Maya Picori didn't have a normal childhood. After her father died when she was only ten years old, Maya's mother became a sex worker at home. There were always naked men walking in their house. Maya was just curious about the things her mother did. But curiosity can be dangerous. Men will be lying, taking advantage of her innocence. And now she is paying the price. Tears are running down my face. 'Mom, I'm pregnant.' I felt the pain she left behind by slapping me across my face. I lower my head. I don't want her to hit me again, just by looking at her. I take a step back, now with my back against the door, I have no way to go. 'No, you're not! You told me you didn't have a boyfriend! Don't lie to me, Maya!' she screams at my face. 'Look at me you slut!' I was kicked out of the house that day. I'm 15 years old, pregnant and homeless. This is my story. It's full of love, lies and betrayal.
MAYA
I had been running for a while now. I did something stupid. The secret is out. It was not my intension for my boss to find me while hugging the toilet yesterday. She thought I was just lazy, taking another break after my lunch ended. She hated me from the beginning, but only gave me a job because she knew my mother. I threw up three times before she helped me to the sink and cleaned my face. She looked up to me, my boss Chrissie was an old lady and really tiny. She asked me one question:
'Are you pregnant?'
I assumed she was just crazy and I was just getting sick. But what if I wasn't? I took a test out of the grocery store I worked at to be sure.
I run upstairs to the third floor of the building and open the front door. I found my mother in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Her blond curly hair up in a messy bun. I looked a lot like her, but with darker hair and skintone. My stepdad Vin is sitting on the couch, watching a tv show about gold hunters. Of course, with a bottle of beer in his hands, like always. He loves beer.
My mother looks up from the veggies she was cutting and sees me standing, sweating and panting against the door. 'Maya, what's wrong? Did something happen?'
'I did something stupid.' My eyes go from my mother to Vin and back again. They both look confused.
My mother lays down the knife she was holding and walks away from the counter. 'What did you do?' My mother has always been strict. Go to church, do your chores, don't dress slutty, no boyfriends, all that kind of shit. She was not prepared for what I'm about to tell her. All her radars are going wild in her head now.
I just shake my head, while I feel tears forming in my eyes. 'I didn't want to tell them, but Chrissie found out. I couldn't lie anymore. I don't know what to do mom.'
'Maya Picori, what the hell did you do?' Only anger was coming from her now. I know this look. She was going to hit me if I lied.
Tears are running down my face. 'Mom, I'm pregnant.' I felt the pain she left behind by slapping me across my face. I lower my head. I don't want her to hit me again just by looking at her. I take a step back, now with my back against the door, I have no way to go.
'No, you're not! You told me you didn't have a boyfriend! Don't lie to me, Maya!' she screams at my face. 'Look at me you slut!'
I look up, totally shaking with fear for her. She didn't care for me, not anymore. Not for a long time now.
'I didn't lie, mom.' I couldn't even step away when she tilted up her arm to hit me again. My cheek burned and I almost fell over to the ground when she hit me.
'You are a slut! You are a foul creature. I'm ashamed of you. How could you even stand here? You are a whore, a slut, Maya.'
'What did you say to me?' I suddenly felt my anger getting stronger. How could she say that to me? After all, she is the hooker, the slut, the sex worker. Well, at least she was. For almost five years she got paid to have sex with men. If it wasn't for my stepfather Vin, she still would have been.
'Well, you heard me!' My mother takes a step back, with disgust for me.
I look over to Vin. He hasn't said anything this whole time. He isn't moving. It's like he's been frozen onto the couch. 'Vin please, say something.' I beg him, but he ignores me and only looks at my mother with pain in his eyes. 'Please.'
'Maya, leave him alone. He is not your father.'
I want to scream. She doesn't know anything. 'But mom...' I can't finish my sentence. I fell to my right when my mother hits me again. My head hit the small table next to the door. The faze with cute little flowers in it, tumbles down after me. Tiny little pieces of glass lay all around me. Black dots are forming in my eyes, until the only thing I see is black.
I wake up laying on the couch. My head hurts like hell. Not only my cheek burns from being hit by my mother, but there is something on the left side of my head. My hand is touching something wet. I pick it up. I almost scream when I see a white little towel with my blood on it. Then I remember hitting my head. I slowly turn my head to the door and see the table, but the pieces of glass and the flowers are gone.
I can hear my mother crying in her bedroom. When she told me, Vin asked her to move in with her, I never could have thought I was going to live in an apartment this small. The couch almost filled the whole apartment. There is a tv hanging on the wall, a blue rug, and the now empty table next to the door. The kitchen is next to the tv, with only a sink, a coffee maker and a fridge. The counter we also use to eat from. It barely fit three chairs. But above all: Vin's apartment only had one bedroom. I had to sleep on the couch for almost three years now. Did I need to go to the bathroom, I had to go through their bedroom. Did I need clothes, I had to walk past their bed to get it. They slept naked by the way, my mom and Vin. Vin was nice to me, maybe too nice. He took me to fun trips, like the beach and Disneyland. Fun thing my mother didn't take me to.
'I don't know what to do with her.' my mother says. Once again, the thin walls of their bedroom behind my couch are a nightmare. I can hear everything they say, even when they talk soft to each other.
'She is your daughter.' Vin said to her. 'Who is she been sleeping with?'
'I don't know.' My mother's cries, but are being silenced. Great, they're kissing now. I heard enough. She only cared who I was sleeping with. She didn't even ask me how far I was with my pregnancy or how I felt about it. If I was keeping it or taking it away. She really thought I was a whore. She wouldn't believe even if I told her the truth. I ignore the pain in my heart and walk to the fridge to fill a big glass with Fanta. It's cold and exactly what I need right now. I sit down on the floor and take a big sip. Then I hear the sound of their bed squeaking. Really? I told them I was pregnant and they're having sex? I close my eyes and lift my hands up to my ears.
'Oh, Vin. Harder, harder.' my mother screams in pleasure.
I don't want to cry, but I do. Is it the hormones already? Or is it because they have sex, with knowing I could hear everything?
After a while the squeaking sound stopped. I drink the rest of my Fanta. Then my mother steps out of her room, wearing nothing but a pink silk bathrobe.
'Here.' she throws my schoolbag next to me on the ground. I look at it in disbelieve. What does it mean? 'Vin and I talked.' She sighed and exhaled a few times. Then Vin hugged her from behind, giving her strength to say what she needs to say. 'We decided you can't live here anymore. I packed your bag with some clothes and other things you'll need. There is enough money for you to take a bus to Tucson to go to your aunt's house. We can't raise a baby here and we don't want too either. I can't even look at you.' She buries her face in Vin's chest, crying again.
'Maya, just take your bag and go. I want you out of my house.' Vin finally spoke with a soft but angry voice. I just looked at him with tears in my eyes. I had hope he would talk my mother out of this, but he didn't. 'Now, Maya.'
I pick up my schoolbag and go. Yes, I'm fifteen years old, I'm pregnant and now homeless.
All I knew was: My life would never be the same again....
What if you actually have nine lives and only have four left? My name is Carmen and this shit all started at the day I was born. There was a witch that cursed me to this fate. The only way to survive is when I turn eighteen with still one or more lives left. But how older I get, how harder it is to survive. Not only a group of scientists are looking for me, to test me, cut me open, to let me die again. Now there is someone else looking for me too. A priest who believes I made a deal with the devil. How am I ever going to live when everyone wants me dead? Ps: there will be some cursing about and against god. I'm so very sorry if I offend you in any way. Pps: I'm Dutch, English is not my first language.
What if your family is one of the most famous families of the word, all but you? Your whole life you are kept hidden away. They threat you like dirt, like you don't even matter. While all you want is to be seen. Not by the whole world like your family members, but by your mom, the one that supposed to take care of you but hasn't spoken to you in months. This is the reality of Shelly Weekland. Mistreated, bullied, abused, tortured, ignored. While her family is living the happy life in their own realityshow, their lives aren't that perfect when the camera's are off. Every single one of them has their own secrets, their own stories and somehow Shelly knows them all. But is it safe to know so much?
July Greek (18) grew up in a world of money problems, alcohol and drugs. She has a brother and two sisters, all from different fathers but the same mother. Their lives weren't easy. They have been homeless, they have been abused, they have been mistreated and drugged. They don't tell anyone about their lives and keep to themselves. Oldest brother Sept moved away a long time ago, leaving oldest sister Marchi to the task of taking care of mom and her sisters July and Deci. But then one day mother gets arrested and all goes to shit. Their house got broken into, Marchi gets fired and child protective services tries to take Deci away. Men are hunting them. Their mom is hiding something and they think the sisters know where it is. It's not safe for them to stay home. Who are those men? What has mom been hiding from them? Who can they trust? Where is Sept? The hunt begins. Ps: I'm Dutch, English is not my first language. I'm sorry if I made any spelling mistakes.
Nova Hawk has it all. Money, reputation, a loving family and amazing friends. But she lost it all when she wakes up in the middle of the night after her eighteenth birthday party. Someone is in her room. She gets kidnapped by a group of six men that form a rockband that tour around America, giving concerts along the way. The lead singer Brad is the scariest of the six men, he also claims to be her biological father. After a while Nova finds herself enjoying the freedom she never had. She learns to play electric guitar, she travels to places she never went and feels closer to her mother that ever. Will she choose to stay in the live of rock, sex and alcohol? Or will she escape her horny father and friends to live with her younger sister at her aunt's house? Ps: I'm Dutch, English is not my first language. I'm sorry if I made any spelling mistakes. Pps: Be aware of strong language, abuse and rapings. Don't read it if it's too dark.
Dying a miserable death in the cold palace as a dethroned empress, Shen Ninghua wakes up, finding herself still alive. Her second life starts anew from a scene years ago when she was a girl and survived a plot designed to kill her. Now a phoenix reborn, she realizes the people who hurt her most are actually her family and she vows to take revenge on all of them: ruthless ex-husband and emperor, callous father, crafty step mother, vicious sister, hypocritical grandmother.... She has made up her mind to be a revengeful and loveless monster, determined to depend on and trust no man. But why is this handsome, mysterious, and powerful Chu Junyi helping her all the time? Tap to explore the epic journey of revenge and romance in Shen Ninghua’s thrilling second life.
In the previous life, Maggie Johnson was so cowardly, gullible and stupid that she was coaxed by her fiance and stepsister and then broke her legs and lost everything including her fortune, love and even life. However, she was so lucky that she was reborn in the year before everything happened. Since her life restarted, how could she repeat a previous tragedy? Therefore, in this life, she took the opportunity to improve herself and take revenge on the ones who had ever insulted her. Facing the people who had humiliated her previously, she became smart and experienced to break their frames and tricks that had caused her to hurt in the previous life. Finally, no one could stop her pace to amaze the world any more.
Rejected by her mate, who had been her long-time crush, Jasmine felt utterly humiliated. Seeking solace, she headed to a party to drown her sorrows. But things took a turn for the worse when her friends issued a cruel dare: kiss a stranger or beg her mate for forgiveness. With no other choice, Jasmine approached a stranger and kissed him, thinking that would be the end of it. However, the stranger unexpectedly wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, "You're mine!" He growled, his words sending shivers down her spine. And then, he offered her a solution that would change everything...
On her wedding day, Khloe’s sister connived with her groom, framing her for a crime she didn’t commit. She was sentenced to three years in prison, where she endured much suffering. When Khloe was finally released, her evil sister used their mother to coerce Khloe into an indecent liaison with an elderly man. As fate would have it, Khloe crossed paths with Henrik, the dashing yet ruthless mobster who sought to alter the course of her life. Despite Henrik’s cold exterior, he cherished Khloe like no other. He helped her take retribution from her tormentors and kept her from being bullied again.
Everyone thought Lorenzo truly loved Gracie, until the day of their daughter’s heart surgery. To Gracie’s utter shock, Lorenzo gave the precious organ needed by their child to another woman. Devastated, Gracie opted for a divorce. Fueled by her need for revenge, Gracie joined hands with Lorenzo’s uncle, Waylon, and orchestrated Lorenzo’s downfall. In the end, Lorenzo was left with nothing and consumed by remorse. He pleaded for a reconciliation. Gracie thought she was free to move on with her life, but Waylon held her back in a death grip. “Did you think you can just walk out on me?”
Dear readers, this book has resumed daily updates. It took Sabrina three whole years to realize that her husband, Tyrone didn't have a heart. He was the coldest and most indifferent man she had ever met. He never smiled at her, let alone treated her like his wife. To make matters worse, the return of the woman he had eyes for brought Sabrina nothing but divorce papers. Sabrina's heart broke. Hoping that there was still a chance for them to work on their marriage, she asked, "Quick question,Tyrone. Would you still divorce me if I told you that I was pregnant?" "Absolutely!" he responded. Realizing that she didn't mean shit to him, Sabrina decided to let go. She signed the divorce agreement while lying on her sickbed with a broken heart. Surprisingly, that wasn't the end for the couple. It was as if scales fell off Tyrone's eyes after she signed the divorce agreement. The once so heartless man groveled at her bedside and pleaded, "Sabrina, I made a big mistake. Please don't divorce me. I promise to change." Sabrina smiled weakly, not knowing what to do...