20/20 three shots in the dark

On our seventh wedding anniversary, I was straddling my Mafia husband, Lucian, kissing him deeply. My fingers fumbled in the pocket of my expensive silk dress, searching for the pregnancy test I'd hidden there. I wanted to save the news of my unexpected pregnancy for the end of the evening. Lucian's right-hand man, Marco, asked with a suggestive smile in Italian: "Don, your new little canary, Sophia. How does she taste?" Lucian's mocking laughter vibrated through my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied, also in Italian: "Like an unripe peach. Fresh and tender." His hand was still caressing my waist, but his gaze was distant. "Just keep this between us. If my Donna finds out, I'm a dead man." His men chuckled knowingly, raising their glasses and swearing their silence. The warmth in my blood turned to ice, inch by inch. The one thing they didn’t know was that my grandmother was from Sicily, so I understood every word. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect smile of a Donna fixed in place, but the hand holding my champagne flute trembled. Instead of making a scene, I opened my phone, found the invitation I had received a few days ago for a private international medical research project, and tapped "Accept." In three days, I would disappear from Lucian's world completely.

Cast out by his own family as useless, Justin Lowe opens a supermarket in the apocalypse and staffs it entirely with S-rank anomalies. His monsters clock in, follow orders, and keep the shelves stocked while human survivors trade hexcoins for goods that shouldn't exist: prehistoric snacks, high-tech weapons, supplies from no known supply chain. Each transaction upgrades the store. Each upgrade unlocks something stranger. The anomalies are terrifying everywhere except inside Justin's shop, where they are, inexplicably, perfectly obedient. Dragged repeatedly into the power struggles and crises of the survivor world, he navigates each one with wit and nerve rather than force. In the end, it isn't a weapon or an army that defeats the cosmic evil bearing down on what's left of humanity. It's a commercial contract, and the man who signs it becomes the world's last savior.

Annie never knew her mother's love. Carole despised her, reserving all her doting affection for Fiona, the daughter of a past romance. Carole believed her marriage to Ben was a drunken mistake, and Annie was simply the regrettable result. Unable to bear the abuse Annie suffered, Ben resolved to take Annie and leave Carole for good. Despite this, on her own birthday, Annie chose to give her mother one final chance.

To reclaim her late mother's estate, Sienna Reed ends up spending a night with Adrian Voss, the Alpha of the werewolf pack. Three days later, she discovers she's pregnant. Four years on, they cross paths again. This time, she has two wolf pups by her side. She runs. He hunts. There's no escaping him. Just when she's convinced he despises her, he turns around and spoils her like she's the only thing that matters.

Honoring her late mother's wish, Alex Clemens, the Dark Queen of Riverdon, entered a flash marriage with her senior, Sylvan Johnson. Shortly after, Sylvan was injured in a car crash and went missing with no memory of their life together. Years later, Alex returned with their daughter and ran into him at the airport.When she learned the truth behind his disappearance, she fought fiercely to protect him. During a setup against her, Sylvan regained his memory and stepped in just in time. Together, they uncovered the conspiracy and finally reunited as a family.

Evan Cole was once a powerful business figure who chose to hide his brilliance for ten years as a full-time husband.Yet his family saw him as useless. His wife Bella Bell never forgot her first love Aaron Hayes, and even their daughter grew closer to Aaron than her own father. When his daughter is injured, Evan rushes to the hospital—only to find Bella happily on a date with Aaron. Heartbroken, he leaves and accepts a CEO role at Greystone Corp, returning to rebuild his legacy.

I was slowly dying from Silverthorn Wolfsbane, and there was only one cure—the Miracle Elixir. But my mate, Leo Ashford, bought it and gave it to my adoptive sister, Jane Smith. He did it because he thought I was faking my illness. I gave up on the treatment and swallowed a potent painkiller instead. It would kill me in three days by shutting down my organs. In those three days, I gave up everything. I handed over the fur manufacturing business I built from the ground up to Jane, and my parents praised me for caring about my sister. I offered to sever our mate bond, and Leo praised me for finally being sensible. When I told my son he could call Jane "mommy", he happily said that his new mommy was the best! I transferred all my savings to Jane, and no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were just pleased with my "better behavior". "Viola is finally not so bad." I wondered—would they regret it after I was gone?

On a stormy night at eighteen, a young man lit up a girl's darkness, leaving a dazzling memory she would never forget. After ten years of love, she lost the ability to have children while saving his life, making him her only anchor. But over time, he strayed to other women and even fathered a child. When she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only a month to live, her heart broke beyond repair, and she finally left in despair. Only after losing his true love did he awaken to his mistakes—but can he ever earn redemption?

Once a crown prince, Finn Clark lives as a commoner after being rescued by Helen Smith, who raises him amid scorn and hardship. Though only a lowborn's daughter, she shields him, urging him to train in secret and wait for his moment. Enduring humiliation from Mark Smith and protecting his love Grace Conley, Finn hides his strength—until the combat tournament, where he shocks the realm and unknowingly draws his father,Emperor Sean Clark, closer to finding him.

Years ago, the Jaxon family was wiped out. Before she died, Walter Jaxon's mother urged him never to fight again. Years later, the Tanner family's daughter was about to lose a martial contest to a foreigner in a competition for her marriage. At the critical moment, Walter crushed the amulet, regaining his strength to protect the woman he loved.

Koiti Mikage, the world's wealthiest man, had spent years concealing his identity while working as a cashier to raise his son, Kazuma. Unexpectedly, Kazuma ended up marrying Yuki Hanyo. The Hanyo family was domineering and overbearing, so Kazuma tried to keep the wedding from Koichi, yet Koichi showed up uninvited. At the wedding, Kazuma was belittled at every turn, prompting Koiti to step in and defend Kazuma. Despite initial mockery, Koiti just responded by presenting extravagant gifts. But when faced with persistent provocations, Koiti no longer held back. At that moment, his powerful and influential goddaughter burst in, declaring her desire to marry into the Mikage family, which sent shockwaves through the crowd.

Reborn into a cybernetic world where "synchronization rate" determines everything, I was once a overworked office worker who died from exhaustion. Now, even as the strongest being, I choose to live as an F-rank "trash" who spends his days flirting with beautiful women and enjoying a laid-back life. But trouble keeps coming for me anyway—my ex-wife demands a share of my fortune, my family forces me into an arranged marriage, a brother dies protecting me, and even my own elder brother wants to drag me down with him. Fine. If you won't let me rest, I won't pretend anymore. One punch per problem—until everyone learns their place.

Maggie Duncan transmigrates into a classic revenge novel as the story's nastiest female antagonist, immediately saddled with a system that demands she accumulate hatred levels or face the consequences. Then the system glitches. Every unspoken thought she has broadcasts directly into the minds of her entire family. Her scheming inner monologue—the complaints, the calculations, the bewildered asides—plays live in real time to the people she's supposed to be tormenting. The plot derails immediately. Her three brothers, who were meant to despise her, become fiercely protective. The cold fiance Trent Stevens, scripted to regard her with contempt, starts hovering in ways that aren't contemptuous at all.The Duncan family's tragic ending quietly ceases to be inevitable. Maggie watches her villainy progress bar drain to zero and has no idea how it happened.

Fabron Lovell's life was a mess. His boss treated him like dirt, and his girlfriend dumped him. But he was unexpectedly bound to the Doomsday Shuttle System, forcing him to travel back and forth between the zombie-infested future world and a modern city. In the collapsed future, gold and jewels were worthless junk. Fabron spotted an arbitrage opportunity across time and space and wanted to build his empire in both worlds.

After recovering, Heather planned to pretend to be blind and proposed to her boyfriend Darren, hoping to give him a surprise. However, Darren passionately kissed other girl right in front of her and even made a bet with his friends, asking someone else to take his place to keep her occupied while he enjoyed his freedom. Filled with grief and anger, Heather thought, "You're choosing a husband for me, is that it?" She threw herself into the arms of Alonzo, and demanded a kiss in front of him. Little did she know, Alonzo had long been deeply in love with her! In this game of power and dominance, who will come out on top? And who truly holds the upper hand?

In the age of interstellar mechas, humanity faces an alien invasion. Ken Yale, a young man of extraordinary talent,stumbles upon the gravely wounded Queen of the Star Alliance. Mistaking her for a mecha pilot, he throws himself into a battle that will reshape the fate of the galaxy!

If you refuse to apologize, stay here and reflect on your actions! Feel the pain Agnes went through!" Kenneth was the Alpha. His childhood friend was accidentally locked in a storage unit for three days. To punish me, he locked me in a faulty walk-in freezer. He left me with nothing but a piece of bread the size of my palm before locking the door and leaving.Unbeknownst to him, this walk-in freezer wasn't actually faulty. Not long after he left, the cooling system was suddenly activated. I screamed for help and desperately sought ways to survive. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I clawed at the door, nobody came to my rescue. A week later, he finally showed up outside the freezer. He was expecting an apology from me. But when he opened the freezer's door, all he found was my frozen corpse.

The night before our 17th wedding attempt, my mafia husband, Rafaeal Holloway, looks at me and promises an uninterrupted wedding. He solemnly swears. "Gianna, I promise you. I told Natalia that even if the sky falls, she'll deal with it alone." I am five months pregnant by then. After three years of dating and five months carrying his child, we've never managed to make it down the aisle because he's canceled the past 16 weddings. Every single time, it's for his sworn sister, Natalia Sullivan. The first time, she claims she has a fever. I spend the whole night at the hospital, still in my wedding dress, just to find out she has a mild cold. The second time, she claims her chest hurts. Rafael abandons me mid-wedding and rushes to her side, while she's out laughing over afternoon tea with friends. The third time, she cries for fear of thunder. He bolts mid-vows and leaves me alone in a hall full of staring guests. But everything's different now. Three days ago, a letter arrived from Northern Silenzio. My father, the Don of the Rossetti family, has finally summoned me home. If Rafael walks away for Natalia one more time, I'll leave for good.