When I'm Gone I'm Never Really Gone Novels & Stories

While they slice me apart, I desperately call my brother, Nathan Slade. He finally picks up as my consciousness starts to slip and answers in an annoyed voice, "What now?" "Nathan, help—" I don't get to finish before he cuts me off. "Can't you ever go a day without drama? Gemma's graduation is at the end of the month. Miss it, and I swear I'll kill you!" Then, he hangs up without a second thought. The agonizing pain swallows me whole, and my eyes close for good, tears still trailing down my cheeks. Well, good news, Nathan… You won't have to kill me because I'm already dead.

CAUTION: This has MATURE CONTENT. Read only if comfortable with genres like this. 18+. Evan Hart's heart aches as he watches the man he secretly loves suffer from the disappearance of his fiancée who is also his older brother. It's even more painful because Evan knows the truth—His elder brother wasn't kidnapped; he ran off with someone else, abandoning everything. Unable to bear the sight of Nathan Collins, the man he loves, falling apart, Evan makes a desperate and unthinkable decision: to become a substitute for his brother. What starts as an attempt to be close to Nathan quickly spirals into a tangled web of passion, possessiveness, and deception.

At the company holiday party raffle, I'd barely stepped on stage when my superior, Victor Grant, shoved a crumpled slip into my hand. "Special prize for our top sales guy. Go on, open it. Let's show everyone." All eyes were on me as I unfolded it. Scrawled across the paper: [VIP janitor status unlocked—every toilet in the company, three days.] The room lost it—laughter everywhere. Victor crossed his arms, grinning. "Fair, right? Everyone knows you climbed the ranks hooking up with rich cougars. Gotta avoid hard feelings for the others, yeah? While the rest of us take a break, you can get busy. You're not gonna back out, are you?" The crowd cracked up. My girlfriend—and CEO—Rachel Sullivan stood off to the side, watching. Didn't say a word. Everyone waited for me to explode. Instead, I just nodded. Next day, over 300 refund requests hit. Cash flow flatlined. Victor and Rachel begged me to talk the buyers down. I shrugged. "Nah. Don't wanna save the company and make my performance too good. That'd just cause more ' hard feelings,' right?"

I sat at the table, watching the food grow cold, much like my heart. Today was my birthday. It was also Leslie Buck's birthday—Katherine White's childhood sweetheart. I unlocked my phone and opened Leslie's social media page. As expected, a new post awaited me. "Grateful to have you by my side for every birthday. Let's keep our promise to celebrate every one of them together in the future!" The photo showed two hands forming a heart in front of a cake. One of them was Katherine's. I could tell from the bracelet she wore. It was the one I had given her. I gave the post a like, then set my phone aside. Without hesitation, I dumped the dishes Katherine liked into the trash and went out to a restaurant to order the food I liked, celebrating my birthday alone. From now on, I would make sure to enjoy every birthday of mine.

When I was nine, I was hit by the blast of an explosion while saving Simone Scott. From that day onward, I have to rely on hearing aids to get by. Overwhelmed with guilt, she suggests we get engaged and swears to me with teary eyes, "Justin, I'll take care of you for the rest of my life." But at 18 years old, to satisfy a dare from the school heartthrob, she rips off my hearing aid and humiliates me in front of him and our classmates. Disgust fills her voice as she says, "You're nothing but a burden. I've been sick of you for a long time. I wish you'd died back then instead of being saved." I clutch the hearing recovery report in my hand and say nothing. After that, I quietly change my college applications, bring my parents with me, and formally call off the engagement. Simone, this is where our paths split. There is no reason for us to ever see each other again.

Jordan Bennet looked at his girlfriend and sneered, “Avery, let’s break up. In fact, I have never loved you, but I pitied you because your mother didn’t love you. I have wasted so many years with you and I am tired of pretending. I never knew what love is before I met the love of my life, Tiffany Spencer. Please move on with your life and forget about me.” Then he kissed his new girlfriend on the lips in front of Avery. She was so shocked, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She was dumped in front of his new girlfriend. She felt humiliated. After everything she had done for him, he cheated on her. Tears were brimming in her eyes but she held them back. She didn’t want to cry in front of them. Was she hallucinating? She pinched her thigh hard to check if she was not dreaming. After she realized that she wasn’t dreaming, she calmed herself down. A faint smile appeared at the corners of her mouth and said to Jordan, “Everything you have achieved because of me, you will lose it.”

On my girlfriend's birthday, I was in the middle of preparing a surprise for her when the property management office of our marital home called first. "Sir, we've received a complaint from another resident," the staff member said. "They claim there's been… quite a bit of noise coming from your unit at night. From you and your wife." I frowned. The only person I had given a key to that apartment was my girlfriend. I called her immediately. She answered with a soft, teasing tone, "They must have made a mistake. I'm at my best friend's place." "Alright," I said evenly. "Enjoy yourself." After hanging up, I opened the smart home system without hesitation and remotely locked every door and window from the outside. Then I dialed the police. "Hello, I'd like to report an unlawful entry."

Hot-headed Cash Huxley is perfectly fine not being tied down. She lives her life the way she wants without having to answer to anyone. Which is why she's been the target of her family's constant pestering on the matter of marriage. While they want nothing more than to see her live her "happily ever after", Cash on the other hand would rather gouge her eyes out than fall in line with the countless women she's seen suffering because of the lies they believe in. Being unable to take it any longer, however, Cash's mother decides to take things into her own hands by setting up her stubborn daughter on a blind date with one of the most eligible bachelors she knows- Rio Asheton. Rio is the heir to the Asheton family conglomerate and more specifically the son of her father's boss. Will Cash be able to retain her sanity long enough to ensure her freedom or will Rio be the one to finally get her to give in and say "I do"?

​Thirty days before the world ends, Vivian is murdered by her fiancé. ​Marcus broke her knuckles, threw her into a freezing harbor, and watched her drown just to inherit her father’s locked fortune. But death doesn't take her. Instead, Vivian wakes up exactly one month earlier, her body intact. ​To exact her vengeance, she lays a brilliant trap, using her wealth to lure her murderous fiancé into building his "ultimate sanctuary" at the exact location she knows will be ground zero for a huge tidal wave. But her timeline is fracturing. The disaster is accelerating, and her father’s secret inheritance called the Aegis Protocol requires a secondary physical key held by Julian Cross, the cynical rich dude she hated and publicly ruined in her past life. But as the world collapses around them, the friction between her cold pragmatism and his fierce protectiveness sparks an intense, high-tension chemistry. Every brush of skin hints at a profound bond Julian doesn't yet understand. What begins as a transactional partnership rapidly evolves into a fierce romance forged in the middle of a dying world. ​Together, they must confront the ultimate unknown as the early floodwaters hit. Vivian soon discovers a devastating truth: Marcus survived the initial wave, turning into a ruthless warlord who is now hunting the biometric data in her blood. Surrounded by toxic acid rain and lawless raiders, Vivian and Julian must learn to trust each other completely. They aren't just fighting to survive the apocalypse anymore; they are fighting to protect a newborn love, rewrite their destinies and rule the old world together, making sure Marcus won't be a part of it. But something far worse and dangerous than Marcus, who killed her in her previous life, is hiding beneath the storm. And she can't escape from it.

Alpha Damon was an exiled monster, feared for his cruelty. He chose Selena—an omega from a worthless pack—as his mate. There was just one problem. Our Mating Ceremony, mine and my fated mate Alpha Ethan's, was set for the same day. When Ethan found out, he vanished for three days. I found him just in time to overhear his plan. "At the Mating Ceremony, I'll fake a sign from the Moon Goddess. I'll make it look like she rejected Elara." "Pack law will force her onto that pathetic excuse for a brother, Damon. Then Selena won't have to mate with him." "An outcast like Damon doesn't deserve a true Alpha's fated mate. Once Selena is safe, I’ll just take Elara back." My heart turned to stone. He was throwing me to a monster to save another woman. And he thought he could just take me back? Fine. I would play along with his little scheme. But once his little show was over, I'd be gone for good. Except when Ethan came to "rescue" me, he found Damon's mark burned into my neck. That's when he finally broke.