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1 At our high school reunion, my wife, Sarah, nonchalantly ate a bite of cake offered by her first love, David. The room erupted in hoots and hollers, everyone staring at me, waiting for my reaction. But instead of losing it, I pulled out my phone, turned on the flash, and started snapping pictures. "You guys are adorable," I said, grinning. "Do a peace sign! I gotta post this online. Everyone needs to see this." ... Sarah had just taken a bite of David's half-eaten red velvet cupcake �C the

1. The day I got engaged to Julian Vance, we were at the Willard InterContinental in Washington, D.C. Just as we were about to cut the cake, a call from Daphne Sterling pulled him away. "Daphne is having a panic attack," he said. "She says she has a fever and is scared to be alone in that huge house. She needs me." Julian disappeared for three whole days. When he finally showed up, looking exhausted, he said it so casually. "Sloane, we have a lifetime together. Once Daphne feels better, le

I was stranded on a treacherous mountain peak, facing death. My fiancé, the captain of the search and rescue team, had diverted every single resource to find his missing childhood sweetheart. I didn't bother calling for help this time. I simply waited for the end to come in the biting cold. In my past life, he had actually answered my call. He saved me from the cliff, but his precious childhood friend remained lost. He claimed he didn't regret saving me. He even meticulously planned our weddi

I spent ten years in a secret relationship with my adoptive brother, Caleb. The day we finally decided to go public, he was assigned a suicide mission as an undercover agent against the cartels. The night before he left, he held me tight and made a vow. "If I make it back alive, I'll marry you in the grandest way possible. I'll never leave your side." I broke ties with my family for him. I waited like a fool, becoming the laughingstock of the entire elite social circle in the city. Three year

1 It was three years after Mom passed when some guy showed up at my door. He grabbed my arm, squeezing hard. "You must be her little bastard," he spat. "You look just like her!" "Where's your mom hiding? Tell her to get her butt out here!" I mumbled, barely loud enough for him to hear, "My mom's dead." "Dead? You've gotta be kidding me. She had the nerve to pop out a kid, but she can't face me?" He started tearing the place apart, throwing stuff everywhere. Finally, he just stopped, like

1. My phone vibrated violently on the nightstand, as if it was trying to shake itself to pieces. I fumbled for the alarm with my eyes still closed. It wasn't the alarm. It vibrated again. I shoved it under my pillow. The vibrations became muffled, but even more frantic. It was 3:30 AM, and the blue light from the screen stabbed at my eyes. My notification bar had exploded―Instagram, Twitter, iMessage, all glowing with red numbers. My heart started to pound. That familiar, sinking feeling

1 My cousin, Ashley, is obsessed with vetting my boyfriends. Despite my repeated protests, she persists. She'd snag them, then dump them, broadcasting their inadequacies to the entire family group chat. This time, however, she walked right into the trap I'd meticulously set. She couldn't help herself. ...... Ashley's been divorced for three years, still raking in a hefty alimony check, living it up. One day it's male models, the next it's young heartthrobs �C she's perpetually busy. Her la

1 It was our eighth wedding anniversary. I was stuck in the hospital when his gift arrived. It was a plastic rose and a cheap trophy that read 'Best Wife'. I glanced at the crummy black plastic bag holding these pathetic items. Without hesitation, I hit send on the divorce papers I'd been keeping on my phone for so long. A second later, my phone rang. It was the secretary of my husband, Cole. "Mrs. Miller, I'm so sorry. I picked out the gifts myself. I thought it was the thought that cou

On the day I found out my wife was cheating on me, I was getting ready to give her a necklace I had personally designed. When I confronted her, she looked completely unbothered. "I just took in a young college boy, what's so hard to accept? It's not like I want to divorce you." Just took in a college boy? In that moment, I realized I no longer recognized the woman I had been married to for five years. When I asked for a divorce, she called me crazy. So, I turned around and walked away, nev

1 After Britney Miller shoved me into the hospital because I was getting better grades than her, her parents showed up, demanding I sign a settlement agreement. The power couple, dripping in designer clothes, said, "Britney is our baby, and this one million dollars is your lucky break." They were convinced they were doing me a favor. But then they found out I was the real daughter, and Britney was a fake. ... I woke up in that hospital bed, my skin a mess of bruises. My face was swollen s

My wife intentionally left me to rot with a 104-degree fever. She locked me in a damp, freezing storage room just to let her childhood best friend vent his frustrations. I begged her for just one pill through the door. She only gave me a cold, heartless refusal. "If you hadn't insisted on winning that violin competition against Silas, he wouldn't have run away in the rain and caught a cold," she barked. "Whatever pain he suffered, you're going to feel it ten times worse!" I drifted into a

1 On my birthday, I received a notification for a bank transfer of $13,140. I was about to call my husband to ask where the money went when I accidentally scrolled past his intern's Instagram story. "The best anniversary gift ever." The post featured a screenshot of the $13,140 transfer and a photo of her holding hands with my husband. I gave the post a like, and within seconds, my husband called me in a panic. "Today is Celine's birthday. I only sent that to make her feel special. Don't b

The day before my new show was set to film, my manager pulled me aside. She claimed I was hoarding all the best resources, and that the other artists were restless. She said it was bad for the company’s big picture. She demanded that I take a newcomer under my wing and surrender my lead role to her. Instead, I would play the lead character’s mother. I looked at her calmly and said, Maybe I should just let her be the top star of the company, then. My manager beamed and said, That sounds like a

I spent five years running the business operations for Clarissa Miller after we got married. For the first time, she took me on a vacation to Paris. But when my chronic stomach issues flared up, she abandoned me in a foreign city. She left because her childhood friend called, claiming he had accidentally slipped in the shower. I collapsed on the street from the agonizing pain. Meanwhile, I saw a new post on the couple's account they shared. The caption read, "The one who loves you will alway

The day the class assignments were posted, the hallway erupted into chaos. I, of all people, was assigned as a seatmate to the school’s notorious human iceberg, Silas Sterling. Tyler Miller, the class president, immediately set up a betting pool. The odds were ten-to-one against me successfully winning Silas over in three months. Out of forty-two students, thirty-nine bet that I would fail. Amidst their mocking laughter, I stood up and declared, “I don’t need to chase him. He’s already different

Chapter 1 My sister and I both married into the elite, becoming the ultimate trophy wives of the city. She and her CEO husband were childhood sweethearts, living a life of quiet, mutual respect. But after three years of marriage, she showed up at my door, sobbing into her wine. "Sera, he has someone else. He even has a secret daughter," she choked out. "The girl is older than our marriage. He has been lying to me for years. My whole life is a joke." My eyes stung as tears welled up. "Actua

1 At our wedding, my fiancé looked me in the eye and dropped a bombshell. "Even though I'm marrying you, my heart will always belong to my childhood sweetheart." The ballroom fell into a deafening silence. Every guest turned to look at me, expecting me to scream, flip the cake, or leave in tears. Instead, I started clapping. I smiled and said, "Since you feel so miserable, I won't stand in the way of true love. Just remember to return my trust fund money." Suddenly, my fiancé was the one w

I found a used condom and a pair of black lace panties in the bathroom trash can. Garrett and I had not slept together in over a year, and I never owned lingerie like that. I wanted to call him, but then I saw his god-sister's Instagram story. He was kneeling on the floor, holding her bare foot and kissing it with deep devotion. I locked my phone, shed no tears, threw no tantrums, and quietly went on with my day. Later, Garrett finally realized something was wrong. His eyes were bloodshot

Prologue Chapter 1 It all started with a power outage during a late-night study session in high school. The school heartthrob suddenly leaned in and kissed me. His hands slid under my shirt, pulling me close by the waist. My face turned a deep shade of crimson in the dark. "Senior, your phone is poking me," I whispered, my heart racing. His face heated up even more because he wasn't carrying a phone at all. From that day on, he was cold to everyone else. He only had one answer for other

Today marks the sixth time my boyfriend, Kian Vance, stood up my parents. My parents and I waited at the bistro for four solid hours. During that time, I called him dozens of times, but it went straight to voicemail. Just as I was about to try one last time, Kian's childhood best friend, Felicia Frost, posted a location tag at a boutique hotel on the outskirts of town. "From eighteen to eighty, we're in this together," her caption read. The photo showed the broad back of a man. On his bare s