Circumcision Flower Cut

Shantala Vien Arceo’s mundane life turned upside-down after she replaced her sister in marrying Estermouth City’s infamous mafia leader, Hyperion. She knew him by name and how merciless he was, however, she still agreed with the marriage for the sake of her sister and despite knowing too well that she would likely face death when Hyperion finds out that she was fooling him. Aside from hiding her identity from her dangerous husband, she must also find ways to fully cut ties with the man from her haunting past who wanted her back. Whether she lives or not after all these life-threatening encounters, Shantala would surely go through another hell just to survive.

At the age when I should have been attending university, I was framed by my biological parents and sent to prison. My sister had been cruelly killed by her kidnappers when she tried to save me, and they blamed me for her death. On the day of my release, I was kidnapped and had one of my ears cut off. When I found the opportunity, I immediately called my father, asking him to save me. Instead, he snapped, saying, “You’re no longer my son! Don’t contact me!” I was then burned alive. After I died, my sister returned. However, when my parents found out that the charred corpse was mine, the family crumbled.

- Oh yes ... there ... again ... stronger! Saccaded groans resounded through the walls, sneaking like a poison to the ears of Élodie. His breath was cut. Her heart tightened in his chest. No ... not that ... His trembling fingers gently pushed the door ajar in the guest room. And what she saw cut her legs. His fiancé, Victor, naked, in sweat, tackled Isabelle's offered body against the mattress, her hips hammering her basin with frightening brutality. -Damn, you are so good ... he growled, grabbing his sister's hair. Élodie gave her mouth a hand to stifle a cry. His big sister. His landmark. Her lifelong ally. And there, before her eyes, she stole the man she loved to him.

She was supposed to be collateral. Anastasia Volkov, daughter of a bankrupt oligarch, is handed to the city’s most feared pakhan to settle a debt she never agreed to pay. Nikolai Morozov does not take prisoners; he takes everything. One look at the trembling girl in his private box at the opera, and he decides her fear tastes like sin. But Anastasia is not the fragile offering she appears. Beneath silk and submission burns a woman who learns to weaponize desire, who carves her name into his skin with the same blade he presses to her throat. In a world of blood oaths and midnight executions, love is the deadliest betrayal. When the past comes to collect its dues, Anastasia must choose: kneel forever… or cut the king down and wear his crown.

On my 18th birthday, my stepmother, Sheila Coleman, teams up with her secret lover, William Lynch, to kill me in cold blood. After that, she carves my femur into a bone sculpture and presents it to my dad as a gift. Dad loves the sculpture to no end. Thanks to Sheila slandering me in the past, he doesn't give a damn about me at all, even after finding out that I've gone missing. In fact, he even declares that he wants to cut off all ties with me. "Don't bring that brat up in front of me from now on! I hope that she dies out there!" But when he finds out that I'm really dead, he goes crazy from remorse.

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.

They came to celebrate love, but leave with blood on their hands. Brielle Champagne has it all: beauty, brains, and the perfect fiancé. Or so it seems. Behind the sparkling estate gates, her engagement party is nothing more than a high-society stage for lies, betrayal, and blackmail. Her sister, Draya, is back in town with secrets sharp enough to cut through the family’s carefully crafted image. Her best friend, Monty, is a temptation she can’t quite outrun. And her fiancé, Kannon Maxwell, is hiding the kind of truth that could shatter them both; a truth her powerful father is using to control everyone in the room. By the end of the weekend, hidden affairs will be exposed, old flames will reignite, and one devastating revelation might rip the Champagne family apart for good. Money can buy silence and the perfect party, but it can’t buy forgiveness.

I had fallen in love with my father’s friend—the man I was supposed to call “uncle,” Kael Viremont. For a while, I thought he loved me too. We even had this silly little promise—that if I turned twenty-seven and still want to be with him, then we could be together, publicly. Five days before my twenty-seventh birthday, I overheard him saying he’d never liked me. That he was going to marry his childhood sweetheart. And as if that wasn’t cruel enough, he was planning to use the wedding to cut me off for good. So I did the one thing I should’ve done a long time ago—accepted that he and I would never belong to the same world… and disappeared from his life for good.

My fiancee fell in love with a broke student she's been sponsoring. She insists on breaking off our engagement no matter what. She turns a deaf ear to all the advice friends and family give her. My father gets so worked up that his blood pressure skyrockets. Meanwhile, my mother comes close to fainting and almost ends up in the hospital. My family becomes a laughingstock among the elite overnight. But no one realizes that we're already discussing countermeasures. My mother pulls out her phone. "Why don't we set you up with the most beautiful woman in Seabrook?" My father says coldly, "End the partnership. Cut off the one-billion-dollar support fees to her family." My lips curl into a smile. "Mind if I handle both myself?"

My husband, Lawrence Schwartz, and I were both liars. He lied to me, saying he would forget his first love, yet his phone is filled with photos of her. I lied to him, saying I would never leave, while secretly planning a future without him. A month ago, I tricked Lawrence into signing the divorce papers. Today was the final day to complete the entire divorce process.. Three hours left. I packed all my luggage and bought a plane ticket for the next day. Two hours left. I cut up every photo of us together, leaving only myself in the album. Last hour. I thought about leaving a message, then decided against it. Today marked the tenth year I had loved him and the first day I left him.