Life After Man

When my mother first told me about the arranged marriage, Noah Parker lowered his head and kissed me, pulling me closer as we became tangled together. After a haze of passion, he carried me into the bathroom. Warm water streamed over my skin, but his words sent a chill straight through me, as if I'd fallen into an icy pit. "Go home. And don't come looking for me here again." I thought he'd seen the text and was jealous, so I quickly clung to him and swore, "I won't marry anyone else—" His smile stayed, but the heat in his eyes cooled into something distant. "But I'm getting married." He brushed back my messy hair, ignoring how my body trembled under his touch. "My fiancée is gentle and kind—nothing like you. She’d never throw herself at her foster brother like that. We've already set a date. If you keep clinging to me like this, she'll be upset with me."

On my wedding day, my fiancée's adopted younger brother, Jason Sanders, suddenly stood up to toast us as we were exchanging rings. "The first toast is for my sister. She gave herself to me last night so that I wouldn't feel insecure, making me her first man." After he said that, he kissed my fiancée, ignoring the strange looks from everyone. "The second toast is for my brother-in-law. Don't be fooled by my sister's usual aloof demeanor around you; she's actually very passionate in bed. Even though you're impotent, you've still struck gold." My fiancée, Wendy Sanders, covered his mouth in a hurry and tried to laugh it off. "He’s just rambling because he's drunk. Just ignore him." But Jason broke free from Wendy and looked at me challengingly. "The third toast is for everyone. Since Wendy is getting married today, I would like to personally put the ring on her finger. I'm sure no one has any objections, right?"

Dirga akan datang tepat sebelum kafe tutup. Namun, ia tidak hanya mencari kafein. Ia mencari pelarian. Ia mencari Elara, membawa gadis itu ke dalam ketegangan yang lebih panas dari uap mesin espresso. Ketika perasaan yang tulus mulai muncul, siapa yang akan kalah dan hancur terlebih dulu? Tuan direktur yang haus kendali, atau pelayan kafe yang mempertaruhkan segalanya demi rahasia setelah jam kerja?

In New York’s Upper East Side, there were two heirs. One was a speed-obsessed daredevil dominating the racetracks, the other was a brilliant actuary who controlled the flow of capital. Born into powerful families and polar opposites in temperament, yet they grew up side by side as each other’s only best friend. They had fought over girls and bickered endlessly over racing bets. However, at fifteen, there was one thing they did in perfect unison. They each put on the same roughly carved bronze badge. They were trinkets Mia had idly made during a craft class, marked only by a faint “M” scratched on the back. Back then, Mia was seated in the last row of the classroom. Her background was a complete mystery to everyone. Yet they wore that badge for ten whole years. Whether standing on the F1 podium or locking in billion-dollar trades at the exchange, the cheap little badge on their chests never changed. Until Ella showed up. She was the cherished daughter of a rising conglomerate family. She hand-stitched two gold-thread fabric patches and gifted them to them. The patches looked so ordinary they looked like the kind of trinket you would find three for a dollar at a flea market. And yet, they both replaced their bronze badges with her plain patches. Mia did not say anything. She simply folded away an old newspaper clipping with a photo of the three of them smiling together. That night, she called her father in Sicily. Her voice was emotionless. “Papa, I accept the marriage arrangement.”

Leona is head over heels in love with Apollo McArthur and agrees to marry him, leading to a moment of bliss and happiness. Pero panandalian lang pala ang kasiyahan na tinatamasa niya. She sacrifices everything for their marriage, only to face betrayal, heartache, and disappointment from Apollo. Kahit anong gawin niyang pagsalba sa relasyon nilang mag-asawa ay wala na siyang nagawa nang makipaghiwalay ito sa kanya. Huli na nang malaman niyang nagdadalang-tao pala siya. Apat na taon ang lumipas, she crosses paths with Apollo again. At ganoon na lamang ang pagsisisi ni Apollo nang malaman nito na nagbunga ang pagsasama nila noon. He wants her back, but the thing is, she's getting married to another man.

“Some people walk into your life quietly, yet some ruin you without even trying to.” Isabella Young, a twenty-five-year-old woman, comes back to New York to rebuild her life. Her agenda is clear: find a job, get an apartment, get married. It all seems easy enough until she finds herself in the worst position of her life, with no job, no apartment, no partner, and running low on her resources. Prideful Isabella doesn’t ask for help or pity. She believes she will stay single forever. But fate is ruthless in her timing. Because when she least expects it, she meets him. Damian Sinclair, a thirty-two-year-old man, bound by duty, loyalty, and control. He knows what he must do: find a suitable match, get married, and have an heir. A son to carry the family name. Until he sees her. The timing is wrong. Circumstances are worse. Connections are inconvenient. Will either of them be able to resist the temptation and continue their lives as if the other never existed or will they risk everything for something neither was supposed to have?

Si Xander Martin ay isang lalaking may reputasyon na dapat panatilihin. Gwapo siya, mayaman, bata, matalino at... Cassanova. Hindi lihim na mahilig siyang gumugol ng oras sa mga bayarang babae. Sa katunayan, alam ng buong bayan na hindi niya gustong matulog sa parehong babae nang dalawang beses. Ngunit nagbago ang lahat nang hindi sinasadyang nakipagtalik siya sa isang babae. Dahil sa pagkadismaya na hindi ang dalaga ang inaakala niyang upahang babae, inakusahan siya ni Xander na isang espiya na sadyang ipinadala ng kanyang karibal sa negosyo para sirain siya. So, totoo ba ang akusasyon? Nagtagumpay kaya si Xander sa paghahanap ng babae? Ang pinakamahalagang huling tanong, sino ba talaga ang babaeng iyon?

After learning the hard truth of how her twin sister Dalilah brainwashed and manipulated her mind for thirteen years, turning her into a ruthless assassin who killed hundreds of innocents including her youngest brother and best friend Valerian, twenty-seven-year-old Princess Natasha Nicholai, is executed in front of the Imperial Palace. Somehow, she gets sent back to the past right before Dalilah started putting her evil string on her mind, to when she was about to turn fourteen, and uses that as an opportunity to not let the past repeat itself, by getting her revenge on her sister and all the people who backed her and saving her younger brother as well as protecting the innocents she knows will be Dalilah's targets. But while also going after the truth about who stole her magic when she was 4yo, who sent her back and why did they do that, she will cross paths with Ethan Theodore, a dangerous and full of secrets guy, with ruby red eyes and whose destiny is directly linked to Natasha's.

I throw myself into cryogenic research so I can keep my only family on this Earth. However, halfway through it, my fiancé embezzles all the funds to propose to Sophia Kensington, his true love. I panic when I see the ice in Mom's brain start to melt. I have no money to continue with the research. I'm in utter despair when Leonard Shaw, a rising star in the biomedical field, comes to me with millions of dollars in funding. The research can continue. Just three days later, something goes wrong with the experiment. Mom explodes in cryogenic chamber. I'm shattered by this, but Leonard stays by my side throughout it all. He helps me move past this and continue with my research. I think he's the light of my life until I overhear his conversation with his secretary. "Is it worth it marrying someone you don't love for Ms. Kensington's sake, Mr. Shaw?" "Sophia is my life. I'm willing to do anything as long as she's healthy and happy." "But will Mrs. Shaw still continue helping Ms. Kensington if she learns you tampered with the data and killed her mother?" "She'll never find out. Besides, I'm already using the rest of my life to make it up to her. That's more than enough…" It turns out Leonard's love is just a conspiracy. My heart turns to ashes in that moment. I sign an agreement to seal my body cryogenically. He'll never find me ever again.

The day Joe Tanner’s parents died and his classmates cornered him in cruel bullying, I was the one who jumped into the river to save him—and lost my heart to him in that moment. For the next ten years, I poured everything I had into him. I hid my own admission letter to Great Eastern University. I washed dishes until my hands cracked, hauled bricks until my shoulders bled, even sold the pocket watch my mother left me—all so he could study without worry. I watched him rise from a ridiculed illegitimate child to a celebrated professor at the very peak of academia. All I ever wanted in return was a home we could call ours. But the day he achieved success, he forgot the woman who had built his world. So, I made my choice— If he could abandon my love, then I would walk away without looking back.