Ariella is left with no choice other than taking Juanita to a new boarding school so she could go back to work. She encounters Maxwell on one of the trips and that's how what seemed like a love story began. They bonded over the death of Maxwell's daughter. Found comfort in each other's arms even though they never talked about their broken home and spouses. They kept intersecting unplanned at the airport and subsequently wanted to meet up because they missed each other and found each other comforting. However, things took another turn when Madison (Maxwell's Wife) and Paulo Gustavo (Ariella's Husband) discovered what was going on between these two.
In the sleek modern Heart Airport in Texas, a crew of flight attendants stroll purposefully through the halls heading to their respective stations to prepare for take-off. Chairman Paulo Gustavo, dressed in a single-breasted suit as usual, leaves the last button on his blazer unbuttoned as he walks out of a meeting with a crew of pilots.
He reaches for his phone and sends a text message to his wife Ariella while walking to his office.
Ariella, holding her phone, goes through the message which seems to surprise her. Immediately, her phone rings, it is her husband Paulo.
She picks up and says "What is this text I'm reading? Why are Juanita and I going to Malaysia?"
He coolly explains, "An international school in Malaysia contacted me while you were in-flight stating that Juanita has been accepted for enrollment. I've taken care of Juanita's paperwork and homestay already, all I need is for you to help her pack and bring her to the airport by tomorrow"
She cuts in "An international school, All of a sudden?"
"Help her pack and bring her to the airport tomorrow" he replies.
Ariella is astonished that he is telling her all of this so suddenly, but Paulo simply points out that she wasn't there when the school called.
"Have you spoken to your daughter, what was her reply to all of this? Ariella asks
He scoffs "She doesn't have a choice, I have the final say. It's all for the best. I was disappointed her previous school didn't work out. We can't leave her with a nanny either and since you decided you must go back to work; she has to be where she'll be taken care of".
He tells Ariella to just get Juanita to the airport in time and hangs up before she says anything more.
Ariella turns and hurries home, where she finds Juanita wiping the floors with a rag, apparently to prove that she's more useful at home. Juanita is clearly a dramatic but bright kid, and she's got lots to say about her Dad's decision; she rattles "Aren't I a good girl? Did I get in trouble when Abuela looked after me? You tried to send me off to Dad's sister after she died. Did I say I wanted to learn Mandarin? I don't care about global perspectives or learning Mandarin. Dad is being inconsiderate".
Her mother lets out a deep sigh, "I just found out myself. Dad notified..."
"Exactly!" Juanita cuts in, "Why all of a sudden? That's what I don't get".
"I'm sorry Nita, but.." Ariella says. "So you're just going to send me anywhere?" Juanita replies.
"It's not just anywhere, you know how picky Sarah is, she knows someone there. It's a nice and safe place".
"Mom. Are you on Dad's side? Do you want me to go so you two can work? How can you send your only daughter away like this? And you call yourself a mom" She says, as tears began rolling down her cheeks.
Ariella, looking frustrated, tries to comfort her, noting how much Juanita hated her school after her aunt got injured and she couldn't go to New Zealand. It would be embarrassing to have to go back to her old school right after going through all the tearful goodbyes. None of Ariella's comforts succeed even after she assures her she will fly there at least once a week to see her.
Juanita mournfully accuses her and Dad of being eager to send her off just so they can work. She sobs that she's scared, but Ariella only sighs as if there's nothing she can do. That night, Ariella packs Juanita's things until dawn.
Maxwell Stone is also up late at his office working on his architectural designs, but when he receives a call from his teenage daughter, Carol, he immediately heads outside, grinning at the dawn sky.
They banter cutely over the phone while he drives a scooter over a bridge overlooking the River, holding his phone camera up to the sunrise in a landscape manner for her to see.
"Hurry Dad, go faster. I miss and think about this view every day" she says.
"Think about your grandma who's eagerly waiting to see you. Will you visit this year?" her dad replies.
"I'm sightseeing, can you speed up a bit?" she says, as she avoids the question. Carol marvels at the image through the camera, squealing that Texas's sky is totally different from Malaysia's.
She tells him that she thinks her long-awaited roommate is arriving soon. "I have to clean the room and everything. It's not for free though, Mary said she'd give me fifty dollars daily to tidy up, but I'm going to use it to buy a new iron to replace Mary's ancient one that got broken. It was 10 years old" she adds.
"I can't scold you for being thoughtful," he says, smiling. What a sweetie she is, he thinks.
They went on and on and she says how sorry she is that she won't be able to visit him and Grandma in California again this time, but she promises to be there next time, especially for Grandma's birthday. He smiles, hangs up and stares at the sky for a little while before driving off.
After Maxwell hung up, Carol sat on her bed replaying the video from the call with her dad.
She gets another phone call shortly, this time from Mom. Interestingly, she looks much less excited than when she was talking to her Dad, Maxwell.
"I already told him I wouldn't go," she says, as she sadly assures her mom that she told her Dad she wasn't coming. She lets out a sigh of relief after the call ends, wondering why her mother always insists she shouldn't come home.
In the morning, Maxwell drives back to Point-one Interiors, a Firm that specializes in interior décor and makes handmade traditional decorative accessories, situated just in front of his residence.
An assistant outside working on some decorations informs Maxwell that the director stayed up all night preparing for the exhibition. "we're prepping for the exhibition. "Mrs Madison was here all night," she says.
He goes straight to his residence to freshen up. On getting close he sees Madison working through the window and lets out a warm smile. He gets in and walks straight into the bathroom to have a warm bath. Madison walks in while he is preparing breakfast, she walks up to him and pulls the towel from his neck, "that smells nice. Good morning" she says as she kisses him.
They sit comfortably together at the table. When he tells her that Carol won't make it to Texas again, she wonders why he keeps wanting her to come; "Don't you think she's too independent?" he says.
"Okay?, I thought you liked that about her," she replies. She told him to stop giving his mom false hope about Carol's coming to Texas and went on to surprise him with an invitation to go to Malaysia with her as she had already looked through his schedule and confirmed that he wasn't teaching a class today, so she knows he's free. She plans to check out the gallery for the exhibition there while he visits Carol.
In the morning, Ariella and Juanita loaded her bag into a taxi to the airport. The driver warns Ariella that her bags feel too heavy for the airport's weight limit, but Ariella lifts them and says assuredly: "Nope. 24.5 kg!". Amazingly, when they checked in Juanita's baggage, it was exactly 24.5 kg.
Paulo meets Ariella at the airport to help with check-in and asks her whether Juanita is still upset.
She tries to take their daughter's side, "She isn't angry, she's just scared. You should go talk to her. She came this far at least"
"Did she have a choice? I don't think you get the picture here. You of all people know how important this is" he replies.
"All I'm saying is you should try to be more understanding of her emotions" she warmly says, but Paulo only tells her that this is an incredible school where she'll be free to express herself and Ariella of all people should be more understanding and appreciative.
He buys Juanita a glass of juice before the flight, and they snap at each other in annoyance.
"Be nice to Mom while I'm gone" Juanita says,
"Be nice to me first," he replies.
"Is that all you can say to your daughter who's leaving? Mom wouldn't have sent me if you hadn't made a fuss. You always complain about my grades"
"You'll thank me for this for the rest of your life. Ensure you study hard and don't dare say you'd rather stay here" he warns.
Juanita thinks he's being irrational and mean, she glares at him, but when a pair of Air hostesses greet him as they pass, he laughs heartily and pinches her cheek as if they're a loving father-daughter pair.
Juanita tells him flatly: "I hate you". She ignores her father's hand and takes her mother's instead, and they head to board the plane.
Paulo receives a call from one of the crew members who called to inform him about a woman who was making a delivery to Mexico; "she's forced to run and seek refuge somewhere else because her drug-dealing boyfriend was murdered in Mexico" he reports. "She wasn't able to make the drop then was she?", it is silent at the other end of the call. Paulo asks how much loss that was and storms out angrily on getting a reply.
After witnessing her father's death and being forcefully taken away from her family and sold into prostitution at a young age, Bella never had seen or hoped for a better life outside what she was, let alone find love, but fate had betrayed her once more, giving her an enemy in disguise of a lover. She found love in the arms of Leonard, a saviour who rekindled her hope. Reuniting with her long-lost mother was a flicker of light in her darkness. But just as the tides turned, tragedy's shadow loomed. Her friends met the same chilling fate that had stolen her father and family, igniting a firestorm of fury within her. With vengeance in her heart, she set out to track down Drago, the one responsible. But what she discovered shook the very core of her existence. Betrayed, used, and burdened with the weight of disrespecting the memory of her father and lost friend, Bella stood at the precipice of an unthinkable choice. Could love and revenge coexist, or had Bella been pushed to the brink of darkness beyond return? Will her love for Leonard overthrow her quest for revenge?
In a chaotic world where predictability was far-fetched, the bullet of one man had killed thousands. I stared into his eyes, his facade giving nothing away, but darkness whirled in his eyes as they could pierce right into my soul. Damon Antonio, a mysterious man who sought no other woman except me, an ordinary orphan with a traumatic past, when my scars were visible and invisible. It was unclear why it was me he wanted, but his dark eyes gave nothing away. Having been sold by my uncle, to a man that held so much authority, I had to do whatever he told me to do. I had to follow his principles, I had to submit to him. I was terrified of him, being that he was so unpredictable. It turned out that Damon Antonio had bought me in order to marry me. I wanted to scream, to say no, but his presence alone choked all the words in my throat. I was just a weakling to a man who dealt with his enemies like they were nothing but animals. Drug dealing was his major, his wealth was extreme, and he owned clubs in states and countries. I turned out to be the wife of one of the most dangerous men in the world. And he had only one target, his brother. After his brother had killed their parents, Damon sought nothing but revenge. Damon was a man of mystery and power battling with his demons as they sought to be unleashed upon his brother one day. Derek Antonio, the silent killer. It was a battle between two brothers, one who was despised and the other filled with hatred. The answers had to be given, why had Derek killed their parents? Why did he seek to kill even Damon, his own brother? Could it be power? Or was it something else? Damon dragged me into his own world, using me as his bait to get to Derek Antonio. But along the way, Derek Antonio seemed to grow fond of me and that was when all hell broke loose. It caused me to wonder, had Damon fallen for me? He never revealed it, all he ever did was use me for his own pleasure. I was torn between two brothers now and didn't know how it would end. This was a world I never wanted to be a part of. And the worst part, is Damon never ceased to reveal his brutality. Living in his world was chaotic...with this man, there was only danger lurking, but my heart spoke other languages, fear, curiosity, and lust...with this man, it was different, especially when he swore to break me.
Vanessa finally broke free from the clutches of her obsessive and abusive ex, Cane Carnegie. ‘ "I own you, B*tch! You'll never be free." Cane's haunting words echo in her mind.’ The trauma still lingers, casting a dark shadow over her new marriage to Dale. Struggling to understand her pain, Dale finds himself ensnared by the seductive charms of his colleague, Valerie. ‘Valerie gets down from the desk, adjusts his chair and sits on his legs in a cowgirl position, then carries his both hands around her waist placing them on her ass as she looks into his eyes and says "Tell me you don't want this and I'll walk away, never to disturb you again.” ‘’ ***** "You deserve so much better than a damaged woman like Vanessa," Valerie whispers, her voice dripping with deceit. As Vanessa seeks solace in therapy and a chance at true love with a stunningly handsome Billionaire with a dark and Evil past, her past comes roaring back with a vengeance. Cane, the sociopathic ex, is determined to reclaim her as his own. His obsession is as unyielding as his physical strength, and he'll stop at nothing to dominate her once more. As Cane's aggression escalates, Vanessa must confront the darkness she thought she'd left behind. But her attempts to fight back only awaken a greater evil, threatening to destroy everything she holds dear. Can she survive the maelstrom of terror that surrounds her and reclaim her life? Or will she remain forever trapped between the horrors of her past and the terrors of her present? Her life and salvation is at the mercy of a man she barely knows.
Elena, once a pampered heiress, suddenly lost everything when the real daughter framed her, her fiancé ridiculed her, and her adoptive parents threw her out. They all wanted to see her fall. But Elena unveiled her true identity: the heiress of a massive fortune, famed hacker, top jewelry designer, secret author, and gifted doctor. Horrified by her glorious comeback, her adoptive parents demanded half her newfound wealth. Elena exposed their cruelty and refused. Her ex pleaded for a second chance, but she scoffed, “Do you think you deserve it?” Then a powerful magnate gently proposed, “Marry me?”
The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."
"Sign the divorce papers and get out!" Leanna got married to pay a debt, but she was betrayed by her husband and shunned by her in-laws. Seeing that her efforts were in vain, she agreed to divorce and claimed her half of the properties. With her purse plump from the settlement, Leanna enjoyed her newfound freedom. The constant harassment from her ex's mistress never fazed her. She took back her identities as top hacker, champion racer, medical professor, and renowned jewelry designer. Then someone discovered her secret. Matthew smiled. "Will you have me as your next husband?"
Trigger warning!!! Intended for mature readers who enjoy morally complex, slow-burn, poseesive, forbidden, dark romance that pushes boundaries. ***EXCERPT*** Blood everywhere. Trembling hands. "No!" My eyes blurred. His lifeless eyes stared back at me, his blood pooling at my feet. The man I loved-dead. Killed by the one person I could never escape - my stepbrother. *** Kasmine's life was never hers to begin with. Kester, her stepbrother, controlled and monitored her every move. At first, it was all sweet and brotherly until it began to turn into an obsession. Kester was the Alpha, and his word was law. No close friends. No boyfriends. No freedom. The only consolation Kasmine had was her twenty-first birthday, which was supposed to change everything. She dreamt of finding her mate, escaping the sickening control of Kester, and finally claiming her own life. But fate had other plans for her. On the night of her birthday, not only was she disappointed that she wasn't mated to the love of her life, but she found out that her mate was none other than him - Her tormentor. Her stepbrother. She'd rather die than be mated to a man whom she had known as her big brother all her life. A man who would do just anything to make sure she was his. But when love turns to obsession, and obsession turns to blood, how far can one girl run before she realizes there is nowhere else to run to?
Aria never wanted to marry Kael, the arrogant playboy her father forced her to accept as her fiancé. But Kael had his own twisted motives-he only wanted her because she was the one girl who refused him. When Aria rejected his demand to sleep with him a week before their wedding, Kael tried to take what he wanted by force. His drunken pursuit ended in tragedy when he was struck by a car, leaving Aria caught in the crossfire of blame. Zander, Kael's elder brother and the soon-to-be Alpha King, believed Aria was responsible for his brother's death-and promiscuous to boot. To prevent war between their packs, Zander agreed to marry her, but only for revenge. His plan? Ruin Aria's life for a year, then cast her aside and divorce her. But Zander's scheme begins to unravel when his ex-best friend Asher returns, determined to take Aria for himself. As secrets from the past resurface, Zander discovers betrayal, lies, and truths he never wanted to face. Was Aria truly guilty, or was she just another pawn in a deadly game of power and revenge? Asher laugh and say, "You're a fool; she never wanted to come. I told her you were with Lyra, so she came. And now I've achieved my goal: I ruined your marriage." Zander feel foolish, asking, "But why? I never did anything to you! You were my best friend. I should have killed you when you slept with my ex fiancée, Lyra!" Asher respond, "You knew I loved her, but you stole Lyra from me. She was my true mate, but she refused to marry me because you were soon to be the Alpha King! She never loved you. She loved me but wanted to be the queen of werewolves; that's all." Zander would realize how foolish he was. Yet, he still believed Aria wasn't innocent because she slept with his deceased brother before the wedding.
Rena got into an entanglement with a big shot when she was drunk one night. She needed Waylen's help while he was drawn to her youthful beauty. As such, what was supposed to be a one-night stand progressed into something serious. All was well until Rena discovered that Waylen's heart belonged to another woman. When his first love returned, he stopped coming home, leaving Rena all alone for many nights. She put up with it until she received a check and farewell note one day. Contrary to how Waylen expected her to react, Rena had a smile on her face as she bid him farewell. "It was fun while it lasted, Waylen. May our paths never cross. Have a nice life." But as fate would have it, their paths crossed again. This time, Rena had another man by her side. Waylen's eyes burned with jealousy. He spat, "How the hell did you move on? I thought you loved only me!" "Keyword, loved!" Rena flipped her hair back and retorted, "There are plenty of fish in the sea, Waylen. Besides, you were the one who asked for a breakup. Now, if you want to date me, you have to wait in line." The next day, Rena received a credit alert of billions and a diamond ring. Waylen appeared again, got down on one knee, and uttered, "May I cut in line, Rena? I still want you."