Still Water Runs Deep

At 3:00 p.m., Rose Jenkins, the new hire who had barely been here a few days, suddenly tagged me in the company group chat with a few hundred people in it. [Hi, can you stop hammering your keyboard? The noise is making my stomach hurt! The baby I'm carrying is sleeping. If you shake it into a concussion, I swear I'll make your whole family pay for it!] I rushed to explain. I was racing to finish a proposal that was due soon, and I was using a silent keyboard. But she wouldn't believe me, no matter what I said. I kept my patience and explained it over and over. To avoid any more trouble, I even asked if I could move out to the hallway to work. What I didn't expect was that a week later, she would storm into the break room with a kettle of freshly boiled water and dump it straight over my head. I collapsed in a pool of scalding water, my skin blistering and tearing open. She kept screaming as if she had lost her mind and smashed my head with her high heels, over and over. "It's all your fault! I lost the baby! Your keyboard noise shook my son to death!!" My vision blurred. By the time everything went black, I still couldn't understand how a silent keyboard could possibly kill someone. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she first went off on me in the group chat. This time, faced with the same insults, I didn't back down. I went straight into the chat and fired back. [Stop pretending you're pregnant. You've got more going on down there than your dad does!]

For five years, she lived in limbo….caught between hope and grief, waiting for the day her mother might wake up. When that day finally comes, joy floods her chest, too overwhelming to contain. She races home, desperate to share the miracle with the man she loves. But instead of open arms, she finds open betrayal. Her husband. Her Best cousin sister. Twisted in the sheets of the life she thought was hers. With her world in ruins, she runs…into the night, into the arms of a stranger, into anything that isn’t this. For one night, she doesn’t want to feel. For one night, she wants to forget. But when the morning comes, will she still recognize the woman staring back at her? Will she able to face the consequences of her action?

Mabel was forced to marry a billionaire after her father's company hit the rock. Williams, a ruthless billionaire with a soft spot for Mabel. He married her with a cold desire for an heir. Along the line, Mabel became pregnant. Just as she was about to share the news with Williams, she catches him in bed with her best friend. Brokenhearted and resolute, Mabel runs away and finds solace in the hands of William's cousin, Lavia. Still, as Williams plots to reclaim what he feels is rightfully his, the web of lies gets increasingly intricate. Will Mabel succeed in escaping the shackles of her past, or will William's unrelenting pursuit force her to return to her painful circumstances? Find out in this intriguing story.

When Abby is coerced into a contract marriage with Nathaniel a wealthy egocentric and handsome Billionaire to save her sick father's company, her life abruptly changes not for good but for worse. She marries Nathaniel after being devastated by the betrayal of her lover and boyfriend Fred but their relationship is tainted with distrust and quarrel. A pregnancy results from a passionate encounter after a stormy night. Determined to raise her child alone Abby runs away only to learn shocking facts about Nathaniel, her family and herself. They are reunited by fate years later but the wounds from rejection and betrayal still exist. Is the past too strong to overcome or can love and second chances heal what's broken?

On the wet sand beside the seashore, the strong, tall man was laying with a cigarette in his hand. His bike parked a few feet away from him. The environment there was serene and noiseless as no one was allowed then on the beach that he owned. It was not a big deal for a billionaire like him. He had a lot more than that. Wealth, power, the respect he had all of them but lacked the most important thing that couldn't be bought with money. He lacked inner peace. He inhaled the vinous smoke as the corner of his lips twitched in a sad smile. His eyes deceived him being moist and a lone tear slipped down his face on the sand. The sand sucked the water as soon as it fell on it, and he wondered if his pain disappeared in thin air like that. He breathed out a puff of smoke through his nose and mouth. Looking up at the sky with the sad smile plastered on his face he spoke up, "Why so hatred for me, ya Rab?" Miles away from him the girl with a cuddling baby in her arms uttered looking up at the sky, "I express my deep gratitude to You for sending this angel to me, Ya Rab."

“You saved my life. Name your price.” “Take responsibility for me.” Asaraiah Montova is the invisible daughter of a brutal mafia bloodline. Born from her father's affair, she survives abuse, cruelty, and betrayal in silence. Her only sanctuary? A shed hidden deep in their estate, until she finds a bloodied stranger inside. Malrik Kaine is the name whispered in fear. A vampire and the ruthless mafia boss of the Kaine Syndicate. Cursed. Untouchable. Dangerous. When she saves his life, he owes her a favor. She demands the unthinkable: marriage. What starts as a desperate bargain spirals into an obsession between a girl with nothing to lose and a man who has lost everything. What if the shed wasn’t the first time they met? What happens when she finds out she has died by his hands more than once? And when her past collides with his curse, neither blood nor death will be enough to stop them. Dare to follow her into the darkness. Because once the blood debt is owed, there is no escape. Step into the shadows of the syndicate. Here, debts aren’t forgiven—they’re collected... in blood. “In the mafia, blood isn’t thicker than water—it’s the price you pay for power.”

It's my seventh year of secretly dating Liam Ferguson, my brother's friend. We're about to have our marking ceremony soon. I happily prepare for it, wanting to surprise him. However, during a gathering with friends, I accidentally overhear something. "If you ask me, there's no denying Alpha Liam's good looks and charm. To think he managed to make the Silver Snow pack's Alpha's sister his stand-in lover and bed partner!" "What are you going to do with Maya now that Nina's back, Liam? Andrew won't let you off the hook if he finds out you've been fooling around with his sister…" The following day, Liam takes me to Nina White's welcome-back party. He's gentle, considerate, and affectionate with me. His love for me seems so deep that I wonder whether I'm imagining things. Then, Nina "accidentally" spills scalding soup on my arm and runs out in tears. I'm the injured one, but she feels wronged. However, Liam shoves me aside and runs after her in a panic. I return home with a burned arm and open the door to the basement—Liam has never allowed me in there. I see Nina's photos plastered on the walls. There are even photos of them doing the deed in various positions. He looks so wild. I call Andrew with a heart full of despair. "I've made up my mind about the marriage with the Alpha heir of the Storm Tribe. I'll do it!"

After coming home from buying fresh produce at the farmer's market, I began prepping the ingredients and making lunch. As soon as I was done with my tasks, my husband, Jeremy Tate, came home. "A pipe in Chloe's home has burst. Hurry up and help her out. It's difficult enough for a single mother like her to handle such problems." I took off my apron and went to Chloe's place to unclog her pipes. Then, I mopped up the stagnant water before proceeding to comfort her frightened child. Once I finally dragged my exhausted body home, I saw Jeremy handing over my daughter's sweater to Chloe. "Don't stress yourself out, Chloe. It's not like Eliza can still wear this anyway. This sweater is perfect for Lily." As I stared at the sweater, I suddenly spoke up. "Let's get a divorce, Jeremy." He looked at me in disbelief. "You want a divorce over an old sweater?" "Yeah. Precisely."

Part two of the bully series - The story of Alice, Adam and Jamie continues in part two of 'Blackmailed by the Bully.' Jamie convinces Alice to take his side after revealing Adam's past crimes, but deep down she still has feelings for him, and tries to help him when an even nastier bully - Riley - decides to target the Hargreaves brothers. A ghost from Jamie's past returns as Riley's sidekick, but will Jamie help his save his sister from this monster, or help them to ruin her?

Feisty Water Princess Miriam has never known anything but her life in the water fae kingdom. Engaged to her best friend Xaviar, and with her brother Mikah backing her, she's never considered that she'd have her whole world turned upside down. Until tragedy strikes her family and kingdom, she takes up a plot for revenge that puts her in the direct path of the Fire Prince. But what will happen when Prince Aro turns out to be more than he appears, both for her personally and as an ally to stop the forces that threaten every Fae Kingdom. Misunderstood Warrior Prince Aro has never been rumored to be a kind man, earning the same reputation as his father for his actions on the battlefield. But dedicated to his kingdom and proving his worth to his subjects kept him from attempting to paint a different picture. Until the revenge-bent water princess collides with him in a skirmish within his borders shortly after discovering tragedy in his own midst. Her story proves that something more sinister is going on. Can they find a way to navigate the plot plaguing the Fae kingdoms, while navigating their own tenuous partnership? Or will the kingdoms tear each other apart? A single misstep could spell disaster for them all.