Second Chance

The biggest mistake of my life was falling in love with my childhood best friend, Cole Blackwood.

I grew up with Cole. He was my childhood best friend. When my mom died in a car accident in high school, his mother Lillian, my mom's best friend, saw that my stepmother didn't like me and took me in. She arranged our engagement. Cole protected me from bullies in high school. I fell for him. We secre...

My family's company went bankrupt, and my father was critically ill.

I dropped out of school and worked multiple jobs every day.

Debt collectors beat me and broke my ribs, but I couldn't afford painkillers.

Every penny I earned went to expensive medicine, all to save my father.

Until I saw my father, who should have been bedridden on oxygen, holding a champagne glass at a hotel banquet hall.

...

I used to think I had the perfect family.
My husband Nico started coming home less and less, always saying he had a meeting. But the truth was, he had another woman, Alessia. And it had been going on for a while.
The affair I could've handled. What really killed me was that my son Leo and my daughter Mia had known all along. They'd even started calling his mistress "Mom."
They thought I was cluele...

I tricked my billionaire husband into signing divorce papers—he had no idea.

"Exam documents," I lied.

His ex-wife laughed. "Boring paperwork. Don't bother reading it."

He signed without even looking.

Three years of marriage. I thought he'd learn to love me. Ever since she came back, my dinners grew cold while I reheated them alone. I waited in our bed, night after night. I watched him drop ev...

Jiang Xiaoning had been married to Wen Zeyan for five years, yet she was driven into utter despair by the scheming of Wen Nuannuan, her husband’s adopted sister.
A single glass of water led to her being forcibly tattooed with the character “Slave”. Secret photos in the attic, frame-ups on the stairs, forced kneeling on broken glass—Wen Zeyan’s favoritism and cruelty pushed her into the abyss step ...

Four months pregnant, I went to the bar to bring Connor his wallet, only to overhear a conversation that made my blood run cold.

"She's so controlling. Billy and I can barely breathe," my husband told his friends. "I'm taking Kelsey to the countryside for three months of therapy. I'll just tell Nadia it's a parent-child program abroad."

The worst part? My ten-year-old son Billy would cover for h...

To make his "cousin" happy on Christmas Day, my husband brought home a cat.
The cat jumped into my mother's arms, triggering her allergies and causing an immediate asthma attack.
I frantically rushed her to the hospital emergency room,
only to witness my husband feeding medicine mouth-to-mouth to his "cousin."
While my mother lay unconscious, he didn't even ask about her condition.
Watching their ...

A year ago, Sophia was recalled from overseas medical school. Her father announced she must marry Ethan Sullivan, head of the Sullivan crime family, to save their bankruptcy.

Ethan Sullivan—uncrowned king of New York's underworld, cold-blooded killer. Complete opposite of her life-saving profession.

She fought desperately—humiliated him at their engagement, sabotaged business meetings, even esca...

I spent five years waiting for a wedding, only to watch his first love move in—pregnant, sleeping in our master bedroom, wearing my wedding dress.

She said the baby was his. He believed her.

She said I pushed her. He believed her.

She said I was eaten up with jealousy. He believed her.

But me? He didn't believe a single word I said.

The day I tried on my wedding gown, gunfire erupted. My fian...

That night, I was dragged into a parking lot and beaten until my hands could never hold a scalpel again.

I thought it was random. Until I heard my own brother and fiancé talking—

"Those thugs went too far, but the result works out, doesn't it? This time, the award will go to Charlotte."

Charlotte. The "poor orphan" my family adopted.

For twelve years, she stole my papers, my opportunities, my ...

Ryan loves me deeply—at least that's what everyone says. Seven years together, we look like the perfect couple to outsiders. But only I know he's betrayed me three times.

The first time was three years ago. His brother died saving him, leaving behind his widow Sophia—Ryan's unforgettable first love. He married her behind my back. When I found out, I completely fell apart. I have dignity. I refuse...

"I need an accident—one that looks fatal," I said calmly into the encrypted phone. "It's the only way to escape him."
Rumors swirl that this man—the underworld boss who controls half of Europe’s shadow economy—loves me beyond reason.
They say he defied his entire family for me. That this ruthless killer laid down his weapons just to cook me a meal.
For years, he made the world believe I was his on...

The day Father calls my sister and me into his study, there are two documents on the desk. One is the family inheritance papers, the other is a marriage contract with the Rossi family.

"It's time you two made a choice," he says, lighting his cigar. "One of you takes over the family business. The other marries Marco Rossi."

In my past life, Vivian grabbed the inheritance. She thought power meant ...

I married Massimo Salvatore, the mafia don, thirty-two times. And divorced him thirty-two times.

Every single time for the same reason—his precious Claudia came back from her overseas treatment facility.

"She took a bullet to the head for me. Any stress could kill her." That was his only explanation.

The first divorce, I trashed the entire living room. He slapped me across the face: "Cut the DR...

My foster brother Caelan swore he'd only ever marry me. Even though I'm the only human in a pack of wolves, for eighteen years he and his brother Ronan made me feel like I belonged.
Then Mira showed up—and suddenly she was his "fated mate."
I watched him bond with her while I choked on poisoned incense and collapsed. No one caught me. They were too busy wiping her tears.
Within a week, she had my ...

I was squatting on the floor, wiping up the juice spilled by a customer when I ran into my ex-husband, Tan Yeming.
It was our first meeting in the three years since our divorce.
He was just as cold and arrogant as before.
“You must have suffered enough these three years. If you’ve learned your lesson, come home with me.”
I was alone at the restaurant today, and I was too busy to deal with him.
He ...

The tour bus hung precariously over the cliff's edge, smoke billowing from its engine. Inside, two pregnant women were trapped.

"Captain Walker, both pregnant women are in critical condition. Who do we save first?"

I had been pierced by a steel rod through my abdomen, my water had broken, and I was screaming desperately at my husband:

"Ryan Walker! My water broke! The baby's dying!"

On the oth...

For the tenth time, James Smith left me behind because of a call from his female student.
But it was as if I had become a different person—I no longer doubted that there was something ambiguous between James and his student.
Even on our wedding anniversary, when he abandoned me in the remote mountains for Sophia's sake, I bore no resentment.
Eventually, James began to sense something.
"Emily, you ...

In his eyes, I had always been "understanding." Understanding enough not to fight, not to make scenes, not to ask for status.

He said we couldn't go public now, but it was for our future.

Only later did I realize that his "future" never included me.

He chose power, chose arranged marriage, chose to keep me hidden. When I finally left, he started having regrets, started saying he loved me.

But ...

On the night my husband’s assistant staged her 99th suicide threat, he hung my grandmother from a helicopter.
“Selena, apologize to Shirley publicly—across every platform—or I’ll drop her into the sea.”
Watching my grandmother’s terrified face suspended in midair, my voice trembled with pain:
“Elvis, just because I called her a homewrecker… you’d threaten Grandma’s life?”
Elvis smiled, his tone dr...