All works

1. On our third wedding anniversary, a courier delivered the cake Finn had so carefully prepared. It was an exquisite, minimalist white box, tied with a silk ribbon. I opened it to find elegant frosting script that read: "Happy Third Anniversary, Finn & Cora." In that instant, my blood ran cold. The air around me felt like it had turned to ice. I'm not Cora. Cora is his administrative assistant, who had just graduated from university and always looked innocent. My gut feeling was confirmed

My lawyer mother took me to court. The reason? I refused to donate my platelets to my younger sister. I tried to explain that I have a blood clotting disorder. If my platelet count drops too low, it could be fatal. But my mother just shrieked at me, tears streaming down her face, "Can you stop acting? Are you only satisfied if you drive your sister to her grave? How could I have given birth to a white-eyed wolf like you?" In the end, I lost the case. My platelets were forcibly extracted. Fol

1 The earthquake hit like a sledgehammer. My legs were pinned under the rubble, the bones shattered and bleeding. My husband didn't even look back. He grabbed his first love, who had nothing more than a tiny scratch on her arm, and ran toward the safety zone. When I finally woke up after surgery, the first thing I saw was her Instagram post. "Who says an ex-girlfriend can't compete with a wife? Some men will always choose their first love when it counts." Everyone in our social circle was w

My half-brother, Caleb Sterling, posted a photo on his story. On a massive hotel bed, a girl was sound asleep, half-naked, her back turned to the camera. He captioned it with a giant red heart emoji. I barely glanced at it, ready to swipe away, when I froze. I caught a glimpse of an iris tattoo on her shoulder. It was my fiancée, the girl I had grown up with since we were children. I was stunned, looking over at Chloe Miller, who was practicing the piano in our living room. Why would even y

It was my girlfriend's birthday. I went to the hospital where she worked, carrying a gift. I hid behind a curtain, hoping to surprise her. Instead, I heard her first love, Lysander St. Claire, ask a chilling question. "How do you plan to take Elias Sterling's eyes?" Victoria Ashford replied coldly. "I will stage an accident in three days. As the attending physician, I can naturally transfer his eyes to you." My heart skipped a beat. I remembered her confession to me. It happened right after

"Everyone, come look at this! This rich guy in the luxury penthouse is a pervert who preys on college girls!" As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, my neighbor Kylie Drake blocked my doorway. Pulling down her collar, she cried hysterically for her livestream camera. "Guys, it was the man who lives here!" "Just now in the elevator, he covered my mouth and groveled his hands all over me..." "If the doors hadn't opened, he would have dragged me into his place!" The live chat exploded inst

After Silas passed away, I was consumed by a grief I couldn't escape. I found his old leather-bound diary, written entirely in German, a language he loved but I never understood. When my niece returned from her semester abroad in Berlin, I asked her to read a few pages to me. I thought I would hear words of devotion to the wife who had stood by him for forty years. Instead, she let out a small, awkward laugh. "Uncle Silas was such a romantic, wasn't he? These are all love letters." "Every

A new general manager was parachuted into our company. Word on the street was that he was the golden boy of some big shot at the corporate headquarters. To manufacture some quick results, he fired me, the company's top sales producer, on his very first day. He then shifted all my high-value clients directly under his own name. He even drastically slashed the profit-sharing ratios for our clients. He did all this just to suck up to the executives at the main office. At the annual corporate gal

I broke up with Caleb Miller the day before our wedding. "Is this really because I went to her graduation instead of your birthday party?" Caleb asked, his voice dripping with disbelief. I didn't want to explain myself anymore. I just gave a slow, silent nod. "You're being ridiculous again," he sneered. "Fine. Do what you want. Just don't come crawling back to me in a few days, begging for a second chance." He thought I was just throwing a tantrum. Everyone knew I had spent fifteen years tr

Chapter 1 My sister kidnapped and murdered me. Yet our mother, a presiding judge, not only acquitted her in open court, but even comforted her. "Your sister is just making a scene," Mom told her. "She framed you like this just to steal my love!" Mom refused to even look at the evidence my lawyer submitted. Instead, she pointed at my cold corpse and ordered me to get up and apologize. "Stop acting!" she snapped. "Are you doing all this just to get my attention?" ... When I opened my eyes

Chapter 1 When the flash flood hit, my rescue captain husband stood frozen between me and his first love, torn with indecision. Without a second thought, I shoved the only life ring straight into his first love's hands. In my previous life, Dexter had handed that life ring to me, choosing to stay behind and drown with Josie. Just as they were on the verge of suffocating, a backup team arrived and revived him, while Josie drowned in the murky water. After that tragedy, Dexter lived with me l

1 My boyfriend's first love framed me for stealing her research. At our graduation ceremony, he publicly demanded that I apologize to her. "If it doesn't belong to you, why won't you give it back?" he asked coldly. I realized then that he was right. Some things really did need to be returned. I left his city, threw away the engagement ring, and deleted every way to contact him. I gave him back to his first love. I thought our paths would never cross again. But six years later, at a prestig

Chapter 1 I went to an upscale club to help a heartbroken friend blow off steam. Instead, I caught my boyfriend grinding against another girl on the crowded dance floor. Under the flashing neon lights, they shared a deep, passionate kiss. The girl looked sweet and innocent, blushing softly―a spitting image of who I used to be years ago. Years after our breakup, people still teased my ex whenever they drank together. "Lorena has been married for ten years already. Why can't you just let her

During the Labor Day weekend, I tried to save a child having a heart attack. I was a medical student, and I only wanted to help. The rescue failed, and the mother demanded a massive payout. When I refused, my entire family was hunted by an online mob. My parents lost their jobs and eventually jumped from our apartment building. Before he died, my father chose to donate his organs. I never imagined the recipient would be the same woman who drove my parents to their deaths. She begged me for th

1 I'm a family doctor, and my life took a very unexpected turn with the Aldridge family. It all started with Edward Aldridge's accidental overdose on a new designer drug. He was in critical condition, and somehow, I became the antidote. I got pregnant, just like that. One and done. We got married, and I gave birth to a beautiful set of twins, a boy and a girl, as bright as buttons. But married life wasn't the fairy tale I'd imagined. Edward forbade the kids from calling him Dad. He spent

1 Waking up, I found two husbands in my bed. 18-year-old Jake, with a sparkle in his eyes, said, "So, can I call you my wife now?" I glanced at 28-year-old Jake, who was still pretending to be asleep, and shook my head. "Nope, we're getting divorced soon." ... The scar on 18-year-old Jake’s face was still pretty noticeable. Looking at it, the first thing I remembered was him, face covered in blood, grinning like a fool at the hospital, holding out a crushed bouquet of flowers as he confess

At the homecoming gala for his first love, Silas Thorne, the golden boy of the New York elite, forced me to drink a full glass of whiskey just to make her smile. I was pregnant and in agonizing pain. My white dress was slowly being stained with blood. Silas didn't care. He was too busy feeding his first love expensive delicacies while his friends cheered them on. As I drifted into unconsciousness, I heard him let out a disdainful sneer. "Don't worry about her. She's just a pet I keep in a gi

1 My mother spent decades fighting for justice for my father. On the day of the final hearing, my husband, the city's top lawyer, ignored her trembling hands. Lex Jordon walked away without a second thought. He was heading to a five-year reunion with his ex-girlfriend. I knelt on the cold pavement, begging him to stay. "Please, Lex, just this once. Help my mother." He kicked me away with an impatient scowl. "It's not the first time she's lost a case. It's just one trial. She won't die from l

1 My phone buzzed with a notification. Someone had answered my question on Quora: "How powerful is the impact of a 'first love'?" My fiancé, Mark, had responded. "Powerful enough that I proposed to her sister, so I could be close to her, as family." I'm that sister. And honestly? I wasn't as devastated as you might think. Because the top-rated answer to that question? That was mine. And I had a secret too. ... The doorbell rang. Mark, drunk as a skunk, stood swaying on my porch. Last week, he

After completing my mission, I finally gained my freedom. I bought plane tickets, planning to take my husband and daughter on a family trip. Right outside our private dining booth, I overheard my daughter speaking. “I do not like Mommy. When is she going to leave?” “I like Godmother Clarissa.” “She said once Mommy leaves, we can be together forever.” Garrett gently stroked Maisie’s hair, speaking with a tenderness he had never shown me. “How about we bring your godmother back home to live