Late Love

Five years ago, I left my husband a note. Three sentences. A returned bracelet. A door closing softly at 4am. He told me to get rid of our baby. I got rid of him instead. Now he’s sitting across my boardroom table in the city I built for myself, looking for the woman he married. She’s gone. What’s left is stronger.

Sophie, who deeply loved Dylan, had been enduring constant pain because Dylan was in love with a lowly maid. Dylan believed the maid was his lifesaver, and he forced Sophie to donate a kidney to her. Only then did he realize he had mistaken the wrong person—but by that time, Sophie had already left him forever.

It's my husband, Niall Luther's birthday. I take my son to the hospital to visit Niall since he's working late; I want to surprise him. However, we get into an accident on the way there. When I rush to the hospital with my bloodied son in my arms, I see Niall holding his first love's daughter. He coos at her and says, "This might be a small wound, but there's a risk of infection if it isn't handled well!" His first love, Chelsea Blanc, gives him a chiding look. "You treat Lulu so well that I'm getting jealous." Niall wraps an arm around her. "It's only because I love you. You're the one I love the most." I pull out my phone and call him. He keeps his arm around Lulu White and rejects my call. So, I text him, telling him our son is injured and has been taken to the hospital where he works. I tell him he needs to attend to our son. However, he berates me for lying. I have no choice but to take my son elsewhere for treatment. Before leaving, I see Niall kiss Chelsea tenderly and tell her he wants to take her to an amusement park. That's when I know he and I are over.

On the day Andrew Selwyn is elected as the pack's Beta, we promise to have our bonding ceremony a month later. Seven days away from the ceremony, he suddenly decides to pursue his first love, Lucy Grimm. He wants to make up for the time they had lost apart. If he gets back together with Lucy, he hopes I will give them my blessing. If he can't win her over, he'd let go of his obsession and return to complete the ceremony. He'd spend the rest of his life loving and protecting me. Gazing at his sincere expression, I smile and say, "Alright. As long as it makes you happy, I won't stop you." The moment he turns and leaves, I can no longer hold back my tears. All along, Andrew's heart belonged to someone else. Later, I contact my best friend, Selena Jones, through the mind link. "My bonding ceremony has been canceled," I say flatly, my voice thick with helplessness. "Didn't you want me to lead the research team at your institute out of town? I'll do it. When do we leave?"

I masterminded a half-billion-dollar art auction to wash money for Miles’s family. But at the celebration party, Miles gave all the credit to Rebecca. His childhood friend. The daughter of the family’s consigliere. I stormed into his study. “Miles, head curator was Rebecca? Are you sure about that?” He looked up from a cloud of smoke, pulling me into his arms. His voice was a low, soothing rumble. “Valerie, I know you want to prove yourself, but this was all Rebecca. Especially the Caravaggio. The real one, worth three hundred million. She’s the one who pulled it off.” His lips brushed my forehead, his breath hot. “I don’t love you because you can fix some old paintings. You’re my queen, always. My girl. You don’t have to worry about her.” I almost laughed. The anger was choking me. “She can’t tell the difference between oil and acrylic. How the hell would she know a real from a fake?” “Enough!” Miles cut me off, his tone leaving no room for argument. “I know what Rebecca can do. Don’t make a scene just because you’re jealous.” His hands tightened, trapping me in his smoky embrace. “Don’t disappoint me, Valerie.” But he already had. When I’d had enough of his favoritism and his blindness, I walked. And that's when he went crazy. Scoured the earth looking for me. Begging me to come back, saying he was blind, that he’d been wrong about everything.

Everyone said the Alpha, James Black, loved me deeply. He would always make me breakfast and send me to work. Whenever I got sick, he would stay up all night to watch over me. I thought the same thing too. One day, a she-wolf humiliated me by treating me like a servant and demanding I grill meat for her. James did not refuse. Instead, he nonchalantly told me, "What are you standing there for? Go and grill some meat." I stood up, left the banquet hall, and never went back. Later, he knelt at my door and begged me to come home, but I already had a new mate.

Dahlia was never meant to belong. The daughter of the ‘traitor’ Alpha, raised as an outsider in the Moonfyre Pack, found herself mated to Darren—Alpha, leader, and her cousin's arranged husband, who was the first to see her heart. But when betrayal strikes, and lies paint her as a killer, Dahlia is cast out, hunted, and abandoned. Alone, she discovers a truth that could shake the world: her bloodline holds the legacy of the Forgotten Wolves, and the child she carries is tied to the ancient power of Fenrir himself. With the enemies she once trusted plotting her downfall, Dahlia must rise, not just to survive, but to claim her destiny.

I always thought if I just held on a little longer, I could still keep this family together. But my mate Ethan and my brother William poured all their favoritism onto Ava and her mother, and left me nothing but coldness and humiliation. They could even look me in the eye and say, “She’s your sister too,” like that was enough to make me bless them. That night, I did something so insane it bordered on self-destruction: I dragged my suitcase out the door and let the house that held all my memories get swallowed by flames. The news exploded, our villa became ruins. The security footage showed “no one leaves,” and the police made a preliminary judgment that the person inside was “highly likely deceased.” Ethan didn’t believe it. Not until he and William were handed that bag of belongings at the police station, a diamond, a Blood Moonstone, the things I treasured most, did they finally understand: I wasn’t throwing a tantrum. I was really, truly done with them. Too bad. It was already too late.

“I vow to never love you, Daisy , Not in sickness, and never in health.” Those were Sebastian’s words at our wedding, and I had foolishly believed I could make him fall in love with me. The day I told him I was pregnant, his cold eyes met mine, and he muttered, “Abort it.” But the moment his ex-lover returned, he followed her blindly. I watched, tears clouding my vision, as he twirled her in the middle of a lavish party he threw for her—on my birthday all the while proclaiming his love for her to the entire world while I stood there like a fool. My parents’ faces twisted in disgust as they looked at me. “How can you be so ungrateful, Daisy? We’ve given you everything for twenty-three years! Now we’ve found our biological daughter. She is the real heir, so let her take over the company. Don’t be selfish!” And just like that, they handed her the inheritance I had worked for all my life. Three years. Three years I devoted to Sebastian. I gave him my heart, my body, even a kidney when he was on the brink of death. And still, he abandoned me like trash. I fled that night, leaving behind our signed divorce papers and a fake abortion report. But five years later, I returned. But not as the woman they discarded, but as the most successful actress in the nation, with my twin children by my side. And now… they came back begging. “Daisy… we were blind. Please forgive us,” my parents whispered. “I was a fool,” Sebastian fell to his knees. “I made a mistake. Come back to me. I still love you.” I rolled my eyes, my voice icy. “You are five years too late, ex-husband.”

My husband, Tyler Stone, has been dead for seven years. One day, he suddenly comes back to life. Not only does he bring another woman home with him, but he even wants me to give up my position as his wife. "Ruth almost lost her eyes saving me, and I've promised to marry her. Sign the divorce agreement, and I won't kick you out of the house." I'm briefly silent before saying, "I've actually married someone else." He rolls his eyes. "As if. Everyone knows you're desperately in love with me!"