All He Did Was Step Back

Four years of loving Marchello Enzo taught me one thing— it was finally time to let him go. He was the Don of the Marchello mafia empire. And I was supposed to become his Donna—his partner, his equal, the woman who stood at his side. But the moment his childhood sweetheart returned, radiant and adored, I understood something painfully simple: The title of Donna was never meant for me. It belonged to her. So before I walked away, I made three quiet decisions— First, I tossed the wedding ring he believed I treasured, and altered my million-dollar wedding dress to the measurements of the woman who had always held his heart. Second, I packed every extravagant gift he had ever given me—and donated them all to charity. They had once felt like proof of love; now they were nothing but proof of my foolishness. Third,I reclaimed a position I once abandoned for him—one I had turned down twice because he wanted me at his side. This time, I chose myself. My work. My life. A path that did not depend on his promises. On the day of his wedding, when he lifted the bride’s veil and realized it wasn’t me… the ruler of a billion-dollar underworld empire shattered. He tore the city apart looking for me— But he never found me. Because by then, I was already thousands of miles away, buried in my work, building the life he never believed I’d choose. I held the one secret he never imagined he’d lose: our child.

I was a genius alchemist, but my mate, Alpha Clark, engineered my failure 99 times, shattering my reputation. He siphoned my very soul 99 times to gift it to another she-wolf, Layla, molding her into the Alchemy Master I was meant to be. He claimed Layla was his savior, that he owed her his life. It wasn't until I uncovered his betrayal and severed our bond that he learned the truth: I was the one who had saved him. Those scars on my back—the ones he scorned? They were the price I paid for his life. After I walked away, he knelt for 99 days, begging for me to return. But some betrayals can never be forgiven.

Alyssa Taylor kept her true identity a secret during her marriage to Jasper Beckett. She thought her burning passion would warm his stone-cold heart, but after three years as promised, all he gives her is a divorce agreement. Disappointed, Alyssa goes through with the divorce and goes back to being the scion of the wealthy Taylor family.Not only is she filthy rich, but she’s also a skilled doctor, elite hacker, and champion fencer. At an auction, she spends money like water to embarrass the other woman who ruined her marriage, and in the business world, she snaps up all of her ex-husband’s deals. Stunned, Jasper questions her, “Alyssa, do you have to be so ruthless?” In answer, she only smiles and says, “This is nothing but a tiny fraction of what you did to me before!”

For our third anniversary, my boyfriend claimed he wanted to 'broaden my horizons'. However, he was just waiting for me to step into the restroom from the moment we arrived. He immediately shredded my passport and every piece of identification I owned. Before I could even comprehend what he had done, he dragged me into an underground casino. He strutted in like he belonged there, greeting everyone along the way. "This one's premium, fresh from studying abroad!" I blinked at the massive men closing in on me. The black rose tattoos on their arms… They looked like the insignias of the Lyon family, the mafia syndicate led by my ex-fiancé, who was also their newly crowned Godfather. He once loved me obsessively, pursued me for eight years, and nearly forced me into marriage under the weight of his family's power. It took everything I had to escape that life back then. What just happened? One vacation, and I somehow landed right back into their hands?

The book is the first-person account of a young biracial Mexican and African American woman, Evelyn Rosalyn Amiss. She repeatedly transports in time between her home in Texas and then Newark, New Jersey to different time periods. She meets and helps some of her ancestors along the way. This is my first journey into a fantasy, time travel novel. I hope you stick around for each riveting, historical and spicy page turner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living, or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Vera thought she had it all. The fancy life, a loving husband, a place she could proudly call home. But it turned into a nightmare when her husband’s HER returned. She came to her breaking point after her darling husband, Anthony publicly humiliated her, threatening to jail her for confronting his mistress disguised as his business partner. Done with her husband’s excesses, she opted for divorce but Anthony taking advantage of her poor status, threatened her to stay for his benefits. Except that life opened an astounding chapter for Vera when she discovered she’s the lost daughter of the richest family in metropolis. Not only did she become the youngest of the five most powerful men in the city, they doted and swore protection to her. Now wielding so much power, Vera becomes the only link for Anthony to win the billion dollar deal with the Hudson’s which he had longed for. With tables turned, guess who knelt before Vera begging? But what makes this drama more interesting is that decisions don’t solely rest on Vera’s shoulders but Anthony has to confront her overprotective brothers who swore to ruin him for hurting their sister.

After seven years of being mates with Alpha David Jones, he secretly cheats on one she-wolf after another from the Nighthowl pack. When I'm pregnant and almost due for labor, his secret lover offends the Alpha of Wildrift pack. To prevent a battle between the packs, David wants me to get to my knees before Wildrift pack's Alpha and beg for forgiveness. I refuse, afraid that it'll hurt the child. He snaps, "How can getting on your knees affect the child? We can just have another one if you have a miscarriage!" He drags me to the Alpha of Wildrift pack and forces me onto my knees. Then, he tells me to beg for forgiveness. My water breaks just then. David's lover, Sarah Lloyd, merely laughs mockingly. "Look at her, so scared that she's wet herself!" That night, I suffer from a difficult labor, almost losing my life. Meanwhile, the news of David heroically storming the Wildrift pack's territory to save Sarah spreads throughout the pack. I'm calm when David's mother, Celine Anderson, hurries to my bedside. "You promised I could leave after giving birth to an heir. Can I go now?"

She gave him her youth, her loyalty, her heart……only to be betrayed in the cruelest way. Adrian paraded his mistress and their daughter before the world while Serena, carrying his child, was left broken and forgotten. Even her own son was turned against her, calling another woman “Mommy” as if she never existed. Years later, the woman they all discarded returns. No longer weak, Serena is now the dazzling force behind a global empire. Her ex-husband burns with obsession, the mistress grows desperate to destroy her, and the child she lost to lies begins to see the truth. “Why now?” Adrian demands, eyes dark with desire. Serena’s gaze is cold, her smile sharper than glass. “Because this time, I belong to no one… not even you.” Her rise will be their ruin — and her revenge will be unforgettable.

My boyfriend, Victor Pearson, was ranked number one in the world in horror games. Meanwhile, I was secretly working part-time as a monster NPC inside one of those dungeons. Every dungeon he cleared was SSS rank, whereas the one I worked in was the beginner level. We were never supposed to run into each other… until he nearly wiped out all the monsters in an SSS dungeon. The system pulled me in at the last second as emergency backup. When I tried to scare players with my awful acting, the live chat tore me apart. [Hahaha, since when did the monsters in this dungeon get so cowardly? She’s supposed to scare us, but we actually scared her instead.] [This is next-level dumb. Getting lost in a dungeon is embarrassing. Is this monster here for comic relief?] [Poor thing. She'd better hide. Anyone else might let her go, but if she runs into Big V, she's dead before she knows it.] [Come on. Big V only hunts the nastiest bosses. He wouldn’t even bother with trash like that. She would probably scare herself to death first.] I did everything I could to avoid Victor, to keep him from realizing I was the monster working there. But somehow, I stumbled right into him anyway. The chat exploded, waiting for my instant death. After all, he was a legend on the leaderboards, a god among players. But instead of killing me, he bent down and gently pinched my cheek. "Hey, babe. How many players do you wanna take out? I'll help you." The people in the chat lost their minds. [What the hell?!]

By our sixth year of marriage, Derrick hadn't touched me in three months. Said he was swamped at work. Always tired. After everything, I still believed him. Then on my birthday, I caught his friend talking in Garmenian—a language Derrick didn't think I understood. "You cut off the side piece yet? You were with her nonstop. Surprised you didn't drop dead. Your wife cool with that?" Derrick let out a smoke ring. "Haven't touched Audrey in months. Sabrina's insane in bed—I'm not over her yet. Sucks she got pregnant. Audrey doesn't want kids, so I gave Sabrina some cash. She'll have the baby overseas." My hands curled into fists. Silent tears streamed down my face. He glanced over, nervous. "What's wrong?" I smiled. "The cake you made is amazing. I'm really touched." It was sweet—but when you understand Garmenian, all you taste is betrayal.