Cherry Picked

Anabel found out she was pregnant and dialed her husband's number to share the good news to him. They have been married for two years without a child. Desmond's mother had been accusing her of being barren and unproductive. When the call was picked, she was flabbergasted and broken. She was hearing a loud moan of feminine voice. "Ohh! Yeah! Don't stop fucking me! I love your fucking dick! Fuck me harder baby!" accompanied with sound of skins slapping against the other. She went home to confront her husband and end up receiving a divorce paper. Desmond divorced him for a lady his mother was rooting. Few months later when he found out that his ex-wife is a billionaire heiress and she is pregnant with twins, he went crazy!

I'm hospitalized after a car accident that nearly costs me my leg. Meanwhile, my fiancé is too busy in the room next door taking care of his first love. She's only faking a sprained ankle. From that same room, I hear Johan Rivera's mocking voice. "Raelyn? She's just a pawn the old man picked for a political marriage. She's not even good enough to be your stand-in." In that moment, something in me finally breaks. I watch the news coverage of a rising business star who's surrounded by reporters and flashing cameras. He's also my childhood friend who has pursued me for ten years. I calmly send him a message. "Christian, does your offer for a contract marriage still stand?"

I was reborn. Right back to the day I adopted Peter. The wind cut sharp, baby cries slicing through the cold. That's when it hit me—this was the day Stuart Pete, my oh-so-loving husband, dumped his illegitimate child right in my path after work. He knew me too well. The second I picked the kid up, he'd spin it into an adoption, making the boy ours. Last time, I fell for it. This time? I walked away without a second thought. Later, I heard the kid got pneumonia from being left out in the freezing cold—fever so bad, it wrecked him for life. I laughed until my stomach hurt. What I didn't see coming? Peter was reborn too—about to experience the life he was meant to have.

Jezzebelle D’aramitz was born half human half vampire, her father was a High Council Member to the King. Her life, one big mess up. With vampires always telling her she would never go far and always constantly being picked on with her half human side she never thought she had a chance at love. King Zephyr is 1000 years old, never wanted love or a family. He has ruled his Citadel with an iron fist refusing to let others get close. Until a certain child with the ability to defy all rules caught his attention. But a betrayal cost Jezzebelle exile into the human world, can the two survive until the truth is out or will both of them suffer in the darkness away from the love that made them strong.

As I took my newborn daughter from the nurse, I heard the voice of the baby in the next bed echoing in my head. “Don’t take her, Mommy. I’m your real baby!” The doctor and nurses did not seem to hear a thing. I thought I was hallucinating due to my fatigue, so I continued nursing my baby girl. “How dare you cry, you burdensome wretch? I’ll pinch you if you keep crying!” The baby’s grandmother picked him up and walked outside, but the voice came again, crying, “The mean old lady is taking me away. Mommy, look over here quickly! Look at the birthmark on my left ear!” I froze. My first child, who had died in an accident, had a birthmark on his left ear.

“You have a wife?” I exclaimed, throwing the newly ironed suit at him. He picked it up, scowling at me for wrinkling his clothing “You met Christine?” I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, shocked by his nonchalance. “We made love!” “We fucked, Abigail, and that has nothing to do with Christine. She’s my wife and you’re just a body for my pleasure. Now, if you’d get out of my office.” When Abigail Hayes starts working at a new office, she is instantly attracted to her boss. Fortunately for her, her boss is just as attracted to her. One thing leads to another and they have sex, only for her to find out the next morning that he is married. Will she continue this forbidden relationship? Will she agree to be his mistress?

When my grandpa fell gravely ill and needed treatment abroad, the elders in the family decided to choose a junior to accompany him. They picked my cousin, but my mom tearfully pleaded with me to take her place. "You're a doctor. Caring for your grandfather is second nature to you. Bianca is an orphan, frail and delicate. She can't handle such a grueling task." To save her distress, I agreed to go in Bianca Pittman's stead, embarking on a five-year stay abroad. When my grandpa finally recovered, I boarded a flight home, eager to reunite with my family. But as I landed, a post on my mother's social media froze me in my tracks. [My daughter is getting married! Thank you all for your blessings!] But I was her only daughter. I couldn't help but wonder who she was referring to.

“Are you married?” I bit my tongue at the question that I have been dreading since I saw him in the boardroom. “Answer me!” His angry yell startled me. I couldn’t fault him for being mad. How do I begin to explain it? If I tell him the truth, we will lose the deal and if I continue with the lies, he will see me as a cheating woman. Either way, I am going to lose so I picked the better choice for me and for my company. “Yes, I am married.” ***** For Maeve Fitzgerald her night with Alessandro Marchesi was pure passion and the best night of her life that can only be one night. For Alessandro, it was so much more. Maeve was sure they will never cross paths again but fate has a different plan and it’s about to change her life forever.

Everyone thinks Jimmy Hudson, my college roommate, is the typical brutally honest and socially clueless guy who just has zero filter sometimes. A friend and I meet up to go boxing and practice our hooks, but he calls it a hookup when texting the group chat about it. He even nonchalantly says he won't be deleting his message. When I meet my boxing buddy, he says I'm meeting my hookup buddy. He even has the nerve to say, "It's just a joke. Don't be overly sensitive and read so much into it." Thanks to a few more of his dirty tricks, my reputation is ruined, and the entire class ostracizes me. But Jimmy doesn't stop there. He slips sleeping pills into my drink, which leads me to miss an exam. Later, he claims it was just a careless mistake and blames it on his scatterbrained tendencies. Eventually, he dumps crushed cherry pits into my water bottle, which ends up poisoning me to death. This all happened because our campus belle, whom he has a crush on, helped me with my luggage on our first day on campus. All of a sudden, my eyes open again. I've returned to the first day of my freshman year at college. This time, I'm going to let Jimmy get a taste of what it's like to have his life ruined with a helping of some social cluelessness of my own.

“I hate you!” I picked up the flower vase from the center table, and lifted my hand to throw it at him. But before I could do so, the man from behind gripped my hand, and collected it from me. “Are you going to sign the divorce papers?” he brought out a gun, and cocked it. “Or would you rather lose your life?” ****************** Sometimes, saying 'I do' could be the beginning of true marital bliss. And other times? It could be the beginning of endless suffering and torture. Abby had only ever wanted a man for herself, and when Claude showed up, he was everything she could ask for, and even more. But sometimes, even criminals wear innocent faces. What happens when Abby learns that the man whom she loved was responsible for the explosion that claimed the lives of her parents and best friend?