Novel & Cerita Laced Roses

During a project review meeting, the new Gen Z intern, Jake Wilson, suddenly acts up by cutting to the server's backend logs on the projector. With a sneer, he says, "Mr. Miller, there's been an ongoing traffic anomaly in the server for the past few months. After conducting a quick investigation, it appears that the operations director, Ms. Chapman, has been secretly using the server to run her website just to accept private gigs and make quick bucks on the side." After the boss, Martin Miller, listens to Jake's report, his expression becomes stormy. "Ms. Chapman's actions have greatly infringed on the company's interests! In fact, the risks of her leaking the company's core secrets are extremely high! I suggest that we call the police on her!" Jake continued. As I look at how hostile Jake and Martin are acting, all I feel is bitter disappointment. Back when the company has first started out, it doesn't have the funds to afford a high-specs server. I'm the one who has carried my million-dollar workstation to the company and constructed a server there. Heck, I'm the one who has been paying the power bills for the server the whole time. To think that this company will backstab me in the end… Fine. Since everyone treats me like an enemy, I might as well give them a taste of the consequences for offending me!

On one mid-autumn day, my national classified mission finally came to an end. I dug out the phone I hadn't touched for four years, planning to call my wife, Nora Christie, and tell her that I'd be coming home. But the moment my phone screen lit up, I saw a public court notice declaring me… dead. I froze. Then, I looked closer. The person who had filed the petition to have me legally declared dead was Nora. Frowning with confusion, I dialed her number. With a soft chuckle, she brushed it off, saying that it must have been a clerical error by some court intern. Then, she asked when I would be coming home. Just when I was about to answer, I heard a soft, restrained moan from Nora. "Ah, don't touch me there…" Realizing something wasn't right, I told her that I would be back in a few more years before hanging up. Then, I grabbed the medal I had earned from four years of service to my country, and took the next train home. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I arrived. Right outside my front door, Nora was holding a wedding ceremony. The groom was Henry Crowley, the poor student I had sponsored!

Late one night, a thread blew up and hit the front page of a famous forum deep in New York’s underworld. The original poster had dug up an old prompt: “Name three words that sum up your youth.” Then an account that’d been dormant for years popped up in the replies. Its avatar was a backlit silhouette of a girl in a white dress, username: Seraphina. That was Seraphina Rossi. The Rossi family heiress, the undisputed it girl of New York’s underworld. She typed: Vibrant. Passionate. And Rico Valentino. All hell broke loose in the thread. The wild Valentino’s heir and the breathtaking Rossi heiress had once loved each other hard, only for it all to end in bitter regret. Nearly everyone in New York’s underworld had watched that heartbreak play out. Including me. I turned my head, staring at the man sleeping beside me. This was the man next to me: the once reckless kid who’d ruled the streets of Queens with his bare fists, now the Don of the Valention family. Poised. Unshakable. And he didn’t love me. I’d always known Rico still kept in touch with Seraphina. That he’d met her in secret, more than once. That’s why he’d refused to make our marriage public. His excuse was always the same: “Keeping your identity off the grid keeps our enemies from targeting you.” But I knew I was the one standing between Rico and the woman he’d never stopped loving. If all three of us were just going to keep hurting like this? I’d rather walk away. Let them have each other. I’d made up my mind. I was divorcing Rico.

As the adopted child of the Steward family, I was the glass child, the last child, the black sheep, the ignored. I wasn’t wanted, I was chosen. Chosen to become the one to uphold their ‘social standings’. They had no care for me, they picked me, they saw the quiet, bullied girl in the orphanage who was constantly picked on but couldn’t fight back. And they decided that I was the perfect choice, to be the poster child that cleaned their poorly received social standings. Now, I’ve been promised to the devil CEO in place of my runaway older sister who decided to run merely days before her engagement ceremony. Adrian was no sweetheart, he was cold and standoffish. Not a man of many words but a man with a commanding presence. I thought I would forever be miserable in the marriage but luck shined on me because my new husband wasn’t what the media and the rumor made him to be. He may very well be my fortune. But my happiness has never been guaranteed, just when I thought I could finally be happy, secrets, snakes and unfolded memories threaten to ruin it.

Blaze is the black dragon, who is the king of the dark realm. The unknown realm in the Fairy. Only a few Fae know about the existence of the biggest realm in Fairy.Blaze is powerful, fierce, domineering, minds his own business and his word is a rule in the dark realm. He is intelligent and prefers to be alone. He doesn't lack the attention of a woman, but no one ever captured his attention for more than an hour.Isabella is a human girl, who was kidnapped from her home to replace her look-alike, Arabella.Arabella belongs to a rich family in fairy, whose mother is a fae and father is a human man. Her father forced her to participate in the bridal run, where a dragon claims a woman as his bride.Isabella wakes up in fairy, all disoriented. Before she could understand what is happening around her, she is being claimed by Blaze, who usually never participates in these runs, as his bride.Will Blaze find out that the girl he claimed is not who he thinks she is?Can Isabella go back home?Will Isabella's hate for dragons become a hinder to their love?What are the reasons behind her occasionally glowing palms?Where is Koni?Or, is it someone else from his family?Will he be successful in Bela?

The wedding had reached the part where the groom kissed the bride. I closed my eyes and leaned in to kiss Stella Stafford, only to end up with a mouthful of fur. Her assistant held up the camera and burst out laughing. "The almighty Mr. Rowe can't even tell if he's kissing a person or a dog?" I stared at the Husky in front of me, its tongue lolling out, and felt my stomach churn. I was about to lay into him when Stella stepped in to block me. "It was just a joke. No hard feelings." Laurent Reilly smirked smugly, his tone dripping with arrogance. "And guess what? This Husky happens to be a female, so why don't you just marry her instead? You're not good enough for Stella anyway." The employees erupted in laughter. Mortified, I kicked him square in the chest, sending him sprawling. The next second, Stella smashed a wine bottle over my head and demanded an apology. I wiped the mix of wine and blood from my face, then dialed an overseas number with a cold grin. "The wedding is short one bride. You in?"

Three days before my marking ceremony, someone set fire to the bridal shop while I was inside trying on my ceremonial dress. Alpha Marcus threw the arsonist into the pack prison, sentencing them to the harshest punishment our laws allowed. I lay in the hospital bed, my body covered in third-degree burns, refusing to wake fully as the reality of my disfigurement sank in. In my semi-conscious state, I heard Marcus speaking with the pack's healing witch. "Alpha, we can still heal her completely with the ancient magic. If we wait any longer, Sarah will bear these scars for life! You just want Miss Rachel to be your Luna at the marking ceremony. This is cruel beyond measure!" "Let her keep the scars. I'll provide for her for the rest of her life, but if she's healed, she'll definitely cause trouble at the marking ceremony." "I promised Rachel that her pup would be welcomed into the pack with full honors. Only when Sarah is completely disfigured will she be grateful enough to raise Rachel's child as her own. The scars are necessary - at least this way, she won't dare mistreat the pup." In the corner of the room, where no one was watching, a tear slid down my burned cheek. So this was the truth. The marking ceremony I'd dreamed of was nothing but a lie. The mate bond I longed for would be my death sentence. If that's how it had to be, I would give him what he wanted.

I had always been a people pleaser. Yet somehow, I ended up transmigrating into the role of the vicious wife of a general. After three years away at war, Scott Holden returned and brought his so-called true love back with him. I handed over the main bedroom without hesitation, cooked for her myself, stayed up all night stitching a pair of matching pillows, and even had all the staff lined up to welcome her properly. But instead of being pleased, Jennifer Cross burst into tears. "This is all my fault. I have no name, no status, yet I'm staying here at Holden Residence, letting Lillian humiliate me like this. If that's the case, I'll just leave!" It hit me all at once. So that was what she wanted. A proper title. So I drafted a divorce letter for Scott myself, brought it to him, and said with an ingratiating smile, "After you divorce me, could you maybe keep me on the side as a mistress? My parents are gone. I don't have anywhere else to go." Scott flew into a rage. "I see right through your little tricks. Jennifer is just staying here temporarily. Are you really that petty?" From that day on, he never set foot in my room again. Then one day, enemy forces attacked. Jennifer and I were both captured and strung up on the city wall, forcing Scott to choose between us. Before he could even decide, I shouted eagerly, "I'll die, I'll die! I'm totally willing! I love that rush you get from falling from high up, that adrenaline spike!" After all, once I died, I could finally go home. But for the first time, Scott's eyes turned red with panic.

My parents have adopted an AI son called Adam. On the day he gets adopted, I get viewed by my family as a nuisance, for some reason. Dad hates how mischievous and cheeky I am. Mom thinks I'm inferior to Adam in every way. My older sister, Sapphire Griffin, even shouts at me. "What else are you capable of doing other than fighting with me over everything?" I feel like crying because the family has turned against me. So, I shove Adam to the floor out of rage. Mom's expression darkens instantly. She then slaps me in the face with all the strength she can muster. "Adam is your little brother! Oh, if only you're just as obedient and understanding as he is! I wouldn't have a building headache because of you! "Well, I want you to study at Elite Smart Academy and learn how to become a docile son!" I'm forced into an exchange program with Adam. That's how I begin studying at Elite Smart Academy. Three years later, my parents and Sapphire pick me up from the academy. When they call out to me, I don't move an inch at all. The director, Bruce Harrison, says with a smile, "Mr. Griffin, you need to say 'Power on, Unit 1314' for it to boot up."

"How about your actions when you sexually h... Uhmm, I mean you harassed him?" "Harassed him? Me? When did I?" "You tore off his clothes and tried to take advantage of him... Should I remind you more?" Swallowing hard, she tilted her head to the right in embarrassment. 'Celeste. Oo, Celeste. What did you do? How come he is everywhere? If he is really the man I married then he is very dangerous, there's no way I will survive if I stay near him. Death won't be my only choice either, he might want to torture me like some criminal...' ***** A beautiful wedding dress, a simple ring and a tiara, with her family members present and with the man she loved always... Celeste Banks imagined such a wedding so many times but they say, we don't always get what we wish for. Finding her boyfriend cheating was not enough, she was forced to accept a marriage proposal from an old baldie. When Celeste finds out that it was a conspiracy against her to get married, she runs away from her wedding. To save herself from getting caught, she uses a mysterious man as a shield and not only that, she even rips apart his expensive black shirt then makes an escape only to end up as his bride. ***** "We were checking the cctv footage to find out about Mrs. Weston, then we saw that... That woman actually escaped before the wedding. We have got the surveillance footage of her escaping, she was already in the flight during the wedding." "Then the woman..." Celeste's voice resounded in his head as he remembered the time of the wedding, trying to imagine how she looked. "Who is the woman I got married to?"