His Regret, My Unbought Freedom

My husband left me to die in a fire, choosing to save his mistress while I lost our baby in the flames. But my suffering had only just begun. He and his lover then tried to poison me, swapping my life-saving medication for tranquilizers. When that didn't work, he orchestrated a car crash that shattered my legs, leaving me crippled and helpless. His final act of cruelty was on his yacht. He watched as his mistress framed me, then locked me in a room with a group of thugs who left me for dead. I threw myself into the ocean that night, choosing the cold, dark water over the monsters on that boat. I survived. I rebuilt my life, found a man who cherished my broken pieces, and was about to get married. Then, August crashed my engagement party. He told me he'd destroyed his mistress and was giving me his entire fortune. He thought he could buy his way back into my life. He was about to learn that some things can't be fixed with money.

Chapters

Chapter 2

Allie POV:

I tried to push the nurse away, a desperate attempt to cover the blood seeping through my gown. I didn't want August to see me like this, broken and bleeding, a stark contrast to the perfect, untouched Harper. My eyes met his, and for a fleeting moment, I saw it-a flicker of genuine panic, a shadow of the man who once would have moved mountains for me.

He took a step closer, his hand reaching out, his touch hesitant. "Allie, what is it?" he asked, his voice softer now, almost tender. My heart gave a painful thump, a ridiculous surge of hope. Would he finally apologize? Would he finally see me?

"August," he said, turning to the nurse, "Harper needs a quiet space. I want her moved to the guest house on the estate tonight. She's been through a lot, and the hospital environment isn't ideal for her recovery."

My breath hitched. My own life was in danger, and he was arranging his mistress's comfort. "Her stress levels are critical for the baby," he added, as if that justified everything, as if it erased my pain, my loss, my very existence.

My gaze drifted to his neck. A faint, red scratch, barely visible, but unmistakable. Harper. A fresh wound, a fresh betrayal. The last, fragile thread of hope snapped. It wasn't just a misstep, a moment of weakness. It was a choice. A deliberate, ongoing choice.

A strange, numb calm washed over me. The anger, the grief, the desperate yearning-they all coalesced into a profound sense of weary resignation. It was over. Truly over. There was no going back.

"I want a divorce, August," I said, my voice surprisingly steady, devoid of emotion. The words felt liberating, like shedding a heavy cloak.

His eyes widened, his face crumpling. He grabbed my hand, his grip surprisingly strong. "No, Allie, please. Don't say that. Not now. We can fix this. For the baby. For us." His voice cracked, a raw, desperate plea. Had I ever heard him sound so broken? But it was a performance, I knew. For the baby. Always for the baby.

"Just until the baby is safe," he pleaded, his thumb stroking my knuckles. "Then I promise, I'll send Harper away. You won't ever see her again. I swear it." The words were empty, hollow, a desperate attempt to cling to a life he no longer deserved.

I knew the truth now. The baby I had lost, the baby he didn't even know existed, was our baby. And I had kept it a secret, planning the perfect surprise, a joyful revelation that now felt like a cruel joke. I had walked into that burning house, oblivious to the hell that awaited me, thinking of our future.

"There is no 'us,' August," I corrected him, pulling my hand away. My voice was a flat line, cold and final. "We are done."

I left the hospital alone. No one stopped me. No one even noticed. The world outside was a blur, a cacophony of sounds and colors I couldn't process. My only goal was the house, our house, to retrieve what little was left of my old life.

The front door creaked open, revealing the familiar grandeur that now felt utterly alien. I made my way to my study, my sanctuary, to collect my few personal mementos. Then I heard it. A soft moan, followed by a low, throaty laugh from upstairs. Harper. And August.

A perverse curiosity, a morbid need to confirm the depths of his betrayal, pulled me towards the sounds. I stopped outside the master bedroom, the door slightly ajar. Each muffled sound, each whispered word, was a hammer blow to my soul, shattering the last fragments of my dignity. I stood there, rooted to the spot, letting the agony wash over me. I deserved this. For being so foolish. For loving him so blindly.

"My precious baby," Harper cooed, her voice sickeningly sweet. "August, make sure our child is safe, always."

"Always, my love," August replied, his voice thick with a tenderness he hadn't shown me in months, perhaps years. "I'll protect you both. Nothing will hurt you."

Then I saw it. Harper's eyes, meeting mine through the crack in the door. A smirk, slow and triumphant, spread across her face. A silent, venomous declaration of victory. My stomach lurched, a wave of nausea washing over me. My legs, still weak from the fire, threatened to give out. A sharp, searing pain shot through my abdomen, a phantom ache for the child I' d lost, a physical manifestation of my heartbreak.

A choked gasp escaped my lips, a sound I couldn't suppress. It was enough. The sounds upstairs ceased instantly.

"August," Harper said, her voice now a feigned whisper of concern. "Someone's here."

August' s head snapped up, his eyes wide with a mixture of panic and irritation. He pulled away from Harper, scrambling to cover himself. "Allie? What are you doing here?" he growled, his voice laced with annoyance.

He moved towards me, his hand reaching out. I recoiled, stepping back as if burned. "Don't touch me," I spat, my voice raw. My legs buckled, and I leaned against the doorframe, fighting to stay upright. The pain in my abdomen intensified, a searing fire.

"It's not what you think," he began, his face a contorted mask of feigned innocence. "She just wasn't feeling well, and I was... comforting her."

I reached into my bag, my hand trembling as I pulled out the neatly folded divorce papers. "It's exactly what I think," I said, shoving them into his chest. "Sign them."

Harper, seeing the papers, let out a dramatic gasp, clutching her stomach. "Oh, August, my head… the baby!" she cried, her voice laced with theatrical pain.

August's attention immediately snapped to her. He rushed to her side, cradling her. "Harper, what's wrong? Are you alright?" He didn't even glance back at me.

He signed the papers without a moment's hesitation, his pen scratching furiously across the page. "There," he said, tossing the signed documents onto the floor. "You want your freedom? Take it. I'll have my lawyer arrange a generous settlement. Now get out. You' re only upsetting Harper."

He turned his back, gathering Harper into his arms, completely dismissing me. The door closed with a soft click, sealing me out. I stood there, utterly alone, the signed papers a crumpled testament to my insignificance. He had thrown me away, without a second thought. My heart, a jagged mess, finally stopped bleeding. It simply went numb.

A searing fever consumed me, my body shaking with chills. Sleep offered no escape, only a cruel replay of our past. I dreamed of our wedding day, his eyes full of adoration, his vows echoing in the grand hall. "I will cherish you, protect you, love you until my last breath." LIES.

The dream shifted, turning into a nightmare. He stood in the lake house, surrounded by flames, my desperate cries for help echoing in the inferno. But his back was to me, his arms wrapped around Harper, her face smug, victorious. The flames licked higher, consuming everything, leaving only a charred emptiness where our life once was.

Continue to next part

In a game of deception, one forbidden desire could change everything. Forced into an arranged marriage with a wealthy heir she doesn't love, Lena is determined to escape. Her plan? Disguise herself as an unattractive woman to drive her husband away and earn a swift divorce. But things don't go as planned. Neil River-the enigmatic uncle of her husband-is a sharp, dangerous man who knows far more than he should. Not only does he see through Lena's disguise, but he also uncovers her double life as the mysterious owner of an elite karaoke club that men whisper about in secret. Instead of exposing her, Neil becomes intrigued. He tempts her, pushes her, until Lena finds herself caught in a dangerous game-one where the lines between revenge, lust, and love begin to blur. Can Lena escape the pull of a man she was never meant to love-her husband's uncle? "So? Did you manage to seduce your husband today?" "No, Uncle. I got all dolled up since dawn, but he... he looked at me like I was disgusting." "Then what if I'm the one... who's tempted?" "Uncle... you're joking, right?"

Action Modern Romance

9.5

Doctor vagina's son

9.5

I had no choice but to return for vengeance. That man, who was supposed to be my father, abandoned my mother at the altar in favor of another woman. I despised him. He never bothered to look for me. My mother repeatedly told me that I reminded her of him. She always says, "I am a carbon copy of my father, and possibly worse." "Like a father, like a son," they always say. But this time, I returned to show him that "A son can defeat his father." And to do so, I had to be better. That is why I, Knight Angelo Knight, decided to become a gynecologist. But, in order to break his heart, I had to get my hands on either his wife, Bella, or Julia, the young girl he had raised for years. By the time I realized I wasn't just hurting him, but also her and myself... And it was a second chance that I pleaded for. But would she be able to forgive the man who dragged her to his bed to exact vengeance? And played games with her emotions? And, worst of all, took her virginity?

Action Modern Romance

7.6

Kaitlynn and her two children

7.6

Top DEA agent Kaitlynn Bruce woke up to a heavy, chemical lethargy, only to realize she was trapped in the body of a weak, abused war widow. Before she could even process her new reality, she heard her sister-in-law counting cash, selling her unconscious body to a local thug for a measly two hundred dollars. The thug dragged her new seven-year-old son, Cason, into the bedroom. "Mommy!" When the boy reached out, the man brutally kicked his small body into a wooden doorframe, leaving him gasping and bleeding on the floor. Memories flooded Kaitlynn's mind. Her predecessor was a pathetic doormat whose husband's military pension had been bled dry by these greedy in-laws, leaving her children to starve and suffer endless abuse. But as Kaitlynn looked at the bleeding boy's dark, unnervingly alert eyes, a chilling piece of DEA intelligence clicked in her mind. Cason Richmond. The name, the town, the abusive aunt—it all matched the classified files of the "Director of the Hive," the most ruthless and feared cartel puppet master in the criminal underworld. How could this battered, starving child be destined to become the ultimate monster she used to hunt? The original widow's tragic death was supposed to be the catalyst that pushed this boy into total darkness. But Kaitlynn Bruce was not a victim. Adrenaline burning through the drugs, she cracked the thug's neck with a brass lamp and choked the sister-in-law against the wall. Looking down at the boy who was supposed to become a global nightmare, she made a vow. She was going to rewrite his script, even if she had to burn the whole world down to do it.

Action Mafia Modern

8.7

Rejected By My Mate, Claimed By Contract

8.7

Fiona thinks she has it all-love, loyalty and a secured life-until her mate, Alpha Kael, leaves her for his first love, Laila. Abandoning her at the altar on the day of their bond reaffirmation before the moon goddess, Fiona watches helplessly as Kael dotes on Laila from the shadows without knowing how else to claim back her mate. Fiona soon discovers she's pregnant and hopes the news will finally bring Kael back to her. But her world shatters when Laila, also carrying Kael's child, pushes Fiona down a hill during a heated fight, causing her to have a miscarriage that left her broken and desperate. Just when all hope seems lost, Fiona crosses paths with Alpha Derek, the blind yet most powerful Alpha in Eastern Highlands. He offers her revenge against her unfaithful mate and his mistress in exchange for becoming his Luna for a year. She agrees. But Derek is no savior. He hides behind dark shades and darker secrets. Worse still, he's the very architect of her pains. Yet the closer she gets to him, the more her heart betrays her... because the most dangerous thing about Derek isn't his power or his schemes but the way he makes her want him, even when she swore she'd never risk her heart again.

Action Romance Werewolf

9.7

Rejected No More: The Genius's Revenge

9.7

I was sitting in a Starbucks, staring at a cold Americano, while the girl I thought was the love of my life looked at me with pure disgust. Hailee Baxter slammed her latte down and told me we were done, claiming she couldn’t start her career at City Hall with a "diner kid" dragging her down. She wasn't just breaking my heart; she was trading me in for Kyler Craft, the son of a powerful politician who could buy her the future she craved. In my past life, this was the moment I shattered, beginning a twenty-year spiral into alcoholism, poverty, and watching my parents work themselves into an early grave while I failed at everything. I vividly remembered the smell of cheap whiskey and the obituary of my father that I was too broke to even attend. But as I looked down at my hands, they weren't the calloused, shaking hands of a forty-year-old failure; they were smooth, young, and steady. The silver Motorola flip phone in my pocket felt like a relic from a museum, and the girl in front of me looked like a shallow stranger rather than the woman of my dreams. The crushing pain in my chest wasn't a heart attack—it was forty years of bitter regret colliding with a twenty-two-year-old body. Hailee was waiting for me to beg for another chance, her napkin ready to wipe away the pathetic tears she expected, but all I felt was a cold, clinical clarity. How could I have been so blind to her greed, and why did I let one failed exam and a rich boy’s bullying destroy my entire family’s legacy? I glanced at the newspaper on the table: May 12, 2005. This was the day I supposedly lost the City Hall fellowship, but I remembered a secret about the "Supplemental Candidate Protocol" that no one else would know for another week. I stood up, ignored Hailee's insults, and dialed the number etched into my soul. "Mom," I whispered into the flip phone, "I'm coming home. And this time, I’m going to take back everything we lost."

Action Modern Romance

8.2

Rejected Princess, Rising From The Ashes

8.2

For three years, I scrubbed tables as a "wolfless runt," hiding my identity as the Lycan King's daughter. It was a test for my fiancé, Alpha Connor. I wanted to see if he loved the girl, or just the crown. He failed spectacularly tonight. His mistress, Jaden, deliberately knocked a tray of drinks onto me during the dinner rush. The liquid wasn't alcohol. It was concentrated silver. My flesh hissed and bubbled as the poison ate through my skin, blocking any ability to heal. I fell to the floor, clutching my melting hand, while Jaden faked tears and claimed I attacked her. When Connor finally answered the video call, he saw my mangled hand. He smelled the burning flesh. He knew it was silver. But he didn't help me. He looked at his watch, annoyed that I was interrupting his business meeting with investors. "Apologize to Jaden," he ordered, using his Alpha Command to crush me into submission. "On your knees. Now." The pain was blinding, but the betrayal cut deeper. He was forcing his Fated Mate to bow to the woman who tried to maim her. My knees bent under the pressure, but my Royal blood refused to break. I looked straight into the camera lens. "No," I whispered. I reached into my apron, bypassing the notepad, and pulled out a black satellite phone I hadn't touched in years. "Code Black," I said to the King on the other end. "Send the Guard." Connor thought he was disciplining a waitress. He didn't know he just declared war on the Royal Family.

Action Romance Werewolf

His Regret, My Unbought Freedom

Chapter 2

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