Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Raquel Renaud has spent her entire life overshadowed by the brilliance of her younger sister, Camille—the epitome of beauty and perfection. Raquel has long accepted her role as the family's overlooked daughter, enduring subtle humiliations and a constant sense of inadequacy. When her parents arrange her marriage to Alvaro Bernardi, a strikingly handsome and wildly ambitious businessman, Raquel dares to hope that this union might finally grant her a life of purpose and love. To Alvaro, Raquel is just a tool to fulfill his family's obligations. He hates her—her looks, her existence, even her audacity to love him. Alvaro’s contempt turns to betrayal when Raquel discovers the cruelest truth: Alvaro is having an affair with Camille, her younger sister. The betrayal shatters Raquel to her core. With her heart in ruins, she walks away from the wreckage of her marriage, keeping one devastating secret: she’s pregnant with twins. Five years later, Raquel returns—not as the woman once overlooked and discarded, but as a force to be reckoned with. Her beauty, strength, and newfound grace now turn heads, leaving everyone who once dismissed her in awe. Beneath her dazzling transformation, Raquel hides the wounds of a past that refuses to heal. When fate thrusts her back into the path of Alvaro—a man now consumed by the weight of his past mistakes—and Camille, who has woven herself deeply into Alvaro’s life, old secrets begin to unravel, threatening to tear everything apart. In a world where love is laced with regret and revenge, Raquel must fight her fiercest battle yet: to protect herself, her children, and the fragile happiness she’s painstakingly built. Will the ghosts of her past rise to destroy her, or will she finally take control and emerge victorious in the story of her own life?

One year ago, my husband Killian came back home accusing me of poisoning him, with his childhood sweetheart in his arms. It was terrifying. Because what started off allegedly, became my cold reality with that awful text. “Have you gone through with it, Tamara? Our flight is at noon,” This made Killian even more hostile, he treated me with so much contempt, he broke my heart into shreds in his quest for vengeance. Fed up, I asked for a divorce but to Killian it was one big joke. He has every means to keep me in this marriage and I know it. But screw it, and screw him! I had plans, work, make money and get myself out unscathed. But then fate decided to throw me another curved ball… I got pregnant, and Killian was the only possible father. **** Damon Blackwood is in dire need of an heir. A womb to carry his baby to term in exchange for a million dollars. One thrilling encounter and he knew he had found the one. Hazel Simpson, insanely mouthwatering, and ridiculously beautiful, smart mouth and a gorgeous body. But she lacks one thing. Money. Out of sheer desperation, Hazel responds to an ad through a co-worker, a huge sum for a secret surrogate mom. But who says rules are meant to be obeyed? Damon wants more, her womb, her body and her soul. All of her. What happens when Hazel discovers it was all a trap from the onset. **** “Have you forgotten that I'm just a divorcee, a broken woman incapable of love, Seb?” I ask him breathlessly, staring into his eyes. “I'm going to stitch your heart, Melanie. I'm going to make you want me,” Sebastian takes my ear into his mouth and nibbles it gently, sending shivers down my spine.

It was our sixth wedding anniversary. Lord Tom didn't pledge his vows to me, but instead gave me his family's crest—a dim, unstable mark, the mark of a blood slave. That very night, while solemn hymns echoed through the hall, he performed a blood oath ceremony with his pure-blood first love, Lady Mia. I refused the mark. He let out a cold, humorless laugh. "Love is a luxury only immortals can afford, Rowling," he said. "My union with Mia is a political necessity—to maintain the purity of the bloodline." His gaze turned icy. "You are a mortal. You should be content with my protection. Few receive such a blessing." I didn't speak.I left before dawn. Six years later, we met again at a banquet hosted by the Vampire High Council. Tom walked in with Mia, her silk dress shimmering silver in the moonlight. Under his rule, his family was about to gain a seat in the Senate. His gaze found me. I stood in the hotel's decorative fountain, the water up to my ankles, soaking wet, sand clinging to my dress. A familiar look of contempt flickered across his face. "Rowling," he said coldly. "You refused my protection, mocked my generosity. Now you're rummaging through a public fountain like a beggar." The corners of his mouth curled slightly. "Do you really think any vampire would take in a mortal without a protector?" I didn't look up. I was searching for my son's tourmaline that had fallen into the water. But to my son, it was a seal—an ancient restraint, suppressing a power that shouldn't awaken so early. I could already feel it weakening. If the seal cannot be repaired in time, the power erupting within him will destroy the entire building.

"The Rossi family doesn't need a Don. We just need a Donna." As the only heiress of the Rossi family, this was the law that I had set when I received the Browning pistol—a pistol that resembles the ultimate authority in the Rossi family—from my Papa when he was on his deathbed. But three years ago, the police relentlessly investigated the money laundering business that my fiance, Lorenzo Moretti, was in charge of. If that business were to get exposed, the Rossi family's hundred-year-old legacy would be ruined. In order to protect my family's legacy and to allow Lorenzo to continue legalizing my family's businesses, I decided to become the scapegoat for all the crimes. On the rainy night of my arrest, I personally handed the pistol over to Lorenzo. "Protect my family for me before my return." This gave Lorenzo legitimate authority to run my family. He used the pistol to purge my subordinates and take over the family business. He even broke my law by announcing to the public that he'd become the next Don soon. An invitation with golden borders is soon leaked from the family's inner circle. Lorenzo's and another woman's names are printed on the cover. During a visit, my private lawyer says mockingly, "If you don't get out of prison now, the Rossi family might take on another man's last name for real." I just sneer in response. After that, I get bailed out of jail in advance and return home to celebrate Lorenzo's "funeral". But no matter how many times I scan my iris at the biometric scanner in the estate, the result always comes out wrong. A young woman, who's toying with the pistol, opens the door at that moment. The contempt and disdain in her eyes are plain to see. "Where the hell did a crazy woman like you come from? You came to the wrong place. This is my private turf, you know."

“Consider it your blessed day, Fake fairy. Don't dare to cross my path ever again unless you stop loving your dear life.” His aqua-blue eyes pierced my soul, forcing me to stay still as his fierce voice churned my inside. He casted me a look of pure contempt before giving me the warning which screamed pure death. Pearl Addison, the human girl, landed in New York to find her college sweetheart cum fiance Jordan who vanished into the thin air, without being noticed. But on the very first day she crossed the path of Andreas Ronan Sinfield who was a powerful and mysterious Lycan king and the monarchical bloodline of the Seinfeld lineage which has been existing since medieval times. He developed strong revulsion toward her on their first meeting and first touch. Pearl was terrified of him to the core, seeing his monstrous behaviour and inhumane sight as He scared her with his half Lycan face without realising her human nature. Her six months stay in the foreign land tangled her into ominous experiences among feral beasts in the city and fate tossed her in the arms of Andreas who despised her for a reason unknown to her. But what about the alluring scent she emitted around him which should only come from his fated mate who died years ago? Consipiries, Betrayal, killings, lies, battles and Revenge took the shapes in between the unexpected love between two different souls. Would Pearl manage to slip from under his puissant wings when she happened to see his real identity or would He bind her to himself forever? After all He had some plans for her which she wouldn't be able to deny. As He, himself is the law in the city known by the name of the “Lethal Senator”.

In the three years since I became Zander's mate, I've tried to kill myself ninety-nine times. Kidnapped by a rival pack in my youth, years of torture nearly destroyed me. I clawed my way back to the Crescent Moon Pack, only to find my place had been taken by an adopted daughter, Vivian. My Beta parents doted on her, and my fated mate—the Alpha himself—had eyes only for her. I begged them, told them my kidnapping and my suicide attempts weren't accidents, but all I ever heard was: "Ember, you're delusional. You just wandered off and got lost." "You tried to drown yourself in the river." The people closest to me, and not one of them believed me. Until the ninety-ninth time. Another "suicide." When I woke up three days later, I rubbed my aching head. My eyes were vacant, my own gaze foreign to me. I had forgotten who I was, forgotten the humiliation I'd endured, forgotten the desperate girl who had thrown away her dignity for a scrap of her Alpha's affection. At the pack ceremony, while everyone waited for me to fawn pathetically over Zander, a single tear slid down my cheek for reasons I couldn't comprehend. I wiped it away and, under the shocked stares of the entire pack, announced calmly: "Zander," my voice was steady. "I don't love you anymore. So I, Ember of the Crescent Moon Pack, hereby reject you as my mate." "This little act again?" Zander sneered, his eyes glinting with the same casual contempt they always held for me. But he didn't know. This time, I was leaving him for good. It wasn't until I vanished completely that the ones who'd never believed me were the ones who truly went mad.

When my best friend and I realized we had been reborn and traveled back several decades, we locked eyes, collapsed into each other's arms, and sobbed, shouting that we wanted to break off our engagements. The entire neighborhood whispered that we had lost our minds. But only we knew the truth. In our past lives, this was the day everything was sealed: she married a battalion commander, Ned Stark, and I became the wife of a high school teacher, Robbie Stark. My husband betrayed me. For the sake of that pretentious whore, Scarlett Wheaton, he stole my university admission letter and let her take my place on campus. The world mocked me as a failure, and Robbie stood by in silence. After we married, every time he touched me, he would immediately write another love letter to Scarlett—atoning for his supposed guilt. "Scarlett, even if I can't be with you in this life, my soul will always belong to you alone." Even my own child despised me, calling me an ignorant village woman, urging me again and again to divorce so that his father could be with his "true love," Scarlett. And my best friend, Rachel Croft—born the daughter of a factory director—was tricked by her husband, Ned, under the pretense of buying a house. He drained her savings and her wages for twenty long years. It wasn't until she fell gravely ill and went to sell the house that she discovered the deed he had given her was a forgery. The real house—the one paid in full—was in Scarlett's name. One of Scarlett's dresses cost more than my friend's entire monthly salary. When Rachel begged to reclaim what rightfully belonged to her, she was met only with contempt from Ned and her child. "All you ever care about is money. You're nothing like Scarlett, who isn't materialistic at all. Your illness is retribution," Ned had said. "Exactly. Only someone as noble and kind as Scarlett deserves to be my mother!" her child had said. Rachel and I both spent our lives working ourselves to the bone, only to end with nothing—dying bitter and broken from the injustice. But this time, fate has given us another chance. I will go to university. Rachel will become a wealthy woman. This time, without us paving the way, those shameless men and that wretched woman think they can still live happily ever after? Dream on.