Unmasking Autism

My sister was autistic. The doctors called it "severe sensory overload." The rule was simple: No sudden noises. Ever. So my whole life was set to mute. I never wore heels. I never raised my voice. I wasn't even allowed to laugh. It was all to keep her from having a meltdown. My father, Victor, the Don of the Castellano family, would grip my shoulder. His face was a mask of apology. "Sera, you're my good girl. Protecting your sister is our duty. You're healthy and strong. You can sacrifice a little for her, can't you?" That day, I was on the second-floor terrace and accidentally knocked over a pot of white roses. The sound of it shattering sent my sister, who was sunbathing in the garden below, into a meltdown. For the first time, Victor glared at me like I was the enemy. He roared, "Can't you just be quiet? Do you want to drive her insane?" My sister backed away in terror, right into a glass table, and let out a piercing scream. Victor charged past me, a blur of rage and panic. He slammed into me on the stairs as I was running down to help. I lost my footing and crashed chest-first into the sharp corner of a wrought-iron banister post. Pain exploded in my chest. I opened my mouth to scream, but only silence came out. My family swarmed around my shrieking sister. No one even glanced at me. My lungs filled with blood. I was drowning on the floor. They all thought my sister, the one with autism, needed the family's comfort. They thought I just took a fall. That I could wait. They were wrong.

We have differences, we are born not to impress anyone but to show them what and who we are. What if one day you'll end up losing your confidence? what if one day you'll never know who you are? what if because of one person you'll be lost your smile, lost everything including your happiness. Are you willing to trust again? to love again? Are you willing to be fooled and played again? lies... heartbreaks. betrayal..... played. fooled... pained... We all experience this, it's up to us to handle it properly. smile... laugh... mingle... meddle. Words that we can use to ease those pain words to enlightened our mood words that help us to go through and make our day complete. MASK the only thing we can use to hide what we feel inside. mask it hides the pain the heartaches and betrayal We often use a mask to simply smile to show the world that we are strong. strong enough to face the reality.

ATTENTION: don't read if you don't want to stay glued…! Ava, nursing a heart wounded by betrayal, had embraced the single life for two long years. That is until a masked encounter at a fateful party unveils a passionate night, leading to an unexpected consequence – she's now pregnant, with the enigmatic stranger as the father. In a frantic quest to discover the man behind the mask, Ava and her loyal best friend set off on a rollercoaster journey, only to face a series of dead ends. With seemingly no options left, Ava bravely chooses to embrace single motherhood. Fast forward two years, fate reunites Ava with her masked lover, Ethan. But their path is littered with obstacles, including Ethan's disapproving, influential mother, who believes Ava doesn't meet their standards. Can love conquer all? Will they defy the odds stacked against them and build a life together, or will the pressure tear them apart?

HER A mystery. So very complicated. An enigma. A puzzle with so many missing pieces. Add one of the above ingredients into my plate and call me intrigued. Enter him. He is all of them and more...much more. He claims to be a monster. He doesn't believe in redemption. He is too vague and too dark for me to read. But it's my job now. To help him, figure him out, to find all of his missing pieces, arrange them together and finally obtain the final picture. It's my job, to find his deepest darkest secret. It's my job, to unravel the beast he claims to be and finally see the man behind. HIM Lost. I've been lost for way too many years. I thought it was over. I wanted it to be over. I had nothing to live for anymore. I've killed, I've destroyed and obliterated. It was enough. My role in the story should've ended there. I was too big of a monster to be tamed. Too dangerous to be kept alive. Enter her. Too loud. Too obnoxious. Too naive. Innocent, so very innocent. So intent on aiding me, redeeming me. She is unaware, she is opening a door that was shut down with a broken lock. I am scared. Terrified even. She is too white against my inner darkness. Too pure to be tangled with the devil living within me. We don't mix. We should never mix. Instead of pulling me out of that room, she might just get herself stuck inside as well. She wants to unravel the beast and meet the man behind, but I am scared that if she succeeded, she'll find nothing behind.

"Masquerade of the Heart" Sometimes love hides behind the most unexpected masks… After a brutal betrayal and a painful divorce, Ethan Lockwood has lost all faith in love—until he finds solace in the red light district, not in lust, but in quiet companionship. There, he meets Ruby, a mysterious woman behind a masquerade mask who asks for nothing but time. What he doesn’t know is that Ruby is really Minnie Love, a determined law student fighting to stay afloat. As their bond deepens, secrets grow heavier. Minnie becomes Ethan’s fiercest ally in his divorce, all while hiding her true identity. When Ethan’s cunning ex-wife Amanda discovers the truth, she threatens to use it as ammunition. Meanwhile, under his powerful mother's pressure, Ethan finds himself in an unlikely contract marriage—with Minnie. What begins as convenience quickly turns into something real, but neither dares to admit it. When Minnie’s secret is exposed and the world turns against her, she vanishes—until a determined friend helps her find Ethan again, hiding in a remote cabin, wounded and lost. There, truths are faced, love is confessed, and a powerful choice is made. Tangled in lies, love, and legal battles, Masquerade of the Heart is a slow-burn, emotionally rich romance about trust, redemption, and the unexpected places we find home.

Precious has always felt different from her peers, she has always had a hard time fitting in, so she wears a hoodie to be invisible but this only makes her visible and an easy target. Everything changes when a ghost Tommy suddenly appears and makes her life more complicated. Precious learns things about herself that her parents had kept from her, and realises she really isn't like others around her. Will she be able to fulfil her purpose?.