Independence Romance Short Stories & Regret Novels

I was superstar Grant's most obedient canary. By day, I handled multi-million dollar deals for him. By night, I played the role of his perfect plus-one. I never questioned his whereabouts, never fought for his favor, and never asked for a title. Until Tessa, the new starlet at his agency, showed up. She took my seat, took over my mansion, and even clung to Grant's arm to rub it in my face. "Reese is so understanding. She definitely won't mind, right?" And the superstar who usually cared so much about his public image just smiled, silently allowing her to cross the line. It was a pity Tessa didn't know that a canary who forgot her place would eventually get torn apart. And Grant didn't know that once the canary decided to settle the score, he wouldn't be able to survive in this industry anymore.

For our second anniversary, Nolan Cole and I went whale watching in Monterey, but when we checked in, the hotel manager told us our room had been set up the way Nolan's ex-girlfriend liked it. He had dated Zoe Hart for eight years, and she cast a constant shadow over our relationship. That day, Nolan gave me a sheepish look. "They've gotten used to setting it up that way. They probably just assumed. Don't overthink it." My hands curled into fists. We had an early whale-watching trip the next morning, so I tried three times to wake Nolan. He just patted my head and smiled. "It's all the same. You get on a boat, find a spot, and take some pictures. Zoe and I already did it, so go by yourself." So I had no choice but to board alone. The waves were unusually rough that day. I got so seasick I could barely see straight, and I never saw a whale breach. When Nolan picked me up, one of the crew members seemed to recognize him. The man waved his hands excitedly and dug out two photos. In one, Nolan had Zoe wrapped in his arms against the cold. In the other, he and Zoe were kissing in front of a pod of leaping whales. Furious, I pushed him away and went back to the hotel alone. On the third day, I said I wanted to drive south down Highway One. Nolan sighed and said flatly, "Zoe and I have done that drive plenty of times. I've seen it all before, and I don't want to do it again." Suddenly, it all felt completely pointless. He'd already done everything with Zoe. That was where I decided our relationship would end.

When I discover that Shawn Felton has kept a mistress for the past three years and even intends to throw her a wedding, I decide to leave him. I'm going home to marry the man my family has picked for me. On the first day, I give the ring Shawn got me to his mistress. On the second day, I throw away everything and anything that has to do with me. On the third day, I put on a wedding dress and marry Shawn's nemesis. From now on, Shawn and I will have nothing to do with each other. Shawn is unfazed originally. He thinks I'm just throwing a tantrum. He only panics when he sees the news of me marrying someone else.

At our tenth engagement party, my girlfriend crushed my heart again, leaving my proposal ring dangling in the air. She had been chasing the ghost of her first love, and I was done being her fallback guy. When I finally opened my heart to someone new, she realized what she'd lost. Ten years together, ten engagement parties, and still, she wouldn't take my ring. Every time we reached the moment to exchange vows, she'd stare at the door, waiting for that man to swoop in and rescue her. She swore she'd only marry me if he crashed the party, claiming it would prove she'd truly chosen me. This time, I couldn't hold back. "If he never shows, are you just gonna keep stringing me along forever?" She shot back, "He still loves me. He'll show up to stop this. Besides, we've been together a decade. Does a ring even matter at this point?"

I had been engaged to Atlas Payne, a powerful CEO, for five years. This was the 21st time he had canceled our wedding ceremony. The first time, his secretary, Jasmine Scott, sprained her ankle. He left me by the roadside and rushed to the hospital. The second time, Jasmine cried and made a scene on the eve of our wedding, so he left me alone on the red carpet. The Payne family was powerful, while I was merely the daughter of a housekeeper. Therefore, everyone advised me to just deal with his mood swings. Every time Atlas left me behind, he would solemnly apologize and promise me that the next wedding attempt would definitely go smoothly. I kept believing him. Even though I was not the family's legitimate mistress, I still handled all the family affairs for him. I waited and waited, but the wedding ceremony never came. All I received was news that Jasmine was pregnant. This time, I had no reason to convince myself to stay. "I will never let you leave my side. If you ever disappear, I’ll make sure to use my family's influence to find you." The sweet words he once said to me were now a cage that trapped me. On Christmas Day, I prepared to leave him for good. I started a fire at home. Even the most powerful family would not be able to find someone who was supposedly dead. Years later, I unexpectedly came across Atlas kneeling at my ‘grave’. He was always so stern, but now, he was crying and begging me to come home and see him again.

At the wedding I've spent months planning, my usually stoic fiancé, Anthony Scott, is about to run off with his assistant, Erica Jones. To top it all off, she is wearing a wedding gown. Out of nowhere, his younger brother, Christopher Scott, grabs my hand and plans to pull me straight to City Hall. He disregards my panicking eyes. "Let's get married," he says, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Then, the stage decorations suddenly collapse, revealing a room full of guests mocking and laughing at me. The two men who once swore to love me forever do all just to make Erica smile. The three of them clink glasses and drink a love toast on stage, completely lost in their own moment. "The wedding you planned was way too outdated. You should thank Erica for turning it into a bachelorette party!" "The real wedding will be this Sunday. Isn't Erica's idea amazing?" Anthony and Christopher were confident that I wouldn't dare leave them. But I quietly pick up my phone and type a message. "Let's set the wedding date for this Sunday, Levi."

It was our seventh anniversary. Christopher Quinton proposed to me with nothing but a ring pull. He got his true love a house. When I said no, he rebuked me like I was some sort of gold digger. "I thought my love for you was worth more than anything money could buy. I only got Rachel that house to pay her back for all she did for me. I can't believe you thought I still loved her. You disappoint me." I broke up with him and tossed the ring pull into the bin. Then, I walked off. The next day, Christopher took away my position as VP and told everyone he was getting engaged to Rachel. … Five years later, we ran into each other at a charity horserace. He was a successful businessman, and the woman beside him was Rachel, all dressed in custom-made clothes. I was dressed in janitor attire and stuffing plastic bottles into my woven bag. He mocked, "Look at you, Queenie Dean. Scavenging for a living. Bet you didn't see this coming when you ditched me, did you?" I ignored him. My son had run off, and I had to look for him. The boy noticed the plastic bottles that were strewn across the ground, and he insisted that we stay back to finish his social practice activity here.

George Milton took me eight times in a single night. By the ninth, his hand gripped my waist, his voice rough with satisfaction as he rasped, "Baby, I want you to use that innocent-but-sexy look you've got to go seduce Jordan." My entire body went rigid. Then I found out—George's first love, Sarah Byrnes, had been ditched by Jordan Baker, leaving her heartbroken. He wanted me to take revenge for her, to make Jordan taste the agony of being abandoned by the one he loved. After my family had gone bankrupt, I was delivered straight to George's bed. Naively, I believed he treated me differently. After all, I had been the woman at his side the longest. But he only sneered. "The reason I keep you is because you look like Sarah. She's hurting. Now it's your turn to do your part. With reddened eyes, I agreed, swallowing every foolish hope I should never have harbored. Soon, I captured the aloof and untouchable Jordan's heart. And for the first time, George lost control. He wept as he begged, "Catelyn, I regret it. Come back to me, please?"

Seven years after I married Count Chris Talbot in my stepsister's place, Lucy, who had run off with another man, returned. Around Chris, she was still as innocent and romantic as ever. At the banquet, Lucy threw herself into my husband's arms, clutching a glass bottle full of sea sand. “Chris, I've collected sand from every place I've visited. “I've been waiting so long to see you again. “You said if I ever came back, you'd marry me. Right?” As I watched them, I thought of everything we had survived together. Surely Chris would know where to draw the line. But right there, on our anniversary, he bent his head toward her and announced that she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. The guests erupted into chatter. “So the current Countess is the other woman.” “No wonder a girl from the slums got to marry the Earl.” Chris met my eyes. “Lily, she just got back. She needs this position more than you do. “It's just a matter of status. You were born a slave, after all. Why should you care about something like that?” At those words, everything became clear. I took out the rune-engraved communication stone. “Arthur, didn't you say you wanted to steal me away? “I can't wait for you to arrive in Borgirota.”

During an avalanche, I risk my life to save my girlfriend, Naomi Sutton. I end up losing a leg and an eye. On the day I'm discharged from the hospital, she tells me, "I've done my part by taking care of you this whole time. There's no way I'll spend the rest of my life with a cripple. You understand why I need to do this, right, Caleb?" I've already resigned myself to a life of constant darkness when Zoey Rivers shows up. She doesn't mind that I'm disabled. She gently heals all of my wounds. Following our decision to get married, I start going through our belongings to prepare for our upcoming move to our new marital home. Unexpectedly, I stumble across Zoey's backup phone in the house. I find a secondary social media account that Zoey has been using to track the moving journey of her sister's battle against a crippling illness. The latest update reads, "I'm about to get married. Once it's official, I'll get him to donate a kidney to my sister at once, and she'll be saved." Posted with the caption is a photo of Zoey with a woman lying on a hospital bed—Naomi. At that very moment, the door opens behind me. "What's the matter, Caleb? Since you're at home, why didn't you answer me when I called for you?"

By the time Kenneth Ford finally showed up, I was already soaked through. He wasn't alone. There was a girl under his umbrella, and at well over six feet tall, Kenneth had enough height to shield her almost completely from the rain. He'd tilted the umbrella so far toward her that one side of his shirt was getting drenched, but he didn't seem to care. He just smiled and let her stay tucked safely beside him. Then he saw me, and the smile on his face disappeared. "Sorry, I'm late," he muttered. The girl beside him immediately turned to me. "Hannah, it's my fault. I've gotten so used to sharing Kenneth's umbrella that I asked him to walk me home. And honestly, being tucked up against him makes me feel so safe." "How many times have you done that it has become a habit?" I held back my question. Instead, I smiled, stepped under the umbrella behind them, and hurried to keep up. Rainwater dripped from my hair down the back of my neck, while Kenneth kept the umbrella tilted toward her the entire way. I had dinner with them, shared a drink, and spent the whole night listening to their laughter. After midnight, when Kenneth was finally fast asleep, I took the umbrella, opened it, snapped a picture, and sent it to Berta Neal. [Since you like it so much, stay tucked against him for the rest of your life.]

Keane Mercer was the captain of the Boston Blades, one of the biggest teams in professional hockey. We'd been together for five years, and I hadn't missed a single one of his games. I could never get seats near the glass. Every game, I settled for the best spot I could find in a corner, lifting my camera to capture every moment he was on the ice. I asked him once. "Could you save me a seat in the friends-and-family section just once? The view is so much better from there." He didn't even look up. "I'm the captain. I can't play favorites. Maybe another time." He never said when "another time" would be. I never asked again. The friends-and-family seat remained empty season after season. Until the semifinals this year. For the first time, someone was sitting there. She was a young woman with a warm, bright smile, standing with the help of a crutch. Every time Keane scored, his eyes found hers. When the final buzzer sounded, he skated straight to the stands, lifted her effortlessly into his arms, and carried her out, shielding her as they disappeared into the crowd. I lowered my camera, packed away my gear, and walked out of the arena alone. Then I reopened the transfer offer I'd deleted and clicked "Accept". If I was never going to have a place in Keane's friends-and-family section, then I was done waiting on the sidelines. It was time to build a life that belonged to me.

I throw myself into cryogenic research so I can keep my only family on this Earth. However, halfway through it, my fiancé embezzles all the funds to propose to Sophia Kensington, his true love. I panic when I see the ice in Mom's brain start to melt. I have no money to continue with the research. I'm in utter despair when Leonard Shaw, a rising star in the biomedical field, comes to me with millions of dollars in funding. The research can continue. Just three days later, something goes wrong with the experiment. Mom explodes in cryogenic chamber. I'm shattered by this, but Leonard stays by my side throughout it all. He helps me move past this and continue with my research. I think he's the light of my life until I overhear his conversation with his secretary. "Is it worth it marrying someone you don't love for Ms. Kensington's sake, Mr. Shaw?" "Sophia is my life. I'm willing to do anything as long as she's healthy and happy." "But will Mrs. Shaw still continue helping Ms. Kensington if she learns you tampered with the data and killed her mother?" "She'll never find out. Besides, I'm already using the rest of my life to make it up to her. That's more than enough…" It turns out Leonard's love is just a conspiracy. My heart turns to ashes in that moment. I sign an agreement to seal my body cryogenically. He'll never find me ever again.

My boyfriend, Zack Henderson, has a notebook that he specially uses to record my mistakes. He writes down every time I'm late for our dates, even if it's only by a minute. He also makes a note whenever the breakfast I buy for him gets cold. Once I make a total of ten mistakes, he punishes me by blocking my number for a week. Terrified of upsetting him, I do everything I can to keep him happy. I assume that Zack acts this way out of habit because he's a strict science student. However, I realize I'm wrong when I find a diary under his bed while helping him move into his dorm room. The diary is filled with photos of the prettiest girl on campus, Quinn Lombardt. "Her clumsiness is adorable." Zack writes when Quinn damages his limited-edition figurine. "I'm willing to travel as far as I need to to satisfy her cravings." He writes when she asks him to buy a viral cake in the middle of the night. On the last page is a hand-drawn wedding dress design. "I'm going to give Quinn the grandest wedding ceremony once she graduates." I place the diary back in its original spot. Then I make a call to secure my spot to further my studies abroad.

Brandon Hawthorne said if I wanted to marry him, I had to prove I was tough enough to be a Hawthorne. He took my bank cards, ditched me in a city I'd never been to, and made me figure out how to get home alone. When my fever hit 104°F, he still refused to let the family doctor through the door. Instead, I had to smile through dinner with a house full of Hawthorne relatives while I could barely stay on my feet. And every time I finally asked Brandon for help, he looked at me like I'd failed him. "You can't even handle something this simple. How are you supposed to be my wife?" But when his childhood friend, Patty Rowan, got blisters from her shoes, he picked her up and carried her away in front of everyone. She got a headache in the middle of the night, and he left me alone in the hospital to take the family doctor to her. I asked him why. He frowned. "Patty's fragile. And she's not the one trying to become a Hawthorne." Then came our engagement party. I accidentally ate peanuts. My throat started closing. I couldn't breathe. Brandon grabbed my EpiPen and locked me in the lounge. "This is your final test. If you want to marry me, tough it out." Then Patty called. She had a paper cut. Brandon immediately left with the doctor. "Hold out for ten minutes." I lost track of time. Right before everything went dark, I saw Brandon come back with Patty tucked close beside him. She had a Band-Aid on her finger. Through the haze, I heard the disappointment in his voice. "Patty was bleeding, and she didn't even cry. Are you seriously pretending to be dead?" Then came the final blow. "You failed the test. You're not ready to become a Hawthorne."

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.

For twenty years, Kyle and I were each other’s salvation. On the day he confessed his feelings, he promised to give me a warm and loving home. However, everything changed when the Gill family found him and brought him back, naming him the Crown Prince of High Society. Overnight, I went from being his proud fiancée to nothing more than his hidden canary in a gilded cage. With another woman in his arms, his voice was cold and distant, “The eldest young master of the Gill family can’t marry an orphan.” At that moment, my heart shattered completely. I left the capital that very night. Later, I heard I had become the Gill family’s unspoken taboo. That once-proud Young Master Gill ended up confined to a mental institution, clinging to a doll and whispering my name day after day.

On the day I left for a business trip, my son, Billy Smith, livestreamed his suicide attempt from our home. While I took my time shopping at the mall, my younger sister, Lori Chaney, and my husband, Greg Smith, were beside themselves with panic. By the time I got the call from Lori, I dropped everything at work and rushed home. However, I reached home to see Billy sobbing into the camera. “Mom, whenever Dad isn’t home, you bring Mr. Scott into the house. After that, you’d force me to keep it a secret. When I refused to play along, you abused me in every way you could! I also found the medical report in your nightstand. You have AIDS, but you never told Dad. I’m ashamed to have a disgusting woman like you as my mother!” Billy then jumped from the building and landed on the rescue airbag without a scratch. I, however, became the target of public outrage. I tried to clear my name, but no one believed me. After all, who would risk his own life just to frame his mother? Greg even brought me a glass of poisoned milk and forced me to drink it. He then told everyone that I had committed suicide out of shame. When I opened my eyes again, I realized I had been sent back in time to the day Billy threatened to kill himself.

Three years after my husband, Lucien Vance, put me on a household spending card linked to his account, he hired Camilla Bennett to manage his money. From then on, every dollar I spent needed her approval. "Nine dollars for a cab? The bus costs one dollar." Denied. "An air conditioner for your mom? She's gone without one for decades. What's changed?" Denied. Lucien watched me fume and said, "Camilla knows what she's doing. She's helping us save money. You know I can't stand gold diggers." Then Lucien's mother, Nora Vance, landed in the ICU with severe pneumonia. She needed a ventilator, antibiotics, and continuous hemofiltration. The bill came to $30,000. Camilla denied it again. My hands shook as I called Lucien 43 times before he finally answered. "Send the money now! Nora has pneumonia. She's going to die without treatment!" He sounded annoyed. "Camilla said it isn't serious. A little cough syrup will clear it up. You're making this up for money? What would your mother say?" Then I heard Camilla's voice in the background. "Lucien, this necklace only cost $25,000. I couldn't pass it up. Let's call it my birthday present!" I opened my mouth, but he hung up before I could speak. As I watched Nora suffer, it hit me. Lucien had gotten one thing very wrong. It wasn't my mother in that hospital bed. It was his.

Benjamin Spencer took up the responsibility of raising Yvonne Johnson when her parents died during a holiday on the cruise. He took care of her, nurtured her, and gave her the care she needed. As time passed, Yvonne developed romantic feelings for Benjamin which he later found out. Astonished and dismayed, he decided to send her away. Five years later, she came back with a kid. What would be waiting for them in the future?