If The Savior Stood Beside Me

I vowed to transfer schools with my childhood friend when he claimed he was being bullied. But the day before we were to finalize the transfer, he backed out. His friend teased him. "Man, you faked being a punching bag just to get rid of Alice Wiley? That's cold. You two have been thick as thieves since forever. Are you really cool with her going to a new school alone?" Shane Page brushed it off. "It's just another high school across town. Not a big deal. I'm tired of her always being up my ass. This works out perfectly." I stood frozen outside the door for a long time. Finally, I turned and walked away. On the transfer form, I crossed out Oatheport High and filled in the international academy my parents had been pushing for. Everyone seemed to forget that Shane and I were never equals.

After failing the mission, the System gave me one final chance, and to succeed, I had to give birth to a child. The System promised that if the baby were born safely, it would reveal the truth to my target and give me one last glimmer of hope. However, six months into my pregnancy, just when things seemed stable, I was dragged onto an operating table in the middle of the night by my husband and family. My husband stopped the anesthesiologist from giving me any pain relief. “Let her feel the pain,” he said coldly. “We need to keep the kidneys as fresh as possible.” My parents instructed the doctor to draw my blood. “She’s the same blood type as our precious girl. Let’s take some for backup.” Even my childhood friend, the boy who had always been by my side, was the one to slice open my abdomen.  They wanted my kidneys to save my sister, who was dying from kidney failure. No one believed I was pregnant. No matter how much I begged, they went ahead with the operation, tearing me open. The baby couldn’t survive, and I died on that operating table. However, as my soul began to fade away, something strange happened. Those who had murdered me—my husband, my parents, my so-called friend—they all lost their minds.

Bata pa lang si Marina, may galit ng namuo sa puso ni Sebastian dahil ayaw niya itong nakikita palagi sa kanilang hacienda. Sukang suka siya sa babaeng matabang nerd na kagaya ni Marina ngunit matalino naman ito dahil sa sipag niyang mag-aral. Paano na lang sa kanilang pagbinata at pagdalaga ay hindi nila inaasahan ang huling habilin ng yuamong lolo at lola ni Sebastian na ipakasal silang dalawa pagtungtong nila sa tamang edad? Ano kaya ang mangyayari sa kanilang dalawa kung sila'y magsama sa iisang bahay kung sila'y kasal na? May mabubuo ba kayang pagmamahal sa pagitan nilang dalawa kahit sila'y magkaaway noon pa man?

For five years, I was married to the heir of the Romano family, Italy's biggest crime family. Every night, he'd hold me and whisper, "Just give me an heir, and I'll give him the entire Romano empire." But I never got pregnant, and the Don's disappointment in me grew with every passing month. Until I found out my husband had been secretly swapping my folic acid for birth control pills. I was still reeling from the fury when I saw a post from his ex-girlfriend: an ultrasound photo. Her caption was sweet and smug: “Ten weeks along. Vincent said he can’t wait to meet the baby.” Seeing the flood of congratulations, my mind was made up. I found the contact info for my ex-boyfriend—the one who’d spent the last five years trying to get me back. I sent him a single text. 【Give me one month. Then I’m coming with you.】

Enzo Romano, what you do to me means nothing to you. But to me, your touch burns, Enzo Romano. It hurts! In a month and a few days, this round will be over, and we will each go our own way. You will go back to your stable life, to your lover who was always there. And me? I will go back with a huge emptiness in my chest, with a hole in my heart that aches like I am cursed! Who is going to pay the price in the end, Enzo? Huh? ********* "Enzo!" I breathed heavily, the heat burning in my throat. Damn, what is he doing? "Shhh. Stay like this for a moment, Celine. Please." He whispered with a faint voice, mixed with a strange madness, while I felt his chin rest on top of my head, his hot breath sneaking into my hair. "Enzo, what are you doing?" A tremble crept into my voice, and the heat rushed through me, making me feel dizzy! It was like my stomach tightened hard, as if I had suddenly caught a deadly disease! "Let me see it, Celine." He whispered, leaning his head more, his panting breath touching my bare shoulder, hitting the sensitive spot near my neck! "Enzo." I whispered his name like I was breathing him in, my eyes closed, and all the walls I built around myself started to fall without any fight! "Do not say my name like that, Celine." His voice shook just like mine did, as if we drowned in the same whirlpool, but why? He has a whole life. He already has a lover. A perfect woman, steady in his world, someone who does not shake and does not break. So why then is he playing with me?

I'm due for a promotion when I stumble upon my husband entangled with his childhood sweetheart. After that, I'm secretly admitted to a psychiatric facility. I repeatedly tell the doctors that I'm fine, but all I get is worse abuse and humiliation. When Howard Armstrong visits me every month, I beg him to get me out. Each time, he says, "This is a proper establishment, so you have to follow the doctor's instructions. Don't be unreasonable!" On the day I'm discharged, he speaks to me tenderly and calls me his honey. Later, when I place a divorce agreement before him, he breaks down in tears.

I took a shortcut through the alley and watched Dante Marchetti put a bullet in a man like it was nothing. He saw my face. That was the end of my normal life. Within an hour I was in the back of his car being driven to an estate I had never seen before with gates that locked from the outside and a wardrobe full of clothes in my exact size waiting like someone had known I was coming before I did. He told me I wasn't a prisoner but a guest. He said people who wanted to find me were considerably worse than him and that his walls were the only thing standing between me and a conversation I wouldn't survive. Maybe he was right. The problem is the longer I stayed the harder it became to remember which one was true. Because the man who caught me in that alley wasn't the only version of him. There was another one that nobody else seemed to get to see. The one who stood alone in his dead mother's library looking tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep. The one who had my cat brought to the estate because he heard me crying through a closed door and didn't know what else to do about it. The one who almost smiled when I threw a glass at his head. That version of him was the one I couldn't stop thinking about. I came here as a witness. I stayed as something else entirely. Somewhere between the locked doors, the candlelit dinners and the secrets we started sharing in the dark I stopped wanting to leave. The question was whether a woman like me could survive loving a man like him. I was about to find out.

Lorenzo De Angelis is an Italian tycoon who runs his empire with an iron fist. He is gorgeous, powerful, young, and very wealthy. His enemies are several and quite ferocious, so Lorenzo trusts no one. This is why when he discovers a woman hiding in his office, listening to some important and extremely confidential information, his first instinct is to keep her ‘prisoner’ for a few days while trying to discover who is this beautiful ‘spy’. She is Phoebe Stone and she is just doing her job cleaning offices, without knowing she is ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. So, in a matter of minutes, against her wishes, she will start a thrilling adventure, next to a stunning but frightening man. This adventure will change both their lives forever. (Excerpt) The reality hit her hard. She was standing in a dimly lit room, half naked in front of the man who kidnapped her… who threatened her... The most beautiful man in the world. He lifted her hands and put them on him as if it was the most natural thing in the world that she should touch him. She caressed him again, just to make sure he was really there. He covered her small hands with his and stood perfectly still. “If you want me to stop, I will. If you want me to leave this room, I will. ‘Piccola’ (Ita. Baby), the decision is yours.” “Don’t stop, please… I just want to be yours tonight… and always…”

He destroyed her life in a heartbeat. Now he wants her heart to beat for him. On her wedding day, Elena Robertson wore red for love. It ended in blood. Her parents, slaughtered before her eyes. Her fiancé, gunned down with a smile on his lips. Her freedom, stolen by the man who thought she was someone else. Thorne Del Roi. The Mafia King feared across continents. Cold. Merciless. Godless. He took everything from her to avenge a crime she never committed. He broke her, used her, poisoned her soul with vengeance. But truth cuts deeper than any blade. Now, the devil who destroyed her is the only one who can’t stop craving her. Not for her body, but for the heart he never meant to feel beating in his chest. And Elena? She wants to hate him. She should hate him. But what do you do when your enemy becomes the air you breathe? He’s power. She’s fury. He’s fire. She’s the match. And when love ignites between them, it won’t just burn, it will explode. So much twist you can't imagine. Dive and enjoy the ride.

Matagal nang may gusto si Zyline kay Nick. Anim silang magkakabarkada kasali si Nick. Alam na ng lahat ang pagtatangi niya sa kaibigan maliban na lang yata rito. Hindi niya alam kung manhid lang ito or talagang wala lang gusto sa kanya. Si Brent ang pinaka-bestfriend niya sa lahat ng mga kaibigan niya. Kahit hindi niya sinasabi rito ang nararamdaman kay Nick dahil sa hiya ay alam din ni Brent iyon. Paano kung nagbago ang lahat nang halikan siya ni Brent? Hindi nya maikakaila ang kuryenteng naramdaman no'ng gabing hinalikan siya nito. Pinagbigyan niya ang lalaki sa gusto nitong mangyari. Susubukan nilang maging sila pero palihim. Ngayon ay litong-lito na siya. Sa pag-aakala ni Brent na si Nick pa rin ang gusto niya ay bigla itong umalis at hindi na nagpakita. Saka naman siya niligawan na nang tuluyan ni Nick. Pero bakit sa halip na maging masaya at sa wakas ay napansin na rin siya ni Nick bilang babae ay si Brent na ang hinahanap ng puso niya? Si Brent na hindi na nagparamdam sa kanya mula no'ng gabing muntik nang may mangyari sa kanila.