Before We Drowned Novels & Stories

Timothy Holt was someone my family sponsored. He was extraordinarily gifted in mathematics, winning an international gold medal at just 17. Yet for the prom queen's sake, he was willing to give up his chance to further his studies abroad I couldn't bear to watch someone with such a brilliant future ruin his own prospects, so I handed the girl a check and sent her overseas. Later, Timothy achieved both fame and fortune. However, when my family fell into hardship, he kicked us while we were down. An accident followed, and we both died. Before his death, he said to me: if he could start over, he hoped I would show mercy and stop interfering in his life. Thus, just as he wished, in this lifetime, I chose to stay out of his business.

Patience, that's all we need, we needed time to get in there... Elijah was a wealthy man, who loved playing girls, but behind that attitude of his, was a fear in commitment because of his dark past. He was supposed to be a happy married guy but one month before his marriage his Fiancé, Stephanie disappeared without saying goodbye. He tried to find her but gave up after 2 years of hopeless searching. BUT one after five years, their paths crossed again. STEPHANIE has no idea that she would be working with her Ex-Fiancé, both of them were in great shock. Elijah couldn't believe it, but he thought that it was a chance for him to take an act of revenge. Stephanie never gave him the answers he was searching for years. Is there still a chance to bring back their broken past, or being together in one company will only hurt each other's hearts?

After we got married, my husband and I kept sleeping in separate rooms. At first, I asked if he could move into the primary bedroom. He refused without the slightest hesitation. "No. Rosalie would mind." "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have ended up like this. Let's just keep things this way." Rosalie was his first love. I stood there frozen for a long time before finally saying okay. Later, I told myself that this marriage was only meant to help my family survive a cash-flow crisis and solve a difficult lawsuit his company was facing. It was just a fair exchange. Once everything was settled, we would naturally go our separate ways. After that, I never brought it up again. For the next three years, he brought her to every occasion. Family dinners, annual galas, even my mother's birthday. She was always the one standing beside him. Everyone kept guessing who the real woman of the house was. Now, everything that needed to be solved has been solved. And it is time for me to leave.

I've had a crush on Don Luciano Damiani for ten years. Heck, I even agree to his request to sleep with him a thousand times before we finally get to announce our relationship to the world. The locations vary, be it Luciano's private shooting range or the VIP lounge. He uses every trick up his sleeve just to groom me into his personal plaything. Every time we do it, Luciano will kiss me while coaxing the answer out of me. "Do you want our relationship to go public, babe?" I've answered him "yes" 999 times. Of course, he disappoints me 999 times as well. But on the thousandth time, Luciano says, "Cecilia, let's announce our relationship on my birthday, which will be held in two days." Excitement washes over me at that moment. But that's when my best friend, Valentina Fiore, starts a video chat with me. "I lost to Luciano in a racing competition. Yesterday, I had to go to the City Hall to get our marriage registered there. "But he still intends to keep you as his mistress. That's why we shall fight for his affection to the best of our ability on fair grounds. "The next two days shall be our contending period. We'll bet on who matters to Luciano more. The loser will travel to the Republic of Azamir as a war correspondent, whereas the winner gets to attend his birthday party and announce their relationship to the world."

My friend and I married into the Castellar family together. I married the older brother, who worked in high finance. My best friend married the younger, a senior fire officer. They didn’t tell us the truth until we were both pregnant. They were vampires. We were furious. But in the end, we forgave them because we still loved them. Until that night. We were staying at a vacation cabin when the fire started after midnight. The front door sealed itself shut, locked by a spell, trapping me inside. My best friend had gone out for a walk and escaped the fire by sheer luck. A car passed by on the forest road. She ran into the headlights, begging the driver to ram the door and save me. The man said coldly, “Pay first.” Inside the cabin, blood ran down my legs and soaked the floor. I tried to transfer the money, but my account was frozen. I called my husband. He hung up three times before the call finally went through. But the voice that answered wasn’t his. It was a woman’s. Vicky sounded calm, almost amused. She said he was busy. Then she added lightly that he’d been helping her set up a subcard and had accidentally disabled mine. My best friend called her husband next. She was crying. She told him there was a fire and I was trapped. He snapped back at her. “Stop lying. I hate people who make false emergency calls. I’m with Vicky checking fire hazards in her new place. Don’t bother me.” She didn’t hesitate again. She shoved the driver out, and drove straight into the cabin. The door shattered. She dragged me out with her bare hands. We lost our babies on the way to the hospital. When I woke up,we looked at each other for a long time. “I’m getting divorced,” she said. “So am I.”

I had everything planned a month in advance for our holiday. I was going to take my wife and daughter on a trip to see the country's beautiful landscapes, but just before we were supposed to leave, they both disappeared. I ended up standing alone in the pouring rain, trying to call them. My daughter's voice came through over the phone—it was cold and impatient. "Mommy's having dinner with Uncle Skyler. We don't want to go anymore." Right after that, the call was cut off. I had been blocked. They locked me out of the house on purpose and left me to freeze out there all night. The rain had already drenched me, and I was running a high fever that turned into pneumonia. Meanwhile, the two of them were off enjoying a vacation with Skyler Shire. That was the moment I knew—this marriage was well and truly over.

Right before my sugar daddy’s untouchable first love was about to return, he told me to get along with her. “She knows about us?” I ask. David nodded. “I told her. Anyway, we’ll be living together.” I take a sharp breath. After all, was this first love really that open-minded? As a diligent and professional sugar baby, I’d do my absolute best to win her over. [Baby, I’m David’s sugar baby. The three of us living well together is what matters most.] [Baby, don’t worry. I have a very high tolerance for morally questionable situations!] We chatted enthusiastically for an entire month until she returned. Wait. Wasn’t the man standing in front of me, over six feet tall, David’s sworn enemy?

I spent six months and over $300,000 planning our wedding trip to the Maldives. We had invited both sets of parents. It was supposed to be a small family wedding before we started our married life. I was a dock captain, running Pier Seventeen on my own and making more in one month than Ethan made in a year as an ordinary office employee. But when his childhood sweetheart Bianca heard about the trip, she begged to come with her parents. Ethan agreed without hesitation. He changed my parents’ first-class tickets to economy and gave their seats to Bianca’s parents instead. His whole family supported his decision without a second thought. So I changed my own travel plans. I canceled the villa, the private ceremony, and the wedding dinner in the Maldives, then took my parents somewhere else. That was when Ethan finally started to panic.

By a twist of fate, my husband, Morgan Lancaster, and I perish together in a sea of flames. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back on the very day we received our marriage certificate. In my previous life, we appeared to be a loving couple in the eyes of others, yet Morgan refused to share a bedroom with me the entire time we were married. It was only moments before our deaths that I discovered I was merely a substitute for his first love and that he had chosen to remain chaste for her for life. After getting another chance at life, neither of us mentions the past. Instead, by mutual understanding, we file for divorce that same day. From that point on, we go our separate ways. Eight years later, Morgan shows up arm in arm with his childhood sweetheart, Freya Springer, at a business summit. He is now a prominent and celebrated rising star in the business world. Seeing me dressed in a plain outfit, he approaches with a glass of champagne. His tone drips with mockery as he asks, "Ms. Smith, even if you still have feelings for me, there's no need to dress like a waitress just to get close to me. You aren't hoping for a reconciliation, are you?" I say nothing and simply smile as I wave at someone in the distance. My son, Theo Coltrane, toddles over and tugs at the hem of my shirt. "Mommy, Daddy says that he's tired from waiting so long. When are you coming home with us?" The smile on Morgan's face freezes instantly, and he nearly loses his grip on the glass in his hand.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, kissing me again. Our marks healed instantly, never hurting at all. My body felt the most relaxed I’d ever felt in my entire life. We were both breathing hard, both afraid to speak. We just looked at each other for what felt like hours. Finally, he said softly, “I can feel your feelings now.” It finally felt like my life was going right for once. Or so I thought…. I never belonged anywhere. First, my father and I were on the run, living as rogues. When we finally found a pack, it wasn’t long before I was the outcast—all because of my crazy dreams. Delilah the Insane, they’d call me. When I finally discovered that the soon-to-be Alpha was my mate, I thought everything would change. But then Andrew betrayed me too. I ran away, even though I was carrying his triplets. Now, he wants me back, along with our children. Will I ever truly belong? The Betrayed Luna is created by Claire Wilkins, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.