Fifty Four Fifty

To snatch a limited-edition piece of jewelry for his mistress, my blind brother was shoved down a flight of stairs. Ethan Sterling, one of the best surgeons in the country, refused to enter the operating room — all because of a tiny cut on his precious sweetheart's finger. He forged a forensic report and bought Daniel's life for a mere fifty thousand dollars. Even my own daughter turned against me: "You're a liar! Aunt Vivian is the best person in the whole world!" Later, in front of everyone, I stepped off the third-floor terrace and plunged into the void. Ethan Sterling lost his mind. He knelt by the river for three days and three nights, clawing his fingers raw against the stone. A year later, desperate to save his daughter from going blind, he knelt in a downpour begging that mysterious, world-renowned surgeon. I stood there holding my umbrella, utterly unmoved. "I'm afraid you have the wrong person, Mr. Sterling. Miss Holloway died a year ago." "I'm Mrs. Ashford. I'm here to acquire Sterling Medical."

She signed a $50 million blood contract to become the grieving widow of a dead mafia billionaire. But the man she’s mourning is very much alive… watching her every move through hidden cameras… and slowly becoming dangerously obsessed with the only woman who ever shed real tears for him. Evelyn Monroe thought she was saving her dying mother from debt. Instead, she stepped into the deadly underworld of the Voss family syndicate. Now Evie is trapped inside a fortified mansion, playing the perfect widow for the ruthless don who faked his own death — Kael Voss, the cold-blooded heir who controls half the city’s illegal empire. A shadow from the past is hunting them both — the same killer who butchered Kael’s mother and nearly put a bullet in his head. As forbidden passion ignites between the fake widow and her secret husband, lines blur between protection and possession. One year. One lethal lie. One heart caught in the crossfire. Will Evie walk away with fifty million dollars and her life… or will she fall for the dangerous mafia king who already owns her soul?

She signed a contract to be his sugar baby. She didn’t expect to fall in love. Nyx Zelene is a survivor educated in deception, fluent in lies, and willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive. When a job opportunity appears: fifty thousand a month to accompany a billionaire to exclusive events, she sees it as the ultimate con. Easy money. Simple rules. In and out. Until she meets Vane Solari. He’s not what she expected. He’s dangerous in ways that go beyond money and power. He sees through her masks. He touches her like he’s already decided she belongs to him. And worst of all he knew about her father before he hired her. Now, caught between a man who’s slowly becoming her only safe place and a war against the Syndicate that destroyed her family, Nyx has to make an impossible choice: destroy him to survive, or let him destroy her by loving her. In a world where trust is a luxury and secrets are currency, can two broken people become each other’s crown? A dark, obsessive romance about a woman engineered for survival and the billionaire who wants to be her ruin.

Heart has no other option but to seek help from her manager. Her father needs a heart operation worth five hundred thousand pesos. As the eldest child, the weight of this responsibility falls on her shoulders. She needs to find a way, even if it means making a difficult decision. For several weeks, she'll be at the mistress of an unknown man, for two hundred fifty thousand pesos, because she's a virgin. That was the offer from an unknown, unscrupulous man. Take it or leave it. She'll let herself be used while she's asleep, so she doesn't have a chance to get to know the man she's selling herself to. Due to extreme desperation, she agreed immediately to save her father, who is on the brink of death. She no longer has the opportunity to learn about the man who will be intimate with her and own her. She has to save her dying father, no matter who takes her. But the man she briefly saw is not ugly. He's incredibly handsome and her boss, the billionaire Deluxe Montesalvo, who has been married for three years!

Betrayed by her husband, broken by his lies, Serena Caldwell’s world shatters when a car crash steals her three-year-old son, Liam. Pleading for help, she calls Ethan Warrick fifty times, only to hear his cruel dismissal: “I’m at your sister’s kid’s party. Call me when you’re dead.” Left bleeding, her son dying, Serena learns Ethan’s cheating with her sister Mia—the same sister who planned the crash with their scheming mother to bury dark secrets. As Liam’s life fades, Ethan refuses to save him, his cold voice sealing her grief: “I’ll plan the funeral.” Saved by a blood transfusion from Lucas, Ethan’s “evil” stepbrother and sworn rival, Serena wakes to a fire for revenge. Uncovering lies—her husband’s affair, her son’s murder, her own sold-at-birth past—she teams with Lucas, whose dangerous gaze ignites forbidden sparks. But as secrets unravel and their passion burns, can Serena destroy Ethan’s billionaire empire without losing her heart to the one man she shouldn’t want?

He caught hold of her leg and yanked backwards. She hung on and flailed both legs, kicking him in the head, the face. He fought to hold her legs down. Sweat lathered her hands. They slipped from the post. He yanked again. She rolled over to face him and punched with both fists. Her right fist caught him in the eye. He growled in pain, then threw himself on top of her, pinning her arms and legs. She screamed.She strained to free herself, lunged up to bite him. He jerked backwards. They slid down one stair. She tried to scream again. He slapped a palm over her mouth, his breath hot on her face.She fought him until they had tumbled down every stair. By the time they reached the bottom, every ligament burned. She stared at him wide-eyed, gasping for breath between his bruising fingers.She trembled violently, longed to run again but knew it would do no good. He stood at a good seven inches taller and outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. She didn't stand a chance.All she could do now was placate him. Do what he wanted... no matter what it was!

“To escape a monster, she ran straight into the arms of a devil.” Lila Vance was a debt payment. Wrapped in fifty thousand dollars of French lace, she was minutes away from marrying Marcus Thorne—a man who whispered that she was nothing more than his "property." But Lila refused to be broken. With a ripped dress and a heart full of terror, she bolts from the altar and into the private elevator of the Grand Imperial Hotel. When the doors open, she finds herself in the lion’s den: the penthouse of Adrian Sterling, her fiancé’s most lethal rival. Adrian is a man carved from shadows and sin, a billionaire "Shark" who destroys legacies for sport. When Marcus comes to claim his prize, Adrian offers Lila a choice: go back to the man who will break you, or sign a one-year marriage contract with the man who will own you. As the line between their fake vows and real desire begins to blur, Lila must face a terrifying truth: Adrian Sterling didn't save her out of mercy. He saved her because she is the final piece in a game of revenge he’s been playing for years. In a game of power, who will be the first to break?

I had been dating Andy Lawson for five years. He had gone bankrupt, and during the worst of it, we had to sleep in parks and scavenge leftovers for food. After a hundred days of that life, I was just going to the blackmarket to sell some blood for money when someone sent me a video. [Surprise.] It was a livestream site, set up for rich kids to prank the common folk—and a video of me was pinned to the top. My finger trembling, I tapped on it and saw myself hidden in a corner of a park, munching on leftovers to nourish my frail body. On the split video, Andy was reclining against the armchair of a five-star hotel and savoring his gourmet menu. "Oh, this is amazing! All Andy has to do is say that he's sick, and she's selling her blood for him!" "On the sixteenth prank, she fell into the ocean… And on the fifteenth, she was sent flying in a car crash! Why is she so hard to kill?" "Well, Andy already made it clear that if she survives until the end, he will marry her and swear off women!" "One month to go! Will she die from the pranks, or marry into the Lawson family with pomp and circumstance?" "I'm betting fifty mil that she dies tragically! Hahaha!"

After my husband died in a car accident, I worked tirelessly running a small restaurant to raise my son, Henry. Right before Henry's wedding, I won eight million in the lottery. Thrilled, I decided to sell the restaurant and finally enjoy retirement. So, I called to tell Henry about selling the restaurant, his usually polite fiancée turned hostile. "You're not expecting us to support you, are you? We've barely started working!" She even warned Henry, "If you spend any of our money on your mom, the wedding's off!" Henry argued with her but then reassured me, promising, "You've worked hard enough, Mom. I'll take care of you." Feeling pretty good, I planned to give him two million to start a business. The next day, I got a call saying Henry had been in a serious car accident and urgently needed fifty thousand for surgery. I sent the money immediately, but afterward, Henry vanished. Desperate, I braved a storm to find him in his city, only to walk into a wedding at some fancy hotel. There's Henry, giving a toast and calling another woman "Mom." And, oh, sitting beside her? My "dead" husband from ten years ago.

As I was about to leave my brother’s restaurant, the female manager stopped me. "Miss, excuse me, but you haven’t paid your bill." I looked at the unfamiliar face and thought that she was probably new and didn’t recognize me, so I explained politely, "Just put it on the owner’s tab. He knows me." The manager shot me a disdainful look. "Miss, this is a Michelin three-star restaurant. We don’t let just anyone run up a tab." She handed me a printed bill. I glanced at it. Fifty thousand dollars for one meal. Three thousand for tableware maintenance, five thousand for exclusive air purification, ten thousand for a VIP mood-calming service fee, and a bunch of other ridiculous charges. I didn’t even know my brother’s place was such a scam. I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. "I’m the owner’s sister. If there’s a problem, tell him to talk to me at home." But she just wouldn’t drop it. "If you can’t afford it, stop acting like you can. And don’t act like you know Mr. White, either." I fired off a quick text to my secretary. 【Tell my brother to either fire this manager or I’m pulling my investment.】