The Silent Corner Novels & Stories

For three years, I was the perfect wife, silent, loyal, and invisible. Until the day my husband handed me divorce papers… to protect another woman. He thought I would beg. He thought I would break. He didn’t know I had already seen it coming. So I signed. And I left. What he doesn’t know is that I’m carrying his child. And I was never just the woman he married. When I return months later richer, colder, and standing beside the one man he can never defeat, the husband who discarded me finally realizes the truth. He didn’t lose me. He was never worthy of me.

Adeline has been in love with Blake Rhodes for as long as she could remember-twelve years of silent yearning turned into three loveless years of marriage. She has always wanted him to return her love. However, Blake's heart is clouded by manipulation and misunderstandings, with the shadows cast by Adeline's half-sister Rebecca. Unknown to Blake, it is not Rebecca who is dying but Adeline. Adeline has stage four cancer, a secret she holds tightly, even as Blake is forcing her to give her blood-and a kidney-to save Rebecca. So, while Rebecca is faking being ill for Blake, Adeline keeps the pain to herself and silently suffers by sacrificing all her possessions for the man who doesn't perceive her value.

Thirty years ago, a progressive rock band called The Yellow Kings began recording what would become their first and final album. Titled “The Final Reconciliation,” the album was expected to usher in a new renaissance of heavy metal, but it was shelved following a tragic concert that left all but one dead. The sole survivor of that horrific incident was the band’s lead guitarist, Aidan Cross, who’s kept silent about the circumstances leading up to that ill-fated performance—until now. For the first time since the tragedy, Aidan has granted an exclusive interview to finally put rumors to rest and address a question that has haunted the music industry for decades: What happened to The Yellow Kings? The answer will terrify you. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

On the day of her wedding, Vittoria De Angelis was dragged from the altar and forced to marry the enemy. Vincenzo Lucchese, the exiled heir of the Sicilian mafia, returned to avenge the deaths of his father and brother. In front of everyone, he stole his rival’s bride, sealing a new order of power, written in blood. Now, Vittoria is his wife. Not by choice. But by punishment. Trapped with a man who loves her, yet is as dangerous as he is irresistible, she soon learns that running from him may be even deadlier than falling for him. Because Vincenzo doesn’t want obedience. He wants to surrender. He wants revenge. And she is his guarantee. In this silent war between them, love might be the most lethal weapon of all.

When ordinary fashion designer Elara Vance witnesses a cold-blooded execution by billionaire crime lord Dante Moretti, she is forced into a "silent contract." In exchange for her life, she surrenders her freedom, becoming Dante’s property within his high-tech, high-rise fortress. As Elara navigates his world of absolute control, a dangerous obsession ignites between them, fracturing Dante’s ruthless discipline. However, when internal betrayal and rival syndicates weaponize Elara against him, Dante unleashes a city-wide war to reclaim her. In the crucible of violence, Elara evolves from a captive into a strategic player. Ultimately, when offered her freedom, Elara chooses to stay transforming her imprisonment into a lethal partnership of shared power and mutual obsession.

"You bastards! You’re worthless! How can you not bring me that woman?” I shouted nervously looking around me at how pathetic my people were. Everyone was silent, and that made me even more p*ss*d off. I had already exited through the back door of the auditorium, so nothing stopped me from spilling my guts on those who disobeyed my orders. So, I punched in all directions and I knocked down whoever fell victim to my fury of blows to the ground. I punched until I was literally tired. “I must have this woman! Do you understand? You will bring her to me whether she wants it!”

At 3:00 p.m., Rose Jenkins, the new hire who had barely been here a few days, suddenly tagged me in the company group chat with a few hundred people in it. [Hi, can you stop hammering your keyboard? The noise is making my stomach hurt! The baby I'm carrying is sleeping. If you shake it into a concussion, I swear I'll make your whole family pay for it!] I rushed to explain. I was racing to finish a proposal that was due soon, and I was using a silent keyboard. But she wouldn't believe me, no matter what I said. I kept my patience and explained it over and over. To avoid any more trouble, I even asked if I could move out to the hallway to work. What I didn't expect was that a week later, she would storm into the break room with a kettle of freshly boiled water and dump it straight over my head. I collapsed in a pool of scalding water, my skin blistering and tearing open. She kept screaming as if she had lost her mind and smashed my head with her high heels, over and over. "It's all your fault! I lost the baby! Your keyboard noise shook my son to death!!" My vision blurred. By the time everything went black, I still couldn't understand how a silent keyboard could possibly kill someone. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she first went off on me in the group chat. This time, faced with the same insults, I didn't back down. I went straight into the chat and fired back. [Stop pretending you're pregnant. You've got more going on down there than your dad does!]

“ How much do you earn a month?”  “$75,000.”  “Only? How much will you earn in six months?”  “$450,000.” “And a year?”  “$900,000.”  “If you earn $900,000 a year, it will take you four years to pay off and who do you think will wait four years for a paltry sum?”  “I will work four jobs then.”  “And you expect to earn $75,000 from each job? You can't be serious.” He replied with a scoff. Biting the corner of her lips, she tried to come up with something else but her brain went blank.  ******************  Finding her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, Scarlett is left heartbroken and alone. What she didn’t expect is her life to change the very course of her existence after suffering a car accident and an unexpected matrimony in the hands of the most ruthless mafia man in Las Vegas, Damien Steel.  He needed a wife and she was the perfect candidate.   Love blooms in the hearts of the two individuals. However, their love is put to test.  Will they overcome, or surrender to the will of the temptation that surrounds them? Or perhaps, their love was never meant to be....

Just as Justin proposed to me, a phone call interrupted him. Standing close by, I clearly heard the voice on the other end of the line. “Justin, I’m hurt. My leg hurts so much!” Justin snapped the ring box shut and looked at me. “Alice is injured. I’ll have to do this another time.” With those words, he sprinted away, leaving everyone around us staring in astonishment. I had never met Alice, but her presence lingered in every corner of our lives.  At meals, Justin would mention her fondness for sweet desserts.  When I dressed, I came to know her love for soft lavender hues. I argued, I wept, I lashed out, but Justin always countered with the same line. “You’re so jealous. Everyone has their first love. She’s my past, but you’re my future.” So, I turned to a man who had once called me his first love—Quentin—and made a bold proposition. “Let’s get married.”

The night before my victory gala, I heard my husband, Matteo Bellandi, promise my credit to his mistress. "Vivian, I'll put Sofia's project credit under your name. Consider it an early second-birthday gift for our son." Vivian laughed softly. "Will Sofia agree to that?" Matteo sounded bored. "She has the title of Mrs. Bellandi. That's enough." I thought I had misheard him. But the next night, my award was given to Vivian, and Matteo personally walked her onto the stage. "Young talent needs room to grow," he told the room. "From now on, Vivian will lead this project." The gala went silent. Everyone tried not to look at me. I sat in the corner Vivian had arranged for me and finally understood. Matteo had kept the title for me, then given the credit, the money, and his future to his mistress and their son. Fine. I left the ballroom without looking back. I was done being Mrs. Bellandi. From now on, I was Sofia Valenti again, the princess of Chicago’s most feared family.