How To Pronounce Ali

My neighbors across the hall had a nasty habit of stealing. This included my food deliveries, my shoes from the cabinet, and even my clothes drying on the rooftop. Nothing was safe from them. I had enough. One day, I placed a pair of shoes borrowed from my friend, who was battling an extreme case of athlete’s foot, outside my door. Not long after they stole them, they came banging on my door in the middle of the night, furious about the outbreak on their feet. They even filed a complaint at the hospital where I work. I was so furious that I invited a few homeless patients to move in. A muscular man with HIV, an elderly woman with syphilis, and a young man with severe mental health issues became their new neighbors. The thieves could not handle it and begged the landlord to evict them. However, the joke was on them. My family owned the entire building. If anyone was leaving, it certainly was not me.

All I want is Power. The authority to exact vengeance on those who have mistreated my family and me. They took the lives of my loved ones, and I will take revenge on them in a manner far more severe than merely ending their own lives. - "How incredibly breathtaking. You are beautiful...Anna." I check myself in the mirror. Scrutinizing my face starting from my forehead and working my way down to the base of my neck. I do this while keeping my chin up and my head held high. I can't help but feel content as I observe how everything that has been snatched away from me has resulted in something very different from what it was before. I smiled triumphantly, but tears of bitterness and hatred began to fall down my face. They took everything from me. This will be the final chapter of the years I spent living in anguish...and the beginning of my perfect seduction.

When Eliot Duke, a self-made man crosses his path with Raquel Roswell, he thought that he finally has the woman of his dreams, but fate seems to play a dangerous game. Raquel is married—and he, the greatest Billionaire of his time had just become her illicit lover. ** What Raquel and Eliot shared in Bali was magical. It was more than their pleasure. It was more than the libido they had drowned themselves, and Eliot thought that Raquel was the woman made for him, but she disappeared without any trace, gone without giving him a chance to ask her to become his lover. When fate allows him to meet her again—Raquel was afraid, because she too longs for the man she meets on that beach. One of the greatest scandals. The betrayal of a wife, and a downfall of a man. Will Eliot’s love for Raquel overcome her betrayal, or is she worth going against his principles and his prime?

My girlfriend had one of those guy friends she insisted was basically family. On a group hike, he knew I had diabetes and couldn't eat anything high in sugar, but he still coaxed me into eating a high-sugar energy bar, and my blood sugar spiked almost instantly. When I pulled out my insulin to inject, panic shot through me. My medication had been switched out for saline. I collapsed to the ground, shaking and retching. The fake nice-guy just looked down at me with a smug twist of his mouth. "Seriously, man? You're being dramatic. It's just a little sugar. Good thing I told Selene to swap your meds, or we'd never know how far you'd go to fake it. With a body this weak, how are you supposed to protect Selene?" I turned to my girlfriend, my breathing already turning shallow. "Selene, give me my insulin. If I don't inject it right now, I'm going to die." She frowned as if I were the one being unreasonable. "You're overacting. I've never heard of someone dying from a bit of sugar. Adrian's right. You're always looking for attention. Everyone finally got together today, and you're here ruining it." I felt everything inside me go cold. I didn't even bother arguing anymore. I grabbed my phone with shaking hands and rasped, "Mom, your son's about to get bullied to death. Are you going to step in or not?"

For years, Novalyn Hart has been hopelessly in love with her best friend, Rowan Oberon—the boy who once saved her, the man she quietly imagined a future with. Now he’s a brilliant doctor, and her feelings have only deepened. But when she finally gathers the courage to confess her heart, she’s already too late. Shattered and humiliated, she stumbles straight into Rowan’s older twin brother, Sebastian Oberon—a cocky, dangerous playboy with the same face but none of Rowan’s warmth. Sebastian doesn’t believe in love. He calls it a weakness, a pretty lie people cling to so they don’t break. He mocks her devotion to Rowan… and the pathetic way her heart still beats for a man who can’t love her back. But the more Novalyn and Sebastian are forced into each other’s lives, the more complicated everything becomes. Because Sebastian starts wanting what he shouldn’t. And Rowan realizing too late what he’s about to lose starts looking at Novalyn in a way he never has before. Soon, both brothers want her. Both are falling for her. And Novalyn is caught in the middle of a love that was never meant to be a triangle… until it became one.

"You are getting married in a month. ". Cassie, an eighteen-year-old girl, is arranged to marry Alessandro Leonardo De Luca, unaware that he is the Mafia boss and also the Alpha of the Rivermoon Pack. The arrangement was made five years ago when her dad and grandpa went for a loan for their company. Cassie's father feels guilty and wishes it could be changed, but a deal with the mafia and at the same time an Alpha is a deal. Cassie had been kept in the dark all her life. Alessandro Leonardo De Luca is the Italian Alpha mafia boss who doesn't believe in marriage or mates and thinks Cassie is a Golddigger when she accepts to marry him. He later finds out that Cassie is his second chance mate. What will he do when the mate bond is pushing him to do things or feel things he said he would never do? Cassie gets stunned even more when she finds out that her dad was not her biological father and that everyone around her was a werewolf. Will she be able to forgive her dad for keeping her in the dark and lying to her? Will Cassie be able to overcome the trails life brings her way?

"Doctor, have you finished the examination? I can't hold on any longer," I say as I lie on the examination table in the college clinic. A screen completely blocks my view. The examination instrument pokes a few inches deeper into me. I try my best to suppress it, but a whimper escapes me. "No!" The doctor remains silent and merely adjusts the machine so that my legs are lifted higher.

Beta Max and I were at the Civil Affairs Bureau, ready to register our marriage. We were just waiting to take the final photo when he got a phone call and left. He abandoned me right there at the marriage registration office, leaving me stuck in an impossible situation. I called him—no answer. I messaged him—no reply. In the end, I had no choice but to call his childhood sweetheart’s number. Beta Max answered. “Louis, can you stop being so annoying? Grace twisted her ankle—I need to take care of her today. Stop calling and waking her up. We’ll reschedule the registration.” I bit my lip and murmured into the phone, “This makes it the seventh time we’ve rescheduled.” “So what? The Civil Affairs Bureau isn’t going anywhere—it’s not like it’s going to disappear!” My face was blank, but it felt like my heart was being carved open. A staff member looked at me with pity and asked, “Alpha Louis, are we still doing this?” I gave a small nod. “Yes. Let’s go through with it.”

. . . (Past is past. Future is future. The Present is who I am now.) BORN WITH UNUSUAL GREEN EYES AND BLACK WINGS. A CHILD OF A BEAST. HIDDEN FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD. Cyan just wanted to be normal and to be treated normal for her entire life. Unfortunately, she wasn't born fully human. Being like that, she didn't experience a normal life, in fear of getting found out by others. One afternoon, out for a walk, she encountered a woman, but she was someone who have the same green eyes and black wings as her. Also claiming to be someone who will take Cyan where she truly belongs. However, that was not only that. The woman told her that there were enemies that also want her for actually being the daughter of a General with unknown whereabouts, and a war between their own kind was brewing. A war that had stopped long ago and was starting again. In order to track her father who left her since birth and to keep her human mother safe from danger, she had no choice but to go with the woman. Now, she was caught with all the troubles she didn't know would come to her. TRIGGER WARNING/ CONTENT GUIDELINES: This story contains mild to strong language and deceptions of violence that may be triggering and not suitable for some readers.

They say that I have gone mad, that I put on "an act of life or death" on the day of my younger sister's coming-of-age ceremony. They also claim that I lied to my husband to gain sympathy. However, they don't know that the true madman is the person whom they have misplaced their trust in. I am Winifred Gardner, the eldest daughter of the Gardners, and I am also secretly married to Zachary Hood, a mafia boss. He never announced our marriage within the last three years because I'm not yet "qualified" to be the wife of a mafia boss. My younger sister, Stella Gardner, acknowledges me as her elder sister while mixing muscle relaxants into my medications to render me weak, dull, and unable to fire a gun. As a result, I am once again mocked as someone useless. She steals my place, my parents' love, and my husband's trust while I'm labeled as mentally unstable and told that I pretend for the sake of sympathy. The moment I sign the organ donation consent form, I smile. This is the only document I can sign on my own initiative. But they're unaware that I've already recorded the truth beforehand. After I die, everyone will know who it was that poisoned me. When that time comes, they will cry and be filled with regret. But I will no longer forgive them.