Is Nothing Is Wasted Worth Reading?

I signed the divorce papers on a Tuesday. No tears. No phone calls. No begging. I just picked up the pen, signed my name, and let Dominic Hartley go. For four years, I tried to be everything a good wife should be. I put my career on hold. I pushed my dreams aside. I made myself smaller so he could feel bigger. And somehow, it still wasn’t enough. He looked through me like I wasn’t really there. I loved him quietly while he built his empire, not realizing he was slowly tearing mine down. When he filed for divorce, I think he expected me to fall apart. I didn’t. I started over. A new apartment. A new job. A version of myself I hadn’t seen in a long time. And for the first time in years, I felt like me again. While he stayed in his perfect penthouse, surrounded by everything money could buy and nothing that felt real, I was finally learning how to be happy. That’s when he noticed me. Of course. Too late. Now Dominic Hartley, the man who never had to chase anything, is chasing me. Calling. Showing up. Saying all the things I used to beg to hear. But I’m not that woman anymore. And I’ve learned what he hasn’t. Love isn’t enough to go back to something that broke you. He wants another chance. I just don’t know if he’s really changed… or if I’m the one thing he can’t get back.

Brooklyn pulled her phone from her designer handbag to take a photo of her marriage certificate, but her husband snatched the marriage certificate from her hand and asked coldly, “What do you think you are doing, Brooklyn?” Brooklyn looked at her new husband with eyes full of love and replied, “I want to share our happiness with people who are important in my life, Preston.” A surge of anger rose in Preston’s heart, and he said, “Listen carefully, Brooklyn. You will never have my heart. You are nothing but my nominal wife. Please ensure that our marriage remains a secret. Should you disclose our marital status to your so-called important people, you will face consequences.” Brooklyn felt that her heart had been squeezed by invisible hands. The pain was so intense that she couldn’t breathe. Brooklyn swiftly regained her composure before meeting her husband’s gaze. She looked at her husband with eyes that were calm but devoid of any warmth and replied, “I understand, Mr James.”

For three years, Corinna Voss was the perfect wife. She cooked his meals, kept his house warm, and loved him in the quiet, and faithful way that asks for nothing in return. She told herself that patience was enough. That one day, Stellan Rhys would finally see her. He never did. When he hands her the divorce papers — cleanly, coldly, without an apology — Corinna does not beg. She does not cry. She simply signs her name, sets her ring on the table, and walks out of his life without looking back. What Stellan does not know is what he just threw away. Corinna Voss is the sole heir to the Voss Group — one of the most powerful private investment empires in the country. She hid it for him. She made herself small, ordinary,and invisible, because she wanted to be loved as a woman, not a fortune. Now she is done being small. When fate forces them back into the same world, Stellan barely recognizes the woman he discarded. She is radiant. She is untouchable, and she is standing beside a man who has loved her long enough to know exactly what she is worth. Stellan wants her back. But Corinna has one question she needs him to answer first. Is it her he regrets losing, or everything he never knew she was?

My stepson pushes me down from the second floor, all because I accidentally break a bowl. He stands over me, looking down with a cold, emotionless gaze. "You're just a stand-in my grandfather forced on us. Don't even think about replacing my mother!" I stare up at the boy I've raised for eight years, and his indifference cuts deeper than any wound. Blood slowly trickles down from my forehead. Fighting through the pain, I dial a number. "Whatever debt I owed has been paid. It's time for me to leave." Coincidentally, I already have the divorce agreement that his father has signed.

I had just climbed into the armored SUV leaving the Moretti estate when the gatekeeper hurried after me with a black encrypted phone in his hand. "Mrs. Westmore, Don Moretti asked me to give you this." I took it. One unread message glowed on the screen. [Selena only had a scare. I'll come home tomorrow. Don't overthink it.] I stared at it for two seconds, popped out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed it into the rain outside the window. The next day, I had just reached the abandoned shipyard in North Harbor when encrypted messages started hitting my backup phone one after another. [Vivian, where are you?] [Why aren't you home? Where the hell did you go this late?] [Answer me. Don't make me send men all over the city looking for you.] The last one was exactly his style: soft on the surface, arrogant underneath. [Your family survives under my protection. Don't test my patience.] I didn't answer. After countless messages sank without a reply, my husband finally drove to the old Westmore grounds at North Harbor. He knew that if anything was left of my family, I would be there. But when Damon pushed through the broken iron gate, he found no guards, no household staff, and no Westmore men waiting for orders. The old house stood hollow in the rain. Its windows were blown out, the front steps were black with soot, and the air still carried the bitter smell of smoke and gunpowder. Damon grabbed a passing harbor guard by the sleeve. "Where are the Westmores?" The guard looked at him as if he should already know. "Gone. The family was hit two nights ago. Whoever came for them knew exactly when Moretti protection would be pulled from the harbor." "Miss Westmore came back before dawn," the guard added. "She took the black-gold signet, a few boxes of ledgers, and whatever papers survived the fire." "After that, she left. And no one has seen her since."

All because of Leo Cullen’s words, I gave up a place at a top-tier university in Ceres and stayed behind to retake the entrance exams with him—three times. By the fourth year, a girl arrived at our cram school, and Leo forgot the promise we made. He started skipping class, picking fights, smoking—doing everything but studying. One day, I stood at the school gate, blocking his path with a textbook in hand as he tried to ditch class. He smirked, unimpressed, and blew a bubble with his gum, letting it stick to the ends of my hair. “Naomi…,” he began, “who still cares about studying these days?” So I stopped caring and avoided him entirely. When he fooled around in the classroom, I went to the library. When he played basketball, I sat in a quiet corner with my books. Even when I craved noodles from my favorite shop, I’d scan the room first to make sure he wasn’t there. “Are you avoiding me, Naomi?” he asked later, his face in a frown. I shook my head. “Why would you think that?”