The Garden Party

It was the holiday season, so I took my foster daughter, Megan Delgado, to our mansion for a vacation. However, I found out that the property had been occupied by someone else. The woman who opened the door looked at us with an impatient expression. “What do you want? You’re interrupting my daughter’s birthday party. Are you asking for trouble?” For a moment, I thought I might have the wrong house. That was until I noticed the clothing and jewelry the woman was wearing. Every piece was an exact match with what I kept in my wardrobe here. The timing could not be more telling. Just a week ago, my husband, Richie Delgado, said he was planning a surprise for me and Megan. He asked for the spare key to the mansion. I glanced past her at the crowd of party guests in the living room. “So, you’re saying you’re the lady of the house?” She sized me up and noted my simple outfit. “Who else if not me? You? You’ve ruined my daughter’s party. You’d better beg for her forgiveness now!” she said in a condescending tone. When I did not move, she warned, “My husband will be home any minute now. Do you know who he is? He’s the CEO of Beran Corp! A nobody like you can’t afford to cross him!” They were using my mansion to throw a birthday party for his illegitimate daughter. It was quite the surprise indeed!

The housekeeper’s daughter, Selena Greene, deliberately chose to get married on the same day, at the same hotel as me. When our cars passed each other on the way to our weddings, she rolled down her window and asked to switch my bridal bouquet with hers. My bouquet, however, wasn’t just any bouquet. It was hand-carved from priceless jadeite by my grandfather himself—a one-of-a-kind heirloom and his blessing for my wedding day. “Trish,” she pleaded softly, “please. I’ve sacrificed so much for this wedding. I just want it to be perfect. I’ll give it back to you as soon as we get out of the cars.” My heart softened. Against my better judgment, I handed her my bouquet and took her cheap, plastic flowers instead. However, when we stepped out of our cars, she refused to return it. Worse still, during her ceremony, she tossed my jade bouquet onto the floor, shattering it into countless pieces. That bouquet had been my grandfather’s way of being present at my wedding. It was all I had left of him. Yet, in front of everyone, Selena put on an innocent act and accused me, “Who takes back a bouquet after a switch? A glass bouquet like this is all over online shopping platforms for ten bucks. I’ll just pay you back. Trish, you’ve made my life hard enough on normal days. Do you have to humiliate me on the most important day of my life, too?” Furious, I confronted her, but she ducked behind my fiancé and my brother, wiping at her eyes like the victim. My fiancé immediately went to comfort her, leaving me standing alone at the ceremony, humiliated and ridiculed by everyone. My brother, too, called me cruel and heartless. He cut me off financially and threw me out of the family home. Selena’s husband, having quickly risen to success with the help of powerful backers, unleashed his relentless revenge on the now penniless and alone me. In the dead of winter, hired thugs found me and brutalized me to death. And Selena? She became their princess, adored by all three of them. I sank into darkness, full of rage and regret. However, when I opened my eyes again, I was transported back to the day of the wedding.

“Tyler Brooke, do you take Miss Becky Smith as your lawfully wedded wife?” “Yes, I do” I replied so firmly with a smile on my face. “And do you, Miss Becky Smith, do you take Tyler Brooke, as your lawfully wedded husband?” One minute, two, and some more minutes passed as she looked around. I wasn’t worried because i knew she had no choice, this wedding had to happen or she would lose everything. Becky's father asked her to get married to their gardener — a gardener she hired by herself to tend to the garden in her father's mansion. Of course, you wouldn't expect a classy woman like her, who has eyes for wealthy men, to accept a classless gardener as her husband, especially when she already has a fiancé. But what happens when her father uses her love for money against her by taking all her assets, putting her in a tight spot and leaving her with only one choice — to marry the poor gardener. What happens when she realizes that this poor gardener had a secret that could either make or destroy her marriage to him? She hates him, but he isn't ready to let her go. Will they be able to stand the test of time, or will they be overwhelmed by the dangers that lurked at every turn they took?

She came to steal a plant. She left utterly destroyed and completely his. Aria Chen is a brilliant hacker, underground artist, and medical prodigy — but none of it can save her dying mother from a rare disease with only one cure: Vitalis Radix, a nearly extinct medicinal plant cultivated exclusively on billionaire CEO Damien Blackwood's private estate. Desperate and out of time, Aria does the unthinkable. She infiltrates his mansion as a maid under a false identity, planning to steal the plant and vanish. Get in. Get the plant. Get out. Until she meets him. Damien Blackwood is power incarnate — ruthlessly intelligent, devastatingly handsome, and dangerously observant. When he makes her his personal maid, Aria thinks she's found perfect access. She has no idea he's been waiting. He knows exactly who she is. And his punishment won't come from police or prosecution — it comes in whispered commands, in his hands claiming every inch of her virgin body, in a world of dark eroticism she never knew existed. She becomes addicted. To his touch. His dominance. The obsession that makes her question everything she came for. When he finally catches her in the greenhouse, the confrontation is explosive. "Did you really think I didn't know? You played your game, Aria. Now it's time for mine." Betrayal. Rage. And a passion that blurs every line. READER WARNING — Dark Erotic Romance: virgin awakening, dominant/possessive hero, power dynamics, morally gray characters, sex toys, punishment scenarios, exhibitionism, explicit content, and intense emotional angst. GUARANTEED HEA — but the journey is dark, twisted, and absolutely filthy. "Welcome to Blackwood Estate — where every rule is meant to be broken, every boundary pushed, and love is the most dangerous game of all."

Sophia Miller has spent her life cultivating beauty in her tulip garden, a family-owned flower shop nestled in the heart of Eldenbrook. Her mother’s legacy lives on through her prized “Midnight Flame” tulip, a rare and radiant bloom that symbolizes hope and resilience. But as land developers close in on her beloved shop, Sophia faces losing everything she’s worked to preserve. When Alexander Kane, a reclusive billionaire and tech visionary, wanders into her garden, Sophia sees him as just another customer with deep pockets and shallow intentions. But Alexander isn’t there for tulips—at least, not entirely. Desperate to salvage his company’s struggling renewable energy project, he believes Sophia’s unique flowers may hold the key to revolutionizing biofuels. Drawn together by unexpected chemistry, Sophia and Alexander find their lives entwined in ways neither of them could predict. As Sophia shares the secrets of her garden, Alexander begins to question the cost of his ambition. But when she discovers the truth about his hidden motives, their budding romance is uprooted, leaving betrayal and heartbreak in its wake. In a race against time and corporate greed, Alexander must decide: protect his billion-dollar empire or fight for the woman who taught him to see beyond the numbers. Can they find common ground in the soil of their shared dreams, or will their love wither before it has a chance to bloom?

Violet's world just changed and she's not the only one. After caught fleeing on the day of her arranged marriage, Violet must now live with her future husband, Leo Whitlock. As Violet deals with her parent's death, Leo is pressured to convince her to marry him. They soon find themselves seeking comfort in each other's company, but their family secret's might block out any warmth. Love will bloom, weeds will perish and a cold day might end them all.