Novel & Cerita Talking To Strangers

I’m Sadie Summer. Once I was an orphan, still treated like a servant by the family who adopted me—until fate threw me into a contract marriage with my cold, powerful billionaire boss. I stood by him when everyone else walked away. I saw the man beneath the armor, and for a moment... I believed he saw me too. But then came the accident. It turned us into strangers again. Still, I stayed—through the silence, the ache of being forgotten. Now he’s healed--almost whole. He still wants out. He wants a divorce. Worse, the people who wronged me are whispering lies, poisoning what little he remembers of us. Maybe we were never meant to be. But I’ve been alone before. I know how to survive. Only this time, I’m not walking away with my head down. Let him regret what he let go. Because I may have loved him once... But I won’t beg him twice.

It was the day of my return. The city was talking about the birthday party my husband was throwing for me. He was a lawyer. But the night before the big day, a message popped up on my husband's cell phone. 'It's been five years. I've been waiting for far too long.' My husband pushed me away, though his face was smeared with guilt. "I'm sorry, honey. The GM wants me on a last-minute work trip. I can't make it in time for your birthday." He left without even missing a beat. I opened up the GPS app and watched the red dot move away. That was him. I got an Uber and tailed him right away. His GM was me. I just got the job, and I approved his leave for my birthday. And then he told me, in my face, that I assigned him on a last-minute work trip when I did no such thing. It was midnight. And I was going to find out who this man was meeting at this witching hour.

When Joy Staton, my adoptive sister, fainted in the freezer on her birthday, William Staton, my brother, checked on the security footage in rage. The moment he saw that I was the one who took Joy into the freezer, he kicked me inside without hesitation. Before shutting the door, he stared at me in disgust. “You’ve been pushing your luck a lot these days, huh? If I’d been a second too late, Joy would’ve died!” I wanted to defend myself, but William refused to listen and slammed the door shut. I heard him talking to the bodyguards outside. “If she doesn’t apologize, don’t let her out!” But he did not know that Joy had set the freezer to –58 °F. I did not even have the strength to complain about the freezer being cold. William did not know that the sister he once loved dearly had stopped breathing in the freezer. He had killed his only blood relative left in the world.

I'm seven months along with my second pregnancy when a truck almost hits me. My husband threatens the doctor like a maniac. "I'll make all of you retire prematurely if anything goes wrong with my wife!" Before I enter the operating theater, I can't help thinking he's being too anxious. The truck merely brushed past me and made me fall. He doesn't need to be so panicked. However, when I open my eyes again, I find that my belly is flat. I crawl out of bed in a panic and head to the door, where I overhear Lucian Jacobe talking to the doctor. "Mrs. Jacobe wasn't in a major accident, sir. The child could've been saved. Why did you insist on aborting it? It was a baby boy, too." "Jenny will cry if she finds out about me having children with another woman. How can I bear to see her upset? It's not my first time doing something like this, anyway."

After my third dive in search of my missing boyfriend, I suffer a miscarriage. When I wake up in the hospital and find out he's still alive, I rip out the IV and drag myself home. But as I approach the house, I overhear Beck Wilder talking to his friends. "Maren had a child with her ex-husband. Who knows if she's really over him? "I can't go through with the wedding without being sure. I'd rather set a trap to see if she'd risk everything for me." Someone hesitates. "What if she finds out you lied? She might get furious and leave you." Beck chuckles confidently. "She's a breeze to manipulate. I'll make her sign the marriage papers and host a lavish wedding. She'll be as meek as a kitten." Two weeks later, I leave the miscarriage report on the wedding dress and walk away. The once-proud heir of the Wilder family is left in tears, scouring every inch of Larkspur in desperate search of his runaway bride.

Layla's career has been stagnant since she returned to America. When her friend came with a project unlike any other, she hoped that will be her big break. The assignment? An expose on Lucas Asher, a billionaire tycoon that everyone is talking about. The goal is to uncover something unseemly about his background and ruin his reputation. She feels bad about it, but it is the only price for success and she decides to pay it. Besides, the public deserves the truth, right? When Layla poses as a heiress of a conglomerate and manages to get some time with Asher, she finds that he is charming and considerate. He's nothing like she expected. The more time she spends with him, the more her feelings grow until she realizes she is unable to complete her assignment. What will happen when a secret from the past zooms into the present and Layla has to stay away because if he ever found out about her true background, her budding relationship would be doomed? Can the present be redeemed or the past will destroy it? Will Layla follow her heart or a deadly mission assigned to her?

My ex-husband Giacomo and my brother's widow, Zoya, are the reason I went to prison. Seven years. Gone. I crunched leaves on the way to Carlo's grave and—of course—they're there. Together. Right in front of his headstone. "Jessica?" His voice shook. Fake surprise. He wiped his eye like that meant something. "I've been looking for you for seven years. I thought you... were gone. "Where have you been all these years? Why didn't you ever contact me?" I said nothing. He kept going. "You're still mad about what happened? I had my reasons." 'Reasons?' I looked at him. Almost laughed. He and Carlo's woman killed Carlo. Framed me, kicked me out, and sent me to prison. He took half my life. And now he's talking about reasons—standing at Carlo's grave. But seven years of torment burned everything down. Love. Hate. All of it.

On the day I found out I was dying, Evan Buck, my husband, came home with a “dating contract” he had signed with his assistant, Cherry Mello. “She threatened to kill herself if I didn’t agree to date her for three months.” He continued with a sincere gaze. “But don’t worry. It’s just indulging a young girl’s wish. You’re the one I love. I promise you, after three months, she’ll resign, and we’ll never hear from her again.” I knew that when Evan made up his mind, there was no talking him out of it. Just like how I had long seen the unmistakable longing in Cherry’s eyes when she looked at him. However, he said I was overthinking and refused to dismiss her. Looking at the man I had loved for ten years before me, I quietly slipped the terminal diagnosis behind my back. Three months. What a coincidence. That was exactly how much time I had left.

"Do you know what marriage is?" Evelyn asked with a raised brow. "Marriage is 'I do' and 'you do', then boom, children come in anytime they want," Drake replied with a cute smile. "How do children come in?" She asked knowingly. "Man and a woman call them," he replied foolishly. "How do they call them?" She probed. "Just like this…" He placed his phone to his ear. "I already forgot that it's useless talking to you," Evelyn got annoyed and walked away *** Twenty years old Evelyn Brown was forced to marry the son of the richest man in the country, Drake Valentino. She thought her life was perfect, not until she was forced to get married to a man she barely knows because of money. Evelyn had thought the arranged marriage wasn't bad as her groom was a handsome young man from a rich family, just like hers until she entered the marriage. She was shocked into disbelief when she realized her husband wasn't as normal as she thought he was, he was a complete… Moron!

After my family went bankrupt, I begged my fiancé Ryan to pump cash into our business. He didn't just refuse. He turned around and got engaged to someone else. When I was at the end of my rope, Ethan Brooks stepped up, tossing all his savings into my family's mess. Sadly, we missed our shot, and our company crashed. My parents couldn't handle it. They jumped off a building. Even so, I was thankful to Ethan and married him to pay him back. Three years later, at Lily Carter's birthday party, I overheard her talking to him. "You tanked the Harper family so I could win that bid. Won't Kelly blame you?" "For you, I'd give up everything. I'll just make it up to her." My blood ran cold as I realized our marriage was all a lie. The one he loved was Lily all along. I turned and left. If he was that hooked, I'd set him free.