Pigtails In Paint

Six years ago, a corporate acquisition deal I handled went up in flames, and 50 billion dollars vanished into thin air. Bankrupt investors spray red paint all over my front door for a year straight. Dad died from a stroke, and Mom lost her mind and disappeared. I ended up doing six years in prison for embezzlement. After I got out, I changed my name and started delivering food in downtown, running myself ragged for a few bucks per delivery. But then my ex-wife, Shirley Pearce, showed up, and the entire delivery station ground to a halt. She had become a financial powerhouse, a regular on the covers of business magazines. Reporters blocked my delivery scooter, shoving microphones in my face. "Mr. Marcus Quinn, Ms. Pearce has been single for six years, paid off all your debts, and she's been waiting for you to come home!" I stared at that perfectly made-up woman with her adoring eyes and felt nothing but disgust. That so-called "devoted" ex-wife of mine? Six years ago, she had forged company seals to help her boy toy short the stock market. Then, when everything fell apart, she threw me under the bus to save herself.

Life is not always bright. Esmeray, a woman who has always believed that there is good in everything, realized that when misfortune struck her one after another. Despite trying to live a normal life, she felt as if the world closed its doors to her; as she fell into despair, the curse she was oblivious of which repressed her peculiarity was broken and she became aware that she possessed a supernatural ability. Her world turned upside down as she found herself living in Mysticuria, a hidden place on Earth where supernatural people reside. She thought that she already fits in despite the peculiarity of the community as she hoped to unfold her identity but it seemed that her special ability is a jinx that could paint its user black and could cause destruction to the world. How will she survive if there is an order to exterminate her? "I have always been a lover of sunshine, an admirer of the light of day, a daughter of the Sun. To see the beauty of the world and its people in the glimmer of daylight made me feel loved. But of course, the thoughts I once believed in came crashing down into a speck of dust. I was unduly blinded by the goodness of every day that I overlooked the cruelty of life; it was already late when I realized that the dark dawns to shade my beautiful world with pitch-black."

I am an Omega. One day, Alpha Carl Blanchard found me in the Borderlands and took me in. After we formed the mate bond, he spoiled me senseless, never once caring who was watching. Now, everyone was whispering about the cold, ruthless Alpha who treats me—an Omega who used to be a Rogue—like I'm something sacred. They said it defied everything the Moon Goddess ever intended. I used to think he loved me down to the bone, that he just couldn't help showing the whole world how crazy he was about me. But then, I overhear him talking to his close friend. "I'm the Alpha of the Eastlands. I rule ten packs. If I don't paint Daisy as my weakness and my one obsession, how else am I supposed to keep Fiona off my enemies' radar? Turns out every wound I took for him was a damn joke. If that's how it is, I'm done playing Luna of the Eastlands. On my last day there, I made one call. "I'm in. I'll head to the Borderlands and spend the next ten years in closed research on medicinal herbs." When Carl found me gone, he came after me with bloodshot eyes and his pride in ruins. "Daisy… are you really leaving me?"

She fell first, he fell harder. Liliana Storm, an innocent and naive 22 years old ambitious artist who always wanted to achieve something away from her watchful father and elder brother's eyes. Their sheltered princess was oblivious of the world's cruelty and Lily wanted to make a name for herself, so despite of their worries, they let her go to a complete different country and let her pursue her dreams. Russia, the beautiful progressive country which taught her many things, but the biggest was not everyone are saints. Cyril Sokolov, Russian mafia lord, far from innocent and naive man, complete opposite of what his future bird possessed in her. He was a slave of one thing, his competitive nature, he loves challenges and would be damned to lose any. He was raised by ruthless monsters in human flesh, and he didn't mind becoming one of them. Cyril once again took upon a challenge and played a dangerous game but he never thought this time, his victory will become his biggest downfall. The Russian mafia would be reduced to his knees after his obedient little bird would decide to embrace her freedom away from his toxicity. A story of deceit, betrayal, twisted game and obsession. When the dangerous playful challenge would ignite an unwanted attraction curling it into bloodthirsty obsession forcing the ruthless mob boss to paint the town red just bring his escaped bird back to his cage.

The little boy I had saved when we were kids grew up to be a possessive, obsessive CEO. For ten years, he kept me by his side, using my grandmother's illness as a bargaining chip to force me into marrying him. He tried everything to win my heart, pulling every trick in the book, but no matter what he did, he could never make me love him. In a fit of rage, he found a woman who looked almost exactly like me to take my place. They flaunted their relationship for everyone to see, and people whispered that the CEO had finally found his true love. But that day, the woman, riding on his affection, barged into the villa with her entourage. She broke my fingers one by one, slashed my face with a utility knife, and removed my clothes to humiliate me. "Even though you had surgery to look like me, I'll let that slide. But you even learned to paint like me, too? You really did your homework. Let's see how you try to seduce men now!" Just as I was bleeding out and on the verge of death, the obsessive CEO finally showed up. The stand-in grabbed my hair and dragged me in front of him, smugly reporting, "Honey, this wench was hiding in the villa trying to seduce you. I've made sure she can't succeed!"

In my previous life, no one loved me except my Alpha mate, Grayson. My parents and brothers treated me like a mobile wolf essence bank for my sister Victoria. But Grayson remembered I was afraid of the dark and quietly left a nightlight after my essence transfusions; he kept my casual mention of "wanting to find a quiet place to paint" in his heart, and casually gave me $5 billion to buy my favorite forest. When I confessed my feelings to him, though he was shocked, he still accepted my confession and promised he would definitely mark me. God knows how happy I was then—the person I liked actually liked me too. I only realized when I was dying that his kindness towards me was predicated on my continued donations of wolf essence to Victoria. After my rebirth, the first thing I did was spend five billion dollars to buy an isolated forest. "Miss Ember, are you sure you want to purchase this forest? If you buy it and move in, it'll be nearly impossible to contact the outside world." I nodded, my voice carrying a hint of relief. "That's exactly what I want—somewhere no one can reach me." But when I really left, why did my family and Grayson go crazy and beg me to come back?

In the elite, glass-walled towers of Upper Hill, Adrian Vale is a masterpiece of clinical perfection. A top-tier law student with a future mapped out by his tyrannical father, Adrian survives by the "Rule of Three": precision, discipline, and total emotional detachment. He believes that by controlling every second of his life, he can remain untouchable. Then comes Kai Reyes. A tattooed, underground muralist with silver in his lip and chaos in his veins, Kai is the living antithesis of everything Adrian stands for. When Kai publicly humiliates Adrian by smearing charcoal over his pristine silk tie, the "Ice King" snaps. Driven by a desperate need to re-establish dominance, Adrian offers a high-stakes wager: One week. Kai must move into Adrian’s minimalist apartment and obey his every command. As the doors lock, the psychological warfare begins. Adrian intends to use rigid discipline to crush Kai’s rebellion, but the forced proximity turns the apartment into a pressure cooker of forbidden desire. Kai isn’t just a subject; he is a mirror, reflecting the hollow ghost Adrian has become. When the rules finally shatter, Adrian is forced to confront the "Master" who truly pulls his strings—his father. To save himself, Adrian must trade his golden handcuffs for the raw, uncertain freedom of the streets. In a world of rigid statutes and vibrant paint, he discovers that power isn't about making someone stay—it's being the man they don't want to leave. "Be My Good Boy" is a gripping tale of control, surrender, and the courage to finally be a mess.

My crippled sister, Monica Porter, jumped from the roof of the classroom building. The day before she died, she had just been fitted with the custom prosthetic legs I had paid for with ten years of savings. She was glowing, excited to finally stand up on her own. But my wife's best friend, a guy she said was just like a brother to her, locked Monica inside an empty art room. He smashed her new legs, forced her to crawl on the floor and lick paint clean to retrieve the broken parts, and recorded everything on video. And my wife, a judge, ultimately ruled that the case could not stand. "The video cannot confirm the time it was recorded and may represent consensual performance art between both parties," she said. Sandra Pauley's final judgment was simple. "The deceased had a history of depression. The school and the defendant bear no responsibility." I smiled and cooked her a full table of food. The next day, I hung the bully, Eric Hoyles, from the school's flagpole and livestreamed it to the entire internet. "Honey, remember how you said Monica had such pretty legs?" I raised a claw hammer and brought it down on his ankle. "If you don't hand over the video evidence right now, I'll hook out his Achilles tendon one strand at a time and let him learn what it feels like to crawl!" The wind passed through. His screaming broke apart in the air, mixing with the strained creaking of the flagpole until it sounded almost like music. The live chat went insane. Meanwhile, I laughed until my eyes filled with tears.

After a tragic accident left Emily Yates without her memories, she fell in love with her savior, Justin Yates, unaware that he was hiding the truth and using her as a stand-in for his first love. For three long years, Emily poured everything into the relationship, hoping he would love her back. But on the day Justin proposed, he held his "one true love" in his arms and left Emily stranded on a foreign street, still expecting her to remain his secret mistress. Emily decided she would no longer be his stand-in. She ripped up the contract, kicked Justin out of her life, and hid her pregnancy before faking her death. When word of her death reached Justin, his world shattered. He fell gravely ill, barely clinging to life. Five years later, they crossed paths again. Emily had risen to fame as a renowned painter and jewelry designer, while Justin had swallowed his pride, now shamelessly chasing after her. “Emily, I know I messed up. Please, don’t leave me,” he begged, desperation in his voice. “Emily, can’t you just look at me, not other men? “Emily, I’ll be your model. Come over tonight and paint me, please? “Emily… Emily… My wife…” Emily’s fury boiled over. “Get lost! Who said I was your wife?” But Justin clung to her, refusing to let go, acting shamelessly. “I don’t care. You promised to marry me before, so that makes you my wife. “I don’t care! I don’t care!” he repeated.

There's an unspoken rule in my household—everyone has to engage in a drinking competition during the holidays. Whoever gets wasted first will have to pay off one year's worth of house and car mortgages for the other two siblings. In the first year, I collapsed after my first glass of alcohol. I had to pay the house mortgage for my oldest sister, Dahlia Zeller. In the second year, as soon as I picked up my glass, I fainted right away. Since then, I had to pay off Jasmine Zeller, my second sister's car loan. For the next 20 years, I've always been the loser. In the end, my wife, Jean McCarthy, is forced to jump off a building because of the huge debt I've racked up. The debtors keep dumping paint onto my residence, forcing me to deter away from it. Ransacked by guilt, I end up damaging my stomach from overdrinking when I attempt to train my alcohol tolerance. As a result, half of my liver has gotten removed. When I'm on the verge of death, I hear my parents snickering outside my ward. "Don't you think we've laced too many sleeping pills in his drink? He almost didn't wake up back then!" "It's fine. He's an idiot who merely thinks he has a low alcohol tolerance. Our family still relies on him for financial survival, you see. We can keep drugging him so that he'll keep getting wasted." When I open my eyes again, I've already gotten reborn in the timeframe when I'm sitting at the dining table in the 20th year.