Empty Smiles

During an elective class, the campus belle, Jemima Ford, who is our senior, describes her ideal type with everyone egging her on. She says, "My future husband has to be at least six feet two inches tall. His parents must be college professors, and his grades should be top three in his major…" The room buzzes with teasing chatter and gossip. At the same time, I snap up my head in surprise. Why does Jemima's description of her ideal type sound like my boyfriend, Elijah Sanders? The next second, the professor standing by the podium smiles obsequiously and says, "Very well said. If Eli hears this, he'll definitely be very happy! Later, the two of you can meet. That way, he won't get tricked by some naive girl into going abroad." Amid the burst of laughter from the class, I lower my eyes and look at the message my parents sent me. It reads, "Sweetheart, are you really going abroad with your boyfriend? There'll be no one left to inherit our company with you gone."

My husband doesn't love me or our daughter. It's been six years since she was born, but he's never held her. The doctors say he has an emotional disorder, and that he doesn't know how to express the way he feels. But when his true love returns, he smiles at us for the first time. He even brings our daughter a gift. I think it's because he's finally seen sense… until she and I see the photo he uses as his phone's wallpaper. In it, his eyes are crinkled as he smiles. He has one arm around a little girl whose front tooth is missing, and he holds his true love's hand with the other. My daughter tugs on my hand, and her eyes redden. "Mommy, do you think we should leave? Should we give Daddy three final chances? Let's leave him if he still doesn't want us after that."

The day Pedro Palmer's mom was supposed to get my kidney, I ghosted. He waited outside the OR for ten hours. What did he get? A death notice. After that, he went full beast mode on his career. Five years later, his company blew up. Media darling. CEO. Power suit. And yeah, he was holding another girl's hand, all smiles for the cameras. "Do you have anything to say to Ruth Rackham? We heard she supported your early days," a reporter asked. Not even a pause. "Yeah. Thanks for vanishing. For letting my mom die with questions. For wrecking me. She taught me not to trust anyone." He stepped in closer, eyes cold. "This is what you wanted, Ruth? Too bad. Love's gone. And you? Not even worth my hate." That's when Nellie Lyon, the reporter, went pale. "Mr. Palmer... Ruth Rackham died five years ago. She was the test subject. She donated her body—before she passed..."

Kai has spent his whole life trying to survive an abusive uncle, cruel classmates, and a world that never wanted him. He’s invisible. Until the day he walks into an empty classroom… and meets Mr. James Ashford who has a cold look. James sees everything Kai tries to hide—his fear, his hunger, his desperation—and he wants it. What starts as “private tutoring” quickly becomes a contract, new rules, a new home, and a new version of Kai shaped by the hands of a man who should never want him. But when threatening messages appear, describing what they’ll do to Kai just to break James, the teacher becomes something far more dangerous than a protector. James is willing to destroy anyone or anything to keep Kai safe. Or keep him his. Kai knows he should run. He knows he should be terrified. But the most dangerous cages aren’t locked… They’re whispered, touched, and promised by a man who says: “I’ll burn the world before I let it take you.”

Three days before our wedding, my fiancé, Raphael Russo, was killed in a gang shootout. They didn't even find a body. As I was drowning in grief, comments suddenly flashed before my eyes: 【Wake up, girl! the coffin's empty! He faked his death! The scumbag ran off to be with that scheming bitch chloe, the one pretending to be sick!】 【While you're crying your eyes out at the funeral, Raphael is fucking Chloe’s brains out in a hotel bed.】 【When he comes back, he'll claim he has amnesia. You won't know a thing and you'll forgive him. You poor thing…】 A month later, news of my marriage to Mafia Don Marcello Falcone spread through New York. Raphael’s right-hand man cornered me, furious. “How could you betray the Boss?” I tightened my grip on Marcello’s arm and smiled. “A girl can’t mourn forever, can she? I’m sure Raphael, in spirit, would be happy for me.”

"If I leave now, I'll never come back! I might end up dying. Is that what you want?" She asked. "Yes. Who cares if you die? I'm already lenient with you for not sending you to jail!" I said. __ Elise Sinclair got entangled with the wrongest person in the world, her step-uncle but what happens when he cast her aside when the world turned against them. Years later, she came back as the most sophisticated while she threaded on thin ice. She got threatened by her unknown enemy from the past. How will she navigate all the setbacks in her life? Damien Sinclair was empty and emotionless after Elise left. He had to enter into a relationship with his ex because of a few circumstances surrounding the situation. However, his heart still longed for Elise. When he finally sees her again, his hope is reignited, only to be dashed again. How will he get his love back? Will he go to the ends of the earth for her?

"Xander. Please, have pity" she pleaded miserably at my feet.Disgusting. I thought and scowled....Her pitiful state did nothing to me.Seeing her lying in her own filth, crying in pain and on the brink of death brought a little bit of satisfaction to my distorted empty heart.......Crossing the threshold of her cell, I turned my head and looked one last time at the pitiful mess that was my mother. *******Meet Alexander Rage.Sociopath, psychopath and neighborhood villain with a secret agenda. You could say his behavior is influenced by his horrible past or just the fact that he's a sad miserable vampire.But then again,he might just be really evil deep down. Elite vampire. *******Meet Elle Rivers.Not so quiet,shy, straightforward kinda girl.Middle class vampire.Isn't too fond of the elites and prefers to stay at home taking of her father and serving as the village doctor.Do they find love in each other in the mad chaos that is their lives?This is a cliché-ish vampire book. Read at your own risk. Though some unexpected twists and turns are promised.

BLURB She never stopped loving him. He just stopped seeing her. David Cole only reached for Lydia when he wanted her. Outside of that, she was invisible. So she poured herself into work – the only place that saw her worth. To fix the empty house, she hired a maid. What she didn’t know was that the maid and her husband had a past. And loneliness plus an old crush is a dangerous combination. The betrayal broke everything. The divorce finished it. Lydia walked away quietly and rebuilt herself. Now she’s stronger. And finally being loved the right way – by someone who actually shows up. Then David walks into the biggest deal of her career. They’re forced to work together or lose everything. He sees who she became without him. He sees the man who makes her smile. And something in him breaks open. So he fights. Quietly. Constantly. Always close. Learning to love her the hard way. But some secrets don’t stay buried forever. Can two broken people rebuild what was destroyed? Or will the truth finish what the divorce started?

For eight years, I was the ghost in Lorenzo Valenti's empire. By day, I was his executive assistant, the engine of his criminal enterprise. By night, I was the most submissive bird in his gilded cage, and the nameless body in his bed. I loved him with a devotion that bordered on madness, a foolish flame I'd nurtured since I was a scholarship student pulled into his orbit. I believed my quiet love could one day melt the ice around his heart. I was wrong. The day his unforgettable first love, Isabella, returned, the man I knew vanished. The rare smiles once reserved for me were now all for her. My presence by his side was erased, replaced by hers. Even when she framed me, he believed her without hesitation. He chose her, again and again. I submitted my resignation. He signed it without looking. He thought I'd crawl back, broken and begging. He was wrong. While he was busy playing house with his "cuore mio", I was quietly packing away my life, preparing to vanish from his world forever.

Have you ever pain so raw it feels like your hear is being dragged out of your heart? The type that breaks into pieces you could never find because they are lost to the wind of scorn and shame. Cassandra carries her pain like a weight on her shoulder everyday despite her smiles and jokes, too young to remember what it felt like to have parents before she lost hers to an accident her grandparents do not like talking about she is trying to find the little good life has in store for her. But she is given a brutal awakening when the one person she thought would bring her much needed happiness tosses her aside. So Cassandra runs away from it all, she runs far enough to never feel the despair looming behind her. And she runs into the arms of Ray, handsome, cocky, but caring, considerate, and loving. Cassandra is about to find out love works without the mate ties and build bonds with the most unlikely people. Cassandra is about to find the love acceptance she always yearned for in the most unlikely place.