The Third Man

This is a story between a bloodthirsty merman and a kind and naive researcher. Linda, a researcher at a Japanese maritime university, found herself raped by a lewd merman in a dream. This tempted her to conduct research on this mythical creature. Together with her professor Gary, they set off to sea in search of merfolk. They successfully caught a merman, but Linda was marked as its mate…Was it a human that had caught a merman, or was it a merman who had found its prey?

On the very day I sold my company shares to raise money for my wife’s medical treatment, my phone flashed with a notification about a trending post. "My husband or my lover, which should I choose?" An anonymous reply shot to the top of the comments. "Why choose? I want both." What followed was a casual, shameless confession. A staged car accident right after the wedding, a fake overseas treatment plan, parents who helped maintain the lie, and millions siphoned off under the excuse of life-saving medical fees. The money was never for treatment. It funded luxury vacations, hotel suites, and a long-term affair. Someone asked if she was afraid her husband would find out. Her answer was chilling. "Why would I be afraid? He thinks he took my first time and swore to take responsibility for me forever. He doesn’t know it was just a repair surgery I did for his sake." The post ended with a vacation photo. A woman in a bikini, smiling under the sun. And on her waist, a tattoo with the letters 'NG.' The same tattoo worn by my wife.

I was the world’s last mermaid. At birth, I was granted three wishes by God. I used the first when my boyfriend, Alex Zane, was dying. I offered up the child in my womb and my fertility in exchange for him to live a long and healthy life, untouched by illness or disaster. I used the second when the Zane family was going bankrupt. I offered up all my power and wished for their fortune to be restored and for their future to be secured. When he came to me for the final wish, his childhood sweetheart, Valentina Wilson, was dying in childbirth. After I turned him down, he threw me into a men’s prison. “A dollar a turn. Do whatever you want with her. She can’t get pregnant anyway.” That night, I wept until my voice broke. At dawn, when the light finally crept in, I offered up my life to activate the sacred token and made my final wish. “I wish for all who betrayed me to watch their world burn. Let them lose everything and die a painful, miserable death!”

I buried him myself. I stood at his grave with dirt on my hands and grief in my throat as I said goodbye to the only man I ever thought I would love. Kael was my betrothed, my mate, the boy who grew up beside me and became the person I built every future around. When the war took him it did not just take him — it took every version of myself that existed because of him. Years passed. The moon goddess, in her mercy, gave me something I never asked for — a second chance. Rowan was not supposed to happen. He was patient where I was resistant, steady where I was broken, and present in every way I had convinced myself no one would ever be again. I did not want to love him. And then I did not know how to stop. I was finally learning what it meant to choose life again. When Kael walked back through my door. Alive. Unchanged. And completely unable to explain where he had been. Now I am torn between a love that was written into my soul before I was old enough to understand what souls were, and a man who chose me quietly and completely when I had nothing left to offer. The elders say this is not a reverse harem blessing. There is no keeping both. I have to choose. But how do you bury someone you love twice?

"Go to bed with me and I will make you rich beyond your imaginations" His voice was calm but had a lot of hidden intentions. Badmus, the ruthless multi-billionaire who was used to getting just anything he wants including women, finds himself in a battle to devour the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, just like the other women he slept with. Cherry might be poor, but she had what other women he'd met were lacking and he was determined to find out what it was. She wouldn't surrender to his advances, neither will she pay him any attention. She was bent on letting him know that money cannot take every woman he desired to his bed, no matter the amount, because some women don't care about money but what is inside his heart. But what happens when after risking his life for her, she starts to genuinely fall for him? And oh, what if there's a competitor for him as well, is she ready to be involved in a dirty fight for a man she never really cared about?

"I saved his life with a lie. Now, I have to live it—or die in his bed." Noah Bennett is a nobody, a starving survivor in a kingdom of ice. When he finds the poisoned, half-dead King Ethan Walker in a frozen ravine, he makes a desperate, split-second choice to secure his future. He pitches his voice high, binds his chest, and claims to be a maiden named Abigail. He expected a reward and a quiet escape. He didn’t expect the King to wake up with a terrifying, soul-deep obsession. Now, the "Angel of the Ravine" has been brought to the palace in a carriage of gold and silk. Ethan Walker is a man of cold steel and dark hungers, a King who pampers his "Abigail" with a devotion that feels like a chokehold. He wants his savior. He wants a Queen. And he wants her—him—in his bed before the moon turns full. As the wedding bells toll, the stakes reach a breaking point: The Lie: One torn gown or one slipped word will lead Noah to the executioner’s block. The Lust: Ethan’s touch is electric, a "Good Turn Bad" obsession that makes Noah’s heart hammer for all the wrong reasons. The Trap: The King’s traitorous brother is watching, the General is suspicious, and the Silver Wolf of the north is howling for the truth. In a court of vipers, Noah is playing the most dangerous game in Aethelgard. He must navigate the King’s possessive "Silk Noose" while hiding the truth beneath his robes. But as Ethan leans in to claim his "bride's" neck, Noah realizes the most terrifying secret of all: The King might already know. And he might like the lie even better than the truth.

My best friend, Cassidy Braun, earned a modest monthly salary of 2,800 dollars, only to constantly trash her doting husband with an annual income of 600,000 dollars, labelling him a broke loser. “That incompetent husband of mine can’t even afford a 20-carat diamond ring! “I have the looks that can bag me a billionaire. I must have been out of my mind to marry that piece of trash.” I chimed in. “You’re right. You’re practically a goddess. Only a Greek God stands a chance with you.” Eventually, Cassidy left her husband and hooked up with a trust-fund kid, just as she wanted. A year later, she was scammed out of every penny she owned and diagnosed with cancer. Fragile and broken, she came to me. “I heard that ex-husband of mine remarried and that he’s loaded now. Judging by the way he used to worship the ground I walked on, I bet he’ll drop the woman in a heartbeat if I ask to get back together.” I gave a dismissive nod while running my fingers along the new Birkin bag my husband had bought. “Oh, absolutely. He’s pretty wealthy now.”

During summer break, I took my son, Luke Thorne, diving at our private beach. Ralph Foster, a hotshot TV actor, suddenly showed up with a whole entourage and barged in. "This is a private beach that Gloria personally secured for me to entertain VIPs. You two nobodies had better get lost right now!" He threw his weight around and even dragged my wife, Gloria Stokes, out as a threat. When he learned who I was, he went a step further and mocked me as a kept man living off my wife. I actually laughed. I was the head of the Thornes, the most powerful family in Frenkinston. Since when did I become some freeloading, useless husband? On top of that, Gloria's film studio and every bit of her backing came from me. But when Gloria arrived, she sided with Ralph and actually tried to force Luke to put on a show for some sleazy investors. Sneering, I made a call that only the head of the Thornes had the authority to make. "Shark Vanguard, clear Crescent Bay. Now."

Erica has fallen in love with a man na akala niyang magbibigay sa kanya ng pagmamahal na matagal na niyang pinangarap at inasam. Kay Troy Sandoval. A mysterious guy na biglang dumating sa kanyang buhay at ginulo ito. Sa simula pinakitaan siya ni Troy ng mabuti. Niligawan siya nito, hindi nagtagal ay sinagot niya ito. Mabilis na nahulog ang loob niya sa lalaki kaya naman nagpakasal sila agad. Ngunit ilang buwan pa lamang ang lumipas ay nag iba ang trato nito sa kanya. Naging bastos ito at mapangahas sa kanya. Dahil ang totoong motibo ni Troy ay ipaghiganti ang kapatid na nasa ospital pa rin hanggang ngayon at hindi parin nagigising sa coma. Sobrang mahal ni Troy si Rix. Si Erica ang sinisisi nila sa trahedyang nangyari sa kanyang kapatid. Matagal ng manliligaw ni Erica si Rix at palagi din itong basted sa kanya kahit anong pagtataboy niya rito ay ayaw siyang tantanan ng binata. Ayaw sana niyang paasahin si Rix kasi wala talaga siyang feelings para dito at kaibigan lang ang turing nito sa kanya. Ngunit isang araw bigla na lang itong tumawag kay Erica at nagbabantang magpapakamatay ito kapag hindi siya nagpakita sa dito. Pumayag si Erica sa gusto nito kasi alam niya ang kayang gawin ni Rix. Sa kasamaan hindi nakarating si Erica sa lugar kung saan dapat sila magkikita ni Rix dahil sa isang insidenting nangyari. Isang insidente na magpapabago sa takbo ng kanilang mga buhay. Insidenting naging dahilan kung bakit dumaranas siya ngayon ng impyernong buhay sa piling ni Troy. Tama bang inilihim ni Erica kay Troy ang insidenting yun? Paano kung sinabi niya kaagad sa kanila? Dadanasin pa kaya niya ang pagpapahirap na pinaparanas ni Troy sa kanya? O mas mamahalin siya ng tuluyan ni Troy kapag nalaman nito ang totoo?

That day, my parents and sister who were all working abroad suddenly told me that I was a second-generation rich with trillions of dollars in wealth!Gerald Crawford: I am a second-generation rich?