

Nineteen-year-old college freshman Carl West was entrusted by his mother, who was away on a business trip, to the care of their neighbor Joanna Luca. Joanna, thirty-eight, had a husband who was rarely home and ran a women’s clothing store by herself. She took excellent care of herself, had a full figure, and was easygoing and generous, never shy about walking around in revealing clothes in front of Carl. Carl was deeply drawn to her mature feminine charm, while Joanna also treated him with the closeness of one of her own kids—pulling him into workouts, making videos, and their daily contact steadily intensified the ambiguous tension between them. One night, after helping Joanna carry her handbag back to her door, Carl heard her husband’s furious shouting from inside. Joanna’s husband, Michael Luca, demanded to know whether she was having an affair, punched and kicked Carl, and publicly humiliated Joanna. Carl was completely defenseless. In the course of seeking revenge, Carl was repeatedly beaten and humiliated by Michael and his men. While enduring the humiliation, he secretly investigated and learned that Michael had gotten ahead by sleeping with his boss Lucas’s wife, Sarah. So Carl teamed up with Dick, a former subordinate whom Michael had cuckolded, and set a trap to let Michael’s boss Lucas catch him in the act himself. After Michael was ruined and reduced to a street beggar, Joanna successfully divorced him, and in the end she and Carl started a new life together.

"In the fifth year of our marriage, my husband, Asher, insists on bringing another woman with us when we move abroad. Liana has been by his side for nine years, he explains, and he owes her too much to leave her behind. I don’t cry, argue, or demand that he choose. Instead, I calmly book her a seat on our flight. Asher believes I’ve finally accepted their relationship. But on the day of our departure, I watch him board the plane with Liana—then turn around and take a different flight home. He chose the woman he couldn’t abandon. **So I abandoned our marriage instead.**"

Three months after the divorce, I promised my ex-wife I’d take my stepdaughter to college… Yet late one night on the train, the stepdaughter climbs into my bed… A three-day, two-night trip on the California Zephyr, from Chicago to San Francisco. Derek’s plan: Finish this journey and leave for good. Scarlett’s plan: Use these three days to win him back. Chloe’s plan: She’s waited six years, and this time she decides to make her move. But plans never go as expected. Caught between his ex-wife and his stepdaughter, what choice will Derek make?

From a young age, Elena and her twin sister Bianca had suffered their parents' favouritism, and her fiancé Luca had always put Bianca first. With just one week to go before the wedding, Luca's constant favouritism caused Elena to lose all hope, and she decided to plan her escape. On the day of the wedding, a gang attack took place; Luca was absent as he had accompanied Bianca to receive an award, resulting in Elena going missing during the attack. Elena fled to Savannah, where, with the help of her best friend Alia, she became an accomplished leather restorer and met Rowen, a partner in a security firm. Upon learning the truth, Luca was overcome with remorse and searched frantically for her, trying to win her back; however, Elena had already found herself and true love alongside Rowen. In the end, Elena completely rejected both Luca and her family of origin, and walked down the aisle with Rowen.

Morrison, a former top CIA operative, lives under an assumed name after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, leading a quiet farming life in a small town with his daughter Vivian. The local criminal syndicate, the Rosetti family, covets his farmland. To force Morrison into submission, Theodore, the family's young heir, kidnaps the 17-year-old Vivian and tortures her to death brutally. Having lost his sole emotional anchor, Morrison casts aside his medication restraints entirely, unearths the stockpile of weapons he has hidden away for a decade, and storms the Rosetti manor alone to exact revenge. Senior figures within the city's police force, municipal government and the CIA are all well aware of Morrison's terrifying combat prowess from his past. They order an emergency city-wide evacuation and stand aside to let him wipe out the entire criminal family, kicking off a brutal vendetta of blood for blood. Revolving around paternal love, trauma, corrupt power networks and unbridled vengeance, the story interweaves the lingering shadows of past killings with the mutual despair and devastation of the present, unfolding an unstoppable bloody reckoning.

Ivy was once the most gifted Moon Priestess candidate in the werewolf world and the destined mate of Kane, the future Alpha heir. But to help his true love Selena take her place, Kane betrayed Ivy and locked her inside a mad wolf’s dungeon for seven days of torture. When Ivy finally escaped, she expected her family and her mate to regret what they had done. Instead, she was met with even more betrayal. Selena stole her title, her sacred dress, and even the man she loved. With her heart completely broken, Ivy decided to leave everything behind. But in her darkest moment, she accepted a Moon Goddess contract with Leon, the mysterious and powerful Lord of the North. What no one knew was that Leon was the little wolf Ivy saved years ago. Now, he returns as the strongest Alpha, ready to protect his Luna and make everyone who betrayed her pay the price.

My coworkers and I are forcibly dragged into a bizarre game with the initial title displayed as "War of the Plants". Everyone crowds around to choose camps or safe houses with abundant water resources. I am the only one who picks a plastic apartment in the desert with no water or electricity. My female supervisor mocks me in front of everyone, saying I must be out of my mind. No one is willing to team up with me, and they even bet I won't last three days. When choosing abilities, everyone rushes for practical powers like spatial storage or metal control. I, however, choose reverse photosynthesis that allows me to gain energy from air humidity. Everyone immediately mutes me in the game. Clearly, no one wants to hear my desperate cries for help later. But when the system revokes team permissions and administrator functions, everyone is stunned. The game's name is reset to "Magnet Apocalypse".

Three days before the long weekend, the Department of Labor called me. "We got an anonymous complaint saying your company is forcing employees to go on a holiday retreat..." I went still. Then I checked social media. Yep. There it was. An intern who'd started a month ago had shoved me onto the local trending page. [Greedy boss turns holiday weekend into mandatory company retreat. Employees are basically free entertainment.] [They say it's optional. Yeah, right. Who's brave enough to say no?] Thousands of comments rolled in, absolutely roasting me. Except our retreats had always been elite. Fully paid. No cheap corporate nonsense. This time, I was paying out of pocket. Seven days in the Maldives. Everything covered. A $2,000 travel stipend each. Senior employees could bring family. But apparently, a free luxury vacation was oppression now. Cool. I told the labor officer, "We'll fully cooperate." Then I dropped a notice in the company group chat. [Per Department of Labor guidance, the long weekend company retreat is canceled. Everyone should take the holiday off as usual.] [The travel stipends and retreat budget will be moved into this quarter's employee benefits reserve.] The second I hit send, something slammed into a desk outside my office.

College student David Gray is temporarily staying with his cousin, Joseph Gray, in a rural village when he accidentally uncovers a shocking secret between Joseph and his daughter-in-law, Holly Ware. After Holly desperately pleads for his help, the kind-hearted David finds himself torn between family loyalty and doing what's right…

In 1978 Chicago, Evelyn Hart—a woman with supernatural abilities—was rescued from pursuers by Adrian Moretti, the heir to the Moretti family; the two quickly fell in love. To stay by his side as his wife, she turned down the secret government "Oracle Project" and accepted medication to suppress her powers. Later, when the Moretti family doctor diagnosed two successive pregnancies as involving severe fetal deformities, she tearfully terminated both, blaming her own anomalous physiology. During an ambush on the family, she took a bullet meant for Adrian; while he survived, he suffered a spinal injury that left him wheelchair-bound. A subsequent surgery for a third "deformed fetus" rendered her permanently infertile. Faced with family humiliation, Adrian publicly banished the subordinate who had insulted her, placed the Moretti family ring on her finger, kissed her, and declared her the only *Donna* he recognized. Evelyn became convinced that he was willing to forgo an heir for her sake.She cared for the paralyzed Adrian for nearly fifty years, managing the family affairs and looking after Elena—the widow of Adrian’s late brother—and their "nephew," Nick. It was only after Adrian’s death that she learned the truth from a lawyer: the couple had never been legally married; Elena was the registered wife, and Nick was Adrian’s biological son. All real estate, trusts, insurance policies, and family shares belonged to that mother and son. Even more cruel was the revelation that the medical reports regarding her three "deformed fetuses" had been fabricated. Left without Moretti protection, the elderly Evelyn was targeted for assassination by an old enemy. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the week shortly after Adrian’s paralysis—a time when she still had the chance to choose a different life.The Oracle Project reappeared, informing her that it would take seven days to create a new identity and arrange her extraction; during this time, she had to act a