**Brought to you by a suggestion of a person from a Facebook group Celia has always been a bigger woman than most, being teased and bullied since childhood. But when she met and married Dave, she thought she found the perfect man. Until she discovered he thought much less of her than she thought. After being publicly shamed and humiliated in front of their friends, she questions their marriage and decides to make a drastic change. What happens when a new, hotter man enters her life and won't let her go? Jesse is a trainer at a local gym. He dates casually, but has not found, "the one." Until he meets Celia. She's at his gym to lose weight. He will do anything to make her his and keep her perfect as she is! Trigger warning: The original MMC humiliates FMC in a big way by being demeaning about her appearance in front of others. I, in no way condone ANY shaming of people based on physical traits and characteristics, or of people, in general! She will be getting a better MMC. ;) **MATURE CONTENT!! BE ADVISED. FOR 18+.

Some flames don't burn-they blister quietly, leaving scars where no one can see. Tulip had always believed love was soft. A gentle breeze. A quiet blooming. Something that would one day arrive with kind eyes and warm hands. But when love came for her, it didn't whisper sweet promises. It came like a storm disguised as hope, wearing the face of someone she once trusted more than her own heartbeat. This is the story of how her innocence burned. ------ © 2025 TheGirlwithRedCloak. All rights reserved. This story is my original work. It is not permitted for use in any form of AI training, machine learning, data scraping, reproduction, or distribution without my prior written consent. Unauthorized copying, reposting, adaptation, or use-including by automated tools or artificial intelligence systems-is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without express permission from the author. Limited exceptions may apply for brief quotations used in reviews, commentary, or academic reference, consistent with fair use principles and applicable copyright law. Please respect the author's rights and the creative labor behind this work. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The rain poured with relentless sorrow, painting the world in shades of gray as she stood alone on the old stone bridge. Her hair clung to her skin, soaked and heavy, but she didn't move. Not even an inch. She had been waiting for over an hour, the chill sinking into her bones, yet her heart remained stubbornly warm-anchored by a promise. Each drop of rain was a beat in the silence that surrounded her, except for the occasional roll of thunder or the distant splash of water against the river below. Time passed like fog, slow and thick. And then, through the veil of rain, she saw him. A figure emerging at the far end of the bridge. Limping. Each step was a struggle, but he was coming. Bruised, soaked, breath ragged-but his eyes never left hers. He had promised he'd come, no matter what. And despite the storm, despite the pain-he was keeping it . ------ © 2025 TheGirlwithRedCloak. All rights reserved. This story is my original work. It is not permitted for use in any form of AI training, machine learning, data scraping, reproduction, or distribution without my prior written consent. Unauthorized copying, reposting, adaptation, or use-including by automated tools or artificial intelligence systems-is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without express permission from the author. Limited exceptions may apply for brief quotations used in reviews, commentary, or academic reference, consistent with fair use principles and applicable copyright law. Please respect the author's rights and the creative labor behind this work. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

New York City pulsed with life-its streets humming with ambition, dreams, and fleeting connections. In a city where love came dressed as convenience and left without saying goodbye, he was its most charming player. Lucas Hayes. With a crooked smile and eyes that promised everything but permanence, he floated through the lives of women like smoke-intangible, unforgettable, and gone before morning. Until her. Evelyn Hart moved through the world differently. Every sunrise was a gift. Every laugh, a treasure. Life was slipping through her fingers, slow and steady, like sand in an hourglass she couldn't turn back. She had a year-maybe less. But instead of hiding, she made a list. A bucket list of moments she refused to die without. No skydiving. No wild escapes. Just real things. Things that left a mark. Dancing barefoot in the rain. Apologizing to her mother. Screaming into the wind. Kissing someone like it meant something. Falling in love so deeply, it made her forget she was ever meant to leave. And then she met him. New York's most beautiful mistake. A man who lived like he'd never met consequence, who loved like it was a game, and ran from anything that asked him to stay. He wasn't what she needed. He was what fate offered anyway. When Evelyn stepped into his world with nothing but a smile and a quiet dare, Lucas thought it would be simple-another girl, another story, another inevitable goodbye. Fate, however, has a cruel sense of humor. He didn't know her days were numbered. She didn't expect him to change. Yet somewhere between her quiet bravery and his restless heart, something impossible took root. And what began as a countdown... might just become a reason to fight for time she was never meant to have.

She waited at the altar. But he never came. The flowers wilted before the vows. The whispers started before the tears could fall. She stood there alone, wrapped in lace and disbelief, while the man she loved hid behind silence and shame. He couldn't marry a girl with a burnt face-not when his reputation bled so easily under scrutiny. Not when her scars told a story he didn't want written beside his name. He didn't even come to say goodbye. What followed was not heartbreak. It was humiliation. A broken wedding. A family that looked away. Eyes that pitied her like she was the ruin, not the survivor. So she left. Being alone felt kinder than staying where love came with conditions. Then she met him. He was quiet when the world was loud. Calm, though the storm lived in his eyes. A man with hands that didn't flinch at her scars, who spoke to her not like she was broken, but like she was still becoming. He wasn't the man anyone sent to save her. In fact, he was the one everyone warned her about. The disgrace. The black sheep. And yet, it was his voice that steadied her. His strength that carried her through hospital hallways, plastic surgery rooms, and sleepless nights that left her gasping. He never asked for her past-he only offered her a future. He loved her without flinching. Not for her beauty. But for her fire. With him, she didn't just heal-she rebuilt. Not into the girl she once was, but into a woman with steel in her spine and grace in her silence. when she returned-when her skin had mended and her eyes no longer begged for kindness-the man who left her at the altar came crawling back. Suddenly, he could see her again. But it was too late. Because standing beside her was the man who never left. The one who gave her his soul when she thought she had none left to give. And when their eyes met, she finally understood: She was never his to lose. She had always belonged to the other brother. Cover photo courtesy of Vecteezy.com

Everyone says what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what if you live there? Eliza thought she had the kind of life everyone wants - a busy career, a husband she'd loved since college, and a tight circle who felt more like family than friends. They celebrated birthdays together, showed up for each other's milestones, and knew one another's secrets. Or at least she thought they did. This is a story of deeply twisted connections between five friends. The tangles reveal themselves bit by bit as Eliza, Ben, Miles, Vanessa and Colin learn the truth about each other, and themselves. In the end, does anything hold or does it all unravel?

Dumped by her fiance for his old love at their engagement party, Lilja must navigate the stinging wreckage of her life and a heart brutally blindsided.

On Christmas Eve, Elowen Foster tries to save her long-term relationship with a grand romantic gesture-only to walk straight into betrayal, champagne shattering on tile as her high school sweetheart is caught cheating over his desk. A week later, still raw and humiliated, she's dragged to a New Year's Eve party hosted by her best friend and her husband... who has invited the cheating ex and his shiny new replacement. Cornered, hurting, and trying not to cry into a plastic flute of prosecco, she's rescued by the one man she never expected to want her comfort- Rowan Hale Her best friend's older brother. The Viking. The one who used to tease her relentlessly. The one she secretly crushed on for years. What begins as a strategic distraction turns into one unforgettable night that changes everything.

Alexander didn't cheat. He just gave someone else his attention, his laughter, and the smiles that used to belong to his wife. And she watched him drift, not to another woman's bed, but to her presence. Her laugh. The way she made him feel seen in a room full of people. Everything he found in someone else - Zara had been giving him all along. Eight years of marriage. One little boy who loved them both. And Zara standing in the middle of it all - wondering when she became the woman he stopped choosing. She warned him. Three times. The first - he dismissed her. The second - he called her jealous. The third - he called her insecure. So she stopped warning him altogether. And stopped waiting. Love wasn't enough... and now it might be too late.

Sophie believed love was simple, predictable, and safe - until Lucas, her fiancé - the man she had trusted with her heart, started drifting away. Between glittering galas, family pressures, and the return of an old flame, Sophie found herself sidelined from her own life - and even her own wedding. Lucas thought love could survive on desire and loyalty alone. But when Sophie disappears, leaving behind a silence that shatters his world, he realizes the truth: love must be earned every day, with honesty and presence. In the months that follow, both are tested, changed, and haunted by what they lost - until a single, impossible moment offers a chance at redemption. Can love survive the fractures of betrayal and reclaim the hearts it almost lost?