Silent Bond

On the night of New Year's Eve, I wake up in a hospital ward with an IV drip connected to the back of my hand. A nurse passes me the hospital bill. "It's 300 dollars in total, including the emergency treatment fee and the cost for a bottle of glucose drips." When I turn on my phone, I feel my heart sinking. I only have 29.01 dollars left in my bank account. The wallpaper of my phone is a countdown of my family contract's app. Today is the date when I have to renew my family contract for the year. In order to accumulate enough money to go home, I've been working as a staff member in concert venues. Earlier, I had collapsed backstage, so I was quickly sent to the hospital. The dial tone keeps beeping for a long time. Finally, my mom answers my call in what seems to be a noisy background. "Mom, I'm at the hospital right now. I need 300 dollars to pay the hospital bill." "You're at the hospital?" Mom's voice turns shrill immediately. "Why did you visit the hospital during the holidays? You really are a jinx!" "I fainted earlier. I was working at a concert venue—" "What? So, you refused to do chores at home during the holidays! Instead, you decide to work at a concert venue?" Mom interrupts immediately. "I don't have 300 dollars on me! You'd better come up with a way to pay that bill of yours!" "Mom…" My hand tightens around my phone. "Today is the last day of my family contract's renewal period. I'll renew the contract once I pay the bill." "Renew the contract, huh?" Mom just sneers at me. "That's a part of your duties! How dare you use it against me! Helena Lambert, if you don't renew the contract today, you can forget about calling me 'Mom'!" After that, she ends the call. I can only grip my phone to the point that my fingers turn white. After that, I tap on a social media app in hopes that I can borrow money from my friends, only to see the latest post on the social media feed. My younger sister, Hannah Lambert, has posted a photo collage there. "I'm here with my parents to watch my favorite singer's concert! Snagging tickets to the first-row seats is definitely worth it!" The background of those photos is the same concert venue where I work part-time at. It's the most expensive venue in town. Apparently, tickets cost 2,900 dollars each.

When I was ten years old, both my parents passed away. My sister, Brianna, and I only had each other left. We were tormented at the orphanage before the Larsons adopted us. They doted on Brianna and me, and even allowed their daughter, Vivian Larson, to get engaged to me when I was 20 years old. It was a wonderful tale of love. Vivian didn't let any of us down. She would have given me the moon if she could, and she loved me with all her heart. During the ten years we spent with the Larsons, Brianna and I led a good life and never suffered at all. The night before we got married, Vivian took out a treasured bottle of vintage wine. It was to be served at our wedding. However, I poisoned the wine and killed everyone in the Larson family, including my own sister.

My son, Tyler, never really had his dad around growing up. Because my husband, Ethan, was a top doctor, always working late. He pulled countless patients back from the brink of death, but he misdiagnosed his own son's pneumonia as a simple cold. All because he was on the phone with his first love, Isabella, while he was supposed to be listening to Tyler's chest. That night, when Tyler's life was on the line, Ethan claimed he was in a critical surgery and hung up on me ten times. I rushed our son to the hospital, only to find out my husband was at a birthday party for Isabella and her daughter. In the dead of night, Isabella posted a photo of the three of them on Instagram. At the same time, my son, Tyler, died in the very hospital where his father worked. The next day, I held a funeral for my son all alone. Three days later, I boarded a plane out of Seattle, clutching a photo of my son. It was only then that my husband, Ethan, found out Tyler was dead, started searching for me like a madman.

"Sign it." Rachel picked it up and glanced at it. It was a divorce paper. It stated that she had to vacate the house without any belongings and return everything she had taken from the Brown family. This included shares, businesses, properties gifted by the Brown family, and any cash received from them. Rachel's face drained of color. "Why?" She asked, her voice shaking. Lucas replied indifferently, "If you don’t sign, in five days, I’ll make your family wish they were never born. You have these five days for your family to move out." Her body shook with fear. Is he really serious?

On the day before New Year's Eve, I didn't shut the window all the way, and my little sister sneezed. My parents kicked me out and ordered me to collect firewood in the dark. Inside, the family crowded around her, laughing as they handed her presents. I didn't cry or make a scene. Instead, I slung the basket onto my back before heading into the mountains through the wind and snow. I didn't find any firewood. I found a man instead. His leg was wedged in a crack between rocks, bloody enough to scare me. When he saw me, he said in a hoarse voice, "Get me out of here, girl. I can give you whatever you want." I looked up at him, my eyes finally focusing. "Really? Then I want you to be my dad."

Gwyneth Windsor spent her entire life trying to "function normally," but this hard-won, delicate pattern is instantly shattered when she is mysteriously pulled into an infinitely complex interstellar empire. She must suddenly learn new common sense in a world where near-immortal shifters view anyone under 100 as a minor. To her confusion, Gwyneth, despite her adult body, becomes the empire's most coveted 'BABY.' Luckily, she finds a doting family that spoils her utterly, even securing her the lordship of a small, 12-planet galaxy. Yet, Gwyneth's arrival is no accident. While Gwyneth navigates the absurdity of being a pampered 'minor' in an adult body, the universe itself is in peril. Emperor Alaric Lykos, the last of the powerful Royal Fenrir Clan, is the sole anchor of the universe. An ancient prophecy warns that if his line falls, all will collapse. Though pressured to marry, the Fenrir Clan's unique bloodline will only settle for its destined bond, a soulmate whose identity has remained a ghost in the cosmic radar... Until now.

This marks the third year since Alan Cohen and I became mates, and today's finally the day of the Luna ceremony. As the ceremony begins, Alan takes my hand. But then he hesitates, refusing to move forward. I'm still trying to make sense of it when my adoptive sister, Eden Parker, suddenly breaks into the mind-link. She says she's just ended a failed mate bond with another Alpha and will be back within the hour. That's when I see a flicker of a smile on Alan's face. Then, without a second glance, he lets go of my hand and walks away. I turn to my adoptive brother, Dexter Parker, and my adoptive father, Hank Parker, hoping for some kind of comfort, only to realize they've already left the ceremony with Alan. And just like that, I became the joke of the entire pack. Eden sends me a photo. She's glowing beside Alan, her arm looped through Dexter's, with Hank beaming next to them. That's when I give up. I reach out through the mind-link to my birth father. "Dad, I'm ready to return to the Bloodmoon Pack."

Illustrator Isabelle Montrose arrives in Valmont’s rain-soaked quarter, sketchbook in hand but ideas elusive beneath the amber glow of Café de Minuit. One evening, architect Alexander Vale seeks shelter under the same streetlamp, crimson umbrella in hand. His measured gaze meets her restless creativity, and a silent bond forms as raindrops dance on cobblestones. As Isabelle’s graphic-novel deadline approaches, self-doubt claws at her confidence; Alexander, torn between family expectations and his passion for design, struggles in silence. A misread glance threatens to sever their fragile connection, forcing both to confront fear and longing. In lavender-tinted twilight and beneath flickering lanterns, Isabelle and Alexander choose vulnerability over solitude. Together, they discover that true art—and true love—arises when two hearts light each other’s darkest moments.

One impulsive kiss to hide from an ex. One desperate contract to save a child. After a double betrayal by her boyfriend and best friend, Lyra impulsively kisses a handsome stranger in a grocery store to avoid being seen weak.That stranger turns out to be Lucas Thorne, a cold tech billionaire whose traumatized nephew Leo, has been silent since an accident. When Lyra is hired as Leo's specialist, the boy forms an unbreakable bond with her the only person who can bring back his voice. To ensure his son's recovery, Lucas proposes a one year marriage contract. But as Leo begins to speak and the fake family starts feeling real, Lyra and Lucas must decide if their marriage ends when the contract does, or if they're ready to admit that the healing wasn't just for the child it was for them too.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked me. I looked at him, the hate in his eyes as he was looking at me was just too much for me to take. "I am here to claim my rights, I am your wife and you are my hubsband. As a married couple, we should stay together under one roof," I said and watched as he scoffed. "You left me 5 years ago, and now you suddenly want your rights as my wife? That is not happening," he said and then walked toward the door. He opened the door for me, "Get out," he said and I smiled. I left 5 years ago and that was the biggest mistake of my life. I should have stayed and fought for my daughter's rights and mine. I should have stayed and fought for our relationship. "I am not going anywhere, you and I exchanged vows. Till death do us part, I will only leave this house in a casket. I am here to stay now," I said. Well, he doesn't need to know that me leaving in a casket might happen very soon. He can't know the truth, first I need to help him bond with our daughter. This is his last chance to realize his mistake and also my last chance to find out the truth. Why did someone frame me of having an affair? Why was he told that he can't father a child when he has a child with me? Who planned all of this?