The Awakening Kate Chopin

Kate thought she married for love until her husband asked her for a divorce. Heartbroken and blindsided, her world fractures further when she uncovers the truth: the woman he was secretly seeing was none other than her stepsister, Evelyn, the golden girl her mother always adored. But the betrayal doesn’t stop there. Evelyn isn’t just the other woman. She’s the puppeteer behind years of deceit, poisoning Kate’s marriage with whispered lies and buried secrets. Betrayed and broken, Kate walks away, silently carrying the one truth that changes everything. She’s pregnant. With his twins. What Evelyn also didn’t see coming was Kate's kindness paying off. The man they all overlooked, the one Evelyn called father, saw through her lies. And before he died, he made sure the woman who truly stood by him inherited everything. Evelyn stole her marriage. Tried to destroy her future. Now she’s back, not to beg… It’s her turn to play, plot, and take her life back.

"Your body is mine Kate... Every bit of it... I am going to make you feel the butterfly no one ever has." ** Kate Walter sought out to seek justice for her parents' death, and Dante Romano, who ran a club during the day and led a mafia at night, was a suspect. To dig into the truth, she took a job as a nanny for Dante's daughter. Little did she know that Dante was more than just a boss; he was known for his pleasurable lifestyle. The merciless mafia boss whose aura neither sized nor decreased. Now, Kate faces the challenge of staying focused on her mission without getting caught up in Dante's enticing world. Can Kate fulfill her mission without succumbing to the allure of the seductive mafia boss?

“His rectifying graze will stay forever in my heart,” –Kate Frias. Kate got her heart broken not just once, but twice. And it was all because of her high school bestfriend, Claire. She vowed never to fall in love again, not until she met Elijah Ramirez, a guy that will make him feel his rectifying graze.

When I become pregnant with Ryan Hurst's child—at the same time his so-called first love, Kate Davis, do—he doesn't hesitate to claim hers, while ignoring mine. My child is thus branded an "illegitimate child". Ryan, the eldest son of the powerful Hurst financial empire, looks down at me with eyes like frost. "Kate is a real socialite. She can't have her reputation tainted by… this," he says coldly. It turns out that our seven years of marriage were nothing but a lie. The day my adopted family, the Kleimanns, forces me to get an abortion, Ryan is in another country, playing the doting partner at Kate's side while she gives birth. When we meet again, I will have already burned the bridge between us with my own hands. What none of them know is that behind Kate's polished smile lies a festering rot. And as for me, I am the sole heiress to an old and powerful aristocratic bloodline.

Kate Taylor spent seven years being the perfect wife. She gave up her dreams of becoming a celebrated chef, abandoned her culinary career, and molded herself into exactly what her husband David wanted—quiet, obedient, and invisible. When she finally decided to get her life together, he refused. She got tired of the humiliation after he refused her from taking an offer as a chef. Kate files for divorce and returns to the only thing that ever made her feel alive—cooking. She takes the job at Morrison's, the most prestigious restaurant in New York, under Chef Henri Laurent and his son Alex. Her talent explodes back to life. Critics rave about her dishes and her name starts trending. She's finally remembering who she was before David made her forget. But David won't let her go without a fight. He weaponizes their children against her, turns their son Theo against her, threatens her career, and parades Sarah around like she's already his wife. He wants to destroy everything Kate is building. Then she finds out a secret David had been hiding for six years, Sarah was more than his secretary. As custody battles turn vicious, family secrets surface, and old enemies join forces, Kate must decide: will she let the past control her future, or will she finally claim the empire she deserves? Some women fall apart after betrayal but Kate Taylor will build an empire.

Katherine had always been in love with one guy; Ken Hart. He was her childhood sweetheart, and she had always secretly crushed on him without taking action. She thought it was a mindless crush, until her father announced her sudden marriage to Ken Hart. That moment, Kate knew dreams do come true. Ken was all she ever dreamt of. Unexpectedly, her marriage was the opposite of what she thought it would be. Ken wanted nothing to do with her; to him, she was just a trophy wife he used whenever he needed her. Most importantly, he needed her to seal a billion-dollar deal. He had married her for selfish reason. Kate’s parent had only agreed because it was the only way to save their company that had fallen into financial crisis, without informing Kate Kate wouldn’t sit to be used whenever her husband want, she would do all she could to make sure he needed her. Infusing herself into his life was going to be difficult, but when she wanted something, she would do all she could to get what she wanted.

Moments before my Mating Ceremony, the guards shoved me from the altar. I watched, paralyzed, as another she-wolf in a pristine white gown took my place. My mate, Beta Seth, didn't even flinch. He took her hand—the hand of his childhood sweetheart, Brielle. And in that silence, his voice echoed in my head through the mind link. "Brielle is pregnant with a rogue's pup. She's mateless. I have to claim her, give her a home in the pack. It's to protect the child. I won't actually mark her. When this is all over, you'll still be my only one." I almost believed his bullshit. Until I saw Seth's hand stroking Brielle's waist after the ceremony. And Brielle, pulling him in for a kiss. In that moment, my eyes burned, and I was rooted to the spot. Seth thought I'd wait. Everyone who watched me pine for him thought I'd come crawling back, begging him to complete our bond. After all, we were fated mates. I'd been waiting for this ceremony for five years. But they had no idea. I turned my back on the pack and left. The moment that failed ceremony ended, I bonded with Lucian. The most powerful Vampire Prince. Three years later, I came back. Lucian called for a truce with the werewolves—all for me. As his mate, I returned to my former pack lands to witness the treaty. But the first thing my arrogant ex-fated mate did was rip the huge moonstone pendant off my neck. "That's the Vampire Prince's moonstone. He bought it for his blood-bonded mate years ago. Where did you get that cheap knock-off? A street stall?" "Enough with the tantrum. Come back. Brielle's kid is three. You can have a cot in the utility closet and clean up after him. Now take that cheap thing off your neck. Don't screw up the peace treaty." I just stood there, rubbing the sore spot on my neck where the chain had scraped, and let out a quiet sigh. He didn’t know that the moment anyone tried to rip this pendant from my throat, Lucian would feel it. And the only thing that would greet them… was his world-ending fury.

I was once the Alpha's adopted daughter, but I took the fall for the man I loved and spent three years in the Pack prison. Then I had his pup before we were ever mated. This was the ninety-ninth time I'd asked for a mating ceremony. He swept his arm across the desk and sent everything crashing to the floor. "You really think you deserve to be mated to me? You've done time. You're nothing." "I've been too good to you. You've forgotten your place." But he was the one who'd promised. He said once I had the baby, we'd have the ceremony and be mates. He slammed the door on his way out. He didn't come home for three months. He cut me off completely. The power and water were shut off. My pup Lily had a fever that wouldn't break. I had no choice. I carried her to Pack headquarters to find him, and that's when I heard him talking to Serena. "Babe, when are you finally going to leave that trashy Ivy? We're the ones who actually went through the ceremony. We're the real mates." His voice went all soft and indulgent, and it made my skin crawl. "I want to cut ties with her too. It's her fault — she couldn't give me a son." "She's done time. How could she ever be worthy of me?" But he seemed to have forgotten — the reason I was locked up in the first place was because I took the fall for him.

On our first wedding anniversary, my husband came home with a woman who was six months pregnant. He introduced her as his cousin, someone who had fallen on hard times, and asked me to take care of her. I was just about to agree when fragments of imaginary commentary floated through my mind: [She's just my 'cousin'. Uh-uh, that's a cliche.] [Poor supporting female character! A maid by day, the husband's bedwarmer by night.] [But she totally deserved it! If she hadn't broken up the main couple, they'd have a whole soccer team of kids by now!] Wait—what? Supporting female character? Me? And what's this about breaking them up? So now these two get to cheat under my roof, and somehow I'm the villain? Before I could process it all, my husband was already dragging her luggage inside. "Alice doesn't like fried food," he said matter-of-factly. "And nothing too salty or spicy. Make sure you keep that in mind when you're cooking. "Oh, and pregnant women love sweets. Go out now and buy a cherry cake. The one from that bakery in the suburbs."

In the Corvona underworld, there is one unspoken rule. When a Don keeps a new woman by his side for three consecutive months, the Donna must personally remove the signet ring symbolizing her power and place it on the new woman's finger before the entire family. When my husband, Luca, the Don of the Bellini family, announced he would take Mia alone on a three-month business trip, the entire Corvona underworld waited for me to have a meltdown. I had been with Luca Bellini for seven years. I followed him everywhere, refusing to leave his side. I would even wake up in the middle of the night to touch him, needing to know he was there to feel secure. They were all aware of my clinginess and were betting I would never let go. But when Mia extended her hand to me, her voice dripping with saccharine, I didn't shed a single tear. I calmly removed the signet ring engraved with the family crest and slid it onto her ring finger. Luca, lounging in the leather chair at the head of the table, swirled the whiskey in his glass, satisfaction gleaming in his cold blue eyes. "Elara, you've finally learned your place." I lowered my gaze to my bare finger, saying nothing in return. What Luca didn't know was that a month ago, I had recovered all seven years of my lost memories. I wasn't some street orphan at all, but the long-lost Principessa of the Rossi family, the most powerful of the Old World families. In three days, my brother's armed convoy would roll into Corvona to take me home.