Z Berman Books Passaic

I married Don Matteo in secret. Every time he fucked his childhood sweetheart, he promised me a real wedding，in front of the Five Families. For five years, Matteo promised me ninety-nine times. And ninety-nine times, he left me at the altar. The first time, Cecilia’s prize-winning show cat died. To comfort her, he postponed the wedding for three months. I stood at the altar alone, eyes red, trying to calm down the family elders. The second time, Cecilia threw a tantrum at a casino and shattered a hundred-million-dollar antique vase. He diverted the private jet meant for their wedding and rushed through the night to clean up her mess. And every time, right before our wedding, his childhood sweetheart would have some kind of emergency. I cried. I screamed. I even held a gun to his head. But Matteo would just pin me against the wall and shut me up with a cold, hard kiss. “She’s just a fuck. You are Mrs. Falcone. Have some goddamn class.” After the ninety-ninth time, I was finally done. I slid the papers across the table. The ink was still wet, the Falcone family seal stamped at the bottom. “Our marriage, our alliance—it’s over.”

Dari bayangan kehinaan hingga puncak balas dendam, kisah Tian Zhi menantang nasib dengan tenaga bela diri yang ganas dan ilmu medis yang mematikan. Seorang murid rendah kasta yang dipermalukan, ia diretas oleh konspirasi hingga kehilangan semua, kemudian ditinggalkan sebagai sampah di antara klannya. Dikhianati oleh sahabat, hampir kehilangan nyawanya. Tian Zhi menemukan cahaya dalam bayang-bayang saat bertemu mahaguru terkenal. Setelah bertahun-tahun latihan, sang Master wafat, meninggalkan wasiat yang mengubah hidupnya: tujuh nama wanita yang disebut sebagai tunangan. Kini Tian Zhi bangkit dengan kekuatan yang membara, bertekad membalas setiap luka—mereka yang menertawakannya, mereka yang menginjaknya saat rapuh, mereka yang membuangnya tanpa belas kasihan. Ia tidak lagi sekadar bayangan murid rendah, melainkan seorang pematon balas dendam yang siap menuntaskan wasiat sang gurunya. Setiap langkahnya adalah ujian: kekuatan, kasih sayang, pengkhianatan, dan rahasia yang akan membentuk takdirnya. Apakah tujuh nama tunangan itu menyimpan kunci jalan keluar atau tirai rahasia yang akan mengguncangkan semuanya? Sebuah odise balas dendam, pengkhianatan, dan cinta yang menantang batas antara kegelapan dan cahaya.

I masterminded a half-billion-dollar art auction to wash money for Miles’s family. But at the celebration party, Miles gave all the credit to Rebecca. His childhood friend. The daughter of the family’s consigliere. I stormed into his study. “Miles, head curator was Rebecca? Are you sure about that?” He looked up from a cloud of smoke, pulling me into his arms. His voice was a low, soothing rumble. “Valerie, I know you want to prove yourself, but this was all Rebecca. Especially the Caravaggio. The real one, worth three hundred million. She’s the one who pulled it off.” His lips brushed my forehead, his breath hot. “I don’t love you because you can fix some old paintings. You’re my queen, always. My girl. You don’t have to worry about her.” I almost laughed. The anger was choking me. “She can’t tell the difference between oil and acrylic. How the hell would she know a real from a fake?” “Enough!” Miles cut me off, his tone leaving no room for argument. “I know what Rebecca can do. Don’t make a scene just because you’re jealous.” His hands tightened, trapping me in his smoky embrace. “Don’t disappoint me, Valerie.” But he already had. When I’d had enough of his favoritism and his blindness, I walked. And that's when he went crazy. Scoured the earth looking for me. Begging me to come back, saying he was blind, that he’d been wrong about everything.

Me casé en secreto con Don Matteo. Cada vez que se acostaba con su amor de la infancia, me prometía una boda de verdad, frente a las Cinco Familias. Durante cinco años, Matteo me lo prometió noventa y nueve veces. Y noventa y nueve veces, me dejó plantada en el altar. La primera vez, el gato de exposición premiado de Cecilia murió. Para consolarla, pospuso la boda por tres meses. Yo me quedé sola en el altar, con los ojos enrojecidos, intentando calmar a los ancianos de la familia. La segunda vez, Cecilia hizo un berrinche en un casino y destrozó un jarrón antiguo valorado en cien millones. Él desvió el jet privado destinado a la boda y voló toda la noche para ir a arreglar su desastre. Y así cada vez, justo antes de nuestra boda, su amor de la infancia tenía algún tipo de emergencia. Yo lloré. Grité. Incluso llegué a apuntarle con un arma a la cabeza. Pero Matteo solo me empujaba contra la pared y me hacía callar con un beso frío y rudo. —Ella es solo un polvo. Tú eres la señora Falcone. Ten un poco de maldita clase. Después de la vez número noventa y nueve, finalmente me harté. Deslicé los papeles sobre la mesa. La tinta aún estaba fresca, con el sello de la familia Falcone estampado al final. —Nuestro matrimonio, nuestra alianza… se terminó.

Mi esposo, Don Reginald, y mis padres me arrojaron a la prisión la misma noche en que le di a su heredero. Todo porque mi hermana, Felicia, me tendió una trampa. Ella afirmó que yo le regalé un caballo salvaje en las carreras familiares, un caballo que ella sabía que no podía controlar. El animal se volvió loco, y pisoteó a un senador hasta matarlo. Con el FBI pisándonos los talones, toda la familia me obligó a cargar con la culpa. Tres años. A Reginald no le importó que acabara de tener a nuestro hijo. Me presionó, una y otra vez: —Era tu caballo. Si no se lo hubieras dado a ella, los federales no perseguirían a Felicia. Solo cumple la condena. Cuando salgas, seguirás siendo mi Donna. Tres años después, regresé. Nada había cambiado. Seguían eligiéndola a ella. Incluso, el hijo por el que sangré, ahora llama a Felicia "Mamá". Me mira de frente y me ignora, a mí, su propia madre. No peleé. No como la antigua yo. Simplemente me alejé. Pero cuando finalmente desaparecí para siempre, Reginald perdió la cabeza. Destrozó el mundo entero, suplicándome que regresara. Que volviera a ser su Donna.

Saat ulang tahunku, Mon Devan, memberiku kalung mutiara almarhum istrinya yang meninggal. Aku memakainya untuk makan malam. Putra tiriku, Liam, sangat marah dan menyiramku dengan anggur merah. Aku pun menjadi lelucon dalam pesta itu. "Dasar pelacur." Dia mendesis. "Kamu pikir karena memakai perhiasan ibuku, kamu bisa jadi dirinya?" Dia menatapku dengan tatapan sedingin es. Lalu berteriak, "Keluar dari rumahku!" Ibunya meninggal saat dia masih bayi, aku yang membesarkannya. Seseorang pasti sudah memengaruhinya. Mereka memberitahunya kalau akulah yang membunuh ibunya. Sekarang, dia berpikir akulah pelacur berakal busuk yang menjebak ayahnya. Dan bagaimana dengan ayahnya? Suamiku? Dia tidak pernah melihatku. Dia hanya melihat hantu Karina. Hatiku tidak hanya retak, tapi hancur. Mereka tidak mencintaiku, tidak juga peduli padaku, jadi aku pergi. Lalu kenapa... Setelah aku sepenuhnya pergi, mereka merangkak memohon padaku untuk kembali?

Anita tidak mau kalau harta ayahnya jatuh ke saudara tirinya dan ibu tirinya. Syarat untuk bisa memegang saham perusahaan adalah dengan cara menikah. Akhirnya Anita memilih pria random yang dia temui di rumah sakit, laki-laki itu butuh uang karena wajahnya rusak dan terlihat cacat. "Aku akan membiayai biaya rumah sakit, tetapi kamu harus jadi suamiku." Anita menikah dengan orang tersebut, tidak peduli wajahnya yang diperban seperti mumi. Bagi Anita menikah bukan hal penting, asal dia bisa mendapatkan kembali semua harta keluarganya. *** Seorang pria misterius tersenyum puas dengan permintaan gila dari Anita yang mengajak dirinya untuk menikah. Demi menyembunyikan identitasnya, dia menerima tawaran gila dari Anita. "Okeh, kita menikah sayang." Pria misterius itu tersenyum dengan penuh arti, andai dia Anita tahu identitasnya, pasti wanita itu menyesal menikah dengannya. Siapa sebenarnya suami yang dinikahi oleh Anita? Bagaimana nasib Anita setelah tahu siapa suami rahasianya itu? Apakah dia benar-benar akan menyesal?

To seize more territory, the ancestors of the Black Moon Pack desecrated the Moon Goddess's altar. For their crime, a deadly curse was woven into their bloodline: no male wolf of their pack lives past the full moon of his thirtieth year. The only cure is to mark a she-wolf with the blood of the Moon Goddess, using her song to suppress the rage that boils in their blood. In my last life, I was that cure. I was married to their Alpha, Corbin. He marked me before the entire pack, binding us as mates. But once the threat of death was gone, he had me thrown into an asylum. "I never believed in that Moon Goddess blood crap. If the pack hadn't forced me to marry you, Faye never would have run off and married that Beta from the neighboring pack. Now she's broken mate bond, and I'm going to make her my Luna, no matter what. As for you, go to hell." Then he shattered our bond, whispered to the guards, and walked away. I was locked in a silver cage, tortured day after day with injections of silver poison. On the day of Corbin and Faye's mating ceremony, the guards gave me a fatal dose. A fiery agony tore through me. My body convulsed, and then… endless darkness. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back at my own marking ceremony. This time, I'm going to watch. And I'm going to see if Corbin can survive his thirtieth birthday without my blood.

Synopsis A promise, a bond, and…falling in love. Every werewolf shifts for the first time on their eighteenth birthday. So a party is thrown to celebrate the coming out of their wolf. But Neerah could not shift. And to make matters worse, her father had already made a deal with the powerful Alpha Beret to use the celebrations as a marriage signing ceremony where Neerah would be his bride in place of her father's debt. The last thing Neerah needed was to be saved from her father's rage, and herself. Now she is falling hopelessly in love with her savior. Except…he wants nothing to do with their mating bond. And yeah, the dead girlfriend he seems to be loyal to, might not really be dead. Yet, when what breeds you is hate, pain and sorrow, when do you ever see the line that explains exactly what it means to be loved? When is it real? When to stop expecting the worst? What is it that lies within the Alpha’s heart?

On our sixth wedding anniversary, I felt a seam split open in my skull. Not from pain, but from truth. “Ethan, that new assistant… how does she taste?” Marcus’s thought, slick as oil. Ethan's reply slithered through my veins: "Young. Tender. Like summer berries." His lips shaped a lie. His hand shielded me from the crowd, even as his fingers pressed a blood-red cocktail into my palm. "Don't let Lena find out,"he thought, the words clear as speech. "I’d in a big trouble." Laughter swirled. Champagne clinked.their mind. Nobody knew I could hear every thought ,the ability to read minds awakened in me last night. . Nobody knew I had already known about his betrayal long ago. There were no tears, no screams I just replied “yes” to Professor Johnson’s encrypted call-the path I should have chosen six years ago. In three days, I would vanish. Not running from him. Running back to who I was at twenty—the rising star of virus research.