Too Late Novels & Stories

Cassandra sat in her room that evening, tapping her fingers on the table, her eyes fixed on her phone screen. She had been waiting for Marco’s message all day. The man had promised to send her Adrian’s address before sunset, but the clock was already ticking close to 8 p.m., and still nothing came. She stood up from the bed and began pacing the room angrily. “What’s taking him so long?” she muttered, picking up her phone again. She was about to call him when her phone suddenly vibrated.

A pair of pale hands slid down the misty glass, leaving chaotic streaks like they were fading from life itself. The next second, a large hand pressed over hers. Their fingers intertwined. The fog melted into fragrant dew... Midnight had long passed. Candice leaned against his chest, unmoving. "How long has it been past that half hour?" A voice came from above. She replied lazily, "Twenty minutes. We still have ten left." Charlie helped straighten her clothes. "Why don’t we use those ten minutes to go home and sleep?" Candice shook her head. "No, I like it here."

“what?” “You Know Maitre Vouler won't be pleased right?” My stomach tightened. “About what?” I asked. “You came late.” I looked at my phone. 12: 25 “I'm just twenty five minutes late.” “Exactly.” I rolled my eyes. “Twenty five minutes isn't a crime and besides I had a situation that made me late.” “Yes it's not a crime to you.” He looked me deep in the eye “ but to the house of hades, timing is everything.”

When I'm eight, my younger sister, Rachel Gaffney, unplugs the battery powering my artificial heart so she can charge her phone. By the time Mom and Dad find me, my skin has turned blue, and I'm barely breathing. The doctors save my life, but I'm left with serious health problems that never go away. After that, Rachel might as well be invisible to Mom and Dad. They stop smiling at her and barely speak to her. All their time and attention go to me instead. Dad takes a job overseas just to pay for the monthly maintenance on my artificial heart, while Mom quits her job to stay by my side around the clock. She even fasts one day a week, praying that I'll be given more time. I may never be he

The final bit of fight left his body, leaving behind a broken, humiliated middle-aged man who had run out of lies to tell himself. With a trembling index finger, Murphy reached out and tapped the digital signature line. He traced his name across the screen, his movements slow and agonizing, a complete contrast to the violent, furious way he had scribbled his signature on our divorce papers six years ago. When the screen flashed green to confirm the legal transfer of ownership, he pulled his hand back as if he had been burned. It was finished. Daniel Medical Enterprises was officially dead. By tomorrow morning, the sign on his corporate headquarters would be taken down, replaced by the Carter

I raised my voice at his back. "When you come home tonight, let's have a proper talk." He stumbled slightly, then hurried out the door. When he got off work, I received a message from him. [Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I have to work overtime these next few days, but there are several people here, so don't worry.] I replied: [It's okay. We can talk when you're free.] He did not respond again. However, not long after, he updated his social media. It was a photo of everyone working overtime–men and women all there together.

When I found the hotel booking receipts on my husband's phone, I asked for a divorce. I didn't yell. I didn't cry. My husband, Mark Sterling, thought I was just throwing another childish tantrum. He tossed a black credit card onto the counter. "The PIN is your birthday. Go buy yourself something nice and stop being so paranoid." When I didn't touch it, he sighed and pulled a limited-edition action figure from behind his back. "Look, I even got a gift for Leo. I'll pick him up from preschool tonight. Happy now?" My hands shook as I stared at the toy. Our son died in a car crash two months ago, on the day Mark skipped his parent-teacher conference. He didn't even know that our boy was

Crystal Clarke never imagined that her biggest dream would become her greatest heartbreak. Getting a job as Jules Jordan's personal assistant should have been the beginning of her independence. Instead, working beside the billionaire CEO brings her closer to the man she's secretly admired for years. Crystal knows she shouldn't want him. But when he offers her a secret relationship without promises, she accepts, hoping she can handle the consequences. She can't. Because Crystal falls in love while Jordan insists that what they share is nothing more than a fling. So she walks away, broken and abandoned. For Crystal, he is the man who broke her heart. For Jordan, she is

Time to go. Too bad he had other ideas. ***

Jared lowered his head to drink the soup quietly. A phone suddenly rang when someone walked past his ward, and the ringtone was “Later” by Rene Liu*. “Later, I finally learned how to love. Sadly, you’ve gone far away and disappeared in the crowd…” A tear rolled down the corner of Jared’s eye into the bowl of soup. When his butler came to the hospital the next day to send him soup again, he was startled when he saw Jared, who was on the bed. “Mr. Crawford…” Jared looked up. “What is it?”