First True English

**When society calls you worthless, but one man sees your true value...** Sonia Valencia thought she knew what rock bottom felt like—until she found herself homeless, penniless, and fighting for custody of her son after her husband's betrayal. With scars marring her once-beautiful face and deeper scars on her heart, she never expected salvation to come in the form of a marriage proposal from a stranger. Fabian Martinez, the country's most sought-after billionaire actor, needs a wife to secure custody of his own son. What he doesn't need are complications—but that's exactly what he gets when he meets the scarred woman the world calls ugly, who agrees to his business arrangement. --- *"I need a wife,"* Fabian said bluntly, his piercing blue eyes studying the scars on her face without flinching. *"And you need financial security and a father figure for your son. This could work for both of us."* Sonia stared at the contract in her trembling hands. Six months. A marriage of convenience to a man who could have any supermodel in the world—yet chose her, the woman her own husband called a monster. She should have known better than to trust a contract to contain her heart.

Just when Elaine’s husband, Tan De Marco, needed her most, she left him. Taking along with her the five million pesos she'd asked as compensation for all the fruitless days she’d spent with him. After three years, Tan has moved on with his life and became a successful Surgeon. Just when he thought everything's sailing smoothly, he found out that his late grandfather Textile company was facing serious hardship in the operation and management. The only way to save the company was to remarry his heartless ex-wife who disappeared right after she got the money from him. For Tan, he'd rather dive into poverty than marry his ex-wife once again. Upon knowing about Daniel De Marco’s will, Elaine reappeared and approached Tan again. Surprisingly, in her own keen ways, Elaine was able to marry him again despite knowing that he had already fallen out of love with her. Elaine tried to do everything to win Tan’s heart back but her efforts were in vain. Until she met SPO3 Marco Figueroa who kept on saving her. Tan would be battling not only with the handsome cop but also with Elaine’s painful past. Will there be happy ever after in the end if Tan discovered the truth behind why she deserted him three years ago?

Alpha Cohen Leonidas "Layco" Magnison believed that mercy was only given by the fools, but when the brave yet innocent Savanah Hemsworth came into his life after saving her brother from Layco's wrath, he realized one thing he never thought he would ever consider. He was willing to be foolish just to keep her by his side.

Noami grew up in the quiet comfort of the orphanage, raised by nuns and surrounded by children who, like her, were longing for a family they never had. She had long accepted that the four walls of the orphanage would be her home for the rest of her life. But fate had other plans. Her peaceful world shifted the moment a stranger came looking for someone else—her twin sister, who had been adopted years ago and now lay in a hospital bed, unable to wake. In a desperate plea, the woman who adopted her twin begged Noami for a favor only a sister could give: take her place. Pretend to be her. Marry the man she was supposed to wed. And just like that, Noami became Mrs. Arvenze. The wife of a doctor she didn’t even know. A substitute in a marriage that was never meant for her.

Bumping into her boyfriend screwing her roommate, Carina Osborn hit the bar to drown her sorrow. By a twist of fate, she ended up having a one-night stand with Rolando Mendez, the arch-enemy of her family. To keep her distance from him, she quit her job as the tutor of Rolando's brother. Rolando, however, grew more and more interested in her, finding every chance to meet her. As time went by, Carina gradually fell prey to his charm and care...

[This is an English language version/translation] When Atlas, the driver of CEO Connor meets the broke woman, Heather, who wants to flip her poor world into the other way around, she rejects him and chooses her rich childhood best friend, Theory, in exchange of her virginity and also part of their deal in the past. Little did Heather knows that after she turned down Atlas for being a poor, his CEO boss, Connor, made him the heir of the company. Heather finds herself blind for months in her love for Theory that abuses her and cheats on her. She goes back to Atlas, one rainy night of December, asks for a second chance but soon as Atlas steps back after their hug, she saw another woman from behind in her late pregnant state, she's Margaery— Atlas' wife.

Cami Roux Balmaceda has been attracted to Auden Silverio, the son of a family acquaintance. It was never simple for her to express her feelings for him. Cami Roux Balmaceda is twenty-three years old and a fourth-year psychology student. Cami has a heart problem, but her personality is far from it. She is courageous and living her life to the fullest. The doctor told her that she has a fixed amount of time. As she turned twenty-four, her parents set an arranged marriage to the person she had a deep affection for – Auden. They are well aware of Cami's feelings for Auden. They wanted what's best for their daughter, and they went to great lengths to make it happen. Auden didn't have a choice but to go along with the plan. "It'll only be a few years before she's gone," he reasoned. Over time, he realizes that he is falling in love with her.

Jessica Miller witnessed her boyfriend's infidelity, went to a bar, got drunk, and ended up framed by her step-sister, leading to a one-night stand with Marcus. One day, Marcus's half-brother Dennis Smith, saw Oliver, who looks exactly like Marcus, and thought Oliver was Marcus's illegitimate child. Concerned that Oliver's existence would affect his inheritance rights in the Smith family, Dennis planned to run over Oliver with a car but ended up severely injuring Jessica. Marcus, wanting to help Jessica seek revenge, inflicted severe injuries on Dennis. At this point, Marcus's father, Oliver's grandfather, planned to send killers to kill the grandson he had just met. Why did Marcus's father do this? It involves the love and hate of the previous generation. Marcus was subjected to abuse from his father during his childhood. As an adult, he concealed his sharpness and stayed by his father's side, only to seek an opportunity for revenge. Marcus finally regained his memory. He and Jessica went through hardships and finally got married.

Adam Meadows is a ruthless billionaire, with a heart hardened by a relentless thirst for vengeance. Consumed by the brutal murder of his parents, his life's singular goal is to amass wealth and exact retribution. Relationships are a distraction he couldn't afford, and he dismissed them as trivial. But Adam's meticulously controlled world is upended when he is compelled to look after Jazzlene Agatha Hart, his best friends' sister. Resistant at first, Adam's loyalty to his friends forces him to agree. But as he spends more time with Jazzlene, something surprising unfolds. She brings out a side of him he never knew existed.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing