I Died in the Fire

Modern

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Romance

On the day of my wedding, I was stabbed, left to die... and forgotten. While I bled in my wedding dress, my fiancé married my sister. And my adoptive family, the people who I thought loved me never even looked for me. They all moved on like I never existed. I thought my world had ended. But I refuse

Romance

John and Ellie Bradley have the love everyone wants to have, except there is one problem, Ellie is sick. John has to balance his ill wife, job, and in-laws who want to run the show. As John cares for Ellie in what the doctors say will be her last days, he reflects on their marriage and a love of a l

Modern

Ava Rodriguez clawed for breath, her chest a suffocating vise. Her six-year-old, Leo, watched, his face pale with terror. Anaphylactic shock. Rapidly worsening. She choked out her husband Mark's name, begging him to call 911. “Mommy can't breathe!" Leo cried into the phone. But Mark, busy "network

Fantasy

My spirit watched. That’s all I could do while my life slipped away. My eight-year-old son, Finn, begged his mother, Laura, to help me. I was gasping, mid-asthma attack. But Laura, my wife, pulled away, eyes flicking to the door. She dismissed me as "dramatic," a lie whispered by her manipulative e

Billionaires

The rumors of my divorce from Ryland Payne had circulated for two years. Over those two years, he had paraded around with the secretary whose husband had once saved his life, appearing at every event and trampling my dignity underfoot. I had never uttered a single word of complaint. That ch

Horror

The scent of gasoline and burning silk was the last thing I knew on my wedding day. Flames danced around me, illuminating my new husband, Liam Thompson, my stepbrother, as he clutched a locket with my stepmother Sarah' s picture. "You ruined it all, Ava," he sneered, his face contorted with a hatr

Romance

"I love you," they said at same time and Ivory stared at them in bewilderment. "I'll stop being a jerk." "I'll stop being cold." Ivory pinched herself to be sure she wasn't dreaming. How could they love her? The both of them!! Ivory Jones is a lovely and vivacious girl, mistreated by her mother an

Romance

I watched Ryan die. So how is Ben wearing his face? Six years ago, I watched my best friend--and secret crush--splatter all over the pavement. He died. I saw him. Yet, in the back of my mind, I've never stopped looking for him. Seeing him in crowds, in the classroom, in my dreams--and my nightmares

Literature

The Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico by Lieut. Howard Payson

Literature

Faces in the Fire, and Other Fancies by Frank Boreham

Sci-fi

The crystal decanter felt heavy in my hand as I prepared to strike my sister, Gabby, believing she had betrayed our family. Suddenly, glowing blue messages appeared before my eyes, revealing a shocking truth: I was being played, and my brother Ethan and our supposed sister Nicole were orchestrating

Romance

The sterile hospital air still carried the scent of my mother's final moments, a phantom pain throbbing in my abdomen, mirroring the hollow ache in my heart from the raw memory of yesterday's phone call. My mother was gone, taken by a ruptured appendix dismissed as a stomach bug, and the man who de

Modern

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 torme

LGBT+

[Warning: BL/LGBT/MxM] Summary; Liam Halsey sacrificed himself to marry a young businessman in order to keep his family company on the verge of bankruptcy. In his mind, this marriage is just a guarantee of debt, no love, no destination where the ship will dock. Even when they officially became a

Romance

I chased after Jake Burton for eight years, only to break up with him when I saw he had saved his ex-girlfriend's contact as "Baby." Her name was Janet Flynn. "Just because I forgot to change the contact name?" I stared at Jake's mocking smile and nodded. His friends said I was narrow-minde

Romance

My game, "Echoes of Starlight," the culmination of years of my life, was finally launching. My wife, Chloe, wasn' t there, opting instead for a critical business dinner with her partner, Liam. The moment it went live, a text from her arrived, calling my life' s work a mere "hobby," a phrase that fe

Billionaires

Once upon a time, Ryann had been the sole recipient of Colby's undivided love, making the sense of its absence all the more piercing when it was gone. She stated plainly, "Let's get divorced." Yet, with an arm casually wrapped around another woman's waist, Colby responded with a careless grin,

Romance

I walked out of Chino State Prison, a free man, but my body carried a death sentence. The clanging gates closed behind me, a period at the end of five lost years. The California sun felt too bright on my face, and my lungs burned with the fatal lung cancer I’d contracted inside. I had one final wish

Adventure

In a previous volume, “The Green Flag,” I have assembled a number of my stories which deal with warfare or with sport. In the present collection those have been brought together which are concerned with the grotesque and with the terrible—such tales as might well be read “rou

Billionaires

When my water broke a month early, my billionaire husband locked me in a soundproof panic room. He told me I had to wait. His sister-in-law, Kennedy, was also in labor, and her son had to be born first to inherit the family's multi-billion-dollar fortune. He accused me of faking my contractions to