Can I Read 'The Crane Husband' Online For Free?

She married him knowing one thing clearly: love was never part of the agreement. Their marriage was built on terms, not promises. A shared home. A shared bed. A public image to maintain. Nothing more. He was distant, controlled, and never cruel — but never warm either. To him, she was a wife in name, a solution to a problem, a role that needed to be filled. What neither of them expected was how silence could become dangerous. How intimacy without love could still leave marks. How wanting someone could come long before admitting it. As the line between obligation and desire begins to blur, she must decide how long she can stay where she isn’t truly chosen — and he must face the truth he never planned for. Because sometimes, the most dangerous thing isn’t loving someone too much… It’s realizing you never meant to love them at all.

She married him because of a contract. He married her because she was convenient. To the world, Alice Neighley is the perfect wife—graceful, obedient, invisible. Married to a powerful heir, she lives in a luxurious cage built on indifference and silence. Her husband never touches her heart, never defends her position, and never hides the truth: she was never the woman he wanted. When his first love returns, Alice becomes a placeholder—easy to replace, easier to discard. Even worse, the betrayal doesn’t come only from her husband, but from the people she once called family. But Alice is done begging for love. As the contract nears its end, secrets surface, loyalties shatter, and the woman everyone underestimated begins to wake up. She will walk away from the marriage they thought defined her—and from the man who believed she would never leave. What they don’t know is this: Alice is no longer the wife he never wanted. She is the one he will never get back.

“You’re mine now, Wifey. You don’t call the shots; I do.” Just weeks before her wedding, Kourtney Allen’s world shatters when she catches her fiancé in bed with her sister. Her devastation deepens when her family sides with her sister, forcing Kourtney to walk away from the life she thought was hers. Writhing in pain and coughing up blood, she plots her revenge. Unexpectedly, she got a husband — Sebastian Woods, the ruthless, untouchable billionaire feared as “The Stone-Hearted CEO.” Known for his cold demeanor and strange aversion to women, he’s shocked to discover Kourtney doesn’t trigger his mysterious condition. Intrigued, he offers her an escape: a marriage on his terms. But the man’s idea of marriage is control, and Kourtney refuses to be tamed. As secrets from her past emerge and his first love returns, their fiery dynamic threatens to explode. Can Kourtney break free from the chains of his obsession, or will she surrender to the man she swore to despise?

Blurb Desperate times call for dangerous bargains. Diva Scott has nothing left to lose. With her mother’s life hanging by a thread and a costly surgery she can’t afford, the last thing she expects is a proposal from a powerful stranger. Julius Baron...cold, arrogant, and the heir to a construction empire, needs a wife to secure his place in his family’s ruthless succession battle. His offer is simple: a contract marriage for money. No love. No intimacy. No complications. But one reckless night shatters every rule. As their fake marriage begins to draw suspicion from Julius’s powerful family, Diva and Julius are forced to play the role of a loving couple. Heated arguments turn into undeniable sparks, and the line between pretense and passion begins to blur. Just when Diva thinks she might understand the man behind the arrogance, betrayal strikes, secrets surface, and enemies close in. Cast aside, pregnant, and heartbroken, Diva walks away only to find unexpected kindness from the last man she should trust: Julius’s own brother. But love, once ignited, refuses to die. When lies unravel and deadly revenge threatens everything, Julius must risk it all to protect the woman he once pushed away… and prove that their contract marriage was never just a deal. Because escaping her contracted husband was easy. Escaping his love… is impossible.

Desperate and with nowhere left to turn, Ivy Carter accepts the strangest job offer of her life. Marry a dying billionaire. The deal is simple. A wealthy heiress who no longer wants to marry her disabled fiancé needs a substitute bride. Ivy looks enough like her to fool everyone. She only has to play the role of a loving wife for six months. After the billionaire dies, she'll walk away with a fortune, and the real bride will return to claim everything. It should have been easy, except the billionaire isn't the cold, broken man everyone believes him to be. Beneath his pain is a lonely soul who has been betrayed by the people he trusted most, and as Ivy's kindness begins to heal wounds no doctor ever could, the impossible happens, her husband starts to fight for life again. But miracles have consequences. When the woman who abandoned him returns to reclaim her place, she discovers the man she expected to inherit is no longer dying, and the substitute bride she hired has become the only woman he truly loves. With jealous rivals, dangerous family secrets, and a fortune worth killing for, Ivy must decide whether to walk away with the money she was promised, or risk everything for the man she was never supposed to love.

Amara Cole never dreamed of marrying a billionaire. But when her mother’s hospital bills grew unbearable, she signed a contract that bound her to the cold, ruthless Lucian Hale. One year as his wife. No love. No expectations. No freedom. Lucian is everything she should fear—arrogant, powerful, and heartless. To him, Amara is nothing but a pawn in his world of business and betrayal. Yet the more she endures his cruel words and icy indifference, the more sparks begin to burn between them. But their marriage is far from simple. His jealous ex will do anything to destroy her. His father calls her unworthy. And another man’s kindness makes her question if love is possible outside the contract. Caught between duty and desire, Amara must find her strength before the year ends. Because when a ruthless billionaire starts to fall… the contract is the last thing he’ll obey.