The Apartment

To save up for my wife’s expensive asthma medication, I worked the dangerous high-rise job around our apartment complex, even on a day with winds strong enough to knock someone off their feet. However, that was when I accidentally witnessed my wife cheating on me with her ex-boyfriend, and to entertain him, she picked up a fruit knife and slowly cut through my safety rope. My body slammed into the ground so hard that the impact shattered the bones in my leg. Only later did I learn the truth: the one with asthma wasn’t my wife at all—it was her first love. All the money I’d been saving for her? She had been giving him every cent. Eventually, the same cold, proud woman I once married ended up on her knees in front of me, begging for help. I called the building security over and had them drag her out. “Get that filth out of here,” I said. “It’s hurting my eyes.”

I endured hundreds of injections just to give Stanley Brighton a child. He was moved to tears and held me, promising that even if we couldn't have children, he would love only me. I diligently followed the doctor's advice and underwent treatment. The day I confirmed my pregnancy, I was so excited that I wanted to rush home and share the good news with Stanley. But what awaited me was unimaginable. Stanley and the female tenant we shared the apartment with were lying naked together in the bathroom, sharing an intimate bath. He was behind her, holding her close, his lips incessantly biting at her earlobes. "I'll give you as many children as you want! Ten, eight—whatever it takes! Just divorce her!" "Alright, just give me some time. I'll divorce her for sure!" Hearing their whispered entanglement, I turned away, stepping into the rain, determined to leave. I would disappear to a place where Stanley could never find me, not in this lifetime.

I roll my eyes. "Why are you being nice to me? Did your therapist say it was good for your mental health?" *************** Jeanet and James have been together for four almost blissful years. Two years ago, James bumped into his ex-girlfriend and realized he still had feelings for her, but every time Jeanet asked him, he denied this, until one morning when he does something that makes Jeanet finally lose it. She moves out of their shared apartment, but she has nowhere to go. She can barely afford rent with her failed business, and no company wants to hire her due to her past. She ends up forced to work for Damien, the Italian hotshot who barely smiles, who is also her best friend's uncle, and who has always despised her, but she never cared, because she despised him back even more. How are they supposed to share space when they are a true definition of a cat and mouse?

River Wilson has her entire life planned: earn top grades, avoid distractions, and graduate as valedictorian. Love? Boys? Drama? Not on the schedule. But her perfect plan unravels the moment she steps into her new university apartment… and finds Taylor DeLuca shirtless, tattooed, and infuriatingly smug, standing in her kitchen. Thanks to a university housing glitch and a name too ambiguous to question, River ends up living with the one thing she promised to avoid: a boy who looks like trouble and acts like he invented it. Now she’s armed with a list of house rules, a schedule tighter than her ponytail, and one unbreakable boundary: no flirting. But Taylor has a smirk that makes her forget her rules… and a past that’s more complicated than his cocky charm lets on. What happens when the girl who has everything under control is forced to live with the boy who thrives on chaos? Let’s just say... Rule Number Eight is about to get broken.

My girlfriend and I were reborn, returning to the cramped basement apartment we rented right after graduation. We silently walked out the door together, neither of us mentioning staying together. She went abroad with her childhood sweetheart to further her studies while I stayed behind, grinding away at my company. Seven years later, she became a rising young designer with a bright future and a happy family. I was still grinding away at the same company. When we met again, she clung to her childhood sweetheart's arm, looking down at my slightly disheveled state with a mocking smile. "Long time no see. How did you end up looking like a beggar?" I ignored her. However, later, when the powerful, world-renowned CEO of a top design firm clung to my arm, acting sweetly, her face twisted with panic. "Alex Prescott! How can you be so close with another woman?!"

Helaine Fairgrieve wasn't sure what to do when her rent was raised suddenly, until her long time acquaintance, Evan DuRosier, offered her a solution that would benefit the both of them. Helaine travels to his apartment in the less than reputable art district of the city to indulge his less than conventional desires, only to learn that he's keeping a dark secret. She's has never been in handcuffs before, much less bound and suspended from a man's ceiling while he pours hot wax on her sensitive skin. She isn't sure what's more frightening, the knife gliding across her skin, or the fact that she loves every pulse-pounding second of it. BDSM is normally based on a foundation of trust; lacking that, Evan and Helaine's relationship begins as something of a transactional nature, until she discovers that his lust for blood is more than just a fetish. What will she do when she discovers the truth about his Vampirism?

Jessica Cooper was poor in every sense of the word-her slum apartment didn't feel safe anymore, she could barely feed herself or afford good clothes-and after quitting her job, she had nothing to fall back to. Her hope is rekindled when she gets hired by a Billionaire CEO to be his housekeeper. Daniel Snider, an infamous player in the business world was known to reckless, impulsive, self-conceited and irresponsible. His position was handed to him on a platter of gold, so he doesn't see the need to be responsible, until his father gives him an ultimatum; get married, settle down and prove to me that you're responsible enough to handle the company or loose everything you own. Daniel is desperate to prove himself to his father and gain back his position, so he proposes a deal to the maid because he has a secret of hers in his hands which could destroy her. The question is, would Jessica agree to be his contact wife?

My husband, Noah Campbell, has only passed away for less than three months when my sister-in-law, Pamela Turner, starts urging me to move out. "It's not that I'm casting you out, Veronica. You see, Matthew wants to renovate your bedroom. I'm just worried that you might not have time to pack up your stuff when the time comes. "Besides, Noah is no longer around. It's inappropriate for you to continue living in an apartment that belongs to your in-laws, you know?" My mother-in-law pauses mid-bite, pretending she didn't hear a word Pamela said. Meanwhile, Matthew Campbell, Pamela's husband, continues munching on his food silently. Upon noticing that I never replied to her, Pamela adds, "Don't overthink it, Veronica. I don't want the outsiders gossiping about you, you know." Only then do I look up at her with a smile. "Thank you for your concern, Pamela. But I'm not scared of a bit of gossip." After all, I'm the owner of this apartment.

Madeleine Júlia Cordeiro lives in a quiet, plant-filled apartment in the rougher part of Chicago. She’s twenty-one, broke, vegan, and studying animal science at the local community college. She cries over rescue dogs, talks to her plants like they’re her best friends, and thinks violence is something that only happens in action movies. Her life is calm, predictable, and painfully ordinary. Until he bleeds all over her floor. Adriano Capone is violence in human form—shot, hunted, and very much the kind of man her sweet little heart should run from. He’s everything she hates: violent, dangerous, cruel in the way only a mafia prince can be. He’s everything she’s sworn to avoid but he's hurt and Maddie has a soft spot for lost things. So, she stitches him up. And he stitches himself into her life. He's the devil incarnate. She's never even slapped someone. But fate doesn't care about perfect matches... It threw fire into the hands of a flower girl.

Leah was born into a poor family of six. Since she could remember, their family has suffered from debt and debt collectors, which led to their parent's divorce and the reason she stays with her father while the other stays with their mother. It was either her or the younger one, and she couldn't for the life of her allow her younger siblings to stay with their irresponsible father, who drinks half his life away each day wallowing in sorrow and debt. Her prayer for an escape was answered alongside her most cherished wish, as she received a letter containing her admission letter and a scholarship to Lora's fashion school. Her life became easy and peaceful after moving to the institution and away from her father, well the peace lasted a while. She found herself on a rollercoaster of intense events after saving an injured man with a knife wound close to her apartment building. Plunged into the world of the mafia, crimes and invading feelings, she found out their family debt wasn't what she always thought they were.