Familial Ties

I've returned to the Ashcroft family for three years. All three homecoming parties have ended in failure. At the first party, I was accused of stealing a watch in front of the guests. Because of that, I became the entire elite society's laughingstock. In the second party, I was pushed into a swimming pool. As such, I suffered from a high fever and was comatose for three days. It almost killed me. In the third party, a forged paternity test was hurled in my face. My own mother announced that she had cut all ties with me on the spot. Every party ended with the fake heir, Everest Ashcroft, bursting into tears and admitting his mistakes. But the entire family kept telling me, "Everest is deathly afraid of you obtaining our love meant for him. That's why he threw a small tantrum. "You're already acknowledged as a son of the Ashcrofts. Why must you keep latching onto this matter so pettily?" In the fourth party held on the fourth year, Everest threatens to off himself. In order to save him, I fall from the rooftop, causing my right leg to suffer from a comminuted fracture. My entire family huddles around Everest, who's obviously shaken, and keeps showering him with love and care. The butler is ordered to pass on their message to me. "Know your place. Do not disturb Everest when he's in bedrest." As I caress my broken leg, I keep laughing until tears stream down my cheeks. It's not that Everest doesn't want the Ashcrofts to give away their love to me. It's just that the Ashcrofts don't want to acknowledge me as a part of them at all. In that case, I might as well leave this family permanently.

I stand before the judges at the jewelry design competition and admit to plagiarism. Then, I announce my withdrawal from the contest, along with my resignation as Design Director of Fairchild Group. My fiance, Caleb Fairchild, shoots daggers at me. "If you walk away from this competition, our engagement is off!" My father follows up by slapping me across the face. "First, you plagiarize your own sister, and now you're breaking off your engagement with the Fairchilds? Are you trying to ruin our family?" "Oh, I'm not just calling off my engagement. I'm also cutting off my ties with you," I respond apathetically. I make this decision because I have been given a second life. In my previous life, my stepsister and I competed in this contest. First place earns the title of the nation's top jewelry designer and 50 million dollars from Fairchild Group. However, round after round, her designs are exactly the same as mine, and she submits them before I do. The judging panel gives me a pass because of Caleb and lets me advance to the finals, but not without a warning to never plagiarize again. I refuse to believe it. I switch to a brand-new computer, lock myself in my room, and pour everything into a new design. Yet, when the final designs appear on the big screen, history repeats itself. In the end, my sister takes first place and walks away with everything that should have been mine. The reputation I painstakingly built is ruined, and my name is dragged through the mud online. My parents are ashamed of me. They knock me out and sell me off to the countryside to marry an old man. Ultimately, I die after endless abuse. When I open my eyes again, I'm back at the semifinals. Everyone is pointing at me as they stare at the two identical designs.

Emilia Blanche, 25 years old. Worked as a Quality Engineer in GoKaria Technology Inc. One day, she was given a celebratory gift and a three-day vacation and went to the place she planned to go during her college days. She never knew her alcohol meter so she decided to drink until she could. Upon returning to her rented room in a hotel, she felt dizzy but still could remember her room number which is 809 but she entered room 806. Many things happened and she discovered that she was six weeks pregnant. Will she be able to know who her child’s father is? How will she be able to handle her situation? What will her parent's reaction be?

Rumors said Fabrizio Medici, Don of the Medicis, was ruthless in everything he did. Yet he was nothing but devoted to me, his mother, as if I were his lifeline. Ten years ago, my husband, Victor Medici, betrayed us all. He conspired with foreign enemies, abducted Fabrizio, and staged a coup from within. To save my child, I blew up a car, destroying my leg and face, and erased myself from the world by faking my own death. Fabrizio hardened and lay low. Ten years later, he wiped out our enemies, killed Victor with his own hands, and reclaimed everything that had been stolen from him. Afterward, he spent a fortune rebuilding my body, piece by piece. But when I returned to the country under a new identity to attend Fabrizio's engagement party, his fiancée, Giovanna Valery, mistook me for a hidden mistress. She stormed in with her friends and humiliated me in every possible way. By the time Fabrizio finally arrived, I was covered in blood. Giovanna pointed at me, her voice shrill as she screamed, "No wonder I never see you messing around. So this is your type? Older women?"

She broke into his world to expose him. He tied her to his bed to claim her. When Justina Ashes sneaks into billionaire Carson Wills’ penthouse, she expects to leave with stolen secrets not wrists bound in silk and a ruthless man staring into her soul. Carson is powerful, magnetic, and dangerously obsessive. To the world, he’s untouchable. But in private, he hides a secret that could cost him everything. The little boy he calls his nephew is his son and he’ll do anything to keep him. Justina should hate him. After all, he’s the man she blames for her family’s ruin, the man she was sent to destroy. But hate burns into desire, desire into obsession, and soon she’s tangled in a web of lies, lust, and forbidden longing. Their deal is simple,a fake marriage to save his child. But their hearts? Anything but simple. When secrets explode her hidden identity as his best friend’s sister, his hidden son their passion becomes the most dangerous game of all. In a world of money, power, and silk ties, can love survive the truth?

Far from the world of Earth lies a vast realm of ancient kingdoms, each striving for power, stability, and survival amid ever-shifting alliances and rivalries. Bound by tradition, these kingdoms practice a unique marriage ritual that determines political ties and future heirs. When alliances are to be strengthened, princes from friendly realms gather in a grand ceremonial arena, where a chosen princess demonstrates her abilities—speed, strength, magic, or flight—while the princes pursue. Her eventual capture symbolizes destiny, unity, and the merging of two royal bloodlines. For two days, the princess and her chosen prince remain secluded, honoring the sacred customs that seal their kingdom’s bond. Afterward, she returns to her homeland to undergo traditional examinations confirming whether the alliance has borne fruit. If so, she journeys to her prince’s kingdom to complete the remaining steps of the ritual and prepare for the future of both realms. Through these time-honored customs, kingdoms rise or fall, heirs are shaped, and political landscapes shift—each marriage carrying the power to redraw borders, forge unity, or ignite new conflicts in a world that forever hungers for expansion.

The day I inherited Grandpa's "Peacemaker," I received a call from myself, ten years in the future. "Sienna, don't give that gun to Lorenzo." I obeyed without question. That night, forced to use his faulty Glock, Lorenzo was beaten into a vegetative state during a duel. Guilt nearly broke me, but my parents nursed me back to health. Or so I thought. "You idiot," my future self sneered. "It was a lie to get you on the operating table. They want your heart for your brother!" Finding a transplant agreement in my father's study, I publicly severed ties with the Morettis. Only later, after Lorenzo died from rejection, did I learn they just needed my rare blood, not my heart. I wanted to return and atone, but the phone rang again. "Your parents will kill you for honor. Don't go back." I waited. But instead of assassins, news arrived: the Morettis had been slaughtered by rivals. I bolted for home, only to be mowed down by a black sedan. As I died, I couldn't understand why my future self had orchestrated my end. Then I opened my eyes. I was back at the ceremony.

I’m the daughter of the Alpha of the Embermoon Pack. As my post-transformation wolf form was tall, powerful, and strikingly beautiful, I had always been favored by my parents and cherished by the pack. Yet, during a journey with my brother, Gariel, I was betrayed, ambushed, and sold into an illegal mining camp on the frontier. There, electric fences, raised gun barrels, and endless despair became my prison. To prevent escape, the overseer would select a group of so-called “lucky ones” at regular intervals. In front of all the miners, they would hack off their hands and feet. Half a year slipped by in torment, and I wasted away until I was barely recognizable. My body was covered in scars, looking like a demon dragged out of hell. Even so, I clung to the belief that my brother would come for me. Then, one day, by pure accident, I overheard a phone call between the overseer and my brother. “You sure are ruthless to have the heart to sell your beautiful sister to us. Your parents must be losing their minds by now.” Those words instantly extinguished the very last trace of hope I had left.

The night Ari Medina opens her door to a trembling nineteen‑year‑old— “Can I hug you, sister?”—her life splits in two. By morning, she’s guarding a secret brother tied to her father’s past—and colliding with Luca Vale, the cold billionaire who crushed her in the boardroom. One truce becomes one reckless night. One test turns positive. Ari can fight Luca at work. She can protect her brother from hungry headlines. But can she hide their child from the one man powerful enough to take everything…including her heart?

The first time Professor Weston touched me, it was to guide my breathing. The second time, it was to hold my hand as my world fell apart. He became my anchor, my secret, my ruin. Now, a powerful stranger is offering us everything, and I see the same hunger in his eyes that once lived in mine. He doesn't want to help us. He wants to own us. And the only way out is to use the very therapy that saved me, as a weapon to destroy him.