The Familiar Of Zero

I am a firefighter. A beam crashes onto me in the middle of a burning building. At the same time, my oxygen is about to run out. I writhe and struggle as much as I can to reach for my backup oxygen canister, only to feel my fingers brushing over a bottle of water instead. When I turn around, I see my wife, Leah Sawyer, giving the last backup oxygen canister to her new mentee, Roderick Wyndham. I begin calling out to her via a walkie-talkie. "Leah, I'm being pinned down right now, and my oxygen's running out! Where is the oxygen canister?" As Leah shields Roderick behind her, she replies impatiently, "I've already given it to Roderick. It's his first time inside a burning building, so he's frightened. Having an extra canister on him gives him a sense of security. "You're already a veteran firefighter, so you can just think up a way to resolve your situation. Don't go around wasting precious resources." I can feel thick smoke infiltrating my lungs at that moment. Feelings of asphyxiation soon overwhelm me. "My leg is broken, so I can't move at all! Without oxygen, I won't be able to hold out till I get rescued!" But Leah merely chortles in response. "Stop playing the pity card! Every time we're out on a mission, you're always the cowardly one who's terrified of dying! You have zero sense of dedication at all! I shouldn't have let you join the firefighting squad, to begin with! "What's the use of you clinging to the equipment? Giving it to the newbies is the best way of maximizing its value!" I can only smile bitterly in response. Using what's left of my strength, I switch to a public channel and begin reporting to the command center. "For the record, Captain Leah Sawyer deliberately tampered with the essential rescue equipment in order to protect Roderick Wyndham, causing me, a fellow firefighter, to be trapped in a deadly situation. "I hereby request the immediate activation of the Firefighter Emergency Evacuation Act. Also, I formally charge Leah with gross negligence and attempted homicide."

Five years ago, Cyrus Parker cried as he begged me to let his childhood sweetheart, Paige Gallagher, give birth to his child. I agreed, but soon I named my conditions. Paige and her child were to be sent abroad, never to return to this country. At the same time, Cyrus needed to compensate me with half of the Parker family's assets. Everyone called me a materialistic wrench who had her eye on the Parkers' wealth this whole time. As for Cyrus, he'd rather make an enemy out of the entire Parker family just so he could protect that child. Five years later, when I go to a neighboring city on a business trip, I stumble upon a lost boy. So, I take him to the police station and have him contact his family there. The police officer dials the phone number that the boy is able to recite for him. Soon, I hear a familiar voice coming from the phone. "Don't be scared now. I'll come over and pick you up right away." In less than half an hour, Cyrus, who's supposed to be in a business meeting that's taking place thousands of miles away, rushes into the police station. I meet his gaze from my seat on the bench, leaving him stunned. A smile appears on my face as I get up from the bench. "I didn't even know you'd sired another son with another woman behind my back, Cyrus. It seems that you won't be able to keep the other half of your wealth now."

Nadia Wilde, the once docile daughter of a wealthy and famous pastor who is loved by the public, has her life turned upside down when she’s sent to prevent her hidden and rebellious step sister from showing up at a one-night stand that could jeopardize her father’s reputation. But in the process, Nadia ends up on the hotel bed instead of Ava and is unable to stop what happens next because, deep down, she’s never been the good girl everyone has always adored. Six years later, Russell Lane, a young CEO whose automobile company is taking over the industry, develops the need for a contract wife, and Nadia, the perfect candidate, falls prey to his trap. With only flaming eyes to remember each other since that fateful day, Nadia recollects who he is, and Russell can’t seem to take his mind off the mysteriously familiar woman. Oblivious to the fact that he’s the father of Nadia’s twins, Russell wants her as his contract wife, and he plans to get her by any means, regardless of what she wants. Can Nadia keep up with a powerful family that tramples down on the likes of her and use this god-given opportunity to climb back up the social ladder? Will Russell be able to overcome the obstacles and keep his company away from the hands of his overambitious brothers and sisters? Most importantly… Will Nadia and Russell make what started as an accidental one-night stand thrive into something much more real, or will their contract marriage, along with everything else, end just as it was supposed to?

In the fifth year of being exiled to a deserted island in the international waters by Chelsea Herrera, I finally learn how to stay extremely humble. When Chelsea brings Derrick Carpenter, a university student she keeps, and a Doberman to the island just to pick me up, I get down on my knees as though it's the most natural thing to do in the world. Then, I wipe the sand off Derrick's shoes with my sleeve before bending over to use my back as their stepstool. "From now on, you're in charge of taking care of Ricky. He and Dobey are your family now." I nod with a small smile. After Chelsea has usurped my family's businesses and forced my parents to jump off a building, she chooses to abandon me on a deserted island so that I can learn to obey her commands. She has succeeded in everything she's done. By the time I finally get to return to the familiar villa, everything there has already changed. I wake up at 4:00 am every morning in order to prepare a nice breakfast for Dobey the Doberman. After that, I groom it properly. At 9:00 am, I've prepared the outfit Derrick will be wearing for the day. Then, I'll travel to a boxing gym so that I can serve as his human punching bag. At night, I prepare some alcohol and snacks while listening to Derrick and his friends laughing at me. They then proceed to discuss how to tame me, the formerly arrogant scion hailing from the ex-richest family in the elite society.

“In psychology, every feeling differs in each other through stages, that’s why different terms are created from affection, attachment, lust, and love. My feeling for you is only pure affection, it was not lust nor love. Our attachment to each other is not that strong so we cannot assume there is love between us, even after our first sight. We’ve just met. I am uncertain about what I feel for you. Space from you is honestly what I need right now. My apologies but I cannot be with you.” It was professionally being an unprofessional story of a lover’s bump in a dump. Addictive that will surely proactive your nights. A book that will stick with you until the last pages, ages with a savage! Samantha De Vera a CEO of a fashion company is a single mother raising her twins, one with a post-traumatic condition. He can’t talk nor speak a single word, and because of him, she encountered the psycho- Psychologist Edward Liam Ackerman. With his childish acts, funny talking, and his familiar scent, he became close to her daughter and son. Sevi De Vera, wants her mother to find him a new father. Famous for being strict, arrogant, and a perfectionist person, she never finds anyone suited to her standard except her three-year-suitor David. In contrast, Sevi and Savana only want one man for their mother, her perfect opposite, Edward. How can he manage this pressure when he is already tied to someone else? Will this chunky, hunky, handsome psycho-psychologist will try to win her dumpy, grumpy heart?

Leonard Burton and I are childhood sweethearts, bound by a family-arranged marriage. After we marry, we live a loving, harmonious life. In a terrible accident, he even gives up his only chance at survival to save me. After Leonard's death, we find a journal among his belongings. In it, he records the three years he was missing after falling off a cliff—years spent with another woman he deeply loved. But his parents had forcibly separated them and arranged our marriage instead. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had continued to protect that woman from afar, silently and faithfully. At the funeral, Leonard's mother, Charlotte Newman, is inconsolable. "Leonard, it's all my fault. Would you still be alive if I'd let you marry Yelena back then?" His father, Samuel Burton, glares at me with hatred. "He fell off that cliff saving you. He died in that crash shielding you. Why do you bring him nothing but harm? Why aren't you the one who's dead?" Yes, why is it not me who's dead? I look at Leonard's familiar, smiling face on his gravestone before running at it and smashing my head on it. When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to when he just returned from that small fishing village. This time, I choose to let him go and give him what he wants. Finally, I see Leonard again.

THE STOLEN BRIDE (BAD BOYS SERIES 1; LUCAS LEVIN) To avoid being married off, Eve Rizzo decided to get pregnant by some random guy out there. And that's when she met the sinfully beautiful man, Lucas Levin. However, she soon realized that he was someone possessive and he wasn't even planning to let her go after spending some wild night together. he planned to keep her for himself. Only. Thus, to get rid of him, she reported her to the police of a crime he didn't even do. 5 Years Later... Eve was back in the city, rumored to be having a bastard son while still engaged to Morris Heirta. Then, someone came to her rescue, snaking his arms on her waist with a familiar possesiveness. "Who dare to say my wife have a bastard son?! aren't I here? The father?" It was Lucas Levin! and like, her, he was back. And he wasn't just some random bad boys hanging out on clubs anymore but a powerful, wealthy man. Lucas Levin Heirta. The only son of the Heirta Chairman and also, uncle of her fiancé! And he was planning to stole his nephew's bride! Lucas leaned down to her, his lips brushing the tip of her ears as he speak. "This time, I won't let you use me and just run away lady. I will make sure you're bounded to me. And me, only." Eve gulped nervously.

At my engagement dinner with Greg Willis, the Rossi mafia family’s underboss, his assistant, Sydney Carlson, casually tossed a half-eaten cookie on his plate in front of everyone. Greg didn’t react. In full view of the guests, he calmly picked it up and ate it. That night, after we returned, I told him I wanted to call off the engagement. He rubbed his brow with his fingertips, his voice steady in that familiar, composed way of his, yet there was distance beneath it. “All this,” he said, “over a cookie?” “She already took a bite,” I corrected him. He fell silent for a moment before replying in a low voice, “Zoe, you’ve always been sensible. Why get hung up on something so small?” “I’m not hung up,” I said evenly. “I just don’t want to settle.” When he saw that I wouldn’t back down, something complicated flickered in his eyes. Then, his tone hardened, almost like a warning. “Think it through carefully. Don’t you regret it.” He was certain I couldn’t leave him. After all, he was a mafia underboss. There were countless people eager to take the position of Mrs. Willis, and I was nothing more than a minor employee at his company. What he didn’t know was that I had never coveted the title of his wife. All I ever had for him was love. But now, that love was gone, and once I turned away, I would never look back again.

Everything changed the night Hayden Delaney entered a private room to search for her missing blind date. Four years ago, she lost her family in a fire and thought her stepbrother, Dominic Fox, had also died. That was until she found out that he was alive and her date knew her stepbrother. Also, he is the Mafia Lord. His cold attitude toward her is nothing she isn't familiar with, but now things seem different. After Hayden accidentally killed a mafia boss in a deal gone wrong, she is forced to stay by Dominic's side. Hayden joins his company and works with him so Dominic can keep her safe. What she doesn't expect is that she starts to fall in love with him. That alone is dangerous enough. Facing love rivals, office drama, and someone trying to kill her, can Hayden manage to survive while keeping her heart safe? Dominic had tried to keep his distance from Hayden, not only because she was too young but also because she was too innocent. As the Mafia Lord, his life was already full of hidden dangers. He also had a secret that could destroy everything. He tries to think of Hayden as his sister, but his heart has never thought of her as a sister. Once her life is put in danger, he has no choice but to keep her close. The more time they spend together and the more dangerous it becomes, the less he can keep his heart hidden. Dominic's biggest fear is that he will lose his heart and fail to protect her.

17-year old Star Sullivan was no stranger to loss, having recently endured the heartbreaking passing of her parents. Struggled to come to terms with her grief, she found herself uprooted from her familiar surroundings and thrust into a new town under the care of her godparents. The weight of her sorrow hung heavy on her shoulders casting a shadow over her once bright spirit. Star navigates the unfamiliar street and faces of her new home, a glimmer of intrigue caught her eye - a student with eyes as silver as moonlight, a captivating mystery etched in every glance. Drawn to this enigmatic figure, she found herself unable to resist the pull of curiosity that tugged at her heart. His mysterious past whispered secrets that beckoned to be unraveled, a puzzle waiting to be pieced together. With each passing day, Star found herself entangled in a web of intrigue and emotion, her heart torn between the allure of the unknown and the safety of familiarity. As the threads of secrets began to unravel, revealing truths that shook the foundation of her newfound life, Star stood at a crossroads, her heart torn asunder. Would she choose to stand by her new friends and family, embracing the complexities of their intertwined destinies, or would she heed the call of uncertainty, fleeing to the safety of the hills, away from the tumultuous storm that threatened to consume her? Only time held the answers to the questions that plagued her restless mind. The clock ticked away, each passing moment a reminder of the choices that lay ahead, the paths diverging into the unknown. In the quiet of the night, as the stars whispered tales of destiny and fate, Star found herself standing on the precipice of a decision that would shape the course of her future.