If Only He Knew
/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.
/0/18378/coverbig.jpg?v=40fe42d94cecfb242aca15c7338caa76)
If Only He Knew
[ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs ᴛᴏ ʟᴏᴠᴇʀs - ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇᴅ ] Twenty years. Two best friends. She loves him more than herself. He needs her more than he should. She couldn't deny him anything. And he decides to test her loyalty by asking her one of the most toughest favours she could ever imagine him asking. How will sh
/0/45598/coverbig.jpg?v=0dbf52c587c4d85c190ffe8be2382519)
If Only
Life couldn't get any more perfect for the eighteen year-old, Alison Jade Jorgensen. She had everything any person could ask for. Wealth, looks, the attention and as an only child of an insanely wealthy family, she's the apple of everybody's eyes. But despite all the unsolicited attention she's gett
/0/22135/coverbig.jpg?v=02cd1a05ee6cf69893eb607fd95b8120)
Only If you know
Olivia or Livy for short. She has been through a lot. More than you possibly can imagine. She has lost touch with her true self. Old Livy may still exist deep within her soul, but to others, she is nothing more than a girl with a stone heart who doesn’t feel pain. Caleb pretends to have the demeanor
/0/8872/coverbig.jpg?v=1af15320f983d7c35c2ca64c6327b4bd)
/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
/0/80877/coverbig.jpg?v=1802835fb84dda4e44f36aebd8572932)
If He Dies, He Dies
I poured my life, my health, into Vicky Sterling's startup. Now she's a celebrated CEO, and I’m just a recovering patient, battling Crohn’s. Her "conceptual artist" lover, Julian, fills our home with his presence. One evening, Julian, knowing my strict diet, offered me a rich, forbidden pasta. Unde
/0/12106/coverbig.jpg?v=0105b867dd69c5566ca97c7c5dd6a23d)
/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
/0/90501/coverbig.jpg?v=476da2d11230df9bd923c939626f1e60)
WHEN HE FINALLY KNEW.
Elena Reyes returns to Manhattan with nothing but ambition, a five-year-old son, and a vow to never look back. After years spent rebuilding her life in New Orleans, she's focused on one thing-launching her creative agency and giving her son the future he deserves. Love? Distraction? Off the table.
/0/82692/coverbig.jpg?v=e65c1718c77362deb179753604ed54b6)
The Fortune He Never Knew
Our Maui anniversary trip was set. For years, I' d quietly funded my husband Mark' s tech startup, even his mother' s expensive cancer treatment. He thought I was just "Sarah Miller," unassuming, never guessing my father owned vast vineyards and luxury resorts. Then, at the airport, he canceled o
/1/114485/coverbig.jpg?v=8f67c877f897f335540c355d85bedba8)
The Truth He Never Knew
Corinna moved through a high-society gala, a powerful woman now commanding respect. Three years ago, the influential Rios family had cast her aside, viewing her as a liability. Now, after countless battles in a D.C. think tank, she wielded her newfound power with precision. As her armored SUV navig
/1/127184/coverbig.jpg?v=1d8fdb94a718acbbb9dbb4dd97afdfea)
The Wife He Never Knew.
Adrian thought his wife was weak. He believed Elena cried because she couldn't bear to lose him. He believed she was jealous of his first love. He believed she would never survive without him. He was wrong about everything. Their marriage was arranged for business, but Elena had spent years playing
/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
/1/110758/coverbig.jpg?v=c128a2dec193a8872660edd847f56cd0)
The Robot Wife He Never Knew
Before I died, I used my life's work in robotics to build a bionic replica of myself for my husband. She had my exact face and body, but none of my temper. She never threw tantrums, never picked fights, and never raised her voice. Yet my husband, Ethan, had no idea she was actually a machine. He
/0/78599/coverbig.jpg?v=9347635d1f21641697251a0ea2178770)
He bought her only to spoil
Ariella Hart didn't get a proposal. She got a contract. Sold by a father who discarded her, Ariella is forced into a marriage with Dante Romano, a cold, powerful billionaire mafia boss. He doesn't want her, she's nothing but a pawn in a dangerous game to settle a debt. Their marriage is a secret, a
/0/38210/coverbig.jpg?v=d9369784098c7c71847b99b4957783a2)
He Only Married Me to Revenge
The sun was bright that day, and she was diagnosed by the Physician to be pregnant, but he sent a bowl of abortion soup, so she was heartbroken, then she dried up her tears and ended her life in a decisive way.
/1/112406/coverbig.jpg?v=370e8ee2f6a6101c5a6d7adfa551aff9)
THE DON'S INNOCENT BRIDE: The Queen He Never Knew
I pointed a gun at my husband and made him sign our divorce papers. He thought I was too soft to survive without him, he had no idea of the rebel he created. I was about to become his worst nightmare. Dante Caruso taught me two things: how to love a monster, and how to become one. When I discovered
/1/122150/coverbig.jpg?v=71f617a8501de484c5306db0b17fc544)
The Heart He Never Knew How To Love
Ava devoted herself to a marriage where her love and effort were never reciprocated. Even with her heart broken, she refused to lose herself completely, so she filed for divorce to protect the only things she still had: her dignity and her heart. She believed she had finally left the past behind,
/0/2032/coverbig.jpg?v=70ed9304149deef13ff37438bdf75803)
/0/9028/coverbig.jpg?v=c1b4251e9f706b223afc7d8339a917d2)
If Any Man Sin
Like many of Hiram Alfred Cody's novels, If Any Man Sin is set in the rough-and-tumble frontier of the Canadian Yukon. Clergyman Martin Rutland has been cast out of the church due to bad behavior. He tries to make a fresh start, but finds that his past misdeeds keep catching up to him.
