Contemporary Setting Novels

I was Sarah Miller, a decorated SWAT captain who took a bullet for my partner, Mark, leaving me paralyzed. He swore to protect me, to cherish me. I believed him, even as I fought to recover in a rehab center. Then, flames erupted. Trapped in my room, I called Mark, expecting salvation. But his voice was different, cold. "Stop the drama, Sarah. Get yourself out," he said, before I heard her, Chloe, my physical therapist, pleading in the background. My husband chose his mistress over me, leaving me to burn. As black smoke consumed me, I watched, now a ghost, as Chloe immediately spun a web of lies, accusing me of starting the fire out of recklessness, even faking my escape. Mark, the man I saved, the man I married, stood by, silently endorsing her vile accusations, painting me as a fugitive arsonist. My reputation, my legacy, shattered. How could the man I loved, the partner whose life I saved, betray me so completely? The injustice seared deeper than the fire. To die a horrific death, then be slandered by the very people who abandoned you – it was a hell beyond imagination. But unseen, unheard, I watched as my former partner, Detective Maria Rodriguez, refused to believe their lies. She knew the true Sarah Miller. And now, she's digging, poised to unearth the truth from the ashes, and demand a reckoning.

Silence & Sin *Genre:* Dark Romance / Mafia Romance *Synopsis:* Modern-day New York & Naples She was invisible. He owned the shadows. *Elena Rivers*, a shy literature student with a quiet life and a heart full of poetry, never imagined that bumping into a stranger on a rainy street would change her life. That stranger was *Luciano Moretti*-ruthless heir to the Moretti mafia empire and a man who rarely made mistakes. Except one. He let her walk away. But when she unknowingly witnesses a mafia deal gone wrong, Luciano is forced to bring her into his world-not just to protect her, but because for the first time in his life, he can't stop thinking about someone... soft. She wants silence. He lives in sin. Can she survive his world, or will he destroy hers trying to protect it?

For four years, I believed my fiancé, Damari, was fighting for us. I watched him endure his grandfather' s cruel punishments-exile, financial ruin, public humiliation-all because the old man supposedly refused to approve our marriage. I waited, believing his sacrifice was the ultimate proof of his love. Then I found the real document hidden in his office. It wasn't a rejection. It was an approval, stamped and dated, with a tiny, forged "not" scrawled in different ink. The entire four-year struggle was a lie. When I confronted him, he crumbled. He did it for his obsessive assistant, Cydney. "She can't live without me, Augusta," he pleaded. "She needs me." My world collapsed. His devotion wasn't for me; it was a performance to appease another woman. All his "sacrifices" were just a cruel way to keep me waiting while he played the hero for someone else. So when he abandoned me one last time to run to Cydney's side, I made my choice. I packed my bags, left New York, and started a new life, determined to never be anyone's second choice again.

After four years of marriage, my wealthy husband Brad handed me a $50,000 severance check outside the Manhattan Family Court. He linked arms with his mistress, Jenna, who flaunted the diamond ring that used to be mine. "Just take it, Hayley. Take the money and get out of our lives," he sneered, looking at me with absolute disgust. I tore the check into pieces, but my nightmare was just beginning. To access my grandfather's trust fund, I had exactly seventy-two hours to get legally married, so I desperately proposed a one-year contract marriage to a poor insurance salesman I met in a dive bar. When Brad found out, he and his arrogant family cornered me at their estate. Brad mocked my new husband for being a penniless, money-grubbing parasite, while my former mother-in-law slapped me hard across the face, knocking me to the ground. "You are trash, just like your mother," she spat, watching my knee bleed onto the sharp gravel. Jenna gleefully kicked my phone away, shattering the screen and cutting off my only lifeline. Lying there in the dirt, I stared at the broken glass in absolute despair. I didn't understand why four years of quiet devotion had earned me nothing but cruel betrayal and endless humiliation from the people I once called family. Just as I thought I had completely lost, a black Lincoln Navigator slammed to a halt at the gates. My "penniless" new husband stepped out, radiating a terrifying, righteous fury that made the entire Patton family freeze in horror.

On my 21st birthday, my fiancé Chandler and my adoptive sister Brenda drugged me and sold my first night at a secret auction. Then they framed me for arson, and I spent the next three years in prison learning how to survive. After my release, I fought in underground clubs, bleeding for the money to buy back my family's brownstone. But Chandler found me, calling me a "common harlot" as he tried to drag me home. He offered me a "last chance" to apologize to Brenda for the crimes she committed. When I refused, he publicly announced the sale of my home. All proceeds would be donated to the "Brenda Richardson Philanthropic Foundation." He didn't just take my money; he took my soul. He took the last tangible piece of my parents, of my identity. Everything was gone. As I collapsed onto the grimy floor, my world shattered, I fumbled for my phone. There was only one name left, one last hope. "Brien," I choked out, my voice broken. "Please. I need your help. Get me out of here."

My family's company went bankrupt, and my biological father was lying in the ICU, kept alive by machines that cost tens of thousands a day. I thought it was just a tragic business failure, until I caught my mother in bed with my stepfather. They had secretly transferred all our assets months ago, deliberately bankrupting the company and leaving my father to die. To pay the hospital bills, my stepfather forced me to a private club, trying to sell me to a sleazy investor. When I refused, he slapped me across the face, and my mother just looked at me with cold, dead eyes. "Be realistic, Jaelynn. A woman's body is a tool. Use it to get what you need." Later, right before my father's emergency surgery, my stepfather signed a Do Not Resuscitate order and froze the medical accounts. "If you don't get on your knees and spread your legs for him, I will tell the hospital to pull your father's plug." Standing in the freezing rain, covered in mud and blood, I stared at the astronomical hospital bill in my hand. My own family had plotted to murder my father and sell me to the highest bidder. The betrayal shattered every ounce of sanity I had left. I didn't cry or beg them anymore. Instead, I pulled out a water-stained, gold-embossed business card. It belonged to Dolph Valentine, the most ruthless billionaire in New York and my ex-fiancé's uncle. If they wanted to destroy my life, I was going to sell my soul to the biggest monster of them all and drag them straight to hell.

Sure! Here’s the translation: --- I am a wolf from the north, but unexpectedly, I became a bench player who didn't make it to the Olympics. "They're crawling, why are they so slow?" Audience: "Did he install a motor? This speed is insane!" National sprint team coach: "Switch events, he's a good prospect!" After being eliminated, everyone was waiting for me to voluntarily leave the team. But in a friendly match, when I got on as a substitute, I ran like the wind and scored wildly. From then on, I soared to new heights and was promoted to team captain. Until the off-season when I was dragged into a reality show. Netizens: "Help! Please blur his voice and face, and his abs!" "Get away, hubby! I want to have your baby!" I retweeted and tagged the new TV queen, "Sorry, in our wolf clan, we practice lifelong monogamy." --- Let me know if you need anything else!

A Modern Chronicle is a 1910 best-selling novel by American writer Winston Churchill. The novel explores "the problem of the modern woman" and the effects of divorce, in a world driven by industrialization and business competition. Honora Leffingwell divorces her successful stockbroker husband to climb the social ladder, remarrying a man with ancestral wealth and status who turns out not to be all he seems.

"Dad, I can break up with Lucas and marry into the most powerful mafia family, the Vittorine family, and wed that brutal heir." Eve's robe hung loosely, and there were kiss marks all over her neck. "But I have one condition. If you agree to it, I'll marry him." Eve's father, Robert Costa, asked her excitedly on the other end of the phone, but Eve abruptly hung up. Lucas got out of the bathroom, wiping droplets from his wet hair. Then he pulled Eve into his arms, and they fell into bed together. Eve buried her face in his chest, but her eyes were cold. She was the daughter of the Costa family and had been secretly in love with Lucas Smith, a district leader in the family, for five years. Three days ago, she was kidnapped. The kidnappers targeted a batch of goods belonging to Lucas. They used Eve as leverage to threaten Lucas. Her phone died after repeatedly trying to call him all night, but Lucas never answered. Eve was pushed off a cliff and was badly injured. She was then saved by the head of her family, so she narrowly escaped death. Lucas was flirting with her father's illegitimate daughter, Alina. Eve utterly realized Lucas's true face and stopped loving him. Lucas proposed to her today, and Eve had prepared a big gift for him. She would give him freedom.

For five years, Jodi was the perfect, compliant secret lover to billionaire CEO Armand Taylor. Then, she woke up to a cold email and a seven-figure wire transfer. Armand was marrying European royalty. The money was a severance package to quietly warehouse her out of sight. Refusing to be his dirty secret, Jodi invoked her contract's termination clause to leave for good. But Armand wouldn't let her go easily. He forced her to personally train her vicious new replacement, Selah. Selah immediately tampered with a crucial financial file, framing Jodi for sabotaging Taylor Corp's multi-billion-dollar tech acquisition. Without a second thought, Armand took the new girl's side. He cornered Jodi in the boardroom, his eyes dead and cold. "You have three days to fix this. If you fail, I will personally see to it that you go to prison for corporate fraud." He froze her bank accounts and stripped away her dignity, ready to destroy her life over a blatant lie. He thought she was just a weak, discarded toy who would break under his threats. What Armand didn't know was the terrifying secret Jodi had just discovered hidden at the bottom of her bathroom trash can. Three positive pregnancy tests. If the ruthless billionaire found out she was carrying his heir, he would never let her escape. Wiping her tears, Jodi slipped into a severe black silk gown and crashed an exclusive Hamptons gala to intercept the tech CEO herself. This time, she wasn't playing the obedient lover. She was going to clear her name and burn Armand's empire to the ground.

On my 24th birthday, my boyfriend of five years, Jackson, threw me a surprise party. The surprise was his wedding to another woman, Campbell. He claimed she was dying of cancer. In front of everyone, he denied our entire relationship, calling me his "little sister." When I confronted him, his violent shove caused me to lose our unborn child. I lost my love, my baby, and my job, all for a lie. Because Campbell wasn't dying. Her cancer was fake. But as they tried to destroy me, a powerful man named Cole Smith stepped in. At a charity gala, with his help, I played the security footage for the entire room to see-the footage of him pushing me, of me bleeding on the office floor. I held up the proof of her fake illness. "There's your truth, Jackson," I said, as his world came crashing down.

The back of his hand hit my face for the third time but this slap really stung. The force of it rocked my head back but it wasn't enough to knock me off my feet. "Kneel," he commanded again, his voice thick with fury. I brought the back of one of my hands, that were bound in front of my body by rope, to wipe away the trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth. "I do not kneel," I whispered. I know what kind of things they made girls do on their knees. He would have to beat me senseless, kill me even to get me to do those things. The man's green eyes, the only thing I was able to clearly see in the darkness of this windowless room, glinted. He nodded, an unsettling evil grin stretching across his pale face. "Then you will stand." His fist hit me in the center of my chest and I hunched over, trying to breathe past the pain. Then he bent to whisper in my ear, grabbing a fistful of my dark curls, "But I promise you will wish you had gotten down on your knees." For Teryn Gardener, the truth behind human trafficking and the sex trade was far darker than she could have imagined; as if the institution wasn't terrible in and of itself. Behind the prostitutes are their pimps and behind it all are monsters beyond her wildest imaginations: bloodthirsty vampires who kidnap and enslave human girls in cheap brothels. They plan to use Teryn; to break her will but she refuses to cry. She refuses to bend the knee. She refuses to submit. She is intent on staying alive and getting out of there without having anything to do with the monsters she has come to despise. But what is she to do when her resistance leads her into the arms of one of the monsters? Will their senses of will clash or will Giovanni be the one to bring her to heel?

My sister and I were stranded on a deserted road, eight months pregnant and with a flat tire, when a truck' s headlights pinned us in their glare. It wasn't swerving to avoid us. It was aiming for us. The crash was a symphony of destruction. As a monstrous pain ripped through my pregnant belly, I called my husband, Kade, my voice choked with blood and fear. "Kade… accident… the baby… something' s wrong with the baby." But I didn't hear panic. I heard his stepsister, Florence, whining in the background about a headache. Then came Kade' s voice, cold as ice. "Stop being so dramatic. You probably just bumped a curb. Florence needs me." He hung up. He chose her over me, over his sister-in-law, over his own unborn child. I woke up in the hospital to two truths. My sister, a world-renowned pianist, would never play again. And our son, the baby I had carried for eight months, was gone. They thought we were just collateral damage in their perfect lives. They were about to find out we were the reckoning.

My whole world came crashing down when I caught my wife cheating on me. Our three-year marriage turned out to be one big joke. I couldn't stay with a cheater, so I divorced her. "Women are scum!" I said and decided to give up on love. But as fate would have it, a woman came crashing into my wrecked life. A car accident brought the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her name was Gemma. And she was such a sweetheart. She made me feel like the only man in the world. Holding her hand, I made a solemn vow. "Now, it's my turn to take care of you. I'm willing to dedicate my life and give my all for this." Unfortunately, several people threatened our love. Will our love stand the test of time? Why don't you come with me to find out?

Loraine was a dutiful wife to Marco since they got married three years ago. However, he treated her like trash. Nothing she did softened his heart. One day, Loraine got fed up with it all. She asked him for a divorce and left him to enjoy with his mistress. The elites looked at her like she was deranged. "Are you out of your mind? Why are you so willing to divorce him?" "It's because I need to return home to get a billion-dollar fortune. Besides, I don't love him anymore," Loraine replied with a smile. They all laughed at her. Some believed that the divorce affected her mentally. It wasn't until the next day that they realized she wasn't fibbing. A woman was suddenly declared the world's youngest female billionaire. It turned out to be Loraine! Marco was shocked to the bone. When he met his ex-wife again, she was a changed person. A group of handsome young men surrounded her. She was smiling at them all. The sight made Marco's heart ache severely. Putting his pride aside, he tried to win her back. "Hello, love. I see that you are a billionaire now. You shouldn't be with suckers who just want your money. How about you come back to me? I'm a billionaire too. Together, we can build a strong empire. What do you say?" Loraine squinted at her ex-husband with her lips curled in disgust.

The rain beat a mournful rhythm against the chapel windows, a fitting backdrop for my son Leo' s funeral. It was too small, too quiet for a boy who deserved the world. Then, through the numbing haze of grief, I heard it-my wife Sarah' s voice, cool and utterly devoid of sorrow, conversing with her ex-fiancé, Mark. "He was an obstacle, Mark," she' d said, her words slicing through me. I listened as she confessed she' d withheld Leo' s life-saving medicine, calling him "an accident" and "a sacrifice" for her career ambitions. My own wife had murdered our son. The revelation twisted my world, leaving me gasping for air in our silent, empty house. She returned home, a mask of the grieving widow, and proceeded to erase every trace of Leo from our lives, throwing away his toys, his clothes-his very existence. "He was going to get better, Sarah," I pleaded, the memory of his hopeful eyes burning. "He said you were taking him for special medicine." Her callous dismissal, a wave of her hand, shattered any semblance of the woman I thought I knew. Who was this monster wearing my wife' s face? "You' re a freeloader, David," Mark sneered, as they openly plotted their corporate takeover, built on my stolen AI, "Project Chimera"-a project I' d named for Leo. "It' s going to get ugly, Sarah," I promised. "You have no idea." My revenge wouldn' t be for me; it would be for my son.

"You have to marry him and in exchange Mr. Devonte will help you to get rid of the criminal charge from your uncle.." Assistant Sheng said with his firm tone.. Genevieve watched the lavish wearing tenacious man in front of her.. She fell in confusion.. "Marry?" He nodded his head.. "Yes, You have to marry Younger Devonte if you want to get out your uncle from prison with the proof of his innocence.." ******************************************* Genevieve Brancacio, a twenty one year old, kind hearted average orphan girl.. Who has lots of hardships in life.. And the biggest one is her foster uncle's going in jail getting schemed by his enemy.. They tried their best to get him out of jail, taking her out almost on the street.. When both of them lost their hopes, suddenly some Mr. Devonte appeared in their life.. He would safe them but on a condition.. Genevieve has to marry his Grandson.. No other wants, just to marry.. Genevieve never wanted to get married like this.. Yet, she did not have any other choice and for the sake of her uncle and her ownself she agreed to marry the man whom she never have seen ever.. When she finally met him at the wedding night, she got a thousand volt shock! The man is none other than the director of Reywalt Corporation Ltd.!! America's most eligible and wanted bachelor!! Rumor says that he is the epitome of Ruthlessness who loathes woman.. And lost his manly ability throughout a deadly accident!!!

My 31st birthday should have been a joyful celebration, a moment of genuine warmth with my younger brother, Mike. He gifted me a luxury smartwatch, a gesture that, after years of my financial and emotional support for him, felt like a true acknowledgment of our bond. But the warmth turned to ice moments later when Mike's new girlfriend, Brittany, barraged my phone with aggressive direct messages. "Jealous old maid," she called me, accusing me of trying to "leech" off Mike and demanding *her* watch back. Mike, bafflingly, defended Brittany's behavior, calling it "loyalty" and allowing her to launch a vicious online smear campaign against me. He prioritized her whims over my needs, even lending out my professional camera equipment, only to publicly humiliate me at my office when I requested it back. How could the brother I’d practically raised, the one I’d sacrificed so much for, turn so cruelly against me? Every past act of love and support was now twisted into a cynical attempt to "control" him, dictated by a manipulative stranger. The ultimate betrayal came when he shoved me, leaving me bleeding on my floor, snatching the watch, and walking out, incited by Brittany’s taunting text. That moment transformed my pain into cold resolve: this wasn't just about a watch anymore; it was time to fight back.

Hannah came home under a false identity, ready to keep her head down and avoid trouble. Then a near-drowning opened her eyes, and the family she had wanted gave her nothing but disappointment. She severed every tie, shed the disguise, and rose in revenge as a miracle doctor, brilliant hacker, and feared underworld ruler. Shock followed her family at every turn. Her parents regretted everything. Her eldest brother clung desperately to the bond of their shared blood, while her second brother gave up his entire fortune just to earn her forgiveness. Her third brother offered up his own body for a surgery-all to save her. But Hannah stayed cold and built her empire alone. Only one deadly rival refused to be ignored. "I was hired to kill you, mister." "Then take my heart, too."

Three years ago, I sacrificed myself to donate my corneas to my blind lover, Elliot Moon. To spare him the guilt, I had my family tell him that I had abandoned him for a new life. But the credit for my sacrifice was stolen by another woman, Dolly. Convinced that I was still alive, Elliot became obsessed with hunting me down and dragging me back to donate my heart to cure Dolly’s heart disease. He broke both of my brother’s hands. He drove my mother to her death. But I was already dead, reduced to a ghost, unable to do a single thing. That was until his subordinate uncovered the truth: "Mr. Moon, Ms. Kayla died three years ago to save you."