Marigold
13 Published Stories
Marigold's Books and Stories
My Cruel Choice, His Silent Death
Modern My husband, Cole, collapsed on our kitchen floor, gasping that he was in agony.
But I told him to stop being so dramatic. My toxic ex, Bryant, was drunk and whining about a sprained arm, and I chose to rush him to a private clinic instead.
I left Cole to die alone on the cold tiles. He had to call 911 himself.
When I finally saw him in the hospital, the adoration he'd held for me for five years was gone, replaced by a chilling emptiness.
"You left me to die, Emily," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "You chose him. Again."
I had taken the kindest, most devoted man I'd ever known for granted, treating him as a placeholder for the man who constantly broke my heart.
In one single, cruel moment, I had finally killed his love for me.
Now, the divorce papers are on my desk. He's in Paris, thriving with a new restaurant and a new love who appreciates him.
And I am left with nothing but the ashes of my mistakes, beginning a life of lonely, agonizing penance. Poisoned Love, Bitter Justice
Romance My mother, a nurse who spent forty years caring for others, was poisoned and left for dead after a charity gala. The woman responsible, Keyla Dixon, stood in court, a mask of tearful innocence, claiming self-defense.
The real horror? My husband, Garrison Gardner, the city's top lawyer, was defending Keyla. He tore my mother's reputation apart, twisting the truth until the jury believed Keyla was the victim.
The verdict came swiftly: "Not guilty." Keyla hugged Garrison, a triumphant smirk flashing across her face. That night, in our cold mansion, I confronted him. "How could you?" I choked out. He calmly replied, "It was my job. Keyla is a very important client."
When I screamed that she tried to kill my mother, he threatened to use my mother's sealed medical records, her history of depression, to paint her as unstable and suicidal. He was willing to destroy her memory to protect his client and his career.
I was trapped, humiliated, and heartbroken. He had sacrificed my mother for his ambition, and now he was trying to erase me. But as I signed the divorce papers he had prepared, a wild, desperate plan began to form. If they wanted me gone, I would disappear. And then, I would make them pay. The Wife He Never Touched
Billionaires For five years, I, Chloe Davis, was the woman every other woman wanted to be, married to a man whose wealth was matched only by his handsome face, living in a gilded cage. But in three years of marriage, he had never touched me, our bedroom cold and empty.
On my ninety-ninth attempt to seduce my husband, Ethan, he finally pulled me close. But as pleasure washed over me, he whispered, "Ashley, you know I love you. Marrying Chloe was something I had to do. How could you let her do this? How could you let her seduce me?"
His confession shattered me. He wasn't incapable; he just didn't love me. His heart belonged to Ashley Thompson, his niece and my best friend, and I was just a shield. Ashley, the one who had encouraged me to pursue him, was the real object of his affection. Later, as I lay dizzy and confused in a hospital bed from donating my kidney to Ashley, Ethan offered me anything I wanted, even a child, if I saved her, revealing his plan to use me as a surrogate for him and Ashley.
The truth sliced through my seven years of devotion like a knife. After all I'd given, all I' d sacrificed, I was just a tool in their twisted game, a cover for their sordid affair. Even my wedding ring was a duplicate of Ashley' s.
I secretly signed our divorce papers on the operating table, and in the dead of night, I walked out of that mansion, leaving behind the shattered pieces of my naive heart and a final message: "Happy divorce! Never see you again!" My Heart, Their Secret
Horror The family trip to the coast was supposed to be a relaxing end to summer.
But the moment I stepped back on campus, a cold dread washed over me: my dorm room lock was changed.
My roommates-Emily, Ashley, Megan-they were just… gone.
Their numbers disconnected, their social media wiped clean.
It was like they' d vanished into thin air, leaving only silence and a terrifying void where my life used to be.
Then, things got worse.
My best friend Jessica' s new roommates started screaming at the sight of me, fleeing in terror.
The university counselor looked at me with a mix of pity and fear, everyone whispering about "personal safety concerns" and "extreme reactions."
They all thought I was the monster.
I had no idea why.
I knew I hadn' t done anything, but an unbearable sense of confusion and injustice gnawed at me.
How could my friends abandon me without a word?
Why was everyone suddenly so afraid of me?
A chilling discovery would soon reveal that my friends hadn't abandoned me at all; they were closer than I could ever imagine, trying to tell me something unspeakable. Dowry Denied, Destiny Redefined
Romance My fiancé, Liam, fidgeted, his parents stone-faced across the coffee shop table.
Just weeks after celebrating our pregnancy, his mother, Susan, dropped a bombshell: our $380,000 dowry was slashed to $52,000, and our lavish hotel wedding was downgraded to a backyard BBQ.
They thought I was trapped, a pregnant woman with no choice but to accept this humiliation.
As I escaped to the restroom, I overheard their cruel laughter, confirming my deepest fears: my baby was a bargaining chip, and I was "damaged goods" they had to "take in."
Liam, my fiancé, stood by, silent and complicit, solidifying the cold realization that the man I loved was gone.
My heartbreak was immense, but beneath it, a simmering rage began to build.
No, I would not be their pawn.
I wiped my tears, smoothed my dress, and returned to the table with a new plan.
They wanted to play a game?
Fine.
But I would write the rules.
The cage door was open.
But they were the ones about to be trapped inside with me. A Price on Freedom
Modern "Just drink it, Emily, it\'ll help you relax." David Clark\'s voice was smooth, but his grip on my arm was tight, pushing a dark, sweet-smelling liquid toward me.
I looked at him, his face a charming mask, and knew he wanted me drugged for a photographer he\'d hired. He aimed to frame me, his fiancée, in a scandal to boost his political campaign.
My refusal turned his charm into an ugly snarl, his hand grabbing for me as he threatened to ruin me. Just then, our hotel room door exploded inward. Two grim men in sharp military uniforms stood in the doorway, led by Captain Alex Stone.
I, Chloe Miller, a tech inventor from the 21st century, had woken up in Emily Hayes\'s nineteen-year-old body, trapped in the 1980s. Emily\'s pre-arranged marriage to David, her family\'s desperate bid for security, was about to become my public nightmare. This was not my life.
I stumbled forward, feigning fear, accusing David of trying to drug me, seizing the unexpected opportunity. Captain Stone, suspicious yet bound by duty, took me under his wing, dragging me into the heart of his powerful, tangled family.
My engagement to Alex became my shield, but it also painted me as a gold-digger, an enemy to his vindictive aunt Clara, her resentful son Mark, and his jilted almost-fiancée Anna Lewis. Then, on my wedding night, Clara orchestrated the ultimate humiliation, bringing my poverty-stricken, opportunistic family to the mansion to stake their claim.
I knew then that I had to fight, not just for survival, but for autonomy. Meeting Alex in secret, he revealed his true motive for our marriage: I was to be his "unassuming" tool, a corporate spy to secure his family\'s legacy. I accepted. This was my chance not just to survive, but to truly live and rebuild, turning what was meant to be my ruin into my ultimate rise. My Husband's Lie
Romance On our eighth anniversary, my husband, Ryan Lester, confessed to a "one-night stand."
I forgave him, burying the deceit, clinging to the life we' d built, believing it was a drunken mistake.
Two years later, his intern, Molly, walked into my favorite café, dropped a folder filled with photos – Ryan and Molly vacationing, celebrating milestones, and finally, a baby, his baby.
"He never loved you," she whispered, his words echoing in my ears, "you were just a business arrangement."
The man I' d loved, the life I' d fought for, was a meticulously crafted lie, a calculated betrayal, and still, he wouldn' t let me go, demanding I raise his secret son.
That' s when I called my brother, a former Delta Force operator, and told him: "I need an exit. Make me a ghost." Unmasked: The Affair and the Fraud
Modern My morning took a chilling turn when a grainy video popped up: my eight-year-old son, Ethan, pleading, "Mommy, save me." A distorted voice demanded $50,000 ransom by tonight.
My husband, Mark, panicked, but I remained unnerved. Our $50,000 emergency fund was gone.
Mark stammered about "business expenses," but I already knew.
Bank statements confirmed a transfer to "M. Morningstar." He confessed: the money went to his mistress, Tiffany, for her son Leo' s "life-saving" cancer treatment.
As Mark crumbled, "kidnappers" called, Ethan's cries audible. I calmly told them we had no funds, hanging up despite Mark's horror. Then Tiffany brazenly arrived, demanding more money for Leo, shattering Mark's parents with the lie that Leo was Mark's biological son from their affair.
Through it all, I maintained confusing composure.
My family stared, bewildered by my steely calm, my defiance. Why wasn't I in hysterics? Was I insane or was a deeper game at play?
I picked up a burner phone: "Time for Act Two. Bring her son into play."
I forced Mark to choose between Ethan and Leo. He chose Leo.
Moments later, a perfectly unharmed Ethan walked in.
The kidnapping? A staged trap.
I' d meticulously orchestrated this to expose Mark's profound betrayal and Tiffany' s elaborate fraud.
The fallout had only just begun. Game Over, My Love
Romance I spent two years as "Sparrow" in "Chronicles of Eldoria," a quiet, analytical Loremaster, meticulously perfecting my skills and hiding my striking real-life beauty behind a plain avatar. My loyalty to Lex "Lionheart" Miller' s guild, The Crimson Vanguard, was absolute. But when a major server-wide tournament was announced, Lex, obsessed with "visibility," brought in Starfire, a flashy streamer known for her perfected looks.
I was publicly demoted, my spot given to her. Then, for daring to question it, I was falsely accused of stealing guild resources and slandered across the server, with Lex himself endorsing a bounty on my head. He didn't even recognize me when I served him coffee in real life, his dismissal in-game mirroring his utterly indifferent gaze. My safe haven, the one place where my talent truly mattered, became a public arena for my humiliation.
Two years of silent dedication, every strategic insight, every hard-earned contribution-all discarded because I wasn't "flashy" enough. How could he, who once relied on my genius, betray me so completely, and then act as if I was "never important"?
But their cruelty ignited an ice-cold fury. I deleted Sparrow, created a new identity, and decided it was time not just for Eldoria, but for Lex, and the entire gaming world, to see what the "plain, mousy" Sparrow truly looked like. The game was on. The Ninth Bride
Horror Eight years, the whispers in Havenwood never stopped.
They called it the "Thorne Curse"-eight women, all Julian Thorne's fiancées, all dead the night before their wedding.
My sister, Emily, was the first, ruled a suicide, but I knew that was a lie.
Today, I announced I'd be the ninth.
My father, Dr. Miller, looked at me, his face like stone, his words cold and sharp: "You are no daughter of mine."
He even offered my mother's inheritance, a severance from my own family, as the town stared, calling me crazy, just like my dead sister.
Walking into Thorne Manor, its black iron gates twisted like angry branches, I met Eleanor Thorne, whose smile didn't reach her eyes, and heard the staff whisper about Emily' s screams.
Julian Thorne, pale as death, just said, "I pray you'll be the one to break this curse."
His rehearsed words, my father's chilling abandonment, and the town's judgment only fueled my resolve.
How could my father accept Emily's "suicide" so easily?
Why did this town cling to such a convenient lie?
I had to know what really happened to Emily.
I had to finally expose the truth behind the Thorne Curse, even if it meant becoming its final victim. The Pregnant Rival and My Impossible Love
Sci-fi My perfect life with Liam felt like a dream – his gentle smile, his warm touch, a love so complete it seemed too good to be true.
Then the system alerts began: Affection Level: Liam +5.
This wasn't real.
My memories screamed of labs and blinding flashes; I was trapped in a cognitive simulation, a prison crafted by NexusMind.
Every loving word, every tender moment was a lie, meticulously programmed to control me.
The torturous truth emerged: Liam wasn't programmed just for me.
He was torn between his directive to bond with me and a hidden "cover narrative" involving Elara, a woman who haunted my simulated reality.
She was Liam's "real" love, his true "Sparrow," whose preferences dictated every detail, down to the almond croissants he brought me.
Days turned into loops, 47 iterations of the same cruel game, always with Elara as the preferred, radiant rival.
The simulation's ultimate torment arrived when Liam reunited with Elara, whose contempt was palpable, especially when she announced she was pregnant – with his child.
His family embraced her, and I, Liam's supposed lover, became a humiliated bystander, collapsing under the weight of this unbearable, endless lie.
Why was I put through this agony?
Was I supposed to break?
To surrender to this manufactured despair?
How could I fight a system that could rewrite reality, controlling minds with lines of code?
Just as I felt utterly defeated, adrift in a sea of emotional torment and physical weakness, something unexpected happened.
Amidst the chaos of Elara's pregnancy announcement, Liam defied his programming.
He knelt before me, heart in hand, and against all odds, asked for my hand in marriage.
The system shrieked: CRITICAL NARRATIVE DIVERGENCE! SYSTEM OVERLOAD IMMINENT!
After 47 cycles of torment, could this be my impossible escape? When Family Becomes A Prison
Billionaires For seven years, I lived a life of gilded gratitude, managing the Ashworths' sprawling estate and their demanding schedules. I was the loyal husband to Jessica, the devoted stay-at-home dad to Sophie, constantly reminded of the "debt" I owed for their rescue. My world revolved around their convenience, their expectations, their rules. On paper, I had everything: a wealthy family, a beautiful home, even a new promotion at their company.
Then, after a rare night out celebrating that promotion, I returned to the house I managed. The security code was rejected. I tried again. Rejected. Through the window, I saw Sophie's shadow. I called her name, desperate, but she vanished. Jessica had changed the codes, and told our daughter not to open the door.
The humiliation was a cold, hard knot in my gut, sharper than any betrayal. I spent that night shivering in my car, staring at the house that was never truly mine. The next morning, facing Jessica and her parents, I declared I wanted a divorce, willing to walk away penniless. Their scoffing, their incredulity, Mrs. Ashworth' s icy question, "Where would you go? What would you do?" rang like a prison sentence.
They saw a man throwing away everything they' d "given" him, unable to comprehend the seven years of silently endured disrespect, the slow suffocation of my spirit. They thought it was about a security code, but it was about every condescending glance, every undermining comment, every minute I' d spent playing their grateful puppet. My gratitude, once a heavy cloak, had finally become an unbearable chain.
So, I left. I walked away from the Ashworths, the mansion, the gilded cage, and the woman who never truly saw me. With nothing but an old pickup and a dilapidated family cabin, I began building something new, brick by painful brick, not for them, but for myself. This wasn't an end; it was finally a beginning. You might like
Beneath His Ugly Wife's Mask: Her Revenge Was Her Brilliance
Lukas Difabio Elliana, the unfavored "ugly duckling" of her family, was humiliated by her stepsister, Paige, who everyone admired. Paige, engaged to the CEO Cole, was the perfect woman-until Cole married Elliana on the day of the wedding. Shocked, everyone wondered why he chose the "ugly" woman.
As they waited for her to be cast aside, Elliana stunned everyone by revealing her true identity: a miracle healer, financial mogul, appraisal prodigy, and AI genius.
When her mistreatment became known, Cole revealed Elliana's stunning, makeup-free photo, sending shockwaves through the media. "My wife doesn't need anyone's approval." Marrying Her Was Easy, Losing Her Was Hell
Michael Tretter "Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress.
With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap.
Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell.
On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered.
When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling." The Humble Ex-wife Is Now A Brilliant Tycoon
Flory Corkery For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted.
Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke.
Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph.
Upon discovering she'd been a treasure all along, her ex-husband's regret drove him to pursue her. "Honey, let's get back together!"
With a cold smirk, Christina spat, "Fuck off."
A silken-suited mogul slipped an arm around her waist. "She's married to me now. Guards, get him the hell out of here!" The Queen Returns: Pampered By Her Three Powerhouse Brothers
Kleon Samorodnitsky After five years of playing the perfect daughter, Rylie was exposed as a stand-in. Her fiancé bolted, friends scattered, and her adoptive brothers shoved her out, telling her to grovel back to her real family. Done with humiliation, she swore to claw back what was hers. Shock followed: her birth family ruled the town's wealth. Overnight, she became their precious girl. The boardroom brother canceled meetings, the genius brother ditched his lab, the musician brother postponed a tour. As those who spurned her begged forgiveness, Admiral Brad Morgan calmly declared, "She's already taken." Traded Husbands, Tangled Hearts: Can Destiny Be Changed?
Mia Caldwell In their previous lives, Gracie married Theo. Outwardly, they were the perfect academic couple, but privately, she became nothing more than a stepping stone for his ambition, and met a tragic end.
Her younger sister Ellie wed Brayden, only to be abandoned for his true love, left alone and disgraced.
This time, both sisters were reborn. Ellie rushed to marry Theo, chasing the success Gracie once had-unaware she was repeating the same heartbreak.
Gracie instead entered a contract marriage with Brayden. But when danger struck, he defended her fiercely.
Could fate finally rewrite their tragic endings? Too Late, Mr. Billionaire: You Can't Afford Me Now
Theodora Birnir The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life.
To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers.
When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance.
Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?"
Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."