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?
Rena got into an entanglement with a big shot when she was drunk one night. She needed Waylen's help while he was drawn to her youthful beauty. As such, what was supposed to be a one-night stand progressed into something serious. All was well until Rena discovered that Waylen's heart belonged to another woman. When his first love returned, he stopped coming home, leaving Rena all alone for many nights. She put up with it until she received a check and farewell note one day. Contrary to how Waylen expected her to react, Rena had a smile on her face as she bid him farewell. "It was fun while it lasted, Waylen. May our paths never cross. Have a nice life." But as fate would have it, their paths crossed again. This time, Rena had another man by her side. Waylen's eyes burned with jealousy. He spat, "How the hell did you move on? I thought you loved only me!" "Keyword, loved!" Rena flipped her hair back and retorted, "There are plenty of fish in the sea, Waylen. Besides, you were the one who asked for a breakup. Now, if you want to date me, you have to wait in line." The next day, Rena received a credit alert of billions and a diamond ring. Waylen appeared again, got down on one knee, and uttered, "May I cut in line, Rena? I still want you."
In order to fulfill her grandfather's last wish, Stella entered into a hasty marriage with an ordinary man she had never met before. However, even after becoming husband and wife on paper, they each led separate lives, barely crossing paths. A year later, Stella returned to Seamarsh City, hoping to finally meet her mysterious husband. To her astonishment, he sent her a text message, unexpectedly pleading for a divorce without ever having met her in person. Gritting her teeth, Stella replied, "So be it. Let’s get a divorce!" Following that, Stella made a bold move and joined the Prosperity Group, where she became a public relations officer that worked directly for the company’s CEO, Matthew. The handsome and enigmatic CEO was already bound in matrimony, and was known to be unwaveringly devoted to his wife in private. Unbeknownst to Stella, her mysterious husband was actually her boss, in his alternate identity! Determined to focus on her career, Stella deliberately kept her distance from the CEO, although she couldn't help but notice his deliberate attempts to get close to her. As time went on, her elusive husband had a change of heart. He suddenly refused to proceed with the divorce. When would his alternate identity be uncovered? Amidst a tumultuous blend of deception and profound love, what destiny awaited them?
"I've warned you from the beginning. Don't marry him, but you won't listen." She stood close to me and smiled with concern. "You are not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze." My whole body trembled at her words. "Have you no shame?" I asked in a quivering voice. "Take a good look at yourself, Heather." She looked at me in the mirror. "You can't even look at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of looking at that face?" Heather Bailey had a surprise from her husband that night: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn't believe Blaze intended to divorce her. But she was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman because that person was closest to her. Shortly after she put her signature on their divorce papers, shock waves caught her up. Her flower shop was severely burnt, beyond repair. Her father's company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers who came from influential families, she started her action against Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted. But that was just the beginning.
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?
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!"
They don't know I'm a girl. They all look at me and see a boy. A prince. Their kind purchase humans like me for their lustful desires. And, when they stormed into our kingdom to buy my sister, I intervened to protect her. I made them take me too. The plan was to escape with my sister whenever we found a chance. How was I to know our prison would be the most fortified place in their kingdom? I was supposed to be on the sidelines. The one they had no real use for. The one they never meant to buy. But then, the most important person in their savage land-their ruthless beast king-took an interest in the "pretty little prince." How do we survive in this brutal kingdom, where everyone hates our kind and shows us no mercy? And how does someone, with a secret like mine, become a lust slave? . AUTHOR'S NOTE. This is a dark romance-dark, mature content. Highly rated 18+ Expect triggers, expect hardcore. If you're a seasoned reader of this genre, looking for something different, prepared to go in blindly not knowing what to expect at every turn, but eager to know more anyway, then dive in! . From the author of the international bestselling book: "The Alpha King's Hated Slave."