27 Twenty Seven

Sometimes there are times when your own salvation is not at all happy. For example, you managed to break away from assassins, but at the same time crossed the border of the cursed forest. Or killed the werewolf that bit you, and the first full moon, when you have to turn into a monster, is expected in only seven days. Or… when the one who agreed to help you seems more and more not a person. But maybe the latter is just not so bad after all?

My daughter was violated and killed, yet her death was ruled a suicide. After seven failed appeals, I kidnapped the chief prosecutor’s daughter. I tied the chief prosecutor’s daughter to an autopsy table and publicly addressed the prosecutor’s office in a live stream. “I performed the autopsy myself. My daughter didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. “I’ll give you seven chances. Release the actual evidence and name the murderer publicly. Each time a chance runs out, I’ll remove one of her body parts.” The chief prosecutor and his wife knelt on the floor. They begged me desperately to spare their daughter. “The evidence proves your daughter took her own life. Stop this madness now and let my daughter go. She’s innocent.” Viewers in the live stream called me insane. They said I had lost my mind with grief and was taking it out on an innocent person. I ignored their contempt. With a sneer, I picked up a scalpel and pressed it against the judge’s daughter’s abdomen. “The clock is ticking. Hurry up and reveal the true murderer now.” I knew perfectly well the real murderer was watching the stream at that very moment.

Seven years ago, a misunderstanding caused Eudora and Ryan to break up. After leaving the city and returning to her hometown, she discovered she was pregnant. Eudora decided to raise her child alone, starting her journey as a single mother. However, life threw her a curveball. Her daughter was born with a congenital heart condition, and the cost of treatment put her family in a dire financial situation. She was even struggling to afford the life-saving treatment for her daughter. Driven to desperation, she made the difficult decision to work as a hostess at a nightclub to earn money for her daughter's medical expenses. But Eudora was completely shocked when her first customer on her first night turned out to be her wealthy ex-boyfriend, Ryan. Seeing Eudora in the nightclub, Ryan is initially stunned, then consumed by anger. She betrayed him for another man, and now she's living this miserable life. Was it all worth it? Seven years later, their paths are intertwined once more. Misunderstandings continue to fuel their pain, adding layer upon layer of humiliation. Can they finally release the past and find their way back to each other, or are they destined to drift apart, leaving behind wounds that will forever scar their hearts?

Lorenzo Machado. Sean McGrath thinks he's in control. He thinks he's untouchable. He's wrong. The moment I saw him, I knew I wanted him. He just doesn't know it yet. I've never lost a game, and this one won't be any different. Seven dates, that's all I need. Seven dates to break down the walls he's so desperate to keep up. (Sean.) I don't chase women. Women chase me. I take what I want, and I never stay enough for them to think that I'm theirs. But then he came. Lorenzo Machado. Mafia Boss. A man feared by many. And now for some twisted reasons, he wants me. I hate him. I hate how he looks at me, like he knows something I don't. I hate how he follows me, shows up like he owns the damn world. I hate that for the first time, someone is chasing me. I don't know how to run from him. And worst of all? A part of me doesn't want to run.

“You’ll move in with me and your sister will be taken care of. You'll tell your sister that I'm your new boss.” He spelled out. “You'll wait for me every night on my bed so I can fuck you mercilessly for making me set my eyes on you after seven years. I hate you. You have no fucking idea.” I wanted to burst into tears. It was f**king over. I am giving the next three years of my life to this man, just so I can save my sister and clear my debts. ……. My life has been a rollercoaster of suffering with no end. It became worse the very minute I was at my lowest, and I locked eyes with my high school bully. I had no idea how he found me but now that we were all grown, I knew he would never leave me alone. After seven years, he still didn't change. He was still a thorn in my flesh, and he always managed to make me wet and weak in the knees. I ran. I ran. I ran, but he always found me.

Seven years of love, shattered by seven months of betrayal. Some promises are easier to break than to keep. Kyros Arnaud Ferrero was supposed to be my forever—the man I gave my heart to at seventeen. But love isn’t always a fairytale. I never imagined that his devotion would come with deception, that the man I trusted most could betray me with the very friend I held dear. He lied. He cheated. And he did it all without remorse. So, I did the one thing he never saw coming. To get back at him, I married the one person he despises most—his brother, the powerful president of his company. *** For five years, I did everything to avoid Maximus Ferrero. A relentless control freak, a man who sent letters that made my skin crawl. The last time I saw him, he leaned in and whispered, “When you eventually decide to leave Kyros, inform me immediately. I’ll arrange our marriage without delay.” I swore he would never be an option. Until he was... *** Trigger Warning: Some chapters in this novel contain dark themes that may be distressing to some readers. Please proceed with discretion

I had been married for seven years. My husband's nemesis kidnapped me and threatened my husband that they would kill me, yet he ignored it because his sweetheart had asked him to use this opportunity to subdue me and teach me a lesson so that I would give away my assets. The moment I escaped that hellhole, I asked my husband for a divorce, but he claimed his sweetheart tricked him and knelt before me to beg me not to leave.

“A love timed too soon, a secret held too long.” After a one-year trial marriage born from heartbreak, MaiMai disappears with a vow: to raise their child alone, never revealing the truth to Rayn Jasper. But fate flips the script when her CEO-friend’s latest client turns out to be him. And now, seven years later, Jasper is no longer the heartbroken man she left—he’s powerful, distant... and suspicious. What happens when love’s biggest secret demands to be heard?

Anastasia Crane, twenty years old low rank maid is in love with Prince Kai, the crown prince of Gardenia. Now that's a very bad decision. Fate brings them together and Kai returned Anna's feelings. Thier forbidden love was sure to go down the drain in the end. Kai is betrothed and said to marry in few weeks time. Thier secret affair went on and on the end, they were caught. Anastasia was locked in the dungeon, set to be beheaded the next day but Kai broke her out. He set her in a carriage and promised to come search for her. What Kai didn't know was that Anastasia was pregnant. She was carrying a royal seed in her. The royal seed that got lost.

It’s end of October 1985 and the crumbling river town of Dubois, Iowa is shocked by the gruesome murder of one of the pillars of the community. Detective David Carlson has no motive, no evidence, and only one lead: the macabre local legend of “Boris Orlof,” a late night horror movie host who burned to death during a stage performance at the drive-in on Halloween night twenty years ago and the teenage loner obsessed with keeping his memory alive. The body count is rising and the darkness that hangs over the town grows by the hour. Time is running out as Carlson desperately chases shadows into a nightmare world of living horrors. On Halloween the drive-in re-opens at midnight for a show no one will ever forget. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing