No Longer A Pushover

After Ryan Spencer cheated on me again with his secretary, I completely lost it. When my mind started to spiral, I grabbed the fruit knife off the table. I just wanted it to end. “Why are you hurting yourself again? He doesn’t love you anymore?” I looked up. The sixteen-year-old Ryan was walking toward me, heartbreak written all over his face. His voice was gentle. “Tell me who he is. I’ll make him pay.” I stared into the bright, earnest eyes of the boy standing in front of me. I didn’t say a word. I simply lifted my hand and pointed at his face. Later, Ryan was the one who had me admitted to a psychiatric hospital. When the sedative began to wear off, the teenage boy appeared again, sitting by my bed. He stared at the man outside who looked just like him. The light in his eyes faded little by little. Then he spoke, his voice strained. “I don’t care who he is. I’ll kill him.” The sixteen-year-old Ryan never lied to me. When he said something, he meant it.

For three years, I played the role of a dutiful wife to my husband, Williams, until I found out I was just a mere substitute for his first love— the woman he truly loved.  When she returned, he threw divorce papers at me as if I meant nothing.  And when I refused to sign them, I was forced to donate my blood to his precious mistress, causing me to lose a child I never even knew I was carrying. Shattered and broken, I walked away with one purpose— avenging the death of my unborn child.  He realised his mistake, but it was too late. I was no longer his substitute, but a future he'll never touch.  “You were right, Williams. I was a substitute you never deserved.” 

One day, my partner, Natalie Moore, cried and begged me to let her have the baby she had conceived with her childhood sweetheart, Yarden Holt. I agreed, but only on two conditions. Firstly, Yarden had to take the child abroad and never come back. Secondly, if Natalie ever broke the first condition and allowed them to come back, half of the Moore family’s estate had to be transferred to me. Everyone called me a gold-digging opportunist. They accused me of using a woman to climb the social ladder and coveting the Moore family fortune. Nevertheless, Natalie was willing to go against the entire Moore Corp board just to keep that child. Five years after that, I went to a neighboring city for a project and found a little boy. I took him to the police station so they could contact his family. The officer dialed the number the boy gave, and the voice that came through was one I knew all too well. “Baby, don’t worry. I’m coming to get you right now.” Less than half an hour later, Natalie, who was supposed to be hundreds of miles away at a meeting, stormed into the police station. I sat on a bench and watched her indifferently. She froze, and her face turned pale. I smiled and stood up to greet her. “Natalie, I had no idea that you had secretly brought this little boy back. Did you stop caring about your inheritance?”

When Tina Wesley's son dies in a hospital corridor, she sits beside his empty bed. The truth about her son’s death is unraveled with a phone call that arrives and with it, the truth: the fund for the research that could have saved him was not lost. It was redirected deliberately to protect another woman's unborn child. The child her husband chose. Tina made a resolution to complete the work and to save other children suffering out there. She packs her suitcase, leaves divorce papers beside a coffee cup, and disappears. Three years later she is Dr. Tina, the pediatric specialist whose research has saved sixty thousand children. She has built a new life out of the ruins of the old one, stone by careful stone. Then her ex-husband walks through the doors of her hospital with his mistress and a sick child in their arms. And the child has the same disease as Sam. Would she forgive her ex-husband?

Althea Johnson did not walk blindly into darkness. Before the contracts, the demands of blood and legacy — Dominic Valtieri had loved her. It was fierce, dangerous, and real enough to make her believe she could stand beside a man the world feared. Behind his ruthless reputation, she had seen a man capable of choosing her. For a while, he did. Until the weight of his name consumed him. By the time they marry, Dominic is no longer the man who once held her like something precious. He is colder, controlled by a dynasty that demands an heir and sees love as weakness. Still, Althea clings to the ghost of what they once were, hoping the man she loved is still buried somewhere inside him. On their wedding night, that hope dies. There is no tenderness—only possession. No love—only purpose. She is not a wife to him, but a necessity. When she discovers she’s pregnant, the truth becomes unbearable. Dominic did not choose her again. He chose what she could give him. An heir. A legacy. A continuation of a name built on power and fear. To him, she is no longer the woman he loved. She became a vessel. But grief hardens into something far more dangerous than heartbreak. Because Althea remembers who he used to be — and that memory burns. If legacy has consumed Dominic Valtieri, then she will become the one thing his empire never accounted for: defiance. She will not allow her child to be raised as a pawn in a dynasty built on fear. She will not let love be twisted into ownership. And if she must burn his empire to the ground to set her child free— She will.

Hazel Queen had loved her husband with all her heart for three years. But the one thing she never saw coming was the cold, shocking truth: he wanted a divorce because his mistress was pregnant. Heartbroken and betrayed, Hazel decides to move on and returns to Queen Corp, where she steps into her true role as the powerful female president, worth hundreds of millions. This revelation shocks her ex-husband, Damon Price, who never knew that the woman he left behind was the mastermind behind the famous Queen Corp—the Heiress of the Queen family, who had supposedly died in a fire three years ago.

Angela Graham's husband abandons her twice on her birthday for the sake of his true love. She's devastated and dejected when she learns a secret—it turns out that every celebration and anniversary that she and her husband have had over the past five years was planned by his true love. Angela's heart and love have been stomped on far too many times. It's been five years, and she's tired. She doesn't want to stick it out anymore. But her ex-husband comes running when she leaves him and allows another man to stand by her side. "You can't fall in love with anyone else without my permission, Angela!" Angela laughs. "You think too highly of yourself, ex-husband."

On the day Winter Everhart suffers a miscarriage, her husband, Joshua Stroud, and their son, Terence, are out with his beloved Jessica Lynch. They watch the very performance Winter has always loved. "You're just so unreasonable. What's the point of all this?" "Dad, can you get me a new mom? She's so annoying!" On Winter's birthday, she returns from the hospital only to find Joshua celebrating Jessica's instead. Even Terence, the child she nearly gave her life to bring into the world, pledges to protect the woman who has stolen everything from her. Tears glisten in Winter's eyes as she smiles. Then, with quiet resolve, she walks away from the cage of a marriage that has bound her for five years. Joshua and Terence believe she won't survive without the Stroud family. What they don't expect is that she rises so high that they can no longer reach her. "Mr. Stroud! Mrs. Stroud's car design is now number one nationwide—Stroud Group has been completely outshone!" "Mr. Stroud! Mrs. Stroud has just won the World Championship in Artificial Intelligence Design!" "Mr. Stroud! Mrs. Stroud has been invited by a foreign president to attend a state banquet!" Regret tears Joshua apart. Dragging Terence with him, he kneels before Winter and pleads, "Honey, please give me another chance! If being your servant is what it takes, I'll do it!" But just beyond the door, a strikingly handsome man kneels on one knee, a leather collar fastened around his neck. Twining a diamond leash around Winter's palm, he vows with his gaze burning with feverish devotion, "My master, from this moment on, I bow to no one but you. Please, take me in."

A shadow that never leaves its owner's side, Dawn Clinton has been living with her family as the shadow of their daughter who has been missing for ten years. Six years ago, she was married to the richest man in the city as a replacement for her sister. Although her husband didn't accept her fully, she thought she had a good marriage and a good life. Within six years, they had a three year old boy and she was pregnant for the second time. The day she found out, she was pregnant for second time, she found out her first son was missing. She was in panic and try to reach out to her husband, but she failed. He was unreachable. When she was busy searching for her son, her husband returned home with her sister who has been lying about her missing for ten years. To take the Matter to the worst, her adoptive sister blamed her for her son's death and accused her of killing her son. Dawn realized soon after that her sister and the Nanny killed her son and flamed her. And unsurprisingly, her husband trusted her sister instead of her, accusing her of adultery and killing her son. To add things worse, her sister pushed her to have a miscarriage, leading her to death and a second chance to fix everything. Will she take revenge or escape from her husband who watched her dying to avoid her son's death?

Dangerous Desires Book Two. The first time I laid eyes on Roman Castillo, there was a charge of electricity that ignited my pulse to surge—like a lightning strike in the night sky, zapping my broken heart to life. He was beguiling, the bearer of the most vivid blue-gray eyes I had ever seen. Everything about him had the ability to make my heart trash against my chest cavity and made me weak on the knees. And for me to feel all these strange feelings at our first meeting was borderline extreme in my book. So I gave him a show, one that he would never forget. I relished the way his eyes darkened, following every intricate movement of my body. Little did I know I was stepping into dangerous territory. An uncharted world where the most primal rule prevails—only the strong survive. I wasn’t ready for him. I wasn’t prepared for the danger of his world. And nothing prepared me for the secrets I’d unravel while falling deeply for him. Because in the world I live in, love is patient; love is kind. But in his world, love is a game with no rules. [Mature Content] Cover by DobolyuV