Pressuring

Claire Blake, 23, works double shifts at a café to cover her mother's medical bills and her brilliant sister Clara's college tuition. Her life is a careful sacrifice - no room for dreams, only survival. Then she accidentally spills coffee on Damian Cole, billionaire CEO and the city's most eligible bachelor. Instead of anger, he's kind. Days later, his assistant calls with an impossible offer: pretend to be his girlfriend for six months. His family won't stop pressuring him to marry, and his manipulative ex-fiancée Caroline refuses to accept they're over. In exchange: $10,000 monthly, her mother's medical expenses covered, and a completion bonus that would transform her family's life. Claire knows it's crazy - she doesn't belong in his world of charity galas and high society. But the money would solve every problem. So she signs the contract and steps into a glittering world where everything feels like pretend. Except it doesn't stay pretend. Damian isn't the cold CEO she expected. He remembers her coffee order, values her opinions, treats her family with genuine warmth. His careful respect comes from protecting his sister from abuse - he's not controlling, he's considerate. As Claire navigates his world, the performance becomes real. When he kisses her, he confesses: "This stopped being fake for me weeks ago." But Caroline launches a media campaign suggesting their relationship is paid - uncomfortably close to the truth. With headlines dissecting Claire's background and questioning whether she "belongs," they must choose transparency over hiding. Can a love that started as a contract become real enough to survive the spotlight?

"If you don't give me an heir, you'll lose everything. I've brought a woman to bear you a child," Asher's father, the former CEO of Ingram Corporations threatened his son. Suddenly, a brilliant idea came into Asher's mind. Anne. With her twin boys, he could trick his father into thinking they were his for the short moment he had left to live. "That won't be necessary father. I already have an heir, two in fact, and I can't wait for you to meet them." *** Five years ago, Anne was publicly humiliated and banished, after giving herself to Asher, the heir to Ingram Corporations and the man she truly loved. A one-night affair left her pregnant and she had to raise the children on her own for five years. She's playing a risky game by letting him pretend with her children when she already knows the truth, but her thirst for revenge blinds her. Asher, the stoic charismatic billionaire can't stand his ailing father pressuring him to settle down and have a male heir, completely unaware he already has twin five year old boys. He has no desire to settle down with one woman, but when he meets Anne, the woman whom he once loved but had his father separate them when he was younger, he feels drawn to her all over again. He enters an agreement with her to pretend the kids are his before his father, in order to secure his inheritance. What happens when he discovers the children are truly his? Will she let him into their lives after everything he's put her through? Will he forgive her for keeping such an important part of his life away from him? Or will they let their feelings for each other prevail against all odds?

In my previous life, my three sons told me they wanted to set up a Family Bond Fund for me. Each of them would deposit three thousand dollars every month. I cried with gratitude, truly believing that decades of sacrifice had finally paid off. One of them even said, "Mom, you've given us so much. It's our turn to take care of you now." However, eight years later, I was told I have uremia. That was when I discover that the bank card, which supposedly held the fund, couldn't even cover the dialysis deposit. Soon after, my eldest son video-called me. He said he wanted to buy a better apartment in a good school district. He was short of 150 thousand dollars for the down payment and asked if I could lend it to him first. My second son came to the hospital with his wife and daughter. He didn't ask about my condition at all. Instead, he kept showing off his daughter's piano competition trophy, hinting that he needed 50 thousand dollars to enroll her in a prestigious international piano program. My youngest son was even more straightforward. He said he had his eye on a limited-edition pair of sneakers and wanted me to pay 30 thousand dollars for them as a birthday gift. The moment they realized the bank account didn't have enough money, their faces fell. "We each put in three thousand dollars every month. Over eight years, that's at least eight hundred thousand dollars. Mom, are you hiding the money from us?" To force me to reveal my savings, they took turns pressuring me, switching between sweet talk and threats. They even told relatives that I had dementia and had been scammed out of my money. Unable to take it anymore, I yanked out my IV late one night and walked out of the hospital, only to be hit by a car, dying instantly. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back on the day of my hospital checkup.