Without Remorse

I make my way to the orphanage after receiving my cancer diagnosis, hoping to bid farewell to the orphan, Lillian Lowe, whom I was sponsoring financially. I unexpectedly find my husband, Henry Graham, who is meant to be on a business trip, and my sister, Felicity Sullivan, who is meant to be on a vacation. Their fingers are intertwined, while they use their free hands to playfully pinch Lillian's cheeks. Lillian rushes into their embrace, weeping pitifully. "Can you get rid of that mean lady at home? I just want to go home with Mommy and Daddy." I finally understand, at that moment, that Henry, whom I thought had loved me the most, is having an affair with Felicity. They even have a child together. Mom and Dad urge me to divorce Henry and make way for his new family. Lillian, the girl I once held dearly in my heart, curses me to an early death. Henry, the one who betrayed me, insists on keeping our marriage. It's too late, though. I'm already dying, just as they wished. Lillian, who once cried so much at the orphanage, now lives in a mansion with a father, a mother, and a pair of doting grandparents. Their perfect little life seems like a never-ending fairy tale. It is only when my lifeless body is before them that everyone suddenly loses their minds.

The day my parents severed their mate bond, my sister and I had to choose. One of us would go with our father—the Alpha who'd gambled away every inch of pack territory in underground wolf fights. The other would go with our mother, who was marrying Alaric, the most powerful Alpha in the werewolf world. In my past life, my sister fought to go with our mother. I stayed behind with our father in silence. Later, our father rebuilt himself. His territory grew tenfold. He became one of the strongest Alphas, and I was his most beloved daughter. But my sister provoked the tyrant Alpha Alaric, was banished from his territory, and was torn apart by rogues. After rebirth, my sister didn't hesitate. She dropped her packed bags and clung to our father, sobbing: "Daddy, I can't leave you. Let my sister go live the good life with Mom. I'll stay with you." Our father's eyes softened with emotion. He looked at me quietly packing my things, and his voice turned cold: "Get out. You're just like your mother—a gold-digging bitch." I didn't argue. I left in silence. In my past life, I fought thousands of battles in underground wolf pits for him. My wolf nearly died countless times. My body was covered in scars. I won back his territory piece by piece. Only then did he wake up, pull himself together, and become a powerful Alpha again. But my wolf had been shattered beyond repair. On the verge of death, my wolf burned the last spark of her life to reverse time. But she couldn't reverse her own decay. This time around, all I wanted was to find a place with no fighting and sit in the sun for a while.

For the 100th time, my Alpha mate, Ryker, used his command on me, threatening to reject our bond if I didn't sacrifice myself for my twin sister, Ivy. I didn't cry or protest. I simply signed the mate bond rejection papers. I surrendered the Alpha I had loved for ten years to my sister. A few days later, Ivy caused a scene at the Pack Alliance Banquet, humiliating the Silvermoon Alpha's daughter. Once again, I stepped forward to take her place, enduring the pain of a disfiguring silver brand. Later, when they demanded I test the safety of the Wolf Spirit Regeneration Ritual with my own body for my sister, I accepted with a smile. My Beta parents, their eyes red-rimmed, told me I was finally being the older sister I was supposed to be. Even Ryker, who had always been so distant toward me, stood before the cellar. He gently stroked my cheek for the first time in ages and said softly, "Harper, don't be afraid. As soon as the trial is over, I'll take you to see the auroras at Moon Goddess Lake." But he didn't know that, regardless of the trial's outcome, he would never see me again. My wolf spirit was already fading. Nothing could save me. This time, when I closed my eyes, it would be forever.

Synopsis: “Some mistakes ruin you. Others reveal who you really are.” Ava has always played it safe, witty, observant, and content staying in the shadow of her bold, magnetic best friend, Sophia. But all of that changes the night she crosses a line she can never uncross with Sophia’s twin brother, Mason. Mason is everything Ava shouldn’t want: arrogant, reckless, devastatingly charming and completely off-limits. Known for breaking hearts without remorse, Mason lives for the thrill, never the aftermath. But when a stolen kiss turns into a secret affair, Ava is pulled into a dangerous game of love, lust, and lies that threatens to shatter the only relationships she’s ever trusted. As Ava falls deeper, she uncovers a side of Mason no one else sees haunted, vulnerable, desperate to feel something real. But when an unplanned pregnancy sends her spiraling, Ava makes a devastating choice… one that will come back to haunt her. Now, with secrets unraveling and emotions running raw, Ava must face the wrath of betrayal not just from Mason, but from Sophia too. Can love survive when trust is shattered? Or will the truth destroy them all? In a story filled with temptation, betrayal, and heart-stopping twists, Ava must decide: is forbidden love worth the scars it leaves behind?

Five years ago, on her birthday, Joan Lancaster was served with divorce papers by the one man whom she had loved with every fiber of her being. The same man who had sworn to protect her, cherish her, and never betray her, Dean Armstrong. He cast her aside without remorse, replacing her with his secretary and stripping her of everything but her dignity. Broken, wounded, and abandoned, Joan disappeared into the night with secrets only she knew, only to return five years later as a different woman. No longer the trembling, forgiving wife Dean once knew, Joan stepped back into his world as the untouchable Ice Queen, a woman whose rise to power had struck fear in the hearts of the Chicago businessmen. But she wasn't just back, she was back for revenge. And she wasn't going to stop until she stripped her ex-husband of everything that made his name. Once a powerful man, Dean found himself begging the woman he once discarded. The woman who now had the strings to his life and could do with him as she pleased. In a world where love had once broken her, Joan would prove one thing: some women don’t come back to be loved. They come back to be feared.

The day my husband left the country on a business trip with his assistant, I learned—by sheer accident—that his archenemy was plotting revenge overseas. Without a second thought, I raced to the airport and stopped him from boarding the plane. But his assistant went ahead, alone. And over there, she was killed brutally. Not a trace of her remains was ever found. When my husband received the news, he fell apart. Wracked with guilt, eaten alive by remorse, he spiraled into a relentless, violent mania. In the past three years, I'd been in and out of hospitals more times than I could count because of him. And this time, he pushed me so far—I lost our child. Then I overheard a conversation between him and his secretary. "Sir, Casey is still alive. Why keep pretending you're sick? Aren't you afraid your wife will find out and leave you?" "Leave me? What right does she have to be angry?" He laughed coldly. "If she hadn't stopped me from going abroad, Casey would've never been lured away by that bastard. Everything Linda's suffering now—she brought it on herself."

On her wedding day, she saw her sister and her husband rolling around in bed together, showing no remorse and being utterly brazen! Instead of crying or making a scene, she turned and left, randomly grabbing a man from among the guests to be her new groom. What was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, a simple exchange of benefits, turned into him doting on her as if she were his most precious treasure.

After reuniting with my birth family, my wealthy biological father tossed me a black card and laid down one rule: I could spend as much as I wanted, but I was never to call him Dad—that title belonged only to his adoptive daughter. Clutching the black card, I cautiously bought myself a two-dollar-fifty ice cream cone. Just as I was happily licking the sweet ice cream, the adoptive daughter dropped to her knees before me. "Alice, are you mocking me because I can't even afford something that costs two-fifty in the future?" My brother immediately slapped me twice. "You have money now, but you can't split love. Natalie is my one and only sister!" Then my father splashed boiling water onto my face. "No disgraceful wretch deserves to be a Gervais." To punish me, they sent me off to Rimala, forced to work as a child laborer in the mines. Ten years later, I walked into a grand banquet hall with an ice cream in hand and came face-to-face with my brother, Ansel Gervais, dressed in a hand-tailored suit. "All these years and you're still a disgrace," he sneered, but I couldn't be bothered to argue. "Let go. My dad's waiting for me—and if I'm any later, the ice cream's going to melt." He looked down at me with contempt. "Dad? Who gave you permission to call him that? Natalie will forever be the only Gervais girl—no one can take that away from her!" I rolled my eyes. Who said I was talking about that cheap excuse for a father? I was talking about my adoptive father—the oil tycoon with an incurable sweet tooth. I was in a hurry to let him taste some ice cream.

After my financial reports were replaced with blank pages, the company was thrown into a legal and financial crisis. As the accountant, I was accused of falsifying records. I was charged, convicted, and sent to prison. Three years later, I was finally released. My CEO husband and our son came to pick me up in person. Just when I was touched by their loyalty, believing they had stood by me through it all, I overheard their conversation. "Dad, Winona wanted that villa in the suburbs, so you used company funds to buy it. But Mom was the one who got blamed for the falsified accounts. She spent three years behind bars, shunned by everyone. Even I got teased by my friends because of her." Hank took our son's hand, his tone grave. "We agreed never to bring this up again. Back then, Winona needed a place to live. I had no choice but to use the company's money, and your mom had to take the fall." That was the moment I realized—my years in prison, the public disgrace, the humiliation… had all been part of a plan. A plan crafted by the very man I trusted with my life.

After my sister's death, I signed a five-year contract marriage with her mafia husband, Horton Falcone. I became the stepmother to my five-year-old nephew, Luca. On my birthday, I wore my late sister's diamond cross necklace, not realizing what it was. At the family dinner, Luca walked up to me with a glass of red wine and threw the wine in my face. The red wine dripped down my cheeks, its sharp scent stinging my eyes and staining my white dress. He tilted his head back to look up at me, his eyes as cold and cruel as his father's. "Don't think you can replace my mom just because you married into the Falcone family," he said with a malicious grin. "You're the reason she's dead." "I wish you were the one who died. Then I could smash your gravestone instead of celebrating this stupid birthday." "I swear, when I grow up, the first thing I'll do is dump you in the Hudson River myself!" The memory stung as sharply as the wine, and all I could taste was despair. I stared at the child I had spent five years raising as my own, a sharp pain pulsing in my chest. I had thought I could devote myself to the Falcone family, that I could win him over with my love. But now, I was just so tired of it all. It was a family with no love, a child who saw me as his mortal enemy. I stopped deluding myself. It was time to let go. But after I left, that arrogant father and son came crawling back to me like whipped dogs, begging for my forgiveness.