The People We Keep Novels & Stories

Every time my assistant booked a private room for me, he brought his girlfriend along. I let it slide. The room was on his way home anyway. Then today I pushed the door open and found a sticky note slapped on the head chair: "Freeloaders not allowed." I peeled it off and turned to him. "What's this about?" His girlfriend was already sitting in the head seat, glaring at me. "Can't you read?" she snapped. "Mooching off my boyfriend every damn day. Have you no shame?" "If you can't afford Michelin, don't show up. I can't stand cheap old hags like you. Honestly, if I lived your life, I'd kill myself." I just stared at her, baffled. Justin rushed over and lowered his voice. "Boss, I'm so sorry. She thinks I'm paying for this dinner." "She's a bit of a princess. Doesn't like sitting with people who can't keep up. Tell you what. Let us eat first, and you can order after we leave." Then he took my black card and handed it to the server. I stood there for a second. Then I picked up my phone and called the restaurant manager. "Send security to the private room. Someone stole my card. Call the police."

Serra is a normal senior high school student who works really hard every night and weekend to pay off her parents' debts from loan sharks. But when she couldn't keep up with payments anymore, she decided to end her life. Surprisingly, she woke up in a different light-- in another world. What's more shocking was when she is addressed by one of the people as the demon king's bride.

The world is cruel. The world is impartial. good people suffer. And the assholes cum. The people we believe in turn out to be the ones who will stab us in the back the next day. I learned all this in one night. One evening my life turned upside down, and I lost my family, my friends, the love of my life and my innocence. I lost my life. What gave meaning to my existence. But it's not big deal! And you know why?... Because I was able to be reborn. because I understood that all this time I was on the wrong side of the bank. That of good people, of those who strive to live by pronouncing good. And by condemning evil. But now.......I only have one goal. Have power. To be untouchable. And take revenge. And for that, I am ready to sacrifice my body and my soul. For that, I am ready to make a pact with the devil. A pact with Sladerkiss The most powerful and Machiavellian gangster in the state. my name is Suyakie and I am the rotten fruit of this unequal society. And I like it!

War. War is all we know. War for peace, war to take, war to protect. War for resources. It is impossible to avoid war because your neighbors won’t. If you are perceived as weak, you will be targeted. Your land and wealth stolen, your people killed, sons enslaved and daughters raped. To survive in this world, more important than oxygen; is strength and a cold heart. The only source of strength are mana veins. He who owns mana veins has the right to live and the right to rule. He who owns mana veins better have the strength to keep it or long life is but a pipe dream. Xasha hated war. War had taken everything from him and gave nothing in return. He hated that all wars were over petty things like pride and pocket change. He always looked to the vast wilderness with longing. He wondered why all the warmongers hadn’t turned their spears there. Where vast lands and untapped wealth were. Once he became a father. Xasha, the naïve, knowledge-loving merchant, decided he did not want his child growing up in the same world he did. He decided to change the world, end all war and unite the abandoned region. How will he do it? By starting a war, a war that will end all wars. Not a war with his neighbors over pride or a few mana veins. No. He will rage against the wilderness and the world beyond.

On a bitter snowy day, a crying three-year-old Empress, Anastasia Brokenoff, is forced into the barren desert lands of Nochten, the homeland of vampires, under the promise she will have a better life amongst her mother's kin. But this couldn't be any further from the truth. In Nochten, Ana is mocked for her silver hair, while her only relatives ignore and abuse their power for their gains. Unable to do anything until her first blood, Ana hides behind books and her late mother's rose garden. It is a lonely life, but Ana accepts her fate and tries to bear with it until she is old enough to change it. That is until the arrival of a new maid, a human named Maddie, who is determined to rekindle the relationship between Ana and her father. Ana believes it will go nowhere, but to her surprise, a single letter sparks a whole chain of events that will throw Ana into a new world of people. People like Prince Nicoli, her half-brother, who invokes strange feelings Ana must keep secret as she traverses the dangerous realm of nobility while holding back her cousin, Mykhol, who is not solely focused on her throne. So, will Ana be able to keep her feelings a secret? Will she be able to keep her crown? Or will Ana end up losing everything she fought so dearly to keep?

WARNING: This book contains 18+ content for violence, explicit sexual content, strong language, etc. At 24, Callie had seen her fair share of cruelty in the world and struggled to survive. But it wasn't until her uncle, buried in gambling debt, sold her off to Vincent Baros, the ruthless mafia boss, and ruler of the Ashen City, that Callie fully understood what cruelty and hardship really were. Vin wasn't one to keep toys, but the moment he met Callie he was intrigued. After he took her in as his personal slave, Vin's curiosity turned into something deeper... something stronger. How could a woman keep such an innocent view of the world despite facing its darkness? And how could a cold and broken soul find warmth and love once again? Find out as we dive deeper into Vin and Callie's story in The Mafia's Songbird.

I paid the ultimate price in my last life for being too polite to refuse others. During a summer vacation, four children ended my life. "Talia, we’re already on the way to your place. We should be there in about two hours. No need to prepare anything special. Just keep things the way you normally do. Don’t fuss." I stared blankly as the voice came through my phone. The agony of my skin being scalded raw by boiling-hot stew was still vivid in my mind. When I had struggled and begged for help, those children had dragged me back together. In the chaos, I had fallen from the seventh floor and died with my eyes wide open. I glanced at the calendar on the wall. I had been reborn. In my previous life, my sister-in-law, Vanessa Mercer, had dumped her four kids at my home for the summer and left. I was forced to care for six children alone and was pushed to the brink of collapse. Simply because I wouldn’t let my nephew, Jaxon Mercer, play on his tablet for hours on end, and because I told him not to wander around the house in nothing but his underwear, the conflict escalated until it led to that horrifying death. My whole body trembled at the memory. I rushed into the bedroom, grabbed my identification documents, and fled toward the high-speed rail station with my two daughters, Kaia and Nova Mercer. "Mom, where are we going?" "I'm taking you on a trip. We’re going to have as much fun as we want!"

After six years of working tirelessly with every other thing in her life taking the back seat. Aria suddenly decided, it was time to kick off her working shoes and live life a little as she came up with a to-do list to guide her through. Easily said than done right? Especially when life doesn't always give us what we want. Not even with a carefully planned out to-do list to keep us grounded. Read to find out more in this journey of self discovery and love.

My husband, Francis Zouche, thought we weren't well-off and could not afford to raise a child. So, he forcibly took me to the hospital to get an abortion. Right after the surgery, I discovered that he had transfered 200 thousand dollars to his first love, Heidi Colman, for her birthday. Out of pure rage, I got into a huge fight with him in the car, which led to an accident that killed us both. When I opened my eyes, we had returned to the day before our wedding. In our previous life, we were married for ten years. We weathered storms and supported each other, but Francis never wanted us to have a child of our own. On the day I died, I finally understood that the one he loved was Heidi. After getting a second shot at life, I decided to fulfill his wish. We canceled the wedding, blocked each other's phone numbers, and never contacted each other again. Eight years later, Francis became a top lawyer in Alvren and publicly proposed to Heidi at a law forum. Seeing that I was still single, he mocked me with a sneer, "Yvette, I know you loved me for two lifetimes. But I am getting married now. Don't keep waiting for me to come back to you." I glanced at him wordlessly and bent down to pick up my daughter before walking away. As a shocking realization hit him, his eyes reddened. He questioned furiously, "Didn't you promise to love me forever and to only give birth to my children?"

His large hand wraps around my throat just enough to make my pulse race, pinning me to the rain-slicked cabin wall as thunder rolls outside. “We can’t keep doing this,” he growls, but his hips grind against mine, hard and insistent, while his free hand slips under my skirt to find me already soaked. I whimper, arching into his touch, craving the sharp sting of his palm across my ass, the way he commands me to come for him like I’m his dirty little secret. My father’s best friend, the man who’s been in my life forever finally breaking every rule to claim me roughly, deeply, until I’m trembling and marked by him. What begins as one reckless, forbidden night spirals into an addiction of heated stolen moments, whispered dominance, and raw need… until the truth crashes down, pregnancies and betrayals threaten to shatter us, and everyone we love demands we end it. But how do you walk away when the only person who owns your body and heart refuses to let go?