Before We Drowned Novels & Stories

A gas explosion kills both me and my wife, Riley Sawyer. When I open my eyes again, we have both returned to our lives before we ever got married. In our previous life, Riley and I grew up together. We were inseparable as kids, and after we married, our relationship only deepened. People envied how well we got along. But in this life, she doesn't choose me. She accepts the romantic pursuit of Benjamin Prescott, the son of the wealthiest man in the city. I quietly erase every trace of her from my life and act as if she never existed. Five years later, the two of them announce their engagement in the grandest way possible and invite all our former classmates. When I show up wearing the same custom suit Benjamin has on, a diamond ring in hand, Riley's face tightens with anger. "Jared, it's been years. Why can't you let me go?"

The fifth time we went to the courthouse, James Ceasar and I still weren’t officially married. We had picked a good day for it, but right before it was our turn, he got a call and rushed off in a hurry. With my eyes turning red, I pointed at the screen showing the waiting numbers, trying to stop him. “We're next. It won't take more than ten minutes. We can get it done fast. Once we’re officially married, you can go and deal with whatever’s so urgent. It won’t take long.” James was the CEO of his company, so he had full control over his schedule. That was why I said it like that, not thinking it would be a big deal. However, he just glanced at the screen, handed me the ticket with our number on it, and looked annoyed. “I can marry you anytime,” he said. “But right now, I’ve got something I need to take care of. Don’t make a fuss.”

Damien Sterling is evil. He is so evil he wants me to pretend to be his fiancee before he can help me find my missing sister. The same woman he claimed to be his first love. "Call it what you may. I'll only help you if we work together on something." Me? Work together with Damien Sterling? "What do we work on?" "You mean, what are we working on?" A beat of silence. Then, he spoke. "We are going to get engaged. I mean, you're going to act like we are engaged. For six months." "Ha!" I cackled, face blank of expression. Then, a burst of laughter escaped me. While he watched me like I was crazy, I just kept on laughing. "Are you crazy? I'll be playing house? With you?" "I'm serious." While playing house with the billionaire devil, I must let go of my dream to be the top investigative journalist of Westmore Times and avoid falling for my missing sister's first love. Will this be possible when we are stuck in the same building, filled with heat and forbidden passion crackling between us?

Before the mission, I ask Ryan Jamison one last time, "Will you marry me?" He pauses for a moment before saying, "Alright." The system and I freeze. "Oh no," we say in unison. I'm told that once I get rejected a hundred times, I'll return to the real world. Turns out, it's nothing but false alarm. In my final mission, I accidentally become the stand-in for his first love. Ryan spends three days with her before he finally remembers me. But by then, all he hears is that I've died in the line of duty.

Friends to lovers never felt so good! Will true love get a second chance? Trevor Willis is sexy, sweet, and oh so fun. He’s also my best friend’s brother-in-law. That should mean he’s off-limits—or that I should be off-limits to him. Someone probably should have told us that before my best friend married his brother, before the morning of the wedding when we woke in each other’s arms, before I woke with gaping holes in my memory. They didn’t. We did. *** Shana Price is that one woman. Usually shy and awkward, I want to be more for her—and in her presence I am more. I don’t even have to try. She’s my one. I knew it the moment I first met her. The problem is the little hassle of the thousands of miles between us. Now, everything has changed. Shana is back in the United States—all I have to do is make her see that her job isn’t the only reason to stay.

I laid there unmoving, my hands shivered, my legs twitched as if rooted to the floor, tears rolled down my cheeks as I came to a realization. There laying a few metres away from me laid dad, whose eyes were closed as he drowned in his pool of blood, a deep hole in his heart while he laid unwavering. "Dad...wake up dad, dad please wake up." I squealed and then shook dad severally, but he was long gone, there was no coming back for him anymore, I growl and cried in silence, everything happened too fast.

On Mother's Day, I take my mom to a hotel under my company for a vacation. We've just sat on a leather couch in the lobby for a short while when the supervisor-in-training, Jacob White, rushes over angrily and yanks us up to our feet. "This couch is meant for the guests who have applied for a VIP membership in this hotel! For broke tourists like you, you're welcome to stay in a cheap motel! Don't leech off the cool air generated by our air conditioners here!" My brows are knotted into a frown instantly. I'm about to declare my identity when Jacob shows me a bill and demands that I pay 1,500 dollars for a meal here. My expression goes dark immediately. "We've just arrived at the hotel, and we barely even have a sip of water here. Why should we pay 1,500 dollars for a meal here?" Jacob rolls his eyes at me before rapping his knuckles on the counter in an arrogant manner. "Those who stay at this hotel must pay this sum! We're serving fancy food here, you know! It's your business to consume it, but regardless, you still have to pay up!" Unable to endure Jacob's antics anymore, I tell him to call the manager over. But he sneers at me before pointing at his name tag. "This hotel belongs to my godsister! I'm the one who calls the shots in the entire lobby! No one can help you this time, regardless of who you lodge a complaint to!" I stiffen up on the spot. I'm the only son in this family, and my relatives never meddle with my hotel businesses. Who the hell is this so-called godsister that has usurped my position as the owner?

My boyfriend came from a wealthy family. We had been together for seven years, yet he had never given me a single gift. When he proposed, he even asked for the diamond ring back so he could return it for a refund. Later, when we were about to register our marriage, he complained that the paperwork fee was too expensive and said it wasn’t necessary. However, not long after that, he registered his marriage with his childhood sweetheart instead. He even booked the most luxurious hotel in the entire city, eager to throw a grand engagement party. The shock was too much for my grandmother, and she suffered a heart attack. I dropped to my knees and begged my boyfriend to return the salary I had entrusted to him over the years, as I needed the money to pay for my grandmother’s surgery. He simply wrapped his arm around his childhood sweetheart and pretended not to know me. He said he would never help a lazy beggar who only knew how to freeload. Then, he ordered the security guards to throw me out. Later, my grandmother died on New Year’s Eve, her final breaths drowned out by the sound of fireworks outside. While everyone else celebrated the holiday season, I handled my grandmother’s funeral alone. At the same time, I accepted a job offer from a major overseas company. When I returned home to get my passport, the man—who had just finished introducing his sweetheart to his parents and was clearly in a good mood—saw me and assumed I was still throwing a tantrum. For the first time, he spoke generously. “Alright. What could possibly have happened to your grandmother? At worst, I’ll make it up to you with a luxurious wedding.” What he didn’t know was that from the moment my grandmother took her last breath, I no longer wanted to marry him.

On the day we got our marriage license, Ryan Miller laid down a rule: now that we were married, if we slept in separate rooms for more than a week, we were automatically considered divorced. So every time we argued, the moment he picked up his pillow and headed for the guest room, I'd immediately give in and apologize, no matter who was at fault. For three years, he used that one rule to control me completely. On my 28th birthday, he stood me up again because of an intern at work. When he got home, I didn't reach for the diamond necklace he held out to me. He frowned, studying me for a long moment before finally speaking, his voice cold. "So, in your eyes, a birthday that comes every single year is more important than someone's life? I took Katie to the hospital and came back as fast as I could, but you still want to pick a fight? Emily, your jealousy honestly scares me." With that, he turned and walked toward the guest room. But this time, I didn't follow him.

“We didn’t say a word before we both crashed into each other’s arms and started making out. I jumped on him, and he grabbed me. We barely made it to the bed before we started tearing each other apart. It was wild. It was intense. And I didn’t want it to end. For about twenty minutes, he did things to me that had me screaming until my voice gave out, and I passed out. The next time I opened my eyes, it was morning. I was sober again... but I had no idea what a naked stranger was doing in my bed!” Viola Sterling is a billionaire heiress whose life suddenly takes a hit when her family goes bankrupt. She becomes homeless, and as if that isn't enough, she catches her boyfriend cheating the very same day. Heartbroken and drunk, she tries to numb the pain… only to wake up the next morning with a naked stranger in her bed. Turns out, he’s a billionaire who couldn’t afford a scandal. He arrogantly pays her for her silence and disappears, leaving her embarrassed. She thinks that’s the end of it until she turns up at her new guardian’s house and gets the shock of her life. The naked stranger? He’s their son. They vow to remain strangers. But when Viola discovers she’s pregnant, everything changes. To protect their families' reputations, they agree to marry. To their families, it’s an arranged marriage. To them, it’s a contract, strictly business. And it comes with just a rule… Never to fall in love!