Razor Blade Gravity Knife

"Shut down for rectification, fined $500,000, plus $300 compensation per customer. That’s the penalty from the Food Safety Bureau. Let’s see if you dare serve us gutter oil again!” Yves Larson, a part-timer at a construction site, sends me a provocative text purposefully, as though he's worried that I don't know what's going on. I just stare at the sign that says "closed for renovation", which is hung on the front door of my eatery. Never would I expect that the budget eatery that I've opened for the sake of the workers will be transformed into a blade that's aimed at me, thanks to the very same workers. That night, I sit in the apartment that my dad has left to me before his death. There, I spend the whole night smoking. Early the next morning, I head over to the bank and withdraw the money left behind by my dad, which is 260 million dollars. Half a month later, my eatery is open for business again. Work resumes at the construction site as well. Yves leads the construction workers to the restaurant at lunch. "I've taught him a good lesson last time. This time, I'm very sure that he won't have the guts to serve us cheap food made of shitty ingredients!" What he doesn't know is that the original eatery is already demolished. In its place stands a luxurious five-star restaurant. I stand in front of the main entrance as I perform a welcoming gesture to the workers. "This is a five-star restaurant that offers a private dining experience to you. The minimum bill for each table is 4000 dollars. You're welcome to dine here."

The room pulsed with heat as their bodies tangled in a mess of sheets and grudges, with their mouths meeting like clashing swords. “You kiss like you're trying to win,” she hissed against his lips as her nails dug into his shoulders. “Always turning intimacy into a competition.” He let out a low and cruel laugh, his hot breath grazing her neck. “Better than your usual performance. All drama, no delivery. You moan like you're auditioning for a role you'll never land.” She pushed him down on the bed and her blazing eyes locked on his. He grunted as her naked body pressed against his nudity. “Says the man who thinks grunting is seductive. You sound like a dying engine,” she whispered in his ear with a smirk. The corner of his lips slowly lifted. She gasped when his hands travelled down her hips and reached her ass. “And yet you keep coming back for the ride.” ***** When Alessandro Montrego demands a bride to settle a long-standing debt, the plan is simple: get married to the docile and sweet twin sister. But before the wedding, she vanishes into thin air. To fill the position, Sierra, a fiery and sharp-tongued twin, is forced to take her place. Sierra and Alessandro clash like fire and ice as they thrust into a world of power, secrets, and simmering tension. However, beneath the bickering lies a slow-burning passion that neither of them expected. The blade of fate sharpens as love blossoms in the shadow of duty. Loyalty is put to the test, secrets are revealed, and love may cost more than either of them can bear. Because in a world built on debts and deals, not every love story is meant to end happily ever after. Will their fate be changed?

Celeste Leblanc, the daughter of the richest man in the city, has ordered a custom-fitted ring worth a billion dollars according to my finger size. She claims that she will marry the person who can wear it perfectly. In the first time loop, George Braun, the fake heir, secretly enlarges the ring so that he can marry Celeste. She responds by slapping him to the point he's all bruised and battered. "You're not the one!" In the second time loop, my adopted brother, Roger Braun, loses 30 pounds in one go so that he can marry Celeste. She responds by pushing him down the stairs. "You're not the one either!" In the third time loop, my stepfather, Edgar Braun, grits his teeth and makes up his mind. He slices the flesh off his finger so that he can wear the ring properly. Celeste chuckles coldly at the sight. She orders her bodyguards to drown Edgar in a bathtub immediately. In the fourth time loop, everyone is left without a choice. They're so frightened that they deliver me into Celeste's hands. I put on the ring. It fits my finger perfectly well. The entire family heaves sighs of relief. But the moment Celeste sees me, she draws out a blade and stabs me to death. "You're not the one too! Where the hell is my fated husband?" In the final time loop, when Celeste tells her secretary, Donny Griffin, to bring the ring over, all of us claim that we can't wear the ring at all. But Donny shoots us a weird look. "Ms. Leblanc has already made it clear that one of you is the ring's owner."

My husband and I were the two people who hated each other most in this world. He hated me for tearing him away from the woman he loved. And I hated him because that his heart remained occupied by another woman. For eight years of marriage, the words we spoke to each other most often were not love, nor duty, but curses. Yet on the day the city fell, everything changed, the enemy banners were already visible beyond the inner gate. He rode ahead and took the road, putting his body between the enemy and my escape. “Live,” he said quietly. Then he raised his blade and did not look back. Arrows came like rain. As they tore into him, he turned his head once—only once— After that, his body held the road,and nothing passed. “If there is another life…may Your Highness grant me the mercy to belong to her.” That night, with the city in ruins and the people either dead or fleeing, I climbed the highest tower of the palace. I leapt. When I opened my eyes again, I went to the king. “The northern kingdoms require a royal bride,” I said. “I will go.” This lifetime, I will be the one to cross the border. In my previous life, he died believing he had failed her. This time, I will not allow that regret to exist. I will take the marriage meant for her. I will carry the crown meant to exile her. I will walk into a future she should never have to endure. Let her stay. Let him protect her. Let him live his life believing he has finally kept his promise.

I gave up a vast fortune to be with my boyfriend Terrence. In our poorest days, we didn't even have a single grain of rice at home. Terrence went out to fight in underground rings, never surrendering once even when he was beaten black and blue. With his blood and sweat, he paved the path to our future brick by brick. In the present, his name was uttered with an undeniable tone of respect, while I was known far and wide as his missus, the woman he treasured above anyone or anything. One year, when I left the country because of a family emergency, I learned that he even started seeing a therapist due to separation anxiety. Everyone said that Terrence loved me more than life itself, and I had believed it too, wholeheartedly. Until I stood on our balcony, watching him tightly embracing another woman in the villa next door. "Even though Tanya is back, the very thought of losing you makes me lose control… I can't live without you, Mia… "If any other men ever appear by your side, I might just end up killing them…" His voice was a low rumble, tinged with a sort of unconscious madness. "B-But what about your wife? Didn't you say that she means more to you than your own life?" "Well, we just have to keep this hidden better, don't we? I want to always be with you…" My hand trembled, and I accidentally cut my hand with the fruit knife I was holding, but I felt no pain at all. To think that just one year apart was enough to shatter thirty years of love and mutual support… With trembling hands, I picked up my phone and called my mother. "Mom, I'm feeling homesick… Can you get me a new identity and a one-way ticket out of the country?"

I'm eight months pregnant when I suddenly faint on the train. My husband panics and cries for help as he kneels beside me. An interning doctor hurries to me. She doesn't bother checking my condition before saying, "The patient needs to undergo a C-section! We have to get the baby out now, or it might die of suffocation!" Then, she slices me open with a fruit knife—she doesn't take any precautionary measures before doing so. She takes my child out. I'm in so much pain that I don't even have the strength to scream. My blood flows everywhere. Yet, a photo of her holding my baby while standing in a pool of blood goes viral. People call her the prettiest doctor alive. My husband and his family are eternally grateful to her. They don't go after her for causing my death; they even make her my child's godmother! Meanwhile, I'm given a simple cremation. No one cares about me. After my death, all my assets go to my husband and his family. Only then do I hear my husband and the doctor talking to each other, sounding smug. "This plan killed two birds with one stone. We got rid of that woman and made ourselves out to be heroes!" That's when I learn the interning doctor is my husband's junior from high school. They got together when he accompanied me to my prenatal checkups! She failed her internship, so my husband came up with this idea—he wanted to use my death to boost her reputation and help her! Even my child eventually died under their "care". When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to the day we get on the train.

I married Rafe Maretti—the man who owned the Maretti Casino empire. Sophisticated, ruthless, but sinfully charming. By year three of our marriage, I introduced my little sister to his nephew, Adam Moretti—twenty-five, all sharp smiles and sharper ambition. He ran the dirtier side of the family’s business—arms, drugs, the kind of trade that dripped blood and money in equal parts. I married the powerful, irresistible uncle. She married the young, dangerous nephew. It was supposed to be our fairytale. Then one day, I got kidnapped in Rafe’s casino. Snatched by a rival mafia family desperate to force Rafe to sign over one of his biggest, most profitable casinos. Except Rafe didn’t answer the phone or even notice I was gone. The kidnappers grew impatient. First, it was slaps. Then punches. Then they shattered my leg and buried a knife in my stomach. Still no word from my husband. Until finally, after what felt like a hundred unanswered calls, a single message came through. "I’m with Bianca. She’s having a stomach. Stop calling." Once the kidnappers realized I had no value, they dumped me in a rotting warehouse like discarded luggage. It was Isla, my sister, who found me. She got me out. And then the brakes failed. The car spun out. Isla went unconscious beside me. I tried calling Adam. Isla’s husband. But as soon the call went through, all I could hear was. “Leave me along. Isla, I am in the middle of something here.” When I clearly heard a woman’s voice in the back. If not for a passing stranger, Isla and me wouldn’t have made it to the hospital, let along have survived. So when I opened my eyes again, the first thing I thought was: I’m divorcing that sorry bastard. The Maretti can go to hell.

"Say something,” I whisper to Caspian, my voice breaking. “Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn’t a mistake.” “I, Alpha Caspian King of the Nightfall Pack, reject you, Jocelyn Valdez, as my mate and Luna.” He says, staring down at me with a look of pity in his eyes. That… that wasn't what I was expecting him to say. However, I don't need his pity, but I think my ears must have heard wrong. “Accept my rejection, Jocelyn,” he says quietly. “Let’s end this.” “You mean let's end us?” I chuckle a sad laugh, looking up at him. “Yes.” His response is cold. I bite down on my bottom lip until I taste blood. I want to stop crying, but I can't. Why reject me? Why now? Why Lycena? I don't want to accept his rejection, but he is leaving me no other choice. “Well,” I gather all my strength, “I, Jocelyn Valdez, accept your rejection, Alpha Caspian King.” As soon as the words leave my lips, I feel like a knife is butchering my heart into pieces. The pain of accepting his rejection is so intense and so merciless that I can't breathe properly. I feel like I am dying. ~ Humiliated and heartbroken, Jocelyn Valdez fled the Nightfall Pack after being rejected by Alpha Caspian King at her Luna Ceremony before he chose a power-hungry she-wolf to be her replacement. Jocelyn vanished into the night with nothing; no pack, no powers, no future. But what no one knows in her previous pack is that Jocelyn is the Chosen one of the Moon Goddess. Now, five years later, she returns. No longer the weak rejected she-wolf they tossed away. And her ex-mate? He is on his knees begging for the woman he threw away.

"Finders keepers," Deangelo growled, his voice all sharp edges. "I found her first, commoners, she belongs to me. The only reason she's still breathing is because I saved her from that fucking fire." Romano snorted, pushing his way further inside. "You think you can just claim her like that? She's not a damn trophy, Scorpion." Fernando gave a series of hand gestures in sign language. Deangelo translated, "You may have found her, but that does not make her yours. We have a stake here, Papi." Vincenzo's voice cut like a knife through the tension. "This isn't some playground game. She's a person, not a prize to be fought over?" As their voices rose, they suddenly fell silent, snapping their eyes to Rosita. She was rushing towards the door. DeAngelo's eyes narrowed as he took a step towards her. "Little peasant, don't even think about it." **** Rosita's life has been anything but ordinary. Homeschooled and sheltered by her overprotective father after a near-fatal stalking incident, she dreams of escaping to college and pursuing her passion for music. But her father's plans to enroll her in an online university leave her feeling trapped and desperate. On the day, she finally decides to away, a fire overtakes their home, trapping her in her room. Just when she thinks all hope is lost, her metal door is broken down—not by her father, but by Deangelo Luis Valladares, the most-feared mafia drug lord in the whole of Mexico. With an intriguing, sinister smile, he extends his hand to Rosita through the smoke-filled room. Will Rosita take his hand and let him save her, or will she be taken by force? Can a breathtaking beauty like Rosita survive in a world ruled by mafia dons who live like kings and control Mexico City?

"You're paying for my body. Not for my soul." Alpha King Thomas Blade is a man of pride and power. A year ago, he divorced his wife, Kiara. He threw her out of his pack and out of his life, trying to forget the bond they shared. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. While visiting a high-end bar, Thomas is shocked to find Kiara standing on an auction block. The woman who was once the Luna of the Moonlight Pack is being sold as an escort. Angry and confused, Thomas outbids everyone. He buys her for one night, determined to find out how she fell so low. However, the Kiara he meets isn't the shy, sweet girl he used to know. This version of Kiara is cold, bold, and claims she only cares about money. What Thomas doesn't know is that Kiara is hiding a heartbreaking secret: she is drowning in debt and selling herself only to pay for her dying mother’s medical bills. Unable to let her go, Thomas makes a new deal: He buys her for an entire month. He wants to punish her, but the more time they spend together, the more he sees the truth. Behind her "greedy" mask, Kiara is still the selfless woman. When Kiara’s mother finally passes away, Kiara disappears, leaving Thomas with nothing but the truth. He discovers the poverty and pain she endured alone while he sat on his throne. Now, the Alpha King must hunt for the woman he wronged. To win her back, he will have to beg for forgiveness, pay her debts, and protect her from a dangerous world where wolves are traded like shadows. He broke her crown. Now, he’ll do anything to give it back.