Round Trip Artinya

When I died with a smile on my face, right before my brother's eyes, he looked as if the anguish might tear him apart. Yet, for twenty-one years, he hadn't stopped wishing I would meet this exact end. It all traced back to my fifth birthday—the day I had innocently hoped our parents would come home from their business trip to celebrate with me. They rushed back that night but never made it. A car accident took both their lives. From that moment on, my brother resented me, despised me. He didn't just stand idly by as our cousin snatched up my work as her own; he encouraged it. And when my landlord threw me out, it wasn't a random cruelty—it was my brother pulling the strings. All he had ever wanted, from the very beginning, was to see me die a miserable death. But when he finally got his wish… why did he cry, pleading for me to come back, begging me to call him 'brother' one last time?

"Is that tattoo real?" she asked, her voice trembling. Edgar looked at her, confused. "Yes,I got it on a trip to Hawaii, years ago. Why do you ask?" Elma's heart raced as she realized the truth. "You're him," she whispered. "You're the man who raped me." Edgar's expression changed, going from confusion to realization. "Elma, I swear, I had no idea. I would never hurt you. I love you." But Elma couldn't listen. She screamed at him, tears streaming down her face. "How could you do this to me? How could you marry me and not tell me who you really are?" A wild encounter leads to a devastating turn of events. Haunted by his past mistake, Gael Edgar enters into a contract marriage with the lady he unconsciously abused in order to save his company and family fortune. As they navigate their contracted union, secrets and past traumas come to light, leading to a dramatic confrontation of truth and the possibility of destruction, forgiveness and love. With Justice in Elma's hand, will she forgive him or will she destroy him? Find out in "The Contracted Bride."

Trapped with the Man She Hates the Most... ---- Kylie Leowfin, the stunning and brilliant European model, leads a charmed life, until a fateful trip to the Philippines for her cousin's wedding changes everything. There, she comes face to face with Thurstin Piers, a man she loathes with a passion. Kylie can't stand Thurstin, but destiny has other plans. Their paths collide once more, and circumstances force them to share the same space. As time passes, Kylie begins to see a different side of Thurstin, a side with a kind and caring heart. Yet, the mounting pressure of their forced togetherness may just push Kylie to develop feelings she never expected. She strives to keep her distance, to distract herself from his presence, but love has a funny way of sneaking in when you least expect it. Do they stand a chance of falling in love with each other? Read on to find out.

My mother-in-law’s final wish was simple—she wanted one last trip to Hawaii, to bask in the warmth of the sun before her time ran out. But her son, Vincent, didn’t see it that way. He thought I was manipulating her, using her as an excuse to drag him on a vacation he didn’t want. So, out of spite, he refused to grant her dying wish. I begged him. Pleaded. Swallowed my pride and all the hurt his accusations brought. After relentless persuasion, he finally relented. I thought, at last, I could give Lucy the happiness she deserved. But on the day we were set to leave, Vincent was nowhere to be found. And that same day, Lucy suffered a heart attack. She passed away with only me by her side—never getting to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin one last time. And then I saw it. A picture. Vincent, tagged at a luxury resort with his ex. The caption from her read: Thank you for abandoning your job to take me on this trip. You’re the best. I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even confront him. I just packed my bags and left. And this time? Vincent found out about the truth and begged me to stay.

Also known as Daddy Won't Know. Scarlett could have pulled out all of her hair and screamed into the void until her lungs give out thinking about being her dad's plus one to a week long business trip on the last two weeks of her summer vacation. Then she found out that for the week they will be sharing a luxurious rental with her father's boss: Mr Blackwood, one of the most powerful men in the world who has a reputation for being ruthless, deadly, feared by anything and everything that walks and is infamous for not being particularly fond of women- And she concluded that her summer was officially ruined. Scarlett hesitantly makes the trip having convinced herself that her father's boss is probably another ugly, rich, fat, power- crazy man with a collection of tacky vintage suits and she's set on going out of her way to avoid him. That is, until on the first night, she awakens in the middle of the night and finds the muzzle of a gun pointing at her and a very tall, very naked, muscular, sexy as hell man of otherworldly gorgeousness wielding the weapon. And when he spoke in that dark, deep, velvety voice, she knew that her summer was about to get very interesting. "Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my bed?"

The Curran Pack was the strongest and most feared pack in Europe and the whole of Asia. And it wasn't the strongest and the most feared because of their strong warriors or the fact that the most powerful Chief Prestiess came from the clan but because of the pack leader Alpha Alston Curran.Alston was powerful, strong and the strongest there was. He was willful, irrational, irritable, unpredictable and was without a mate.With his mother's worrying increasing every day, she goes to visit the Chief Priestess for help and after so many divinations for so many years, she finally saw something.Arya Jenkins life has been bliss from when she had been born; rich parents, the perfect boyfriend, the best friends there was and was at the top of the social ladder and that was until they went on a school trip and Arya finds out that her whole life might have been a lie.

Harper just returned home after a grueling week-long business trip in London only to find her sister in bed with her beloved fiance, shattered, Harper swore to make them pay, for deceiving her after everything she had to sacrifice for them.

ADRIAN'S POV My head was pounding, a dull throb that echoed the frantic beat of my heart. I was hot, too hot, my skin slick with an unfamiliar sweat. I knew it instantly: drugged. One moment I was escorting Aria, basking in the glittering lights and dancing with her in the ballroom at her birthday party. Next, a wine from a waiter, a trip to the bathroom, and then… darkness. I blinked, trying to focus on the blur above me. Damien. My stalker. The man who’d been haunting the edges of my life for weeks, whispering cryptic claims of a shared past I couldn’t recall. He was on top of me, pinning me to the plush velvet of some unfamiliar bed. His eyes, usually so intense and unsettling, were filled with a disturbing mix of guilt and desperation. "I’m sorry, Adrian, I'm so sorry I had to do this, but I can't stand seeing you with her. Watching you rewrite our history... please, remember me. Remember us." He leaned down, his breath hot against my ear. "I promise, I'll cherish you this time." Then, his lips crashed onto mine, a fierce, possessive kiss that stole my breath away. His hands moved over me, desperate and knowing, igniting a fire that both terrified and strangely thrilled me. Maybe it was the drug blurring the lines of reason. Or maybe… just maybe, deep down, my body recognized something my mind couldn’t. It responded to his touch with a shameful eagerness, a desperate need that mirrored his own. All I could do was surrender to the moment, to the heat, to the undeniable connection I felt with this man, Damien, as I returned his kiss with a fervor that shocked us both.

When my son was born, I noticed a small, round birthmark on his arm. But the weird thing? By the time I opened my eyes again after giving birth, it was gone. I figured maybe I'd imagined it. That is, until the baby shower. My brother-in-law's son, born the same day as mine, had the exact same birthmark. Clear as day. That's when it hit me. I didn't say a word, though. Not then. I waited. Eighteen years later, at my son's college acceptance party, my brother-in-law stood up and dropped the truth bomb: the "amazing" kid I'd raised was theirs. I just smiled and invited him and his wife to take their "rightful" seats at the table.

‘It’s not that there aren’t good people in the world. It’s that the bad ones are so much easier to find.’ A teen mother raises her daughter on a looping road trip, living hand-to-mouth in motel rest stops and backwater towns, stepping occasionally into the heat and chaos of the surrounding cities. A life without permanence, filled with terrors and joys, their stability is dependent on the strangers—and strange men—they meet along the way. But what is the difference between the love of a mother, and the love of a friend? And in a world with such blurred lines, where money is tight and there’s little outside influence, when does the need to survive slide into something more sinister? ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing