Middle-aged

Out of side don't mean out of mind. Nora lives a typical Cinderella existence; two stepsisters and a stepmother who despise the sight of her. Ace Woods, an epitome of extravagance, capriciousness, insolence, and disrespect finds himself in an unfamiliar continent of the world doing what he knows best; get his parent's attention. But an enchanted night, An awful event that occurred at Cinderella's curfew, scars a memory for as long as you can navigate into THE TRAGEDY OF THE AFRICAN CINDERELLA.

In my previous life, my three sons told me they wanted to set up a Family Bond Fund for me. Each of them would deposit three thousand dollars every month. I cried with gratitude, truly believing that decades of sacrifice had finally paid off. One of them even said, "Mom, you've given us so much. It's our turn to take care of you now." However, eight years later, I was told I have uremia. That was when I discover that the bank card, which supposedly held the fund, couldn't even cover the dialysis deposit. Soon after, my eldest son video-called me. He said he wanted to buy a better apartment in a good school district. He was short of 150 thousand dollars for the down payment and asked if I could lend it to him first. My second son came to the hospital with his wife and daughter. He didn't ask about my condition at all. Instead, he kept showing off his daughter's piano competition trophy, hinting that he needed 50 thousand dollars to enroll her in a prestigious international piano program. My youngest son was even more straightforward. He said he had his eye on a limited-edition pair of sneakers and wanted me to pay 30 thousand dollars for them as a birthday gift. The moment they realized the bank account didn't have enough money, their faces fell. "We each put in three thousand dollars every month. Over eight years, that's at least eight hundred thousand dollars. Mom, are you hiding the money from us?" To force me to reveal my savings, they took turns pressuring me, switching between sweet talk and threats. They even told relatives that I had dementia and had been scammed out of my money. Unable to take it anymore, I yanked out my IV late one night and walked out of the hospital, only to be hit by a car, dying instantly. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back on the day of my hospital checkup.

The Horror Game invaded the world. Real players entered the game, and their every move would be broadcast live. My adopted son shoved me—an eighty-eight-year-old woman—straight into a deadly dungeon to save his own skin. One of the comments in the live stream predicted: [What? They’re tossing in such an elderly woman? No way she’s gonna survive the first night!] On the first night, a frost-bitten ghost exhaled icy breath in my face. I shrugged off my thick floral coat, feeling sorry for her. “You poor thing! You must be freezing. Listen to me and bundle up quickly!” The second night, a starving ghost lunged at me with blood dripping down his chin. I sniffed the air, then found a jar of pickled cabbage. “Look at how skinny you are! Come on, let me get you something hot to eat.” On the final day, the last surviving players tied me up, desperate to steal the one ticket to escape. However, before they could touch me, every ghost in the dungeon came storming out, cleavers and rolling pins in hand. “Touch her, and you’re dead meat!”

By year's end, I'd closed a huge deal and snagged a $2.5 million bonus. The company even sent me on early maternity leave—nice perk for being eight months pregnant. Pauline found me lounging on the couch. "Why aren't you at work?" I cracked a joke. "Got fired. Guess I'll be stuck here playing housewife." Her response? A slap across my back. "Then get off and do the laundry! You're having a girl, not a son, and you think you can sit around like some princess?" My husband, Logan, walked in right then. He just pulled her into the nursery. Feeling hurt, I switched on the hidden cameras I'd secretly installed. I thought maybe he'd defend me. Yeah, no. What I uncovered? It was so much worse. Twisted secret after twisted secret.

I knew Adeline Shaw had been entangled with her childhood sweetheart for over a decade, but I still dove headfirst into our relationship without hesitation. Then came our engagement day. Adeline got a call that her childhood sweetheart had collapsed and was in the hospital. Without a second thought, she dropped everything - dropped me - and rushed to his side. My grandmother, who witnessed this whole scene, hurried after her. In her rush, she was struck by a car. By the time they got her to the hospital, it was too late. We couldn't save her. That's when I finally let go. She was never truly mine, and I shouldn't have tried to force what wasn't meant to be.

Grote Mendoza, the Alpha of the Valkyrie pack, has an extremely strong libido. Whenever he sees my body, he can't seem to control himself at all. He's very rough with me in bed, resulting in me fainting every time we sleep with each other. "Honey, can you endure this for me one more time?" It's been seven years. This is my 99th time enduring the torturous session with Grote. Because of that, my private part suffers from severe ulceration and infection. I thought Grote loves me, but it turns out that he's just a wolf who suffers from weird fetishes. I thought he'll slowly learn how to be gentle with me for my sake. But when I watch all 99 tapes that he and his mistress, Christine Henson, have recorded of themselves going at it, I finally realize that his gentle side is never meant for me at all. Grote blames me for not being able to be with pup thanks to my private part's condition. He allows Christine to abuse and humiliate me however she wants. In fact, he even beds her before my eyes. He refuses to believe that I will ditch him. All he does is beg me relentlessly for my forgiveness and promise me that I'll be his only Luna. Apparently, having a mistress spices up his bedroom life for him. But Grote repeatedly allows Christine to humiliate me. She forces me to become her slave and keep serving her until she gives birth to her pup. I've been enduring Grote's actions for seven years. All I get is pain and abuse that keeps worsening in return. I don't want to endure the humiliation anymore, even if it means dying right here, right now. I jump into the sea without hesitation, allowing the ice-cold water to swallow me whole. I'm willing to do anything just to escape from Grote's suffocating love that's packaged as abuse… After I die in the sea, Grote completely loses control of himself and keeps looking for me everywhere he goes.

At sixty-five, I got served divorce papers. The same day, my husband Sebastian — decked out in his wedding suit, of all things — popped a handful of sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. For years, we were the perfect couple. The kind of pair neighbors whispered about with envy. I couldn't wrap my head around it. The divorce. The pills. None of it made sense. Not until I found the photo and letter in his pocket.

“Quiet, Kitten.” Jackson swallowed my gasp with a hard kiss, his fist tightening in my hair. “You don’t want the whole house to hear you, do you?” I couldn’t answer. Not with Brandon’s fingers circling my clit in slow, devastating strokes before he sank two thick fingers inside me without warning. The moan that tore from my throat died against Jackson’s mouth. I soaked his fingers, dripping down his palm, my knees buckling as pleasure crashed over me in waves. “Not yet.” Jackson pulled back just far enough to look at me, eyes dark. “You don’t cum until we say so.” “We’re just getting started to the good part.” Brandon’s breath was hot against my ear. “The part we take turns filling this pretty little cunt with out cocks. Every. Throbbing. Inch. buried deep inside you.” He punctuated each word with a deep thrust of his fingers. “ *** One house. Two monsters. And a bet that changed everything. I thought I could survive moving into the mansion with my new stepbrothers, Jackson and Brandon. They are breathtakingly gorgeous, dangerous, and they hate me. But I didn't realize how much I hated them back—until they trapped me in my own bedroom and made my body betray every secret I was keeping. I thought the heat between us was real. I thought the way they looked at me meant I was finally seen. I was wrong. I was just a thousand-dollar wager. A game they played to ruin my mother & kick us back to the gutter where they think we belong. They called me "easy." They called me "mid." They laughed about how I leaked for them while they planned to toss me aside. But they made one fatal mistake: they showed me their weakness.

I was diagnosed with cancer. After much deliberation, I called my husband. He fell silent for a long while. “Most of our mortgage is unpaid, and our children need money for school. You should go for conservative treatment.” I called my mother while weeping. “You’re so troublesome. None of my friends or family have cancer!” I stopped crying and started living for myself. God favored me and let me see reality early in my life. He even gave me a chance to start over.

“You’re not his wife. You’re a ghost in a borrowed face.” Lena Moore thought she had outrun the darkness. Engaged to billionaire Aaron King and carrying a child she’s not sure belongs to him or the stalker, Kian, Lena’s past comes crashing through the doors—dressed in white. Jennifer, Aaron’s long-dead wife, is alive. Or so it seems. One betrayal spirals into another. On the run from heartbreak and chasing what’s left of her sanity, Lena goes into labor on a stormy highway—only for her ex-lover, Kian, to take their newborn and vanish. When Jennifer is found murdered and Lena is arrested, the world turns its back on her. But behind bars, the truth unravels. Jennifer was a puppet. Alara—Lena’s estranged mother—has been the mastermind all along, manipulating lives, identities, and deaths from the shadows. Lena is done running. With her child missing, a legacy built on lies, and the world doubting her every breath, she’s ready to burn the past down—face by face.