Cherry Valance Drawing

" I can be your angel saving you from nightmares and I can also be the monster under your bed, clawing at you when you sleep", Leo whispered drawing her closer to him. " I am ruthless, don't try to change me", he smiled gripping her neck. "You are a monster", Elizabeth spat to which he laughed. Elizabeth, a nineteen years old orphan found herself in the street of America after escaping from the orphanage. Stealing and pickpocketing has been her means of survival. She found herself in the most dangerous situation when she stole an important item from the most powerful American mobster. Will he take interest in her or will she become one of his pawns?

Victor murmured 'Happy Birthday Misha' as he fed me a small piece of cake. Wait! Why was he sounding so husky all of a sudden? Stop it! As usual, I was imagining things. I shook my head as I sliced a piece of cake with cherry and tried to feed him. But the icing was soft, and the cake began to slip away from my fingers. Victor grabbed my hand...(Oh my! I will remember this day forever!)... Closed his mouth around the cake and my fingers! And a hot rush which started somewhere in my core began to spread inside with lightning speed and I felt my cheeks burn. His mouth was so warm and his lips, they were everything I imagined them to be, and more. My lips parted as I watched him close his eyes and lick my fingers. There was something so sensual and possessive about it that I began to wonder the same thing all over again. Does Mr Popular and youngest pilot from his academy, Victor Matthews finally got a clue that I have been secretly in love with him all these years?

"Go to bed with me and I will make you rich beyond your imaginations" His voice was calm but had a lot of hidden intentions. Badmus, the ruthless multi-billionaire who was used to getting just anything he wants including women, finds himself in a battle to devour the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, just like the other women he slept with. Cherry might be poor, but she had what other women he'd met were lacking and he was determined to find out what it was. She wouldn't surrender to his advances, neither will she pay him any attention. She was bent on letting him know that money cannot take every woman he desired to his bed, no matter the amount, because some women don't care about money but what is inside his heart. But what happens when after risking his life for her, she starts to genuinely fall for him? And oh, what if there's a competitor for him as well, is she ready to be involved in a dirty fight for a man she never really cared about?

I pleaded with my husband Cedric Fleetham over and over, and finally, he agreed to take our daughter camping in the mountains for her birthday. When I found her late the next night, she was already gone. She lay at the foot of the mountain, her tiny hand still clutching a drawing of our family. As I knelt beside her, my heart shattered. Meanwhile, Cedric was busy updating his social media. His post read, [You and our daughter are my treasures,] and it was accompanied by a photo, where he stood beside his childhood sweetheart and held hands with another little girl, watching the sunset. And there, in the corner of the picture, was a tiny hand—my daughter’s hand. The cruelest truth of all was that my daughter took that photo.

After my death, I found myself inside a romance strategy game, where the system assigned me three male leads. If I followed its instructions and successfully captured the heart of any one of them, I would return alive and well in the real world. Drawing on my experience, I crafted careful scripts to win their affection. Yet, every attempt ended in failure. The reason was simple: each of them had already fallen for the dazzling heroine of their world. They hurled cruel words at me, as if wishing I would just drop dead. In the end, I fulfilled their desire—when my strategies failed, the system erased me. But the moment I died, they all regretted it. One by one, they begged the heavens to return me to them.

I am a postgraduate archaeology student whose fieldwork combines GIS technology with excavation, and during one project I become entangled in a concealed emotional relationship with two lecturers. Linus is restrained, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally distant, offering a sense of order and safety rooted in academic discipline, while Theo is charismatic, passionate, and ethically unstable, drawing me into intensity and risk. What begins as professional admiration develops into intimacy shaped by secrecy, hierarchy, and blurred boundaries. As the excavation exposes layered traces of past lives, I am forced to confront my own desire, ambition, and guilt, and the story ultimately centres not on choosing between two men, but on learning how to live with complexity and accept the consequences of crossing lines.

Ever since my mom gave birth to her second child, everything in the household is tied to drawing lots. Everyone has to draw lots in order to decide whose favorite food will be served for each meal. We have to draw lots to see who among us gets a hug from our parents. Every time, I end up drawing the short end of the stick, so everyone automatically assumes that my younger sister, Anabelle Madden, gets the better lot. She easily reaps my parents' love without having to do anything at all. Whenever I feel like crying because of the injustice, Mom will scold me instantly. "I bought the lottery box because I was worried that you might feel upset about this. I'm doing this just to be fair to both of you. "If you want something, you have to be the one deciding who gets what. Your father and I won't interfere with your decision at all. Since you can't draw the better lot, that just means you have bad luck." Hence, I keep practicing my lot-drawing skills every day, hoping that I can eventually draw the better lot in order to obtain my parents' love. But for ten years, I never get to draw the better lot. Not even once. On my birthday, Anabelle wants to go to the amusement park, so Mom tells us to draw lots once again. I secretly glue two short lots together before giving it to Mom in an attempt to get her to stay with me. Instead, she slaps me and berates me for being a disobedient child who cheats in lot-drawing. Then, she leaves the house with Anabelle. When I fall to the floor, I feel the short sticks piercing through my neck.

My sister, Cherry Nicholson, called me nine times before she jumped into the sea. But I didn't pick up once. Now everyone says it's my fault she's gone—even my fiance, my Alpha mate—Samuel Carver. He used to stay by my side through every painful treatment for my wolfsbane fever. Now, he shoves me to the ground like I'm nothing. His once gentle face is now twisted with contempt as he looks down on me and warns, "You don't deserve to be happy!" And truth be told, it isn't just them who believe that. Even I do. Since then, I've stopped going out, stopped dressing up, and stopped meeting anyone's eyes. Even when I run into Samuel holding hands with another she-wolf, I lower my head and walk past silently. But when the wolfsbane fever comes back, I drown in agony and despair. I decide to give my life to atone for what happened to Cherry. That's when they all start to regret it.

On our first wedding anniversary, my husband came home with a woman who was six months pregnant. He introduced her as his cousin, someone who had fallen on hard times, and asked me to take care of her. I was just about to agree when fragments of imaginary commentary floated through my mind: [She's just my 'cousin'. Uh-uh, that's a cliche.] [Poor supporting female character! A maid by day, the husband's bedwarmer by night.] [But she totally deserved it! If she hadn't broken up the main couple, they'd have a whole soccer team of kids by now!] Wait—what? Supporting female character? Me? And what's this about breaking them up? So now these two get to cheat under my roof, and somehow I'm the villain? Before I could process it all, my husband was already dragging her luggage inside. "Alice doesn't like fried food," he said matter-of-factly. "And nothing too salty or spicy. Make sure you keep that in mind when you're cooking. "Oh, and pregnant women love sweets. Go out now and buy a cherry cake. The one from that bakery in the suburbs."

I leave my boyfriend without a word when he's at his lowest. He later makes a name for himself and forces me to marry him. Our relationship goes viral online and becomes the subject of everyone's envy. They all say he's desperately in love with me, but he later sleeps with other women in our bed. I fall from grace and become the city's biggest laughingstock. I don't cause a scene. Instead, I move into the guest bedroom and leave the master bedroom for them. He's furious as he grips my neck roughly. He bites my lips, drawing blood. "Why aren't you mad?" Because I'm sick. I don't have the time to wait for him to see the error of his ways anymore.