Have His Cake And Eat It Too

During the holidays, my boss wants us to choose between a holiday bonus and tarts. I don't like tarts at all, so I'm the first one to vote for a bonus. But the intern, Davin Holt, who's in charge of gathering everyone's votes and opinions, is quick to pin me on the hall of shame in the company's group chat. "Fabian, we mainly celebrate the holidays just to experience the atmosphere, you know? Isn't it too materialistic of you to vote for a bonus instead?" The department head tags me in the group chat as well. "Fabian, our company prioritizes the team spirit even more." In the end, everyone except me chooses the tarts. On the day of our holiday team bonding event, Davin bought everyone nut tarts. He knows that I'm allergic to nuts, and yet he still forces me to eat the tart in front of my boss just to show that I have team spirit. "Fabian, I bought the tarts with everyone's bonus. You can't just rain on our parade by rejecting them, right?" The next thing I know, I begin having difficulties breathing. At the same time, patches of red rashes break out on my skin. But Davin shoots me a look of disgust. "Dude, must you really spoil the mood while everyone else is having fun?" Desperately, I rummage through my bag for my allergy medication, only to see more tarts in its place. The sight of me looking so wretched makes Davin roar in laughter. "Medicine can be harmful to you, you know! You should have more desserts instead! That's why I've changed all of your medication to tarts!" Already, I find it more and more difficult to breathe. So, I text the CEO of this company on the spot. "Mom, my allergy is acting up! I'm at…"

All her life, Evangeline knew only one thing: pain. Born from her father’s affair, a living reminder of a mistake, she grew up as a ghost in her own house. Unwanted. Useful only when the cameras were on. Never when love was needed. Then one morning, everything shifted. “Roman De Luca wants to marry your sister. He is too dangerous for her. So you will take her place.” A decision, not a question. And in that moment, Eva finally understood: this wasn’t about protecting her sister. It was the easiest way to erase her. On the day of the wedding, she is pushed forward like someone disposable. A stand-in. Roman De Luca, the feared mafia heir, was known for rage, for cold judgment, for destroying anyone who lied to him. So Eva walks down the aisle with trembling hands, waiting for the moment he exposes her and ends her. But when he lifts her veil, he doesn’t look furious. He looks like a man finally breathing. “I always knew it would be you,” he whispers, his voice breaking. “This was the only way I could have you.” Eva shakes, stunned. “I thought you wanted my sister.” He touches her like she’s something fragile, something rare. “You said it yourself,” he murmurs. “Whatever you have, your sister gets snatched from you. And whatever your sister hates gets dumped on you.” His thumb brushes her cheek, slow, reverent. “So to have you, my queen, I willingly let myself get dumped.”

Almost 21, still never been kissed, Eve was super shy but also curious and frustrated. Reaching out on online chatrooms at dawn of the internet age she met Him, and soon her world was filled with fulfilled desire, an education in submission, and childish fantasies all coming true. With so many barriers before them it seems it may have to always be a secret, then just as things start to feel like they might be perfect … it all goes away.

"Are you crazy, Donna Gallo?!" The doctor, Corey Dickson, stared at the plastic surgery proposal I had given him. He said in a trembling voice, "Don Gallo would never allow you to do something like this." I smiled softly. "He's too busy having an affair with a world-famous celebrity. He doesn't have time to notice me." Corey was taken aback. I looked at my wedding picture on the wall. Stefan was hugging me while looking at me with great tenderness in his eyes, but just yesterday, I watched him lead that celebrity into our bedroom. He pressed her down in bed as she stared at the silver handgun at the end of the bed and panted, "Aren't you afraid that I was sent here by the enemy to seduce you, Don Gallo? Are you sure you want to put that gun away?" Stefan laughed in a low voice. "It'd be worth it to die in your arms." That gun never left his side. This was the first time he put it aside for someone else. That was when I realized that this was the end of my marriage. It was time for me to leave. I had to find a way to leave this city, where the Don had eyes everywhere, without getting caught.

“He’s not yours,” I said, each word slicing through him like glass. Valentine stared at me, stunned, like I’d slapped him. Maybe I should’ve. That would’ve been easier than this. I thought I’d buried the past the day I ran—pregnant, heartbroken, and alone. Valentine Hale was the love of my life… until he shattered it. He never knew I was carrying his child. He never tried to find me. I raised our son alone. But fate doesn’t forget. Now I’m back in the one place I swore I’d never return to. And Valentine? He’s here. He’s looking at me like he still feels it. Valentine- She was human. Off-limits. But I touched her anyway. Loved her. Marked her. Then I walked away before the pack could find out. Before I destroyed us both. But now, Vivian’s back—with a kid who smells like me. But now I bear a secret, a curse from my father the previous alpha and I cannot risk their lives. I need to protect them. I need them. I feel it in my blood. He’s mine. She’s mine. They both always were.

“Strip off her clothes!” It never occurred to Gwen White that her husband would order a bunch of men to strip her! Throughout the ten years of crushing on him and two years of marriage, Gwen loved Jared Crawford madly, but he despised and hated her to her bones. That said, when Gwen decided to leave Jared for good, he personally brought her back from the depths of hell and begged her to start all over again...

When the power meter in the house trips, Mom's foster daughter, Juniper Hawthorne, is trapped in the dark for five minutes. Even though I have claustrophobia, Mom locks me in an empty, pitch-black room. "You knew Juniper was terrified of the dark, yet you intentionally shut off the power just to frighten her! I'll teach you how to behave today!" I cry and beg her not to, but all I receive in return is a harsh slap. "Claustrophobia? That's just what happens when a kid grows up too spoiled." Late that night, I sense someone breaking into the house. The first thing I do is to call Mom, a renowned criminal psychologist, for help, only to be yelled at. "You're still really getting into this role just to fight Juniper for attention, aren't you? "Kidnappers, huh? Well, go ahead and die so you'll stop bothering me!" As she wishes, I'm brutally tortured and killed. My body is buried beneath Mom's favorite flowerbed. After I die, my soul is trapped in the body of a cat. All I can do is helplessly circle Mom until five days have passed. The police arrive with a mangled body and request her help in creating a portrait of the killer.

I sold three years of my life for three hundred thousand dollars a month—just to keep my grandmother alive. That was the deal. One hundred rules I couldn’t break. A cold marriage contract. And a husband who looked at me like I was the reason his world had burned down. August Harrington didn’t want a wife. He wanted revenge from the beginning. He was convinced I destroyed the only woman he had ever loved, so he made me pay for it every single day. The pain. The humiliation. The nights I cried until I had nothing left. He broke me in ways I never thought I could survive. I hated him. God, I hated him. But hate is a dangerous thing when it starts twisting into something darker. Something addictive. Something I couldn’t escape. Then a secret revealed. And that’s when everything went to hell. Terrified and desperate, I ran. Five years later, I’m back. No longer the scared, shattered girl he once broke. I’m stronger now, harder. Ready to face the man who still haunts my nightmares. But August’s obsession never faded. It only grew more twisted and more dangerous with time. And now another powerful man stands in his way — the one who helped me piece myself back together. One broke me a thousand times. The other gave me an escape. Who do I choose?

After my eight-year-old twin sister was kidnapped, my dad became the person who wished for my death more than anyone else in the world. He would always say, "Zachary is an ungrateful brat! A good-for-nothing!" So, when the news of my disappearance reached the school, my dad leads everyone in cheers. He even spreads word of my misdeeds everywhere. "Zachary stole a poor student's tuition fees and even made a false police report accusing the teacher of hitting him!" "That's right! He even helped traffickers kidnap children—his own sister was almost sold by him! I hope he dies soon!" Five years later, my memories are extracted and projected onto a large display screen. And yet my dad, who hates me to the core and wishes for my death, falls to his knees and begs for my forgiveness the moment he learns of my death.

Connor Lockwood abandons me at the hospital's entrance even though I'm bleeding in the middle of my pregnancy. He insists on sending his client, a divorcée, home. The blood flows down my legs, but he hurries off without another look back. He should've been at the hospital and by my side, but instead, I see him in his client's social media update. It's captioned, "Thank goodness for my wonderful lawyer. Do you know who gets to have hangover soup when they're drunk? Me!" I spend the rest of the night wide awake. The following morning, I calmly dial a number. "Dad, I've made up my mind. I'll return home in three days to take over the company."