When We Were Strangers Novels & Stories

In a world ravaged by global nuclear fallout, I struggled to survive alongside my fragile, sweet-faced best friend, dodging one radiation storm after another. The route to the Central Safety Zone was blocked—we had no choice but to use two detonators to blast open the tunnel. Otherwise, we would be caught in the storm, our bodies rotting away until we either dissolved into blood sludge or turned into zombies. … In my previous life, I had risked everything to secure those detonators, only for my best friend to hand them over to a complete stranger without hesitation. "They have elderly people and children on their side too," she said earnestly. "One detonator can save many lives. Iris, you can't be selfish." I was so furious my blood pressure nearly exploded, but with no other option, I went straight into a horde of zombies to steal backup detonators. I lost an arm in the process, drenched in blood and barely standing. Yet, she complained that I was covered in gore and had frightened the children. After finally regrouping with the main convoy, I rushed to deliver the formula for anti-radiation medicine to the research institute so that more people could be saved. But she accused me of stealing supplies and trying to flee, which led to my expulsion from the base, and death, my body rotting away under the radiation. When I opened my eyes again, there was still one hour left before the radiation storm hit. I looked down at the two detonators in my hand, then at my pitiful, tear-brimmed best friend—and I smiled. Since she loved being a good person so much, this time, I would let her be one to her heart's content.

When I was nine, I was caught in the blast while trying to save Joel Yorks, and the loud wave took away my hearing. Since then, I have had to wear hearing aids. Joel felt guilty. He insisted on having my hand in marriage. With his eyes welling up in tears, he swore, “Helen, I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life.” However, when I turned eighteen… Everything changed because he wanted to please the prettiest girl in the school. He ripped off my hearing aid in front of her and our classmates and said in disdain, “I’ve had enough of you being a burden. I really wish you hadn’t survived that day when you were nine. It would have been better if you were dead.” I clutched my audiology report and stayed silent. When I got home, I quietly revised my college applications and formally broke the engagement along with my parents. Joel and I would go our separate ways after that. We would not need to meet again.

Three years ago, Leena Kensington’s husband handed her divorce papers and shattered her world. One night, while pregnant with his child, her car went off the road, and when she woke up, her memory was gone. Now she lives under a new name, raising a daughter she barely remembers giving birth to. Her past is a blur and her future simple, until she meets a man who makes her heart race for reasons she can’t explain. George Hale. The husband who buried her. The man she can’t remember. And the one secret strong enough to destroy them both: the child she lost was never lost at all.

Victoria Bathram has been fighting kidney failure for five long years. Through endless hospital visits, painful treatments, and nights filled with fear, she survives on one thing alone—the love of her husband, Gabriel. He is attentive, gentle, and seemingly devoted, standing by her side as she waits for the transplant that could save her life. When a matching kidney is finally found, Victoria believes her suffering is about to end. Instead, it is just beginning. By accident, Victoria overhears a conversation she was never meant to hear. Gabriel has made a choice—one that does not include her. The kidney meant to save her will be given to another patient: a young girl named Sandra. A child he calls his daughter. A child from the secret family he has been hiding all along. As Victoria’s health rapidly declines, the truth unravels. Gabriel has not only betrayed her trust but has been living a second life inside her parents’ villas—homes he kept her away from under the excuse of protecting her fragile heart. Through hidden security footage, Victoria watches her husband give his affection, loyalty, and gifts to another woman and her children, using the life she thought was hers. With only months left to live and everything she believed in stripped away, Victoria faces a devastating choice of her own: remain a silent victim of love and betrayal, or reclaim what little time she has left on her own terms.

After being pushed down the stairs by my husband's first love, I suffered a difficult labor with our second child and died in a corner of their family's private hospital. Before I died, my six-year-old son cried and begged for his father to save me. The first time, Shawn sneered. "Your mom's gotten smarter, using you to play the victim and trick people." After that, he flung my son's hand away and left heartlessly. The second time, my son told him I was bleeding uncontrollably. Shawn was clearly impatient. "She's being so dramatic, it's just a miscarriage, nothing serious. She's always made mountains out of molehills!" After chasing my son away, he even told the doctors not to care for me. "It's my fault for spoiling her. She'll know what she did wrong once I let her have a hard time for a few days." The last time, my son went to my husband's first love Jasmine, kneeling in front of her and knocking his head on the ground, begging her. Shawn flew into a rage and ordered bodyguards to throw my battered and bruised son out of the hospital room, allowing others to laugh at his misfortune. "If you come bother Jasmine while she's resting again, I'll kick your mom out of our family! She'll never see you again!" My son crawled to my side, leaving behind a long trail of blood. And so, I laid there helplessly as I felt the warmth escape both my son and I. 'Are you happy now, Shawn? You'll never see us again.'

Born in a time when magic ruled the Earth.Gargoyles protected fairies from goblins. The brothers were part of a group of elite gargoyles who were assigned to protect a specific fairy. Their father’s dereliction of that duty cursed his sons to become stone and wait.Now reawakened in the twenty first century where no one believes in magic how are they going to convince their fairies that they are one and that they are in danger from a goblin?They must do that without falling in love with her. When Gargoyles Love is created by Chris Redding an eGlobal Publishing Creative Signed Author.

Once upon a time, the blue of the sky fell in love with the calm of the sea, the clouds in between whispered "Alas." Farisha is the only child to billionaire Alhaji Shehu, she is spoilt, brattish and untamed. Having watched her mother suffer neglect and pain from her ever-busy nonchalant father for so many years, she develops in her heart, an unnatural hatred for all men, despising them all with a great passion. Risha (Farisha) hence makes it her full-time business to frustrate, ruin and destroy any unlucky prey she happens to pounce on. An insatiable frustration struggles within her leading to immoral habits, ever priding herself as the iron lady with a heart of stone, she is immune to love (or at least so she thought). She holds this notion of herself until she meets the calm, charismatic, humble, heart stopping ruggedly handsome and rather too "nice-quiet” Farhan, an upcoming lawyer in her father's company. To her out most disgust and anger, she finds her searching heart greatly attracted to this enigmatic character. For making her feel this supposed weakness, she develops what could be termed an “unnatural hatred and obsession”. In her own crazy way, she sets out to punish him in a way she had never punished anyone. And what better way than to trap him than in what she considered, the worst fate any could endure, “MARRIAGE". Will she succeed in her ruthless plan or will her searching heart betray? Find out in this heart stopping saga of love, hate and intrigue. "Risha is not evil, she is just mostly up to no good."

On my birthday, my husband, Adrian Grant, suddenly showed up with my adoptive younger sister, Bella Reed, and her child, Tia Reed. When it was time to head out, he naturally arranged for Bella to sit in the front passenger seat. Then he turned to me and said calmly, "Tia gets carsick easily. The back seat is full of stuff. Since you're healthy, just take the bus." Our friends immediately chimed in, one after another, "You're the older sister. Taking care of your niece is only right." Four cars were heading out, yet not one seat was left for me, the supposed main character of the day. I sat on the bus, swallowing my grievance, and saw Adrian and Bella interacting ambiguously in the group chat. They were even talking about topics I knew nothing about. When I opened the newly sent video, nothing except leftovers remained on the table prepared for me. Adrian even treated the birthday cake I had carefully prepared as dessert, spoon-feeding it to Bella and her daughter. Someone finally couldn’t stand it anymore and asked whether this was appropriate. Adrian, who was carefully wiping Bella’s mouth, didn’t even look up. "We’re all family. Julia won’t be angry." At that point, our seven-year marriage came to its end.

In a sweeping tale of love lost and fate’s quiet redemption, When Love Lies follows the deeply moving, decades spanning journey of Josephine and Kenneth, two young lovers torn apart by betrayal, secrets, and the weight of family expectations.

The male postpartum care specialist adjusted his touch with calm precision. Heat spread through my body, leaving me weak against the cushions. "You're quite sensitive," he said quietly. The warmth of his breath near my ear made me tremble, despite myself.