Joking

The moment Ava saw the word "DIVORCE" printed in bold letters, her stomach twisted into a painful knot. For a second, her brain refused to process it. "You... you're joking," she managed to say, her voice barely above a whisper, her throat dry like sandpaper. "I'm not."

**"This isn’t just any party, it’s your wedding."** The words hit me like a truck as I stood frozen in disbelief. **"To Angelo Rizzo."** My stepbrother’s voice was cold, detached. My heart pounded in my chest. **"You’re joking, right?"** But one look at his face told me he wasn’t. **"You’re the payment for my debt to the Cosa Nostra."** His betrayal was a knife twisting in my gut. --- Attending a party with my stepbrother, I was prepared for an ordinary night. Instead, I was thrown into a nightmare. Without warning, I found myself standing beside Angelo Rizzo—a man as feared as he is cold—as his bride. My stepbrother owed the Cosa Nostra money, and I was his only way out. With no escape and no choice, I now wear a wedding ring tied to a man I fear. Three hours later, my world has turned upside down. There’s no running from Angelo, no hiding from the life ahead. My only hope? To survive being married to the infamous Angelo Rizzo.

"What is it now? Are you chasing me? You just got home the other day. I need to spend more time with you." "I don't need any slut's company." Her heart seemed to stop at the outrageous word he used to refer to her and she regarded him with a long suffering expression. “What did you just say?" She was now offended. "You are crossing the line with these jokes.” “Do I seem like joking?” “Wha..what? You must be out of your mind. Why? What is going on? Are you throwing me away?” Becky wailed confused. Tears Of Agony traces the life of Becky a young beautiful woman recently married. Her dressing style sharply contrast that of those around her. She is encouraged to conform to the ways of the clan by changing her code of dress but refuses. She ends up being disliked by her husband's relatives and there is a campaign to cause a break in her marriage. The majority of the members of the clan are in favour. The disastrous end of her marriage leaves her dissolutioned and devastated. She is forced to leave the clan without her only child. She meets a kind man she like. The man is desperately in love with her but she rejects his proposal to be his wife.

Miles was livid. His father had to be joking, right? Marrying a nineteen-year-old girl? Who does that? He was twenty when she was born, for God’s sake. The very idea disgusted him. Not because of what anyone would say—Miles didn’t care about public opinion. Reclusive, cold, rude, and emotionally unavailable, he had no interest in the world’s judgment. But this? This felt wrong. He wasn’t a predator, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to marry someone two decades younger than him. But his father wouldn’t back down, and losing the company wasn’t an option. So, he reluctantly agreed. He would marry the shy, damaged girl who had survived the worst at the hands of her step-family. He made himself a promise: he wouldn’t touch her. He would protect her, not become another perverted man she’d have to fear. What he didn’t expect was how hard that promise would be to keep. She was undeniably beautiful—soft curves in all the right places, her presence igniting desires he thought he could suppress. Suddenly, Miles found himself fighting not just his morals, but his erection. But she was his wife. He could touch her, right? Or at least look? She was going to be his undoing.

"Marry me." He said with a straight face, casually, as if he was talking about the weather. "You're joking right?" "Why would you ask me that kind of question?" He frowns "It's because you sound ridiculous," she bit out harshly. "You know what's more ridiculous?" he smirked darkly, showing his straight white teeth. "A lifetime of debt." Emily breathed harshly, knowing Sebastian as she has for four years, he could be brutal when he doesn't get what he wants, she had never been on the receiving end of his competitive side when it comes to closing deals, yet here she was facing him, chills running down her back, heart beating fast as if she ran a marathon. She was terrified of what the future holds.

If I will accept his rejection or divorce him, I would do it with dignity. I would prove to him that I was not that weak girl he used to know. I wiped away my tears and said to him in a calm tone. "Okay then... I'm accepting your wish." "What do you mean?" "I want a divorce, Damian." I announced boldly and he suddenly burst into laughter, probably thinking I was joking. But I was not the same person he had met years ago. I am much stronger now. If not for anything but for my unborn kids. "Wait, you're joking right? You can't just divorce me like that" "I, Katerina Clerks, daughter of Alpha Enzo of the Black Stone Pack rejects you, Damian Black, as my mate. I'm severing my mate bond completely with you." I said in a proud and firm tone while looking him straight in the eyes. "What's wrong with you? You don't have the right to reject me as your mate! You have no right to do that! Until I said so, it's not over yet!!!" He burst angrily. I stared at him, hurt by his lack of remorse. I had just caught him with my stepsister, and yet he showed no regret. How could I have fallen for a man like him?

“oh I forgot you're here for the big announcement”. Nathan laughed “you’re joking if you think father will hand over the company to you Logan. I mean we both know you don't have what it takes”. Logan Carter is one of the sons of Arthur Carter— a popular billionaire. Nathan Carter is Logan’s stepbrother. Even though Logan is already a billionaire, he competes with Nathan on who becomes the next president of their father's company Carter Enterprise. When Arthur Carter announces that any of his sons who gives him his first grandchild will become the next president of his company, Logan's jaw dropped in surprise. He had sworn never to get married because of his last heartbreak. Now he did not just have to get married, he had to have a child too. When his friend David suggests that he could hire someone to have his child without getting married to her, he reluctantly agrees. David introduces Tara to Logan Carter at the Nighttime bar where Logan offers to hire Tara as the surrogate mother of his child and his contract fiancee. With the condition that she moves in with him for the baby’s sake and to authenticate their relationship in the eye of his family. Tara is a twenty five years old stripper who is beautiful and still a virgin. She only gets into the stripping business because she desperately needs to earn a living and cannot find a better job. Her beauty and sensuality has earned her the admiration of many men. Will Logan be able to maintain the professional boundaries that their contract demands and also keep his oath never to get married or will he fall for Tara’s charms?

Their gaze locked, one green, the other red, Ava’s breath hitched as their bond snapped into place “goddess” she muttered lowly. He smirked at her and sauntered towards her in firm and determined steps. Ava wasn’t a coward but she felt fear for the first time. “The moon goddess must be joking, the Alpha King was her mate?!” ............... Ava Beaumont, the fearless heir to the Crescent Claw pack, has just turned 20 and been crowned Alpha. As an only child of Alpha Terrance, he raised her as his heir despite the fat that she was a girl and has high expectations of her, so does the entire pack. But her night of triumph is shattered when her long-awaited mate appears and he turns out to be the Lycan Alpha King! He wouldn’t take no for an answer and demanded she come with him. Their bond is undeniable, but Ava's loyalty lies with her pack. Ava stared at him with a solemn look and thought to herself. “I am not about to abandon the Crescent Claw just because of a mate bond, not even for the Alph king himself........” When 200-year-old Lycan Alpha King Dolion Starkov finally finds his mate, he's met with a shocking rejection. Ava, a fiery redhead Alpha wolf, refuses to abandon her pack for the sake of their bond. As his anger grows, Ava stands her ground, unflinching in the face of his deadly threats. Ava eyes shines with anger overtaking her fears, pressing her body to his, she whispered to him. “Hurt as much as a hair on their body and a breathing mate is the least thing you’d have to worry about” Dolion’s eyes couldn’t hide his amusement and anger, he the Lycan Alpha had just being threatened.

You’re pregnant, President Jay. Jay looked at the doctor, blinked once, then laughed. “You must be joking, right?” But the doctor wasn’t joking. And neither was the second opinion. Or the third. Because somehow, impossibly, Jayden J. Hale America’s most powerful bachelor and the next in line to the Hale empire was carrying a baby. And not just any baby. The baby of a stranger he can’t forget… A man whose name he doesn’t even know… And the man who shows up at his surprise engagement party as his future brother-in-law.