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Shirlee Melnick

13 Published Stories

Shirlee Melnick's Books and Stories

The Surgeon's Wife: A Postmortem Love

The Surgeon's Wife: A Postmortem Love

Horror
5.0
I feel the cold first. It' s the stainless-steel table beneath me, as my soul hovers just above, watching. The man in blue scrubs, my husband Dr. Ethan Cole, picks up a scalpel. He's a surgeon, brilliant they say, but today he' s playing forensic pathologist to my dismembered body. My body is in pieces-a leg here, an arm there. My soul is hollow, devoid of anger or jealousy, as Ethan and his assistant try to piece me together. He remarks, "This is a mess. The killer was thorough. Almost… personal." His voice sends shivers down what used to be my spine, reminding me of all the times he' d used that same dismissive tone. He finds a dark splinter near my ribs, speculating about where I was held. Moments later, his phone rings, and his voice softens for Olivia Hayes, inviting her to her birthday, then turning to me with pure disgust, muttering, "Let' s get this over with." Then he finds our secret. A tiny, nascent fetus within me. His mask shatters, replaced by a choked, guttural sound of shock, horror, and something else-a child he just declared not worth his money. Clara, my best friend, calls, frantic. Ethan coldly dismisses her, claiming ignorance of my whereabouts and indifference. Olivia arrives, radiant in red, bringing him soup. As she turns, her elbow bumps a tray of instruments, and caught off guard, a flash of pure, venomous rage twists her face – a look that unmasks my killer: Olivia. My last memories flood back: Olivia, silhouetted, smiling, whispering, "He' s mine, Chloe," before raising the hammer. Now I watch her ladle soup for Ethan, realizing my death freed him, made him hers. And a foolish, broken part of me thinks, 'Maybe it' s for the best. If my death makes him happy, then let him be happy.' But then Olivia answers Clara' s call, and, with a cruel smirk, lies, framing me as an unfaithful wife who ran off with "Ryan something." Just before Ethan rushes off, claiming a work emergency, I see him make a furtive call to Detective Ryan O' Malley, telling him to ping my real phone. And just as Olivia confidently shoves something into her bag after he leaves, it slips out: my phone, with its cracked screen and cat charm. I know exactly where Ethan is going now-to find my phone at Olivia' s other apartment-and the labyrinth of lies begins to unravel.
Reborn at Thirty: His Ultimate Regret

Reborn at Thirty: His Ultimate Regret

Romance
5.0
The piercing beep of the carbon monoxide detector was the last sound I heard on Christmas Eve, my thirtieth birthday. Then, a searing pain, and I gasped awake, not in my cold, dark apartment, but in a sterile, bright hospital room, giving birth. I was twenty-five again, watching Liam, my charismatic husband, and his perfectly coiffed mother, Brenda, barely acknowledge our newborn son, Leo. I remembered my first life: Liam' s growing indifference, sacrificing my culinary dreams for a love that was never returned, watching my son embrace another woman. The pain of that life, more real than the lingering ache of childbirth, burned in my gut: I vowed I would not live that life again. When Chloe, the woman Liam had left me for, showed up at our door, ostensibly as a "colleague," and I overheard Liam confessing that I was nothing more than "the next best thing," "a substitute." My heart shattered, but this time, it forged ice. When Liam sabotaged my return to the culinary world, taking the restaurant opportunity I had secured and handing it to Chloe, then poaching my entire team, all to publicly humiliate me. The numbness shattered, replaced by a white-hot, furious clarity: This was war. I walked into his office, saw Chloe perched on his desk, and told him, "Liam, I want a divorce." He followed me to Paris, trying to reclaim me, but I refused, winning the culinary competition he' d tried to sabotage. I knew, with sickening certainty, that he had lost the best part of himself. I built my own kingdom, and the future was a blank page, and for the first time, I was the one holding the pen.
I Made My Fiancé Lost It All

I Made My Fiancé Lost It All

Romance
5.0
I was just a third-grade teacher, my life with my musician fiancé, Ethan, humming along. Our wedding was three weeks away, a dream I' d poured my savings and heart into, supporting his band from day one. But then I saw him. At "Book Nook Brews," not at band rehearsal, but with Chloe, his young intern. He was laughing with her, a genuine laugh I hadn't heard directed at me in months, his hand intimately on hers. The world instantly tilted off its axis. The next morning, the city' s biggest music blog confirmed my worst fears, plastered with photos of them. Yet, Ethan called, not to apologize, but to dismiss it as a "PR stunt," calling Chloe his "temporary PR girlfriend." He even expected me to be excited the wedding would be "bigger news" after his "promotional trip." Later, when I confronted him, he shoved me, causing me to stumble onto broken glass, cutting my hand deeply. He abandoned me bleeding, rushing off to comfort Chloe for a self-inflicted scratch. How could the man I loved be so cold, so manipulative, so utterly, shamelessly devoid of concern for my pain? Why had I sacrificed so much for someone who valued public image over basic human decency? The sting of betrayal was a physical ache, but a cold, hard resolve began to settle in. His final, hollow "love you" felt like ash in my mouth. That' s when I picked up the phone. "Aunt Carol," I said, my voice steady now. "I need a favor. Can you change the groom\'s name on the wedding invitations? To David Miller." And just like that, my meticulous plan, and my new life, began.
Shattered Illusions, Reclaimed Life

Shattered Illusions, Reclaimed Life

Romance
5.0
After eight years of marriage and years of quiet heartbreak, the two pink lines on the pregnancy test finally gave me a desperate surge of hope: our baby, a chance to fix everything with my husband, Ethan. But Ethan, the man I thought was my struggling artist, was secretly having an affair with a twenty-year-old named Alexis, a girl he'd 'rescued,' shattering the illusion of our life. Convinced her absence was the key, I foolishly booked Alexis a non-refundable ticket to a remote wellness retreat, a desperate, naive attempt to save my family. Within hours, Ethan unleashed a cold, precise rage, systematically dismantling my parents' beloved diner chain, a Midwest institution built from nothing, reducing decades of their hard work to rubble in just three days. He then sent his men to our family home, subtly threatening my parents, forcing my proud father to kneel in the town square and publicly apologize for *my* supposed deceit. When I finally confronted him, begging him to stop, he clamped his hand around my throat, slamming me against the wall, his eyes promising devastation far beyond mere financial ruin. Staring into the eyes of the monster he truly was, the man who had dismissed me as too old and 'not vibrant,' I knew the fragile lie of our marriage, and the hope of our child, could not survive. To break free from his poison, to ensure he could never use a baby to forever bind me to him, I made the agonizing, solitary decision to abort the pregnancy. Hollowed out but resolute, I packed our lives into essentials, left my wedding ring, and with my parents, disappeared to a small town, rebuilding our lives from scratch, waiting for the inevitable. He found me months later, working as a waitress, smugly offering to buy me back, to restore my parents' wealth, thinking he could still control me with money. But as I met his gaze, I calmly delivered the truth that stripped him of everything: 'There was a baby, Ethan. Ours. And I got rid of it. Because of you.' That single, devastating confession shattered his arrogance, leaving him broken and lost, finally giving me the first taste of true, hard-won freedom I had fought so desperately to claim.
The Eighteen-Year Lie

The Eighteen-Year Lie

Modern
5.0
For eighteen years, I’ve been told a lie. My husband, Mark, my doctors, even my own parents, convinced me I suffered from a delusional disorder, that my deep ache for a daughter named Emily was just a symptom. They said I only had one child, my sweet son Ethan. Yet, I always felt a part of me was missing. Then, on Ethan’s wedding day, a tarnished silver locket tumbled out from under my bed – the very one I gave my daughter, Emily, for her fifth birthday, the day she vanished. The fog of medication burned away, replaced by searing clarity. Emily was real. Mark had lied. I stormed into the wedding reception, publicly accusing him of murder, of burying Emily under our oak tree. But instead of finding justice, I was dragged away by the police, deemed delusional, and forcibly committed to a psychiatric facility. There, Mark and my parents finally ‘confessed’ a horrifying truth: Emily died in a car crash I caused, and her memory was erased from my mind to ‘protect’ me. Wracked with grief and guilt, I visited Emily’s supposed grave. But how could a daughter I’d barely remembered, who allegedly died eighteen years ago, still whisper ‘Save me’ in my dreams? And why did her headstone, beneath an ancient oak, look… disturbingly new? My bare hands clawed through the earth until they struck wood. The small casket, still pristine. Not decaying, not old. And utterly, horrifyingly empty. Emily isn't dead. My daughter is alive, and Mark, my husband, is a monster. The fight for Emily has just begun.
Weeks After the Funeral, My Wife Was Hers

Weeks After the Funeral, My Wife Was Hers

Modern
5.0
As a Chicago firefighter, my world was built on duty, courage, and the unwavering love for my wife, Clara, another hero on the force. Then the call came: a warehouse collapse, my sister-in-law Ava’s unit, no survivors, and later, Clara’s gear found near a burned body, presumed dead, annihilating my soul. But weeks later, reeling from grief, I stumbled upon a horrific truth: Clara, undeniably alive, was meticulously impersonating her deceased twin, living with Ava’s husband, Mark, in a sickening charade. My world didn't just tilt; it shattered, as I watched my presumed-dead wife publicly embrace her new life, even carrying another man's baby, all while casting me as the unstable widower. Every interaction was a fresh wound: her choice to save Mark instead of me during my anaphylaxis, her vile accusation that I’d supplied Mark’s overdose, and her constant, suffocating attempts to maintain control. I became a ghost haunting their stolen domestic bliss, an unwilling audience to the monstrous lie built on my shattered life. How could the woman who vowed 'til death do us part, betray me with such calculating cruelty, erasing our shared history to live as another woman’s wife, with another man? The clean grief I once felt transformed into a venomous, all-consuming rage, a betrayal so profound it stole my sanity. Was every laugh, every tender moment, a lie? With every piece of my soul screaming for escape, I decided then: I would leave Chicago, abandoning the ashes of my old life to seek a new beginning, far away from this living hell disguised as a family.