Icarus Laughed As He Fell

"Mr. Dawson, about that farmhouse construction project in Hattensburg… I've decided that I'm willing to go there." Gary Dawson, on the other end of the line, sounds fairly surprised. "I've been asking you to go there for ages, yet you refused every time because you said you wanted to be with your boyfriend, Timothy. Why the sudden change of mind?" Madeline Carlton lowers her reddened eyes and pretends to chuckle nonchalantly. "I guess I hit one too many walls and just decided to come to my senses afterward." Hearing this, Gary sighs and says sternly, "This is a highly classified mission. You will be assuming a whole new identity when you start working on this project. Before the mission ends, you will not be allowed to have any contact with the rest of the world. "Madeline, are you sure that you've thought things through?" "Yes. I just want to escape this place as soon as I can." There is a long silence on the phone. However, Gary answers right after the pause. "Alright. I'll send the classified contract to you in a while. It should take about a month for the paperwork to be finalized. Use that opportunity to say goodbye to your friends and family." The call disconnects. An email pops up in Madeline's inbox. Right after reading through the classified contract, she signed her name with a flourish and submitted the file with a click. At the same time, Bloomberg Group's new product launch plays on the television. Timothy Bloomberg, wearing a tailored white suit, slowly leads Lacey Houston up the catwalk stage.

I post a wedding photo with my fiance, Miles Kingston, on my Instagram story. But I forgot to hide it from his first love, Chloe Bennett. The very next day, Miles gets his revenge. He puts our wedding night up for auction online. After the wedding ceremony, I find Miles in a private room at the restaurant, holding my phone. Then, I hear him haggling with his buddies. "One million for one night. Not a cent less." "Miles, even if Aria's still a virgin, that price is way too much!" "Too much? She's my wife! I haven't even touched her yet! Push the bid up!" Everyone in the room bursts out laughing. "Seriously? You're ditching your wife on your wedding night? What if she totally flips out?" Miles scoffs. "She showed off our wedding to Chloe and made her upset. It already kills me that I couldn't marry the woman I actually love. Besides..." He holds up a blister pack of white pills and sneers. "With this, she'll be too out of it to even know who's touching her." My phone slips from my hand and hits the floor as tears slide down my cheeks.

The day Alpha Marcus and I marked each other, his first love, Cecilia, threw herself off a cliff into a ravine overgrown with wolfsbane. The pack searched for three full days and nights before they found her, barely clinging to life. She was once the most spirited she-wolf in our pack, but the fall cost her a leg and the ability to bear pups. I grieved for the beautiful life that had been ruined, and I blamed myself for not seeing how fragile she'd become. Marcus comforted me gently. "Elena, this wasn't your fault. Cecilia made her own choice. You did everything you could. Don't beat yourself up." Later, not long after our pup, Rylan, turned five, a sudden illness tore through him, and he died in my arms. Night after night, Marcus held me, wiping away my tears. "Don't be sad, Elena," he would murmur. "We'll have other children." I had always believed my mate was the most considerate, most protective Alpha in the entire world. Until the day I overheard him speaking with his Beta, Adrin. "Alpha, the dosage of wolfsbane we gave Rylan was perfect—just as you ordered. It looked like a genetic defect. No one will ever suspect." "It's been so long. Don't you think it's time to forgive the Luna?" "What's one pup compared to what Cecilia lost? She lost a leg, her future as a mother. Everything."

After helping my husband build his business from the ground up, I settled into life as a full-time housewife. When our daughter's tenth birthday approached, I planned to host a grand celebration for her. I booked a party that cost 2 thousand dollars per table. But when I swiped my card at the hotel, the staff gave me a strange look. "Mrs. Richmond, this card doesn't even have fifty dollars in it to charge." Flushed with embarrassment, I went home to confront my husband. He wore an apologetic expression. "Lately, the company's been competing for contracts. The new government official is insatiably greedy, and I've had to spend a lot under the table to smooth things over. Once the funds turn around, I'll make sure our daughter gets the grand birthday she deserves." I gave him a gentle, understanding smile—but as soon as I turned away, I began tallying our assets. Because that so-called "new government official" was none other than my father. And in his office, there hadn't been any bids or contracts at all. Now I intended to find out exactly where my husband had spent all our money.

Chloe Bennett thought she had it all — a loving husband, a beautiful home, and a life built on trust. That illusion shatters the night she discovers her husband, Chris, is having an affair with her former best friend, Molly Turner. Then comes Lucas Sterling, a magnetic and dangerous man, who's hiding scars of his own. He's a billionaire with a shadowed past, he offers Chloe something she’s forgotten how to feel. “Let me show you what real desire feels like,” he tells her, and against her better judgment, she lets him in. But as Chloe begins to rebuild, the past refuses to stay buried. Old wounds, new temptations, and vengeful enemies and rivals threaten to destroy the fragile life she’s piecing together — and this time, her heart might not survive the fallout.

In my previous life, my husband, Lucien Walker, tells me he wants to take care of his widowed sister-in-law, Lina Morgan, and take her as his second wife. After I refuse, Lina throws herself off a cliff while pregnant, killing both herself and the pups. As the Wolf King, Lucien chains me on a clifftop and lets vultures tear at my flesh day after day. He gouges out my eyes and snarls, "You lied about your fertility to trick me, then drove Lina and her unborn pups to their deaths! This is your punishment!" My son, Pierce Walker, whom I pour my life into raising, stabs me 9,999 times. "If Lina were my mother, I would be strong. This is all your fault!" They never know that without my gift for bearing children, Lucien has no heir at all. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day Lucien proposes taking Lina as his second wife.

"When Mandy marries billionaire Lucas Vanderbilt, she thinks she's found her happily ever after. But their lavish lifestyle and fairy-tale romance come crashing down when a tragic accident sparks false allegations and shattered trust. As Lucas turns against her, Mandy's world collapses. His grandmother, the formidable matriarch of the Vanderbilt empire, offers her a way out: escape to a new life abroad. But Mandy's heart refuses to let go. She's determined to clear her name and reclaim her love. Will she overcome the darkness of deceit and betrayal, or will the price of love be too high to pay?

“He tried so hard to replicate the real thing, it’s impressive…well I’m back now, and your services are no longer needed.” Myra knows this is the end of her and Pierce, seeing the girl who looks strikingly similar to her holding his arms in the hospital. No amount of hoping she can win him over, and living in a world of delusion can make the multi billionaire CEO, Pierce Blackwood hers. To him, she’s just a stand-in, after all. When Pierce’s ‘true love‘, Tami, returns, Myra knows it’s time to step away. There’s no need to humiliate herself anymore when the man she loves clearly has his attention on someone else. Determined to reclaim her dignity, Myra breaks up with Pierce, blocks his number, and decides to leave the past behind. But just when she thinks she’s free, Pierce corners her once again, unwilling to let go. “Are you done with this tantrum? Now come home with me.”

Scarlett needed a job and fast. Bills were piling up and she needed to pay them. When her friend and roommate gives her a time and place to be somewhere Scar's whole world changed. Enter the man everyone knows but no one really sees. He enjoys it that way so he can learn their secrets. Scarlett changes everything in him with her innocence and her willing to do nearly anything, he commands. They find a love most dream of.

Evie has found her contentment on her career as the Executive Secretary of the Director of Yu Solar Panels Inc. for over two years. She has a good relation with her co-workers and especially her boss Benjamin Yu who have grown out became her closest friend. Until her boss needs to be related to the owner of the one of the fastest growing construction company in the country. When Benjamin found out about them, he got threatened by Silver as he might take Evie away from him as his great secretary, a good friend and also he has special feelings for her but afraid to admit it. But Silver's feelings for Evie never change over the years. But will these two gentlemen still pursue Evie when they discover her real past? Will Evie still gonna choose one of them when she ever thought never needing anyone anymore?