Fates second chance
/1/127579/coverbig.jpg?v=2ea34f2e2c2f3053a637d5acfe2fbf25)
His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius
I flew back to New York on my twenty-fifth birthday, carrying vintage gold cufflinks I spent weeks finding for my billionaire husband, Declan. But when I walked into our townhouse, I found him throwing a massive victory party with Sloane, a glamorous socialite, standing by his side as the proud hostess. "Don't cause a scene. Go upstairs." Declan coldly dismissed me in front of his guests. Even Poppy, the rookie player whose shattered ankle I had painstakingly rebuilt, rolled her eyes and ignored me to suck up to Sloane. Hiding in the shadows, I heard the maids gossiping that everyone thought Sloane was the future Mrs. Hartford. To make matters worse, I discovered Sloane had stolen my anonymous, groundbreaking medical algorithm and was planning to present it as her own. First my husband, then the girl I mentored like family, and now the scientific foundation I had built with my own hands. Declan even texted me to cancel our birthday breakfast without a single apology, treating me like an annoying afterthought. My tears vanished, replaced by a freezing clarity. I signed the divorce papers, leaving them on his desk with zero demands for his money. Then I packed my bags, booked a one-way ticket to Boston, and prepared to destroy them on the global stage.
Chapter 1
Aurelia Vance POV:
I had been married to Declan Hartford for three years.
Today was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had flown back from Boston in secret, hoping for one quiet evening with my husband.
I'd spent a week carefully picking out a pair of gold cufflinks as a gift for my husband.
But the laughter spilling from the front door told me I was already too late: the woman who had taken my place at his side was already inside.
The heavy oak door swung open before I reached the porch. Three young players from the New York Titans, Declan's NHL franchise, stumbled out with crystal tumblers of scotch, laughing loudly. They barely glanced at me as they passed.
I stepped into the grand foyer. The heat hit me instantly,expensive champagne, roasted tenderloin, cigar smoke.
Dozens of people filled the double parlor: executives, scouts, wives in designer dresses.
In the center stood Declan, tall and broad in a bespoke charcoal suit. Beside him, laughing into his ear, was Sloane Whitfield, her backless silver dress catching the chandelier light. Her hand rested on his forearm like she belonged there.
Before I could take another breath, a blur of blonde hair darted past my elbow.
"Sloane!" Poppy Delacroix cried, throwing her arms around Sloane's slender waist. "You were completely right about the catering! This is literally the best victory party the team has ever had!"
Poppy is fourteen, a junior elite forward prospect.
I scouted her two years ago from a crumbling youth league, back when she was at her lowest.
Her parents had once shown me great kindness, and I knew they had already passed away, leaving her all alone in the world.
Declan and I adopted her together.
I rebuilt her shattered ankle with a custom rehabilitation plan.
I had always loved and cared for her as both a mother and a sister.
Now, she did not even glance in my direction.
Declan turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd until his eyes locked onto mine. The easy grin on his sharp jaw vanished instantly. His brows drew together in a hard, irritated line.
He excused himself from Sloane, cutting through the throng of players with long, impatient strides.
"Aurelia," Declan said, stopping two feet in front of me. His voice carried zero warmth. "What are you doing here?"
My throat felt like sandpaper.
"I took the four o'clock flight from Boston," I whispered, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. "It is my birthday, Declan. I thought we could—"
"We are celebrating the division win," he cut in, his tone sharp enough to draw blood. "The board is here. The sponsors are here. Sloane spent four consecutive days coordinating this event so the organization could project stability."
He did not look at me. His gaze slid past my shoulder to the bar, like I was a waitress who had wandered into the wrong room.
"Don't cause a scene," he added quietly. "Go upstairs."
A soft, mocking murmur rippled through a cluster of players' wives standing near the grand staircase. Two women with platinum blowouts exchanged knowing glances over their flutes of Dom Pérignon.
"I didn't know," I said, my voice barely audible over the swelling music. "I am sorry."
I turned toward the staircase, my legs trembling beneath my wool trousers.
Near the landing, Poppy was adjusting her designer jacket in the hallway mirror.
"Poppy," I said softly, pausing beside her. "How is your ankle feeling after Thursday's third period? Did you complete the isometric sequence I sent?"
Poppy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly as she pulled out her phone.
"Aurelia, please, not right now," she muttered without looking at me. "Sloane is introducing me to a marketing director from one of our partners. I don't have time for your spreadsheets."
The dismissive edge in her voice hit me harder than Declan's coldness. I had stayed up until three in the morning reviewing her biomechanical scans while she was recovering from surgery, and now I was just an annoyance in the way of her social ascent.
I walked up the rest of the stairs and entered the primary suite—the massive, sterile bedroom allocated to me under our prenuptial agreement.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out the velvet box. The gold cufflinks gleamed under the bedside lamp, cold and useless.
Downstairs, cheers erupted. The sound vibrated through the floorboards.
I walked to the French doors overlooking the rear garden. Down on the illuminated patio, Sloane was directing two servers by an ice sculpture. Declan stood beside her, his head bent down as he listened to her speak, his hand casually brushing the small of her back.
They looked like the couple the city expected them to be.
My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out, hoping against hope.
It was an email notification.
"Happy Birthday, Aurelia. Remember that true science requires patience and solitude. You are meant for greater arenas than New York boardrooms. -Dr. Edmund Sterling."
My mentor at Harvard was the only person in the world who had remembered.
I typed a brief "Thank you, Professor" and shut off the screen.
Hours passed. The bass eventually quieted, replaced by the occasional clatter of glassware and slamming car doors. My throat burned with thirst.
At two in the morning, I padded downstairs in my stocking feet to fetch a glass of water from the butler's pantry.
As I rounded the corner near the service hallway, the voices of two newly hired catering maids stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Miss Whitfield is stunning," the first girl whispered, scraping dessert plates into a bin. "Mr. Hartford's girlfriend carries herself like royalty."
"A girlfriend?" the other asked, pausing. "But isn't Mr. Hartford rumored to be married? Is it inappropriate to be this close with Whitfield?"
"Married?Where did that come from? Even if there was one, they must have split long ago. I've worked three events here this month, and Miss Whitfield is the only woman hosting by his side. Everyone knows she's the future Mrs. Hartford."
I shrank back into the cold shadow of the archway, my blood turning to ice.
In the home where I held a legal marriage certificate, my presence had already been wiped clean.
/0/84495/coverbig.jpg?v=838715051b808e286e7793ef478c3e89)
Second Chance, Second Curse
The white ceiling was unbearably familiar. I was supposed to be dead, incinerated in a lab accident ten years ago, but instead, I was back, staring at the ceiling of the hotel suite where my marriage to Sophia Hayes began. My second chance. Instead of a fresh start, I walked into the same hollow we
/0/19648/coverbig.jpg?v=8a460ec490e5753db664f6efff358a6b)
Second Chance
Kiara, an 18 year old girl who everything was taken from fights back. Her parents, brother and mate are all killed in one way or another. Out of anger and pure hatred for the criminals who committed such actions, she swears revenge on them. But first, she must fight for her own life in a Decima. A
/0/81257/coverbig.jpg?v=dc07369591fd443fbd3b8211dedf175e)
The Mother's Second Chance
I was a devoted mother, my world revolving around my precious baby girl, Lily. All I wanted was to keep her safe, to give her the best life possible, despite living under my in-laws' roof. But my mother-in-law, Karen, was a monster of penny-pinching cruelty. Her idiotic refusal to pay for proper
/0/86222/coverbig.jpg?v=fe70489bee65106d83c086a27a8def9a)
Second Chance, Deadly Trap
One moment, I was just Sarah, pulling weeds from my tomato patch under the hot Nebraska sun, living the quiet farm life I' d painstakingly built. The next, a chilling wave of memory, raw and horrifying, washed over me – memories of another life, a past I' d lived and died. And with that horrific c
/0/63645/coverbig.jpg?v=577f3c30b5c194d3127a7068a5bf8a09)
Alpha's Second Chance Luna
Orphan and best friend of the hero since childhood, harbors a secret love for him. When he is crowned alpha, they share a night of passion, but he discovers his destined mate the next day and chooses her as his luna , breaking the heroine's heart. Pregnant with triplets, the heroine leaves the pac
/0/45614/coverbig.jpg?v=ad943aca3dff14d12f584bb7bd8c7f9b)
Forbidden Second Chance Mate
★BLURB★ "who killed her!" Carlos thundered, his voice shattering the silence of the cold night as he cradled Jessica's Lifeless body in his arms. Blood pooled beneath her, and the only witness was his trusted beta and the cold glow of the full moon above them. His heart broke into a thousand p
/0/65837/coverbig.jpg?v=c3d5b444706da5984c7c79bf3b7cc1be)
HER SECOND CHANCE MATE
Aria Logan can never catch a break in the pack, she has lived all her life. Being an orphan results in her being demoted to an omega in the pack. Despite her low status, she can't help but have feelings for the new young Alpha of their pack. However, she got her hope shattered by being rejected and
/0/56277/coverbig.jpg?v=8040d1c7addfaf8afe5b4053068352fc)
The Second Marriage Chance
"Did you ever, even once, imagine yourself loving me?" Sarah posed a hopeful question to Philip. “Don’t make me laugh, Sarah. Everything between us has been purely about pleasure and business.” Sarah had harbored feelings for Philip ever since she first saw him in a sports magazine. When his
/0/64283/coverbig.jpg?v=8f885115b4f874a8d2c0181a3eaf7e5e)
Fate's second chance
In the pulsating heart of Manchester city, Hannah, a resilient and dedicated restroom attendant, leads a life marked by unwavering loyalty and a commitment to her job. Raised in the shadows of misfortune, she works in a nightclub, maintaining a strict boundary between her emotions and her work until
/0/84839/coverbig.jpg?v=ab841335fd9a330f5a8457b8ceb42829)
Rebirth: A Second Chance
The sterile beep of the heart monitor was the last sound Olivia heard as her 20-year-old son, Michael, stood by her hospital bed, relaying her husband Daniel' s chilling message: it was time to let her go. Then, with a barely perceptible tremor, Michael' s hand reached for the life support plug, wh
/0/54463/coverbig.jpg?v=889ccf27f2ec442fb4ee13215ec02f16)
Lycan Second Chance Mate
I let out a piercing shriek as I witness my Dad being devoured by the ferocious beast. The vicious creature, clad in fur, was on all fours and staring at me with bloodshot eyes. "Run". The words keep ringing in my head but my legs refuse to move from the excruciating pain. I was breathin
/0/74558/coverbig.jpg?v=94df57d62ca34ef9dff53b477d9ebbaf)
Mr Billionaire's Second Chance
Zara thought she had everything-a loving fiancé, a future full of promise, and a place in a world that seemed so perfect. But when betrayal strikes from the one person she trusted most, her world shatters, and she's left questioning everything she thought she knew. In a tangled web of lies, family
/0/84515/coverbig.jpg?v=dcdb2a30a48186dce7e54dc5728e5428)
The Second Chance Life
The sterile beep of the heart monitor was counting down the final seconds of my life. Then the door creaked open, and Scarlett Hayes, my husband' s manipulative childhood sweetheart, entered with a venomous smile. She informed me, with cruel satisfaction, that my husband, Mark, had only married me
/0/86128/coverbig.jpg?v=2d158bcc2149138200a96507f586d888)
Love's Deadly Second Chance
The salt spray felt the same on my skin, a cold, familiar mist. I stood on the deck of my private yacht, the Serenity, watching the turquoise water churn below. This was where I died. Not in a hospital bed, not in a car crash, but right here, in the middle of the ocean, because of the two people
/0/58359/coverbig.jpg?v=8423b396970b1f4af666d17fbeccda1e)
The Alpha Second Chance
Anastasia Wolfe, a young, beautiful lady, she is young and charming . However, fate takes an unexpected turn on her life due to a one night stand she had with a stranger . The passionate encounter leads to an unplanned pregnancy, and she finds herself navigating the daunting path of single parenthoo
/0/24984/coverbig.jpg?v=3b9c02f3f24fc9c907d1b04342d6a16a)
The Billionaire's Second Chance
"Winter" I gasp quietly, shutting my eyes tightly as his lips continue to make their way down my skin. "We're going to get caught! I'm supposed to get married tomorrow." "Then you better be quiet, because I'll be damned if I let anyone take you away from me." He mumbled against my skin. All it too
/0/59462/coverbig.jpg?v=b107e769e42fba1c54e376ec9d90f128)
Alpha's Second Chance Mate
"Tell me,who are you?" His voice ran through my veins, yet; My hatred for him increased, I blamed the universe for bringing me closer to him. Why should I be rejected and be played? I wanted to feel death and I wanted to stay, I just have to be in between. I needed to know, Where was the moon
/0/28499/coverbig.jpg?v=55eec7bd8c6ddef6ed23f46ede30247b)
SECOND CHANCE MY LOVE
Amelia and Nick are caught in the romance of high school first love, they set their dreams high and promised to get married, but after college, their love faced the greatest trial, a one-night stand. Mason who has loved Amelia right from her high school days, is Now a rich Billionaire who has faced
/0/36939/coverbig.jpg?v=9cf08d89ff3f5b2bee9184e5d8ad556d)
The Vampire's Second Chance
Asher smith is a powerful vampire, he had everything in the world. Until he watched his mate get brutally killed in front of him. Not being able to cope with the pain, he became cold and lifeless. Willow Kennedy was kidnapped and held captive by a werewolf pack for three years. Abused and broken,
/0/69337/coverbig.jpg?v=4cd5850d3861021338e251506561afda)
SECOND CHANCE BRIDE
Laura never imagined her marriage would turn into a nightmare. Betrayed by Galen, her deceitful husband, and Valerie, her younger sibling who cheated on her behind her back, Laura lost everything-trust, love, and her future. However, fate gives her a second chance. After a fatal accident, Laura wak
