Empty Threat

"Dad, Mom, I've decided—I'll go through with the marriage arrangement with the Kingston family. I'll be back by the end of the month." Daphne Wharton made the decision in the middle of a camping trip with Luke Hardy. She curled into herself, pulling her scarf higher against the chill. For a moment, there was only silence on the other end of the line. Then, her mother's voice came through, thick with tears. "Daphne, we know this isn't fair to you. Our company is struggling, and the Kingston family is willing to help—but only if you marry their son. We've failed you as parents…" Her father let out a heavy sigh beside her mother. Daphne listened, her gaze unfocused. A faint, bitter smile tugged at her lips. "It's okay, Mom, Dad. This is what I should do. I'll be back in fifteen days—when their son returns to the country."

I worked for a restaurant, and our boss loved making empty promises about giving us restaurant shares. The boss said we would start with zero shares, but we could earn 0.01% for every two hours of overtime, covering someone else’s work or saving the restaurant 1,000 bucks. I suggested she write this down in an official document and have someone track it properly. She just smiled and told everyone to work harder. She never actually put it in writing. The experienced staff did not believe her, but one prep cook took it seriously. At the end of the year, he went to the boss to claim his shares. The boss said, “Sorry, the head chef told me there’s no official document, so it doesn’t count. You can’t claim any shares.” The prep cook worked hard all year and got nothing for it, so he took his anger out on me. The day before I was going home for the New Year, he killed me with a knife. “If you hadn’t said it doesn’t count without an official document, this whole restaurant would’ve been mine!” I lay in a pool of blood. When I opened my eyes, I was back to the day the boss first made those empty promises.

While my husband, Gerald Brown, was abroad negotiating a business deal, he was drugged and spent the night with a female secretary from a rival company. The drug’s side effects scrambled his memory so badly that he forgot who I was. He kicked me out of the master bedroom and let the secretary smash my grandmother’s heirloom. I told myself he was sick and stayed silently by his side. But when I suggested taking him for a medical checkup, he hit me for the first time. “Who do you think you are? Only Ailey is allowed to touch me. If she gets jealous, you’ll regret it.” When the secretary framed me, he pushed me down the stairs, and I suffered a miscarriage. Late one night, when my heart condition flared up, I went to his study for medicine but overheard him talking to his friend outside the door. “Faking amnesia to bring Ailey home is one thing, but why replace your wife’s heart medication? Now, she’ll never return to the hospital for surgery.” Gerald just chuckled. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

Hell is empty. All the devils are here.Where there was once darkness, there is now light. But what does it reveal?Trapped for decades.A beguiling creature with a black past. Hate, devouring everything, for those who were blinded in their hubris for what is to come.A new age in which nothing is as it seemed in those past days.Freedom within reach - but what is the price?When patient M escapes, those who know tremble because his revenge threatens to sink the world into the red of blood. A woman tries to stand in his way and coax him to reveal the secret that could open a new chapter in human history. Without suspecting that she can pull each individual into the bottomless abyss. The borders are blurring - who is the hunter here, who is the hunted?

Anica Faith Mendez, a certified secret man-hater but a player during her teenage days, who believes that a man can cheat on his wife, a boyfriend can hook with other girls while winning the heart of his girl with sweet lines and a boy can always consider a girl as their toy. Waking up one day realizing that the world believed she's pregnant- a fake news that spread and caused her to seal the deal of making it real with... Caspian Alexander Arevalo- a certified secret playboy and a black sheep to his noble family's name. Upon knowing the man she seal deal with, it lights the fuse of her teenage days motto. "If he's a player, then I'll give him a game to remember." What if the playboy met someone who is secretly an expert on the field of 'playing hearts'. Will they be able to provide a family for their child? Or will they kept on playing on each other's heart.

“You're a bastard CEO! Paano mo ako nagagawang lokohin?" bulyaw ni Natasia sa lalaki. Sarkastikong ngumiti si André. “I don't love you. I just needed you, Natasia. Besides, you're still mine." Mahigit tatlong taon nang nagtatrabaho si Natasia Villa Fuentes bilang Sekretarya ni André Salvatoré; isa sa tanyag na businessman sa industriya. Tiniis niya ang pagtratrabaho sa lalaki kahit pa punong-puno ito ng yabang sa kanyang mga mata. Pero sa kasamaang palad, hindi inaasahan ni Natasia na makaka-one night stand niya ang CEO na walang kaalam-alam sa nangyari. Gagawin niya ang lahat para itago ang sekretong ito sa takot sa lalaki dahil alam niyang ipapapatay siya nito. But suddenly, the CEO offered her a marriage contract! Ano ang magiging papel niya sa buhay ni André Salvatore gayong alam niyang hindi siya kailanman gugustuhin nito? May chance pa ba na mapalambot niya ang nagyeyelong puso nito?

Si Natasia Villa Fuentes ay ang sekretarya ni André Salvatoré, isang kilalang negosyante. Mahigit tatlong taon na siyang nagtatrabaho para kay André, kahit puno ito ng kayabangan. Isang gabi, hindi inaasahan ni Natasia na magkakaroon sila ng one-night stand. Isinikreto lang ni Natasia ang nangyari sa kanila dahil alam niyang delikado ang lalaki para sa kaniya at maaari siya nitong ipapatay. Unexpectedly, the CEO offers her a contract marriage! Ano ang magiging papel ni Natasia sa buhay ni André, lalo na't alam niyang hindi siya mahal nito? May pag-asa pa kaya na mapaamo niya ang nagyeyelong puso ni André?

I had a unique profession. I was a breakup specialist. I did not need to go to court or write any contracts for that. That was a lawyer’s job. Everyone kept saying that love was priceless, but a couple who professed their love to each other for an entire night could be paying me tons to break their relationship up the following day. I was shaking my head upon those matters when I received a message from my husband, Matthew Grant, asking me to pick our wedding anniversary’s destination. A few seconds after that, a beautiful woman walked into my office. She appeared timid and had to take a lot of time to summon the courage to speak. “I’d like to hire your services for my boyfriend. He has decided to divorce his wife.” I made no comment as I picked up the documents she had handed me, only to see Matthew’s name on the paper. I froze, while the woman sitting in front of me ducked her head and continued, “My boyfriend says that his wife is a good person and that he doesn’t want to hurt her.” I smiled as I stared at the picture; it clearly was Matthew, but I had the strange feeling of seeing a foreign person too. My heart throbbed, and I could only lament. This was my third year as a breakup specialist, and I was actually hired to break up my own relationship.

Three years after being brought back to my family, I jumped off a building. As my soul floated in the air, I wanted to see how my parents and brother, who always despised me, would break down in tears, filled with regret. But my father simply shook his head indifferently and looked at my lifeless body, saying, "How childish." My mother pressed her lips together and sighed in relief, as if a burden had been lifted. My brother stood in front of the fake heiress, shielding her from the gruesome sight of my death. Even so, the fake heiress burst into tears, prompting the whole family to rush to comfort her. I stared in stunned silence for a long time before a bitter smile crossed my face. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the moment I was first brought home.

My mother had been hospitalized. My boyfriend worked as a doctor at the same hospital. You would think he would have visited her often, but he never did. Not once. On the first day of her stay, he did not come because he had taken a day off. His childhood friend was moving, and she needed his help. On the second day, that same childhood friend appeared at the hospital as an intern. He followed her everywhere and showed her the ropes. He handled anything she asked for, no matter how small. It went on like that, day after day. My mother's ward was on the thirteenth floor. His office was on the seventeenth. All it would have taken was a ten-second elevator ride or a two-minute walk down the stairs. Even so, Sebastian did not visit her for more than twenty days. My mother recovered. I picked her up by myself and took her to the train station. While I was on the way, he texted me. Sebastian: [Suzy's pet dog is getting vaccinated today. I need to drive her there first.] This time, I replied. [Got it. Drive safely. By the way, we're over.]