Three-card Monte Novels & Stories

My little sister, Maya, got into a car crash. I put her in a high-end recovery center. Her injuries were bad. Progress crawled. They kept extending her treatment, one phase at a time. Early this morning, the manager called. Said the card wouldn't cover the next phase. That's when it hit me—peak season at the company. I'd been slammed, barely breathing. I hadn't topped it up in forever. I told her I'd transfer the money. She shut it down. Said I had to show up and sign in person before they'd extend anything. So after work, I rushed over. Straight into rush hour traffic. Then she called again. "Ms. Keyne, your balance hit zero three minutes ago. We're terminating services. This is a premium facility—we don't do free care. The patient tied to your account has been removed per policy."

The hotel called, politely reminding me that the condoms used last night were unpaid and had been charged to my membership card. I was stunned. I'd been working late until midnight and hadn't set foot in any hotel. I confronted my husband, the only person who knew my card code. Nathan Phelps looked at me, bewildered. "Honey, that hotel costs over $10,000 a night. I'd never go there. It's probably a system error. Someone must have mistyped the card number. I'll file a complaint tomorrow." Unconvinced, I called my best friend, who managed the hotel. "Tracy, check who Nathan was with at the hotel last night. I'm catching him red-handed."

On Father's Day, I received a heartwarming gift. My one-year-old son called me Dad for the first time. But moments later, he convulsed, foamed at the mouth, and died before we could reach the hospital. My wife was shattered, and I was devastated. The doctors couldn't identify the cause of his death. Three years later, my wife emerged from her grief, and we welcomed our second child. But the moment this child called me Dad, they, too, died instantly. To spare her further pain, I suggested adoption. Yet, even our adopted children met the same fate. Unable to bear the losses, my wife divorced me. Everyone said I was cursed, never meant to be a father. Defiant, I remarried and had another child, vowing never to let them call me Dad. For years, we adhered to this rule. But when our daughter turned four, she came home from preschool, eager to celebrate Father's Day. Holding a card, she read aloud, "Dad."

I was anonymously reported for fraudulent credit card use and arrested. The victim turned out to be my own husband. I pulled out my phone to show them our marriage certificate to prove my innocence, but the police officer frowned as he looked at me. "Ma'am, the Lucas Richardson on this certificate is not your husband. You're still unmarried." I could not believe it and asked the officer to check again immediately. He looked at me with sympathy, but quickly spoke again, "Our records show that Lucas Richardson's spouse is Vivian Clarke and that they have a three-year-old child together. Ma'am, if you cannot prove your relationship with him, you will face criminal detention." I felt like I had been struck by lightning. Six years ago, Lucas had a secretary named Vivian who was obsessively in love with him. On the day Lucas and I got married, she caused a scene and threatened suicide. In the end, he had to personally handle the situation for three days before coming home. It turned out that his solution was to marry Vivian instead.

They were my brother’s best friends—the HawkThorne brothers. Wealthy, ruthless, and filthy enough to make the whole city drop to its knees. I was the good girl once. The perfect wife. Until my husband had sex with half my office and shoved me into an open marriage I never asked for. One night at a bar was supposed to be my rebellion—a dirty little secret to make me forget. I never expected to run into them. Six years had made them look harder, darker, and so much hotter. I shouldn’t have let them touch me. Shouldn’t have let them ruin me against a bathroom sink with their filthy mouths and rough hands. Three men. One night. No promises. But the eldest HawkThorne pressed a card into my palm before I could slip away. I thought I could handle them. Thought I could survive their obsession. Now I’m learning there’s no such thing as just sex with the HawkThorne brothers. They don’t share. They claim. They corrupt. And they’re coming for every last filthy piece of me.

In a luxury boutique, a male influencer and I are eyeing the same watch. I'm about to give it up when I hear the salesperson yell at me in a shrill voice, "Get your filthy hands off it right now! Mr. Parr saw it first. How dare you compete with him? He's an important customer of our store!" I freeze and see Alan Parr staring at me with utter disgust, his arms crossed. "You think a country bumpkin like you deserves that watch? Do you even know how much its accessories cost? A pauper like you definitely can't afford it!" he snaps, then holds up a card and signs the receipt. However, the name he signs is my wife's. The supplementary card he's holding is the one I gave my wife for her allowance.

The mafia coalition’s family banquet had reached its liveliest point. Someone started stirring things up and steered the conversation toward the youngest Don of the Fumagalli family, Dante Fumagalli. “Dante, before you came to power, all those old Dons from the major families were falling over themselves to push their daughters at you. Was there ever one you actually wanted?” I stood half a step behind him, and my knuckles turned white around my wine glass. Dante did not answer right away. His gaze swept over me, cool and indifferent, before he turned toward Viviana Lombardi, who still held the crowd’s attention. “I wanted her.” Viviana spun around so fast that wine splashed from her glass onto her wrist. “Then why did you not come when I gave you that hotel key card all those years ago?” The calm on Dante’s face finally cracked. He frowned. “Your key card? Was that not for Enzo Ricci?” “How could it have been for Enzo?” Viviana’s eyes reddened. “He is my first cousin.” One question led to another and the truth emerged. That hotel key card had been handed to the wrong person by a Soldato. Because of that mistake, they had missed each other. Viviana burst into tears on the spot. Regret shadowed Dante’s expression. Just then, someone laughed softly. “What a coincidence. Was the key card really delivered to the wrong person, or did someone make sure it ended up in the wrong hands?” In an instant, every eye in the room turned to me. Everyone remembered me. I was the woman who used to trail after Dante Fumagalli like a lovesick fool. I turned to look at Dante and hoped he would say something for me. I hoped he would tell them we had been secretly married for five years and that he had been the one who pursued me back then. He said nothing. He did not defend me. He did not deny anything. He stared ahead in silence as if none of this had anything to do with him. In that moment, I pulled off the wedding ring I had worn for five years.

After graduation, I struggle to find a job, while my girlfriend easily lands a position at a major company. She has been with me for two years, and to cheer me up, she even lets me hold onto her payroll card. Once I finally start working, she worries about my long commute and immediately buys me a car. Everyone around us envies me for having such a thoughtful girlfriend. To save up for a house, I secretly deposit my salary into her account. A year later, we decide to get married. Excited, she grabs my hand and says, "I know you don't have much saved. I don't need any wedding gift. All I want is your love." I am deeply touched by her consideration. But on our engagement day, she pulls out photos of me with a dozen women and accuses me of cheating. I look closely and realize I have never even met any of them. Then she shows me my card's transaction history, filled with charges at the notorious Solara Club. "You had my payroll card, and you used my money to indulge yourself!" she cries. "I'm not marrying you. Return my car and all the money you spent over the years. It adds up to 800 thousand dollars." I calmly place the payroll card she gave me on the table and say with a smirk, "Fine, let's settle this properly." When I present the detailed account prepared by my top lawyer, she is stunned.

I'm the scapegoat who was hired by the rich Shelton family to marry into that family under the guise of repaying them for their benevolence. But my wife, Jenny Shelton, hates me for ruining the wedding meant for her and her first love, Jackson Wembley. She has hordes of treasure under her name, and yet she only gives me five dollars every day to survive. I've starved to the point I'm all skin and bones. Jenny, on the other hand, goes through partners like mad. She even drives while under alcoholic influence in order to make her new boyfriend laugh, which results in her crashing into the generator powering in the hospital and causing my mother's death. Later on, Jenny merely throws me a black card. "Wow, you really have the heart to arrange for your mom to live in that small and rundown hospital, huh? Then again, a money-minded person like you is capable of doing everything in this world. "Take this card and get your mom transferred to a VIP ward. Don't think about stealing from this card; I'll always check the bills." But I just throw the black card away and start preparing for my mom's funeral. What Jenny doesn't know is that Jackson had chosen to flee from the altar and abandon her back then. I was just a tool hired by her family in order to comfort her. Now that my mom is dead and I'm done paying back the debt, it's time for me to leave.

They were never meant to be. She's married, still he doesn't care. She loves her husband. "To hell with that", he said. It started with a card, an invitation card sent to the Salvador's household. Cassie's life changed the moment she boarded the ship with her husband, Domingo Salvador and encountered Raphael De Vincente, a rich billionaire who would stop at nothing to have her regardless of whether she's married or not. It started as a casual fling to Raphael, but in time, he couldn't deny his feelings, to him, Domingo doesn't deserve her and he is willing to prove it to her that she is HIS, whether she like it or not. Will Cassie be able to withstand his advance and stick to her love for her husband or will she fall prey to his advances. Follow their love triangle in the story and figure out what happens next in this thrilling and exciting story.