Cuddle Drawings

My twin sister, Ruby Stone, and I split up after our parents' divorce. She stays with Mom, while I went with Dad. Since the divorce, he's sunk into a deep depression, gambling away every penny we have. We move into a dark, damp apartment, and life becomes an endless struggle. Every day, I go to school and quietly work a part-time job to keep us afloat. Then, out of nowhere, Ruby—whom I haven't heard from in forever—sends me a link to a live stream. "Check this out, Aria. There's a surprise waiting for you." I click it, and my jaw drops. I'm the one topping the trending live streams. The screen splits in two. On one side, I sit in my dingy apartment, hunched over homework under the dim light. On the other side, Mom and Dad cuddle with Ruby on the fancy couch of their sprawling villa. The comments came pouring in. "Let's see what happens when twins are raised on opposite sides of fortune all the way to 18." "Aria still doesn't know, right? Her parents never divorced. They're loaded and perfectly happy. Ruby's life has been like a dream too." "Poor Aria. She's always starving and never has anything decent to wear. Isn't that basically abuse?" "She's the more sensible one, so her parents decided to raise her poorly."

Ariana Cooper stood by Caleb Miller through his rise to success, enduring every hardship life could throw at them. With the wedding just around the corner, she was on the verge of becoming his wife—only to be discarded once she'd outlived her usefulness. To make matters worse, Caleb even handed over the wedding funds as "compensation" to his long-lost first love, who returned with a son in tow. Watching the picture-perfect family of three bask in their happiness, Ariana made a clean break. She returned to her wealthy roots and got engaged to the heir of a trillion-dollar empire in Horghen City. Then the story flips. Ariana reemerges on the global stage as a top-tier designer, dazzling at the world's most prestigious fashion shows—now with a trillion-dollar tycoon husband by her side, the envy of all. Caleb was convinced Ariana—an orphan, hopelessly devoted—was only throwing a tantrum and would come crawling back in time. But as days turned into months, he began to lose it. … Ethan Skye was infamous in elite circles for his icy detachment, a man rumored to harbor a secret love he could never reveal. Ariana understood the rules and never pushed her luck, falling seamlessly into their role as a flawless, if hollow, society couple. One lazy afternoon, Ariana found a sketchbook tucked away in Ethan's private study. She flipped it open—and her breath caught. Page after page was filled with drawings of her. Holding it up, she went to reason with him. "Ethan, and you call this 'not close'?" He bent down, effortlessly scooped her up, and carried her toward the bedroom. "It's not too late to get close now."

Maturity Warning ⚠️ This story is a dark romance intended for mature audiences (18+). It contains explicit sexual content, predatory behavior, power imbalances, blackmail and taboo themes. Reader discretion is advised. **He's my Professor. He's my Step father. And he's the only man who devours me at night.** I am a science student who failed every course and was hated by his professor. But on one faithful morning my mum announced a heartbreaking information. She was going to marry the professor I lusted over. The one man I had imagined one day he would pin me down to his bed. Mr Chadwick is cold, brilliant, and sexy. He hated me for being dull and feminine but behind those eyes filled with fury, his darkest desires loomed around me. In public, Mr Chadwick is the perfect academic and the perfect step father. But behind closed doors of the study, he is a predator who had discovered my darkest secrets: a sketchbook filled with obsessive drawings of him. Now, the lessons have changed. Chadwick doesn't want me to study books; he wants me to study him. It was supposed to be a punishment. He curses me on the outside but claims me like a hungry lion every night. Under my mum's roof. It was supposed to break my spirit. But he found out, he lusted over the very thing he hated.