My husband came home on our six-month anniversary...and brought his pregnant mistress to live with us.

It's your anniversary when you share some exciting news with your husband! You're pregnant! Happy news right? Wrong. He's pissed and asks, "Who is he?" Where did your wonderful, sweet, and loving husband go? Do you stay with him and work through the betrayal? Do you walk away? One way or another, you're going to dust off that crown and put it back where it belongs. Firmly on your head. Shoulders back, and chin up. There are plenty of people who'd love to see you both fall.

We were together for six solid years. Broke together. Dreaming together. Building Apex from my kitchen table at 2 a.m. my spreadsheets, his vision, our future. I gave everything: savings, nights, trust. He promised I'd be there when we made it. Then one afternoon he looked me in the eye and said, "I can't do this anymore." No fight. No real reason. Just gone. Later I learned the truth: the "cousin" who was always around wasn't family. She was the woman he'd been seeing. His sister my best friend helped hide it, helped plan their life while I was still hoping he'd come back. Months later, wedding photos online. Him in a suit. Her in white. Family smiling like I never existed. I broke. Nearly didn't survive it. But I didn't vanish. I left. Rebuilt. Turned the same skills I gave him strategy, discipline, quiet strength into my own success. Stronger. Independent. Thriving. When Apex collapsed liquidated, everything gone, him left with nothing he called. Tired. Remorseful. Wanting to "fix us." I didn't come back to collect. I didn't need to haunt. I just stepped away. Karma handled the rest. Not revenge. Just consequence. When you discard the person who quietly held it all together, the structure doesn't stand. Gravity does what it always does. And I? I'm already somewhere new. Solid. Mine. That's enough .

She loved him loudly. He loved her quietly-only when it was convenient. Leah believed two years of love meant security, a future, a place she could finally call hers. Yet, every time it mattered, he chose someone else. A best friend. A familiar comfort. A silence that hurts more than betrayal. This is a story about emotional neglect, unspoken loyalties, and the slow realization that love without priority is a form of loss. It asks a difficult question: How long can you stay where you are never fully chosen?

A story of love, loss, betrayal, and starting over. Learning what real love and friendship look like is no easy feat. Starting over almost from scratch when you catch your best friend in bed with your fiancé, is even worse. But love and happiness are waiting in the most unexpected places if you just look hard enough. Follow along as Jacqueline learns how to move forward and trust again.

Iris Parker stepped into marriage with Brandon Wordsworth, knowing his world was full of shadows, a family who despises her, an ex-wife who refuses to let go, and children being pulled under their influence To them, she's nothing but a gold digger. An intruder. A mistake. But Iris is not what they believe. Like the flower she was named for, she carries her beauty with strength, her grace with defiance, and her silence with secrets of her own. When loyalty falters and the past tightens its grip, Iris must decide: will she keep fighting for a place in a family that never wanted her and her children, or walk away and remind them all she never needed them to begin with?

Penny understands logic over emotion and keeps most people at arms length because she doesn't know how to connect. Oliver slips into her life-easily, first as a friend but then as something undefined and dangerously intimate but kept quietly behind closed doors. When the delicate silence between them shatters, Penny is forced to confront what she wants and what she deserves. As she steps beyond her carefully constructed world, Oliver is left facing the cost of his choices - and the realization that somethings demand more than apologies to fix. Please read the detailed authors note at the beginning of the story before you continue as my works are not for everyone.

Rory Hayes was born a gang princess - raised to be protected, promised to a future that was never really hers. After her best friend's death, danger begins circling closer, and the last thing she wants is protection. Especially not from Alexander Cross, the man who appears out of nowhere with a dangerous smile and an interest in her she can't quite resist. He makes her feel safe. Seen. Wanted. Until she discovers everything between them was built on a lie. Now someone is hunting her, the truth about the past refuses to stay buried, and the only man she can't trust might be the only one who can keep her alive. But in a world built on loyalty and blood, betrayal always comes at a price. And this time, it might cost her everything. __________________________ My submission for ONC 2026 using the Prompt #78 - You begin to realise everything is not what it seems. This will be uploaded irregularly but as its a submission for ONC it will be completed by the end of April for judging.

Emerald Sawyer has always been my home. She was the one who saw something in me when everyone else saw a hockey goon who couldn't even read properly. When the world called me stupid, she called me capable. When I had nothing, she sacrificed to give me everything. Now, I'm Hayden "Haymaker" Sawyer-the league's most feared enforcer. My violence goes viral. My fists pay the bills. Every fight, every brutal hit, every autograph, every picture, every deal-I do it all for her. But somewhere along the way, I lost sight of her. I missed the warning signs-the threats, the harassment, the shaming, the strangers who hate her simply for being mine. When she showed me, I told her it didn't matter. It was jealousy. It was nothing. I told her that she was safe. I was wrong. The losses started piling up. The fans raged. My anger grew. My fights became more reckless. My temper snapped, and I said careless words that pushed away my entire world. While I'm smiling for the cameras, my wife was brutally attacked by a fan. While I'm protecting my career, my Emerald was fighting for her life. Every moment I'd ignored her, every time I'd put hockey before her, every careless word I'd ever said-all of it hit me at once. Now I see everything. She's alive, but terrified. She doesn't trust me. She doesn't feel safe with me. She flinches when she sees my jersey. I will never forgive myself. But I cannot give up. I will prove to the only person who ever saw me-the only person who ever loved the real me-that I am still worthy of her. That I can put her first, that I can make things right, that I will fight with everything I am to keep her safe, to bring her back to me. I demand vengeance for my wife, against everyone who ever harmed her-and that includes me. Because Emerald Sawyer is my home, my heart, and my everything. This fight-for her-is the most important fight of my life. A Marriage In Trouble Second Chance Romance. No cheating, HEA always.

Flash back to 1954. For seven months, Michael had been working many extra hours during the week, coming home late and even having to go into the office on weekends. Susan stayed at home, patiently waiting for his return each day. One evening, she called her widowed friend whose husband had died in Korea...and she heard her Michael's distinctive voice in the background...when he was supposed to be at work. After discovering his lies, Susan takes a stand that most women didn't take in the Fifties, hoping that Michael would come to understand his wife in an entirely new way.