At Last A Life

My twin sister, Ruby Stone, and I split up after our parents' divorce. She stays with Mom, while I went with Dad. Since the divorce, he's sunk into a deep depression, gambling away every penny we have. We move into a dark, damp apartment, and life becomes an endless struggle. Every day, I go to school and quietly work a part-time job to keep us afloat. Then, out of nowhere, Ruby—whom I haven't heard from in forever—sends me a link to a live stream. "Check this out, Aria. There's a surprise waiting for you." I click it, and my jaw drops. I'm the one topping the trending live streams. The screen splits in two. On one side, I sit in my dingy apartment, hunched over homework under the dim light. On the other side, Mom and Dad cuddle with Ruby on the fancy couch of their sprawling villa. The comments came pouring in. "Let's see what happens when twins are raised on opposite sides of fortune all the way to 18." "Aria still doesn't know, right? Her parents never divorced. They're loaded and perfectly happy. Ruby's life has been like a dream too." "Poor Aria. She's always starving and never has anything decent to wear. Isn't that basically abuse?" "She's the more sensible one, so her parents decided to raise her poorly."

Andrew has everything, power, wealth, control. Until a single diagnosis takes it all away. Stage IV lung cancer. Three months to live. He shuts everyone out. No treatment. No pity. No weakness. Then Nancy Taylor hired to be his caretaker shows up, and refuses to go. She challenges him. Defies him. Sees through him. And no matter how hard he tries to push her away, she stays, steady, unshaken, impossible to ignore. Andrew doesn’t do attachment. He doesn’t believe in love. But with time running out and walls closing in, Nancy becomes the one thing he can’t control… and the one thing he can’t afford to lose. Because when the end is this close, falling might be the most dangerous thing of all.

There's a month to Angela Thompson's wedding, but she's no longer sure whether to proceed with it. The reason for her doubts? Her fiancé, Carl Swain, wants to have a child with his good friend's widow, Lucy Hogg. Carl says, "Keith was my best friend. He died so suddenly, leaving Lucy alone in this world. She tried to take her life a few times, you know. Maybe having a child will help her get past this." Angela can't understand it. She says, "Lucy can adopt or marry someone else if she wants a child. She can even go to a sperm bank abroad if she wants! Why do you have to be the one to have the child with her?"

My family is on the brink of bankruptcy, and I beg my fiancé to help us with emergency funding. He turns me down cold, then gets engaged to Nellie White without hesitation. Just when I'm out of options, my childhood friend shows up with an investment contract and a marriage proposal. I say yes without thinking twice. But even with his help, our company can't escape ruin. My father, unable to bear the blow, suffers a heart attack and dies. At the funeral, overwhelmed by grief, I faint. In my haze, I overhear a conversation between my childhood friend and his friend. "You've already crushed Talitha’s family. When are you going to take her uterus for Nellie?" "On the wedding day," he replies casually. "I'll stage an accident, then operate on her myself. Her uterus will be Nell's. I can't give Nell happiness in this life, so I'll give her a wedding gift. I hope it makes her happy." Turns out his so-called devotion was just so he could take my womb. Even his proposal to me was just a way to remove all obstacles for the woman he loved.

In a world of royal intrigue and hidden secrets, a blind princess falls deeply in love with a mysterious man. But as their relationship deepens, the princess begins to uncover the truth about the man's past and his true intentions. Can their love overcome the obstacles in their path, or will the secrets of the past tear them apart?

I've been married to Sylvia Fuller, a mafia donna, for ten years. I'm there with her in every life-and-death situation. My hands, which are meant for playing the piano, have developed calluses from using guns. They are also stained with blood from the enemies. But when Sylvia turns 28, she falls head over heels in love with Wilson Hink, the young man she's brought back from the slums. Sylvia has hidden him very well… right until the moment I bump into him accompanying her to a prenatal check-up. Mad with jealousy, I demand Sylvia for answers, but she just passes me a divorce agreement in a lackadaisical manner. "Wilson is a man of religion. He can't sire a child without getting married, so I have to give him a legitimate status. Sign this agreement, and I'll give you 40% of my shares." I refuse to give my position away, so Sylvia keeps forcing my hand. In the end, she even kidnaps my younger brother, who's paralyzed from waist down, and drags him to the spot beneath a hydraulic press. "Sebastian Chance, either you sign the agreement, or watch him get crushed. Your choice." I kneel on the ground and beg Sylvia to stop. But soon, I hear the hydraulic press being activated. It doesn't take long before I'm completely covered in my brother's flesh and blood. I end up collapsing onto the gore-splattered ground. When I open my eyes again, I realize I've gone back in time—back to the time when Wilson has accompanied Sylvia to the prenatal check-up. This time, I don't say anything. Instead, I contact a rehabilitation center located overseas before filing for a divorce and leaving Sylvia behind. But once I'm gone for real, Sylvia actually goes crazy.

JACKSON Augustus Sharpe is determined to kill the entire MONTANO family after the death of his son and fiancé. Jackson swore at his fiancé's grave that one day he would kill the whole family with his own hands. And the main target is Beverly Montano, the woman who shot her pregnant fiancé to death. Jackson's strong determination led him to a terrifying plan which he managed to put together so neatly. That Jackson would make Beverly suffer before taking her life. However, things got out of hand as her hatred turned into a feeling she couldn't explain. The stronger his determination to torture Beverly, the stronger his will not to kill her. And one night, when Beverly actually gave her life for Jackson, the woman made one last wish before she died. “Make love to me, Jackson. Just tonight. As my last wish. "

As we make our way to the city hall, Paisley Doyle is struck by regret once again. After seven years together, this is the 11th time we've found ourselves at this crossroads. Every time we reach the city hall, she claims she needs more time to care for her sick first love and can't bring herself to marry me. Unable to hold back any longer, I finally decide to confront her. "If his condition never improves, does that mean you'll never marry me? Tell me, what do I even mean to you?" Paisley's temper ignites, and she snaps back at me without a second thought. "I promised to take care of him for the rest of my life! Can't you stop being so selfish? "Besides, we've been together for seven years. What does it matter if we're not legally married?"

Mary Preston and her family fled to another country, leaving everything behind. Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by unfamiliar faces, in a foreign land, speaking a language she didn’t understand. A few years later, at the tender age of 19, she ended up married to Maximus Palmer, the grandson of the powerful Catherine Palmer. Mary loved him with all her heart, but he never felt the same. He married her out of obligation, not out of love. One misunderstanding after another pushed their marriage into a downward spiral, filled with infidelity, abuse, and endless disillusionment. For years, Mary lived under the shadow of another woman, enduring the pain until she finally found the courage to ask for a divorce. Her decision took Maximus by surprise, and he refused to let her go. But fate had other plans, and a tragic event forced the divorce to happen sooner than anyone expected. Afterward, Mary tried to rebuild her life, hoping to find love again and happiness that would last. But the scars from her past made it hard for her to trust or believe in love again. She faced many moments of anguish, sadness, and loneliness. Yet, through it all, she slowly began to find herself and step back into the light. Perhaps this time, she wouldn’t have to face everything alone. Maybe someone new would come into her life, someone who could be her rock and her reason to live. Although she learned that the past was never truly left behind, she also discovered that with a strong foundation, even the most broken things could still stand tall. Life had taught her about the three kinds of love: the one that teaches you how to love, the one you wished was yours but wasn’t meant to be, and the one you never saw coming that heals your wounds and brings true happiness.

I wish that night had never happened, the night I died and was resurrected by a vampire, life to me never made sense and I always wondered what happens after death. I didn't think my question was answered so soon, but now I ask you: What is the price of death? I found out the hard way that the price of death is life, my life that now belongs to him!