Can I Cry Now Novels & Stories

Riley Creed thought the worst day of her life was when her fiancé left her at the altar. She was wrong. On the exact night her ex married another woman, Riley tried to drown her pain in alcohol. It led to one huge mistake: a night with Frederick Wellspring, the cold, arrogant heir to a massive family fortune. Weeks later, she found out she was pregnant. Forced into a loveless marriage by Frederick’s family, Riley spent ten years dealing with his cruelty, his open affairs, and his family’s constant insults about her weight. Still, she stayed, enduring the torment, trying to be a good mom and just so her daughter could have a father's love. Instead, he ruined her. Using a fake DNA test, Frederick accused her of cheating and threw Riley and their sick daughter out into the streets during a terrible storm. Desperate to save her dying child, Riley had to beg the last person she ever expected to see again: Ashton Clove, the man who first broke her heart years ago. Now a powerful CEO, Ashton offers to help her rebuild, but his world is full of dark secrets and dangerous lies. But Riley is done being a victim. She fights her way up to become the most powerful boss in the entertainment industry. Suddenly, the men who destroyed her are begging for her love. But a major secret is still waiting in the dark. When Riley finally learns the truth about what happened to her parents, she realizes her marriage was never an accident. It was a trap from the start.

“With me, you do not need to drop your princess crown and assume the place of a pauper. With me, you can be a queen and I… your subject.” ***** I had what everyone called a perfect marriage. A rich, charismatic husband who adored me openly, supported me, and made even romance books look like child’s play. He was every woman’s dream and to me, it was the perfect love story. That was until I caught him kissing his so-called cousin, right after I finished donating blood to her child! As if that wasn’t devastating enough, next minute, the doctor’s words hit me, “Mrs. Whitmore. The DNA results came back identical three times. You are the mother of Alia Cassel.” In one heartbeat, I realize my husband isn't just cheating with his cousin. They have the child I was told had died years ago. Hell hath no fury like a mother betrayed and I will not let this betrayal slide. I will serve karma on a golden platter and retrieve everything I lost in this marriage. Most importantly… my daughter. Even if it means making a deal with the devil himself—Ronan Throne, my husband’s archenemy. And oh… my brother-in-law.

They were never supposed to be family. And they were never supposed to fall in love. Stephen has it all, he was the football captain, campus god, and dangerously charming. Hayden? He's the rival to his stepbrother, one who stole his girlfriend out of pure spite. After an explosive fight lands them both in detention, one impulsive kiss sets off a chain reaction of forbidden desire, brutal self-discovery, and secrets too dangerous to share. Stephen is bisexual. Hayden is homophobic, or so he claims. But when their mom forces them to share a dorm, the hate turns into heat, and the rivalry into something far more complicated. They can’t stand each other. They can’t escape each other. And the worst part? They don’t want to. Sneaky kisses, heated tension and jerking off to each other when the other can't hear, they end up in a maze of forbidden desires. But in a world where football is king and image is everything, loving each other might be the most dangerous play of all.

For the past three months, I've slept only three hours every day just so my team and I can create an app. Thanks to our hard work, the app goes absolutely viral to the point we've garnered over 100 million registered users on the first week of its launch. At the afterparty, my wife, Stacie Woodward, announces that her godbrother, Tory Frost, who's the PR manager, will be the one receiving the million-dollar bonus. She then tosses me a few 50% discount coupons that can be used in shopping malls as my bonus. "You're just a code monkey—why do you need that much money anyway? You can have these discount coupons. Use them on anything you want. At least buy some nice clothes for yourself. Don't go around wearing these rags. You'll just end up humiliating me more." I plead to her in a low tone, "Have you gone crazy, Stacie? My dad needs the money for the best medication in order to save his life! Can you please stop joking around?" But Stacie clings to Toby's arm, looking high and mighty. "Your dad's dying, isn't he? He might as well stop wasting the public resources! I can always choose him a better grave and hold a nice funeral for him when his time comes!" As I look at Stacie's smug face, I just smile at her instead of getting mad at her. She must have forgotten that the app's core algorithm and the user growth model are built using my private, undisclosed technology stack. That means the copyright is mine and has nothing to do with the company. I just smile while nodding at Stacie. That night, I activate the technology stack's self-destruct and migration protocols.

I married her because I was forced to… I treated her like a stranger… And now, I’m losing her forever. Hannah was my wife. My mother forced me into the marriage, yet I ignored the woman who loved me more than anyone ever could. I pushed her away, rejected her, and watched her devotion crumble while I remained blind to what mattered most. She left. Five years ago. And at that moment, I didn’t care. I thought I could live without her. I was warned I’d regret losing her forever. I thought it was just words. I was wrong. Now, she’s back. Not the timid girl I once knew. Not the woman I could control. She’s a force to be reckoned with…a CEO, a business mogul, untouchable, admired by everyone…and utterly beyond my reach. And as if my regret wasn’t enough, another man steps into her life: a billionaire… my friend, the one who warned me all those years ago. The one who now holds her attention, her trust… maybe even her heart. I watch, helpless, as the woman I abandoned thrives without me. My empire is crumbling, my pride shattered, and my heart…irreversibly hers. I lost her once. I cannot lose her again. But can I win back the woman who no longer belongs to me…or will I watch the love of my life slip into the arms of the man who already deserved her?

I stumbled across an encrypted folder on my husband's phone, filled with photos of a little girl I'd never seen before. From newborn to first steps, sorted by month—two full years' worth. But the child in those photos wasn't our daughter. When I confronted him, he said she was a girl named Rosie from the children's home I sponsored. The director sent growth updates, and he'd been saving them for me. I never imagined that my warm, thoughtful husband would use my charity to spin a lie. Because every single photo was geotagged to the apartment complex next to his office. And the children's home was on the other side of the city. I didn't call him out right then. Because I wanted to know whose child she really was.

Everyone called Mia a shameless whore. However, the one trailing behind her was the youngest don of the Yorick family, James. He hand-washed her lace camisoles, broke three ribs for her, and even with his face covered in blood from a beating, he could still smile at her. One night, after too much drinking, the underboss he trusted most leaned down beside him. His face was full of disdain. “Boss, Mia is a disgrace to all of us! A woman like that, how could she ever be worthy of you?” James suddenly laughed. His eyes went terrifyingly blank. The cigar between his fingers glowed faintly in the dark. “Back then, before I secured my position, I was young, greedy for power. To get my sister-in-law that antique necklace she wanted, I took advantage of Mia being drunk and took pictures of her myself… “Ten dollars a copy. I sold thirty thousand of them. Things blew way out of control… I owe her.” James took a long drink of whiskey while his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Thankfully… she will never know. I will spend my whole life making it up to her, treating her twice as well.” He did not see the private room door quietly close the moment he said those words. Mia turned around with a blank expression on her face and walked into a small clinic on the corner. She laid down on the operating table. He would never deserve to know that he had once been a father, if only for a moment. That whole lifetime he planned to spend making it up to her, she did not want it anymore.

In a world where werewolves and vampires roam freely among humans, Lyra is a lonely, resourceful 19-year-old girl living in New York City. Her only goal is to raise enough money to flee to Canada, in order to put several states between her and Carlos, her stepfather and a gang leader, who has decided to make her his possession. In her race to win her freedom, she crosses paths with a huge animal that she thinks is a giant dog. Hypnotized by those eyes, is she really making the right choice by taking this injured beast home? Didn't she just bring the big bad wolf back into the fold? I saved a dying beast from the gutters of New York, never expecting him to be my salvation—or my ultimate undoing. Lyra has lived her life in the shadows of her sadistic stepfather, Carlos, a man who treats human lives as currency. Her only hope was a desperate escape to the north, a dream that felt possible only when she found a wounded, brindle-furred wolf. She nursed him, shared her meager meals with him, and felt an unbreakable bond forming in his intense, steely gaze. But the beast wasn't a dog. He was an Alpha—a powerful, non-human Lord who reclaimed his throne and left Lyra behind without a second glance. Now, captured by Carlos and thrown onto the auction block for the city’s supernatural elite, Lyra is just a "lot" to be sold to the highest bidder. As vampires and shifters place their stakes on her life, she realizes the world is far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Will the Alpha who discarded her return to claim his debt? Or is Lyra destined to be a broken plaything for the monsters in the dark?

I had been married to Derek for six years, and we had a three-year-old son. He was poor, earning only $2,000 a month, but I had no complaints; I took care of everything at home for him. After getting dinner on the table for the whole family, I finally had a minute to check my phone. A video popped up on my feed: a twenty-two-year-old girl from a rural area whose hands, roughened by years of hard labor, looked like they belonged to a sixty-two-year-old woman. I looked down at my own hands, just as worn and scarred, and stared at them blankly before tapping into the comments. I expected people to feel bad for her. However, to my surprise, the comments section was flooded with a single sentiment: "Why would anyone marry a penniless loser?" One of the top-liked comments came from a couple; in their photo, they were pictured holding hands—fingers tightly intertwined—with the girl sporting a massive diamond ring. The accompanying caption read: "A man who truly loves you would never bear to let you suffer." I felt a pang of envy. Given the choice, who wouldn't want a glamorous life? As I was about to close the app, I accidentally tapped on the couple's photo, enlarging it. In the background, previously too blurry to make out, was a face I recognized. It looked exactly like my husband, Derek Sterling. I froze, and almost against my will, I tapped into the account's profile. Post after post of lavish photos of them together flooded my screen. And then I saw him clearly. The scar above his brow, the one he got when a shelf fell on him while protecting me, was still plainly visible. It was my husband. It was Derek.

The Day I Was Reborn, I Rejected the Alpha In my previous life, on my third year as Luna, I took an arrow tipped with wolfsbane meant for my Alpha mate Julian. My wolf was nearly killed, and I lay comatose for three full years. When I finally woke, Julian held my sister Lyra's hand and told me they were in love. He wanted me to step aside. My adoptive mother, Eleanor, pressured me to accept it. I refused. When the three of them closed in on me, I appealed to the Council of Elders. In the end, the Council ruled that Lyra be exiled. She couldn't bear the humiliation, and took her own life. Julian let me keep my title as Luna, but he hated me for the rest of his life. He would look at me with cold, dead eyes. "You should never have woken up. Then I wouldn't have lost Lyra." My adoptive mother blamed me too — for killing my sister, for destroying our family. Seven years later, grief and alcohol had hollowed Julian out completely. On his deathbed, the cold mask slipped. He gripped my hand. "In the next life... will you let me have Lyra?" Something in me went numb. After Julian was gone, the pack fell apart without an Alpha. Every one of them cursed me for being the one still alive. In the fighting that came after, my own pack handed me over to a rival pack. They put a dozen arrows through me. I died alone in the wilderness. When I opened my eyes, I was back — back to the day I first woke up.