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When the earthquake hit, my first instinct was to run home. But as soon as I reached the gate of our neighborhood, I heard my wife's voice coming from the thick bushes nearby. I walked closer and saw her. She was completely lost in a moment of passion with her first love. Jace Sterling was panting, teasing her. "Baby, don't you have earthquake PTSD? Let me help you get over it today." Another aftershock hit. My wife's terrified screams were mixed with a breathless, aching tremble. In that m

1 I was the only girl among three childhood friends, each from a prominent family. My family's fortunes had fallen, and my parents were planning a marriage alliance with one of them. But the school bully, Shawn, disdainfully glanced at me and refused, saying, "No way, I like the quiet type. I just see her as a brother." The sweet, puppy-like, Xavier, shrugged regretfully, "I just see her as a sister." And the academic top, Zane, coldly stated, "She's reckless and clumsy. She's not suitable t

1 The contractions were hitting me so hard, I thought I was gonna pass out right there in the delivery room. Meanwhile, out in the waiting room, my husband, Greg, was probably still drowning his sorrows over his dead "soulmate," Tiffany. Tiffany had been a ghost in my and Greg's life for like, a decade. Whenever her name came up, Greg would act like it was some kind of joke. "Can you believe she was hitting on me even though she knew I was with you? Like I'd ever go for her." Then, two year

Chapter 1 To soothe my adopted sister's hurt feelings, my brother swapped my dream acceptance letter from the country's top art academy for a mediocre state college thousands of miles away. In the living room, the document stamped with a strange logo was painfully bright. The relatives looked at each other, and a wave of suppressed whispering broke out. "What happened? Didn't Addy get into the National Academy?" "Well… South Hill State isn't bad, but it's nowhere near the Academy." I stood

1. I found the flight confirmation in Gabriel’s laptop. The destination was Santorini, Greece―the one place I’d begged him to take me for three years, and he’d always said was “too commercial,” “not the right time,” or “pointless.” Now, he was finally going. But he was going with Serena, the widow of his late brother. … I sat in the dark living room of our Manhattan penthouse, my fingers clenched around the printed confirmation. The sharp edges of the paper creased my palm. The electronic

It was New Year's Eve, and I couldn't even afford the fifty-dollar copay for my daughter's medicine. I stood at the hospital's billing window, holding my feverish little girl, feeling completely helpless. I called my husband, only to receive a cold, indifferent response. "Just go home and sleep it off. Spending money on medicine is a total waste," he said. When I stepped out of the hospital, I ran into him and Lydia outside a five-star steakhouse. Lydia was his ex-girlfriend who had just mov

When the mudslide hit, Cora Miller and I both went over the edge. My boyfriend didn't even hesitate. He hoisted Cora onto his back and hiked away right in front of my eyes. He left me there, buried in the debris. Everyone was in such a rush to get Cora to the ER that nobody even noticed I was missing. By the time someone finally hauled me to the hospital, my boyfriend hadn't checked on me once. But now that I've finally stopped loving him, he's standing here with bloodshot eyes, begging me

1 "The patient is in critical condition. Her sudden asthma attack has led to heart failure. Didn't you say you had the emergency medication? We need it within the hour!" The lead doctor stepped out of the ICU, his face pale with urgency. "You're Macy's mother, right? Have you reached your husband for the medicine?" My hands shook as I gripped my phone. My lips trembled when I finally spoke. "I'm trying, doctor! Please, save my daughter. I'll make sure he gets here as soon as possible!" One

On our wedding anniversary, I went hiking with Garrett Blackwell. He insisted on bringing a company intern, claiming she could help look after me since I was blind. I was touched, thinking I was the luckiest woman in the world. But in the middle of the night, a soft, coquettish moan woke me up. My vision, which had been lost to temporary blindness, suddenly snapped back into focus. I was ecstatic and wanted to tell Garrett the good news immediately. Then I saw them in the next tent, their

On our third wedding anniversary, my wife, Bianca, finally agreed to take wedding photos with me. I put on my tailored suit and waited in the photography studio with high hopes, but Bianca was nowhere to be found. I called her countless times, but no one answered. Then, I saw a new post from her childhood friend, Silas. "Special thanks to a certain busy lady for making time to shoot portraits with me." The attached picture showed him and Bianca pressed closely together under dim, sultry lig

Brenda got pregnant and changed her group chat nickname to "Mommy-to-be Baby." Mommy-to-be Baby: "Son-Hubby, Mommy needs to eat ice cream out of a toddler bowl today!" Mommy-to-be Baby: "Son-Hubby, do you love me more, or do you love your wife more?" I couldn't take it anymore and told my husband, Austin, to control his mother and stop her from consuming toxic boy-mom delusions. Austin insisted that his mother was pitiable and starved of affection, claiming this was the only way she could fe

My sister and I married two brothers on the same day. I married the town's gifted doctor, while she wed his brother, a local deputy. Three years into our marriage, we were both pregnant. Our lives took a dark turn on the way back from the clinic. My sister, Chloe, had stopped to buy her favorite peach pastries and miraculously avoided the accident. I, however, was left bleeding out in the wreckage, my dress soaked in crimson, suffering agony beyond words. I trembled, begging anyone nea

After blowing my college admissions chance, I chose to enter the professional esports industry. Nobody supported me except Yvette. She stayed by my side, cheering me on through every sleepless night. She looked at me with sparkling eyes and said, “Heath, you’ll always be the best in my heart!” Yet after we got married, my career hit an all-time low. To celebrate her birthday, I took special leave from my team to surprise her. Instead, I found a man’s shirt and a woman’s dress strewn careles

I came home after a week-long business trip to find that my neighbor had turned the hallway into her private storage unit. Shoe racks, junk, and a bulky stroller blocked the entire path. She even went as far as installing a metal gate, claiming the common area as her own territory. I could barely squeeze through to reach my own front door. When I tried to talk to her, she put her hands on her hips and screamed in my face. “The hallway is public space! I can put whatever I want here! If you don'

The news came that our family's adopted daughter had been beaten to death by thugs. Every piece of evidence pointed straight to me. My parents and brother were convinced that I was consumed by jealousy and had plotted her murder. To find where her body was hidden, they strapped me to an operating table and forced me into a neural memory extraction. Yet the memories flashing across the screen revealed nothing but her twisted, venomous soul. Disbelief on my family's faces slowly turned to crus

The moment my stepson got early admission to an Ivy League university, he publicly severed all ties with me. "I have my own real dad. You're just a home-wrecking third party who ruined my parents' marriage." Kicked out of his graduation party, I wandered the streets in a daze and got struck by a speeding truck. Before drawing my last breath, I heard him tell his mother: "Don't bother calling an ambulance. If he dies, we can collect a massive insurance payout." When I opened my eyes again, I

Thanks to Mrs. Montgomery's funding, Cleo and I were the only two college students from our rundown Appalachian town. I looked forward to working for Mrs. Montgomery after graduation. But that bitch Cleo took the chance to climb into Mr. Montgomery's bed, sending Mrs. Montgomery to an early grave. Cleo touched her belly and bragged to me: "Mrs. Montgomery was too sensitive. She couldn't get pregnant, but she couldn't expect the richest man in town to die without an heir, right?" I hated Cleo

My fiancée of three years announced she wanted my best friend at our engagement party. To repay a debt of gratitude, I turned around and married the high-society heiress, Sienna Ashford. For five years, we were the perfect couple. She clung to me every night, whispering that I was the only one she ever loved. I truly believed we had found our happily ever after. Then I saw her at the hospital, pale and weak, ordering her assistant to keep the news quiet. She didn't want me to know she had sec

1. There was a running joke in the Upper East Side’s elite circle: "Harper catches a cheater twice as fast as Julian can cheat." Whenever a husband in our circle strayed, I was always brought up as the cautionary tale of the "crazy wife." At cocktail parties, they’d whisper behind their champagne flutes, "She’s practically a madwoman. No trophy wife should ever lose her dignity like that." But this time, I shocked the entire New York social scene. When the paparazzi shoved high-definition

On the day my game won the biggest award in the industry, my wife went behind my back. She let her precious first love take the stage to claim the trophy, all to make him famous. I stormed into the company's after-party, and everyone expected me to explode in a silent rage. Instead, I just smiled and walked up to her. I shoved my Lead Designer badge into her arms. "Don't stop at just the award. Let him have the title too. I quit." The star producer they worshipped was a fraud. Every detail of