Direct Message

An underwater volcano has been detected showing unusual activity, with the potential to erupt at any moment. Evacuations in the surrounding sea area have already begun. My husband, Ethan Gibson, boarded a lifeboat with his true love, Aria York, leaving me—his pregnant wife—behind. Not only that, he scolded me for being jealous at the worst possible time. "Aria can't swim. I have to take her first. What more do you want? I left the life jacket for you—isn't that enough?" "I'm pregnant… I'm scared…" I tried to plead. "Enough! Wendy, what's wrong with you? Why do you always have to be so dramatic?" That night, I was still nowhere to be found. Furious, he sent me a message: [Wendy! Where the hell are you? Do you have to take things this far?] [I'm telling you; I'm not coming to look for you. If you come back now, I'll act like this never happened. But if you don't, then don't bother coming back—ever!] However, Ethan… I couldn't come back anymore.

My husband, Alex Walter, was the head of the Bodyguard Association. When I was about to be killed by the kidnappers, he was comforting his childhood crush, Susan Miller, who was sobbing in his arms. While the kidnappers stopped for a meal, I called Alex five times calmly. He was angry when he finally answered. "Susan was just rescued from the kidnappers, and she needs me. If you want me to come home, stop using your own kidnapping as some excuse to compete for attention. It is pathetic!" Hearing Susan's sweet and delicate voice in the background, I had no time to argue with him. Instead, I called the Bodyguard Association. The operator informed me that Alex had pulled all the city's bodyguards away thirty minutes earlier to rescue Susan. When the kidnappers returned, they mocked Alex's heroic efforts to save Susan, mobilizing the entire force for her. If I remember correctly, this was Susan's twenty-eighth kidnapping this month. As the kidnappers approached me with guns and tasers, I closed my eyes in despair. Before I died, I used all my strength to send Alex one last text message, [No matter what, I loved you. Move on from me.]

Richard Lorde’s childhood friend had just become a widow. On our fifth wedding anniversary, he brought his childhood friend and her daughter into a karaoke box and removed my ring right before everyone. “Lily needs a proper status right now. It’s no longer right for you to wear that ring. “Resign from your job tomorrow and take care of Lily and her daughter.” Everyone in the room fell silent as they waited for me to blow my top off. But I said nothing. I calmly brought out the divorce agreement I had already signed, put it on the table, and left. My best friend stood up to advise me against it, but Richard just swung the wine glass and snorted. “Let her. She’ll come begging for my forgiveness before tomorrow.” When I slammed the door shut, I heard laughter from the room. What they did not know was that half an hour ago, I had received a message telling me that my visa application had been approved. The person in charge of picking me up had been waiting at my house ten minutes ago. This time, I was not turning back.

Ten years ago, a message was picked up via satellite claiming to be from another solar system. No one knew exactly what was going on but shortly after receiving the transmission, anomalies had been picked up, UFOs were what the news outlets called them. Then came the space ships.At the age of 22, Camille has seen and endured more than any 22 year old woman should. Finally escaping her abusive ex, Camille finds herself in New York with the help of an old friend. Armed with a new identity and a job, Camille has one goal, get to Canada where her ex can't get her. Simple, right? Jag, Sid and Kal have been best friends for as long as they can remember. They have grown up together, they have joined the military together and now they are stationed on earth together. They just need to get through their tour and then they can go back home to Draygon. So what happens when a human girl who wants to disappear catches the attention of three Alien warriors? And what if Camille was never as free as she thought she was? Can Jag, Sid and Kal help her heal? Or will a hidden threat destroy everything before they can really find each other?

Sixteen-year-old Aria Blackwell is the billionaire’s forgotten daughter—unwanted, unseen, and emotionally discarded after her father remarries and starts a new, perfect family. Left to battle her loneliness in silence, Aria begins noticing strange things happening when she loses control of her emotions—things that shouldn't be possible. After a terrifying incident forces her expulsion from yet another private school, a black envelope arrives with no return address. Its message is simple: Welcome to Blackmoor Academy. Hidden deep in the mountains, Blackmoor isn’t listed anywhere. Its students aren’t normal. And neither, Aria learns, is she. Three dangerously beautiful boys seem to know exactly who she is. They say she’s Starborn—a girl tied to an ancient prophecy that could tip the balance between realms. Her powers are awakening, her soul marked, and her heart torn. One boy wants to love her. The others might destroy her. But none of them are ready for what Aria truly is becoming. When her magic explodes during a duel and a dark sigil blazes onto her wrist, everything changes. The boys kneel. The academy trembles. And the hunt for her soul begins. At Blackmoor, love is lethal, secrets are sacred, and fate has teeth. Aria was never meant to survive in this world. She was meant to rule it.

On the night of my graduation party, just before my first shift, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart discovered I might awaken Alpha bloodline. She tricked me into eating a layered cake laced with silver powder. I'm extremely sensitive to silver. After eating it, my chest heaved violently, my eardrums buzzed, and I gasped desperately for air with my mouth wide open. Lynette laughed like a maniac. "There's just a tiny bit of silver powder in that cake. Are you seriously overreacting like this? Who are you putting on this show for?" I collapsed on the ground like a dying dog, begging my boyfriend. "Tyler, please take me to the hospital. I'm really going to die." My boyfriend Tyler Cross looked at me coldly. "How much silver powder could possibly be in such a small piece of cake?" "Lynette's writing her graduation thesis on how Alpha bloodlines suppress silver poisoning. She just needs a little help from you. Do you really need to fake being dead?" My breathing became more and more labored. I stopped begging him. Instead, I pulled out my phone and sent an emergency message with my location to my father, the Alpha King.

Mary Ann “Maan” Perez resigned from her work as an office secretary in their province to apply as a Customer Service Representative (call center agent) in Manila. After receiving a message from her prospective employer for a scheduled interview, she decided to contact her cousin to tell her to fetch her at the bus terminal in Manila for she will be staying with them for a week. Unfortunately while on her way to Manila, her cousin Joan, had an emergency to attend to and would not be able to fetch her. Instead Joan’s cousin from her mother's side of the family came to fetch Maan. Virgil ‘Gil” Velasco (Joan’s cousin) who lives in his own apartment brought Maan to his house with an agreement that Joan will be fetching Maan that day. Later that day, Joan called to inform them that she could not fetch Maan because her mother is suspected to have contracted COVID-19 and needs to be under observation for at least 14 days and if it wasn’t bad news enough, an announcement was made that night that the government decided to put National Capital Region (NCR) and the entire Luzon under lock down. Going in and out of the area is prohibited for 1 month!Locked in together for a month, will they catch the virus called love and start a romance or will it end when the lock down ends?

I'd been married to Joshua Merck for five years, but we still didn't have kids. To stay healthy, I took those pricey custom vitamins he ordered from overseas—never missed a dose. Then my cousin came back from studying abroad, took one look at the bottle, and was like, "That brand doesn't even make custom vitamins." I sent them to the hospital for testing. The lab report hit me like a truck—birth control pills. Powerful ones. Suddenly, all those mornings with Joshua hovering over me, acting so concerned while I took my "vitamins," made sense. The whole thing had been a lie. Five years of lies. Just as I was gearing up to confront him, my phone buzzed—a group chat notification. Shirley Hoare had tagged Joshua. [Honey, I had a prenatal checkup today, and the doctor said I'm carrying twins! Your family's about to get two grandchildren at once—excited?] My heart turned to ash. Everything clicked. Fine. We were done. I pulled out my phone and replied to my childhood sweetheart's message from three days ago: [After watching the northern lights, I still wanted to see penguins in Antarctica.]

I had been married for eight years when I inherited a fortune worth hundreds of millions that my grandfather left to me and my mafia boss husband. However, just as the lawyer was finalizing the transfer, we discovered my marriage certificate was fake. That meant the entire inheritance could only go to me. “Ms. Rivers, according to the system, you were divorced a year ago. Your husband, Zayn Levine, is legally married to… Whitney Sanders. According to the papers, you're single. In other words, Mr. Levine has no right to claim the inheritance.” Whitney, the woman Zayn had once loved before she went abroad, the one he never forgot. I stared at the lawyer’s message, unable to accept it. All of Zayn’s affection and tenderness over the years had been nothing but a lie. I had planned to tell him on our anniversary that after eight long years of marriage, I was pregnant. It was the miracle we had both been waiting for. Yet it seemed like he had never really been looking forward to it at all. As I gently rested my hand on my belly, I told myself that even if my twins grew up without a father, they would be just fine. In this place built on nothing but lies, the only thing left for me to do was run away.

Everyone in the Rossi family knows that their Don, Giovanni Rossi, loves me, Rebecca Costa, more than anyone else. Ever since we got together, he has stopped attending any social events that involve other women. We promised to marry once he returns from negotiating a dangerous arms deal in Aelfana. He was supposed to come back a week before the wedding, but instead, he returned on the eve of the wedding with Rosa Bianchi, his stepsister, in his arms. Rosa was unconscious, and traces of intimacy were visible on her skin. Giovanni kneeled before me, his expression remorseful. "Rebecca… I was drugged. I never meant to betray you. When Rosa threw herself at me, I thought she was you." And I believed him. At least, I did until I overheard a conversation in the changing room backstage at our wedding. One of his men asks, in disbelief, "Did you really mistake her for Rebecca?" "I did for the first night. But for the rest of the week… well, a man ought to have his bit of freedom before getting married." My fingers clench around my phone. In my inbox sits an unopened message—a marriage invitation from Angelo Calavaro, the most enigmatic Don in southern Ilya's underworld. I know what I have to do.