Christmas Halo

A small-town mayor. A stranger with a sketchy past.Two weeks before Christmas, Katie is kicked out of her apartment. Again. Rather than wander the streets and continue to work for a dirty cop, she escapes, determined to disappear for good. Until her car breaks down in a small New Mexican town, and everything is threatened when she falls for the charming mayor.Sam Freedman is the first bachelor mayor of Amor. After convincing the locals that having a mayor without family responsibilities means he can dedicate all of his time to the community, they watch his every move. Then Katie Andersen shows up. Against Sam’s better judgement, he hires her to replace his former event coordinator. Now he can barely think straight, let alone run a town. In the midst of half-truths and outright lies, Katie and Sam desperately search for the place where honesty and trust lead to love. But they have to find it before the past catches up with them.

Bruce Styles has a thriving career as a field agent in the FBI, a list of women at his beck and call, and great family and friends. His life is perfect until he sets his sights on Margo St. John. After Bruce had ghosted Margo's best friend and stiffed her with an exuberate dinner bill last year, she wanted nothing to do with the playboy. Thinking that if she gives him what he wants he would go away, Margo agrees to go out on a date with him. After dinner – and a one night stand, Margo resumes her life. However, Bruce has other ideas. Margo has a strange effect on him and he can't let it – or her go. When she disappears after Christmas Day, Bruce exploits every resource to locate her. What he finds is more than he bargained for.

Ashley Simpson was supposed to be married to her father's choice — George Chulley, the son of the Oil Magnate on Christmas Eve but fate had different plans. On the night of their engagement party, a day before their wedding, Ashley is told to meet her soon-to-be husband, George Chulley in his hotel room to show her loyalty. Before she goes over, she gets drunk. Her drunken state leads her to enter the wrong room. The room of Alex Wayne — The Billionaire owner of Wayne's enterprise. She and the billionaire have a rendezvous. In the course of their sex, Virgin Ashley falls in love, but she is not the only one. When she wakes up, he is no longer there. Ashley is from the drug dealers world while Alex is from the corporate world. Alex and Ashley's rendezvous takes them on a path of sizzling love and adventure. In the end, would their love be worlds apart?

Dad was poor and couldn't afford the kind of lifestyle mum wanted, we had leaking roofs and broken furnitures. Mum got worse when she met her former high school friend who got married to the CEO of a popular company in the city. Few weeks later my mum started keeping late nights, dad would ask why and she would yell at him. How can I forget that beautiful Christmas eve? it was supposed to be a beautiful dinner in our small living room when mum ruined it by announcing that she was getting a divorce. After mum left, dad became a drunk and never looked at my face, he said it reminded him of mum. My mother destroyed our family, my childhood and the little happiness I had as a child, She had another daughter for the billionaire she left dad for and forgot I exist, I became even more heartbroken, after dad died of cancer, I wanted revenge! My name is Sophia Barlowe and this is my story…

I’d been dead a month before my family even noticed. It wasn’t concern that brought them to that realization. It was my silence after the so-called “dinner” with Adam Rossi, the infamous mafia boss. My father scoffed like always,“She probably shacked up with that bastard. Too busy spreading her legs to pick up the damn phone.” My sister texted me a photo of them smiling under the Christmas tree, ornaments twinkling like nothing was wrong. Bitch, she wrote. You better talk Mr. Rossi into working with Dad, or you might as well be dead already. And my mother—once the softer one—was now colder than the frost on their windows. “I told you, we should’ve sent Gia to charm Mr. Rossi. Serena always screws things up.” They didn’t think I would die. Not until they found my body—broken, rotten, and forgotten—in Adam Rossi’s basement.

During Christmas dinner, my mother-in-law hinted for the umpteenth time that she wanted a grandchild. However, my husband, Zachary Cole, who had insisted on staying child-free in the past decade, only smiled and filled her plate. After dinner, he slipped onto the balcony. "There, there. Daddy will come see you on New Year's Day," he whispered. I stood in the corner of the living room with a glass of water in my hand, feeling cold as the words sank in. I stepped forward and forced a playful tone. "I just heard you say 'Daddy.' Got a secret kid stashed somewhere?" He rubbed his nose, his voice stiff. "You must've misheard. That's… just a friend's kid." My heart sank. I'd been married to him for a decade, so I knew exactly what he looked like when he was lying.

My boyfriend, Miles, finally invited me to his family’s Christmas dinner. I passed out on the way there. Half-conscious, I heard him whisper, “Sorry, Eva. Those thugs said you’re just their boss’s type. Too pretty for your own good, babe. Blame that—not me.” “Don’t be scared. If you help me pay off the debt… maybe they’ll let me have you back. I’ll make it up to you. For the rest of your life, I swear.” He wheeled me through the back of a casino. My family’s casino. The boss he was selling me to… was my brother. Ever since our parents died in a crossfire, my brother had taken full responsibility for me. More than a brother, he’d become a father figure—a protector. My stupid boyfriend should be scared—he had no idea how fiercely my brother protected me, or how ruthless he could be to anyone who dared hurt me.

Bullied and humiliated by her first love, Isla was forced to leave school, she almost believed everything was going downward trajectory until she received one phone call that would change her life forever. Eight years later.. Isla's life is painted in gold and silver, she has transformed from a nobody to everyone's dream girl, the face of a billion dollar company and happily living with her life with all the love she needs but in her world, happiness was always cut short. "Isla Pereira?" The woman he shattered and haven't seen in eight years, now looking stunning and confident, cloaked in diamonds. "it's not longer Pereira, it's Khan" she smirks, flashing her sapphire halo diamond ring before his face. "You're married?" He looks disappointed. She smirks, "You rather I waited for you?" Damien Da Silva. He's not just back in the picture, he wants what he believes he had first and he's going to stop at nothing till she's back in his arms again. In a world built on power, scandals and polished lies, Isla vowed to protect her marriage at all costs… until she began to realize the man she thought healed her might have been her greatest deception. And the boy who once broke her? His love was never as simple as she believed. Caught between loyalty and longing, truth and betrayal, Isla must decide; Was her first love her ruin… or her only real escape?

My body sinks, water rushing through my nose and mouth like icy needles. I keep my eyes open, praying for a miracle. And then—he appears. A glowing form slicing through the water like lightning. His ginger hair floats around him, a halo of fire in the depths, dancing like the sea itself. He looks like an angel. My angel. My beautiful, guardian angel. --- Nineteen-year-old Marinette Karnowsky knows life as a bed of thorns and broken glass. Abandoned, abused, and barely surviving college on her own, she’s grown used to pain. But everything changes the day her long-lost stepsister returns—sweeping Marinette away to a strange, stunning house in a town that doesn’t exist on any map. A town where the supernatural breathes beneath every shadow. There, Marinette uncovers truths she never imagined. Her beloved sister is not entirely human—and the town, not entirely safe. As she tries to make sense of it all, Marinette meets her sister’s best friend: a golden-haired boy with a blazing smile and fire in his soul. The deeper she falls, the harder it becomes to ignore the pull between them—even if it risks everything, especially her sister’s heart. But their connection runs deeper than attraction. There’s a secret buried in the halls of her new college, one that ties Marinette, her sister, and her mysterious fire-haired prince in ways none of them fully understand. And as that secret begins to surface, so does a destiny Marinette never asked for… and may not survive.

During Black Friday, the intelligent system I develop helps the company run highly targeted ads and brings in 30 million dollars in revenue. But when I apply for the project bonus, the director rejects it. "The system is just an auxiliary tool. The performance belongs to the sales department." I hold back my frustration and pull up the system logs. "88% of the orders come from the system's targeted pushes. According to company policy, I should receive a 0.5% commission." The director glances at me, twirling his pen. "If the sales commission doesn't go to the sales department, should it go to you? And your lousy system exceeds the API limit and racks up extra fees. You still owe us a hundred thousand dollars. We'll deduct that from your salary." Three days before Christmas sales are set to begin, the system completely shuts down because of API restrictions. Late at night, the director calls me. I stare at my computer screen. "Since the system is just an auxiliary tool, why don't you start with manual targeting?"