Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal

I pleaded with my husband Cedric Fleetham over and over, and finally, he agreed to take our daughter camping in the mountains for her birthday. When I found her late the next night, she was already gone. She lay at the foot of the mountain, her tiny hand still clutching a drawing of our family. As I knelt beside her, my heart shattered. Meanwhile, Cedric was busy updating his social media. His post read, [You and our daughter are my treasures,] and it was accompanied by a photo, where he stood beside his childhood sweetheart and held hands with another little girl, watching the sunset. And there, in the corner of the picture, was a tiny hand—my daughter’s hand. The cruelest truth of all was that my daughter took that photo.

Kaitlyn believed she had everything - a caring partner, a reliable best friend, and a promising future. However, on the day that was supposed to be the most joyful of her life, she is horrified to see the man she loves marrying her best friend instead. Feeling betrayed and devastated, Kaitlyn finds it difficult to rebuild her broken life. Just as she believes she has reached the lowest point, a random meeting with the mysterious billionaire Estefan Salvatore gives her an unforeseen opportunity for help. The proposition he is offering is both alluring and risky: enter into a fake marriage with him to assist in his plan for vengeance against his deceitful sibling, and in exchange, enjoy a lavish lifestyle and seek retribution against those who have wronged her. Now Kaitlyn has to make a decision: is it worth taking a risk on this risky deal, putting her heart and maybe even her life in danger in exchange for the chance of getting revenge and wealth? Should she choose to leave and confront the challenging job of reconstructing her life according to her own standards

The year I loved Channing Waltz the most, he shattered my hopes. I remember, as I was hauled into the restroom, beaten mercilessly by strangers, there he stood, grinning like the sun itself. His face beamed with a brightness that made my heart sink. The burns from his childhood friend's curling iron marred my skin, leaving a trail of scars, and all the while, he took out his phone, snapping pictures of me in my undressed humiliation and posting them online for the world to mock. I cried, begged him to spare me, but he only laughed coldly, his voice as sharp as a blade. "You haven't even begun to suffer what my sister went through. What's the hurry?" That was when the truth hit me like a lightning strike. He had come to me, drawn me in with warmth, with affection, pretending to care—when all along, it was merely a means to an end. He had used me to set the stage to avenge his sister.

"Pregnant patient, corpus luteum rupture, heavy bleeding! We need a consent form signed—now!" I stood there holding the clipboard, waiting, when a voice I knew way too well cut through the chaos. "I'm here!" Jimmy. My husband. The same guy who vanished on our anniversary—now signing off on emergency surgery for another woman. He didn't even blink before writing "husband" on the form. Still had our wedding ring on, too. He didn't recognize me behind the mask. Just grabbed my hand and begged. "Please save her. It's my fault. She's pregnant. I messed up. I love her. I can't lose her." His grip tightened. My wedding ring slipped off and hit the floor. I didn't say a word. Just turned and walked into the OR. A doctor beside me, totally clueless, beamed and said, "Dr. Meyer, your test results came back—twins! Your husband's gonna be so happy. Congrats!" I smiled, barely. "Schedule the termination after surgery."

During the exchange of tokens in the Marking Ceremony, I presented the wolf tooth ring I had carved myself, as a witness to our marking. But my Alpha mate, Frendo, remained completely indifferent, not releasing any marking aura, as though he had entirely forgotten that today was the day of our spiritual bonding ceremony. At that moment, Lily updated her Instagram, saying she would be returning to the Sliver Lake Pack in an hour. The air immediately filled with the restless scent of wolves, and before I could react, my Beta brother, George, stepped onto the ceremony stage and emotionlessly announced, "The Marking Ceremony is canceled." Frendo and George, in perfect synchronization, turned and left the altar together, leaving me standing alone, under the watchful eyes of all the Pack members. They wanted to see how a one-person marking ceremony would proceed. It wasn’t until I held back my inner frustration and awkwardly finished the ceremony with some semblance of dignity that I opened Lily’s Instagram. In her latest photo, George and Frendo were both surrounding her, releasing intimate signals. One was holding a silver moon festival gift box, while the other offered her a moonlight rose, her favorite. I bitterly smiled and wiped away the tears from my eyes before calling the one family that truly mattered, my flesh and blood. "Dad, Mom. I want to go home."

Melinda’s world shatters on her anniversary when she walks into her husband Ethan’s office, not for a celebratory surprise, but to find him entwined with her own sister, Sage. What happens, however, when years later, she comes back seeking revenge, but with twins, and a father who is new to the picture?

My mother-in-law, Teresa Hawke, said she was trapped inside her burning villa. I called my husband, Asher Jensen, begging him to save her. But he was too busy at some bar, flirting with his childhood sweetheart, Melanie Lanner. It wasn't until I begged him, over and over, that he finally went to save Teresa. But Melanie was snatched from that same bar, tortured, killed, and dumped. He acted like none of it mattered until I got pregnant. Then out of nowhere, he threw it all back on me, saying it was my fault. Asher pulled every string he could to bankrupt my family, driving Mom and Dad to leap to their deaths. Then he rounded up a gang of violent psychopaths and threw me in with them. I begged again and again, but he just watched me with that dead stare. "You'll suffer like Mel did before she died! She left this world in agony. Why should you get to live? That's not fair." 99 stab wounds—that was how many it took before I finally bled out and died. And then, I woke up, right back on the day Teresa screamed for help from inside that burning villa.

At my five-year mating anniversary celebration, my best friend who had vanished years ago suddenly appeared with a six-year-old child. The child's father was my mate, Alexander, I am the Alpha King's only daughter. Alexander was one of the top five Alphas in the northern territories. He pursued me for five years before I agreed to bond with him. We even had an adorable four-year-old daughter together. Yet my mate not only refused to explain his betrayal, but now he expected me to accept my friend and her child into our home. He favored the illegitimate son in everything, even allowing him to harm our daughter. When I finally rejected him and found a new father for my daughter, he used the entire Stormfang Pack to try to win me back.

Celine, a beautiful model, gave up her career in the modeling world that had made her a household name at the request of Nicolas and his mother-in-law. But what happened? After five years of marriage, Nicolas introduced another woman as his lover just because Celine could not give children to Nicolas, could not give grandchildren to her in-laws. Unbeknownst to her husband and in-laws, Celine was pregnant. She was going to tell her husband and in-laws on their fifth-anniversary night. However, after Celine tried to persevere, in the end, she gave up and decided to leave Nicolas' life. Celine chose to keep her pregnancy a secret and was determined to make her husband and mother-in-law regret betraying her. What is the rest of the story?

Evelyn "Evie" Moretti never wanted to be part of the mafia world. The daughter of a disgraced underboss, she’s spent her life dreaming of freedom—a life far away from the violence and betrayal that destroyed her family. But when her father’s debts to the powerful Romano crime family spiral out of control, Evie is forced to pay the price: an arranged marriage to Don Alessandro "Alessio" Romano, the ruthless and enigmatic head of the Romano family. Alessio is as cold as he is handsome, a man shrouded in darkness and driven by a thirst for revenge. From the moment Evie meets him, it’s clear that their marriage is no love story. It’s a transaction, a way to settle a debt and secure power. But as Evie is thrust into Alessio’s world of luxury, danger, and deceit, she begins to realize that there’s more to their union than meets the eye. Alessio harbours a deep hatred for her family, and his cruelty toward her is both calculated and personal. As Evie struggles to survive in her new life, she uncovers shocking secrets about her family’s past—and Alessio’s true motives for marrying her. Betrayed at every turn, she must navigate a treacherous web of lies, power struggles, and forbidden desires. But the more she learns, the more she questions who she can trust—and whether she can resist the dangerous pull of the man who holds her captive in every way. Bound by Blood and Betrayal is a dark, emotional mafia romance filled with twists, tension, and a love that burns as fiercely as it destroys. Can Evie find a way to escape Alessio’s grip, or will she lose herself in the shadows of his world?