Hushed

After I, Rosalie Ricci, was stood up 17 times, the mafia don, Daniel Marino, finally holds the perfect engagement banquet for me. In our second year together, we are ready to get married. But every single time, he has an excuse to hold our engagement off. He says he's busy with work, the timing isn't right yet, or that he isn't quite ready. I never blame him because I love him. I have loved him since our school days. In fact, I have loved him for seven whole years. This is the 18th time. I stand in the banquet hall wearing the gown he personally chose for me and watch as he slips the ring onto my finger. He kisses me with a passionate intensity he has never shown me before. At that moment, I believe that I have finally secured my perfect happiness after waiting seven long years. My happiness only lasts until the guests leave. As I step into the back garden, I see Daniel holding my twin sister, Leah Ricci, in his arms. He says in a hushed voice, "I announced my engagement to Rosalie 18 times. This time, you're finally back." That's when I realize that the engagement banquet that I have longed for is nothing more than a ploy by Daniel to draw Leah back to him. But when I decided to let them be together, Daniel panics.

"Do not dare to act like my wife..."He grabbed her forearm and hushed dangerously into her ear. Cold shiver ran through her veins as she closed her eyes to let the forming tears cascade down her eyes. "But..I am your wife."she stuttered. "Yeah a wife who took her sister's place to dig on my money, Rain Anderson."He jerked her with such force that she stumbled and fell on the sofa behind her. She squeezed shut her eyes and let the remaining moisture release her eye sockets. She had suffered his insults and abuses for long two years for a promise which she gave to her parents and sake of the holy vows she took with him but finally her last string of patience broke. She couldn't let him play with her self respect. She wiped her tear stricken face and stood up to match his level.It was the time when she must face him to save their marriage and give him a taste of his own medicine if she wanted to get her love and self respect back. "Its Mrs. Rain Blackwood,Mr. Nicholas Blackwood now whose bitch of a sister and your fiancee ran away on the day of your marriage with her boyfriend and I had to take her place to save our families' reputation.So, better you keept it in your mind before judging my character. "She breathed out and left her husband, Nicholas Blackwood in complete shock. He stood there like a stone statue as it was the first time she rose against his tortures.

“When I pictured what today would look like, it never involved me standing here, alone at the alter, humiliated, as the prying eyes of guests etched at me like daggers and hushed whispers rose amongst them, with the collective gasps of disbelief. And worse, the whole world was watching this LIVE on every local news channel”. *********************** Hi my name is Clarissa, and my perfect fairytale just turned into a public nightmare. One night before my wedding, I was drugged and woke up in a strange place. Confused, late, and barely holding myself together, I still showed up in my gown, ready to marry the man I loved. Only to be left standing at the altar. Alone. Humiliated and Live on every local news channel. But that's not even the cherry on top. The real heartbreak? Is that not only did he ditch me, but I caught him later…..in bed, sexually tangled in my sister's arms. My blood. So I did what any broken, furious woman would do. I turned to the one man who could ruin him, His powerful, dangerously sexy billionaire father, Victor Gonzales. It was supposed to be a game. A scandalous way to burn them both. But Victor isn’t a man you use and walk away from. He’s older. Smarter. Wickedly dominant. And he’s made it clear, if I play with fire, I will get burned. Now, I’m caught in a forbidden game of lust, lies, and revenge. And the more I fall for him, the harder it becomes to remember who’s using who. He was meant to be a pawn. But he just might become my greatest temptation….and my deepest downfall.

Hugo: I am the undisputed king of the underworld. I rule the country and being the only manufacturer of quality weapons, I own every life. As the head, I get to choose first and then I can choose to throw the remains for everyone to have a bite. There is no one who can leave my claws, I can have whoever I want, be it a boy or a girl. No strings attached. My heart is woven in black. No time and space for any colors in my life. I can’t tolerate deceit and breaking trusts. Loyalty means everything to me. To me dishonesty is equivalent to death, that’s why I never trust anyone. I am happy being the emotionless person in this world until she came into my life as a payment and I was supposed to kill her after using her, only if I knew…. Caterina: I was living my life in a romantic fantasy. I had dream of a prince coming and taking me away to a far land. There came someone to take me away. But he wasn’t a prince. He was a ruthless king of underworld. I had heard about him in hushed whispers but I had never thought of meeting him face to face. I was nothing to him, nothing worthy. And I had accepted my fate but he took away from me the only thing I had vowed to keep for the one I would love. I hate him and he gets off my anger and hurt. He likes to flaunt himself with a new girl everyday and every night. It should not make me feel anything but hatred towards him. And I want to run away from this dark world. And I did succeed but at what cost….. .

“You’ve come to kill me detective?” He whispered against her skin as he gently grasped her arm and turned her to him. Jude swallowed a gulp and looked up at him. His eyes were a cobalt shade of blue behind the mask, daring, cold and terrifying. “And you’ve come to me to be killed?” She replied in a hushed tone, gathering a lot of nerve and taking a step closer to him. Detective Jude Laurent should arrest Cassien, the deadly Maestro who now controls The Black Rose syndicate. Instead, she finds herself drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, risking everything to uncover the truth about the organization that has haunted her since childhood. The same organization she believes holds the answers to her parents’ death in what everyone called a tragic house fire. But Jude has no idea she’s been walking straight into a trap years in the making. The real mastermind behind The Black Rose has been watching her every move, orchestrating her pain from the shadows. Someone who shaped her into the perfect weapon for revenge. And they’ve been waiting for this moment since the night her world burned. Now, as Jude hunts the man who’s becoming her obsession, and Cassien finds himself equally captivated by the detective who should be his enemy, neither realizes they’re both pawns in a much deadlier game. Because the person who destroyed Jude’s world isn’t the criminal she’s chasing. It’s someone far closer than she could ever imagine. And their final move is about to destroy everything she’s ever believed about her past, her purpose, and the man she can’t stop wanting. Some obsessions are worth dying for. Others are designed to kill you.

In a world where being strong is everything and omegas are scorned, Freya’s miserable life worsens when she clocks 18 and discovers she's an omega without a wolf. Her mate, family and entire pack in general, never missed an opportunity to make her life a living hell afterwards. "An omega like you is a burden to our pack." "You're a disgrace to our kind!" "Even the smallest pup has more value than you, omega scum!" Their comments made her suicidal and just when she was about to act on her feelings, three enigmatic alphas appeared in her pack claiming she was their mate! "An enemy of my mate is my enemy!" Knight Sterling declared icily as he stared down at her tormentors. A hushed silence fell as Steele Lockwood also growled, "Bow to you? Asking my mate to bow to you is equivalent to asking me to bow to you!" Hunter Caldwell chimed in. "You speak ill of her and I won't hesitate to rip out your blasphemous tongue!" However, after years of enduring torments and abuse by her pack and everyone she ever knew, Freya doesn't believe these men really care about her. But with their cruel past of executing omegas, she fears she'd just be one of the many omegas who'd eventually end up dead in their sick game. So she runs as far away from them as possible. But running away from one's fate isn't that easy. No matter how far away from them she gets, she always ends up entangled with one person or another. When she starts getting close to them, she discovers these men aren't what they seem. And when a mysterious face from her past resurfaces, she must make a decision that'd forever make or scar her for the rest of her life.

My father and brother had preferred my sister over me since we were kids. In fact, they hated me. When I was bullied at a party, it was a mafia boss, Edwin Carlson, who stepped in. He saved me and announced right there in front of everyone that I was the woman he loved. He warned that anyone who dared mess with me again would have to deal with him. Edwin bought a castle deep in the forest just for me. He filled the garden with my favorite tulips and held a grand wedding there that made headlines across the country. For a while, I became the woman everyone envied. Seven months pregnant, I attended my father's birthday party. But that night, a sudden fire broke out. My biased father and brother only cared about saving my sister, Kelsey Grant. They rushed her out while I was left behind to die in the flames. In the end, it was Edwin who carried me out. But when I woke up in the hospital, I saw something that shattered my heart. "What the hell were you thinking, starting that fire?" Edwin's face was dark with rage. "Stephanie's only seven months pregnant! Are you trying to force her into early labor? Were you trying to kill her and the baby?" My father and brother spoke in hushed voices, trying to explain. "Kelsey has leukemia. The doctors said we can't wait anymore—she needs surgery soon. And she needs the baby's bone marrow..." "I care about Kelsey's life more than you do. Why else would I have married Stephanie? But you can't hurt her. I have my own plan!" Edwin warned coldly. "Saving Kelsey is the goal, yes—but if you try to save her at the cost of Stephanie's life, I won't allow it!" After hearing that, I fled the hospital room in a panic. So that was why he married me. Not because he loved me, but to save Kelsey. Everything he did for me—his kindness, his care—was all for her. Just like my father and brother, he loved Kelsey. Not me. If no one loved me, then I figured I might as well just disappear.