

"Please, stop pushing. I can't take this anymore." The concert venue is packed tight. A man behind me keeps pressing into my backside. I'm wearing a mini skirt today with a thong underneath, and it only makes the situation worse. He lifts my skirt and presses himself against my hips. As the atmosphere heats up, someone in front of me slams into me, and I stumble back a step. My body stiffens as I feel like something just slid inside me.

"Please, stop pushing. I can't take this anymore." The concert venue is packed tight. A man behind me keeps pressing into my backside. I'm wearing a mini skirt today with a thong underneath, and it only makes the situation worse. He lifts my skirt and presses himself against my hips. As the atmosphere heats up, someone in front of me slams into me, and I stumble back a step. My body stiffens as I feel like something just slid inside me.

On her wedding day, Rachel's fiancé elopes with her sister, so she marries his younger brother instead—the notorious playboy Liam.Everyone thinks it's a joke. But she's a general's daughter who knows how to wield a blade, play politics, and turn a wastrel husband into a weapon who conquers enemies and hands her the ultimate power.

After our eighty-eighth canceled wedding, I called my business partner. "I'm taking the Haviana market project." There was a beat of stunned silence. "Seriously? That's ten years overseas. You just got married—well, weren't you? Does your husband even know? What about your parents? You always said staying close to them was everything." I glanced around the empty church and let out a sharp laugh. "There was no wedding. No husband. And my parents? They've got Cindy. That's all they need." Another pause. "Alright. Pack your bags. You leave tomorrow." After the call, I ran a hand down my wedding dress. One last tear slipped out, quiet and pointless. Cindy had another "episode" today. Claimed she'd off herself. Andrew canceled—again. I'd looked at him, drained. "It's the eighty-eighth time." He dropped his head, guilt all over him. "Just a little more time, Viv. She's been off since the accident. I'm scared she'll actually do it. I swear, I'll talk to her. For real this time. Then we'll get married. Promise." My parents didn't hesitate. "Vivian, let Andrew go. If Cindy hadn't gotten kidnapped trying to save you, she wouldn't have these breakdowns. Are you really putting a wedding over your sister's life?" "How could you be so selfish?" I'd heard it all before. Used to fight it. Not this time. If neither my fiancé nor my parents wanted me around, then fine. I'd leave.

I dropped my car off for maintenance at the service center. When it was finished, I told the staff to put it on the tab of my cousin, who ran the shop. The staff member nodded and started to process it, but then the female manager stepped in. "We don't do tabs here. You've got to pay up now," she said, slapping the bill down right in front of me. Premium Diagnostic Scan: $80,000 Exhaust System Sound Enhancement: $100,000 Engine Harmony Calibration: $100,000 Total: $280,000. I laughed at the absurdity. Since when did my cousin start running a rip-off operation? The manager crossed her arms and gave me a snooty once-over. "Always trying to mooch off Chad. I've seen plenty of broke relatives like you. If you can't swing it, don't act like you can." Unwilling to argue with her, I pulled out my phone and called my cousin. "You have ten minutes to fire the manager, or your shop is finished."

The moms at the company post about me online, claiming the free daycare I provide for their kids is a "prison" and a vile tactic to force them to work overtime. What they don't know is that the daycare was set up with imported equipment and staffed by internationally trained professionals. It costs nearly eight thousand dollars a month per child to operate. The internet curses me out, calling me a show-off and disgusting capitalist. So I grit my teeth and send out a company-wide announcement. "To support everyone's desire to handle their own childcare, the company has decided to close the free daycare program. Effective immediately, it will be replaced with a childcare benefit. Eligible mothers will receive 200 dollars a month." As soon as the notice goes out, the moms panic. They crowd outside my office, begging me not to shut it down.

Aria Vale loves her idol Noah Rivers so completely that his fictional death feels like a personal injustice. Then she blinks and finds herself inside the novel, in a world where the cities are overrun and the story is already in motion. Reinventing herself as a mysterious talent manager, she finds the boy before anyone else does and helps him become exactly who he was supposed to be, rewriting the ending she couldn't accept. Her phone knows what's coming, which helps. What she doesn't account for is how quickly depending on each other becomes something neither of them has a word for.

ER doctor Kate Reed believes she has a loving marriage—until one phone call shatters the illusion. While she's in surgery, her husband Mason Fadley claims his flight is canceled, but he's secretly with his sister-in-law, Sandy Young. When Mason collapses from expired drugs, Kate uncovers the affair—and learns her miscarriage was their doing. On Sandy's wedding day, Kate doesn't arrive to celebrate. She comes to expose their sins.

Yolanda's operational error during surgery left a patient paralyzed and triggered a heart attack in herself out of shock.Desperate,Yolanda's mother pleaded with Carolyn to take the blame and serve the prison sentence in Yolanda's place. Deeply in love with Yolanda's brother, Frazier, Carolyn agreed to the request but kept everything secret, intending to explain the truth to him after her release. However, while in prison, Carolyn was diagnosed with cancer. Thus, she chose to conceal the truth indefinitely rather than cause Frazier further pain. Then, she secretly dedicated her final days to supporting him—helping his company develop an anti-cancer drug, and even donating her heart to his sister after her death. But Frazier knew nothing about it and still had a misunderstanding of her even after her death. At last, overcome with regret, he chose to die.

At the five-year wedding anniversary celebration of Scott and Joyce, Joyce's half-sister, Tina, suddenly appeared, demanding Joyce return Scott to her. Tina deliberately pushed Joyce, causing her to miscarry. Instead of helping Joyce, Scott chose to leave with Tina, plunging Joyce into despair. She decided to divorce Scott and attempted to take her own life by jumping into the sea. After Joyce vanished, Scott initially believed it was all an act, but he gradually discovered the misunderstandings and Tina's schemes, realizing that the woman who loved him the most was gone forever.