Designing Your Life

Anna is a pretty girl with dreams as wild as fire and eyes that can pierce into the soul of the most rigid person. She comes into The Archer Group as an intern interested in Investment Analysis, but is forced to be in the taxation department. She knows nothing about herself, as all her life has been spent trying to get to work in the greatest Venture Capitalist Company in New York. But the CEO of the Archer Group dies and hands the company over to his son, who is the last person who can make a company work. An artist with a specific sexual preference, private, reluctant, borderline rude, too brilliant for his own good, Carson Archer never plays by the rules. Anna only wants a chance to prove that she is better than writing reports. But Investment Analysis might just be the last thing on her mind when his gaze lands on her. At the Archer Group, falling for the boss isn't just career suicide. It’s heartbreak too. Because Carson Archer doesn’t do love.

I've been married to Sylvia Fuller, a mafia donna, for ten years. I'm there with her in every life-and-death situation. My hands, which are meant for playing the piano, have developed calluses from using guns. They are also stained with blood from the enemies. But when Sylvia turns 28, she falls head over heels in love with Wilson Hink, the young man she's brought back from the slums. Sylvia has hidden him very well… right until the moment I bump into him accompanying her to a prenatal check-up. Mad with jealousy, I demand Sylvia for answers, but she just passes me a divorce agreement in a lackadaisical manner. "Wilson is a man of religion. He can't sire a child without getting married, so I have to give him a legitimate status. Sign this agreement, and I'll give you 40% of my shares." I refuse to give my position away, so Sylvia keeps forcing my hand. In the end, she even kidnaps my younger brother, who's paralyzed from waist down, and drags him to the spot beneath a hydraulic press. "Sebastian Chance, either you sign the agreement, or watch him get crushed. Your choice." I kneel on the ground and beg Sylvia to stop. But soon, I hear the hydraulic press being activated. It doesn't take long before I'm completely covered in my brother's flesh and blood. I end up collapsing onto the gore-splattered ground. When I open my eyes again, I realize I've gone back in time—back to the time when Wilson has accompanied Sylvia to the prenatal check-up. This time, I don't say anything. Instead, I contact a rehabilitation center located overseas before filing for a divorce and leaving Sylvia behind. But once I'm gone for real, Sylvia actually goes crazy.

I thought mates were meant to love you. I thought they were meant to cherish you, so why was mine so different? Why was he such a coward that he rejected me without a beat when his father asked him to? What of the night we had spent? My life had always been trash, so when I was banished, it was no surprise no one spoke for me, but what they didn't know was I would be back five years later with a prophecy to tell, and my baby alpha, to claim his rightful position as heir. But what happens when things doesn't go as planned, and the prophecy itself was the one she was going to hate?

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."

My wife, Celina Buckley, is a violinist. I've wooed her for five years before she finally agrees to date me. After our marriage, Celina insists on staying child-free for the sake of her career. Left without a choice, I can only poke a few holes in the condoms. Finally, Celina gets pregnant, and with twins, too! Delighted, I make all preparations to welcome the new members of my family into my life. But I accidentally stumble across a photo of a pregnancy report posted on the social media feed belonging to Leo Kolcheck, Celina's senior at work. "Thank you for fulfilling my wish to become a father, Celina. I can't wait to meet my twins!" I feel as though I got struck by lightning. At that moment, I feel like a complete joke. While Celina is at Leo's birthday party, I begin packing up. I make sure that I've taken all of my belongings with me. All that's left is the divorce agreement on the table.

In the middle of a lively night, can you guess what's about to come? In the middle of the busy street, do you realize there is something in the dump? Shane Hoseinzade was peacefully sleeping on the floor when three conservative, loud knocks echoed inside. Would he open the door? On the other side, someone wearing a black cloak and holding a giant scythe is standing on the doorstep. With head bowed down, a pair of mismatched eyes glowed while staring at the door. Patiently waiting for the target to open the door. If you hear three violent knocks on your door at exactly midnight, would you dare to open the door? But what if those violent knocks are the knocks of the person you promised to marry in the future? Death? A grim reaper? A demon? Whoever it is, are you ready to face your fears?

"I, Scarlett Monica Hathaway, promise to be nothing but everything to you, and if it is a loving wife you ask for, then a loving wife, I shall be..." Scarlett's life felt like a dream on a random frigid Friday night. It was intended to be a night she spent under her covers, in her warm bed, after getting ditched by her friends at a club she had utterly invited them to. But one minute Scarlett is fleeing a pervert at the clubhouse, and the next minute she's learning about a confusingly cryptic secret, and the next minute she's making a promise that was being dangerously sealed.

Before being sold to a 60-year-old man by her parents, Rosalynn Carter quickly made a daring move – selling her virginity to a handsome man to save herself. However, she never expected that the one-night stand would be an ironic twist of fate, dragging her from one hell to another! "I will never love you!" Rosalynn cried, repeatedly punching the chest of the man who held her tightly. The bottom of her eyes were filled with helplessness and fatigue, but he was always the one who could easily bury her in the depths of despair. He traced his lips gently along her delicate face, whispering into her ear with a voice reminiscent of a demon's. "Not loving will turn into love! You have no other choice because your body, your heart, and even your soul—all were bought by me!" He always emphasized that love couldn't exist in their relationship, why was he now forcing her to love him? Was winning the heart of a demon her misfortune or her sin?

A week before summer break, my boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart threw a fit, insisting on going to Tanond to watch a strip show. She even convinced our entire class to go with them. I kept warning them that it was not safe, that it could be some kind of new scam, and begged them not to go. When they refused to listen, I secretly reported it to the police. On the day of their departure, the police stopped them right at customs. A few days later, a male stripper suddenly went viral overnight. When she found out about it, she got so furious her eyes turned red. “It’s all Zoey’s fault! If it weren’t for her, we could’ve seen an international superstar's strip show!” On the first day we went back to school, they drugged me and made ten men teach me how to dance. “Didn’t you stop us from watching a strip show? Then you can perform one for us yourself.” The next day, my photos of strip show were all over social media. After that, I jumped off a building out of despair. When I opened my eyes again, it was once again the day his little sweetheart demanded that trip to Tanond.

There's a month to Angela Thompson's wedding, but she's no longer sure whether to proceed with it. The reason for her doubts? Her fiancé, Carl Swain, wants to have a child with his good friend's widow, Lucy Hogg. Carl says, "Keith was my best friend. He died so suddenly, leaving Lucy alone in this world. She tried to take her life a few times, you know. Maybe having a child will help her get past this." Angela can't understand it. She says, "Lucy can adopt or marry someone else if she wants a child. She can even go to a sperm bank abroad if she wants! Why do you have to be the one to have the child with her?"