"For me, you were nothing but a pawn. To her, you were a damsel in distress. You need to learn a lesson, your love means nothing." ** After losing her taste bud for an unclear reason and with the gossip from everyone, Pearl Lane can't stand it anymore and skips her hometown. She heads to Light City in the hopes of finding something to occupy herself with, little did she know that something would come in the shape of someone, her boss and tormentor, Sinclair Harewood. Broken and recently married, Sinclair Harewood's damned life takes a rocky turn when her dead mother reappears in her life. And along with her, is Pearl Lane, a girl Sinclair had a hand in destroying her dreams. With secret agents hot on her family, Sinclair wants nothing but to take off, problem is, how could she leave Pearl behind with her reincarnated monster of a mother? ** Can Pearl forgive Sinclair when she learns she is to blame? What will Sinclair do when she learns the agent tailing her family to bring them down is no one other than Pearl's lover? * Tag along as we unravel the journey between a hopelessly in love lady with a damaged woman who has sworn to protect Pearl even if it means staying with a good-for-nothing husband and an abusive mother. * Cover photo not mine.
Pearl's POV:
It was New Year's Eve. I was thrilled because it aligned with my birthday. In addition, with the new year beginning, I will be the sole owner of the bakery. The problem is, the future is inevitable, and no one has a clear picture of what will happen in the next minute, or second, or hour. If only I knew what the future had in store for me, I would have stuffed my face with sweets.
Anyway, the meal preparation was going well as my mother had invited everyone around our hometown to celebrate with us. Unwelcoming wouldn't describe my personality, but I wished mama didn't invite them. I was unsure if she liked them here or if she was trying to show everyone she had everything under control. I just didn't know.
The kitchen was buzzing, I stood at a safe distance, watching everyone working. I was the lead chef and I loved it. with everyone busy doing their work. I was the lead chef, and I loved it. Yes, at least something came out of the situation.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of mama. When I turned and wished immediately I hadn't. Mama was glaring at me as if I killed her bee, I had gotten used to it so I waved at her, the smile on my face widening. She smiled back but it wasn't the same smile I knew. It was dangerous, dirty, and forced. I took longer stretches to her and asked mom, you are creeping me out."
Huffing, she waved her arms around. "Hurry up. We don't have much time."
"Of course, mom," I answered and practically ran away from her, her look gave me chills.
I took it all in, never caring why she did that. I felt for her, I surely did. My mom's life had taken a toll after she got pregnant with me, well, at least that was what she told me. She settled in this hometown and started her bakery.
Five years ago, karma slapped her so hard I never thought I would watch her even eating. She lost her taste bud. I was around sixteen then, and I watched my mother turning from full of life to an empty shell, and with no father, I had no other choice but to drop out of school.
When it came to baking, I was excellent, I provided the best services and even weddings from the next town came to make their orders. I had been happy, happier that I didn't have to do homework, study up late, and all that.
An empty shell turned into something intolerable, and I became a mother to my mother. An ear she yaps to. Instead of crying out, I got used to it because in this town it was normal for a child to be a parent and vice versa. In this town, you...
"Pearl, why are you so gloomy?" Catriona, my girlfriend, cut me off from my trail of thought. A smile appeared on my face so easily, she looked around the kitchen. With a proud look, she pecked me on the cheek and then whispered, "I am leaving you to it."
We finished cooking and we began the next part. Baking.
Yay me!
I had already made enough dough for cookies, cakes, and queen cakes, the only thing remaining was to put them in the oven. As I waited for them to get ready, everyone slid out of the kitchen, leaving me alone to stare at the three ovens my mama worshipped.
Around five beautiful hours later of me happily in my head, my mother and Catriona streamed into the kitchen. They took the meals to the sitting room and left me to arrange the cookies in the tray. The aroma filling in the kitchen was the reason I woke up in the morning, the reason I believed a new dawn meant good and new things.
I did a beautiful job arranging it, it looked amazing. I took a bite of one cookie and grinned as I chewed it. The smile disappeared from my face when I couldn't taste anything. Impossible!
I could never forget the measurement, I could do it in the middle of the night, hell, even in an ongoing attack. I was a baker born to bake. I designed new cake menus in my dreams. I took a different cookie and munched on it, but still, nothing. "Pearl, relax, brush your teeth, take a drink. Okay?" I advised myself.
Finishing, I carried the cakes, cookies, and queen cake to the sitting room. No one glanced at me and I didn't blame them. They were savoring the delicious heap of food as if their lives depended on it. Fearing they would hear how hard my heart was beating against my chest, I went hurriedly into my bedroom.
My walls were clear, with no paintings, no photos, no nothing. My mother had said no when I asked if I could decorate it. There was only a mirror, I looked at myself and slowly pulled my tongue out. It was unimaginable. I didn't want to think about what was happening.
I didn't want to think I was about to meet mama's fate. A woman with no dreams because she lost her only getaway. Her loyal taste bud has gone rogue! The idea of me ending up like my mother sent shivers all over my body.
The sudden scream from the sitting room made me jump, I went to see what was happening, and I found everyone looking at their watches. My mother screamed, "let us go outside."
"Countdown!" They shouted.
Someone stepped on my feet, and it hurt like hell but I said nothing, I rushed into the kitchen and took out my mother's favorite cake I made only for her. With adrenaline rushing through me, I didn't need a fork, I scooped some cake and ate it faster.
"Can it be I have lost my taste bud?" I wondered as I went from sugar to salt, to water, to juice, and to other food I knew I knew my body was finding it hard to accept what I was doing to it.
They were at number 3, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs. Life was cruel and I cursed for being bad to me. I got a pineapple from the fridge, I was sure I could feel its taste, and still nothing. By now my heart had left my body.
"One!" They yelled.
"No! Please, no!" I said breathlessly and stuffed a banana into my mouth.
"Happy New Year." "No!"
Heat rushed over my body, I knew my taste bud was gone, I knew because I saw what happened with mama. Suffocated, I rushed to my bedroom and stared at the mirror, the tongue was there, of course, it was, silly me.
"Here." Catriona said.
I grabbed the oreo from her hands and stuffed it into my mouth. The crunching sound was so annoying but I didn't care, I took another one and passed it around my mouth, was I too crazy to conclude this? Was my taste bud asleep or was it official that I lost my only ticket?
I am so dead!
"An attack on my father is an attack on me! And no one gets scotch free for that. No one!" Daniella swore fiercely to herself as she stared at the Moon Rock's Alpha. ************* After watching how the werewolves continuously humiliated her father, Daniella swore to herself that she was going to avenge that, to make everyone know that even if she was the omega's daughter no one was going to humiliate her or her family, more especially her father. An eye for an eye! Daniella promised herself to do everything in her power even if it meant to stoop as low as being the alpha's son's jealous girlfriend. The list is long but she has two main werewolves in her mind, to begin with; Moon Rock's Pack Alpha and her Birth Mother. Call her a sociopath and she wouldn't care, but she will correct you to call her, “AN AVENGER.” ************* One Fiery Woman. Two Mates. One Pack. Two Potentials Alphas. How can one angry sociopath Omega's Daughter take down an alpha and will she continue with her vengeance mission even after finding her mate who is supposedly the alpha's long-lost son?
Madisyn was stunned to discover that she was not her parents' biological child. Due to the real daughter's scheming, she was kicked out and became a laughingstock. Thought to be born to peasants, Madisyn was shocked to find that her real father was the richest man in the city, and her brothers were renowned figures in their respective fields. They showered her with love, only to learn that Madisyn had a thriving business of her own. "Stop pestering me!" said her ex-boyfriend. "My heart only belongs to Jenna." "How dare you think that my woman has feelings for you?" claimed a mysterious bigwig.
Darya spent three years loving Micah, worshipping the ground he walked on. Until his neglect and his family's abuse finally woke her up to the ugly truth-he doesn't love her. Never did, never will. To her, he is a hero, her knight in shining armour. To him, she is an opportunist, a gold digger who schemed her way into his life. Darya accepts the harsh reality, gathers the shattered pieces of her dignity, divorces him, takes back her real name, reclaims her title as the country's youngest billionaire heiress. Their paths cross again at a party. Micah watches his ex-wife sing like an angel, tear up the dance floor, then thwart a lecher with a roundhouse kick. He realises, belatedly, that she's exactly the kind of woman he'd want to marry, if only he had taken the trouble to get to know her. Micah acts promptly to win her back, but discovers she's now surrounded by eligible bachelors: high-powered CEO, genius biochemist, award-winning singer, reformed playboy. Worse, she makes it pretty clear that she's done with him. Micah gears up for an uphill battle. He must prove to her he's still worthy of her love before she falls for someone else. And time is running out.
Lindsey's fiancé was the devil's first son. Not only did he lie to her but he also slept with her stepmother, conspired to take away her family fortune, and then set her up to have sex with a total stranger. To get her lick back, Lindsey decided to find a man to disrupt her engagement party and humiliate the cheating bastard. Never did she imagine that she would bump into a strikingly handsome stranger who was all that she was currently looking for. At the engagement party, he boldly declared that she was his woman. Lindsey thought he was just a broke man who wanted to leech off her. But once they began their fake relationship, she realized that good luck kept coming her way. She thought they would part ways after the engagement party, but this man kept to her side. "We gotta stick together, Lindsey. Remember, I'm now your fiancé. " "Domenic, you're with me because of my money, aren't you?" Lindsey asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Domenic was taken aback by that accusation. How could he, the heir of the Walsh family and CEO of Vitality Group, be with her for money? He controlled more than half of the city's economy. Money wasn't a problem for him! The two got closer and closer. One day, Lindsey finally realized that Domenic was actually the stranger she had slept with months ago. Would this realization change things between them? For the better or worse?
"I stood at the edge of my heart and watched him choose her. In the end, I was not the one he needed. I was simply the one he settled for." - Noelle ~~~~~~~ I thought I was the one he loved. But a few days before our wedding, I saw him in a way I never had before. His eyes softened as he spoke to her. His first love, and the very woman who had left him in pieces. Heartbreak was something I knew too well. And as I watched the love he still held for her in his eyes, I realized what I had to do. I couldn't marry a man who wasn't truly mine. With no means to cancel the wedding and lacking the courage to confront him, I made a desperate choice to leave. I painfully gave his first love my treasured engagement ring thinking it was for the best and the only way to free myself. But when he saw that ring on her finger, the fragile world I had tried to escape began to shatter. His obsession to find me and bring me back ignited a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
In her previous life, Kimberly endured the betrayal of her husband, the cruel machinations of an evil woman, and the endless tyranny of her in-laws. It culminated in the bankruptcy of her family, and ultimately, her death. After being reborn, she resolved to seek retribution against those who had wronged her, and ensure her family's prosperity. To her shock, the most unattainable man from her past suddenly set his sights on her. "You may have overlooked me before, but I shall capture your heart this time around."
COALESCENCE OF THE FIVE SERIES BOOK ONE: THE 5-TIME REJECTED GAMMA & THE LYCAN KING BOOK TWO: THE ROGUES WHO WENT ROGUE BOOK THREE: THE INDOMITABLE HUNTRESS & THE HARDENED DUKE *** BOOK ONE: After being rejected by 5 mates, Gamma Lucianne pleaded with the Moon Goddess to spare her from any further mate-bonds. To her dismay, she is being bonded for the sixth time. What’s worse is that her sixth-chance mate is the most powerful creature ruling over all werewolves and Lycans - the Lycan King himself. She is certain, dead certain, that a rejection would come sooner or later, though she hopes for it to be sooner. King Alexandar was ecstatic to meet his bonded mate, and couldn’t thank their Goddess enough for gifting him someone so perfect. However, he soon realizes that this gift is reluctant to accept him, and more than willing to sever their bond. He tries to connect with her but she seems so far away. He is desperate to get intimate with her but she seems reluctant to open up to him. He tries to tell her that he is willing to commit to her for the rest of his life but she doesn’t seem to believe him. He is pleading for a chance: a chance to get to know her; a chance to show her that he’s different; and a chance to love her. But when not-so-subtle crushes, jealous suitors, self-entitled Queen-wannabes, an old flame, a silent protector and a past wedding engagement threaten to jeopardize their relationship, will Lucianne and Xandar still choose to be together? Is their love strong enough to overcome everything and everyone? Or will Lucianne resort to enduring a sixth rejection from the one person she thought she could entrust her heart with?