Golden Years

In the heart of Seattle, two very different souls collide in a whirlwind of passion and hardships. When a chance encounter leads Amelie Campbell to having a one night stand with charming billionaire, Sebastian Romano, her life turns upside down. Fate interweaves their destinies when a shocking scandal forces them into a contract marriage. They find themselves caught in an intricate web of desire, power disputes and the complexities of love with only themselves to trust. Will they succumb to their feelings or remain trapped in their scarred hearts?

Pada tahun 1970-an, aku mengikuti kebijakan nasional dan menjadi bagian dari program anak muda terpelajar yang dikirim ke pedesaan. Demi mencari sensasi baru, aku diam-diam tertarik pada seorang pria berotot dan maskulin. Di tengah malam, aku memanjat jendela untuk naik ke ranjangnya yang dipenuhi hormon maskulin. "Adri, kamu keras sekali. Sini kubantu." Pria itu mencengkeram pinggangku dan menekannya dengan kuat. "Ini pilihanmu sendiri, ya." Selain bekerja di ladang, hal yang paling sering kulakukan adalah "menunggangi" Adri dan mengayunkan tubuhku dengan lembut bersamanya. Baik itu di pegunungan yang sunyi maupun tempat-tempat terpencil di desa, jejak cinta kami tertinggal di mana-mana.

The day my brother, Chester Rodney, came to the orphanage to take me home, my boyfriend Dominic Huxley looked at me coldly and said, "If you choose to acknowledge your birth family, we're over." I knew he had his pride—he could never accept the difference in our social standing. So, for him, I turned my back on the family I had yearned for my whole life. In the decades that followed, I toiled without complaint, saving every cent to help him rise to success. By the time I was not yet fifty, overwork had worn me down. Lying on my deathbed, my breathing shallow and weak, I watched Dominic on television. He was now an acclaimed scientist, just awarded the nation's highest research honor. Tears welled in his eyes as he thanked another woman. "All these years," he said, "I never felt worthy of Alicia. But now, maybe I can use this award as the prologue to a love I've owed her for decades." The "Alicia" he spoke of was the woman mistakenly switched with me at birth—the false heiress the Rodney family raised as their own. The camera zoomed out. Alicia Rodney stood radiant, graceful, and perfectly preserved by years of luxury, blushing as she accepted the trophy. "I waited for you for decades," she said sweetly, "but marriage is still something I'll need to ask my brother about." Chester, who had long taken over the family, looked at her with an indulgent tenderness tinged with something unspoken. "I was adopted by our uncle back then for one reason—to protect Alicia. Making the only princess of the Rodney family happy has always been my life's mission." Only then did I realize—everything I thought I had chosen freely, every sacrifice I made without regret, was nothing but a trap, carefully woven by two men, all for Alicia. The betrayal pierced my heart. I died without peace. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Chester came to take me home from the orphanage. I glanced past the two men eyeing me with subtle disdain. Without hesitation, I stepped into the car. "Take me home," I said. This time, I'd send whoever stole my life back to the gutter they slithered from.

Ethan Vale is the pride of the law faculty—brilliant, distant, and impossible to read. People call him Ace, a nickname earned from never losing an argument and never letting anyone get close. Noah Reyes is the university’s golden boy—the star striker of the athletics department, effortlessly charming and adored by everyone… including the girlfriend he’s been with for two years to keep the world from asking questions he isn’t ready to answer. They live in completely different worlds. Until one stupid party game changes everything. A dare. A text. Two words. I like you. The message was meant for the most impossible person in Ethan’s contacts. Unfortunately, it landed on Noah’s phone. Now rumors spread like wildfire across campus. Noah refuses to ignore it. Ethan refuses to explain it. And the more they circle each other, the harder it becomes to pretend the message meant nothing. Because maybe the most impossible thing wasn’t sending the text. Maybe the impossible thing… is not wanting it to be true. And maybe the real tragedy is that some secrets are only safe until love makes you brave enough to break them. Yes, they are a gay falling in love with each other.

I was twelve when Henry Shaw took me home from the orphanage, gave me a new name, put me through school, and gave me a good life. Ten years later, his first love returned from abroad. Her name sounded like mine, and her face looked like a mirror image. I quickly realized I had been a stand-in all along. Crushing the diagnosis in my pocket, I decided that I was going to live the rest of my life for myself, even if I did not have much time left.

After falling head over heels for Joe Smith for three years, I finally got the proposal I had been waiting for. However, on the day of our wedding, he did not show up until the wee hours of the morning. When I found him, Joe was drinking happily with a young girl in his arms. “I’m already tired of her clinginess. She’s a joke. Who else would want her?” Much later, he made me a wedding ring and proposed with my favorite jasmine flowers. But a muscular man opened the door instead. The man had two scratch marks on his neck and smirked at the disheveled Joe. “Isn’t it a bit too shameless of you to propose to a married woman?”

Seven years ago, Serena was a queen in the world of filmmaking. As the best producer, the world lay at her feet. Yet, for her blind love for Dewangga, she willingly cast aside her golden crown and chose the role of a devoted housewife. But that sacrifice was repaid with a chilling coldness. Since the birth of their first daughter, Dewangga had become a stranger. To him, a daughter was a disappointment, and Serena was nothing more than a failed heir-bearing machine. Now, in the midst of her troubled second pregnancy, Serena must face a bitter truth: her husband cannot even be bothered to show up to sign the papers that could save her life.

Cassie Jones was the girl who went unnoticed—plus-sized, shy, and silently battling her self-esteem issues. But she had a secret: a gigantic crush on Jeffery Richards, the star athlete, golden boy and basketball hero of their school. What she wasn't aware of was that he too idolized her, secretly drawing her and composing poetry about her silent beauty. That was until the day a cruel bet forced his secret feelings out in the worst way imaginable. Cassie, heartbroken, disappeared from his life. Thirteen years later, fate brings them together again. Cassie is a tough PR executive, prosperous, aggressive, and not interested in revisiting the pain of her past. But Jeffery is resolved to demonstrate to her that he has changed—that his love for her never has. Will she learn to trust him again, or will the past repeat itself?

I was locked in a fridge for 40 days while the uncensored photos of me spread like wildfire across the internet. In the face of the salacious rumors about me, my mother reacted by reposting them. Then, she turned to warn my sister, "Look at how disgusting the entertainment industry is. Don't join it, alright? Stay home and inherit your sister's assets instead. My dearest daughter must be innocent and pure, unlike her." She forgot. She forgot I only joined this 'disgusting' industry to pay for her cancer treatment.

After five years trapped in a loveless marriage, Cecily believed that finally carrying a child would give her life meaning and perhaps soften a husband who had never learned how to love her. But when tragedy steals her unborn child before it ever draws its first breath, the fragile world she clung to collapses completely. Left with nothing but grief and quiet betrayal, Cecily makes the boldest decision of her life: she walks away from her marriage, her home, and the identity she sacrificed everything to protect. Yet leaving is never simple when she has spent years living under the shadow of one name. Without the title of being Linus Shaw’s first wife, who is Cecily? Will she truly build a life that belongs only to herself?