I Cultivate Passively Novels & Stories

For Founders' Day, Julian Whitmore said he was finally taking me home to meet his family. I spent three months preparing. Then I waited an hour outside his front door. By the time I made it inside, his mother was already holding the hand of a girl in a fitted red dress. "This is Camille," she announced to the room, beaming. "Julian's fiancée. The wedding's set for Thanksgiving." I looked at Julian. He kept his head down. He didn't deny it. All through dinner, he and Camille Sinclair accepted toast after toast of congratulations, while the butler led me in through the side door and sat me at a table in the corner — without so much as a place setting. Three rounds of drinks in, he texted me: [Wait for me. I'll fix this.] I sent back three words: [Congratulations to you.]

"Genie" His voice was barely a whisper, his breath warm against the shell of my ear. "This is so wrong, we can't be doing this." His lips find their way back to mine, trailing the bottom lip with his tongue. "So so wrong" He pulled my lower lips in, biting on them. I stifled a moan. "I know," I managed to say. I could feel the warm slickness ache between my legs. "We shouldn't be doing this. You're my step brother." My body doesn't agree with what my mouth is saying. I snuggled closer into his chest wanting to feel the heat of his bare body against mine. I want his mouth against mine, ravaging me like he had done before. We have gone too far to back out now. "Take me, Ryder" Those were the words he needed. Only those three words. Suddenly, he grips the back of my thighs and lifts me up, forcing my legs to wrap around him. Planting me against the wall, he peers up and look straight into my eyes "You're mine" Then his lips came down on mine. I'm yours. I whispered back in the back of my head. ******** Ryder Saint, for years, has bullied me. Reasons? None. It was like he signed a contract from heaven to make my life hell. From the moment he set his eyes on me, he added my name to his list. Don't be fooled by his last name. It's a charade, he's not anything like it. Everything about Ryder Saint smells evil. His heart, dark. His soul, dark. His aura, dark. Except his face. I should have neglected him like I always have, but I couldn't when our parents decided to tie the knots and he became my stepbrother. He and I, under the same roof.

He saved my life. Then he fell in love with me. Dr. Aiden Black was my surgeon at Cedars-Sinai in L.A. Strict. Brilliant. Kind. I thought I’d never see him again after I was discharged. But he showed up at my follow-up. And the next one. And with coffee on my birthday. He went from checking my pulse... to holding my hand. From "Patient" on his chart... to "My Wife" in his heart. This is how I met my husband.

The day I got out of prison, my girlfriend—who I hadn't seen in five years—pulled up in a Maserati to pick me up. In the passenger seat sat a guy in his early twenties, athletic build. His face looked a little too much like mine did when I was younger. Selene told me not to make a scene. Not to want things that were never mine. She said with her status now, she could have as many pretty boys as she wanted. Right now, she only had one. Apparently, he was my replacement. So I shouldn't be so narrow-minded. After all, a guy like me—fresh out of prison with a record—wasn't even in her league anymore. I stared at Selene, a little dazed. She wasn't wrong. But she seemed to have forgotten why I went to prison in the first place.

"He was everything I swore never to get close to. He was toxic, possessive, selfish. Without me even realising it. He was older than me. It was wrong. He was wrapped in darkness and mystery. He was sinisterly hot and rich to an extent I couldn't imagine. He made sure to become everything I have. He was anything but the one for me, yet he made me his. He made me fall for him. He got under my skin, penetrated my soul, shattered my heart. And I naively obeyed his will. He made me his but he never was mine. He was the devil himself and I'll burn in hell for ever loving him."

I was anonymously reported for fraudulent credit card use and arrested. The victim turned out to be my own husband. I pulled out my phone to show them our marriage certificate to prove my innocence, but the police officer frowned as he looked at me. "Ma'am, the Lucas Richardson on this certificate is not your husband. You're still unmarried." I could not believe it and asked the officer to check again immediately. He looked at me with sympathy, but quickly spoke again, "Our records show that Lucas Richardson's spouse is Vivian Clarke and that they have a three-year-old child together. Ma'am, if you cannot prove your relationship with him, you will face criminal detention." I felt like I had been struck by lightning. Six years ago, Lucas had a secretary named Vivian who was obsessively in love with him. On the day Lucas and I got married, she caused a scene and threatened suicide. In the end, he had to personally handle the situation for three days before coming home. It turned out that his solution was to marry Vivian instead.

Two months before the public ceremony Lorenzo had promised would finally acknowledge me as his wife, he announced online that he was getting married. Everyone congratulated me. After seven years at his side, after I had helped him stabilize the Vassari family, crush three rebellions, and win enough votes to become the next Don, everyone assumed I was finally going to be his wife. So did I. Until I stopped outside a private room and heard his friends laughing. “Lorenzo, your Donna selection list is insane. Twelve women, one ring, and you score them every month?” Someone whistled. “Right now, it’s down to Serena and that little nightclub girl you keep in your penthouse, isn’t it?” “What if you don’t marry Serena after all this?” another man asked. “She gave you seven years. She might lose her mind.” Lorenzo laughed lazily. “Whoever performs best becomes my wife. Fair rule.” The room exploded with laughter. “Come on, you’re obviously favoring your little mistress. Serena can’t win if you keep giving that girl perfect scores.” Lorenzo’s voice turned playful, almost amused. “I gave Serena the chance. If she still loses, she can only blame herself.” I stood outside the door, my heart going cold. After a long silence, I took out my phone and called my father. “Dad, I agree to come home.” “I’ll accept the marriage alliance arranged by the Commission.”

Five minutes before the ceremony, I called off the wedding. In my last life, right in the middle of our vows, Sandra Crowe suddenly demanded another 300 thousand dollars as a "marriage guarantee." She pulled out her phone in front of everyone, chin tipped up, a payment screen glowing. "Three hundred thousand! Not a dollar less, or I'm not putting on that ring." Ten years together, and we were right at the finish line. I forced myself to go through with it and transferred the money. It was what Dad had scraped together over two years for his kidney transplant. That same night, his condition crashed. I went to Sandra and asked if she could lend me the money back for his treatment. She yelled at me instead. "You're asking me for money on our wedding night? Seriously? That 300 grand is mine! Don't even think about touching it!" Dad missed his window and died in the hospital hallway. The day he died, Sandra was out shopping with her friends, dropping thousands on a Chanel bag without a second thought. "Good. One less burden. At least he won't drag us down anymore." When I filed for divorce, she brought her guy friend to the funeral and made a scene, knocking over Dad's urn and damaging the headstone. Then she turned around and accused me of sexual assault, demanding 500 thousand in damages. Mom couldn't take it. She drank pesticide and died. On my way to pursue the case, I was hit by a car. When I opened my eyes again, I called off the wedding. Then Sandra stepped closer, already pulling up her payment screen. "Transfer me three hundred thousand as a marriage guarantee, or we're not getting married." I tossed the ring into the trash. "Works for me."

“What the f*ck…?” That was all I could say when I found myself falling for the very same man who was pulling me into the dark.

“Who am I supposed to be this time… the boy they love, or the man they lost?” Eli, a 25-year-old orphan, finally lands his dream job, only to lose his life in a sudden accident. He wakes up in the body of a 19-year-old heir who shares his name, a powerful family, and a life that is far from perfect. Soon, memories begin to surface. Not only his own, but those of a young CEO who was betrayed and murdered by the people closest to him. Caught between lives that do not fully belong to him, Eli must navigate a world of wealth, secrets, and revenge while facing people who love him for different reasons. As the truth unfolds, he is forced to question who he really is and whether this second life is a chance to start again or a trap he may never escape.