After Hours Books Novels & Stories

When I was born, the nurse handed me over to my parents, and the smiles on their faces instantly vanished. Hovering over their son's smooth head was a line of numbers that no one else could see. 6570 days. It was exactly 18 years. Not a day more, not a day less. The nurse thought they were just nervous first-time parents, but my parents knew the truth. That number was my lifespan. While everyone else in the delivery room was celebrating a new life, my parents were staring at my death. For the next 18 years, I was the most precious person in the family. No matter how poor we were, the eggs were always mine, the new clothes were always mine, and the meat was always mine. My younger sister could only look on enviously. My parents often told her, "Let your brother have it. He doesn't have much time left." I was well-behaved from a young age, never causing trouble, quietly waiting to die. On my 18th birthday, I blew out the candles and said a sincere goodbye to the world. The next day, my parents and sister, dressed in black clothes, walked into my room with swollen eyes. I rubbed my eyes, smiled at them, and said, "Good morning." The air froze. The sadness on their faces slowly turned into astonishment, then coldness.

Hope Carter is a quiet, good-natured journalist who lives with her sister, Julie. They have lived together and alone for many years, Hope always does her best to help her sister. Her life is turned upside down when she has the opportunity to interview one of the country's biggest criminals, Castiel Reed. But, something goes wrong, and she finds herself in a big mess, she will have to be the person she never thought she would be to protect her lovely sister tooth and nail.

Jordan Elaine believed marriage was meant to feel safe. 💍 Married to Jay Johnson and a brilliant, high-profile corporate defense attorney ⚖️ whose reputation is built on control, precision, and protecting powerful secrets, and she thought stability was the reward for loving a man who never lost. But somewhere between Jay’s late nights 🌙, ironclad silences 🤐, and emotional distance, Jordan begins to vanish inside her own life. When Jay’s longtime best friend, Calloway Rhys, returns after years away, Jordan finds something she hasn’t felt in a long time: seen 👀. Heard 💬. Valued 💖. What begins as quiet conversations and shared loneliness slowly becomes an emotional lifeline, and then a single, devastating mistake 💔. The affair shatters a marriage, destroys a lifelong friendship, and leaves Jordan carrying the blame for a betrayal everyone is eager to simplify. Jay walks away untouched 🧊. Calloway disappears 🚪. Jordan is left to rebuild herself from shame 😞, grief 🩸, and the wreckage of loving the wrong men. Years later, the past resurfaces with a truth far darker than the affair itself 🕷️. Jordan uncovers a secret buried beneath Jay’s polished career, and one that reveals her heartbreak was never accidental ⚠️, and that manipulation, not love, shaped her marriage from the start. Forced to confront the men who broke her, Jordan must finally decide who she will be without. Forgiveness 🤍. Love 💞. Or freedom ✨. This time, the choice is hers. And sometimes, the greatest love story begins only after you walk away 🚶‍♀️🌅.

Alia becomes a single mother of twins at the age of 18 after a one night stand with a mysterious transfer student she never meets again and has no memory of . When she turns 25 , her family decides to marry her off to Drew Jacobs , A business partner who sees the marriage as one of duty because of his father’s close relationship with Alia’s Alia is separated from her kids to be Drew’s wife and she tries her best to please him so he can accept her kids as his and she gets to live together with them again but Drew makes her life, her plan and even the marriage unbearable. He treats her like she is invisible ,he only plays husband in public but in private , she’s like a furniture in his house. It gets worse when a mysterious woman from his past comes to the picture and after two years of trying to make the marriage work, he divorces Alia and Engages his lover Alia disappears for 365 days but after Drew makes a shocking discovery, He must find Alia and her twins and he wants her back but what if another man has met him to the game ?

Adeline has been betrayed by the man who vowed his loyalty to her. The woman he betrayed her with was someone she would have never expected. After everything she has been through she vowed to never love again. Until she meets her mate. Who just happens to be her husband's enemy.

"Some loves are written in the stars. Others are carved in sin." Sophia Chen never met her stepfather; she was too busy living her dream abroad to attend her mother's wedding. Two years later she returns home exhausted and broken from a failed relationship, the man who opens the door isn't just her mother's husband. He's everything she never knew she needed. Marcus Reid is hot, tall, intelligent, and trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman who sees him as nothing more than a convenience. The moment he meets Sophia, something shifts inside him, something dangerous, something he can never act on. For months, they orbit each other in agonizing silence. Late-night conversations. Stolen glances. A tension so thick it threatens to suffocate them both. Marcus struggles against thoughts that invade his most intimate moments with his wife, while Sophia battles a desire that grows stronger every day. Then Diane asks for a divorce. Six months later, they bump into each other again, no longer bound by marriage, no longer forbidden by law. Just two people who've denied a burning desire for too long. But freedom comes with a price. Because Diane didn't just leave Marcus for another man. She left because she knew. She'd watched them fall for each other in real time. She'd heard Marcus moan Sophia's name in their bed. And now that they're finally together, she's going to make sure they pay for every stolen moment, every forbidden thought, every lie they told themselves. Some secrets destroy families. Some loves are worth the ruin.

When Elara Monroe flees a toxic entanglement with Damien Hale, the charming but deadly heir to a criminal empire. She believes she’s finally escaped the shadows that nearly ruined her life. But the past follows her to Los Angeles, where an unexpected protector steps from the darkness. Lucian Ward, Damien’s former right-hand man and the only person Damien fears. Lucian is cold, disciplined, and as dangerous as the man hunting her… yet he shields her with an intensity that steals her breath. What Elara doesn’t know is that Lucian once spilled blood to break free from Damien’s control and that secret ties him to her in ways neither of them can outrun. As Damien closes in, the city becomes a battleground of hidden motives and forbidden longing. Elara must choose between the man who destroyed her and the man who might destroy everything else to keep her safe. But when the truth finally surfaces, she learns love may not be what saves her. It may be the very thing that kills her.

After being disowned and thrown like a trash by her father when she got pregnant by a stranger, Celeste, the perfect daughter and the Yuchengco princess, finds herself in a difficult situation whether to abort her baby or continue her pregnancy with nothing. No money, house, food, or support from her family. But after 6 years, a new Celeste Koa came back to the Yuchengco family. Not as a daughter, but as the biggest enemy of her former family, with the secret child of the conglomerate son of the most powerful family, the Rioflorida.

"I know I don’t deserve a second chance. I know I’ve hurt you in the cruelest way. But I regret it, truly regret it. I've spent five years searching for you, hoping to atone for my mistakes. I... I still love you." My heart raced. Part of me wanted to believe him, wanted to surrender to the words I had longed for. But I couldn’t just forget how he had shattered me. "Love?" I let out a small laugh. "You’re talking about love after what you did to me? After you made me feel like nothing more than a replacement? I’ve moved past the days when I cried over you, when I questioned my self-worth just because you chose another woman. You want me back? But what if one day you find another reason to leave me?" "No!"

Olivia Fordham was married to Ethan Miller for three years, but that time could not compare with the ten years he spent loving his first love, Marina Carlton. On the day that she gets diagnosed with stomach cancer, Ethan happens to be accompanying Marina to her children's health check-up. She doesn't make any kind of fuss, only leaving quietly with the divorce agreement. However, this attracts an even more fervent retribution. It seems Ethan only ever married Olivia to take revenge for what happened to his little sister. While Olivia is plagued by her sickness, he holds her chin and says coldly, "This is what your family owes me." Now, she has no family and no future. Her father becomes comatose after a car accident, leaving her with nothing to live for. Thus, she hurls herself from a building. "The life my family owes will now be repaid." At this, Ethan, who's usually calm, panics while begging for Olivia to come back as if he's in a state of frenzy …