Maria Clara Tagalog Novels & Stories

Claire Blake, 23, works double shifts at a café to cover her mother's medical bills and her brilliant sister Clara's college tuition. Her life is a careful sacrifice - no room for dreams, only survival. Then she accidentally spills coffee on Damian Cole, billionaire CEO and the city's most eligible bachelor. Instead of anger, he's kind. Days later, his assistant calls with an impossible offer: pretend to be his girlfriend for six months. His family won't stop pressuring him to marry, and his manipulative ex-fiancée Caroline refuses to accept they're over. In exchange: $10,000 monthly, her mother's medical expenses covered, and a completion bonus that would transform her family's life. Claire knows it's crazy - she doesn't belong in his world of charity galas and high society. But the money would solve every problem. So she signs the contract and steps into a glittering world where everything feels like pretend. Except it doesn't stay pretend. Damian isn't the cold CEO she expected. He remembers her coffee order, values her opinions, treats her family with genuine warmth. His careful respect comes from protecting his sister from abuse - he's not controlling, he's considerate. As Claire navigates his world, the performance becomes real. When he kisses her, he confesses: "This stopped being fake for me weeks ago." But Caroline launches a media campaign suggesting their relationship is paid - uncomfortably close to the truth. With headlines dissecting Claire's background and questioning whether she "belongs," they must choose transparency over hiding. Can a love that started as a contract become real enough to survive the spotlight?

Clara Blake. That's me. The normal girl everyone barely noticed until my step dad Carl decided that I needed to be his personal punching bag. Everyone knew yet they never decided to do anything about it or help me out of my misery and get me away from this horrid man. Mum never knew or she pretended not to see anything. I mean she was in love with Carl and after dad I probably couldn't blame her. You see dad went away to serve his country and not long after we received a death letter ,as they call it, telling us that he had been lost to war. It wasn't long after the letter about dad had come before Carl had moved into mum's life and they got married. We were a normal happy family up until I had turned six. I remember it like it was yesterday. He came into my room after mum went to bed and he just started hitting me. Never where it would be too obvious seen. When we received the letter from dad that he was coming home after all I was ecstatic. He was going to come and save me from this hell hole that I was in. Unfortunately Carl also saw the letter and that night he had decided that he would end me as it would be my fault for everything as I sent the letter to make my mother sad and cry. My best friend telling me he loves me and dad coming back made my head spin. Joining the FBI as an agent was fun and all until being kidnapped and rescued by a very handsome prince charming. Follow along and join me on my story of my chaotic and drama filled life both in love and work.

Every bonding anniversary, Shawn would bring home a new human girl from the outside—always under the lovely pretense of letting me mentor her on how to serve an Alpha. On our seventh anniversary, he brought back a nightclub girl dressed in a Princess Snow White outfit—cheap satin trembling under the chandelier's light. “She doesn’t have anything appropriate for an occasion like this,” he said casually. “Let her borrow your bonding dress. And the jewelry I gave you last time. As for shoes—what you're wearing now will do.” Then he added, with a trace of irony, “She’s just a young human girl, clueless. Teach her a few things about our world, will you? Especially the part about the bed.” Everyone was waiting for the spectacle—for me to break again, as I always had. And I didn’t disappoint them. I looked at Shawn, my voice steady, and said I wanted a bond-severance. He laughed—short and sharp—and leaned back like he was watching a comedy. “Clara, when are you going to stop with this bond-severance nonsense? I’ve heard it so many times. They’re just human girls, while you are my Luna. How could they ever compare to you?” Then, grinning as if doing me a favor, he added, “Fine. If you really want a bond-severance, I’ll gift you a territory in the south. Consider it a reward for doing your job as my Luna.” The room erupted in laughter. To them, I was ridiculous—greedy, jealous, hysterical. But what they didn’t know was that this was the 365th time I’d asked for a bond-severance. And the first time, I truly meant it. When he found out I wasn’t joking this time, he lost his composure. He searched for me across the world—only after he realized I was no longer where he thought I’d always be.

After returning from a three-month business trip, I rushed to meet my fiancé and resolve our dispute over my best friend, Elena. Elena’s ex-husband left her penniless and broken. I offered her my apartment, helped her "find herself" and accompanied her through nights of tequila-soaked sobbing. My fiance, Julian, hated it. Or so he said. "She’s a leech, Clara," he’d snap, watching her try on my designer coats. "She doesn't even know how to make toast without calling for help. Are you her best friend or her maid? People like her don't want to heal; they just want a free ride." She's lost everything, Julian," I argued."Without her, I wouldn't have survived my mother’s death. Please, just be patient for me." I let myself in quietly. The house was still, the air smelling of expensive candles and something else—something sweet and floral that wasn't mine. I walked toward the master suite, expecting to find Julian asleep. Instead, the door was ajar. The wine bottle I had brought to surprise Julian slipped from my hand, leaving me paralyzed for a moment. Elena was draped across my silk sheets. Julian was hovering over her, expertly shucking oysters—my favorite—and feeding them to her with a look of doting, soft-eyed tenderness he hadn't shown me in months. "You're so much better at this than she is," Julian purred. "Because she’s cold, Julian," Elena whispered, brushing a stray hair from his forehead. "She’s all business. She doesn't know how to satisfy men in bed." I stood in the doorway, my whole self trembling, not in cold but in pure rage and disgust. "I hope the oysters are fresh," I said, my voice cutting through the room like a blade.

My name is Clara Kelly. I was born in Brooklyn, into an Irish-American cop’s family. My father spent his whole career walking a beat out of the 84th Precinct. My mother volunteered at the parish. I was the first girl on our block to get into Columbia Law. The year I graduated, I was volunteering at a charity gala. I picked up the wrong glass of wine and ended up dumping it down the front of a man’s Brioni suit. That man was Adrian Francesco Moretti. Fourth-generation Don of the Moretti Family of New York, and one of the five families of Cosa Nostra. He chased me for four years. I said no six times. The seventh time, he stood outside my law firm in the rain until three-fifteen in the morning. I married him. Two decades in, he’d handed me the keys to the entire Moretti Family. In our world they called me “the Irish Donna,” a woman with no Italian blood who somehow held the seat. Childless by choice, the two of us. Famously in love. Until that Wednesday afternoon, when my college roommate of twenty years, my best friend Vivian Sinclair, walked into my living room with a five-year-old boy. She said the boy was Adrian’s son. She said that five years ago, she’d taken a used condom out of the wastebasket in my upstairs master bedroom, kept it frozen for three years, and done IVF. She said she was the real mother of the Moretti heir. She was the real Donna Moretti. “Be smart. Pack your bags and walk out. You might even get to keep your life.” “You’re barren. The Moretti Family doesn’t need you.” I looked at the woman I’d called my best friend for half my adult life. I didn’t say a word. She thought she was holding the winning card. What she didn’t know was that she’d just stepped onto a board Adrian and I had been laying for twenty years. I needed exactly one sentence to shatter every piece of the Donna fantasy she’d spent five years building.

After being forced to donate the blood from my heart to my Alpha's beloved witch, I die in the cottage that he'd built for me. Before my death, my five-year-old daughter runs to the castle in the forest to beg him thrice. The first time, she runs into the study and tells him I'm coughing up blood. My mate, Alpha Alaric sneers. "Is this one of Clara's new tricks? I can't believe she taught a child to lie!" He orders his attendant to take our daughter away. The second time, she knocks on the door cautiously and tells him I'm trembling all over. Alaric snorts contemptuously. "What's with the act? All I did was take some of her blood, not gouge her heart out. She'll heal on her own soon enough!" Once again, his attendant chases our daughter out. The third time, she kneels by the study door and weeps, saying that I'm already unconscious. She begs Alaric to save me. This time, he gets mad. He grabs her by the arm and throws her out of the castle. "I told you your mother won't die! Lie to me again, and I'll kick her out of the Wolffang Pack. She can die at the hands of those Rogues!" He breaks her arm in the process, and she clutches it. She has no choice but to pass the family heirloom—a ring—that represents her identity as the Wolffang Pack's heiress to a passing merchant. "I can give you everything valuable I have, Mr. Merchant! I don't want to be an heiress—I just want my mother to stay alive!" The merchant accepts the ring and soon brings a herbalist. However, Alaric's beloved witch, Elena has him taken away. "Sorry, but your father is worried that I'll be upset because my darling black cat is sick. He's ordered all of the herbalists in the pack to focus on treating my cat first." She snorts. "Your mother can wait."

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!"
--Vampirebooksite.com (Turned)

CRAVED is Book #10 in the #1 Bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, which begins with Book #1, TURNED!

In CRAVED, 16 year old Scarlet Paine struggles to find out exactly what she’s becoming. Her erratic behavior has alienated her new boyfriend, Blake, and she struggles to make amends, and to make him understand. But the problem is, she can barely understand herself what’s happening to her.

At the same time, the new boy in school, the mysterious Sage, comes into her life. Their paths keep intertwining, and although she tries to avoid it, he directly pursues her, despite the objections of her best friend, Maria, who has her own eyes set on Sage. Scarlet finds herself swept away by Sage, who takes her into his world, past the gates of his family’s historic river mansion. As their relationship deepens, she begins to learn more about his mysterious past, his family, and the secrets he must hold. They spend the most romantic time she can imagine, on a secluded island in the Hudson, and she is convinced she has found the true love of her life.

But then she is devastated to learn Sage’s biggest secret of all: he is not human, either, and he has only a few weeks left to live. Tragically, just at the moment when destiny has brought her greatest love, it also seems fated to tear them apart.

As Scarlet returns to the high school parties leading up to the big dance, she ends up in a huge falling-out with her friends, who excommunicate her from their group. At the same time, Vivian rounds up the popular girls to make her life hell, leading to an unavoidable confrontation. Scarlet’s forced to sneak out, making matters worse with her parents, and soon finds pressure building from all sides. The only light in her life is Sage. But he is still holding back some of his secrets, and Blake resurfaces, determined to pursue her.

Caitlin, meanwhile, is determined to find a way to reverse Scarlet’s vampirism. What she finds leads her on a journey to find the antidote, deep into the darkest corners of rare libraries and bookstores—and to an ancient discovery she can hardly imagine.

But it may be too late. Scarlet is changing rapidly, barely able to control what she’s becoming. She wants to be with Sage—but fate seems set on tearing them apart. As the book culminates in an action-packed and shocking twist, Scarlet will be left with a monumental choice—one that will change the world forever. How much is she willing to risk for love?