Courting Stage

My parents have invited all of their relatives and friends to our villa for a nice gathering to celebrate their golden anniversary. Isabel Atkinson, my wife who works as a model, suddenly calls me on the phone and claims that she needs to attend an urgent meeting hosted by her client. Before it's my turn to give a speech on the stage, my assistant suddenly hands my phone over to me. "Mr. Marsh, you might want to take a look at this…" The screen shows a social media post made by Miles Horton, an intern designer at our company. "At this moment, she belongs to me and me only." In the photo, Isabel can be seen sitting in a dimly-lit room. A few plain-looking dishes decorate the table. Her hair is slightly messy, but she continues to smile at the elder next to her. A cold, mocking smile appears on my face. It turns out that her so-called emergency meeting is a family gathering with Miles. I leave a comment in the comments section. "The food looks pretty tasty. I'd like to visit you next time." Chaos erupts on the social media feed instantly. Isabel calls me immediately. "Why are you being such a phony? You'd better delete the comment right now!" I just chuckle coldly as I end the call. Then, I send her a copy of the divorce papers I've drafted. Since Miles' matters are clearly more important to her, then she can forget about coming home forever.

In my previous life, I shoved the police chief’s daughter out of the way with everything I had. A truck ran over me instead, crushing both my legs. The police department awarded me a medal and I became a hero praised by the entire city. However, when she woke up, she pointed at me and told her father that I tried to kill her. My parents slapped me on the spot. “Why would you try to hurt her?!” My younger brother stood behind them and said quietly, “Henry… I saw you that day. You really did push her…” The driver who hit us claimed I had instructed him to run her down and said I was trying to stage an accident to murder her. I was sentenced to fifteen years. The day I entered prison, I was in a wheelchair. My mother held my brother’s hand and glanced back at me. Her eyes were filled with disgust. “How did we raise a monster like you?” In prison, a gang leader arranged by the police chief gouged out my eyes and slashed the tendons in my hands. I died consumed by hatred. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at that same intersection. A large truck was barreling straight toward the police chief’s daughter. I slowly took a step back. This time, I was not going to save anyone.

Many times I have seen people struggling to talk with strangers or in public places. This was due to anxiety and nervousness that happens unintentionally in our body. We can’t control them but have to overcome them. I came across the word “Glossophobia” in 2014 when I was working on how to overcome stage fears. I have seen my friends and myself struggling to talk with strangers or to speak in public. There are cases where I have acted speechless. This is where the idea arrived and I have created a character “Abhirath Srivastav” who cannot talk with strangers or in public places due to a phobia called “Glossophobia”. The Character Abirath Srivastav does not represent any real life personality, it is solely of my imagination. The story “ The only hope” is a love story set in the style of 1994. The story is about an orphan boy who suffers from glossophobia; he can't talk to strangers or in public places. He finds it hard to stay in an orphanage and escapes to find a better place in his life. He meets a Christian girl in an unknown village and becomes her best friend. He speaks to her, but not to any other villagers. Things are not, however, what was expected. Half of the villagers migrate to another place for work, and they take the boy with them. The boy has to leave his favourite place and his only best friend. After 12 years, however, he meets her and here how the story takes its turn.

During the looming war between two enemy countries: Estria and Westaria, the latter sends its covert agents to infiltrate the enemy country and stop the approaching war. As every unmarried men and women in Estria gets interrogated by the Espionage Eradication Agency under the suspicion of being a Westarian spy, Zeke Devereaux is forced into marriage by his father within less than a month. He successfully finds a bride using his wealth but their relationship starts on a rough road. The moment he saw her, he felt a deep yearning to make her his. As for Asteria, everything was just a means of escape and hideout for her as she continue to stage her missions while being tied to him by marriage. She took advantage of his obssesion towards her to continue staying by his side and being obscured from the Estarian government's sight. In the course of their married life, will he successfully capture her without getting captivated himself? Will his obsession with her eventually turn into love? Will he be able to love her truly? Will she honor his feelings towards her and reciprocate them? Or will she find this another chance to infiltrate deep into his family business and eventually into her country's enemy? Was marrying her even the right choice? Yearning, obssesion, love, duty, political struggle, guns, war, amidst all of these, will they find the right path into opening the doors of their hearts into the unknown.

Two weeks before our wedding, Jonah Alston suddenly wants to postpone it. He says, "Sasha says she's having her first exhibition on that day. She'll be alone during the opening, and I'm worried she'll get stage fright. I have to help her. We're just going through the motions with the wedding, anyway. What does it matter whether it's a day earlier or later?" This isn't his first time postponing our wedding for Sasha Lester's sake, though. The first time he did it was because he claimed she missed having homecooked food after undergoing surgery. He'd flown abroad to care for her for two months. The second time was because he said she wanted to head into the mountains to get inspired. He'd gone with her out of concern for her safety. Now, this is the third time. I hang up and look at Austin Everett, my childhood sweetheart. He sits across from me, looking leisurely as he taps his emerald-embedded walking cane on the marble floor. I ask, "Do you need a wife?" On my wedding day, Sasha holds up her glass and waits for Jonah to clink it with his. However, his eyes are red as he watches a livestream—it's the wedding of the scion of Everett Group, the country's largest property development company.

Ophelia Lane, an emerging singer/songwriter who recently relocated to Nashville to pursue her dreams, found herself ghost-singing for Camila to afford her mother's medical treatment. She endured bullying from Camila and others for her mother and willingly hid her own talent until she met Asher, the Ozarks quarterback. Asher encouraged her singing and Ophelia wondered if she’d found true support in the athlete everyone called playboy. At their next concert, Camila humiliated Ophelia once more in front of everyone, and even prompting extreme fans to publicly assault her. "Loser?" Ophelia wondered, who was the real loser here? "I hope you regret messing with me." Soon, she found herself on stage, exposing the falsehood of Camila, being signed by an agent, receiving flowers, applause, and fortune, and trampling on those who once bullied her. On top of all this, Asher wants to take her on a date! But will Ophelia be able to juggle handling her newfound success alongside trusting him? "I like you," Asher said. Ophelia begins to question if their worlds are too vastly different. Asher comes from a completely different background than her own and while their passion is exciting, is it enough? Can they make it through the pressures of fame, career, and jealous ex-girlfriends? The Pop Star and the Playboy Quarterback is created by Cate Mattison, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Elena Rossi’s life ended the day a plane went down in Milan. One phone call stole her parents, her inheritance, and the future they built for her. What remained was a paralyzed younger brother, mounting hospital bills, and relatives who promised protection but left her with nothing. Survival becomes her only dream. Pride becomes optional. And when desperation pushes her onto a stage behind a mask, she tells herself it’s temporary. Adrian Vale does not believe in love. As the billionaire CEO of a global fashion empire, he believes in control, strategy, and clean exits. But when his grandfather’s failing kidneys turn time into a countdown, Adrian is forced into a choice he never wanted — marry his manipulative ex or lose the only family he has left. So he makes a deal instead.A contract marriage with the last woman anyone would expect.Two years. No feelings. No intimacy. No strings attached. He is a man who no longer believes in love and she is a girl in desperate search for mean. What begins as an arrangement of convenience slowly becomes something far more dangerous. Between hospital corridors, shared grief, and sacrifices no one asked for, lines blur. And when their fake marriage is exposed to the world, pride tears them apart — leaving behind secrets that could bind them forever. Because some contracts expire,but love doesn’t follow terms. What happens when a deal meant to be temporary changes the course of your life? Can true love actually blossom from a contract marriage? Would their love story survive the test of pride?

Bought by the Bratva Boss Sofia Petrova has spent her life surviving in silence under the control of her abusive stepfather. But when his gambling debts spiral out of control, he makes a choice that destroys everything. He sells her. Dragged into a secret trafficking auction where powerful men bid on women like property, Sofia is forced onto a stage and stripped of every choice she has ever had. Just when the bidding spirals beyond control, one man ends it with a chilling offer. Ten million dollars. Alexei Volkov is a feared Bratva Pakhan, a man known for his cold control and ruthless power. He doesn’t buy Sofia for pleasure, he buys her for leverage. Her stepfather holds information about a murder tied to a dangerous network, and Sofia is the key to getting it. Taken to his penthouse, she is forced into a deal: pretend to be his wife and stay under his protection, or be thrown back into the world that already sold her once. But nothing about Alexei is simple. The closer Sofia gets to him, the more the lines blur between fear and something far more dangerous. What begins as a transaction slowly turns into obsession. And as secrets unravel, Sofia realizes the trafficking ring that sold her is tied to Alexei’s own world. Now she isn’t just leverage. She’s a target. And when enemies come for her, Sofia is forced to face a terrifying truth… The man who bought her might be the only one who can save her.

It was finally the day of the auction "And now we are presented with a human who looks a little unkempt right now, but with a little care from her owner would be as good as new" the hosts voice rang over the speakers in what seemed like a dungeon used for illegal gambling. But I couldn't look much, being locked in a basement for three months without any form of light coming in, and suddenly being on stage where all attention and the center light was on me was enough to just make me shut my eyes and wait for what was to come. "We'll start with $25,000" is that really my worth. Do I really amount to nothing, that I have to be sold at an auction. "$26,000" "$26,500" "$30,000" "$30,000, is there anyone who wants to bid higher? Going once, going twice... This went in for a few more minutes and I gave up hope. This was it, this is where my life journey ends. I will get sold here then if my buyer is an organ trafficker he would probably kill me and sell off my organs. "Five hundred million dollars" a deep manly voice grunted from the corner of the room "Wow that's a very high bid...I doubt if anyone is willing to go higher than that. Going once, going twice, sold. Congratulations Mr Jimmie Hendrix, you just won yourself a hot looking toy...everyone is left to wonder what you will be doing with her tonight." Jimmie who was sitting in a dark corner of the room gave a sinister smirk and uttered under his breath "Found you!!!"

"You won't regret,"she whispered.  I felt a hot sensation that I could not explain when she whispered in my ear. This woman was so seductive.  It all started in one night and one agreement.I found the woman who would be the answer to my problem but i never thought that she would be my biggest problem. "I trusted in your love,I trusted in your lies and that was the biggest mistake of my life." -VERONICA SMITH _________________ "Just because of one mistake I lost the only right thing I did in my life and that was you,Nica" -TYLER JACKSON The story begins after his father learned about his secret meeting with a woman who could give him a child,Tyler Jackson was forced to marry a prostitute named Veronica. As the only son of a Billionaire,Tyler Jackson only wants to inherit his father's company. Apart from the fact that he has contributed a lot to the company, he also does not want his opportunistic brother-in-law to take everything from him. One day, they found out that his father had stage 4 cancer.One thing would test him being a son and that was his father's request to give him a Grandchild. He will end up with a difficult decision and became so desperate to hired a prostitute,Veronica. They end up in an agreement that binds them together.But lies and truth will break them apart.How can they save their love that started with a lie after knowing the truth that changes their life? Will the truth make them suffer forever? How can they save their love when they thought it was gone?