Zero-day Attack Chapter 1 Novels & Stories

Once upon a time, in a land hidden where immortals exist, Alessia Condor was killed as Lady Elena, the woman destined to marry the king of Valeria. Reincarnated in modern Philippines, Alessia finds herself again in the world she doesn't belong in--or so she thinks. *** Alessia was applying for a job when she drowns with her sister and wakes up in a strange land where immortality, demons, and monsters exist. To protect herself, Alessia disguises as the boy Ales, who later becomes Elijah Rafael El Valeria's royal doctor-the more than four thousand year-old king of Valeria, the first immortal. In her game of deception and lies, who is bound to lose-Elijah, who slowly falls in love with Ales, or Alessia, who can only watch while her sister, thought to be the reincarnation of Elena, gets married to Elijah to end the curse.

For the people to feel the Royalty of the blood in their veins doesn’t mean that they are ruling their kingdom, or they have some Kingdom. Their lineage to the ancestors who are former and last rulers is more than enough to get the pride of being a royalty which they were taught from the time they started learning things. Three Princes who are not going to rule someplace, but they have the title because of their bloodline and have education, wealth and skills in many things at the top range. However, to be able to love is a wealth which cannot be achieved by simply thinking about it or by some lineage. They may be the Princes in the matter of their birth and the life they are leading, but they will learn more about the real wealth from three women who are princesses by heart. The things they believe and trust will build a wall stopping the love from these princesses to reach them. Will it be broken to make it possible? If it is, then how and by whom? Or will prove to be too late by the time it breaks? Join the journey of six people who are in different moments in their lives, but destiny always has a way with them…

Looking at the bright sun, which is not so bright right now hiding itself to create darkness all around totally makes me think about my present situation. I heard that sound of footsteps entering the room, so I turned around and said, “Hey!” “Don’t start now. You will get your wish soon.” he said removing his coat. “We can’t!” I said, looking at him. “What do you mean? All these days you are asking nothing but for divorce papers. Now they will reach you in a few days for sure. Now why are you saying we can’t?” he asked with a completely blank expression. “I am pregnant!” I mumbled. “What?” he asked, stepping towards me in shock. “I.Am.Pregnant!” I said each word with force and then let the darkness consume me.

Right after finishing a meeting, I opened a forum and saw a warning post. The location tag was our company. The title read: “Red flag! What a cheap company. Anyone who joins is a total sucker. They can’t even afford a decent coffee break.” The photo attached showed the expensive coffee and five-star desserts I had just asked my assistant to distribute to everyone. I frowned and tagged the entire group chat, asking if anyone had suggestions about the afternoon tea. A Gen-Z intern who had just joined, Julian Hayes, instantly replied with a voice message: “Boss, no offense, but these assembly-line desserts are full of trans fats. Nobody would eat them.” “A truly humane company hires a Michelin chef to cook and slice everything fresh on site. That’s what real respect for employees looks like.” I laughed in disbelief. Our company’s daily coffee break budget was thirty dollars per person—already considered top-tier in the industry. So I replied, “Since it’s impossible to satisfy everyone’s taste, we’ll cancel afternoon tea from now on and convert the budget into cash for everyone instead.” Less than five minutes later, that post was updated: “Guys, can you believe this? I made a perfectly reasonable suggestion and the lame boss immediately canceled the whole coffee break perk! This is the true face of corporate greed—can’t handle even a little bit of honesty!”

I've won a lottery hosted by the local bank that gives me an opportunity to experience a day as a rich person. Because of that, I'm given a temporary black card that has a credit limit of a billion dollars. Excited, I rush home to tell my wife, Lara Crawford, about it and plan on taking her to a fancy meal. Unexpectedly, Lara drugs me just so she can steal the black card. Then, she starts a livestream that's titled "Goodbye, Loser. Hello, Billionaire Life." with her male best friend, Adrian Schmitt. Lara can be seen buying a shopping mall with the black card on the livestream. Then, she mocks me for being an impoverished man who only deserves to eat the cheapest food available. What she doesn't know is that the purchase history of the black card is being live-streamed on the bank's channel at the same time. The title of that livestream is "A Test of Human Nature—When a Gold Digger Finds a Billion Dollars." Now, there are ten minutes left before the experience is over.

During the outdoor orientation boot camp, Wanda Lawson, the daughter of the richest tycoon, suddenly suffered from a heart attack. She collapsed to the ground and went through a seizure, her complexion bluish-gray. My boyfriend, Joseph Jensen, the drill instructor of the boot camp, overheard my pretentious roommate, Ella Ziegler, murmur, "She's usually fine, so why is she suddenly suffering from some sort of attack when it's time for the drills to start? She must be faking it in order to laze around!" Because of those assumptions, Joseph kicked the medication that Wanda managed to pull out of her pocket into the nearby river. "Get lost if you want to play dead! Don't drag us down with you!" I quickly dived into the river and scooped the medication out. Thanks to my efforts, Wanda's life was saved. Her father was enraged when he found out about the news and wanted to hold someone responsible. With tears streaking down my face, I begged Wanda to not expose Joseph. She nodded quietly to me. Joseph narrowly escaped the judgment. But Ella was expelled by the university right away for her malicious and provocative words. She even had a permanent stain of poor conduct marking her record. On the third day after Ella returned to her village, her family forced her to marry an older man who had remained single for far too long because of his violent temperament. Wanda's father was grateful to me for saving Wanda's life, so he listed me into the list of beneficiaries of his family's trust fund. The amount of money I received was second only to Wanda's portion. On the night news of Ella getting beaten to death by her husband got out, Joseph lovingly invited me to the place we first met so that we could go hiking. When I stood on the steep slope of the mountain, Joseph suddenly snatched the backpack filled with supplies, which included a life-saving whistle, from me. Then, he shoved me off the slope. "Why must you be such a busybody? If you never saved Wanda, she wouldn't have been able to testify against Ella because she'd have died! A murderer like you should just die!" Having broken my spine from the fall, I ended up dying at the foot of the mountain. After my death, not only Joseph got to receive the trust fund thanks to his relationship to me as my fiance, but he also began sponsoring low-income students by using Ella's namesake. That was how he reaped both wealth and reputation in one go. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Wanda suffers from the heart attack.

“August, I don’t work for you anymore,” she said, voice steady. “I’m not obligated to listen to you.” A pause. Then, “Oh, but you will.” He stepped forward. She stepped back. Again. Until her back hit the wall. Her breath caught, but she didn’t look away. August placed both hands on either side of her. Blocking her in completely. No space left. No escape. “You’re not my employee,” he said quietly. A beat. “But for the next 90 days…” “…I own you.” Weeks before his wedding, August Thorne discovers something impossible, he is already legally married. To Genesis Michaelson, his former personal assistant who vanished three months ago without a trace. There is no memory of the ceremony. Only fragments of a night in Las Vegas that don’t fully add up. When the court refuses to annul the marriage due to time passed, they are left with one option: divorce. But even that comes with a condition. A 90-day consideration period in which they must live together as husband and wife. What begins as a drunken mistake turns into a forced arrangement between two people who can barely stand each other, yet cannot stay away. Tension rises. Clashes become constant, while external forces close in, determined to keep them apart and destroy Genesis in the process. But someone is lying about what happened that night in Vegas. And the truth runs deeper than either of them realizes, closer to home, and far more destructive than the marriage itself Will they survive this game of lies and deceit and fall in love or... ?

On our wedding anniversary night, my husband, Lucian Moore, comes home with a seven-year-old orphan named Chloe Martin. He even hands her the necklace he bought me for our anniversary and lets her play with it like a toy. Because of her, my son, Ryan Moore, shouts at me for the first time. "You're a bad woman! I don't want you to be my mommy!" I watch the three of them sitting together, warm and cozy, and I say nothing. Instead, I buy a ticket to leave the country. At first, they think I'm just acting out and will come home in a few days. But when they return from Feanland after celebrating Chloe's birthday, they find out I've joined a ten-year classified research project and will not come back again. At that moment, they fall apart.

cold finger brushed my chin. It was barely there, but it sent a quick, immediate thrill through me, as though my body was unsure whether to retreat or lean in. He raised my head slowly and purposefully. At first I fought; my muscles clenched with terror, but his hold was unbelievably strong, and his touch was commanding but delicate. I had no choice but to follow. Then our eyes connected. My breath caught in the back of my throat. Elara’s lineage was cursed. A werewolf by blood, a witch by fate, and something far more dangerous by destiny. She had spent her life looking forward to the mate ceremony but she gets the shock of her life as he rejects her and she is attacked. Everything that she has ever know about herself is not what it seems. Rejected by her mate, she is hunted by the supernatural council. But the night has other plans. When she falls into the hands of Abbadon, the Vampire King, she expects death. Instead, he saves her, binding their fates in ways neither of them understand. With war looming and the council determined to erase her existence, Elara has no choice but to embrace the darkness within. The witches who should have stood by her have turned against her. The werewolves see her as an abomination. And the council’s most feared enforcers are closing in. When her home is burned to the ground and her family slaughtered, she swears vengeance. No longer just a fugitive, she becomes the storm that will bring the supernatural world to its knees. Will she survive or will she forever be an abomination to be hunted until her death?

Rule number one: Do not kiss strange men in clubs. Rule number two: Never kiss the owner of the club. Rule number three: If he’s a secret billionaire with a dark past and a disturbing obsession with your heartbeat? Run. My name is Scarlett Whitmore. And I broke all three. I was born with a heart condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse. My mother hates me for ruining her life. My brother cannot stand me. And my boyfriend, Drake Bittencourt, the man I thought was the love of my life, proposed to my twin sister in front of 19,000 hockey fans. And she accepted him without hesitation. When my sister walks into the club I work at, flaunting Drake’s ring without remorse, I make a rash decision: I grab the first man that catches my fancy and kiss him like my life depends on it. He turns out to be Harlan Rousseau. Team captain of the formidable Vancouver Icefangs. Hockey god. And according to the tabloids, dead broke and drowning in debt. But the tabloids are wrong. Not only is Harlan Rousseau NOT broke, he’s the secret heir to a ninety- billion-dollar oil empire. He offers me a deal: wear his ring. play the devoted wife. And sleep in his bed for a year. In exchange, he’ll pay off my medical debt and save my best friend from homelessness. The most important of all: he offers a chance to get my revenge. I should’ve said no. But I was desperate. And desperate women make deals with the devil. The longer I stay, the more I realize Harlan Rousseau is not just hiding wealth. He’s hiding a monster. And I’m starting to think I don’t want to run from it…