Before We Drowned

I flinched as his breath fanned my face, my body trembled in his arms. This was the chance, but was I scared? His eyes affected me in so many ways, as they held grief, pain and regret. Our stare was our way of communicating. It was intended, emotional and agonizing. I was hiding the knife behind me, picturing the perfect place to stab him. His searing heat sent a gush of lust inside me. I shouldn't fall for that. This was a revenge plan, not a romantic show-off. "I'm engaged, and I have a child with him" I remembered, barely recognizing my cold voice which had become soft and weak. He let out a dirty smirk, lowering his eyes to my lips as we exchanged breath. "I know, but I can't stop myself from falling" he whispered, and before I could blink an eye, he captured my lips, twirling them to his taste. It was a long liquid kiss that made me wet so that I couldn't fight back. The knife slipped off my hand as my body yanked on his. We both dried up where we stood when her voice resounded in our ears. "Mom?"

I spent five years as Dominic Santoro’s wife in name only. Five years hidden behind closed doors, buried under his sheets, erased from his world. When he finally agreed to take me back to Chicago—to stand beside him, to be seen—I thought I had won. I bought a new dress. Soft. Elegant. Worthy of a Don’s woman. The night before we left, he looked at me through the mirror and said calmly, “Take the makeup off. Change into pants.” I asked why. He adjusted his cufflinks like I was nothing more than background noise. “Juliana Lancaster is back. Tonight is our engagement.” Russian Bratva. Lancaster blood. A marriage alliance. Seeing my silence, he laughed—careless, cruel. “What’s with that look? Didn’t we agree on this when we married? Brotherhood. Loyalty. No love.” Then he turned, eyes sharp and mocking. “Victoria Miller… you didn’t actually fall in love with me, did you?” I stood there, frozen. Because inside the inner pocket of his tailored suit— was my pregnancy report. And the Don of Chicago had no idea the woman he was about to sacrifice was carrying his heir.

When Eliot Duke, a self-made man crosses his path with Raquel Roswell, he thought that he finally has the woman of his dreams, but fate seems to play a dangerous game. Raquel is married—and he, the greatest Billionaire of his time had just become her illicit lover. ** What Raquel and Eliot shared in Bali was magical. It was more than their pleasure. It was more than the libido they had drowned themselves, and Eliot thought that Raquel was the woman made for him, but she disappeared without any trace, gone without giving him a chance to ask her to become his lover. When fate allows him to meet her again—Raquel was afraid, because she too longs for the man she meets on that beach. One of the greatest scandals. The betrayal of a wife, and a downfall of a man. Will Eliot’s love for Raquel overcome her betrayal, or is she worth going against his principles and his prime?

On the night of Natalie’s biggest achievement...winning the Actress Award....her world came crashing down. Just as she stood in the spotlight, soaking in the applause, Richard, the man she once loved, walked up and handed her divorce papers in front of everyone. The gasps from the audience drowned out the cheers, and her joy instantly turned to heartbreak. Determined to move on, Natalie poured herself into her acting career. During an audition, she met Liam, a talented playwright whose words reignited her belief in love. His kindness and passion helped her heal, and soon, they grew close. But just as Natalie was ready to start over, Richard came back, asking for another chance. Now, she faces an impossible choice....return to the man who once broke her heart or embrace the new love standing right in front of her. Which path will she choose?

I was being sold. I shuddered. Whoever would buy me… “Raise your number again, and I will rip out your throat.” Whoever it was, they were violent. I heard a hiss of pain and gasps around the room. Soon after, I was dragged off the stage and down the hall again. Then, I was tossed onto something soft like a bed. “I’m going to untie you now, okay?” “You smell so good…” he groaned and placed a hand on my thigh. “What’s your name?” Staring at the two twins in front of me, I cannot find a word to say. They even told me about a world beyond my understanding. “You’re a hybrid. There are things you need to understand about our world before we take you back to the pack. Thousands of years ago, the Old Moon Goddess passed away.” “When she was alive, we were one large pack, but when she died, we split up. Currently, there are the Black Moon, Blood Moon, and Blue Moon packs. The Blue Moon Pack is the most powerful.” ******Lucy, a hybrid of human and werewolf from White Moon Pack, the second goddess of the moon, the only survivor of the White Moon Pack. She has the power to unify the wolves, and because of her special identity, her parents died at the hands of the alpha of another pack.

In everyone's eyes, my husband, Jake Payton, was the perfect man. Three years have passed since the day of our wedding, but we have yet to have a child because he wanted an 'extended honeymoon'. One day, I chanced across a message he sent to his friend. [I'm not Mindy's first, and God knows whether she's had an abortion before! The thought of having a baby with her just makes me sick!] Unable to hold back my tears, I turned around and shelved my medical report.

I was only 17, dreaming of building a life far away from my suffocating town, away from my dishonest family. My mother lived off scams, and I refused to be part of it. But just before I turned 18, my world fell apart. I was pregnant! And not just by anyone, but by the richest, cruelest man to ever set foot in my small town. The worst part? We had never even met. Now, I have to fight for something I never had: a chance to rewrite my own fate.

After getting back together with Peter Palmer, I stopped caring about where he went or what he did. He spent all our savings on Julia Sharp, and I didn’t even bother asking why. Maybe he realized something, because before leaving me once again to be with her, he said, “Julia’s leaving to live abroad tomorrow. She won’t be coming back. Once she’s gone, we’ll get married.” I gave a casual reply. After all, I was leaving too.

“Just...I have one question before this,” I pretend to not see his hurtful look, keeping my eyes on his chest, “...Please.” Would it change anything if I’m pregnant? I want to ask, I don’t know how. Taking a deep breath, I look up, just to catch him rolling his eyes with a sigh: “I don’t have time for your games, Scar.” Home? I laugh bitterly. We don’t have a home anymore, Sebastian. I built one for us, and you broke it.

My mother-in-law, Barbara Morris, insisted that a load-bearing wall was blocking our home's good energy. She even hired someone to tear it down for a panoramic floor-to-ceiling window. The contractor, Peter Stone, kept refusing. "Ma'am, we really can't do this. If we take this wall down, the whole building will collapse." In my past life, I fought desperately to stop them, even getting on my knees and begging them not to touch this wall that held the entire building together. My husband, Tom Williams, thought I was embarrassing him. He slapped me so hard that my left ear went deaf, and he forced them to demolish the wall anyway. That night, the entire building suffered a catastrophic structural failure. I was trapped under the rubble for seven days and nights with ruptured internal organs. Right before I died, I heard Tom shouting at the rescue team. "Save my mom first! That other woman has insurance. If she dies, we'll get the payout and buy a new place!" At that moment, the resentment inside me hardened. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment when the construction crew had just arrived. Looking at that thick load-bearing wall and Tom's hand about to rise up and strike me, I smiled and handed him the eighty-pound sledgehammer nearby. I said, "Mom's absolutely right. Once we knock down this wall, our place will turn into a luxurious river-view apartment. Anyone who tries to stop us is a complete idiot."