Scheming

For the ninety-ninth time, Thomas Wells brought a strange woman home. Following his instructions, I was washing Chloe Brooks's feet. Without warning, she kicked the basin violently, sending hot water splashing onto my face. "Thomas, Ms. Harris just pinched my foot! My feet are for ballet—I'm in so much pain. What am I supposed to do for tomorrow's competition?" Thomas flew into a rage. To punish me, he had someone bring a brazier, and I was forced to press my foot into the burning coals. The smell of burning flesh filled the entire living room in an instant. Thomas paid no attention as I collapsed to the floor, curling up and breaking out in a cold sweat. He turned away, carrying Chloe off to the bedroom. Shortly afterward, I called Thomas's sister, Tracy. "Tracy, I'm sorry. I don't intend to be with Thomas anymore." After that, I left and vanished from his life. Later, I heard that Mr. Wells of the Wells family had gone mad.

She was a kidnapped heiress, taken from her real family on purpose. He was a legendary tycoon, feared and admired across the business world. At a lavish party, she was set up by her adoptive mother—and unexpectedly became his cure. Months later, he received a mysterious package. Opening it, he was stunned to find... a mini version of himself. Furious, he roared: “Woman, you’d better pray I never find you!” Six years later, she returned, vowing to take revenge and reclaim her son. Armed with brilliance and unshakable resolve, she tore through scheming rivals, crushed manipulative socialites, and built her own empire along the way. But one day, the cold-blooded CEO cornered her against a wall: “We already have a child—give me the title of husband too.” She flashed a bewitching smile: “Sorry. The kid’s father? I’ve got someone else in mind.” Just then, three cheeky little munchkins popped out, grinning from ear to ear: “Daddy, give me a sister with Mommy, and she’s all yours!” In that moment, her mind went blank. Betrayed... by her own sons!

All of it started in an auction where I didn’t know that will change my life entirely. “Where a-am I?” Unlike the girls that have been bought by these men, my bidding started at a jaw-dropping amount. I never thought that a girl like me would start bidding at $20,000 in an underground black market like this. I was just looking down, hearing the surprising amount they are willing to bid just to have me only until the bidding went up to million. A man who's in his 60's came, betting almost a million dollars which made the crowd silent. I thought that the old man will be my owner but I was wrong when a man was strong enough to oppose him, betting ten million dollars just to have me. "Can you just b-bring me back to my h-house?" I spoke, breaking the silence. "I won't waste fucking millions just to free you, woman. You will serve your purpose to me," he spoke out using his thunderbolt tone. The thought of fleeing away from him slipped off my mind as the tension between us has been added by a fuel in a scorching fire, a fire that we built and a deep connection we both agreed. I should be scared of him, I should be running away but the contrary was happening. I just found myself on his bed, naked whilst he was drowning me with his poisonous kisses. “I promise to keep you safe… and won’t let you slip away from me, Amore.” People say love is the most important thing in this world. At first, Ares didn't believe as he only see it as a hindrance but when he experienced it for himself, he could no longer get up on Mariana's scheming fire burning around him.

After my parents died in a car crash, my cousin stole the compensation money and moved overseas to start a business. My aunt begged me on her knees not to call the police. Then, she locked me in a dark basement for three months. I was close to breaking down and ending my life when Julien Lawson, the neighbor’s son, broke down the basement door and saved me. “Joyce, what they did is unforgivable! They stole the compensation money for your parents’ deaths. You were going to use it to open your own studio! “Marry me. I’ll protect you.” He was the only person who cared about me after my parents died. I was so grateful that I married him and had his child. I worked three jobs during the day to help support the orphanage that Julien ran. At night, I took care of our child and created design sketches. But no matter how hard I tried, none of my work was ever accepted. Even though Julien told me to keep at it, I felt discouraged and thought of giving up on my design career to focus on our family. One day, our child was sick. I went to take over the shift from Julien when I overheard him talking to my aunt on the stairs. “Julien, it’s been ten years. Joyce’s designs are getting better and better. She even passed the first round of the national competition. Are you really not going to tell her about the next round?” my aunt asked. Her voice trembled. Julien said coldly, “For years, I’ve been sending Joyce’s design sketches to Mindy to copy and enter in the competitions or publish as her own. “To help Mindy’s career, I can’t let Joyce move on to the next round. “Joyce has talent. If people notice her, she’ll be a threat to Mindy’s career!”

After my 99th confession, my childhood best friend, Michael Leight, finally says yes. I am overjoyed, believing that my years of unrequited love have finally paid off. But when I walk past the pantry, I overhear him speaking tenderly to our family chef, Tahlia Duvey. "Once I take everything from the Kingstons, I'll kick that idiot Ariel to the curb and throw us a grand wedding. Everything here will be yours." My heart feels like a sword has been plunged into it. That night, I storm into Grandpa's study and point at a photo of the Gordon family's heir—Charles, known for always keeping his distance from women. "Grandpa! I want to marry him!" I announce.

Albert Roosevelt was the crush I was never meant to have. Like an idiot, I believed loving someone meant giving them everything, even if they didn't care about you. So, I trailed after him like a desperate puppy, bending over backward to meet his every whim. When he couldn't afford tuition, I begged Dad to fund him, sending him to the best schools. When his worn-out clothes made him a laughingstock, I pitied him and showered him with designer labels. And what did he do? He used what I gave him to chase after a gold-digging campus belle. To keep up appearances, he blew through money like it grew on trees. He even spread rumors that he was the real heir to the Roosevelts. To him, I was just an ATM. "Your family's loaded. It's not like you'll miss a few hundred grand. If you're gonna be stingy, maybe you should stop following me around," he said when his wallet ran dry. And like a fool, I believed that if I kept paying, someday, he'd love me back. After graduation, I funded his startup. The second it took off, he married the campus belle. He had the nerve to claim he earned everything through nothing but hard work. So, I crashed his wedding, and he buried a knife in my chest. "Only when you're dead, Eve Roosevelt. Only then will my pathetic past stay buried." When I opened my eyes again, I was face-to-face with a scowling Albert. "You can't scrape together a few hundred thousand dollars? It's Bianca's birthday. Are you trying to humiliate me?" I looked around the room and rolled my eyes. "Sure, I'll pay. But first? Kneel. You look pretty enough. Consider it charity, peasant."

I fished my boyfriend from the sea. I empty my pockets to treat his amnesia, and he turns out to be a CEO when he regains his memories. Due to the disparity in our statuses, Quinn Hoffman doesn't hesitate to dump me. He says, "You're just a fishmonger. How can you be worthy of me?" He refuses to pay me back for the money I spent on his treatment. I'm backed into a corner—I need the money for my grandmother's surgery. In the end, I get tricked, and all my organs are gouged out. On the day Quinn learns of my death, he holds my belongings and refuses to let go. "You're just playing hide-and-seek, Kay! Aren't you?"

My mother sells special éclairs. Each one costs a thousand dollars, but the female customers fight each other to buy them. They look like they can't get enough. My sister wants to take a box to share with her boyfriend when she sees how popular they are. However, my mother firmly rejects her. She says she's the only one who can touch those éclairs. My sister refuses to listen. She secretly sneaks into the freezer in the basement. Then, in the middle of the night, I hear her wanton moans.

"Be mine to own and I'll make your Ex Husband wish he never crossed you....You have four minutes to decide what you want, Little Peach!" ☆☆☆☆☆☆ Olive Anderson's life was shattered when her husband betrayed and divorced her on her hospital bed. The same day, her mother's illness worsened, and the hospital demanded a hefty sum. Desperate, Olive turned to her uncle for help, only to be coerced into sleeping with an investor. Left with no choice but to sleep with the investor to get the money to pay for the medical expenses. There was a mix up and she ended up in the bed of a drunk CEO, that single night marked the beginning of her unending misery and as well fortune. The stranger she slept with turned out to be her cousin's arranged- soon-to-be husband. And when he met her again, he wanted her! He would possess her! He won't let her go! Logan Smith-The Ambitious Tycoon from a prestigious family whose only motive was to get an arranged wife to clear his reputation and stop the rumor of him being Gay, found Olive as a suitable bride because of his Rare Physical contact disorder. He can't be touched by a woman. Therefore, He would do anything to get Olive Anderson who was the first woman to touch him without his illness flaring up. Olive is trapped between her desires as Logan proposes a deal: financial support and revenge on Olive's ex-husband in exchange for her belonging to him. Olive is torn between her thirst for vengeance and the scheming CEO's possessive grasp. She found herself exposed to a world she never bargained for and she was thrust into a world filled with self-discovery-challenging everything she thought she knew about herself.

On the eve of a surgery, I voluntarily resign from my position as lead surgeon. My colleagues sneer behind my back and mock me openly. "And this guy's supposed to have a PhD from abroad? Looks more like he bought a degree from some no-name university." "Can't even handle a challenge without running—what kind of doctor is that?" In my last life, I gave up competing in a general practitioner skills competition to take on this very surgery. But because the other lead surgeon violated protocol during the operation, it ended in a serious medical accident. My sister, the head of the department, pinned all the blame on me. Even my girlfriend stood firmly on their side, accusing me of incompetence. Overnight, I went from being a respected medical PhD to the disgrace of the hospital. I couldn't prove the mistake wasn't mine. I was fired and faced criminal charges. My parents, once so proud of me, pointed at me in rage. "We don't have a son who plays god with people's lives!" Crushed by shame and despair, I spiraled into deep depression and jumped from the hospital roof. But now, I open my eyes again. I'm back—back to the night before the surgery.