A Thousand Splendid Suns Novels & Stories

Six years ago, my sister and I fell for the same man, Edmund. But he only had eyes for Rosalie, the sweet, innocent type. With them, I was always the third wheel. They got married, of course. And on their wedding day, I overheard my parents whispering. "The company's strapped for cash," my father said. "What if we marry Corinne off to our business partner? That'd solve our problem..." This "partner" was over fifty and twice divorced. So I ran. I fled to Sicily with the only five thousand dollars to my name. I ran on pure bitterness. In four years, I brought dozens of small-time Sicilian crews to heel and forged my own family: Vexille. In another two, I came back to New York and quietly became the most powerful woman in the North American underworld. By then, Edmund's power was crumbling, hit hard by a rival family. That's when my mother called, her voice full of that same old entitlement. "Your brother-in-law's in some trouble. Figure out a way to help him." Then a text from my sister, Rosalie, dripping with contempt: "Sister, I remember you have a little casino in Sicily, right? So you must know something about that Vexille family." "Edmund needs their help. See what you can dig up." They still don't know. I'm the Don of the Vexille family. I glanced at the schedule my advisor had prepared. Tomorrow, 9:00 AM. A sit-down with some minor family looking for a handout. The name on the file: Edmund.

BLURB: Reina Cole is an eighteen year old teenager and heiress of the Cole family. After her old life implodes due to an embezzlement scandal, she transfers to Gravemont Academy. An elite school where surnames is currency. Everyone here wears a mask, but none more dangerous than the boys who’ve trapped her between them. One of them being Adrian Vale. Heir to a tech empire, leader of the notorious House of M, and the kind of boy who can destroy a reputation with one sneeze. Adrian treats Gravemont like his chessboard. He should hate Reina, she defies him, resists him, ruins his control and yet he’s drawn to her like a dare he can’t stop taking. Julian Carter wants her too. Adrian’s charming, golden cousin. He’s everything Adrian isn’t. Patient, sardonic, protective. But Julian’s interest hides its own game, and his family ties are far darker than Reina knows. What happens when House of M, an elite powerful club run by Adrian; throws a challenge on both men? Whoever gets to have sex with Reina Moore first, owes the other five thousand dollars. Two princes. One fallen heiress. A maze of betrayals. Reina thought she’d come here to rebuild her life, keep her head down and graduate. Instead, she’s caught between two rival heirs. Hate me. Lust me. Love me. Welcome to Gravemont Academy

“You paid me to fuck you raw, Lilah. Now you’re carrying my baby… and I’m nowhere near done with you.” Lilah Moreau wanted revenge. After catching her politician fiancé balls-deep in another woman on the night of their engagement party, she did the one thing guaranteed to destroy her “perfect fiancée” image. She hired the most expensive, most sinful callboy in the city. No names. No strings. Just one night of filthy, no-limits sex. The man who showed up was pure sin — tall, tattooed, brutally dominant, and dangerously skilled. He fucked her like he owned her. He made her scream, beg, and come harder than she ever had in her life. By morning, she left ten thousand dollars on the nightstand and disappeared without a trace. Four months later… she’s pregnant. And the callboy is back. Except he isn’t a callboy at all. He’s Damien Vale — ruthless billionaire, CEO of Vale Capital, and a man who never forgets what belongs to him. Now he’s standing in her living room, eyes dark with raw possession, one large hand possessively rubbing over her slightly swollen belly. “You ran from me once, little wife,” he murmurs, voice low and filthy. “Paid me like a whore and thought you could hide my child from me. Cute.” He leans in, lips brushing her ear: “Time to pay up properly… with this sweet pregnant pussy, every single night.

As soon as I receive my year-end bonus, I transfer 100 thousand dollars to my wife, Zoe Steele, so that she can prepare the holiday gifts for both families right away. I even tell her to buy the best quality gifts for our parents, especially the box of premium liquor meant for my dad. On New Year's Eve, I rush home to have dinner with my parents. But weirdly enough, Dad, who's an avid drinker, starts having tea instead of liquor at the dining table. This leaves me perplexed. "Dad, why aren't you cracking open a bottle of liquor for yourself during the holidays?" With a smile on my face, I get up to my feet so that I can carry the box of liquor over. "Zoe had someone buy the liquor for you, you know. I hear that the taste is exceptional." "Stop!" Dad slams his pipe against the table loudly, his face a starking shade of crimson. "Edgar, don't ever send such gifts home. I know that life is difficult for you in the city and that making money is hard. We Kennedys may be poor, but we are people with pride! "Now, everyone in the village is gossiping about us behind our backs! They claim that I've been boasting about your wealth!" Dad's words confuse me to no end. After I unscrew a bottle of liquor, I sip from it, only to feel thunderstruck. This isn't premium liquor at all! This is just mineral water packaged as liquor!

Marlene Cole, who has always been a reliable nanny, has called me three times in a row out of panic today. "I got bad news for you, Mr. Spence! The security guard of the kindergarten refuses to let Erin into the kindergarten! "He claims that the name on the student ID is wrong! The ID belongs to a little girl named Jodie! It's not Erin's ID at all!" I look up from the spreadsheet I'm holding, a frown already gracing my features. "Marlene, wasn't Harper the one who gave you the ID last night?" Marlene sounds like she's about to burst into tears from panic. "She did! But the scanner shows that Jodie Holmes is the ID owner! The security guard says that we've gotten the wrong ID, so now he's interrogating me!" That's odd. Half a year ago, I've pulled a few strings just so I can enroll my daughter, Erin Spence, into Starry Kindergarten, known as the most prestigious kindergarten in the city. In fact, I have to sponsor the kindergarten 300 thousand dollars in order to secure a slot for Erin. Over the month, my wife, Harper Gilmore, has always been the one driving Erin to school every day. Today, Harper claims that she can't take Erin to school because she needs to pull overtime shifts at her company, so she has instructed Marlene to do so. But how is it possible that Erin's student ID now shows another name when it's Marlene's turn to take her to the kindergarten?

For Mother’s Day, I took my mom on a vacation to one of the hotels I managed. We were just relaxing on the leather couch in the lobby for a moment, when the trainee manager on duty rushed over in a rage and yanked us to our feet. “This couch is reserved for VIP guests with membership cards!” “If you’re on a tight budget, stay at a hundred-dollar budget hotel. Don’t come here just for free air conditioning!” Frowning, I was about to reveal my identity. However, she slapped a bill onto the counter and demanded that I pay for a ten-thousand-dollar meal right then and there. I was shaking with anger. “We just got here, and we haven’t even had a sip of water yet. Why on earth should we pay ten thousand for a meal?” She rolled her eyes and tapped the counter defiantly. “Anyone who stays at our hotel has to pay this fee! “It’s a gourmet meal. Whether you eat it or not is your business, but you have to pay!” I had enough and demanded that she call the manager. But she simply sneered and pointed at her employee badge. “This hotel belongs to my brother in all but blood. I call the shots in the entire front office. “It won’t do you any good even if you were to complain to God himself today!” A chill ran down my spine. I was an only child, and my relatives had never been involved in my hotel business. Who on earth was this “brother” she was claiming to have, and how did he manage to take my place?

On my way home from the night shift, a patient who held a grudge against my husband, the hospital director, forced half a bottle of pesticide down my throat. Terrified, I called my husband, Jasper Flint, for help. He rushed over and saved me. I survived by sheer luck. But tragically, his first love, Ruby Gray, died in a car accident on her way home that same night. After Ruby's funeral, Jasper carried on as if nothing had happened. I thought he had finally let her go. But on New Year's Eve, he poisoned our food, tied up my parents and me, and took us hostage. Through tears, I begged him to spare my parents. He killed them right in front of me. Their blood splashed across my face. "If you hadn't been so jealous of Ruby, if you hadn't pretended to drink pesticide just to lure me away, she never would've driven off like that. She'd still be alive!" he snarled. "How does it feel to watch your parents die? When Ruby died, what I felt was a thousand times worse than this! Since you like drinking pesticides so much, go ahead. Drink up!" Jasper forced my mouth open and poured the poison down my throat. I died in agony beside my parents' bodies. And then I opened my eyes—only to find myself reborn alongside Jasper. This time, Jasper chose to save his first love.

I am the young lady of the vampire house of Kaelaris. Having reached marriageable age, I chose, from a stack of portraits, the eldest son of the human family Norefax. My family indulged my preference and arranged our engagement, awaiting the day of my wedding. I do not drink red wine, but for the sake of human ceremony, I secretly went out—without telling my family—to select a rare century-aged vintage, intending to prepare it for the engagement ritual. The woman beside me glanced at the cabinet I had pointed to and immediately instructed the sales associate, “That bottle looks quite fine. Let me have a look.” Without hesitation, the associate rudely brushed me aside and handed the bottle straight to her. A chill entered my gaze as I spoke, “There is an order to everything. I selected that bottle first. What you’re doing is hardly proper.” She looked me up and down with open disdain and let out a mocking laugh. “This bottle costs sixteen thousand six hundred dollars. Dressed like that, I doubt you even qualify to smell it.” “I am Ethan Norefax’s stepmother. In New York’s Upper East Side, so-called ‘rules’ have always been decided by the Norefax family.” What a coincidence—Ethan was precisely my fiancé, and the very reason I wanted to buy that bottle. I dialed his number at once and said evenly, “Your stepmother has taken the bottle of wine I reserved for our engagement. How do you intend to handle this?”

"You really thought I would marry someone like you?" His voice was as cold as ice while his blue eyes pierced through me without mercy. "You were just a convenient distraction.Victoria was always the woman I truly wanted by my side." In that moment, I felt my heart shatter into a thousand pieces, but I swore to myself that those would be the last tears I would ever shed for Alexander Reed. Sophia Morgan had always been a dedicated woman who built her career from the ground up. An orphan with no family support, she worked tirelessly until she became the Marketing Director of the Reed Group. When the powerful and arrogant CEO Alexander Reed noticed her, she believed she had found not only love but also a place to belong. After three years as his secret lover, Sophia discovers in the worst way possible that she was merely a pastime for Alexander. During a corporate event, he publicly humiliates her by announcing his engagement to Victoria, Sophia's personal assistant, who had secretly conspired to take her place. Devastated and with nowhere to go, Sophia tries to piece her life back together. But fate has other plans when she is forced to continue working at the same company, facing daily the man who destroyed her heart and the woman who stole her dreams. In a world where power and money make the rules, Sophia will need to find the strength to survive alongside the man who betrayed her, while battling the feelings that still persist in her wounded heart.

Ciril has always been a nobody. Found in the woods as a Cub by the most cruel Alpha and Luna, she was always treated like filth and she grew to encounter even worse. She was rejected by her first mate. And then by her second chance mate who happened to be the Prince of the Werewolf Reigns, Prince Landon. It was clear that nobody wanted to be with this weak orphaned girl who couldn’t even control her wolf. But then something happened… ** Once every thousand years, one the night of the Night of the Guirgon Full moon— the night where the moon shines brightest and is closest to the earth, the moon goddess descends and gives a part of her soul to a chosen Werewolf— one who is the bravest, strongest and purest of heart. They would serve as the Protector of the Werewolf race since the strength and spirit of a god would be in them. So Prince Landon, having been prophesied to be the chosen one since he checks out as the strongest and the bravest, begins to make preparations. After he rejects Ciril who he considers weak and useless, he goes on to mark a strong mate so that he could be stronger and ready to take the Moon goddess's soulful blessing. But then, on the day of the Transmigration Ceremony, the moon goddess's spirit descends but it doesn’t possess anybody in the room— including the Prince. The spirit leaves the Hall and travels through the Palace to a quiet and dark room where it blends into the body of someone nobody would have expected… ** Enemies will rise… Blood will be shed… Lessons will be learned… And in the end, battles will be won… but will it be enough for love to prevail? Find out…