villain exhaust

On our first wedding anniversary, my husband came home with a woman who was six months pregnant. He introduced her as his cousin, someone who had fallen on hard times, and asked me to take care of her. I was just about to agree when fragments of imaginary commentary floated through my mind: [She's just my 'cousin'. Uh-uh, that's a cliche.] [Poor supporting female character! A maid by day, the husband's bedwarmer by night.] [But she totally deserved it! If she hadn't broken up the main couple, they'd have a whole soccer team of kids by now!] Wait—what? Supporting female character? Me? And what's this about breaking them up? So now these two get to cheat under my roof, and somehow I'm the villain? Before I could process it all, my husband was already dragging her luggage inside. "Alice doesn't like fried food," he said matter-of-factly. "And nothing too salty or spicy. Make sure you keep that in mind when you're cooking. "Oh, and pregnant women love sweets. Go out now and buy a cherry cake. The one from that bakery in the suburbs."

Stephen's beloved Phoebe fell into a coma. To everyone, I became the villain—accused of harming her out of unrequited love for Stephen. Mute, I had no way to defend myself before Stephen locked me away in the basement. He said I would only be freed when Phoebe woke up. Broken and hopeless, I succumbed to fear and starvation, eventually developing amnesia. Day by day, my memories began to slip away. Yet, Stephen, tears in his eyes, begged me not to forget him. But all I wanted was to leave it all behind and keep moving forward.

Kc Page is a man of law, a brilliant attorney, a trillionaire CEO, and a force to be reckoned with. He spent his entire life upholding justice, for no crime goes unpunished in his view. However, an accident steals away his pregnant fiancée and leaves him drowning in a sea of sorrow. In the aftermath, he lost faith in the law.Court calls it an accident; Kc calls it murder. The culprit? Valeria Jayne, the world's most coveted runway model, a woman with beauty so striking that it blinds the world to her supposed sins. But Kc refuses to be deceived. With his influence and power, he orchestrates her downfall, vowing to make her suffer the way he has. He hunts her, haunts her, ensuring that she will never know peace until something happens that neither of them sees coming. She gets pregnant with his baby. For Valeria, this is not love; it is a curse. But Kc is unstoppable. The minute he finds out that she's playing a game, anger has the best of him. She ran away with his child. She left him running. And now, there isn't any spot in this earth where she'd be able to hide that he wouldn't locate her. But as the layers of deception fall away, Kc finds himself staring into a shocking truth: Valeria is not the villain he had imagined her to be. Instead, there is someone else in the shadows, someone who has played them both like pawns in a ruthless game. Now, Kc is confronted with an impossible decision: to cling to his thirst for revenge or to save the woman whom he once promised to destroy, now that she carries his child? And what revelations will he find as truth finally comes to light?

In the dark underbelly of Philadelphia, two opposing crime families—the Morgans and the Rinaldis—have maintained a tenuous peace. However, when a merciless Japanese gang executes the killings of their leaders to instigate turmoil, the equilibrium of power breaks, sending the city into a lethal battle of trickery, treachery, and vengeance. Sierra Morgan, the unacknowledged and overlooked daughter of the Morgan clan, is plunged into a perilous task: wed Dominic Rinaldi, the icy and strategic new Don of Il Condottiero, and deceive him for the sake of her vengeful half-siblings. It’s a task she cannot decline, but as Sierra enters the foe's lair, she realizes that Dominic is not the cold-hearted villain she thought he was. Underneath his harsh facade exists a man marked by grief, allegiance, and hidden truths. As their arranged marriage develops into an unforeseen situation, Sierra feels conflicted between her allegiance to her family and the increasing emotions she harbors for the man she was meant to ruin. But betrayal runs deep on both sides, and when shocking truths emerge—including a secret child, forbidden affairs, and an insidious mole within the Rinaldi clan—Sierra realizes the true enemy may not be who she thought. With bloodshed escalating and time running out, Sierra must make an impossible choice: protect the man she loves or betray him to save herself. Can love survive in a world where loyalty is bought with blood, and betrayal is just another business transaction? A story of forbidden love, power struggles, and shocking twists, this gripping tale will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.