Cecilia Bailey Novels & Stories

The temperature starts to drop once we reach the top of the mountain. My two childhood friends, who swore to protect me with their lives, don't even spare me a glance. One is hastily wrapping all his clothes around Lisette Locke, while the other is warming her with his body. I'm so cold that my heart condition acts up; I beg them to save me. However, they're infuriated by this. "How can you still be trying to get our attention at a time like this, Cecilia? Run around for a while if you're cold!" "We'll buy you that white down jacket you wanted when we get back, but you can't take it from Lise now!" The rescue team arrives, and I barely make it out alive. I'm hospitalized for a week, but neither of them come to visit me. I see from my social media that they're busy celebrating Lisette's birthday. We've been friends for over a decade, yet I mean nothing when compared to the driver's daughter. I call my father and say, "Dad, "I'm willing to marry into the Jorgensen family!"

For five years of marriage, Sophie Lane had always believed her husband, Daniel Hart, was just an ordinary call center operator. He was busy with work, so she learned to handle everything at home on her own. His salary was low, so she stretched every dollar as far as it could go. It wasn’t until she was hospitalized during a difficult labor and ran into Daniel accompanying his fallen comrade’s widow, Clara Bailey, that she finally learned the truth. Daniel had never been a call center operator at all; he was a commanding officer in an elite unit. To give all the privileges of a commander’s wife to his childhood sweetheart, Clara, he had hidden his identity from Sophie for five years. When Clara lost her child, and to spare her the pain, he had even made Sophie give her own baby to her. Sophie’s heart went completely cold. After recovering in the hospital, she went alone to audition for an out-of-town performing arts company. With the offer letter in hand, she petitioned the court for divorce. She was going to end this marriage built on lies. And leave Daniel forever.

Two years after the death of my husband, John Foster, I get a video call from him—except it's him from five years in the future. "John! You're still alive! Tell me where you are. I'm coming now to bring you home!" Crying tears of joy, I scramble to pick up the car keys I dropped, only to hear him say, "Actually, I faked my death to be with your friend…" As my mind goes blank, he continues to tell me everything as if none of it is a big deal. "I attended my funeral. The whole time you were crying beside my casket, I was in the back room with Adaline, getting it on with her. You thought her eyes were red because she was crying in grief. "Oh, my mother and our son know that I faked my death, too. Every year, they've found all kinds of excuses to come spend time with us instead…" My blood turns cold. My hand shakes as I clutch the phone. Meanwhile, John exhales, looking like he has taken a load off his chest. "I've already told you the truth about everything now, Cecilia, so it's up to you whether you want to continue living like a widow."

Jim Charleston is my foster brother. He and I have been dating in secret for 10 years. On the day we decide to go public, Jim receives an undercover mission assignment to Duskhaven, where he has slim chances of returning alive. The night before he left, he held me and promised, "If I come back alive, I will marry you in a grand wedding. I'll stay by your side forever." Foolishly, I broke ties with my family and waited for him. I became the laughingstock of the entire high society circle. Three years later, Jim returns but with a ruined reputation and enormous debts. Kneeling like a broken man before our father, he firmly declares, "I promised Anne I would take care of her for life, Dad!" The woman named Anne hid timidly behind Jim, clutching her pregnant belly tightly. Dad turns to me instinctively. Everyone is waiting for me to lose my mind and cause a scene. However, I just smile. Right then and there, I accept the engagement ring from the good-for-nothing playboy. On the day of my engagement party, Jim drives in recklessly. With a gun in his hand, he shouts, "Cecilia Forrest! If you dare go through with this marriage, I'll kill him!"

“I’ve warned you from the beginning. Don’t marry him, but you won’t listen.” Darcy stood close to me and smiled with concern. “You’re not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze.” My whole body trembled at her words. “Have you no shame?” I asked. “Take a good look at yourself, Heather.” She stared at me in the mirror. “You can’t even glance at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of gazing at that scar?” Heather Bailey got a surprise from her husband: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn’t believe Blaze intended to divorce her. She was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman. After signing the divorce papers, shockwaves caught her up. Her flower shop was burned to the ground. Her father’s company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers from influential families, she started her revenge on Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted, but that was just the beginning.

I've had a crush on Don Luciano Damiani for ten years. Heck, I even agree to his request to sleep with him a thousand times before we finally get to announce our relationship to the world. The locations vary, be it Luciano's private shooting range or the VIP lounge. He uses every trick up his sleeve just to groom me into his personal plaything. Every time we do it, Luciano will kiss me while coaxing the answer out of me. "Do you want our relationship to go public, babe?" I've answered him "yes" 999 times. Of course, he disappoints me 999 times as well. But on the thousandth time, Luciano says, "Cecilia, let's announce our relationship on my birthday, which will be held in two days." Excitement washes over me at that moment. But that's when my best friend, Valentina Fiore, starts a video chat with me. "I lost to Luciano in a racing competition. Yesterday, I had to go to the City Hall to get our marriage registered there. "But he still intends to keep you as his mistress. That's why we shall fight for his affection to the best of our ability on fair grounds. "The next two days shall be our contending period. We'll bet on who matters to Luciano more. The loser will travel to the Republic of Azamir as a war correspondent, whereas the winner gets to attend his birthday party and announce their relationship to the world."

Carina Lewis, the head of the department, has been a friend of mine since college. While she successfully climbs up the corporate ladder, I'm stuck being the workhorse at the bottom of the totem pole. When she's late for work, I sign in for her. When she messes up, I clean up for her. I'm happy to play along with her, of course. It's not easy to find someone dumb enough to be the scapegoat. One day, a billionaire investor shows up at the company's doorstep, and the senior executives instruct me to take care of him during his visit. This evening, when the rest of the office is empty, Carina takes my hand and tells me earnestly, "Bailey, investors like him are ruthless. You won't even know what's coming for you. An innocent woman like you won't be able to handle him. Let me, your best friend, test the waters with him first. Once everything is settled, I'll make you a manager." I nod sweetly in response. Hours later, I scurry over to the presidential suite at the hotel, where the billionaire investor is staying, and kick down the door. "Open up, Dal!" It's one thing for Carina to constantly take advantage of me, but how dare she dream of becoming my sister-in-law to steal half of my family's assets? That deluded pipe dream of hers will even make the marble statues in my family's garden roll their eyes.

I've been in a three-year relationship with Antonio Bianco, the successor of the Bianco family. Everyone knows very well how much he loves me. But everything has changed the moment Antonio's older brother passes away, leaving behind his newly-widowed wife, Rosetta Serra, who's also pregnant. Antonio heeds Augusto Bianco's last wish by taking great care of Rosetta. He even ditches me at the altar numerous times for her sake. On our 51st wedding, Antonio still ends up leaving with Rosetta, who keeps crying her heart out. I just gaze at the way Antonio scrambles to come up with a new excuse. I notice how skillfully the wedding planning company is cleaning up the wedding venue in advance. I also spot the flash of a provocative smile Rosetta has shown to me behind Antonio's back as she links arms with him. Suddenly, I feel like a total joke for being with such a man over the past three years. When the hotel manager gives me the bill, he asks casually, "When will the 52nd wedding be held, Ms. Marino? We can make the preparations in advance." "There's no need for a wedding anymore," I respond with a smile. "Even if a wedding is to be held, the groom won't be the same person anyway." After leaving the hotel, I dial the number of the person in charge of the International Medical Organization. "Hello, I'm Cecilia Marino. I'd like to accept your invitation to join your organization, and I can leave anytime soon."

“F*ck, you’re so tight, babe!” I put a hand over my mouth as I peeked through the gap in the door. “I like it! I like it! Harder, Dan!” Gia moaned, nearly losing her mind. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do this anymore, since you’re getting married tomorrow,” Gia said, breathless. “Even if I’m married, I’ll still pound you hard like I’m single,” Daniel replied between breaths, continuing to thrust into Gia—while Gia glanced toward where I was and smirked at me, as if to mock me. Yes—she could see me clearly. And it felt like she asked Daniel that on purpose, as if it was something they did all the time. I used to think Daniel was such a gentleman because he never asked me for that kind of thing. Turns out, he was getting it from someone else. Inside the room, I could see my fiancé, Daniel, completely naked behind his childhood friend Gia—who was also completely naked. I didn’t even realize the tears were falling until I felt them on my cheeks, still staring at their filthy act. I thought I would be the one to surprise him—but I was the one who ended up shocked. I didn’t stay to watch what happened next. I left and wiped my tears away. “Just wait,” I whispered into the air, “and you’ll see how Althea Bailey gets her revenge…”

In the stillness of my penthouse evenings, where my world ignited by Adrian’s touch, I was, for all purposes, the luckiest woman in the world. And I am, or was, Cecilia Lancaster, a dreamer who fell for Adrian Blackwood’s dark and brooding good looks, every moment, every laugh, every tear, all with my ride or die best friend, Isabel Chen. We formed a group of unbreakable relationships or so I believed—only until one afternoon shattered all my world. The pregnancy test shone brightly, a mini spark of joy amidst all our glitz and mayhem. However, barging into our bedroom like a maniac, I destroyed the image: Adrian and Isabel, locked in an embrace made for lovers, sheepishly gazing at me. The twist hit like thunder. "Love? Never," Adrian growled, his slap echoing my breaking heart. "Your father's reckless deal killed mine in that boardroom betrayal. I married you for vengeance to strip away your happiness like he did ours." Isabel's revelation stabbed deeper"I'm pregnant with his heir, Cecilia. The family you could never build." I fled into the raging storm, devastated, and whispered to my unborn child, "We'll make our own light, baby," before a screech of tires and oblivion claimed me. They mourned me as dead. 5 yrs later, Adrian's empire was flourishing, built on an unfulfilling revenge—until Isabel's web unraveled: her "pregnancy" a cruel fabrication in an attempt to trap him. As Adrian wrestles with the second opportunity to succeed, to win back the family he never knew, hidden truths abound: allegations of company treachery, Isabel's vendetta comeback, and my wavering recollections on the cusp of igniting fresh hurts. Can love truly be reborn from the flames, or shall the central conflict: forgive or fury?consume us all?