Entry for #ONC2026. *** Up until she turned eighteen Tessa Ellis led a pretty bleak existence. Her father died at ten, leaving her in the care of a sadistic step-mother and narcissistic step-sister. The only saving grave is her sweet step-brother and thoughts of escaping to a better future. Shortly after her birthday she started to dream of a handsome blonde stranger and the thought of him and his care help her get through hard times. After months of dreams she is weeks away from graduating when she encounters him for the first time in real life. *** 18. At eighteen, you begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like your other half. When they finally appear in real life, everything you thought you knew about love and reality begins to shift. © 2026 @waitingtowrite. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author. #ONC2026 #OpenNovellaContest2026 Cover Art from Book Covers App

Nothing prepares you for heartbreak that lands only hours before your wedding. One moment you are celebrating the last hours of single life, smiling at a future you trust. The next, you are staring at proof that the man you love has betrayed you. He says he is sorry. He pleads. Yet the picture of love you held so tightly fractures in an instant. Sports agent Fiorella Barella has more than one truth to uncover, and with her closest friends beside her, she is ready to pull at every thread until the whole story unravels.

I was supposed to be protecting her. Instead, I left her to help my former girlfriend. And she was badly hurt on my watch. Now, she won't talk to me and I can't get to her for a year. I'll work the rest of my life to regain her trust, earn her forgiveness and prove to her she's the woman I love.

Leo and I fell in love, and he loved and accepted my little girl as if he was her father. He made it 100% clear that he wanted to marry me and adopt Samantha. As if we couldn't get any happier, I got pregnant -- big surprise. Then his parents, who had adored my daughter, backed away from her since she wasn't their "real" grandchild. But it wasn't until Leo backed off from wanting to adopt my daughter that I realized maybe Leo and I weren't going to have the happily ever after we'd been planning.

Widower/secret baby trope

Now on Amazon/KU and paperback. He was silent.
My life was full of whispers, insidious and ugly, convincing me that I wasn't enough. When Dillon came into my life, he earned my trust and convinced me those whispers were all lies. He gave me a glimpse into a world where I could be happy and build a family based on unconditional love and zero expectations. Except maybe one. When the moment comes for Dillon to speak up and defend me, he doesn't say a word...and reality comes crashing down. He's not the man I thought he was, but I'm not the same girl he fell in love with either. 

I'm stronger now. I know I deserve better, and when I walk away...

He'll be the one picking up the pieces.

📚 NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE, KU & PAPERBACK!! _____________ 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞. Nora is good at surviving. She has been doing it her whole life. She knows which silences are safe. She knows how to make herself small enough to go unnoticed. She knows how to hold a life together with nothing but routine and patience and the quiet, unshakeable belief that if she follows the rules, nothing will fall apart. She has never asked for more. She has never believed she deserved it. It isn't a big life. But it is hers. And it is stable. And stable is everything. 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞... 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭. Suddenly, the life she carefully built begins to crack. Uneven. Unpredictable. Wrong. For someone who has always survived by knowing what comes next... that is the most dangerous thing of all. Because if she can't predict him-what comes after? And if she leaves... 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨?

Lina and her husband Mark are stunned when she gives birth months early while visiting her parents, and she's forced to stay behind with her fragile newborn while he returns home to work. It appears that they've made the best of a terrible situation, but when she and the baby can finally return home, everything feels wrong. Her job has shifted out from under her, parenting turns her marriage inside out, and her gifted parrot has learned some mimics that she can't make heads of tails of. As Lina struggles to navigate the complexities of being a mother outside the NICU, she begins to suspect that while she was absent someone stepped into the space that was supposed to be hers alone. She tackles the mystery one step at a time while trying to focus on her baby's changing needs with the help of a calm and helpful mentor the hospital assigned to them. One by one, the things people tell her and her parrot's insistent voice fill her life with doubt, until the only voice that still feels real is hundreds of miles away.

A married couple has been drifting apart for a while. He's on the go. She's more comfortable at home. He has a female friend at work he enjoys hiking, mountain bike riding and running with. She can't keep up. One day she tries and ends up in the hospital. He doesn't notice for three days that she's missing. It's his wake up call. But now, she's not answering.