The Dinner

My wife, a doctor, treated our daughter like a walking blood bank. When our daughter passed away, she took it even further. She transplanted her corneas into her old flame’s son. Before our daughter’s body was even cold, she was out having dinner with her ex and his son. They were celebrating that the boy could see again. She even went so far as to secretly burn our daughter’s body to get rid of any evidence. By the time I got there, all I saw was my daughter's ashes being swallowed up by the flames. I told her I wanted a divorce. She just sneered, “It’s only a daughter. Are you really going to divorce me over this?” But later, she was down on her knees, begging me not to leave her.

My husband, Daniel Thompson, looked down on me. I was just a farmer's daughter in his eyes, and he never loved the son I gave birth to. It wasn’t until our baby turned 100 days old that he held him for the first time. Then, one day, his first love, Claire Matthews, came back to the city. That night at dinner, Daniel, who was always cold and distant, finally smiled. He even reached across the table and placed a piece of meat on Noah’s plate. Noah beamed all evening, clutching onto that tiny gesture like it was a treasure. Just before bed, he whispered to me, "Mom, do you think he likes me now… even just a little?" I wrapped him in my arms, tears blurring my vision as I gently shook my head. "No, sweetheart. It’s because the woman he truly loves is back. It’s time for us to go."

I’d been dead a month before my family even noticed. It wasn’t concern that brought them to that realization. It was my silence after the so-called “dinner” with Adam Rossi, the infamous mafia boss. My father scoffed like always,“She probably shacked up with that bastard. Too busy spreading her legs to pick up the damn phone.” My sister texted me a photo of them smiling under the Christmas tree, ornaments twinkling like nothing was wrong. Bitch, she wrote. You better talk Mr. Rossi into working with Dad, or you might as well be dead already. And my mother—once the softer one—was now colder than the frost on their windows. “I told you, we should’ve sent Gia to charm Mr. Rossi. Serena always screws things up.” They didn’t think I would die. Not until they found my body—broken, rotten, and forgotten—in Adam Rossi’s basement.

“Forbidden marriage, dangerous love, and a bloody inheritance.” Enola Spark was nothing more than a “useless child” in the eyes of her family—beautiful but always looked down upon, oppressed by her uncle, and sidelined by her cousin, Clarine, the perfect heiress. But everything changed on the night of Clarine’s engagement to Damian Cassel, the tyrannical heir feared by the entire city. A scandal erupted in front of family and guests: Damian chose Enola instead. One night of sin binds them in a marriage that shocks everyone. Clarine is humiliated, her uncle is furious, and Damian’s stepbrother vows to bring them down. The wedding is only the beginning of the war. Enola must endure humiliation, jealousy, and betrayal from the family dinner table to the corporate boardroom. Yet behind Damian’s cold exterior, Enola discovers a side of the man he only shows her. In a world filled with intrigue and inheritance battles, can Enola survive? Or will this forbidden love be their downfall?

This Thanksgiving, Elmer Fuller finally agrees to go on a trip with me. But when I wake up in the hotel, I don't see him anywhere. I spend the entire day desperately searching for him, only to stumble across a social media post from his first love. It's a selfie of her and Elmer having a cozy family dinner with her parents. The caption reads, "Someone's finally meeting the parents on Thanksgiving night. Mom and Dad can stop pressuring me to get married now!" Around her neck is the scarf my mother knitted for me before she passed. I left a comment. "Stop using my things to flirt with my husband. Take the scarf off—you can have him." Not long after, she posts an update. The scarf is shredded into pieces and tossed into a dog bed, with the caption, "What trash—too filthy even for a dog!" Elmer likes the post.

Reina Grimes is a quiet, nerdy fresher with a deep love for science and a hopeless crush on the campus heartthrob, Austin Reed. He's the golden boy who is popular, rich, arrogant, and the star quarterback. But he’s also her worst nightmare. For reasons she doesn't understand, Austin has always singled her out, mocking her clumsiness, her glasses, and how reserved she is. His teasing isn't just cruel, it's frustrating. Yet somehow, Reina still finds herself drawn to him. Everything shatters the day Reina hears that her mother, Angela, is getting married to Austin’s father, the powerful and ambitious politician, Brock Reed. At the engagement dinner, Austin shows up expecting a boring evening for old people, only to discover that his father’s fiancée is Reina’s mom. The realization hits both of them hard. They’re going to be step-siblings, and living under the same roof.

Orla Sullivan is the seventh and last daughter of Arnold Sullivan. She is a young girl who is loathed and rejected by every member of her family. Though a Sullivan, Orla lived a solitary life until she met Callan Barlowe at an uninvited dinner in her home. Callan Barlowe is a ruthless billionaire, a man whose demeanour oozes dominance, agitation and nothing tepid. He believes in working hard to make money and when he needs to relax; sleeping with high-class hoes is not an option, but a must-do for him. Marriage is not included in the list of things he has to do in life, but his mother wants him to get married at all costs. Callan's and Orla's worlds collided and now, Orla's life is about to completely veer around from worse to something more inimical because she's about to get married to Callan Barlowe; the ruthless billionaire boss who doesn't give a shit about anyone.

The wealthy Hanson family makes it clear that whichever sister gives birth to the family's first grandson will inherit the billion-dollar fortune. In my previous life, my sister, under our parents' arrangement, married the strong and healthy third son, Jerome Hanson. I, on the other hand, was given to the gloomy eldest son, Lester Hanson, whose legs were paralyzed. Under my treatment, Lester regained full use of his legs. I became pregnant with the Hanson family's first grandson. Meanwhile, my sister was driven to madness by Jerome's abuse, becoming the laughingstock of every wealthy woman's dinner gossip. On the day I went into labor, my sister stabbed my belly with a knife. Then, she pulled me off a rooftop with her. Now, in this life, we start over. The moment Lester sends over a golden bridal bouquet, my sister snatches it without hesitation. "I want to marry Lester!" she declares.

When my boyfriend came to my family home to ask for my hand in marriage, my sister-in-law, who was usually cold and aloof, became a completely different person. She flung her arm around me warmly and asked, “Cassie, who’s your favorite? This boyfriend or one of the dozen or so men that you’ve brought home before?” As I denied her accusation and interrupted her, she cheekily batted her eyelashes at my boyfriend and cooed, “Oh, yes, yes. Cassie has never brought another man home. You’re the lucky first!” In the midst of dinner, she deliberately took her own soiled underwear out of the bathroom, pinched her nose, and waved it around as she screeched, “Oh my goodness, Cassie! I know you don’t really care about hygiene, but we have guests today! How can you have no shame? It smells so bad!”

She is Nasha Atlas, the first of her name; optimistic laced with beauty and brains. Getting admission into the University of Cambridge, to study her dream course, was her greatest desire; it came cos whatever she desires, she gets. But how did she feel when her boyfriend who she wants to share in her joy, betrays her by sleeping with another woman? Would she breathe fresh air when she became a prime suspect in the murder of her new neighbor? Would George Powers: a strict officer et billionaire be able to find out who the culprit is when he fell in love with the suspect and make love to her at a supposed investigatory dinner night? And amid the many deaths, would his prowess as a detective be proven? What happens when Nasha's ex-billionaire lover keeps coming back when she already has a new love life? Would she revenge or accept him back?