It All Started With Novels & Stories

She flashed her an apologetic smile. "It's okay. Even I'm ready to run from myself right now. The smell is unbearable." Her cheeks flamed red upon hearing Giselle's words with embarrassment. "I did shower, it's just the chicken poop I was using as manure. I grow vegetables and flowers." She didn't know why she added that part. Perhaps after perceiving the lady's beautiful chocolate scent, she felt even more embarrassed and intimidated.

I touched the frame, fingers tracing the words that had started all of this. “Yeah,” I said softly. “And it’s only the beginning.” The truth was that I never thought I would get this far. I had been the girl who almost gave up. THE END

I said finally. "Most people don't. You can start anywhere. The beginning, the middle, the part that hurts the most. There's no wrong answer." I thought about it. About all the places I could begin. The night I got pregnant. The night I left New York. The night Aiden showed up in Miami. The night Vanessa left the casserole on our porch. The night Charles Whitmore broke into our house. Every beginning led to another beginning, and every ending was just another start.

she said. He almost smiled. "Where do you want me to start." "Wherever you start when you tell it to yourself." He considered her. She'd asked it cleanly, no warmth, no manipulation in the voice, the closest thing she had to a sincere question, and she watched him register the cleanness of it and not, quite, trust it. "I start with the night before the indictment," he said. "Most people would start with the building of it, the idea, the original deck. But that's not where it begins for me when I'm honest with myself. It begins the night Dana told me she'd been getting emails."

My way of turning chaos into clarity. So one morning, after Roman left for a meeting and Isabella was down for her nap, I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and opened my laptop. The cursor blinked on a blank page, daring me to start. I typed three words. The first time. And just like that, it all began.

It was the township vibe but with Italian food. “Well, it started with my grandpa who saw an opportunity to start a business but that business ended up being unsuccessful, so he went, ‘fuck it’ and ended up on the wrong side of life.” “Okay. Do you usually trust people with this information or is it just me?” She smirked. “I feel like I should trust you for some reason. Come on let's go somewhere.” He got up from his seat, fixing his suit jacket. “Where?” She looked up at him as he held out his hand for her to take.

Okay, I wouldn't have known. Odette gasped too when she saw his face. He was a master gamer with a channel that showcased his achievements. He also covered songs, and shows of any kind, he owned a game company at his age and was a freaking model. I was inspired to start my e-commerce company because of him. I started it out of the blue because he jokingly said he liked girls who achieved something for themselves and did not depend on their family wealth. I wanted to do something to prove that I was fit too and boom, I opened a company.

Day three. The first workday under the new rules. By seven-thirty that morning, the department was already a mess when I walked in. "Dr. Altman, the OR called. Anesthesia's ready for the first case, but the attending surgeon still isn't here." "Who's the attending?" "Dr. Lowe." I checked the wall clock. 7:35. The surgical board listed a 7:40 start. "Where is he?" The nurse lowered her voice. "In his office. Says his back hurts too much to operate today."

Joel's POV … I watched Anna walk away, feeling like a boulder had dropped on my chest. The moment I got home, I collapsed with a fever. People were strange. When they had something, they took it for granted. Only after they lost it did they realize how much it had meant—and then they couldn't stop looking back. Michael and I lost our parents when we were six. The Brooklyn family and the Murphy family—both known for their charity work—took us in and sponsored the two of us.

Velda sent a message: [It's mine now. I ran out of Moonveil territory like I'd lost it. By the time I reached the cave, wolves were already ripping it apart. "Stop! What are you doing?!" I rushed them. Too late. The carved marks on the stone wall—our heights as pups, the tallies from our first hunts— Gone. Every piece of my past with Eric smashed to dust. This was the last clean place in my heart. Now it was ruined. Something in me snapped.