Fragile Longing

My fiance, Dante de Rossi, is the heir to a mafia family in Manhorne, and he loves me dearly. Yet, a month before our wedding, he says his family has arranged for him to have a baby with his childhood friend, Isobel de Luca. Despite my refusal to agree to it, he brings it up daily and tries to push me into it. Half a month before the wedding, I receive a pregnancy report. I find out that Isobel is over a month pregnant. I have yet to give Dante my permission. This is when I realize just how fragile our years-long relationship is. I cancel the wedding and destroy everything he has ever given me. On the day of the wedding, I set off for Etolia to further my medical career. I accept a role with an international medical organization, severing all ties with the mafia. From that moment onward, he and I no longer have anything to do with each other!

Dr. Olivia Carter has spent her life saving others, she is a brilliant and compassionate surgeon with a good heart. But when her Abusive father’s gambling debts catch up with him, she is somehow at the center of it. She is offered a one year wedding contract by the mafia Capo as the only resort to settling her father's debt.  Olivia, having no choice but to sign the contract to marry the cold hearted and emotionless Capo Dante Marino. Olivia is forced to live with him forsaking the hospital and working for him as his personal doctor. But Olivia's good heart and kind nature slowly deflates his emotionless exterior little by little. As the two of them are drawn together, Olivia must navigate Dante's dangerous world, where trust is fragile and betrayal is deadly and love a weakness in the mafia world.  Would his world destroy her good heart? or will she be able to elicit an emotion from the emotionless Mafia Capo.

Finlay MacLeod, the leader of Clan MacLeod, is bound by duty to marry Ailsa MacDonnell, a woman from a rival clan, to secure peace in the Highlands. But each night, he is drawn into the arms of Moira MacEacharn, a mysterious and seductive dark priestess who has haunted him since childhood. Fin believes he is in love, unaware that Moira’s power over him is anything but natural. As Fin’s devotion to Moira threatens the fragile truce between the clans, Ailsa—a healer and practitioner of white magic—begins to suspect that he is under a powerful enchantment. Determined to save him and prevent war, she unearths the truth of an ancient curse binding Fin to the priestess. But breaking the curse proves impossible, as magic demands payment, and Moira refuses to relinquish her claim. Caught between two women and two destinies, Fin must decide whether to fight for his freedom or surrender to the dark pull of the priestess, even as his choices risk the lives of everyone he holds dear.

Love and hate get tangled in a sheets when Xavier and Harley gets into a marriage of convenience that defies a fragile and bloodythirsty family rivalry. *** Rich and spoilt, Harley’s perfect life takes a turn when her father tries to force her into a marriage to pay off his depts. Harley’s only escape lies in her father’s worst enemy and business rival: Xavier Everest. And to make matters more complicated, Xavier is the man responsible for her sister’s death four years ago. However, her marriage will protect her and show her father once and for all that he does not own her. It seemed like the perfect plan But Xavier is burdened by dark secrets and vengeful desires. Can six months be enough to fire their passion? Or is the man she turned to for protection, the man she is starting to love, the greatest danger of all? With a killer on loose and love in line, bedsheets aren’t the only tangled thing in this game of hearts

Synopsis At twenty-five, Emelia thought marriage to August—a devout, respected thirty-one-year-old—would give her stability, love, and a safe future. But beneath the vows lies a secret that binds her to Ethan, August’s charming cousin whose reckless presence ignites desires she cannot fully bury. Meanwhile, August’s younger brother, Tobi, struggles to balance the life he has with Francesca and the pull of what he once shared with Chisom . Between them stands Rachel, Chisom and Tobi’s four-year-old daughter—innocent yet powerful, the fragile bond that ties broken hearts together in ways no one expects. As family loyalties blur and forbidden passions resurface, each choice threatens to unravel the delicate fabric holding them all together. Love, betrayal, faith, and survival collide—leaving everyone to face the question: How far will you go to protect your heart when every desire demands a sacrifice?

Mates were supposed to protect each other, but why do mine keep shredding my soul. ********* As Alpha Ronald's mate, I thought I'd hit the jackpot, but time proved that that was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Now I was left wondering if the goddess herself had forsaken me. Just when I had given up on everything, something I thought impossible happened to an Omega like me. I found another mate, another Alpha. Will he be my salvation or my downfall? Would this one treat me right or would he be just like my other mate? With my heart still fragile from all the abuse I'd endured, I was not certain I could afford to trust again. Yet, something about this stranger seemed to draw me in, making me wonder if I will finally get the love I deserve, or he is just a bigger monster in a suit.

Seven years ago, Chloe Quinn vanished without a trace—leaving behind her name, her past, and the man who shattered her heart. Now she lives as Naomi Wells, a single mother whose only priority is her six-year-old daughter, Sophie. Her quiet world is built on secrets and survival—until one rainy afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital brings her face-to-face with Dr. Peter Hayes, the man she once loved and the father Sophie has never met. He doesn’t recognize her. But she remembers everything—the laughter, the betrayal, the night his careless words destroyed her. As Peter begins to suspect the truth, old wounds reopen, and long-buried emotions resurface. The chemistry between them still burns, but so does the pain. Naomi must decide whether to keep protecting the fragile life she’s built—or face the man who unknowingly holds both her past and her future.

The space between them disappeared. She arched into him, tilting her head as his lips traced a slow path down her jaw, then lower. Goodness, she wanted more. *** Valentina De Luca was never meant to be a Caruso bride. That was her sister's role—until Alecia ran off with her fiancé, leaving behind a family drowning in debt and a deal that couldn’t be undone. Now, Valentina is the one offered up as collateral, forced into marriage with Naples’ most dangerous man. Luca Caruso has no use for a woman who wasn’t part of the original bargain. To him, Valentina is nothing more than a replacement, a means to reclaim what was promised to him. But she isn’t as fragile as she seems. And the more their lives tangle, the harder she is to ignore. Everything begins to go well for her, well, until her sister returns. And with her, the kind of trouble that could ruin them all.

In the coastal quiet of Baler, a studio is born—not of architecture, but of intention.* Founded by Yam, a poet whose words cradle pain gently, and Franc, an artist who paints tenderness into walls, the studio becomes a refuge for those learning to stay—with grief, love, longing, and themselves. As visitors arrive, they leave behind more than footprints: a sigh recorded in bamboo, a poem tucked into the “Found Letters” shelf, a mural painted in crooked lines. Through zines, tea, silence, and sketchbooks, the studio teaches softness as revolution. Ren creates the *Window of Soft Returns*, an installation of anonymous voice recordings—each whisper forming a community of echoes. Drew builds the *Staircase With No Wrong Turns*, inviting people to walk through emotions without shame. Franc offers brushstrokes as brave work, and Yam curates writing circles that map healing in half sentences. Together, they host festivals that feel like hugs, and they begin traveling their archive, letting softness cross oceans. Even those who once left—like Miguel—return, discovering that some doors never truly close. Others, like Tala, capture the studio’s sound and turn it into a podcast of breath and becoming. Over seventy chapters, the studio transforms into something larger than itself: a mural of memory, a sanctuary for second chances, a place where return is sacred and voice is proof of survival. In the final bloom, the studio stands not as a monument—but as a reminder: > *“Staying isn’t easy. > But chosen together, > it becomes home.”*

**BOOK RE-EDIT ON ALL CHAPTERS** Welcome to Rockshore Bay, a charming coastal city nestled between rugged cliffs and the vast, untamed ocean. The salty tang of the sea hangs heavy in the air, mingling with the faint aroma of freshly baked bread wafting from the local bakery. But beneath this idyllic facade lies a world veiled in shadows—a world where ancient powers stir and the supernatural thrives. Here, danger lurks behind every corner, hidden in the flicker of streetlights and the whispers of the waves. It is in this city, where the mundane and the extraordinary collide, that the fates of two fractured souls are set to intertwine. Beneath the serene surface lies a world protected by ancient powers, where caramel-skinned Hugo Griffin, a black-haired, sea-green-eyed werewolf, navigates the complexities of his dual life. Unlike traditional Alphas born into leadership, Hugo is a bitten werewolf who fought his way to become the formidable leader of the Ocean Crest Pack—the most powerful on the East Coast. But even as he commands respect, Hugo battles the darkness within himself, a shadow that threatens to consume him entirely. Inland, Sarai Carter—a feisty, raven-haired young woman with sapphire-blue eyes—is rediscovering her strength after escaping the clutches of a toxic relationship. Longing for love but haunted by the fear of a curse that condemns her to loneliness, Sarai faces a crossroads. As Hugo’s burdens grow heavier and Sarai tries to heal, their paths collide in a whirlwind of passion and pain. Both are fighting their inner demons, but when they come together, will they find redemption or ruin?