New Kid In Class

Lia lives a quiet life in a small two-bedroom home on the outskirts of a major city. Between playing piano at a piano gallery, waitressing at a high-end restaurant, and her never ending love for books, she never thought there would be anything more to life. She was content. At least she thought so. It wasn't until she went out with her best friend and had a hot encounter with a large and sexy stranger. One moment they are flirting in a booth, the next she's rushing out of an expensive hotel room after waking up naked beside the handsome stranger. After living through her first one-night stand, she decided to leave it at that. But what she wasn't expecting was to be hunted down by the most dangerous man in the country. Turns out, the man from her one-night stand held more mystery than she thought. Now she must determine whether to find some way to be comfortable with his lifestyle and embrace the kind of love she only seen in her romance novels or to stick with her morals and let this relationship go. That is, if he lets her...

Lucia’s life took a tragic turn when her father, Richard Pete, unable to repay a debt to the late Jordan Lancaster, was forced by Jordan’s widow, Eve, to marry Lucia to their cruel son, Adam. Trapped in an abusive marriage and pressured to produce an heir, Lucia fled after uncovering dark secrets but lost her memory in a plane crash. Stranded in Mexico, she fell in love with Jerahmeel Lancaster—unaware he was Jordan’s true heir—and had a child (later revealed to be Adam’s). Years later, a call from Lucia’s birth mother unlocked her past: she was the kidnapped daughter of the billionaire owner of the Marcelo empire. Returning with vengeance, she reclaimed her birthright and inherited the Lancaster Group from Jerahmeel, who died of cancer. Ruthless and powerful, she crushed Eve and Adam for their cruelty. But Adam, discovering he was the father of her son, manipulated her lingering feelings. Despite her strength, Lucia forgave him, reinstating him as her husband and handing back control of the Lancaster Group. Their reunion left their future uncertain.

When my family went bankrupt, I was drugged and sent to the bed of my childhood sweetheart, Craig Kennedy. From that night, he brought women home every evening, tossing a divorce agreement in my face. "Beg me, and I won't leave you." He stood above me, watching as I humbled myself to dust, pleading to preserve our marriage. He even ordered me to kneel in his office and massage the feet of his secretary, Lucia Langston. On the day the Moore Group needed ten million to survive, she blocked all my desperate calls for help. I waited 24 hours, watching my family's legacy collapse and my parents take their lives. Craig, with Lucia at his side, entered the house and threw the signed divorce agreement at me again. "You wanted money to save your family, didn't you? Beg me, and as long as I don't divorce you, no one will touch them." But I signed it with calm despair. "Don't bother. We no longer need your help."

I'm sold into the underground and turned into an anthropodermic fan, suffering endless days of humiliation. It isn't until my spine shatters from a hammered nail that my brother—Daxon Smyth—and my fiance—Joshua Moore—finally arrive. The two men who've doted on me for 20 years swear to make the guilty pay in blood. And I think my salvation has come. But when I overhear their words, I realize the truth—every torment I've suffered is of their doing, all to make me behave and stop me from competing with the true heiress they've found. When another man carries me away from that place, they lose their minds and scour through all ends of the world, trying to find me.

When I took my five-year-old son, Ethan Drake, for a routine medical checkup, I noticed an additional renal function test listed on the report. “This is a mandatory item for kidney donor matching. Didn’t you know?” the nurse asked. Her explanation left me confused. “The checkup I booked didn’t include this test. Could there have been a mistake?” “There’s no mistake. The appointment was made by Ms. Serena Vaughn. She specifically added this item.” The Serena the nurse mentioned was my wife. At that moment, my sharp eyes caught another form in her hand: [Diagnosis: Polycystic Kidney Disease. Patient: Noah Vaughn. Family: Serena Vaughn.] I immediately called Serena. “The nurse said you scheduled a kidney donor matching test for our son. What’s going on?” There was a three-second pause before she spoke. “The nurse must have made a mistake. I’ve been busy lately. Don’t call me if there’s nothing important.” I smiled and told her I’d do that. Then I turned to the nurse and asked, “Which ward is Noah staying in?”

After I confessed to my childhood crush, he smirked and said, "If you can get that loser to drink from the same bottle you did, I'll date you." Seriously? Was I really reborn fifteen years ago? I raced over to Noah—top of the class and hot as hell—and dropped the water bottle on his desk in front of everyone. He clocked the lipstick stain, face turning crimson. Future business mogul? Right now, he looked like some poor kid waiting to get crushed. I nudged the bottle closer. "Using that genius brain to collect bottles for cash? Kinda tragic. Be my private tutor instead." He might be broke, but lucky for him, I've got money to burn.

My daughter, Tina, locked herself in her room, crying so hard her body shook. I pried the door open and saw that she was clutching a test paper that was torn to shreds and pieced back together. It was a math Olympiad selection test. She should have gotten a perfect score, but was given a score of zero instead. "Mom," she sobbed, "the teacher said 3x5 is not equal to 5x3; that it's taking shortcuts. She tore my paper up in front of everyone, revoked my eligibility for the competition, and told the whole class not to talk to me…" I looked at the deep red scratch marks on my daughter's wrist and immediately picked up the phone to call the principal. "What good does it do for your school's reputation to drive a kid who loves math to their breaking point?"

Chuck's beloved ex, Ella, got divorced and showed up with her two-year-old daughter. Without asking me, he let Ella and her kid move into our home. Then Ella posted a photo of Chuck holding the child, captioned: [My husband cheated, so I filed for divorce, gave my baby a new dad, and found myself a new husband.] The comments were full of praise: [Real-life boss woman drama!] I had to laugh—so being a homewrecker is what counts as a strong woman now? Chuck didn't see a problem. He even told the child to call me "Momma." "Ella's husband cheated on her. She's raising a kid alone. As a woman, can't you have a little empathy? I'm just helping her out." Well, I had no empathy to give—not for the mistress, and definitely not for the scumbag.

Kiran Black is the new kid at Glenrose High School after his parent's divorce and his move to Oregon with his mother, and he’s less than excited to be starting all over. Being the new kid in school is never easy, especially when you just want to be left alone and the greeting committee is none other than Aurora Williams – the most annoyingly perky person he has ever met. Her name alone means dawn and protection, so she lives up to the name of “being the light” for everyone around her. As annoying as she was, something about her interested Kiran. He knew with every light there was a shadow, and a part of him wanted to find the darkness inside that ray of sunshine. No one is naturally that happy, everyone is fighting their own battle, and Kiran was becoming obsessed with finding her demons. Will Aurora show Kiran the light? Or will Kiran end up pulling Aurora into the dark?

Our entire class gets dragged into The Tyrant's Atonement game. The only way to escape alive is to reach a 100% atonement score. The system lets us choose our roles. The class belle, Isolde Adler, picks the tyrant's first love. Her atonement score shoots straight to 99% on the first day. The class president, Asher Brooks, chooses to be a loyal chancellor. His atonement score jumps to 80%. Spectators watching the game flood the screen with comments. "This new batch is smart and way better at picking roles than the last. They might just clear the game in three days." "Even if just one person hits 100%, the whole class goes free. I'm looking forward to seeing who finishes first." "My money's on the first love. She's already at 99%." Just as everyone starts celebrating, the next morning hits us with bad news. All 20 classmates who picked their roles are dead, and Isolde suffers the cruelest fate of all.