Unscramble Quietly

Maya Reyes is twenty-six, quietly resilient, and out of options. When she takes a live-in nanny position for a Manhattan billionaire, she expects a difficult employer and a lonely child. She gets both, but she also gets Ethan Cole. Ethan lost his wife eighteen months ago and has been managing the grief the only way he knows how: by controlling everything around him. His apartment is spotless, his rules are laminated, his daughter Lily is the only crack in the armour he has built around his life, and it is through Lily that Maya begins to see the man underneath. What follows is not a dramatic love story, it is a quiet one. He carries her to her room when she falls asleep on the floor, he heats her soup when she hasn't eaten. He holds her hand in a dark car and lets go like it never happened. She cooks for him, confronts him, tells him truths no one else will, and slowly without either of them naming it, they become the most important person in each other's lives. But grief doesn't move in straight lines. When Ethan's fear gets the better of him, he tries to restore the distance, and nearly loses the one thing that has made him want to come back to life. It will take a four-year-old's unfiltered honesty, a letter Maya writes from the floor of her room, and a man finally choosing to stop running, for both of them to find their way to the other side of it. When Winter Blooms is a story about what love looks like before anyone admits it exists, and what it costs to let it.

Everyone called Mia a shameless whore. However, the one trailing behind her was the youngest don of the Yorick family, James. He hand-washed her lace camisoles, broke three ribs for her, and even with his face covered in blood from a beating, he could still smile at her. One night, after too much drinking, the underboss he trusted most leaned down beside him. His face was full of disdain. “Boss, Mia is a disgrace to all of us! A woman like that, how could she ever be worthy of you?” James suddenly laughed. His eyes went terrifyingly blank. The cigar between his fingers glowed faintly in the dark. “Back then, before I secured my position, I was young, greedy for power. To get my sister-in-law that antique necklace she wanted, I took advantage of Mia being drunk and took pictures of her myself… “Ten dollars a copy. I sold thirty thousand of them. Things blew way out of control… I owe her.” James took a long drink of whiskey while his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Thankfully… she will never know. I will spend my whole life making it up to her, treating her twice as well.” He did not see the private room door quietly close the moment he said those words. Mia turned around with a blank expression on her face and walked into a small clinic on the corner. She laid down on the operating table. He would never deserve to know that he had once been a father, if only for a moment. That whole lifetime he planned to spend making it up to her, she did not want it anymore.

In my past life, right before sitting for the college entrance exams, my best friend, Lily Shaw, and I made a pact. We promised that once we got into college, we would study finance and make a fortune. But because my exam went smoothly and I was the first to leave the exam room, I ended up on camera for an interview. Somehow, I blew up overnight. Years later, I became a top celebrity, while Lily was sent to prison for financial fraud. When she got out, I gave her a million dollars to help her get back on her feet. She repaid me by quietly forging lies about me, whipping up a wave of online hate, and doing everything she could to destroy me. I traced the truth and confronted her, but she snapped back at me, "What gives you the right to stare down at me from your lofty throne and throw me scraps, Hannah Linden? I'm prettier than you, and my grades were better than yours. Why did you get the better life?" She laid out a plan to get back at me. She knocked me out and slashed my face. She also gouged out my eyes and cut out my tongue before stuffing me into a freezer, leaving me there to freeze to death. When I open my eyes again, I find myself reborn in my senior-year classroom. There's just over a month left for the college entrance exams. I look at Lily, who sits to my left and whispers to me. I smile at her, my eyes glinting with ice and venom.

Tullah Richard, a young woman, left her family to be with Saul, her beloved boyfriend who, unfortunately, turned out to be a drunkard and abusive. Despite enduring his violent behavior, she remained committed to him. However, as time passed, the relationship took a darker turn. Despite the challenges, Tullah, determined to break free from Saul's toxicity, found herself facing a complicated situation when she discovered she was pregnant. Now torn between her desire to leave and the responsibility of impending motherhood, Tullah must navigate a difficult choice. Will she choose to leave despite the pregnancy, or will the impending arrival of their child tie her to Saul? If she decides to break free, will Saul ever find a way to reconnect with Tullah? The story unfolds with questions about whether Tullah can forge a new and happier life without Saul. --- "Saul, please let go of me!" she whispered, her plea audible in the tense air. "Never," Saul's fury was palpable, evident with just a glance at him. "I can't continue this way. I need to leave your life. Please, let go of me," she pleaded, attempting to free herself from Saul's grip. "You are stuck with me, Tullah. All of you is mine," he forcefully pushed her into the basement room, locked the door, and left. Tullah, no longer able to cry, lay quietly on the cold floor. This wasn't the first time she found herself confined, but she was determined it would be the last. Wiping away her tears, she wished for the morning to arrive swiftly, bringing with it the promise of a new beginning for her and her unborn child. ***** Diva_Unsual. nnenneuche84@gmail.com.

"Accept it! You cannot fucking run away from me. You can NEVER escape from me. It would be better for you if you just accept that your fate is with ME. You are mine!" She shut her eyes and sobbed quietly beneath him. She knew she could never escape from him; she knew he would never let her go. But that didn't stop her from trying. That would never stop her from trying. She swallowed her fear and looked back at him with her tearful big eyes. "I-I'm not yours! I can never be yours, master. I am just a maid who works in your house. Y-you have no right to claim me yours like this." She threw back. It didn't shock Alexander, it amused him. His fiery cat was finally able to open her mouth in front of him. They both stared at each other with an intensity that was hard to explain. "You are mine, Emma. You were mine the moment I laid my eyes on you. You were mine when I saw you for the first time when you opened the door for me. You were mine when I saved you from the guy at the party who almost raped you..." He gritted at the bitter memory. "You were mine since the first time my heart skipped a beat whenever I saw you...You are mine and you will always be mine." She heard the unbuckling sound of his belt and her eyes widen in fear. She pushed him as hard as possible but that didn't stop him. In a blink of an eye, he tore her dress and once again claimed her as his.

After sixty-six months of waiting,on the day of our Mating Ceremony, my fated mate, Alpha Asher, rejected me. He held his first love, Cora, in his arms, his gaze on me cold and cruel. "Cora is already carrying my pup," he said, his voice void of any warmth. "I am rejecting you. Once the pup is born and its place in the pack is secure, we can still be mates." He added, a cruel smirk on his face, "Besides, being my mate is the greatest honor an Omega like you could ever hope for." Everyone expected me to endure the humiliation, to wait quietly for Asher to come back and finally accept me. But that very night, I followed the Moon Goddess's guidance and left for good. Five years later, I returned to my old home. My mate Ronan called away on urgent business. So he had no choice but to arrange for a local Alpha to greet me. I never expected it would be him: my ex-mate, Alpha Asher. Exhausted from the long journey and weary from my pregnancy, I was met with mockery. With Cora on his arm, he sneered at my plain clothes, telling me I was nothing without him. "Seeing as you've hit rock bottom and look like some pathetic rogue, I suppose we can be generous enough to take you in. Our pup could use a healer." I just laughed coldly and refused. He has no idea — I’m now the Luna Queen to the Alpha King. His entire pack existed only at my mercy.

I've been pregnant for six months, but my Alpha mate, William, has delayed our mating ceremony 29 times. He's waiting for his adopted sister, Rita, to find a mate so they can have a "two-couple mating ceremony." The 30th time I altered the waist of my beloved mating ceremony dress, the bridal shop assistant looked embarrassed, "Miss, this dress really can't be widened anymore. How about you choose another one?" Disappointment rose in my throat like bile. I called William, asking when the ceremony would finally happen. But William said: "I will give you an unforgettable mating ceremony, but Rita's mate hasn't been matched yet. Darling, can you wait a little longer? We shouldn't ruin her whole life over such a small thing, right? I know you'll understand. You're always so kind." My heart clenched suddenly. So, my dream mating ceremony is just a small thing. Rita's sweet, high-pitched voice chimed in: "Brother, my mating ceremony dress matches yours so perfectly!" That was the moment I realized I was never the one being chosen. I looked down at my round pregnant belly, tears slipping quietly from the corners of my eyes. Then, with a trembling hand, I dialed the number that had always been waiting for me. "I'm ready to leave." After the call ended, the clerk cautiously asked: "Would you like to choose another one?" "No. Just cancel it, please." I took one last glance at the dress that would never belong to me. If this ceremony was never for me, then I won't stay for it.

Seven years I spent with Jason Shaw, but I never got a ring. Rather, all I received was an invitation to another person's wedding. That day, as a wedding planner, I was at the rehearsal, making last-minute adjustments. Looking up, I saw the man whom I waited every day to reply to my messages, walking down the aisle, arm in arm with another bride. "Her boyfriend had something urgent come up, so I'm filling in for him," he said, standing straight, his tone light, a small smile on his lips. But his eyes couldn't hide the hurt, like a child who lost his favorite toy. As if that wasn't enough, he told me to hand over my wedding plan. He patted me on the shoulder, saying sincerely, "There's no rush for us. We've got plenty of time. I promise I'll give you an even better wedding. Just help me out this time. It's not like I'm not going to marry you." He didn't know that I had revised the wedding plan hundreds of times, even counted and recounted the bouquets seven times. To me, it wasn't mere work—it was a dream I held for five long years. I didn't argue anymore, just quietly stepped aside. Later, I lay alone in a hospital bed, listening to the rain tapping against the window from outside. I counted each drop as the hours slipped through my fingers. Perhaps those who worked so hard to create happiness for others had lost the right to their own happiness.

By the third year of my marriage to Daniel Hawthorne, the war had already taken more than it ever returned, and this time it took his younger brother, Thomas Hawthorne. My sister-in-law, Eleanor, collapsed, and in the weeks that followed she tried to follow her husband into death— once with sleeping pills, once by the river beyond the officers’ quarters— only to be dragged back both times, each time clinging to me afterward as though I were the last thing keeping her grounded. I stayed with her, wiped her tears, and whispered that Thomas would want her to live, until the day she received the test results confirming she was three months pregnant, and the grief of losing her husband was slowly softened by the arrival of new life. I smiled too, believing grief had finally loosened its grip. That night, holding my own pregnancy test in my hand and thinking it was finally time to tell Daniel, I passed the study and heard his friend say quietly, “She’s carrying your child. You convinced the doctors to adjust the timeline so everyone would believe the baby belonged to your brother. Aren’t you afraid Margaret will find out?” Daniel didn’t hesitate. “She won’t,” he said calmly. “She loves me. She wouldn’t leave. I won’t let her know.” I didn’t step inside. I didn’t confront him. Instead, I opened the letter I had received weeks earlier— an official deployment order from the international medical corps, assigning me to a frontline war zone— and tapped Accept.

A mafia romance trilogy about dangerous men who love harder than they kill and the women bold enough to love them back. Three ruthless men, born in blood and bred to destroy, are about to meet the women who bring them to their knees or make them burn the world trying to keep control. Book One: The Don's Obsession After her family betrays the New York Outfit, she's taken hostage by a man who wants revenge more than air. He's cold, brutal, and beautiful. And he thinks breaking her will fix what her family destroyed. But what starts as punishment quickly turns into something far more dangerous because some women aren’t built to shatter quietly… and some hearts fall in the most unexpected cages. Book Two: Her Favorite Enemy They were raised to hate each other but when they’re forced into a fake alliance, hatred isn’t the only thing that burns. He wants to ruin her. She wants to make him bleed. Too bad they can’t keep their hands or their lies to themselves. Book Three: Marked by the Monster She witnessed something she shouldn’t have. Now she’s in the middle of a bloody turf war and the only thing standing between her and a bullet is the mafia’s deadliest enforcer sent to kill her. He’s cold, lethal, and doesn’t believe in feelings. But the more she runs, the closer he gets. And when she finally falls into his hands, there’s only one rule left: She lives or dies as his. Three savage men. Three sinful love stories. One underworld that doesn’t play fair.