The Dinner

Hilda Oakley, the charity case Mom and Dad take in, steals my family right out from under me. She slips drugs into me, driving me into a bipolar disorder. She turns me into someone who snaps and screams at Mom and Dad without meaning to. She paints me as someone rotten inside, as the bully at school, and as someone who'd shove her down the stairs at home. And because of that, my whole family turns on me. Mom calls me a bad seed. Dad says I'm no daughter of his. Then, they adopt Hilda and throw me out in the dead of winter. My bipolar flares. Naked, I sprint onto the rooftop and jump to my death. When I'm reborn, I realize I can make the thoughts in other people's heads audible. So, at the dinner table, I let Hilda's thoughts spill right before Mom and Dad. 'I kept that witch Valerie drugged for three years. She finally broke! They still don't suspect that Alex isn't really her brother. He's Susan's son. Once we poison Valerie's parents, the Coopers' fortune will belong to us.'

The housekeeper, who was always punctual, was late today. "Madam, I'm so sorry… dinner isn't ready yet. Please don't be upset with me…" "But this time, there was no helping it. I waited downstairs for over half an hour, and no one swiped in. I even called Mr. Gregory, but he didn't answer. That's why I'm late." My hand froze mid-motion as I was changing shoes, and a frown creased my brow. "Lydia," I said, "didn't I have Richard give you the access card?" Lydia Pendel froze, her face blank. "Access card? Mr. Gregory never gave me one." "Never?" I repeated. "Yes," she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead, her voice careful. "All this past month, I've been sneaking in whenever another resident opened the door, or calling Mr. Gregory so he could let me in. "Today, Mr. Gregory didn't answer at all, so I was stuck downstairs, feeling helpless…" That was strange. Because over the past month, the electronic lock on the front gate had clearly recorded swipes from that backup card.

She has the perfect life. The perfect marriage. The perfect lie. On the night of her wedding anniversary, Ariana Cole receives no flowers, no kiss, no warmth. Just a cold dinner and a silence that finally breaks her. Then came Luca, the man who once made her feel like fire and vanished without a goodbye. When fate throws him back into her life, so does everything she thought she buried: her desire, betrayal, and the aching truth that her perfect marriage is a beautiful lie. Torn between a husband who’s suddenly desperate to win her back, and an ex who never truly left her, Ariana slips into a dangerous double life. Then come the anonymous messages, the buried secrets, the undeniable chemistry and the truth that her past was stolen… not forgotten. As passion reignites and manipulation turns deadly, Ariana must confront a devastating revelation: someone close to her stole her chance at happiness. And they’re not done yet. With her reputation shattered, a scandal threatening to destroy her career, and the man she truly loves falsely accused, Ariana has one choice: surrender to control or fight her way to freedom, truth, and love. This time, she’s not breaking. This time, she chooses herself …and love follows.

"Making you my Luna is the one thing I’ll always be ashamed of!" On our third anniversary, my husband, Alpha Keegan, brought his mistress home. He served her the dinner I cooked and asked her to live with us. I was the Luna, but I was just a ghost in his life. Then came the twist that shattered my world: she’s pregnant with his child. When an "accident" threatens her life, his cruelty becomes absolute. He doesn't want me; he just wants my rare, "golden blood". He orders me to become her living blood bank to "ensure Sienna and the baby's health". His final plan? To replace me as Luna. He thought I was just a weak Omega he could discard. He forgot I was once his strongest warrior. "I, Lilian Harrington, reject you as my mate and my husband." I'm done. But he refuses to sign the divorce papers, determined to keep his possession. He thinks I'll have nowhere to go. He's about to find out what happens when the warrior he cast aside is offered a new life by his biggest rival.

On New Year's Eve, my girlfriend of three years, Gina Jarrey, invited me to her place for dinner with her family. Before I could even take a bite, she drugged me and left me half-conscious. She mumbled, "If we don't pay them back, they're going to cut off my brother's hand. I had no other choice but to hand you over. Don't blame me for this. You're just unlucky for having a face identical to the man Ms. Carmelia Sanders is obsessed with. Once my brother's gambling debts are cleared, you might even end up living the high life. It's a win-win!" My mind drifted in and out as her entire family handed me over and sent me to a mansion that looked eerily familiar. First of all, unless I was mistaken, this place belonged to my aunt. Second, she had an extreme brother complex and had never liked any man other than Dad. And finally, years ago, a distant relative of mine got sent off to work in the mines in Frongo just for rolling his eyes at Dad. So really, who was the unlucky one getting delivered to my aunt's doorstep? Oh my, what a tough mystery to solve.

When Ethan Reed shoves divorce papers across the anniversary dinner Mia Thompson spent hours preparing, he believes he's trading up — swapping his quiet schoolteacher wife for her glamorous best friend and the "power couple" image his investors demand. What he doesn't know: the woman he's throwing away funded his entire empire with her dead parents' life insurance money — and still owns 45% of the company he just sold for $25 million. For six years, Mia paid his loans, wrote his pitch decks, and worked two jobs while he coded his dreams into reality. She loved him enough to carry his child alone for eight weeks, waiting for the perfect moment to tell him. That moment came in a doorway — divorce papers in one hand, her best friend smirking behind him in a red dress. She signed. She walked out. She collapsed in a hospital parking lot and lost the baby no one knew existed. Some men burn down the wrong house. Some women have to lose everything before they realize they were holding the match the whole time. And some betrayals come with a price tag — exactly $25 million, plus interest.

At the dinner table, my mother-in-law slid a contract across to me, right in front of more than 20 relatives. "Just sign it," she said lightly. "Consider it a favor to me." I looked down. A home mortgage agreement for 150,000 dollars. Across from me, my husband's younger brother, Jim Canfield, watched with a grin. Beside him, my husband's eldest sister, Cindy Canfield, urged impatiently, saying, "Shirley, what are you waiting for? Just sign it." I said I needed to go home and talk it over with Howard Canfield first. My mother-in-law's expression darkened. "What? You can't even make this decision for your own marriage?" That night, I did not sign anything. Later, she sent a three-minute voice message in the family group chat, accusing me of being childish, ungrateful, and heartless. More than 70 replies followed—not a single one in my defense. A month later, I came home from work to find three men waiting at my door, there to seize the house. I pulled out my phone and checked the property registry. The record was clear. [Mortgaged. 150,000 dollars.]

With the SATs coming up, I hired a top student from a poor family to tutor me. However, he insisted on bringing his childhood friend along to every session. I turned him down politely, and he did not push it any further. Still, on the day his childhood friend left my house, she was hit by a car. After that, she dropped out of school and got married. Life went on. He kept tutoring me. We both got into the same university, grew close, fell in love, got married, and had a child. Everything seemed perfect. Until one night, during a business dinner, he heard that his childhood friend was being abused by her husband. That was when everything fell apart. He locked me inside our home while I was heavily pregnant, then tortured me to death. "If you hadn't gotten her hurt back then, why would she have rushed into marriage and ended up being abused? "This is what you owe her!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day he brought her to my house for tutoring. This time, I would not spend a single cent on that psycho.

Most kids want toys, candy, or a new puppy. Pearl Reed wants a dad. And not just any dad—she wants Detective Alex Ramos. Ava Reed is perfectly happy as a single mother. By day, she’s a world-class surgeon, running the most prestigious private hospital in the city. By night, she’s The Godmother, ruling one of the most dangerous mafia syndicates in the country. Saving lives on one end. Taking them on the other. Romance? Not on her agenda. But when her too-clever-for-her-own-good daughter pulls off the matchmaking stunt of the century, Ava finds herself sitting across from a man who is as charming as he is infuriating. Alex never saw it coming. One second, he was working a case. The next? He was being blackmailed by an eight-year-old into dating her mother. One fake date? Fine. One viral post announcing their engagement? Not fine. Being summoned for dinner by an eight-year-old with a five-step plan to make him fall in love with her mom? …Yeah, he’s in trouble. Ava has no interest in love. Alex has no interest in marriage. But Pearl? Pearl has other plans. And when Pearl sets her mind on something, not even a mafia war can stop her.

Fed up with her abusive husband, twenty-three-year-old Cara Hellington runs away from home and ends up in a notorious bar, destitute, sad, but relieved and free. When she gets into a verbal altercation with the snotty bartender over the ownership of her credit cards, an unlikely savior comes to her aid. Eros Kazan Alfred. He's tall, massive, rippling with muscles, and covered with dark tattoos. Everything Cara is not used to. Everything Cara is drawn to. When he buys her dinner, and she narrates her ordeal, Eros propositions her to marry him, and he'll make sure her abusive ex never sees or gets close to her again. But Cara is hesitant. Eros is a stranger. And judging from his appearance, he looks like trouble. The muddy kind. She should run towards the opposite direction, away from him. But she runs right onto his bed. After a hot sizzling night together, Cara is comfortable and confident in him taking good care of her. But tensions are rising all around them, as significant figures from their past will stop at nothing to bring them both down. Will they succumb under the wickedly twisted circumstances fate seems to be throwing at them?