Hard Carry Support

Modern

I stood at my mother's open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest's voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone-he brought Charla with him. He claimed she'd had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

Modern

THE subsiding sea was now a liquid Paradise: its great pellucid braes and hillocks shone with the sparkle and the hues of all the jewels in an emperor's crown. Imagine--after three days of inky sea, and pitchy sky, and Death's deep jaws snapping and barely missing--ten thousand great slopes of emera

Literature

Naturally human work was more creative, more inspiring, more important than robot drudgery. Naturally it was the most important task in all the world ... or was it?

Romance

Sally's new job started in a very unusual way. Now, it's fair to say that Sally really didn't get along with her boss, and he wasn't exactly her biggest fan either. But when he needed someone to pretend to be his girlfriend to help find some secret agents at work, she agreed without much hesitation.

Modern

The heavy iron gate of the juvenile detention center groaned open, a sound I had dreamed of for five long years. I stepped out, a small, warm hand in mine-Leo' s. He was my only good thing from that hellhole, a promise to his dying mother. But freedom felt just as suffocating as my cell, because t

Romance

Scarlett Park loved Jeffrey Hodges for five years, but he had another woman in his heart. Therefore, she decided to let him go. After a messy night, she signed the divorce papers and left. The next day, she suffered an air crash and everyone thought she was dead. So did Jeffrey. Five years later, sh

Literature

Longman's new Cultural Editions Series, Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, edited by Jeff Nunokawa, includes Books 1-3 of Hard Times and contextual materials on the age of Dickens.

Literature

Originally published in 1863, Hard Cash was Reade's polemical exposé of the horrors routinely perpetrated against the inmates of England's insane asylums. Alfred Hardie, victim of an embezzlement perpetrated by his father, is tricked into entering an asylum; once there, he finds it almost impos

Sci-fi

A short story in the universe of "Mutant Chronicles" / "Warzone" Somewhere in the icy wastes on Mars a squad of soldiers of the Bauhaus megacorporation struggles through the cold darkness. Their goal is a secret research facility of a rival corporation. Accompanied by a mysterious cleric the sold

Romance

The acrid smell of burnt plastic and copper filled my lungs, a familiar scent in the operating room, but this time, the searing pain in my leg was my own. My familiar workplace was a twisted wreck, a direct consequence of my husband Michael' s latest, championed medical device. Then I saw Liam, my

Billionaires

Disaster struck after Jessica woke up in a hotel room with another man-not the gigolo she had booked. After that one night stand: she got pregnant. Jessica's world falls apart when she finds out he's Morgan-CEO of her new company, and that the CEO betrayed her by marrying another woman. Jessica

Romance

Jace Roger is the world's biggest flirt and has always succeeded in getting what he wanted with little to no effort at all. He just knew all the right moves and all the right words to say when it came to getting women to do what he wanted. His perfect bachelor world crashes when Ashley comes into hi

Romance

Before the college entrance exam, Shi Sui was forced to move in with her father's friend's family, where she met their son, Yan Tingli. At that time, the young man stood on the stairs in a black turtleneck sweater, his entire presence cold and desolate, looking at her as if she were nothing. He

Young Adult

The "Hard Knocks" Ralph Parlette talks about are also termed "bumps" in this collection of lessons life presents us. He says that when life bumps up against us and we learn the lesson, we do not have to endure it again. We move past it and use the experience as our teacher from which we expand our c

Billionaires

Ramona, an assassin trained by her uncle, Kleinfelter, is forced into her final mission - to kill Dranon, a powerful, well know billionaire. Instead of resorting to violence, she decides to seduce him. And Dranon, who has lost all interest in women, surprisingly feels a spark of attraction toward

Romance

For years, Erin has grappled with guilt since her high school classmate passed away. Under the influence of the friends she trusted, Daryl was challenged, resulting in his tragic demise. Seven years later, Erin did not expect that fate would punish her further. In her stepfather's will, he decide

Werewolf

After her father died, her mother who never loved her sold her for a few thousand dollars to the alpha king. Heather who had never known love since her father's death was looking forward to the end of her life in the hands of the wicked alpha, until she feels the mate pull and realizes that the alph

Romance

Gina didn't expect that a traffic accident would drag her down into big trouble. When the police came to her, she was taken away as the culprit of a hit-and-run. What was waiting for her was the sky-high compensation. After she processed everything and was ready to explain herself, she met the accus

Romance

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, its vibration a familiar comfort as I lay in bed, three months pregnant, dreaming of our perfect family. Mark was downstairs, his charismatic voice a lullaby through the floorboards. Then the messages started. Anonymous. Short. And devastating. A picture of Mark,

Romance

"Miss Jasmine , you have stolen my daughter, how about you give me a son as a compensation for it." Jasmine retorted to the brazen man, "I have already given birth to a son..so why would I do this for you." "All right , Then it is decided that your son and my daughter will live in one room and me an

Billionaires

Luna walked slowly into the classroom filled with students. It was her first day of the new semester, and she had been feeling nervous since morning. The lively campus atmosphere could not dispel the feeling of anxiety that haunted her mind. She had heard many stories about the new lecturer who woul