Novel & Cerita The Dinner

I thought I had found my forever with Daniel, the man I loved for four years, the one who promised me a future. But my dreams shattered the night I was supposed to get engaged. Instead of a proposal, I was met with betrayal. Daniel arrived at our anniversary dinner, with another woman on his arm. His fiancé. It was Catherine, my worst nightmare, the woman who made my life hell in college. “Did you really think I could love someone like you?!” Daniel sneered. Humiliated, broken, and cast aside like trash, I barely survived. But just when I thought my suffering had reached its peak, I discovered a shocking truth… I was finally pregnant with Daniel’s child after having a difficult time conceiving. Before I could tell him, a mysterious and dangerous man appeared, offering me protection. “You cannot go back to the life you had before,” he warned. “I’m the only one who can help you.” But why should I trust a stranger? Who is he, and what does he know about Daniel that I don’t? Trapped between a ruthless ex-fiancé and a man shrouded in secrets, I must uncover the truth before it’s too late. Because the man I once loved is not who I thought he was. And the stranger who claims to protect me… might just be the most dangerous one of all.

When Henessey returns to her home country after 15 years away, she's not welcomed in the usual sense. Instead, her identical twin sister begs her to swap places for a date with the billionaire prince of the country, Kellen Powers. The plan was simple: ruin the dinner so he would reject the arranged marriage proposal. But everything backfires when Kellen accepts the proposal, seeing Henessey as the perfect crazy person to survive his family's politics. Henessy rejects him and runs away, only to end up spending a night with Kellen after getting her heart broken by her boyfriend. Despite their explosive attraction, she still refuses to marry him, driving the billionaire to obsession. With no other option, Henessey reveals her true identity to Kellen. Furious, he forces her into a contract marriage, threatening to destroy everything she holds dear. Henessey agrees to sign to protect her sister, but on the official wedding day, Kellen discovers his bride has been swapped with the original bride. Enraged, he abandons the wedding to search for Henessey, bringing chaos to her family's doorstep for their deceit. Kellen and Henessey share a history that only he remembers, making him bitter and determined to make her pay for what she did in the past. There’s a thin line between love and hate but the couple seem to be drawn to hate. Will their love be strong enough to overcome the secrets, pain, and deceit that await them? Or will they tear each other apart?

Life comes hard and fast for Kendra and her family in a dystopian world that is struggling to recover from a nuclear war and is now under the rule of an alien government. Unaware of the impending alien invasion, a group of scientists -which included Kendra's parents- were ordered to create a zombie virus and set it loose on Russia. The intention was to subdue Russia and then release the cure, but the alien attack took them unawares and the scientists and their cure disappeared, leaving the virus to run rampant. Having been inoculated against the virus, Kendra's aunt is one of these scientists who has kept her identity a secret for fear of being made a slave to the alien government. When a village that is connected to the people who moved underground for survival kidnaps Kendra in hopes that they can harvest any memories of her parents discussing the cure while she was a mere infant with the use of an experimental machine, her aunt must decide about coming forth with her identity. In the meantime, along with dealing with the ever-rising population of zombies, the alien regime -which considers humans a delicacy for their dinner table – sets out to correct and purify the human race from those who were mutated in some way by the nuclear explosions. Rex is one of those humans. He is also Kendra’s lover. “Where Zombies Walk” is Book One of Kendra’s Journey in a world that offers steamy romance, nail biting peril, and thrills, and a paradise-like sanctuary within its core. All she has to do is make her way there.

I’m the Vettori family princess. The only one. It was our fifth anniversary. A big dinner party at the estate. A waiter spilled red wine on my husband Marco, heir to the Rossi family. My best friend, Sofia, slapped the waiter. Hard. Then she was all over Marco, helping him out of his jacket. Her hand lingered on his waist. A second too long. I just stood there, watching. Sofia saw me. "I was just closer, that's all. Helping him clean up. Don't overthink it." I just smiled. Grabbed my glass. I went to make the rounds with the old dons from the other families. I would finish this night with my head held high. Later that night, Marco crawled into my bed, stinking of booze. His hands were on my waist. He wanted sex. I pushed him off. "The alliance is over," I said, my voice dead. "We're finished." Marco sobered up fast. His face went cold. "I'm trying to apologize here. You're divorcing me because Sofia helped me with my jacket?" I laughed. He didn’t get it. Not until I threw the proof of his betrayal in his face. Not until I cut him off from my family. Then he was on his knees, crying, begging me to forgive him.

Nora Adams is a woman who spent five years sacrificing everything for a man who saw her as nothing but a burden. She cooked, cleaned, and quietly carried the weight of a loveless marriage, telling herself that love would eventually come. It never did. In the evening she planned to surprise her husband with an anniversary dinner, she walked in on him in bed with her best friend. And when she refused to disappear quietly, Dennis Adams solved the problem the only way he knew how. He threw her off a balcony and told the world she had jumped. But Nora doesn't die. She wakes up in a private facility, and the man sitting at her bedside is the last person she expected. Norman Adams . Twenty-five years old, handsome billionaire, burning with a vendetta of his own. He is Dennis's nephew. A man who lost everything to the same monster she married. He knows who she really is. Not Nora Adams, the discarded wife. But Genevieve Lennox, hidden heiress and CEO of Lennox Global Enterprise, one of the most powerful companies in the country. And Dennis is slowly draining it dry. With time running out, her father's empire crumbling, and a terminal diagnosis hanging over her head, Genevieve makes a decision. She will transform. And she will make Dennis Adams regret every single thing he ever did to her. Even if it means marrying the one man guaranteed to destroy him.

"A stubborn young woman never imagined she would end up married to a mafia boss." Amaya lives with the constant suspicion that the bubble of her reality will burst. Being the illegitimate daughter of an oyabun, the leader of one of the Yakuza clans, her life was a path to anonymity. Raised outside of mafia traditions by her American mother, who was a beautiful woman, she was not welcomed within the mafia's ranks. However, she was always warned that when her father needed her, she must present herself. Her life takes a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn when she's kidnapped from university and brought before her family. At a dinner where she is not only exposed to the top echelons of the clan but also showcased in front of other mafiosos, she captures the attention of one of them, someone who steals the future she had envisioned for herself. Alessio is the capo of the Camorra and a beast in his own right, making his word law. After his parents' murder and the fire that scarred part of his face, he needs to form the right alliances to strengthen himself with everything necessary to go to war against the Russians who seek to seize his territory. In pursuit of this, he strikes a deal with the Yakuza, one that results in him being married to one of the oyabun's daughters—a man who aims to deceive him. After extracting what he needs from Alessio, the oyabun plans to teach him a lesson by using his own daughter. Neither of them was prepared for what lay ahead.

In the three years I spent unconscious in a hospital bed, Julius Carter took care of me day and night without complaint. The very first thing he did after I woke up was get down on one knee beside my hospital bed and propose. That night, while scrolling through social media, I came across a female influencer who looked strikingly similar to me. [Another date with my boyfriend today!] [He took me to an upscale restaurant for dinner and bought me the diamond ring I wanted. He's the sweetest!] The top comment read: [You're showing off so much. I bet you're just a sugar baby!] She fired back immediately with a reply. [Being a sugar baby takes skill, too. Looking like a pig won't get you that kind of treatment.] [My boyfriend is the heir to the Carter family. Another nonsense from you, and I'll have my lawyer sue you!] My breathing hitched. Since when did Julius Carter have a girlfriend? Rage overcame me, and I tapped on her profile, ready to send her a private message. That was when I noticed a post pinned to the top of her page. The photo showed a pair of long, elegant hands placing food onto someone's plate across the table, and on the back of that hand were two small moles. They were the exact same two moles Julius had.

My live-in husband used my family’s influence to climb all the way to the position of Deputy Fire Chief. Throughout our five years of marriage, he has stood me up on every anniversary by using work as his excuse. This year, he finally agreed to celebrate our anniversary with me. But he only did so out of guilt. He had manipulated me into staying abroad to handle matters for him, which made me miss saying goodbye to my sister while she was dying in childbirth. The dinner was just his way of pretending to be sorry. As our dishes were served, my husband saw a news report about a fire at a top-tier postpartum care center downtown. He immediately ditched me and rushed to the scene. The fire station headquarters was just one block over! And he had specifically taken leave that week. I accidentally answered a call on his personal phone, and that was when I realized why he had been away from me most of the time. This man would not even buy me a cheap birthday gift, yet he had spent a packet to book a stay at a postpartum center for his mistress! I had to see for myself what kind of woman would have him so spellbound. I was determined to make him pay back every single item he had gotten from the Grant family, with interest.

I was treating some friends to dinner at the private club my cousin owned. When we wrapped up, I waved over a server. "Just put it on Nick's tab." The server nodded, but a manager I'd never seen stepped in to block her. Wearing a smile that never reached her eyes, she said, "Sir, Bosco is a members-only establishment. We don't offer tabs." I felt a flicker of irritation. "I'm the owner's cousin. Just let him know." She let out a sharp, mocking laugh and slapped a bill onto the table. Eighty-eight thousand. Exclusive suite atmosphere maintenance fee, ten thousand. High‑end social network filtration fee, twenty thousand. Spontaneous entertainment ambience enhancement fee, fifteen thousand. And a mess of other miscellaneous charges. Since when did Nick's place dare to bleed customers dry like this? "What's wrong? Can't pay and now you're trying to name‑drop?" She looked me up and down with an arrogant tilt of her chin. "I've seen plenty of our boss's relatives. Not one of them is as broke, pretentious, and shameless as you." Right in front of her, I dialed Nick and put the call on speaker. "Ten minutes," I said. "Make sure she disappears from my sight. Otherwise, I'm revoking your authorization for this club."

"My incubus has been with me for a month, but he still won't let me touch him. What could be the reason for that?" I type my questions into the customer service feedback form and wait for a reply. The customer service representative replies at once in a very helpful manner. "Dear customer, our incubi are all very eager to stick to their owners like glue! I'm afraid your issue might be due to a malfunction on his end. "We can apply for your incubus to be replaced with a new one instead, and he will arrive in a week." I look at Riven Sterling, the incubus whom I had made tailored specifically to my tastes. After a moment of thought, I decide that maybe I can just wait and observe for a while longer. If he still doesn't change for the better, then I can perhaps send him in for repairs. After all, Riven is just too perfectly aligned with my tastes. I can't bear to give him up. However, at the family dinner, I quickly realize that Riven is having a reaction toward my younger stepsister, Teresa Ashford, who is sitting across from me. It's only then that I recall that Teresa is the one who opened my parcel the last time Riven arrived at the doorstep. That night, I contact the customer service representative again and say, "You said that the new replacement would be arriving in a week, right? Please send it out, then. Thank you."