All Lane is trying to do is survive in a world that's already failed her. After a childhood spent bouncing between homes, a steady job, a place to lay her head, and a beater to take her from Point A to Point B were the small things she'd fought for. Lane was trying -- she really was. Her life was finally hers, and she intended to keep it that way. But of course, as the saying goes, "Men plan, God laughs." All it took was a glance. Lane froze. And then she ran. It wasn't supposed to be her problem. But the moment those eyes caught hers, her world shifted. The life that she fought so hard for was about to be turned on its head. And she'll have to do more than keep quiet to make it out alive.

⚠️ CHAPTER 41+ ARE PAID CONTENT VIA KO-FI ⚠️ ── ─ ┈┈┈┄┄╌╌ The De Luca brothers reign supreme in the underworld, holding dominion over the ruthless realm of the Italian Mafia. They are cold, merciless, driven by madness, their loyalty solely to blood. Yet, their lives take an unexpected turn when they discovered their thirteen years old little sister. *** "When she was choking me, is that... love?" she whispered, her voice barely audible, each word trembling as if afraid to leave her lips. Her eyes, wide and glassy, searched mine desperately, seeking a truth that she couldn't grasp amidst the fog of confusion and despair that clouded her mind. My heart seethed with rage, a torrent of emotions crashing against the walls of my restraint, threatening to betray the stoic facade I had carefully constructed. I wanted to scream, to shake her out of this misguided belief. Hestia, my little sister, stared back at me. Her innocence tainted by the cruel hands of someone who had twisted the meaning of love into something unrecognizable. She couldn't differentiate the painfully obvious truth, the clear distinction between love and control, kindness and cruelty. It was as if the very essence of her spirit was being suffocated, just as her breath had been. ── ─ ┈┈┈┄┄╌╌ [⚠️ Chapter 41+ are paid content via Ko-fi ⚠️] ⚠️ Trigger Warning: This story contains sensitive and potentially distressing themes, including abuse, sexual assault, rape, psychological trauma, and mature content. Note: - Cover by Canva - Update: Random

Fifteen-year-old Ainsley Myers doesn't look like someone who's afraid. She's quiet, loud when needed to be, flat, and sarcastic. The kind of girl who fills silence with humor and defiance, who keeps people laughing just far enough away that they never get too close. Where her twin sister Athena learned to move gently through the world, Ainsley learned to hit it first, using noise, wit, and distance as armor. Athena was protected. Ainsley was not. Athena grew up kind, soft-spoken, and trusting, never fully knowing the depth of what her sister endured, only sensing that something was wrong. Ainsley never told her. Not because she didn't love her, but because she didn't know how to explain it. Because the worst parts didn't feel explainable. Because silence felt safer than truth. When their current foster dad is arrested, everything they believe about their lives collapses. They weren't abandoned. They were stolen. Waiting for them is a family that never stopped searching: a father who left space at the table, brothers raised on stories and hope, and a home built on patience instead of punishment. For Athena, the return feels like a chance to finally breathe. For Ainsley, it feels like danger. Because sarcasm doesn't survive gentleness. Armor doesn't work in a house built on patience. And distance becomes impossible in a family that refuses to give up on you. As Athena begins to settle into safety, Ainsley resists closeness with jokes, walls, and emotional deflection. But the longer this family stays, the harder it becomes to pretend she doesn't care. The harder it becomes to keep fighting a world that no longer looks like a threat. Surrounded by people who don't demand, don't push, and don't leave, Ainsley must face the one truth she's spent her life outrunning: That maybe she doesn't have to be loud to be safe. That maybe she doesn't have to be sharp to survive. And that love doesn't have to hurt to be real.

Liana Vescari has always been the nice one, the girl who smooths over arguments, puts others first, and never asks for more than she's given. At eighteen, in a family everyone admires, her kindness is praised as maturity, her silence mistaken for strength. When she was fifteen, her older sister's boyfriend, charming, trusted, and deeply woven into their family, began crossing lines so subtly that Liana convinced herself it was nothing. She didn't want to be dramatic. She didn't want to hurt anyone. What felt like care slowly became control, and by the time she was old enough to understand what was happening, she had already learned to blame herself for not saying no. Determined to protect her family's image and her sister's happiness, Liana keeps quiet. She tells herself she's fine, even as depression settles in and bulimia becomes a way to punish her body for taking up too much space. Survival, she believes, means enduring without complaint. When three new friends enter her life and offer a kind of safety she's never known, Liana begins to question whether being good should hurt this much. But as her abuser tightens his hold and the truth threatens to surface, she faces an impossible choice. Speaking up could finally free her, but it may also cost her the family, identity, and love she's spent her life trying not to disappoint.

Running from hell isnʼt easy. Especially when someoneʼs dragging you back down into it. Belligerent, brash and always in shades of black, Freya is hardly a lady. Hidden away by her father, sheʼs lived a normal life despite being born into the dark waters of New Yorkʼs underworld. Heʼs cold, cruel and calculating, with a proclivity for destruction. Feared by even Made Men, Torren is the boss of the stateʼs most leachorous crime syndicate. Freya hates his crudity and possessiveness, but she canʼt deny the way her breath hitches at his rough touch, the deep timbre of his voice, and his dark, heated gaze. Torren hates her disobedience, her recklessness, and her chaos. To him, sheʼs only something to be tamed. And after he slips a ring on her hand, snatching away her future, she makes only one vow---to become his biggest torment.

When a fire takes everything from Mia, her parents, her home, and the life she once knew, she is adopted by her mother's best friend, Jules Kingsley. Moving into the Kingsley mansion should be a fresh start, but her new brother, Damon, has other plans. Damon is ruthless, possessive, and impossible to avoid. He's made it his mission to remind Mia that she doesn't belong, and their hatred for each other burns brighter with every interaction. But living under the same roof means there is no escape, no distance, no way to keep the lines from blurring. He wants control. He wants her submission. He wants her, no matter how wrong it is. And the more Mia resists, the more his obsession grows, twisting every fight into something darker, every stolen glance into a game neither of them can win.

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐚𝐦. . . . There are things you're taught not to do. Rules you're told to follow. People you're meant to forget. Flora never planned to end up here, but after one too many mistakes, her life dives for rock bottom. Now, she's trapped in a world she doesn't understand, haunted by a past she can't outrun. And at the center of it all stands the boy she'd sworn to forget. What once was fate, fractures into an illusion and twist into something dangerously evil. They were kids together. Friends together. 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵. She's new. 𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵. She's fresh meat. 𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. What happens when they reunite? Secrets unfold. Chaos runs free. And the line between love and ruin sharpens into a thin blade, as history proves to repeat itself in its cruelest form. A girl. A boy. And a mad house that feeds on sin. There's no place to hide here. You can run, but you'll never get away. "𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘮. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺." 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲

Nothing has ever broken sixteen year old Cara. Even when her wealthy, fractured family fell apart, she pushed through. However, her resilience is tested when family obligations force her to move in with Zack, the brother who abandoned them four years ago and seems to hate her for reasons she does not understand. At her new school, she becomes a target of cruel bullying by a group of boys who takes her resilience as a challenge. However, Cara refuses to back down or be compliant. She pushes back at home. She pushes back at school. But the harder she fights, the more pressure builds, and the more dangerous it becomes for the girl who won't give up. "And I bet you believe that too, don't you? That nothing will break you- that you can push through this?" Blake didn't stop. His smile grew wider as he cruelly raised my face to meet his. "Well this is a promise to you, Cara. I can and will break you. I won't stop until I fully ruin you and you lose every part of yourself." I didn't let myself believe him. I would find a way out. This wouldn't last forever. "Go fuck yourself." [ IMPORTANT ] This book contains graphic depictions of bullying inspired by real-life cases and media portrayals, particularly within Korea. These themes may be disturbing to some readers. Please check all trigger warnings before reading. [ TRIGGER WARNING ] bullying, sexual harassment, suicide, mental health, depression, anxiety, self-harm, sextortion "What frightens them even more is retaliation from their bully. The revenge that they'll seek on them and how they'll make their lives worse than it is already. This is why victims of bully fight their own battles, let the storm pass on their own." #1 trauma #1 bullied #1 victim #1 sexual harassment #3 abuse #4 depression

𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘳, 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥. Cinder ˈsɪndər -The remains of something that has been burned or destroyed, often with a sense of something lingering or fading. ___ Bullying, Brothers, Dysfunctional Family