Another Word For Before

Eight years after I married that award-winning actor, he publicly declared he was dating the top starlet, Celine James. He even posted a picture of the two of them celebrating their adopted “baby’s” birthday. I did not call him to interrogate him as usual. Instead, he hurriedly explained, “It’s just a pet we adopted. As its ‘dad’, I have to be there for its birthday.” I said calmly, “Rather than adopting a furbaby, why don’t we get a divorce? Then you can have an actual baby with her.”

There was an open secret among upper-class society. The wealthy man, Brandon Anderson, loved his wife to death. However, he was addicted to cheating on her. He would give everything those young women wanted from him, but he had one strict rule for them: not to expose anything to his wife. Everyone knew that he had loved his wife for ten years, and he had put in a lot of effort to marry her. He had once said that if his wife died, he would not survive. However, this latest mistress did not follow his instruction. She came to me because he doted on her. She sent me a lot of photos of condoms and his sleeping face. “Ms. Lowe, this brand is too good. I was screaming the whole night. Has Mr. Anderson ever used that with you?” It was that moment that I realized the young man who was infatuated with me had given his heart to me, but his body to other people. When I saw the photos, I cried so hard that I had no more tears. Then, I drafted a divorce agreement and signed it. I turned around and saw Brandon, seventeen again, crying as he stared at me.

When the factory director’s son dragged my drunk fiancee into the supply warehouse, I pretended as if I did not see them. I just turned around and walked away. In the past, I had ruined my own future by rushing in and beating the factory director’s son up. I was even framed for stealing the supplies from the warehouse. When the warehouse keeper came over with the police officers, my fiancee deliberately ripped her own clothes. She cried and said that she came with the director to stop me from committing the crime, but I beat her up and even defiled her. Everyone despised me, and I became a criminal. My fiancee’s parents could not bear the rumors, and they forced me to marry her. But that marriage was only the start of a hellish life. She lived like a queen at home, yet she told everyone I was starving her. When she got pregnant, she deliberately pushed her belly against the corner of the table. Then, she stood in the courtyard and cried. She claimed I had abused her, and I wanted to kill my own baby. My parents felt bad for me, so they borrowed money from everyone they knew to get her a job. But when she landed on the job, she framed my father for stealing the steel from the factory. Half a year after my father was imprisoned, he passed away in jail due to an illness. My mother could not bear the stress and fell severely ill. She also passed away soon after. When I was pinned under the collapsed brick wall at the construction site, she did not call for help. Instead, she picked up a brick and smashed it into my head. “If you were not so nosy, Jeremy and I’d have been together already. We wouldn’t have wasted so much time!” My head bled, and I was buried beneath a pile of rubble. When I opened my eyes again, I was at the entrance of the supply warehouse. From inside, I heard my fiancee’s soft, teasing murmurs.

On the day I died, my boyfriend was with another woman. He was a man I had rescued from the clutches of rich women. My condition was for him to be my boyfriend for three years, and he agreed. I showered him with money, resources, and connections, single-handedly making him famous. Yet, while he told me we could not date publicly, he casually engaged in fake romance rumors with others for publicity. One of his rumored girlfriends even came to me with a voice message. "If it weren’t for using her as a stepping stone, who would bother with someone so dull and boring?" But after I died, why did he go mad?

I thought Jace was it for me. My best friend. My first love. My mate. He promised me prom night. Promised me forever. But all it took was one moment— For everything to fall apart. Rejected and broken, I was still forced to serve as the maid nobody noticed. Not even the boy who once swore he loved me. How stupid was I… To think I could ever be enough for the new Alpha. But Fate? She doesn’t knock. She kicks the damn door down. "— and you, gather your things, you're coming with me!" The Lycan King said, his eyes locked on mine. Cold and frightening like the stories that were being told of him. He didn’t even blink. Why me? I was merely doing my maid duties, serving the Lycan King who was being hosted by Alpha Jace. How did I become the subject of their conversation? How did I go from Jace’s nothing— To the Lycan King’s next target? What now, oh Goddess? From heartbreak to something worse? Or maybe… just maybe… something I never saw coming.

Dunia lain? Kebanyakan orang tidak akan percaya dengan keberadaannya. Nalar manusia selalu menolak hal yang tidak wajar di mata mereka. Akan tetapi dibalik itu semua, akan selalu ada kenyataan di luar nalar yang diketahui hanya oleh beberapa manusia yang ada di dunia. Apakah kamu bisa mempercayai apa yang belum kamu lihat? Disamping itu, kemanakah para korban yang selalu menghilang setiap 20 tahun sekali? Tapi, sebenarnya hal itu tidak benar. Karena, setiap 20 tahun sekali selalu saja ada kasus orang menghilang secara misterius. Rata-rata orang yang menghilang berjumlah 7-8 orang. Dan para korban menghilang di waktu yang sama. Maka, orang-orang menamai insiden ini adalah ‘lost people’. 32 siswa telah masuk ke dunia lain, atau orang bumi bilang itu adalah 'lost people'. Mereka semua dianggap sebagai pahlawan, apa yang terjadi disana nanti?

Nina Carter gave up everything good in her life to help her husband build his business empire. Now Daniel is successful and admired by everyone, while Nina fades into the background of the life she helped create with her sweat and blood. Then one humiliating night shows her the painful truth, she didn’t matter anymore. Hurt and overwhelmed, Nina makes a choice she never thought she would make in her lifetime. One reckless moment that would turn into a secret she could never erase. But every choice comes with its own consequence. When that secret suddenly returns to Nina’s life, everything she tried to hide begins to fall apart. Will that one mistake be the start of her downfall… Or the moment that finally changes her life forever?

Inside the mediation room at the police station, my passenger looked disheveled with messy hair and rumpled clothes. She cried as she complained to the police officer, “Sir, it’s him! The Grab driver had bad intentions! He even tried to harass me! “People like him should be put in jail! And I want compensation for the emotional distress he caused me!” Right after she finished speaking, she slumped down on the floor and threw a tantrum. I could not believe someone could be this shameless. All I did was tell her not to smoke in the car, and she falsely accused me of harassing her. On top of it, I was a woman too! It was just that I usually dressed less femininely. How could I possibly have harassed her?

I married her because I was forced to… I treated her like a stranger… And now, I’m losing her forever. Hannah was my wife. My mother forced me into the marriage, yet I ignored the woman who loved me more than anyone ever could. I pushed her away, rejected her, and watched her devotion crumble while I remained blind to what mattered most. She left. Five years ago. And at that moment, I didn’t care. I thought I could live without her. I was warned I’d regret losing her forever. I thought it was just words. I was wrong. Now, she’s back. Not the timid girl I once knew. Not the woman I could control. She’s a force to be reckoned with…a CEO, a business mogul, untouchable, admired by everyone…and utterly beyond my reach. And as if my regret wasn’t enough, another man steps into her life: a billionaire… my friend, the one who warned me all those years ago. The one who now holds her attention, her trust… maybe even her heart. I watch, helpless, as the woman I abandoned thrives without me. My empire is crumbling, my pride shattered, and my heart…irreversibly hers. I lost her once. I cannot lose her again. But can I win back the woman who no longer belongs to me…or will I watch the love of my life slip into the arms of the man who already deserved her?

"You kill so wonderfully well, little Raven," he murmured, his voice incredibly smooth, "but you did a terrible job hiding yourself. That beautiful scent of yours... wood, jasmine, and blood. It's unmistakable." Thirteen years ago, ten-year-old Romy Hawthorne hid in the vineyard and watched the Supreme Alpha, Rowan Ashwing-Kael Vexley, pull a bloodied blade from her sister’s chest as her home burned. Now, Romy is "Viper"—a lethal, wolf-less assassin. When a twenty-million-dollar bounty drops on the man known as the Beast of Flames, she eagerly takes the job. Her mission: infiltrate his territory, plunge a silver knife into his heart, and avenge her family. But her target is a dangerously powerful Fire Lord who has spent the last decade hunting the real syndicate that murdered his fiancée. When Romy breaks into his stronghold, he doesn't find a victim, he finds the surviving little sister of the woman he lost. And to their absolute horror, she is his fated mate. Bound by an agonizing supernatural tether where every ounce of physical pain she inflicts on him is violently mirrored in her own body, Romy is completely trapped. With enemies closing in, she must make a choice: Will she fulfill her lifelong vow and kill the monster who ruined her life? Or will she surrender to the intoxicating fire of the Alpha who would burn the world down to keep her safe? #Enemies to Lovers #Fated Mates #Assassin/Alpha #Touch Her and Die #Revenge #Forced Proximity, #Misunderstanding #Hidden Identity #Steamy.