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A love story that ended in tears. A cheating scandal. A heartbroken man. A dark past. Venita Kent is desperate to find a job but she keeps hitting brick walls. Until she doesn't. A company has finally hired her and she walks in to find herself the personal assistant to the man she was in love with eight years ago. He hates her, for good reason because she shattered his heart to dust and he is only so happy to make her life a living hell. Amidst unresolved emotions, their new dynamics, her twisted present, and her dark past will these two lovers find each other again?
Venita
The cab pulls up in front of my home and I get out and fish around inside my purse. The pathetic jingle of a coin or three tinkling together greets me. I pay the cabbie and then he is on his way. With a sigh, I shut my wallet and stuff it into the back pocket of my worn jeans.
Home, I think, staring up at the apartment complex sprawled in front of me.
The word apartment complex is way too luxurious for the place I call home. The building is on the poorer side of Los Angeles. Just like everywhere else, there is the elite, expensive side where the socialites stay, the orderly side where the average men stay and then there is this side. This is the side that everyone wishes was coloured out of the maps.
I continue forward, my shoes slapping against the floor, loud in the silence of the night. My heels are in my hand as they are every other night. After spending the entire day on my feet in heels, I would rather walk barefoot home than spend one more second in those damn traps.
I push our huge main door in. There should be a doorman here, or at least a guard. Our landlord does not have the extra penny to waste on security for people like us though. This building is inhabited by people that others should guard against.
Unlike the outside of the building, the inside is quite noisy. The thin walls offer the residents no privacy. I hear a couple arguing, a baby crying, someone's phone ringing. The tiny lobby is also unmanned, and in fact many people use it to keep the few broken and useless things they don't want anymore. It will all be emptied, eventually. I walk faster, in a hurry to get out of the halls and into the relative safety of my apartment which is on the third floor.
"Shoot." I say, glancing at the huge wall clock hoisted just before the stairs. It is a miracle the thing still works. I am quite sure the batteries have not been changed in more than a year. I am later than usual today, but I did take up two shifts and still stayed an hour extra. It is past midnight.
The stairs creak under my feet like the groaning of ghosts, my weight causing each one to sag suspiciously. They will collapse one day, and I had better not be the one on the stairs when that happens.
On the second floor, a door opens and someone hurries forward, one of my neighbours, Maria. Her head is down and her hair is covering most of her face but I still glimpse the spot of colour on her face around her eye when she brushes past me. I make no comments, I simply continue to the next flight of stairs. In a neighbourhood like ours, it is much better to pretend like your neighbours don't exist. Nobody stops anyone to make conversation, we simply brush by each other, our suspicion trained on the other person, alert in case they try to do anything funny.
I encounter no one else as I hurry towards my door, jamming my keys into the keyhole and turning. The pile of papers in front of my door is unmistakable, my daily mail. The mail is the only system that still works efficiently in this building; the bills will not pay themselves. I drop into a crouch and gather the handful before I push into my apartment and shut the door behind me, hitting the switch and turning the lock simultaneously. Turning around, I behold my home.
It is tiny. I have no sitting room, there is just my bedroom which has its adjoining bathroom and kitchen. What else could a girl ask for? It is small, so small that I cannot take eight steps along the wall but it is clean and it is home. I sling my wallet and the papers onto my perfectly laid bed and go into the bathroom to freshen up. The makeup goes first, a light coating on my face more to protect myself from the rest of the world than the other way round. Waiting tables has certain expectations, cloth-wise and look-wise.
You can be the type to auction your body as much as your tray; these people have their boobs practically hanging out and skirts so tight and so short you could drop a pen and get an eyeful on your way back up. They get loads of tips at the end of the day so everyone's happy. If not that, you can choose to auction a certain part of your body, in my case my legs which have received a compliment or two in the past. I don't complain about my tips, sometimes they are the ones that pay my bills and not the actual pay. If not those two, you could decide to wear full length trousers and long-sleeved tops in the heat of the town but in a place like this, where the only person hungrier than you is the person next to you, that is almost not an option at all. The makeup is a mutual agreement between us all. Most of the other ladies wear it to look more attractive. I wear it because I cannot stand to live such a miserable life in my element. It is my war paint of a sort, a flimsy shield between myself and the world but I will take that rather than go fresh-faced and vulnerable in my irrational opinion.
After cleaning off the makeup, I have a quick shower. The hot water has long since stopped working and even though the night is a little chilly, I have bathed enough times to be used to it.
After, I stare at myself in the mirror. I look worn out and tired. There are dark circles beneath my eyes and my eyes are dim, like a shutter has been pulled over them.
"Why is my life so shit?" I ask my reflection.
If this was a fairytale, there would be a shimmer and my reflection would begin speaking to me. She would tell me that great treasure awaits me and I'm destined to be fucking rich. I huff and turn away. Fairytales don't exist.
A contract marriage brings two people that never met together. Hayden doesn't have time for marriage, she has a dynasty to rule and unruly brothers to keep in check. Tristan is a dedicated bachelor, the last thing on his mind is marriage, and especially not to the mysterious veiled woman who is rumoured to be hideously disfigured. She is not his type, and yet Tristan cannot get the thought of having her out of his mind. No matter how much she denies it, she falls for his seduction with every passing day. Neither of them is ready for the flames of desire that threaten to consume them. With her life and her inheritance in jeopardy and everything at stake, is he enough to save her from the waiting jaws of her demise?
Vekra is just a regular wolf in a regular pack, but that is until her father betrays all werewolves and her pack becomes outlawed. She must find a way to redeem herself and her pack and she knows just who can do that for her; her mate. Alpha Zaden is everything she has ever imagined her mate would be. He is hot, he is dark, he is sinfully attractive, he is powerful, and he does not want her. Rejected, unworthy, Vekra must find a way past the pain and the hurt that have become her daily mana. She must do everything in her power to bring her mate to her side. But what happens if she fails?
Death is a lullaby, and only she can hear it. She was just a normal girl with average dreams and average problems. That is, until the line between life and death blurred for her. Stuck in life, undying, Maria de Cavinne is forced to seek answers and see ugly truths in places that she had least expected it. Julius Allyrh will do anything to save his friend and king. When his journey takes him to the doorsteps of a woman that is nothing like any he has ever met, he will do anything to get her to break all of her scruples, for very selfish purposes. The potent elixir of emotions that grow between them is wrong, dangerous and forbidden. As time goes on and they both unravel truths behind dynasties, see ancient prophecies come to life, it will be a constant struggle to stay above the dark executioner's blow. Will they survive it, or will their feelings be the end of them?
Kallie, a mute who had been ignored by her husband for five years since their wedding, also suffered the loss of her pregnancy due to her cruel mother-in-law. After the divorce, she learned that her ex-husband had quickly gotten engaged to the woman he truly loved. Holding her slightly rounded belly, she realized that he had never really cared for her. Determined, she left him behind, treating him as a stranger. Yet, after she left, he scoured the globe in search of her. When their paths crossed once more, Kallie had already found new happiness. For the first time, he pleaded humbly, "Please don't leave me..."Â But Kallie's response was firm and dismissive, cutting through any lingering ties. "Get lost!"
Elena, once a pampered heiress, suddenly lost everything when the real daughter framed her, her fiancé ridiculed her, and her adoptive parents threw her out. They all wanted to see her fall. But Elena unveiled her true identity: the heiress of a massive fortune, famed hacker, top jewelry designer, secret author, and gifted doctor. Horrified by her glorious comeback, her adoptive parents demanded half her newfound wealth. Elena exposed their cruelty and refused. Her ex pleaded for a second chance, but she scoffed, “Do you think you deserve it?” Then a powerful magnate gently proposed, “Marry me?”
Kaelyn devoted three years tending to her husband after a terrible accident. But once he was fully recovered, he cast her aside and brought his first love back from abroad. Devastated, Kaelyn decided on a divorce as people mocked her for being discarded. She went on to reinvent herself, becoming a highly sought-after doctor, a champion racer, and an internationally renowned architectural designer. Even then, the traitors sneered in disdain, believing Kaelyn would never find someone. But then the ex-husband’s uncle, a powerful warlord, returned with his army to ask for Kaelyn’s hand in marriage.
She was a diamond covered by ashes.... King Dakota was known as the most Powerful Alpha King of all times - more powerful than any other King that had ruled from his lineage. He was cold hearted, introverted and dangerous in anger. Cursed by the Moon goddess, King Dakota had to get married to three wives all in search of a male child that would become his heir, but it was impossible as the curse would only let his wives bear she -wolves. But on a different day, the King meets a lady who offends him and as a punishment, he took her home as his fourth wife. Her name was Shilah. Shilah was a powerless wolf and as a result, was disregarded and intimidated by all. But, when she begins to do things that the King had never felt for years, he began to wonder who she really was. Slowly, she crawled her way into his icy heart and turned out to be something nobody ever expected - a storm.
Janet was adopted when she was a kid -- a dream come true for orphans. However, her life was anything but happy. Her adoptive mother taunted and bullied her all her life. Janet got the love and affection of a parent from the old maid who raised her. Unfortunately, the old woman fell ill, and Janet had to marry a worthless man in place of her parents' biological daughter to meet the maid's medical expenses. Could this be a Cinderella's tale? But the man was far from a prince, except for his handsome appearance. Ethan was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family who lived a reckless life and barely made ends meet. He got married to fulfill his mother's last wish. However, on his wedding night, he had an inkling that his wife was different from what he had heard about her. Fate had united the two people with deep secrets. Was Ethan truly the man we thought he was? Surprisingly, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the impenetrable wealthiest man in the city. Would he find out that Janet married him in place of her sister? Would their marriage be a romantic tale or an utter disaster? Read on to unravel Janet and Ethan's journey.
The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."