A Thorn That Pierces Me

The stock remained in the warehouse for two months. The final payment due date arrived, but the company’s finance department was still unwilling to make the payment. I followed up numerous times, and the finance director finally got sick of me. “Our capital is all currently invested in wealth management products. If we liquidate it all, we’d lose four hundred dollars a day! Who then would bear the loss of the company? “Tell them to put it on our tab. We’ll immediately pay it once the investments mature!” I patiently explained that the supplier was not willing to accept any delayed payments. They would only hand us the stock once they received the money. She sized me up for a moment. “Women in sales are basically escorts! Just play coy with the supplier, and they would give you the stock! Why are you pretending to be better than that?” I was stunned. Left without a choice, I mortgaged my new house. The stock was worth four million dollars. I would be able to double the profit once I sold that off.

My husband, Tyler Stone, has been dead for seven years. One day, he suddenly comes back to life. Not only does he bring another woman home with him, but he even wants me to give up my position as his wife. "Ruth almost lost her eyes saving me, and I've promised to marry her. Sign the divorce agreement, and I won't kick you out of the house." I'm briefly silent before saying, "I've actually married someone else." He rolls his eyes. "As if. Everyone knows you're desperately in love with me!"

Betrayed by the two people she loved most, her fiancé and her stepsister, Ella loses everything. Desperate and broken, she chooses death. But fate has other plans. Rescued against her will, Ella wakes up to a nightmare: her greedy foster parents have forced her into marriage with a crippled, disfigured man, Elion Copper. A man the world believes to be poor and unwanted. But Elion is no ordinary man. He is, in truth, the ruthless billionaire bachelor every woman in town secretly desires. Tired of fake love and gold-diggers, Elion hides behind a mask of scars and poverty to test if any woman can love him without his wealth. He is certain no one will ever agree, until Ella. To Elion, Ella’s acceptance feels like mockery. He believes she chose him willingly, and his pride turns into fury. Out of spite, he decides to "sell" her as a servant in his billionaire identity, without revealing that both men are one and the same. Now, Ella finds herself under the mercy of the cold and arrogant real Elion Copper, a man who humiliates her, torments her, and makes her question why life saved her at all. But the deeper the pain, the deeper the truth, the crippled husband, and the cruel master are one. When Ella finally discovers his secret, her world shatters again. Will she forgive the man who broke her beyond repair, or will she walk away even when he is ready to burn the world just to keep her by his side?

She was always the shadow. He was always chasing the light. Lavinia Hartwell had learned early that love was rarely for girls like her. She was the quiet one, the overlooked one—always second to her luminous best friend, Verity Langford. Even Henry Wynthorne, the boy whose compassion had unexpectedly caught her heart in high school, only had eyes for Verity. But years change people. Henry’s dreams of studying abroad collapsed with his father’s death. Verity left. Success became his only compass, and alcohol his only escape. And somehow, in the wreckage, there was Lavinia—never demanding, never judging, quietly holding him together in ways he never noticed… until she was gone. When an arranged engagement threatened to give her to him, Henry assumed she was being forced into it and set her free. Lavinia smiled, thanked him—and walked away, taking with her the steady presence he had taken for granted. Only then did Henry begin to notice the ache. The way her absence unsettled him. The way another man’s hand on her waist ignited a heat that was not anger, but something darker, sharper, and dangerously possessive. A single night blurred the lines forever—her lips on his, soft at first, then desperate, as though she’d loved him all her life. Desire flared, undeniable. But in the morning, she was gone again. Now, with Verity back and the past colliding with the present, Henry must face the truth: he no longer loves the woman he once chased. But has he realized too late who truly held his heart all along? Slow-burn, sensual, and laced with aching restraint, this is a story of unspoken devotion, of a man’s reluctant fall, and of the quiet girl who was never anyone’s first choice—until she became the only choice.

Raven Noir, a lethal assassin scarred by a decade-old rape, infiltrates billionaire Damien Blackwood’s elite nightclub empire as a masked dancer her cover to get close enough to torture and kill the man who unknowingly fathered her daughter. Damien, captivated by her icy control and commanding presence, pulls her deeper with lucrative nights and charged intimacy. But when he encounters her identical twin, the buried memories flood back. Mistaking the twin for his victim, guilt drives him to propose marriage. Devastated, Raven faces an impossible choice, expose the truth, seize her revenge, or let obsession destroy them all in a dark, slow-burn thriller of betrayal and forbidden desire.

Even though I've been with Eric Blackclaw, the heir to the Alpha title, for three years, he's still unwilling to mark me. Later, he falls in love at first sight with my stepsister, Layla Talbot. Thus, he begins courting her in a grand manner in the pack. This time, I no longer throw a tantrum, nor do I question Eric like I did before. Instead, I just burn all the gifts he's given me and rip my gown for our marking ceremony into shreds. On Eric's birthday, I leave Northpine Woods on my own. Before I board the private jet bound for another continent, Eric sends me a message via the mind-link. "Avril, why aren't you here yet? Everyone's waiting for you." I don't respond to Eric at all. This time, I just sever my mind-link with Eric. What he doesn't know is that I've already accepted Alpha Marcus Howler's mating proposal to me half a month ago. Once the private jet lands in the new territory located in Frosthill Mountains, Marcus and I will become mates with the Moon Goddess as our witness.

On my wedding day, my childhood friend, Finn Wheeler, kicked open the chapel doors with a whole crowd of his friends behind him. He announced that he wanted to take me away and marry me. However, we hadn’t even gone far when he suddenly let go of my hand. Then, he laughed nonchalantly and said, “Guys, I won again for the one hundredth bet. You lost. Pay up.” Only then did he turn back to look at me. “I was just joking,” he added lightly. “You didn’t actually believe me, did you? You can go back in and finish the ceremony.” Everyone laughed at how I’d pursued Finn for ten years and how I would do anything for him. However, neither Finn nor any of them knew that being taken from the altar was just one part of my wedding plan.

Three days after my death, Dominic Sharp receives a phone call asking him to identify my body. He has an arm wrapped around a woman's waist as he says indifferently, "I couldn't care less if she's dead. Call me once she's been cremated." My body is sent to the crematorium. After putting the ashes into an urn, an employee calls Dominic again. He clucks his tongue impatiently. "Alright, alright. I'll be there soon."

What does heartbreak bring to you? Depression, rage, desire to either kill yourself or ruin the person who put you through so much? My heartbreak brought all these negative emotions to me, but I refused to admit defeat. He doesn't want me; fine by me. I don't want him to, either. In fact, the whole world's happiness is for me. I want to show him that I can be happy without you, and that's what I did. To my dismay, he came back crawling to me, asking me for his forgiveness and to accept him again. What should I do now? Should I let him enter my life again or move forward when I have everything that he is offering me now?

My younger twin sister, Emma Lawson, is everyone's favorite because she is sickly. A snowstorm traps us on the mountain and the rescue helicopter arrives with room for only one more. I have terminal cancer and am ready to let Emma take my place. Then she suddenly clutches her head and cries that she feels dizzy. My whole family rushes to her side and together they push her into the cabin. My husband, Leon Ziegler, touches my fractured arm and says, "Sarah, you'll have to wait for the next helicopter." My daughter, Daria Ziegler, even throws a snowball at me. "Aunt Emma is sicker than you. Stop trying to take her spot." Only when the helicopter takes off do I see Emma pressed against the window, smugly sticking her tongue out. She has been lying the whole time. When I am finally rescued, the doctors tell me I have three days left to live. I decide to trade everything I own for a small piece of my family's affection.