HE WAS NEVER MINE
/1/127579/coverbig.jpg?v=2ea34f2e2c2f3053a637d5acfe2fbf25)
His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius
I flew back to New York on my twenty-fifth birthday, carrying vintage gold cufflinks I spent weeks finding for my billionaire husband, Declan. But when I walked into our townhouse, I found him throwing a massive victory party with Sloane, a glamorous socialite, standing by his side as the proud hostess. "Don't cause a scene. Go upstairs." Declan coldly dismissed me in front of his guests. Even Poppy, the rookie player whose shattered ankle I had painstakingly rebuilt, rolled her eyes and ignored me to suck up to Sloane. Hiding in the shadows, I heard the maids gossiping that everyone thought Sloane was the future Mrs. Hartford. To make matters worse, I discovered Sloane had stolen my anonymous, groundbreaking medical algorithm and was planning to present it as her own. First my husband, then the girl I mentored like family, and now the scientific foundation I had built with my own hands. Declan even texted me to cancel our birthday breakfast without a single apology, treating me like an annoying afterthought. My tears vanished, replaced by a freezing clarity. I signed the divorce papers, leaving them on his desk with zero demands for his money. Then I packed my bags, booked a one-way ticket to Boston, and prepared to destroy them on the global stage.
Chapter 1
Aurelia Vance POV:
I had been married to Declan Hartford for three years.
Today was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had flown back from Boston in secret, hoping for one quiet evening with my husband.
I'd spent a week carefully picking out a pair of gold cufflinks as a gift for my husband.
But the laughter spilling from the front door told me I was already too late: the woman who had taken my place at his side was already inside.
The heavy oak door swung open before I reached the porch. Three young players from the New York Titans, Declan's NHL franchise, stumbled out with crystal tumblers of scotch, laughing loudly. They barely glanced at me as they passed.
I stepped into the grand foyer. The heat hit me instantly,expensive champagne, roasted tenderloin, cigar smoke.
Dozens of people filled the double parlor: executives, scouts, wives in designer dresses.
In the center stood Declan, tall and broad in a bespoke charcoal suit. Beside him, laughing into his ear, was Sloane Whitfield, her backless silver dress catching the chandelier light. Her hand rested on his forearm like she belonged there.
Before I could take another breath, a blur of blonde hair darted past my elbow.
"Sloane!" Poppy Delacroix cried, throwing her arms around Sloane's slender waist. "You were completely right about the catering! This is literally the best victory party the team has ever had!"
Poppy is fourteen, a junior elite forward prospect.
I scouted her two years ago from a crumbling youth league, back when she was at her lowest.
Her parents had once shown me great kindness, and I knew they had already passed away, leaving her all alone in the world.
Declan and I adopted her together.
I rebuilt her shattered ankle with a custom rehabilitation plan.
I had always loved and cared for her as both a mother and a sister.
Now, she did not even glance in my direction.
Declan turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd until his eyes locked onto mine. The easy grin on his sharp jaw vanished instantly. His brows drew together in a hard, irritated line.
He excused himself from Sloane, cutting through the throng of players with long, impatient strides.
"Aurelia," Declan said, stopping two feet in front of me. His voice carried zero warmth. "What are you doing here?"
My throat felt like sandpaper.
"I took the four o'clock flight from Boston," I whispered, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. "It is my birthday, Declan. I thought we could—"
"We are celebrating the division win," he cut in, his tone sharp enough to draw blood. "The board is here. The sponsors are here. Sloane spent four consecutive days coordinating this event so the organization could project stability."
He did not look at me. His gaze slid past my shoulder to the bar, like I was a waitress who had wandered into the wrong room.
"Don't cause a scene," he added quietly. "Go upstairs."
A soft, mocking murmur rippled through a cluster of players' wives standing near the grand staircase. Two women with platinum blowouts exchanged knowing glances over their flutes of Dom Pérignon.
"I didn't know," I said, my voice barely audible over the swelling music. "I am sorry."
I turned toward the staircase, my legs trembling beneath my wool trousers.
Near the landing, Poppy was adjusting her designer jacket in the hallway mirror.
"Poppy," I said softly, pausing beside her. "How is your ankle feeling after Thursday's third period? Did you complete the isometric sequence I sent?"
Poppy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly as she pulled out her phone.
"Aurelia, please, not right now," she muttered without looking at me. "Sloane is introducing me to a marketing director from one of our partners. I don't have time for your spreadsheets."
The dismissive edge in her voice hit me harder than Declan's coldness. I had stayed up until three in the morning reviewing her biomechanical scans while she was recovering from surgery, and now I was just an annoyance in the way of her social ascent.
I walked up the rest of the stairs and entered the primary suite—the massive, sterile bedroom allocated to me under our prenuptial agreement.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out the velvet box. The gold cufflinks gleamed under the bedside lamp, cold and useless.
Downstairs, cheers erupted. The sound vibrated through the floorboards.
I walked to the French doors overlooking the rear garden. Down on the illuminated patio, Sloane was directing two servers by an ice sculpture. Declan stood beside her, his head bent down as he listened to her speak, his hand casually brushing the small of her back.
They looked like the couple the city expected them to be.
My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out, hoping against hope.
It was an email notification.
"Happy Birthday, Aurelia. Remember that true science requires patience and solitude. You are meant for greater arenas than New York boardrooms. -Dr. Edmund Sterling."
My mentor at Harvard was the only person in the world who had remembered.
I typed a brief "Thank you, Professor" and shut off the screen.
Hours passed. The bass eventually quieted, replaced by the occasional clatter of glassware and slamming car doors. My throat burned with thirst.
At two in the morning, I padded downstairs in my stocking feet to fetch a glass of water from the butler's pantry.
As I rounded the corner near the service hallway, the voices of two newly hired catering maids stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Miss Whitfield is stunning," the first girl whispered, scraping dessert plates into a bin. "Mr. Hartford's girlfriend carries herself like royalty."
"A girlfriend?" the other asked, pausing. "But isn't Mr. Hartford rumored to be married? Is it inappropriate to be this close with Whitfield?"
"Married?Where did that come from? Even if there was one, they must have split long ago. I've worked three events here this month, and Miss Whitfield is the only woman hosting by his side. Everyone knows she's the future Mrs. Hartford."
I shrank back into the cold shadow of the archway, my blood turning to ice.
In the home where I held a legal marriage certificate, my presence had already been wiped clean.
/0/24003/coverbig.jpg?v=e2ee81becb09b212527130b3f3640183)
He Was Never Mine To Keep
There are two sides of a coin, heads, and tails. Both represent a whole, without either side of the coin, the coin will be incomplete. There will always be something missing but combined they make the coin whole. Two sides of a coin, they might seem insignificant but both are important, for a coin i
/1/123745/coverbig.jpg?v=1816bb11f3d41d86623dcbb1c1856a17)
HE WAS NEVER MINE
"You were never my wife. You were just... a placeholder until I got my real life back." Nathaniel Sterling said the words like they cost him nothing. Avery Monroe didn't flinch, she didn't cry, she didn't even beg. "Give me one night," she asked instead. "My first, and my last, as your wife." He
/0/19392/coverbig.jpg?v=bae5659a41c27cfaa517f16b40b28392)
He was never mine
Carmen was in one-sided love, and she didn't know that until she got married to Liam, her high school crush. After getting married to him, his attitude towards her changed. But Carmen stayed in the marriage and endured his inappropriate behavior towards her. However, everything changed when she met
/0/76424/coverbig.jpg?v=1f1f00800da35e5cf86ce12ac1f1b225)
The Love That Was Never Mine
Madelyn spent years in a marriage built on lies, loving a man whose heart had never been hers. It had always belonged to her adopted sister, Rebecca. When the truth came crashing down, everything she believed in shattered with it. Broken and betrayed, she walked away, determined to reclaim the piece
/0/55884/coverbig.jpg?v=dc5c75222210a7869a9462ca42bfff91)
Twisted Desires: He may never be mine
"Let's have an open marriage. One where we can be with whoever we want, no questions asked. Deal?" "Deal." he answered almost immediately. My chest tightened and I felt my heart shatter piece by piece. What have I done?... ********************* Forced into a loveless marriage, Isabelle found herse
/0/63175/coverbig.jpg?v=b83984ae603227d2a8a9d45fe1f59bdf)
NEVER KNEW HE WAS A MAFIA
Her father and stepmother died, leaving her to the brutal hands of her step brother. Her stepbrother is heartless. He treats her as a maid, is it a torture? She however discovers that she has been sold. Sold to a Ruthless Mafia, just to serve as a settlement for her stepbrother's debt. Now she fea
/0/852/coverbig.jpg?v=20171123164022)
He Knew He Was Right
Jim Lovelock is an iconic figure in British science, a prophet whose prophecies are coming true. This is his definitive authorised biography. Lovelock is best known as the 'father' of Gaia theory, which is now established as the most useful way of understanding the dramatic changes happening to the
/1/115317/coverbig.jpg?v=a0697d84839c0353d6cdb9ea3666452d)
The Bride he wanted was Never my sister
Mirabella spent her entire life in her sister's shadow, serving as the family fixer who cleans up every disaster left behind by her golden sister, the perfect sister and the one who got the guy she had always crushed on. When her sister absconds on her wedding day to avoid an arranged marriage with
/0/2003/coverbig.jpg?v=abb250be7414b39a94816050df47390f)
He Knew He Was Right
The central theme of the novel is the sexual jealousy of Louis Trevelyan who unjustly accuses his wife Emily of a liaison with a friend of her father's. As his suspicion deepens into madness, Trollope gives us a profound psychological study in which Louis' obsessive delirium is comparable to the tor
/0/80825/coverbig.jpg?v=acf881d7206fffdf12e06e01b78efb6a)
The Groom Who Was Mine
My best friend, Chloe, was getting married. I stood there, a bridesmaid, ready to celebrate her big day, even as a quiet ache for the man I'd lost years ago lingered. Then I saw him – the groom. It was Michael, the man who vanished three years ago, the love of my life, now standing at the altar, wai
/0/75364/coverbig.jpg?v=68b55546a896fdc6351a65afe28785ef)
Never Mine To Begin With
*BOOK SYNOPSIS* Violet is a cynic when it comes to love and she has every right to be, at least her family history is there as proof. Her great-grandmother was left at the altar by the love of her life when she was pregnant with her grandmother. Her grandmother was divorced by her grandfather when
/1/110058/coverbig.jpg?v=4371dcd6c33cda44e0f591219f7b2fbf)
The Woman He Was Never Meant To Love
She was sold into silence. He was born into power. Love was never supposed to happen. When Elena Brooks is forced into a cold, calculated marriage to Sebastian Blake-the ruthless heir to a powerful dynasty-she believes she has simply traded one prison for another. The Blake estate is filled with sec
/0/86409/coverbig.jpg?v=466a314c6b0f735ac068dca0f42ff627)
The Wedding That Never Was
The last thing I remembered was the cold, seeping into my bones on the operating table, as doctors frantically tried to stop the hemorrhaging. Then, the words that shattered my world: "The baby… the baby can' t be saved." My baby, gone. And in a flash, I remembered my husband Liam' s venomous snee
/1/101165/coverbig.jpg?v=7f704e42afd39641d0aea981b9af0497)
A Love That Never Was
I was a brilliant scientist, but in my family, I was always the shadow to my perfect, manipulative sister, Jetta. On the day I was set to receive the prestigious Harrison Award, my family was only focused on her graduation party, dismissing my life's work as a mere hobby. That same day, I was bruta
/0/99503/coverbig.jpg?v=e3397de932d26b650c48608048225a2b)
THE WIDOW WHO NEVER WAS
They buried her with lies... They mourned her with guilt... But Alira was never truly gone. When Alira discovers the affair between her sister and her husband, the man she once built her entire world around... confrontation turns to tragedy. Her life is stolen in a single, cruel moment but fate giv
/0/24789/coverbig.jpg?v=3da2432efbfc3feda7322f10f30db873)
He Is Mine
Jacob falls in love with his nurse, Darci but their bond gets threatened as Maya, Jacob's ex-girlfriend re-appears in his life.
/0/22040/coverbig.jpg?v=f593db51b1307860322e86e7d10e671e)
He Was My Crush
Sylvia Torres has always had a crush on Alex Jones until she kissed quiet Patrick Jamison to prove otherwise. Now to keep up with her lie, she must be closer to Patrick or else be humiliated by Alex's girlfriend. But what happens when real feelings set in and there's more to Patrick and Alex than ju
/1/116926/coverbig.jpg?v=f121eb795d9812d706a656eecb4ebfec)
He Never Saw Me
For ten years, I labored in the shadows to build a massive underworld empire for Cassius, the mafia Underboss I secretly loved. He promised me marriage and the title of Capo over the smuggling network I created with my own blood. But at the syndicate banquet, he handed my throne to Serena, a shelte
/1/122678/coverbig.jpg?v=41d0cb25ff29e5a338ca6607511f54c6)
HE NEVER LEFT.
Maya Lawson is used to things not working out. No matter how hard she tries, every relationship ends the same way, confusing, sudden and impossible to explain. But she's never really alone. Adrian Cole has always been there. He was stable and patient and he was always available to listen. Things c
/1/135222/coverbig.jpg?v=20261113101105)
The Rogue Who Was Mine
Callum has spent twelve years as a Council tracker, a wolf who hunts rogues and never asks why. Then he corners a lone woman on a rain-soaked logging road, and the first touch of her hand sets off a mate bond that nearly brings him to his knees. Wren is not the monster the Council described. She is
