Haley

I spent a fortune offering a reward for the whereabouts of the movie star. To my surprise, he appeared right in front of me, and I immediately knelt down. The next day, news of my proposal to the movie star skyrocketed to trending topics. And all of this happened because I had bound myself to a system that makes me fart whenever I talk about love!

Katie was forced to marry Dillan, a notorious ruffian. Her younger sister mocked her, "You're just an adopted daughter. Count your blessings for marrying him!" The world anticipated Katie's tribulations, but her married life unfurled with unexpected serenity. She even snagged a lavish mansion in a raffle! Katie jumped into Dillan's arms, credited him as her lucky charm. "No, Katie, it's you who brings me all this luck," Dillan replied. Then, one fateful day, Dillan's childhood friend came to her. "You're not worthy of him. Take this 50 million and leave him!" Katie finally grasped Dillan's true stature—the wealthiest man on the planet. That night, trembling with trepidation, she broached the subject of divorce with Dillan. However, with a domineering embrace, he told her, "I'd give you everything I have. Divorce is off the table!"

My wedding to Ethan Reed was just weeks away. After seven years, I was certain of our perfect future. Then, Ethan claimed "selective amnesia" from a head injury, forgetting only me. I tried to make him remember, until I overheard his video call. "Total genius move," he boasted to friends. His amnesia was a fake "hall pass" to pursue influencer Chloe Vance before our wedding. Heartbroken, I feigned belief. I endured his open flirting with Chloe and their taunting selfies. He mocked my distress, prioritizing Chloe's fake emergency. After an accident he caused, he abandoned me, injured, choosing to send Chloe to the hospital first. He even tried to cut me off financially. How could my fiancé be this cruel, calculating monster? His betrayal poisoned every memory. I felt like a fool for trusting such boundless cruelty. His audacity left me reeling. But I wouldn’t be his victim. Instead of breaking, a cold plan formed. I would shed my identity, become Olivia Carter. I would disappear, leaving him, my past, and his engagement ring behind forever, claiming my freedom.

*Warning* This book contains explicit content and it's rated 18+. They can be read as standalone as they are all age-gap romances. Hope y'all are ready for a pleasant ride. xoxo. "Oh, please, sir. Please, fuck me!" I screamed in delirium. The heat from him disappeared for a moment, and I was sad and scared. Where did he go? What had I done wrong now? But he returned, sheathed and ready to plunge into me. "Oh, thank God," I said breathlessly. He chuckled a little; slowly he slid in, adjusting me on the sink, aligning me to his dick. Each thrust sent me further into a manic need to come. Perhaps I was screaming, because his hand covered my mouth. For a brief moment, I was frightened. I was panting so hard it blocked my need to breathe, but then his voice was in my ear. "Come for me, bluebird."

My life with Ethan Hayes was a true New York fairytale. He was devastatingly handsome, a brilliant tech CEO, and our engagement was the stuff of lifestyle blogs and glittering society columns. I poured my heart into our eight years together, building a perfect future, a "Golden Couple" image people envied. Until I found the texts: "Can't wait until she's out of the picture for good. You promised." And then the photos, the eggplant emoji, the casual cruelty of a Cartier bracelet – "one-of-a-kind," he'd said – glinting on *her* wrist, identical to mine. Chloe Vance, an old college acquaintance, was his secret "escape," his "excitement." Not just a fling, but a long-term, calculated betrayal. He lavished gifts on me, charming me even as he publicly defended her, dismissing my concerns. He even gave his pregnant mistress his family heirloom, the one he swore was meant only for me. My birthday ended with him ditching me for her manufactured crisis, only for me to receive a photo of Chloe's pregnancy report. Eight years. A lifetime of promises. All built on his lies. How could someone be so utterly, flawlessly deceptive? My love for him turned to ice, replaced by a searing ache of betrayal and a cold, quiet rage. I wouldn't cry. I wouldn't scream. I pressed call on Liam Walker's name, a man from a past I’d left behind, and uttered four words that would change everything: "Marry me, Liam." It was time for a reckoning. And I knew just how to deliver it.

I returned to Arizona after four years, happily engaged and hoping to invite my guardian, Marcus, to my wedding. But I found a nightmare: Marcus was engaged to Chloe Davenport, my high school bully. He instantly dismissed my wedding news as a “lie,” blindly favoring Chloe as she systematically tormented me. He allowed her to frame me, forced apologies, and let her steal my cherished artwork. When I reported it, he quashed the police investigation, accusing me of “causing trouble” and confining me. His cruel disregard and blind favoritism was a profound betrayal. Overwhelmed by injustice, I resolved to cut all ties. I repaid every cent he'd spent, leaving a note: “The debt is repaid. I'm gone.” As I flew to Florence, Marcus’s delusion crumbled. He raced across continents, frantic to stop my Tuscan wedding. He burst in, desperate and tearful, only to find me radiant. Calmly, I revealed the three times I nearly died, alone and abandoned, after he sent me away – each time, my calls unanswered. My unwavering happiness with David, and the cold truth of his neglect, utterly shattered him.

"Maya, we need to talk about the Nova Fellowship." Ethan’s voice was smooth, but his eyes held a look I knew well before he asked for something big. The final interviews for my dream fellowship were just next week. He sighed, running a hand through his perfect brown hair, then dropped the bombshell: Chloe, the Harrisons’ "lost" daughter, suddenly wanted to apply. I stared, my heart pounding, realizing the application deadline had passed months ago, and Chloe knew nothing of astrophysics. He quickly explained they were making an exception for Chloe due to "hardship," courtesy of the Harrisons’ pulled strings. A cold feeling started in my stomach when he gently suggested I withdraw my application for "family goodwill." He squeezed my hands, urging me to "give Chloe a fair shot" because she was "fragile." I pulled my hands away, reminding him this fellowship was my entire future. He insisted I’d find other opportunities, painting my sacrifice as a "gesture for family." His words felt like cotton, trying to smother the fire of my lifelong dream. He believed this was reasonable, that I should sacrifice everything for a girl he barely knew, who had appeared out of nowhere. My carefully built world, with Ethan at its center, felt like it was tilting, as I realized I was just in the way. Then, he left me stranded in a furious Nor’easter, sick and alone, rushing off to comfort Chloe’s "panic attack." Weeks later, the Harrisons, with Ethan’s complicity, publicly branded me a plagiarist, expelled me from Blackwood, and stole my groundbreaking dark matter algorithm. I saw Chloe presenting my life’s work as her own, celebrated as a "rising star." My reputation was in ruins, my academic dreams destroyed, my love for Ethan shattered into a million pieces. How could Ethan, the man I loved, betray me for an imposter, and why did the family treat me as expendable after years of devotion? Publicly shamed, injured in an angry crowd, I truly hit rock bottom, lying feverish and abandoned in a hospital bed. Just as despair threatened to consume me, I remembered the private investigator’s card, tucked away in my wallet, leading to the biological family I thought were dead. That night, lying shattered and alone, I reached for my phone, found the investigator’s number, and made the call to choose myself and reclaim my life.

My life with Ethan Cole, the charismatic tech CEO, was perfect. I was his beloved wife, carrying our first child, convinced I was the center of his universe. But when my father fell ill, Ethan disappeared from my life, only to reappear in a crushing photo: his arm intimately around my successful cousin, Olivia Hayes. My world shattered. The betrayal ran deeper than I could have imagined. I discovered I was merely a meticulously chosen stand-in, a grotesque copy of Olivia, the woman he truly loved. He even desired our child to have *her* features, a living link to his obsession. Every tender gesture, every shared dream, was a calculated lie, meaning my marriage, my love, and my pregnancy were all built on his monstrous deceit. A cold rage blossomed within me; how could I have been so blind? He believed he owned me, that I would never leave, especially with a baby on the way, confident I was a compliant fool. He was terribly wrong. I would not be his vessel, his substitute. When he least expected it, while he was still flaunting his obsession, I quietly underwent an abortion. Then, using his arrogance against him, I meticulously orchestrated my escape, securing my divorce and vanishing without a trace. He thought he was playing me; I showed him exactly who was being played, leaving him a devastating truth about his own making.

For seven long years, I, Ava Chen, willingly served as a human blood bank for Chloe Vance, the sickly heiress beloved by Ethan Cole, the man I secretly adored. My architectural dreams at Columbia were constantly sidelined, all for the unrequited hope that Ethan might one day see me. When Chloe desperately needed a life-threatening bone marrow transplant, I demanded Ethan marry me to agree, but during my near-death flatline, his callous words echoed: "If Ava doesn't make it, so be it." I jolted awake, not truly dead, yet Ethan's chilling indifference had irrevocably shattered my foolish, wasted devotion. Later, I was brutally beaten by Chloe and her clique, left for dead, and even then, Ethan ordered my critically injured body to be 'drained' for Chloe's blood. How could I have been so hopelessly deluded, so utterly blind to the callous man I loved, or the manipulative viper he protected? The stinging reality of his cruel pragmatism, repeated over years, finally pierced through my heartbreak, leaving only incandescent rage. In that moment of ultimate despair, a cold, unyielding resolve transformed me: no more sacrificing myself for them. I would reclaim my life, starting with a daring, unexpected act that would ensure Ethan truly received what he deserved, marking my definitive escape from their toxic grasp and a new dawn for myself.

My sister-in-law was pregnant. She said that in our village, giving birth was just a matter of spreading your legs and pushing. But I was worried and insisted that she go for a check-up. It turned out that she had a high-risk pregnancy and needed a C-section to save her and the baby's lives. My nephew was born weak and sickly, and every time he got sick, my sister-in-law would blame me for making her go to the hospital and causing him to be born prematurely and injured. He grew to hate me and eventually killed me by poisoning my water. When I woke up, I was back at home and asked for my opinion on the matter. This time, I won't interfere. I want to see what kind of thing she can give birth to.

My life was beautiful: a loving husband, Ethan, a precious baby on the way, and the serenity of our lake house getaway. Then, during a quiet afternoon, Ethan's ex, Olivia, found her daughter Daisy drowned in the lake, turning on me with a shaking finger, screaming, "You did this! You let her drown!" Ethan, my husband, the man who once adored me, instantly believed her monstrous lie, his eyes cold, his family's powerful influence ensuring my pleas were dismissed as weak, condemning me without trial. Weeks later, our newborn son, Noah, died from a preventable illness after Olivia's dubious "home remedy" was chosen over hospital care, and in my raw grief, Ethan demanded I carry a child for them-a cruel "penance" for "my crimes," threatening to destroy what little remained of me if I refused. Imprisoned in a forgotten wing of the mansion, physically and mentally reduced to an incubator, I was haunted by the unspeakable injustice, struggling between despair and a flicker of rage as Olivia gloated, revealing the chilling truth: she herself orchestrated Daisy's "accident" to reclaim Ethan and ruined my life for her own gain. My body became an empty shell, my mind retreated beyond their reach, but the shocking truth Olivia confessed was unknowingly witnessed, eventually setting a deadly chain of events in motion that would expose her monstrous heart and unleash a final, fiery reckoning for the Cole family's dark secrets.

The doctor's words sealed Amelia Hayes's fate: aggressive, stage four ovarian cancer. Consumed by overwhelming guilt for her best friend Liv's tragic death years ago, Amy numbly embraced the diagnosis as a deserved end, refusing treatment and signing away her organs. Her penance wasn't over; Liv's grief-stricken brother, Ethan Carter, who viciously blamed Amy for his sister's demise, still dictated her every move. He meticulously orchestrated her public humiliation, forcing her into back-breaking tasks and enduring his cruel fiancée's sadistic games, watching Amy weaken, every ounce of suffering a grim reminder of Liv's absence. Amy accepted every degrading act, every physical pain, enduring it all as a desperate attempt to atone for her relentless survivor's guilt. Yet, even as her body failed, the gnawing question lingered: was her self-destruction truly a sacrifice for Liv, or simply a prolonged, theatrical torment orchestrated by Ethan for his own twisted closure? Finally, broken and desperate, Amy sought ultimate release, calling 911 from atop the George Washington Bridge, her final wish to donate her organs to give life even as hers ended. But a secret ally pulled her back from the brink, allowing her to fake her own death and forge a new identity, unaware that her "demise" would drive Ethan, consumed by his own guilt and pain, to the verge of madness, setting the stage for an explosive, unforeseen reunion years later that would challenge everything they believed about love, hate, and forgiveness.