Apartment

From the time I was ten until I turned eighteen, my parents made me write 299 IOUs. Every time I needed money, I had to borrow it and pay it back as an adult. Then I got into a car accident. I needed money for surgery but was still short by 3,000. With no other options, I went to my parents for help. But they just gave me cold smiles. “Clara, you’re eighteen now. We have no obligation to give you money anymore. If you need it, write another IOU.” While holding back tears, I wrote my 300th IOU. After my surgery, I saw my adopted sister’s social media post. In the pictures, she was celebrating her 18th birthday on a cruise. She was the center of attention, like a princess. My parents had given her a luxury apartment in the city and a Maserati as birthday gifts. Even my childhood friend was looking at her with love in his eyes. She said they were the ones she loved and thanked them for giving her the best of everything. I looked down at the crumpled IOU in my hand and suddenly laughed. Once I paid off my debt, I would no longer need such a family.

Diego strolled into his apartment, his heels clinking softly against the marble floor. He tossed his blonde wig on the couch, and his soft fingers propelled forward to count the dollar bills in his hands. “You're out crossdressing again?” His uncle, Roberto, a tall imposing figure with gray streaks on his hair walked into the room. “I might just have the perfect job for you,” Roberto chuckled softly and tossed a gun at Diego. “What?!” Diego's breath hitched in his throat as he swallowed the weight of the mission his uncle proposed. Cross dressing was one thing that Diego did with ease. There was no way he could do what his uncle requested; assassinating the infamous mafia lord of the Rocco empire. He stood in front of a mirror, holding the gun that Roberto had handed to him. There was no way that this soft and delicate hand could pull a trigger. Diego didn't expect that the mafia lord he was set up against was going to be a man who'll make his heart flutter. He tried to resist, bracing himself to complete his mission. But things only got heated when he found himself “entangled in the rival's hold.”

Amelia is a young woman who has always struggled to make ends meet. She works a minimum-wage job and lives in a small apartment with her parents. One day, Amelia father is diagnosed with cancer. The medical bills quickly pile up, and Amelia's family is forced to declare bankruptcy. In desperation, Amelia turns to her wealthy boss, Mr. Smith, for help. Mr. Smith agrees to help Amelia's family, but only if Amelia agrees to marry his Son, Bryan. Amelia is reluctant at first, but she knows that she has no other choice. Amelia and Bryan marry, and Amelia quickly realizes that she has made a mistake. Bryan is a spoiled and demanding man, and he makes Amelia life a living hell. AMELIA tries to make the best of the situation, but she is miserable. One day, Ameliameets a man named Dae. DAE is kind and compassionate, and he makes Amelia feel alive again. Amelia falls in love with , but he knows that he can never be with him. She is married to Bryan, and she is bound by duty. Amelia is torn between her love for Dae and her duty to Bryan . She knows that she must make a choice, but she doesn't know what to do.

Joseph King becomes the youngest attorney to make partner at his firm, and boy is he loving it. While transitioning into his long awaited bask in the glory of self-made success, he takes on new roles, is given a luxurious office as well as a personal secretary, Alice Mendez, who is also new on the job and a young college graduate and singer. Alice moved out of her father's house in Scarsdale and now lives in her own apartment in New York city with her little brother, Miguel. After experiencing major setbacks in her music career, she has decided to explore the prospects of a day job, and excitingly, gets one at one of the most prominent law firms in New York. As she settles into her new role, she unexpectedly finds herself falling for her boss, who in more ways than one is a bit too hot to handle. As they work together, he seems to be developing an increasing interest in her as well. However, as many unanticipated mysteries continue to unfold, both parties begin to find that they may be biting more than they can chew, and that this rollercoaster of an experience which they thought was about them may not have been about them at all.

Ayla Monroe’s life shatters the night she returns home to find her apartment ransacked — and herself abducted by strangers in black suits. The reason? Her reckless brother Mason has vanished after stealing two million dollars from the D'Argento Syndicate — the most feared criminal empire in New York. And now, Lucian D’Argento wants payment. But money isn’t what he’s after. Lucian, the cold and calculating mafia enforcer known only in whispers as the “ghost advisor,” gives Ayla an ultimatum: work for him for six months to repay the debt — or disappear like her brother. He wants her mind. Her gift. Her ability to break ciphers, read patterns, and strategize like a war general. What begins as forced servitude soon evolves into a twisted game of power, secrets, and slow-burning obsession. Ayla is determined to find her brother and destroy Lucian’s empire from the inside. But every move she makes pulls her deeper into a world of blood, betrayal, and temptation. As walls close in and loyalties shift, Ayla faces an impossible truth: Sometimes the devil doesn’t take your soul. He teaches you how to burn with it.

On the very first day Jason and I made our relationship official, he insisted on handing over his salary for me to manage. He said marriage was only a matter of time and that he trusted his future wife to keep the money safe. On the day of our engagement, Jason demanded that I hand over the $960,000 in salary I had “kept” for him over the past four years. “Each month, I gave you $20,000. In four years, that’s $960,000. After expenses, there should be at least $800,000 left, right? I can’t bear to make my parents empty their savings for my marriage. We will use my savings for the wedding, $600,000 as the down payment for the new apartment, and the remaining $200,000 will be my wedding gift to you.” I froze. “But there isn’t a single dollar left!” Jason exploded. “You wasteful woman! You spent all the money?!” His mother also erupted. “So much money, and you squandered it all! What shameful acts have you been up to?! This marriage is off!” Jason demanded to see the accounts. I immediately pulled out the records in front of everyone. Seeing this, Jason’s mother panicked.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

All her life, Sofia believed her father was an honorable man. Until one night, armed men burst into her apartment, and a cursed name was spoken in a voice like steel: Marco Vallardi. “Your father stole millions from us,” said the feared mafia boss with a dangerous smile. “And now, you’re going to pay it back.” Sofia Russo, a brilliant but naïve accountant, is forced to work for the most feared man in New York. What begins as a matter of survival soon turns into something darker... and far more dangerous. Marco isn’t just her enemy—he’s her only ally in a world of betrayal, blood money, and buried family secrets. As she unravels her father’s past, Sofia uncovers something more deadly than any debt: someone inside the Vallardi family is leaking information to their ruthless rivals, the Cortez. And the traitor’s face is far more familiar than she ever expected. He offered her a threat. She gave him a choice. Now, they’re bound by far more than numbers. And in a world where love can be as lethal as a bullet, Sofia must decide whether to save Marco… or save herself.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

What...what are you doing, Simon?" Hazel stuttered, her eyes darting everywhere but into Simon's eyes. "You are pushing me into temptation, Haze. You're slowly turning me into a sinner." His huge, calloused hand ran smoothly down Hazel's cheeks, leaving her breathless. "You...you are my stepbrother," Hazel said. "And?" Simon asked, raising an eyebrow. "And, you have a daughter, Simon. I...I can't do this," Hazel replied, shaking her head. "Look into my eyes, Haze, and tell me you don't want me." ********** The death of Hazel's stepdad marked the beginning of something sinful for her. After the burial, her mother sold the house where Hazel was supposed to live after spending five years in California. Left stranded by her own mother, Hazel had nowhere to go except her step-brother's home. Thinking she could stay with Simon temporarily until she found an apartment, Hazel discovered that living with him brought out forbidden thoughts she once had about him. Simon was slowly turning her into a sinner. With her hot mafia stepbrother hovering around and making her heart flutter, will Hazel give in to this temptation, despite knowing Simon has a daughter and is twelve years older than her?