The Man I Married Twice
To save her family's failing empire, Melissa Hartwood agrees to marry the heir of Kingsley Holdings, Liam Kingsley.
It was supposed to be a strategic alliance. She didn't expect to fall for her cold, calculating husband. Until he turns up dead. The only evidence left behind a bloodstained note that reads: Please forgive me.
Framed for his murder and betrayed by the family she married into, Melissa loses everything. Convicted after a corrupt trial and shot during her appeal, her story should have ended there. Instead, she wakes up the morning after her wedding. Liam is alive.
Fate has given her one impossible gift: a second chance to save the man she loves.
She has one year to save her husband.
One year to uncover who framed her.
One year to stop the man who destroys them both.
Because someone inside the Kingsley family is going to kill Liam.
But as Melissa races against time, she begins to see the cracks in the Kingsley dynasty - buried secrets, shifting loyalties, and a rival waiting in the shadows.
And this time, the man who protects her might be the very one who kills him. Because some love stories don't end once. They end twice.
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Chapter 3
"You're... what?" My mother blinked. I lifted my hand carefully for the ring to reflect the light. "Daniel proposed," I said. "Recently. I was waiting for the right time to tell you."
My father's expression darkened. "Daniel?"
"Yes."
My father leaned forward, his voice tightening. "And you thought this was something you should keep from us?"
"I wasn't hiding it," I snapped. "I just hadn't-"
"You said yes?" my mother cut in. I hesitated. "...Yes."
"Melissa," my father said slowly, "do you understand what you're risking here?"
"I'm not risking anything, dad. I'm choosing my life." I said firmly.
"You're choosing a man over your family."
"No, I'm choosing myself."
"That company feeds hundreds of families!" he shot back. "Do you think your silly love will do the same?"
I clenched my jaw. "Daniel is not the problem here."
"No," my mother said coldly. "Your lack of perspective is."
Diana's voice came softly, trembling. "Maybe... maybe there's another way-"
"There isn't," my father snapped. Then his tone shifted.
"If this deal falls through, Hartwood Global collapses. Employees lose their jobs," he continued. "Reputations are destroyed. Everything we've built-gone." His gaze locked on mine. "Because you chose a man we don't even know."
My phone rang. It was Daniel. For a second, I couldn't move. I didn't pick but he called again.
"Hey," his voice came, warm. "I've been trying to reach you. Are you still coming tonight? I thought we could celebrate properly. You kind of disappeared after saying yes."
A sharp ache twisted in my chest. "I'm... busy," I said.
"Busy?" he repeated gently. "Melissa, it's our engagement."
"I know," I said quickly. "I just-something came up. Family stuff."
"Is everything okay?" he asked, concern creeping into his tone. "You sound off."
I closed my eyes. A voice inside me kept telling me-Say it.
Tell him.
"I'm fine," I said instead. There was a long pause.
"You don't sound fine," Daniel said quietly. "Talk to me."
I swallowed. "I can't right now."
"Melissa-"
"I said I'm fine," I cut in, sharper than I intended. Then, softer, hurt slipping through his voice, "Did I do something wrong?"
That broke something in me.
"No," I whispered. "No, you didn't do anything."
"Then why does it feel like you're pushing me away?"
Because I am. Because I don't know how to tell you I just agreed to marry someone else. My mind ached.
"I'll call you later," I said quickly.
"Melissa, wait-"
I ended the call.
The silence afterward was deafening. Back to my parents, the conversation hadn't moved on. My father looked at me. "Well?"
I let out a slow breath. "So give them Diana."
My mother's voice hardened. "You know she isn't suited for this kind of arrangement."
Oh. I understand now. They weren't choosing the eldest daughter. They were choosing the expendable one.
They were already going back inside then I stopped them. "You arranged this before I even got here," I said. My father sighed heavily. "The company is collapsing."
"That's not my question."
"Melissa-"
"You didn't even ask me!"
My mother stepped forward calmly. "We gave you a home when you had none." The words hit harder than they probably intended. I stared at her. "So now I owe you a marriage?"
"No," she said softly. "You owe the family your loyalty."
Diana came behind me, her voice trembling. "Melissa... you don't have to"
"Yes I do," I cut in quietly. Because we all knew the truth: If I refused to accept, the company would collapse. And Diana-their precious daughter-would suffer too.
My father's voice softened, almost pleading now. "End it."
I looked at him.
"Whatever this is with Daniel," he said. "End it."
My chest tightened. "You're asking me to-"
"I'm telling you," he said.
I closed my eyes briefly. Then nodded once. "If it saves the company..." The words tasted bitter. "I'll do it."
I slipped the ring off my finger and held it tightly in my palm.
Back in the sitting room, Jacob Kingsley asked the question formally. "Do you accept the marriage arrangement?"
Every eye in the room was on me.
I swallowed. "Yes."
The lawyers immediately began discussing contracts. The speed of it made my head spin. Like this had been planned long before today.
As we prepared to leave, Margaret added:
"The two families will have dinner tomorrow evening."
She smiled politely. "That will be when you meet our son."
I stepped outside the manor to clear my mind. I tried to stay calm but my chest tightened as I heard, "You agreed faster than I expected."
I turned. Ethan Kingsley was standing a few feet away. Watching me.
"I didn't have much of a choice," I said.
Then said, "You should meet him before signing anything final."
A small crease formed between my brows. "Him?"
Ethan tilted his head slightly, almost amused. "My brother."
Everything stood still. "...Your brother?"
"Yes." A faint smile touched his lips. "Liam."
Ethan took a step closer, his voice quieter now. "Most women who agree to marry Liam..." he said, pausing just long enough to make my stomach tighten. "...change their minds after meeting him."
My throat went dry. "Why would they?"
Ethan's smile widened slightly. But he didn't answer.
And suddenly I realized something unsettling.
Tomorrow night would be the first time I met the man I had just agreed to marry.
And judging by Ethan's expression, it might also be the moment I regretted it.
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8.2
To save my brother's life, I married a dead billionaire.
My new home was a freezing, high-tech mausoleum where I was ordered to hold a year-long vigil beside Byron Hyde's cryogenic pod.
But I wasn't alone in the dark.
Every night, a terrifying shadow smelling of whiskey and sandalwood pinned me to my narrow bed.
It tore my clothes and brutally claimed my body, leaving me bruised and trembling until dawn.
When I begged the housekeeper for help, showing her my torn skin, she just smiled cruelly.
"It seems the master's spirit has accepted you."
I thought I was being haunted by a vengeful ghost, until Byron's arrogant nephew broke into the tomb to assault me.
His tampering triggered the life-support system, and the heavy lid of the pod hissed open.
Byron Hyde sat up, his eyes lethal and his skin shockingly warm.
He was alive.
Looking at his broad shoulders, I caught the faint scent of whiskey and sandalwood.
The horrific truth hit me like a physical blow.
My nightly tormentor wasn't a ghost. It was my living, breathing husband.
When I confronted him, his eyes were cold and clinical.
"That was a necessary test. I had to know if my wife would break."
A white-hot rage choked me, but I didn't scream or run.
He slipped the priceless, heavy sapphire of the family matriarch onto my finger, offering me absolute power over the treacherous relatives who wanted us both dead.
To fight a monster, you can't be a victim.
I looked into his deep, dangerous eyes and accepted the ring.
If this was a cage, allying with the keeper was the only way to find the key.
9.8
I was an arrogant, canceled reality TV star, trying to salvage my ruined reputation on a live broadcast.
But after I lost my temper and assaulted a cameraman, my furious grandfather chased me into our family's forbidden gallery, where I accidentally crashed into an ancient, sealed portrait.
The canvas shattered, and a terrifying woman with glowing golden eyes stepped out of the wall.
She was Cecil, the First Matriarch of the Marshall family. She caught a lightning bolt with her bare hands and crushed me to my knees with an invisible, suffocating pressure.
My grandfather, instead of saving me, groveled on the floor and abandoned me to her mercy.
"You are the disgrace that will end this family."
She hijacked my entire life, forcing me to act as her submissive baggage handler on my own survival reality show, broadcasting my humiliation to millions.
I didn't understand why this ancient monster was tormenting me. Why did she strip away my pride, treat me like a broken tool, and force me to endure the mockery of the very ex-girlfriend who had ruined my life?
But when those same cast members tried to corner me in the dark woods, Cecil stepped in front of me, her eyes locking onto the silver ring of the man mocking me.
"To catch the wolf, one must sometimes walk with the sheep."
That was when I realized she wasn't here to destroy me—she was here to hunt the parasites who had been secretly siphoning away my life force.
9.5
Xander Savage plays with footballs.
Freya Woods plays with hearts.
The other plays to win, one plays for fun.
Xander is the campus football champion, gentle, gorgeous, misunderstood. Everyone thinks he's a player, but he's actually the only good boy in school.
Freya is the campus play girl, bold, wild.
When fate throws them together, sparks fly...Neither knows their souls have met before...long ago, in another life, where they loved passionately and broke disastrously. But this time? They're destined to rewrite their ending...can they actually re write the stars?
LOVE ME LIKE A CHAMPION is a reincarnation campus romance about a boy who loves too deeply and a girl who's terrified to be loved.
9.1
I woke up strapped to a freezing operating table, a gaping hole crudely sutured over my heart.
Joi Rocha, my supposed guardian, stood nearby holding a glowing vial that contained my freshly extracted Phoenix gene sequence.
"Don't blame me, sweetheart. Gayla's body is just too weak. She needs this sequence more than you do."
In my past life, I endured years of illegal biological harvests for this family. My fiancé Brennon watched with cold eyes as they ripped the gene from my chest, while the elite academy students filmed and mocked my bleeding, broken body. They stripped me of my status, drained every drop of my worth, and left me to die in a freezing tomb just so their precious fake daughter could thrive.
Until my dying breath, I didn't understand. I had given them my absolute loyalty, so why was I treated like disposable medical waste? Why did my life mean absolutely nothing to them?
But opening my eyes again, I realized I had returned to the exact day they stole my core.
This time, I didn't cry or beg. I stared dead into Joi's eyes and smiled.
I detonated the residual energy in my chest to incinerate Gayla's stolen sequence, faked my own flatline, and injected myself with a hidden dark matter drive to completely rewrite my DNA.
If they wanted to play God with my life, I was going to burn their entire world to ash.
8.0
Eloise Ferguson was the legitimate daughter of a powerful Senator, yet she was treated like a hysterical burden by her own family.
In her past life, her parents forced her to marry a sadistic billionaire for political funding.
When she resisted, they locked her in a psychiatric facility, drugged her, and left her to die in restraints while her "fragile" cousin Jaylene stole her life.
She never understood why her mother hated her so fiercely.
Why did her mother treat her brother Cortez and her cousin Jaylene like absolute royalty, while throwing her own flesh and blood to the wolves?
Opening her eyes again, Eloise found herself back at age twenty-two, trapped in a restroom at a charity gala.
Escaping her abuser, she used her awakened mystic abilities to look at her family's life forces.
What she saw made her blood run cold.
Thick, red biological cords connected her mother directly to both Cortez and Jaylene, intertwining in a perfect symbiotic bond.
They weren't cousins. They were illegitimate twins born from her mother's secret affair.
Eloise was the only true outsider in her own home.
The realization hit her like a physical blow. Her entire life of abuse was just a cover-up for a nest of parasites stealing her father's name and her inheritance.
But this time, she refused to be their victim.
Armed with an unchallengeable executive order she blackmailed out of the United States President, Eloise crushed the hidden microphone in her bedroom.
"Game on, Mother."
8.6
Alia bought her four-million-dollar Manhattan townhouse in cash the day before she married Jerel.
For three years, she worked eighty-hour weeks as a top architect to build their life, until an anonymous text shattered her reality.
It was a high-definition photo of her husband kissing his junior partner, followed by an eight-week ultrasound.
Alia didn't scream. She went home, only to find her mother-in-law throwing IVF brochures at her, screaming that she was a selfish, barren workaholic for not giving the family an heir.
Jerel played the perfect, gentle husband, wrapping his arms around her and urging her to rest.
But later that night, Alia caught them on a secret call with a lawyer.
They were plotting to blindside her with a divorce, claiming his minor financial contributions entitled him to the property, aiming to kick her out with a measly fifty-thousand-dollar settlement.
They wanted to steal her hard-earned home to raise his pregnant mistress's child.
Alia's jaw tightened until her teeth ached. She had paid for every single inch of that estate.
Did they really think her dedication to her career made her blind, weak, and easy to destroy?
She didn't shed a single tear.
Instead, she walked into the office of the city's most ruthless private equity billionaire and struck a dangerous deal to lock away all her assets in an irrevocable trust.
Days later, when Jerel handed her the settlement with a fake, sympathetic smile, Alia poured cold black coffee directly over the ink.
"Tell Tiffany she is never stepping foot inside my house," Alia said smoothly. "I'll see you in court."