Independence Library Apartments

It was midnight, and I was out at my stall when the cops took me to the station. They checked my profile and looked at me weirdly. "You're a Greatpeak graduate. What are you doing setting up shop in a bazaar?" That was odd. I went through the profile and realized that yes, while the student's ID was mine, the photo was not. I knew the guy in the photo. Josiah Ferguson. I had no idea I got accepted into Greatpeak University twenty years ago. Eventually, I was released, but I had no idea how I trudged back home. Then, I heard Hazel Quinley, my wife, talking to someone on the phone. "I won't let Michael get in your way, Josiah. Just go abroad." So that's it! It was her! My wife helped Josiah take what was supposed to be mine! I was sick. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to confront her and Josiah, but then she stabbed me in the back, and I died. "I'm sorry, Michael. I can't let you ruin Josiah's future." And then I woke up. I was taken back in time to my high school days. Our homeroom was giving out college application forms. This time, things would be different. This time, I would take back what was rightfully mine!

In the fifth year of our bland marriage, I receive a message that my husband has booked a hotel room with a woman. Within the next second, seductive pictures of me show up in the work group chat. In the pictures, I seduced my husband but failed. My colleagues in the group chat mock me by saying, "She gave Mr. Reed an ultimatum and forced him to marry her. He was forced to break up with the woman he loves." "Mr. Reed put up with her for five years. It only makes sense that he could no longer resist and decide to reunite with his lover." My sick father dies out of shock, yet my husband does not show up to his funeral. That night, I inform Belinda that I wish to divorce her son. "Back then, you told me that I'm Caleb's blessing in life. You said that he'd have endless success if we were to marry. "As long as I married Caleb for five years, you promised to pay for my father's medical fees. Now that the time is up, you should let me go too."

At the dinner table, my wife's best friend suddenly speaks to her in Lytian. "Three years ago, you married Julian in a grand wedding just to help Jace get Julian's letter of forgiveness. Over the years, I've seen Julian fall more and more deeply in love with you. Yet, you're still lying to him. "You gave him sterilization pills but passed them off as his depression medication. Aren't you afraid that he'll fall apart if he finds out the truth?" My wife, Erica Inman, briefly shows a conflicted expression on her face. She then gives a bitter smile and says, "A child unwanted by their mother has no reason to be born. As long as Julian doesn't stand in the way of Jace's happiness, I will keep my promise and stay by his side for the rest of his life." No one knows that I've learned Lytian to keep up with Erica. I stand in the living room and look at the fresh kiss mark on my neck. As I glance at the medication I take regularly for my depression, my whole body turns cold. It turns out that all of Erica's affection toward me was fake. What I thought was my salvation turns out to be nothing but a carefully planned deception. Since that's the case, I'll do my part to make sure they all get what they want.

"How I talk to my employees is not and shouldn't be your business." He started taking slow steps towards me while I kept moving back till my back touched the wall. There's no escape anymore. He pressed his palms on the wall, caging me in. I inhaled his intoxicating scent not wanting to meet his eyes. He slowly leaned in as I could feel his musky breath in my ear. "You defy me so much that I want to hurt you." With that he disappeared. The only evidence that showed he was here was just the sound of the closing 'Love? A mere word or feeling that makes us do weird and dumb things. I didn't want to love him. I didn't want to want him. I didn't want anything to do with him but the heart wants what it wants. He was my worst nightmare and at the same time my solace. He was my enemy and at the same time my friend. I hated him the most but at the same time I loved him the most!' ______________ Ivory Addams, a young waitress, is thrust into a dangerous world when she's kidnapped by a Mafia king who believes she holds the key to saving his son's life. As she navigates her new reality, she's faced with an impossible choice - marry a Mafia Prince or risk losing everything she holds dear. As she uncovers dark secrets and fights for her independence, she becomes entangled in a deadly game of power, love, and survival. Can she navigate this treacherous world and protect herself from becoming a pawn in their dangerous games?

I stare at the email on my screen, unable to move my fingers. Tomorrow is our company's crucial product launch, and I just learn that the patent for the algorithm I spent three years developing is now filed under Matthew Ashford's new assistant, Sophie Bennett. I storm into Matthew's office to confront him. Sophie sits on his desk with her legs crossed, looking completely innocent. She claims that she filled out the form by mistake. "It's just a clerical error. The patent still belongs to the company. What's the big deal?" Matthew stands up from his chair, positioning himself in front of Sophie. I can't believe what I am hearing. "Matthew, this is my research!" "Emma, you're thirty-five. Why are you picking a fight with a twenty-three-year-old intern?" He frowns. Then, he turns to Sophie. "Starting tomorrow, you're the new CTO. Emma needs… some time off." I'm utterly stunned. A decade of marriage and five years dedicated to building a company together have been shattered by a few casual words from him. Thirty minutes later, Sophie posts a photo on social media of herself sitting on Matthew's lap. They are both clinking champagne glasses. "So lucky to have the best boss ever. I'll make sure to be his loyal kitten." Below that, Matthew leaves a comment—three red heart emojis. I shut my laptop and pick up my phone. "Hello. Is this Mr. David Langley from Novara Group of Sundale Valley? This is Emma Whitmore. I've changed my mind. I'm ready to join you." I pause. "And by the way, about that unreleased algorithm upgrade, I have the complete technical blueprint. Make me an offer." Later, I fly to Tallisport with an eight-figure check in hand, while Matthew goes frantic trying to find me.

I was diagnosed with cancer. After much deliberation, I called my husband. He fell silent for a long while. “Most of our mortgage is unpaid, and our children need money for school. You should go for conservative treatment.” I called my mother while weeping. “You’re so troublesome. None of my friends or family have cancer!” I stopped crying and started living for myself. God favored me and let me see reality early in my life. He even gave me a chance to start over.

My fiancé, Charles, was crippled during a pack skirmish. He lost his wolf, leaving him unable to shift. My stepsister, Quinn, who had always despised me, eagerly offered to take my place in the mating ceremony. Her only condition was my grandmother’s antique necklace. Everyone said I was lucky to escape a life with a broken wolf. Only I knew I had dodged a death sentence. In my previous life, I used my healing gift to restore Charles’s wolf and became the celebrated Luna of the Sterling Pack. But Quinn, searching for a moonstone for Charles in the Forbidden Lands, was captured by a rival pack and tortured to death. Charles never marked me. Instead, he locked me away and starved me to death. "If you had just given Quinn the necklace, she wouldn't have been mauled by rogues," he’d snarled. "You can atone for your sins in hell!" Only then did I realize they had already forged a mate bond. The ceremony with me was nothing but a desperate charade. Reborn, I found myself back before the ceremony, just as Charles proposed the same arrangement to Quinn. But they don’t know. The only one who can heal Charles is me, not some cursed moonstone.

A concerned sister… Chloe Madison would do anything to find her missing brother. When she stumbles upon some information that leads her to a nearby military science facility, she doesn’t hesitate to sneak under the barbed wire fence and steal some files. Everything seems to be going to plan. That is, until a handsome soldier finds her with her hands in his filing cabinet. Instead of reporting her, he lets her go. She hurries home, his golden eyes all she can think of. A broken soldier… Captain Jackson Wolfe just returned from a hellish tour of duty in Afghanistan. Scarred and hiding terrible secrets, he is sent to a desk job. He just recently found out the hard way that he was a werewolf. Not only that, as far as he knows, he’s the only one of his kind. He knows he shouldn’t be around people and keeps to himself until he sees Chloe stealing files. He knows he should stop her, but her scent and something in her eyes stops him. A coverup worth killing for… When Wolfe follows Chloe to the library, he discovers that he’s not the only one of his kind. Someone doesn’t like that Chloe has been digging around, threatening to expose the secrets of her brother and the wolf shifters. In fact, they’re willing to kill to stop her. Wolfe knows that he must protect Chloe. After all, she may be the only thing that can save him from himself.

The year the Lawson family was on the edge of bankruptcy, my father made a deal with Rory Lawson and arranged for me to marry him. I didn't know he already had a fiancée, who was also his childhood sweetheart. Later, when my father became embroiled in a scandal and the company faced collapse, Rory brought her home, promising her the grand wedding she deserved. I didn't cry or make a scene. I just quietly packed my bags. Rory sneered, "Don't pull that hard-to-get act. You think you're still the pampered heiress?" Unknown to him, I had the divorce agreement he signed while drunk. In seven days, I'd be leaving the country with my father.

Astraea was a normal girl with extremely simple and happy life. But everything is jeopardized when she met a mysterious guy. 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏. 𝑺𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓. 𝑨 𝒕𝒚𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝑨 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚. 𝑨 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 - I closed the book and a heavy sigh left my lips. I looked out of the library and there he was standing at the door. His arms flexed as his grip on the door tightened. He felt so close yet so far. And his eyes, his beautiful honey like eyes, it held a story. A mystery that seems to pull me towards him, no matter how much I resist. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞...