In Too Deep Novels & Stories

When I was having a heart attack, my parents, my brother, and my fiancé were all at our family casino—celebrating Eva, our adopted daughter, at her twenty-first birthday, her official debut into the mafia world. The doctor refused to operate without a legal guardian’s signature. So I called them. My father’s assistant answered. “Sorry, Miss. The Don is in the middle of a toast.” My brother and mother let it ring until it went silent. Finally, my fiancé, Adam, picked up. Music roared behind him. I could hear laughter, glasses clinking. “Cecilia,” he said, impatient. “If you can’t even show up for Eva’s party, stop causing trouble. Today is Eva’s debut. Every Don from three territories is here. Whatever drama you’re playing can wait.” I lost count of how many times they chose her over me. So after this call, I stopped calling. I signed my own name. My family thought I’d finally learned to be obedient. But they should’ve known that in our world, silence only means one thing—I was preparing to disappear for good.

I've been working for five years now. This is the first time my mom takes the initiative to call me to go home for the holidays. So I travel home with heaps of luggage. Still, I manage to free one hand to produce an envelope filled with cash and give it to my mom. A grin blooms on her face instantly. But when she realizes that there's only ten thousand dollars in the envelope, her grin starts to falter. "Oh, it only makes sense that you're the most manipulative out of the bunch after all these years." I pause momentarily as I'm about to go through the front door. "You've been working for quite a few years now, and yet you only bring home ten thousand bucks. Meanwhile, Sabrina gave us 100 thousand dollars in her first year of working a nice job. Having a bachelor's degree definitely pays off a lot!" Upon noticing how stunned I look, my mom yanks the gifts over right away. "Don't go around looking as though we owe you a life debt, Regina! See, Sabrina has better grades than you, and she doesn't have the intention of hiding anything from us. The gifts she always brings us are top-end supplements, so you should stop bringing us cheap stuff like this." I can only grip the hems of my shirt tightly. But the thing is, I'm the one with better scores back then…

I'm getting married soon—but not to my boyfriend of six years, Soren Cruz. He's the mafia boss based in Mehico and is currently busy "working" with his new underboss, Thea Ramirez. Lately, he's been so swamped with work that he completely forgot about me and our promise to get married on our sixth anniversary. At the Christmas party, he ordered Thea's favorite almond cake. He forgot I'm allergic to almonds. While his friends were messing around, a slice of cake hit me right in the face. I fainted on the spot. When I woke up, I told Mom I didn't want to marry Soren anymore. I'm going back.

Malia Hayes, an average human trying to make it in the agricultural field, gave up everything she worked hard to earn… For an alpha who swore she was his soulmate, promised her a better life in a world she didn’t even know existed. Only for him to disappear after their wedding. For years, she held his pack together, fought his battles, and waited for him to come home. He never did. Until the night she finally broke… and ended up in the arms of another Alpha. Only then did her husband return with another, alive and well. Untouched by the chaos he left behind. Now bounded to a man who betrayed her… and claimed by another who refuses to let her go, Malia is trapped between duty, desire, and a choice that could cost her everything.

He forced me to marry him because of my sister. Now he found out that the story he believed was not true. He was lied to. He wanted me back but all I want is his regret.

My peace shattered when my daughter found a used condom in our family car. I knew my husband, Derek, never loved me, but I never thought he was the kind of man to leave the disgusting evidence of his betrayal for his daughter to find. I thought this was the worst part, but life was always harsher than you could imagine. When I followed an anonymous text to Derek’s office, I saw him, my husband, kissing a woman in front of the windows. It was Savannah—my sister, Derek’s first love, who had died seven years ago.

On New Year's Eve, I returned home. At the welcome party, my boyfriend, Grayson Caldwell, suddenly appeared, holding a bouquet of red roses and a diamond ring, dropping to one knee. "Although this proposal comes a full three years late, our love will never be late," he said. "Alexa, marry me!" Friends cheered from the sidelines, all expecting me to nod through tears and say yes. But they had forgotten that three years ago, on New Year's Eve, he had promised to propose. That night, I dressed to the nines and waited until dawn—but he never showed up. Instead, there was only a cold phone call. "Tanya is sick. I'm busy taking care of her. You'll have to wait a little longer for the proposal." And so, on New Year's Day, I left the country alone, bound by a family-arranged marriage. I had already married someone else three years ago.

Dabby knew better than not to stay away from her stepbrother, not when he bullied, and was determined to make her life miserable. He was HOT! And HOT-tempered.    Not when she was the kind of girl he could never be seen around with. Not when he hated that they were now family, and that they attended the same school. But, she can't. Perhaps, a two week honeymoon vacation with they by themselves, was going to flip their lives forever.  

Venus’s life shatters the night her husband of seven years chooses his ex-lover over her, a woman who vanished on their wedding day and left him broken. For seven years, she believed she was his forever, but discovered she was just a placeholder. Humiliated and heartbroken, she walks away… only to suffer a devastating accident that erases her memory. She was found and protected by a powerful underground magnate, Leo’s most dangerous enemy and nemesis. In his world, Venus is reborn stronger. As her memories return, the man who betrayed her is pulled back into her orbit, old passion collides with buried pain. Will she destroy the man who broke her, will he survive her wrath, or will she lose her heart to him all over again?

My CEO wife insists on taking a young, fresh intern under her wing. She wants to train him personally. She says to me, "Don't overthink this. I just value his potential." She's always been stern and stoic, but she starts dressing in pink and pulling her hair back in high ponytails. On our third wedding anniversary, she and the intern even willfully disappear for 48 hours. When others are searching for her like mad, she shares photos of her riding a carousel and holding cotton candy. She captions them, "I found the purest of joys in the most joyful of places—all because of you!" Our company loses a huge project because of this, and I lose my wife. I slip a divorce agreement between the pages of the intern's application to become a permanent staff member. My wife signs it without even looking and says, "Knowing what Elliot can do, he's more than capable of carrying out the role of a vice president." I calmly hand her my resignation. "You're right. That's why I'll make way for him."