Project Gutenberg Count Of Monte Cristo Novels & Stories

I was the firm’s star. The one they called for the impossible cases. My latest miracle? The “Titan Project” patent case. I made the firm a billion dollars. My cut was supposed to be a two-million-dollar bonus. But today, a fresh-faced intern waltzed off with it. I thought payroll had made a mistake and stormed straight into the senior partner's office. “Preston. My two-million-dollar bonus. Tell me there’s been a mistake.” Preston didn’t even bother to look up. “Victoria, I’ve looked into it. We won this case because of Chloe’s client management.” “She was schmoozing clients. Late-night golf games. Weekend yacht parties. While you were what, exactly?” “You never showed your face outside the courtroom. Teamwork is everything.” I almost laughed. It was absurd. “She’s a rookie who can’t even recite the rules of discovery.” “Enough!” Preston cut me off. “The firm doesn’t make mistakes. I see what everyone contributes.” “If you're not happy, you can prove your worth somewhere else.” He tossed a severance agreement on the desk. My heart went cold. I signed it on the spot. Before I left, I got the last word. “Preston, next time the firm has a real fight on its hands, you’d better call your social butterfly, Chloe. Don’t bother me.” He blew a perfect smoke ring, smirking right through it. Unfazed. Soon later, my phone blew up. It was him. Begging me to come back and save his ass.

During our New Year’s Eve dinner, I told my family that my company was not giving out year-end bonuses. The table went silent. Even the TV host counting down to midnight suddenly sounded grating. My husband and daughter slammed the table in frustration. “No year-end bonus?! How are we supposed to pay the mortgage and the car loan? I didn’t marry you so you could live off me!” “Other moms either buy designer bags or send money. You’re the most useless one. You can’t even bring home a $100,000 bonus.” My in-laws sat there with dark looks on their faces and said nothing. I looked at their self-righteous faces and felt a lump in my throat. All these years, every expense in this family was paid with the money I earned from late nights, overtime, and project commissions. But all they could see was the $100,000 bonus I did not bring home. “If you can’t make any money, then get out!” My husband grabbed my arm and pushed me toward the door. My daughter was not satisfied and kicked me on the lower back. I did not turn around. I took out my phone and booked the presidential suite at a downtown five-star hotel. My bank account had just received a $1 million dividend payout. It was true that I did not get a year-end bonus. But I got promoted to management. From this day onward, I would receive $1 million in dividends every year.

The Moon Goddess never chose me. At least, that’s what I thought. Abandoned as a baby, raised as Ridge Storm Pack’s pity project, I learned to fight for every grade, every scrap of respect, every breath inside Silver Ridge Academy’s walls. A place built on the Great Accord where wolves, fae, witches, and dragon-blooded heirs train together under wards older than memory. A place where dominance is currency, and I’ve always been bankrupt. Then they found me. Callum. Jaxon. Rory. Seth.
The Ridge Storm Quadruplets. Thirty-five years old, untouchable, infamous. Alphas without a Luna, warriors feared across Lycandra, second only to the Supreme Alphas who oversee the realm for the triplet Lycan Kings themselves. They say no wolf has ever been chosen by four Alphas. The bond resonance that detonated between us has never happened in history—ten out of ten on the wards. Unprecedented. Impossible. And yet, here we are. Their storm, their blaze, their rogue, their prince.
My shadows. My chains. My undoing. Every touch sparks like lightning. Every glance feels like a promise I’m terrified to believe. Because if the Goddess gave me to them, She can take it back. And I don’t know what’s more dangerous—fighting this bond, or surrendering to it. One thing is certain: the closer my birthday—and my first shift—draws, the more the power inside me rises. Something none of us understand. Something even the Supreme Alphas are watching. And when the truth comes out, not even the Great Accord will save me.

Giselle Shaw, the intern, has sent a five-dollar bonus to the company's group chat that has 500 members in it. I get crowned as the luckiest person for being able to claim 20 cents from the bonus. So, Giselle tags me in the group chat immediately. "Hey Rebecca! Since you're the luckiest person in the group chat, why don't you send a bonus here? There are 500 people in this group chat altogether, so you can just send 5,000 dollars here. "5,000 dollars isn't much for you, right? It so happens to be the bonus you've received from Mr. Gallagher because of the project you've secured. You can send us the bonus so that we can get some good luck from you!" The moment I refuse, Giselle begins playing the pity card in the group chat by claiming that she can't reap good luck for everyone in the company. My boyfriend, Vincent Gallagher, rushes into my office and starts berating me angrily. "Rebecca Campbell, just how stingy are you to not want to send a five-thousand-dollar bonus to the group chat despite being a higher-up in this company? You even made a young woman cry! Is this how you do things? "You'd better send a 50-thousand-dollar bonus to the group chat right now and write a five-thousand-word apology letter by hand! I want you to sincerely apologize to Giselle as well! Otherwise, I'll break up with you! You can forget about retaining your position in this company, too!"

To Willa Fowler, I'm not her husband, but rather, a non-performing asset that awaits her handling. When I fall sick and ask her for help, she grows impatient with me. "This is a low-tier problem that you should be dealing with on your own. There's no need to report to me about it." When I burst into tears from an emotional breakdown, she berates me, "If you lose control of your emotions, you'll just show everyone else the vulnerability in our alliance. Next time, I'll have the PR team teach you how to manage your emotions." Even when I call her for help after getting into a car crash, she doesn't hesitate to hang up on me. "Everything concerning you isn't important enough for me to suspend the hundred-billion-dollar transaction I'm performing right now." I spend seven days in the ICU getting my life saved afterward. On the first day of getting home, I witness Willa bending down to gently coax another young man into taking his medication. She opens her mouth in an attempt to explain the situation to me. But I just chuckle bitterly before handing over the paperwork I've already prepared in advance to her. This time, I sound exactly like her. "Ms. Fowler, regarding our marriage project, after a comprehension evaluation, the return on the investment is deemed too low. Therefore, I'd like to officially propose a termination on this project. "This is the divorce agreement. Please leave your signature here."

When I returned to the corporate research and development press conference, I knew Tyler Zach would step forward to accuse our team of plagiarism, yet I chose to turn a blind eye. In my previous life, Tyler’s accusation had caused Nelson Corporation to instantly lose ten percent of its core interests. Back then, I stepped up and single-handedly saved the day. Not only did I ensure the press conference ended smoothly, but I also used the opportunity to elevate the company’s reputation to new heights. However, I was eventually betrayed. My first love, Rosie Nelson, fabricated evidence against me and sent me to prison. Even the results of my project were falsely credited to Tyler. I refused to believe it. I bombarded her with questions and demanded answers. Rosie’s eyes were filled with guilt, but she only replied, “Evan, Tyler came from humble beginnings. He can’t afford to lose this once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a name for himself! “Don’t worry. We’ll get married once you’re out.” I fought desperately to appeal, but I was beaten to death in prison. I wondered if Rosie could handle the company’s losses without me fighting tooth and nail to turn things around this time. I did not expect Rosie to turn to me at the most critical moment of the conference with panicked eyes and urge me desperately, “Evan! Why aren’t you on stage explaining everything yet?!”

After my girlfriend returns from a month-long business trip with her first love, she notices that I've changed. She sides with him to take over my project, but I don't quit in anger. Instead, I throw myself into helping him, even drafting proposals for him. She destroys the design I worked so hard on to help him snag the year-end bonus, yet I don't try to defend myself. I take all the blame and let her punish me however she likes. Even when she goes as far as to promote him to general manager against the rules, I don't get upset. I hand over all my shares, letting her distribute them as she wishes. My girlfriend wonders why I've suddenly become so submissive, while her first love just grins smugly. "See? I told you—giving him the cold shoulder works. Once he's afraid of losing you, he'll fall in line," he says. It clicks for my girlfriend. She smiles, tells me I've been good, and offers me a promotion. Then, she unexpectedly asks me to propose. But she doesn't seem to realize that while we weren't speaking, she has already signed my resignation papers. And I've already broken up with her. From this moment on, I sever all ties with her, and we no longer have anything to do with each other.

*If I become extraordinary enough, maybe he will finally love me.* Evelina Calder spent two years trying to earn her husband’s love. She became the perfect wife. Quiet. Loyal. Invisible. While secretly working nights on the architectural project she believed would finally make Julian Sterling proud enough to claim her publicly, Evelina held onto that desperate hope. But on the night of their second anniversary, Julian walks into her studio, drops divorce papers over her life’s work, and tells her he’s marrying another woman instead. Aria Vance. Beautiful. Powerful. Everything Evelina was trying to become. Humiliated and heartbroken, Evelina signs the divorce papers and disappears from the Sterling world carrying a secret Julian never knew about: She’s pregnant with his child. While Julian and Aria become the most celebrated couple in the city, Evelina struggles alone, determined to rebuild her life without anyone’s pity. But when she wins the world’s most prestigious architecture prize and becomes the youngest woman in history to claim the five-hundred-million-dollar award, the quiet wife Julian discarded suddenly becomes the woman everyone wants. Especially his older brother. Dominic Sterling sees Evelina long before the rest of the world does. He sees the brilliance beneath her silence, the strength beneath her pain, and the woman Julian failed to value until it was too late. Now Julian wants her back. But the wife he abandoned is gone. And the woman who rose from the ruins may never belong to him again.

"You think you can play with my feelings, kitty?!" I could feel the intensity of his voice. I stepped back, feeling the wall behind me. "Who said I am playing with your feel~" I was cut off by his strong fist that landed beside my head, making me gasp in horror. "You, sitting on the lap of that bastard! Dakota Weasly, you just dug your boy toy's grave!" his voice boomed like thunder, deafening my ears. "He's not my boy toy, Martin. He's my boyfriend, and I like h~" Again, I was cut off, but not by his fist this time. His kiss ravished my mouth like I was his last meal. Before I could say something, my hands, like they had minds on their own, were slowly wrapping around his head. My tongue slid inside of his mouth while a moan escaped from me, making him deepen our kiss. When we stopped, we both gasped for air. "Do you like him?" he asked, his eyes fixed on mine. "Martin, I..." I suddenly lost my tongue. "I'll count till three. You must answer well, or I'll tell Luke to shoot him now!" "What?!" I asked, shocked. "Martin, what did you do to him?" I pleaded with my eyes, which became watery, but he just sneered. "Worried, huh?!" as he was about to call someone, I grabbed the phone and shouted... . Dakota Weasly was an easy-going, independent fashion designer from New York. She was strong-headed, who never stopped till she got what she wanted. This charming young lady accidentally bumped into the notorious mafia leader, Martin Marcini. The leader of Scared-faced Gang, one of the scariest mafia in Italy. . What could happen when an easy-go-lucky young lady played the heart of the scariest, gorgeous young man in the state?

In the neon-drenched shadows of Nairobi, Alessia wakes from a fatal gunshot with a chilling clarity: she is not who she thinks she is. While her lover, Mafia heir Lorenzo, mourns the woman she was, Alessia’s body begins to "remember" lethal skills, ancient languages, and violent deaths she never lived. She is Subject A, a high-velocity asset in Project Déjà Vu, a global conspiracy by the shadowy organization VANTA. As the "Blood Memory" fractures her reality, Alessia discovers a horrifying cycle: she and Lorenzo have been paired across centuries, engineered to fall in love only to be reset through state-sponsored tragedies. Their "Affinity" isn't fate—it’s a biological battery used to harvest emotional resonance and destabilize world power structures. Every time they grow too powerful, the system triggers a "Liquidation," wiping their minds to begin the loop anew. But this time, the glitch is permanent. Alessia evolves into the Perfect Weapon, accessing the tactical archives of her past iterations. To break the cycle, she makes the ultimate sacrifice: she severs her connection to Lorenzo, choosing cold, calculated vengeance over manufactured love. While Lorenzo unleashes his own buried rage to protect her, Alessia goes rogue, infiltrating VANTA’s core to delete the "Failure Cycle." As she nears the Creator, Silas, she faces a devastating truth: they weren't just assassins, but prototypes for a global replacement of the elite. To win her freedom, Alessia must decide if she can ever truly love the man who has been her executioner for three hundred years. The loop is breaking, the system is crashing, and the blood is finally speaking. "The memory is in the marrow. The revenge is in the soul.”