Too Late For Regret: My Dead Heart

Rain lashed against the twisted metal as Hallie lay pinned in the wreckage of her car, her chest crushed and fading fast. The paramedic found her phone and desperately dialed her husband, Aidan. "Your wife has been in a severe car crash! We're losing her!" the paramedic shouted over the storm. A harsh, mocking laugh came through the speaker. "Tell her this is a pathetic way to stop the divorce," Aidan sneered. "I do not have time for her crazy games." The line went dead, and Hallie's heart flatlined. Separated from her body, Hallie's ghost was forced to witness the horrific aftermath of her own death. Her mother refused to claim her corpse because there was no insurance payout, telling the hospital to throw her in a ditch. Pulled back to her penthouse, she found Aidan gently holding her sister, Cecile. Cecile sobbed about Hallie's "fake crash" in Aidan's arms, but the moment he looked away, a wicked smirk of victory spread across her face. Cecile was the predator, and Aidan was her willing protector. He even ordered Hallie's brilliant, life's-work sketchbook to be thrown into an industrial shredder, giving all her corporate resources to fund Cecile's debut. Hovering in the cold air, Hallie watched her three years of devotion turn to ash. She was treated like garbage, a mere stepping stone for her sister's rise. But just as her soul turned to ice, Aidan's face suddenly grew paranoid. "Check her medical records," Aidan ordered his assistant coldly. "Find out who is helping her fake this injury." Hallie's invisible spirit shivered with a dark, vengeful anticipation. What would her arrogant husband do when his relentless digging finally uncovered her cold, dead body?

Chapters

Chapter 6

Aidan walked quietly down the hall. He stopped a maid and asked for a glass of warm milk. He carried it to Cecile's suite.

Hallie floated behind him. Her face was blank.

Aidan did not knock. He pushed the door open. Warm yellow light spilled onto the floor.

Cecile was not in bed. She had changed out of the heavy coat. She wore a very thin, black lace nightgown.

She sat on the rug by the large window. She pulled her knees to her chest. She looked out at the dark trees. She looked incredibly fragile.

She heard Aidan's footsteps. She turned her head. Her eyes were wide and wet.

Aidan walked over quickly. He put the milk on the small table. He frowned. "Why are you on the floor? It is cold."

Cecile reached out and grabbed his leg. She looked up at him. "I close my eyes and I see her. I am so afraid she will come back and take you."

Hallie hovered near the ceiling. She watched the performance. Her stomach turned.

Aidan sighed. He bent down and scooped Cecile off the floor. He carried her to the large bed and set her down.

He handed her the glass. He watched her take a sip. "No one is taking you away from me," he said softly.

Cecile put the glass down. She grabbed the edge of Aidan's shirt. Her knuckles turned white.

"Do not leave me tonight," she begged. Her voice cracked. "Please, Aidan. I am terrified."

Aidan froze. His jaw tightened. He knew he was still legally married. Staying in her bed crossed a line.

He gently tried to pull her hand away. "I am right next door. Call me if you need anything."

Cecile let go immediately. She turned her face away. A tear rolled down her cheek. "I understand. I do not want to trap you. Go."

The rejection hit Aidan's pride. He looked at her bare shoulders shaking.

Aidan took off his suit jacket. He threw it over a chair. "I will stay on the sofa."

Cecile turned back. She smiled through her tears. She pulled the heavy blanket back. She patted the empty space next to her.

"The sofa is hard," she whispered. "Sleep here. I promise I will just sleep."

The air in the room grew thick. Aidan stared at her pale skin under the black lace. His breathing got slightly heavier.

Hallie watched him. This was the final test.

Aidan reached for his wrist. He unclasped his heavy Patek Philippe watch. He dropped it on the nightstand.

He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. He climbed into the bed.

Cecile immediately wrapped her arms around his waist. She buried her face in his neck.

Aidan did not push her away. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

Hallie closed her eyes. The last piece of her marriage shattered into dust.

Down on the bed, Cecile slowly opened her eyes. Aidan could not see her face.

She looked straight up at the ceiling, a wide, wicked smirk spreading across her face. The prize was finally hers.

Hallie felt nothing. The man in the bed was dead to her. She waited in the silence for the sun to rise.

Continue to next part

I thought the Burch family gave me a loving home when they took me out of the orphanage. But when the global deep freeze apocalypse hit, my adoptive parents mercilessly kicked me out of the bunker to freeze to death. As I lay dying in the snow, covered in horrific purple frostbite, my adoptive sister Kendal walked past me in a pristine designer jacket. Around her neck was my only childhood possession—an antique gold necklace my adoptive mother had ripped off my neck to give to her. Kendal gloated, bragging that my pendant held a magical space with infinite supplies and fresh food while the rest of the world starved. I realized I had spent years emptying my life savings to fund their luxury cars and fake medical emergencies. They had drained my bank accounts, stolen my bloodline's heirloom, and used my magical lifeline to live like royalty while leaving me to die. I took my last ragged breath in that blinding blizzard, consumed by a toxic hatred. Why was I so hopelessly weak? Why did I let them take everything from me? Opening my eyes again, the painful frostbite scars were gone. My skin was warm. I grabbed my phone. The screen lit up: November 12. It was exactly three days before the world ended. When my adoptive mother called, faking a tearful emergency to demand another thirty thousand dollars, I smiled coldly. "Just tell me where to send the money, Mom." This time, I'm taking my space back, and I'm going to drain them dry.

Fantasy Horror Sci-Fi

7.5

Bound To The Devil From My Past

7.5

To save my family's dying company, I was forced to marry a billionaire I hadn't seen in fourteen years. But right outside the City Clerk's office, he tossed our marriage certificate at me like a cheap receipt and shoved a four-year-old boy into my arms. "Your new life has begun. You're on babysitting duty now." He sneered and left me stranded on the sidewalk. I realized with absolute horror that my new husband was Ellsworth Marshall, the sickly boy I had relentlessly bullied in middle school. He didn't spend five billion dollars to save the Bradford family. He bought me to execute a slow, suffocating revenge. He used his orphaned nephew as a pawn, explicitly threatening my father that if I failed to play the perfect, compliant nanny, he would instantly destroy our family's legacy. He even had his guards lock me out of his Long Island estate on my first night, forcing me to stand in the cold dark just to prove he owned me. I was trapped in a gilded cage, suffocated by the guilt of my past and the terror of my present. Why did he involve an innocent child in his twisted vendetta? How much humiliation was enough to pay for my childhood cruelty? Looking at the terrified little boy clinging to my skirt, I tightened my grip on my suitcase. If he wanted to destroy my will piece by piece, I had to find a way to survive the monster I created.

Horror Modern Romance

8.4

Bound To The Monster Who Ruined Me

8.4

Ayleen Avery was just a struggling hotel worker trying to survive her shift. But during a sudden blackout, she accidentally stumbled into the pitch-black VIP suite of a ruthless billionaire driven mad by chronic insomnia. Calmed only by her unique natural scent of roses and rain, the terrifying man attacked her from the shadows and forced himself on her. Terrified and broken, Ayleen fled at dawn, unknowingly leaving behind her late mother's antique rose necklace in his bed. Her greedy coworker found the necklace, claimed to be the woman from that night, and was instantly swept into a life of luxury. Meanwhile, Ayleen was blackmailed into a forced marriage with her attacker—Cassius Doyle—to save her adoptive father from prison. Deceived by the stolen necklace, Cassius believed Ayleen was a manipulative spy. He brought the coworker into their home and paraded her around the master bedroom. "In this house, you are lower than the dirt on my shoes." He choked Ayleen, forced her to sleep in a damp storage room, and treated her with violent disgust while pampering the thief. Ayleen was suffocating in absolute despair. She had lost her innocence, her freedom, and her mother's only relic to a vicious liar. She couldn't understand how this all-powerful man could be so completely blind. Why couldn't he recognize the very scent that had cured his agonizing madness? Staring at the dark bruises he had just left on her neck, Ayleen wiped the blood from her lip. She would endure this three-month marriage to secure her family's safety, but once the contract ended, she would expose the truth and tear down the fake savior he cherished so much.

Billionaire Horror Romance

7.5

He Buried Me, But I Bloomed

7.5

She was dead. Or at least, that's what they thought. Now, five years later, Ivy Richardson stood at her own grave, ready to face the man who put her there. Ivy, in a custom coat, stood at her cold, black marble gravestone. "Beloved daughter and fiancée," the inscription read—a cruel joke mirroring her heart's wasteland. A gravedigger dropped his shovel, face ashen. Trembling, he pointed, gasping, "Oh my God... you look exactly like her." He saw a ghost; Ivy was alive. She paid for silence. Then, Clayton, her former fiancé, appeared, shaking: "Ivy? Where have you been?" She crushed his cheap lilies, her lethal gaze replacing the girl he'd abandoned. He snarled, blaming her, justifying her "Do Not Resuscitate" order for his mistress, Ainsley. Ivy's cold laugh mocked his pathetic lies. "Fiancé?" she echoed, revealing her new wedding ring. "That title expired when you signed the DNR... and Ainsley was watching, wasn't she?" With an icy "Go to hell," Ivy left him slipping in the mud.

Horror Romance

9.3

My Awakening: His World Falls Apart

9.3

My husband Hudson had kept me a medicated ghost for three years, convinced I was unstable. But a cheap pink hair clip, tangled with golden blonde hair in his car, ripped through the chemical haze. The bitter pill he forced me to take wouldn't numb the burning truth, only fuel my awakening. I was an architect once, but now I was just Cora, a docile wife trapped in his suffocating world. When he saw my shock, his concern was sickeningly sweet as he offered another Xanax. I pretended to swallow the poison, letting it dissolve under my tongue, a constant reminder of my awakening. Back at the mansion, his massive car deliberately blocked mine, a crude barricade confirming his control. Then, a message from an old intern confirmed my darkest fears: this was domestic abuse. He urged me to check Hudson’s closet, to record everything. I knew then I was living with a dangerous monster, and my denial shattered. The anger burned, fueled by the bitter taste of that undissolved pill. That night, Hudson walked in, wearing a hideous, sloppily tied red polka-dot tie. It was a clear, undeniable sign of another woman. My architect’s mind was awake, cold and calculating. "Game on, Hudson." I would make him taste this bitterness back a thousand times.

Horror Modern Romance

8.8

Sacrificed To The Beast: The Wolfless Mate

8.8

On the anniversary of my mother's death, my father, the Alpha, threw a lavish wedding to marry a woman only four years older than me. My new stepmother publicly humiliated me, stomped on my hand, and shattered the only necklace my mother left me. When I confronted her, my father slapped me across the face and ordered me to respect my new Luna. Heartbroken and furious, I publicly disowned them all. In retaliation, my father sentenced me to death the very next morning. He offered me as a tribute to the cursed Lycan King—a monster whose beast savagely tore apart every she-wolf sent to his bed. My family watched with smug satisfaction as I was locked in an iron cage and dragged away, discarded like defective trash simply because I was born wolfless. I was supposed to be ripped to shreds on my first night in the pitch-black castle. But as I stood in the King's dark chamber, bracing for the bloody end, nothing happened. The terrifying beast just sat in the shadows, staring at me in absolute confusion. That was when the horrifying truth of his curse clicked in my mind. His madness was triggered by the spiritual scent of an inner wolf. And I was completely wolfless. The very defect that made my family throw me away was my ultimate, impenetrable shield. I wasn't going to die here. I was going to survive, use this terrifying King, and make my family regret the day they ever cast me out.

Horror Romance Werewolf

Too Late For Regret: My Dead Heart

Chapter 6

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