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.
Julian took a deep breath as soon as the sounds of the plane tires rolled out from behind the plane with a loud bang; they had landed. He was back; he was back to this place where he had the worst memories and he never wanted to come back but he had to. Following the instructions given by the intercom, he joined other passengers as he stepped out of the plane. He adjusted the glasses on his face while he walked towards the baggage claim area to collect his luggage.
Dragging the box after him, the first people he noticed in the airport hallway were the men in black suits standing outside waiting for god knows who. Well Julian knew who they were waiting for. As he got closer to them, two of them walked up to him and bowed in a show of courtesy.
"Welcome back" one of them said as Julian furrowed his brows at him.
"Andres" Julian called out as the latter wore a soft smile and nodded.
"You remember me" he replied as Julian nodded and left the luggage he was dragging along with him slipping his hands into his pocket while he walked towards the car. With one last look at the airport, he got into the car and the door was closed behind him.
He chuckled at his father's effort at making him feel comfortable when he got back. Sending him his former bodyguards but they were grown up now. Julian could of course recognise all the bodyguards that stood in front of him and the driver who drove? He also remembered the latter clearly. They all used to work for him during his high school days.
At the thought of high school, Julian removed his sunglasses and glanced outside the window trying to check for what had changed in the streets of California. Seeing that nothing big had changed; he retrieved his eyes back and laid them to rest while lowering his eyelids. He didn't open his eyes until the car came to a stop. The door opened as immediately he felt forest breeze on his skin; Julian knew he was home. He opened his eyes and stepped out of the car.
"Your father is in his study" Andres said and Julian nodded at him before walking into the house.
As he climbed the stairs, Julian noticed that except for the chairs and the curtains. Nothing really had changed in the house. He had been gone for over six years yet nothing much had changed. He knocked lightly on the door of the study as a soft yet firm voice drifted into his ears.
"Come in"
Julian pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Like before, the study reeked of the smell of old books. A smell that Julian had never been comfortable with and was still not comfortable with.
"If I didn't tender my letter of resignation, you really wouldn't come back; would you?" the older man seating on the chair and going through some documents asked as soon as Julian stepped into the room.
He dropped the papers in his hands and turned to face Julian. Seeing the older man face, it wasn't hard to realize that they were father and son. Julian was more like the younger version except that he was more handsome. Julian easily took notice of the grey hair and aged face of his father, the past years seemed to have taken a toll on him and not that Julian gave two fucks whether the years had worn him out or not.
"Do you really think I want to be here?" Julian asked in a grim voice as his father smiled at him.
"This is your home; why wouldn't you want to come home?" he asked in reply as Julian snorted.
"Home? Home?" Julian asked again as he chuckled.
"Do you even know what a home is?" Julian asked irritated but his voice remained the same.
"Now, that I'm taking over the company tomorrow. Do not put your hand in my business or anything that concerns the company" Julian said as the older man nodded.
"I won't put your hand in your business or anything that concerns the company" he said and Julian opened as he turned to leave.
"Wait" the older man said as Julian stopped and turned to him.
"Your secretary. You can't change her" the older man said as Julian furrowed his brows.
"You absolutely can't change her" he repeated as Julian glanced at him before walking out of the study. The older man laughed lightly as he shook his head.
"Still as headstrong as before" he muttered as he returned back to his documents.
Julian slowly pushed the door of his room open. The room was still the same way as he had left it. As he stepped into the room, he dropped his phone on the table before walking towards the windows and pushing them open.
He stared across the windows towards the lush pasture that stretched after the mansion. The breeze blew inside the room and Julian released a sigh he didn't even realize he was holding. From the trees to the shrubs and to the flowers, Julian could see that they had been well kept and maintained. He heaved a sigh of relief as he turned back towards the room and peeled off his clothes as he stepped into the shower.
Water spluttered out from all the sides of the wall on his body before they slid down to the cold tiles then into the perforated hoes at the end of the bathroom. Julian rested his hand on the wall pushing his body underneath the onslaught of the shower heads allowing the water to run freely all over his body. He turned the shower heads off as he was done and stepped back into the room as he changed into a pair of long joggers and a huge shirt.
He picked his phone and saw that he already had two missed calls. Seeing the caller ID, he didn't hesitate before calling back. He pressed the phone to his ears and after two rings, the other person answered the call.
"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.
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.
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.
Life was perfect until she met her boyfriend's big brother. There was a forbidden law in the Night Shade Pack that if the head Alpha rejected his mate, he would be stripped of his position. Sophia's life would get connected with the law. She was an Omega who was dating the head Alpha's younger brother. Bryan Morrison, the head Alpha, was not only a cold-blooded man but also a charming business tycoon. His name was enough to cause other packs to tremble. He was known as a ruthless man. What if, by some twist of destiny, Sophia's path were to intertwine with his?
I received a pornographic video. "Do you like this?" The man speaking in the video is my husband, Mark, whom I haven't seen for several months. He is naked, his shirt and pants scattered on the ground, thrusting forcefully on a woman whose face I can't see, her plump and round breasts bouncing vigorously. I can clearly hear the slapping sounds in the video, mixed with lustful moans and grunts. "Yes, yes, fuck me hard, baby," the woman screams ecstatically in response. "You naughty girl!" Mark stands up and flips her over, slapping her buttocks as he speaks. "Stick your ass up!" The woman giggles, turns around, sways her buttocks, and kneels on the bed. I feel like someone has poured a bucket of ice water on my head. It's bad enough that my husband is having an affair, but what's worse is that the other woman is my own sister, Bella. ************************************************************************************************************************ “I want to get a divorce, Mark,” I repeated myself in case he didn't hear me the first time—even though I knew he'd heard me clearly. He stared at me with a frown before answering coldly, "It's not up to you! I'm very busy, don't waste my time with such boring topics, or try to attract my attention!" The last thing I was going to do was argue or bicker with him. "I will have the lawyer send you the divorce agreement," was all I said, as calmly as I could muster. He didn't even say another word after that and just went through the door he'd been standing in front of, slamming it harshly behind him. My eyes lingered on the knob of the door a bit absentmindedly before I pulled the wedding ring off my finger and placed it on the table. I grabbed my suitcase, which I'd already had my things packed in and headed out of the house.
After a heated confrontation with her husband and mistress, Brianna was pushed down to stairs. She thought she would die but when she woke up again, she realized that she traveled back two years ago, when it was not late for her to correct her path. The first thing she needed to do when she was reborn was divorce that scum. She saved from the darkest time but he lied to her and murdered her in the end. This time, she would not repeat the same mistakes anymore. She would bring the glory of her family back and make those people who betrayed her pay the price! However, in the process of climbing up to the peak of her career, she met a very intimidating and handsome man who kept on messing with her head through his bold attitude. Brianna doesn't want to be involved with another man again, for she has proven to herself that they will just drag her down, but her constant incidents with him are slowly breaking the wall she built to protect her heart. Brianna will surely choose her career over a man this time, but it's possible to choose both, right? What if he hurt her too? No! She won't risk it but. "You have to run away from me, Bree. Coz I'm done running away, I'll chase you now."
"Love is blind!" Lucinda abandoned her beautiful and comfortable life because of a man. She married him and slaved off for him for three long years. One day, the scales finally fell off her eyes. She realized that all her efforts were in vain. Her husband, Nathaniel still treated her like shit. All he cared about was his lover. "Enough is enough! I quit wasting my years with an ungrateful man!" Lucinda's heart was shattered into many pieces, but she summoned up the courage to ask for a divorce. The news caused a stir online! A filthy rich young woman recently got divorced? She was a good catch! Countless CEOs and handsome young men immediately swarmed to her like bees to honey! Nathaniel couldn't take it anymore. He held a press conference and begged with teary eyes, "I love you, Lucinda. I can't live without you. Please come back to me." Would Lucinda give him a second chance? Read to find out!
Everyone was shocked to the bones when the news of Rupert Benton's engagement broke out. It was surprising because the lucky girl was said to be a plain Jane, who grew up in the countryside and had nothing to her name. One evening, she showed up at a banquet, stunning everyone present. "Wow, she's so beautiful!" All the men drooled, and the women got so jealous. What they didn't know was that this so-called country girl was actually an heiress to a billion-dollar empire. It wasn't long before her secrets came to light one after the other. The elites couldn't stop talking about her. "Holy smokes! So, her father is the richest man in the world?" "She's also that excellent, but mysterious designer who many people adore! Who would have guessed?" Nonetheless, people thought that Rupert didn't love her. But they were in for another surprise. Rupert released a statement, silencing all the naysayers. "I'm very much in love with my beautiful fiancee. We will be getting married soon." Two questions were on everyone's minds: "Why did she hide her identity? And why was Rupert in love with her all of a sudden?"
After three loveless years, Neil's betrayal deeply wounded Katelyn. She wasted no time in getting rid of that scoundrel! After the divorce, she devoted herself to career pursuits. Rising to prominence as a top designer, skilled doctor, and brilliant hacker, she became a revered icon. Neil, realizing his grave mistake, tried in vain to win her back, only to witness her magnificent wedding to another. As their vows were broadcast on the world's largest billboard, Vincent slid a ring onto Katelyn's finger and declared, "Katelyn is now my wife, a priceless treasure. Let all who covet her beware!"