The Summer That Changed Everything

At nine months pregnant, I was in the final stretch of my term, and my body heavy with a baby due any day. But my husband, Vito Falcone, underboss of the family, had locked me away. He held me in a sterile underground medical room and injected me with a labor suppressant. As I screamed in agony, he coldly told me to endure it. Because his brother's widow, Scarlett, was expected to go into labor at the exact same time. A blood oath he'd made with his late brother declared that the firstborn son would inherit the family's lucrative West Coast territory. "That inheritance belongs to Scarlett's child," he said. "With Daemon gone, she is utterly alone and destitute. You have my love, Alessia. All of it. I just need her to deliver safely. Then it's your turn." The drug was a constant, agonizing torment. I begged him to take me to a hospital. He grabbed me by the throat, forcing me to meet his icy gaze. "Stop the act! I know you're fine. You’re just trying to steal the inheritance." "To get ahead of Scarlett, you'll stop at nothing." My face was ashen. My body convulsed as I managed a desperate whisper. "The baby's coming. I don't care about the inheritance. I just love you, and I want our child to be born safely!" He sneered. "If you were really that innocent, if you had an ounce of love for me, you wouldn't have forced Scarlett to sign that prenup, waiving her child's inheritance rights." "Don't worry, I'll be back for you after she's given birth. you're carrying my own flesh and blood, after all." He kept a vigil outside Scarlett's delivery room all night. It was only after seeing the newborn in her arms that he remembered me. He finally sent his second in command, Marco, to release me. But when Marco finally called, his voice was shaking. "Boss... the missus and the baby... they're gone." In that moment, Vito Falcone shattered.

Inalok ng kasal ni Francine sa kanyang nobyong si Leonard. Ngunit hindi pa handa si Leonard na pumasok sa buhay may asawa. Hindi niya tinanggap ang alok ni Francine at iniwan ang kasintahan. Labis na nawasak ang damdamin ni Francine. Si Ethan Fajardo, makisig at kilabot ng kababaihan, namamahala din siya ng isang automotive company kasama ang kanyang matalik na kaibigan, si Aaron. Isang playboy na hindi naniniwala sa totoong pag-ibig. Ngunit ang kanyang lola, si Elizabeth ay ipinagkasundo ang binata sa anak ng kanyang kaibigan. Tumutol si Ethan sa kasunduan at nagsabing may mahal s'yang iba. Kung kaya't hinamon s'ya ng kanyang lola na iharap sa kanya ang tinutukoy nitong kasintahan. Sa hindi inaasahang pagkakataon nagkrus ang landas ng dalawa. Papayag ba si Francine na maging kasintahan ni Ethan? Maniniwala ba si Elizabeth sa pagpapanggap ng dalawa?

Isang malaking eskandalo ang kakaharapin ni Danerie, isang kilalang mayaman at CEO ng malalaking kompanya. Ang pagtakas niya sa kaniyang mismong kasal ang magiging simula ng kalbaryong kakaharapin niya sa kaniyang buhay at maglalagay sa alanganin sa lahat ng pinaghirapan niya. DISCLAIMER This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved | Adrasteia Zachry Plagiarism is a crime.

After taking a shower, I stepped barefoot onto the smart scale at home. A cheerful chime rang out. "Congratulations, Mia, you're in your second trimester. The baby weighs three pounds already!" I froze. I was pregnant? How did I not know? Heart pounding, I snatched up my phone and immediately called my husband. "What's going on with the scale at home? I'm pregnant?!" There was a moment of silence on the other end before his familiar, gentle chuckle came through. "Mila, it's just a scale. The data must be wrong. Maybe you're just too sensitive since you haven't been able to get pregnant." I hung up and connected the scale to Bluetooth. In the data log, I saw three months' worth of steadily increasing numbers. Grabbing my car keys, I headed straight for Mia Lane's university.

Paris Poppy hates the way she looks. At a younger age, she was bullied for it. No one wanted to be her friend nor did any of the boys find her attractive. As Paris grew into a young female, she gave up on all hopes of finding her one true love, believing that no man will ever find her beautiful. Pity, Paris doesn't know her parents had already planned out a life for her. "An emotional romance read that will leave you in tears."

We spent years of our lives, trading insults at work and glaring across the office. Turning every coffee and lunch break into a battlefield. Nancy Gilbert and Alaric Wealth are two incompatible coworkers with different dreams, different directions but in the same environment. One day, a cruel video blows up Nancy’s world, leaving her shattered and all alone. Alaric finds this as an opportunity to get closer to her as he helps her overcome the situation. They start getting closer after that and everything is perfect until Michael, comes back with a plot twist for their happy ending. It is later discovered that Nancy’s hatred for Ric was because he failed to recognize her. And Ric’s torments were his punishment to her cause she broke a promise. By the end of this book, you will discover the romance was never between Nancy and Alaric but between Michael and Alaric. Or maybe, you’ll discover I just lied. You’ll just have to read to find out.

She was just a girl who wanted her fairytale wedding night. Isabella got engaged to Xavier Gustavo, her long term crush, but she was a poor country side girl, her world is totally different from that of Xavier. Getting into the Guastovo family was not all roses as she thought, she was constantly maltreated and humiliated by the Guastovo's whenever Xavier was absent. The night came, the night that ruined everything for her as she fell victim to circumstances, leading to an unwanted pregnancy two days to her wedding. She was abandoned at the alse by Xavier in front of the press as he couldn't keep to his promise of standing by her, at of humiliation of being gested as the abandoned bride she decided to commit suicide vowing to come back as a wealthy heiress in her next life but was Saved by an unknown…. She's back, no longer as Isabella Santos the poor wretched girl but now as Mrs Bella Houston most popular and wealthy model, she swore to get back at the Gustavo's for hurting her……

After the video exposing my sister Issa Acosta’s plot against me was revealed, my parents and my fiancé, Henry Nolan, stood firmly by my side, making me feel loved and safe. I confidently handed over all the evidence to them, trusting them to handle it. However, they told me that after Issa was kicked out of the house, she died in a sudden car accident, and I believed them. That was until five years into my marriage, when I accidentally saw Issa—the woman who was supposed to be dead. She was holding a little boy, clinging tightly to Henry’s hand. "Henry, if it weren’t for you and my parents, I’m afraid Zoe would’ve thrown me in prison. Thankfully, my parents destroyed the evidence and even opened a jewelry design studio for me. To avoid suspicion, you even sacrificed your own marriage. Thank you for everything in the past five years.” "Think of it as me atoning to Zoe on your behalf. As long as you and Bear are happy, that’s enough for me." So, what I thought was a happy family was nothing more than a giant lie—a scheme concocted by my parents and Henry. My parents, my husband, and Issa were the real family, and I? I was just the fool who had been deceived for five long years. Whether it was family or love, none of it was real, and I don’t want any of it anymore.

In my last life, I made the dumbest mistake—picked up a Moonlight Ring from the grass. That cursed thing locked me into a mate bond with Silvermoon Pack's Alpha. Too bad his heart already belonged to my sister, Irene. She lived to a hundred, had five pups with her real mate in Ravenshade Pack while I rotted. Every time she got cozy with her mate, Leon tossed me in the basement. "You picked up that ring! I had to watch my true love build a family with someone else!" For eighty years, she lived happily. I barely lived at all. Leon flayed me open, let my skin grow back, then crushed my bones just to watch them heal. Every day felt like dying on repeat. Only when Irene finally kicked the bucket did he let me go. Then boom—I woke up, right back on the day I picked up that damn ring. I wasn't gonna screw it up again. But Irene—always the clean freak—snatched it off the ground before I could stop her.

At my coming-of-age ceremony, I confessed my feelings to Uncle Daniel, who wasn't blood-related to me. Yet, he sent me overseas to study. Later on, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. The headaches were brutal. Left without a choice, I turned to him for help. Yet, his first love accused me of being wasted abroad. Said I got into stuff. Claimed my pain were just withdrawals. He believed her and dragged me back home. He locked me up in the family's abandoned villa atop the mountains, guards watching me around the clock. With treatment delayed, my headaches grew worse. It was a complete nightmare. One night, I couldn't take it anymore. I quietly slipped out of the window and jumped. One year after my death, he finally remembers me.