Amaka Chi

Marco Ricci knew nothing except lies about his life. Marco, seventeen years old, finds a secret rifle and a mysterious notepad in his father's desk, therefore destroying his cozy suburban life overnight. His father has been arrested, not just absent. The family business is structured crime rather than insurance. And the Ricci family name isn't just a name-it's a dynasty he's now expected to protect. Forced to flee his home with the protection of his father's fearsome lieutenant, Marco's life takes a dramatic turn when he meets Ellie Lia at a gas station in the dead of night. Smart and beautiful, Ellie is not only his chemistry lab partner but also his secret crush. To his shock, she is revealed to be Elena Donato, the daughter of his family's most dangerous enemy. The look they share in that pivotal moment hints that Ellie may be just as trapped in this long-standing blood feud as he is. With both families on the verge of war and his father imprisoned, Marco is faced with an impossible decision: to accept the criminal legacy he has tried to escape or risk losing everyone he holds dear. Some family secrets are written in blood-and some ties can't be broken.

Aria Rossi was moments away from marrying into one of New York's most powerful crime families when she fled, leaving behind a devastated groom and a deadly vendetta. Five years later, she's built a new life under an assumed identity in the sun-soaked streets of Miami, believing she's finally safe. As the owner of a thriving art gallery, Aria has buried her past beneath layers of carefully crafted lies and exquisite paintings. But when a mysterious new client walks into her gallery, Aria comes face-to-face with her past-and the man she left at the altar. Lorenzo Caruso, now the head of his family's criminal empire, has never forgotten the woman who broke his heart and tarnished his honor. As old feelings reignite, so does the danger that forced her to run. With enemies closing in from all sides and secrets threatening to unravel everything she's built, Aria must decide: Can she trust the man she once loved with her life, or will their second chance at romance be her ultimate downfall? Just as she makes her choice, a shocking revelation changes everything-and nothing is as it seems. An intricate web of betrayal, hidden identities, and long-buried secrets begins to surface, forcing Aria to question everything she thought she knew about her past, her present, and the man she's never stopped loving. In a world where loyalty is everything and trust can get you killed, will Aria and Lorenzo's rekindled passion be strong enough to overcome the lies that tear them apart, or will their love become another masterpiece in her gallery of deception?

After her late husband's debts leave her poverty-stricken, Sarah Jenkins finds herself with no choice but to agree to her in-laws arranging her marriage to billionaire developer Lachlan Reid. Thrust from her struggling existence into his world of opulence and luxury, Sarah is overwhelmed by the drastic change in her circumstances. As she navigates high society events and lavish vacations, she discovers a side of Lachlan hidden beneath his cold exterior. Against all odds, an unexpected affection blossoms between them. But can Sarah truly trust her growing feelings, or is she merely swept up in the allure of wealth and security? Just as she begins to embrace her new life, a shocking revelation threatens to unravel everything...

Title: THE PLAYBOY CHALLENGE Genre: romance Trope: billionaire, play boy. Blurb: Lenora's life was going downhill quickly. From being fired at her work to being about to be evicted from her apartment, she is exhausted with her life of utter misery. The icing on the cake is when a dangerous man sends his two goon sniffing after her and her sister. They can either find a way to get five thousand dollars in three days or become shark food. A miracle comes in the form of a billionaire's daughter with a bruised ego. The plan is simple, if Lenora can keep billionaire playboy Ian O'Malley's attention for sixty days followed by a humiliating, public break up, she gets enough money to turn her life around. It's supposed to be a simple plan, and she's never meant to start feeling things for the charming billionaire. She can't mix business with emotions, but she's never felt this way before. What happens when a money making scheme with a looming end date begins to feel too real?

I thought having one reckless night of revenge sex with a gorgeous stranger seemed like the perfect way for me to break out of my "good girl" mold. I was wrong. ​I ran before he could even know my name, promising myself it would stay a secret. A mistake buried so deep that neither my overprotective brother nor my boyfriend would ever find out. Then I walked onto campus for my first day of college... and came face to face with the last person I ever wanted to see. The stranger wasn't a stranger after all. He was the star captain of the hockey team and My brother's best friend. In other words...I was fucked. Literally.

"What do you think people would say if they found out you don't have a dick?" Christian asked, his voice low and dripping with seduction. His hand pressed firmly against my crotch, fingers exploring the flat, unfamiliar emptiness there. A devilish smirk curved his lips. "Or if they discovered these voluptuous breasts you've been hiding so well?" A strangled moan slipped from my throat as his hand slid under my shirt, his fingers brushing over my hardened nipples, teasing them with slow, deliberate strokes. "Which do you think they'd call you?" he murmured, eyes gleaming. "A boy with tits... or a dickless little fraud?" I stared into his hungry blue eyes, words failing me. "The term you're looking for is 'girl,'" came Xavier's smooth voice from the bathroom doorway. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click, his gaze raking over me with open interest. "So tell me, little girl... what the hell is someone like you doing in an all-boys dorm?" Christian's smirk widened. "She wants to be devoured by boys like us." His fingers gave my nipple one last firm pinch before he leaned in closer, breath hot against my ear. "And I'll be more than happy to give her a taste."

Eighteen days after giving up on Brendan Maynard, Jayde Rosario cut off her waist-length hair and called her father, announcing her decision to move to California and attend UC Berkeley. Her father, surprised, asked about the sudden change, reminding her how she' d always insisted on staying with Brendan. Jayde forced a laugh, revealing the painful truth: Brendan was getting married, and she, his stepsister, could no longer cling to him. That night, she tried to tell Brendan about her college acceptance, but his fiancée, Chloie Ellis, interrupted with a bubbly call, and Brendan' s tender words to Chloie twisted a knife in Jayde' s heart. She remembered how his tenderness used to be hers alone, how he had protected her, and how she had poured out her heart to him in a diary and a love letter, only for him to explode, tearing the letter and yelling, "I'm your brother!" He had stormed out, leaving her to painstakingly tape the shredded pieces back together. Her love, however, didn't die, not even when he brought Chloie home and told her to call her "sister-in-law." Now, she understood. She had to put that fire out herself. She had to dig Brendan out of her heart.

Unlike her twin brother, Jackson, Jessa struggled with her weight and very few friends. Jackson was an athlete and the epitome of popularity, while Jessa felt invisible. Noah was the quintessential "It" guy at school-charismatic, well-liked, and undeniably handsome. To make matters worse, he was Jackson's best friend and Jessa's biggest bully. During their senior year, Jessa decides it was time for her to gain some self-confidence, find her true beauty and not be the invisible twin. As Jessa transformed, she begins to catch the eye of everyone around her, especially Noah. Noah, initially blinded by his perception of Jessa as merely Jackson's sister, started to see her in a new light. How did she become the captivating woman invading his thoughts? When did she become the object of his fantasies? Join Jessa on her journey from being the class joke to a confident, desirable young woman, surprising even Noah as she reveals the incredible person she has always been inside.

The biting Detroit wind cut through my worn coat. Every day was a fight, cleaning floors, dodging debt collectors, haunted by the memory of my mother, Eleanor, walking out when I was five. Then, after two decades of silence, her sleek black SUV appeared outside my rundown apartment. Eleanor, dripping in luxury, had finally resurfaced. But her return wasn't for me; it was for my bone marrow, to save her "perfect" son, Leo, who had leukemia. She demanded my "sisterly duty," then offered a pittance for my life-saving donation. Her lawyer even tried to intimidate me, threatening to expose my difficult past if I didn't comply. It was a cold, transactional exchange for the body part she needed. My bitterness festered. Abandoned, struggled, and now, I was only valuable for my biology, a pawn in her meticulously crafted perfect life. Was this my purpose? To be a disposable resource for the woman who casually discarded me? The injustice burned. But then a mysterious informant revealed Eleanor's true secret: Leo was adopted, and her entire marriage to the tech mogul Jason was built on a web of deceit she was desperate to conceal. My bone marrow wasn't just for saving a life; it was to protect her empire of lies. This wasn't a request; it was a battle. And I knew exactly how to win.

The last thing I remembered was Chloe's voice, sharp and gleeful, slicing through the haze of my headache: "They never loved you, Ava. Not Liam, not Noah. It was always me." Her words were a hammer blow, each one a nail in the coffin of my life, a searing supernova of agony that exploded behind my eyes before everything faded to black. I gasped, sitting bolt upright in my childhood bed, my unlined hands proof of a terrifying truth: I was back, the calendar on my desk screaming September 5th, senior year, before the nightmare truly began. The reel of my first life rewound in fast-forward: Stanford, the calculated betrayals by Liam and Noah, Chloe's venomous strings, the engineered vasectomies, my promising career systematically destroyed, and the aneurysm that ended it all. This was impossible, a future I'd already lived, a death I'd already died, yet the worn duvet felt real, the scent of my mother's pancakes too vibrant—a second chance, if I dared to seize it, to change everything. My fingers flew across the keyboard, deleting Stanford from my early college applications and replacing it with MIT—my true dream, the one they had ruthlessly crushed. Just then, the doorbell rang, and through the frosted glass, I saw them: Liam Walker, Noah Chen, and Chloe Jenkins, the architects of my past ruin, their bright smiles and feigned innocence an instant surge of cold dread.

I used to think my life was a gilded cage, trapped by the family who adopted me, the Blakelys. They showered me with privilege, but it was just a facade. Then, everything changed. I' m on my knees, a throbbing pain in my cheek, accused by my adoptive mother, Elizabeth, of assaulting my "sister," Nicole. Nicole plays the perfect victim, her eyes brimming with fake tears as Elizabeth tells me, "You are not our daughter, Stella. Nicole is. You owe her everything." They stripped me of my identity, making me feel like a replacement, a charity case who had stolen another's life. In my last life, their words shattered me. I was a naive girl, easily manipulated, unknowingly prepped for sacrifice. I died at twenty-one, my "Golden Aura"-my very life force-drained to fuel their real daughter's ascent, sealing my real parents' gruesome fate. But the joke's on them. I'm back. Reborn at eighteen, with every chilling memory of my past life and the decade I spent as a wandering spirit. This time, I' ll play their twisted game, but with one crucial difference: I make the rules. And I will burn their world to the ground.

When Chloe came to Leighton High for the first time, in a small town, she didn't expect to come into a bully's radar. All her life, she had always stayed out of people's way, and was never really noticed. She had also always had to make an effort to make friends, but never enemies. Not that she didn't think she was way past getting one, but she didn't think it would be someone as Handsome as Zach was. The first time they met was a disaster, and she tried her best to stay away from him, the only problem was, he wasn't letting her, and soon, the hate he showed her, soon turned into something she had never experienced before. Would she be able to get rid of the unwanted feeling she was getting for him, or the unwanted attention he was showing her? Find out in the intriguing story.

My eyes snapped open. The dorm room ceiling, with its familiar water stain shaped like a crooked smile, loomed above. Across the room, Brianna Jones hummed softly, applying makeup. She wore a cheap copy of my cashmere sweater. My heart hammered against my ribs. This wasn' t right. This was weeks ago. The memories crashed down: the Paris program acceptance, the "going away" party, the sickening taste, then absolute darkness. Brianna had poisoned me. I saw her smirk, remembered collapsing. Yet here she was, her reflection smiling sweetly in her compact mirror, her voice falsely cheerful. "Morning, sleepyhead," she chirped. This was the ambitious girl from a small town. My roommate. The one who wanted my life. I stared at her, the image of her malicious triumph at my party seared into my brain. The subtle digs, the way she' d implied I was the copycat, her constant imitation of my style, my social media. She' d meticulously cataloged me, then painstakingly isolated me, even turning away Liam, the hockey captain I genuinely liked. All my kindness burned away in the hospital bed I now only remembered. "You okay, Ava?" she asked, a tilt to her head. "You look like you've seen a ghost." My parents always told me I was too trusting, too eager to see the good in people. They were right. This inexplicable situation felt like a cruel joke, yet it was real. The date on my phone confirmed it. Several weeks before the party. Before she tried to kill me. I had a second chance. And this time, I wouldn' t be naive. I wouldn' t be kind to the snake in my room. This time, Ava Miller wouldn't be a doormat. This time, I would fight.

It is not to be understood that all statements here made are either ascertained facts or universally admitted conjectures. The introduction is intended merely to put those who are not scholars, and probably have not books of reference at hand, in a position to approach the translation at as little disadvantage as may be. Accordingly, we give the account that commends itself to us, without discussion or reference to authorities. Those who would like a more complete idea of Lucian should read Croiset's Essai sur la vie et les oeuvres de Lucien, on which the first two sections of this introduction are very largely based. The only objections to the book (if they are objections) are that it is in French, and of 400 octavo pages. It is eminently readable. With the exception of a very small number of statements, of which the truth is by no means certain, all that we know of Lucian is derived from his own writings. And any reader who prefers to have his facts at first rather than at second hand can consequently get them by reading certain of his pieces, and making the natural deductions from them. Those that contain biographical matter are, in the order corresponding to the periods of his life on which they throw light, The Vision, Demosthenes, Nigrinus, The Portrait-study and Defence (in which Lucian is Lycinus), The Way to write History, The double ndictment (in which he is The Syrian), The Fisher (Parrhesiades), Swans and Amber, Alexander, Hermotimus_ (Lycinus), Menippus and Icaromenippus (in which Menippus represents him), A literary Prometheus, Herodotus, Zeuxis, Harmonides, The Scythian, The Death of Peregrine, The Book-fancier, Demonax, The Rhetorician's Vade mecum, Dionysus, Heracles, A Slip of the Tongue, Apology for 'The dependent Scholar.'_ Of these The Vision is a direct piece of autobiography; there is intentional but veiled autobiography in several of the other pieces; in others again conclusions can be drawn from comparison of his statements with facts known from external sources. Lucian lived from about 125 to about 200 A.D., under the Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus, Commodus, and perhaps Pertinax. He was a Syrian, born at Samosata on the Euphrates, of parents to whom it was of importance that he should earn his living without spending much time or money on education. His maternal uncle being a statuary, he was apprenticed to him, having shown an aptitude for modelling in the wax that he surreptitiously scraped from his school writing-tablets. The apprenticeship lasted one day. It is clear that he was impulsive all through life; and when his uncle corrected him with a stick for breaking a piece of marble, he ran off home, disposed already to think he had had enough of statuary. His mother took his part, and he made up his mind by the aid of a vision that came to him the same night.