The Black Box Novel Novels & Stories

When I was three years old, during a car accident, I was struck in the head by a car while trying to protect Mom. After that, the doctors said something inside my head had broken, and I'd never be quite right. Everyone back home called me the slow one. Late at night, I'd see her crying alone. On my seventh birthday, Mom took me to Manhattan, and that was when I discovered that she had a second home and another daughter, Charlotte. In front of strangers, she wouldn't claim me. She only let me call her Miss Eleanor. On the third night, She sat down at her vanity. On the table was a small black box. I thought it was a present. She opened the box and took out a black silicone bracelet, with a little light embedded in the clasp—small, dark, switched off. "This is called a TruthBand. It's something a company in California makes. The light turns green when you tell the truth, and red when you lie. If you wear this, Mommy will always know." She fastened it around my wrist. Tight. The little light blinked green. I thought that if I was good enough, she would love me the way she loved my sister. But then she made me do ski practice with Charlotte. Charlotte was a junior champion. "You're both my daughters. I don't play favorites. Whoever falls, gets punished." Charlotte never fell. I couldn't even keep my skis straight. Every single run, I was the one Mama dragged off the mountain and locked in the cellar. On Thanksgiving Day, Mama spent the whole afternoon cooking. I wanted to help. I dropped a bowl. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were red. She grabbed a little pill bottle off the counter, tipped my chin up, and forced something between my teeth. "Dumb as a rat. Are you happy now? Did you finally embarrass me enough? " I lay on the kitchen floor, gasping. While she wasn't looking, I scraped up three little pink pellets that had spilled and tucked them into my fist. Mommy, I told myself, I'll be good now, and then you'll be happy. Right?

Following the success of her two novels, Cela receives an offer for the TV adaptation of her stories but a third story has to be written soon to complete a three-story special. She is not in to the project until she rediscovers the paper bearing the address of the meeting place of her supposed first date with Nate. Now that her mother is no longer around to interfere, she becomes inspired to reunite with him after many years and hopefully write the third novel based on their new story. Unfortunately, he is now about to get married in two months. Disappointed with the turn of events, she decides not to meet him again. She visits their old meeting place and finds it a good place to write but unexpectedly meets him there. They agree not to talk to each other if they meet there again but fate leads them to meet again under different circumstances leaving them no choice but to speak to each other. Suddenly, Nate’s fiancée starts acting weird and suggests that he spend the weekend with Cela while she is away. Although it confuses him, he figures that it is her way of helping him get closure. The two spend one Sunday reminiscing the past expecting a closure in the end but the wonderful moment they share this time only makes it harder to achieve that closure so Cela has to put a stop to it saying, “Please don't think even for a second that there is still something left or something new to explore after everything that happened or did not happen. This is not a novel. This is reality. We don't get sequels or spin-offs in real life. We just continue. We move forward and that's how we get to the ending."

Liora Rhodes has nothing - a crumbling apartment, an empty bank account, and a metal box her mother left behind with one brutal instruction: find the truth. What she finds instead is Damian Hawthorne. A Billonaire. Ruthless. The man who built his empire on the grave of her brother Elias. Liora has to choose: finish what she came to do, or trust and love the man she was never supposed to want. Some Truth don’t set you free. They just change who’s holding the gun.

Karin Ruiz prepared herself for a day with her box of gift for the goal to confess her feeligs to Aspen Medina but sadly, she got rejected right away. She could not easily move on until an unexpected stranger approached her with an offer to play a bet. Karin decided to accept a bet collaboration with that stranger but she didn't know that in order to win, she must make someone fall for her. Who was this someone that must fall for Karin? Was he this good enough that Karin even accepted the game of betting? Will Karin win that guy?

I had just won the Hawthorne Scientific Laureate on the international stage when my father called me back home. "Bring the betrothal gifts to the Hayes family. That childhood engagement should finally be fulfilled." Afraid of getting stuck in traffic, I took my modified motorcycle, carried the national heritage porcelain obtained through generations of the Keane family's military merits, and headed toward their house. Just as I arrived at the community gate, a Porsche suddenly cut across the lane, nearly knocking me over. A heavily made-up woman, Zoey Mercer, stepped out of the car, raised one sharp high heel, and kicked the top box off my motorcycle. "You rode this junk motorcycle yet dared block my way? If you dent my car, your whole family won't be able to afford the compensation!" My heart sank. I quickly opened the case, only to see the entire box of celadon porcelain shattered. "So you’re just some delivery guy. Think this pile of trash is worth even one of my shoes? "You even know whose neighborhood this is? It belongs to Kingshore's Hayes family! My best friend’s family developed this place! Believe it or not, I can have you thrown out right now!" Right then, my fiancee, Lauren Hayes, called me. "Where are you? My friend just messaged me saying there’s a delivery guy causing trouble at the entrance."

Penelope Lorenzo, a woman who’d just lost everything and in utter shambles. She had never imagined that life would bring her to this point. Brayden Giovanni, the big, masked mafia who shouldn’t be trifled with. Billionaire by day and Don by night. Thrust in each other’s worlds by circumstances beyond their control and some that seemed to be in his control. But with danger lurking from their forgotten pasts, including a serial killer on the loose, choices must be made or consequences abound. What happens when their cocoon is threatened by forces they can’t seem to identify? What happens when she leaves after unraveling his secrets and almost gets trafficked? Will she embrace he who would raze the underworld for her or will she leave with the fruit of their passion?

Lyana Dela Merced grew up with nothing but grit and determination. Life had never been kind to her. From abandoned by her lover, and later losing her only child to illness, she learned the hard way that pain doesn’t pause for anyone. But even when the world kept breaking her heart, she refused to stay down. Her younger brother, who battled mental illness, depended on her strength, and that was enough reason for Lyana to keep fighting. From one side job to another, Lyana took on every decent work she could find just to survive. Cleaning houses, waiting tables, running errands—name it, she’s done it. So when her doctor friend one night offered her a stable job with the wealthy Tejada family, she didn’t think twice. But what she didn’t expect was that the job came with a shocking twist. Instead of being hired as a simple housekeeper, the Tejadas wanted her to be their surrogate mother. They couldn’t have a child of their own, and they wanted Lyana to carry the baby for them. Torn between desperation and morality, she faced an impossible choice: become the billionaire’s baby maker, or walk away from the one chance that could change her family’s life forever. Years later, fate plays its hand again. The widowed Preston Tejada crosses paths with Lyana Dela Merced, the woman who once carried his child. Old secrets resurface, hearts begin to stir, and both must confront a past that refuses to stay buried. Can Lyana right the wrongs she once made with the Tejada family? Or will she find herself falling for the very man she was never meant to love?

“Marry me… or your family dies.” To save her father’s life, Rachel Owens signs the one contract no woman survives: becoming the wife of Damien Montrel, the city’s most feared mafia king. His rules are simple: Obey. Stay inside. Don’t ask questions. But behind the mansion’s locked doors, Rachel discovers a softer truth meant to stay hidden— Leo. A small boy who calls her “Mama,” and the only weakness Damien has ever had. Damien is ruthless to his enemies and merciless to traitors… yet for Rachel, his control begins to crack. Her kindness disarms him. Her silence wounds him. Her fear destroys him. Just as they begin to trust each other, a new enemy rises — The Raven, a shadow who knows Damien’s secrets, his past… and Rachel’s value. War is coming. In a world ruled by blood and vengeance, Rachel must decide: Is the real danger the man she married… or the one coming for them both?

"Your body is mine Kate... Every bit of it... I am going to make you feel the butterfly no one ever has." ** Kate Walter sought out to seek justice for her parents' death, and Dante Romano, who ran a club during the day and led a mafia at night, was a suspect. To dig into the truth, she took a job as a nanny for Dante's daughter. Little did she know that Dante was more than just a boss; he was known for his pleasurable lifestyle. The merciless mafia boss whose aura neither sized nor decreased. Now, Kate faces the challenge of staying focused on her mission without getting caught up in Dante's enticing world. Can Kate fulfill her mission without succumbing to the allure of the seductive mafia boss?

WARNING: SSPG | R- 🔞 Marimar Oquendo crosses paths with the hot son of a deceased famous actress, who appears to be suffering from a mental illness but understands her pain and desires. She works as his personal nanny, babysits him, and gradually falls for him. She then realizes that he is far more dangerous than she believed, especially since he has suddenly returned to his genuine and normal personality. He was totally out of her league when she discover that he was Lev Dmitri Romanov, the Romanov Mafia's grim reaper—a murderer and mafia billionaire. What will happen to her after she runaway from the man while being pregnant of their child? Will she be able to forget that she had once been the Mafia's nanny?