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Despite being an easy target for bullies; Tessa O'Bailey never got bullied. The bullies weren't scared of her but they never touched her either. And Tessa had no idea why but she was glad, at least she could now do whatever she wanted but when she somehow got into detention with the school's bad boy, it didn't take long for her to realize why.
Tessa blinked her a hundred and one times before finding lifting her eyelashes that seemed extra heavy that morning. She groaned as she pulled herself out of bed. The wall clock on the locker beside her read a few minutes past 5am and Tessa sighed softly while walking towards the bathroom.
There was only one reason why Tessa woke up as early as 5am on school days. So that she could get to school early and find somewhere to hide before she became the butt of their jokes r even bullied in itself.
She stared at herself in the mirror in front of her while brushing her teeth. The dye of her hair was beginning of wear off and she mentally reminded herself to either wash the dye off or re-dye her hair. Re-dying her hair seemed to appeal more to her and within minutes, Tessa was done washing her teeth. She ran her hands through her hair and she finally got a good look at herself in the mirror.
There were dark circles underneath her eyes from sleeping late and waking up early, lack of sleep. Her coffee brown eyes were slightly sunken in and her straight nose seemed to have an edge. She pursed her small pouty lips against herself in the mirror before shaking her head.
She looked way too easy and that was why she was always bullied. She didn't have the confidence or the energy to fight back either so instead of allowing them to constantly bully her all the time, Tessa found another option.
Avoiding them.
And for the past two to three months, she had been able to flawlessly avoid these bullies. She always arrived very early to school and hid somewhere; she never came out unless the classes had started and somehow she was able to escape their radar like that.
As it had been working for the past two months, Tessa planned to continue like that, she didn't have any other plans in order to escape their bullying so she had to continue with this one.
By few minutes to 7 am, Tessa was already making her way down the streets towards the bus stop. There were already few people at the bus stop waiting for the 7am bus. The woman with the crying child, the sophisticated lady who was all dressed up for work, the woman with two super naughty kids and a few other people.
Tessa realized that for the past two months, she never failed to see these particular people while waiting for the 7am bus. She gave a nod in greeting and it was the just the women with kids that replied her. The other sophisticated lady was busy glancing at her watch from time to time. As soon as the bus arrived, everyone filed in a straight line and got on the bus while sliding their bus cards st the door.
Tessa slid her hands into the pockets of her hoodie with her other hand dangling beside her. There was soon a problem, the mother of the two naughty children was having a hard time sliding her bus card. The counter showed red each time she slid it across. There was not enough card in the card to go round.
"I re-filled it yesterday" the woman complained while wearing a distressed face. She couldn't afford to come down from the bus, she was going to be late for work and her children were going to be late for school as well. She looked towards the person in front of her for help but the latter didn't say anything before walking towards her seat.
Tessa swallowed her saliva as she smiled at the woman and slid her card "For all of us she muttered quietly and everyone turned to her immediately. The woman had tears in her eyes as she grabbed Tessa's hand and thanked her.
"Thank you so much" she said and Tessa nodded before walking to the end of the bus and finding her usual seat beside the window. She plopped down on the chair while looking outside at the cars that moved with the early morning clouds.
As expected, very few students were in the school as Tess walked into the school compound, she rolled her eyes at the huge blocked inscription beside the walls of the school compound. MACPHERSON HIGH SCHOOL.
Macpherson High School was the school for the rich of the rich, it was owned by the Macpherson family, one of the biggest and most popular family in America and its environs. As much as it was only rich kids that attended Macpherson, there was still hierarchy and societal status. And it was the societal status and hierarchy that left the slightly unsocial Tessa at the bottom of the food chain where she can easily be bullied.
She easily slipped into the school building murmuring the lyrics of a song she was yet to know the artiste as she found her way to the rooftop. The rooftop of the Sophomores had been Tessa's haven for a while now; when she had found the place, it was dusty and dirty and signs of human lives couldn't be found there. It greatly surprised Tessa as these were places where the cool kids would usually hang out but then Macpherson had a lot of cooler places than a rooftop to hang out.
She had quietly cleaned the place up and fixed the chairs there, there was a resting place where she could catch up on her sleep whenever she slept really late. Sometimes she sat near the railings and watched as other students trailed into school chatting happily and gossiping about parties that happened the night before, parties that Tessa had never gotten an opportunity to attend in her entire life.
She dropped her bag on the floor while trying to fish out her ear pods from the pocket of her bag. She yawned lightly as she climbed into the resting chair she had made for herself and opened her phone while tapping on the Netflix app. She fixed her ear pods in her ears while resuming the series she had slept off while watching the night before.
She was so engrossed in her movie that she didn't realize that uproar that was going on at the school that present moment. It wasn't until her alarm went off that Tessa jumped to her feet and carried her bag while hurrying down the stairs and avoiding attention. She cursed inwardly as she tried to squeeze herself through the horde of students in the hallway.
She had forgotten that today was Thursday and on Thursdays, she was supposed to set her alarm to ring at least ten minutes earlier. She had Ethnics class and a not so Mr Friendly Gordon taught them. he was strict and well overly dramatic, any student that entered class after him got detention.
Everyone hated detention so they did always make up to come extra early on Thursdays, even the wannabe queens and cheerleaders always made sure they came early but somehow this particular Thursday, fate wasn't on Tessa's side. Her phone buzzed in her hands again and Tessa's face instantly morphed into that of irritation and annoyance pushing past the students while ignoring the ones that were yelling at her.
She was already three minutes late and she started praying inwardly for something to hold Mr Gordon down but by the time she arrived at the door of the class, she already knew that God didn't answer her so not worthy prayer.
The man in the class stopped teaching and turned to Tessa with his usual stoic and friendless face. Tessa sighed inwardly, she should have known that prayers wouldn't work on someone like Mr Gordon, he was never late to class.
Ever.
"Miss Tessa, do you care to tell the class why are you coming to class at five minutes past 9?" Mr Gordon asked and Tessa swallowed her saliva trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't get her into detention.
She obviously couldn't say she had been in school since few minutes past 7am and because she was trying to avoid bullies, she had to hide in a rooftop till classes started. Tessa knew the slightly older man would just snort at her and send her straight into the detention.
"I woke up late" Tessa replied dropping her head and trying not to make contact with the Mr Gordon's eyes.
"This is your first time and for saying the truth, I won't give you detention. You just have to listen well in this class, make a note out of it, print them and send them to everyone in the class. we'll have a test on that next week" Mr Gordon replied and the class started murmuring.
Grateful for the not so heavy punishment; Tessa quickly nodded her head at him.
"Thank you Mr Gordon" Tessa replied as she walked into the class and flew towards her seat.
"You must be nuts!"
"I may not know what you want or what you like or whatnot but you have shown me that you want out of this marriage and that's one thing that I know I'm going to help you with it" Callum replied and Athaliah smiled mirthlessly. "That is what you want. That's what you've always wanted. You are the one who went to work on our wedding night without saying a word to me. You are the one who leaves the house before I wake up and come back when I'm asleep. You are the one who treats me like a plague, someone you can't stand for a long time, and you've done that for two years Callum and now you dare to stand in front of me and tell me I showed you I wanted out of this marriage" Athaliah said shaking her head. "How dare you?" she shot at him. **************************** Bound by a marriage forged in the crucible of misunderstanding, Athaliah and Callum found themselves tethered to a union neither of them wanted. Athaliah' compelled by familial duty and Callum, driven by his grandfather's desire. The union was doomed to crumble and fail. Within a mere two years, after his grandfather's death, the ties that bond them together snapped, and with two signatures, their paths were set separate and different from each other. Fate, that fickle mistress, intervened years later, bringing them back to each other's orbit igniting the spark and electric connection anew and the both of them dared to grasp at the second chance fate had offered. But then again, history began to repeat itself, patterns began to replay, and Athaliah and Callum are faced with their shared past, forced to confront the ghosts of their past. With new revelations and unfolding layers of complexity, the fabric of their relationship was stretching thin, and Athaliah's perception is shattered after unearthing a scared truth.
Samantha McCartney is turned into the laughing stock of her family when her childhood crush and soon-to-be husband a wedding ring on her younger sister's instead of her on their wedding day. Devastated and heartbroken, Samantha gets drunk and ends up having a one-night stand with someone she had only seen on TV and more; happened to be the estranged stepbrother of her childhood crush.
"What if I don't fall in love with you?" she asked apprehensively. Instead, his lips curved into a small smile that messed with her chest. "You will" he replied confidently and she knew at that moment that she already had. --------------------------------------------- A loveless marriage. Her parents' mysterious death. Dangerous secrets. Zaria Williams would do anything to find out who caused her parents' death and why. Taking over their company and ending her loveless marriage after disappearing for one year was the first step. With her two brothers as the last of her family, Zaria is further pulled into a web of dangerous secrets and dangerous territories even without having any idea of it. And there was only one reason, he protected her without question, without a word, without she even having an idea of it.
THE MONTELLE FAMILY SERIES (BOOK ONE) “Julian?” the latter called out in shock and surprise as Julian sucked in a breadth and turned to face the latter maintaining his flat expression. “When did you come back?” the latter asked again. The question instantly made a plethora of memories wash over Julian. He discovered he could remember everything that happened that day clearly as if it had happened the previous day. He remembered every word and everything that had happened and they seemed to suck the air of his lungs and as his legs almost turned to powder. His trust was broken and his so called loved ones betrayed him. Not even one of them remained; they had all taken his side and left him stranded and all alone. With his father's threat of giving his company to charity if he didn’t come home; Julian Montelle is forced to abandon the life he had built for himself in Hong Kong. Coming back to the place that held the worst and horrid memories for him wasn’t an option but for some unknown reason. Julian found himself getting on a plane and getting back to take back his rightful heritage and property. This time around, he came back to take revenge on everyone who had something to do with what happened back then and who had abandoned him. And as well this time around, he wasn't alone and had someone who stood beside him without any questions.
When Gianna Emerson best friend gets dumped by her boyfriend; Gianna is determined to make him go through the same pain and hurt he made her best friend go through. Get close to him, make him fall in love with her and then mercilessly dump him. It was the most perfect and flawless plan except that it didn’t involve Gianna falling helplessly in love with him. What’s more, her Favourite rule of friend is “though shall not fall in love with your friend’s ex”
Since when they were little, Gabriella Armani had developed a huge crush on her elder brother’s best friend but the latter had never given her attention or even treated her like her a girl, he had always treated her like a younger sister; much to Gabriella’s annoyance. After severally promising to marry him when she grew up, she left the country or her studies. Never in his life did Kiley imagine that a point in his life, he would start to see Gabriella Armani as woman and not as the younger sister who followed him everywhere.
Allison fell in love with Ethan Iversen, the soon-to-be Alpha of the Moonlight Crown pack. She always wanted him to notice her. Meanwhile, Ethan was an arrogant Alpha who thought a weak Omega could not be his companion. Ethan's cousin, Ryan Iversen, who came back from abroad and was the actual heir of the pack, never tried to get the position nor did he show any interest in it. He was a popular playboy Alpha but when he came back to the pack, one thing captured his eyes and that was Allison.
"Carroll Brown is dead! But you have to marry him in your sister's name." My mother said to me in a cold tone. My sister was engaged to the hottest billionaire. It should have been a perfect marriage. Unexpectedly, Carroll was dead in an accident. My sister didn't want to become a widow, so she forced me to marry her dead fiance. And I had no right to refuse her. Actually, I was the biological daughter of the Smith family. My sister was an adoptive one. My sister and I had been swapped at the hospital when we were just born. My parents had already had a deep relationship with her. So they chose to sacrifice me. On the wedding day, I was taken to the mourning hall. "Ma'am, please keep Master company and let him feel warm." The housekeeper said with a cold expression. I couldn't help but look up at the portrait above the coffin, and my heart skipped a beat at this glance. The man in the portrait was more handsome than the superstars in Hollywood. Carroll Brown? My dead husband? Wow, he was really handsome! I didn't know how long had passed when my stomach began to rebel. After one glance at the coffin, I swallowed my saliva and then begged with my fingers crossed. "Mr. Carroll, I'm starving! May I eat your pastries? You don't mind, do you?" "I do." "Ah!" Scared, I broke out in a cold sweat. My legs went limp, and I fell to the ground. I shouted, "Ghost!" Carroll curled his lips, leaned over, and touched the black coffin. "Mr. Carroll has risen from the dead. What do you think of this headline tomorrow?"
Her fiance and her best friend worked together and set her up. She lost everything and died in the street. However, she was reborn. The moment she opened her eyes, her husband was trying to strangle her. Luckily, she survived that. She signed the divorce agreement without hesitation and was ready for her miserable life. To her surprise, her mother in this life left her a great deal of money. She turned the tables and avenged herself. Everything went well in her career and love when her ex-husband came to her.
"Sign the divorce papers and get out!" Leanna got married to pay a debt, but she was betrayed by her husband and shunned by her in-laws. Seeing that her efforts were in vain, she agreed to divorce and claimed her half of the properties. With her purse plump from the settlement, Leanna enjoyed her newfound freedom. The constant harassment from her ex's mistress never fazed her. She took back her identities as top hacker, champion racer, medical professor, and renowned jewelry designer. Then someone discovered her secret. Matthew smiled. "Will you have me as your next husband?"
Madison had always believed that she would marry Colten. She spent her youth admiring him from afar, dreaming of their future life together. But Colten was always indifferent to her, and when he abandoned her at a time when she needed him most, she finally realized that he never loved her. With renewed resolve and a thirst for revenge, Madison left. Endless possibilities lay ahead, but Colten was no longer part of her plans. Colten rushed to her place in a panic. "Madison, please come back to me. I’ll give you everything!" It was his powerful uncle who answered the door. "She's my woman now."
Sheila had her back against the wall when her family tried to force her to marry an awful old man. In a fit of rage, she hired a gigolo to act as her husband. She thought the gigolo needed money and did this for a living. Little did she know that he was nothing like that. One day, he pulled off his mask and revealed himself to be the world's top magnate. This marked the beginning of their love. He showered her with everything she could ever want. They were happy. However, unexpected circumstances soon posed a threat to their love. Would Sheila and her husband make it through the storm? Find out!