Fifty-nine

A writer once said, "We don't need down jackets in summer, fans in winter, and attention after we're disappointed." After the breakup, I became happy and even found myself. Thanks for letting me go. This is a series of stories after breakups. A relationship may not necessarily make people happier, but a breakup will definitely do it. “Seven Ear Piercings” I had a secret relationship with my stepmother's son. When we broke up, it became particularly unpleasant. One day, he got drunk and intercepted me in the bathroom. He said, "I'm a masochist. We'll torment each other until our hair turns grey. What can you do to me?" “Blind Date With an Undercover Cop” I never expected to meet him again. The last time I saw him, he was a clumsy barista who messed up my order nine times in a row. I felt sorry for him, so I tried to crack a joke. "Hey, are you an undercover cop?" He looked startled and denied it quickly. But as soon as I left the cafe, he locked the door and disappeared. Later on, we ran into each other again. He stopped me and said, "You're under arrest, because you have stolen my heart, darling."

Nine years ago, Charlotte Green willingly bound herself to a companionship system to save her sister. The system guided her to the side of Eric Lorvis, a man adored by fate and envied by the world. Her role, as dictated, was to pursue him under the guise of being mute. Before long, everyone in their social circle knew of the mute woman who loved Eric with a fervor bordering on madness. At a gathering one evening, he finally relented. "If you make yourself look like Emily, I'll allow you to stay by my side." Without hesitation, Charlotte borrowed money to undergo plastic surgery. She reshaped herself to resemble Emily Spencer—Eric's first love. With painstaking precision, she molded her preferences to match his, learned to cook his favorite dishes, and catered to his every need. Yet to him, she was no more than a housekeeper. He neither hid his disdain nor spared her his indifference. His insults, his cold stares—she bore them all in silence. She didn't care. As long as she fulfilled her task, the day would come when she could finally leave this world behind. However, when Charlotte truly died, the cold and aloof Eric, who had always appeared so composed in front of others, lost his mind...

Benedict Cole’s undercover mission had failed. Only his twin brother, David Cole, returned. I was devastated, nearly driven to madness over losing my husband. Holding Benedict’s police badge, I tried to slit my wrists nine times, but I was always rescued just in time. As my consciousness faded on my tenth attempt, I overheard a conversation between my mother-in-law, Helen, and David. “El has tried to commit suicide for you ten times now. How long are you going to keep this act up? This woman is head over heels for you. Just stop lying to her already!” David’s expression hardened as he flatly refused. “David took a bullet for me. It is only right that I take care of his wife.” “El’s from the countryside. She’s tough. Once Melissa becomes pregnant and has a child to live for, only then can I reveal that I am actually Benedict.” The bathtub was dyed red with my blood, but the pain in my heart was far greater than the sting of my wound. It turned out that it had all been a lie, a deception meant only for me. My grief-stricken suicide attempts for love were nothing short of a clown’s tragicomedy.

He was forbidden. My brother's best friend. The most dangerous man in the country. And I signed myself over to him. Eve Thorne had one rule: stay away from Dimitri Valentino. It shouldn't have been difficult. He was ruthless, feared, and devastatingly beautiful in the way that only truly dangerous things are. The kind of man who owned nightclubs, commanded armies, and made grown men weep with a single look. The kind of man her brother Mike trusted with his life. The kind of man she had absolutely no business wanting. But one shattered marriage, one bottle of whiskey, and one catastrophically bad decision later, Eve wakes up in Dimitri's bed with a signed contract on the nightstand and six months of her life no longer her own. Her body. His rules. No exceptions. The contract is iron-clad, the penalty clause suffocating — fifty million dollars she doesn't have. And Dimitri Valentino, the Wolf of the Italian underworld, has absolutely no intention of letting her go. He says he'll ruin her for other men. He's not lying. Because beneath the cold control and the thousand-dollar suits is a man who has wanted her for seven sinful years — who has memorized the curve of her smile, the sound of her laugh, and exactly how to take her apart piece by piece until the only word left in her vocabulary is his name. Eve came to him broken, looking to feel wanted. She never expected to feel owned. She never expected to love it. Undressed by the Mafia Lord is a scorching dark romance about forbidden hunger, dangerous obsession, and the catastrophic moment a good girl stops running from the wolf who has always been hunting her. Some contracts change everything. Some men are worth the fine print.

Samantha Brooks had it all: a promising career and a passionate romance with her boss, Ethan Blake. Their whirlwind affair reached its peak when Ethan proposed to her in a moment of undeniable passion, slipping a dazzling ring onto her finger. Elated and carrying their unborn child, Samantha was on cloud nine, eager to share the joyous news. But the next day, Samantha's world shattered. She arrived at the office only to be blindsided by the announcement of Ethan's impending wedding—to another woman. Confused and heartbroken, she received a cold termination letter, purportedly signed by Ethan himself. Desperate for answers, Samantha confronted him, only to be met with a chilling denial and a feigned ignorance of their relationship. Devastated but resilient, Samantha rebuilt her life and gave birth to a beautiful daughter. Six years later, she returns, not as the vulnerable woman Ethan discarded, but as a strong, determined mother. With her daughter by her side, Samantha steps back into Ethan's world, ready to uncover the truth, confront old wounds, and face a love that never truly died. In this gripping tale of betrayal, love, and redemption, Samantha's return will ignite a series of events that neither she nor Ethan could have ever anticipated. What dark secrets lie beneath Ethan's betrayal? And what will happen when the past and present collide in an explosive reunion? Prepare for a story that will leave you breathless, as Samantha and Ethan's destinies intertwine in the most unexpected ways.

a heavy burden that I carried for nine long years. It was hard to admit to myself that Carlos Sky never really loved me, despite all the efforts I made to win him over. I even tried to use the divorce and the company he owned, Sky Corporation, as a way to bargain for him to give me attention and love. But he remained indifferent, insensitive to my feelings and my desperate attempts to win him over. It was a moment of great sadness and disappointment when I realized that he never cared about me in the same way that I cared about him. After the divorce, I had time to reflect on what happened and finally realized that the so-called "love" I felt for Carlos Sky was one-sided. I had deluded myself for years, believing that he loved me, when in reality he never showed this feeling for me. The hardest thing was to admit to myself that I loved someone who never loved me back. It was painful to face the reality that all the time, effort, and energy I put into this relationship was for nothing. Learning to let go of this unrequited love and move on with my life was a difficult journey, but necessary for my own emotional health and well-being. Today, I look back with a mixture of sadness and relief. It was a difficult experience, but I also learned a lot about myself and the true meaning of love. I learned that true love is mutual, it involves reciprocity and respect. It is not something that can be forced or won through negotiations.

On the day I received my prenatal test results, I heard a voice from inside my belly—my unborn child speaking to me. 'Mom, Dad will divorce you as soon as you give birth to me. His true love can't have children. That's why he married you. You're just a tool to give birth. Once I'm born, he'll divorce you, take me away, and go live happily ever after with her.' I believed every word. Without hesitation, I chose divorce. For nine months, I focused on carrying the pregnancy, planning to raise the child on my own. But on the day I went into labor, something went terribly wrong. The doctor said the baby was premature, and the position was dangerously abnormal. "The baby keeps flipping around inside you," she said. "It's like it's deliberately putting you through hell." Eight hours of emergency treatment accomplished nothing. In the end, it was a difficult labor—both mother and child died. As my consciousness faded, I heard that voice again. 'Haha. Dad never cheated at all. I lied to you.' Why would a child lie? I couldn't understand it, not even at the moment of death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day I first received the prenatal test report.

When Jake Gavingstone, CEO of the GS chain of department stores, lost his wife in a car accident planned for him, he shuts down focusing his energy on work and his twin sons. Now, after seven years, he is being pressured by his grandmother, who worries he would remain alone, to get a wife. He agrees to go on ten dates which she would arrange, in a bid to get an inheritance he had always wanted. Alice Singer is twenty nine year old young lady engaged to a resident doctor. She comes from a family where she is not wanted and his constantly bullied, despite trying her best to pay off the debts from her father's liver transplant surgery. She works two jobs and is still not able to pay off her debt. She decides to take a job as a nanny, even though she has a police record thanks to her stepbrother because of theft while working her last nanny job. She is hired in Jake's household as the nanny of the twins after the last nanny tried to seduce the twins father. The condition for hiring: You must be married or engaged. She gets the job as she is engaged and the twins opened up to her during the interview, and then some months down the line, she becomes unengaged. To pay off her debts and to finally be free of her family, she keeps pretending to be engaged, even when feelings awake between the boss and her.

“How long have we been mates?” Aidan barked. “Four weeks,” I cried, tears rolling down my face and neck. “And how many times were we intimate, Tara?” My lungs tightened in my chest as I whispered. “Once.” “And we were being safe, so why do you think this lie would stick?” Venom dripped from his next words. “Get out of my life because the next time you show up, I will kill you.” ***** It wasn’t exactly a one-night stand, but the possibility of a pregnancy was almost non-existent even though he was my mate. When I mustered the courage to break the news to Aidan Graham, the father, he denied me. He severed our bond and plotted my death, and my only option was to run. Nine years later, my daughter walks into my office with a man, and the scent I recognize all too well fills my lungs. She says. “Mommy! I found you this handsome man!” The match my baby girl just made for me…is to my ex Alpha mate. I have been broken in the past, so how do I make this work for my daughter? Can I still try even when Aidan ropes us into a web of secrets, deceit, and brings me to a past I wished to bury forever? The plot twists are bound to make you ask… “Wait…What. The. Heck??” So, read on!!

"My professor gave me my first D. Now my next assignment is due...in nine months. You know when you meet your new professor, and he ends up being the same man you had a one-night stand with three months ago? Okay, maybe not. Let me explain. I hadn’t intended to sleep with my professor. I might be known as the impulsive, prankster daughter in my family, but I’m not insane. I just wanted to have some fun in Ireland at my sister’s wedding, and maybe lose my virginity, too. When I met Lochlann Gallagher at a pub one night, I couldn’t resist him. He was hot, Irish, and entirely set on seducing me. One unforgettable night under the sheets with him, and my V-card went up in smoke. Well, that night had one itty bitty consequence because Lochlann totally made my eggo preggo. And if this story isn’t crazy enough, Lochlann is not just my baby daddy: he’s now my professor and my advisor for grad school. Somehow we have to figure out a way not to reveal this rapidly gestating secret while resisting the explosive attraction between us. Except there’s just one more complication to this story: I think I’m totally falling for my baby daddy. Oopsie daisy."