Quietly Hostile

Anthony Lake, my wealthy fiance, falls in love with Lila Hart, a blind professional dancer, and insists on breaking off our engagement, even though I am the heiress of a powerful family in the region. To preserve the alliance between our families, I seek out renowned doctors to treat Lila and set the stage to support her comeback. However, she accuses me of humiliating her and insists on jumping into a river to prove her resolve. Ten years later, my former fiance has taken control of the region. He swallows up my family's assets and drives us to the brink of suicide. "This is the price you pay for killing her!" Then, I open my eyes, and I'm back in the moment where Anthony publicly confesses his love to Lila. This time, I walk straight toward Shane York, the silent mining tycoon from the northwest, who is quietly sitting in the corner. I wrap my arm around his neck, place his hand on my waist, and command him to kiss me.

I was Claire Vitale, the lost daughter they forgot, the bride my lover betrayed—and the dying girl they failed to notice. For five long years, I lived like a stranger in my own home. The Vitale mansion was a beautiful prison, where every kind word hid a lie, every promise was false, and even Lawrence, the man I was supposed to marry, cared more for Vanessa than for me. None of them saw how my body weakened each day, how the pain grew sharper. They were too busy watching their precious Vanessa. Vanessa—the perfect adopted daughter, was the girl my parents loved more than me. She came into our family when I was lost, and when I returned, I found my place already taken—by her. Just as the illness was quietly taking my future. Now she was gone, and they all pointed fingers at me, convinced I was behind her disappearance. The machine they strapped to my head would pull memories straight from my mind. "Where is she?" my father roared. My mother sobbed in the corner. Lawrence, my fiancé, stood silent—his accusing eyes louder than any shout. But I knew the truth would shock them—how Vanessa hurt me, how she faked accidents, how she made sure no one ever believed me. The machine would show them everything. As the machine began its work, I trembled—from fear and exhaustion. After all these years of being unheard, would they finally see?

On our third anniversary, I brought a gift and went to Jaxon's studio, ready to surprise him with a confession—I was actually the daughter of the richest man in town. However, when the door opened, what greeted me was a shocking sight: Jaxon, completely undressed, posing as a model for another woman. When I confronted him, he defended himself with righteous indignation. "I'm only doing this to save money for our wedding!" Sensing the tension, the woman chimed in coyly. "Jaxon is sacrificing for the sake of art. There's really nothing improper between us." I stared at the two of them, perched on their moral high ground, and quietly turned away to cancel the extravagant dowry I had prepared.

22 years old Zara Klein was forced to marry, and produce an heir for 41-year-old Kai Adler, who has three months left to live; to save her father's company from bankruptcy. She had to keep up with Kai's inhumane treatment, got with his child and quietly anticipated his death. But their lives took a drastic turn when Kai miraculously got cured of his illness.

To temper my attitude, Frederick Burke throws me into the mountains. What he doesn't know is that this mountain lies deep within a high-radiation zone. Five months later, he finally shows up with a group of people to bring me back. However, my body is already starting to rot from the radiation. "Anastasia, if you hadn't pushed Colette down the stairs, I wouldn't have punished you like this. I wouldn't have left you to rot on this godforsaken mountain. Do you admit your mistake now?" I kneel on the ground and prostrate myself before Colette Reeves. Frederick freezes and instinctively reaches out to help me up. "Alright, there's no need for this…" I say nothing. I just quietly watch as he grabs my arm. Unbeknownst to him, my body is already soaked in radiation after months in this mountain. Anyone who touches me will slowly begin to rot, too...

Hayden Baxter's sidepiece comes up to me and throws yet another tantrum. "I love Hayden too much. Can't you let me have him?" Hayden sits quietly on one side but texts me, "Just say yes and humor her for a bit." I do as I am told, then wordlessly begin to pack up my stuff so I can move out of the home I share with Hayden. On my way out, I hear his friends jesting, "Elena is surprisingly obedient. Does this mean she'll abort her baby if you ask her to, Hayden?" Hayden raises a brow, looking nonchalant. "Want to place a bet on it? "I bet she'd whine and throw a fit at the hospital entrance in a week, only to give in and do as she's told." I don't argue. Instead, I quietly tap on my conversation with someone else. "Will you marry me?" "Yes."

That night, I got off work early and brought home some late-night snacks. When I opened the door, I saw a pair of high heels carelessly tossed in the entryway and Gregory’s blazer thrown over the couch. His heavy breathing and the woman’s moans could be heard through the gap between the door and its frame. I was all too familiar with this sight. This time, I did not storm out like I used to. Instead, I sat quietly at the dining table and finished my cold pizza.

The night before my wedding, I was in a terrible car accident. I fell into a coma, and my body was broken and bruised. While I lay unconscious, my fiancé called off the engagement and married his childhood sweetheart instead. My mother went to demand justice on my behalf—but never made it back. She died in a sudden, brutal accident along the way. In that moment of chaos, it was my childhood friend who stepped in. He knelt on one knee outside the hospital with a wedding gift of a hundred thousand dollars and quietly handled my mother's funeral. I was wheeled into surgery. I lived, but was left with a permanent disability. And still, he promised to stay by my side, for life. I was deeply moved. We got married. But five years later, I overheard him talking to his secretary. "Mr. Davidson, you arranged for someone to hit your wife with a car, just so Lucy could marry the one she loved. Aren't you afraid she'll find out?" "For Lucy, there's nothing I wouldn't do. I've already given Ruby the rest of my life. Isn't that enough?" I covered my mouth, holding back a sob. Only then did I realize—the marriage I believed in had been a lie all along. So be it. I'll disappear and let him be with the woman he truly loves.

Alice possesses vivid recollections of her previous past lives, each one tragically killed by the same man—a vampire she made an unbreakable vow to eliminate before he could harm her in her current life. She became a hunter for the sole objective of eradicating him, but things didn't come exactly as she planned. Elijah, once a mortal, was transformed into a vampire after his soul was stolen. Fueled by anger of what he had become, he embarks on a relentless pursuit to fulfill his mission: to kill the monster that stole his soul that promised to restore it after he succeeds in ending her life for the twentieth time. His only goal was to die as a human, and after enduring a millennium of bloodlust, guilt, and regrets, he finally encountered the last incarnation he needed to kill in order to regain his humanity and quietly pass on. But why couldn't he bring himself to kill her?

Alison, raised and educated in genetic mutation laboratories, is finally able to feel the long-awaited sensation of freedom when an accident occurs at Corfin's facilities. Upon being in the new world for the first time, Alison finds herself lost in society and does not mind being hostile to anyone who may refer her to danger and imprisonment. Freedom for her is not having someone to repress or command another, it is the right to do her will and desire, and when she sees that the new world does not suit her precepts, her wild side wakes up calling the attention of the authorities in the region. Alison Seventh-B.Corfin isn't going to hand herself over and be the meek wolf she was in her sector, she's going to destroy anyone who wants to imprison her again, not caring if the being smells amazingly like oranges and azaleas. x Patrick Bouvier has to prove to his people that he is capable and worthy of leading one of the two remaining ancestral packs, but he didn't know that the test for this would be dealing with the problems that his mate brought him. What can he do to save her from herself? And what will he have to do to save her from her kind, or vice versa? His partner is in danger and family dramas for both will erupt to further complicate things in the midst of a pre-collapse of the peace treaty. What will come out of it all?