After Reading Novels & Stories

Debt collectors showed up at our doorstep when my mother's company went bankrupt. They said they would break one of my mom's legs if the money was not repaid within three days. I swallowed my pride and went to my girlfriend Jasmine, who had a net worth of over a hundred million dollars. I begged her to lend me $500,000 to get my family through this crisis. It was the first time I had ever asked her for money. She frowned but still agreed, saying she would have her finance department transfer it to me that afternoon. I waited by my phone, refreshing my bank balance over and over, from daylight until nightfall. However, she suddenly went completely silent, ignoring my calls and messages. Anxious and restless, I tried to comfort myself, telling myself she might just be busy with something urgent. Still, saving my mom's leg could not wait. In the end, I had no choice but to take the watch my father left me before he died and bring it to an auction. I did not expect to run into Jasmine at the auction house with her childhood sweetheart, Lionel. She was spending money like it meant nothing, bidding on an expensive painting for him. The final price of that painting was exactly $500,000. She had not forgotten about me. It was just that my desperate emergency meant less to her than the man she truly cared about.

After a tragic accident left Emily Yates without her memories, she fell in love with her savior, Justin Yates, unaware that he was hiding the truth and using her as a stand-in for his first love. For three long years, Emily poured everything into the relationship, hoping he would love her back. But on the day Justin proposed, he held his "one true love" in his arms and left Emily stranded on a foreign street, still expecting her to remain his secret mistress. Emily decided she would no longer be his stand-in. She ripped up the contract, kicked Justin out of her life, and hid her pregnancy before faking her death. When word of her death reached Justin, his world shattered. He fell gravely ill, barely clinging to life. Five years later, they crossed paths again. Emily had risen to fame as a renowned painter and jewelry designer, while Justin had swallowed his pride, now shamelessly chasing after her. “Emily, I know I messed up. Please, don’t leave me,” he begged, desperation in his voice. “Emily, can’t you just look at me, not other men? “Emily, I’ll be your model. Come over tonight and paint me, please? “Emily… Emily… My wife…” Emily’s fury boiled over. “Get lost! Who said I was your wife?” But Justin clung to her, refusing to let go, acting shamelessly. “I don’t care. You promised to marry me before, so that makes you my wife. “I don’t care! I don’t care!” he repeated.

Katherine has to marry before twenty eight to inherit her mothers company. Days before the wedding she finds her fiancé with her stepsister. She walks out, drinks, and crosses paths with the low key CEO, Cade Lawson, a man she mistakes for a gigolo. In that haze she signs a marriage certificate with him without knowing. Now she wakes up tied to a powerful CEO and pushed closer to the first love she thought she lost.

My dad, Frank Stanford, was an Alpha. I, Lana Stanford, was his only daughter. The year I turned eighteen, he told me to choose a mate from the nine werewolf warriors he had taken in. I avoided Simon Eaton, the one I used to be obsessed with. In my previous life, I was kidnapped by rogues on the very day of my marking ceremony. When they drove silver nails soaked in wolfsbane through my palms, I endured the agony and sent a desperate plea through our mind link. “Simon, help me.” All I got back was his cold response. “Lana Stanford, are you done yet? Is this another lame trick of yours? “You actually hurt yourself just to get me to come see you? You're disgusting.” I closed my eyes in despair. As the silver cage sank into the frozen lake, icy water filled my lungs. My wolf let out a final, broken cry and died with me. When I woke up again, I'd returned to the day my dad asked me to choose a mate. This time, the very first thing I did was cross Simon’s name off the list. Later, he stood in front of me with tearful eyes and asked why I hadn’t chosen him. I didn’t answer. I just looked at him strangely. “Simon, this time, I did exactly what you wanted. Why are you crying again?”

When I'm paying the pension for my jobless wife, Lilith Ingram, I accidentally find out that she's had a job this whole time. She's paid a salary of two thousand dollars, which is wired into her personal bank account. Every month, the money will be transferred elsewhere, leaving her without a single cent. I've never seen the money before. Back when our daughter, Maisy Ingram, was severely ill, we were 200 dollars short to pay for her hospital bills. I was so poor that I had to sell my blood and beg everyone around me just to get them to lend me money. But during that time, Lilith never thought of sharing the burden with me. She merely comforted me with empty words before transferring two thousand dollars to her first love, Hayden Grant, the next day. Our marriage of 30 years is reduced to nothing but a laughingstock. I place the divorce agreement that I've printed out in front of Lilith. It's a silent confrontation between us. "Must you really resort to this method?" Lilith snaps impatiently. "It's just two thousand dollars! You have an annual salary of 200 thousand dollars! Why care so much about chum change?" Even Maisy takes her side by calling me a petty, stingy geezer. "Everyone has an unattainable first love when they're still young! You should be grateful that Hayden has been holding back his urges without crossing the line for so many years!" I feel as though I got struck by lightning at that moment. It's then that I belatedly realize I'm the only outsider in this family. "Getting a divorce is fine by me. Hayden's getting on with the years. I just want to take care of him and send him off when his time eventually arrives." Maisy adapts a righteous tone. "As compensation for me, I get the house, the car, and the savings. You're leaving this marriage without a single cent under your name."

All because he believed I pushed Elena down the stairs out of jealousy. Six months ago, a rival family drugged Alexander. Elena saved him and got pregnant. Her family disowned her for it. "Ivy, why can't you just let her be?" Alexander choked me, disappointment and rage in his eyes. "She saved my life! I promised to send her away. Why be so vicious to an unborn child? If anything happens to them, I'll bury you with them." I didn't argue. I just planned an explosion. But when I vanished, the high-and-mighty Don went mad.

My sister Aurora and I mated to Alpha twins. Five months into my pregnancy, I was attacked by a group of rogue wolves. I reached my Alpha mate Alexander for help through mind-link. But he ignored me for nine times. The rogues circled me, biting at my arms and legs, drawing blood with each attack. Pain ripped through my body. With one last desperate cry, I reached out through our bond a tenth time. This time, Alexander's cold voice cut through my mind: "Have you acted enough? My sister Vicky has been kidnapped. Don't bother me anymore." Victoria was Alexander and Ethan’s stepsister, the one that they truly loved. With nothing to stop them now, the rogue wolves pounced on me. One tore open my stomach with his fangs, and I watched in horror as they ripped my unborn child to pieces. When I was almost died, Aurora found me and fought against the rogues. But there were too many. Soon Aurora was bitten and bleeding heavily beside me. She mind-linked her mate Ethan for help, but all she received was: "I'm looking for Vicky. Don't bother me." Aurora had no choice but to shift and drag me onto her wolf's back. She raced down the mountain, but a sudden thunderstorm caused a mudslide, trapping us. Fortunately, the border patrol guards found us, and both Aurora and I barely survived. When I woke up in the pack hospital, my first thought was simple: sever the mate bond.

I suffer from extreme mental illness. My sister, Ava Monroe, became a facial model to earn money for my expensive medical treatment. She was 5’3” tall but was noticed because of her beauty by a wealthy young man by the name of Dominic Pierce with a leg obsession. He imprisoned her. “This is the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen. If only your legs were a bit longer, I’d die with a smile.” Ava was forced to have leg-lengthening surgery. After the operation, her legs began to rot. Dominic found her disgusting and locked her in the basement. He tortured her until she died. I got kicked out of the mental health institute because I could not pay the medical fees. I found Dominic surrounded by beautiful women with long legs. “Those are the prettiest legs I’ve ever seen. If only your face were a little cuter, I’d die with a smile!” I pointed to the painting of Ava and scoffed, “What if I become her?”

You have been cheating on me?” I whispered as I stared at my husband who was shamelessly hugging my stepsister in my presence. He shrugged. “You don't call it cheating when I never saw you as my wife. Besides, you are barren.”  "I want a divorce." He blurted out coldly without looking at me. I gasped in shock, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces as tears fell down my cheeks. "You want a divorce after everything?" I choked out, "I gave you my love, my kidney, Liam. I risked my life for you. And you know...  you know I can’t conceive because of that surgery.” He didn’t flinch...  He didn’t even look guilty. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and said with cold finality, “And I gave you a luxury life you could never afford. I think that is enough compensation for whatever you think you have done for me.” His voice was ice, no emotion, no remorse. I pressed a hand to my chest as the pain tightened around my heart. God, He just reduced my sacrifices to a transaction… a trade for comfort. So after everything, that’s all I was to him? A debt he paid off with money? ***************************************************** Aliyah lost her womb after giving her kidney to save her husband’s life. Instead of gratitude, he mocked her, called her barren, cheated on her with her stepsister, and forced her to sign divorce papers in shame. But fate took a turn. Aliyah later married a powerful billionaire tycoon. Now, the very people who betrayed her are on their knees, begging for mercy. Will she forgive them or give them the taste of their own medicine?

I died five years ago. Now my husband, the Don of our Mafia family, wants me to take the fall for his sister again—this time for accidentally killing a British noble's heir during an arms deal. He's holding a fake confession letter with my forged signature, storming into my old apartment in the rust district, only to find it empty. Frustrated, he grabs the corner store owner downstairs, demanding to know where I am. The owner pauses, wiping his hands on his apron, calmly tells him: "Serafine? She died five years ago." "Heard it was retaliation from a rival family during the gang war. They ambushed her in an alley... shot her over a dozen times. She died immediately." My husband, Lucien, refuses to believe it. Convinced the owner is on my payroll, hiding me to help me escape his reach. He scoffs, his eyes filled with scorn: "Oh, so what? Because I called her out for messing up that last job, now she's throwing a tantrum?" "You tell her, if she doesn't come back and take the fall in three days, I'll revoke her grandmother's 'special family protection'! Let the old woman rot!" With that, he storms out, his rage still simmering. The owner watches him leave and sighs, shaking his head. "There's no grandmother left to protect... That woman passed away not long after Serafine did... couldn't survive the winter without our family's medical supplies and protection..."