sticks and stones will break my bones

Five years ago, Hailey Penn and Damon Mercer are lovers, but Damon conceals his identity as heir to one of the capital's most powerful families, working undercover as an ordinary employee at his family's branch office. They break up due to a misunderstanding, and Damon suddenly vanishes. Hailey gives birth to their son Cody and struggles as a single mother for five years. When her job transfers her to the capital city Esrane, she unexpectedly reunites with Damon at a business dinner. They clear up their misunderstandings and finally build their happily ever after.

I've gotten reborn into a mecha. Furthermore, I'm the type with just a metallic shell without an actual body piloting it.But I still manage to secretly help my pilot many times with my powerful battle intent so that we can save the world, which has gotten infiltrated by monsters.I'm supposed to be hailed as a hero, but instead, I'm used as a trashed mecha that's meant to serve as a practice mecha for newbie pilots. This is all thanks to the fact that I've gotten my core damaged during my last battle with a monster, which has caused my functionality to drop rapidly.But just as I'm thinking that I should spend the remainder of my years in peace, little do I know that it's only the start of my nightmare. After all, my latest pilot is a teenage girl with a violent side to her. She doesn't take my personality into consideration in training, which often causes my gun barrels to overheat.

I've gotten reborn into a mecha. Furthermore, I'm the type with just a metallic shell without an actual body piloting it.But I still manage to secretly help my pilot many times with my powerful battle intent so that we can save the world, which has gotten infiltrated by monsters.I'm supposed to be hailed as a hero, but instead, I'm used as a trashed mecha that's meant to serve as a practice mecha for newbie pilots. This is all thanks to the fact that I've gotten my core damaged during my last battle with a monster, which has caused my functionality to drop rapidly.But just as I'm thinking that I should spend the remainder of my years in peace, little do I know that it's only the start of my nightmare. After all, my latest pilot is a teenage girl with a violent side to her. She doesn't take my personality into consideration in training, which often causes my gun barrels to overheat.

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.

Finn Kennedy carries a blood curse that drives him mad every 13th of the month, making him violently dangerous. Only the blood or intimacy of a "Maiden of Pure Soul" can ease his suffering and break the curse. Without finding her, Finn faces death by age 30 or falls victim to his half brother Jax's schemes. When Finn meets Lucia Owens, the curse transfers to her. Though this should have been fatal for Lucia, the combination of Finn's daily acts of kindness, their true love, and the birth of their second child finally breaks the curse completely.

While the criminal was brutally killing me, my dad, the head of the criminal investigation division, and my mom, the chief forensic pathologist, were attending my sister Lily Lambert’s match. In a bid for revenge, the criminal, who had once been captured by my dad, cut out my tongue and used my phone to call him. My dad only said one thing before hanging up. "No matter what’s going on, Lily’s match is the top priority today!" The criminal sneered, "Seems I’ve kidnapped the wrong person. I thought they would love their biological daughter more!" At the crime scene, my parents were shocked by the brutal state of the body and condemned the cruelty of the killer. However, they did not realize that the horrifically mutilated corpse was their own daughter.

In my previous life, my girlfriend's childhood friend impersonated a rich heir and messed around with the fake power he had. I exposed him, and he crashed his car into me. In my final moments, my girlfriend's sister begged on her knees, pleading for my girlfriend's aid, hoping she could save me, but my girlfriend did nothing. "He wouldn't do that. Zacharias is beyond this. He would never dirty his hands for a nobody like this guy. He might be my boyfriend, but that doesn't mean he can do anything he wants. He'd better know his place." My girlfriend's sister remained on the ground for three days. In the end, Zacharias dragged her away, violated her, and killed her. Even at my dying breath, my girlfriend was still covering up for her childhood friend. She refused to believe Zacharias hit someone with a car and violated her sister. And then I was reborn. This time, I did not beg and plead for my girlfriend to give me a moment of her time. I called my brother instead. "Hey? Yeah, it's me. Some bastard impersonated me and is dragging my name through the mud. I need you to take that guy out. Also, I'm not marrying Annabelle Lawson. I'm taking her sister instead." I gave the Lawsons a lot of resources so they could grow, and what did I get in the end? An ungrateful woman who would leave me stranded and dying all for another man. With all their resources pulled, Annabelle and her childhood friend would be saying goodbye to their good old days and hello to their personal hell.

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?

It wasn't until the day she died that Stacie realized her marriage had been a lie. Brian had always been hopelessly in love with his first crush,and marrying her was nothing more than an act of revenge.Reborn back to her school days, Stacie returns to her wealthy family without hesitation and marries her childhood sweetheart—the heir of the Sanders family—in a flash. She never expected the proud and untouchable Brian to break down, eyes red as he came to her door."Stacie… didn't you say you'd only ever love me?"

Theo Grant, diagnosed with a terminal illness, drives away his girlfriend Chloe Jayne, determined not to drag her down with him. To secure her future, he volunteers as a test subject for the richest man's experimental drugs,sacrificing himself so she can have a better life.Three years later, fate brings them together again.Theo's days are numbered, so he keeps pushing Chloe away, even as she clings to the love she still feels for him.Eventually, after battling destiny, they find the courage to break free from their suffering and choose to love and stay by each other's side.

I'm Sam Archer. Reborn today, I've decided to live differently. In my last life, I was weak and stepped on.This time, I'll be a villain. From restaurant waiter to underground kingpin, I crush my bullies and outsmart even my father-in-law, the mob boss. One rule: my people are untouchable. Stop backing down, and the world makes way for you.

In my previous life, my parents doted on my frail, sickly younger sister.For her sake, they chose a hawk beastman willing to settle in a human city as her husband.Me? They cast me into the deep sea,marrying me off to a giant shark beastman.When the apocalypse came and torrential rains drowned every human city, my parents and sister were left clinging to a rotting plank, adrift on the endless ocean.I couldn't bear to watch them die. With my giant shark husband, I dragged them down into the deep sea to safety.But resentment festered. Seeing me live comfortably while my shark beastman hunted day after day, my parents grew furious that my sister's life paled in comparison to mine. In their jealousy, they laced the fish we ate with poison and killed me.Now, given another chance at life,they've decided my sister should marry the giant shark beastman instead.My biased parents believe she will finally enjoy the blessings they once denied her.But what they don't know is this: after the cataclysm, fish become scarce. And a giant shark… does not survive on scraps. He needs flesh.

I'm Sam Archer. Reborn today, I've decided to live differently. In my last life, I was weak and stepped on.This time, I'll be a villain. From restaurant waiter to underground kingpin, I crush my bullies and outsmart even my father-in-law, the mob boss. One rule: my people are untouchable. Stop backing down, and the world makes way for you.

When the blizzard apocalypse descends on the world, my family casts me out to the blizzard just so the fake heiress, Erica Kent, can sleep in the car's backseat. But I end up awakening the three-hunk system just when I'm about to die.The first hunk is CEO Jay, a haughty yet domineering CEO who has unlimited supplies in his inventory. The second hunk is Professor Finn, who specializes in the ultimate defensive techniques thanks to his high intellect.The third hunk is Zoomer Zach, a character capable of teleporting to anywhere he wants.When the entire city is suffering from the subzero temperature, I make myself at home in a luxurious villa, where the temperature is always regulated. With the hunks by my side, I dig into a nice boiling stew while watching my shitty ex-fiancee and the rest of my family erase what's left of their humanity in exchange for a slim chance of survival by killing each other.Apparently, those scumbags still have the nerve to crawl to my fence and beg for scraps of my food! I decide to send them to hell by turning on the switch of the electrified fence around my villa.In this lifetime, I don't give a damn about relationships at all. All I care about is my own survival. With the gorgeous hunks by my side, I can rest easy in this frozen era without any worries.

Sienna Walker bears an uncanny resemblance to Serena, the woman once cherished by the Spencer family's patriarch and deeply hated by his son,Fabian Spencer. Her resemblance draws Fabian's attention, but not in a good way. When Sienna reaches out to Fabian, hoping to be adopted,Fabian plots to make her vanish in a staged accident, fearing she might truly become part of the family. Yet as their lives become increasingly intertwined, the boundaries between hatred and desire begin to blur.Haunted by his unresolved past, Fabian wrestles with Serena's lingering shadow while Sienna fights to break free from it and is determined to be the one who ultimately claims happiness.

When the blizzard apocalypse descends on the world, my family casts me out to the blizzard just so the fake heiress, Erica Kent, can sleep in the car's backseat. But I end up awakening the three-hunk system just when I'm about to die.The first hunk is CEO Jay, a haughty yet domineering CEO who has unlimited supplies in his inventory. The second hunk is Professor Finn, who specializes in the ultimate defensive techniques thanks to his high intellect.The third hunk is Zoomer Zach, a character capable of teleporting to anywhere he wants.When the entire city is suffering from the subzero temperature, I make myself at home in a luxurious villa, where the temperature is always regulated. With the hunks by my side, I dig into a nice boiling stew while watching my shitty ex-fiancee and the rest of my family erase what's left of their humanity in exchange for a slim chance of survival by killing each other.Apparently, those scumbags still have the nerve to crawl to my fence and beg for scraps of my food! I decide to send them to hell by turning on the switch of the electrified fence around my villa.In this lifetime, I don't give a damn about relationships at all. All I care about is my own survival. With the gorgeous hunks by my side, I can rest easy in this frozen era without any worries.

Mia Falcone, the Don’s daughter, gave up everything for Leo Romano after he took three bullets to save her. For seven years, she lived in secrecy as his wife, raising their son without a name. After Leo’s brother died, his widow, Jasmine Moretti, returned, and Leo chose her and ambition over blood. When the humiliation threatens her son, Ethan, Mia walks away and returns to her true identity. As Leo desperately tries to win back the woman he lost, Mia teaches him a fatal lesson: he didn’t just break a heart—he declared war on the wrong bloodline.

When I turn 20, my grandfather's old friend—now the richest man in the country—lays out photos of his grandsons in front of me. He says, "Pick one to be your husband." Without hesitation, I choose Nathaniel Chapman. Everyone in the room is stunned. After all, it's no secret I've always been hopelessly in love with George Chapman. I used to swear I'd marry no one but him. In my previous life, I got what I wanted—I married George. And because of that marriage, he inherited the lion's share of his grandfather's wealth. But after the wedding, he started an affair with my sister. My parents were furious and sent her abroad to study. George thought I was the one who exposed them. From then on, he hated me to my very core. Women came and went at his side, each one resembling my sister more than the last. The betrayal crushed me. I fell into deep depression. Later, he secretly replaced my medication with slow-acting poison. I died with a child in my womb—alone, bitter, and betrayed. Now, I've been reborn. This time, I choose to let them have each other. But what I don't expect is that George has been reborn too.