Remembered

In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened America, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. In the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife safely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake. After the unforgettably initial shock, he remembered the promise he had made to his son: "No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!" And tears began to fill his eyes. As he looked at the pile of ruins that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his commitment to his son. He began to direct his attention towards where he walked his son to class at school each morning. Remembering his son s classroom would be in the back right corner of the building; he rushed there and started digging through the ruins. As he was digging, other helpless parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: "My son!" "My daughter!" Other well meaning parents tried to pull him off what was left of the school, saying: "It s too late! They’re all dead! You can’t help! Go home! Come on, face reality, there s nothing you can do!" To each parent he responded with one line: "Are you going to help me now?" And then he continued to dig for his son, stone by stone. The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off the school s ruins saying, "Fires are breaking out, explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. We’ll take care of it. Go home."

It took me ten years to become the right hand to Damian Costello, the Consigliere of the Costello crime family. From a nobody to the woman wearing his engagement ring. But two weeks before the wedding, I decided to throw that ring away. Everyone in the family knew how hard I had fought all these years just to stand by Damian's side. I gave up the chance to become a top trader on Wall Street, willingly becoming Damian's assistant, his shadow. This man was infamous for his coldness and exacting nature, keeping everyone at arm's length. So I hid my sharp edges, spending a decade wearing down his icy exterior with gentleness. I cleansed the blood from every dollar he made. I became a necessity to him, as essential as the air he breathed. I thought that after ten years, I had finally made my presence indispensable. And finally earned what looked, to outsiders, like a glimmer of his affection. The family's notoriously aloof genius actually remembered my birthday. He even made an exception, letting me spend the night in his private study when I was unwell. He didn't even push me away when, emboldened by wine, I pressed a kiss to the side of his neck. If the Don's daughter, Isabella, hadn't returned from Italy, I might have kept playing my part, clinging to that false dream forever. But sadly, there are no ‘ifs’. I am going to give up everything here and leave you.

His body pressed me against the wall, his breath hot against my ear. “You would make a good little wife,” Damon whispered, his fingers tilting my chin until I had no choice but to meet his piercing gaze. “And maybe you should...” “I would never marry a man like you!” I spoke very firmly. And yet… my heart betrayed me, racing like it remembered a night I swore I’d buried forever. --- The first night I sold myself, it was supposed to be the last. My father had just died, the debts were drowning me, and desperation drove me into a stranger’s bed. One night. One mistake. One child I never planned for. Three years later, I’ve clawed my way through college, fought to survive, and built a life for my daughter. Now I work for Damon Blackwell—the most ruthless billionaire in America. Cold, arrogant, and addictively dangerous. Then he corners me with a shocking proposition: to be his pretend wife for a year. But how could I? How could I offer my daughter a temporary fatherhood? But Damon doesn't care. And when he meets my little girl, everything shifts. Her allergies, her quirks, her smile… everything about her was so similar to him. And suddenly, I’m staring at the man I fear and desire most, wondering... What are the odds that this man standing before me is the same man from three years ago?

On the tenth day after I perished in the avalanche, my husband finally remembered me. His first love was suffering from aplastic anemia and urgently needed a bone marrow transplant—one that only I could provide. He came home holding a donation consent form, ready for me to sign, only to find the house empty. Kelly leaned weakly against him. "Vanessa must really hate me. She doesn't want to donate her bone marrow, so she ran away on purpose, didn't she?" "Maybe we should just forget it," she sighed. "I can hold on a little longer." Caden gently comforted her, his heart aching. "I won't let anything happen to you." "It's just a bone marrow donation. It's not like she'll die from it." Then he pulled out his phone and sent me a message: [No matter where you are, come back immediately and sign the donation consent form.] [Don't be so selfish! Kelly is seriously ill. If she doesn't get a transplant soon, she'll die. It's just bone marrow—I'm not asking for your life!] [If you keep refusing, I'll stop paying for your mother's medical bills!] Caden… I died the moment you walked away from the ski resort with Kelly. The avalanche buried me and our unborn child beneath the snow. My mother, in her desperate attempt to save me, was torn apart by wild wolves. How could you not know?

“Who are you to stop me from entering this building?” said the woman. “You have no right to enter here. You are dead in the mind of your husband. I am the one he loves now.” The woman answered. “I will take back everything that belongs to me. I will not allow you to take everything my husband has.” The woman retorted. The Taylor couple were happy. One day, they had a vacation on an island with their beautiful child. They rode the yacht with their Nanny. Unexpectedly, before they reached the island, there was bad weather, heavy rain fell, and strong waves hit. The husband tried to save his wife and his child, but because of the waves, he let them go. He fell asleep because his head was bent against the wall. While his wife and daughter were immediately helped by their Nanny, because of the strong waves, they both fell with her daughter. The mother and daughter fell, but the woman clung on. The Nanny helped her to pull up but her Nanny took advantage of the situation because of her evil intentions. Instead of continuing to help her boss’s wife, she removed her boss’s wife’s hand by holding it on the pipe until it disappeared and the mother and daughter finally fell into the sea. A few days later, a stranger angler found the child crying. The man thought that the only child was there. But he also saw the mother of the child unconscious. When the woman woke up she remembered nothing, until the stranger fisher thought of giving her a name and said he was his husband and the child was their child. How can she avenge her right as a legal spouse?

The city lights of Valenfort burned bright against the suffocating dark like a gem tainted by blood. Beneath that glittering surface lay nameless alleys where the scent of iron and the echoes of screams intertwined into a symphony of hell. No one remembered the last time they saw a real sunrise for this city had long belonged to the night. Evelyn Cross , a fourth-generation vampire hunter of the secretive order known as The Order of the Thorn , was born in blood and sworn to die for her mission. She had once watched her father torn apart by a pureblood vampire, a creature so fearsome that humans dared only whisper its name in prayer. Since that day, Evelyn lived like a blade cold, unfeeling, and driven by the hunt. Until she met Lucien Draven , the Blood King of Valenfort who ruled the shadows with a calm smile and eyes that could stop a heartbeat. Lucien did not kill Evelyn upon their first encounter. Instead, he saved her from the very comrades who had betrayed her. A vampire saving a hunter such a thing had never happened in the history of either world. Evelyn despised him… yet could not kill him. Lucien desired her… yet knew his love was her death sentence. In Valenfort, a war of blood is rising. The ancient vampire houses are clawing for dominance, while the hunters’ order fractures under betrayal and deceit. Amidst gunfire, betrayal, and desire, Blood War is not merely a battle between species but between the heart and fate itself. “In the world of darkness, truth isn’t written in ink… but in blood.”

I've lived in a cage my entire life. The marriage was my father's idea, protect the company's image, secure the board's approval, play the role of the perfect son even when it was killing me inside. I never had a choice. Until Robin Maximus walked into my building, paint-stained and beautiful, and reminded me what freedom tasted like. I should've been honest from the start. But when his body pressed against mine in the backseat of my car, his breath hot against my neck as he whispered my name, I couldn't bring myself to care about anything else. His laugh became the only sound I wanted to hear. His touch, the only thing that made sense. For the first time in years, I remembered what it felt like to be alive. Then he found out I'd been lying to him. Now Robin's walking away, and I'm standing at a crossroads. My inheritance, my position as CEO, the empire I've spent my entire life building on one side. And on the other, the man who sees me for who I really am, not the title or the last name or the expectations. Choosing him means losing everything I've worked for. My family's approval. The board's trust. The company itself. But losing Robin means losing the only part of myself I actually recognize anymore. The empire or the man I love? Am I brave enough to choose?

Austin is a twenty years old high school student raised by a single mother, his mother was a young and talented businesswoman and he's the heir to all her properties. His parents divorced when he was an infant and since then he hasn't got the chance to meet his father. Even if he came across his father he won't recognise him, not even by his name because his mother changed his last name to her parent's immediately they divorced. He hopes to see his father someday, he has a lot of questions to ask, he wants to know why he abandoned them even though his mother said she was the one feeding him when he had nothing. They finally met and he asked him all the questions that have been bothering his mind, but his father's explanation made him hate himself for hating him without hearing his side of the story and he also despised his mother for lying to him. Jennie is an industrious young lady from a poor family. She has to do four to five jobs a day to support her family. Her father being a man who believes in early marriage forced Jennie to find a husband at the of eighteen, she remembered the kind of life she wants for her younger one's and what her senior sister was going through in her husband house. She disobeyed her parent for the first time and it resulted in Jennie leaving the house.

After closing a 100-million-dollar business deal, I dip into an ordinary-looking cafe by the street on a whim. "I'll have a cup of cappuccino, please." The waitress, who's immaculately dressed, rolls her eyes at me before sashaying toward me. In a fake, nasally tone, she says, "I'm sorry, but there aren't any servers here. I'm the owner of this place." She eyes me up and down before continuing, "The prices here are relatively high for regular people. Are you sure you want to order coffee from me?" I pause in the act of massaging my temple. Finally, I scan around the cafe. "Your cafe is nothing to look at. Are you saying that you're not going to serve regular people, then?" The owner's friend jumps up to her feet instantly at my comment. Then, she starts berating me angrily. "Gianna has opened this cafe just to burn her free time and contribute to the community by giving them a taste of what it feels like to be rich! How dare you question her! "Do you even know who Gianna is? She's the successor of Luxara Corporation! Her boyfriend is Levi Anderson, the CEO of Miller Group! How dare you talk to her like this! You won't be able to make a living in Westford anymore!" I raise an eyebrow in response. The man who had kneeled before me with tears rolling down his cheeks while begging me to invest in his company… was the boss of Luxara Corporation, if I remembered correctly. Also, isn't Levi that live-in husband of mine?

My sister has awakened her mermaid bloodline, but it is incomplete. Her skin is her curse. A single touch, too hard, and it cracks. For her, everything hard in our house has been thrown away. I love to dance, but the hard tips of ballet shoes are forbidden. I love music, but the strings of a guitar or the keys of a piano are too dangerous. Every dream I've ever had has been strangled in its cradle because of my sister's condition. My brother, Liam, who raised us both, always looks at me with tired, pleading eyes. "Elara is fragile, Isla. You have to be understanding." But I was only eighteen the first time I truly understood. I came home from my high school graduation ceremony, the scent of sunshine and excitement still on my clothes. The moment I stepped inside, Elara's hand connected with my cheek. Hard. For no reason at all. Everyone rushed to her. Liam pointed a furious finger at me. "Look what you've done! You've hurt her hand! How could you be so careless?" He shoved me aside and rushed out with Elara to find a doctor. I fell back against the glass coffee table, the impact jarring. And then, a strange, cold pain bloomed across my back. I felt my skin... tear. It was then I remembered the doctor's words from my last check-up: "You carry the Siren's Gene, Isla. It could manifest at any time." As my vision blurred, my own blood pooling on the pristine white floor, I finally understood. The curse wasn't just my sister's. It was mine, too.