Let's Blow This Popsicle Stand

On our Christmas break road trip, my cousin Felix Lloyd spotted some high-powered speakers at a highway rest stop. He had to have them—said he wanted to "blast it." "It's Christmas. We finally get to see everyone! We need some vibe!" My wife, Lana Ramsey, smiled and helped him pay. "Young people have energy. They know how to enjoy life." I yanked the power cord out. "Those aren't for regular cars. This is an EV. Overload it, and the whole system fries. Then what—just stuck in the middle of nowhere?" Lana's parents, Vincent and Donelia, booed me, calling me a buzzkill. Felix cranked the volume all the way up. Lana glared at me. "Say one more word and get out. I'll drive." Later, the speakers fried the battery system. We were stranded in total darkness on a rough mountain road. They finished the last of the food, then shoved me out to "go find help." I slipped, rolled down the slope, and died. When I opened my eyes, I was back—right when Felix jammed the speaker plug into the charging port. I grabbed a few more subwoofers and handed them over. "One isn't enough. Add more. That's how you really crank it."

I am about to book a room at a hotel owned by Luca Conti, a consigliere under my command, when a sharp voice suddenly cuts in from behind me. "Aspetta. That's not your price." I turn around. A woman wearing a manager's badge stands there with her arms crossed, scrutinizing me as if I am an unsightly stain she can't wait to wipe away. "We don't allow prostitution here," she says coolly. "If you're receiving clients, there will be a fine." As she speaks, she hands me a penalty notice. The charges are clearly listed on the paper. "Illegal guest reception fee: 350 thousand dollars. "Special soundproofing fee: 150 thousand dollars. "Special cleaning fee: 100 thousand dollars. "Total fee: 600 thousand dollars." Receiving clients? I have simply come straight from a Mafia cocktail party without changing clothes—that's all. What exactly does she take me for?" I lift my gaze and answer evenly, "You're mistaken. I am not that kind of person. You can contact the hotel owner, Luca Conti, and ask him who I am." A sneer flickers through Sofia Rossi's eyes. She spits to the side, full of contempt. "Still claiming you are not a puttana? Women like you come here every week. Every single one of them swears she knows him. "Our boss is the consigliere to the Russo family, the most powerful Mafia family in Seneriffe. Do you really think he needs someone cheap like you? "I suggest you pay up now, subito, before your client loses patience and drags you into the street and rapes you." I do not waste another word on her. I take out my phone and send a message directly to my secretary, Marco Bianchi. "Notify Luca. Either this manager, Sofia Rossi, disappears from this city, or he does."

My parents made Dana and me settle it with rock-paper-scissors. Loser had to marry the Baillieu heir—the so-called "freak." I won. Then flipped the script. "Cool. I'll take Blake. Dana can have the empire." Last time? I was dumb in love with Michael—Dad's adopted golden boy. Chose the company, stayed behind, and handed Dana off to Blake Baillieu. Big mistake. Six months in, Dana was gone—wrecked by that marriage. Right before she croaked, she texted Michael blaming me. Said I lost the game and ditched the deal, dumping Blake on her. Michael? Snapped. Dude went full psycho. Turns out, he and Dana had been sneaking around for years. He dragged me behind the Baillieu estate and forced a dozen intellectually disabled men to assault me. "If it weren't for your cruelty, Dana would still be alive! You'll pay for everything she suffered!" I was over eight months pregnant—almost due. Begged him to stop. Begged for my baby's life. He didn't care. Kept ordering them to take turns. Even when my water broke, he just watched. Both my baby and I died that night. Now? I'm back. And this time, I rewrote the story. Step one: marry Blake.

Days before Christmas, my girlfriend, Tessa Coleman, decides to take her assistant to the beach for the holiday. I don't argue or make a scene. I even help her pack her bags. But she sneers at me, mocking me for finally learning how to be sensible now that my legs are useless. As soon as she leaves, I reach out to her sworn enemy. In my last life, when I tried to stop her with my crippled legs, her assistant ended up brutally murdered at the beach. Tessa had acted like nothing had happened, but once I recovered, she hacked off my legs and killed me mercilessly. That was when I finally realized that she had hated me all along. This time around, I'll make sure she loses everything.

Nadhirah Aleena yang kini hidup dengan trauma yang terus menghantui hidupnya menyebabkan terus menyesali apa yang telah terjadi, diselimuti ketakutan dan bahkan jauh dengan dirinya sendiri. Ia tidak mau siapapun hadir dalam hidupnya termasuk dari masa lalunya sekalipun. Tapi hal yang tidak di harapkan justru terjadi. Rendi yang merupakan masa lalunya datang kembali membuat Nadhirah berusaha untuk terus menghindar. "Menangislah, aku rindu tangisanmu, aku rindu semuanya tentangmu. Dan aku tidak pernah membencimu dengan keaadan sekarang.” Direngkuhnya tubuh Nadhira kedalam pelukan Rendi. "Aku tidak tahu apa arti kehidupan, aku lupa cara tersenyum, aku lupa bagaimana rasanya mencintai dan dicintai. Ini seperti bukan diriku. Aku mati, ya hatiku telah mati bahkan aku sangat membenci ketika melihat orang tertawa bahagia. Untuk tertawa saja aku sulit melakukannya apalagi untuk bahagia. Aku hidup dengan penuh rasa bersalah, penyesalan, dan tidak ikhlas dengan takdir yang telah digariskan. Apakah aku kejam? hahahaha sepertinya itu bukan pertanyaan tapi pernyataan. Tolong jangan tinggalkan aku.”Pinta Nadhirah dengan lirih diiringi isak tangis yang mengalun begitu menyanyat hati Rendi.

"Who said I hated you?" It took me a moment before I could process what this man just said. "What do you mean you don't? Na-" He grabbed my hand suddenly and looked me in the eyes which caught me off guard. "You keep saying her name that it annoys me to the point that I just want to erase her existence." Is this man seriously telling me that he'll kill the female lead?

In a twisted tale of deceit and sacrifice, Lydia Milan who hid her identity and family endures a loveless marriage to handsome wealthy Nathaniel King, who views her only as a blood source for his ailing ex. Struggling against mistreatment, Lydia Milan finally demands a divorce and leaves the marriage and that was when Nathaniel King discovered that she was the only daughter of the richest man in the country who he has been trying to have an audience with since. "Please Lydia, give me a second chance. I swear, let me love you again." "Too late Nathaniel, I have someone else now." A suspenseful journey unfolds, revealing the compliexities of love, betrayal, and redemption in this gripping novel where hidden identities and vengeful schemes entwine in a web of secrets.

Having a mate was every she-wolves’ dream and November was one of them. Imagine her surprise when she found him, the Alpha of his pack was his mate. She was happy, and her excitement of creating her own fairy tale would start with her mate. She thought everything would be okay, but then her Alpha rejected her, claiming another she-wolf as his mate leaving her devastated and with a broken heart and wolf. For two years, November endured the pain inflicted by the rejection, and every time Knox mated his chosen Luna. And with the help of Wolfnip, she temporarily forgot her pain despite the side effects of the drug. Little did she know, the drug dealer had his eyes on her. His golden yellow eyes focused on her and her alone. Imagine her shock when this man appeared in her pack’s clinic when she was about to give in to death claiming he’d help her to fix her and accept him as her new mate… Will this man be able to fix her broken heart and body? Or was it too late for him? Will November hand her heart or choose to lock it to prevent anyone from hurting her again?

In the fourth year of her engagement to Mason Hart, Evelyn Ward still had not been able to marry him. The Hart family had produced officers for three generations, and marriages required approval from military headquarters. Yet every year, their marriage request was rejected. Until the fourth year, when Evelyn personally saw Mason alter the application. Only then did she realize that Mason had never intended to marry her at all.

In my past life, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart, Kimberly Thatcher, claimed to be Lady Luck. She insisted on handing out sachets to keep our team safe for a hike. I, Priscilla Jensen, caught the scent and realized the sachets were stuffed with herbs that would attract wolves. So, I stepped in to stop her, saving everyone from an attack. But Kimberly thought I was looking down on her sachets, and that I was targeting her on purpose. Though she was the leader, she stormed off from the group in anger. We searched the forest under the raging storm. In the end, someone broke a leg, someone else was strangled by poisonous vines, and my shoulder was torn open. By dawn, we found Kimberly's corpse at the bottom of a valley. … On the seventh day after her death, her memorial service became an ambush. While everyone mourned for her, their eyes were fixed on me. My boyfriend, Fabian Lowell, was the first to lash out. He ripped off his bandage, revealing his wound. "If you hadn't stopped Kimberly from giving us those sachets, none of this would have happened! How dare you show up to her memorial service?" he yelled. Everyone turned to glare daggers at me. Suddenly, someone shouted, "It's all your fault! You're the reason we ended up like this! Go to hell!" In the next second, they hurled a pot of boiling stew at me. Then they set the private room ablaze and burned me alive. … When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day of the hike.