The People We Keep Novels & Stories

At the New Year's Eve dinner, my mom suddenly assigns some rules to me and my siblings. She claims that those who don't fit the criteria aren't allowed to eat at the table. Rule number one: One must have spent at least 50% of their time keeping Mom company at home last year. Rule number two: One must have gone shopping with Mom all the time. Rule number three: One must keep giving Mom allowance. But it appears that I, the oldest sibling, am the only one who doesn't meet the requirements. My little sister, Chelsea Cage, begins acting coquettish immediately. "All Cassidy cares about is her business, unlike me, Mom! I care about you!" Meanwhile, my younger brother, Cameron Cage, lectures me with a frown, "What's the point of you being able to earn more money than average people? No matter how good a breadwinner you are, the fact that you don't care about Mom completely nullifies it!" My mom tells my siblings to sit around her happily. Then, she criticizes me in a sarcastic tone. "As parents, when we become old, what we need is our children's company, not cold hard cash." I'm pissed off, to say the least. I'm the breadwinner of this family, and yet these freeloaders get to put on airs in front of me. The reason why I don't go shopping with my mom is that she's never satisfied with whatever gifts I've picked out for her during the times I did go out with her. That's why I gave her money straight away. I didn't give my mom any allowance at all because all the money is regularly deposited into the supplementary card, which she has. Since my long-term efforts are worth nothing compared to my siblings' sweet talk, I suppose I can quit being the ATM of this family.

Thanks to Sofia Columbo, Luca Vitale and I keep breaking up and getting back together for three years. Exhausted and desperate to get out of this situation, I end up choosing to be with Don Marco Rossi, who has been pursuing me for many years. Since then, we've been together for five years. His love for me never wavers, and I truly believe that I've chosen the right man to be with. But at the bachelor's party that takes place one week before the wedding, Marco's Underboss, Enzo Ferrari, begins running his mouth without any filter whatsoever after he gets completely wasted. "Don Rossi, Anna actually fell in love with you for real! Does she even know that you're only marrying her just so Sofia can be with Luca?" Marco just smiles without denying the allegations. He merely says, "As long as Sofia can be with Luca, I'm fine with marrying whoever. Honestly speaking, I did get close to Anna with ulterior motives at first, but I still ended up falling in love with her for real. "By the way, do not let Anna find out about this, no matter what. You know how much she hates it when people lie to her. If she ever finds out, she'll leave me just like how she left Luca. That mustn't happen at all." After wiping my tears, I tell my father that I wish to marry the man he has picked out for me.

"What do you want from me, Vin?" She whispers. Her eyes linger all over my face and settle on my lips and she bites hers. Fuck me. I will beg on my knees to have her. To fulfill all the fantasies haunting my dreams since we parted. " I want you, baby. I will always want you. Every day of my life" I honestly whisper, begging her with my eyes. "And why didn't you wait for me?" Her scowl returns as she tries to push me away" You claim to have been waiting for me, yet you fuck anything with a damn hole. Is that what you want from me, a quick fuck?" She screams in my face and I grit my teeth in annoyance. "Then fuck me and get the hell out of my house" Eva yells and I quickly pull away as if she just burnt me. "That is not what I want Eva, you are being ridiculous" Eva chuckles and lifts her dress and takes it off. I groan warning her to stop but she doesn't listen. She takes off the holster holding two daggers and tosses them on the floor. Eva and Vin grow up in an orphanage together. Circumstances lead them to part ways, and when they meet again, they are completely different people from what they used to be. Can their love keep them together from the worlds they find themselves in, or what they had was just childish fantasies?

"You’re being bullied. I’m being harassed and stalked by my past flings, so why don’t we help each other out, nerd?" "How?" "It’s easy. Be my girlfriend." "Like a fake girlfriend?" "Yeah, that. Your presence is gonna keep those bitches away and I get to keep your bullies away. Problem solved." When the school's bad boy proposes an enticing offer to the school’s nerd, it feels like the perfect plan at the moment. She becomes his fake girlfriend, resolving his chaotic sexual life, and he gets to defend her from her bullies. A fantastic plan, with zero loopholes. But what happens when the desires and sentiments set in between them? Do they make a plan out of that too, or are they trapped for life? Can they find a common ground to groom these intense feelings in a Pack where hierarchy rules, forbidding them from being together? Or would they have to let go of each other?

I got lost in the woods during a storm. A massive black wolf saved my life... And vanished. Weeks later, I meet a stranger in town, with the same golden eyes. His name is Kade Rivera. He’s powerful. Dangerous. Off-limits. Because he’s the heir to a secret werewolf pack that has one rule: Never. Love. A human. Too late. Our souls already knew each other before we met. Every time he touches me, I burn. Every time he pulls away, I break. But Kade is promised to another... A fierce Luna who would kill to keep him. His father, the Alpha, wants me dead. And me? I just found out I’m not entirely human after all. To love him, I’ll have to survive the trials of the moon. To keep me, he’ll have to break his blood oath. Because when fate writes your name in the stars, no law can erase it.

Everyone knew I was hopelessly in love with Hendrick Sam, willing to sacrifice my dignity for him. In the two years we were together, he would drop everything and leave me in the hospital whenever his “one true love” called. People mocked me, saying, “Chloe, you must really enjoy being a doormat.” I just smiled and stayed silent. Later, when he was on his deathbed, he asked, “Chloe, did you ever really love me?” I turned my back on him. Because it was never him I loved, it was his heart.

During the heatwave apocalypse, I didn't die due to the heat, nor did I die in a conflict. My younger sister, Amber Carter, has a "heart of gold" by nature. She couldn't bear to see the people suffering in the apocalypse, so she gave away all the food in our cellar. After we ran out of food, Amber forced me to go look for food outside in the heat. That was how I died—from the heat outside. In this lifetime, I'm going to enjoy my ice-cold watermelon while watching Amber dig her grave with her own hands.

"Don't pull it off… We're on the street. It's so embarrassing…" Outside a bar late at night, my boyfriend and I were drunk, slumped awkwardly on the curb by the roadside. What I never expected was that he would climb on top of me right there in public and start tugging at my underwear. I was wearing a short skirt, with only a thin layer of fabric underneath. If he pulled it off, wouldn't everything be exposed for people to see? I was just about to refuse, but when I turned my head, I realized— This wasn't my boyfriend at all.

While I was eating, I came across a post on X. [Found out my girlfriend has a nasty disease and is pregnant. I want my buddy to be the one left holding the bag. What should I do?] I was just about to comment that the poster was out of his mind when I scrolled down and realized people were actually giving him advice. [That's easy! If you two are close, just invite him on a trip.] [Get your girlfriend and your buddy drunk in the middle of the night, then have them stay in your buddy's room. When the time comes, catch them in the act. You can break up and push the kid onto your buddy to take responsibility…] Reading that comment, I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. I was about to show my friend this mind-blowing post so we could rant about it together when he suddenly looked up at me and asked, "Tyler, are you free this weekend? How about we go on a trip?"

When my mother first told me about the arranged marriage, Noah Parker lowered his head and kissed me, pulling me closer as we became tangled together. After a haze of passion, he carried me into the bathroom. Warm water streamed over my skin, but his words sent a chill straight through me, as if I'd fallen into an icy pit. "Go home. And don't come looking for me here again." I thought he'd seen the text and was jealous, so I quickly clung to him and swore, "I won't marry anyone else—" His smile stayed, but the heat in his eyes cooled into something distant. "But I'm getting married." He brushed back my messy hair, ignoring how my body trembled under his touch. "My fiancée is gentle and kind—nothing like you. She’d never throw herself at her foster brother like that. We've already set a date. If you keep clinging to me like this, she'll be upset with me."