Then And Now

Madeleine Júlia Cordeiro lives in a quiet, plant-filled apartment in the rougher part of Chicago. She’s twenty-one, broke, vegan, and studying animal science at the local community college. She cries over rescue dogs, talks to her plants like they’re her best friends, and thinks violence is something that only happens in action movies. Her life is calm, predictable, and painfully ordinary. Until he bleeds all over her floor. Adriano Capone is violence in human form—shot, hunted, and very much the kind of man her sweet little heart should run from. He’s everything she hates: violent, dangerous, cruel in the way only a mafia prince can be. He’s everything she’s sworn to avoid but he's hurt and Maddie has a soft spot for lost things. So, she stitches him up. And he stitches himself into her life. He's the devil incarnate. She's never even slapped someone. But fate doesn't care about perfect matches... It threw fire into the hands of a flower girl.

He once thought she was just a quiet wife with no big dreams. Now, she’s the face on every magazine, the woman the world admires and the one he let slip away. Eunice Ednah had nothing when she walked out of David Richard’s mansion: no money, no name, and no support. What she had was determination. And a secret: she was carrying his child. Years later, David watches her rise from the shadows to the spotlight, now a billionaire fashion mogul with power, beauty, and grace. The same woman he once underestimated is now the one the city celebrates. It was their child that brought them face to face again David must face the truth: he lost more than a wife. Will love find a second chance? Or has Eunice closed that chapter forever?

The intern whom my CEO wife, Gemma Hawkins, just promotes claims to be a corporate machine. Not only does Leon Hart stay energetic without sleep, but he also has an exceptional mind that can handle multiple roles flawlessly. He even manages to turn a random investment in a declining industry into millions in profit for the company. But I know the truth. His prodigal work ability comes from a linked exchange system that shifts all fatigue, damage, and financial risk onto me. As he gains fame and turns into an up-and-coming elite businessman, I grow thinner, my memory worsens, and I nearly die from exhaustion and anxiety. I go to Gemma and tell her my suspicions, but she lashes out at me, calling me crazy. "If you do not want to work, then resign and give your position to Leo. Don't be petty and slander him behind his back. You are embarrassing me!" To make it up to Leon, she takes back my shares and gives them to him. Then, she demands a divorce and throws me out of the house. After that, she spends 100 million dollars to buy him a house and a car. She even hands over all company investments to him. While all the shareholders wait eagerly, believing they will become millionaires with the company's dividends, I am beaten to death by loan sharks in an abandoned parking lot... When I open my eyes again, I return to the first day Leon makes an investment for the company. This time, I immediately take out a massive loan and invest in a dying industry!

At the pack's festival, a witch hands me a crystal orb that reveals the truth. When I ask "why," she says she was entrusted to deliver it and reminds me only to use it when I am alone. As the image in the orb grows clearer, and my mate appears, I forget how to breathe. "Jared Hamilton, do you love me?" a woman asks in her sweetest voice, curling her arms around his neck. "I do. Of course, I do. You're the only one I'll love for the rest of my life, Luciana." My hand slips. Even after the crystal orb hits the floor, I can still hear them talking. "I swear before the sacred Moon Goddess that I'll be with you, Luciana Rose, until my very last breath. If I ever break this oath, may I never know joy again." I feel suffocated. All I can do is stare in disbelief. The woman he vows to love for life is none other than my very best friend.

I chase after Dean Wagner for five years while Graham Ashford chases after me for seven. When Dean marries Emily Caldwell, I finally say yes to being Graham's girlfriend. Graham is over the moon. He treats me like I'm everything to him, like he'd do whatever it takes just to make me happy. But Graham doesn't believe in marriage. Even when our daughter turns four, he still hasn't married me. He won't even let her call him "Dad". One night, I overhear him joking around with his buddies. "Your daughter's already four. You still aren't bringing your wife and kid home to meet your parents?" Graham taps his knuckles on the table and laughs. "You know why I got with Nora and had a kid with her. I just want to make Emily jealous. "Nora's easy to fool. She won't ever leave me, even if I never bring her or the kid home." He thinks he has me all figured out, but he doesn't. I turn and leave without a word, then plan to leave him for good. A man like that doesn't deserve my love. And he sure as well doesn't deserve to be my daughter's father.

When I opened my eyes again, I was pinned against the floor-to-ceiling window of the skyscraper by my stepbrother, Rocco. The man I had been infatuated with for a decade. He panted, his hot lips and tongue trailing along my collarbone as he murmured, "Don't go." In my past life, on the night I received my acceptance letter from London Business School, Rocco got blind drunk. Late that night, I gave in to his pleas for me to stay. I willingly gave myself to him. After a debauched night, his cherished fiancée, Clara, caught me walking out of his room the next morning, my clothes in disarray. She ran out in tears, her parting words ringing in the air, "I'll let you have each other." A month after she disappeared, the family search party found her engagement ring at the edge of a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff lay mangled remains, battered by the waves until they were unrecognizable. Rocco clutched that ring and didn't sleep all night. On the surface, he acted as if nothing had happened, even arranging a trip for me to Sicily, telling me to go and relax. The night I landed, I was kidnapped by assassins from a rival family. I screamed for him to pay the ransom, only to hear him give the order himself over the phone: "Don't make her death a quick one. The Costello princess? She's nothing but a damn liability. Torture her. Break every bone in her body. " "This is what she owes Clara." You like playing games, Rocco. But in this life, I refuse to play along.

My boyfriend, Simon Hepworth, gets down on one knee for the 66th time. Moved by his persistence, I finally say yes. But on the eve of our wedding, he drops a bombshell on me. He tells me he wants to have a child with his stepsister, Fiona Hepworth. I find it ridiculous and get into a huge fight with him. But I never could've imagined what would come next. On our wedding day, I wait at the altar for three hours, bouquet in my hands, only for him to dismissively tell me that the wedding is postponed. All because he and Fiona have an IVF appointment that very day. "Fiona was abused by her father growing up. She'll never be able to marry," he explains. "I just want to help her fulfill her dream of being a mother. It's just IVF. It's not like we're actually sleeping together. Stop being so sensitive." He then hangs up, leaving me alone at the wedding under the gaze of countless guests and flashing media cameras. The shock sends my father into the ICU. Standing by his bedside, I make a vow. "Dad, you were right. I won't marry Simon. Next week, I'll come home and take over the family business."

TRIGGER WARNING!!! YOUR MORALS WILL NOT SURVIVE THIS BOOK!!! This story contains themes of obsession, possessiveness, stalking, emotional manip-ulation, and psychological control. It is unapologetically intense and unsettling in all the right (and wrong) ways. Be guided. *** Eight years ago, Shannon watched her stepbrother get handcuffed and taken to jail for a crime she committed. He took the fall for it without hesitation. Not because he was noble. God, no. But because obsession looks a lot like love when you're seventeen and scared. After that night, she never went to visit him in prison, nor did she reply to any of his letters. She buried him with the past and went on to live a peaceful life without him. But the past never forgets. Eight years later, when she was living a simple, peaceful life, had a decent job and a husband who loved her deeply, Shannon's past came knocking at her door. Strange things start happening... Doors left open. Favorite things mysteriously re-placed. Eyes she can't see but feels always watching her. Everyone says she's paranoid. Everyone says He is still in jail. No one believes her when she says she had a STALKER. Her judgment is already upon her because, now, HE is out of prison. And the first place he goes is her doorstep, because he says she owes him her life. And he's come to collect what's his. How far can Shannon run from a man who never stopped loving her in the most ter-rifying way? A man who'd kill anyone, even her husband, just to make her his? HIS NAME IS KENAI... The Stalker You Never Want To Have. *** If you enjoy slow-burn stalker dynamics and morally gray characters, this one's for you.

Avery Winters was devastated when her husband, Caden Brooks, CEO of Brook Group, ended their five years marriage due to her PCOS(Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) diagnosis, and claiming it was her inability to bear an heir for him. He pursued a new partner instead, Avery's stepsister, Ember Winters, believing her to be the woman he had been searching for— the one who saved him from drowning years ago. Avery accepted the divorce and left, only to receive a life changing call— she was the rightful heir to her late uncle's company, but with a condition: she must marry Bernard Reed, a powerful mafia leader and CEO of Reed Empire. As Avery and Bernard's relationship become stronger, their pasts resurfaced. Caden desperately wanted a second chance after realizing the truth, while Bernard's Ex, Hazel, also returned with a child, claiming Bernard was the father. Both Exes were determined to disrupt their relationship, putting Avery and Bernard's love to test. Hazel would stop at nothing to win Bernard back, and her return with a child in hand escalated the situation.

Sera Voss spent three years shrinking herself. Growing up as the hidden daughter of Alpha Caden Voss, she had been raised in power—marble halls, guarded doors, and a future carved in certainty. She was meant to lead. Instead, she chose Eli Grant. They met in a border town where she introduced herself as just Sera—no title, no legacy. Eli was easy, warm, uncomplicated. Loving him felt like freedom. So she gave up everything quietly and followed him into a smaller life, convincing herself she was happy being ordinary. Then Mila returned. Eli’s first love came back sharper, stronger, and impossible to ignore. Sera saw the truth long before he said it—that she was second place in a story that had started before her. Still, she stayed. Because leaving meant admitting she had chosen wrong. Eli ended it simply. Mila was his fated mate. He was sorry. Four days later, Sera learned she was pregnant. She told no one. She went home. The Voss palace received her without questions. Six months later, she stood before the continent—pregnant, composed, untouchable—and reclaimed her title. She gave birth to twin boys and rebuilt herself from the ground up: in law, diplomacy, and power. The girl who left for love returned as something far more dangerous. Years later, at the Continental Alpha Convention, Eli saw her again. Not the girl he dismissed—but a leader. A force. And before he could reach her, another man did. Alpha Dorian Crest crossed the room, addressed her by her full title, and stood at her side as if he had always belonged there. Eli spent the rest of the convention trying to find a moment alone with her. Sera never gave him one.