Fancy Dinner

I had been married to Natasha Bates for ten years, and not once did she ever join me for our family's Independence Day cookout. This year, on the night before the celebration, I finally gathered the courage to ask if she wanted to come. She scoffed and said, "What are you, stuck in the past? Who even celebrates the Fourth with a family dinner anymore?" Yet that very evening, I saw a social media post of Natasha with her male best friend, Stanley Rogers. They were quite intimate in the picture, and the caption read: [True happiness is celebrating Independence Day with your bestie!] I commented back: [Hope you two lovebirds make it official soon.] Stanley did not hold back. He messaged me a bunch of intimate photos of the two of them. Then, he added, [You're just a leech living off his wife. What right do you have to question anything about Nattie?] Everyone always thought I was a gold-digger living off Natasha's success. However, they all forgot that I was the sole major shareholder of the company. This time, I’m done staying silent.

For the hundredth time, my dad hints at us that he really wants to become a grandfather during New Year Eve's dinner. Lydia Cooper, my wife who has insisted on living a childless life for the past decade, just smiles before placing more food on his plate. After dinner, she ducks out to the balcony and murmurs into her phone, "Be good, now. Mommy will visit you a few days later." I can feel my blood running cold in my veins as I stand in the living room with a glass of water. As I approach Lydia, I do my best to keep my voice light and teasing. "I just heard you say the word 'mommy.' Do you have an illegitimate child out there somewhere?" Lydia rubs her nose, her tone now awkward. "You might be hearing things. It was just my friend's child…" My heart plunges into my stomach pit at her words. I've been in love with Lydia for ten years. It's only natural that I know how she acts whenever she's lying.

The girl, from a middle-class background, used to work as a maid for a very wealthy family — the second or third richest in the country. While working there, she had a quiet relationship with the family’s second son, but it didn’t last because he was insecure and kept their love a secret. They broke it off. Later, she left that job to find herself and ended up working at a new company, where the CEO secretly fell in love with her. After a dinner together, she became pregnant, and although she didn’t love him, she agreed to marry him after her mother’s persuasion. The rich ex-boyfriend (the second son) finds out she married another CEO. He’s angry, not just because she moved on, but because he believes this CEO is using her to get back at him. But what he doesn’t know is… the CEO actually truly loves her. So now she’s trapped in a love triangle: A marriage she didn’t choose out of love A man from her past who never gave her the respect she deserved And her own heart, caught in between.

At the Davenport family dinner, I arrive wearing the same dress Tucker Davenport's true love once wore. His face darkens immediately. He glares at me coldly and orders that my dress be burned on the spot. "Damn it, Willow, can't you show a little self-awareness? Shelby might be too naive to notice, but there's no way I'm letting you appear like this in front of her." The intense heat rushes toward me as the flames consume the fabric. A sharp, burning pain shoots between my legs, crashing over me like a tidal wave. The pain drags me under, but I suddenly jolt awake, barely able to gasp a plea for mercy. Tucker doesn't spare me a glance. He simply turns away to help Shelby cut the cake. Days later, he finally remembers I exist. "As long as you behave and don't bother Shelby again, you'll still be Mrs. Davenport." I stare at the burns on my legs as my tears dry up. I refuse to beg any longer. I'm done being Mrs. Davenport.

It was not until after I married Bennett that I found out he had a clingy little childhood friend who loved to play the victim. On the very first day of our marriage, at dinner, I simply asked Bennett to pass me a bite of food. She immediately exploded. "Holly, you're disgusting! Bennett already used those utensils, and you seriously asked him to serve you food? What, don't you have hands?" I froze, completely blindsided. Before I could even react, Bennett put down his spoon and went straight to her, wrapping her in his arms like she was the one who had been wronged. Then he turned to me and said I should just get my own food from now on. However, honestly, wasn't it normal for a husband to serve his wife a bite? What was so outrageous about that? I barely got a word out before Bennett shut me down in a low, firm voice. "That's final. If Rosie doesn't like it, then we're not doing it. End of discussion."

~SLOW UPDATES~ "Let's enjoy ourselves tonight...” * Verona thought she was going to have a great night with the guy she met at the nightclub on her twentieth birthday. Who would have thought, amid their passionate lust in a hotel room, that the man suddenly vomited blood and died? Frightened, Verona left the body right away and asked her parents for help. To keep her out of trouble, Verona's parents send her to a reputable campus in a small town. But again fate surprised her because, in that city, Verona met the man who she thought was dead! * Lev always makes love to naïve young women because they were easy to fool and make them easy to prey on. But that night misfortune befell him for the first time when the woman who was supposed to be his dinner made him die and he almost lose his life. After escaping death, Lev vows to kill the woman if they meet again. His oath came true sooner than expected, because the woman came to the small town where he lived, and even went to the same college as him!

Born as the daughter of the Skybound Alpha King, Anastasia Zyaire was born to rule, trained with Luna etiquette, duty, and expectations , but not love. Raised by her parents who saw her as a bargaining chip instead of a daughter. At 21, still unmated, she's summoned to a grand family dinner, only to be told she's to marry a stranger from a rival pack in two weeks. She already gave her heart away. But when she runs to the only man who she thought would save her, she walks in on his betrayal. Broken and drunk at the full moon Fiesta, Anastasia finds herself ranting on a balcony, and falling into the arms of a mysterious stranger whose scent she can't even place. The heat, the touch, the mark…everything feels real. Until the next day. Because the stranger is one of two identical twins…cursed heir of the Dragon Rider Pack. And she’s betrothed to the cold one. Now bound by blood, politics, and secrets, Anastasia must choose between obeying her father’s command or chasing the bond that threatens to destroy everything. One wears the crown. The other marked her soul. And her heart was never meant to survive either.

My mom gets buzzed at the family dinner and insists on burning my admission letter. She says, "You're a guy, and yet you can't get into Horvard University! What makes you think you can study at any university now? You might as well quit studying altogether!" I try to stop her from doing so, only for my dad to stop me instead. "It's just a stupid scrap of paper. Don't put a damper on your mom's mood, now. Can't you just retake the college admission exam?" Just like that, my fruit of labor gets burned to ashes. When I'm studying for the exam again, Mom keeps inviting people home for drinks. All I do is utter one complaint, and I get beaten to death by her drinking buddies. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the night of the family dinner. This time, I've swapped out my admission letter to the IOU her boss has told her to safeguard. Go ahead and burn it. Two years later, I'll be sure to visit you at your grave, Mom.

In the first year after marrying Victoria Kingsley, I choose to celebrate the holidays with her in her childhood home. At dinner, my mother-in-law suddenly claims that she's lost her gold bracelet. That's when Victoria's childhood friend, Jonathan Zane, points at me. "You must be the one who stole the bracelet! After all, you've been a serial pickpocket since you were young!" Everyone turns to stare at me, their gazes unkind. I thought Jonathan must have mistaken me for another person, so I tell everyone that I never stole the bracelet. But Jonathan continues confidently, "You were punished for stealing from others in high school all the time! Not to mention, I saw you at the police station last month! There's no way I'd have gotten the wrong guy!" Then, Jonathan lays down the details including the time, location, as well as the clothes I was wearing that day. All I feel is mixed feelings at the moment. The thing is, I was at the police station because I needed to obtain some evidence. After all, I'd already joined the judiciary a long time ago. Last month, I was even promoted to the presiding district court judge.

Vera is a kind, sweet and beautiful 21 year old, with a heart of gold. Her Venta Black irises have the ability to Pierce through any façades she loves her family and will do anything for them but what happens when that is put to the test. without any knowledge of the secrets that lie behind the façade of her perfect family, Vera is forced into a marriage of convenience with the notorious mafia Don Julius Chrysanthos, the head of the ruling Spanish mafia. Julius is the head of the mafia, the mafia Don. he has no time for emotions, trivial things like women he has no time for gimmicks he calls emotions. but at first glance her gaze Pierce through his tall defences leaving him flushed. He is cold and devilishly alluring she is beautiful and shy he is ruthless she is kind he is sinful she is pure he is intruiged and attracted to her innocence and ethereal beauty, she is confused by his way of life one dinner changes and alters both their lives to never be the same again.. want to know how they cope when secrets are revealed, their love is put to the test by the dangerous world the fate of the mafia Don is destined to be bound by, will they survive? will they triumph? follow the journey of the Mafia Don's Wife...