Gemma Teller Morrow Mga Nobela at Kwento

A week before Easter, Adrian gave me seven days off and had a ticket to Stockholm slipped into my bag. I thought he was finally learning how to care. Then I heard him talking to our son on the staircase. “Dad, are you really going to marry Aunt Bianca? What about Mom?” Noah was holding his model car, trying to sound brave. Adrian was quiet for a moment. “It’s only a legal marriage. Matteo is gone. Bianca and Sophia are exposed, and I can’t leave them that way. They need the DeLuca name for protection.” “Does Mom know?” “She can’t know.” His voice softened. “Keep this from her, Noah. On your birthday, I’ll buy you that Aston Martin model you want.” So the ticket was never a gift. It was a way to move me out of the picture. If he could put his family name on another woman, even for show, then I could take back the pride and ambition I had buried in this marriage. This time, when I left for the north, I would not come back.

Three nights ago, I was locked inside my own family’s underground wine cellar. When my congenital heart condition hit, I called my husband, Zane Corleone, and begged him to come save me. He didn’t come. Instead, he stayed with another woman all night because she was afraid of the dark—and told me to stop faking it for attention. That was the moment I finally understood. If he cared that much about her, then I would do the one thing neither of them expected. I would make room for her. In three days, I would disappear from his world completely.

I was Alpha Adrian’s mate, his Luna, and the woman who held his pack together for ten years. Then he decided Bianca needed “protection.” Protection meant giving her his name in front of the Pack Council. It meant letting her stand at his right hand, wear the Luna jewels, and let her daughter call him Daddy while our son waited for him at home. He called it duty. He called it temporary. He expected me to understand. I did. I understood that every time he had to choose, he chose someone else. So I stopped begging for the place that was already mine. I took our son, walked into the severance ritual, and tore our mate bond out by the roots. Adrian thought I would come back once his guilt caught up with him. But by the time he realized what he had lost, I was already free.

One woman. Three names. A thousand lies. Corinne Sterling thought her secret was airtight. Teaching paid the bills but stripping paid the debts—that was the price of a corporate betrayal that ruined her name and stole her future. Her mask was supposed to keep her safe, until she caught the eye of the one man who has the power to ruin her. Lucian Delacroix is a powerful widower, a devoted father to twin boys and a man who doesn’t believe in coincidences. When he recognizes the eyes behind the glasses of his son’s teacher as the masked dancer that nearly upturned his world, his curiosity turns into a dangerous obsession. Instead of exposing her, he claims her. Instead of destroying her, he offers her a lifeline: his name, his protection and a wedding ring. It was supposed to be a cold business arrangement, they were supposed to be skeptical allies. But as they dig into a conspiracy of fraud and murder that tied their lives together long before they met, the lines of their fake marriage begin to blur. And in this dangerous game of desire and deception, the price of love might be more than either is prepared to pay.

On the night before the wedding, New York was washed in cold rain. The rehearsal at St. Patrick's Cathedral had been set for seven o'clock. Under the vaulted ceiling, the white roses, black satin bows, and silver candelabras had all been arranged exactly the way I wanted. But by the time the rehearsal ended, he still hadn't shown up. At 11:17 that night, I finally got a message from him. [Sophia is pregnant. Although the baby isn’t mine, I can’t let her child be born carrying the name of an illegitimate child.] [I went to City Hall with her tonight and made it legal.] [The wedding is still happening tomorrow.] [That piece of paper is just a formality. The person standing at the altar will still be you.] [Don't let outsiders know too much. And don't ruin her reputation.] I stared at those lines for a long time. In the end, I replied with a single word. [Okay.] I don't want the wedding and you.

Memories of an event that occurred in a narrow, dark alley haunted Eric five years ago. Dressed in a penguin cartoon costume, he saved a teenager from a gang but was pushed into an abyss and drowned by the same teenager, transforming him into an Omega. In an attempt to escape the pain of the past, Eric became a B-list actor in the entertainment industry. However, his encounter with Haley and the legendary crown prince of the SMALL Group disturbed his peace. Darcel's crazy hegemony terrified Eric, and he wanted to fight back when Darcel used force to crush him. He ended up imprisoned by Darcel's side and was constantly troubled by gangs knocking on his door. The lack of funds caused by suppressed investor support prevented the completion of his new movie. The past and reality intertwined, and an unexpected coincidence between Darcel and another teenager caused Eric to feel intense hostility towards Darcel. Will Eric forgive Darcel for the hurt he has caused, and will Eric's peace ever return to the way it was before?

On my five-hundred-and-twentieth flight into Chicago, my boyfriend finally came to the airport for me. He held a bouquet of air-flown Blue Moon roses, and the diamond ring inside the velvet box caught the terminal lights. The moment he dropped to one knee, I heard the shocked gasps around us. “Eliana Lowe,” he said, his gray-blue eyes lifted to mine. “Marry me.” My fingers tightened around the handle of my suitcase. I held out my hand, my voice already shaking. "Luca, we--" The ring had barely slid over my finger when Luca laughed. He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking over my shoulder at the row of black SUVs idling by the curb. "Told you she'd say yes. Hand over the key to Warehouse Three." Laughter burst from the SUVs. Luca's circle spilled into view: casino managers, dock supervisors, rich kids who lived off the Moretti name, and Vivian Gray at the front in pale fur, laughing hard enough to wipe at the corner of her eye. “No wonder she stayed at your heels for ten years. If I had a pet this obedient, I wouldn’t have the heart to throw it out either.” Luca smiled and patted my head soothingly.“Eliana, it was just a joke. Don't be angry. I’ll make it up to you later.” I looked at the ring on my finger, then at the people laughing behind him. For ten years, I had played along with his games. This time, I didn’t want to anymore.

For one year, I believed Matteo De Luca had truly fallen in love with me. Our marriage began as an alliance, but he held me every night, kissed me before council meetings, and fastened the De Luca Donna brooch at my throat as if I already belonged beside him. Then his first love, Vanessa Ashford, came back. Within days, our official ceremony was postponed, her access was added to the Donna wing, and Matteo stopped wearing the family signet he once used to claim me in public. He said it was council business. But council business did not leave amber perfume on his skin. It did not sit beside him on a private jet to Palm Beach. And it certainly did not smile from the Donna’s chair while his friends watched me lose my place. The final humiliation came at a private dinner, when someone asked whether I was Matteo’s wife. He looked at me, then said calmly, “Elena and I have an arrangement.” That night, I stopped waiting to be chosen. Matteo could keep his first love, his title, and the home he let her enter. I packed my passport, my Florence contract, and the prenatal report he had never seen. Then I left New York with his child.

Fiona vanished ten years ago, walking away from her billionaire father, his new wife, and the stepbrother she refused to meet. She built a new life, married a man she trusted, and created a company from nothing—until the night she walked in on her husband and best friend in bed together. Devastated, she escaped to a bar, where one reckless kiss with a stranger led to a night of passion she could never forget. She never expected to see him again. She definitely didn’t expect him to be Rafael Velmera, her powerful new boss… and the stepbrother she never met. Neither of them knew the truth that night. Now, they are trapped in a world of secrets, betrayal, and a desire they should never feel. But Fiona is hiding more than just her name. She’s hiding a child… and a war is coming. Because the night she gave in to him didn’t just destroy her morals, It destroyed the lie her entire life was built on. And what she’s about to discover will change everything. What if the man she’s forbidden to love… is the only one who has ever truly been hers?

That night was supposed to belong to Mia. She had spent a month practicing for her first piano recital. I had cooked all afternoon, set the table, and helped her into the pale blue dress Luca loved. She stood beside the piano, cheeks flushed, fingers trembling with excitement. Then Luca's phone rang. Vivienne was spiraling again. After Luca's older brother died, his widow never really came back from it. On her worst nights, she forgot the difference between the dead husband she had lost and the brother-in-law who kept showing up to save her. And Luca always showed up. Every time Vivienne broke, he left us behind. Every time he came home, he brought apologies, pretty gifts, and promises for next time. And every time, I believed him. Until that night. Before he could make another excuse, I placed the divorce papers in front of him. He signed without reading them, then touched my shoulder like he was the one being generous. "When this is over, I'll make it up to you," he said. "You, me, and Mia. The Maldives. No calls. No interruptions." Then he kissed our daughter's hair and walked out before she played a single note. What Luca didn't know was that Mia's passport was already packed. So was the little suitcase under her bed. I was done waiting for a man who only loved us when no one else needed him. This time, he could come home to an empty house.