The Guest List Summary Novels & Stories

As one of London's premier wedding planners, I have spent my career orchestrating "perfect moments" for others, yet I never seemed to find my own. The ballroom at Claridge's was bathed in an opulent glow for my best friend Stella's wedding. The bridal bouquet sailed over the crowd. It brushed a young woman's fingertips, bounced once, and landed squarely in my arms. In an instant, half of London's high society turned toward Ryan. "Proposal! Proposal!" the crowd chanted over the rhythmic clink of champagne flutes. "Ryan, a sign like that is rare. Looks like we should prepare for the next big party!" Ryan was nudged forward by the crowd. In his charcoal Savile Row suit, he still managed to look detached, as if the noise had nothing to do with him. As I held the flowers, the lingering scent of fresh roses filled the air. For one ridiculous second, I even wondered whether I should warn him not to crease his trousers if he knelt. But he only smiled. Then, with practised ease, he took the bouquet from my arms. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and handed it to his assistant, Emily, who was standing nearby. "She touched it first," he said, ruffling my hair with the same flawless tenderness I had endured for eight years. "Be good, Claire. Let's wait for the right time." The attention followed the flowers as they moved away. I caught the flicker of triumph in Emily's eyes and quickly looked down, tracing the intricate patterns of the carpet while forcing a perfectly poised smile. Ryan lived by schedules and efficiency, yet he never understood one simple truth: some chances, once missed, don't come with a "next time". My own wedding is next Saturday. And he has been officially struck from the guest list.

I've just given Eugene Howard a lavish monetary wedding gift at his wedding when I see him passing me an instant cup noodle with a look of disdain. "You can just eat it at the entrance. You can just broaden your horizons from this spot. Why don't you take a look at yourself in the mirror, Nicholas? Do you really think you have the right to sit at the same table as the bigwigs in the wedding venue?" I suppress my rage for the sake of my fiance, Esther Howard. After all, Eugene is her younger brother. "I'm a wedding guest, so why can't I enter the venue?" Today is the day Esther will be announcing our upcoming marriage. If I get blocked outside the venue, who's going to be there with her when she makes the announcement? But Eugene scoffs at me in return. "You're worth nothing! Just because Esther flashes you a smile after seeing how good-looking you are doesn't mean you have the right to marry her! "Soon, my family will be receiving a ten-billion-dollar investment from the Warner family of Cantonia! That means we'll become the richest family in Geronton! "Plus, my future brother-in-law, Ray Atkinson, is an illegitimate son of the Warner family! A pretty boy escort like you can never compare to him!" Ray Atkinson? Wait, does Eugene seriously think that this nobody, whom I've never heard of in my life, is capable of calling the shots when it comes to my family's investment? I call Esther's number on the spot. "I heard that you want to call off our marriage and marry a bastard child hailing from the Warner family? Well then, I suppose I can retract my ten-billion-dollar wedding gift now."

[WARNING: SPICY DARK ROMANCE WITH AN OBSESSIVE, POSSESSIVE MAFIA BOSS. DETAILED SMUT AND VIOLENCE.] Raine Dalca is used to being invisible. After a childhood drenched in trauma and a life built on silence, she’s learned to survive by staying small. Her world is the rundown motel she works in, where she scrubs blood from carpets, avoids eye contact with violent men, and sleeps with a chair wedged against the door. She's alone, forgotten, and just the way she likes it. Until him. Leon Marcello doesn’t belong in a place like this. Dressed in black silk and sin, he walks through her world like he owns it, and maybe he does. When he witnesses Raine being bullied by a guest, he intervenes without a word. She never asks for his help. He gives it anyway. And then he comes back. With a job. A penthouse. An offer she doesn’t want but can’t afford to refuse. She tells herself she’ll leave after a week. He tells her she won’t. She doesn’t believe him. She should. Leon is quiet chaos. Possessive, controlling, pure danger wrapped in restraint. Raine doesn’t understand why he’s so obsessed with her, why he watches her like she’s a secret he’s been hunting, why he looks at her like she’s already his. The longer she stays, the more she sees the cracks beneath his control, and the darker the truths behind his empire. But Leon isn’t her biggest problem. The real danger might be what he sees when he looks at her. Because Raine thought she had no past, He’s about to prove otherwise.

On the night I was supposed to mate with Alpha Lucien, the memories of my previous life came flooding back. In that life, I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him all night. He was with his adoptive sister in another room, fucking her until dawn. He never wanted me. He just wanted Crimson Moon Pack's territory, and the hundreds of warriors my father left behind. The second year of our mating, I started coughing up blood every day. The pack healer told me I was weak, that my wolf was struggling, and I believed him. I drank the bitter herbal teas they brought me until I couldn't stand up anymore. That was when I finally understood. There was wolfsbane in those teas, the kind specifically used to poison an Alpha's blood. By the third year, my grandmother's emerald necklace, the modern art original that had been in my family for three generations had all ended up, one by one, in Vivienne's room. When I asked, Lucien said they were just borrowed. I let it go. After I died, every item on my mating gift inventory had been transferred to Vivienne. This time, on the same mating night, I tore the Luna crown off my head and threw it on the floor. In front of every guest in the hall, I said it clearly. "I reject you, Lucien Ashworth." Then I pointed at the adoptive sister cowering in the corner. "You wanted to be Luna? Take it. It's yours." I walked out of the pack house and held out my hand to the captive Alpha heir from the enemy pack. "Come with me. I'll help you take back Shadowfang Pack. You help me get my revenge."

Three years after I died, my mother sent me twenty dollars for living expenses. Three years before that—the first time I ever asked my family for money—she said to me, offhand, "Sometimes I think you're just putting on an act. What's so unsanitary about a thirty-cent boxed meal? And why can't you wear a five-dollar down jacket? Face it, you're just more high-maintenance than your little brother." Later, when I needed twenty dollars to buy some cheap medicine for my stomachache, she blocked me immediately and cut off all contact—along with every relative we had. "Don't contact me anymore. I'm clearly not a good mother. I can't afford to give my son a life of luxury." But for my younger brother, who had just started high school, she spared no expense—renting him a three-bedroom apartment. Even the family dog got its own room. In the end, on the day my brother became the top scorer in the state, she finally remembered me. She took me off her block list and transferred twenty dollars. "It's only twenty dollars. Was it really worth giving your family the silent treatment for three whole years?" What she never knew was this— On the night my stomach ruptured, three years ago, I had already died. I couldn't afford to go to the hospital. I froze to death in the snow.

My name becomes the sensational topic on the trending list thanks to my company's employees, who have cyberbullied me relentlessly. It all started when an intern named Cecily Plinkton posted a complaint on her social media feed, claiming that the seafood thermidor, a new food item that had just gotten released in the company's cafeteria, was sold for 14 dollars, which was four dollars more expensive than before. "What a scum company! Are the higher-ups that crazy over money? They're just leeching from us white-collar peeps repeatedly!" The entire Internet doesn't hesitate to curse me out. They claim that I'm a cold-blooded capitalist who's greedy enough to charge her own employees for lunch. No one cares about the fact that I've been shelling out my own money in order to upgrade the cafeteria's food choices just so I could make the employees happier. Every day, they get to eat over hundreds of dishes to their fill for free. Every week, the expensive dishes, such as lobsters and crabs, are charged at the net price. Thanks to these free benefits, the administrative department has been suffering from almost a one-million-dollar loss every year. So, I announce that the food prices in the cafeteria will be changed to reflect the current market's prices. At the same time, I've fired the head chef and the kitchen staff and left the meal preparation to another company that produces instant meals. As soon as the announcement is made, the entire company goes into a frenzy. The employees all crowd outside my office while begging me to bring back the benefits with tears streaking down their cheeks.

When Emma's parents first told her about the arranged marriage, she had hoped the Alpha would like her. It wasn't until their wedding night that the Omega knew the truth. "Don't get too comfortable," Lucus said coldly. "Once everyone leaves the hall, you are going to sleep in guest room." "W-What? Bu-" "What?" The Alpha says, turning to look at her, Emma flinched at the look in Lucus eyes."You thought we'd have some bullshit magical night? Well news flash Omega, I will NEVER want you. I already had someone." "What about me, then?" The Omega asks, with teary eyes. "I don't care. I am going to see my girlfriend." With that the Alpha leave. The night was the beginning of the end. Emma knows the vows they took on their wedding day mean nothing to Lucus. ****** "Give me grandchildren or forget about my wealth." Lucus knows it's not a good idea, but he still did it. He spends Emma heat with her and make her pregnant. He even starts acting like he loves her. But things don't go according to his plan and Emma lost their pup, she keeps calling Alpha for help but Lucus busy with his lover. "You waste my plan and my time." Thats what the Alpha told her. Emma then realizes it's all Alpha plan. Her omega was in pain, and she couldn't take it anymore. Emma packed her things and left. But it's like God is playing with her, she finds out that her one pup is survive and still alive inside her. Emma tries to reach Lucus last time. "Meet me, I want to tell you something." But the Alpha didn't come. Lucus didn't even realise what he lost that day. When he realised, he is already late. 5 years late.

I've always been one who doesn't express many emotions. That is, until I've married Vanessa Tate. But the happy life I look forward to living doesn't come to me. Instead, all I see is Vanessa cheating on me with other men to her heart's content. When she brings another man home for the seventh time and fills the guest room with loud moans, I walk over to the door and knock on it gently. Even my tone is soft and tender. "My bedtime is between 10:00 pm to 8:00 am the next morning. As long as you keep the noise level down and don't disturb my sleep, I can pretend that this never happened." The door is opened from the inside, and Vanessa struts out. She casts me a nonchalant glance. "Got it." Her languid voice is tinged with impatience. "I'll keep it down. You should rest in your room instead of standing in the corridor in the middle of the night." The young man, who's a new boy toy of Vanessa's, leans against the bedpost. He leaves his collar open purposefully as he says to me in a taunting manner, "You really are composed. No wonder Vanessa keeps claiming that you're the most gracious husband in the whole wide world." I merely smile wanly, not bothering to give the boy toy an ounce of my attention. After returning to the master bedroom, I take the liberty to send the photo I've just taken to my mother-in-law, Evelyn Sinclair. "Mom, I already told you that Vanessa will never be able to control her urges, and yet you refuse to believe me. "We already made it clear that you'll have to pay me 100 million dollars every time she cheats on me with a man. I hope that you can stick to your end of the bargain."

When Storm's whole family was murdered at a young age, she swore that she would avenge their deaths, every single one of the wolves involved, and see to it that they suffered as she did. In the years that follow, she transforms into an unstoppable hunter, with no one standing in her way until she finally finds one of the last on her list: the four pups. The Ridgewood boys are kings themselves, royals, and dangerous and they have mates. Storm's plan to infiltrate the boys, make them choose her, and make her their one and only mate starts to have cracks when she starts to find herself falling for the same men who watched her father being murdered and her life being torn apart. The boys are closer and closer to finding the real reason behind their strange connection and why it has intensified ever since the raven-haired wolf entered their life like a storm. Even after the deaths of their first chosen mates, the ones Storm killed to have the boys all to herself, they don't question the coincidences of events... until Storm starts to slip, her lies slipping out. Will the truth be so close that they will really find out who she is and why she is really in their lives? Will it be too late when storm realizes she can never destroy her lovers as they turn out to be her destined mates? Will true love prevail? **THE BOOK HAS GRAPHIC SEX SCENES, DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 OR NOT INTO REVERSE HAREM** *i do not take full credit of the book cover as it's not originally mine

THE PHOENIX’S REBIRTH AND REVENGE Two years ago, Alina Verma had everything—a successful career, a future filled with love, and a wedding just days away. But in a single night, it all ended. Betrayed. Drugged. Drowned in a bathtub. Her engagement ring left beside her as a cruel joke. Her last memory? Rafael Moretti, the man she was supposed to marry, calling her name in panic as everything went black. Now, she’s back. But Alina is gone. In her place stands Natalia De Luca—the long-lost heiress of a powerful crime family. Cold. Calculated. Deadly. She has been given a second chance, and she knows exactly how to use it. The people who stole her life will suffer. And at the top of her list? Rafael. She will make him trust her. Crave her. Break for her. And when he’s at his most vulnerable, she’ll destroy him. But the more time she spends in his world, the more she realizes things aren’t as simple as they seem. The man she once loved is tormented, searching for answers about her death—answers that might reveal the real enemy. And the worst part? He feels it. The pull toward her. The familiarity he can’t explain. Natalia came back for revenge, but the closer she gets, the more dangerous the game becomes. Because if she isn’t careful, she might lose herself to the one thing stronger than her fury. The love that refuses to die.