The Almost Gone: Act 2 Novels & Stories

Seven years ago, I ignored my girlfriend's heart-wrenching pleas and ruthlessly severed our relationship. Now, after seven long years, she had risen to the top—and she was back, ready for her wedding. She didn't come home for mere celebration, though. She came for revenge. She obliterated the company my father had spent his entire life building and did not stop until she shattered his leg, forcing him to endure unimaginable pain. It was all so I'd be forced to go to her wedding and beg for forgiveness. But that wasn't enough. She wanted more. She hissed, brandishing a blade, "If Matthew's not here in ten minutes, I'll slice off a finger for every minute he's late." My autistic brother's fingers, the only way he could create art, became a bargaining chip in her sadistic game. Dad's anguished cries filled the air as he pleaded for mercy, but she was not done. She wanted to tear my family apart piece by piece. My mom, fragile and trapped in the haze of Alzheimer's, was next. Her mind, already slipping, crumbled under the relentless torment. She cracked, completely lost to the madness. With tears streaming down his face, Dad said, "My son died the day you left for abroad."

Alpha Ken spent years pouring his heart into his first love, Audrey, and her daughter while treating his true Luna, Kaida, like she was nothing. He ignored their innocent son, little Leo, and let the boy grow up believing his father’s coldness was his fault. Kaida endured it all in silence. She raised Leo alone, wiped his tears, and whispered lies to protect his heart: “Daddy doesn’t hate you.” But when Leo took his final breath without ever feeling his father’s love, something inside Kaida shattered forever. She walked away— No more begging but with so much pain. But after she left Alpha Ken discovered the awakening truth—The only people who ever loved him were the family he destroyed! Now he’s desperate to fix what he destroyed. But Kaida is gone… and she’s in the strong arms of another Alpha, one who sees her worth. Angry, desperate to take back what he claimed was his, he’ll beg, he’ll bleed, he’ll burn down anything in his path but would Kaida return to the love that once shattered her? Or stay with the new man who healed her?

Annalisa Greenwood spent four years being invisible in her own marriage. She was the orphan girl her Alpha husband never wanted, the Luna he tolerated, the wife he looked through rather than at. When she fell pregnant with his child, he called her a liar. When she lay bleeding on the floor of his estate, he walked away. So she disappeared. Three years later, she has built something from the wreckage — a career, a home, a life. And a son with his father's eyes and a heart that has fought to beat since the day it was formed. But the world has a way of closing distances that were never meant to stay open. A medical crisis spreading across the major pack territories has only one solution, and Annalisa is the one who found it. The summit that could save hundreds of pregnancies requires one thing she has spent three years avoiding. A room with Antonio Greenwood in it. He has been searching for her since the night he came home and found her gone. He has been living in the ruin of what he did and what he failed to understand until it was too late. He does not yet know about the boy with amber eyes who builds puzzles and argues about wolf genetics and has a heart that needs his father's presence to fully heal. Some debts cannot be paid with an apology. Some doors, once closed, open onto something entirely different on the other side.

Dirty South 2 is a tumultuous continuation of the happenings, mishaps, mayhems and the crazy affairs that characterized Dirty South and it's movers and shakers in the likes of Coco Kaave, Chief Kaave, Chief Onapuruagu, Detective Flynn, e.t.c When the news of Coco's dad, Chief Kaave's death, shook Dirty South, bringing to a close an era of revenge, betrayal, power tussle and a need for control; Coco quietly married Chief Onapuruagu, the man she loved and settled into the daily life of being a good wife with the thriving Empire, TRENDZ, which she fought and earned. Life never felt better for Coco... However good things never last and a heart breaking moment did shake her out of her blissful reverie when she suffered a forced miscarriage during her gender reveal party. Who could have poisoned the unpoisonable Coco? Coco leaves everyone and everything to seek solace in Kuje Island, now, everyone knows Dirty South is about to rain blood! Coco's soon to be born offspring was murdered and someone had to pay for it.

Carlo La Rosa is the Don of the La Rosa family. As for me, I'm just a plaything who's been delivered to his bed in order to clear off my family's debts. For the next three years, Carlo vents his carnal urges on me anyhow he wants. He doesn't do any foreplay. In fact, he doesn't even turn off the lights. Instead, he forces me to look at myself in the mirror. He wants to show me how he eventually devours me. "Take a good look at who's screwing you right now, Lydia!" Carlo is very rough with me in bed, as though he wants to merge with me. I beg him to be gentler with me, but all I get in return are harder thrusts. Those thrusts continue until I faint from the intensity. When I wake up, I see a black card and a morning-after pill on the nightstand. Even though I quickly take the pill, I still end up getting pregnant. I'm about to tell Carlo the news when I see the news on the TV. Apparently, he gets stabbed three times in a row just to protect his first love, Serena Sergio. It turns out that I'm just a plaything for him to vent his urges on. I'm not even considered a replacement. As I caress my belly, I drop my signature on the divorce agreement. Then, I snap the black card in half and leave the pieces on the table.

Dr. Jean S Nicole, assistant professor at the Kiiing's University. The person with great thoughts, great personality and the role model for many. One day some backbenchers were smoking cigarettes, and one of them saw something unusual in the back of the main building of the university, Dr. Nicole was hanging from the roof. They called the Chairman and other staff, after a while police came and started to investigate. At first everyone thought it's a suicide case but police get something weird about VC. Dr. Sapphire and Dr. Nicole both were fighting last week, and the result came as murder. Dr. Sapphire killed his colleague by strangling and then he brought him to the back of the building and hanged him by the roof. Dr. Sapphire, VC of the Kiiing's University get arrested in the murder case of his colleague. Everything changed when the postmortem report came in sight of the investigation officer Clark Black. But it was too late because the Vice Chancellor got hanged by the court. People started to protest against the judiciary and lawsuit because VC was not the actual suspect. Then the question is who's the real suspect, who killed Dr. Jean. After two weeks of this case another suicide case came as a mystery. In this case, the victim was killed by thousands of nails. Most interesting thing was there was no mark of blood after getting a thousand holes in the body. Back in the case of Dr. Nicole's murder, investigation officer get to know in postmortem report that there was no blood in the body of victim. It was strange but it wasn't the end, in just ten days there were thousand cases in which the victims were killed in different ways and every case seemed like suicide but it wasn't.

A long way from home and away from the men that broke his heart, Ashton has now slowly adjusted to his new life. He's gained some friends from his new school, and met Harry–a hot and handsome student that he doesn't want to be associated with because rumor has it that he is a gangster, but it looks like destiny loves playing tricks on Ashton because Harry asked him to pretend as his boyfriend. Ashton who's desperate to move on from his past decided to accept the proposal. There is one thing that troubling him though, Harry is always gentle with him and it gives him an odd feeling of discomfort since he's used to men treating him as their slave. The length that Ashton goes to feel the domination he now desire gets him into trouble that he could ever imagine and this time, he doesn't have the charismatic Mendez brothers to rescue him.

"I love you so much Chelsey," Chad cried while holding the lifeless body of his beloved childhood sweetheart. It was heartbreaking for Kristina and Nathaniel to see their elder son crying while holding his girlfriend, Chelsey who was bathing with her own blood after a tragic vehicular accident. "I just can't believe it's actually happening now Nats," Kristina told her husband. Her heart is broken seeing how painful it was for her elder son Chad, grieving for his girlfriend's loss, who seemed to be his love since they were young. Chelsey and Chad's journey for love is like a roller coaster. Will they meet again, after this tragedy?

A new life full of challenges where wealth and success kiss her every step, Evelyn Clarke is now the most powerful and one of the wealthiest businesswomen in San Francisco. She had everything that one can wish for, what one dreams to achieve in his life. Her life is the talk of the town: cameras and paparazzi became her new friends. Burying her past deep down, she turned her dream into reality. It was hard for her but she had forgotten her past to turn over a new leaf. But what she failed to know was that her past had never left her, not even for once. "I don't need you in my life anymore. I have changed, Dylan." Scoffing, Evelyn grabbed the knob and opened the door when a hand slammed it closed with full force shaking her to the core. A yelp escaped her mouth when she was forcefully wheeled around and pinned to the door. The man hovered over her petite frame and leaned to her lips. Her breath hitched as she stared at the same pair of murky eyes that once had sworn to give her world only to destroy it brutally. Brushing his lips over her chapped ones, he sneered in his husky voice freezing her to her spine. "And I changed for you too, my Eve."

During a rainstorm, I wait at a bus stop for three hours, but Joanne Sanders never shows up to keep her promise to pick me up. Just as I'm about to hail a cab, I see her secretary post an update on social media. In the photo is a familiar car dashboard. The caption reads, "Thanks to my boss for driving me home!" In the past, I would have bombarded Joanne with calls and messages, demanding an explanation. But this time, I simply move my finger across the screen and like the post. After I leave without a word, carrying my luggage with me, she panics and searches for me everywhere. She says, "I can change. Please don't leave me."