The Lies We Keep Novels & Stories

"I married you out of pity! Yet you dared to betray me right under my nose and, worse, murdered my sister. Today, I sever every tie I have with you. You'll pay for this with your life in prison, you witch!"-words dripping with venom, are the last that Maxon utters to the woman he once loved. Maxon Adams, the heir to the vast Adams empire, had it all-power, wealth, and a marriage to the woman he cherished. But in one moment, his world comes crashing down when he discovers an unimaginable betrayal: his loved wife in the arms of another man. But that is not enough; devastating news follows that his only sister has been murdered and all evidence points at his wife as the culprit. Could this nightmare be real? How could the woman he loves do this?

I built my wife’s family business from the ground up, sacrificing everything so that her world could thrive. The night I collapsed from stomach bleeding after too many business drinks, she was out laughing with her childhood sweetheart. She even had the nerve to call me dull and uptight. I smiled when I finally handed her the divorce papers. “I wish you both a happy life together.” But instead of signing it, she tore it to pieces, tears in her eyes. “I’m not letting you go,” she said.

In the strict halls of Briarcliff School for boys, 18-year old Hosea finds himself drawn to his charismatic Gym teacher, Ms. Simeon. As their connection deepens, Hosea realizes he’s developed feelings for his teacher that go beyond admiration. But their love is forbidden, and the consequences of discovery could be devastating. Will Hosea and Simeon find a way to be together, or will the weight of tradition and dogma tear them apart?

During a gathering with friends, my husband, Kevin Graham, was asked a question by his buddy in Froise. "What are you going to do with your lover, who's two months pregnant with your baby?" Kevin smiled while helping me cut up my steak, and he replied in Froise, "Evie doesn't like children. I'll get Kandi Chutnam to give birth to the baby and send them overseas after that. At least I'll have a child of my own." Tears streamed down my cheek as I ate my steak, and Kevin asked nervously, "What's wrong, Evie?" I wiped away my tears and replied with a smile, "I must've used too much hot sauce." However, there was no hot sauce on the table. I was crying because I understood Froise.

After the Midnight Ceremony, Elizabeth had to run. There was no other choice. After her father was killed by her step-brother and her mother imprisoned, the daughter of the Alpha of the Crescent Moon pack had to escape. And she did, but with a price. With no memory and no access to her wolf, she’s picked up by the Lunar Legacy pack. The one that noticed her? Alexander, the second son of the pack’s Alpha, handsome with girls falling for him left and right. With her own pack still out to get her and jealous girls out to get her left and right, Elizabeth feels alone. But not with Alexander. Betrayal and romance are around every corner, and who knows what other secrets this forest hides...

There's an unwritten rule in the Chicago Outfit. The Don never keeps a mistress for more than a hundred days. When the hundred days are up, the women he’s finished with always take the money and leave quietly. Once, someone asked him, unwilling to accept it: “Why?” Santino Falcone smiled softly.“Because I love my wife.” Everyone knew that his wife of seven years was his weak spot. But this new mistress wouldn’t behave.Emboldened by his favor, she sent me a taunting text message. “Arabella, isn’t your husband cute when he’s asleep in my arms?I’ve got plenty more photos. I can send them to you if you want.” “I’m his one true love. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll step down and give me your place as his wife.” I didn’t argue with her.Instead, I generously gave her my wedding ring. Because what she didn't know was that I had gotten my memory back. I was never the orphan Santino saved. I am the long-lost princess of New York’s most powerful family, missing for seven years. In three days, my brother Matteo’s armored motorcade will arrive in Chicago to take me home.

"I think we were meant to be but we did it wrong." Life's not fair. Daisy has always known that. Abandoned by her parents right after her birth, she never knew what love was supposed to feel like. Yet, years later love finds its way to her and she finds herself falling for her husband who claims to hate her. Elijah Kingston doesn't do love. He despises the very concept of it. But when his heart starts beating for his closed-off wife, he doesn't seem to hate that feeling anymore. But his paranoia wins over and he leaves her, making her life miserable in the process. 5 years later, she's back asking for a favor that can end in only one possible way. Damnation. But whose?

Samantha Lee and David Collins come from families that hate each other because of business rivalries. They’ve been raised to avoid and despise one another, but one unexpected night changes everything. Samantha’s cousins, who don’t know what David looks like, unknowingly end up hanging out with him and his siblings at a bar. Despite trying to stop them, Samantha gets caught up in the fun. The next morning, she wakes up in David’s apartment with no memory of how she got there—and a terrible feeling that something happened between them. Determined to move on, Samantha avoids David whenever she sees him. But at one event, she feels dizzy and ends up in the hospital, where she discovers she’s pregnant. David overhears the news and wants to step up, but Samantha’s family quickly sends her abroad to keep the secret and protect their reputation. For five years, Samantha raises her child alone, far from David and their feuding families. But when her grandfather dies, she has to return home, terrified of running into David again. Now, Samantha must face her past, and the future of their child. Can they overcome their families’ hatred, or will the past keep them apart forever?

The world was divided into the mortal realm and the divine realm. The Rain Clan belonged to the divine realm. They could hear the prayers from the mortal realm. The Rain Maidens would bring rainfall to the mortal realm through prayers. They could ascend to heavens through cultivation. In the Rain Clan, every rain maiden was born with a dragon who would ascend with her and become her mount. When my sister and I were born, we shared only one spirit beast—a white dragon. The white dragon was the lowest of all dragons, yet I ignored the clan’s objections and insisted on forming a bond with him so that we could ascend. However, on the day I succeeded in calling the rain and married him, he shot an arrow straight through me while I was pregnant and at my weakest from summoning rain. As I lay dying, I saw him rush toward my sister. “Leigh, now I can finally be with you forever.” Only then did I realize the white dragon had chosen me under pretenses to help Leigh ascend. When I opened my eyes again, he and I had both returned to the day of our bond. There, he learned that Leigh was the true heir to the Rain Goddess mantle. He dropped to his knees and loudly confessed that he had always loved Leigh, and that he wished only to be her mount. Everyone knew I had spent half my cultivation to save him when he first hatched. I smiled and pointed at a mottled green snake at the edge of the barrier. The white dragon thought that as long as he bonded with my sister, he would ascend. However, what he never knew was that without me, Leigh could never ascend.

The wedding had reached the part where we were supposed to exchange rings, but my fiance wouldn’t say those two simple words: "I do." It was because his past love had just announced her breakup an hour ago. The post on social media included a picture of a plane ticket, the landing time just one hour away. My brother suddenly stepped forward and announced to everyone that the wedding would be delayed. Without a word, they both left me standing there, turning me into a laughingstock. I calmly dealt with everything, glancing at the new social media post from his past love. In the photo, my brother and fiance were standing around her, offering her the best of everything. I laughed bitterly and dialed my parents' number. "Dad, Mom, I'm willing to come home and marry into the Sanford family."