Moral Lesson

I died on the day I won the Global Medical Doctorate Award. Fresh from celebrating the sixteenth birthday of my younger sister, my parents, brother, and my fiancé finally returned home, but it was three hours after my death. My family photos were beaming with happiness on social media, while I laid in the suffocating basement drenched in blood. Before I died, I had struggled to slide my tongue across my phone screen in a desperate attempt to call for help. My parents and brother had blocked my number. Only my fiancé answered my call. The moment his voice came through, he snapped, "Winona, Winnie's sixteenth birthday is important. Stop trying to hijack attention with your pathetic excuses. Enough with the theatrics!" It murdered my last spark of survival. In that electronic death rattle, my heart flatlined. The 100th time they chose her. The 100th time they abandoned me for her. But it was also the last time. They thought I had ran way to get their attention again, and that if they taught me a harsh lesson, I would come crawling back pathetically. But not this time. Because I didn't leave home. I had been lying in the basement of my house.

Presley Brookmore was bullied by her older half-brother Odin and his two best friends Cruz and Anderson, all of her life. They made it their life mission to humiliate her at every turn. Was it her fault her father carried on an affair with her mother who got pregnant with her and wrecked Odin’s idyllic life? She didn’t think so but apparently, Odin and his cronies did, and so they bullied her at every turn. When an opportunity to get back at Odin’s best friend Cruz Hawley presents itself in a serendipitous moment, she doesn’t let it slip away. Taking full advantage of the fact as a billionaire, an attractive one at that, all eyes are on him and people are snapping photos and videos of the celebrity in the restaurant, she makes a scene straight out a daytime soap opera. Cruz Hawley returned to Vancouver with the intent to take his billion-dollar medical equipment company to the next level. When his childhood best friend’s younger sister pops out of the woodwork and not only destroys his chance at a connection with a client, but makes him a social media sensation, his businesses take the hit. Cruz is going to teach the troublemaker a lesson but it’s his heart on the line when he finds himself looking forward to every challenge she is presenting. It’s win, lose, or draw and as a former Olympian, there is no way he can lose. Let the game of hearts begin. Winner takes all.

Abandoned on a cold, stormy night at just 6 years old, Sudan Flair learned the harshest lesson of all that love cannot be trusted. The memory of his mother’s face disappearing into the darkness haunts him, shaping him into a man who keeps his heart locked away. Years later, as he begins college, Sudan is assigned a roommate, Zach Musk, whose warmth and kindness begin to thaw the ice around his heart. Their bond deepens, a quiet undercurrent of something more forming between them. Sudan fights it, terrified of losing control, until one day Zach’s stepmother comes to visit campus and Sudan’s world tilts on its axis. The woman is now called Mary Musk, Sudan’s mother. The mother who abandoned him, now living in comfort with a new family, her perfect life built on his pain. As old wounds reopen, Sudan’s desire for revenge burns hotter than ever. When Zach invites him to a family vacation, Sudan sees the perfect opportunity to destroy the family that replaced him but what begins as a calculated plan spirals out of control as Sudan’s feelings for Zach grows. When Bask Musk, Zach’s powerful and controlling father, learns who Sudan truly is, everything erupts. Secrets will be revealed, love will be tested and Sudan will have to decide whether to destroy the family that hurt him or risk losing the only person he has ever truly loved.

Shortly after I married Andrew Lorne, my mother-in-law has my husband's widowed sister-in-law move in with us. She wants my husband to bear the responsibility of caring for two families. My husband says he wouldn't be who he is without his elder brother's help, so he won't let his sister-in-law suffer. And so, she and her son steal my home and my husband's love. Meanwhile, my daughter and I are banished to the countryside. On the first day of our banishment, I'm violated and murdered by beggars who barge into the house. … It takes three years for my husband to remember me. He comes to the countryside to take me home. "Come out, Jovana. I'll immediately bring you home as long as you agree to give your property to Tiana as an apology for the things you've done." As soon as the words are out of his mouth, my daughter emerges from the yard, which is overgrown with weeds. She tells him I was dead. He doesn't believe her. He allows his mother to beat my daughter half to death and berates me while he's at it. "How dare you, Jovana! You haven't learned your lesson at all, have you? These dirty tricks are all you know, and you even taught our daughter to lie! It's been years, yet you still can't compare to Tiana!"

Every Thanksgiving, my husband, Salvatore, brings home a showgirl from one of his clubs. He makes me kneel and serve them drinks. A lesson, he calls it, in how to please a man. This was the eighth Thanksgiving, and this time, he brought back a girl poured into a tight leather dress. "She doesn't have any decent jewelry," Salvatore announced. "Give her your heirloom diamond ring. Your grandmother's pearl earrings, too. And take off that silk choker for her." He smirked. "And listen, she's young, doesn't know the rules. You'll have to show her the ropes. Especially how to handle a man in bed." Every member of the Genovese family was watching, waiting for my humiliation. I didn't disappoint. I opened my mouth and asked Salvatore for a divorce. Salvatore let out a sharp, ugly laugh, his eyes full of contempt. "Francesca, you pull this same shit every time," he jeered. "Your act is pathetic. Even more dramatic than your performance in bed." He leaned in. "You really want to divorce me? Fine. I'll give you five million in cash if you actually walk out that door." The living room erupted in laughter. They all said I was playing hard to get, that I didn't know my place. But they didn't know. This was the 88th time I had asked for a divorce, and it was the first time I truly meant it.

On the last day of the deadline for the loan repayment, I went to Liam Sommer's stepsister, Christine Sommer, to ask for the 300,000 dollars I had lent her. The next day, Liam threw a ledger I had never seen before in front of me. Liam said, "On your birthday last year, I transferred 8,100 dollars to you. On our tenth anniversary, I transferred 108,000 dollars to you. Also, at the beginning of every month, I transfer 20,000 dollars to you for your living expenses. You must pay me back by the end of today." I froze, but Liam smiled without a hint of warmth. "What’s wrong? You can't afford to repay me? Evelyn Lancaster, you shouldn't have given Christy trouble. This is my lesson to you. If you don't pay me back today, let's not meet for the next three years, and don't come looking for me." Over the next three years, I never saw Liam again, nor did I go looking for him. While he and Christine traveled around the world and wore couple rings, I married my childhood friend in front of our family and friends. While he and Christine walked along the beach and kissed, I moved into a new house with my husband, our cat, and our dog. Everything was moving along smoothly, but why was Liam standing under the window of my house in the middle of the night, crying and saying that he was unhappy?

One lover is a self-made billionaire. One lover is a kind and doting banker. One lover treats her as the belle of every ball. And more lovers are hers to play with. All heads turn to her when Sienna White walks into a room. An unsettling beauty, eccentric personality, bewitching eyes, and accustomed to witty white lies, she lives her life as she pleases. After five years in a romantic and professional relationship with her girlfriend Sophia, a Silicon Valley startup CEO, Sienna flew to the UK to run the London office. Undergoing a pack of an open relationship, Sienna met Cameron, her ex-lover since college, who dedicated all he had to prove his worth. As her relationships are embroiled in controversy, Sienna ventures on the wild journey of love, lust, and moral corruption in the fabulous and frivolous world of London elites. What will become of her relationships? Who will end up being the love of her life? Or will Sienna seek out her life calling? Find out while Sienna struggles to navigate her career and love. Note: This is a work of fiction and all resemblances to real people, alive or deceased, are purely coincidental. Warning: Mature content and sexual and morally questionable scenes are scattered throughout. You are free to judge. It’s a free world. ----------- Cover designed by Marymarkevich - Freepik.com

Warning, mengandung konten dewasa! Dalam permainan penuh tipu daya, satu hasrat terlarang bisa mengubah segalanya. Dipaksa menikah dalam perjodohan dengan seorang pewaris kaya yang tidak ia cintai, Lena bertekad untuk melarikan diri. Rencananya? Menyamar sebagai wanita yang tidak menarik agar suaminya muak dan segera menceraikannya. Namun segalanya tak berjalan sesuai rencana. Neil River—paman dari suaminya yang misterius—adalah pria kejam dan berbahaya yang tahu jauh lebih banyak daripada yang seharusnya. Bukan hanya menyadari penyamaran Lena, ia juga mengetahui kehidupan gandanya sebagai pemilik misterius klub karaoke elite yang dibicarakan para pria secara diam-diam. Alih-alih membongkarnya, Neil justru tertarik. Ia menggoda Lena, hingga wanita itu terjebak dalam permainan berbahaya—di mana batas antara moral, nafsu, dan cinta mulai kabur. Bisakah Lena melepaskan diri dari pesona pria yang seharusnya tak pernah ia cintai—paman dari suaminya sendiri? “Jadi? Kau berhasil merayu suamimu hari ini?” “Tidak, Om. Aku sudah dandan cantik sejak subuh tadi, tapi… dia tetap saja jijik melihatku.” “Lalu bagaimana kalau… aku yang tergoda?” “Om… bercanda, kan?”

My husband's first love was scalded by boiling water. To punish me, he forced me into a customized steamer half my height, turned the heat to its highest setting, and sealed me inside. "I'll make you feel the pain Jessica suffered a thousand times over!" Trapped in the suffocating space, my breath came in ragged gasps. Heat seared my skin, and my body felt as though it would melt. I sobbed, begging him for mercy. "Please! I'm going to die!" But he didn't look back. Holding his beloved in his arms, he walked away. He even locked the door after he left the room. "Don't worry, you won't die. This is the only way you'll understand Jessica's pain." Despair swallowed me whole. I screamed, my voice raw, but the boiling water beneath me splashed up, scalding my skin, stealing even the strength to cry. He left the country with Jessica that same night. A week passed before he finally remembered my existence. "That wretched woman must have learned her lesson by now. Let her out." What he didn't know was that the water had long since boiled away, the heat had faded, and inside the steamer, my corpse lay rotting—swarmed with maggots.

"A stubborn young woman never imagined she would end up married to a mafia boss." Amaya lives with the constant suspicion that the bubble of her reality will burst. Being the illegitimate daughter of an oyabun, the leader of one of the Yakuza clans, her life was a path to anonymity. Raised outside of mafia traditions by her American mother, who was a beautiful woman, she was not welcomed within the mafia's ranks. However, she was always warned that when her father needed her, she must present herself. Her life takes a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn when she's kidnapped from university and brought before her family. At a dinner where she is not only exposed to the top echelons of the clan but also showcased in front of other mafiosos, she captures the attention of one of them, someone who steals the future she had envisioned for herself. Alessio is the capo of the Camorra and a beast in his own right, making his word law. After his parents' murder and the fire that scarred part of his face, he needs to form the right alliances to strengthen himself with everything necessary to go to war against the Russians who seek to seize his territory. In pursuit of this, he strikes a deal with the Yakuza, one that results in him being married to one of the oyabun's daughters—a man who aims to deceive him. After extracting what he needs from Alessio, the oyabun plans to teach him a lesson by using his own daughter. Neither of them was prepared for what lay ahead.