Before The Coffee Gets Cold Novels & Stories

In the tenth year of being held captive by Kevin Hemsworth, he lost his memory in a car accident. When he woke up and saw my bloated figure, he frowned in disgust. "Who are you?" Recalling his past threats, I was terrified this was just another test. So I told him the truth that I had been by his side all these years. He laughed sarcastically. "Don't joke around. You're not my type." Laura Powell, my friend who had secretly loved him for ten years, pointed at me and cursed, "Just because you look a little like me, you barged into Kevin's life and became his maid. Fine. But how dare you pretend to be his lover?" As punishment for lying, Laura had me dragged away from Kevin. She broke my hands and slashed my face. Lying on the ground and barely alive, I smiled at Kevin. For the past ten years, he never allowed me to escape, but he wouldn't let me die either. Now, I leaped off a cliff under his cold gaze. He wouldn't have my body even after I died.

The night before my wedding, I stumbled upon his old chat logs with his friends. "I've never met anyone so easy to fool." "You know she comes from a single-parent home, right? She’s desperate for love." "So, all I have to do is be a little nice to her, and she throws herself at me." I used to believed he had saved me from the depths of despair, but in the end, he played me for a fool. I thought I’d found love, but in the end, my sincerity was worth less than dirt.

**She thought she knew the man she loved. She was wrong about everything.** Vanessa Rodriguez's perfect life shatters in a single morning when she overhears her boyfriend Marcus discussing "loose ends" and how to "handle" her. The sweet daycare teacher who thought she was dating a banker suddenly finds herself running from a man she no longer recognizes—and straight into the arms of the most dangerous man in the city. **Alexander De Luca doesn't trust anyone. He can't afford to.** The ruthless mafia don has built an empire on fear and blood, but his six-month-old daughter Aria is his only weakness. When his longtime housekeeper can no longer care for the baby, Alexander needs a nanny he can trust. What he gets is a woman with secrets as dark as his own. **Some lies are worth dying for. Others are worth killing for.** When Marcus is gunned down in what appears to be a random mob hit, Vanessa has nowhere to turn except the penthouse of the man who just hired her. But as she settles into life caring for Aria, Alexander begins to suspect his new nanny isn't the innocent woman she appears to be. **In a world where trust is a luxury and love is a weapon, Vanessa and Alexander must decide what they're willing to sacrifice for the truth.** *Because some secrets are too dangerous to keep... and too deadly to tell.* --- *A dark mafia romance filled with betrayal, passion, and the kind of love that's worth going to war for.*

On our anniversary, my husband, James Marshall, purchased a painting as a gift for me with my secondary credit card. When I got home, I went to my study to retrieve an urgent court document. The door was slightly ajar. Inside, I could hear the flirtatious voice of my assistant, Julie Summers, mingled with my husband’s low murmurs. “James, your wife is just a money-printing machine. What does she know about art? She could never appreciate you like I do.” James sighed. Then, in an indulgent tone, he said, “Claire is too perfect—so perfect it’s suffocating. Not like you, full of life and warmth.” Just then, my mother-in-law, Susan Marshall, called James. He put her on speakerphone. “James, you need to move faster. While Claire still trusts you, turn all her client contacts into yours. That Julie girl seems promising. She’s much easier to control than that iron-fisted career wife of yours.” I gripped the cold doorknob, listening to the pair of shameless lovers in the study and the wretched woman on the phone, and immediately drafted a divorce agreement. At the same time, I forwarded asset-protection filings for all my holdings to my legal team. “I’ll see you all in court, parasites.”

My boyfriend thought I was just a nerd. When he was drunk, he complained to his friends. “Does it matter if she has good grades? Her family’s broke. You know, I could slap a wad of cash in her face, and she’d come crawling like a dog.” However, I later ended up crying and sitting on a certain someone’s lap. He kissed me from behind my ear down to my neck and chuckled softly. “Hmm, a nerd? Does he even know that you’re actually the daughter of the city’s biggest real estate tycoon?”

I marry the comatose heir of Jebony's most affluent family for the ten million dollars in wedding gifts. In the year after the wedding, I undergo 12 rounds of IVF and finally give birth to the Larkin family's successor. When our son turns five, Jacob Larkin miraculously wakes up. The media goes wild, calling me the Larkin family's lucky star. They say I'll live a life of endless privilege. I merely smile—the first look Jacob gives me after waking up is one full of disdain. He even warns me icily, "You're nothing more than a woman my father paid to bear me an heir. Don't kid yourself that I'll ever fall for you! "I grew up with Angela. If not for that accident, you would never have become my wife." I hand him the divorce papers and say calmly, "I'll step aside, then. I'll give you and Ms. Lloyd what you want."

The Godfather, Matteo Cross, loved me like I was his whole world. However, he had once cheated on me with a college student. To make it up to me, Matteo pushed aside all family business affairs and stayed by my side for eight straight months, the kind where we were together twenty-four hours a day, never apart for even a second. I thought he had finally changed until last night, when I woke from a nightmare and went looking for my medication. As I passed the study, I heard Matteo speaking softly and affectionately into his phone. “Baby, you’re so tempting… Just hang in there a little longer. Once you give birth to the child, I’ll stay with you.” It took me only three seconds to accept the truth: the man who once swore he loved me was completely gone. With that, I decided then and there to immigrate to Atlantica with my grandfather.

Tina Sullivan says, "Let's divorce, Sean. You're not worthy of me anymore."Sean Lakeworth asks in return, "Are you sure about that?"

When I was discharged from the psychiatric hospital, my brother and sister-in-law dropped everything to personally pick me up. Even my nephew, who had just finished his college entrance exams, arrived with a box of carrot cake he had waited in line all day to buy. His warm smile was the picture of innocence. “Auntie, congratulations on your discharge. With me here, you’ll never feel lonely again.” To outsiders, we were the perfect family—envied by all and even awarded the title of a local model family. But behind the facade of family bliss lay a very different story. On the very day my brother transferred the last of the family properties to me, I went live on social media. In front of an audience that idolized my so-called perfect family, I boasted about my "accomplishments." I conned my nephew into paying for a spot at an elite school, duped my sister-in-law into stepping into a scandalous club, and tricked my brother into losing everything he had worked for. “My brother has treated me with nothing but kindness. And I can only repay his kindness with betrayal.”

Running late for work, I had no choice but to call an Uber. As luck would have it, my boss turned out to be my Uber driver. We stared at each other awkwardly. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Let me guess... running late?" Me: ... Later, he docked my pay. I gave him a one-star review.