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marriage

The way back to us

Elara and Jonas met in their early youth from school to sharing ice cream in a small café, their eyes still filled with the colors of first love. When he pulled his chair closer and whispered, "Will you be my girlfriend?" she nodded shyly, and his first kiss felt like a promise. It was everything she ever dreamed of. Seven years later, that dream has shattered. Elara Stoddard is a successful architect at Phoenix Architects, known for her precision and control. But behind closed doors—and inside her own head—she is unraveling. Plates smash against walls. Tears come without warning. Her husband, Jonas, has become a stranger who shares her home, her daughter, and her history, but none of her present. The divorce, when it comes, isn't loud. It's quiet. Exhausted. Two people who once promised forever now too tired to fight for it. They part with a single, fragile bridge between them: their daughter, Lucy. For years, they navigate the careful choreography of co-parenting—school pickups, birthday parties, phone calls where Lucy reports, "Daddy says he misses me." Elara buries herself in work. Jonas, she hears, buries himself in his writing. They become parallel lines, close enough to see each other but never touching. Until a crisis forces them back under one roof. In the relentless proximity of shared parenthood, the carefully buried past begins to surface. Not the fights. Not the blame. But the small things: the way he still makes coffee the way she likes it. The way she still laughs at his worst jokes. The way Lucy looks at them both and asks questions no child should have to ask. "Do you miss him too, Mommy?" Elara doesn't have an answer. Not one she can say out loud. Because somewhere beneath the pain, beneath the years of silence and separation, something else is stirring. Not the reckless rush of first love—they're too old, too wounded for that. But something quieter. Deeper. A recognition of the people they've become in each other's absence. He calls her Lara now—the old nickname she hasn't heard in years. It means hearth. Home. And every time he says it, she feels something crack open inside her. But trust is not a door that opens twice. And the question Lucy asked—the question Elara asks herself every night—refuses to be silenced: Can you ever really go back? And if you try, will you destroy the fragile peace you've built for your daughter? Or will you finally find the way back to us ? --- THE WAY BACK TO US is a profoundly moving novel about love after loss, marriage after divorce, and the brave, messy work of choosing each other again—not because the past never happened, but because the future is still worth fighting for.
Parastata · 4.3k Views

Pregnant With The Mafia Lord's Heir After One Night

{MATURE. DARK ROMANCE, MAFIA, YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT IN MAFIA! BLOOD, GORE, ASSUALT. THE ROMANCE ISN'T DARK BUT THE THEME IS DARK. BE WARNED!} His hand pressed flat against the door before I could pull it open, and the warmth of him at my back made every nerve in my body go completely still. "You are the mother of my child and you belong to me," he murmured against my ear, his voice so quiet that made me shiver, "and every breath you take on this island exists because I allow it." His hand moved from the door to my jaw, tilting my face up toward his with a gentleness that made me gulp. "So tell me, my beautiful wife — where exactly do you think you're going?" I had no answer and a knowing smile pulled on his lips. *** Elsie Miller’s simple life unravels the moment she discovers she is pregnant with no memory of how it happened. In a small town where reputation is worth more than truth, her parents choose to erase the scandal the only way they know how—by selling her to a man old enough to be her grandfather to settle a crushing debt she never knew they had. She had accepted her fate and was ready to endure the wedding, but before the vows could be spoken, the church doors burst open and Salvatore Vitale—the most feared Mafia Lord in the underworld, known only as The Saint—strode in, put a bullet in her groom’s head without breaking his stride, and told the priest to continue the ceremony. Then his dark eyes found hers across the blood-soaked aisle, and he spoke the words that rewrote her entire future. "I’ve been searching for you. Mother of my child." Taken to Salvatore’s private island, Elsie is thrust into a brutal empire built on blood oaths and ruthless power. To his enemies, The Saint is a whispered legend. To his empire, he is untouchable. But to Elsie, he is the stranger tied to a night she cannot remember, the father of her unborn child, and the dangerously possessive man who has claimed her as his own. Surrounded by those who see her as unworthy and a discarded fiancée who will stop at nothing to reclaim what she believes is rightfully hers, Elsie quickly learns that mercy does not exist in Salvatore’s world. Power is law, loyalty is enforced, and weakness is hunted without hesitation. force marriage Possessive mmc Captivity Pregnancy
Um_Royhan · 9.7k Views

REBIRTH : Chasing The Limelight

Elara’s first life crashed hard. Cruel tricks ruined her name, broke her dreams, and turned the whole entertainment world against her. Friends betrayed her. Lovers sold her out. Everyone she trusted stabbed her in the back. The pain piled up until she felt trapped with no way out. One night, she couldn’t take it anymore. She walked to the river and ended it all in the cold, quiet water. Later, proof came out. Messages. Recordings. Everything showed she had been framed. People posted apologies online. But it was too late. She was already gone. The universe, though, clearly has a twisted sense of humor. Because somehow, Elara came back. She woke up in her own past, every awful memory still sharp in her head. Right then she made a promise she would never break: protect her gentle grandfather no matter what, and never let anyone push her to that dark place again. This time she steps into the entertainment world with her head high. She trains harder, sings better, fights smarter. The same people who once crushed her? Now they get to feel the pressure. Love? Not happening. Her heart is locked tight. But why is it that as she rises and shines brighter, handsome, powerful men start circling her—guys who never even glanced at her in her previous life were now hovering around her. The actor smiled at her during a press interview, leaned closer, and said softly, “We should have dinner sometime.” The footballer sent flowers so big they blocked her room door. The surgeon she met at a charity event checked her pulse and then forgot to let go of her wrist. The singer she collaborated with kept calling her name during rehearsals, as if the mic could not hear him well enough. Elara stared at the ceiling that night and sighed. She only wanted to sing. Why did everyone look like they wanted to adopt her, date her, or both? But the worst one came after the concert. The lights had just gone off. Her ears were still ringing. Sweat clung to her neck. She had barely stepped backstage when a shadow blocked her path. She looked up. The CEO of the greatest company in Aurelia stood there. The same man who once said her voice was “not worth investing in.” The same man who did not even know her name before rebirth. Now he held her wrist lightly, but firmly. “Let’s talk,” he said. Elara blinked. “About… sponsorship?” “No,” he replied calmly. “About marriage.” Her brain froze. “…What?” “I will give you everything,” he continued, as if asking for a glass of water. “Resources. Protection. Freedom to sing. Become my wife.” Elara stared at him, her mouth open, her thoughts running in circles. This was not how it was supposed to be. Why was the world now skipping steps? NB: This story takes place in a fictional world. Aurelia is a country. Solmere, Veston, and Starfall City are the three capital cities of Aurelia. Other cities, such as Lorien and Crelou, are smaller cities.
SwiftAngel_SDDS · 192.1k Views

Married To Void

[Content Notice: This story contains mature themes] "You said you had no interest in women—you never told me you loved men!" Rosamund’s voice cracked, tears streaking her cheeks as she backed away, the weight of betrayal crushing her breath. Harold’s gaze didn’t waver. "How much clearer did you need me to be?" He stepped closer, his hand brushing her face with a tenderness that now felt like a lie. "I told you I had no desire for women. That I only agreed to this marriage for an heir. Society demanded, that I must have a companion and an heir. I never promised you love." His hand fell, but his hazel eyes pinned her in place. "That secret was mine to bury. You walked into this marriage with your eyes open." --- Rosamund, the overlooked third daughter of the Earl of Warwick, thought she’d escaped her fate when the Duke of Somerset rescued her from ruin. After blinding the Marquess’s son, William, in defence for a maid, she became entangled in a scandal that left her parents with no choice but to accept his marriage proposal. But on the brink of being assaulted by her own betrothed, salvation came in the form of Harold—cold, calculating, and disarmingly honest. Their marriage was never meant to be a love story. Harold made his terms clear: a political alliance, an heir, and nothing more. Yet Rosamund, desperate for solace in her gilded cage, dared to hope for warmth. Until the truth shattered her—Harold’s heart belonged to another, and she was trapped in a marriage of devastating loneliness. Now, Rosamund must confront the bitter reality: will Harold ever let her past his walls, or is she doomed to a life of hollow duty, forever bound to a man who cannot love her, remain married to void?
Andy_Alice · 5.5k Views

Raging Desires

Aine was born into simplicity and loved it. A warm family, a modest coffee shop, and a mother whose laugh made every ordinary morning feel like something worth remembering. It was not a grand life, but it was hers, and she never once thought to want more. Then her mother died, and the life she knew died quietly with her. Rebuilding meant starting over in a home that did not quite fit. A stepmother with expectations sharp enough to cut. A stepsister who made the distance between them feel deliberate. And a father who, despite everything, Aine never stopped loving, even when perhaps she should have. At Jade High, she learns to move through the world like a ghost. Unnoticed. Undemanding. Until Jokull finds her anyway, the school president, everyone's dream, and somehow, inexplicably, interested in her. For the first time since her mother's passing, something in Aine's carefully greyed world begins to stir. A fragile, terrifying thing that feels dangerously close to hope. But hope, she will learn, has a price. Her father, desperate and cornered, betrays the most powerful mafia organisation in the world. The consequences do not fall on him. They fall on Aine. Taken. Used as collateral. She endures pain, control, and betrayal. in those dark corridors that she will carry in her bones long after the bruises fade, abuses and pain that strip away whatever softness she had left and replace it with something harder, something that knows how to survive. And at the centre of it all is Ravi. The mafia's own. Dangerous and complex, with shadows in his past that run deeper than Aine initially understands. When the truth about Jokull surfaces, that he is not who he appeared to be, that his connection to the mafia world is older and darker than his charming smile ever suggested, Aine is faced with an impossible choice. She chooses Ravi. Not out of desperation. Not out of fear. She chooses him with her eyes open, and that choice changes everything. What begins as captivity slowly, painfully, honestly transforms into something neither of them planned for. Love grown in the hardest soil is still love. Ravi pursues her completely, and she lets herself be found. But Jokull refuses to disappear. He returns again and again, dragging trouble behind him like a shadow, until the violence of it costs Aine the one thing she cannot afford to lose. Her memories. Gone. All of it. The pain and the tenderness alike, swept clean. Ravi relocates with her, patient in a way no one who knows him would expect, and begins again. Slowly. Carefully. Planting seeds in ground he once nearly destroyed, watching something grow between them for the second time and understanding, now, how rare that is. But their love, rebuilt, fragile and real, is tested once more. The road to starting a family is not smooth, shadowed by fears neither of them speak aloud. Until the day Aine holds their child in her arms and the future, for the first time, feels possible. Then a ghost returns. A woman from Ravi's past. His childhood. The kind of history that does not knock before it enters. Tension bleeds into the life they have carefully built, and Aine stands at yet another crossroads. She has survived betrayal. Captivity. Loss. The erasure of her own story. She has chosen this man and this life more than once. But some battles cannot be won by simply enduring them. Will Aine fight for what she loves? Or will she finally, after everything, let love prove itself without her?
Avery_Muiris · 1.4k Views

Woke up as the Billionaire’s Bride

Aria Sterling walks out of prison with nothing. No money. No family. No memories. Only one desperate problem — she needs $500,000 in 48 hours to save her grandmother’s life. With no other choice, she goes to the one man who once destroyed her life — billionaire CEO Julian Vance. He refuses to help. But he offers something else. A one-year contract marriage. Strict rules. Separate rooms. No emotions. Only business. Aria signs the deal, believing she traded one prison for another. But the penthouse is filled with secrets. Julian forbids her from entering the East Wing. When she finally breaks the rule, she finds a silent five-year-old girl hiding in the shadows. The child has the same eyes as her. The same smile. The same face. And the little girl calls Julian… Daddy. As Aria begins working in Julian’s company, fragments of her lost memories start returning. A yellow dress. Rain. A desperate kiss. A man who loved her. Julian Vance isn’t a stranger. He is her forgotten husband. But before she can uncover the truth, a dangerous enemy from the past returns — the arsonist who destroyed her life five years ago. He manipulates Aria, planting lies and forged evidence, trying to convince her that Julian framed her and stole her child. Now Aria is trapped between two men. One who would burn the world to protect her. One who already tried to burn her alive. As her memories return, so does the truth. The contract marriage was never fake. The child was never a secret. And the love she lost… never died. But when the past finally catches up to them, Aria must make a choice. Trust the man she forgot… Or believe the lies that could destroy them both.
Abhishek_Patil_2458 · 10.1k Views