Lazy Glasses

Reborn from a desolate post-apocalyptic world into the marginalized middle daughter of Solstice City’s powerful Laurent family, Helene wants only one thing: peace. But when her younger sister refuses to marry her now-disabled fiancé—the very engagement she once stole from Helene—Helene is chosen to take her place. Determined to sever ties with the family she'd never quite fitted into, Helene agrees to the marriage—on one condition: the day she marries into the Blackthorne family is the day she seizes to be part of the Laurent family. ★ ★ ★ To Lucien Blackthorne, marriage is nothing more than a transaction. It doesn’t matter who stands beside him at the altar. Until he meets her. A woman who looks at him without pity. Who accepts him without hesitation. Who walks into his life with quiet defiance, and begins dismantling the walls he built around himself. What begins as a calculated exchange soon spirals into something neither of them anticipated. And when emotions become the most dangerous variable of all… Who will be the first to fall?

"Scrub that floor, you lowly omega!" Madam Willow spat, throwing the rag at my face. "The Alpha's returning... don't you just stand there staring? Now get to work, you lazy mutt!" I lowered my head as tears streamed down my face. ~ In a chance encounter, I unknowingly saved the Alpha and had a one-night stand that led to pregnancy. I was threatened by Camilla, my stepmother, not to tell anyone about it. After the birth of my child, I watched as my child was forcibly taken away from me with a warning about the life of my child on the line if I ever spoke the truth. With the help of my friends, I escaped the pack, abandoning everything... including my child. But what about the future?

When my parents call to tell me they are taking me to my childhood friend, Oliver Holland's house to meet his blind date, he is still asleep beside me. I think they are joking and whisper, "Oliver, they said they've found you someone to date." He gives a lazy hum and pulls me into his arms. "Gerry, help me pick out something to wear later. And fix my hair, too." When I freeze, Oliver opens his eyes and lets out a short, mocking laugh. "What's wrong with you? We're just sleeping together. You don't actually think I'm going to marry you, do you?"

"Look at you," he mused, his fingers tracing slow, lazy circles against my skin. "You're fucking drenched, your musk is everywhere, even a male passing by would want to have a taste but fate have mercy I don't rip the bastard apart before he even thinks of it" Zara has spent her life being nothing, a wolf-less stain in a world where power is everything. She has endured the cruelty of her pack, the whispers behind her back, and the weight of a name that means nothing without strength to back it up. But when Alpha King Cade, the most feared and untouchable ruler of them all, demands she serve him personally, everything changes. Suddenly, the girl who was nothing has become a target.

"They were entwined with each other, luxuriating in the throes of passion, the man's robust body..." I was hiding in my office, secretly penning the next development in my story, when a voice from behind me began to read my words aloud, one by one. It was the new intern, a young man. I trembled, pleading with him, "Please, don't tell anyone." He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his hands bracing the edge of the desk, trapping me between his arms. "So, this is what you like?" His throat bobbed, and a smile played on his lips, "Then, why don't we... try it out, just the two of us...

Emily’s world wasn’t just broken. It was strategically dismantled. Three years of love. One devastating betrayal. A single moment that would leave a scar forever. The day Emily caught her boyfriend Jaden and her best friend Mika tangled in bed, something inside her died. 2 years later, she has worked to be everything Jaden said she could never be— a star actress, loved by many. As Emily climbs the treacherous ladder of the entertainment industry, her betrayers return with a sinister plan. Mika, consumed by jealousy, doesn’t just want to compete – she wants to annihilate. Even if it meant becoming an actress herself. And Jaden? He’s the perfect weapon in her arsenal. But in the entertainment industry, Power surpasses power. And there he was, Noah. Noah. The king of the entertainment industry. Feared by many and had the lives of many wrapped around his fingers. He met Emily 2 years ago for the first time, snot mixing with tears, her broken glasses sliding down her face- she kept screaming at him “You can’t die! Not today!”. She saved him, and he owes his life to her. But now, she doesn’t remember him. Also she has changed. She almost looked nothing like the ugly woman he saw that night— Mascara streaking down her blotchy cheeks, glasses bent and crooked, hair disheveled, looking utterly destroyed, a walking catastrophe of raw, ugly pain, far from what he was seeing now— who is this woman? This isn’t a love story. This is a war. And Emily? She’s the prey. Would Noah be her Prince Charming that saves her?

The last time I mentioned my engagement to Walter Reagle, everyone in the room went quiet at first. However, after seeing Walter's annoyed look, they all started laughing. "Who still believes in old-fashioned childhood betrothals these days?" "Is Ms. Lawson feeling insecure?" I ignored their teasing. I just looked at Walter, who was lounging on the couch with his shirt collar open, showing off the lovebites on his neck and collarbone. My heart felt like it was being stabbed. The pain came slowly. "We were too young to agree to something so silly," he said. Walter looked up with a faint, mocking smile. He gave me a lazy look. "We're grown up now, Emma. "Let's just forget about the past."

"Daddy? When are you coming home? Mommy's on the bed, and she won't wake up." Luca's voice shook, breaking up with tiny, hiccuping sobs. "If she's not getting up, wake her. She's just being lazy, " Bill barked. "Look, I'm busy. Go ask your mom if you need something, and stop calling me for every little thing!" Then he hung up, just like that. He was too busy flirting with his secretary to care. Me? Luca? We weren't even on his radar. What he didn't know was that I was already dead. But later, when reality slammed into him like a truck, he clung to my photo, sobbing and begging me not to leave. Too late.

My wife—Nancy Valente—had been "missing" for three months after some fake skiing accident. I spotted her at a bar. She was draped over Finley Bennett's shoulder, laughing like she hadn't wrecked my life. "Good thing you came up with this plan. I almost forgot what freedom felt like." Her crew kept clinking glasses, asking when she planned to pop back up. She glanced down. "Maybe in a week. I'll show up once he's lost his mind." I stayed in the shadows, watching her bask in her little escape act. Then I grabbed my phone and called a buddy at the Vital Records Office.

Three months after my husband, Josiah Erikson, disappears in a skiing accident, I spot him in a bar. He's laughing freely with an arm slung casually around his "best friend", Monica Jones' shoulders. "Good thing you came up with the idea. I'd almost forgotten what freedom feels like." One after another, his buddies clink glasses with him and ask about when he plans to reappear. He looks down and thinks about it before saying, "In a week. I'll show up once she's gone completely crazy searching for me." Standing in the shadows, I watch him savor his freedom, then call my friend who works at the state vital records office.