The Forty Five

I loved my foster brother, Cayden, for five years—five years of hiding, lying, and choking on the shame that came with every kiss, every touch, every lie. I should have hated myself for it, but I loved him too much for that to matter. I thought we had a future, until his first love, the one who had once shattered him, returned without warning. Suddenly, I was nothing more than a dirty secret. While he smiled at his engagement party, I was lying in a hospital bed, waiting for death, worn down by my heart condition and his cold neglect. I was as good as gone. Until Miles, who would later become my fiancé, saved me. A year later, I came back—with a loving fiancé, a healthy body, and a new life. Cayden seemed broken by my “death,” but all I felt was bitter irony. We were foster siblings, never meant to be together. He was just a mistake from my past, a mistake I swore I’d never repeat. But life didn’t turn out as smooth as I imagined. Miles carried secrets, and Cayden… he wasn’t ready to let me go.

“Let me go Sandro I do not want this marriage anymore” Five years ago, Elena Moretti made a mistake, a careless one. A one night stand with a stranger, she thought everything was fine if she could pretend it never happened but when that night left her pregnant, her parents forced her into marriage with the ruthless, cold Alessandro De Luca. Alessandro never wanted a wife. Marriage meant nothing to him but he was forced into a marriage with the girl he had a one night stand with, a girl from a family with a falling empire, convinced she did this to seduce him for her family gain he made their marriage-unbearable, loveless, distant and built on nothing but obligation. For five years Elena endured his cruelty raising their son in silence. Now she’s done, she wants out. But just as she prepares to leave, their daughter is kidnapped by Sandro’s enemies, forcing them into working together. As they navigate a deadly game of power and betrayal, Elena starts to see the man behind the monster—the husband who was never hers, the father willing to burn the world for their child. Is it too late to turn hatred into love? Or is she going to take the risk of opening her heart again to the man who hurt her?

Five years ago, when my boyfriend's small company was on the brink of bankruptcy I stepped in to save him, quietly supporting him from the shadows. Without revealing my identity, I became the company’s largest shareholder. Five years later, the night before his company was set to go public, he held me in his arms and said, "Emma, after the company goes public tomorrow, don’t leave. I have a surprise for you." At that moment, I was swept away by the idea of his "surprise," my mind racing with the hopeful thought that he might propose. I didn’t notice the cold glint of malice lurking in his eyes. The next day, as his company went public, he slapped me across the face and sneered, "Do you even see what kind of person you are? Did you really think someone like you could marry me?" He grabbed me by the hair and dragged both me and my best friend in front of a crowd of thugs and beggars he’d gathered. “These worthless cast-offs aren’t good enough for me anymore. Consider them my gift to you. Do whatever you like with them!”

Gwen Summerbell was betrayed when she was falsely accused of having an affair by her husband and her half-sister, Winter. On that same day, her husband, Lucas Grayford, divorced her and cast her from their home. Five years later, Gwen returned as a powerful CEO, with by a beautiful daughter and harboring a secret. With success in her grasp and vengeance in her heart, she's poised to make those who wronged her pay. One step at a time.

Melissa woods,a young Werewolf was forced by her mother to be the the Luna of a wicked Alpha. Well Melissa is a loner and find it hard to find friends in highschool, but after five years of no friends she became friends with Kyle,a young teenager who is also a loner like her. Melissa insisted on being a Luna but she was later the Alpha's Luna. She became mated to him. Though it was complicated, and Melissa finally knew everything was all a plan.

Five years ago, Selena betrayed Victor. But it wasn’t for greed, power, or hate.It was for a secret worth dying for, Victor’s second-in-command, found out Selena’s secret. He used the secret and forced Selena to set Victor up.Now, Victor is back—stronger, deadlier, and ready to take back what’s his.But when he uncovers the real truth, the war won’t just be for power—it’ll be for something else entirely.

Due to the set-up of her wicked stepmother, Mariana Barrett had a wild night with a stranger and ended up being forced to flee overseas. Unbeknownst to her, her stepsister took the credit, rising to fame thanks to that one-night stand. Five years later, Mariana came back with her adorable twins. But on the very day she returned, she messed with a cool, handsome CEO. Surprisingly, he looked exactly like her baby boy!

Ryan left his hometown five years ago because he was trying to kill the feelings he was developing for his step sister. After five years, he thought he must have gotten over the feelings he has for her but things didn't go as he wanted. He craved her more than he did in the past and the only one who is always in his mind is her. No matter what he does, he can't seem to get her off his head. He knew that the feelings and desires he has for her are forbidden but he couldn't stop himself…. She is driving him crazy. He wants to go deep inside her and make her scream out his name. She's that forbidden fruit, he's willing to taste. When he saw her after she had grown into a beautiful young lady, he fell deeper in love with her and his desire for her increased. He no longer mind tasting the forbidden fruit. But the problem is that; when he tastes the forbidden fruit, will he be able to stop? Is he ready to fight all protocol to make her his?

Irithel is a single mother of a five-year-old kid, and Theo is a very powerful business man in his young age. After five years they met again, Theo can't recognize her but Irithel recognizes him clearly. She can't believe that the man she's been hiding for, for the past five years, was the new president of the LinMi Group. "Be my woman, I can give you everything, but you can't leave me" upon hearing this from the man she loves she sneered in front of him, "the least thing that I would do is to be your mistress". Irithel once had saved him but keeping him again would put her family in more danger. She thinks that the best thing to do is to keep him away from her family but as she pushes him away, Theo is more determined to keep her. After years of finding the girl in her dream, he finally heard the familiar name. He will do anything to prove his instincts that she is the girl behind those nightmares and the woman who helped him when he had a temporary blindness. As the truth unfolds and the untold stories begin to leak, they found themselves falling with each other again.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing