Scheming

My husband insisted that I wear high heels at the company’s annual meeting despite being pregnant. He compared me to his female secretary with a look of disdain. "Can’t you learn from Lucille? She’s eight months pregnant and still comes to work in full makeup, handling her tasks efficiently. If you don’t wear them, don’t go. I’ll be embarrassed!" He even tried to give the high heels to his secretary and take her as his date. Left with no choice, I forced myself to wear them. However, on the balcony, the secretary tripped me, spilling red wine all over me. Limping, I found my husband, only for him to sneer, "Tripping on flat ground? How clumsy!" Furious and pale with anger, I turned to leave. Someone urged him to chase after me, but he only got angrier. "How bad could it be? She’s so timid—she can’t survive without me! Just wait. When the event’s over, she’ll definitely be waiting in the car to drive me home." Alas, he was wrong. I turned and went straight to the hospital for an abortion.

Albert Roosevelt was the crush I was never meant to have. Like an idiot, I believed loving someone meant giving them everything, even if they didn't care about you. So, I trailed after him like a desperate puppy, bending over backward to meet his every whim. When he couldn't afford tuition, I begged Dad to fund him, sending him to the best schools. When his worn-out clothes made him a laughingstock, I pitied him and showered him with designer labels. And what did he do? He used what I gave him to chase after a gold-digging campus belle. To keep up appearances, he blew through money like it grew on trees. He even spread rumors that he was the real heir to the Roosevelts. To him, I was just an ATM. "Your family's loaded. It's not like you'll miss a few hundred grand. If you're gonna be stingy, maybe you should stop following me around," he said when his wallet ran dry. And like a fool, I believed that if I kept paying, someday, he'd love me back. After graduation, I funded his startup. The second it took off, he married the campus belle. He had the nerve to claim he earned everything through nothing but hard work. So, I crashed his wedding, and he buried a knife in my chest. "Only when you're dead, Eve Roosevelt. Only then will my pathetic past stay buried." When I opened my eyes again, I was face-to-face with a scowling Albert. "You can't scrape together a few hundred thousand dollars? It's Bianca's birthday. Are you trying to humiliate me?" I looked around the room and rolled my eyes. "Sure, I'll pay. But first? Kneel. You look pretty enough. Consider it charity, peasant."

Happy-go-lucky Joshua Safiro is a gullible omega who had lived with his overprotective mom for 18 years. Now that she has decided to get married, he is suddenly exposed to a world full of perverted alphas, scheming relatives, and fake friends. It gets even worst after he finds out that he is the sole heir to a billion dollar business conglomerate! He was lucky to have met the cinnamon smelling Atty. Del Mirasol who seems to find his vanilla scent as irresistible as he is. SPG WARNING: R18 Reader discretion is advised. This is borderline YAOI and contains graphic sexual scenes. DO NOT READ if you find this content offensive. TRIGGER WARNING: self-degradation, assault, molestation.

Leon Ma, a freshly graduated doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, never expected his life to take such a dark turn. Drugged and sold to the Darkwood Continent — a land where sunlight never shines, demons rule, and humans are treated as little more than pawns. Confused and disoriented, Leon wakes to find himself forced into a marriage with the seemingly gentle yet scheming second prince of the demon realm. Just as he begins to accept his grim fate, the cold and fearsome first prince intervenes, shattering the engagement and abducting Leon for his own purposes. Trapped between the two princes—one calculating and manipulative, the other ruthless and enigmatic—Leon must navigate their dangerous power plays while struggling to survive as a powerless human in a world of darkness and demons. With no allies and only his skills in medicine and his supernatural sensitivity to rely on, Leon must find a way to escape the web of schemes that binds him before he becomes a casualty in the deadly rivalry between the two princes.

Ember’s world shattered the moment she was ripped from her family—her mom, her brother—and sold to Alpha Thorne, the man who killed her father. Thrown into a harsh world full of pack politics and dangerous secrets, Ember’s only goal is to survive. But everything changes the day she meets Thorne. Their bond is electric, messy, and impossible to ignore, even if neither of them wants it. Alpha Thorne is tough and ruthless, but beneath all that is a man carrying his own scars and a fierce loyalty to his pack. Ember doesn’t trust him, and she sure as hell won’t bow to him. With rival Alphas scheming, betrayals waiting around every corner, and loved ones caught in the middle, Ember is forced to make a choice: protect the family she’s trying to rebuild, or give in to the one man she swore she’d never trust. Packed with loyalty, sacrifice, and a passion hotter than any war, this story is about survival, love, and finding where you truly belong—even when everything’s against you. And in the end, the biggest war Ember will face… is the one between love and revenge. *This book starts in first person, then shifts to third person from Chapter 7 on — opening up the world to reveal complex characters and their goals.

My parents’ adoptive daughter took three kids hiking with her, and they ended up dead. They wanted me to take the blame for her. My father forced me to kneel before the families of the victims and crushed my calf with his hiking pole. “These were the legs she used to take your kids hiking. I’ll make sure she never gets to hike again.” My mother legally disowned me. “Jenny will be breaking hiking records one day. I won’t let anyone bring up her shameful sister when that happens! She’s sacrificed so much for you all these years, and it’s time you paid her back.” My boyfriend promised me, “Jenny has nothing. She would not survive if she had to endure all this, but at least you have me. I’ll be here for you no matter what happens. They’re just angry, but they won’t send you to jail. You can come home once everything settles down.” To defend the reputation of my adoptive sister, he and my parents worked together to falsify evidence and send me to jail. “It’s to protect you,” they promised, “so the families don’t take revenge on you.” They did not know I had already given up on them.

My husband's childhood sweetheart is gravely ill. She says her only wish is to die in his arms. So, she boldly moves into our marital home. I demand an explanation for this, but my husband only snaps at me. "Why are you holding this against her when she already has one foot in the grave? Can't you be more magnanimous?" I sneer at that. Half a month later, the paparazzi catch me coming and going from Novak Group's heir's villa. My husband demands an explanation with bloodshot eyes. I imitate his previous response. "Why are you holding this against him? Can't you be more magnanimous?"

On the day we were supposed to get our marriage license, Michael Robertson ghosted. I sat outside the County Clerk's Office for hours. Instead of him, I got a pic from his secretary, Kallie Clunt. She was in his lap, arms wrapped around him, making out like it was the hottest scene in a drama. [Sorry, Elsa. Michael said he had to comfort my broken heart. You don't mind, do you?] When I asked him about it, he just looked annoyed. "She gave me blood once. What's the big deal if I hang out with her? Can't you be a little more understanding?" My stomach dropped. I turned away and called his older brother. "Leon, do you still want to marry me?"

My best friend's brother and I have been dating for half a year, and she has no clue. My best friend drags me out on Christmas for a singles' night out. Unexpectedly, we see her brother, Chris Lambert, holding hands and kissing a girl under the fireworks. "Damn, Chris finally got the school belle!" She looks thrilled and pulls me forward to say hi. Chris awkwardly rubs his nose and introduces me to his girlfriend, "This is my sister, and the one beside her is… sort of like my sister too." I smile silently. We have held hands and kissed, yet now, I am just sort of like his sister.

It was only in the eighth year of our marriage that I discovered my husband had a mistress in the neighborhood. Her place had the same layout as mine, except her furnishings were more luxurious. He was a good husband for her, meticulously caring for his young and beautiful wife. They were even expecting a baby. She sent me a message, eager to get rid of and replace me. She had forgotten I was the one who had been through hard times with him, Clyde Sherwood, and fought alongside him for more than a decade. Her pregnancy was what they both wanted, but there was no way I would allow things to work out the way they anticipated. Taking advantage of his conflicted feelings, I made sure he didn't have any more assets. Everything came with a price. Not only would I make him fall from grace, but I would also make him rot in ruins.