Novel & Cerita Walking On Water

When Ethan Lane came back from his business trip, he pulled two dolls out of his suitcase. One was pink, the other blue. His daughter, Nina Lane's eyes lit up for a second when she saw the pink one. But instead of reaching for it, she glanced over at Crystal Shaw, Vivian Shaw's daughter. That five-year-old girl had already stretched out her hand for the pink doll. So Nina pulled her hand back and said quietly, "I'll take the blue one." I froze. Nina's loved pink ever since she was little. Her backpack is pink, her water bottle is pink, even her hair clips are always pink. But the moment Crystal was in the picture, she stepped aside. Later, when Ethan drove Vivian and Crystal home, I asked Nina why she chose blue. She looked up at me timidly and said, "If I give up what I like, just like Mommy does, will Daddy come home more?" My throat tightened. I've given in so many times over the years. But looking at my daughter right now, I suddenly realized—I don't want to hold back anymore.

Kai Tanaka is Seattle’s best rescue swimmer, the man they send into black water when the storm decides to take a life. He’s built for cold, built for chaos, built to bring people back. Until one rescue goes wrong. A body disappears. The footage goes missing. And Kai becomes the quiet scapegoat the Coast Guard can sacrifice to keep the institution clean. Suspended and watched, he’s barely holding on when Luca Reyes drags his name into the light. Luca is a true-crime podcaster chasing the truth behind that same night, because his younger brother was on the boat that never came home. Luca thinks Kai is hiding something. Kai thinks Luca is feeding off tragedy. Their first meeting is sharp and ugly. Then Luca is nearly killed for asking the right questions. Kai pulls him from the wreckage and realizes this isn’t internet noise. Someone is laundering bodies through the sea, and they’re using Kai as the fall guy. The only way to keep Luca alive is to disappear with him to an off-grid cabin on the San Juan Islands, where the wind never stops and secrets sound louder. Forced proximity turns into hunger. Suspicion turns into heat. And the closer they get to the truth, the more they realize the storm isn’t the worst thing chasing them.

Everyone in our social circle knew that my fiancée, Hazel Mullins, had a skin hunger condition toward me. Only touching me brought her excitement and satisfaction. But the self-proclaimed heartthrob and heir to the Newman family refused to believe it. He boldly declared that he would win her over within a month. After bombarding her with seductive photos for an entire month, Hazel finally reached her breaking point and auctioned them off. With his reputation ruined, Rory Newman was disowned by his family. In a fit of rage, he jumped off a bridge in an apparent suicide attempt. Hazel lost her mind and leaped after him. I became the biggest laughingstock in the circle. That was until I went skiing in the Alps and accidentally bumped into Hazel helping Rory select ski gear. She explained with a composed expression, "Rory's dealing with some serious emotional trauma. The doctor suggested more outdoor activities. Just please, don't throw another tantrum." I felt bewildered. I wasn't even involved with them anymore. Why would I get upset? Then it hit me that she was unaware of one fact. I had already married someone else on the same day she jumped into the water after Rory in that dramatic display of devotion. I was simply there for my honeymoon, with a bit of skiing on the side.

My mate and my brother hated me for twelve years. They believed I stole their precious Sarah's herbal research and bullied her for twelve years into silence. At my marking ceremony, they exposed my "crimes" to the entire supernatural world. "She's nothing but a bully who torments her packmates and a thief who stole the herb formula from Sarah!" But Sarah smiled through her tears: "The formula doesn't matter anymore." "As long as it saved our wolves from silver poisoning, what does it matter who created it?" "I've already forgiven her." She became the pack's angel of mercy. I was condemned by thousands, until the very wolf I'd saved with my medicine poured silver water over my head. In my despair, I dragged Sarah down with me into death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my second year of high school. Sarah was slicing her arm with a silver blade, smiling as she asked: "Have you thought about how you'll apologize to me?" Something in me snapped. My Alpha power surged forth, crushing her to her knees. I grabbed the blade: "Let me show you what real cuts look like."

I attend Don Vittorio Moretti's celebration banquet in a white evening gown that once belonged to his late wife. But his seven-year-old daughter, Sofia Moretti, shoves me into the sea. As I plunge into the water, my ankle gets slashed by a jagged iron piling. The scent of blood instantly draws a frenzy of sharks. Above me, Sofia stands on the dock, clapping and laughing. The cruelty in her eyes is identical to the way Vittorio looks at me. Sofia points at me and screams, "Do you really think wearing my Mamma's dress makes you worthy of becoming the Donna of the Moretti family? "You're nothing but my Papa's mistress. If I tell him to throw you out, he'll do it." I thrash against the freezing waves, and with every kick, every bone in my body howls in pain. By the time they pull me ashore, I'm shivering beneath a shawl. I look at Sofia, waiting for an explanation. Instead, she simply lifts her chin and spits in my face. Whatever remained of my hope for the little girl I'd raised for seven years vanishes in that instant. "You don't have to wait for your Padre to throw me out. I'll leave on my own tomorrow."

I've developed a fever all of a sudden. But that's when I hear the thoughts belonging to my Alpha mate, Alder Garrison, whom I've bonded to for five years. His voice is husky and attractive, and yet the tone he adapts is very unfamiliar to me. [She's pulling the pity card again. How annoying.] My breath hitches in my chest as I look up at Alder. He's in the middle of pouring me a glass of water, his gaze seemingly gentle beneath the light. His lips aren't moving at all, and yet I'm very sure that I heard his voice just now. When Alder helps me to sit up so that he can feed me the medicine, I purse my lips together before speaking up, albeit hesitantly. "Alpha Alder, I think I'm hearing things all of a sudden. Can you please accompany me to a healer's station tomorrow?" Alder is quick to envelope me into a hug and comfort me. "Shh… I'm here. You'll be fine." But his thoughts sing an entirely different tune. [Ugh… She's doing it again. Can she stop pestering me already?] I no longer utter another word. All I feel is my heart slowly going cold in despair.

My boyfriend, Christopher Linden, was short of 20 thousand dollars for his medical treatment. To get the money as soon as possible, I participated in a rich man's game onboard a lavish cruise. I didn't bat an eye as I jumped into the ocean to search for a bracelet one of their female companions had dropped in the water. As I choked on the ocean water, I heard the man in the lead mock me, saying, "I've seen plenty of the dirty things people are willing to do for money, but you take the cake. You're even willing to give up your life for it." Someone teased, "Your girlfriend doesn't like money and is willing to forgo everything to care for you. Do you love her?" He snorted. "She's just a peasant from the countryside; I'm only fooling around with her. You have no idea how coarse her hands are—they disgust me whenever she touches me. How could I possibly fall for her?" I turned ashen at his words. He was Christopher, who was supposed to be wheelchair-bound. He was also supposed to be too broke for surgery. The peasant from the countryside he was talking about was me.

On the day of our wedding, Henry Zander, my fiance, gets his legs broken in a car crash in his attempt of playing the knight in shining armor who intends to rescue the damsel in distress. So, I terminate our wedding on the spot. Both families surround me, trying to convince me to prioritize the bigger picture. My future mother-in-law cries her heart out as she takes my hand. "Winona, Henry got crippled because of his acts of heroism! He's the real hero here! If you head over to the hospital and take good care of him from now on, we'll still be a family!" My mom hugs me as well, her voice lowered. "You're still pregnant with the Zanders' heir, Winona. Do you have the heart to deliver your baby to this world without a father in their life? Hurry up and apologize to the Zanders so that this incident can be water under the bridge!" My dad acts more impulsively by slapping me on the spot and calling me an insensitive bastard who humiliates the family. Regardless, I walk over to the emcee calmly and pick up the microphone. "I'll give the 880-thousand-dollar wedding gifts meant for Henry and me to the driver involved in this car accident."

Raine Vance has spent her whole life fighting to be taken seriously in her family’s empire. But after walking in on her fiancé in bed with her sister, she’s left humiliated, betrayed, and one mistake away from losing everything her grandfather promised her. Enter Adrian Throne. The boy she once hated. The man her parents despise. The billionaire heir who kissed her in a bar just to prove he could and then announced to the world that she was his fiancée. Now the entire city is watching their whirlwind engagement, but someone wants Raine dead. Between her family’s accusations, her sister’s venom, and Adrian’s dangerous protectiveness, Raine finds herself caught in a storm of lies, lust, and power plays. She swore she would never belong to him. But Adrian swore something too If someone tries to take her from him again… he’ll burn the world down.

"I am pregnant," I say looking into his years intensely but his face is emotionless. "What?" He asked stunned, he paces around for a few minutes" I can't take care of a child right now" he snaps holding the table tightly. "We have to because I have nowhere to go," I say pleading for acknowledgment and understanding. "What do you mean?" He questioned eyeing me suspiciously. " my parents disowned me," I say looking down in shame. "I will take you in but don't expect me to care for you and your baby because all this means nothing to me" he glanced at me before walking out of his office. Tears run down my cheeks, feeling of embarrassment, and lost claws in my heart. I lost everything, my family, my self-esteem, I feel lost and worthless. Most of all I lost love.