It's Just An Empty Cup

Rachel Shine Arcena, a girl who is as bright as her namesake, experiences a life that suggests otherwise. Dahil sa kahirapan ay napilitan siyang magsakripisyo para may makain ang kaniyang pamilya; dahil dito ay nawalan na siya ng oras para sa sarili. Sa hindi inaasahang pangyayari ay nakilala niya si Linderio Kryz Santos, isang masiyahing binata na walang hangad ku'ndi ang maging masaya ang mga tao na nasa paligid niya. Binago niya ang pananaw ng dalaga sa pagmamahal, at tinuruan niya itong buksan ang puso sa pagmamahal. He showed her his own definition of love, even though the world is against them. They still fight for what they deserve. They still strive to make it happen.

Cerita ini tercipta berdasarkan kisah yang dialami langsung oleh sipenulis alias cerita asli meskipun terdapat beberapa bagian cerita yang akan dikasi bumbu penyedap rasa alias fiktif namun tujuannya tidak lain dan tidak bukan hanyalah untuk menambah sensasi didalam alur cerita agar pembaca tidak mudah bosan dalam pengembangan karakternya. Buku ini akan mengisahkan tentang dua sejoli yang kata-nya sedang jatuh cinta namun sulit untuk saling mengekspresikan perasaan masing-masing dikarenakan cinta mereka yang dianggap tidak wajar karna sesama jenis. Dan hal itulah yang membuat salah satunya kadang terlihat egois dan mendominasi didalam hubungan mereka.

Ever thought you were different from the world, that no matter how you tried, you just never fit in? That no body would accept the real you? Things felt the same for Ariana Bliss. It never got better after she realized the head agent of her defense academy that everyone answered to was the most annoying schoolmate she could ever come across. ******************************. "It's gonna be like this for a month." He smiled. Punch him. Break his nose or finger, dislocate his leg, shove a book in his mouth, stuff a pen into his nostrils. Ari's mind kept thinking of several possible ways to hurt him. "You don't know how much I wanna hurt you." She mumbled truthfully. "You can't, cos I'm gonna beat you again. Just like earlier today." He smirked. Arrrgh! "Just ignore. I'm just gonna ignore you for the rest of my life. " She said and the teacher walked in.....

Ariel had no wolf, no mate but she lived a very peaceful life away from pack troubles, until her Pack was attacked and her father, the Alpha of Moonlight Pack, was gravely injured. Desperate to save him, Ariel turns to the one man every werewolf fears: Leonard Parker, Alpha of the Fire Pack. He is ruthless, unpredictable and also rumored to be something more dangerous than a werewolf. He agrees to help, but only for a price: one year as his wife! Ariel accepts, believing it’s just a contract. But to Leonard, it is far more than that. She might be the past he cannot let go of.... or even the key to it!

I worked for a restaurant, and our boss loved making empty promises about giving us restaurant shares. The boss said we would start with zero shares, but we could earn 0.01% for every two hours of overtime, covering someone else’s work or saving the restaurant 1,000 bucks. I suggested she write this down in an official document and have someone track it properly. She just smiled and told everyone to work harder. She never actually put it in writing. The experienced staff did not believe her, but one prep cook took it seriously. At the end of the year, he went to the boss to claim his shares. The boss said, “Sorry, the head chef told me there’s no official document, so it doesn’t count. You can’t claim any shares.” The prep cook worked hard all year and got nothing for it, so he took his anger out on me. The day before I was going home for the New Year, he killed me with a knife. “If you hadn’t said it doesn’t count without an official document, this whole restaurant would’ve been mine!” I lay in a pool of blood. When I opened my eyes, I was back to the day the boss first made those empty promises.

I was dying from my fear of heights, but my husband, Don Vincent, was busy with his assistant, savoring the latest coffee flown in from Hawaii that morning. "You're a grown woman, Bella. What's the big deal? You're stuck on a roof, figure it out." Then he hung up on me. I collapsed onto the hot tar of the roof, my body shaking uncontrollably before everything went black. It was two hours before building security found me. When I got home, I asked Vincent for a divorce. He rubbed his temples, his patience worn thin, looking at me as if I were a child throwing a tantrum. "Over a cup of coffee? I told you, the heights are all in your head. You’re perfectly safe now. Stop making a scene alright? What's this nonsense about a divorce? I have more important things to deal with. Calm yourself down." I stared at his back as he left, tears already streaming down my face. Something important? Did he really think I couldn't hear his assistant, Sophia, murmuring in the background? Did he think I didn't know he took her to the last family gathering? I had loved Vincent for three years. Everyone knew he was the center of my world. They all thought an orphan like me could never leave him. But now, all the love I had was eclipsed by a profound, soul-crushing exhaustion. I was done. I picked up my phone and dialed a number I hadn't touched in three long years. "Uncle, book me a flight to Seattle. I'm ready to leave Vincent."

Sebuah kesalahpahaman membuat Brandon dan Arini saling membenci. Sebuah kejadian lain membuat keduanya menjadi dekat, JUST FRIEND. Sebuah keputusan, kemudian memisahkan mereka, setelah menjalin persahabatan selama bertahun-tahun. *** Arini, seorang siswi berprestasi, memiliki hobby bermain basket. Dia memilih bergabung dengan klub basket, meski tidak bisa ikut dalam pertandingan karena bukan laki-laki. Di sanalah, Arini bertemu dengan Brandon, leader basket Casanova berparas tampan, tapi dingin. Sebuah kesalahpahaman, membuat Bran menentang kehadiran gadis itu di klub basket. Tak disangka, suatu kejadian membuat Brandon malah menjadi penolong bagi Arini. Sejak saat itu mereka berdua menjadi dekat dan menjalin persahabatan. Bertahun berlalu, sebuah keputusan mampu mengubah segalanya, ketika Arini dijodohkan oleh sang Ayah dengan pria lain. 'Tak ada persahabatan yang murni di antara pria dan wanita.'

Ini bukan hanya cerita tentang Arini dan Brandon, tapi juga kedua anak-anak mereka; Elfarehza dan Alyssa. Sakinah, mawaddah dan warahmah. Ketiga hal inilah yang diinginkan oleh setiap pasangan suami istri yang telah menikah. Begitu juga dengan Arini dan Brandon. Masa lalu yang kelam membuat Brandon diliputi kekhawatiran. Dia takut kedua anak-anaknya melakukan kesalahan serupa, sehingga membuat pria itu menjadi seorang ayah yang overprotective. Seiring berjalannya waktu, El dan Al tumbuh menjadi remaja. Mereka mulai memberontak karena merasa dikekang. Puncaknya ketika El mengetahui rahasia yang disimpan oleh Brandon. Ketika itulah hubungannya dengan sang Ayah mulai memburuk. Tak hanya Brandon, Arini ternyata juga menyimpan rahasia besar. Begitu juga dengan Elfarehza dan Alyssa. Apa rahasia yang mereka simpan? Akankah sakinah, mawaddah dan warahmah masih bisa diwujudkan dalam rumah tangga mereka, setelah semua rahasia terbongkar? Mampukah Brandon mempertahankan cintanya kepada Arini, setelah tahu rahasia sang istri?

While my husband, Gerald Brown, was abroad negotiating a business deal, he was drugged and spent the night with a female secretary from a rival company. The drug’s side effects scrambled his memory so badly that he forgot who I was. He kicked me out of the master bedroom and let the secretary smash my grandmother’s heirloom. I told myself he was sick and stayed silently by his side. But when I suggested taking him for a medical checkup, he hit me for the first time. “Who do you think you are? Only Ailey is allowed to touch me. If she gets jealous, you’ll regret it.” When the secretary framed me, he pushed me down the stairs, and I suffered a miscarriage. Late one night, when my heart condition flared up, I went to his study for medicine but overheard him talking to his friend outside the door. “Faking amnesia to bring Ailey home is one thing, but why replace your wife’s heart medication? Now, she’ll never return to the hospital for surgery.” Gerald just chuckled. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

My boss, who made me work overtime every single day, finally got what was coming to him. Somehow, he got connected to my new keyboard. It was like he was synced to it. His face flushed red, his eyes brimming with tears. "Don't type anymore," he begged. I just smiled and nudged the mouse. "Don't move the mouse either!" 'Do you expect me to just stop because you said so? Wouldn't that make me look pathetic?' I thought to myself. I kept working until midnight. Just as I was about to leave, I glanced down. The carpet at my boss's feet was soaked through. I figured he must have knocked over his glass of water.