C.J

Damn water, girl.! Shouldn’t you just stick to the salad you have in your hands? You keep eating unhealthy foods like pizza. You’re going to get too big to run and fetch me my water.” “Thanks for your concern, Arron, but it’s unwanted and needed because all I’m eating today is my salad.” “You do not have to explain anything to that douche bag,” Sydney hisses at me. “I was being sarcastic, Syd.” Sydney rolls her eyes at Arron, then leads us over to our table. Luckily, I made it to my table without a hitch. Normally, I end up with most of my food on me before I get to my table. “Are you okay Riv? “Sydney asks me once we get sat down. “Yes, I’m used to it by now.” “Wow, River Rock just walked in.” My skin instantly heats at that name. Rock (James Martinez) is not only the hottest guy at school. He is the quarterback and captain, and my biggest hater at Scotts high. To make matters worse, his mom is dating my dad. “Hey water girl, go get me some food.” Rock says, coming over and sitting down at our table like he owns it. “Fuck off Rock.” Sydney says, then gets up and positions herself in between us. I guess she thinks that’s going to stop him from harassing me. I go to get up and get him food so he will leave me alone, but my friend is not having that. “Sit your ass down.” Sydney growls. “Just let me do this Syd so I might eat in peace today.” “You’re going to eat in peace, anyway. I will make sure of it,” Sydney says between clenched teeth. She really doesn’t know what she starts when she does this. Surprising, Rock gets up and walks over to get his own food, then goes and sits with his girlfriend and the other football players. I get to eat my food in peace for the rest of the lunch hour. Once the bell rings, Sydney and I head to our next class. We make it through our last couple classes and then it’s time to go out on the football field to make sure the team has plenty of water. I wonder if I could get away with putting some laxative tablets in their waters see how good they practice having to run to the bathroom every 5 minutes. “Yo water girl, get your ass over here with the damn waters,” Damion, the linebacker, yells at me. Making me jump out of my daydream. You know I’m not the only water girl out here, but I’m the only one that gets picked on. I really don’t understand what I have done to make them target me. Unlike Tiffany, who's dry humping Rock's leg while giving him water, I'm quiet and keep to myself. Walking towards the table, I put some more water glasses down on it. Then I walk over to the guys that are standing around waiting to get on the field to see if they want any water. “It’s about damn time, water girl.” Most of the guys say, but there are some. The freshmen thanked me. But that will soon change once they hear what the other guys call me and the way they treat me, then they will start doing the same. Once that set of guy’s head on the field, the ones that were on the field head off it, so I do the same thing for them. I walk up to them and pour water into the mouths of the ones that want water and get shoved to the side by the ones that don’t want water. God, I really don’t know why I am doing this… I really hate football. But it's either this or having to hear my dad complain about me not doing anything. By the end of practice I have everything packed up, and ready to head to the locker room when Rock and his friend Damion walk up behind me, pushing me so hard I fall and the bottles in my hands go flying around the field. “Oh, damn water girl, I didn’t see you standing there.” Rock says, then bends down to help me up to my feet, but I slap his hand away. “Now, now, River, is that anyway to treat your sum to be stepbrother?” Rock chuckles. God, I hope not. “My dad will never marry your mother. He loved my mother too much.” I spit at him and he sees red. Rock lifts me up off the ground by my shirt, hauling me into his body. “You listen to me, you little bitch.” “James Martinez, put River down right now.” Coach barks at him and Rock chunks me to the ground and I land on my butt hard. Once everyone heads to the locker room, I get up and start gathering the bottles that went flying a minute ago back up and put them back in the bags. Coach must have stayed behind because he helped me with the bottles. “You know, Ms. Darby, you really shouldn’t let them boys treat you that way.” I know I shouldn’t, but I really don’t have any choice. “Thanks coach I say.” Once he helps me up and gives me the bags to carry to the locker room. “River, I’ve known your dad for a long time, and I don’t think he would be too happy to know how bad things are for you at school.” “No offense, coach, but you must not know my dad as well as you think you do, because my father couldn’t care less.” I walk on into the locker room without another word.

I started out on the streets when I was 16 years old — when my parents walked in my room one night and found me in bed with one of my dad's business partners. My parents didn't care that a man came into my room and touched me inappropriately during their party. They were more concerned about their reputation. "A well-respected business executive" like my father couldn't have a whoring daughter like me, bringing his name to shame, so I had to go. And it didn't matter that I had nowhere to go. So, now at 22, I find myself a prostitute with a bad-tempered pimp, and a drug problem. I stay high on anything I can get my hands on just, so I don't have to feel the nasty shit the Johns are doing to me or be sound of mind when I'm blowing them off. I'm in my tiny ass apartment right now getting ready to head out to my corner for the night and get me a John or two.... try to make me some money for the night. I have rent due in a day are two, so as I'm getting ready, I snort me I line of coke and fuck that shit good. I look at myself in the mirror one last time... make sure I don't have any white shit on my nose, are anywhere else, then I head out to the corner. "Hey Layla, any new business tonight?" I ask the lady and my best friend that stands on the same corner as me. "Hey Corky girl. No, it's been kind of quiet tonight, but the night is still young girly... and you're looking fire tonight, so I'm sure you will get a few hits." "I hope so, Layla. I have rent this week, and you know how Martin is about us being late for our rent." "Yes, well, Martin should take the cut we give him after every night as our rent money." Layla spits out. "Watch what you say, Layla. He has ears everywhere." I tell her and sway a little on my feet. "Corky damnit girl, you really need to lie off that shit," Layla shays at me. "Only if I could find another way not to feel I would, Layla." "Corky girl, why won't you get your GED? Carry your ass to college... and get the hell out of New York, away from this shit." Layla says for the 100th time. She tells me the same shit every night. She has since I was 18, and first started prostituting for Martin, our sleaze-bag pimp. I'm smart enough I could get my GED, and get into a community college, and make something of myself, but would Martin let me go? I'm one of his highest paid prostitutes. "Corky, look alive, baby girl. Here comes some action, Layla says," breaking me out of my daydream. "Oh, joy!" Here we go. "Hey there, handsome... what'll be tonight?" I say, leaning into the passenger window. It's a nice-looking older gentleman in his mid-40's not someone you would think you would see picking up a prostitute for an hour. "I would like to rent you for the hour." "Rent me?" This guy has done nothing like this in his life. Poor fucking sap. "Um, sweetheart, you don't rent us. You buy us for as long as you need us. We do whatever you want in that time frame and the price starts at $50 dollars and goes up from there, I tell him." "That's doable he tells me." Then he just sets there for a minute like he's not too sure what to do about the information I just gave him. "Okay sweetheart, if you want to do this, then I have to get into your car. Then we will go to a motel or somewhere and that's where the real fun will begin," I tell him. "Oh, yes, right, sure? Um, get in and then we can figure out where we will go for the night," he tells me, so I open the passenger door and climb in." Your first time I ask him?" "That obvious, huh?" "Yes," I smile at him, "but that's okay. So, what are you looking for tonight?" I ask him, then I kind of glance around his car and find a damn car seat in the back seat of his car. Really, man? "So, you and your wife just had a baby, huh?" "Oh, um, I'd rather not talk about that, if you don't mind."

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

Vesper's marriage to Julian Sterling was a gilded cage. One morning, she woke naked beside Damon Sterling, Julian's terrifying brother, then found a text: Julian's mistress was pregnant. Her world shattered, but the real nightmare had just begun. Julian's abuse escalated, gaslighting Vesper, funding his secret life. Damon, a germaphobic billionaire, became her unsettling anchor amidst his chaos. As "Iris," Vesper exposed Julian's mistress, Serena Sharp, sparking brutal war: poisoned drinks, a broken leg, and the horrifying truth-Julian murdered her parents, trapping Vesper in marriage. The man she married was a killer. Broken and betrayed, Vesper was caught between monstrous brothers, burning with injustice. Refusing victimhood, Vesper reclaimed her identity. Fueled by vengeance, she allied with Damon, who vowed to burn his empire for her. Julian faced justice, but matriarch Eleanor's counterattack forced Vesper's choice as a hitman aimed for her.

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner—my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend’s apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I’d spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend’s face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

Aurora woke up to the sterile chill of her king-sized bed in Sterling Thorne's penthouse. Today was the day her husband would finally throw her out like garbage. Sterling walked in, tossed divorce papers at her, and demanded her signature, eager to announce his "eligible bachelor" status to the world. In her past life, the sight of those papers had broken her, leaving her begging for a second chance. Sterling's sneering voice, calling her a "trailer park girl" undeserving of his name, had once cut deeper than any blade. He had always used her humble beginnings to keep her small, to make her grateful for the crumbs of his attention. She had lived a gilded cage, believing she was nothing without him, until her life flatlined in a hospital bed, watching him give a press conference about his "grief." But this time, she felt no sting, no tears. Only a cold, clear understanding of the mediocre man who stood on a pedestal she had painstakingly built with her own genius. Aurora signed the papers, her name a declaration of independence. She grabbed her old, phoenix-stickered laptop, ready to walk out. Sterling Thorne was about to find out exactly how expensive "free" could be.

She fell into her sister's trap and had a one night stand that left her pregnant. Four years later, when she returned with her kid, a charming but bossy gentleman entered her life. From the moment she laid eyes on him, she found him familiar, but couldn't figure out why until she saw her son stand next to that man...

I was once a well-known feminist activist, but later I became a gold digger and a submissive wife. To earn money for Frank's medical treatment, I married Zachary and became a stepmother to his autistic son, Erik. Former friends criticized me for degrading myself and cut off contact with me. My life became very narrow; I spent my days meticulously caring for Erik and my nights accompanying Zachary through the ups and downs. In the fifth year of our marriage, Erik's biological mother returned. She was a wealthy heiress, a PhD from a prestigious university, stunningly beautiful, and had built a feminist persona on social media, amassing millions of followers. In comparison, I felt dull and uninteresting, and people found me repulsive. So, I decided to file for divorce.

"I'm in desperate need of money to pay Grandmother's medical fee. I will marry Charles instead of Yvonne as soon as I get the money." When her sister Yvonne ran away from the wedding, Autumn was forced to pretend to be Yvonne and marry Charles. Her only wish was to get a divorce after a year. Charles is rich and powerful. His name had been linked to innumerable ladies. He had different girlfriends for every day of a year. Neither of them had expected that they would fall in love with each other.

On New Year's Eve, Aria Hart watched Julian Lawson come home with an eighteen-year-old model on his arm. Her fingers tightened around the late-stage stomach cancer diagnosis, while he mocked her without even blinking. "If I'm not marrying her, what, you think I should marry you?" Aria had given him ten full years, only to be repaid with the news that Julian was going to marry someone else. This time, she neither argued nor fought. After calling the hospital and agreeing to go abroad for treatment, she quietly disappeared. She thought it would end cleanly there, but after Aria left, Julian completely lost his mind. He ran from his wedding in front of everyone, put all his work on hold, and searched for her across the world. Eventually, he found information about Aria at the hospital. The nurse frowned. "Are you her family member?" Julian nodded urgently. "I'm her husband!" The nurse shook her head. "That's impossible. She said she has no family member. And she isn't here anymore."

Amy didn't expect that her husband whom she had loved and trusted earnestly for many years would be cheating on her by having sex with his secretary. When she confronted him, he and his secretary mocked and ridiculed her, they called her barren to her face, afterall, she had not conceived for the past three years that she had been married to her husband, Callan. Terribly Heartbroken, she filed for divorce and left to the club, she picked a random gigolo, had a hot one night stand with him, paid him and dissapeared to a small city. She came back to the country six years later with three identical cute boys and three identical cute girls of the same age. She settled and got a job but soon find out that her CEO was the gigolo she had sex with six years back at the club. Will she be able to hide her six little cuties from her CEO, who happens to be the most powerful man in NorthHill and beleived to be infertile? Can Amy and the most powerful man in NorthHill get along considering the social gap between them.