Helping Mom Take Down the Homewrecker
Daisy Swift · Completed · 8.0k Words
Introduction
"Ashley makes me feel alive again," he said, dismissing seventeen years of marriage like a bad business deal.
"We'll be one happy family," she smiled, standing in our kitchen like she already owned it.
That's when I knew: Mom needed my protection.
What followed was a war fought with laptops and lies, fake pregnancies and real heartbreak. A battle between a broken housewife discovering her strength, a teenage girl wielding digital weapons, and a woman who thought she could manipulate her way to victory.
Six months later, Mom would be accepting awards. Ashley would be gone. And Dad?
Dad would be begging for forgiveness he'd never get.
Chapter 1
The late afternoon sun sliced through the blinds of Tom's Auto Plaza back office, casting golden bars across his mahogany desk.
Sarah pushed through the door, confusion knotting her chest. "Why did you suddenly ask me to come to the store? What couldn't wait until we got home?"
Tom didn't even look up from his paperwork. Cold. Dismissive.
"Sarah, I want a divorce."
She stumbled backward, her hand finding the chair behind her for support.
"What?" The word came out as barely a whisper.
"This isn't working anymore." His voice was eerily calm, like he was discussing the weather forecast. "I've made up my mind. We're done."
"Seventeen years, Tom." Her voice started to shake. "Seventeen years of marriage, and this is what I get?"
Finally, he looked up. Those blue eyes she once loved now felt like ice picks.
"You've become... comfortable. Too comfortable. Ashley makes me feel alive again."
Ashley.
"I'm not asking for your permission, Sarah." He stood up, adjusting his cufflinks with practiced precision. "I'm telling you how it's going to be."
Sarah wanted to scream, to throw something, to demand answers. Instead, she stood there like a statue, watching her world crumble.
Five o'clock traffic crawled past Sarah's windshield, but she barely noticed. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tight her knuckles turned white.
Red light.
The shaking started then. Seventeen years of memories crashed over her like a tsunami—their first date at the county fair, their wedding in her parents' backyard, holding Maya for the first time, thousands of ordinary moments that had felt extraordinary.
Green light.
She drove past Mama's Diner, where families sat around tables, laughing over shared meals. Children giggled while parents chatted about their days. Normal families. Happy families.
"Seventeen years..." Sarah whispered to her empty car. "What am I supposed to do now?"
Home still looked the same. The kitchen glowed with warm yellow light, Maya's photos covering every inch of wall space—from chubby-cheeked toddler to the beautiful seventeen-year-old she'd become.
Sarah pulled out an onion, starting dinner on autopilot.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
The onion's sting brought tears to her eyes, but these weren't from the vegetable. They were from seventeen years of love, trust, and partnership being thrown away for a twenty-five-year-old with perfect hair and ambitious eyes.
Clatter.
The knife hit the floor.
Sarah collapsed right there on the kitchen tiles, finally letting the sobs come. All those years of being the perfect wife, the supportive partner, the woman behind the successful man—and for what?
"Mom?" Maya's voice broke through Sarah's moment of despair.
Sarah heard her daughter's backpack hit the floor before Maya rushed to her.
"Mom, what happened? Did someone hurt you?"
Maya knelt beside her mother, her arms wrapping around Sarah's shoulders. When had her little girl become so strong?
"Your father..." Sarah choked out the words. "He wants a divorce, honey. I'm so sorry you have to see me like this."
"Don't apologize, Mom." Maya's voice carried a strength that amazed Sarah. "This isn't your fault."
By seven o'clock, Sarah had pulled herself together enough to set the dining table. The familiar routine of placing forks and folding napkins seemed to calm her, but Maya could see the tremor in her mother's hands.
Then Maya heard her father's car in the driveway.
And another car door slam.
The front door opened, and Tom walked in like he owned the place—which, technically, he did. Behind him strutted a blonde woman in a power suit that screamed "I'm important and you're not."
Ashley.
She looked around their house like she was already redecorating in her head, her smile so fake it could've been plastic.
"Maya, this is Ashley," Tom announced like he was introducing a new business partner. "We wanted to officially tell you that your mother and I are getting divorced. Ashley will be moving in. We think it's better for you to stay here, where you're comfortable."
Ashley stepped forward with that saccharine smile. "This is better for everyone, Maya. We'll be one happy family."
Maya watched her mother's face crumble for just a second before Sarah found her voice.
"Maya comes with me. That's all I want."
Tom and Ashley exchanged a look—the kind of look that made Maya's skin crawl.
"Sarah, you need time to adjust to your new life," Ashley cooed. "Maya will be more stable here with—"
"Stop," Maya said.
Every head turned toward her.
The rage that had been building since her father dropped his bombshell finally found its voice.
"Mom, you don't want me." Maya kept her voice level, analytical.
She turned to her father, channeling every bit of steel she'd inherited from both sides of her family. "Dad, we need to talk about Mom's settlement. Properly."
Tom frowned. "Maya, these aren't things you need to worry about—"
"No." Maya cut him off. "This is exactly what I need to worry about."
The look in Ashley's eyes shifted from condescending to wary.
Good. She should be worried.
By ten PM, Maya was alone in her room, surrounded by the pink and white decorations that suddenly felt too young for what she was about to do.
Her laptop sat open on her desk, next to notebooks filled with research she'd been quietly gathering for weeks.
She'd seen this coming long before her mother did.
Maya opened TikTok and hit record, plastering on her brightest smile.
"Hey guys! Working on a school project about local businesses and public records. Amazing what you can find when you know where to look!"
She paused for effect, letting her smile turn just a little sharper.
"Stay tuned for updates! #ResearchSkills #KnowledgeIsPower"
Post.
The comments started flooding in immediately:
[Maya's about to expose someone!]
[Queen is plotting something!]
[Can't wait to see what you find!]
Her followers knew her well.
Maya closed the laptop and walked to her window.
Across the yard, she could see the glow from her father's bedroom—Ashley's bedroom now. Ashley probably thought she had won, that she had successfully dismantled their family without consequences.
"Game on, Dad," Maya whispered to the night.
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
The Alpha King's Human Mate
“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.”
He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere.
“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family – and not even you.”
Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.
Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Mated to Her Alpha Instructor
Weeks later, our new Alpha combat instructor walks in. Regis. The guy from the woods. His eyes lock on mine, and I know he recognizes me. Then the secret I've been hiding hits me like a punch: I'm pregnant.
He has an offer that binds us tighter than ever. Protection… or a cage? Whispers turn ugly, darkness closes in. Why am I the one without a wolf? Is he my salvation… or will he drag me to ruin?
The New Girl and the Broken Basketball Star
After years of feeling unwanted by the father who should have protected her, Clara is finally forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Her stepmother’s pregnancy only makes it easier for her family to let her go.
With nothing but her mother’s old violin, she arrives in a small Pennsylvania town carrying the fear that she will never truly belong anywhere.
The last thing she expects is Adrian Cole.
Once the town’s basketball star, Adrian gave up his dreams after his father disappeared and left him with debts he never should have carried. Now he spends his days repairing cars, avoiding the court, and pretending he doesn’t want anything more from life.
Clara thinks she is too broken to be loved.
Adrian thinks his future is already over.
But somewhere between physics lessons, late nights at the repair shop, and a forgotten small-town high school, two lonely people begin to find something they both thought they had lost forever:
A reason to stay.
✦ ✦ ✦
A tough exterior with a soft heart x A soft exterior with a strong heart
✦ ✦ ✦
The first half is set in high school, and the second half is set during their college years. Hope you enjoy the journey!
This is a slow-paced story, focused more on emotions, healing, and the small moments in life rather than intense action or dramatic twists.
If you find any mistakes while reading, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to correct them.
I hope ordinary Clara, ordinary Adrian, and all of us ordinary people can find the happiness we deserve.
Cursed To Be His
At thirteen, everything changed.
After her parents were murdered, she was cursed by a powerful witch and used as a vessel for Elder magic. Saving her life came at an impossible cost; the curse was broken, but so was the wolf inside her, leaving her human.
Ten years later, Talia hides her grief behind sharp sarcasm and a smile she no longer believes. When a rogue attack proves she can no longer protect herself, or the people she loves, she leaves the only home she's ever known for the quiet human town of Ashbourne Hollow, determined to disappear.
Instead, she catches the attention of the town's most dangerous owner.
Alaric Lazarus is a vampire who rules from the black castle overlooking Ashbourne Hollow. He is cold, enigmatic, and impossible to read, but he awakens something in Talia she can't explain. She doesn't trust him. He trusts her even less.
Then vampires begin turning up dead.
Forced into an uneasy alliance, Talia and Alaric uncover a trail that leads back to the family she lost... and the curse she thought she'd escaped. As old enemies emerge from the shadows and buried secrets come to light, Talia discovers that everything she believed about her past was a lie.
Because the curse that stole her wolf was never meant to save her.
It was meant to lead her to him.
This is book 3 in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Book 1 - The Matchmaker
Book 2 - The Heir of Flame and Fang
The Ice Between Us.
Then comes Jax Miller.
Jax is a hotheaded rookie with a lightning-fast puck and a reputation for burning bridges. He doesn't follow playbooks, he doesn't respect authority, and he’s determined to melt Julian’s icy composure. When a viral video of their on-ice collision threatens to bankrupt the program, Coach Clain delivers an ultimatum that feels like a death sentence: they must live together in a cramped, two-bed dorm for the duration of the season.
Forced to navigate the high-stakes world of sports fame, "forbidden" locker-room tension, and the mysterious blackmailer who caught their first mistake on camera, Julian and Jax must decide what’s more dangerous: losing their careers, or losing themselves to the person they were supposed to hate.
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
BROKEN TRUST
Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.
Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.
Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
