1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning Novel

Kayla Matthew is a bar waitress and a sex worker with secrets too heavy for her young shoulders. Struggling to care for her terminally ill mother and brilliant teenage sister even if it means dancing on the edge of her morals every night. But life has other plans for her. When she met Damien Cole, a billionaire, a heart surgeon, and a single Dad. A man haunted by a past he can’t outrun. When his cold-hearted ex-wife refuses to attend their daughter’s school event, he desperately hires Kayla to pretend to be the perfect mother. When he realizes she’s the only one who can calm his daughter’s panic attacks. His family was against bringing her into the mansion. But what they don't know is that it was never her plan to be a sex worker. What begins as a transaction spirals into something much deeper. But secrets and past wounds threaten to destroy the fragile bond they’re building. Because love was never part of the deal and promises? But what will happen if his ex-wife does anything to get her killed? Will she escape from the danger they are plotting against her.?

Gedung Nebula dan Gedung Supernova. Berhadap-hadapan namun saling bertolakbelakang. Gedung Nebula, adalah sebuah bangunan yang menyewakan kamar untuk para kalangan menengah ke bawah. Sementara Gedung Supernova, hanya bersedia menampung para kaum elit yang kaya raya.

Gallen yang pecicilan dan Navara yang galak— Keduanya terikat pada tali perjodohan. Meski sering gontok-gontokan, nyatanya keduanya tak bisa saling melepaskan. Hal ini pun membuat Navara harus ekstra sabar dalam menghadapi sikap terlewat najis calon imamnya. Lantas, mampukah mereka mempertahankan ikatan? atau justru menyerah ditengah jalan? “Berat banget ujian hidup gue!” – Navara. “Sini Abang gendong, Dek. Biar nggak capek keberatan bawa ujian.” – Gallen.

Ketika Xu Anran menghembuskan napas terakhir, ia baru menyadari bahwa suaminya, Qin Xiaokun, adalah serigala berbulu domba. Dengan ilusi cinta, Qin Xiaokun menguras hartanya, menghancurkan keluarganya, bahkan mengakhiri hidupnya dengan mobil demi bersama cinta sejatinya. Namun, ketika Xu Anran membuka mata kembali, ia telah kembali ke hari pernikahannya dengan Qin Xiaokun, lima tahun lalu. Para bajingan itu tidak akan pernah bisa menyentuh apa pun miliknya lagi! Semua penderitaan di kehidupan sebelumnya akan ia balas satu per satu. Di depan semua orang, ia menghampiri rival Qin Xiaokun, Jiang Rongyan, dan tersenyum seraya bertanya, "Tuan Jiang, maukah Anda menikahi saya?" Di belakangnya, terlihat wajah-wajah keluarga Qin yang tidak suka. Jiang Rongyan menerima tawarannya. Ini adalah skenario balasan yang sempurna untuk Qin Xiaokun. -Xu Anran hanya ingin menjauhi hubungan asmara di kehidupan ini, tetapi ia tidak menyangka setelah perjanjian pernikahan berakhir, pria itu menolak melepaskannya! Jiang Rongyan, "Kau mau kabur setelah memanfaatkan saya? Heh, jangan bermimpi."

Kehidupan Eva berubah drastis setelah satu malam tidak terduga. kenakalannya membuat kehamilan datang tanpa rencana memaksanya menikah dengan Geo, dosen di Kampusnya. Bagi Geo, Pernikahan yang dilakukan ini bukan tentang kisah cinta. Melainkan sebuah kemalangan yang harus dijalaninya demi anak yang ada di kandungan Eva. Tidak ada kehangatan, tidak ada harapan. Hanya ada kewajiban yang membelenggunya. Geo hampir menyerah tetapi Eva mulai berusaha kembali bangkit dan bertahan dari dinginnya hubungan pernikahan, perempuan tersebut berharap kalau ia bisa memberikan cinta yang sempurna untuk Geo. Namun, mampukah cinta tumbuh di antara dua hati yang terikat oleh keadaan yang bukan perasaan? Ataukah pernikahan ini akan tetap menjadi api yang membakar tanpa pernah menjadi hangat? Akankah mereka menemukan jalan untuk saling menerima?

Betrothed before she was even born, Mel finds herself bound to the Chief of the bear tribe. Winning his affection is the least of her worries when she learns the real reason for the arranged marriage. A reason that might make her stay in Orion not so welcoming, especially when she is to wed a beast.

A month before I was set to present my life’s work—the Moonlight Therapy—Marcus, my Alpha and fiancé of five years, asked me to give the entire research project to his old flame, Isabella. I refused. He spent the entire month trying to convince me, insisting he was only fulfilling her dying wish. Then, two weeks before the presentation, a link from a friend arrived. That’s when I discovered Isabella was already promoting my research online as her own. He had never intended to ask for my permission at all. In that instant, I chose to sever our five-year bond. What Marcus didn’t know was that the core research he’d stolen was critically flawed. On the very day Isabella presented that faulty data to the world, I walked through the doors of the Boston Werewolf Medical Institute instead. I never looked back.

In the dark water dungeon, Leonard hung me up and tied me in a very humiliating position. "Do you know why you're punished today?" His eyebrows knitted together, his eyes filled with uncontainable disgust. I knew that his obsession with cleanliness had flared up again. Enduring the humiliation, I allowed him to whip me, just to atone for my sins and ask for his forgiveness. As the mate to the Alpha of Mooncrown Pack for the past five years, I was long used to such a thing. However, when I learned that he was going to sell me into becoming a sex slave after five years together simply because of a remark from his first love, Serina, I realized then that the humiliation he had inflicted on me over the past five years was entirely fabricated. Due to his promises, I believed he was my destined mate, endured his severe obsession with cleanliness, and forgave all the harm he had done to me. I thought I could win back his heart as long as I waited. It turned out that everything was a meticulously plotted attack. The pain severed me from my past; I could no longer tolerate or compromise, so I left. However, he frantically searched for me, begging me to be his Luna and desperately pleading for my forgiveness.

Everyone called Mia a shameless whore. However, the one trailing behind her was the youngest don of the Yorick family, James. He hand-washed her lace camisoles, broke three ribs for her, and even with his face covered in blood from a beating, he could still smile at her. One night, after too much drinking, the underboss he trusted most leaned down beside him. His face was full of disdain. “Boss, Mia is a disgrace to all of us! A woman like that, how could she ever be worthy of you?” James suddenly laughed. His eyes went terrifyingly blank. The cigar between his fingers glowed faintly in the dark. “Back then, before I secured my position, I was young, greedy for power. To get my sister-in-law that antique necklace she wanted, I took advantage of Mia being drunk and took pictures of her myself… “Ten dollars a copy. I sold thirty thousand of them. Things blew way out of control… I owe her.” James took a long drink of whiskey while his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Thankfully… she will never know. I will spend my whole life making it up to her, treating her twice as well.” He did not see the private room door quietly close the moment he said those words. Mia turned around with a blank expression on her face and walked into a small clinic on the corner. She laid down on the operating table. He would never deserve to know that he had once been a father, if only for a moment. That whole lifetime he planned to spend making it up to her, she did not want it anymore.

The year the Rossi famiglia falls, my personal Underboss, Lorenzo Santoro, rises to power—becoming the Don and seizing control of the underworld. Once, I was the untouchable Principessa. He was the Soldato, ready to die for me at a moment's notice. For something as trivial as a paper cut on my finger, he would drop to his knees with red-rimmed eyes, blowing on it for half an hour. Now, to earn a smile from his new flame, Elena Marino, he forces me to sign a contract and makes me his live target. He watches with indifference as I am battered and bloodied under a hail of bullets. During a blast-resistance test, shattered glass slices the corner of my eye, but Lorenzo merely looks on. "The once-delicate Principessa Rossi can't even handle a little pain?" During attack-dog training, I am bitten to the bone, yet he shields a trembling Elena instead. "Animals don't know any better. Why are you holding a grudge against a dog?" Then comes the real kidnapping. To save Elena, who is desperate to become Donna, he personally cuts off my escape. "This is just a drill, Isabella," he scoffs. "Stop acting like it's real." On the surveillance monitors, flames engulf me as I take my final breath. A bloodstained termination contract is delivered to him. "Don Santoro, I return the life I owe you." Only then does the man who believes he rules the world finally lose his mind.