The Good Lie Novels & Stories

Shortly after we said "I do," the Family sent my husband, Dario, down to the Mexican border. He told me it was a meat grinder down there—cartel territory. where guys were zipped into body bags every day. He said he had to go—to expand the territory, for the glory of the Family. He claimed it was too dangerous and that his enemies would paint a target on my back, so he wouldn't take me with him. I believed him. I stayed behind in his old, rot-infested house in New Jersey, taking care of his bitter, spiteful parents. I spent my days and nights in the Family's moldy laundromat, washing bills stained with blood. He told me he sent every dime he made down there to the widow of a brother who took a bullet for him. He asked me to be understanding. I never complained. Day after day, I pressed expensive suits in that humid laundromat, waiting for him to come home. It wasn't until the eighth year that a mobster came back drunk. When I asked about Dario, he froze, then sneered at me through a haze of alcohol. "Dario? Are you kidding? He’s been a King in Manhattan for years. He’s the youngest Underboss of the Corleone family." I stood frozen, the iron in my hand burning a hole right through a shirt. "And he got married seven years ago. Biggest cathedral in New Jersey. Half the mob was there to toast the groom..." He pulled a crumpled photo from his leather jacket. Snuggled up against my husband was a woman in a high-end couture gown—the very same "poor, widowed sister-in-law" he had told me about. The next day, I contacted a fixer who specialized in fake IDs. On the application for a one-way ticket to Europe—a ticket to vanish off the face of the earth—I filled in the fake name I had prepared long ago. He trapped me for seven years with a sham marriage. From now on, I’d be done with this damn loyalty.

Today was my birthday—the day Jason promised he would propose. Instead, I found him in bed with my cousin. My heart shattered into a million pieces. I had grown up in my uncle and aunt’s house after losing my parents, enduring their cruelty and coldness, and Jason had been the only light in my dark world. Now even he sided with the people who had tormented me the most. As if betrayal weren’t enough, my own family drugged me, planning to hand me over to some man to secure a business deal. I thought my life was over—until fate intervened. I ended up in the bed of Adrian, Jason’s untouchable, powerful uncle.  One night changed everything. I had decided to bury it forever in my heart, but he grabbed my wrist and said slowly, “If all you need is a marriage… how about we get married?”

I gave up everything to become a housewife—all for Tristan Fowler and our daughter. But ever since his first love got divorced, everything has changed. Tristan despises me, and my daughter orders me around like a maid. Crushed, I sign the divorce papers, give up everything, and leave for a faraway place. So why are they the ones now full of regret?

As soon as I receive my year-end bonus, I transfer 100 thousand dollars to my wife, Zoe Steele, so that she can prepare the holiday gifts for both families right away. I even tell her to buy the best quality gifts for our parents, especially the box of premium liquor meant for my dad. On New Year's Eve, I rush home to have dinner with my parents. But weirdly enough, Dad, who's an avid drinker, starts having tea instead of liquor at the dining table. This leaves me perplexed. "Dad, why aren't you cracking open a bottle of liquor for yourself during the holidays?" With a smile on my face, I get up to my feet so that I can carry the box of liquor over. "Zoe had someone buy the liquor for you, you know. I hear that the taste is exceptional." "Stop!" Dad slams his pipe against the table loudly, his face a starking shade of crimson. "Edgar, don't ever send such gifts home. I know that life is difficult for you in the city and that making money is hard. We Kennedys may be poor, but we are people with pride! "Now, everyone in the village is gossiping about us behind our backs! They claim that I've been boasting about your wealth!" Dad's words confuse me to no end. After I unscrew a bottle of liquor, I sip from it, only to feel thunderstruck. This isn't premium liquor at all! This is just mineral water packaged as liquor!

I am a little ditzy all the time, and my mind is often hazy. Three years ago, I bring home a handsome drunk guy in a daze. After he wakes up and stares at me for a while, he suddenly says, "Let's get married." I do not feel like thinking too much, so I nod. Just like that, I spend three years as the wealthy Nolan Steele's wife. I am free to shop as I please, and I live in a luxury villa. I just find out I am pregnant and have not had time to tell Nolan yet when he hands me a divorce agreement. "I have gone bankrupt. This is the last sum of money. Take it and leave." At that moment, a few lines of comments suddenly appear before my eyes. "Whoa! Nolan's first love, Celia Sanders, has returned from abroad!" "Is he pretending to go bankrupt just to dump Lyra so that he can chase after his true love?" "He got drunk back then because Celia left the country. Lyra is just a substitute!" Oh? So I'm just a substitute… I nod slowly and say, "Okay. Let's get a divorce, then." The light in his eyes instantly goes out. I look at him, feeling like there is something I have forgotten to say. Forget it. I will say it when I remember.

I always knew that I had to rule. It was written in my blood, as well as my father’s. And my great grandfather. For centuries, my family has been responsible for the monarchy of vampires. Our powers allowed us to drink human blood and then eliminate that memory. In fact, at the time of biting them, we could see some memories of that human. The most relevant of their life. Humans would only wake up the next day in their bed, with a mosquito bite on their neck, not remembering and without even suspecting anything. Although of course, exceptions existed. Wolves had their mates, the sorcerers their connections, and even the sirens had their other half. We were not different, not at all. For each existing vampire, there was a special blood. The donor with only a drop of blood that could keep us active and strong for weeks. In most cases, those people became a couple of vampires. However, not in my family. The lineage should remain pure, so even if I managed to find my donor, as we used to call them, I could only keep it as a lover. Did I want to be a monarch vampire? Of course not. Did I have another option? Of course not. I should not worry about getting my donor, because the statistics of finding them were so small, that even some vampires believed that it was a myth. The only way to find that special blood was drinking from it. And it was impossible to try the blood of all the humans of the world. So many didn’t bother looking for it. Me included. However, I did not expect to meet her in a somewhat peculiar situation.

Emerald, a compassionate pediatric doctor, is trapped in a toxic marriage with Myron, the violent alpha of the Crescent Pack. Myron’s brutality has cost her two pregnancies, and his coldness leaves her yearning for love—particularly from Eli, her enigmatic godfather who stirs forbidden feelings she can’t shake. When Emerald uncovers Myron’s secret son from an affair, her world unravels. An attack leaves her waking up beside a mysterious stranger, only for Myron and Eli to reveal a web of secrets tying her to the pack’s true lineage. As Emerald grapples with betrayal, her growing bond with Eli ignites a dangerous passion that could either save her or destroy the pack entirely.

To ransom my husband from the black market, I threw myself into relentless work, earning every penny I could. My son suffered alongside me, sharing in my exhaustion and deprivation. Years of malnutrition had left him vulnerable, and eventually, he was diagnosed with leukemia. I wept as I scraped together money from relatives and friends to pay for his chemotherapy. But on the way to the hospital, a sudden, unbearable pain wracked him. In his struggle, he accidentally bit off his own tongue and died in agony before we even reached the doors. I clutched my son's ashes and went straight to the black market, determined to use the borrowed money to bring my husband back. The moment I stepped in, I overheard a conversation between Joe Masseria and his men. "Boss, Sandra comes every month with her payments. She's suffered a lot just to ransom you," one said. At that moment, a widow—Joe's sister-in-law, long mourning her late husband—appeared beside him. "Joe," she said, her voice calm but cutting, "all these years, you've protected me from harm, even giving me the title of a mob boss's wife. But you've kept Sandra in the dark the whole time. Isn't that… terribly unfair to her?" Joe's eyes were cold, devoid of any pity for me. He scoffed. "Fairness is ruthless. She's had all this love from me. What's a little suffering compared to that? "But she's waited for me all these years. It's time I returned—before she loses her mind and comes after you. "If she's still sensible, I'll make sure her and her son's quality of life improves a bit." I understood everything in that instant. Holding my son's ashes to my chest, I wept until it felt as if my heart would shatter. Joe—your so-called fairness killed my son. And I am done waiting for you.

“We are your darkest nightmares, Nadia,” a gravelly voice said, dark chuckles meeting my ears. Chilling. “Remember when we told you that you can't breathe without us. Cannot do a thing unless we deem it so? We were being serious Nadia. And for breaking that rule, you will be punished. Severely. No one messes with us and gets away with it." *** Innocent and naive, Nadia Burke has always kept her head down, enduring relentless bullying from Alex and Sandro Davalo, the powerful and popular werewolf twins at her elite high school. For years, they’ve mocked her for her poverty and inability to shift. But when they all end up at the same college, Nadia’s hopes for a fresh start crumble as the twins resume their torment. This time in a darker and brutal way. Everything changes when Nadia finally shifts, revealing magical powers that could heal even the gravest wounds. Suddenly, Alex and Sandro can’t ignore her, discovering she’s their true mate. As rival packs target Nadia for her rare abilities, she and the twins must confront their painful past and find the strength to protect each other. Together, they face deadly enemies, uncover shocking betrayals, and discover that love—and forgiveness—may be their greatest strength. Book Two of Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother

"Why?! Why must I be married to a beast? a demon? An alien of all things??" The princess said as she started hauling things at her female servants. "Juliet, you must marry the Alien for the sake of every humans. We can't lose any more lives and to stop that, we need you to marry the Alien Prince." Her mother said as she moved closer to the princess and brushed her hands past her hairs. "You are so special to us Juliet but you must help us end this war. Come on, go get some sleep, the wedding's tonight." Book one of the Alien Series