Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: Parenting Teenagers Into Adulthood

After the SAT, my daughter turned into something I didn't recognize. She repeatedly stabbed her grandmother, who had raised her, until the old woman bled to death. She pushed her little brother from the tenth floor and killed him on the spot. My wife and I tried to talk her down, our voices shaking, but she only laughed. "Grandma and Caleb were too good to me. That's why they had to die! And you two worked so hard to raise me. You paid for my education and gave me everything. You were too good to me, so you have to die!" Then she set us on fire. I closed my eyes in despair. When I opened them again, I was back one week before my daughter's SAT. This time, I installed a hidden camera in her bedroom. I didn't care what it took. I was going to find out why she killed us. When my wife and I watched the footage later, neither of us could say a word.

My 20-year-old daughter was obese. She started gaining weight in middle school, and now she weighed 200 pounds. I worried about her health, so I prepared nutritious meals for her and encouraged her to exercise every day, but she didn't take the problem seriously. "I was born weighing 7 pounds. It's your fault for making me so fat when I was in your womb." For eight years, every time I urged her to lose weight, that was her reply. Just as I was losing hope and considering giving up, I received a FaceTime call from my daughter 10 years in the future. "Mom! Please help me one more time!" My daughter cried on the phone. "I now weigh 500 pounds. I can't even leave home, and I struggle to breathe every day. I feel so miserable!" My heart softened, and I spent $30,000 to send my daughter to a weight loss camp. However, in the camp, my daughter indulged herself and even started a food vlogging channel. "Eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want. Don't take life so seriously. We only have about 80 years to live, so enjoy your food!" I was completely disappointed and chose to respect her decision. My daughter from ten years later cried hysterically on the phone. "The doctor said I don't have long to live! Please stop feeding me!" But this time, the FaceTime call was made to my daughter's phone.

I thought surviving high school would be the hardest part of my life. I was wrong. The day my mother died, I lost everything—my family, my home, and the truth. Years later, I'm forced to move into the one place I swore I'd never return... Brinkley Estate. And the one person waiting for me there is Callum Brinkley. The boy who has hated me for as long as I can remember. Cold. Cruel. Untouchable. Living under the same roof with him is torture. But the more I try to stay away, the more impossible it becomes to ignore the secrets hidden behind his walls—and behind his eyes. Someone is watching us. Anonymous messages begin appearing. Locked rooms are suddenly unlocked. Old journals reveal impossible truths. And every clue points to a conspiracy buried for more than twenty years. The deeper we dig, the more dangerous the truth becomes. Because my mother's death wasn't an accident. She was murdered to protect a secret powerful enough to destroy generations. Now someone wants me to finish what she started... Even if it means I won't survive. In a house built on lies, where everyone has something to hide and no one can be trusted, the last person I should fall for is the boy who hates me. But what if hatred was never the whole story? What if the greatest secret inside Brinkley Estate... is the reason we were destined to meet? Some families inherit wealth. Others inherit monsters.

My father disappeared a year ago after giving me one piece of advice. Never go anywhere near Vivian. Vivian just happens to be my mother. The same mother who walked out of my life eleven years ago. When she suddenly invites me to move into her fancy Manhattan mansion with her ancient vampire bloodmate, I say no. Then I realize something. If anyone knows what happened to my father, it's probably the people he warned me about. Now I'm living under the same roof as a ridiculously attractive vampire who might have murdered my dad, pretending to be the perfect intern while secretly investigating him. As if that isn't enough, a terrifying Alpha werewolf takes one look at me and decides I'm his fated mate. Apparently my life wasn't chaotic enough already. The more questions I ask, the more bodies turn up, the more secrets I uncover, and the more I realize my father wasn't hiding from monsters. He was hiding me.Now someone wants my blood, two supernatural enemies refuse to leave my side, and if I don't uncover the truth soon...I'm probably going to end up as the next body.

My mom is terrified of being laughed at by others the most. Whenever the holidays are here, she will keep repeating one sentence to me—"Don't go around embarrassing me." When my relatives gather around and chat with each other, I accidentally knock a fruit platter over. Mom drags me over and slaps me on the spot. At the holiday feast, I grab extra pieces of steak for myself. Mom responds by kicking my chair over. When it's time for the holiday gifts to be distributed, my aunt, Gabriella Hall, has miscalculated the number of children present among the family. So, she has prepared one less gift for the occasion. Mom doesn't hesitate to kick me out of the apartment, leaving me shivering in the cold corridor in just my indoor clothes. The icy winds chill me to the bone. I keep slamming my palms on the front door while screaming and crying my apologies at Mom, and yet she remains unmoved and silent. Instead, she turns to face Aunt Gabriella with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm really sorry. I didn't raise my daughter well. It's only fair that you ridicule me." What Mom doesn't know is that I get triggered whenever I hear the word "ridicule" thanks to her so-called parenting lessons. Whenever I hear that word, I want nothing more than to hurt myself uncontrollably. So when I hear the word "ridicule" coming out of Mom's mouth through the front door, I turn on my heel quietly and begin making my way toward the bridge next to the neighborhood that's plunged into darkness. The moment I jump from the bridge, the only thought I have is, "Mom, no one will ridicule you because of me this time."

A classic high-school love story takes deadly twists when the all already burdened life of 18-year-old Marcus Boaz, is made even more difficult after his drug addicted brother gets out of Rehab. When love seems to be the only way out, a path he unhesitatingly takes, he almost immediately gets his heart crushed, and is pushed into even grimmer darkness. Now, to get back at the one person who broke his heart, he stumbles on one final conclusion. ALL HEARTS MUST BLEED