Could Have Been Us Novels & Stories

A car accident left me with severe brain injuries. I was left hanging by a thread. My wife, a renowned medical genius, personally operated on me for 18 consecutive hours, pulling me back from death's grasp. Yet, the first words I said to her after waking up were, "Grace, I want a divorce." Her eyes were filled with tears. "Derek, I just saved your life, and now, you want to leave me? Is it because I've been too busy at the hospital? Because I haven't spent enough time with you?" I frowned. "It's exactly because you saved me that I want this divorce. I won't let you sacrifice your reputation for me." The family elders tried to reason with me. "Grace is such a wonderful wife. She takes care of everything and loves you deeply. Why insist on a divorce? Why throw away such happiness?" No matter who approached me, I dismissed them with the same response. "If you think she's so perfect, then she'll be available once we're divorced." The elders were furious. "Fine! Get your divorce! But don't come crying to us when you regret it!" I whispered under my breath, "The only thing I regret is not divorcing her sooner."

"I love fantasies. Impossible, only imaginable fantasies. The ones that would take me beyond and beyond my monotonous life. To other worlds. But this, isn't going to end well," I was saying to myself while lying down with closed eyes and recurring thoughts, starring at the bluest skies and the brightest stars. This city leaves me gawking at its beauty and at the same time allures me to its darkest mysteries. As I was running to find the only thing that could push me out of this fantastical realm, the clustered thoughts in my mind hits me hard everyday, leaving me sleepless and clueless. "You were at that place at that time. It may or may not be desirable. Fate, maybe. But, it's you," the familiar woman's voice kept repeating inside my head. "Begin with what you know and dig the unknown," the man I loved the most said, leaving me chase the knowns inside my scrambled mind. I was going after every single possible hint to take myself away from the life I've always wished to live. "I don't want this. Not for me. Not for my family," I falsely admit to myself, still secretly enjoying every moment of it. She, Idaliah Bristor seems to have a flamboyant life which takes a mysterious turn when she enters the unmapped city of BcHaven. Let's walk and roll with her as she says, "Whatever it may take, I'm giving it a go". Etymology: GEMICIDE - • Gem- The Gem Team • cide - Killing/Sacrificing 'Gemicide', the term I coined means that the Gem Girls without any hesitation is ready to sacrifice themselves or get killed to save their city.

Emma Caldwell's ordinary life as a librarian in Willow Creek is turned upside down when she receives an enigmatic invitation to the reading of a stranger's will at Haverstone Manor. What begins as an inexplicable summons quickly spirals into a labyrinth of secrets, danger, and intrigue. As Emma delves deeper into the manor's mysteries, she discovers she's not the only one with a stake in its secrets. Fellow guests, each with shadowy motives, vie for a piece of the late Lord Haverstone's enigmatic legacy. Amid ancient symbols, cryptic maps, and peculiar artifacts, Emma uncovers the existence of a machine designed to manipulate time itself. Guided by clues left by the deceased lord, Emma must navigate a gothic maze of shifting alliances, hidden chambers, and eerie warnings. Her companions, including a sardonic teenager and a glamorous but cunning relative of Haverstone, are as unpredictable as the dangers lurking in the shadows. When betrayals come to light and an old foe reveals their true intentions, Emma finds herself the reluctant guardian of a power that could reshape existence—or destroy it. As the stakes rise, she must unravel the truth about Haverstone’s experiments and decide whom she can trust, all while racing to prevent the manor’s secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Blending gothic suspense, unexpected humor, and thrilling twists, "Haverstone's Legacy" is a gripping tale of mystery and courage, where every choice could mean the difference between salvation and catastrophe.

In the island nation of Aurelia, where power is inherited and reputation is currency, Lillian Bloom lives quietly as a florist in Florentis Quarter, far removed from the elite who rule the city’s glass towers. Her world changes when she is thrust into a contract marriage with Nathaniel Crosswell, the ruthless young CEO of Aurelia’s most powerful conglomerate. Their union is meant to be nothing more than strategy. Protection. Control. But as Lillian enters high society, her presence unsettles powerful families and draws the attention of a mysterious matriarch who knows more than she should. Fragments of a forgotten past begin to surface—memories of rain, shattered glass, and parents lost in a car crash that was never an accident. Lillian is not an outsider. She is a missing heir to one of Aurelia’s wealthiest families, hidden to protect her life and erased from history. When the truth emerges, her marriage to Nathaniel becomes a battleground, pulling them into a war fought through corporate power, legal intrigue, and public perception. As enemies close in and secrets unravel, a marriage born of obligation transforms into something dangerous to an empire built on fear: love chosen freely. This sweeping billionaire romance blends mystery, legacy, and slow-burn passion in a story about reclaiming identity, redefining power, and choosing love on one’s own terms.

Nadia Jenson returns to her past, her home growing up, Havenwood. Full of revenge, anger and a need to make things right. She storms into town revealing shocking truths but is soon taken aback when she finds more than what she bargains for. By righting a wrong, she has uncovered many hidden truths, hidden secrets that have been buried far too long. This book takes readers through Nadia’s unforgiving revenge, unexpected love and testing of loyalties.

One night of passion, she had slept with the wrong man! Wendy Walters's frantic questioning had been met with a marriage contract. Why had her brother-in-law suddenly become her fiance? The answer he gave was: "Because you had slept with me. The women that I've slept with would only be mine, so the only thing I can think of is to marry you home."

On our sixth wedding anniversary, my cheeks burn as I dodge my husband, Ethan Grant, leaning in for a hungry kiss. I push him toward the nightstand for a rubber. What he doesn't know is that I've tucked a surprise in there, a positive pregnancy test. I can already see it, the way his whole face will light up the second he finds it. But the moment his hand goes for the drawer, his phone goes off. His best friend, Henry Miller, comes on the line in Danish. "Mr. Grant, how was last night? That new love couch our company rolled out is treating you okay?" Ethan lets out a low laugh and answers in Danish, "The massage feature's great. Saves me from having to rub Sandy's back myself." He still has me pulled tight against him, but his eyes look straight through me, like he's seeing someone else. "This stays between us. If my wife ever finds out I slept with her sister, I'm done." It feels like someone just put a knife through my chest. What they don't know is that I minored in Danish in college, so I catch every single word. I force myself to stay calm, but the arms I have looped around Ethan's neck won't stop shaking. At that moment, I stop hesitating and decide I'll take the offer from that international research project. Three days from now, I'll be gone from Ethan's world for good.

Ronan Blackthorne gets the same coffee every morning. Black, no sugar. From the same girl who doesn't even know he's worth billions. Annabelle thinks he's just another suit with good tips and a nice smile. She has no clue he owns half of Manhattan. Here's the thing though, Ronan's got a problem. His dead father just screwed him over big time. Turns out daddy had a secret daughter somewhere, and she owns 35% of everything Ronan thought was his. Now he's hunting this mystery girl down because his psychotic mother Victoria won't shut up about finding her and making the problem disappear. The barista he's falling for is the girl he's looking for.

Seven years ago, Amara Okafor lost the man she loved without ever knowing why. One unanswered goodbye shattered her dreams, leaving her to raise her daughter alone while fighting poverty one stitch at a time as a struggling tailor. When a medical emergency forces her to beg for help at a hospital, the last person she expects to see is Ethan Cole, the man who disappeared from her life and is now one of Africa's most powerful billionaires. But Ethan never stopped loving the woman he believes abandoned him. As buried secrets begin to surface, forgotten promises return, and dangerous lies unravel, they discover their love wasn't destroyed by time, it was stolen. Now, someone will do anything to keep the truth buried, even if it means tearing them apart again. Some love stories end with goodbye. Theirs begins there.

**Dangerous Addiction: The Woman He Couldn't Replace** Regina Kingston built her life with her own hands — a thriving architecture firm, a marriage she chose freely, a love she never stopped fighting for. But for three years, she has shared her husband with a ghost. Alexander Kingston is everything a woman could want on paper: billionaire, powerful, devastatingly controlled. What no one knows is that beneath the empire he built lies a grief he never buried — Rosalie Hart, his first love, dead in a fire six years ago, and somehow still occupying every locked door, every silence, every place in his heart Regina was never allowed to enter. On their anniversary, while Regina prepares a dinner he never comes home to eat, she overhears the truth she always feared: if Rosalie had lived, his life would have been different. Hers wouldn't have mattered at all. She signs the divorce papers that night. But before the ink even dries, an anonymous call and a chilling photograph shatter everything she thought she knew — Rosalie Hart may still be alive. Now Alexander has five days to prove that what he feels for Regina is real, not guilt, not habit, not a woman wearing someone else's shadow. As old wounds reopen and Evelyn Laurent — his childhood friend, devoted to him in ways he's never noticed — moves through the chaos with a calm too practiced to trust, Regina carries a secret of her own: she's pregnant, and she doesn't know if she'll have the chance to tell him before everything falls apart. Between a love fighting to be chosen and a past that refuses to stay dead, *Dangerous Addiction* asks the question every woman who has loved an unavailable man has asked herself: can you ever truly win against a ghost?