The Reckoning

**MATURE CONTENT** Territorial Mafia Series 1: DEMETRI SYLVESTRE Demetri Sylvestre is a powerful and ruthless crime lord. He’s used to getting everything he wants. But everything changed the moment he met Snow Hidalgo, a beautiful and kind-hearted actress who just happened to be engaged to his half-brother, Marcus. Unbeknownst to the two, they shared a much darker connection in the past. A long-buried secret tied to a trauma Snow has never fully escaped. When Demetri discovered that Snow was Marcus’s fiancée, he used his influence and skill in manipulation to destroy their relationship. Amid pain and confusion, Snow ended up marrying Demetri. They became husband and wife, but her heart remained trapped in the past far from him. As the lies, anger, and desire grew deeper, the battle intensified not just for Snow’s love, but for control over her entire life. In a time of loss, rediscovery, and reckoning, Snow was forced to choose not just between two men, but between chaos and the peace her heart longed for. Three years passed. Snow rose again. Her career flourished, and at last, she discovered who she truly loved. And like a prayer finally answered by fate, the man her heart chose returned… but he wasn’t alone. In their reunion, Snow had to face both the past and the present. And in the end, she chose love not as a chain, but as a choice freely and truthfully made.

Anais Vale vanished three years ago, breaking the terms of a legally binding marriage contract with billionaire CEO Cassian Vale. To the world, their short-lived marriage was a mystery. To Anais, it was survival. But when a mysterious legal summons pulls her out of hiding, she’s forced to return—not as a woman in love, but as a wife under obligation. Cassian, ruthless and unreadable, never divorced her. Their original contract still holds, and now he wants her back—if only to fulfill the remaining years and protect his corporate empire from a hostile takeover. Emotion is not part of the deal. But the contract hides more than just legal conditions. It conceals a past filled with betrayal, a family legacy steeped in secrets, and a shared history neither of them fully understands. Anais returns as a woman determined to endure it quietly. But things change quickly: she discovers Cassian’s health is failing, that someone wants her dead, and that her own tragic past may be connected to his family’s crimes. As the truth unravels, Anais is forced to confront who Cassian really is—and who she must become if she wants to survive in his world. Along the way, both begin to transform. Anais, once passive and self-effacing, begins to find her voice and strength. Cassian, seemingly heartless and stoic, is forced to feel and face the consequences of his past. Their story is a collision of control and vulnerability, love and guilt, power and protection. What begins as a contract slowly becomes a reckoning—and a second chance neither of them expected. But second chances come at a cost. And not every ending is fair.

The night Araya was born, the Moon refused her. Marked as wolfless, mocked and forgotten, she grew up as prey in her own pack. Even her fated mate broke the bond with a smirk and left her bleeding at the border — for rogues to finish. But they forgot one thing: Ash remembers. And so does the throne buried beneath it. The forest did not devour her. It bowed. The flame did not die. It waited. Until, in the silence between heartbeats, something older than gods whispered: “She is not blessed. She is not chosen. She is the reckoning the moon tried to silence.” Now Araya walks again — no longer mortal, no longer meek. She is Hollow-Blood reborn, daughter of the fire that swallowed fate, heir to a throne no god dares name. And fate has bound her to Dorian—Azrien—the exiled god chained to shadow and ruin. He expected to crave nothing but vengeance. Until her. Araya is the mate his immortal soul demands, the salvation he denies, and the spark that could either set him free… or burn the world to ash. But enemies stir in silence. Adira, the Luna who would claim the Alpha prince at any cost, forges a pact with a creature older than gods, a monster chained in rot and darkness. The price she pays will rip fate itself open. Betrayals. Forbidden desire. Gods who bleed. Wolves who kneel. And at the heart of it, one truth no prophecy can silence: The gods will end. She will not. And the last prophecy carved into stone whispers: “The Flame That Walks Returns. Let the gods burn first.”

I gave him my loyalty, my body… even a kidney to save his life. And how did he thank me? He set me on fire.” Sheila thought she understood love. She believed in marriage, in sacrifice, in standing by the man you build a life with. But the man she trusted faked his death, stole her organ, and left her drowning in debt. Then, when she was of no use to him, he burned her alive to erase her from his perfect world. Only, Sheila didn’t die. She woke up in the bruised, broken body of another woman; a coma patient who had been struck by a powerful doctor now living with guilt. He tends to her. He doesn’t know who she truly is. And she’s not here to be saved. She’s here to settle the score. Disguised as a maid in her ex-husband’s house, Sheila keeps her head down and her eyes open. His new mistress is carrying his child—his secretary, the one he always said she was "crazy" for suspecting. The deeper she digs, the darker it gets. Money laundering. Organ trafficking. Even her kidney? Sold. But the past can’t stay buried forever. One night, he sees the birthmark on her thigh, the same one his wife had. The same one that died in the fire. He starts to unravel. She starts to rise. And when she returns to him fully reborn, fearless, and armed with evidence, he’ll finally understand: She’s not the weak wife he silenced. She’s the reckoning he never saw coming.

Ciara Mendes is a talented and captivating journalist at Flare Magazine, the best, where she tirelessly chases compelling stories while grappling with the emotional fallout of a recent heartbreak. Her journalistic prowess is matched only by her determination to heal personally, as she balances the demands of her high-pressure career with her pursuit of emotional recovery. Meanwhile, Giovanni Haynes, a strikingly handsome and enigmatic CEO of Anton Industry, captivates everyone around him with his undeniable charm and affluent lifestyle. Widely regarded as L.A.'s ultimate womanizer, Giovanni embodies a magnetic confidence that conceals a haunted past filled with betrayals and unfulfilled desires that linger like shadows in his life. As fate intertwines their paths, tensions rise, and the undeniable chemistry between Ciara and Giovanni ignites a spark that neither can resist, drawing them into an intoxicating whirlwind of passion and vulnerability. Their lives grow increasingly intertwined as they confront unresolved issues from their pasts, leading to a cascade of secrets surfacing that reveal a world rife with deception, lies, and hidden agendas. Each revelation pulls them deeper into the complexities of their connection, forcing them to navigate a maze of ambition, longing, and trepidation. Torn between their professional ambitions and the burgeoning attraction they cannot deny, Ciara and Giovanni find themselves at a crossroads where love becomes both a beautiful gift and a perilous gamble. Ultimately, they will come to understand that the most powerful stories are the ones that unfold in the depths of the heart, guiding them toward a reckoning that could change everything they thought they knew about love, trust, and forgiveness. In a city beautiful city defined by ambition and allure, where the glimmer of neon lights often masks the shadows of hidden agendas, Ciara Mendes and Giovanni Haynes find themselves at a crucial juncture.

He shattered her heart to avenge a past that wasn’t hers. Now he desires her in his bed—as his wife. Marceline Valino once believed in love. She gave her heart—and her innocence—to Cross Dejava, the boy who whispered promises in the dark, igniting dreams of a forever that felt so real. But by morning, her world was left in ruins. Private photos were leaked, her name dragged through the mud, and at the eye of the storm? Cross, smirking, cold, and ruthless. “You mean nothing to me,” he said, delivering a blow that would leave scars. “You’re just the bastard daughter of my father’s mistress.” His vengeance had never aimed at her heart; it was meant to punish the daughter for her mother’s sins—an ex-lover who had torn his family apart. Pregnant and abandoned, Marceline begged for mercy, but all she received was the echo of his silence. When she lost the child, she lost every last piece of the girl she used to be. Now, five years later, she’s preparing to return—broke, desperate, and willing to do anything to save her ailing mother. Anything… except this. Because the man extending a lifeline isn’t a savior. It’s Cross. And he has no desire for her heartfelt apologies; he craves her complete submission. A contract marriage awaits her. No love. No escape. No mercy. But Marceline isn’t the naive girl he once broke. She’s a woman who has risen from the ashes, ready to play his game. And as the pieces of their lives fall into place, she’s determining when—exactly—she will ignite a fire that could burn it all down. The future promises a reckoning, and she's preparing to seize it.