Outer Banks Drew Starkey

"Daniel... Please help... I'm dying..." "Are you doing this so I'll stop my wedding with Eleanor? Come on, Emma, you're being inconsiderate!" ***** I died, but when I opened my eyes, I was standing before Daniel in a hall packed with prestigious people, holding an engagement ring, and ready to tie the knot with Daniel... I was back to three years ago, when I first got engaged to Daniel. In my past life, I gave my all to the people around me, but still got broken. My adopted parents forced me to absorb the life of their missing daughter... I always wore her favourite dress, eat her favourite meal, learned to act and speak like her, and even answered her name. Still, I didn't complain, but once they finally found her, they abandoned me. I was going to take everything and pretend I was fine, but where I drew the line was when my sister asked my fiancé, Daniel to marry her in order to make her wish come true. He agreed, I threw his ring away, but before I could leave, my sister murdered me in cold blood. I thought it was all over, but here I am, standing before Daniel, ready to get engaged to him again. This time, I won't make the same mistake again...

Everyone in Oceanton knew that mob boss Jared Pierce was deeply in love with me. No one feared my disappearance more than he did. Even if bullets were raining down on him, he'd still find a way to contact me, just to make sure I felt safe. But on the night before our wedding, he didn't come home. When he finally returned, he dropped to his knees, a bruised and weakened woman cradled in his arms. "Rosalia! Melody took the drug just to save me! I can't just watch her die! So I had no choice but to sleep with her." Terrified that I wouldn't forgive him, Jared drew six wounds into his arm. Blood soaked through his shirt in an instant. As soon as the wedding banquet ended, I heard his men chuckling and teasing. "The boss didn't even take off his wedding outfit before rushing to see Melody. Just how seductive is his lover?" Jared’s low, sultry voice followed. "Last time I stayed with her, I didn’t come back for three days and nights. Take a guess." In shock and despair, I called out the system. "I want to leave this world!" The system's cold voice replied, "After your exit, this world will erase all traces of your existence. Counting down… Seven days."

BOOK CURRENTLY ON HOLD Every thousand years Herak and Ara were reborn... Darkness mixed with innocence had never ended well. A fairytale of forbidden love cursed by the stars. Legend has it that they were bound to be separated by a thousand times before they could be together . Zarabeth is a young wild and free young girl She was born into the tribe of healers she had always been fascinated by the legend of Herak and Ara, she always felt that she had a strong bond with the character Herak But how could that be..... He was merely a legend in one of her fictional story Or was he? Allanon....... He drew whispers everywhere... That he was responsible for the continuous horrific deaths of their wing clan A wingless royal child not fit to seat on the throne,to rule over the seven seas. But none could say it to his face, his looks were formidable ,if his great strength and magical powers were anything to go by . From the first moment he saw Zarabeth he became obsessed, he felt like he had known her all his life. He would do anything to obtain her pure untainted soul..... He was the darkness attracted to her like a moth to a flame What happens when there were so many secrets and mysteries to be revealed, would he be able to keep them safe in this lifetime? Or would they face another painful separation .. The curse of another thousand years * NOTE This WILL contain some graphic and mature scenes

Our cruise ship got into an accident, but there was only one seat left on the lifeboat. The three of us drew lots, and I got it. I wanted to give Zac Xavier the chance of survival that I won. However, while we were arguing, his childhood sweetheart got on the lifeboat first. Just as we thought our lives would end, the rescue team arrived in time and brought us back from the boundless deep sea. After that incident, Zac and I walked down the aisle. Unexpectedly, his childhood sweetheart returned to that sea on our wedding day and jumped into it. When Zac got the news of her death, he was struck by grief and blamed everything on me. He imprisoned the pregnant me in the basement and made my life a torture. I bled profusely on the day I gave birth. He had the doctor save the baby, asking him to give up on my life. My only child was named Rory, something he thought up based on the name of his childhood sweetheart—Aurora. Even when I died, I was consumed by hatred. When I reopened my eyes, I had returned to the day he proposed to me after the cruise ship accident. Watching Zac hold my hand as he had done in my past life and promise to grant my every wish, I calmly withdrew my hand. "Zac, let's break up."

On New Year’s Eve, a poolside party was held at the hospital. There, my fiancee Valerie Charlton’s medical prodigy junior colleague, Cyrus Zeigler, drew the wildcard in a party game. His task was to select a woman from the attendees and enact an explicit scene in front of everyone. He scanned the crowd, and his gaze landed on Valerie. “Valerie, you’re about to get married. I know I can’t have you. So let me have this one time. Okay?” Valerie’s eyes welled up, and she was about to nod. I scoffed and tossed the unsigned medical equipment purchase contract onto the table. “You’d better think carefully. Either he gets lost, or your family’s hospital shuts down for good. Your choice.” Cyrus glared at me angrily when he saw that Valerie was torn with indecision. “Is it that Mr. Everest can’t take a joke? He’s already controlling everything you do before the wedding. After you get married, he’ll probably keep you in a cage.” Valerie calmed down. Then, she turned to me and said scornfully, “You are a grown man. Have some grace. What era are we living in? Do you have to flaunt your masculinity all the time?” I watched calmly as they walked toward the pool. Then, I turned and made a phone call. “Since she doesn’t care about this marriage, she can watch the Charlton family crumble.”

Maverick Spencer, my husband's older brother, sacrifices himself just to save my husband from a car accident. In order to repay him for his benevolence, my husband, Mateo Spencer, decides to move his newly widowed sister-in-law, Lily Shepherd, into our home. Mateo tells me, "Maverick died saving me, so I must repay him for his benevolence. He was the most worried about Lily when he still drew breath. In order to fulfill his death wish, I must let Lily stay with us. "Lily's biggest wish is to have a child of her own. I have no choice but to sleep with her. It's to repay Maverick, you see. Don't worry, Phoebe. Once she gets pregnant, I won't touch her ever again. You're the only woman for me." But since then, Mateo pays more and more attention to Lily. At the same time, he spends less time with me. When I notice the way he looks at me icily, I feel my love for him starting to get snuffed out. The day Lily finds out that she's pregnant is the day Mateo puts half of the Spencer family's assets under her name. Even the token of love Mateo has given to me on our wedding can be seen adorning Lily's finger. At that moment, I know that it's time for me to leave.

In the coastal quiet of Baler, a studio is born—not of architecture, but of intention.* Founded by Yam, a poet whose words cradle pain gently, and Franc, an artist who paints tenderness into walls, the studio becomes a refuge for those learning to stay—with grief, love, longing, and themselves. As visitors arrive, they leave behind more than footprints: a sigh recorded in bamboo, a poem tucked into the “Found Letters” shelf, a mural painted in crooked lines. Through zines, tea, silence, and sketchbooks, the studio teaches softness as revolution. Ren creates the *Window of Soft Returns*, an installation of anonymous voice recordings—each whisper forming a community of echoes. Drew builds the *Staircase With No Wrong Turns*, inviting people to walk through emotions without shame. Franc offers brushstrokes as brave work, and Yam curates writing circles that map healing in half sentences. Together, they host festivals that feel like hugs, and they begin traveling their archive, letting softness cross oceans. Even those who once left—like Miguel—return, discovering that some doors never truly close. Others, like Tala, capture the studio’s sound and turn it into a podcast of breath and becoming. Over seventy chapters, the studio transforms into something larger than itself: a mural of memory, a sanctuary for second chances, a place where return is sacred and voice is proof of survival. In the final bloom, the studio stands not as a monument—but as a reminder: > *“Staying isn’t easy. > But chosen together, > it becomes home.”*

It was my honeymoon trip, but my husband's best friend insisted on going into the sea for shark watching despite being on her period. I reasoned against it, as sharks would go amok from the scent of blood, only for Heidi to snap at me, "You're just jealous I have a nice body! That's why you don't want me to have fun with your husband!" My own husband and his other buddies joined in too, brushing me off impatiently. "It's rare for us to hang out! Don't be a buzzkill!" "That's right! Hannah is young and beautiful. She should take pictures with the sharks." With that, they all went down the water despite my earnest protests, and her menstrual bleeding drew schools of sharks toward her right away. When I tried to help, she kicked me in the head, knocking me out and leaving me in the water as the sharks tore me to pieces. While I died under the sea in agonizing despair, Heidi, my husband, and their friends managed to get to safety. Once they returned to civilization, they reported my death as a drowning and pilfered all my wealth. While they rose to the peak of their existence, my parents, devastated by my death, both took their own lives. That was when I opened my eyes again and found myself back on the desert island where they were going for shark watching.

"Why would you try to hurt her?" Victor shouted back. His voice was cold towards me, as he held onto Lily's hand. "So you're just going to believe her over your own wife?!" I fired back. Victor ignored my words and drew his attention to Lily and the broken glass. I watched as he carefully collected the pieces and threw them away. "Are you hurt anywhere? Did the glass get you?" Victor asked softly, giving her hand a light squeeze. "No, no. I'm okay now that you're here." Lily's smile was small. "Please don't leave me alone with her again..." **** I, Emelia Russo, once thought I was a woman who had it all—a successful career, and a loving husband. But when a "childhood friend" by the name of Lily Marino re-enters my husband's life, everything takes a turn for the worse. All of a sudden, my once faithful and loyal Victor was lying for her, favoring her, and trusting her word over mine. I became the outsider in my own marriage. When I finally had enough of his secrets and mistreatment of me and called for a divorce, he begged me to stay. "Please, let's go back to how the way things used to be! I'm begging you! Don't leave me!" Victor pleaded. But what happens when I tell him "It's too late."?

My foster sister, Gloria Binder, and I married a pair of werewolf brothers. I married the older brother, the steady one who ran the Dixon household. She married the man who held power over the entire pack. We got pregnant in the same year. In a couple of months, they would be able to take a sample of our babies' cardiogen and use it as medicine to treat their fathers' illness. Two months before my due date, the gates of the outer villa were kicked open. The intruders beat me, fists and boots coming down hard, then forced a bowl of labor-inducing medicine down my throat. I screamed at the maid beside me to run and get my mate. But all I got back was his message. He was furious. "You said you wanted peace and quiet and insisted on staying at the secluded villa to rest. Now you're pulling something this low just to drag me over there? I don't have time to waste on you. Judy needs a few plants moved into her yard. She's delicate and can't do heavy work. I'm helping her." The medicine had already taken effect. I could feel the baby thrashing, as if it were about to tear its way out of me. I would have died from the pain if Gloria hadn't come back from gathering herbs and saved my life. She sent people to find my mate and demand justice for me. Yet, all she got was another message. "You're living just fine in the villa. Who would dare hurt you? I need to help my brother plant a few more shrubs for Judy. I don't have time for your petty drama!" Gloria was pregnant, too. After being beaten and kicked, she lost her baby. We lay in a pool of blood, holding each other. "Gloria," I whispered through tears, "I don't want to repay any debts anymore. I want to sever my bond with Lesley."