Face-slapping

I received a call the day before my wedding. "Miss McPherson, someone has thrashed your venue." I rushed to the hotel in confusion only to meet a woman waving my wedding photo. "You homewrecking skank! You seduced my husband and spent his money on this wedding!" The crowd believed her and went wild. Even the hotel manager piled on me. "I knew something was fishy when the groom never showed up! You're not his real wife!" The crowd turned into a violent mob. In that chaos, I miscarried. At the height of my fury, I texted my secretary: [Cancel the wedding, and kick Matteo Brando out of my company!] How dare he keep a mistress with my fortune! How dare she challenge me! I will destroy them!

From a stall in the office restroom, I overhear someone badmouthing me. Henry Fielder, the intern I've been mentoring for three months, grumbles, "The guy's got zero people skills. He's a total fossil, like a robot stuck in one mode." I'm about to push the door open and jump in when someone laughs and piles on. "The paperwork is incomplete. The receipts aren't compliant. I can't reimburse it without a manager's signature. We could recite his canned empathy lines in our sleep!" Once they're gone, I quietly head back to my office. Later, Henry drops a thick stack of expense reports onto my desk. "Quit waving the rulebook and rejecting everyone's reimbursements." I skim the fake receipts, and for once, I don't call him out. Instead, I give a thin smile and say, "I have a headache. I can't make out the words."

Esther Davenier has spent her life proving she belongs—first to the elite family who raised her, then to a society that values bloodlines over loyalty. But when a long-lost “real” daughter is found, Esther is discarded like yesterday’s scandal—her name erased, her face mocked, her engagement stolen. They thought they could bury her. But Esther doesn’t go quietly. Armed with multiple powerful hidden identities and a dangerous new ally—CEO Evander Westvale, the man they said she could never have—Esther steps back into the limelight not to reclaim what was stolen, but to take what was never offered. Now she’s more than ready to turn the game upside down.

In Reychelle City, a contest was held to crown the most beautiful woman. After my cousin scarred my face, she seized first place with ease. What she never expected was that this year's contest wasn't for fame; it was to select the future wife of the Third Prince, a ruthless, bloodthirsty eunuch. That very afternoon, gifts poured in by the cartload. My betrothed panicked. That night, he tore up our engagement contract and carried my cousin into the bridal chamber. The next day, she trailed her lacquered fingertips across my cheek and sneered, "Alicia, with your ruined face, who would ever want you? Perhaps the beggar at the street corner might take you in." I caught her wrist, let out a cold laugh, and said, "Who told you I would marry a beggar?" Before her stunned eyes, I pushed open my parents' chamber doors. "Mom, since Maggie doesn't wish to be the prince's consort… let me take her place." Three years later, before the eyes of a shocked court, the Third Prince entered the grand hall with me at his side, with two children in tow. No one had foreseen it. This body of mine, blessed with the rarest gift of fertility, was the perfect match for a man believed incapable of siring heirs.

(My fiancé cheated on me, so I made a plan to get back at him by cheating with his father) “Who do you belong to, baby girl? Me or Finn?” He buried his face between her legs. “You! I… belong to you… Daddy!” Maisie cried out ecstatically. “Ugh… so good.” He grunted. “You look so… good when… I touch you, Pet!” Becoming the submissive pet of her father-in-law was her twisted plan to get revenge on her fiancé, Finn, for cheating on her. She had vowed, "I'll fuck his father as much as I want for what he did to me. Then, I'll marry Finn, make him watch me fuck his father, and divorce him." It was a clear plan, one meant to mess with both Finn and his father. But she had no idea that this would spark an unending obsession from Rafael Caruso—her father-in-law, a secret mafia don, a man nobody dared to cross. "I was never a part of your silly games, baby girl," Rafael growled, his voice dripping with authority. "I wanted you even before Finn. You are my submissive pet. You signed the damn contract, and you will do as I fucking say." He gripped her hand, pinning her to the wall. "I will keep you as long as I want, for as the contract stands. You belong to me! There's no escape!”

"Don't you know how to fake a smile anymore? Those irritating little smiles of yours that screamed nothing but desperation? We're making an appearance in front of several high calibre people for goodness sake. You must carry this facade on without any slip, Rosalie.” He said.  My chest pinched, and I looked away, pretending to adjust my bracelet to hide the pain. “I know."  ~                                    ~ “Rosaline...” Ezra murmured. “Why help me to ruin a man you once loved?”   "Why?" I repeated. "Because they took everything from me—the one thing I loved more than life itself. They destroyed my life, my reputation, my happiness, all to serve their own selfish agendas. Him and his mistress. I've been maltreated and betrayed severally, countlessly! But no more. It's my turn to take what I deserve: their pain, their humiliation, their downfall." I paused, my face hardening into an expression of pure, vengeful rage. "And I will make them suffer for it.” *                  *.             * Rosalie’s journey had been a tumultuous one– betrayal and pain. The transactional marriage that she had entered into, hoping one day it would turn around to be a marriage for love, had instead left her heartbroken and betrayed. Her ex- husband’s infidelity, coupled with an unimaginable cruelty that he had subjected her to, had shattered her beyond repair.  Now, fueled by a desire for vengeance, Rosalie had returned to seek revenge on those who had wronged her. Joining forces with her ex-husband's rival, a ruthless business tycoon who harbored his own grudges against her ex-husband, she plotted a scheme that would bring them both justice...and ruin.

"I can't do this no more. I'm leaving you, Rupert Peter Myrie," Tasha said, her heart thudding in her chest. He turned, locking his eyes with hers, but she didn't flinch. Rupert snorted softly, his footsteps slow and deliberate as he approached, each breath husky, each movement heavy until he stood just an inch away. "Tee, you must be really angry for you to be calling me by my full name." "Stick to the point," she said, turning her face from his intimidating gaze. "I want to end things with you." Her voice trembled, but she forced the words out. He closed the space between them. "You want to end things with me?" His voice dropped. "Who teaching you this 'strong woman' crap?" He wrapped his arms around her, gently rocking her and pulling her to his chest. "The only way I'll ever let you leave me... is in a body bag." ****** After escaping a toxic relationship and years of being controlled, Tasha Mackenzie finds herself under the protection of Joseph Grind, America's most feared Mafia boss. He’s cold-blooded. Untouchable. And hiding a secret darker than his empire: he's also the Alpha of the Stinging Vipers werewolf pack. As Tasha is pulled into his dangerous world, she learns the man protecting her has a fiancée he claims is just a business deal. But how can she trust a man feared by an entire country, let alone love him? Can Tasha survive the war between her heart and his secrets... or will loving a monster destroy her for good?

“Elena Verlice, you are under arrest for aiding and possibly abetting the escape of an inmate. All you say now may or may not be used against you in the court of law so, you have the right to remain silent.” The voice of the fat policeman that looked like he had lived his whole life on donuts resounded in my office as he cuffed me. Oh my God! What the hell is going on? Why am I being accused of helping her escape? Wait…. He escaped? Tears started to well in my eyes. “How could he betray me this way? I had risked everything for him and this is all I get? I really hoped that he wasn't going to do it. I guess I was only a stepping stone in his elaborate plan. I guess I was the only one who fell, both in love and in life. I thought he…...” I trailed off in thought tears began to pour from my face for the first time in forever.

On my first day back with the Cannon family as the true heiress, I heard the voice of the family’s guardian spirit. “You must stop your father from investing in the West City project. There’s an ancient tomb beneath the site. He’ll lose everything.” I convinced my father, Aaron Cannon, to abandon the project and invest in North City instead. But a factory next to the North City site had a toxic gas leak. Dozens of workers died overnight. Aaron lost his entire fortune to the compensation. While the family was drowning in despair, the guardian spirit spoke again. “Money can be earned again, but it’s a pity your mother will die in a car crash tomorrow when she goes out to borrow money from an old friend.” I immediately stopped my mother, Sally Cannon, from leaving the house. She avoided the car accident but tragically died from a sudden heart attack. With tears streaming down his face, Aaron told me she had been having chest pains for days but had endured the pain. She had only decided to go to the hospital today because she could not bear it any longer. My blood ran cold. By stopping her from going out, I had ultimately caused her death. Overwhelmed with grief, Aaron drank pesticide and died on the spot. Overnight, there was no one left in the family but me and the fake heiress, Pearl Cannon. To repay the debts and support my education, Pearl took on three jobs a day. Then, the guardian spirit spoke to me once more. “Your sister has been dragged into an alley. Go save her now!” I rushed to the location. I arrived breathless and frantic, but I was already too late. My sister lay in a pool of blood. She was not breathing anymore. I thought, ‘Mia Talbert, it’s all your fault! You’re a curse. You should’ve died instead!’ Consumed by despair, I jumped from a tall building and ended my miserable life. When I opened my eyes, I had traveled to the past.

Scarlett never wanted this. A quiet life as a writer was all she dreamed of, but fate had other plans. When Liam DeLuca, a ruthless mafia leader, storms into her life, demanding the truth about a child she doesn’t remember, her world is turned upside down. His accusation is both chilling and impossible: that she drugged him, seduced him, and bore his child before vanishing. Scarlett doesn’t remember any of it. But Liam wouldn't take no for an answer. Liam isn’t just searching for answers; he’s playing a game of obsession and control. And Scarlett is the unwilling pawn. Caught between Liam's obsession and her lingering feelings for her first love—who no longer recognizes her— Scarlett realizes one thing: the truth might destroy her, but the lies will cost her everything. Can she fight her way out, or has she already lost everything?