Novels

My sister, Tiffany, had been the golden child her whole life, and even when she was dying, she still found a way to screw me over. At my wedding, no less, she announced she was already married to my fiancé, was pregnant with his kid, and then demanded I get a hysterectomy to guarantee I'd always be good to her child.

I swear, Jake and I were having the worst luck at poker. He’d blown through all the cash he had on him, and it still wasn't enough to cover his debts. Then some joker pipes up, "Hey, why not use the little shadow who's been crushing on you for years to settle the score?" And Jake? He actually agreed. He straight-up shoved me forward. I begged him not to hand me over like some kind of prize. But he just said, "You're so into me, right? Then you gotta do what I say." "Besides," he smirked, "John will get bored of you fast. You can always come crawling back." Joke's on him, though. John ended up becoming his boss, and I? I became Mrs. Boss.

Upon hearing the news that his beloved Fiona had passed away, my husband, who was on a honeymoon with me, dramatically leapt off the cruise ship, ending his life.

Three years of marriage, and my wife, a hotshot pilot, has bailed on getting the marriage license signed like, eighteen times. The first time, it was her precious protégé's test flight. I was stuck cooling my heels outside the DMV all day. Seriously. The second time, she got a call from him on the way there and did a freakin' U-turn, leaving me on the side of the road. From then on, every time we made plans to make it official, this golden boy of hers would suddenly have some kind of emergency. Eventually, I decided, "Enough is enough." I booked a one-way ticket to Paris. But guess who went completely ballistic and chased me down to France?

On my eighteenth birthday, a young girl showed up at our door. She tearfully recounted to my brothers how our adoptive mother had switched her with me at the hospital when we were born. She claimed *she* was the Sterling family’s true heiress.

My brother, Tony, was the ultimate protector. When I was ten, some goons tried to snatch him. I ended up in their car instead. They got their ransom, but not before they’d carved up my face and broken both my legs. Tony went ballistic. He took over the family business—Dad’s "organization," if you catch my drift—and built it into something huge. I became his world, his untouchable treasure. Someone laughed at my scars? Tony shoved his head into a trash bag full of rats, let them chew his face to a bloody mess. Some wiseguy badmouthed my limp? Tony ran a freakin’ steamroller over his legs, turned 'em to hamburger. Tony was the boogeyman of the whole damn tri-state area, but he treated me like I was made of spun gold. He spent a fortune sending me overseas for reconstructive surgery, physical therapy, and a fancy college education. Right before graduation, I got a wedding invitation from Tony. He was all excited, said I was gonna have a sister-in-law to spoil me rotten. He even sent a picture of the lucky lady. But the second I walked into the house, his fiancée, this ice queen named Brittany, busted in with a crew of muscleheads. She thought I was Tony's kept woman from overseas and decided to teach me a lesson. Tony showed up mid-beatdown. Brittany pointed at me, lying on the floor, and wailed: "Am I not good enough for you, Tony? Choose. Her or Me." Tony’s eyes went dark. "You got more lives than a cat?"

I had been doing business abroad for many years. Hearing that Troy was about to get engaged, I flew back overnight. That night, my son, Troy Malone, posted a group of photos where we ate together on Facebook. And the caption read, "You have been by my side all the way. Thank you, the most important woman in my life." Unexpectedly, my Siena, Siena Hunt, mistook me for Siena's mistress. On the day of the engagement banquet, Siena led a group of her friends and blocked me at a beauty salon. "You... You shameless woman. How dare you seduce Troy?" "I will make you unable to seduce a man for the rest of your life. Girls, sew her part down there up. If anything happens, I'll take the blame." Siena violently beat me up at the beauty salon before taking me to the engagement banquet. "Today, I will let you see who Troy likes." Siena stepped on my face with one foot, humiliating me so much, and all the guests around burst into laughter. Just as Siena was enjoying her triumph and beating me up, Troy finally arrived. I watched Troy on the edge of dying. "The engagement banquet may end now!"

"Why did you bring me here?\"\nThe moment Adeline saw our daughter's photo on the tombstone, the swimsuit she had bought slipped from her hands.

Seeing me, she put down the bowl, \"You still know how to come back? It's so late. Lazy all day, not even making a meal.\"\n\"Auntie, you have hands and feet, can't you cook yourself?\"