Past Tense Smile

“Show me euphoria tonight or let your boyfriend die!” Jacob Kyler whispers near Rosalia's ear making her disgusted and shocked. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rosalia is caught between the two biggest mafias after they both fall for her. Henry Anderson and Rosalia love each other, but a problem arises when Jacob Kyler, an underworld mafia leader, claims her as his girl. The rivalry between Henry and Jacob is long-standing, and their competition becomes more intense over her. Rosalia goes on a date with Henry, where he proposes marriage, which she gladly accepts. To ensure that Jacob cannot interfere, they arrange their marriage in a different city, beyond his reach. Everything is going smoothly until one midnight Jacob Kyler shows up in her room and proposes her a condition. To maintain everything she has to come to a term with him and accept his poisonous condition. Henry and Rosalia happily plan everything for their wedding, and finally, the big day arrives. With a sigh of relief, they proceed with the ceremony. Finally, the most anticipated day for Rosalia and Henry has arrived. Wearing her beautiful white wedding gown, she arrives at the hall, bringing joy to Henry’s heart. His heart races as he sees the love of his life standing in front of him. They finally embrace each other. With slow steps, she makes her way to him, and they stand face to face. A shy smile forms in the corner of her lips upon seeing him smile while looking at her. After reciting the vows, the pastor asks him, “Henry Anderson, do you take Rosalia Moore as your lawful wife?” “No, he doesn’t!” The guests in the hall are agitated as they hear a girl’s voice that has floated from the dead end of the hall. *******Not for Sensitive People*******

After saving my girlfriend, Tiffany Swain, I suffer from a concussion, leading to me getting rushed to the hospital. That's when I decide to play a prank on her. "Who are you?" When I see Tiffany's expression freeze on her face, I almost burst out laughing. But Tiffany suddenly points at her best friend, Janet Emery. "I'm your fiancee's friend. That's your fiancee, Janet Emery." This time, my expression freezes on my face. Janet approaches me at that moment. "That's right. I'm your fiancee." I squeeze out a smile at her. "Let's go home, then."

At my 25th birthday party, my childhood sweetheart got down on one knee, holding a diamond ring. "Diane, will you marry me?" I nodded, my eyes misty with tears, but just as I reached out, he slipped the ring onto my best friend's finger instead. The room went silent for a beat before erupting in laughter. "Just kidding!" Livio Becker laughed. "You didn't take it seriously, did you?" I forced a smile and looked over his shoulder at someone. "I bet he would propose tonight, and I was right. You lost the bet, so tomorrow we're getting married for real."

Robin leaned close to my ears and whispered the words that only made me stiff and froze my heart. He leans back but while doing so, his lips brushed against mine and a smile escaped his lips, he left my chin and walked away whistling to himself. I just couldn’t move, the touch of his lips that were on mine yet again clouded my mind and the words he whispered in my ears just kept on resounding as silence filled the air where I stood, only the words he had just said arrogantly, yet sweetly, played on in my head. You belong to me and no one else!

He wanted a replacement. I was the original. For three years, I was Evie, a woman with no past, saved from a tragic accident by the devastatingly powerful Nathaniel Blackwood. He gave me a name, a home, and a purpose as his contract lover. I thought it was love. The night he proposed in a shower of gardenias, I believed my fairy tale had come true. Until she walked back into his life. Serena Sterling. His missing first love. The woman whose face is my mirror image. In a single moment, my world shatters. I discover I’m not his beloved, I’m her gilded substitute. Every detail of my life, from my perfume to my smile, was curated to match her. And now that the original has returned, the copy is discarded. Heartbroken and betrayed, I vanish from his penthouse with nothing but the clothes I wore when I woke up in the hospital three years ago. But my escape uncovers a truth more dangerous than his deception. I am not a nobody. I am Alessandra Vanderbilt, the missing heiress to a billion-dollar empire. The accident that stole my memory wasn’t random, it was an attempt on my life. And the woman who shares my face may have been the one who ordered the hit. Now, I have two battles to fight: reclaiming my legacy from the aunt who wants me gone, and resisting Nathaniel Blackwood, who has realized too late that the woman he threw away is the only one he truly craves. He’s using every resource from ruthless business deals, public grand gestures, and soul-baring groveling to win me back. But how do you trust a man who loved you only as a reflection of another?

You were a three-year charity project, Elena. Now, the project is over." On their third anniversary, Julian Thorne didn't bring flowers. He brought a divorce decree and his mistress, Elena’s own adopted sister, Sarah Vance. To Julian, Elena was just the plain, penniless orphan the Vances took in after a tragic fire, a convenient pawn he used to bleed the Vance fortune dry. He never loved her; he only married her to fund a merger while secretly warming Sarah’s bed. He expected Elena to beg. He expected her to crumble. Instead, she signs the papers with a chilling smile and hands him a gift of her own: A total bankruptcy notice for the Thorne Group. Unmasked as the legendary Blackwood Heiress, Elena is ready to watch the world burn. But the trap has two sides. A hidden Reconciliation Clause forces her to still appear and be with her cheating husband and her backstabbing sister for thirty days, or she loses her claim to the Blackwood throne while Julian loses the Thorne-Vance merger. When Sarah frames her for a high-profile theft to get her out of the way, Elena finds herself in a cold jail cell, until the "Executioner" of Wall Street, Theo Sterling, appears. He offers her a Devil’s bargain: a contract marriage to save her from her predatory cousin, Lucius Blackwood, who is hellbent on declaring her mentally unfit to seize her empire. Elena falls for her savior, unaware of the blood on his hands. Theo is atoning for a sin she doesn’t know exists: his own father was the arsonist who murdered her parents. Trapped between a husband who wants her wealth, a sister who wants her life, and a lover whose family killed her past, Elena must decide.

When event planner Sophia Martinez crashes billionaire Ethan Cross's exclusive charity gala, she's just trying to steal enough food to feed her dying mother. She never expects to catch the attention of New York's most ruthless CEO or to accept his shocking proposal. Ethan offers Sophia five million dollars for six months of her life: pose as his devoted fiancée to make his ex jealous and secure the biggest business deal of his career. The rules are simple no real feelings, no physical contact, just perfect public performances as the ideal couple. But Sophia harbors a devastating secret. She's the daughter of the man who destroyed Ethan's family empire five years ago, and she's been living with the guilt ever since. As she falls deeper into the charade, the lines between pretense and reality blur. Every stolen glance, every fake smile, every staged kiss pulls her further from her mission and closer to the man she's supposed to hate. Ethan finds himself breaking his own rules. The woman he hired to heal his wounded pride is awakening feelings he thought were dead. But when business rival Marcus Reid begins circling like a vulture, threatening to expose their arrangement, Ethan realizes the game has become far more dangerous than either of them anticipated. As corporate espionage collides with family secrets, Sophia must choose between protecting the man she loves and saving herself from a past that refuses to stay buried. When Ethan discovers her true identity, their contract becomes worthless but their hearts have already signed a deal that could destroy them both. In a world where billion-dollar empires rise and fall on trust, can love survive the ultimate betrayal? Or will the truth shatter more than just their fake engagement?

After awakening years before the demise that once destroyed me, I, Lucy Hale, swear I will never again fall for Adrian Hawthorne. In my last life, loving him earned me nothing but humiliation, betrayal, and a future broken beyond repair. Now, armed with memories I shouldn't possess, I tuck myself away inside my boutique, determined to avoid him, avoid fate, avoid everything. But the universe has never been kind to my plans. No matter how I twist the timeline, Adrian keeps slipping back into my life, closer, impossibly entangled. His eyes linger longer than they should. His questions cut deeper than I’m ready to admit. And worst of all, he seems drawn to me in ways he never was before. And then there is Elias Ward, quiet, observant with eyes sharp enough to see through any disguise. Elias is nothing like Adrian. Where Adrian gleams with cold polish and empty promises, Elias is warmth wrapped in quiet mystery. A man who shouldn’t matter to me. Yet, somehow, he does. As I try to distance myself from the Hawthornes, Elias drifts steadily closer, noticing the cracks in my composure, the ache beneath my smile, the truth I’ve fought so hard to hide. He becomes the one thread I can’t cut, no matter how much I fear being stitched into someone else’s future again. With Adrian circling me like a ghost from the life I escaped, Elias begins to draw me toward a fate I never expected, a fate where for once, I might finally choose myself. And maybe him, too. But the past doesn't release its hold so easily. And neither do the Hawthornes.

At two in the morning, when the pack elders' urgent summons came, I had just crawled out from beneath my childhood sweetheart, the Alpha heir Slade. My body was still aching from his rough possession. As the only human healer in the entire Blackwood Pack, I was ordered to prepare herbs as a gift for Slade's marriage alliance with the Thorne Pack. I gently lifted Slade's arm from where it was wrapped around me. After a night of passion, his powerful Alpha body was still radiating a feverish heat. I assumed this was just another wolf princess he needed to turn away, so I poked his chest playfully and asked with a smile, "Slade, what excuse are you going to use the 99th time? That you've suddenly developed an allergy to the princess?" He rolled over and kissed my forehead, his eyes heavy with sleep. "My sweet girl, this time the herbs must be prepared by you, and you alone. The success of this alliance rests on your shoulders." I froze. For the past ten years, I had been his secret solace, the one who soothed his violent rages every night. I thought I would earn a formal bonding ceremony, sooner or later. But in that moment, I understood. I was just a convenience, a body for him to use. If that was all I was to him, then I would burn everything we had to the ground. I made a call to my old mentor at the National Institute of Medicine, Professor Sterling. "Professor, that research position regarding gene... is it still open? I'm ready to return to the human world." But when that arrogant Alpha, who claimed we were 'just friends' and 'strictly professional,' discovered he could no longer catch even a faint scent of me in the air, he completely lost his mind.

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and just barely recognizing yourself in the reflection? Well that is me, I have loved and lost. Survived and thrived, screamed and cried into my pillow tears nobody else got to see. But I never gave up hope, never lied down and never let them see me cry. Until him, he could see past the facade and see the real me. He wanted to love me, concole me and protect me. But I have lost hope in humanity, men, true love because life just arent a fairytale right? Its hard work and nothing comes easy even if you would like to believe it does it just doesnt. He is my mothers new husbands son and 10 years older than me. His blue eyes keep staring at me, it should warm me to the core right. Make me feel something anything. But it doesn't he makes women run after him and beg on their knees. But me, I have been down this road before. The charming smile, arrogant cocky attitude. It always ends the same, me covered in bruises crying on the bathroom floor. Thinking its all my fault, all me. But he just wouldn't let go. He wouldn't give up. And the more I turn him down the more it turns him on. I am only that strong before I give in,and even though I know how this is about to end. If he keeps staring at me with desire in his eyes as if I am the reason he is breathing. I know I am about to take the leap this can go down to damn ways. But the question is do I or dont I. Because fear can be your anchor or it can be your wings