The Silent Corner

On my father’s sixtieth birthday, I was overseas, negotiating an energy contract. I deliberately told my wife to throw a huge banquet for him. That day, I watched the mansion’s security footage with a smile. Unexpectedly, I saw my nine adoptive siblings surrounding an unfamiliar old man. That old man wore my dad’s class ring as he happily pulled my wife onto the stage. “Thank you for coming to my birthday banquet. This is my daughter-in-law, the president of the Viapent Group. She’s the absolute best! She spent three million dollars on this banquet! It’s all thanks to my eldest son for finding such a capable wife.” In one corner, my actual father was in tattered clothes, washing dishes with my son. He accidentally splattered some water. One of the guests kicked him in disgust, causing him to cough up blood. The security footage was cut off. How dare these people mistreat my father and son? I called a special number. “I’m putting a stop to the negotiations. My father and son are being abused back home. I am returning to them now.”

All because of Leo Cullen’s words, I gave up a place at a top-tier university in Ceres and stayed behind to retake the entrance exams with him—three times. By the fourth year, a girl arrived at our cram school, and Leo forgot the promise we made. He started skipping class, picking fights, smoking—doing everything but studying. One day, I stood at the school gate, blocking his path with a textbook in hand as he tried to ditch class. He smirked, unimpressed, and blew a bubble with his gum, letting it stick to the ends of my hair. “Naomi…,” he began, “who still cares about studying these days?” So I stopped caring and avoided him entirely. When he fooled around in the classroom, I went to the library. When he played basketball, I sat in a quiet corner with my books. Even when I craved noodles from my favorite shop, I’d scan the room first to make sure he wasn’t there. “Are you avoiding me, Naomi?” he asked later, his face in a frown. I shook my head. “Why would you think that?”

Scarlet Watson once believed love was enough—until her husband, Lucas, placed another woman, Maria Owen, on a pedestal far above her. As Maria tightens her grip on Lucas and sets her sights on driving Scarlet out, Scarlet finds herself slowly drowning in a marriage built on betrayal. But just when her world begins to crumble, an unexpected kindness changes everything. Peter, her quiet, observant driver, becomes her only source of warmth in a house gone cold. His steady presence and silent protectiveness awaken something Scarlet thought she’d lost forever—hope. What begins as stolen glances and late-night conversations blooms into a love neither of them saw coming. But Peter carries a secret that could shake everything: one that ties him to the very man who broke her heart. In a world where loyalty is tested and love must fight to survive, can two wounded hearts rewrite their story?

“He gave my heart to my mother. So I gave my hand to his father.” When Elara discovers that her fiancé — the man she thought she’d spend forever with — has been sleeping with her own mother just days before their wedding, something inside her shatters. The betrayal isn’t just personal; it’s humiliating, raw, and unforgettable. Instead of collapsing, Elara makes a silent vow: they’ll all pay. And her revenge begins not with a knife, but with a smile. Her target? His father — a cold, enigmatic billionaire who’s always kept his distance from the family drama. She slips into his world like smoke, slowly making herself indispensable… and irresistible. But as lines blur between vengeance and desire, Elara faces a dangerous truth: some hearts are easier to burn than others. And love, even when born of revenge, can destroy everything.

On my thirtieth birthday, Gideon Salton told me to meet him at city hall. He made sure I wore a wedding dress and brought my papers, hyping it up as a huge birthday surprise. But when I showed up, all dressed up, he turned to his trashy crew and laughed. "No way—she actually did it. Dress, docs, the whole thing. Pay up, fifty bucks each." Then he looked at me. "Come on, Madison. You didn't seriously fall for that?" I didn't answer. He smirked. "If you're that thirsty to get hitched, go inside and grab some rando to register with." His friends cracked up. They called me Gideon's loyal simp, his forever backup plan. Said I'd never end up with anyone else. But when I came out with my husband and a legit marriage certificate, Gideon just froze—pale, silent, wrecked.

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

"You can't just keep doing this!" Althea screamed covering her body with the hem of the loose blanket, "You don't own me! You are evil! A psycho! A kidnapper and a beast!!!". A sly smirk appeared on Xavier's lips, he looked down at her as she folded herself by the corner of the bed which is between the bed and the wall. Shamelessly moving his moist fingers into his mouth, he muttered. " I accept the fact that I am wrong for kidnapping you" He removed his fingers from his mouth "But you see this" he pointed down to his groin, "This has better work for your throat that involves pain". Althea Roberto was a very attractive young woman who nobody could resist right from the moment she was born, she had met various men who wanted nothing but her body including her boyfriend and that was why she left him. One day on coming from a job interview she is kidnapped by some men who seemed to know her family matters so well and then she is taken to their master as a sex pet. Surprisingly for Althea, the so-called master was revealed to be her ex-boyfriend. A story of love, drama, passion and betrayal.

Fuck, I couldn’t look at him. The guilt was eating me alive, and no matter how much I tried to shove it down, it kept crawling back up. I knew the truth. And I wasn’t telling him. Not now. Not ever. “And Silas?” His voice rang softly in my ear. I kept my eyes on the road. “What?” “I’m never leaving.” The corner of my mouth twitched, but I swallowed down whatever stupid response was about to come out. Yeah, he could say that now. But he didn’t know. If he did? He’d be gone. Some things weren’t meant to be shared. Some things stayed buried. This was one of them. ~~~ Accused of killing his Alpha and on the run, Riley barely escapes his pack before collapsing at a stranger’s doorstep. Silas, a human haunted by a past scarred by werewolves, takes him in—only to uncover secrets he never wanted to face. But as danger closes in, love and vengeance blur, and the line between hunter and hunted fades. In a world built on betrayal, Riley and Silas must decide if trust is worth the risk—and if love can survive when the truth could tear them apart.

On the wet sand beside the seashore, the strong, tall man was laying with a cigarette in his hand. His bike parked a few feet away from him. The environment there was serene and noiseless as no one was allowed then on the beach that he owned. It was not a big deal for a billionaire like him. He had a lot more than that. Wealth, power, the respect he had all of them but lacked the most important thing that couldn't be bought with money. He lacked inner peace. He inhaled the vinous smoke as the corner of his lips twitched in a sad smile. His eyes deceived him being moist and a lone tear slipped down his face on the sand. The sand sucked the water as soon as it fell on it, and he wondered if his pain disappeared in thin air like that. He breathed out a puff of smoke through his nose and mouth. Looking up at the sky with the sad smile plastered on his face he spoke up, "Why so hatred for me, ya Rab?" Miles away from him the girl with a cuddling baby in her arms uttered looking up at the sky, "I express my deep gratitude to You for sending this angel to me, Ya Rab."

To save his childhood sweetheart suffering from a congenital heart condition, my mate Ethan—the storm pack’s Alpha—forced me to remove my heart to be given to his beloved. "Don't worry, you are the rarest white wolf with the strongest healing ability. I have prepared an artificial heart for you, and you will be fine." Ethan said. I tried to explain to my mate Ethan that my healing ability has become very poor in the past year, so that transplanting my heart would kill me. My mate snarled at me with disgust, "Selene is so gravely ill, and here you are, jealous and fighting for attention! She saved my life when I was suffering from silver poisoning a year ago! You won't die anyway, so why can't you help her?" Under the mandatory order of my mate, I was sent to the pack healer for the heart transplant. He didn’t know that I was the one who had exchanged my rare white wolf's healing ability with a witch to save him from silver poisoning. In the end, with my healing abilities gone, I died miserably in a forgotten corner of the empty healer's cabin.