While You Were Out Slips Novels & Stories

During the college entrance exam, everyone else is writing on their exam sheets nonstop. Meanwhile, I'm all cooped up in a toilet stall while playing games on the phone. When faced with the reporters who are posted outside the exam venue, I tell them confidently, "I'm definitely getting into a prestigious college." Upon hearing my answer, my parents, who have just accepted me back into their elite family, can't help but grin from ear to ear. Even the fake heir, Charles McKinnon, is unable to suppress his elation. I just smile without saying anything else. Then, I sign the guaranteed admission confirmation form that my teacher has fought hard to secure for me before the start of the exam. In my previous lifetime, my parents had bound a score-swapping system to me and Charles. Charles replaced me as a student in Yarvyn College. But I couldn't even get into a regular community college. Just like that, I became the laughingstock of my previous high school. Charles even took the lead in slandering me for cheating in my previous exams. Unable to handle the pressure, I jumped off a school building and died. In this lifetime, I'll give Charles a taste of what it feels like to come last in the entire city!

Millie Jordan ends up in the hands of abductors and firmly believes Stefan Leach will be there to save her. Yet he doesn't show up, and she is sullied. After she's rescued, she drags her worn body to seek him out. There, she finds him celebrating his true love's birthday. Millie wakes up from her dream and turns to Stefan's good friend. "I heard you're short of a wife. Do you think I'm the right person for the job?" She and Pierce Atkinson get into a flash marriage. He wants someone to help him fend off his family's urging for him to marry, and she wants to get revenge on Stefan. The two clicked. During a banquet, Millie loses a game of truth and dare and chooses a dare—she needs to kiss any man who's present. She doesn't even spare Stefan a glance as she sits on Pierce's lap and kisses him deeply. She's gotten into a flash marriage, and Stefan, the scumbag, loses his mind at this.

Betrayed by the two people she trusted most—her husband and her best friend—she lost everything in a single devastating blow. Divorced, humiliated, and left with nothing but shattered dreams and burning ambition, she walks away determined to rebuild her life from the ground up. Four years later, she returns stronger than ever—powerful, successful, and the CEO of the most sought-after interior design company in the country. The woman everyone once underestimated is now completely out of reach. And suddenly, the man who signed those divorce papers so easily wants her back. Consumed by regret, he’s willing to do anything to win a second chance, proving that losing her was the biggest mistake of his life. But her heart is no longer his to claim so easily. There’s now another man in the picture—a dangerously attractive billionaire heir from Europe’s most powerful family. Cold, unreadable, and impossible to figure out, he offers her something her ex never did: a future untouched by betrayal. Caught between a remorseful ex determined to earn back her love and a mysterious billionaire who keeps pulling her closer while refusing to reveal his true feelings, she must make an impossible choice. Can a shattered heart learn to trust again… or will love betray her twice?

After two years of being neglected in her marriage, Alison Reese finds a spermicidal suppository under the bed in the master bedroom. In that moment, she finally understands that she isn't Erik Hale's wife. She's the third wheel between him and Monique Shore. When her uncle falls gravely ill, all she asks for is a single pill. Erik agrees to help, then tosses the matter to his assistant. The assistant hands Alison a fake. When life and death hang in the balance, an unexpected visitor appears in the hospital room. He's strikingly handsome and gives off an air of effortless privilege. He claims to be Theodore Statham, a friend of Alison's cousin, Noah Reese. But she knows every one of Noah's friends. Every single one—except him. Theodore goes with her on a search for the medicine, so she no longer has to grovel and beg for it. On a hurricane night, when her house is flooding, he carries her out of the water. The first thing he says is, "Don't be scared. I'm here." Every time Theodore talks about the future, he makes sure there's a place for Alison carved out there. She doesn't understand why a man like him, untouchable and divine, is willing to stay by her side like a shadow. One day, Alison asks Theodore, "What is it you want from me?" He raises an eyebrow. "I want you to walk my dog with me every day. No skipping." On the day her divorce is finalized, she walks out of the courthouse to see him standing at the entrance with the dog on a leash, waiting for her. In that instant, a memory surfaces. Every time she looks for Noah in the high school building, she sees an aloof-looking guy in a mask standing in the distance. She thinks he hates her. But now, she knows he just doesn't dare to look at her. He's afraid one look will give him away.

During the holiday, my six-year-old son received his cleft-lip surgery. He wore a mask and sat quietly in our family bookstore, engrossed in a picture book. A young man came in, pinching his nose dramatically as he swaggered up to the manager. "Why did you let someone with an infectious disease in here?" he demanded loudly. "Get them out!" The manager winced. "Sir, I'm sorry, but I don't have the authority to remove other customers." Undeterred, the man marched up to me. "Be wise and get out of here. My girlfriend is Imogen Slater, CEO of the Slater Group. You don't want to mess with me." I froze in stunned silence. Imogen despised all men except me, and this guy claimed she was his girlfriend.

My wife, Ariel Sweeney, would always buy me a new watch every time she cheated on me. We'd been married for four years, and I'd already collected 99 watches. That also meant I'd forgiven her 99 times too. This time, she went on a business trip for three days, and returned with a Patek Philippe watch worth ten million dollars for me. I then knew that it was time we got a divorce.

This Thanksgiving, Elmer Fuller finally agrees to go on a trip with me. But when I wake up in the hotel, I don't see him anywhere. I spend the entire day desperately searching for him, only to stumble across a social media post from his first love. It's a selfie of her and Elmer having a cozy family dinner with her parents. The caption reads, "Someone's finally meeting the parents on Thanksgiving night. Mom and Dad can stop pressuring me to get married now!" Around her neck is the scarf my mother knitted for me before she passed. I left a comment. "Stop using my things to flirt with my husband. Take the scarf off—you can have him." Not long after, she posts an update. The scarf is shredded into pieces and tossed into a dog bed, with the caption, "What trash—too filthy even for a dog!" Elmer likes the post.

My name is Themis and I am not supposed to be alive. I survived the hunt, saddled with a husband and still I have to waddle my way through so many things to remain alive at the end of the day. The one person I can count on other than myself is my new husband who saved my life from the get go. And my gift of prophecy. Maybe, just maybe, it is also enough to save the Dar Empire too. My name is Themis and this is my story.

When struggling teacher Sienna Carter takes a last-minute nanny job for Grayson Pierce, a ruthless billionaire and single father, she has no idea what she’s getting into. Grayson is cold, demanding, and emotionally distant, more interested in boardrooms than bedtime stories. His daughter, Lily, is quiet and withdrawn, having lost her mother in a tragic accident. Sienna, with her warm and compassionate nature, clashes with Grayson at every turn. He sees her as an inconvenience, while she finds him insufferable. But as Sienna slowly breaks through Lily’s walls, she unexpectedly starts to unravel Grayson’s, too. Hate turns to fiery tension, tension turns to stolen glances, and before they know it, the icy walls between them start to melt. But just as love begins to bloom, secrets from Grayson’s past resurface, threatening to destroy everything. Will their growing love be enough to survive the storm? Or will Grayson’s fear of vulnerability cost him the one thing he never knew he needed?

Rogues suddenly attacked the werewolf hospital. My husband, the captain of the rescue team, rushed over. Everyone thought he had come to protect me. But he rushed straight to his teammate Ayla, completely oblivious to the rogue behind him raising a dagger. Without thinking, I lunged forward and pushed him out of the way. But to my surprise, he grabbed me and held me in front of his childhood friend. The dagger pierced my abdomen, killing our pup. When my colleagues tried to save me, my mate, Paolo Greco, pulled them away. “Save Ayla first! If anything happens to her, I’ll sue your hospital in the werewolf court!” My colleagues looked at him in shock. “But your mate is bleeding heavily! She can’t even stand up now! Ayla only has a cut on her arm; her condition isn’t critical.” I clutched my bleeding abdomen. Heartbroken, I told my colleagues to save her first. “Forget it. Save her first.” Paolo, you saved my life once. I am returning the favor. From that moment, we owe each other nothing. We should never meet again.