Two Degrees
10 Published Stories
Two Degrees's Books and Stories
His Poisoned Love, My Shattered Heart
Modern For three years, I flew across the Atlantic for my fiancé, Dale. He was a brilliant tech CEO who swore he'd travel to the ends of the earth for me, saving a thousand airline tickets as "proof of his love."
But when I arrived a day early to surprise him, I overheard him confessing to our friends.
"Our relationship is exhausting me, and my love for her is draining away."
His words were just the beginning. I soon discovered his affair with a young intern, Jetta. When she drugged me, sending me into anaphylactic shock, Dale' s only punishment for her was docking half a day's pay.
He then took Jetta on a lavish vacation while I recovered alone in a hospital bed, his excuse being that I had "provoked" her.
The man who once showered me with diamonds and promises now defended my attacker. His love, once my bedrock, had become a poison.
As I stood at the airport gate, I sent him one last email with proof of everything. Then, I snapped my SIM card in half and boarded a flight to Iceland, disappearing from his life for good. He Followed: Building Our Scarred Life
Mafia On the night of my triumph, my husband chose her.
As the champagne flutes toasted my resurrected Renaissance masterpieces, the news channels showed Lorenzo "Enzo" Conti shielding his new business ally—and rumored future bride—from a storm. I stood alone in the glittering gallery, the perfect, neglected wife of Chicago's most formidable shadow-king.
For four years, I was his most beautiful possession. A restorer of broken art, trapped in my own gilded cage. That night, I saw the final crack.
So I began my own restoration project. Myself.
I forged my escape with the precision of my craft, embedding my divorce papers within a genuine museum loan agreement. He signed it without a glance, too busy building his empire to notice he was losing his wife.
I vanished into the Swiss Alps, carrying two secrets: my unborn child, and the cold resolve to never be erased again.
I thought that was the end of the story.
I was wrong.
He followed.
The man who once commanded a criminal empire now lives in a mountain hut. He chops my wood, clears my path, and learns to soothe our daughter at 3 a.m. When assassins from his old life came, he buried them in the frozen earth with his bare hands.
"Let me be your sentry," he says, his eyes holding a peace I've never seen. "Let me use the only skills I have left to keep you safe."
This is not a story about forgiveness.
This is a story about fracture, and what grows from the ruins. It's about the Don who became a carpenter, the restorer who learned to break free, and the new life we're building—piece by scarred piece—in the shadow of the mountains.
Some masterpieces aren't found in museums. They're forged in the silent space between a second chance, and the courage to take it. The Surgeon's Betrayal: A Wife's Revenge
Modern After three years in a mental hospital where my husband, Arthur, had me committed, I finally escaped. I went straight to my mother's grave-the mother who had given him her own kidney to save his life.
But her headstone was gone. In its place was a memorial for a dog named Princess Fluffykins. My husband had replaced her with his mistress's pet.
When I confronted him, he and his new woman, Blaire, destroyed my reputation online, costing me every job offer. Then, during a critical heart surgery, Arthur-my surgeon-walked out, leaving me to die on the table because Blaire called with a fake emergency.
He left me to die, just as he had abandoned my mother in her final hours. The man I had given everything to had tried to murder me.
But I didn't die. My childhood friend, Joel, burst in and saved me. When Arthur returned, begging for forgiveness, I looked him in the eye and delivered the lie that would become my truth.
"I always loved Joel. You were just a distraction." I Married My Ex's Uncle
Modern On my wedding day, the high school bully who once tormented me crashed the ceremony.
I believed Carsten Morgan would stand firmly by my side.
But he let go of my hand and walked decisively toward her.
Later, when I sued the bully and exposed her past harassment, Carsten suppressed the case.
He even countersued me for defaming her reputation.
Overnight, I became the internet's laughingstock.
At a banquet, Carsten sneered with contempt, "Those scars on your body disgust me."
He added, "Give up. I've got a filthy-rich uncle backing me. You can't win."
The next moment, the uncle he bragged about wrapped an arm around my waist.
He whispered softly in my ear, "If I send them all to prison, will you choose me?" Divorce Papers and New Beginnings
Romance The crystal glasses for the baby' s naming ceremony gleamed under the soft living room lights, a picture of domestic bliss carefully arranged by my mother-in-law. Everything was perfect, except for the nagging feeling that something was deeply wrong.
Then, my husband, Ethan, who had promised "just us" after my accident left me unable to conceive, blurted out his impatient wish for his ex-girlfriend, Chloe, to arrive. It soon became clear Chloe wasn't just any ex; she was carrying a baby, a baby that should never have existed.
His parents, my own in-laws, made it worse, scoffing at my very existence, saying, "Ava' s a brilliant doctor, we' ve always been proud of that, but this is a family affair. She doesn't quite fit in anymore, does she?" My husband simply slumped, caving under their pressure, trying to reshape his betrayal into a noble sacrifice. He truly expected me to accept this.
But what they didn't know was that I wasn't running late. I wasn't stuck in traffic. I was in a sterile downtown office, signing my name decisively on divorce papers.
My world tilted when I stumbled upon an email from Chloe, revealing the chilling truth: "Ethan is so amazing. He's paying for everything. He says he's doing it for his dying ex, a final wish, but I know he wants this baby as much as I do. Ava doesn't have to know until she gets back. She'll have to accept it then." My surgical fellowship abroad, meant to be my recovery, had been a lie.
Chloe, glowing and anything but terminally ill, looked up at me with a smug, triumphant smile. "Ava, you're back. Come meet Leo. Isn't he beautiful? He has Ethan's eyes." That was it. The snap. My hand struck her across the face. "She's a liar," I said. "You're all liars." I looked at Ethan, "You told me it would be just us. You lied to my face for a year."
The sheer audacity of his words stole my breath when he tried to justify it, saying Chloe was dying and giving me a child "without the pain of childbirth." He wasn' t just a cheater; he was a monster, turning my deepest pain into his convenient solution.
I was replaced. My clothes, my books, my entire existence were packed into boxes and moved to the small, cold guest room. Listening to their intimate sounds from what used to be my bedroom, I realized every memory, every shared moment, was a fraud. My love for him had turned to cold, hard resolution.
Why did they think I would just accept this monstrous betrayal? Why did he believe I would become an "aunt" to his child born of lies? What kind of warped reality did they live in?
I filed the divorce papers. Then, at the baby's naming ceremony, I took the microphone, silenced his sickening speech, and delivered my own, raw and unapologetic. "My husband, Ethan Hayes, just thanked this woman for her 'gift.' Let me tell you all what that gift was. While I was in another country, completing a surgical fellowship, grieving my inability to have children after a tragic accident, my husband decided to have a baby with his terminally ill ex-girlfriend." I then declared, "I am divorcing this man. Congratulations, Ethan and Chloe. You got what you wanted." Bleeding White: His Betrayal, Her Rise
Romance The charity gala was in full swing, a glittering celebration of my boyfriend Mark' s success, and the return of his high school sweetheart, Emily. I stood quietly, a shadow in a white dress, watching him hang on her every word.
Then, he finally noticed me, and with a flicker of annoyance, pushed a glass of champagne into my hand, instructing me to toast Emily. I murmured that I couldn' t, as only he and I knew I was two months pregnant.
He dismissed me, his friends and Emily' s condescending stare suffocating me. Trembling, I swallowed the bubbly liquid, and a sharp cramp immediately seized my abdomen. I gasped, dropping the glass, as a dark red stain spread across my white dress. Pain blinded me.
Through the agony, I saw Mark. He hadn' t even glanced my way. He was carefully spoon-feeding Emily expensive caviar, laughing. "Don' t mind her," I heard him say, his voice distant and dismissive. "She' s just a pet I keep. Can' t live without me."
I woke up in a cold, white hospital room. The doctor gently told me the baby was gone. My heart hollowed out. On my phone, Mark had updated his profile picture to Emily' s elegant side profile. I tried to message him, but a small, gray text appeared: You have been blocked by this user.
My heart hardened. The image of him feeding Emily while I bled, his words-just a pet I keep-echoed in the silent room. This time, I didn't cry. I booked a one-way ticket to Paris, leaving in three days, and a strange calm washed over me. The Price of His Indifference
Sci-fi The silence in our house wasn't peaceful.
I was a software engineer, navigating the quiet tension of a marriage that felt increasingly hollow, raising our son Leo while my husband, Ethan, a renowned AI ethicist, became a ghost consumed by his work and his "research partner," Olivia Vance.
Then, the tremors started in Leo's hand, a dizzy spell, a whispered "My head feels fuzzy, Mommy."
Doctors were baffled, shrugging off his rapid neurological decline as "an anomaly."
Meanwhile, Ethan dismissed my terror as overreaction, pointing to Olivia's daughter's mild complaints as proof of normalcy, the mention of her name like swallowing glass.
My desperation escalated when Leo, trembling, whispered, "I want Daddy. Can Daddy come home and fix it?"
I found Ethan and Olivia together, a team, a family, immersed in their multi-million dollar AI project, "Guardian,"
I pleaded for help, for one diagnostic scan, but Olivia, with a practiced smile, painted me as hysterical, manipulating Ethan into believing my son's illness was a weaponized distraction.
"You're weaponizing our son's illness to punish me for my work," Ethan coldly accused, choosing his project and his "partner" over his dying child.
He sealed Leo' s fate, and in that moment, something inside me shattered, replaced by a chilling clarity.
"I'm done, Ethan," I said, a quiet vow.
"Let's get a divorce."
What they didn't know was it wasn't the end of a tragedy; it was the birth of an obsession.
My son's death would not be quiet.
It would be an explosion. The Judge, The Fiancée, The Frame-up
Romance The judge' s voice was a flat, impersonal drone.
"Guilty."
My fiancée, Olivia, a vision in her tailored business suit, didn' t even flinch.
Her eyes, once so full of love, slid away from mine, landing on my half-brother, Liam.
He covered her hand with his, a small, intimate gesture that screamed a truth louder than the verdict.
They were abandoning me. My parents were gone, killed in the very accident I was now convicted of causing.
Seven years I spent in hell, every appeal denied, every lead a dead end.
Sarah, my childhood friend and court-appointed lawyer-and my wife on paper-was my only lifeline.
She kept promising to fight, telling me everything was a lie.
Then, a miracle. My conviction overturned. I was finally free.
But freedom quickly turned to another nightmare.
Sarah, my champion, tearfully confessed her family' s firm was bleeding money from an embezzlement scheme.
She needed a fall guy, and I, a freshly released ex-con, was the perfect one.
"I' ll do it," I said, believing I was repaying a debt, an honorable sacrifice for the woman who saved me.
Another seven years stolen.
When I was finally released, 42 years old, I went to Sarah' s mother' s house, this time to surprise her.
But the surprise was on me, in the form of a conversation overheard.
"Liam needs this to be over."
"He thought I was marrying him to save him," Sarah' s voice, cold and sharp, cut through me.
"The only reason I married him was to become the victim' s family representative. The only way to legally sign a waiver that would prevent prosecutors from ever going after the real killer."
Liam. He was the killer.
And Sarah, my trusted friend, my wife, had been the architect of my destruction from the very beginning.
Fourteen years. Two prison sentences. All a lie to protect the man who murdered my parents. The Price of Control
Romance The hospital room reeked of disinfectant, a scent that couldn't mask the sickness or the despair. Rain lashed against the window, mirroring the storm inside me. I had just undergone an induced abortion, the end of a life and, I thought, the end of my marriage.
Then my phone lit up with a news alert: a picture of my husband, Liam Sterling, arm in arm with my best friend, Chloe Davis, announcing a groundbreaking partnership. Not only had he betrayed me with her, but he'd also stolen the design project I poured my soul into, destroying my professional reputation overnight.
My mother, fragile and unconscious in the bed beside me, was a stark reminder of how much I had neglected her, consumed by the 'perfect' city life Liam had so meticulously crafted. His unexpected arrival at the hospital, playing the part of the concerned husband, only twisted the knife deeper. He wasn' t concerned for me, but for his public image, even manipulating doctors to keep me confined, a prisoner in a gilded cage.
Why was he doing this? Was it just about control, about power, or was there something darker at play? I felt like a puppet in his twisted game, humiliated and helpless, wondering what else he truly owned.
But then, a glimmer of hope: a whispered note from a kind stranger, Marcus Thorne, promising help. And just as quickly, it was snatched away, leaving me more isolated than ever, trapped by a man who claimed to protect me while actively destroying my world. The Lie That Lived With Us
Romance Just a week after my son Leo was born, as I navigated the raw grief of losing my parents and the overwhelming exhaustion of new motherhood, a seemingly innocuous email landed in my inbox, poised to shatter the quiet sanctuary of my inherited Boston home.
Addressed to "Ms. Sarah Connelly, parent of Maya," it was a welcome message from the city's most prestigious charter school-for a child I didn't know, shockingly enrolled using my name and my address, a stunt orchestrated by none other than my own husband, Mark, for his colleague Brenda's daughter.
His casual dismissals-"She' s a struggling single mom," "She' s vital to my team," said with infuriating nonchalance-masked outright gaslighting, culminating in a public display of affection where Brenda flaunted the custom anniversary watch I'd bought him, proving his betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined.
How could the man I loved, the partner who once climbed an icy fire escape to comfort me in my darkest hour, betray me so audaciously, choosing a manipulative colleague over his wife and newborn son, then abandon us when she needed him again?
But betrayal cannot break what is truly yours.
My house, my name, my son.
The first call was to my lawyer. This was no longer just about anger; it was about reclaiming my life, exposing their manipulative scheme, and building a new future on my terms, brick by painful brick. You might like
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." 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." 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." She Was The Joke, Now She's The Queen
Lila Wren Two years of marriage left Brinley questioning everything, her supposed happiness revealed as nothing but sham.
Abandoning her past for Colin, she discovered only betrayal and a counterfeit wedding.
Accepting his heart would stay frozen, she called her estranged father, agreeing to the match he proposed.
Laughter followed her, with whispers of Colin's power to toss her aside. Yet, she reinvented herself-legendary racer, casino mastermind, and acclaimed designer.
When Colin tried to reclaim her, another man pulled Brinley close. "She's already carrying my child. You can't move on?" 
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