Apartment 4b

To save up for my wife’s expensive asthma medication, I worked the dangerous high-rise job around our apartment complex, even on a day with winds strong enough to knock someone off their feet. However, that was when I accidentally witnessed my wife cheating on me with her ex-boyfriend, and to entertain him, she picked up a fruit knife and slowly cut through my safety rope. My body slammed into the ground so hard that the impact shattered the bones in my leg. Only later did I learn the truth: the one with asthma wasn’t my wife at all—it was her first love. All the money I’d been saving for her? She had been giving him every cent. Eventually, the same cold, proud woman I once married ended up on her knees in front of me, begging for help. I called the building security over and had them drag her out. “Get that filth out of here,” I said. “It’s hurting my eyes.”

I roll my eyes. "Why are you being nice to me? Did your therapist say it was good for your mental health?" *************** Jeanet and James have been together for four almost blissful years. Two years ago, James bumped into his ex-girlfriend and realized he still had feelings for her, but every time Jeanet asked him, he denied this, until one morning when he does something that makes Jeanet finally lose it. She moves out of their shared apartment, but she has nowhere to go. She can barely afford rent with her failed business, and no company wants to hire her due to her past. She ends up forced to work for Damien, the Italian hotshot who barely smiles, who is also her best friend's uncle, and who has always despised her, but she never cared, because she despised him back even more. How are they supposed to share space when they are a true definition of a cat and mouse?

Twenty-five-year-old Cheryl Moore is faced with a dilemma when she hits rock bottom. Cheryl either has to take the advice of her best friend, Kathleen Martins, to have a marriage of convenience with breathtaking Russell Walker (son of popular Texas billionaire, Jeffrey Walker who needs a wife urgently) or face criminal charges for an alleged debt of $300,000 which she's unable to pay. Cheryl has just two weeks left to pay her debt, and Russell Walker needs a wife within fourteen days. Rumour has it that his need for a wife is tied to his father, Jeffrey Walker. All of Texas believe that Jeffrey's condition for Russell to emerge as the CEO of Turner and Walker Corporation is that he gets a wife. Things get worse for Cheryl when her uninsured apartment catches fire. What will happen when Scorp Enterprise, the company she owes comes to get her? Will she consider Kathleen's advice? What about Russell? Would he choose her?

River Wilson has her entire life planned: earn top grades, avoid distractions, and graduate as valedictorian. Love? Boys? Drama? Not on the schedule. But her perfect plan unravels the moment she steps into her new university apartment… and finds Taylor DeLuca shirtless, tattooed, and infuriatingly smug, standing in her kitchen. Thanks to a university housing glitch and a name too ambiguous to question, River ends up living with the one thing she promised to avoid: a boy who looks like trouble and acts like he invented it. Now she’s armed with a list of house rules, a schedule tighter than her ponytail, and one unbreakable boundary: no flirting. But Taylor has a smirk that makes her forget her rules… and a past that’s more complicated than his cocky charm lets on. What happens when the girl who has everything under control is forced to live with the boy who thrives on chaos? Let’s just say... Rule Number Eight is about to get broken.

My husband, Noah Campbell, has only passed away for less than three months when my sister-in-law, Pamela Turner, starts urging me to move out. "It's not that I'm casting you out, Veronica. You see, Matthew wants to renovate your bedroom. I'm just worried that you might not have time to pack up your stuff when the time comes. "Besides, Noah is no longer around. It's inappropriate for you to continue living in an apartment that belongs to your in-laws, you know?" My mother-in-law pauses mid-bite, pretending she didn't hear a word Pamela said. Meanwhile, Matthew Campbell, Pamela's husband, continues munching on his food silently. Upon noticing that I never replied to her, Pamela adds, "Don't overthink it, Veronica. I don't want the outsiders gossiping about you, you know." Only then do I look up at her with a smile. "Thank you for your concern, Pamela. But I'm not scared of a bit of gossip." After all, I'm the owner of this apartment.

Madeleine Júlia Cordeiro lives in a quiet, plant-filled apartment in the rougher part of Chicago. She’s twenty-one, broke, vegan, and studying animal science at the local community college. She cries over rescue dogs, talks to her plants like they’re her best friends, and thinks violence is something that only happens in action movies. Her life is calm, predictable, and painfully ordinary. Until he bleeds all over her floor. Adriano Capone is violence in human form—shot, hunted, and very much the kind of man her sweet little heart should run from. He’s everything she hates: violent, dangerous, cruel in the way only a mafia prince can be. He’s everything she’s sworn to avoid but he's hurt and Maddie has a soft spot for lost things. So, she stitches him up. And he stitches himself into her life. He's the devil incarnate. She's never even slapped someone. But fate doesn't care about perfect matches... It threw fire into the hands of a flower girl.

Shylie Reed worked her way to the top-with no family, no backup, no handouts. From living in a cramped apartment to owning luxury penthouses, from studying in the dark to speaking on global tech stages-she made it. She became someone. But just when life gave her the things she only dreamt of, a silent enemy took it all away: COVID-19. When she wakes up, she's 16 again. A nobody in high school. Her family still ignores her in favour of the "sweet" adopted daughter who later ruined her life. But this time, Shylie isn't the same. This time, she's not playing nice. Armed with her adult mind, vast knowledge, and future insight, she plans to graduate early, dominate every field, and build a financial empire from scratch. But she didn't expect to attract attention from Darren Tan, the school prince... or Elias Tan, the cold, powerful businessman who becomes her unexpected mentor-and something more. She lost everything once. This time, she's playing for keeps.

Zara Queen lives her life in bold colors. She dances for a living—literally—as one of the top performers at Club Mirage. Fierce, flirty, and unapologetically herself, she’s used to being wanted… but never truly seen. When her apartment floods, she ends up crashing with Liam Carter, a grumpy, emotionally closed-off single dad who thinks Zara is the human equivalent of chaos. He wants silence. She lives out loud. "You don’t belong in my world, Zara." “Then why do you keep looking at me like I’m the only thing keeping you alive?" Their roommate agreement had one rule: no touching. But rules were made to be broken, especially when sparks start flying and hearts start healing. "You strip for strangers, but the way you look at me... it’s like I’m the only one who’s ever seen you." As the lines blur between comfort and desire, Liam and Zara must ask themselves: can love grow in the space between damage and desire?

"S..oo it..t wa..s all a liee" I stuttered unable to find a complete sentence due to the fact that I was shoken at the conversation I just heard eairler on. "I can...." I heard Xander begin but didn't let him finish as I turned to Reena's direction. "So yo..u al...so kn...ew" I turned to the direction of Reena totally shocked while still trying to get out a sentence completely but still failing miserably at it, due to my trembling lips. "I swear Aneesa,I tried to tell you but he made me promise not to....that he would tell you himself at his own will cause he had fallen in love with you" she said hurriedly while looking at me with worry and fear evident in her eyes. "Babe listen to me I can explain" "Don't you dare call me that" I snapped finally getting my voice back since the time I walked into the apartment, while storming out of the door with tear streaming down my face.

As her ears started ringing, the lump in her throat growing, the words he spoke faded into the background. Her eyes welled up, and her breath hitched, she had heard him right? “Earth to Rebecca, hello?!” He replied to her in an annoyed tone. She took a deep breath, “After 20 yrs you really don’t want a life with me” she managed to speak slightly above a whisper. She had been his rock, put his needs first, never said no to his frivolous spending, and had loved him enough for the both of them; yet in the small bedroom in their city apartment he stood with divorce papers in hand. She hadn’t been naive about the rough patch that they were navigating, but they had always worked past because Rebecca had always put her husband 1st. “Rebecca I don’t love you and no level of your love is going to undo these divorce papers. I can’t even stand to be in this room with you, but I want to be on a united front when we tell the kids.”