Artichoke Heart

Ghie Anne Velasquez and Christopher Ken Lee are childhood best friends. And after several years of being close to each other, it suddenly disappeared and ended. Ghie Anne's feelings were replaced by hatred and anger. She carried that anger for five years. She was very angry with Ken for what he did. And now Ken is back. She didn't know that their paths would cross again. And she didn't even know about the contract that her parents were involved in. A contract that never entered Ghie Anne's dream. She didn't know that her life would be messed up because of Ken again.

It never crossed Danielle's mind that she would cross paths with her arch-rival, Karl, a business mogul in Northtide. Sparks flew but in more ways than one. One day, a reporter asked during an interview, "Mr. Burt, on behalf of the women, what is an ideal woman to you?" "Someone like my wife." Thus, Karl's secret marriage to Danielle spread across the world.

This story is about a girl who is basically a gold-digger from our perspective and she is. Nah, no sick parent who needs immediate surgery or anyone’s life was not endangered because of money. She just chose money and luxury when the other option was love and struggle. Let's name her Eva who had a man in her life, immensely in love with her. But the problem was, he didn’t see life through her eyes, like getting a secure job and slowly reaching to a position where they could have everything possible. He was more into adventure, moving from this destination to that when he had a huge student loan to pay off and an almost failing grade. So you can see where things started to fell off. So, enters a business magnet who had everything and more, Eva had ever dreamt for. Now, there were not any choice left, were there?

When Alexander Reed, a successful architect, marries Ava Hart, a kind schoolteacher, he believes he’s found the love of his life. But his mother, Deirdre, has always viewed Ava as an unworthy match for her son. A wealthy and powerful socialite, Deirdre is determined to break them apart. Without hiding her disdain, Deirdre manipulates situations, plants doubts in Alexander’s mind, and even creates a scandal to ruin Ava’s reputation. She pushes other women, like the charming and flirtatious June, into Alexander’s path, hoping to replace Ava. As their marriage begins to crack under the pressure, Ava starts uncovering dark secrets about Deirdre’s past. Now, Alexander must decide whether to choose his wife or the woman who has controlled his life for so long. Will their love survive Deirdre’s manipulation, or will Deirdre finally succeed in separating them? Word count: 100,000.

"Why are you angry?" I asked him. "It's not like we're a couple." He stopped, and stared at me, boring my eyes with his emerald eyes. "If we are…" He paused, clenching his jaw, "then am I allowed to be angry?” I looked at him like he was insane. “Then we'll take it to that level." He continued. "I'm serious. I want you.” Leizel Snow Garcia Waterstrings is not just fierce. She's more than that. Ending up as an ice cream worker in a local ice cream shop, it was her one step of becoming a strong and independent woman. And that's when a cold-hearted stranger came in view. Eion Aurelio Hudson. Out of seven billion people in the world, the two hard-headed people crossed paths, making her "strong and independent woman" facade slowly fall apart. With all the dramas, free food, forgotten birthdays, Robot handling, idiots around, and emotional crisis, will she be able to melt his winter heart with her blazing fire or will this fire be put away instantly? ``` ``` One Blazing Head. One Winter Heart. Two Hard-headed people. A huge disaster. (Book 1 of Hearts Series but can be read as standalone)

Chriselda risks everything to save her friend in the dangerous Dawnfall Depths, but instead of the loving mate she imagined, she meets a cold, distant Alpha. Her dream of a passionate connection is crushed, but she knows there’s more to his icy exterior—a story that’s waiting to be uncovered.

After the young officer Edward Shaw took first place in a high-profile shooting exhibition attended by senior officials, his family adopted a rather peculiar tradition. At the annual family banquet, he would perform a blindfolded shooting. Whichever woman's token his bullet struck was taken as a sign that she would become his fiancée. Determined to marry him, I placed the handkerchief I had carefully chosen as close to him as possible. Yet, for three consecutive years, his shots hit nothing at all. I told myself the handkerchief must have been too light, too easy to miss. So each year, I replaced it with something more refined, more eye-catching than before. That illusion lasted until the night before my eighteenth birthday, when I happened to overhear him speaking with a friend at a reception. "Miss Jasmine's handkerchief is right in front. Even blindfolded, you should be able to hit it. How do you keep missing every year?" Edward swirled his glass, his tone casual. "Tracy's still young. The moment she hears I'm getting engaged, she starts crying. "I promised I'd wait until she's a little older. As for Jasmine, she's waited for me all these years. It's not like she's going anywhere." With that, he casually tossed his glass into a metal bucket in the corner. It rang out with a sharp, hollow clang. I lowered my gaze and thought of my younger sister, only a year younger than me. So it had never been about the token. It was about the person who placed it there. In that case, there was no reason for me to keep holding on. After all, my father had already arranged a marriage for me. Three days later, at that same family banquet, I would be formally engaged.

It was a deal, Joanne would play the part for one year…Nothing more and Alexander was untouchable but along the line something changed. She became his weakness. Now, with emotions running deep and a contract hanging by a thread… how will things play out.

My sister and I were caught up in a severe car accident during a family road trip down the mountain for the New Year. Shattered glass pierced straight through my heart. Amid the excruciating pain, my fiance and family insisted the rescue team take my sister, who only had a scratched arm, to the hospital first. As I cried out for them to save me, my fiance snapped at me. “Carol, you should know when to stop vying for attention! “Delila is bleeding so much. Why must you compete with her?” Dad shook his head and sighed while Mom looked at me with disgust. I forced my stiff neck to look over. They were all surrounding my younger sister. She only sported a faint red mark on her arm. No one saw the blood gushing from my chest. No one heard my fading heartbeat. I died during that snowy, bitterly frigid night. When they finally remembered me and came across my cold body, my fiance and family went mad.

Forces were conspiring around Finn and Lili just as their relationship was blooming... Finn heard a few jeers and cheers, "Kick him out! Kick him out!" Before he could react, Lili stood up and pushed Billy's hand away and growled really loudly, "Get out of our house NOW! Get the 'f' out! All of you! This is between Finn and myself and the investigation team. Get out!" Her face was bright red and her little fists were clenched so tightly. She was ready to punch someone but she kept her composure. Billy yelled back, "You're gonna regret this, just you wait!" Turning to leave, Billy saw Finn standing in the doorway. He was as quiet as a church mouse and as still as a statue. He wasn't giving in to the anger festering inside. Billy walked by and threw the first punch and within seconds the crowd dragged Finn outside and started to beat the crap out of him. Lili was powerless but managed to have enough sense to call 911 immediately and then she grabbed a bat and started banging it on the porch. When the crowd heard the sirens, they all jumped in their cars and took off. Even Billy! Especially Billy! By the time she got to Finn, he was a bloody mess and was barely breathing.... How could everyone in the town turn on Finn? Hadn't he proven over the last three years that he turned his life around but one small accusation and Lili was standing outside of their home in the freezing cold, staring at the blood stained snow. An image that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Would Finn survive the beating and come back to her arms as the same man? Or would outside forces continue to push them apart?