Waited Past Tense

The first time I attended my girlfriend Joyce's friend gathering, after a few rounds of drinks, her male best friend pulled her onto his lap. With a cigarette dangling between his fingers, he grinned. "Call me daddy!" Instead of getting offended, Joyce leaned into him, helpless but indulgent, and said, "Daddy." I froze, scowling, but she waved me off without a care. "It's just a joke! Lucius always never cared for the rules, and everyone knows we have a father-daughter vibe, okay? Don't get it all twisted, Henry! Aren't you a man?" Lucius became even more provocative, throwing a smoke ring at me. "Yo, son-in-law! Aren't you going to bow to me? Come on, kneel and offer me a drink, and your dad's got your back!" Everyone at the table burst into laughter as they waited to see me lose my temper and make a scene. I just smiled, meeting Joyce's impatient gaze with an excited expression. "That's great! I like the way you think, so why don't you call me daddy too?"

Eight years ago, my cousin Wendy Cooper was involved in a drunk driving hit-and-run. Yet, my parents made sure all the evidence pointed toward me. The victim's family waited outside my school every day with gasoline, threatening to die with me. Because of that, the school took away my guaranteed admission to university. That day, my parents and brother all tried to persuade me. "Wendy's terrified. Just give her your spot to make her feel better." I refused, fought back, and even tried to talk them out of it. But the next day, they handed me over to the police themselves. Lance Stewart, my fiance and a powerful business tycoon, had orchestrated it all. As he was afraid I'd run or cause trouble, he personally pinned several charges on me and sent me to an isolated island prison. He left me with no way out. When my sentence began, he made me a promise. "Esme, just endure it for a few years. I'll get you out once Wendy graduates, and then we'll get married."

"Ahh! Is that so? That explains the reason for their actions years back." ******* Celine and Harry has been married for three years yet she was unaware of his true intentions towards her. She thought she accepted to marry Harry for the sake of her mum's medical bills and would work out the loveless marriage, however she never knew there was more, hidden under the curtain than the mere eyes could see. To make matter worst, Harry cheated on her on their third anniversary on their matrimony bed, no remorse etched on his features, instead he presented a divorce paper and demanded she signed it and leave, not letting her go with anything she ever acquired while married to him. Fueled by pain and a broken heart she signed the divorce and left, however she discovered she was pregnant weeks after and sought to let Harry know about it but all effort proved futile. She forged ahead, leaving everything behind but little did she know she would meet Jack, her ex-husband's rival who later became her worst nightmare. When the environment was tense, she eloped to another country for her safety and that of her son. Fast forward to years after, she was bk and had more affluent than anticipated. The question remains, Will she still stick to her vow to make those who made her life a living hell, including her ex suffer, when everything was made open to her? or would her rivals have better advantages over her, seeing Harry was back for her and her son?

I've waited five years for my mafia fiance, Daniele Moretti, while he keeps pushing our wedding back again and again. I've turned down every man who approaches me and put up with all the snide comments from high society. On the eve of exchanging our marriage alliance contract, thanks to a bet with his lover, Daniele decides it's hilarious to switch the groom's name. He replaces himself with his uncle, Samuele Moretti, a man who is practically on his deathbed. Daniele laughs as he brags to his friends, "Regina's obsessed with me. When she finds out, she'll cry and beg me to change it back." I stand just outside the door and hear every word. On the day of the wedding, I take Samuele's arm—the "sickly wreck" Daniele keeps mocking—and walk him up the aisle. When Daniele finally shows up late with his lover and tries to turn the ceremony into a spectacle, I slap him across the face. Now he's the one who has to call me Aunt Regina.

“Tell me, Thalia, does it hurt to be cast aside, thrown to the wolves?” I laughed harshly, “Is this what it feels like? To be nothing? To be forgotten?” “Ronan… please…” Her voice was so soft, so broken that it almost made me feel sympathy for her, but in an instant, I crushed that emotion. I couldn’t allow her tears to sway me. “Don’t you dare cry,” I spat. “Save your pathetic, fake tears. They mean nothing to me now, just like you should have meant nothing to me then.” Thalia Sinclair was once a respected Luna, but her life fell apart when her mate rejected her and sold her to the cruel Rogue Sovereign. Forced to toughen up, she learned to survive alone, with no one to trust. Ronan Kane has waited for the moment to make Thalia pay for the hurt she caused him. But when their paths cross again, anger and pain mix with something neither of them can deny. Can they overcome their broken pasts, or will their scars keep them apart forever? Betrayal cuts deep. Vengeance burns hotter. Love is the deadliest weapon of all.

For a thousand years, Roman, the Alpha, has waited to destroy the wolf tribe that betrayed him — the same tribe that murdered his mate, stole his future, and condemned him to exile. His revenge requires patience, and above all, the rebirth of the Arion. For his revenge to happen exactly the way he wants he has to wait for his perfect weapon, her. But when his most sought after moment came, fate played a cruel trick instead. On the night of the Blood Moon ritual, fate turns against him. Instead of binding Marcelene to her tribe, the magic ties her to him—heart to heart, soul to soul. Dragged into the shadows, Marcelene swears to hate him. Yet every heartbeat betrays her, pulling her closer to the very Alpha who wants to use her for revenge she knows nothing about. But Marcelene is more than a weapon. She is the reincarnation of his lost mate — the only one who once loved him and who he still loves. Bound by blood and vengeance, high emotions, and destiny itself, they must decide: destroy each other, or defy fate together.

MATURED CONTENT Even after falsely accused and treated inhumanely by the people, Grace Lopez never find anger towards the world. She was an orphan who was living in an abandoned island. She was waiting to be recognized by the people. She patiently waited for someone who has a good heart to make her dreams come true-to live in the city. One day, a group of men lost their way in the island. Grace helped them with her heart and she happened to fall in love with one of them-Blaze Villacorta. Just when she finally recognized the stranger thing called love, the real intention of the men exploded right in her face. Wounded, she left the island and live in the city. The innocent Grace Lopez has become a fierce and elegant woman after years of living in the city-with her husband but her perfectly planned life was ruined when she met her first love again after almost eight years. When the strongest emotion in her heart was triggered by anger that actually leads to something that made her feel the familiar butterflies in her stomach, will she be able to keep her vows she swore to her husband?

When I was discharged from the psychiatric hospital, my brother and sister-in-law dropped everything to personally pick me up. Even my nephew, who had just finished his college entrance exams, arrived with a box of carrot cake he had waited in line all day to buy. His warm smile was the picture of innocence. “Auntie, congratulations on your discharge. With me here, you’ll never feel lonely again.” To outsiders, we were the perfect family—envied by all and even awarded the title of a local model family. But behind the facade of family bliss lay a very different story. On the very day my brother transferred the last of the family properties to me, I went live on social media. In front of an audience that idolized my so-called perfect family, I boasted about my "accomplishments." I conned my nephew into paying for a spot at an elite school, duped my sister-in-law into stepping into a scandalous club, and tricked my brother into losing everything he had worked for. “My brother has treated me with nothing but kindness. And I can only repay his kindness with betrayal.”

During the car accident, Ethan Jones used his body as a shield, protecting me so that I could walk away unscathed. However, when he finally woke up, his memory was frozen at eighteen years old, back when Millie Brown was his girlfriend. Ethan’s friends advised me to let go and fulfill their love story instead. They said that only by Millie’s side would Ethan—the model student everyone admired—step down from his pedestal and live a life. Apparently, I, the obedient, well-behaved girl, made his life dull and lifeless. What no one knew was that, amid the buzzing cicadas of summer, that well-behaved girl had fallen for him—year after year, never once wavering. So, I waited foolishly for Ethan to remember me until three years later, when I was diagnosed with cancer. On that very day, I finally saw the surprise he had mentioned preparing for me before the accident. Only then did I truly let go, and when he handed me the divorce papers once again, I signed my name.

The day Yancy Shepherd died, Benedict Page poisoned our dinner. His eyes were wild, and bloodshot, as he watched me writhe in agony. There was a madness in his gaze, but worse was the hatred, a disgust so deep it twisted his face into something unrecognizable. "If it weren't for you forcing your way into our lives, Yancy wouldn’t have died from heartbreak. You ruined us! It’s all your fault!" A photo slipped from his trembling hand and landed at my feet—Yancy at twenty, looking radiant, her smile as bright as a blooming flower. I collapsed to the ground, my strength fading fast like a rose withering in the final grasp of winter. Helpless, I waited for the darkness to claim me, consumed by despair and bitter regret. Why hadn’t I listened to the system and killed him when I had the chance? But when I opened my eyes again, everything was different. I stood watching Benedict flee our engagement ceremony. My brother moved to chase after him, but I quietly raised a hand, stopping him. This time, things would be different.