Login to ManoBook
icon 0
icon TOP UP
rightIcon
icon Reading History
rightIcon
icon Sign out
rightIcon
icon Get the APP
rightIcon

Home

Genre

Ranking

Short Stories

closeIcon

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open

Anastasia Paige

10 Published Stories

Anastasia Paige's Books and Stories

The Chef's Lie, Her Scars

The Chef's Lie, Her Scars

 Modern
5.0
My husband Collin and I were Chicago' s culinary power couple, but our perfect life was a lie. To win the coveted Golden Spoon award, he brought in a protégée, Casey-a woman who looked just like me, twenty years younger. Then I overheard his sickening plan. He would use my talent to win the award, securing our empire. After that, he' d set Casey up as his adoring mistress in Europe. "I get to have both," he bragged. "The respectable chef wife, the passionate, adoring mistress. It's perfect." He publicly humiliated me, abandoned me after a kitchen fire left my arm scarred, and painted me as a jealous, unstable woman when I caught them together. He thought I was too devoted to our restaurant, too blinded by love to ever see his betrayal. He was wrong. The final straw wasn't his affair, but his cruelty. After he left me bleeding on the street to rush Casey to the hospital for a minor scratch, I finally saw the truth. I would not just leave him. I would vanish, erasing myself from his life so completely that he'd be left with nothing but the ashes of the empire I built.
From Ruin, A Family's Rebirth

From Ruin, A Family's Rebirth

 Modern
5.0
The hum of my hydroponic pumps was the sound of success, a constant thrum in the Harmony Springs warehouses I' d brought back to life. I was Ethan Miller, the tech kid who' d poured every fortune back into this dying town, promising jobs and prosperity. Then the celebration died the moment the angry shouts from outside drowned out the pumps. A mob, half the town, stood in my gravel lot, their faces twisted with an anger I couldn' t grasp, led by Chad Thompson, a man I' d hired, trusted, and considered family. "There he is! The millionaire!" someone screamed, and the wave of accusation focused on me. Chad laughed, a short, ugly sound. "This is a town meeting, Ethan. You' re the guest of honor. We' re tired of you getting rich off our backs." They called me a parasite, a thief, accusing me of exploiting them, despite the jobs I'd created and the wages I'd paid. They saw my success and interpreted it as a betrayal. They demanded an insane increase in rent, 50,000 dollars per warehouse, and 20% of my company' s profits, with Chad as chairman. It wasn't about money; it was about control. "No," I said, my voice quiet but final. "I will not be extorted." The shouts became threats, a violent crescendo. "Get out of our town, you thief!" Then, the first rock slammed into the metal siding of my warehouse. They swarmed, shattering windows, overturning equipment, trampling my plants into mud. My dream, my life' s work, was being systematically destroyed by the very people I had come home to save. My wife, Sarah, and daughter, Lily, arrived, just as a brute backed out of the warehouse, nearly hitting Lily with a metal shelf. I lunged, taking the blow myself, crumpling to the ground as Lily screamed. Chad smirked over me, "Looks like you had a little accident." Sarah' s fury erupted. "You! He treated you like a brother! He came back to this dead-end town because he believed in it!" The betrayal solidified into an icy resolve. "They can have it," I rasped, defeat in my voice. "They can have this whole damned town." But they weren' t getting my technology. That night, under the cover of darkness, I orchestrate a silent, complete extraction, leaving Harmony Springs with nothing but an empty shell, unaware of the financial trap I laid.
Unloved Daughter, Unbreakable Spirit

Unloved Daughter, Unbreakable Spirit

 Young Adult
5.0
After three years away, the day finally came: my parents and little sister were coming home. My heart pounded with a desperate hope, imagining the hugs and loving welcomes I' d missed. But when they arrived, their eyes went straight to my doll-like sister, Brittany, leaving me, Chloe, standing invisible in the doorway. "You' ve gotten so… big," my mother, Sarah, stated flatly, her gaze making my simple clothes feel cheap and ugly. Brittany' s innocent-sounding jab, "Mommy, she looks like a country girl," was met with my dad' s chuckle and my mom' s tired smile, twisting a knife in my chest. What followed was a slow, agonizing realization: I wasn' t a daughter, but a utility. My hands bled from endless chores, yet my mother dismissed it as "attention-seeking." I overheard my father declare my future: stuck in our small town, running the family store, "good enough for her." Then came the slap-a public humiliation, a burning sting on my face for a spilled candy jar worth mere cents. Their casual cruelty overshadowed any physical pain, confirming I was nothing more than a nuisance. My grandmother, the only warmth in my world, held me as I sobbed. "Some people are just not meant to be in your heart," she whispered, her words a bitter truth. I tried again, making my mother a birthday cake with my own saved money, only for her to call it "ugly" and knock it to the floor, shattering it-and my last vestiges of hope. The final blow came when my mother accused me of theft, hitting me so hard my head throbbed, while my father stood by. Then Brittany ran in, crying over a scraped knee, and their immediate, doting concern made it sickeningly clear: her minor discomfort outweighed my brutal reality. Why was their love so conditional, so utterly, devastatingly absent for me? Why did their concern instantly shift to a superficial scrape while my pain was invisible, dismissed, or even caused by them? How could a family be so blind, so callous, to its own child? The answer solidified with chilling clarity: I was done trying to earn a love they would never give. That night, I started tearing up every academic achievement, every proof of my efforts, a quiet declaration of war: I would not be their victim.
His Wife's Cruel Secret

His Wife's Cruel Secret

 Modern
5.0
My name is Nathaniel Lester, a legacy in The Directorate, a secret agency where my legendary father, "Ghost," once operated. I chose to sacrifice a leadership career, opting for a field agent role, all to stay close to my high-ranking handler wife, Sylvia, whom I loved more than anything. That choice shattered my world during a mission in Eastern Europe when I was captured by mercenaries, tortured, and had the crucial "Rosetta Key" cut from my arm, leaving me broken and left for dead. My hero, Sylvia, later rescued me, but her voice from the hospital hallway - "using the mercenaries to set up Nathaniel... maybe we went too far," followed by, "Caleb needs the Rosetta Key... As for Nathaniel? He has me. That's enough" - echoed louder than any scream. My wife, the woman I devoted everything to, and my lifelong mentor, conspired to leave me brutally maimed for a promotion for some rookie named Caleb, destroying my body, my career, and my very identity. They systematically fed me lies, delayed my healing with fake serums, and orchestrated my public humiliation, stripping me of my clearance and painting me as a traitor just as Caleb, the one who benefited from my agony, was groomed to replace me. How could my closest allies betray me so utterly? What dark game were they playing, and why did my sacrifice mean so little? Alone in that locked room, with nothing left but searing pain and raging fury, I remembered one thing they forgot: my father, Ghost, always had a contingency for betrayal. I activated his hidden protocol, a desperate signal sent through my life force, relinquishing my old self to call the Ghost home, knowing this was either my end or my ultimate rebirth.
My Wife's Faked Death

My Wife's Faked Death

 Modern
5.0
At sixty-six, lying in a hospice bed, my breath a shallow rasp, I faced the end of a lifetime of thankless labor. My estranged daughter stood by, refusing eye contact, when she announced, "You have a visitor." The door opened, and in walked a woman older, impeccably dressed-my wife, Jenny, who had supposedly died in a fiery car crash forty years ago. She thanked me for raising Stella and caring for her parents, then offered a condescending "donation" to cover my burial costs. The betrayal, forty years old, ripped through me like a fresh wound, knowing my daughter was in on the lie, my whole life a bitter joke. My heart seized, the world went dark, and the monitor beside my bed screamed its frantic protest. Then, light. I gasped, shooting upright, my heart strong, my hands calloused and young. I wasn' t in a hospice; I was in my own bedroom, 26 again, clutching Jenny' s crumpled "suicide note." She was gone, but not dead. This time, I' d make her "death" real.
The Devil's Sister

The Devil's Sister

 Horror
5.0
My name is Jocelyn Clark, or it was. Five years ago, my husband, Ethan, sent me away, pregnant and alone, to a forgotten town. He was obsessed with my sister, Nicole, convinced she was a fragile angel, but she was a viper. He abandoned me, and then she had me killed. Now, Nicole's heart is failing, and Ethan's desperate search for a compatible donor leads him back to the dilapidated house where he sent me to die. He calls, only to have a small, trembling voice answer, "My mom? She passed away. A long time ago." He dismisses it as a game, storms to the town, and demands to find me, refusing to believe Barney, the old sheriff, who tells him the truth: "Jocelyn is dead. She' s been dead for five years." Ethan' s arrogance blinds him; he sees conspiracy where there is only tragedy. He refuses to accept my death or the existence of our son, Matthew, whom he dismisses as a "bastard" and threatens to harm. His cruel intent escalates until his men dangle our terrified son from a rooftop, a brutal ultimatum for me to reveal myself. Just as Matthew falls, the DNA report arrives: "He' s your son!" Simultaneously, word comes: "We found the grave... Jocelyn Clark." The horrifying truth about my death and our child's paternity crashes down, shattering Ethan' s world. He thought he was seeking a donor, a wife, but he was condemning his own son.
My 21st Birthday: Day Of Reckoning

My 21st Birthday: Day Of Reckoning

 Billionaires
5.0
My 21st birthday gala. The grand ballroom buzzed, filled with the heavy scent of lilies. But my eyes snapped open to my private suite; I was back. Not in the cold, damp alley where they left me to die. It was that day again. Last time, my seemingly sweet cousin Chloe stole my bespoke gown, publicly humiliating me. My charming fiancé, Ethan, watched, then sealed my fate. My own brother, Marcus, ravenous for power, colluded with them. They engineered my ruin, aligning with Viktor Rostova's Apex Global, swallowing our family empire whole. My father, the Senator, fell mysteriously ill, then was cruelly silenced. The memory of their betrayal, cold and hard, was a raw wound. How could the people I trusted most destroy me so utterly? Their 'revenge' for one public embarrassment had cost me everything. But this time, I knew their every move. This time, it would be different. I stood, calm and steady, ready to dismantle them piece by piece. The first move? My true dress. Then, a reckoning for every single one of them.
From Sugar Baby to Heiress

From Sugar Baby to Heiress

 Young Adult
5.0
At seventeen, my world was simple, filled with summer heat and the promise of graduation, all centered around my wild first love, Jax Carter. But his family's money whispered through town, a power that turned to poison when his twisted need for revenge against my mother crippled my ten-year-old brother, Miguel, and left me pregnant and abandoned. My comfortable life vanished overnight, replaced by the relentless burden of Miguel's medical bills, forcing me into the humiliating role of a "sugar baby," enduring leering old men just to survive. Eight years later, I walked into a charity auction, a sea of tailored suits and glittering gowns, only to see him across the room: Jax, now a successful architect, thriving, untouched, with a beautiful fiancée by his side. His presence, a stark contrast to my daily struggle and the constant reminder of my brother' s shattered future, ignited a cold, burning rage so deep it threatened to consume me. When fate, or perhaps karma, brought him back into my orbit, terminally ill and desperate for a relationship with Mateo – the son he never knew he had – I saw my chance. He wanted redemption and believed I offered forgiveness, but every kind word, every tender touch, was a meticulously crafted lie, a performance designed to lure him into my trap. I would use his guilt, his vast wealth, and his desperate hope for a cure to secure everything for my brother and son, then deliver a truth so brutal it would obliterate him. This wasn' t a second chance; it was the ultimate, calculated payment for a debt he owed, ensuring he would finally pay for the ruin he caused my family, even if it meant destroying myself in the process.
The Harrison Heir's Vengeance

The Harrison Heir's Vengeance

 Billionaires
5.0
My Austin estate, usually a haven of quiet luxury, felt like a cage. My engagement to Brooke, stable as the family fortune, was meant to be the next logical step in a life I thought I largely controlled. Then came the primal scream from my throat, wordless in the chill of a nightmare that suddenly, terrifyingly, became real: the heavy thud of our main gate, the crash downstairs signaling intruders, and the glint of steel. I barricaded my mother and myself in my room, listening in horror as my sister, Savannah, dismissed Mom’s desperate pleas as "drama" on the phone, accusing me of faking it, while a knife plunged into Mom’s chest. Barely escaping with my life and a broken body, I stumbled to my fiancée Brooke for help, only to be branded a liar and brutally whipped by her, Savannah’s poisoned words already having turned her against me. How could my own flesh and blood, consumed by jealousy for some pathetic country singer, orchestrate such a savage betrayal, painting me as the villain while my mother bled out? The burning injustice tore through me, mingling with the chilling realization that those I trusted most were the ones who condemned me. But as the sirens approached and a call from the sheriff confirmed the bloody truth and an arrest, a new, cold resolve cemented within me: the naive boy was gone, replaced by a man forged in fire, ready to reclaim his destiny, unmask the true orchestrator, and dismantle the lives of everyone who dared to wrong the Harrisons.
The Bus Seat Scandal: A Father's Fight for Truth

The Bus Seat Scandal: A Father's Fight for Truth

 Modern
5.0
The photographer accused my father of beating an honest college student on the bus to grab a seat. As a result, my father was fired from his job and has been hiding at home, afraid to go out. I encouraged him to report the incident to clear his name. After the police provided a detailed report, the media still wouldn't let him go, sharing our personal information and spreading rumors in the comments that we had "connections." We became targets of public outrage, and the school even forced me to take a leave of absence and apologize! In the end, I stood in front of the camera holding my ID and sent all those who conspired against us to jail!