The Paying Guests Novels & Stories

After moving to a new school, Pearl finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the school's notorious bully, Lucas Whitlock. However, to her surprise, the bully soon finds himself falling for her. As their relationship grows, Pearl is torn between her feelings for the bully and the danger he poses. It seems he has many secrets which he always hides.  He is a rich, cold, and aloof figure, known for his cruelty and intimidating demeanour. Yet, Pearl soon discovers that beneath his tough exterior, Lucas has a soft side that he only shows around her.  Pearl: "Watch where you're going, you blind bull!" Lucas turns around, still intimidating but surprisingly soft-spoken when his eyes fall on her. His heart skips a beat.  Lucas: "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again." “ Gasp! ” The students around them are shocked by Lucas' unexpected politeness. She called him a ‘ blind bull! ’ and he not only apologised but actually smiled at her! But who is more shocked is none other than Pearl herself.  As their relationship develops, Pearl must navigate the intense and complex dynamics of falling for someone notoriously difficult to please.

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.

After I, Rosalie Ricci, was stood up 17 times, the mafia don, Daniel Marino, finally holds the perfect engagement banquet for me. In our second year together, we are ready to get married. But every single time, he has an excuse to hold our engagement off. He says he's busy with work, the timing isn't right yet, or that he isn't quite ready. I never blame him because I love him. I have loved him since our school days. In fact, I have loved him for seven whole years. This is the 18th time. I stand in the banquet hall wearing the gown he personally chose for me and watch as he slips the ring onto my finger. He kisses me with a passionate intensity he has never shown me before. At that moment, I believe that I have finally secured my perfect happiness after waiting seven long years. My happiness only lasts until the guests leave. As I step into the back garden, I see Daniel holding my twin sister, Leah Ricci, in his arms. He says in a hushed voice, "I announced my engagement to Rosalie 18 times. This time, you're finally back." That's when I realize that the engagement banquet that I have longed for is nothing more than a ploy by Daniel to draw Leah back to him. But when I decided to let them be together, Daniel panics.

* On Alice's wedding day, she receives a message from her hacker friend which contains videos of her fiancee and Sister. She goes to room 305 not ready to believe but is met with the shock of her life, she takes pictures and videos of them there and posts them on social media with the caption "Cheaters forever." She locks them in the room and goes to the hall to call off the wedding. The guests bash her for making them waste money but the filial and quiet Alice was gone already. * Alice and Arnold both share a sexual relationship on the night of the wedding, Alice escapes from there the next morning and places a 50-dollar note on the table for him thinking he is a nobody. Arnold wakes up and finds the money he was given, he looks around for Alice but can't find her. He decided to find her and teach the pathetic bride a lesson for messing with him. * Alice goes to Fishes River, ready to drown herself and die. She could not take the betrayal of her fiancee and sister to her, she couldn't even show her face to her family after spending a nightstand with a man she didn't know. She continues crying till various cars surround her, the men try to convince her to go with them but she refuses to threaten to kill herself there. * The man calls Arnold and reports to him the situation and he tells them to hold on, after five minutes he arrives there with his assistant ready to drag the pathetic bride to his house. Alice is stunned by seeing and mistaking losses her step falling into the river.

On the first day of my husband's business trip, an unknown number calls me. It belongs to an employee of a pharmacy. The employee sounds very anxious over the phone. "Hello, are you related to Mr. Yates by any chance? He came to the pharmacy this afternoon to buy a box of morning-after pills, but he left right away without paying for the pills. Please pay the bill right now." My mind buzzes at the news. Morning-after pills? I suppress my emotions immediately before calling Zachary. I begin probing him afterward. "Where did you go this afternoon, honey? Your credit card statement shows that the payment you've made at a pharmacy has failed to go through." Zachary pauses for half a second before letting out a soft chuckle. "Ah, I bought the pills for a new intern in my department. She's a young woman who gets flustered easily, so I ran an errand for her." I just smile while saying "okay" to Zachary. After ending the call, I call the pharmacy once again, this time in a cold voice. "Send me your pharmacy's address. I'll head over and pay the bill in person."

Eyare gets married to the love of his life, Osagiede, shortly after completion of his university education. On the first day of their honeymoon in Ghana, he discovers his wife’s diary, and curiosity gets the better of him and he reads it. Therein, he finds out she married him as a measure to save face, a plan b, and a way out of her dilemma. Heart broken and torn between staying or breaking up with her, he comes to the decision of paying her back for all the hurt he’s feeling. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he is not able to carry out his plans, because he has fallen deeply in love with his own wife. Osagiede, meanwhile, gets reacquainted with her ex – Geoffrey. She decides to re-ignite a dalliance with him against the warnings of her best friend, Onari. Unbeknownst to her, she is being manipulated diabolically by him, and her best friend is in on it as well. Eyare is an heir to the throne in his hometown, but he is reluctant in ascending it. Forces from within will do everything in their power to try to stop him from being the next king. Question is, will they succeed? Plans will be made, negative acts will take place, and dangerous secrets will unfold. Through all this, love finally blossoms in Osagiede’s heart for her husband, but will their new-found love be enough to save them from the onslaught to come.

Ivory Finn has been in love with her boss, Axel Riggs, for five years—from the moment she spotted him in college. She worked hard to get near him, and soon became his secretary. Her heart never had anyone else. So, when he offered her a contract marriage in exchange for paying for her mother's surgery, Ivory eagerly agreed. But she had forgotten something: Axel Riggs does not love, and even if he did, she would never be the one his heart craves. For two years, she did everything to make him fall in love, but nothing she did won his heart. However, after two years of heartbreak, he finally let her go. But Ivory never told him she was carrying his heir, and he had just sent them away. Three years later, she returns as a different person—a woman who owns multiple firms. She only wants to take care of her mother and daughters, but what happens when her mother falls in love, and the man she falls in love with turns out to be the father of her ex-husband? Can Ivory resist his alluring charms, or will she ruin her mother's happiness due to her ex-husband's—now turned stepbrother's—relentless pursuit?

My mom, Susan, had a habit of sending me to get her shopping. However, she would always leave out a zero when paying me back what was owed, blaming on her poor eyesight. I never minded. In fact, I would just cover the cost without another word. Then, Summer, my sister, had to throw shade. “Mom sends you money whenever she wants something. You never show us the actual costs, though. I bet you’re making a nice little profit off Mom behind our backs.” Susan smiled and didn’t even bother to defend me, as if confirming Summer’s accusations. My heart sank. Over the years, I had bought her things from major appliances to the smallest groceries, and each time, the payment she sent was short. Susan would just brush the whole thing off by saying, “Oh, my eyes aren’t what they used to be. My bad.” I had poured hundreds of thousands into her expenses, only to end up with a reputation as a thief who cheated her own family. When Susan sent me money for the New Year’s Eve catering, I simply booked food that fit the budget she paid for.

When I was ten, I bugged my brother to come home for my birthday. He died in a plane crash that day. They never found his body. After that, my parents saw me as a total screw-up. They blamed me for his death. Every year on his memorial day, they forced me to kneel at the cemetery and repent my mistakes. I did that for eight years. I figured I'd spend my whole life paying for it. But on my 18th birthday, some creep stalked and murdered me. Right before I died, I tried calling for help. But my mom chewed me out. "I bet you're just dodging your duty to make up for James. You're full of crap. If you hadn't forced him to come back, he would have been alive. This is what you deserve." She hung up, leaving me staring at the dead screen. My last hope was dashed. She was right. Someone like me meant nothing but bad luck to those around me. I didn't deserve to exist. But then, eight years after his death, James showed up with his pregnant wife. When they heard I was gone, they fell apart.

On my mother’s seventieth birthday party, I ran around handling various matters, paying out of pocket and putting in all the work. I did not even have the time to sit down and drink a sip of water. When I finally found the time to surprise her, I prepared eighty-eight grams of gold jewelry as her gift. Just as I was about to give it to her, I heard her talking to the other relatives. “See that? My daughter is truly my sweetheart. She woke up so early this morning to bake me this cake. I wouldn’t trade this cake for gold.” Our relatives immediately began praising my younger sister, Jessie Radley, for being so devoted. Only a couple of them pushed back. “Why aren’t you praising your eldest daughter, Mary? I heard she handled the entire birthday party.” “Tch. She only knows how to muddle through things. None of it had been done to my liking. Jessie is the good one. She got up at seven in the morning just to bake me this cake.” I turned around and walked away from the doorway. Since she loved Jessie so much, she could pay for this birthday party, worth eighty thousand dollars.