Three-card Monte Novels & Stories

Palma Wilson seems to have it all - good looks, intelligence, and a wealthy family business to run. But his arrogance and sense of entitlement make him less than charming, especially to those less fortunate. Lucia Montess, on the other hand, is a beautiful young woman with a heart of gold. Despite her humble beginnings, she dreams of lifting her family out of poverty and making a difference in her community. Their worlds collide when Wilson's reckless actions lead to the death of Lucia's father. She seeks justice through the courts, but Wilson shows up with an unrepentant attitude that only fuels her rage. Just when Lucia thinks she can't go on, a chance encounter with an elderly couple changes her life forever. They offer her a path to success and financial stability, but at a price that forces her to question her own morals. As Lucia rises to power, she makes it her mission to bring down Wilson and his family's business. But when he falls on hard times and seeks a job at her company, she seizes the opportunity to make him suffer. As they work together, however, she begins to see a new side of him - one that's vulnerable, humble, and surprisingly charming. Despite their rocky start, she finds herself drawn to him, and he to her. But their love is forbidden, and Wilson's family stands in the way. As they struggle to find a way to be together, they uncover a shocking truth that threatens to tear them apart forever. In this gripping tale of love, power, and redemption, two people from opposite worlds find themselves fighting against all odds for a chance at happiness.

Elena Sterling gave Mark everything, her brilliant business mind, her unwavering loyalty, her entire life. She built his billion-dollar empire from nothing while he slowly erased her from the story. Now, after years of being the perfect wife and mother, she's become invisible in her own home. Mark flaunts his mistress while their children wish Veronica was their real mother. When Elena discovers Mark's plan to divorce her, claim she's mentally unstable, and steal custody of their children, she realizes the man she loved never existed at all. With nothing but the clothes on her back and a fierce determination to survive, Elena takes a job as a night cleaner at Knight Industries. There, she catches the attention of Arthur Knight, a mysterious billionaire CEO who sees the brilliant woman hiding beneath her broken exterior. As Elena transforms from discarded wife to unstoppable force, she uncovers Mark's darkest secrets and begins planning the perfect revenge. But when Arthur offers her something she never thought she'd have again—real love—Elena must choose between the safety of starting over and the satisfaction of bringing down the man who destroyed her. Just when Elena thinks she's finally won, Mark makes one last desperate move that could cost her everything she's fought to rebuild... But Elena Sterling didn't survive this long to lose now. Will Elena reclaim her power and find true love, or will Mark's final betrayal destroy her chance at happiness forever? In this explosive tale of revenge, redemption, and second chances, nothing is what it seems and everyone has secrets worth killing for.

After eight unhappy years with a cheating husband, Ronica Simmons chooses to go out with a bang. Although she had lost everything when she married James, including her family's support and blossoming career in music, she is determined to make a dramatic comeback that would leave him and his cocky mistress broke and ruined. Revenge is a dish best served cold and James Simmons will never know what's about to hit him.

They say the past shows you the truth. Mine lied. Two years of loving a man who couldn’t even say my name when it mattered. Two years of standing beside Marcus Voss while he climbed his way to the top—late nights, silent sacrifices, swallowing every doubt just so he could shine. And the night he finally did? He destroyed me. In front of five hundred people… and the entire world watching, he called another woman his future wife, it was not me…never me and then he served me the divorce papers on a cold platter. That should’ve been the end of me but it wasn’t. Because the man who found me that night… wasn’t a stranger. He was Damien Voss. Marcus’s father. Cold. Untouchable. I should have been afraid…Maybe I was. Now the world is watching again. Only this time, I’m not the woman being humiliated on stage. I am the one standing beside the man who owns it. I am the woman who seeks revenge in the most painful way ever. And when my ex-husband looks at me now—really looks—he finally sees what he threw away. Well, too late, loser. I’m not yours anymore. I’m becoming something far more dangerous. And this time? I won’t be the one who breaks.

Lilian,a 19 year old college student in the Philippines, died from a car accident and her soul transferred to a shared wife of five brothers. This shared wife came from the slave market but she have an unbelievable beauty. With long black hair,white porcelain skin, and a body to die for. Seems like the woman can't accept the fact that she became a shared wife so she escaped from them and met an unfortunate accident. Opening her eyes again, she's no longer the timid and shy woman. Lilian from the Philippines, became the “Lian” who is the shared wife of Montenegro brothers.

Maya's marriage to Leo is a silent, polite tomb. Once passionate artists of their own lives, they are now buried under the mountains of parenthood, two ghosts co-managing a household. Desperate to resurrect the man she loves and the woman she lost, Maya makes a radical choice. She doesn't want just a date night-she wants an adventurous detonation. She orchestrates a forbidden fantasy: a single, explosive night with a captivating stranger. The experience is a mirror, reflecting back their boldest, most alive selves. For a glorious moment, it works. But the adventurous high crashes into a brutal dawn. Misunderstandings poison their paradise. Maya's possessive fears twist every glance into a betrayal, while Leo's possessive longing feels like a sentence. The very fantasy meant to unite them becomes the weapon that drives them further apart than ever before. Facing total collapse, they must confront the raw truth: the fantasy didn't break them-it exposed the fractures they'd long ignored. To save their marriage, they must embark on a more perilous adventure than any night of passion: navigating the wreckage of their trust, where every misunderstanding dismantled is a step toward a new foundation, and where possessive love must evolve into a chosen, fiercely protective partnership. This is a raw, intimate story about the wild in lengths we go to save what we love, proving that sometimes, to find each other again, you must first get completely lost.

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

Grace dreamt of a threesome with her husband and his brother she woke up to something far worse. After a brutal accident at a Christmas resort, Grace pretends to lose her memory to test her husband Mason's love. His response? He claims his brother Aiden is her real husband and walks away. Stunned, Grace plays along, moving into Aiden's cabin while Mason disappears into the arms of someone else. As she digs deeper, Grace uncovers seven years of lies, a hidden affair with her best friend Sophia, and Mason's dark secret life. But the biggest shock? Aiden, the brother she's resented since he tried to ruin her wedding, might be the only man who's ever truly loved her. Now Grace is caught in a dangerous game where love and hatred blur, where her best friend wants her dead, and where choosing the wrong brother could cost her everything. The lies are unraveling, and someone won't make it out of this holiday alive.

[Abandoned on our anniversary, I became the woman he called "too damaged" to be his Luna.] I gave Andre ten years. Five children gone. He walked in with his mistress—and a newborn—on our anniversary. He thought discarding me would make me vanish. He was wrong. The fortune he flaunts? I helped build it. The allies he trusts? They remember who stood by them first. I may have been his rejected wife, but I was never his shadow. He thinks discarding me was the end. He’s about to find out it was the beginning of his worst nightmare.

Celia Rowan was never the daughter her parents loved. When the Rowan family company faces collapse, they force her to marry billionaire heir Adrian Lancaster in her younger sister’s place. On her wedding night, Adrian is too drunk to notice the switch. He calls out her sister’s name while taking her innocence, and by morning everyone believes the same lie that Celia trapped her way into a marriage meant for someone else. Branded a gold-digger by one family and a spare by the other, Celia lives for a year as an invisible wife in the Lancaster mansion. But when a final humiliation shatters the last hope in her heart, she leaves with nothing. Soon after, she discovers she is pregnant with twins. Six years later, Celia returns as the CEO of a luxury jewelry company, powerful enough to buy the very city that once looked down on her. She has come back for business, for divorce, and for closure. She has not come back for love. But Adrian Lancaster is no longer the same cold man who let her suffer in silence. Their children carry his face. Her sister still wants to destroy her. And the marriage that began as a lie may become the one bond neither of them can cut cleanly.