Next Year In Havana Novels & Stories

Living with my aunt and her family was meant to be a temporary, quiet arrangement just helping out and keeping to myself. On the first day of the new year, while everyone else was out celebrating, I stayed home, enjoying the rare silence and catching up on sleep. But when we ran out of water, I reluctantly stepped outside to fetch some, and that’s when I saw him. He stood by the gate of the house next door, effortlessly commanding attention with just a glance. A smirk played on his lips, and a flicker of amusement danced in his eyes behind his blue-ray glasses. At that moment, he was impossible to ignore. Meanwhile, I felt disheveled and barely awake, my hair was a mess and still shaking off sleep. But he didn’t seem to mind. There was something about him an air of mystery that made me wonder who he was and why he was there. Before I could look away, he spoke, “Hi.” Caught off guard, I managed a quick, “Hi,” while trying to pull myself together. “Can I know your name?” he asked. I hesitated but replied, “I’m Clara,” and kept walking. “Can I have your number?” he called after me. “Just as friends.” I almost refused but reluctantly agreed, entering my number into his phone. “There,” I said, handing it back. “I’ll call you,” he promised with a smile, as I turned to leave. What began as a chance encounter soon became an inexplicable connection. He had secrets, but there was something about him that saw through me, understanding things no one else did. The man I met next door wasn’t just a fleeting stranger,he became the reason I started questioning everything I thought I wanted.

Look woman I never begged to be your husband, you gave me that opportunity” Min Jun yelled. Mei Xing a 22 year old and the only daughter of multi-billionaires is diagnosed with cancer but doesn’t want to go through chemotherapy, with only a year left to live, she wants to explore. Min Jun a jobless 23 year old, finds himself a jackpot and agrees to be her contracted husband for the money and all the benefits of being with a billionaire’s daughter. EXCERPT: “Will you marry me?” Mei Xing asked a stranger she met walking on the streets. “What did you just say?” he said and was about to walk away. “I will pay you, a hundred thousand dollars, if you be my husband for a year” she said. “A year?” he asked and she nodded. She scanned through her wardrobe and wore a flowery dress, it wasn’t summer but by summer she might be too sick to wear it. “You only live once, more like a year," Min Jun finally arrived in jeans and a polo, “A summery dress in fall” he said as he took his seat. “The deal is I get fifty thousand dollars before we start the arrangement, then after the wedding I get the other half” Min Jun asked and Mei Xing nodded in approval. “You just have to be with me for a year, I probably won’t be alive by the end of the year” she joked. “Do you have some kind of transferable deadly disease. Covid?” he asked her. “No just cancer” she assured. “So I’m going to be free in a year and you'll be dead” he narrated.

On New Year's Eve, my husband, Max Davis, took me to a private dinner hosted by a big industry player. We had barely made our way around the room when a strange woman suddenly shoved me into the pool. When I insisted on checking the surveillance footage and calling the police, Max firmly held me back. He warned me to "remember my place" and not embarrass him in front of everyone. In the brief time I changed into another gown, I returned to find that same woman perched on my husband's lap, her red lipstick leaving traces on his collar. "Max, you're right! That nasty scar on her stomach really does look like a centipede. It's so hideous!" She giggled with mock innocence, adding, "It's been so fun messing with your wife. Next time, can I slap her when no one's looking?" Meanwhile, Max gazed at her like she was the only woman in the world, gently tracing his finger over her nose. "Of course, you can," he replied, eyes still locked on hers. "I'll even tie her hands behind her back for you."

My son spiked a sudden high fever, scorching like a flame under my touch. I frantically dialed 911 for help, but the dispatcher on the line kept repeating questions, dragging it out. By the time the ambulance siren finally wailed in the distance, my son had already grown cold and still in my arms. Less than a year later, my husband and I split up amid endless grief and finger-pointing. I dragged on like an empty shell until one day I got an e-invite to his wedding. The moment I clicked the voice message, my blood ran cold. The bride's voice echoed exactly like that sluggish dispatcher from back then. In a breakdown, I bolted out of the house and got caught in the path of a speeding subway train, plunging me into darkness. When I opened my eyes again, my son's cries pierced the air from the next room, his forehead blazing hot against my palm. My husband thrust the phone toward me. "Quick, call 911! I'll grab a cold compress." My hands trembled as I dialed, and a chillingly familiar voice answered, "Hello, 911 emergency services."

My father died of esophageal cancer. For the final two years of his life, he could barely swallow anything. By the time he passed, he was nothing but skin and bones. The first New Year after his death, he came to my mother in a dream. "I'm starving," he said. "I just want to taste the thick-cut steak you used to make." My mother believed it without question. That very day, she pan-seared a large platter of steak and carried it to his grave. The next morning, she suffered a sudden heart attack and died on the spot. Devastated, I handled my mother's funeral together with my husband. That same night, my husband dreamed of my father as well. "Chester," he said, "I haven't eaten in so long. I want your pâté, served with some strong liquor." When my husband woke up, he bought the finest liver pâté, opened a bottle of single-malt whiskey, and went straight to the grave. However, not long after returning home, he collapsed from acute liver failure. He was rushed to the ICU and died three days later. I was on the brink of collapse myself. I left my daughter in the care of a close friend while I tried to handle the endless wave of tragedy. That evening, my daughter never came home from school. I searched everywhere, and finally, on the road to the cemetery, I found her. She was clutching a bowl of spicy stew, several grilled sausages floating in the broth. "Mom," she said, "Grandpa and I used to eat this all the time. I dreamed he said he was hungry." I finally lost it. I knocked the bowl from her hands and carried her home. That night, my father appeared in my dream once more. "I suffered so much while alive," he said. "Have some pity on me. "New Year's is coming. I want to come home for a meal. Make sure you cook fish." I woke in terror. Holding my daughter, I sat before the three framed portraits for two full days without eating or drinking. On New Year's morning, I realized she was no longer breathing. Clutched tightly in her hand was a packet of spicy dried salmon. I could not believe it. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my mother, her eyes red with worry, said she was going out to buy steak.

On our third year wedding anniversary, Ricardo Gambino finds me in the estate located far beyond the city's boundaries. As he clutches a pregnancy report, he finds it difficult to suppress the smile on his face. "I have good news for you, Isabella!" Ricardo exclaims excitedly. "Lucia is pregnant! It so happens that you're infertile, we'll have her give birth to the baby, and you can raise them! After that, I'll make sure to send Lucia away. You, on the other hand, shall remain as my wife!" Ricardo's tone is starting to drift. He sounds like he's done something amazing for me and wants me to compliment him. But I merely look at him as though he were a jester. What Ricardo doesn't know is that he's the infertile one. Also, we've already gotten divorced from each other. At that moment, I receive a new text on my phone. Then, I see a photo of an ultrasound report regarding the first trimester of a pregnancy. "Isabella, we're having triplets." The next text pops up immediately. "I shall marry you in three days."

"I loved you maxwell, I really did" I yelled at him as tears fell from my eyes " and I loved you too, I still do" he said as he moved closer. "Then why did you make me wait so much before admitting it to me?" I yelled at him. I watched him as he looked down " Max why?" I asked " Because I'm scared.. damn it!" he yelled ***** Scarlett is a normal high school student in her third year, she lives with her father and her younger brother, her mother left her father when she was ten years old and through the years her dad has been both a dad and a mum to she and her brother. with the help of Maxwell, Scarlett's childhood friend who is also her best friend, Scarlett learns how to break off her shell and she falls in love with her best friend who is oblivious of that fact. what will happen to those feelings now when a new guy suddenly appears next door and also in school, it feels magical as they both touch hands.. will Scarlett end up with maxwell or the new guy.

“Are you here to pimp yourself just like your mother? Your mother took away my father and now you're aiming for his son?” Icy words whispered that felt like needles prickling in my own skin. The thought gave a frightful shudder. This man, powerful enough to throw me to the pit hole filled with sharks, hates my very existence ever since my mother and I stepped into their lives. ====================== Nina Caulfield has sworn not to meet Luca de Milano again. After all, her mother is the mistress who caused the divorce of his parents. When she reaches eighteen, her mother announces her wedding which will be held in Spain next year. Now that she's busy preparing for the wedding, Nina has no choice but to live with Luca until she graduates. Luca de Milano, Merger and Acquisition CEO of Milano Inc., is forced to be a guardian of the reminder of his broken view of a perfect family. A hapless girl with no redeeming qualities and her future stepbrother striving for perfection. Now, what happens when two polar opposites get stuck together under the same roof for a year? ===== SLOW BURN ROMANCE WITH HEA , R18+ later on======

After 6 years of relentless demon attacks on the werewolf packs of the United States, The Werewolf monarchs decide to turn to the witches for help defeating them. The witches agree to help, but only if Bryan, the Alpha Prince, seals their alliance by taking the witch Queen as his mate. The Witch Queen is the only supernatural entity powerful enough to defeat the demons, so Bryan agrees to the terms. Josie, is a recently widowed archeological occult specialist that has dedicated her entire adult life to studying the supernatural. With only a year left in her second graduate program, she already has two masters degrees, and two best-selling books on the truth about the supernaturals that live among humans under her belt when she is called to New Orleans, the witch capital of the country, to consult on an artifact. Only she wakes the next morning with restored memories that she hadn't even known were stolen from her. Now she must make a choice whether to bind herself to the Werewolf Prince to restore her power, take back her throne and save the Werewolves, or continue her life as a the successful archeological occult specialist author that she has dedicated the past 10 years of her life to being.

Being rejected by one organisation to another was Melanie Watson, she graduated from the state university three years ago but couldn't secure a job because of her poor diploma. She didn't stop job hunting because of the loan she's going to refund in few weeks time. She borrowed some money from a fiercely casino to sponsor her education and she's to refund the money in three folds. A few weeks to the allotted time, Melanie was offered a babysitting job. She hasn't meet with the baby she's going to babysit before she requested for a year's advance payment. How will she cope when she gets to the mansion and realise that the boy she's going to babysit is not just a boy, but Archie Gordon, a thirteen years old boy who resents his father with passion? Melanie found herself stuck between the father and son discomfort that she was going to face for the next year. How will she cope when she found herself falling in love with Alfred Gordon and she's to choose between the broken son who wants her attention and the father who wants nothing but her love?