A Thousand Splendid Suns Novels & Stories

I'm having a mental breakdown as I face a clogged drain with my feverish and fussing daughter in my arms. Meanwhile, my husband has reserved a hotel to celebrate another woman's birthday. My mother-in-law spits on the floor. "This is what you deserve. You can't even capture a man's heart!" I clench a fist around the winning lottery ticket in my pocket. I want to get a divorce.

I was the real son of the Lane family, lost and left outside for 27 years. A year after I was brought back, I helped the Lane family’s company break into overseas markets, tripling its annual sales. However, at the end of the year, even the outsourced janitors got a 13th-month bonus, while the fake heir gave me just 250 dollars. “The company made money, sure, but there are expenses everywhere. You’re just a low-level salesperson. All you do is talk. You should be grateful you got that much.” I could not swallow it, so I went to argue with my biological sister, the general manager. She did not even look up. “Clive didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t have much education and no core skills. You were never qualified for management bonuses.” My parents did not care either. They were too busy planning which country to take the fake heir to for the holidays. I did not argue or make a scene. I just turned around and called Lane Corporation’s biggest rival. “A salesperson who brought in 30 million dollars in the last year is looking to jump ship. Interested? I don’t have any other demands. I just want to see Lewis Corporation go under as soon as possible!”

On her eighteenth birthday, the long-lost heiress, Cassie Bailey, was finally tracked down by her mother, Ann Moore, CEO of the Bailey Group. However, Cassie refused to come back with her. Instead, she chose to remain adopted by a man living on government assistance. “So what if you’re rich? The bonds ordinary people share can’t be measured with money. Since you weren’t there for me for the past eighteen years, then I won’t acknowledge you for the next eighteen years either!” [Oh my God, she’s such a queen. That fearless, untouched-by-materialism energy is exactly why we love her.] [But her mother is literally the richest woman in Orkta. Is turning that down really a good idea?] The richest woman in Orkta? I shook my head and rubbed my eyes several times before finally accepting the fact that I could somehow see those floating comments. Well, if Cassie did not want a life of unimaginable wealth, I was more than happy to take her place. As everyone watched in stunned silence, I shoved my way through the crowd and grabbed Ann’s hand. “Mom, are you here to take me home?”

The day my brother, Chester Rodney, came to the orphanage to take me home, my boyfriend Dominic Huxley looked at me coldly and said, "If you choose to acknowledge your birth family, we're over." I knew he had his pride—he could never accept the difference in our social standing. So, for him, I turned my back on the family I had yearned for my whole life. In the decades that followed, I toiled without complaint, saving every cent to help him rise to success. By the time I was not yet fifty, overwork had worn me down. Lying on my deathbed, my breathing shallow and weak, I watched Dominic on television. He was now an acclaimed scientist, just awarded the nation's highest research honor. Tears welled in his eyes as he thanked another woman. "All these years," he said, "I never felt worthy of Alicia. But now, maybe I can use this award as the prologue to a love I've owed her for decades." The "Alicia" he spoke of was the woman mistakenly switched with me at birth—the false heiress the Rodney family raised as their own. The camera zoomed out. Alicia Rodney stood radiant, graceful, and perfectly preserved by years of luxury, blushing as she accepted the trophy. "I waited for you for decades," she said sweetly, "but marriage is still something I'll need to ask my brother about." Chester, who had long taken over the family, looked at her with an indulgent tenderness tinged with something unspoken. "I was adopted by our uncle back then for one reason—to protect Alicia. Making the only princess of the Rodney family happy has always been my life's mission." Only then did I realize—everything I thought I had chosen freely, every sacrifice I made without regret, was nothing but a trap, carefully woven by two men, all for Alicia. The betrayal pierced my heart. I died without peace. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Chester came to take me home from the orphanage. I glanced past the two men eyeing me with subtle disdain. Without hesitation, I stepped into the car. "Take me home," I said. This time, I'd send whoever stole my life back to the gutter they slithered from.

I was twelve when Henry Shaw took me home from the orphanage, gave me a new name, put me through school, and gave me a good life. Ten years later, his first love returned from abroad. Her name sounded like mine, and her face looked like a mirror image. I quickly realized I had been a stand-in all along. Crushing the diagnosis in my pocket, I decided that I was going to live the rest of my life for myself, even if I did not have much time left.

“Marry me? Aren’t you scared of death?”Rumor has it Eliljah Moses is a jinx to everyone close to him, that his ill fate was the reason both his sisters and three fiancees had all died.Sally Summers married him with no expectations, and was ready to embrace death should it come for her.Initially she thought she would have to care for him, but little did she expect to be pampered to the nines by him.In his words, “She’s my woman, only I can bully her.”He also said, “Whoever dares to touch my woman, I’ll be sure to make their lives a living hell.”He even said, “My woman will bear me a pile of children!”

In front of the orphanage gates, Rebecca Schwartz, the impoverished student I had been sponsoring, stood glaring at me with a face full of disdain. "If you don't let Freddie come along, I'm not going to your house either," she declared, her tone sharp and unyielding. In the past, blinded by love and hopelessly infatuated, I would have caved to her demands, humbling myself just to keep the peace. But things were different now—I had been reborn. Staring at this despicable pair, who had once caused my tragic demise, a tidal wave of fury surged within me. Yet, it settled into nothing more than a faint, icy smile on my lips. "Then stay here," I said, my voice cold and steady. "Rot in this place alongside your precious Freddie. After all, trash like you belong in the garbage heap."

A week before the wedding, Sean Green begged me to date his best friend. "Honey, just one month. I'll come get you when it's over. You know better than anyone how to be a surrogate girlfriend. Please do this for me? Help him get over the regret of losing his first love so young." I said nothing and nodded without hesitation, but I was not doing it for him. Before I got together with Sean, I was indeed famous in high society as a surrogate girlfriend. So, when Sean pursued me, I did not believe him. I thought it was just another game some nepobaby had come up with until I rejected him for the ninety-ninth time. "Sean, I'm not some decent woman. I love money, and I've been a surrogate girlfriend for a lot of people. If you want me to act as one, we'll do this properly, and you can name a price." I tried my hardest to look arrogant, but he pried open my clenched hand and pressed a black credit card into my palm. His eyes were full of heartache as he said, "I have money. All you need to do is be yourself, my girlfriend, and my future wife. No one will ever make you a stand-in again." I believed him. At least, until a few days ago, when I saw his chat with his friends. [Now that the real one is back, the surrogate girlfriend doesn't seem so appealing anymore, right? Aren't you afraid she'll actually sleep with him since you're handing her off to someone else? Or run away with him?] Sean replied: [She won't. She loves me to death.] [Besides, it's not like I'm not going to marry her. I just want to make up for my regret when Anita's back this time.] [Ethan Foster is my best friend. He knows where the lines are. He won't touch her.] But Sean did not know that the best friend he was talking about had long since lost all sense of restraint with me.

When Aderaldo Cetta Early desires something or someone, nothing can stop him. For him Naara Kiva fulfills all the requirements he’s looking for and desires. To make her his lover is the only choice for the man. In Early’s eyes, their relationship is splendid, until Naara ruins everything. Naara’s life is turned upside down as she is forced to become the lover of this cruel and authoritarian man whom she just met. Even worse, Naara is only seen as a toy for him. It’s like Early is never serious with her. Naara has no desire for a relationship with no feelings, but she cannot forget Early.

Today is Lia's 28th birthday and found herself bidding for a man to take her virginity! "The bidding for him will start now!" the MC announced on the side. “29 thousand!” A woman screamed. "29 thousand, going twice, going trice, is there no one going to fight?" The MC asked. Lia didn't know what was going through her mind to raise her hand, "30 thousand!" She shouted before the bidding was closed. "30 thousand, the bidding is close! You'll have one hot night with him!"