Unscramble Merely

SEQUEL TO MY LITTLE SUNSHINE On the same day I got married, I learned a heartbreaking truth; I was merely a substitute; a stand-in bride for my husband's beloved. My dreams and feelings didn't matter to anyone but me. In the eyes of the public, I was his wife but at home, I had to live as a furniture and a prisoner. Refusing to live such a miserable life, I ran, faster than I had ever done in my entire life, but then, I found myself walking on thin ice. I was on the brink of a precipice when someone reached out his hand and gave me a lifeline. He was Reign Fletcher, and he became my everything.~~~~CORA She bumped into my life unexpectedly, and suddenly, what started out as an accident became the most important moment of my life. I never understood what it felt like to love someone else more than I do myself until I met Cora Gilbert.~~~~REIGN *THIS BOOK CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE*

I jump off the seventh floor on my wedding day. Why? Because everyone has abandoned me to pick up a fake heiress from the airport, my fiancé included. I expect to see them riddled with heartbreak and regret after my death. However, my father merely shakes his head stoically and looks at my body while saying I was too willful. My mother bites her lip and sighs in relief. My fiancé, Magnus Gilmore, shields the fake heiress. He's afraid she'll see the horrible state of my body. The fake heiress is scared to tears at this, and everyone crowds around her to console her. No one cares whether I'm still breathing while lying in a pool of blood. I'm stunned when I see this, but I soon laugh self-deprecatingly. When I open my eyes again, I've been brought back seven years in the past. It's the day I've just stepped foot at home.

Unlike her twin brother, Jackson, Jessa struggled with her weight and very few friends. Jackson was an athlete and the epitome of popularity, while Jessa felt invisible. Noah was the quintessential “It” guy at school—charismatic, well-liked, and undeniably handsome. To make matters worse, he was Jackson’s best friend and Jessa’s biggest bully. During their senior year, Jessa decides it was time for her to gain some self-confidence, find her true beauty and not be the invisible twin. As Jessa transformed, she begins to catch the eye of everyone around her, especially Noah. Noah, initially blinded by his perception of Jessa as merely Jackson’s sister, started to see her in a new light. How did she become the captivating woman invading his thoughts? When did she become the object of his fantasies? Join Jessa on her journey from being the class joke to a confident, desirable young woman, surprising even Noah as she reveals the incredible person she has always been inside.

My husband, Joaquin Landon, is a renowned wax sculptor. He hangs up on me when I call him to save my life so he can focus on the wax sculpture his cousin wants. Amphetamine is injected into my system, so my mind is clear as I watch my nails get removed one by one. Every inch of my skin is covered in burning hot wax. My hair and lashes are plucked off, and my organs are ground. Steel pipes are inserted into my legs, and I'm turned into a wax sculpture. Joaquin sees me during an exhibition. His colleague tells him that the wax sculpture he sees looks eerily like me, but he merely looks disgusted. "All she does is cause trouble and act unreasonably. She's better off dead." What he doesn't know is that I already am. Joaquin doesn't recognize that I'm the wax sculpture before him.

Jennifer Nath, who was nineteen years old, lived alone and moved a lot out of concern that her tormentors would track her out and find her. She is the Alpha's child and a member of the Pintos pack, where her father and the rest of the pack hated her merely for being there. He grew ruthless and started abusing drugs and alcohol. At age 5, he started abusing her since she was too young to understand what was occurring or why. He was out of money and his pack was disintegrating. So, when she was 15, her father sold her to a group of cruel men. She has never experienced love or compassion, making her distrustful. The Black Aries pack's 21-year-old Alpha is Don Damian. From a young age, he learned how to respect and behave decently with women. Because of his power and capacity to guide and protect his pack, he was given the name Zeus in honour of the Greek hunter. Since his first shift at age 16, he has been waiting for his mate, but she has never appeared.

At the annual gala, my father had me marry Asher Ziegler, a rising star in the finance industry whom he had groomed. Back then, I, Maddison Gruber, had no idea that Asher was in love with someone else. Sometime later, my father's company is investigated for product fraud, and his company's stock plummets. He even faces criminal charges. When this happens, Asher immediately brings his first love, Cora Singer, home and tells me outright that he is going to make her his legally wedded wife. My mother-in-law admonishes me. "Your family's bankrupt now, and you're completely barren! Why shouldn't my son remarry?" Asher slides a divorce agreement in front of me, his tone condescending. "Sign this, and I can let you stay here and live alongside Cora." But I say nothing. I merely quietly book a ticket to leave this place. In seven days, I will be following my father down south.

Braving a downpour, I delivered a lavish food order, anticipating the hefty commission and a $100 tip. Laughter suddenly echoed from the villa. Someone started, "He really believes your car crash left you paralyzed? He's hustling deliveries to support you and even pawned his dad's heirloom?" Another said, "What if he discovers you're actually a billionaire heiress, just playing poor? He'd probably break down in tears." Jessica Stark toyed with her wine glass. "Guys like him are wired to serve, especially since he always outshone Mark in our school days. This is his comeuppance." I stood in the relentless rain, a bitter chuckle escaping my lips. Turned out, her two-year charade of paralysis was merely to avenge her childhood sweetheart. Her broken legs, deceased parents, and helpless tears were all meticulously crafted lies. Disillusioned, I dialed my estranged tycoon mother. "You win. I'll go through with the arranged marriage."

Two decades earlier, the realms of the Four Courts waged war against the covens of witches. Neither side would yield, though both were bleeding themselves dry in a war that spanned five brutal years. The Courts relied on their noble bloodlines, the witches on their wild and ancient spells. Each skirmish ended in ash, with neither enemy capable of breaking the other. Then a sorcerer from the Courts revealed a weapon: an octagonal crystal forged from eight different stones, each carved from the essence of a court. On the battlefield, before witches or nobles could comprehend what was happening, the crystal ignited. A blinding eruption of light burst forth, eight rays fusing into one unbearable brilliance. It was not merely sight that was torn away in that flash — but power, essence, and soul. Both Courts and witches alike fell, drained of the magic that had defined them. When the light faded, the battlefield lay silent under a sky of glittering dust. The enchantments were gone. The witches’ spellcraft, the courts’ line-born sorcery — extinguished forever. Neither side had won. Both had lost. And magic never returned.

I'm seven months along with my second pregnancy when a truck almost hits me. My husband threatens the doctor like a maniac. "I'll make all of you retire prematurely if anything goes wrong with my wife!" Before I enter the operating theater, I can't help thinking he's being too anxious. The truck merely brushed past me and made me fall. He doesn't need to be so panicked. However, when I open my eyes again, I find that my belly is flat. I crawl out of bed in a panic and head to the door, where I overhear Lucian Jacobe talking to the doctor. "Mrs. Jacobe wasn't in a major accident, sir. The child could've been saved. Why did you insist on aborting it? It was a baby boy, too." "Jenny will cry if she finds out about me having children with another woman. How can I bear to see her upset? It's not my first time doing something like this, anyway."

Her father's murder was just the beginning. Sold to the Italian mafia as punishment for a betrayal she never committed, Violet Fernandez finds herself imprisoned by Vlad Romano—ruthless heir to a criminal empire that shows no mercy. But the captor who should be her nightmare becomes her unlikely ally when Vlad discovers the truth: Violet was merely a pawn in her father's dangerous double life. Together, they uncover that her father died protecting explosive secrets—information that could bring the cartel to its knees. Now, marked for death and hunted at every turn, Violet and Vlad are forced to flee into shadows where only the most dangerous survive. With each desperate escape, the line blurs between captor and captive, between hatred and a forbidden desire neither can deny. As bullets fly and passion ignites, Violet must decide: is Vlad truly her savior, or is he leading her straight into a trap where there is no escape? Just when freedom seems within reach, a devastating revelation changes everything... "CAPTIVE HEARTS" — Some chains are made of steel. Others are forged by desire.