Stella has friends who are loyal to her, but as time goes by, Stella doesn't realize that some of the guys are in love with her. June, Samuel and Harry, they are stuck in a real friendzone. But beyond that, Stella has to find out why her best friends changed after the death of one of their best friends, Karen and why the guys are in love with her.
"Stella, we managed to find Karen near the river of hope. But... she's gone. Karen is dead, Stella."
***
Seven days after Karen's death.
First Metro, New York.
First Metro has been abuzz with the news of the disappearance of Karenina Baker-the top-performing employee who always ranked highest in the entire office building-for two days. The commotion in the office building, which is synonymous with its top performers, became even more intense after the news of Karen's disappearance was upgraded to a sad news. Karenina Baker was pronounced dead when she was found by police near the river of hope, which is located quite far from the office building.
Samuel Johanson - Karen's cousin - along with Antoni - Karen's father - and the local police managed to find the poor girl at nine in the evening after searching for a dozen hours.
Samuel was probably in shock from seeing the body for the first time with his own two eyes and asked permission not to enter the office building for a few days after his cousin's death.
Today, the most popular guy in First Metro finally showed his nose. He went to the office building and shocked the employees at First Metro with his appearance. Samuel walked through the gate without any expression, trying to avoid the curious stares and whispers of the other employees around him who wanted to know about the reason behind Karen's death.
There were rumors that Karen committed suicide because she was bullied by a senior the previous day. But rumors are rumors, unproven.
Samuel then arrived at the office. His eyes stared at the long board with the name of the room attached to the door hesitantly as he let out a long sigh before finally entering the room.
Samuel immediately cast his eyes around, looking for his friends who were also in the room, but something bothered him. He quickly entered and ignored the curious stares of the other employees to immediately sit next to Stella;the popular girl in the office building and one of Samuel's best friends. "Stella?"
The girl who was engrossed in a novel with both ears covered by a headset noticed the presence of someone next to her and turned her head. "Samuel?" Stella hurriedly took off the headset and turned off the music from her cell phone. "Are you feeling better?"
Samuel smiled and nodded. "But, why are you alone? Where are the others?"
Stella sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Everything's changed, Sam," she said sadly.
He furrowed his thick eyebrows, not understanding. "What does that mean?"
"Let's talk in the park during break."
***
Samuel and Stella sat together on a wooden chair in the corner of the office building's garden. There were several large shady trees behind them, while colorful flowers that the staff had deliberately planted in plastic pots lined the sides of the garden, complementing the shady atmosphere created by the greenery in the garden itself.
Stella took a sip of the coke in her hand and gazed longingly at the field across the park before finally speaking. "I don't know why either. But everything changed after they found out Karen died, Sam."
Samuel set his tea box aside and gave Stella a curious look. "What does changed mean?"
The girl who let her long hair down her back shrugged her shoulders and turned to Samuel. "As you know, I've been alone since Karen died," she said sadly.
"Where has Clara been?" Sam asked curiously. "Don't you two always go everywhere together?"
The question finally came out of Samuel's mouth. After all, who wouldn't know? Stella was known to be close to Clara and Karen. They went to the toilet together, ate at the same table and even had sleepovers every weekend. It was strange to see Stella alone now.
"Clara suddenly became close to Ganisa and distant." Stella turned her gaze to the field again. She looked at the employees who were playing basketball there with a sad look. "Whenever she's asked, she always avoids. Maybe she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore."
"Ganisa? How so? Aren't you guys enemies with Ganisa?" Samuel asked unsatisfied. "This really doesn't make sense."
"I don't know, Sam. I really don't know," said Stella, taking another sip of her drink. "Lala changed, so with Juna and Harry."
Besides Clara, Stella and Samuel are friends with Juna Pennington - the First Metro office's bad boy - and Harry Clark - the nerd who goes everywhere to read comics. The six of them are known as the most popular employees at First Metro because of their beautiful and handsome visuals. But who would have thought that one of them would eventually die and the others would have changed.
Sam looked at Stella in disbelief. "June too? Even that nerd Harry did the same thing, is that it?"
Stella shook her head weakly and placed the tea box Samuel had bought from the office building's cafeteria to her side, close to her best friend's. "Juni was suspended for hitting a senior while Harry was busy with his work. They just disappeared into the earth, they never looked for me," he said. "But strangely they all changed after finding out that Karen died."
Samuel squinted suspiciously. "Don't they know something?"
This time it was Stella's turn to wrinkle her forehead. "What do you mean, know something?"
"The reason behind Karen's death. What if they know something and are trying to avoid it because they don't want to make you suspicious?" Samuel guessed. Making the frown of the girl sitting next to him even more deeply furrowed. "That's possible, isn't it?"
"Didn't Karen die by suicide?"
"I think you should know something."
Stella gasped. "I don't understand, really. What exactly are they hiding from me and what should I know from you, Sam?"
Samuel looked right and left, making sure there was no one there but the two of them. He then leaned closer to Stella and whispered, "I don't believe Karen died by suicide, Stell."
The girl widened her eyes in surprise. "Are you saying Karen might have been murdered?" asked Stella in an equally quiet voice. "You must be careful with your mouth, Sam!"
Samuel shook his head vigorously. He looked at Stella deeply and confidently. "I found this paper in Karen's hand that night," he said, showing Stella the tattered piece of paper. "She held it so tightly that her fingernails almost dug into her skin."
A curious Stella pulled the paper from Sam's hand and read slowly, "Someone please help me, Karen." Her round black eyes reflexively widened in surprise. "You shouldn't keep this, Sam. You should give this paper to the police!" she squealed in a stifled voice, trying not to let anyone hear her even though Stella really wanted to cuss Samuel out for his stupidity right now.
Sam sighed and pulled out the paper to put it back in his pants pocket. "I can't tell this to Om Antoni, Stella. I can't see him get any more upset," he reasoned. "Don't tell anyone about this, just me and you. I only trust you, our relationship is the only one I can trust."
Stella looked the other way, to where the other employees were playing basketball. She sighed in frustration and scratched the nape of her neck awkwardly. "Now, what? We don't have any leads on Karen's death and we can't blame our friends either, right?"
"Karen was always very private with us," Samuel said. "But maybe there was something she was trying to tell us, but we just didn't realize it all this time. Right?"
Stella mumbled. "I wonder, are we really Karen's friends or not? We don't know what she died of." She then looked at Samuel with concern. "Aren't we pathetic friends, Sam?"
For ten years, Beatrice had known Louis, but that day, he seemed like a stranger. This wasn't Louis. Louis would never strip naked and sleep with her best friend, Kylie. Damn it, her tears almost fell for such cruel people. "I want a divorce." Beatrice didn't mean it when she said it. She still hoped Louis would beg, at least ask her to stay and forgive him. But Louis had changed. "I agree. Let's divorce. I don't want to be with a useless woman like you."
"You're cold and untouchable. Strangely enough, I've fallen for you, Isabella." Isabella froze, speechless, unable to respond to Zach's words. His dark eyes were intense yet uncertain. But Zach pressed on, "You said your middle name is danger. And you know what? I'm ready to love danger."
Alexandra's fiancé is found tragically dead and leaves Alexandra wondering about the cause of Louis' death. But the more Alexandra finds out, the more she is seduced by the handsome and smart Detective Noel Simmons. Alexandra falls in love, but there's terror ahead.
Alicia Perth has a special ability, she has high intuition to detect things. But great terror awaits her when she is asked by Detective Nicholas to help solve a murder in the dormitory. Stuck with two handsome men, Detective Nicholas and Ace Blake, the son of the CEO of Golden Group, will Alicia be able to see the truth behind all these incidents?
Rose never imagined that she would be sold by her own stepfather for personal gain. However, her job at the brothel unexpectedly brought her face-to-face with a handsome drug dealer named Antonio. Their feelings changed, but their lives did not. Can Rose withstand Antonio, who has a dark side to his life?
Loraine was a dutiful wife to Marco since they got married three years ago. However, he treated her like trash. Nothing she did softened his heart. One day, Loraine got fed up with it all. She asked him for a divorce and left him to enjoy with his mistress. The elites looked at her like she was deranged. "Are you out of your mind? Why are you so willing to divorce him?" "It's because I need to return home to get a billion-dollar fortune. Besides, I don't love him anymore," Loraine replied with a smile. They all laughed at her. Some believed that the divorce affected her mentally. It wasn't until the next day that they realized she wasn't fibbing. A woman was suddenly declared the world's youngest female billionaire. It turned out to be Loraine! Marco was shocked to the bone. When he met his ex-wife again, she was a changed person. A group of handsome young men surrounded her. She was smiling at them all. The sight made Marco's heart ache severely. Putting his pride aside, he tried to win her back. "Hello, love. I see that you are a billionaire now. You shouldn't be with suckers who just want your money. How about you come back to me? I'm a billionaire too. Together, we can build a strong empire. What do you say?" Loraine squinted at her ex-husband with her lips curled in disgust.
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?”
Corinne devoted three years of her life to her boyfriend, only for it to all go to waste. He saw her as nothing more than a country bumpkin and left her at the altar to be with his true love. After getting jilted, Corinne reclaimed her identity as the granddaughter of the town’s richest man, inherited a billion-dollar fortune, and ultimately rose to the top. But her success attracted the envy of others, and people constantly tried to bring her down. As she dealt with these troublemakers one by one, Mr. Hopkins, notorious for his ruthlessness, stood by and cheered her on. “Way to go, honey!”
"I, Riccardo Saviano, future Alpha of the Grey Shadow Moon Pack, reject you, Artemisia Guerrieri, Daughter of Alpha Franco of the Blood Moon Pack, as my mate and future Luna." One single sentence. One stupid single sentence was all it took to disintegrate my life. And the day of my birthday, on which this sentence was audaciously uttered to me, I lost the love of my life, my future mate, and my wolf, all at once. As I'm still assembling the pieces of my shattered heart years later, there they come. Like lightning out of a crystal blue sky. My Mates. But wait... If I am mated to triplets, how come I'm about to be mated to 5 gorgeous men? *** TW: explicit and foul language; spicy content; explicit sex scenes ***
Rachel used to think that her devotion would win Brian over one day, but she was proven wrong when his true love returned. Rachel had endured it all—from standing alone at the altar to dragging herself to the hospital for an emergency treatment. Everyone thought she was crazy to give up so much of herself for someone who didn’t return her feelings. But when Brian received news of Rachel’s terminal illness and realized she didn’t have long to live, he completely broke down. "I forbid you to die!" Rachel just smiled. She no longer needed him. "I will finally be free."
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?