Our Thing Nicci Harris

After my daughter, Mia Powell, was declared brain-dead, my husband, Liam Powell, urged me to sign the organ donation consent form. I was drowning in grief and my mind was on the verge of collapse. That was when I accidentally discovered that her attending doctor, Blair Lincoln, was Liam’s old flame. They had lied about Mia’s brain death, just to trick me into signing the form and steal her heart to save Blair’s daughter, Sophia. I watched as Liam picked Sophia up from the hospital. The three of them smiled together, like a perfect, happy family. When I confronted them, they pushed me off a building, and I died from the fall. Given a second chance, I had returned to the day I was supposed to sign the organ donation form. As I stared at Mia lying in that hospital bed, I silently vowed. This time, that scumbag and that wretch would pay with their lives for what they did to Mia.

At sixteen, Freya thought she had escaped the loneliness of the orphanage when she was adopted into the powerful Sutton family. Instead, she was sold into a loveless marriage with Malum Sutton, a greedy womanizer twice her age who needed a wife to claim his inheritance. But across Dubai’s glittering skyline and the Modern-day United States (Chicago, New York), another truth is unfolding. The Harrison family — wealthier and more powerful than the Suttons—reveals their matriarch once gave birth to a quadruplet, not triplets. Their long-lost daughter was stolen at birth, Three brothers, Kai, Rowan, and Sage, begin a desperate search for their missing sister. When business brings Sage to the Sutton estate, he notices something odd: Malum’s wife flinched at his touch, her silence screaming of abuse. What Sage doesn’t yet know is that this fragile woman is the sister he’s been looking for. Malum, terrified of losing control, fabricates DNA tests to present his secretary as the missing Harrison daughter. Until betrayal turns on betrayal. Odessa, the woman who once delivered Freya into Malum’s hands, exposes the scheme. But Malum does not give up so easily. Manipulating their son’s innocence and stoking Freya’s insecurities through jealousy of Harrison's wives, he lured her back into his grasp. He binds her with a cruel contract, one designed to strip her of everything unless she can prove his infidelity. This time, however, Freya is no longer alone. With her brother’s love and her own newfound strength, she turns Malum’s trap against him. From orphan to outcast, from victim to heiress, Freya claims her place as the true Harrison daughter.

I once thought I had the most dangerous yet the most perfect love in the whole world. My lover, Dante Costello, is the Underboss of the Costello family. He carries himself with grace and nobility. Everyone fears and respects him, yet he only shows his gentle side to me. I used to think that the man who keeps lurking in the shadows and has once left humiliating marks on me while gazing at me with cold eyes is his brother, Luciano Costello. Luciano is a Capo who lives in the shadows. He's also a madman whose hands are stained with blood. Everything changes when I smell the unique scent of gunpowder and blood that only Luciano has from Dante's custom-fitted suit. Only then do I realize that I have never just belonged to one man all this time. During the day, Dante plays the role of my perfect lover. He showers me with jewelry and deadly romance. At night, Luciano transforms into a devil who satisfies his twisted, possessive urges in the roughest way possible. Both brothers have set up an elaborate trap to lock me up in this gilded cage and admire my struggles from afar. When I find out about the truth, I don't cry or bleed over it. Instead, I'm filled with eerie calmness. The brothers want to watch me break down. Instead of doing that, I'll ruin them. I flutter effortlessly between the brothers, using their only weakness against them. Apparently, both of them think that they are the only hunters in this game. This time, it's my turn to weave them a trap.

All because of Leo Cullen’s words, I gave up a place at a top-tier university in Ceres and stayed behind to retake the entrance exams with him—three times. By the fourth year, a girl arrived at our cram school, and Leo forgot the promise we made. He started skipping class, picking fights, smoking—doing everything but studying. One day, I stood at the school gate, blocking his path with a textbook in hand as he tried to ditch class. He smirked, unimpressed, and blew a bubble with his gum, letting it stick to the ends of my hair. “Naomi…,” he began, “who still cares about studying these days?” So I stopped caring and avoided him entirely. When he fooled around in the classroom, I went to the library. When he played basketball, I sat in a quiet corner with my books. Even when I craved noodles from my favorite shop, I’d scan the room first to make sure he wasn’t there. “Are you avoiding me, Naomi?” he asked later, his face in a frown. I shook my head. “Why would you think that?”

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Ruth Abellana is egocentric, self-centered and ambitious. She never values anyone except for herself and her sister, Tina. Loves money and materialistic. On the night of May 25th, Ruth involved in an unfortunate event. In the halfway of a calm and tranquil night, an accident occurs in the bridge. Due to it, she was lying in a coma for a couple of months. After 6 months long, Ruth was finally awake, but something odd happened, she sees the soul of an unknown man, asking for help. He can't remember anything except the tragedy of his death, which was the accident on the bridge on the night of May 25.

It was our seventh year of marriage when my husband, Joseph Lowe, brought my best friend, Teresa Shaw, to my ward. And they were the picture of a perfect couple. I gave them my most genuine blessing. "You two make the perfect match." Joseph tossed an agreement in my face. An asset transfer. He demanded that I give Teresa everything I had. I took the papers and signed my name without wasting a moment to think. Teresa laughed happily, pleased with my obedience. She then hugged Joseph and said, "Thanks for taking care of Joseph for me, Selina. Oh, there's the divorce papers, too. How about…" I noticed the look of impatience in Joseph's eyes, so I snatched the papers from Teresa's hand. "Yeah, I'll sign them all."

Love has so many faces, but there's only one meaning. It depends on a situation you had. Delmond loves his sister so much. He does everything for her, even risk his own life, even the person he loves the most. "You need me, but my sister needs you more!" Delmond says. How painful it was for them to overcome the struggles and trials they had gone trough? And those all lies make turns into reality. Who destined them for each other? Read and follow their love life story here at, "Nothing but to lie."

Autumn Shade only wants one thing: to get away and live her own life. Tired of being forced by her father to take on the business, and follow in his steps, she leaves. She wanted to show her father that she was capable of making her own decisions and not screwing up. But just when she successfully leaves, she's caught up in another whirlwind which threatens to deem everything she'd known a lie.Justin Black and his friends see Autumn and they find that she was perfect for what they were planning, given that it was her father they wanted to take revenge on.Autumn learns a shocking truth about a scandal involving a murder and her father, and persistently denies it. But apparently they have proof.All Autumn wants to do is the right thing. If her father is innocent she gets to say 'I told you so' and if he's really a cheating murderer then she does what's right and gets out of this mess once and for all.But as usual, things get complicated. Actually, feelings get complicated, because the longer she stayed, the closer the broken boy held her.© 2020 by Everleigh Winters

I was eighteen when I got together with Sam Bennett. We were in love for two years—at least, that was what I thought—until I found out I was nothing more than a stand-in for someone else. After a huge fight, we broke up. Not long after, Paxton Gibson, the warm and caring senior who had always looked out for me, began pursuing me passionately. He was persistent, unwavering, and so sincere that I finally let down my guard and accepted him. Just when I thought I had finally found true happiness, I overheard a phone call between Paxton and Sam. “Don’t worry, Leah trusts me completely. Take good care of Georgina. The surgery will happen soon.” In the end, when I really did disappear, they changed their minds. “Leah, come home with me, please?” I smiled, at peace with myself. “But I haven’t had a home for a long time.”