Too Close Manhua の小説・ストーリー

A lethal neurotoxin had taken hold of my lungs. My time is running out. My mother, Sofia, was the most connected lawyer in Palermo, excelling in burying crimes and twisting the law. When my brother Vincent mowed me down and shattered my leg, she called in every favor to clear his record. My father, Tommaso, the most feared private doctor in Sicily, faked my medical files, branding me unstable and delusional, all to mold me into the obedient son they needed. Then there was Lina, only daughter of Don Vitali, my wife. She said, “We let him out for Vincent’s liver. What if he says no?” Dad’s voice went cold. “He has two choices: lie quietly on that operating table… or waste away in the sanatorium for what’s left of his life.” I pushed the parlor door open, steady and slow. My voice was flat. “I’ll do it.” Every one of them let out a breath they’d been holding, showering me with hollow words. They didn’t know there was no life left to threaten. I had twenty-four hours. By sunrise, I would be dead either way. Funny… now that I’m in the ground, why are they all crying?

I had stopped pretending the night Sebastian sailed past our bedroom door for the third time and didn’t look back. I had married him to keep my father’s company intact. Out of my father's desperation. The vows were for the cameras and the board, everything else was ledger entries and quiet compromises. He chased his affairs in public while I held the facade. He saw my composure and called it martyrdom. He never figured out that my calm was armor, not devotion. Then Samantha came home, twenty-three, luminous, curious, the kind of warmth that made places in me I’d kept cordoned off ache. She drifted into my life with easy laughter and careless questions. A sister-in-law, that became my obsession. We started with late-night talks, her voice soft in an empty house, her hand brushing mine while we pretended we were discussing nothing at all. Those small touches stopped being accidental, but deliberate. While Sebastian was busy elsewhere, I took his sister. Not to win anything on a balance sheet, not to score a victory, but to finally have the means to protect who I am, and who I love. Samantha was bewildered at first, shame and curiosity tangling on her face, but the way she leaned into the moments we stole told me more than words ever could. It was messy and urgent and selfish. She became my refuge and my ruin. The tenderness I had once sold to survive became a liability I was suddenly proud to bear. When the scandal around Sebastian crescendoed, I didn’t hide behind the marriage or the name. I stepped into the light, shoulder to shoulder with her, exposed and fierce. I traded anonymity for that, truth wrapped in possession, and I, Mikayla Stonefield, would have done it again.

On the day of our mating ceremony, the moans of my fated mate, Alpha Liam, fucking a Stonecrest she-wolf named Kira in the locker room accidentally broadcasted to the entire pack. I stood at the altar, trembling, and cut the mic. I found Liam in tears, begging for an explanation. He just shielded Kira in his arms and glared at me. "If you hadn't left the microphone on, we wouldn't have been caught! An amnesiac stray orphan like you never deserved to be my Luna!" I became the laughingstock of the entire North. Just as I was about to be exiled, Jaxson Thorne—Alpha of the Stonecrest Pack—stepped in like a dark savior, his overwhelming aura shielding me from the humiliation. "I'll take her," he announced. With his support, I publicly rejected that betrayal-stained mate bond. For seven years, I was his declared Luna. He laid all the treasures of the North at my feet. Yet I never received the legendary Heart of the Moon pendant—the ultimate symbol of a Stonecrest Luna. I told myself Jaxson had his reasons. Seven years mated; he wouldn't hurt me. Until the Blood Moon Banquet, when I saw the Heart of the Moon resting on Kira's collarbone. She'd just returned to the pack. As she strutted toward me, provoking me, everyone expected me to cry and confront Jaxson. I didn't shed a single tear. I just pulled out my phone and texted my brother: "Come get me in three days." Jaxson didn't know—a month ago, I had recovered all my memories. I was no orphan. I was Ayla Valerius, sole Princess of the Royal Lycan bloodline that ruled the North. And my brother, the new Lycan King, was coming with the elite Royal Lycan Guard to burn this pack to the ground and take me home.

Miranda wanted nothing but to make Maxwell the top one ranking business man all over the world. She hated the fact he was ranking second when he was supposed to be the best. She offered herself as his golden platter, she was going to take it upon herself in order for him to be the best. Miranda offered to be a personal assistant to Edwin a top one ranking business man in order to bring him down. Did Miranda succeed in her plans? Even if she did, what happened when love came knocking on her door? was it for Maxwell or Edwin? Would Edwin allow himself to be decieved and used by Miranda? find out!

Foolish innocence and wicked deceit took her from the man she loved. Orphaned at the tender age of eight years, Elizabeth is raised as a ward in the loveless home of her uncle. Stuck on the desire for freedom from oppression and unfamiliar with the concept of love, she flees from her husband of an arranged marriage with the assistance of an old family friend. Sadly this friend was no match for the perils that awaited in the new world. To add to her misery, she realizes that she loved the man she'd married and just didn't recognize that love.

When the factory director’s son dragged my drunk fiancee into the supply warehouse, I pretended as if I did not see them. I just turned around and walked away. In the past, I had ruined my own future by rushing in and beating the factory director’s son up. I was even framed for stealing the supplies from the warehouse. When the warehouse keeper came over with the police officers, my fiancee deliberately ripped her own clothes. She cried and said that she came with the director to stop me from committing the crime, but I beat her up and even defiled her. Everyone despised me, and I became a criminal. My fiancee’s parents could not bear the rumors, and they forced me to marry her. But that marriage was only the start of a hellish life. She lived like a queen at home, yet she told everyone I was starving her. When she got pregnant, she deliberately pushed her belly against the corner of the table. Then, she stood in the courtyard and cried. She claimed I had abused her, and I wanted to kill my own baby. My parents felt bad for me, so they borrowed money from everyone they knew to get her a job. But when she landed on the job, she framed my father for stealing the steel from the factory. Half a year after my father was imprisoned, he passed away in jail due to an illness. My mother could not bear the stress and fell severely ill. She also passed away soon after. When I was pinned under the collapsed brick wall at the construction site, she did not call for help. Instead, she picked up a brick and smashed it into my head. “If you were not so nosy, Jeremy and I’d have been together already. We wouldn’t have wasted so much time!” My head bled, and I was buried beneath a pile of rubble. When I opened my eyes again, I was at the entrance of the supply warehouse. From inside, I heard my fiancee’s soft, teasing murmurs.

After three years of renting, the landlord kept raising the rent, so I decided not to renew the lease. I hired cleaners to thoroughly clean the entire place, inside and out. There was not a single scratch on the furniture or appliances. I figured the landlord would not return the deposit easily, but I never imagined she would come out swinging with such outrageous demands. “This dining table cost me 25,000 dollars! You got it dirty, and we can’t clean it. You owe me 25,000! “How did this living room lamp get so dusty? Don’t you know how to clean as a girl? We’ll have to deduct 1,500 from your deposit! “There are hooks on the wall. You damaged my walls! 2,000 for that! “This mattress... Hmph. You live-streamers probably brought home who knows how many men. This one’s ruined anyway. There goes 15,000! “Why are there strands of hair in the bathroom? How am I supposed to rent this out to the next tenant? Five hundred for cleaning fees!” She tapped away at her calculator, then thrust it in my face. “You’ve lived here for three years. I’ll give you a friend’s discount. I won’t charge extra for the other damages. Pay me 50,000 dollars, and we’ll call it even! “Otherwise, I’ll expose you online and make you lose followers!” I glanced at the live stream that had 50,000 viewers at the time. When I looked up again, my face was only a mask of smiles. “Ms. Lane, let me think about it. I’ll give you an answer in two days.”

Evelyn Carter has always been the obedient daughter, sacrificing her dreams to keep her family afloat. But when her father strikes a desperate deal with the ruthless billionaire Adrian Blackwood, her life spirals out of her control. Trapped in an arranged marriage with a man as cold as the towering empire he rules, Evelyn must navigate a world of luxury, secrets, and hidden agendas. Adrian Blackwood has one goal: revenge. Marrying Evelyn is just a calculated move in his plan to destroy the man who ruined his family. Yet, Evelyn’s quiet strength and unyielding kindness begin to unravel the walls he’s spent years building. But Adrian isn’t the only one hiding secrets. As Evelyn digs into the past, she uncovers dangerous truths about her father, Adrian’s enemies, and a shadowy crime syndicate that threatens to destroy them both. Torn between duty and desire, betrayal and redemption, Evelyn and Adrian must decide if their fragile bond is worth risking everything—or if love is a luxury they can’t afford.

My mate Theo's puppy love, Elena, and I both got pregnant at the same time. To protect Elena's reputation, he claimed her child as his and made my child, who was actually his, illegitimate. When I confronted him, he said, ‘Elena doesn’t have a mate yet. If the Wolf Council finds out she’s pregnant out of wedlock, she’ll be banished from the Black Rose Pack! I have to help her!’ Later, while Theo accompanied Elena overseas to give birth, his parents forced me to have an abortion. By the time he returned, I had disappeared.

Everything changed on my twelfth birthday. The brakes failed, the tragic crash, and the death of our parents. My brother blamed it all on me. He ruled as the mafia boss, yet all he showed me was hatred. The only love he had left was for our younger sister. He never believed how sick I became. He accused me of faking my sickness to get attention. He would turn to our sister with a gentleness I never received, he promised to save her, and he promised she would never die on his watch. My heart ended up beating inside her chest even after I died. He finally saw what was left of my damaged body after I was gone. The truth my brother never bothered to face would shatter his world.