The Little Man Who Wasn't There

After my year-end bonus came in, I immediately transferred 10,000 dollars to my husband to buy New Year’s gifts for both our parents. I even told him to get the very best, especially that case of whisky for my father. On New Year’s Eve, I rushed home to have dinner with my parents. However, at the table that night, Dad, who had always loved his drinks, was sipping tea instead. I was confused. “Dad, it’s the holidays. Why didn't you bring out the liquor?” I smiled as I rose to my feet to grab the case. “Kevin went out of his way to get this. I heard it tastes amazing.” “Don’t touch it!” Dad slammed his teacup against the floor. His face was flushed dark red. “Zeena, don’t send this stuff anymore. I know it’s not easy for you to make money in the city. But even if our Collins family is poor, we still have our pride! People in the village are talking behind my back, saying I’m putting on airs!” I was completely stunned. I opened the bottle and took a sip, then froze for a moment. This was not whisky at all. It was just plain water.

It was no secret that Ryker Frost would burn the world for one person…his little sister, Summer. So when their rapacious father sold her off to Zarek Lachlan…a sadistic billionaire rumored to have buried his brides before dawn…Ryker did what no sane man would dare. He took her place. Now bound in a marriage meant to be a death sentence, Ryker finds himself face to face with a monster… one who watches him like prey instead of a sacrifice. Two S-class Alphas. Two predators forced into one cage. Ryker—twenty-four, F1 champion, tech prodigy, and a schemer to the bone. Zarek—twenty-eight, a man wrapped in blood and secrets. This was never meant to work. Because when two dragons meet, one doesn’t survive. On their wedding night, Ryker smirked victoriously. “Bet you didn’t see this coming.” Zarek only smiled. And suddenly… it didn’t feel like Ryker was the one in control. [Alternate title: married to my sister's fiancé]

My love story with my Don husband was once the model relationship for couples all across Edale. But after his sudden death, the notary informed me that I was not the first in line to inherit his estate. I froze. Christian Fuzio was an only child. His parents had long passed away. We had no children. If I wasn't the first in line, then who was? That was when the boy walked in. His face was a perfect copy of Zoe Sgotti, Christian's assistant. The boy crossed his arms and sneered. "Mrs. Fuzio, the person my father loved most in his life was my mother. Of course, most of the inheritance belongs to us." Rae… Ray… Only then did I realize that the name he had whispered on his deathbed was never mine. I lunged forward to question Ray, but he shoved me into the traffic. The moment my head slammed against the ground, darkness swallowed everything. When I opened my eyes once more… I stared at my young, strong hands. Feeling the life that I had once lost growing inside me, I finally understood that I had been given another chance. Christian, this time, I no longer wanted your fake love. I would grant the three of you all the happiness that you wanted.

They say "behind every successful man is a woman", right? Well, in Maxwell Jay Gallagher's opinion, that's total bullshit! His company, M.J Tech, is the most successful tech company in the whole United Kingdom and there isn't even a single female staff member! For reasons best known by him, he hated women with a passion and he knew without any iota of doubt that he wasn't gay. But why was he developing such strange, bizarre feelings towards his new assistant whom he nicknamed 'little man'? Why the electric sparks and undeniable attraction? Unbeknownst to him, his 'little man' is actually Angelina McQueen, a gorgeous young woman under the disguise of a man who was hired as an undercover espionage agent by his rival in order to steal his company's business ideas... What will happen when he eventually discovers that the personal assistant that had always been not just behind him but in front of him, beside him and everywhere around him, was actually a woman?! And that too, an espionage agent!

Maya is twenty four, independent and very good at keeping people at a comfortable distance. After a night she never planned with a stranger she never expected, she does what she always does — she leaves before morning and tells herself it is finished. It is not finished. The stranger is Caleb Reed, her brother Derek's best friend, and he has just moved back to Chicago. He knew who Maya was from the moment he saw her at the party. He said nothing. Now they are forced into the same orbit — family dinners, group hangouts, shared spaces — pretending a night that changed everything never happened at all. The tension between them builds slowly and then all at once. A secret relationship begins. Feelings neither of them planned for take root. But the closer Maya gets to Caleb the more unsettled her world becomes, because Derek is not handling any of it the way a brother should. His anger runs too deep. His protectiveness feels like something else entirely. When Derek finally explodes and the truth comes out, it reshapes everything. Maya was adopted. Derek has known for years. And the feelings he buried under a lifetime of playing the protective older brother were never entirely brotherly at all. Maya is left to grieve an identity she thought she knew, forgive people she loves for lying, and face a love that was built on a secret. In the end she has to decide who she is without the version of her life she always believed in — and whether Caleb, the man who knew her before she knew the truth, is the one she wants to walk into whatever comes next. She chooses him. Not because it is easy. Because one night was never going to be enough.

When April Caddel was just a child, her world changed with the arrival of Orion King, a guarded teenager taken in by her loving parents. For over a decade, Orion was her protector, her strict older “brother,” and the unshakable force in her life… until he vanished without a goodbye. Now, six years later, Orion is back. No longer the boy she knew, he’s a powerful, aloof businessman with a new name and carefully guarded secrets. But April’s heart remembers the boy who saw her when no one else did. And her body reacts to the man he’s become. Orion is determined to help April rebuild her life, all while clinging to the one rule he’s never dared to break, he is her brother in every way that counts. But April is no longer the little girl who followed his lead. She’s falling for the one man she was never supposed to want. As boundaries blur and emotions spiral, forbidden love burns between them, threatening to upend everything they thought was safe. The arrival of Orion’s entitled half-siblings and a father who wants his son back only adds fuel to the fire. They share no blood. But will that ever be enough? When love dares to bloom in forbidden soil, will it survive the storm? Or would their love story become one more secret they can never afford to tell?

I've been married to Sylvia Fuller, a mafia donna, for ten years. I'm there with her in every life-and-death situation. My hands, which are meant for playing the piano, have developed calluses from using guns. They are also stained with blood from the enemies. But when Sylvia turns 28, she falls head over heels in love with Wilson Hink, the young man she's brought back from the slums. Sylvia has hidden him very well… right until the moment I bump into him accompanying her to a prenatal check-up. Mad with jealousy, I demand Sylvia for answers, but she just passes me a divorce agreement in a lackadaisical manner. "Wilson is a man of religion. He can't sire a child without getting married, so I have to give him a legitimate status. Sign this agreement, and I'll give you 40% of my shares." I refuse to give my position away, so Sylvia keeps forcing my hand. In the end, she even kidnaps my younger brother, who's paralyzed from waist down, and drags him to the spot beneath a hydraulic press. "Sebastian Chance, either you sign the agreement, or watch him get crushed. Your choice." I kneel on the ground and beg Sylvia to stop. But soon, I hear the hydraulic press being activated. It doesn't take long before I'm completely covered in my brother's flesh and blood. I end up collapsing onto the gore-splattered ground. When I open my eyes again, I realize I've gone back in time—back to the time when Wilson has accompanied Sylvia to the prenatal check-up. This time, I don't say anything. Instead, I contact a rehabilitation center located overseas before filing for a divorce and leaving Sylvia behind. But once I'm gone for real, Sylvia actually goes crazy.

Damon moreau is a powerful tech billionaire who survives through control.Raised by an absent father and a morally grounded mother, Damon learned early that vulnerability was dangerous. After his father's suicide following corporate betrayal, damon became emotionally closed off, relying heavenly on his mother, Evenlyn as his moral compass and emotional anchor. That anchor shatters when Evelyn is killed in an assassination attempt meant for Damon. Unknown to damon, the man behind the trigger is luca raines an elite assassin shaped by childhood abuse and years inside a private military syndicate run by Adrian kessler. Luca has never hesitated on a job before,but when he sight Damon through his scope something breaks his bullet misses Damon and instead killed Evenlyn when she steps in to the line of fire. Wracked with guilt Luca accepts Adrian's next order embed himself in damon's security detailed as his personal bodyguard,waiting waiting for the second opportunity to finish the contract. Damon grieving and paranoid,hired enhanced protection. Luca enters his life as a silent guardian, hiding the truth that he caused damon's deepest loss.

My adopted daughter, Phoebe Marsh, possessed an evil ability. Whenever she got hurt, the pain would also be inflicted directly on my biological daughter, Maisie Shaw. She deliberately hurt herself, covering her body with wounds and bruises. Then, she would turn around with cold eyes, watching Maisie writhe on the floor in agony until she passed out from the pain. With no medical solution available, I broke down and held Maisie close, begging my husband, Brandon Shaw, to send Phoebe away. However, he would erupt in fury. "It's obviously Maisie who's been faking illness for attention, and you're making up this ridiculous story to get rid of Phoebe. She's just a fragile, helpless child. How can you be so vicious?" After that, Phoebe escalated her self-harm even more viciously. Meanwhile, Maisie spent every day curled up in the corner of her bed, refusing to let anyone touch her. On Maisie's birthday, Phoebe threw herself from the fifth floor. Just as Maisie was blowing out her candles and making a wish, she suddenly began bleeding from all her facial orifices, and she died instantly. Yet, Phoebe only suffered minor scrapes. I died from overwhelming grief shortly after. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to Phoebe's first day in our home. Maisie was playing with her Legos when she suddenly clutched her ankle and started crying. This time, I grabbed the broom from behind the door and swung it toward Maisie, shouting, "I'll beat you up for faking illness and seeking attention!"

“I don’t want you. I hate you.” Those words from her only son slice deeper than any blade. Sarah returns from the hospital expecting love, only to find her place at the family table stolen. Her husband, James, stands arm in arm with Tiana — his late brother’s widow, while her son clings to the other woman’s waist, rejecting his own mother. The betrayal does not end there. After a confrontation with Tiana, she woke up in an abandoned building, her hands tied, and mouth taped. Beside her was Tiana too. Tied. James stood, his confused gaze darting from Tiana to Sarah. And then came the baritone voice from one of the kidnappers: “One life. One choice. You can only save one. Choose!” Sarah turned, seeing how Tiana was communicating with the kidnappers with her eyes. She struggled to let James see the truth; that this was all a setup. But she couldn’t. Her mouth was tapped. But then, like a match striking steel, James’ voice came brittle and final. “Tiana.” He chose his ex over his own wife. Over the mother of his child. Sarah was abandoned in the warehouse. Immediately they left, the warehouse exploded, covered in flames. And Sarah’s screams and cries inside, filled the night. Did Sarah survive the fire outbreak? If she did, can they stand her revenge when she finally returns?