And Then She Was Gone Novels & Stories

"Where's Donna? Is she asleep?" "My Don... Donna Seraphina has been gone for three days. She told me to give you this." Seraphina Reed. The day I found out I was pregnant, my Mafia husband, Lorenzo, declared in front of the city's elite that our marriage was nothing but my "calculated scheme." I waited anxiously and helplessly for his explanation, but only received a taunting message from his secretary, Victoria. "Your husband isn't coming home tonight. Do you know why?" "Because he's with me, handling some… private business." At that moment, loving him so deeply I would have given him everything, I felt like the world's biggest joke. It turned out everyone thought I married him for money. They bet I would break, they bet I would cry, I would kneel and beg for a scrap of his love. But I didn't. I simply went back to the room, took off my wedding ring, and sealed it in an envelope along with my pregnancy report. Then, I left the cage that had trapped me for ten years. Later, he went crazy looking for me. He turned over every port, locked down every airport, and mobilized the entire family's power. He offered up everything he had, just to beg for my love.

Three years into a contract marriage, Elena Voss had made peace with the truth: Adrian would never truly choose her. So when Vivian returned — beautiful, ambitious, and everything Elena feared — and Adrian carried that woman to the hospital while Elena quietly dressed her own burns alone, Elena made a decision. She would be the one to walk away first. She signed the divorce papers. Gave up nearly everything. Booked a flight to somewhere Adrian would never find her. She never made it to the airport. When Elena wakes up, she doesn't know her name, her past, or the man who has apparently been tearing apart an entire city looking for her. What she does know is the tiny heartbeat she's carrying, the worn tan line on her ring finger, and the damaged document in her bag that tells her she once fled an unhappy marriage to protect her child. Five years later, Elena renamed Aria is a celebrated musician on a national tour, a mother to a little boy who asks for a father with heartbreaking persistence, and almost a wife. Julian's ring is on her finger. The wedding date is set. Her life, rebuilt from nothing, is finally whole. Then the tour brings her to Adrian's city. He sees her across a crowded room and loses every rational thought he has. She looks at him the way you look at a stranger and it nearly breaks him. Because Adrian has spent five years believing she was dead. He has spent five years knowing, too late, that he loved her. And now she is here, wearing another man's engagement ring, raising a child who has his eyes, and she does not remember him at all. He acts like a man losing his mind. He probably is.

In the Philippines, there is a well-known and commonly practiced superstitious belief called pagpag, loosely translated as "to dust-off." One should never go home directly after visiting a wake or a funeral, because the ghost of the deceased might latch on and cause hauntings or attract evil. Now, where can Filipinos pagpag and lead spirits astray? It could be anywhere: a restaurant, a mall, that house down the street where your toxic ex lives… but usually, people opt for 7-Eleven convenience stores and nobody knows why. Follow the story of Akira Basilio: a part-time staff who mans the Luntian Street 7-Eleven on Thursday and Friday nights, which sounds completely normal; except Akira had the ability to communicate with the dead. She maintained a quiet life by keeping her sixth sense a secret from both the living and the departed, until a particularly persistent spirit flips everything into chaos when he entangles Akira in a hunt for a murderer.

After dating him for five years, my boyfriend, Jayden Porter, sends me 10 dollars. He asks me to buy our future matrimonial home with that money. That same day, he transfers 3 million dollars to his dream girl, Lina Doux, to buy her a grand detached villa in Centralis. I decided to break up with him out of frustration, but he accuses me of being greedy for money. "Your house is still livable, so why buy another one? When did you become such a gold digger?" "Lina and I are childhood friends, so what's wrong with me giving her money? "On the other hand, you're scheming to get your hands on my wealth despite us not being married yet. I'm so disappointed in you!" He turns around and proposes to Lina. Six years later, we encounter each other again in the werewolf kingdom based in Centralis—the Darkmoon Kingdom. He's about to become Centralis' Beta. Lina is by his side, wearing a haute couture dress. When he sees me covered in mud and rummaging through trash, he mocks me with disgust, "You looked down on 10 dollars back then, Emily Everhart, but now you're digging through trash cans like a beggar. "Do you think you'll be able to earn money by selling scraps? Even if you put on a sorry act in front of me, I won't show you any pity!" I glance coldly at him and continue to search for my pup's favorite ring. I had unknowingly discarded it like common trash. My pup, Cassidy Holstrom, is incredibly upset about it. As such, I have to find it quickly to cheer her up.

When Lily Rosenfelt is eight months pregnant, Zeke Connolly brings home the woman he truly loves—Sophie Cruz, who's also eight months along. To give Sophie and the baby the recognition they deserve, he goes public with a statement saying that he and Lily are already divorced and that he'll be marrying Sophie soon. Thinking Lily is still blind, Zeke tricks her into signing the divorce papers. He even sleeps with Sophie in his own villa. What he doesn't know is that Lily has long regained her sight. When she and Sophie fall down the stairs together and Zeke, without a moment's hesitation, chooses Sophie, something in Lily breaks. She buries her love for him along with their child. It's not until she's truly gone that Zeke starts to panic.

I had once been the woman Theo Bennett would have risked his life to marry. For six years after our wedding, he treated me like his entire world. He even had a matching tattoo carved into his lower abdomen, identical to mine, as proof of his devotion. But in the seventh year, he coldly demanded that I make a full-body model for his kept woman. "Catherine," he said, his voice sharp with contempt, "this is the price you pay for lying to me about being my savior. You know my tastes better than anyone. Make sure you replicate Hannah's body temperature. She's pregnant. I don't want to hurt her." Hannah Moore lay limp in Theo's arms, laughing so hard her shoulders shook. "How pathetic, Catherine," she mocked. "I'm pregnant, so I can't be with Theo. And yet he'd rather order a model of me than lay a finger on you. Once this one wears out, I guess I'll have to trouble you to make a few more copies of me." Only then did I understand. Theo had mistaken Hannah for the woman who once saved his life. I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I didn't argue. I simply turned around and dialed Sebastian's number. "Sebastian," I said calmly, "Theo is having an affair. I want a divorce."

After a massacre of her entire pack, an endangered and rare wolf finds herself saved from her foes by her new mate and his pack. Broken treaties, immortal blood, sacrifice, star-crossed romance, enemy-to-lover-to-enemy and the rise of a goddess wolf. All these things await Roman Yaga, a sun wolf as the new luna of the Traga pack.

Two students who are known to be the most mischievous students of their school, who are well known for their fights with each other, pranking each other or teasing each other that is until fifth standard when one of the student leaves. After six years they meet again, he has changed, she has changed, has their hatred for each other changed? Or will new feelings start blooming when they realize they attend the same college, will his friends become hers? Or hers his?

I worked in bottle service at a nightclub for four years just to support my boyfriend. His startup business failed. He told me he owed a fortune to loan sharks, saying that they would cut off his fingers if he failed to pay up. I gave him every dollar I had saved just to help him clear off his debt. I even gave him the emerald bracelet my mother had left me before she passed away. That night, I unintentionally overheard a conversation from one of the private rooms while I was working. "Preston, your girlfriend never would have given you that bracelet she had been hiding if Mia hadn't suggested we pretend to be debt collectors and assist you with this little show." Preston Hale laughed smugly before draining the drink in his glass. "It's just an old bracelet. Mia liked it, so I gave it to her." Then, he leaned back and added, "Now, help me think of another way to test Nora." So that was the truth. The love I dedicated for four years was just a test to him. The loan sharks, debt, fear, and desperation—he had orchestrated it all. I turned, walking out on him and out of the nightclub. Then, I reached out to my older brother, Adrian Whitmore, with whom I had been fighting for years. "Adrian," I told him, "I lost. I'll marry the man you arranged for me to meet."

"I am sorry but I'm not interested in playing this game in disguise of a marriage, I think we should make our relationship open." He suggested, his voice firm and cold. Lilith was love struck, determined not to marry anyone else but him; but he had other plans in mind. After getting married and taking her property, he proposed an open relationship despite knowing of her feelings for him and after months of resistance, this time she agrees. She meets with her brother's best friends and forms a relationship with the two, but she doesn't know what was in store for her. Lilith is thrown into the world of the duo, filled with danger, affection and mysteries. She struggles to heal her self from her husband, at the same time plotting a revenge that would weaken him for life. How will Lilith get her revenge? And which turn would her relationship take? Stay tuned to find out.