Cerita Pendek & Novel Homewrecker Romance

When Celia Moore was dying of liver failure, I signed the living-donor consent form and gave her my right liver lobe, nearly sixty percent of my liver, to save her. The independent evaluation doctor asked me again and again whether anyone had coerced me. Through the glass, I could see Adrian Grant standing at the end of the hallway. He didn't come in. He just stood there, head bowed, reading the critical-condition update Celia had just sent him. I said, "No. This is my choice." That surgery nearly killed me. But on the eve of the wedding ceremony we were finally supposed to have, Adrian was still at Celia's bedside. He didn't leave once all night. I left my wedding ring, the divorce petition, and my attorney's engagement letter in the car that was supposed to take him to our wedding. Then I walked away without waiting for him to look back. The day I was discharged, I signed every document alone. There was no one beside me. Three years later, I walked into the Grant Architecture firm's tenth-anniversary gala with a new face, on the arm of the one competitor he feared most. Adrian crossed the entire ballroom and seized my wrist in a crushing grip, his eyes rimmed an alarming red. "Elena, you're alive?" I smiled, pulled my hand free, and straightened his crooked tie. "Mr. Grant, please don't touch me. My fiance has a temper when he gets jealous." Leon Hart slid his arm around my waist and raised an eyebrow at Adrian with a polite, wordless challenge. Adrian's hand froze in midair, as if he'd just been slapped in front of everyone. I turned and walked away without looking back.

After Katherine Winston delays our wedding for the tenth time, I decide to set her free. At the celebratory party thrown by my friend for his second newborn, I arrive at the venue to congratulate him in advance. When my best friend invites me to a camping trip, I walk away as soon as Katherine shows up. When my company decides to dispatch me to Katherine's company to follow up with the project we're working on, I tender my resignation without hesitation. Even when Katherine's parents visit me in hopes of convincing me to forgive Katherine. But I refuse to leave my residence at all. I take the liberty to delete all the photos with Katherine in them. Then, I block her number and on all social media platforms. Finally, I delete the social media account that has been recording our daily lives as a couple. Just like that, I cut myself off everything related to Katherine. We've known each other for 25 years, and we've been in a relationship for 5 of them. I've always thought that we're each other's only love in life. That is, until the wedding I've prepared for gets delayed for the tenth time. It's then realization finally dawns on me. I should love myself first before loving someone else.

Braving a downpour, I delivered a lavish food order, anticipating the hefty commission and a $100 tip. Laughter suddenly echoed from the villa. Someone started, "He really believes your car crash left you paralyzed? He's hustling deliveries to support you and even pawned his dad's heirloom?" Another said, "What if he discovers you're actually a billionaire heiress, just playing poor? He'd probably break down in tears." Jessica Stark toyed with her wine glass. "Guys like him are wired to serve, especially since he always outshone Mark in our school days. This is his comeuppance." I stood in the relentless rain, a bitter chuckle escaping my lips. Turned out, her two-year charade of paralysis was merely to avenge her childhood sweetheart. Her broken legs, deceased parents, and helpless tears were all meticulously crafted lies. Disillusioned, I dialed my estranged tycoon mother. "You win. I'll go through with the arranged marriage."

My best friend hands me the divorce papers she drafted. "You spent five years chasing Joe before you finally got him. Why do you suddenly want a divorce?" I force a smile. "Because he won't have dinner with me." Five hours earlier, I sent Joe Watson the address of a restaurant. "I made a reservation for our third anniversary." He replied almost immediately. "Busy right now." I spent five years chasing him and three years as his wife, only to get those words in return. Then I saw him outside his office, protectively guiding a short-haired woman into his car. When I first started pursuing Joe, I could barely get a response from him. But little by little, he opened up and began sharing all his joys and frustrations with me. Now, all I ever hear from him is, "Busy right now." I thought I wasn't trying as hard as I used to. But that wasn't it. He had simply fallen for someone else. My phone rings. It's the restaurant calling. "Ms. Gray, how many people will be dining tonight?" I slip the divorce papers into my bag. "Just one." I know Joe brought that woman to the same restaurant, which works out perfectly. From now on, he can share its signature dish with whoever he wants. It's none of my business anymore. I'll enjoy it by myself.

On my birthday, my fiancé, Vincent Drake, gave me an expired anti-aging serum. Meanwhile, my sister, Diana Ashford, wore the luxury diamond necklace he'd given her. She stood on stage, cutting into a custom cake he'd ordered for her worth over thirty thousand dollars. Just like every year, my parents and my fiancé were right by her side. They toasted to another happy year for her. From my corner, I stared at the anti-aging serum in my hands. It wasn't even meant for someone my age. The "sample" sticker on the back hadn't been fully peeled off. I shared the same birthday as my sister, but I was always the one who got overlooked. Even the event staff each got a slice of cake. But by the time they got to me, there was none left.

When Zack Fleming gets a tiny scrape on his arm, my wife, Melanie Perry, who loves money more than anything else in the world, rejects a business partnership that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. She then forces my sister, Cindy Sherwood, to donate a large amount of blood to Zack, despite knowing that Cindy has a heart condition. I immediately call Melanie to demand answers. "We only took a few drops of blood from her," she says nonchalantly. "Why are you making a fuss? Besides, Cindy's tough. She'll be fine. But Zack's different. He's the company's lucky star, so nothing must happen to him. "Business has been improving by the day ever since he joined the company. Everything that I do is for your and the company's sake. Not thanking me is one thing, but how dare you lose your temper at me?" Melanie hangs up after she's done speaking and blocks my number. It seems that my unconditional support for the last five years has given Melanie the wrong idea. She wrongly assumes that the company is improving because of her and Zack's efforts and has forgotten that she's nothing but a pawn that her family used to establish a marriage alliance with me. Ten minutes later, Melanie calls me again even though she's the one who blocked me in the first place. "Have you lost your mind?" she snaps. "Why did you take Zack away and hook him up to so many tubes?" I scoff and answer, "You're the one who said that he was a lucky star. Why are you panicking when I just want to take a few drops of blood from him?"

Everyone said I was the most generous man alive. When my CEO wife brought her brother-in-law and his son through the door, he stood there with bloodshot eyes. "Emmett's mother is gone. Could I borrow Colette for a few days to be his mom? He cries every night. It's breaking my heart." Without a word, I went to the bedroom and packed Colette Harmon's things for her. "We're family. You don't have to ask." At my son's birthday party, Emmett Pryce wanted to go to the amusement park and told everyone he did not want to share his new mom. My son immediately turned to the guests and apologized, saying, "Ms. Harmon has an urgent matter to attend to. We'll have to wrap up today's party here. Thank you all for coming." Everyone praised us, father and son, for being so gracious about it. Only I knew what had really happened. My son and I had been reborn. In our previous life, Colette had favored her widowed brother-in-law, Stefan Pryce, just the same. I had swallowed every last bit of it. When my patience finally ran out, I forced the divorce. Not long after, my son developed a heart condition and needed an artificial heart. The medical bills were staggering, so I had nowhere else to turn but Colette. However, she laughed in my face and threw me out into the blizzard. "You'll never be half the man Stefan is. Give it up." My son's heart stopped in my arms. Now that we had been reborn, I willingly let these things slide. All I wanted was for my son to live.

I suffered critical injuries that left me in a persistent vegetative state when I tried to rescue my wife, Regina Livingston, from her abductors. Regina spares no expense, spending millions of dollars to bring in the best medical experts in the country to treat me. She watches over me every single night, never weary of caring for me. Four years into my coma, I overhear a conversation between Richard Sutherland—a man I don't know—and Regina. "You've done all you can, Regina," he says. "You don't owe him anything anymore." Regina remains silent. Then, a young boy, Franklin Sutherland, suddenly asks, "Mommy, why do you always visit this man? Who is he?" I'm instantly shocked. Regina and I don't have a child together. I'm completely bewildered, and just as I try to figure it out, I suddenly wake up from my coma.

My billionaire husband cheated on me. My ten year old daughter covered for him. On her birthday, I found out my happy family of three only existed in my head. [“Mommy is too boring. Miss Celeste is more fun.”] The text was sent from my daughter’s secret phone to my husband. And his own message was, [“please distract her for me. Miss Celeste and I still need to do something at the penthouse.”] They weren’t just having an affair. They were building a new family together. And worse, they lied to my face every single day. While I was trying to be the best mother and wife, they were busy chasing after the hot flavor of the season. Realizing fighting for people who had clearly replaced me was useless, I filed for divorce and disappeared. But after I left, my husband and daughter went crazy trying to find me.

All the paparazzi in Glorisia knows that Wanda Foster would rather sleep with an escort from a nightclub than with me, her legally-wedded husband. The daily question they ask is, "When will Mr. Gulliver give his precious first time away?" When faced with the paparazzi's cameras, Wanda turns to look at me arrogantly. "We can just lead different romantic lives on our own. If you don't like how I act, feel free to sleep with someone else too." After that, Wanda turns to leave. That night, the spicy photos of her and her latest beau go viral on the news once again. Just when everyone thinks I will spend yet another sleepless night agonizing over the news, I contact some paparazzi and place a reservation on a spot for sensational news. Then, I strip down and mess up the bedsheets before taking a nude photo of myself from another person's POV. After that, I use an unknown number to text Wanda. "Oh my, James is seriously amazing in bed! Let me know when you're going to divorce him!"

My billionaire wife had just given birth when I was abducted and trapped in a sick, underground survival game. While I was sprinting through the woods with our newborn strapped to my back, Scarlett’s best friend’s voice boomed through the PA speakers. “Shouldn’t you be at home with your newborn and Damian? What are you doing here? Is your lover boy starting drama again?” Scarlett chuckled, her voice full of resigned affection. “Yeah. Jayden demanded some real entertainment. Damian thinks I have urgent work to take care of at the office, so he practically pushed me out the door while the kid was having surgery. He’s a sweet, naive idiot.” I tapped against the security camera lens, desperate to get Scarlett’s attention, but Jayden’s terrified scream distracted her into hitting the shock button on her remote control. The high-voltage electricity ran through me, and our newborn choked up blood, staining the earth. I curled around our son, sobbing in despair. As footsteps crunched closer, the high-rollers raised their stakes. It was a bet to see who would survive to the very end.

For three years, I played the humble housewife to protect Gabriel’s ego, secretly using my power as the Pearl Group’s heiress to build his empire from the shadows. But at his victory gala, the man I made a King crowns another Queen—the woman who abandoned him when he was broke. "While others were just present," Gabriel sneers, his arm around his ex, "Anna was the fire behind my success." He thinks my silence was weakness. He thinks his contract was earned by merit. He’s about to find out that the humble woman he sidelined owns the very stage he’s standing on. I’m done being your sun, Gabriel. Enjoy the darkness—because by morning, I’m taking the light with me.

Five years ago, I witnessed my wife, a university professor, having an affair with Henry Bale, her teaching assistant. Mindy Holmes knelt begging me not to expose her, saying that it would destroy his reputation as a student. I agreed on the condition that he would drop out of school, leave this city, and never return. She would have to sign an agreement to leave the marriage without a single cent if she were to be unfaithful to me again. Everyone rebuked me for being vain and for treasuring money more than our relationship. However, Mindy was willing to go against the entire Holmes family just to preserve Henry’s reputation. Five years later, when I went on a business trip in another city, I found a little girl. I sent her to a police station and had her contact her family. When the policeman dialed the number the girl recited to him, I heard a familiar voice through the phone. “Be good. Don’t be afraid, I’ll come pick you up right away.” Less than half an hour later, Mindy rushed into the station when she was supposed to be at her class miles away. I sat on the bench, my gaze meeting hers. She stood stunned. I stood up with a smile. “Mindy, I didn’t know you had a daughter behind my back. Looks like you can bid goodbye to your reputation as a highly-esteemed professor.”

At the height of her ballet career, Sienna’s life was brutally shattered when her ex-boyfriend maliciously broke her legs. She fell into despair, and when she climbed to the rooftop to end it all, I was the one who saved her. I gave up a million-dollar salary for her sake. I spent ten years as her golden agent watching her starting from a background actor and becoming a superstar. When she reached the pinnacle of fame, she publicly declared her love for me. Our love story was hailed as the last fairy tale of the entertainment industry. I stood by her through her lows, and she held my hand through the glory. However, on the day I proposed… Her ex-boyfriend stormed in and publicly claimed that Sienna was carrying his child. His face was full of arrogance, and his eyes brimmed with provocation. “Every night, she throws herself at me like an animal. “You think she loves you? Her heart, her mind, it’s all mine.” I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. My mind went blank. I turned to Sienna. She pressed her lips together, remained silent and offered no explanation. At that moment, my heart shattered into pieces.

My girlfriend and I had agreed to marry as soon as we graduated. But after I waited three hours at the registration hall, she registered with my stepbrother instead. He had been in love with her for ten years, and now he was being sent to the deadliest front in space. “He won't survive without me,” she said. “Once he's gone, I'll still be yours.” My father and stepmother told me to be the bigger person. As I looked at their self-righteous faces, I accepted a command at the same front and became my stepbrother's highest-ranking superior. By the time news of my victories—and my wedding—reached home, every one of them had lost their minds with regret.

Our third wedding anniversary was coming up, but my wife, a programmer at a major tech company, suddenly claimed she had to work overtime to meet deadlines. She said she couldn't go on the trip we'd planned. That very afternoon, however, her intern posted a video on social media. My wife—the same woman who normally wouldn't even open a door for fear of chipping her manicure—was holding a screwdriver, repairing an old flip phone. The caption read: [Having a programmer wife is the best. Even when Grandma's phone breaks, we don't need to pay for repairs.] I chuckled, liked the post, and commented: [Right up her alley.] Within minutes, the company group chat exploded. There were over ninety-nine unread messages speculating on when I'd finally snap. Not long after, my wife called. Her voice was ice-cold. "What was that comment supposed to mean? How is Shawn supposed to face anyone at work now? "His grandma's phone broke, so I fixed it. What's the problem? Your parents have always spoiled you. You can't possibly understand real hardship. "Delete the comment. I'll make it up to you over the New Year; we can take that trip then." The New Year? I'd already waited through two other major public holidays. I'd even taken special leave for this trip, and she still bailed. Now she was dangling empty promises again? I hung up on her. My leave ended around the same time as our divorce cooling-off period.

When our marriage contract expired, I found out I was pregnant. Charlie Newman’s voice was icy. "If it’s a boy, we’re even." I asked quietly, "And if it’s a girl?" He paused–then said coldly, "Then we keep trying until you give me a son." I sighed. Three years of marriage couldn’t compete with the need for an heir. However, one night, when I went downstairs for water, I saw him kneeling in the attic, eyes devout, voice trembling. "Merciful God, please grant me a daughter. If you hear my prayer and make my wish come true, I will give generously to your church and serve you faithfully all my life."

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.]

Vanessa Langley lay on my operating table, pregnant for the eighth time by the man she'd grown up with. This time, I didn't break down the way I had the previous seven. Instead I calmly closed the incision and went over the aftercare with her. Seven times I'd performed the procedure on my own wife because she was carrying another man's child. I had long since become the joke of the hospital, the story everyone traded over coffee. From getting pregnant by him to pressuring me into ending it, she always had a reason she considered perfectly respectable. This time, Vanessa's eyes reddened and she caught my sleeve. "Adrian, someone drugged Damian. I couldn't just leave him... "Don't worry, I'll end the pregnancy. You're my husband. You're the only man I'd ever have a child with." Even the nurses talked during the procedure, wondering whether I'd fold the way I always had, worn down by a few soft words and a few tears. But nobody knew we'd signed an agreement before the wedding. I gave Vanessa eight chances to get it wrong, and she had used them all. The agreement took effect, and every asset in her name passed to me.

At eight months pregnant, my husband, Weston Gibson, tells me the doctors misdiagnosed my pregnancy. I am not carrying a baby. There is supposedly a tumor growing in my womb. He tricks me into undergoing surgery, but on my way back to my room, I overhear him talking to his friend, Daniel Brooks. "You lie to Scarlett and tell her she is infertile. Then you convince her to undergo IVF so you can implant the embryo created from you and Whitley into her. After that, you told her she has a tumor so you can secretly deliver the baby and hand him over to Whitley to raise. That's beyond cruel." Weston scoffs. "Whitley is a model. She can't afford to ruin her figure by having a baby. Now that she has my baby, she can finally hold her head high in front of my parents." My heart shatters when I hear that. Without hesitation, I call the best lawyer in the city. "My husband has cheated on me. I want him to walk away with nothing."