My Mother Has A System But Won't Use It

"Just help me out this once, man. I just made it to the final round, and I can't leave the game. Help your little brother out for a change? You're the best, J." It was 2:00 a.m. Chad asked me to go downstairs and pick up his takeout. I wanted to refuse because I was still recovering from a broken foot, but he did not look capable of tearing his eyes from the screen for even a second. Thus, I agreed and stepped outside. Without warning, something like a stream of comments flashed across my mind. [No! Somebody stop him!] [That delivery guy is your brother's roommate! He's got a knife!!!] [Lil' Bro knows that already, J! He's using you as a human shield to buy himself time!] I froze. I turned to go back inside. The door would not budge. Chad had already locked it. The elevator chimed down the hall. The comments in my head spiraled into chaos. [The killer is here! Get out of there, Big Bro!]

To earn a place in the Nostra family, I forge a new identity. The night my lie unravels, Don Nostra looks at me as if I'm dirt at the bottom of his shoe. I press a razor blade to my wrist. "Kick me out of the family, and I'll die right here." "Fine. Since you want to be my wife that badly, I'll give you what you want," Lorenzo Nostra snickered. After that, he brings home woman after woman. He forces me to kneel outside his bedroom door, saying, "Watch and learn. This is how you please your Don." The stinging pain in my knees is nothing compared to the chill in my heart. When he is done, he towers above me. "All this for a title," he says with a sneer. "You really put up with anything." Enduring him becomes the only way I can survive this world. Then, one day, he walks in with a civilian girl named Maria Romano. "Go. Bring her the heirloom Madre left behind," he commanded. This time, I refuse. I turn and walk away, never once looking back. When Lorenzo uncovers the truth, he loses his mind and begs me to come back.

He married her for millions. She gave him everything. He left her with nothing. Lucy's billionaire ex-husband stole four years of her life, fifty million dollars, and her final goodbye to her dying father. When he divorces her for his pregnant mistress, Lucy has nothing left to lose–until a car accident puts her in the path of Damian King, a guilt-ridden billionaire with a dying mother. Lucy proposes a deal: six months of fake marriage in exchange for resources to destroy her ex-husband. But revenge is a hungry beast. When her obsession threatens the baby she's carrying and the real love growing between them, Lucy must choose: become the monster or learn that some battles aren't worth winning.

At midnight, the ER receives a pregnant patient with an extremely pale face, and she's convulsing violently at the same time. I lift her shirt on the spot so that I can diagnose her symptoms better. But my wife, Selena Carson, who also works as the head nurse, suddenly berates me angrily. "Do you have any idea that what you're doing is sexual harassment? Can't you spare the patient her pride? "Don't use your treatment as an excuse! I refuse to believe that there aren't any female doctors in the ER at all!" The patient's family members streamed the whole thing live. Soon, everyone was blasting me on the Internet. The hospital forces me to apologize to the pregnant patient. But I decide to tender my resignation the very next day. After all, the patient's disease has a frighteningly high chance of getting misdiagnosed, not to mention it's incredibly difficult to cure. In fact, no one but I can cure her once and for all.

Isabella is faced with emotional turmoil as her family sees her as a means to an end and Richard's parents thought she was after their wealth even though she sacrificed everything to be the ideal wife to their son. Her infertility made matters worse as she was unable to give Richard an heir. Just when she believes her marriage is at its lowest point, Richard betrays her by getting her cousin pregnant Now, as she confronts a brutal divorce and battles to reclaim her self-esteem, the question remains: Will Isabella find the strength to rebuild her life and rise above the betrayals, or will Richard's regret drag her back into the mess of marriage she desperately needs to leave?

I don't help people, Lara. I own them." Five years ago, Lara’s life was incinerated. Her "deadbeat" father betrayed her, her mother was drugged and vanished into a psychiatric ward, and the mother’s vast bloodline inheritance was stolen by a predatory stepmother. Now, on her twenty-fifth birthday—the day her mother promised her "the beginning" Lara finds her fiancé in the arms of her stepsister. The betrayal is the final straw. The girl who believed in love is dead. In her place stands a woman with a heart of ice and a single goal: Total Annihilation. To get her revenge, Lara approaches the one man the world fears Xavier Vane. He is a cold-blooded billionaire who treats people like pawns. Lara offers herself as his ultimate tool, whispering the words that will seal her fate: "Yes, Use Me." Xavier knows she’s using him to destroy her family. Lara knows he’s using her to satisfy a dark family legacy. But as the lines between predator and prey begin to blur, a deeper secret emerges. The diamond heirloom Lara seeks isn't just jewelry it’s the key to an empire that dwarfs even the Vane fortune. In a game of masks, hidden mothers, and lethal obsession, who is truly using whom? "Break me if you must, Xavier. Just make sure that when you’re done, there’s nothing left of them but ash.

I marry Mason Longbright, my savior, at 24. For five years, Mason's erectile dysfunction and bipolar disorder keep us from ever sleeping together. He can't satisfy me when I want him, so he uses toys on me instead. But during his manic episodes, his touch turns into torment, leaving me bruised and broken. On my birthday night, I catch Mason in bed with another woman. Skin against skin, Mason drives into Amy Becker with a rough, ravenous urgency, his desire consuming her like a starving beast. Our friends and family are shocked, but no one is more devastated than I am. And when Mason keeps choosing Amy over me at home, I finally decide to let him go. I always thought his condition kept him from loving me, but it turns out he simply can't get it up with me at all. I book a plane ticket and instruct my lawyer to deliver the divorce papers. I am determined to leave him. To my surprise, Mason comes looking for me and falls to his knees, begging for forgiveness. But this time, I choose to treat myself better.

Tricked by someone, Audrey had a hot night in a hotel with Daniel Anderson, CEO of Anderson Corporation. To maintain his good name, Daniel is forced to marry Audrey. Their marriage was far from happy. Audrey was only considered by Daniel as a lust-fulfiller in bed. Not only that, Daniel also always accused Audrey of being the one who had trapped him all this time. To prove that Daniel's accusations were not true, Audrey tried to find out what happened that night. However, she found herself pregnant. Not only that, she was also slapped by the shocking fact that the child she was carrying was the result of embryo injections from her husband and someone else. Which is the person closest to Audrey! So, what is the fate of Audrey's marriage to Daniel? What will Audrey do with the fetus in her womb?

My sister, Laura Ward, died the year we were ten, the year we snuck out of school to play. From that day forward, my mother’s grief turned into a burning hatred for me, convinced that I was the reason my sister was gone. She treated me like a servant, like an unwanted burden, and filled the void by adopting a perfect, obedient daughter to replace my sister. She took everything from me without a second thought — my rights, my freedom, my very existence — and even demanded that I give up a kidney for her precious adopted girl. Alright, Mother, if you want a life, I’ll give you mine! But it was only when my body lay cold, my breath long gone, that she finally turned and looked at me.

To take care of my mother after she fell and injured herself, I turned down a promotion and took a week off work to stay by her side. On the day she was discharged from the hospital, she smiled and handed me a small envelope. “Suzy, you’ve worked hard these past few days. This is just a little something from me. Go treat yourself to something good.” I wiped my hands, a quiet warmth spreading through my chest. When I opened the envelope, I froze for a moment. Inside was $2. Still, I told myself it didn’t matter. The amount wasn’t important. What mattered was the thought behind it. But the very next day, while scrolling through social media, I came across a post from my younger brother, the one who hadn’t shown his face at the hospital even once. Nine photos filled the post, all of them showing off a sprawling luxury mansion. In the center was a photo of the purchase contract. The caption read: “Officially the owner of a $2 million riverfront house. Big thanks to Mom for the support!”