I was the woman he loved. She was the woman he could never refuse. I stopped competing with Veronica the day I understood the truth: Adrian hadn't just let her into our lives, he'd built her a home inside the spaces meant for me. For two years, I was Claire Monroe. The safe and steady one. The woman Adrian Cole never had to worry about because she never made a scene, raised her voice, or asked for more than he was willing to give. Understanding. Patient. Reliable. I wore those words like armor, never realizing they were the very reasons he felt free to look away. And while I stayed quiet, Veronica Steele, the grieving family friend, the woman who wielded her sorrow like a blade, quietly took everything that should have been mine. Not his heart. No. Something worse. His presence. His attention. Every late-night conversation, every cancelled dinner, every moment he chose to be somewhere I wasn't. I learned the cost of that choice on the kitchen floor of our apartment, my body folding in on itself, my appendix rupturing as I whispered his name into a voicemail he wouldn't hear until it was too late. Adrian. Please. I need you. He was with her. Of course he was with her. I survived the surgery. But lying in that hospital bed, staring at the empty chair beside me, I finally understood something I should have known all along: There was no reason left to stay. So I stopped waiting. And only then, only when the door had already closed, did Adrian finally see the truth. But seeing and losing never happen in the right order. "Unfaithful Promise" is the story of a man who realized what he had only after he had nothing left to hold, and a woman who finally decided she would never again be someone's second choice. Some people don't recognize love until they're standing in the ruins of it.

I stayed when I shouldn't have. I stayed through half-listened conversations and promises that disappeared the moment someone else needed him more. I told myself I was overthinking. That things would change eventually. So I learned how to swallow my discomfort. My loneliness. My doubts. Until everything fell apart. Now I can't stop wondering why it took almost losing my life to finally understand what I already knew all along: I should've left him long ago. ............. Warning: This story uses mature language and scenes. © IcecreamSundae5. All rights reserved.

Before Marlowe Ackerman goes away to Brown University, she does the bravest thing she's ever done. She confesses to her best friend, Oliver Abbott, that she is in love with him. And Oliver breaks her heart gently. To him, Marlowe is his safe place. His best friend. The one person who has always been there for him. His feelings for her have never changed, and he is certain they never will. At eighteen, Oliver is desperate for a fresh start after years of being the awkward, gangly dork. Parties, girls, fraternity life, reinvention-he wants everything he thinks college is supposed to give him. But once he gets there, nothing feels right without Marlowe. While she thrives at Brown, Oliver falls apart. He fails classes, wakes up hungover, surrounds himself with the wrong people, and slowly realizes the reason his feelings for Marlowe never changed is because he has loved her all along. But he's too late. When he goes to tell her, he finds her in bed with her boyfriend, Sam. Jealousy and heartbreak make him spit ugly, cruel words he will regret for the rest of his life. Marlowe ends their friendship for good. Ten years later, Oliver has changed. He is a history teacher at their old high school, a wrestling coach, and a man who has spent a decade learning from the worst mistake of his life. When he hears that Marlowe Ackerman is coming back to town for their high school reunion, Oliver knows better than to think he deserves a second chance. But he wants one. Not just to tell Marlowe he still loves her. To show her he has become someone worthy of loving her the way she deserves. He was her almost. Maybe now, he can be her always.

Rhea Shah lost her cheating scumbag of an ex-boyfriend of 10 years, she lost her sanity, and most recently...she lost her job. After getting fired, she ends up at the hospital with her laboring friend and meets Connor Brooks, a bad boy OB/GYN, who is allergic to anything involving emotions, relationships and love. Rhea knows Connor is charming and...ahem...hot, but she's got 99 problems and getting involved with an emotionally unavailable doctor ain't one. A careless comment made in anger by Connor impacts Rhea in the worst way possible. When she finds out about his true intentions, she vows never to get within 10 feet of him. But fate has other plans.