Burt Ward

My husband, Mark Thompson, and I went hiking. After eating some wild berries I picked, he was poisoned and died. When I got home, a woman named Sarah Miller and her son, Tommy Miller, showed up at my door. It turned out Mark had given them our house and car. On top of that, he owed them a huge amount of money. I ended up giving them all the savings I had. To care for my sick mother-in-law, Judith Thompson, I worked three jobs. I was surviving on basic meals like bread and butter. After years of exhausting work, I collapsed in the hospital. Judith told the doctors to stop my treatment. Just as I was about to die, Mark walked into the ward with Sarah and Tommy in his arms. He tossed five dollars at me. “Thanks for taking care of my mom all these years.” That was when I realized Mark had faked his death just to be with Sarah and their love child. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day we went hiking together.

Aux yeux des autres, j'étais Mme Ward, la reine intouchable aux côtés d'Elias Ward, le chef de la mafia de Paris. Mais je savais que mon mari ne m'avait jamais aimée. Son cœur appartenait toujours à Harper Dinah, la femme de son neveu. Et après la mort de ce dernier, il n'a pas hésité à faire venir Harper chez nous. « Je veux juste mieux m'occuper d'elle », m'a-t-il dit. Mais sa version de « s'occuper d'elle » consistait à expulser un homme d'une fête parce qu'il avait osé flirter avec Harper et à la rendre enceinte. Elias adorait me complimenter en public, comme si j'étais la femme parfaite. Oui, je l'avais été autrefois. J'avais l'aidé à bâtir son empire et fait briller son casino. J'étais celle qui souriait, aimable, toujours accueillante. Et pendant ce temps, il cachait Harper, comme si elle était une relique sacrée. Puis, c'était grâce à « ces louanges » incessantes qu'un de ses ennemis m'a prise pour cible. Un groupe de voyous m'a enlevée, envoyant à Elias un message menaçant : « Dégage de Paris, ou ta femme va y passer ! » Bien sûr, Elias n'a pas choisi de céder. « Tiens bon », m'a-t-il dit au téléphone, « Ils ne te feront pas de mal, Noah. Tiens jusqu'à ce que Harper accouche. Je viendrai te chercher. » J'ai été alors enfermée dans une cave sale pendant huit mois, affamée, battue, humiliée. Le chef des malfrats m'a violée encore et encore. Et pourtant, Elias n'est jamais venu. Finalement, alors qu'ils étaient tous ivres, j'ai réussi à m'échapper. De retour chez moi, j'ai trouvé mes jumeaux endormis dans la chambre des domestiques, mangeant des restes, tandis que leur père organisait une fête pour son nouveau-né... Je ne l'ai pas affronté et suis partie avec mes enfants.

On my husband's birthday, I poured my heart into preparing a feast and selecting the perfect gift. Yet, he didn't come home. Instead, I received a picture message—a snapshot of him at the hospital, standing outside the OB-GYN ward, his hand resting tenderly on his childhood crush's belly. Beneath the photo, a message read: [The best birthday gift and a symbol of our decade-long bond.] Furious, I called her. "Don't you know he's married?" Before I could say more, my husband snatched the phone and lashed out at me. "Yvonne just wanted to share the joy of becoming a mother. Why are you overreacting? "Yvonne and I have been best friends for over a decade. Your petty jealousy is disgusting!" I once believed his busyness was for our future, but now I knew—he had been busy supporting the girl of his dreams through her pregnancy. Clutching my own stomach, I bit my lip to stop the tears from falling. Ten years of love had drained away. It was time to let go.

The past never stays buried forever... The past caught up with Harper Carrington in the cruelest way. After tragedy summoned her home to Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, she was confronted with another twist of the knife – Wyck, her first love who abandoned her fifteen years before and disappeared off the map. Wyck Ward never planned to see Harper again after her powerful father exiled him from Carrington Ridge. Consumed by the desire for revenge, Wyck spent over a decade systematically destroying the man's corrupt legacy. But with his enemy suddenly dead, Wyck realizes his all-consuming vendetta could cost him what his fractured soul needs - Harper. Join Harper and Wyck as they discover if some hearts are too damaged to ever mend or if even the coldest embers can flare back to life when two fractured souls find the pieces they’ve been missing. If you enjoy small town, second chance romances with complex characters, all the feels, a side of steam, and lots of twisty mountain roads, you'll love this first book in the new Carrington Ridge series.

When I took my five-year-old son, Ethan Drake, for a routine medical checkup, I noticed an additional renal function test listed on the report. “This is a mandatory item for kidney donor matching. Didn’t you know?” the nurse asked. Her explanation left me confused. “The checkup I booked didn’t include this test. Could there have been a mistake?” “There’s no mistake. The appointment was made by Ms. Serena Vaughn. She specifically added this item.” The Serena the nurse mentioned was my wife. At that moment, my sharp eyes caught another form in her hand: [Diagnosis: Polycystic Kidney Disease. Patient: Noah Vaughn. Family: Serena Vaughn.] I immediately called Serena. “The nurse said you scheduled a kidney donor matching test for our son. What’s going on?” There was a three-second pause before she spoke. “The nurse must have made a mistake. I’ve been busy lately. Don’t call me if there’s nothing important.” I smiled and told her I’d do that. Then I turned to the nurse and asked, “Which ward is Noah staying in?”

I am a miserable nurse. During the Halloween season, there was a three day break but I was not given any days off. Upset, I decided to join a game featuring a haunted hospital. There was an old man wrapped in IV tubes chasing after a player. I sprinted forward and shoved him into the chair. After effortlessly jabbing the IV line back in him, I told him off, "It’s just an IV drip, not an action movie. Sit. Down. Move again and I’ll strap you to the chair!" The old man did a double take before blinking in a flustered manner. "Sorry for causing you trouble, ma'am." At night, children ghosts began to run and laugh wildly in the corridor. I grabbed one in each hand and hauled them up. "If you’re not going to stay put in the ward, I’ll give you an injection!" Why did I still have to work in a game? I was so tired. The other players cried out, "Clem! That's a ghost. Are you not scared?" I sneered, "Sorry, but burnt-out workers hold more grudges than ghosts ever could."

Di balik kesuksesan yang gemilang, CEO muda, Adrian Ward, dikenal sebagai sosok yang dingin, penuh misteri, dan sulit didekati. Dengan kekuasaan yang dimilikinya, dia selalu menjaga jarak dari semua orang, termasuk wanita. Namun, ada sisi lain dari Adrian yang tak pernah terungkap, sebuah rahasia yang tersembunyi jauh di dalam hatinya. Sophie, sekretaris baru yang cerdas dan penuh semangat, tidak hanya terpesona oleh karisma Adrian, tetapi juga terjerat dalam teka-teki dirinya yang misterius. Di tengah kesibukan dunia bisnis yang keras, kedekatan mereka tumbuh tanpa disadari, membawa mereka ke dalam permainan perasaan yang rumit. Apakah cinta dapat tumbuh di antara mereka yang terhalang oleh kebekuan masa lalu? Cinta yang tersembunyi ini akan mengungkap lebih dari sekadar perasaan—juga rahasia yang berbahaya, yang dapat merubah segalanya. Mampukah Sophie menembus dinding dingin Adrian, atau akankah kisah ini tetap terkubur dalam bayang-bayang kesuksesan?

On the fifth year of their marriage, finding the vitamin C her husband bought tasted too bitter, Jeanne Dotson went to the hospital with the bottle. The doctor took one look and frowned. "This isn't vitamin C." "I-I'm sorry, Doctor?" "I could say it a dozen times and it'd still be the same," the doctor replied, pointing at the bottle. "This is Mifepristone. Taking too much of it doesn't just cause infertility—it can do serious harm to your body." Jeanne felt a lump stuck in her throat, and her fingers turned pale from clenching the bottle. "That's impossible. My husband got this for me. His name is Darren Walsh—he's a doctor here too." The doctor looked up at her, his expression turning strange, tinged with something she couldn't quite read. After a pause, he gave a small smile. "Miss, you might want to visit the psych ward instead. We all know Dr. Walsh's wife—she gave birth just two months ago. Don't let your imagination run wild, all right? There's no point."

"We can't choose who to fall in love with but we can choose to walk away" …. Fay Roy spent four years devoting herself to Teddy Ward and loving him like crazy, never believed he would cheat on her one day. Not Until, Teddy told her about his first love, Celia. And as if that was not heartbreaking enough, Celia was even pregnant for him and Teddy wanted Fay to take care of Celia, because he believed nobody else could do it better than her making her realize that all this years, she was just a replacement for his true love! Fay divorced Teddy and went back to her wealthy family. Unaware to Teddy that she is the daughter of the wealthiest and most powerful Roy family in Blu city and an heiress. When Fay’s true identity is revealed, Teddy goes on his knees begging her to come back to him. “Darling, let’s get back together. I promise to cherish you this time.” He said. But oops! It already too late. Fay is busy being an heiress to even have time for this scumbag again. With a cold smirk, she spat, “Fuck off. I cannot go back to my vomit.”

After discovering her longtime boyfriend cheated on her, Evelyn Hart walks into a blind date arranged by her family angry, heartbroken, and determined to erase the past. Sitting across from a calm, sharply handsome stranger, she blurts out the most reckless idea of her life: “Let’s get married.” To her disbelief, Jesse Ward agrees. Evelyn thinks she’s marrying a stable, ordinary man who might give her a quiet life. What she doesn’t know is that Jesse wasn’t her intended blind date at all and that he’s secretly a powerful billionaire who lives far from the spotlight. As they settle into marriage, unexpected feelings begin to grow. But Jesse seems haunted by something unspoken. And Evelyn can’t understand why he sometimes looks at her like he already knows her. A sudden accident shakes loose a buried memory in Evelyn’s mind: a reckless night years ago, a stranger whose face she never forgot and that face matches her husband’s perfectly. In that instant, everything clicks into place. Their marriage was impulsive. Their meeting was accidental. But their connection? It began long before either of them realized.