

At fifteen, straight-A student Zora was sent to a behavioral correction center by her parents, Malcolm and Camille, solely to frighten her younger brother, Isaiah, into behaving after he repeatedly skipped school and dated too young. For three years, she endured beatings, confinement, and sexual assault. When she finally returned home covered in scars, her father locked her in a storage room, driving her to attempt suicide in despair. After the truth came to light, Malcolm and Camille spent the rest of their lives consumed by remorse, while Isaiah suffered a complete psychological breakdown under the crushing weight of guilt.

The day a rat sold out our East Coast safe houses, the FBI got its hands on the addresses of every old base belonging to the Five Families. The Commission gave the order: every associate had to report to the neutral church and register within seventy-two hours. Only those who completed registration would make the evacuation list and be picked up by the convoys. Once the list was sealed, no one could be added. But Viola Romano claimed she was the daughter of the Commission's Chairman. She said her father had already saved a spot for everyone. They didn't need to register, and they could still leave on the priority convoy. My friends believed her and canceled their registrations, one after another. I begged them not to gamble with their lives and told them to register just in case. Viola immediately accused me of being jealous and trying to ruin things for everyone. My boyfriend, Matteo Russo, said I didn't understand power and that I belonged in line with the ordinary members. In my last life, I reported the whole thing to the Commission. Viola was exposed. Everyone managed to register before the deadline and secure a spot on the evacuation list. She was cast out of the Family for impersonating the Chairman's daughter and obstructing an emergency evacuation. In the end, she died in an FBI raid. Everyone said she got what she deserved. They thanked me for saving them. But after we moved into the new safe house, Matteo shot me from behind. The bullet went straight through my heart. The people I'd saved just stood there, watching coldly. "The worst that could've happened to us was getting arrested by the FBI. Viola lost her life!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Viola promised to get everyone onto the evacuation list.

On Christmas Eve, James Halper visits his wife's family, only to be treated with disdain. Little do they know, he is the new Chairman of Empyrean Group, one of the world's leading companies.

I was born with a built-in fortune system. Whenever I'm happy, everyone around me makes money. To keep me in a good mood, my billionaire father takes me out on adventures every single day, showering me with limited-edition sneakers, private yacht charters, and one-of-a-kind luxury items. It all comes down to one thing: the Connolly Group's luck is tied directly to my emotional state. As long as I'm laughing hard enough to snort, the stock price climbs and the money pours in. The moment my mood tanks, the losses start. At worst, the whole thing goes bankrupt. Take last month. One of the cleaning staff accidentally tossed out half a macaron I'd left sitting on the counter, and I was mildly annoyed for about a second. The next day, the Connolly Group's West Coast division posted a hundred-million-dollar loss. Dad spent the entire night buying up ten gourmet bakeries and terminating the cleaning company's contract just to smooth things over. After that, nobody in Manhattan's upper-crust social scene dared so much as look at me sideways. That was, until Dad flew out to Los Angeles on business, and Isabella, the long-lost biological daughter who'd just been found, walked into my room. "You've been leeching off this family for years," she said, looking down at me with pure contempt. "Did you actually think draining the Connolly name dry made you the real heiress? I'm the one with Connolly blood. Now that I'm back, it's time for you to crawl out of my house." I didn't react. She picked up the black coffee sitting nearby and poured it straight onto my keyboard. I watched the screen go dark, and something hollow opened up in my chest. "Get on your knees and clean it up." I wiped the coffee off my face. The air had gone cold. The Connolly Group was about to implode, and I found myself wondering whether Dad, thousands of miles away in LA, was already reaching for his heart medication as he watched billions evaporate off the ticker.

While the festive season closes in, Claudia Roman loses 200 thousand dollars in a gambling scheme plotted by her best friend Jane White. The money was meant for her daughter's tuition, her father's medical bills, and the living expenses of her family of three, so to win the money back, Matt Swain joins the game. Initially, he intended to leave after winning the same amount back, but Jane and Kelvin Grant kidnap Claudia, forcing him back into the gamble.

The day before the family purge order was issued, I saw my own name on the Bellini family’s internal network. In the field marked Recommended Executor, the name written there was Adrian Bellini. The current Mafia Don. And my fiancé. When I called him, his voice was flat. “Relax, Vivian. Celine submitted the exit request for you. It was just a joke.” “Go explain it to the council yourself. They’ll cancel it.” Celine. The assistant who followed him everywhere, always in expensive little skirts, the one who adjusted his tie for him in public as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I held the phone in my hand, I had nothing left to say. So the place I had nearly killed myself to protect for three years was, to him, nothing more than a joke. I didn’t withdraw anything. I completed the handover as usual. Signed the papers as usual. Left New York as usual. It wasn’t until much later that Adrian finally realized something was wrong and asked me, “Vivian, I told you to get your name taken off the list. Why didn’t you go?” “Why should I?”

Samuel Fisk, the world's richest man, willingly leaves his fortune to live a simple life and raise his son, Aaron Fisk. But when Aaron marries the proud Peggy York, he faces a pushy fiancée, a controlling mother-in-law, and a troublesome sister-in-law. Aaron hopes his father won't attend the wedding, yet Samuel insists on being there, determined to support him no matter what.

Chloe Snow comes from a loving family. She is a good kid whom all the adults adore. When she becomes terminally ill, her parents plan to sell their home to pay for her treatment. Realizing how exorbitant the medical fees will be, Chloe decides to hurt her father’s heart so that he will give up on her. She even rejects him in public, but he never stops loving her. Deeply moved, Chloe resolves to do one last thing for him on New Year’s Eve.

After a sold-out world tour, country music’s good girl returns home for Christmas to rest—only to be cornered by her money-hungry family pressuring her to sign away her estate. When her label sends its scandal-ridden bad boy to rehab his image, she least expects him to be the one who helps her fight back, reclaim her voice, and take control of her life again.

My brother-in-law started making a fuss about wanting to spend Christmas vacation at the beach, so I decided we'd make it a family trip. When my husband's adoptive sister got wind of it, she insisted on tagging along with her kid. Without a second thought, my husband went ahead and booked plane tickets for everyone—except me. He expected me to drive there with all the luggage. I thought at least someone in the family would speak up for me, but no, they all sided with him. Fine. If that's how they want it, then we'll go our separate ways—what's theirs is theirs, and what's mine is mine. But the moment I took that stance, the whole family suddenly started panicking…