Assumption Synonyms

Five years into marriage, Silvia Serra becomes both Dante Valenti's most lethal weapon and his most invisible presence. She shields him from bullets. She crosses a freezing river for him. Her scars accumulate, and his response is an assumption that it is how things are meant to be. In time, Dante grows repulsed by the violence clinging to her. He derides her lack of charm and gives his warmth to another woman instead. He allows others to grind down her dignity, and with a new lover in his arms, he openly stains her name. Silvia tolerates it so she can continue guarding him. Everyone mocks her as if she's numb to it all, driven away again and again, but never truly gone. Then comes the night of pounding rain. Cast aside without ceremony, Silvia erases every sign she was ever there and leaves with finality. Dante treats it as nothing more than sulking, convinced she will return within three days. Later, the once-untouchable Don was seen on his knees at Silvia's feet, stripped of all pride, begging her to turn back and look at him just once.

Derrick Caldwell once promised me that on the night of our pack's founding feast, he would announce that we'd been married for eight years. However, on the big day, his childhood friend, Lilith Sterling, takes my place. She sits beside him—the spot reserved for his Luna. The warriors say, "We heard you have a mate with whom you've been married for eight years, Alpha. Is this her?" Derrick smiles without denying it. He silently allows their assumption to stand. I want him to explain this to me, but he merely says, "You may have helped me become the Alpha, but your lowly birth is nothing compared to Lilith's noble status. As my mate, you need to be more tolerant." I don't argue with him. Instead, I turn and leave the pack he and I built together. Later, I start my own pack and turn it into the largest one in the federation. Derrick stands among the crowd during a ceremony where the Alpha King confers a medal of honor to me. He proudly tells anyone who will listen that I'm his wife. I act like I don't see him, and his eyes turn red with desperation.

Thalia Ruelle had always loved Mikael Vireaux but her love was never returned. The day she finally confessed her feelings, he broke her heart with gentle words… and the announcement that he was marrying her best friend, Alina Lowe. Still, Thalia stayed by their side, hiding her heartbreak behind a smile. Until the night everything shattered. Thalia visits Alina to congratulate her on the engagement. But instead of celebration, she’s met with anger and screaming until Alina throws her out. By morning, Alina went missing. Everything was a mess and everyone assumed she was dead. And the last person to see her was Thalia. When Kael returns from a business trip and learns of Alina’s death and the rumors surrounding it, he makes a chilling assumption that Thalia who was consumed by jealousy and rejection, murdered her best friend. As punishment, he does the unthinkable. He imprisons her in his own home. Now bound to him, Thalia lives beneath Kael’s cruelty. His coldness, his rage, his quiet vow to make her suffer. And yet… she never stops showing him kindness and her love. But when Kael finds out the truth of Alina's fake death, Thalia’s spirit has already fractured. To prove her innocence, her only choice was to take her own life. Will Kael realize the truth in time to save her? Or has his revenge already destroyed the only woman who ever truly loved him?

Three years of marriage. Three miscarriages. The day Stella Rowan lost her baby for the third time, Evan Wright was at the hospital with his sister-in-law, waiting for her to give birth to twins. When Stella walked out of the hospital, she finally made her decision. She handed her soon-to-be ex-husband a divorce agreement. “Let’s divorce. It’s for your own good.” “Divorce?” Evan scoffed. “You really think you can let go? And if you’re trying to hold on to me, don’t dress it up as doing me a favor. That fake concern is pathetic.” Stella just smiled. She didn’t argue. She turned and walked away. She really was doing it for his sake. After all, she’d found a new backer. Even though Evan sits atop Harbor City’s financial empire, he’s about to meet someone he can’t afford to cross. Once she cut ties with the past, Stella stopped pretending. One by one, her new identities came to light, leaving the Wright family completely stunned. Wasn’t she supposed to be the girl with no family backing, the easy target everyone bullied? A multinational CEO said, “Stella, get divorced already. I’ve waited long enough.” A financial tycoon declared, “Divorce. If you don’t, I’ll take the Wright family down.” An international lawyer smiled and said, “The divorce itself is easy. Stella, if you’d just look at me once, I’d have everything I need.” Evan had always believed Stella would never leave him. Not until the day he realized she had become someone far beyond his reach. In that moment, every assumption he’d ever made about her collapsed.