37 Days Ago

In the dead of this frozen apocalypse, the shelter's fusion core was on the verge of overload. I grabbed my repair kit and sprinted for the basement, only to have the guard captain's girlfriend, Miranda Dunn, step right into my path. "Everyone, come look! Zach’s about to dump poison into the vents. He's gonna kill us all!" Her voice cut through the air as she shrieked. "I didn’t approve a private room for him two days ago, and now, he wants us all dead!" The guards didn't bother asking questions. They slammed me hard against the freezing metal door. "Zach, are you going to kill us all over a room? We're taking you in for interrogation!" I stared at the control panel, its readings spiking into the red, and shouted, "If the core blows up, none of us will make it out alive!" But they were too busy trying to impress Miranda and brushed off my warning, thinking I had lost it. Nineteen minutes remained before the core exploded.

Caspian Henderson has been rigid and restrained throughout his six-year marriage to Juliet Bennett, and their life together feels dull and uneventful. Even their nights together feel like a chore with a set time. He arrives on the dot, does what he came for, and leaves. Everyone in their social circle believes he's the kind of man who will never bend for any woman. That was true until a month ago, when he returned with an orphaned girl who claims to have saved his life. Her name is Willow Everly. She's cold and unapproachable—the polar opposite of Juliet, who has been doted on all her life. Juliet's girlfriends attempt to warn her. "That young woman looks like a handful. You'd better keep an eye on your husband." Juliet beams. "Don't worry. Caspian doesn't even waver when I tease him. There's no way he'd be interested in that delicate little thing." Yet in just a few days, she finds out just how wrong she is.

Eliza Rivers comes back from her vacation trip and accidentally hits someone with her car. Right from the start, Eliza had not been in a good mood, and it only seemed to worsen after the accident. Deciding to take him back to her house to treat him, she realizes she didn’t just hit her car on anyone, she hit the billionaire Kael Blackthorn. She knew him, or she only knew what little the internet knew. Amongst other eligible bachelor, Kael was the most reserved one amongst them. “You don’t have to pay me.” “I am not.” Kael’s voice was steady and calm, a contrast to Eliza shaken ones. “You should leave.” Eliza’s knew she shouldn’t get involved with him, at all. She had just met him a couple of days ago, and he was already making her feel so sort of way. “You feel it too. Don’t you?” “I don’t. I really don’t”

Every day, I am abused, tortured at the hands of the monster of an Alpha we have. Sophia had been an orphanage ever since she could remember. Both of her parents had died in an accident, but Sophia had never believed this. She counted down the days until she could leave this god-awful pack. Alpha Cyrus was handing over the pack to his son, who was coming of age. It means that he is the new Alpha in training, and you guessed it that means daily torturing by him as well. The beatings were getting worse as the days go by. I swear they are going to kill me before I can get out of this hellhole. I am close to getting my wolf and finding my mate. But I feel I am too weak to get a wolf. The Moon Goddess doesn’t like me. It is like she had turned a blind eye to what happens to me. So I decided a long time ago that I was going to be in charge of my own fate. If my mate was in this pack, would I really be able to reject them? Could I survive as a rogue? I had no other choice if I wanted to stay alive? The only thing that was keeping me going was the idea of revenge on that Alpha and his son. What happens when Sophia becomes of age? Can she really bring herself to reject her own mate from the pack that has never stuck up for her, abusing her on a daily basis? Will she be able to find out who killed her parents, leaving her as an orphan? Is she too hell bent on revenge that she becomes the very monster that she has sort out to kill?

They say Don Julian Marconi would burn the world for one tear of mine. Five years ago, at the Met Gala, he spent millions to hang emeralds around my neck and swore I was his Madonna. Five years later, beneath the velvet boxes of our anniversary, I found a lace strap soaked in sin—and a fresh, crimson smear on his collar that told me exactly whose bed he’d left. I smiled. I asked him to sign a blank sheet of paper. And that meant he was agreeing to whatever I wanted. He called it love. I called it the death warrant for his empire. In fifteen days, I finalized our divorce papers. I boarded the Stella d’Oro as Serena Cole and burned Celeste Marconi to ash on the deck. Then I vanished with his fortune, his power and the one secret that would destroy him. I was the saint he worshipped. Now I am the ghost who haunts him. No groveling. No forgiveness. No second chance. Just ashes.

Three years ago, my husband’s brother took a bullet for him. So Gwen brought his brother's widow, Eliza, into our home. I was the Donna in name only. I had to step aside for Eliza in everything. Once, Eliza faked slitting her wrists. She said I drove her to it. Gwen grabbed my throat. Murder flashed in his eyes. "Get out. The Falcone family has no place for a venomous bitch like you." He gave her the family's art foundation to "make it up to her." It was supposed to be mine. This time, I said nothing. He was signing a stack of business contracts. I just slipped the divorce papers in with them. A few days later, he noticed I wasn't home. He searched all over Chicago. He couldn't find me. That's when he saw the divorce decree. He finally understood. I was gone. For good. That day, the untouchable king of the Chicago Outfit… shattered.

George Quinn brought his childhood sweetheart and their illegitimate son home. He said it was just a drunken mistake from seven years ago, and now he just wanted to make things right. Covering the boy's ears, he whispered to me, "Lucas is sensitive. Just say Emma is adopted to avoid upsetting him. Lily has struggled to raise him alone, and I owe her a proper title. In a few days, let's head to the courthouse for a divorce, but our daily life won't change." I didn't argue or fight. After enduring heartbreak and finalizing the divorce, I packed my things and left with my daughter. The butler urged George to persuade me to stay, but George dismissed him. "She is nearly 40 with a child in tow. Does she think another man will want her?" What he didn't know was that my long-lost first love came back last month. The man was still single, waiting for me all these years.

Before heading out on her undercover mission, my daughter Anna Stone left me a farewell letter. My husband, Wayne Stone, who adores her, reads it and immediately posts her photo on Instagram. His caption reads, "I heard Anna's on a mission. Let's see how many drug dens she'll take down this time." Anna's devoted husband, Gabriel Morrison, barely glances at the letter before dropping her exact location online. Anna's twin brother, Casper Stone, has always been inseparable from her. However, after reading the letter, he goes straight to the drug dealers and brings them to her. Anna's cover is blown, the mission fails, and all 37 officers are wiped out without a trace. I collapse in despair, lashing out at them with desperate questions, only to be bound and sent to Mirewick, a notorious criminal den. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back on the day Anna sets out on her mission.

To everyone else, I'm the wife of Stefano Pace, the man who runs this city's underworld. To others, I am living the kind of luxury every woman in town envies. But what no one knows is that in three days, I'm leaving my husband for good. It started when I took Stefano's car to wash and spotted a black stocking that wasn't mine wedged in the passenger seat cushions. It was balled up and still reeked of sickly sweet perfume. The sight of it was like a knife to the heart. I knew that perfume. It is Isla Torelli's. She's Stefano's underboss, the only woman besides me who's ever taken the passenger seat. My hand trembled as I gripped the stocking, but I kept my cool. I thought back to our wedding seven years ago, when Stefano stood in front of the whole family and vowed, "If I ever betray you, then betray me a hundredfold!" He probably did not think those words would come true.

Adelaide has been scorned by her father since the day she was born, destined to be cared for and raised by a servant, far from the comforts of her family. When her sister Nadia elopes with her lover just two days before her wedding to the billionaire Egil Arrabal, their father forces Adelaide to fulfill the commitment made fifteen years ago with that ruthless and arrogant CEO she has heard about all her life. Sentenced to become the substitute wife of the eldest son of the Arrabal family, Adelaide steps into an uncertain future where death, betrayal, and revenge will test her resilience. Will she manage to escape unscathed from the clutches of this man? What must she do to pay for her sister's elopement and prevent the downfall of her family's name? **This is a translation of the novel in Spanish titled "La esposa sustituta del CEO." If you find any mistakes, I hope you'll forgive me; I will be constantly working to improve and provide more engaging work. Thank you very much.