Alchemy Equipment Oblivion

Aurora, be honest with me. What do you truly desire?" Zane asked, his gaze unwavering as he stared deep into my eyes. "I'm...confused," I admitted in a low tone, struggling to maintain my sanity. Just then, my phone chimed. I swiped the screen to see a message notification, it was from Mark. It read. 'We have a history together, Aurora. A future.' A tear streamed down my cheek as I stared at my phone. "Well?" Zane's voice snapped me back to reality. "You have to make a choice." "But-" my lips quivered as my mind reeled. "But what if I can't?" He let out a sigh as he took a step back. "Then you'll lose everything." -------- Aurora's tenth anniversary was supposed to be a celebration of a decade of devotion with Mark.. Instead, it became the day her whole world shattered. Dumped and heartbroken by the only man she had ever loved and trusted, she kept the secret of her pregnancy to herself. Seeking momentary oblivion in a bar, she finds her surrendering to a one night stand with an unforgettable stranger. Fate's cruel test continued when Aurora starts a new job, only to find the man from her one night stand was Zane, her boss. Zane's interest in her was evident, while she was hesitant, still nursing the wounds from Mark's betrayal and the burden of her pregnancy, she tried her best to resist him in every way possible. When an accident forces hee secret into the open, Zane jumps to the conclusion that the child was his, but kept it hidden to himself. After few months later, Aurora finally told him the truth, but to her surprise, he wasn't disappointed and still insisted that he wanted them both regardless who the child's biological father was.

ONE NIGHT. A SECRET CARRIED FOR YEARS. A CONTRACT THAT COULD DESTROY EVERYTHING. When Isabella Davenport catches her best friend in bed with her fiancé, her perfectly planned future shatters in an instant. Devastated and drowning in betrayal, she seeks oblivion in the arms of a gorgeous stranger on a night of reckless passion she expects to forget. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. Weeks later, Isabella discovers her new boss is Damien Thorn the cold, commanding CEO of Thorn Enterprises, and the very man she woke beside that morning. The attraction between them is immediate, undeniable, and impossible to resist. What begins as an office affair ignites into something deeper, and for the first time since her world collapsed, Isabella dares to believe in happily ever after. Then she discovers she's pregnant. Damien's reaction destroys her. He accuses her of trapping him, calls her a gold digger, and reveals he's already engaged to another woman a marriage forced upon him by his dying grandfather. Humiliated and heartbroken, Isabella is fired and left with nothing but the truth growing inside her. She disappears without a trace. FOUR YEARS LATER... Isabella has built a quiet life in a new city, raising her son, Lucas, and burying the memory of Damien Thorn deep in her heart. When she meets Sebastian Cole, a charming, compassionate man who becomes her closest friend she finally feels safe again. But safety comes with a price. Drowning in debt and desperate to protect her child, Isabella agrees to a contract marriage with Sebastian. It's simple: he pays off her debts and becomes a father figure to Lucas; she gives him freedom from his family's relentless pressure to marry. No strings. No feelings. Just friendship.

He slammed her back on the door and hovering over her, he whispered into her ears. “Looking at you this close, you're quite tempting.” Her heart suddenly skipped, aware of the position they were in. His body was pressing hers and his warmed breath fanned her ears. Her heart was crazy. Why was it beating so loudly at this time? She hope he doesn't hear it and get the wrong impression. “W…what are you doing? Back off. We aren't done talking yet,” she retorted only to have him chuckle lightly. The low rumble of his chest sent shivers down her spine. Her hands instinctively flew to his chest to push him away but they seem to have lost their strength. “You're so beautiful. I want to kiss you.” Her eyes widened. ……… Madeline Crayon- young and beautiful, had to face bad days when her father signed a contract with a rival company just to keep his company moving. As per the contract, he would have to exchange his eldest daughter for the good of his business. The eldest daughter, ran away from home causing Madeline's father to force her into marrying the son of the Johan family, Elias. Rumors had it that he was always masked in public for a reason best known to him. Elias Johan- the infamous God of the underworld. He decided to get married to either of the Crayon daughters to fulfill his thirst for revenge. A dark secret which he held for almost all his life that could destroy a lot of lives. Will Madeline be able to free herself from being trapped in the oblivion of a written marriage where she suffered different trials every day, or perseverance would be her best friend?

I'm eight months pregnant, and I suddenly go into early labor. But my husband, Aldrich Lohan, locks me up in the basement and gives me a tocolytic injection to stop my labor instead. He does all these just to ensure that his sister-in-law's baby is born before mine, so that my child won't fight for the inheritance rights. "Anton saved my life," Aldrich says, referring to his elder brother. "But now, he's gone, succeeded only by the baby in Chrissy's womb. I must let her baby inherit all the rights. Chrissy lost everything, but you're still here, enjoying everything I'm giving you like you're entitled to them. So what if you compromise a little bit for her sake?" The contractions in my lower body are hurting more than I can bear. I'm on the verge of passing out as I grab on to the hem of his pants and beg, "I swear that I won't let my child claim his inheritance rights! Please, just send me to the hospital. My child will die otherwise!" However, Aldrich just kicks me aside. "Chrissy has been pregnant for nine months. How can you be giving birth in just eight months? How would I know whether or not you're just inducing birth on purpose? I don't care. I won't let anyone steal the inheritance rights from Chrissy's baby, even if there's just a minuscule percentage of it happening." In the end, Chrissy successfully gives birth to her child, and it's only after that that Aldrich finally remembers me in the basement. "Bring Kelsey to the hospital and make them bring out the best medical equipment to ensure the safe birth of my child." His personal assistant, Edgar Salome, shivers as he says, "But Mr. Lohan… Mrs. Lohan and her child have both died…"

A Category 5 hurricane will be tearing through the nation tomorrow. The state I live in has officially gone into lockdown in all five sectors involving work, production, business, classes, and transport. But Isabel Stafford, the actual heiress of the Staffords who had just rejoined the family, left an order in the company's group chat. "Tomorrow, everyone in this company must clock in for work! Those who miss out on work will have three times their salaries deducted!" I thought it was rather inappropriate for the order to take effect. So, I messaged her privately that everyone's lives were at stake here, not to mention it was a reportable offense for one to go against the national order of the lockdown. But not only did Isabel ignore me, she also continued texting in the group chat. "We're paying you just to work! Everyone needs to be present in order to protect the important documents and maintain the expensive equipment! You should know that the more you work at times like this, the more the company can see your actual value!" The colleagues dared not refute Isabel at all. But I was really worried that an accident might happen, so I spent the night calling everyone to get them not to go to work. When Isabel found out about my efforts, she went to the company out of anger the next day. The typhoon smashed the company's glass walls that day, resulting in Isabel getting thrown out of the 16th floor. By the time her body was found, she was already dead. My parents and my fiance, Shane Cross, didn't say anything about Isabel's death. But they had me hung from a helicopter on my and Shane's wedding day. "If it wasn't for you stopping the employees from going to the company that day, Isabel wouldn't have died!" "There were so many of them! If they were willing to grab her, she'd be fine!" "You're just jealous that we found our actual daughter! That's why you killed her on purpose!" I begged Shane to save me, but he just gazed at me coldly. "I told you countless times that I'd still marry you even though Isabel is back! But why did you refuse to let her go? "I'll make you feel the pain Isabel has felt when she got thrown into the sky by the Category 5 hurricane!" When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Isabel is goading the employees to show up at the company for work. This time, it's my turn to send everyone to hell.

When I was born, I was already a certified liar. That's a fact that everyone seems to agree with. The truth is, my mom, who's a scientist, has implanted advanced chips into me and my fraternal twin brother, Ryan Hartwell, when we were still babies. By right, as long as we lie or make mistakes, our mom will receive the devil signal from the chips. Then, she'll administer electrical shocks as a form of punishment. Ryan's chip often transmits the smiley signal. Even if he destroys our mom's research equipment and pins the blame on me, his chip still has the smiley branded on it. Meanwhile, when I reach home ten minutes later than usual because I had to help out a classmate, my chip transmits the scary devil signal. The next thing I know, I've already crippled to the floor from the intense pain caused by the electrical shock. At first, I'll still explain to Mom what happened. But she often exclaims, "Don't think you can pull off clever little tricks just like that gambling father of yours! The chip is ten thousands times smarter than you! The punishments will only be branded into your bones if the pain is searing enough! What I'm doing is saving your life!" After suffering from the pain countless times, I get brainwashed into thinking that I really am a liar and a troublemaker by nature. On the night of Christmas Eve, Mom comes to the attic to tell Ryan to join the family at the table for the Christmas dinner. That's when my asthma suddenly acts up, causing me to stumble and fall to the floor. "I… I can't breathe… Save me, Mom…" But Mom just coldly gazes at the devil signal that she has just received on her phone. Then, she dials the shock value to the maximum. "You don't have asthma at all! Ugh, you're kicking up another fuss just to attract attention! Seriously, you never change your ways!" After that, she takes Ryan's hand and leads him out of the attic. Soon, she slams the door heavily behind her. As I suffer from asphyxiation while on my deathbed, I can't help but think that Mom is right. After all, my chip has just transmitted the devil signal. Maybe the asthma attack really is just a figment of my imagination. I've always been a bad girl who loves lying to others, after all. When Mom finds out that this is the last time I've ever lied to her, she must be really happy, right?