Apartment

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.

Ericka Matthews has been in love with her roommate for two years. The problem? Dominic Anderson made her sign a contract when she moved in: no romance allowed, or she's out. She's respected that boundary, hidden her feelings, and watched him from across the breakfast table every morning without letting on. Then Dominic kisses her. And immediately tells her not to kiss him back. Heartbroken and humiliated, Ericka decides to disappear. She has a backup plan, savings, and an apartment lined up. She'll be gone before he even notices. But when she collapses on campus and ends up in the hospital, Dominic is forced to confront what losing her actually means. The contract gets torn up. Confessions are made. And it turns out their mothers have been running a secret spy network dedicated to getting them together for three years. Now they just have to survive Sunday dinner with both families and Aunt Linda's unopened Christmas presents. A contemporary romance about two idiots who wasted three years pretending to be "just roommates," the meddling families who saw right through them, and the kiss that finally broke all the rules.

The day before I am supposed to move into a nursing home, my daughter-in-law, Emily Freeman, cancels the deposit I have already paid without my permission. "It's not easy for Ryan to earn money. Instead of helping us save money, you want to stay somewhere so expensive," Emily complains. I frown and explain that I paid with my own money. Her expression darkens as she rants, "Isn't your money our money? Besides, how much money can you possibly have? Didn't you get all of it from Ryan anyway? "You don't help take care of the kids or do any housework. Now, you're just bleeding us dry so that you can enjoy yourself!" My son, Ryan Pratt, sides with her and criticizes me as well. "Mom, this is such a waste of money. If you ask me, you might as well go to a senior community and get a bed there for ten dollars. Someone will still take care of you." I am so furious that I faint on the spot and am rushed to the hospital. With the refunded money, Ryan takes Emily and goes on vacation abroad with his in-laws. After being discharged, the first thing I do is put the apartment I once gave my son as a wedding gift up for sale with a real estate agent.

Mary Ann “Maan” Perez resigned from her work as an office secretary in their province to apply as a Customer Service Representative (call center agent) in Manila. After receiving a message from her prospective employer for a scheduled interview, she decided to contact her cousin to tell her to fetch her at the bus terminal in Manila for she will be staying with them for a week. Unfortunately while on her way to Manila, her cousin Joan, had an emergency to attend to and would not be able to fetch her. Instead Joan’s cousin from her mother's side of the family came to fetch Maan. Virgil ‘Gil” Velasco (Joan’s cousin) who lives in his own apartment brought Maan to his house with an agreement that Joan will be fetching Maan that day. Later that day, Joan called to inform them that she could not fetch Maan because her mother is suspected to have contracted COVID-19 and needs to be under observation for at least 14 days and if it wasn’t bad news enough, an announcement was made that night that the government decided to put National Capital Region (NCR) and the entire Luzon under lock down. Going in and out of the area is prohibited for 1 month!Locked in together for a month, will they catch the virus called love and start a romance or will it end when the lock down ends?

Selene , the loyal best friend, accidentally has a wild one-night stand with a tall, bearded stranger in a motel during a snowstorm—raw, unforgettable sex she thinks she’ll never repeat. The next day at Gwen’s family dinner, the stranger walks in: it’s CK—Gwen’s lifelong childhood crush and family friend, now their new roommate. Guilt crashes in as Selene realizes she slept with her best friend’s obsession. But the chemistry is too strong to resist. Secret hookups ignite in their shared apartment (kitchen counters, shared bathroom risks, late-night motel dates). They agree to date in hiding—Gwen can never know. Every stolen moment is hotter because it’s wrong. Close calls multiply. CK’s quiet depression cracks around Selene. External pressure builds from ex Megan at his new law firm job. When Gwen starts noticing marks, deleted texts, weird vibes, and the growing distance between her two closest people—the secret begins to crack. The truth explodes at Gwen’s surprise birthday party (puppy reveal, friends, cake). After fallout and healing, Selene and CK reunite months later—no lies, just honest love. Hopeful but scarred ending.

"Wearing a skirt so short, Ms Katz... is not allowed in my building," he said with sternness in his tone."But sir- I've spilt coff...." her respective voice was interrupted by the arrogant boss, "Whatever the reason is, Ms Katz. Go home and change the dress then come back to work." with that he focused his attention at his laptop.She, with a clenched jaw, turned to leave his cabin when his deep voice lingered in her ear saying, "Oh and you will work extra hours today.""But sir-...." there was no way in hell he was letting her complete the sentence when he again interrupted her, "You're wasting time, Ms Katz. The extra hours are for the time I'm giving you to go to your apartment and change your dress."Darby Rothschilds had everything he's ever wanted. He has every reason to be the arrogant man that he is. But he has some secrets... secrets which are meant to be carried to graves only.Alexandra Katz, a young girl who just finished highschool and in desperate need of a job. What if she finally got a job in a multinational firm named as Rothschilds Corporations and became the secretary of the very own Darby.There was something about her... Alexandra... if only he could know that she was the cure of his cursed life.

**Perfect Blind** *She pretended to be her blind twin. Then she watched her brother-in-law die. The killer tested her—held the bloody head five inches from her face. She didn't blink.* **But what he didn't know? She's not just pretending. She's hunting him too.** --- Jiang Yan has spent three months learning to be her blind twin sister: the walk, the voice, the empty stare. She breaks into Lin's apartment seeking a diary—evidence of a murder Yan committed ten years ago. Instead, she finds a body. A killer who knows sign language. And a "dead man" who won't stop breathing. Trapped in a locked room with two strangers and one lie, Yan must play the perfect blind woman while uncovering the truth: her sister isn't blind, her father isn't dead, and the murder she confessed to never happened. **In this family, everyone wears a mask. The only way out is to see through them all.** --- **Perfect for fans of:** - *The Silent Patient* (unreliable narrator) - *Gone Girl* (toxic sisterhood) - *Behind Her Eyes* (identity games) **Tags:** #PsychologicalThriller #TwistedFamily #BlindPOV #ShortRead #DarkSecrets --- **Word count:** 10,000 words | **Chapters:** 10 | **Reading time:** 45 minutes *Every chapter ends with a twist. The final page changes everything

“Is Batman my daddy?” my son Jackson pipes up from the back seat. Of course not! But telling him that his father is Asher Giordano, leader of New York’s deadliest mafia empire is out of the question. He found us anyway. “What have you done with Jackson?” I demand. “My son?” Asher asks calmly, looking around my small apartment disdainfully. “The one you’ve been hiding from me and forcing to live in this…pigeonhole?” Our son, not yours. “You’re the one who left me at the alter without as much as a ‘see you later’. If you left me a forwarding address to contact you at, I must have missed it.” Asher regards me coldly. I don’t know this man. The boy I fell in love with was warm, giving and open. This man in front of me is frostier than the arctic with his glacial eyes. “I know you know who I am and what I’m capable of, so don’t try anything stupid, Emmeline. There’s nowhere you can run where I can’t find you.” “Gosh, Asher, that’s like a line straight out of a movie. Have you been practicing delivering it in front of a mirror?”

I fell for Don Lorenzo Moretti the second I saw him. Hard. As a mafia princess, I wasn't supposed to chase anyone. But for him, I swallowed my pride and made him my mission. A year later, he finally had me, pinning me to the bed as he moved inside me. His eyes were pure fire, and in that mo ment, they saw only me. For ten years, we were electric. We fucked in five-star hotels all over the world. We just fit. I was his lucky charm at the poker table. I took shots for him until I bled from my stomach. I even took a bullet for him. Then came our engagement party. Lorenzo left me standing there alone. Said something "came up." I went back to our apartment, only to find him kissing my stepsister, Juliana. That’s when I knew. He had always loved her. I was just a stand-in. He tried to explain, words tumbling out in a panicked rush, promising a bigger, better party to make up for it. A laugh, cold and hollow, died in my throat. I turned my back on him, pulled out my phone, and called my mother in Sicily. "I'll marry into the Romano family."

Sofia’s life isn’t easy. She’s been living alone almost all her life. She completely depends on herself. She’s twenty-four and still single. She’s working in a café for two years, but then suddenly, a small misunderstanding causes her to lose her job. After she lost her job, she received the most devastating news of her life. Her apartment caught on fire. Now that she’s jobless and now homeless. She doesn’t have any choice but to contact her last relative, which is her aunty. Sofia doesn’t want to stay with her because she’s abusive and has a bad temper. The same as her aunt’s only daughter. She can say she’s a bitch. Sofia once lived with them, but they kicked her out after all her sacrifices. She planned to live under the same roof with them for only two days until she could find her own place and job. They agreed; although she found it weird, she chose to ignore it. Little thing did she know, they would use her to pay their dept. One day after she moved out, a group of men went to their house and took her away