Chapter 55 Sarah J Maas Novels & Stories

Synopsis.  "Sleep with me, convince Mr. Christian or get fired" Mr. Frederick Harrison, gave Lucy a menacing smile, taking slow steps towards her. Mr. Christian Seth Caspian is the owner of the biggest energy company in Chester known as Caspian Power.  He is rich, powerful, and a famous man that you wouldn't want to cross paths with unless you want your world to be in darkness.  Lucy Raine Eliot, is your typical normal girl, working at a famous news company.  She'd do anything to keep her family safe. She knows of Mr. Christian and how powerful and arrogant the man is and the last thing she ever wishes is to cross paths with him. However, her Boss Mr. Frederick Harrison  had given her three options after she willfully denied going to Mr. Christian.  Not wanting to sleep with her Boss, nor getting fired, She decided to convince Mr. Christian even though knew that she  was no one to talk to him, not to talk of convincing him. Yet, what she didn't envision came knocking at her door as Mr. Christian proudly asked her to be his cleaner. A journey of love, betrayal, hate, obsession and  revenge.

Scarlett Carter had it all, wealth, status, and a husband she thought she could trust. But in a single moment, everything crumbled. Her husband betrayed her. Her best friend stole her life. Her stepbrother took everything she built. And now, pregnant and penniless, she’s nothing more than a scandalous headline. Just when she thinks she’s lost it all, Adrian Carter appears. The black sheep of the Carter dynasty. The vengeful older brother Daniel erased and despised. A man with power, money, and a vendetta just as deep as hers. Adrian offers her a deal, help him destroy those who made him an outsider, and in return she’ll get protection for her baby and revenge against those who hurt her . But revenge comes at a cost. As Scarlett steps into Adrian’s world, she’s no longer the woman they left behind, she becomes something far more dangerous, stopping at nothing to get her own pound of flesh. And when passion ignites between them, the lines between vengeance and desire blur. She was once the billionaire’s placeholder bride. Now? She’ll be the one to burn his empire to the ground.

“After drinking the potion, your wolf scent will be completely altered and your mate bond will be broken. Are you sure you want to do this?” The witch looked at me in surprise. "I'm sure." I nodded calmly and drank the potion without hesitation. My Alpha mate, Lucas, marked me three years ago but never held a formal mating ceremony because he spent three years designing a wedding dress for me himself. That was until a week before the ceremony, when I watched Lucas with my own eyes as he draped that Luna gown over my sister, Seraphina—who had been missing for three years. Even my beloved Beta twin brothers, who doted on me the most, were gathered around Seraphina. Seraphina and I were twin sisters. I had a crush on Lucas for ten years, but I knew Lucas had always loved her. However, three years ago, when the pack was on the verge of extinction after an attack by rogue wolves, Seraphina ran away, abandoning everyone. When everyone was in despair, I fought with all my might to protect everyone until Lucas and my brothers returned. I almost died in that battle. Lucas, trembling, held my hand and asked if I would be his mate. He said I had saved the entire pack, that I was the bravest she-wolf. My brothers also swore that Seraphina, that coward, had been banished from the family. They said that from now on, I was their only sister. Until two days ago, when Seraphina returned. She claimed that she didn't run away but left to lure away a more vicious pack of rogues. She said she had been poisoned with silver toxicity during the fight and only had a month to live. Lucas and my brothers believed her without hesitation. To make up for the three years they "owed" her, and to fulfill Seraphina's "dying wish," they decided—to give my Mating Ceremony to her. After drinking the potion, I sent a message to the Alpha King of the Northern Territory: I am willing to join the Northern Territory. Help me stage a fake death in a week.

The day the Royal Academy's screening results came out, the twin Alpha heirs — Julian and Damien — stood in front of me. Each of them was holding an application form. "Ivy. Have you decided whose name you're putting on that form?" In my previous life, I chose Julian for love. I gave up my direct admission to the Royal Academy and stayed behind in the pack with him and Celeste — his childhood-friend Omega who'd failed the screening — to help them train for another year. I thought that was what it meant to go through hardship together. That was love. But the pack laughed at Celeste — an Omega who thought she could get into the combat track at the Royal Academy. She couldn't stand the gossip, ran off alone, and was killed by rogue wolves. Julian threw me into the silver pit — the pit our pack used to execute traitors. Silver burns a wolf's flesh like acid. "If you hadn't been so desperate to cling to me, I could've focused on protecting Celeste. She wouldn't be dead!" "Ivy Hale — all of this is your fault. You ruined us." He poured silver down my throat. I died thrashing in agony. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the screening results were announced. This time, I slipped my arm through Damien's and gave the brightest smile I had. "Let's apply to the Royal Academy together." Julian let out a quiet, relieved breath and turned to go find his Omega. He didn't see the way Damien's hand tightened around mine — or the obsession and ambition he couldn't quite hide behind his eyes.

Griffin's parents forcibly ended Griffin and Zaylee's relationship under the pretext of a quid pro quo that assisted Zaylee because her family's company had gone bankrupt. Griffin was willing to accept Zaylee as his secretary to exact revenge for his pain from being deceived by her. Their relationship was too complicated to explain, and the longer it had ended, the more it heated up due to past grudges. Griffin had a fiancée who was a friend of his father and a business partner from their respective families. Their arranged engagement was made for the benefit of both families' businesses. The night of Griffin and Frey's engagement event, he had to be disrupted because Zaylee appeared and declared she was pregnant. Griffin was the father of the unborn child in her womb, which made him even angrier as the situation worsened, not to mention his parents' anger towards him. Griffin was furious because Zaylee was so stubborn. He had tried hard to persuade her to have an abortion, as he saw it as the only easy and advantageous solution for both parties. However, Zaylee was unwilling, saying that even a lion wouldn't eat its offspring. How could a mother kill her innocent flesh and blood? Time continued to pass, Zaylee's pregnancy grew, and it became a looming issue for Griffin. It also had an impact on his company's stocks. Zaylee eventually gave up, choosing to isolate herself rather than seek accountability from Griffin, who accused her of various actions that damaged her reputation. Surprisingly, her departure led Griffin to discover a truth he had not known. His perspective on Zaylee changed, and he now admitted to himself that even after their relationship ended forcibly, his heart still belonged to her, regardless of his engagement and upcoming marriage with another woman.

Everyone in the pack knows Marcus has loved me for a decade—that I'm his destined mate. He's devastatingly handsome and brilliant, the youngest and most gifted pack healer we've ever had, with she-wolves practically throwing themselves at his feet. Yet this alpha prince has eyes only for me. But when I was nearly assaulted by a rapist, Marcus signed a settlement agreement on my behalf and issued a psychiatric diagnosis, condemning me to a mental institution. Inside the institution, I was attacked by the truly insane—they tore at my hair with clawed fingers and kicked my stomach until I couldn't breathe. Meanwhile, he held the rapist's sister Victoria close and told me: "Emma, I'll take care of you. I'll compensate you when you get out, but Victoria has severe depression. She can't handle her brother getting in trouble." Even more ridiculous—when I begged him to let me see my suicidal sister one last time, he was honeymooning with that woman in Iceland, hanging up on my eighty-nine calls. The day my sister died, I coughed up blood in that mental hospital. Three years later, he came to get me, saying he still wanted to bring me home as his mate. Looking at his careful demeanor, I suddenly laughed. Marcus, do you know? No matter how high the mental hospital walls are, they can't stop someone who's crawled back from hell for revenge. What you owe me, what you owe my sister—I'll collect it all with interest, using what you care about most.

My boyfriend pulled in two million a year. He told me that once he'd banked five hundred thousand, he'd invest in my gallery. Year one, he said the startup was bleeding money; he hadn't saved a cent. Year two, he needed a new car to keep up appearances; no funds for me. By year five, he was on his private yacht brokering a major deal and told me not to bother him. I stood outside the cabin door and listened to the laughter rolling out from inside. "If Celeste wanted to open a gallery, Eth would write her a million-dollar check without blinking." "Hell yeah. If Celeste hadn't gone abroad back then, that knockoff he's got now wouldn't even be in the picture." Ethan's voice drifted through the crack in the door, lazy, dismissive. "Enough. Emily's been with me five years. I'll still put something in for her." "She's a free drafting machine. She's not worth five hundred grand. One day's revenue at the firm, maybe. Call it round. Two thousand bucks." My eyes burned. I pulled out my phone and called the one man Ethan hated most in all of New York, Adrian Sterling. "Mr. Sterling. That partnership agreement you offered me? I'm signing it first thing tomorrow morning."

It's been a constant battle between step-siblings Emberly and Derrick as they competed against each other throughout high school. Both fought tooth and nail to be the one to gain control of their parents' billion-dollar clothing and jewelry design company. Who will win this battle when hate turns into lust and lust turns into love?

***MAFIA'S VICE SEQUEL*** What is a queen without her king? Historically speaking, more powerful. The Dragonetti's have fallen in New York, but Sienna has made certain her family rose from the ashes in Italy. After Dante's demise, she's put her everything into the Dragonetti name and made it one to be feared again, despite her heartbreak and yearning for her only love. As tensions mount and she starts losing more of her humanity, a ghost from her past shows up, and her world comes crashing down. Could Dante be alive after all these years? And if so, why is he out to kill her? In this sequel to Mafia's Vice, two Mafia worlds intersect with one thing on either family's mind: Revenge against Allesio Speranzini.

Alexa Whittier has always been a cheerful child but sometime in her preteen years, something terrible happened to her that wiped that angelic smile off her lips. Her heart becomes a stone-cold wasteland. Will she ever smile again? Will she ever love again? Find out in this amazing, chilly, emotional and breathtaking adventure of Alexa Whittier.