Icarus Laughed As He Fell

On our fifth dating anniversary, my boyfriend, Luke Bolton, gives me a cheap bracelet worth less than a hundred dollars. On the same night, he splurges ten million dollars on a yacht for his first love, Cindy Gale. I refuse to accept this, and he accuses me of making a scene. "I gave Cindy that gift to boost the company's stock price, not because I still have feelings for her," he says. "You're poor, and I still promised to marry you. Isn't that enough? This was actually your last test, Elisa Gray, but you failed it." I break up with him, and he immediately proposes to Cindy. Five years after that, we meet again at a luxury hotel during a business summit. His company is about to become an industry giant, and Cindy is holding onto his arm. When he sees me, I'm standing in a fountain, all drenched and disheveled. "Elisa," Luke sneers. "When you turned me down back then, did it ever cross your mind that you might end up worse than a homeless person? "Don't think acting pitiful here will make me feel sorry and take you back." I ignore him. My son's cherished blue diamond was a birthday gift from his father, and he accidentally dropped it into the fountain. He's so upset that he's about to cry, and I have to find it right away.

Caspian Henderson has been rigid and restrained throughout his six-year marriage to Juliet Bennett, and their life together feels dull and uneventful. Even their nights together feel like a chore with a set time. He arrives on the dot, does what he came for, and leaves. Everyone in their social circle believes he's the kind of man who will never bend for any woman. That was true until a month ago, when he returned with an orphaned girl who claims to have saved his life. Her name is Willow Everly. She's cold and unapproachable—the polar opposite of Juliet, who has been doted on all her life. Juliet's girlfriends attempt to warn her. "That young woman looks like a handful. You'd better keep an eye on your husband." Juliet beams. "Don't worry. Caspian doesn't even waver when I tease him. There's no way he'd be interested in that delicate little thing." Yet in just a few days, she finds out just how wrong she is.

Natasha Kisniver never planned to steal from the Mafia. But when her younger sister collapses and the hospital halts her treatment over unpaid debts she couldn't afford, Natasha is pushed beyond desperation. Her only option? Steal a priceless ring from Jackson Darkmoon—a billionaire tech she believes is untouchable. The ring is sold on the black market, and her sister’s treatment resumes. But then she discovers a fatal mistake she made on her research: Jackson Darkmoon doesn’t exist. He’s a false identity, a fictional character of Alexander Darkmoon—the elusive and feared godfather of a Mafia empire her late father had always warned her about. Realizing she’s stolen from the most dangerous man alive, Natasha runs. But Alexander Darkmoon is not a man who forgives theft—especially not something so personal. He finds her within hours. She can’t repay him in money, so he takes her instead. Claimed as his property, Natasha is pulled into a brutal, opulent world where power is everything—and one wrong move could mean death. She vows to escape. But as she sees the man behind the monster, she changes her mind. As days turn into weeks, the line between hate and desire begins to blur. Alexander's control slips the more time he spends with her. Enemies start circling, and her presence — once a punishment — becomes a dangerous liability. Or worse, the key to his downfall. Just when Alexander begins to trust her, Natasha makes a desperate move to help her sister again — unknowingly putting a deadly plan planned by Alexander's rivals into motion. Betrayed and furious, Alexander pushes her away. But when she’s kidnapped by the very enemies he warned her about, Alexander is faced with a brutal choice: Let her go—or burn his empire to save her.

After I become pregnant, Mason Clarke suddenly becomes incredibly attentive to me. He cancels all his social engagements and personally cooks for me every day. Everyone envies me for finding such a devoted and caring husband. Until one day in his study, I accidentally discover a document titled "Prenatal Blood Donation and Cord Blood Donation Agreement". My name and social security number are clearly written on it! In the beneficiary column is Chloe Reid, his first love, whom he has been supporting abroad for seven years. From outside the door comes his gentle, doting voice. "Chloe, don't worry. I'm personally monitoring her. Her nutrition and daily routine are held to the highest standards to ensure the baby is born perfectly healthy. Your life-saving treatment is absolutely guaranteed!" So all those pregnancy meals he carefully prepares for me, the mountains of expensive supplements, none of it is ever out of love. It's all to fatten me into nothing more than a walking blood bank!

Kate thought she married for love until her husband asked her for a divorce. Heartbroken and blindsided, her world fractures further when she uncovers the truth: the woman he was secretly seeing was none other than her stepsister, Evelyn, the golden girl her mother always adored. But the betrayal doesn’t stop there. Evelyn isn’t just the other woman. She’s the puppeteer behind years of deceit, poisoning Kate’s marriage with whispered lies and buried secrets. Betrayed and broken, Kate walks away, silently carrying the one truth that changes everything. She’s pregnant. With his twins. What Evelyn also didn’t see coming was Kate's kindness paying off. The man they all overlooked, the one Evelyn called father, saw through her lies. And before he died, he made sure the woman who truly stood by him inherited everything. Evelyn stole her marriage. Tried to destroy her future. Now she’s back, not to beg… It’s her turn to play, plot, and take her life back.

In a cycle of broken plans, Elena asks Marcus, "Why another delay for her?" He insists, "Sophia's just a friend in trouble—you're my priority." Whispers of the past test their bond, while a quiet ally says, "I've cared for you longer than you know." As accusations fly—"You're imagining things!"—Elena questions her path. A final decision sparks chaos, rewriting fates.

Sheena was just an ordinary housewife. Every day she was busy in the kitchen, washing, cleaning the house, and taking care of her child. Her appearance was unkempt, her body overweight, her face dull, and she always wore thick glasses—and all of that made her husband, Gevan, feel ashamed. Sheena’s life grew even more bitter when Gevan openly held hands with his beautiful secretary. What hurt even more was that their only son, Ghani, actually supported his father. The boy openly said that he was embarrassed to have a mother like Sheena. Insults kept coming, even from her own mother-in-law. But Sheena was not a weak woman. She knew she had sacrificed a lot, and she would not stay silent. When everyone underestimated her, Sheena left and divorced Gevan. “You just wait and see, Gevan! I will make you regret underestimating and mocking me!”

For five years, Marco Falcone was the perfect man. Or so I thought. The illusion shattered on the night of our engagement party, when his mistress crashed it, a five-year-old boy in tow. The boy ran straight to Marco, crying, "Daddy! Daddy, I finally found you!" It had to be some kind of sick joke. But then Marco turned to me, his voice stripped of all warmth. "This is my son, Leo. A… mistake Sofia and I made five years ago." "Leo is the Falcone heir. I have to legitimize them. That means I'll be engaged to Sofia first." "But Lydia, believe me, I still love you. We can have our engagement party in six months. You're going to be the Donna of the Falcone family. I expect you to be generous and understanding. This is non-negotiable." I laughed, a cold, sharp sound, and slid the engagement ring off my finger. My eyes scanned the room and locked on the man in the corner—Lorenzo Moretti, the most powerful Don in New York. He held another title, one only I knew: the man who’d been trying to make me his. "Don Moretti," I called out, my voice clear and steady. "I find myself in need of a new fiancé. Are you interested?"

My boy friend Caleb Ford's childhood sweetheart, Julia Leclair, is losing her hair from chemotherapy. So, he orders me to cut mine off and make her a wig. "Julia's allergic to synthetic wigs. You've been growing your hair for ten years—it's perfect." I refuse, but his friends tie me down. Someone shaves my head to the scalp, buzzing through my thick, glossy hair until nothing's left but a butchered mess. Julia sits in her wheelchair and laughs, saying I look like a toad. Caleb smiles and nods in agreement. He adds with a chuckle, "It's just some hair. Was that really necessary?" But back when I was bullied for having uneven, choppy short hair for six straight years, it was he who stood in front of me. He had his arms spread wide as he shielded me from harm. Now he's the one wielding the blade. One by one, their little circle chimes in. They tell me not to hold a grudge against someone who's sick. Caleb snaps impatiently, "Stop trying to talk sense into her. She can get lost! Did you see that fit she threw over a few strands of hair? It's not like they won't grow back." I turn around and walk away. I never look back. Later, I hear that Caleb begs for my forgiveness by kneeling his way up 9000 steps until his knees are ruined.

Three months after my husband, Josiah Erikson, disappears in a skiing accident, I spot him in a bar. He's laughing freely with an arm slung casually around his "best friend", Monica Jones' shoulders. "Good thing you came up with the idea. I'd almost forgotten what freedom feels like." One after another, his buddies clink glasses with him and ask about when he plans to reappear. He looks down and thinks about it before saying, "In a week. I'll show up once she's gone completely crazy searching for me." Standing in the shadows, I watch him savor his freedom, then call my friend who works at the state vital records office.