The Tenth Victim Novels & Stories

Ten years ago, I was the main culprit of the 715 explosion that shocked the entire country. Everyone believed that I took huge bribes from a corporation and tampered with safety data. In the end, I ended up burning myself to death out of guilt. Today marks the tenth year after my death. My former fiancé, Brody Pierce, extracts my soul from the particle database. However, he isn't doing it to clear my name. Instead, he wants to put my soul on trial in public. The courtroom is in an uproar. "Laura Quinn is a criminal! She is utterly heartless! Every cent of the dirty money she took is stained with our family's blood." "She even betrayed her own fiancé. There is nothing she wouldn't do for money!" "Mr. Pierce is a righteous man. He's personally putting that wicked woman on trial." The crowd rages, wishing they could annihilate my soul particles. Amid the overwhelming curses, the quantum soul analyzer begins to activate. Yet, when the pure white soul that represents absolute goodness appears, everyone is stunned into silence.

Mom accidentally adds me into a group chat called "Happy Family". In the group chat, I saw Mom, Dad, and a stranger who's nicknamed "sweetheart". They are in the middle of organizing a birthday party for him. However, the thing is, tomorrow will be my birthday, which they have forgotten for the tenth time in a row. Mom says, "The venue must be dreamy. I want him to feel like an actual prince." Dad transfers a huge sum of money to "sweetheart". "Money is no problem! Just don't let Christopher find out about this. It'll screw things up for us!" I quietly take screenshots of everything, planning to find a chance to expose my parents' true colors and end everything with them once and for all. At that moment, my younger sister, who's always been great at her studies, sends me a screenshot via our private chat. It's a screenshot of the chat history between her and Mom. "Mom, have you made preparations for Christopher's surprise party yet? You promised me that this is the last time you'd lie to him!"

The tenth time one of my paintings appeared under my sister Rose's name, I handed Adrian the divorce papers. He raised an eyebrow and tossed the agreement aside without a second glance. "Don't be dramatic. Your hand is ruined -- where would you even go without me?" I said nothing. He smiled, his tone dripping with casual indifference. "You should be grateful. Rose was the one I was supposed to marry. A few paintings is a small price to pay. A little gratitude wouldn't kill you." He blew a ring of cigarette smoke directly into my face. I choked, and the sting brought tears to my eyes. Through the blur, I was transported back to the moment my tendons were severed for his sake -- a pain that had drilled straight to the bone. He thought I had no choice but to take it. What he didn't know was that I'd already accepted an offer from the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Soon, I would be free of him for good.

BLURB Curiosity kills the cat, or that just might be the ending for Dr. Jobaira “Yrah” Orendain. The first time she encountered the barbarous older sibling of her brother-in-law, something inside her was triggered. Her dangerous fascination for the allegedly sadistic Gresso leads her to apply to be the medic in a maximum-security prison in Italy. Will her innocence and purity be enough to tame him? Or will she just fall victim to the man notoriously known as The Destroyer?

Her mama always said she was special. His daddy called him a demon. But even monsters can fall in love. Montessa Tovar is walking home alone when she is abducted by Lu, a serial killer with unusual talents and a grudge against the world. But in time, the victim becomes the executioner as 'Apocalyptic' Montessa and her doomed lover, 'Nuclear' Lulu, crisscross the country in a bloody firestorm of revenge. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Robert Blackwell promised to marry me, then postponed it thirty-eight times. The fifth time, a car crash broke eight of his ribs, and I signed seven critical-condition notices. The tenth time, on the way to get our marriage license, he and the car were thrown into the sea, and his suit was torn apart by sharks. By the thirty-eighth time, his heart disease had worsened and his life was hanging by a thread. Eight months pregnant, I changed flights three times and flew twenty-three hours across half the world to find him. When the door opened, a little boy who looked exactly like him lifted his face and said, "I thought Mom was back." Robert rushed out barefoot, panic written all over his face. I turned around and saw my best friend of twelve years standing behind me with a key in her hand. The little boy ran to her and threw himself into her arms, calling her Mom. So the fiance I had waited seven years for was my best friend's secret husband all along. "I will not wait through these thirty-eight near-death weddings anymore." "Robert, I do not want you either."

Ethan hid his powerful family background to support his wife Victoria, only to watch success turn her cruel and arrogant. On her IPO day, her favorite company influencer beats a poor-looking old man nearly to death, believing he is Ethan's father. But the victim is actually Victoria's own father, and every insult, cover-up, and betrayal pushes Ethan to expose the truth and destroy the life she built on his love.

Before I realized it, I’d become the invisible wife standing beside my mafia Don husband, Adrian Kane. A stay-at-home mom buried in chores while my husband paraded around with his secretary, Viola, ten years younger than me. “She’s smart,” Adrian said once. “She knows how to help me.” Tonight marked our tenth anniversary. I saw an elegant designer dress and a necklace presenting in the living room. For a second, I was happy. Looks like Adrian finally decided to take me to this year’s annual mafia gathering and introduce me as his Donna. Turns out the dress and the jewelry was for Viola. Later that night, I caught Adrian sneaking in with Viola—both drunk, hands all over each other like I didn’t exist. I just made one phone call. “I will join the Doctors Without Borders program. Send me away.” Before I married Adrian, I had a future in medicine. But I gave it all up for him. Now? It was time to choose myself and leave behind everything that was never really mine.

Ariana Brooks stopped believing in love the day it shattered her and she promised herself she’d never be fooled again. Jace Carter has spent his entire life fighting for a father who only sees failure where everyone else sees a star. When a fake dating arrangement throws the scholarship journalist and the university’s ice hockey captain together, it should be simple: three months, no feelings, no damage, no consequences. But every staged smile starts to feel real, every fake touch lingers too long and every line between pretending and truth begins to blur in ways neither of them can control. Until jealousy, buried secrets, and a betrayal neither expected explode into their carefully built lie forcing them apart just when they start to mean everything to each other. And when the ice finally cracks beneath everything they thought was real… what happens when the one person you were never supposed to love becomes the only one you can’t lose?

Female lead is a teacher at local school and finds herself helping a student, to only be in the wrong place at the right time. A Vampire who is in a mundane and ugly world gets caught up by helping a strangers and falling in love. He feels this is not possible and he has to convince her he is truly in love with her.