I Knew Her Well

It was the day of our wedding trip, and my fiancee only hurried over to the airport at the last minute. Right before we boarded, she got an urgent message from her male secretary. "Sorry, honey. There's a big project that needs my attention. Just showed up. You go ahead without me. I'll catch up once I'm done with work." It was a shame, but work was important. "Yeah, I get it." Then, I tore up the flight ticket after my fiancee was gone. My fiancee talking about a big project when I just bought the whole company hours earlier? Well, I'd like to see who was the idiot who worked around their new boss to talk to someone who did not exist.

All my life, I thought I had it all figured out — the quiet, obedient girl who did what was expected and stayed in the shadows. But life has a way of turning everything upside down. I’ve lived with rules, expectations, and secrets I never dared to speak aloud. I’ve tried to be who everyone wanted me to be, but now… I’m starting to ask myself who I really am. And then there’s Lucas — a presence I can’t ignore, though I’m not sure what he truly means for me. Between past pains, the choices I make, and the life I’m trying to claim for myself, I’m learning that growing up is complicated… and sometimes, it hurts.

Cesare Xandri, the rising gangster of the Nalitan mafia, unexpectedly lost a bet at an elite private casino in Ithel, the kind that smells like cigar smoke and blood money. The penalty was simple, he had to call his hard-to-tame pet. The phone was on speaker. The men circled him, whistling and hooting, waiting to be entertained. He asked what I was up to in a relaxed and amused tone. I replied softly, insinuating he was sinful, hiding my defiance behind innocence and fake devotion. When I finished my insult, the room fell silent, then burst into loud and uncontrollable laughter. The call ended. Less than thirty minutes later, the mansion gates were smashed open. He stormed in smelling of gunpowder, a Beretta still in his hand. He pushed me against the wall furiously beneath the Virgin Mary statue. I leaned into him without hesitation, fingers brushing the heated gun, and I met his gaze without fear. I chose virtue and rejected him in my past life, in return I was thrown into the open sea to die. I intended to be his temptation when I got a second chance at life, I wanted to be a beautiful sin that ends his story under the Cecilian sun.

At the company holiday party raffle, I'd barely stepped on stage when my superior, Victor Grant, shoved a crumpled slip into my hand. "Special prize for our top sales guy. Go on, open it. Let's show everyone." All eyes were on me as I unfolded it. Scrawled across the paper: [VIP janitor status unlocked—every toilet in the company, three days.] The room lost it—laughter everywhere. Victor crossed his arms, grinning. "Fair, right? Everyone knows you climbed the ranks hooking up with rich cougars. Gotta avoid hard feelings for the others, yeah? While the rest of us take a break, you can get busy. You're not gonna back out, are you?" The crowd cracked up. My girlfriend—and CEO—Rachel Sullivan stood off to the side, watching. Didn't say a word. Everyone waited for me to explode. Instead, I just nodded. Next day, over 300 refund requests hit. Cash flow flatlined. Victor and Rachel begged me to talk the buyers down. I shrugged. "Nah. Don't wanna save the company and make my performance too good. That'd just cause more ' hard feelings,' right?"

Pinanganak si Spencer dela Cruz na may CHD (Congenital Heart Disease). Ito ang dahilan upang palitan ang kanyang puso sa pamamagitan ng Heart Transplant. Sa isang car accident naman nasawi si Nathalie Mendoza ang girlfriend ni Alfred Aaron Villanueva. Sa pagkamatay ni Nathalie ay siya rin namang pagdugtong ng buhay ni Spencer, dahil ang puso nito ang pusong ipinalit sa binata. Ano kaya ang gagawin mo kung ang puso ng taong labis mong minahal ay iba na ang nagmamayari? Maaari nga bang matandaan ng puso ang iniibig nito? Madidiktahan ba natin ang ating damdamin kung sino ang nararapat nating ibigin? Marami pa tayong malalaman at matututunan sa kwento ng dalawa nating bida. Kaya ating subaybayan ang istorya ng wagas at walang tinitignang kasarian na pagibig. Ating itong kapulutan ng aral at inspiransyon. (Lahat tayo ay may karapatang umibig at ibigin, kaya wag sana tayong matakot na magmahal, dahil para narin nating tinanggalan ang ating sarili ng karapatan.) — Alnaja Heart

She fell inlove for the very first time and she thought she could peacefully live with her new personality and name. She thought that she could keep her secret for the rest of her life. But in an instant, all that she had worked hard for was completely GONE. *** Beforeicalledhername 2021AllRightsReserved_Catlyn/Latte

I spent five years as Dominic Santoro’s wife in name only. Five years hidden behind closed doors, buried under his sheets, erased from his world. When he finally agreed to take me back to Chicago—to stand beside him, to be seen—I thought I had won. I bought a new dress. Soft. Elegant. Worthy of a Don’s woman. The night before we left, he looked at me through the mirror and said calmly, “Take the makeup off. Change into pants.” I asked why. He adjusted his cufflinks like I was nothing more than background noise. “Juliana Lancaster is back. Tonight is our engagement.” Russian Bratva. Lancaster blood. A marriage alliance. Seeing my silence, he laughed—careless, cruel. “What’s with that look? Didn’t we agree on this when we married? Brotherhood. Loyalty. No love.” Then he turned, eyes sharp and mocking. “Victoria Miller… you didn’t actually fall in love with me, did you?” I stood there, frozen. Because inside the inner pocket of his tailored suit— was my pregnancy report. And the Don of Chicago had no idea the woman he was about to sacrifice was carrying his heir.

She came back carrying secrets that could ruin them both. He swore he’d never forgive the girl who once held his heart in her hands. Elena Voss needed one thing: keep her head down and finish her degree while covering the elite Ridgewood Ravens basketball team for her project in the student media but that shattered when she crashed straight into Noah Hale — team captain, campus badboy, her brother’s best friend, and the boy who once bared every broken piece of himself to her in the dark before hating her for it. To him, she’s the girl who betrayed his deepest vulnerability. To her, he’s the only person who ever made her feel truly alive and the one who shattered her without a second glance. Now he blocks every media interview with a glacial stare. Watches her from across the court like he can’t decide whether to throw her out or pull her closer. Hate has never felt this addictive and proximity has never burned this hot. If Noah ever learns what Elena really sacrificed to protect him, he won’t just push her away. He’ll destroy the last fragile piece of her heart that still beats only for the boy he used to be.

Aria Vale pressed her pen to the divorce papers and signed her name. Three years of her life reduced to a signature. Three years of loving Damien Blackwood. She hadn't even set the pen down before she found out. Someone new. Already chosen. Already waiting in the wings while the ink on their ending was still fresh. With a broken heart, she walked away from the man she had once saved and loved with everything she had. But Damien did not know one dangerous truth: The woman he threw away was not ordinary. Aria hid a powerful identity, a dangerous secret, and soon, a child that could change everything. Now the man who let her go wanted her back. But this time, Aria was no longer the woman who waited to be chosen.

BLURB For three years, Seraphina gave everything she had to a man who never saw her clearly. She cooked, she endured, she stayed quiet through every insult his family threw at her, and she secretly kept his failing business alive from the shadows, without him ever knowing it was her. Then his first love walked back through the door, and Seraphina disappeared. She walked out as his invisible wife and came back as Seraphina Vaughn, the hidden heiress of the most powerful family in the country. The woman two dangerous older brothers would tear the world apart for, the woman every powerful man in the city now wants standing beside him. Damian thought she would come back within a week; but he was wrong. Instead, he discovered that the woman he had ignored was the reason his business had ever survived, that the wife he had underestimated was now the one name every boardroom feared and that the brothers she had never mentioned were already deciding what happened to the people who had hurt their sister. Now Seraphina has a choice: the man who broke her is on his knees, but can a woman who gave everything trust the same hands that let her fall?