Kyle's eyes went wide. He dropped Elena and rushed to Allison, catching the blade with his bare hand. Elena hit the floor hard. Blood spread across her white wedding dress. Kyle held Allison tight, terrified she'd hurt herself. When Allison passed out, he scooped her up and rushed right past Elena. Not once did he look back.

I plan on ordering some food using my husband's phone, yet I've noticed a remark that's been saved on the delivery app. "The food is for a pregnant lady. Please make sure to be hygienic and use less oil and salt when making the dishes." I can feel my heart sink. I turn my gaze toward the bathroom, where my husband is. I can't figure out why my husband, who's been firm about not wanting a child, has been ordering meals for pregnant women. After a moment of hesitation, I scroll through the delivery app's order history with shaky hands. Numerous orders have been placed with the same restaurant, one that specializes in making exquisite dishes designed for pregnant women. Each of these food orders costs more than ten thousand dollars. My husband's company address has been chosen as the delivery address, and he's also the recipient. … After exiting the delivery app, I sit on the couch and stare into space. As I look at my husband's well-defined muscles, I recall how he, who's about to hit 40, is suddenly quite invested in getting in shape over the past year. I blurt out asking, "Have you been ordering food to your office often lately?" My husband freezes for a split second. Then, he fixes me with a gentle gaze. "I do that once in a while. Why are you suddenly asking about that? By the way, I haven't had the sweet and sour meatballs you make in a long while. Can you make some for me so that I can bring them to the office for my lunch tomorrow?" I smile at him and agree to his request. Still, I toss and turn in bed as the remark about the pregnant lady in his phone keeps gnawing at me that night.

On our wedding anniversary, my CEO husband, Michael Grant, invited me to watch the ocean with him. Tragically, a typhoon hit. I stood there in the raging wind and rain for over two hours, and he never showed up. In the end, all I got was a text that he was suddenly going on a business trip and couldn’t make it. Right after that, his intern, Nora Blake, posted a video on her social feed. It showed my usually pampered husband barefoot while helping fishermen haul crates of seafood. Her caption read: "Our hardworking CEO loves to get his hands dirty!" I laughed and commented: "Diligent and enduring—a true role model for us all." The company Slack channel instantly exploded. Everyone was betting on whether I’d finally blow up this time. Michael called me, his voice tight with fury, "Lauren West! What the heck did you mean by posting that comment? Are you trying to humiliate Nora in public? "It was a typhoon. I helped her family move some fish. What’s the big deal? You’re such a pampered little princess who has no idea how hard life really is. Delete that comment now. I’ll take you to the coast another day." Disgust churned in me. I replied, "Let a man who’s already rolled in the mud take me to the ocean? Forget it." Yes. Michael was now tainted, and I didn’t want him anymore.

On my wife's birthday, she brought home the poor male student she had been sponsoring and invited him to celebrate with us. Then he turned around and threw the million-dollar necklace I had bought for her straight into the trash. “What even is this? A necklace this outdated should’ve been retired ages ago. Who picked it, some old-fashioned fossil?” For a moment, every friend and relative in the room stared in stunned silence. My wife, however, looked completely unfazed. Instead, she praised him for having a fresh eye and slipped on the cheap ring he had bought from a street stall. I watched it all without yelling, without making a scene. Then I picked up our marriage certificate and tossed it into the trash as well. “Good point. I guess an outdated husband like me should be retired too. Congratulations on your new marriage.”

During a company team-building event, we held a trust fall activity. I stood on the platform with my back to Matthew Walter, my girlfriend's male assistant. My girlfriend, the CEO, held a megaphone and announced, "If you fail to catch someone, that means you don't trust your team." The first time, Matthew failed to catch me, and I slammed into the ground. My girlfriend, Jessica Homer, made excuses for him. "Calum, you're too heavy. Matthew isn't strong enough, so it's understandable." The second time, Matthew failed to catch me again. Jessica snapped impatiently, "Your expression was too serious. You scared Matthew." On the third attempt, I asked to catch him instead. Although I caught him without a problem, she announced to everyone, "Calum caught Matthew, but he let his emotions get in the way. He doesn't pass." Then, she stared at me and said, "Starting tomorrow, you'll be transferred to the logistics department to handle office supply purchasing. Matthew will take over your position as manager." I frowned. "Have you lost your mind?"

In the fifth year of our bland marriage, I receive a message that my husband has booked a hotel room with a woman. Within the next second, seductive pictures of me show up in the work group chat. In the pictures, I seduced my husband but failed. My colleagues in the group chat mock me by saying, "She gave Mr. Reed an ultimatum and forced him to marry her. He was forced to break up with the woman he loves." "Mr. Reed put up with her for five years. It only makes sense that he could no longer resist and decide to reunite with his lover." My sick father dies out of shock, yet my husband does not show up to his funeral. That night, I inform Belinda that I wish to divorce her son. "Back then, you told me that I'm Caleb's blessing in life. You said that he'd have endless success if we were to marry. "As long as I married Caleb for five years, you promised to pay for my father's medical fees. Now that the time is up, you should let me go too."

"Jump. You love me to death, don't you? Didn't you say you'd do anything for me?" Ethan Hart wanted me to throw myself off the observation deck of the tallest tower downtown, live, in front of the millions of people watching the broadcast. I stood on the wrong side of the railing. Below me, traffic streamed through the streets and neon flickered in the distance. His friends clapped and cheered. Vivian Lane laughed softly and curled herself against his arm. Ethan's grin turned vicious. "Come on, don't waste everyone's time. Jump, and I'll marry you." He'd made me a promise once. Finish a hundred of his demands, and he would marry me. When his company was circling bankruptcy, he told me to hand over everything I owned, and I did. Then he moved Vivian into my house in the suburbs and left me to sleep in a motel. The night he was tangled up with Vivian at a private party, he sent me over with something for his hangover, and made a point of telling me to bring a box of condoms, the right size. I stood at the door holding the soup I'd made, and heard him laugh. "She's my ATM. I use her, then I throw her out." No matter how far it went, I'd done all ninety-nine. This was the last one: jump. He thought I'd hesitate, thought I'd cry and beg him to pick something else. I didn't. I let go and fell. The wind roared in my ears, and the whole lit-up city slid past me. I heard him shout, heard the crowd scream, and underneath all of it, the one voice I'd waited too long to hear. [Congratulations, host. Emotional conquest progress: one hundred percent. Reward delivered. Your mother's terminal illness is fully cured.]

My mother is in the late stages of cancer. Yet, she sits in a wheelchair with an oxygen tube and endures a long train ride just to attend my wedding with Isaac Pudley. But when it's time for him to walk down the aisle, I don't see him anywhere despite screaming his name. It turns out his childhood sweetheart, Megan Ericsson, is having another depressive episode and is threatening suicide again. "Isaac, I can't live without you," she screeches. Isaac is always so stern and composed, but he now holds Megan in his arms and begs me to call off the wedding so they can leave. Relatives and guests watch the spectacle with thinly veiled amusement. To make matters worse, my mother is so angry that she faints. However, Isaac believes that my mother is feigning illness. He only wants to take Megan with him and leave. He even takes away my mother's wheelchair. But he seems to have forgotten that he has hurt me 97 times by now. After he hurts me 99 times, I’ll definitely leave him.

Cecilia Langston is one of the A-list stars in the film industry, the actress every director dreams of working with. That is, until she boards a plane to accept the Best Actress award she's sure to win. Explicit photos of her flood the internet and go viral. By the time she steps off the plane, everyone goes from admiring Cecilia to despising her. She checks the news on her phone. The announcement says she's been stripped of her Best Actress award nomination. When she looks up, hundreds of nude photos of herself stare back at her. "You shameless woman! Get out of the entertainment industry!" "You use nude photos to get ahead, and you think you deserve an award? Don't insult everyone watching!"

Back in my hometown, the women would brew wine at a young age for their future husbands. Since college, Jake Sanders and I had left our hometown for a brighter future in a city far away, and we finally returned in glory. I was finally able to open my vat of wine, which had been kept for 28 years. I knew that Jake was quite particular about hygiene, so I changed my wine to store-bought wine during the town celebration, even though I knew it was taboo. When I was about to share this secret with him, I heard his conversation with his buddies. "Are you sure you're going to drink Erica's wine? You'll have to marry her according to tradition if you do that. Won't Cassie be mad?" "Yeah. Cassie has already opened her vat of wine. If no one drinks from it, she can't marry." Jake laughed with indifference. "She won't be able to leave me. She's even willing to change that vat of wine for me. Besides, her wine has been left for 28 years. Who would want to drink that? Erica's wine is only 20-years-old, and I heard wine is sweetest at this stage. "Even though I've chosen Erica, I'll still make sure to treat Cassie well. I'll marry her if no one will." It felt like my heart had been cored out and a cold wind was gusting through it, but I decided to let this go because I was not an unwanted woman, and Jake was not the only man in this world. I replied to the text that was sent to me every year: [Will you marry me?] He replied right away: [Wait for me.]

Joanna Shaw saved me when I was lying by the road close to dying. Because of a serious injury to my head, I had lost all my memories. Joanna brought me home and took me in. However, she also made me sign a contract that had no expiry date. "Sign it. You'll be my bodyguard from now on and you'll take orders only from me." For the next five years, I stayed by her side and stopped countless assassination attempts on her life. I was her bodyguard by day, her lover by night. Everyone said the heiress had fallen for her bodyguard. But when she heard that Allen Clarke, the heir of the Clarke family in Oceanton, was going to marry her bitter rival Tina Jackson, she chose to destroy the contract. "Find a way to get close to Tina and make her fall in love with you. Consider it repayment for saving your life. Only after Allen gives up on her will he marry me willingly." I nodded and agreed, and I gave up on Joanna for good. She didn't know I had already recovered my memory. The "Allen Clarke" she was so desperate to marry was nothing but an impostor.

I stumble across a shared document titled "Honeymoon" on my wife, Talia Smith's, computer. I assume she's finally making good on the promise she's put off for five years. Overjoyed, I click it open, only to find the itinerary is completely different from what we originally agreed on. The original schedule overlaps with my business trip, so I postpone the trip by two days. Since there's no aurora in Glacieland during this time of year, I change the destination to Kjeldsland. Then I remember we're trying to conceive, and our expenses are piling up, so I downgrade our tickets from first class to business class. Just then, another account suddenly appears and changes everything I've edited back to its original state. Immediately after, a line of text pops up in the document. "Mommy, we agreed to go to Glacieland, so we're going to Glacieland! If not, Daddy will be upset!" That catches me off guard, and I assume someone's playing a prank on me. Talia has appeared behind me at some point. "He's the son of my foster brother and me. Next time, I'll definitely go on our honeymoon with you," she explains calmly.

It's my wedding day. However, Julian Lancaster shoves me aside when he receives a call from Vivienne Hayes. "I'm sorry, honey. Vivi has an upset stomach—I need to bring her some medication for that."

Shane Floyd and I have been dating for seven years, and my parents keep pressuring us to get married. However, Shane keeps saying the same two words. "Let's wait." My parents think we aren't financially ready, so they prepare a generous wedding gift for us. They even buy us a car and a house. However, Shane still says the same two words. "Let's wait." I have no idea what Shane is waiting for, but I decide to wait with him. At our class reunion, I bring out a cake I have prepared for Shane. "Today's Shane's 30th birthday." My classmates start gossiping at once. "I just remembered something. Shane Floyd and Amelia Wood made a pact that if they were both still unmarried at 30 years old, they'd get together!" Amelia Wood smiles shyly. "His wife is right here. Let's not bring that up." Shane simply glances at me. "We're not married, so she's not my wife. I promised I'd wait for you until you turned 30 years old. I didn't break my promise." My heart lurches as I hold the cake. Now I finally know what Shane has been waiting for. As the crowd teases him, Shane leans in to blow out the candles and make a wish. "Here goes my first wish. I wish Amelia is still single." That's enough. I gently set the cake down without making a scene. As the crowd exchanges awkward glances, I turn and leave with my dignity intact. Downstairs, a cab driver is calling out to passersby. "Miss, do you need a ride? Are you waiting for anyone else?" I open the door and get in the cab. "Let's go. I'm not waiting for anyone."