Ruined City

"Has anyone heard of this city?! No one seems to remember it, and something horrific might have happened to it."

From the outside, her life looked like a storybook — young love, a growing family, and the hope of a future built on hard work and devotion. But behind closed doors, it was a different world — one filled with control, silence, and bruises too deep for anyone to see. Before she turned twenty-one, she had already survived a violent marriage, the constant threat of losing her children, and a battle between truth and lies that nearly destroyed her. Every time she tried to rebuild, life seemed to find a new way to break her — a false accusation that stole her children, a fire that turned into murder, and the death of the man who had helped her believe in love again. Echos of Ruin is the raw, unflinching story of a woman who refuses to stay broken. Through violence, betrayal, and unbearable loss, she finds the courage to keep moving — to fight for her truth even when no one will listen. It’s a story of motherhood and survival, of loving and losing, and of discovering that sometimes the only way to save yourself is to walk through the fire. Told with haunting honesty and sharp clarity, this memoir is not just about what was taken from her — it’s about what she refused to surrender: her spirit, her strength, and her voice. Because even when the world tried to silence her, she learned the most powerful truth of all — the human heart can shatter a thousand times and still find the strength to beat again.

He wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a favor, he was supposed to be a protector, a shadow while my father was gone. But now he’s everything I shouldn’t want and the only thing I can’t stop craving. My father’s a powerful man in the military, he's respected, constantly away. After the divorce, it was just me, no mother, no one to run too just silence and an empty house. Then came Roman Cross. My dad’s best friend. His war brother, he was, older, stricter and always watching me and it made me fall even more for him. He moved into the guesthouse when I turned eighteen, “just to keep an eye on things,” he said. A promise made man-to-man, sealed with loyalty. But Roman doesn’t treat me like a child, at least not anymore, not since the night he touched me and now I saw what he really is, what he really wants. He runs something dark behind closed doors. A secret club, built on control and submission. And once I got too curious, there was no going back. Now every look I take is a warning because now I can't back out. My father thinks I’m safe but instead, I fell in love with the one man he trusted to protect me. “Guardian of Ruin” is a dark, forbidden romance full of secrets, age-gap tension, and the dangerous kind of love that can never stay hidden.

Three years ago, I fled with nothing but the secret growing inside me—the Alpha’s pup he would never know. Now I am Dr. Veronica Sanchez, the most feared surgeon in the realm. They call me the Queen Surgeon of Ruin. In my hands, life is not a gift. It is a verdict. When Justin Halderman, the Supreme Alpha who discarded me for his precious Alpha Princess, collapses bleeding and poisoned at the doors of my Black Veil Clinic, the entire realm holds its breath. He is on his knees. Bleeding. Poisoned. Begging. The man who once ruined me is now completely at my mercy. And mercy? I don’t believe in it anymore. Not for the Alpha who chose power over the omega he knotted and abandoned. Not when our son—his heir, his legacy—stands just beyond his reach, hidden in the shadow of my empire. He wants to live. He’ll have to pay for it. With his pride. With his body. With every last shred of control he once held over me. Looking down at the man who broke me, I feel only a delicious thirst for ruin. This time, I won’t run. This time, I decide who survives… and how beautifully they break.

Ishida, a young man, unexpectedly meets a girl named Rhina by sheer fate. But before long, a war erupts and they are captured by soldiers led by the malicious Lieutenant Monte. The lieutenant gives them a dreadfully simple choice: leave their homes in search of a legendary "lost city at sea," its immortal king, and bring back a mind-boggling amount of gold, or have their mountain reduced to ashes. Ishida’s father had set out in search of the place, too, but never returned. The journey will take them across oceans, sun-scorched deserts, and over perilous mountains; but most importantly of all: the two will discover their true selves will discover their true selves when they confront what will determine their fate. The questions remain: will they be able to find the lost city at sea and bring its treasures back to the avaricious lieutenant before time runs out? Or, perhaps the place they are searching for is simply non-existent?

I see Grandfather, and he knows I see him. The people surround me, their faces red with anger. Grandfather raises his hands, eventually quieting them. "Toby... what have you done?" The colony world of Horus was a blissful utopia... until a curious little boy made one mistake and sent the world into a downward spiral of self-destruction. The world's gods were revealed to be nothing more than computers... and those computers are now failing. To pay for his mistake, Toby Spafford, now a man, must travel the deadly, ruined streets to find three missing keys that can activate a backup system created by his grandfather, Professor Jonathan Spafford. Dogging his every move are various factions that have grown to like the taste of power over the helpless citizens, and they'll do anything to stop him. In his favor, he is determined, intelligent, bitterly stubborn, and resourceful. Unfortunately... so are his enemies.