Scrunched Up Face

Drenched in mud, I've just climbed down the scaffolding and started munching on a cold piece of stale bread when a luxury car speeds past me, effectively drenching me in muddy water. The car window on the driver's side is quickly lowered. A sleazy guy hurls a pack of cigarettes in my face the next moment. "Hey, peasant! This is a reward for you! I got really lucky today, after all!" While I pick up the cigarette pack silently, the man happens to be boasting loudly to the woman sitting in the front passenger seat. "My brother-in-law really is an idiot! He seriously thinks that my sister has a terminal disease! He went to the black market last night night just to sell his blood in exchange for 200 thousand dollars' worth of surgical fees! I end up winning double in the casino with that money of his! "My sister told me that once that idiot gets his hands on the work injury compensation, she'll divorce him right away and buy me a new home!" I grip the bread so hard that it crumples in my hand. After all, my wife, Estella Wilson, was just diagnosed with "late-stage stomach cancer" yesterday. Suddenly, I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. It's a voice message from Estella. "Hubby, it hurts so much going through the chemotherapy! The doctor told me that I'd be eligible for better medication if we could cough up another 200 thousand dollars. Can you please plead to the foreman and borrow some money from him?"

Just because I post one picture with my younger brother, Lucas Gambino, his girlfriend Betty Gotti decides I'm the other woman. She rolls up to my place with her crew, live‑streaming the whole thing while they tear it apart. "Look at this puttana trying to steal my man!" Betty shouts to the camera. "She's got the face to flirt, but not the spine to admit it! Give me ideas, chat—I'll teach her some respect." Those psychos destroyed everything. My jewelry, my designer clothes, my bags… they didn't spare a thing. Not even the ring my parents left me. Then, with the viewers egging her on, Betty crossed the line. She had her girls strip me bare on stream. Her chat was going wild, donations pouring in—until my brother saw it. When Lucas kicked in the door to pull me out, I looked at him through eyes that burned. "Dump the girlfriend," I told him. "Or you can forget about ever being the Don."

Drew Anderson's beloved stepsister, Lisa Anderson, severely injured a pack member with wolfsbane. Drew wanted me to take the fall. He said that as long as I confessed, he would formally make me his Luna. Drew placed a forged confession in front of me. "Freya, you're the only one who can help me. I swear I'll protect you forever." After he finished speaking, I saw Lisa hiding behind him with a victorious smile on her face. I looked at Drew's pleading expression and silently picked up the feather quill. Just as the tip was about to touch the parchment paper, my phone lit up with two new messages. One was from Drew. [Don't worry. I've already spoken to the Council of Elders. You'll only be locked up for a few days.] The other was from his sworn nemesis, Liam Kramer. A video clip was attached. [The real evidence is in my hands. Interested in making a different choice?] I deleted Drew's message and replied to Liam. [What is the choice?]

At my wedding, a video of my fiancé cheating was exposed. I didn't make a scene; just turned around and walked away, left him to clean up the mess himself. I went back to my room and kissed my younger boyfriend. We were halfway through when we got interrupted. My fiancé stormed in, face red with shame and rage. "Is this really the time? All you can think about is kissing?" I smacked my lips, still savoring the moment. "Weren't you the one who introduced us?"

In my previous life, I was eight months pregnant when my mother-in-law and husband forcibly dragged me to grab decorative gift boxes from the Christmas tree. I told them there was nothing inside, but my mother-in-law slapped me across the face while my husband pulled me into the crowd. A stampede broke out. They clutched their gift boxes and fled to save themselves, while my child and I were trampled to death. They eagerly tore open all the gift boxes with high hopes, only to find exactly nothing, just like I'd warned them. But as I lay dying, I noticed something in the final gift box. A Black Widow spider with an hourglass pattern on its belly crawled onto my mother-in-law's hand. This spider carries deadly venom. Anyone bitten either dies or suffers permanent disability. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on Christmas Day. This time, watching my mother-in-law and husband gear up to fight over those Christmas gift boxes, I won't try to stop them!

RPG STYLE NOVEL, MC DOING QUEST, KILLING MONSTERS, LEVELING UP, GAINING SKILL, AND etc...SYSTEM Deity, a newly invented modern gadget that helps humans to breakthrough their limiters. Yman Talisman was a young man, 17 years old, and an orphan. After he found out that he had a Hollow Cell symptom, he rejoiced. Now there was a way for him to cure his ill sister. But on the day of evaluation exams, because of an incident, he was late and only managed to get the weakest magic skill among the rest. How can someone like him fight monster monsters when his magic was the weakest and no use for fighting? No group wanted to let him joined them. In order to cure his sister, he had no choice but to fight monsters alone.When he finds out about a certain item that able to heal any kind of illness, he left the city and delves into adventures to search for it.Warning: If you are a fan of a novel that an MC is op at an early chapter, then it might be not your cup of tea.The MC in this novel will slowly build up his character from attitude - to - power.

A widow—the main suspect behind her husband's death. To save her company from the consequences of the mistakes she made in the name of love, she has to marry him—a stranger. Finding out that her stranger is her worst enemy in disguise, who knows the secret behind the death of her husband, Gemma must make her choices wisely before they blow up in her face. .... Livian's love for Gemma was something only he knew about and every time he tried to confess to her, he would lose to her childhood sweetheart. Who would have thought that after years of separation, he would come back to a widowed Gemma? So, he weaves a trap and backs her into a dead end. .... "The game has changed, Gem." He traced her face, a charming grin plastered on his face as he eyed her like she was the prey he had finally caught. "Now, I set the rules and you abide by them."

The day before my engagement to Dean was announced, his childhood sweetheart falsely claimed I had broken her fingers when she was playing the piano. Dean flew into a rage and made me join the medical relief team in Loasia. Now that I was abandoned with just the clothes on my back, I had no choice but to fend for myself. Not long after, I was informed that he was getting married. Everyone bet that I would fly back to steal him away. After all, I had been head over heels in love with him. However, I never appeared even at the end of the wedding. I didn't even call him. I had vanished into thin air. … Five years later... A man, heavily injured from a car crash, arrived at the emergency department. His significant other demanded that he be operated on by the hospital director. I calmly held up my scalpel in the operating theatre, my face hidden behind a surgical mask. "Administer the anesthesia." Before he could be sedated, the man suddenly grabbed my wrist. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he demanded weakly, "Eve, is that you?" I pulled his hand away from mine and shot the anesthetist a look. "The patient is aggravated. Increase the dosage."

After being publicly betrayed by her unfaithful ex-boyfriend and her two-faced best friend, Ariana is determined not to show up at their high-society wedding alone. In a moment of desperation, she heads to the Rosewood Hotel to hire a professional actor to play the part of her devoted, successful new boyfriend. However, a case of mistaken identity leads her to "hire" the wrong man. Enter Adrian Sterling: a cold, powerful billionaire who is actually at the hotel to close a multi-million dollar deal. Intrigued by Ariana’s fiery spirit and her ridiculous proposition, Adrian decides to play along, stepping into the role of a lifetime. As Mark and Lucia grow increasingly suspicious of Adrian’s impossible perfection, Ariana finds herself trapped in a web of lies with a man she can’t control. What started as a one-night play evolves into a high-stakes contract that takes Ariana from her modest life into the exclusive world of Ford City Heights. Between "fake" kisses that feel far too real and a billionaire who refuses to follow her script, Ariana must navigate a world of corporate sabotage and old-money secrets. She wanted a distraction to save face, but she ended up with a storm that is about to rewrite her entire life.

Sofia Homes once stood at the pinnacle of power—an elite warrior of the Royal Guard, sworn to protect the Alpha King’s bloodline. She gave it all up for love, choosing her mate, Andrew Grafton, and the quiet life of his struggling pack. But during a fateful hunt, Andrew abandoned her to face a rogue alone, rushing instead to save another woman—the ambitious Anne, daughter of a powerful Alpha. The betrayal cut deeper than any wound, shattering Sofia’s pride. Humiliated and heartbroken, Sofia rejects Andrew and leaves, determined to reclaim her dignity and find her missing brother, a warrior lost on the borderlands. The pack never knew the truth of her legendary past… nor does Andrew. Her path collides with Arthur Slater, the ruthless new Alpha King, who instantly recognizes her strength—and claims her as his mate under ancient law. But Sofia has no intention of belonging to anyone again, especially a man she barely knows. When Arthur reveals that the rebels threatening his reign are holding her brother captive, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance that sparks dangerous attraction. As war brews, jealousy burns, and old enemies close in, Sofia must decide whether to keep her heart locked away… or stand beside the one man who might match her power.