1945 Pulitzer Winning

I've been in a relationship with Ralph Green for seven years. However, he tells me he's sick of me. He finds himself a younger and prettier woman. I don't break down or cause a scene this time. I merely turn and leave. He's confident that I won't leave him because of how much I love him. Later, he finally finds a way to contact me. "Has it been fun pretending like you've gone missing, Mabel? Hurry up and come back once you've had enough of this fit." I'm not awake. The person beside me, Ambrose Steele, takes my phone away. He holds the phone up and deliberately leans down to kiss my cheek. "Mabes can't come to the phone. She's exhausted from last night."

My fiancée is a DINK. She lies to me about going abroad for a year to further her education—she's actually left to have a child with her childhood sweetheart. He shares a photo of her after she's given birth. It's captioned, "This is the world's best childhood sweetheart. My family's line shall continue!" I'm furious when I see their mutual friends leaving comments urging them to get married. I comment, "May you be together forever and end up with no descendants." My fiancée immediately calls me and snaps, "What the hell are you doing? I'm just fulfilling a promise I made to him during our childhood!" I hang up and call off the engagement. There's no point in continuing with this relationship!

After the video exposing my sister Issa Acosta’s plot against me was revealed, my parents and my fiancé, Henry Nolan, stood firmly by my side, making me feel loved and safe. I confidently handed over all the evidence to them, trusting them to handle it. However, they told me that after Issa was kicked out of the house, she died in a sudden car accident, and I believed them. That was until five years into my marriage, when I accidentally saw Issa—the woman who was supposed to be dead. She was holding a little boy, clinging tightly to Henry’s hand. "Henry, if it weren’t for you and my parents, I’m afraid Zoe would’ve thrown me in prison. Thankfully, my parents destroyed the evidence and even opened a jewelry design studio for me. To avoid suspicion, you even sacrificed your own marriage. Thank you for everything in the past five years.” "Think of it as me atoning to Zoe on your behalf. As long as you and Bear are happy, that’s enough for me." So, what I thought was a happy family was nothing more than a giant lie—a scheme concocted by my parents and Henry. My parents, my husband, and Issa were the real family, and I? I was just the fool who had been deceived for five long years. Whether it was family or love, none of it was real, and I don’t want any of it anymore.

I've been with Hansen Fullerton for seven years. One day, he tells me he's sick of me and dumps me for a younger, more vivacious woman. I don't kick up a fuss this time. Instead, I throw away my ring and cut up the wedding gown I've just bought. Then, I take a red-eye flight away from Gold City. His friends place bets on how long it'll take for me to return and beg for reconciliation. Hansen sneers. "She'll be back in less than three days, crying and begging me to take her back." However, more than three days pass without any news from me. Hansen loses his cool and calls me for the first time. "You'd better come back once you've had enough of this, Christine." All he hears is a man's low chuckle on the other end of the line. "You shouldn't have taken this long to pacify a woman, Mr. Fullerton. Look at how someone's already taken her away from you." Hansen snarls, "Tell Christine to answer the phone!" Landon Shore lowers his head to kiss me. "She can't—she's still out of it. I have to kiss her awake first."

A struggling Internet entrepreneur, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, a wife of an impressionable state senator, and a famous voice over actress find themselves caught in a web of espionage and intrigue that threatens their lives and those of everyone they know. When the undercover agents first approached Melanie Tyler and Kathleen O=Brian the night of their 30th high school reunion, the women could never have imagined that their innocent game of playing spies from a 60=s television show would become a real life confrontation with one of the most insidious criminal minds of their generation. Melanie "Mel" Tyler and Kathleen "Katie" Conner have been best friends since kindergarten. As teenagers, their favorite television show was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The girls even had a hidden room where they kept files on various schoolmates. But after graduating from high school, everyone in the graduating class went their separate ways. Mel's voice-over talent landed her a high-paying job in Los Angeles while Katie married her high school sweetheart, James O'Brien, now the youngest member of the Minnesota State Senate. Mel and Katie find it difficult to believe that they are about to attend Abbeyville High School's thirtieth reunion. Seeing most of their former classmates should be fun, but there are a few that the ladies hoped would not attend. Unfortunately, the three worst do make an appearance. Charles Haussman and Eric Kramer were bullies back in school and they have not forgotten how the ladies once bested them. Then there is Wyatt Gaynes, the jock that Melanie had a crush on - along with many other female students. A novel of romance and adventure for Baby Boomers, fans of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and anyone who has ever attended their high school reunion!

After I get pregnant, my husband goes jogging every night. One night, he leaves in such a hurry that he only wears his smart watch. He forgets to bring his phone with him. I accidentally see the messages he sends his female colleague. "Want to come over for a free meal? And maybe… a little of me, too?" "I'm not really hungry tonight—except for a taste of you." The chicken stew he's fed me tonight gurgles in my stomach as it turns. If I remember correctly, he's just introduced this colleague to my brother.

The day Jessica Smith and I went to pick out our wedding rings, her long-lost first love unexpectedly returned to town. When we went to pick him up from the airport, she introduced me to him, saying, "This is Sebastian Grant, a friend." Jessica made it clear that I wasn't her fiancé. She even went a step further and called off our engagement party scheduled for the next day. Just when she thought I would fight and insist on marrying her, I suddenly said in relief, "Your best friend previously wanted to hook up with me, you know? And honestly, I was kind of interested."

It was the first night we spent together as a married couple. When my husband insisted that the hotel manager clean our bed for us, she cried and said to him, "You're asking me to clean up after the two of you made love! How heartbroken do you want me to be before you're finally satisfied?" My husband claimed not to know that the manager was his ex-girlfriend, but when the woman threw a kettle of hot water and left, he chased after her instead of coming to my aid.

Today is the day when my boyfriend Caleb agreed to mark me. I even took off my skirt, but he received a phone call before he could complete it. He instantly left me alone on the bed, making me feel extremely embarrassed. I tried everything to contact him, but I couldn't reach him. Then, when I finally called his childhood sweetheart, Susan, to my surprise, Caleb answered the phone. "Susan was scared by a nightmare. I have to stay with her to take care of her. Let's mark another day. And please can we talk later. Susan finally fell asleep again. I don't wanna disturb her rest.” "But this is the seventh time you have postponed marking," I said softly. "Marking can be done at any time, but Susan needs me! Don't you have any humanity, Maria?" He hung up, and I burst into tears. My inner wolf asked me, Caleb is gone, do you still need to mark today? I wiped away my tears and said, "Of course, I will do it.” And I immediately contacted the alpha of the neighboring tribe.

The day I decided to file for divorce, Dean Potter couldn’t wait to draft the divorce agreement. Five years ago, he had been forced to marry me, and now he was finally free. On the day we were finalizing the divorce, Dean arrived with his new flame, radiating delight mixed with a hint of mockery. “Veronica Byrd, look at you—you’re miserable.” I watched his figure fade into the distance, my vision blurring. Miserable? In the next life, it wouldn't happen again.