Once In Life

On the Lunaris Festival, the palace banquet glittered with candlelight. It lasted until the Crown Prince rose and dismissed every consort of his for the sake of his first love, the woman he had never stopped idolizing. Everyone else accepted the gold coins from the prince and returned home for reunions. I had nowhere to go. I found a rope and hanged myself at the gate of the Withered Court. I had been reborn into this world and spent 21 years locked in the System's mission. It demanded that I court four designated male leads and earn absolute affection from at least one of them. I failed every route. The final path collapsed in my hands. The System offered one last mercy. If this body died, I could return home and reunite with my family. As my consciousness slipped away, I thought I heard someone scream my name, as if the world itself were breaking.

During Christmas dinner, my mother-in-law hinted for the umpteenth time that she wanted a grandchild. However, my husband, Zachary Cole, who had insisted on staying child-free in the past decade, only smiled and filled her plate. After dinner, he slipped onto the balcony. "There, there. Daddy will come see you on New Year's Day," he whispered. I stood in the corner of the living room with a glass of water in my hand, feeling cold as the words sank in. I stepped forward and forced a playful tone. "I just heard you say 'Daddy.' Got a secret kid stashed somewhere?" He rubbed his nose, his voice stiff. "You must've misheard. That's… just a friend's kid." My heart sank. I'd been married to him for a decade, so I knew exactly what he looked like when he was lying.

"I thought I was his wife. To him, I was just a placeholder for the woman he actually loved." For three years, Evelyn lived as a ghost. To the world, she was the penniless orphan who hit the jackpot by marrying the cold, ruthless billionaire Caleb Knight. She played the part of the perfect, drab wallflower, cooking his favorite meals, enduring his family’s sneers, and secretly using her hidden Sterling Empire connections to save his company from the brink of bankruptcy. But on their third anniversary, the fairy tale shattered. Instead of a gift, Caleb handed her divorce papers. "Seraphina is back," he said, his voice as cold as ice Humiliated and discarded, Evelyn signs the papers and vanishes without a trace, leaving behind a positive pregnancy test in the trash, a secret Caleb wasn't worth knowing. Two years later, Caleb Knight’s "luck" has run out. His empire is bleeding, and his only hope is a merger with the mysterious, untouchable Sterling Global Group. Gone is the shy, plain girl in the $10 dress. Standing there in couture diamonds, flanked by three of the world's most powerful men, is his ex-wife. She is radiant, she is powerful, and she returns with a little boy who looks just like him and a girl who shares her aura. "Evelyn?" Caleb gasps, falling to his knees. "I... I’ve been looking for you. Please, come home." She steps over his hand as if he were a piece of trash. "I’m sorry, Mr. Knight,"she purrs, her voice dripping with lethal indifference. "The wallflower you threw away is dead. This is the Empress speaking and she finds you quite... boring." He broke her heart. Now, she’s going to break his empire!

From as far back as I can remember, I knew my mom hated me. She gives me sleeping pills when I'm three. When I'm five, she tries pesticide instead. But I'm hard to get rid of. By the time I'm seven, I've already learned how to fight back. If she refuses to give me food, I flip the table so no one can eat either. If she beats me up until I'm on the ground, writhing in pain, I go after her beloved son the same way, leaving him bruised and bawling. That's how we stay locked in battle until I turn 12. Everything changes when my youngest sister is born. I'm clumsily trying to help with her wet diaper when Mom suddenly shoves me against the wall. The look in her eyes holds both disgust and fear. "What were you trying to do to my daughter? I knew it. You take after that monster of a father. Why didn't you just die with him?" I hold my aching head. For the first time, I don't fight back. I believe she's right. My existence is a mistake. I should never have been alive.

Si Chaira ay maganda, mabait, at matalino, ngunit likas siyang mailap, lalo na sa mga lalaki. Bagama’t nakapagtapos ng Business Management, pinili niyang manatili sa kanyang condo bilang online seller at freelance editor para sa mga social media vloggers. Sa kabila ng simpleng pamumuhay, sapat ang kita niya upang matulungan ang kanyang dalawang ate. Isang gabi, sumama siya sa club sa pilit ng mga kaibigan. Sa kalasingan, hindi niya inaasahang mawawala ang kanyang virginity sa isang one-night stand, at ang lalaking ito ay ang kanyang crush noong high school. Sa gulat at hiya, iniwan niya ito nang walang paalam. Dahil sa pangangailangan ng pera para sa kanyang may sakit na pamangkin, napilitan siyang mag-aplay sa isang trabaho. Hindi niya inakalang ang CEO ng kumpanya ay ang lalaking kumuha ng kanyang virginity at ang crush niya noong high school. Paano niya haharapin ang mapang-akit na kaniyang boss? Paano niya pipigilan ang pusong umibig, takot na masaktan at muling maranasan ang pag-iisa? Kakayanin niya bang manatili sa trabaho para sa kapakanan ng kaniyang pamilya?

She has someone to get rid of. Megan Zendel is betrayed by her boyfriend and now she wants revenge so when Leonardo Valenti offers her a deal to be his fiancée for a year so she can make her ex-boyfriend jealous, she agrees to it. Unknown to Megan, Leonardo also approached her with an ulterior motive. The condition of the deal is that none of them must fall in love with each other. But what happens when love gets into the picture of their deal and Leonardo's motive is exposed?

Don Ettore Vitale's lover, Viola Serra, and I are abducted at the same time. When it's time for Ettore to make his choice, he doesn't hesitate to choose Viola despite always doting on me all the time. "Larissa, Viola can't take this. She's too fragile. Once this is over, I'll definitely make it up to you." "If you choose her, I'll hate you forever!" He remains silent for a moment before whisking Viola away in his arms. I just keep laughing till tears spill down my cheeks. Some time later, I nestle into Ettore's arch-nemesis, Vittorio Romano's arms while smiling at the former. But he keeps begging me to return to him like an absolute lunatic.

Mitsy and Nero Del Franco is a happy couple. Kahit pa mayaman si Nero at mahirap lamang ang kinalakihan na buhay ni Mitsy at hindi boto sa kanya ang mommy ni Nero ay hindi iyon naging hadlang upang magpakasal sila matapos ang halos sampung taong relasyon. Pero biglang nagbago ang lahat pagkatapos ng kasal. Ang dating masayang pagsasama ay bigla na lamang naglaho. Ang dating mainit na gabi ay biglang nanlamig. Mitsy did an investigation and found out that Nero's having an affair. Nagawa pa nitong dalhin sa bahay nila. Full of misery and hatred, Mitsy got her life out of the Del Franco's mansion and went to Tagbilaran City, where she met another face of her cheating husband.

My best friend, Yara Campbell, got reborn back to the day she was to reunite with the richest family in town, the Waltons. She didn't want to relive her fate as the Waltons' marionette that was trapped in a gilded cage, so she refused to go home with them. That was why she didn't hesitate to push me out instead. As I gazed at Grace Robinson, whose fingers were adorned with diamond rings, and Raymond Walton, who looked like he was made of money, I instantly rushed toward them. There was no way I'd let this golden opportunity slip through my fingers, after all! Five years later, Yara shows up on the Walters' doorstep with a paternity test report in her hands. She then demands that I be cast out of the family. But she's too late. In the past five years, I'm no longer the replacement she had used on a whim back then. Now, I'm the second-in-command in Walton Group. No one in this family can possibly usurp my position from me now.

She died a naive heiress. She woke up a cold-blooded ghost. Clara Vane was murdered by the two people she trusted most: her husband, Marcus, and her best friend, Sienna. Pushed from a rooftop on the night that should have secured her future, she was supposed to be a forgotten sacrifice. Instead, she wakes up three years in the past—before the lies took root, and before the betrayal cost her everything. This time, Clara isn't playing the victim. She’s the predator. To dismantle Marcus’s empire, she enters a high-stakes contract with the "Ice King" of the corporate world, Alistair Thorne. Alistair is a man whose name alone silences courtrooms and ruins bloodlines. He offers her the protection she needs, but his shadow comes with a price that blurs the line between a business deal and a dangerous obsession. Revenge is a cold game, and with Alistair at her side, Clara is ready to play. But in a world of wealth, ancient secrets, and absolute control, she’ll have to decide how much of her soul she’s willing to burn to watch her enemies ash. Some betrayals cut deeper than death. Some second chances are written in blood.