Face Smacking

At the party, my daughter deliberately raises a question to my husband. "Daddy, since Ms. Lloyd is having your baby, does that mean we'll be living with her in the future?" He places the nicely cut steak onto my plate and answers softly, "Your mommy and I made a deal—whoever betrays first will disappear from the other's life. I can't afford for that to happen, darling, so this must stay a secret. Even when the baby is born, I will never let Mommy find out about them." Then, he signs to me, "I'll always love you." My eyes turn red-rimmed without him noticing. Little does he know, my hearing was restored a week ago. He doesn't realize I've learned about the mistress he's been hiding either. And he definitely doesn't know I've secretly bought a ticket to volunteer-teach in the Seru Plateau. All I have to do is wait for the paperwork to clear in seven days. Then, I'll disappear from his life for good.

My little sister Willa? Always played the noble princess—even during the freaking apocalypse. She was pregnant and still trying to look like some graceful queen. I told her to end it. Safer that way. She slapped me. "Shut up. How can you be so heartless?" Meanwhile, I skipped meals so she and her rescue-pet gang could eat. When I collapsed from hunger, she snorted. "Drama queen. Think of it as a free weight-loss plan." I dragged her to the base, the safe zone, and nearly died doing it. She snatched the last of my rations. "The baby and I are good. Give the rest away." I died from my injuries—frozen, starving, forgotten. Willa? She got crowned a saint. Even landed the baby daddy—the Deputy Governor—and kicked off her perfect little fairytale. Then I woke up. Back to the moment she asked me to swear I'd protect her and the baby. This time, I laughed in her face. "Die for all I care."

On the day I go to the car dealership to pick up my car, I'm told that the previous salesperson has resigned, so a different salesperson will attend to me. Yet the first thing the salesperson does is say that I paid too little for the car and demand that I pay more to make up the difference. "The other salesperson is truly an idiot. How could he sell a car for 300 thousand dollars in cash? It's no wonder he got chewed out and quit. If you want to take the car, you'll have to switch to a five-year loan with an interest rate of 12%." I'm rendered speechless as he blatantly tries to extort me. "I've already paid and signed the sales contract. You're breaching the contract!" The salesperson scoffs. "So what? The car is with us anyway. If you're not going to pay the difference, don't even think of taking the car with you!" I can't help but chuckle. I calmly pull my phone out of my suit pocket. "Walter, place Mr. Paul Roland's loan application on hold for now. He's earning big bucks for his business. It seems like he doesn't need it anymore."

A never-ending lie starts with a desire for something. How far can you go for the person you treasure the most? How deep can you dig to make everything go according to your plan? Solana Stone was deprived of love and yet her heart never seeks for revenge. She was forced to marry the illegitimate son of the Evans family, replacing her adoptive sister who stole her boyfriend. Her life with her husband was simple. She learned to live a comfortable life in a small house with him and later found herself falling in love with her husband. It was like magic, she was enchanted. But how can she be happy with the life she has when she’s been living in a lie?

On Halloween night, an accident struck the haunted house attraction. The children and I were trapped in a pitch-black room, while the staff outside spoke without the slightest urgency. “At this hour, the repair workers have already gone home. If you want them to come back, you’ll have to pay an extra thirty thousand in overtime. “If you’re unwilling, then stay inside for the night.” I begged them to call the repair worker first. We had been in the sealed space for too long, and one boy with heart issues was struggling to breathe. But the staff member only scoffed. “That’s got nothing to do with me. He’s not my kid. Either pay, or sit quietly.” Yet later, outside the emergency room, that same woman knelt on the floor in tears, begging the doctors to save her own child…

He hates her so much. He wants her to pay, but why kill her when he can play the long game? He is the predator, and she's the prey. Or, so he thought. * Damian meticulously leads a double life— an affluent billionaire on the outside and a well-aged lycan on the inside. He has been in concealment since the treacherous murder of his Luna years ago. Damian remains haunted by the depth of the betrayal. His pent-up rage is reignited when Ishtar comes along, an ordinary human who bears the face of the traitor who murdered his mate. A doppelganger of the lycan who orchestrated the ruin of his pack in the past. Not only is he surprised by Ishtar's audacity, but his inactive wolf rages for the first time in a long while, claiming she is the answer. The little human crashes down his high walls, torturing him with memories of the past. Just as he suspects, Ishtar is connected to his past and is the key to relieving him of the excruciating weight he bears. There's a tinge of passion beneath the hard-surfaced hate, and it intensifies the more he tries to quench the fire. # Ishtar has spent years of her life on the street, being a petty thief, since she left the orphanage at eighteen. Everything changes when she bumps into Damian and assaults him. She falls into his world without being aware of his end game and identity. She is the old soul's plaything and his last chance at redemption. Her assumptions about herself become a sham when she's open to the world of supernaturals. Humans are not built to last, but there's more to this one. What happens when Ishtar isn't the only doppelganger around? Who stops the past from burning into existence again?

At 22, as the Santoro heiress, I'm choosing a husband out of the three Guerra brothers to honor the marriage pact between our families. I pass on Aurelio Guerra and choose the eldest brother, Cesare Guerra, the one with the burn scar on his face, leaving everyone in the Mafia reeling. Everyone knows I put aside my pride as a perfumer for Aurelio and shrank myself until I barely exist. For him, I even leaned on the Santoros' muscle to build his power base. In my last life, I married him, just like I'd always wanted. With the Santoros behind him, he became the youngest Don in the Mafia. After he was established, he hooked up with my stepsister, Maeve Santoro. Together, they stole the new perfume I created, "Reverie", locked me in the lab, and set the place ablaze, reducing me to ash. Now that I've been reborn, I decide to drag those two cheaters to hell myself. But then Aurelio comes back too, carrying the memories of our last life.

"You take me for a fool?” He yelled, gripping my arms tightly, his fingers making sure to leave marks. “I would never lie about something of utmost importance, Diego”, I tried to convince him while earnestly trying to save myself from his strong grip. “No one dares to look me in the face and lie.” He said while gripping my arms more strongly than ever. “Yet, you stand here, lying to my face. You want to use me against my father as your revenge, isn't that right Adriana?” With that, he let go of my arms, shoving me aside angrily—whilst I hit my head against a door frame. _______________ A strong-willed yet vulnerable young lady from a mafia family finds herself stuck in a marriage with a rival heir arranged by both families as a means to stop bloodshed among them. Her husband, being the mafia heir, is a stern person who is feared by members of the syndicate. He hates negotiating and solves his problems on his own. But, when he falls in love with the daughter of the rival family, will it complicate his plans? What will happen when circumstances force them to choose between love and loyalty to their families? How will it affect their lives? A tale where love and vengeance intertwine and the hearts of two individuals are tested against the ultimate betrayal.

I caught my fiancé, Nico Falcone, in bed with my own cousin, Bianca Rossi. Right before our wedding. When I confronted him, he just called the whole thing off and ran me out of New York. I didn’t see him again for five years. Then came the charity gala for the New York Families. There he was. Nico. He pulled me aside, saying he felt bad for the state I was in. He offered to make me his mistress. I told him to go to hell. He got ugly. The whole room was laughing. Whispering how an outcast like me had no business showing my face in New York. I clenched my fists, the sound of their mockery ringing in my ears. Just then, the entire ballroom went dead silent. Every head bowed in respect. Don Lucas, the most feared man in New York, was walking slowly toward us. He stopped right in front of me. With the whole room watching, he dropped to one knee. He took my hand—the one Nico had squeezed red—and kissed it. His voice was dangerously low. “Who hurt my future wife?”

To help Sean pay off his high-interest loans, I sold my house. He hugged me tightly, crying, and promised to marry me on next year's Valentine's Day. It happened to be Valentine's Day when I paid off the last of his debt. However, what I saw shattered me—he was in bed with another woman. He arrogantly mocked me: "What are you staring at? You're not much different from her, are you? Go buy some rubbers for us." That's when it hit me—he had lied to me. Later, I agreed to marry the man my parents had chosen for me before they passed away. On the wedding day, Sean and his friends came to mock me: "Ella, do you think that I'll marry you if you just wear a wedding dress and follow me around? You're so shameless!" However, everything changed when the priest announced the exchange of rings. At that moment, as Sean's uncle knelt and placed the ring on my finger, I saw a flash of fear in Sean's eyes.