Rice By Manuel Arguilla

Guilt eats you up, filling up most of your thoughts, dreams, and shadows every hint of happiness, making you feel like you do not deserve any form of happiness. "Chained By Guilt" is about that kind of love story. What started as a beautiful night when they were in high school turned into a nightmare that left Ezra Klein confined to a wheelchair and full of resentment and anger, while Sarah Norwels was left with guilt and regret. Will the two let the past eat them up when they reunite after so many years or will love win and finally heal them?

" sometimes the strongest hearts carry the heaviest scars." Two years after losing her parents, 21-year-old Jane is left raising her two little brothers on her own. Abandoned by her oldee sister and juggling two exhausting jobs, Jane barely has time to breathe_let alone chase her long-forgotten dream of studying law. Every day is a battle to survive: Working long hours, skipping meals, some strange dreams, and hiding her tears behind a fake smile. But even when she breaks down in the middle of the street or collapses from exhaustion, she always gets back up- for Elhoïme and Mathias, the only family she has left. Just when she thinks no one sees her pain, Brian, a kind coworker and a long time friend, start offering small gestures of help- cofee, silence, time, understanding. She pushes him away at first, afraid of needing anyone. But his quiet presence slowly starts to feel like hope. Can Jane allow herself to lean on someone else for once, without losing her strenght- or her heart?

Clyde crimson, the second son of crimson family. He is totally obsessed with crossdressing he loves dressing like a girl and now it's has become a habit for him. He is from a middle class family whose father seems to care less about the family. After writing a scholarship for the most famous high school in the city, Paradise star High. He got to meet the most annoying person he had ever seen. Been dressed like a girl, the students considers him a girl. Xander Clark, a totally playboy. He is well known in Paradise star High. He get to do as he pleases and fucks as he likes. He is from a wealthy family, being part of one of the most wealthiest in Paradise star High. What happens when this two meets, what will happen between them. a crossdresser and a Playboy.

Aria wakes up one morning to her parents fighting about her, again. Little does she know that this fight will change the course of her life forever. In a world where most the Myths are real, Aria will find love, heartbreak, adventure, and the power of a new goddess.

By day, he’s just another broke guy with worn-out shoes and a charming smile. But behind the façade, Alec Blackwell is a billionaire tycoon—owner of a global empire and a ruthless legal mastermind. Tired of gold diggers and fake affections, Alec disguises himself as an average man, swiping through dating apps in search of something real. No private jets. No designer suits. Just raw chemistry and brutal honesty. Then he meets Zara Lane—a fiercely independent hustler juggling three jobs, a sharp tongue, and zero patience for games. She doesn’t care for his sob stories or smooth talk. She wants respect, not romance. But Alec’s world is built on secrets. And Zara’s life is about to crash straight into a truth more shocking than either of them expected. Because in a game of lies, power, and attraction… Who really holds the upper hand?

When Mabel Jordan, a bartender scarred by a past betrayal, meets Steve Harrison, the billionaire CEO of Ryder Enterprises, the chemistry is instant and dangerous. Steve is a man who never loses control, but Mabel is the wild card he never saw coming. Unwilling to let go of her, yet terrified of the vulnerability she represents, he creates a single rule to protect himself from the very thing he desires most. "I can't give you the perfect relationship you want, Mabel. But I also can't let you go." He makes her an offer that is both selfish and brutal: an exclusive, no-strings-attached arrangement. "I want a relationship with no strings attached. Just sex. Only with you, no other woman." The rules are simple, but the most devastating one is a lie they both hope to believe. "You can’t fall in love with me, Mabel. If you do, it will be over." What begins as a reckless game quickly becomes a battle of wills and raw desire, where every touch is a lie and every kiss is a risk. Mabel struggles to guard her heart, while Steve fights to keep a soul he swore was dead. Can they survive a game with only one rule? Or will they be destroyed by the very feelings they swore to avoid?

The night my boyfriend and I celebrate our first anniversary, we get into an accident. My soul travels through time and ends up ten years in the future. Here, I see that my boyfriend and I have married and started a family. It's the future I've dreamed of. However, it seems that I'm out of a job, and I've given up on my dream. I struggle to make it through endless days of my boyfriend's ice-cold treatment. Ultimately, I see myself sitting on the edge of a building's roof after falling deep into postpartum depression. When I open my eyes again, I see my boyfriend's panicked face…

Selene has spent her entire life as an outcast—a wolfless omega at the bottom of the Silver Claw Pack. Beaten down, used, and treated like nothing, she stopped dreaming of freedom a long time ago. Until the night she ran. With no pack and nowhere to go, she crosses into Black Oak territory, knowing it could mean her death. The Black Oak wolves are brutal, their Alpha even more so. But instead of being torn apart, she’s given a chance—a chance to fight, to survive, to become something more than the weak girl everyone saw her as. For the first time, she’s in control of her own fate. Until everything shifts again. Two months after her eighteenth birthday, the impossible happens—her wolf awakens. But the real shock comes in the dining hall, when she locks eyes with the last person she ever expected. Alpha Black. Feared. Ruthless. Untouchable. And now, her mate. But Selene has spent too long being unwanted, too long fighting for herself. She doesn’t know how to trust this bond—or the man fate has tied her to. Because belonging to the most powerful Alpha in the region doesn’t mean safety. It might just mean the most dangerous thing of all… giving someone the power to break her.

He was born from darkness… She was never meant to survive it. When Evelyn stumbles upon a dying man in the woods, she doesn’t realize she’s just saved a vampire prince—one cursed by blood, bound by fate, and hunted by his own kind. Lucien Virel is no ordinary vampire. A deadly prophecy marks him as the destroyer of his bloodline, and the moment Evelyn touches him, the curse shifts… binding her to his fate. Now Evelyn bears his mark—a blazing symbol on her skin that ties their lives, their souls, and their deaths together. As ancient forces rise and betrayals close in, Lucien must choose between breaking the curse or breaking the only girl who ever made him feel alive. But the closer they grow, the more dangerous it becomes. Because love was never part of the curse. And someone is willing to spill blood to make sure it stays that way.

I ran away with my new husband, Keith, chasing something—adventure, maybe, or just a way out of my dead-end town. He promised Vegas, bright lights, and fortune. Said he’d win big at the Moon Crescent Casino. I went along for the ride, naively thinking this was the start of something new. Instead, Keith lost everything. And I mean everything. And his genius solution? He sold me. To pay off his gambling debt, he handed me over like property—to a pack. Not just one man, but three. Wolves, apparently. Dangerous, intense... and off-the-charts gorgeous. Husk is tall, dark, and terrifyingly silent. When he does smile, it looks like it hurts him—and frankly, it gives me nightmares. Winter, with his pale hair and soft eyes, is gentle… on the surface. But there’s something immense in him, some power pulsing under his skin, like he could take control of my very soul. Then there’s Sky—moody, brooding, unreadable. He shifts between warm and cold so fast I get whiplash. They tell me I have to stay with them at the casino for thirty days. Just thirty days, and the debt is paid. Sounds simple, right? Except nothing about this is simple. And I know there’s a catch. So, I run. Only to find out—they need me. Not for money. Not just for fun. For something deeper. Something... ancient. Suddenly, I’m not the girl people overlook. I’m not the small-town girl with a too-big heart and nowhere to put it. I’m the key to something much bigger, something magical. And maybe, just maybe, these wolves aren’t my captors… they’re my future. I left to escape. But it turns out, what I needed most was exactly what I tried to leave behind.