Maddie Carter and Beck Hayes shared a secret summer romance that ended in heartbreak. Now, Beck's move to Oak Haven puts them face-to-face for the first time in years. As old feelings resurface and buried memories return, they must decide if some loves are worth a second chance.

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.

After leaving her emotionally abusive fiancé, Emilia Monroe returns home to start over. But when she meets Knox Wilder, her brother's best friend, she begins to wonder if everything she lost led her exactly where she was meant to be.

After the man I loved believed the worst thing about me, I vanished. He's the president of a motorcycle club built on loyalty and trust. When his brothers decided I was a spy, he hesitated, but only for a moment. Then, my punishment and hell began. Now he has learned the truth, and is determined to find me and win me back. I plan to make that as difficult as possible. Updates on Wednesday and Friday. Read ahead on my Patreon, link in my bio!!

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.

In emergency medicine, the golden hour is the crucial sixty-minute window after a traumatic injury-the brief span of time when the right care can mean the difference between survival and loss. Dr. Mason Carpenter lives for that hour. At St. Mary's Trauma Center, he is the golden boy of the Emergency Department. He's brilliant and calm under pressure. He's addicted to the adrenaline, the thrill, the absolute rush of saving patients knocking on death's door. At home, he's a devoted husband to his high school sweetheart - the love of his life - Honey. Or, he used to be. Honey Carpenter has loved Mason since they were fourteen, since he was the gangly boy with hearts in his eyes who stumbled through asking her out for ice cream. She stood beside him through medical school, residency, crushing debt, sleepless nights, and every sacrifice it took to build the life they dreamed about. Now she is pregnant with their first child. And Mason is married to his work. He's missing ultrasound appointments, the gender reveal, the baby shower, and, most importantly, he's not there to support Honey - who's having an incredibly difficult first pregnancy. Honey feels her husband is drifting farther and farther away into the ED, and no matter how many times she tries to tell him she is lonely, exhausted, and afraid, Mason gives her the same answer. "They need me." But Honey needs him too. As her pregnancy progresses, her loneliness twists into something darker, but her doctor dismisses her symptoms as "first-time mom jitters." And her husband is too busy saving strangers to see his own wife fading away. Until Honey collapses at home and is rushed into Mason's emergency room, fighting for her life and their daughter's. Now Mason has to reckon with what he was chasing, what he ignored, and what it may cost him - the woman he loves more than anything. And he can't lose Honey. He won't survive it. 💛 Second Chance 💛 Marriage In Trouble 💛 No Cheating

Divorce lawyer Atticus Pierce has known Saskia was his since the day she moved in next door. He was twelve years old when he saw the quiet, strange girl with watchful dark eyes, and even then, his soul knew what they were before his brain did. Meant to be. Now, at thirty, Saskia has been his wife for ten years, and Atticus loves her with a devotion so deep it's madness. Tracking her location keeps her safe. Memorizing her routines is his duty as her protector. Noticing every subtle shift in her expression is his honor as her husband. But he keeps this hidden from Saskia, terrified at the thought of her discovering his obsession and being scared of him. She might leave him. And that is inconceivable. But Saskia is keeping secrets. Private phone calls she claims are work. Late-night meetings. Hushed conversations with the president of Iron Vow, the local MC. Already stretched thin by a brutal case against a violent ex-husband, Atticus begins to spiral beneath the weight of suspicion, jealousy, and the one fear he cannot survive coming true. That the love of his life belongs to someone else. When his control finally snaps, he says things he regrets the moment they leave his mouth. But Saskia is not cheating. She never was. She never would. And when Atticus uncovers the truth, he realizes his wife is not afraid of his obsession. She has been matching it all along... TW: stalking, blood and gore, unhealthy obsessive relationship behaviors that I'm shamelessly romanticizing. Reader discretion is advised.

Molly had a great job, a serious boyfriend, and a quiet life in San Francisco. Then Bruce's stepsister thought it would be hilarious to fill out the internal transfer form on Molly's work laptop while Bruce watched. By the time Molly saw the confirmation email, the visa was already processing. The contract was signed. There was no undoing it. She was moving to London. When she demanded Bruce fix what his sister broke? He asked her to apologize. To Crystal. For being upset. So Molly left a note on his kitchen counter - Good Joke! - and got on the plane.

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.

They call my husband the embodiment of cruelty. Demetri Ferraro was forged for control, vengeance, and bloodshed without conscience. Strangers murmur cautions about what he might do, forgetting I sleep inches from him nightly. If only they could witness what I have. There's a terrifying authenticity to our marriage. With me, he's attentive to the point of reverence. I wear his fingerprints like brands. His vigilance wraps around me, reflexive as breathing. I trusted him completely because betrayal seemed impossible. That was my undoing The merger of our families cost me things I didn't know I was losing. I salvaged only the skating rink-solitary hours on pristine ice before dawn or after midnight. The architecture of my future was more elaborate than I comprehended. The truth doesn't announce itself with confession. It arrives without remorse, manifesting as inevitability, as though questioning his constructed reality was never an option. I don't doubt that my husband loves me. For the true terror of Demetri Ferraro isn't found in shadows or violence. It's in how he determined I belonged to him, by systematically eliminating any alternative path.