Madeline Reed didn't have an easy life. She was found abandoned on the side of the road when she was only four years old. She doesn't remember who left her there. She doesn't remember why. She just knows that whoever left her there, left her to die. She's been in and out of foster and group homes for years. Most of her foster families didn't want her. She wasn't a baby, and they wanted a baby. Her last foster home was especially cruel. Both of her foster parents abused her, and one day she had enough. She ran away. Maddox and Miles Adams are twins who have it all. They are popular at school, they have every girl they want, they have money, and, best of all, their parents are never home, so they can enjoy their freedom. Maddox and Miles are known as bad boys and bullies. The twins have it all, but something is missing from their lives. They lost it when they were four, and they never got it back. Will the twins find what they are missing?

Riley doesn't remember the last time someone asked if she was okay. Not really asked. Not in the way that meant they were going to stay for the answer. She is seventeen years old and she has already learned the most important lesson this town has to offer - that people leave. They leave with promises folded neatly in their pockets, with good intentions they fully mean at the time, with duffel bags and bus tickets and fifteen days that turn into three years without a single word. They leave, and the ones left behind learn to stop waiting by the window. They learn to stop setting an extra plate. They learn to breathe around the absence until the absence just becomes the air. Riley works the late shift. She carries drinks to tables without being asked twice. She doesn't flinch at loud voices anymore. She doesn't cry at things that used to make her cry. She has become very good at being invisible in a room full of people - and even better at being invisible to herself. This is not the life she imagined. But it is the life she has. And she has made her peace with it, quietly, the way you make peace with things you never had a choice about. She is not waiting for anyone anymore. She stopped doing that a long time ago. Until the night a familiar face walks through the door - and three brothers who left her behind must now face what their absence built. Because blood doesn't forget. And neither does Riley.

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte 'Lottie' Carmen Rose Vassiliou is the youngest of the six Vassiliou siblings. She was the first girl born into the Vassiliou family in ten generations, and due to this, she was spoiled and coddled for the first five years of her life. But then, after 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩, when she was five, suddenly her life flips upside down and her family turns against her, sending her 1750 miles away to a school for troubled kids. Her family had sent her away, hoping the school would 'fix' her, to make her a normal functioning member of society, but in reality, the school had no interest in helping troubled kids; they used the position of power they held over the troubled students to abuse them, to break them. Charlotte had long ago changed, going from an innocent, loving little girl to a fifteen-year-old girl with severe trust and anger issues. So what happens when, ten years after 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩, she is suspended and forced to return home? Will her family ignore her? Will they treat her the way the staff at the school did? Read along as Charlotte navigates the messy reunion with her family, whom she hasn't spoken to in a decade.

Lowly, illegitimate, and disgraceful. Amaryllis was a child born out of debauchery. She was raised in a mafia family, steeped in indifference and blood. Yet even within that empire of power, she remained a shadow in the presence of her brothers, seen but never truly known. However her heart loved them unconditionally. But life is both fragile and cruel. When terminal illness claimed her, she carried it alone behind fragile smiles, unwilling to darken the days of those she adored. Only one wish bloomed before the end, "I hope their feelings might change, even if it's temporary." And when that time comes... Please bring flowers to my funeral. ── ─ ┈┈┈┄┄╌╌ ⚠️ Trigger Warning: This story contains sensitive and emotionally distressing themes, including emotional abuse, disturbing family dynamics, and morally corrupt characters. Reader discretion is advised. Note: The terminal illness described in this story is entirely fictional and included solely for storytelling purposes. © 2026 [CherylZielle]. All rights reserved. Do not copy or distribute without permission.

Ten years ago, Eliana was judged, condemned, and exiled by her own blood. Accused of attempting to murder her perfect identical twin sister, Rosalie, she was dumped at the St. Jude Academy-a brutal, highly classified boarding school designed to strip away human emotion and build elite lethal assets. To the world, she became Subject 417. The Regina. Now, at fifteen, the contract is fulfilled. Eliana is suddenly summoned back to the sprawling, hyper-secured estate of her biological family. Her cold parents and five older brothers expect a broken, guilty girl desperate for their forgiveness. They plan to force her into high society at the prestigious St. Augustine's Private Academy, using her as a quiet chess piece to maintain their public perfection. But behind the expensive suits, heavy security, and perfect smiles, her family is hiding a dark secret: they run a powerful, ruthless mafia syndicate. They think they've brought back a compliant teenager they can control. They have no idea that Eliana doesn't feel fear, doesn't feel guilt, and views their entire household as a hostile threat matrix. With her brilliant tech-specialist best friend, Isabella, operating as her secret eye in the sky, Eliana begins a silent, slow-burn psychological war against her hostile brothers and her deeply manipulative twin. They loathe her presence. They challenge her boundaries. But they are about to learn the hard way that you should never let a monster back into the house.

Taken from her family at the age of four, because of a deep grudge, Aria doesn't remember the place she used to call home. All she knows now, is silence and pain. All she has is her broken self, and the hope of being free one day. She's been called a curse, and she's been called worse- to the point where Aria doesn't know what is true or not. She'll never escape the hell she's in, she'll never have a home or a family, right? *Sneak peek* Aria: "Where the hell are you?!" I wake up with a jerk on the cold floor of the kitchen's store. The rope that he used to keep me there when his friends were over, bit into my skin, and was now stained with red. He had forgotten. Again. But that was a good thing, because it means I didn't get beatings last night. I tired to move, but the pain from my ankle was sending vibrations to my brain, and I winced, my back hitting the wall hard. I closed my eyes, praying he won't find me- but luck is never on my side. He opens the door, and smirks as he looks down at me. His eyes were clear, he wasn't drunk. That was bad. He made it more painful when he wasn't. He undid the rope, and dragged me by the hair, into the kitchen. "You little bitch. Growing wings now, are we?" He threw me on the floor and kicked my ribs. Pain flared through me, but I shut my eyes tight. Don't make a sound. "Make me my damn breakfast right now. And I want it prepared next time or else." I nod my head, and get to my feet. But he dragged me towards him by the neck, my back to his front. His hand went under my shirt, the threat hanging in the air, and I squeezed my eyes shut. "Do you hear me?" I nod. His hand went up to my chest, and I swallowed the nausea rising up in me. "Yes who?" "Yes Daddy." I choked out. Then he pushed me towards the stove and walked out.

Framed by her jealous twin at six years old, Aria Moretti was abandoned by her mafia family and sent to a school that turned out to be a brutal assassin training facility. She survived. She escaped. For six years, Aria lived hidden from the world, homeschooled and protected. No mafia knew she existed- especially not her biological family.When a police fight leads to a DNA match, Aria is forced back to the Moretti family. Her parents want her back. Her brothers are desperate to make up for the past. Her twin still hates her..And no one knew she was secretly in love with Dante Alvarez, the Spanish heir. They don't know she's an assassin They don't know she's part of the Alvarez family. They don't know she's Dante's. Not yet.

Anna Rafferty left New York two years ago to find herself. Not because she was running. Not because she was afraid. But because somewhere between the violence, the secrets, and the trauma that changed her life, she'd lost herself. For two years, she built a life on her own terms. She traveled. She healed. She learned to preserve things most people considered beyond repair, restoring rare books and forgotten stories while trying not to think about her own. Because some trauma isn't dealt with. It's buried. Returning to New York was supposed to be simple. Be closer to her family. Purchase the rare bookstore she'd fallen in love with years ago. Continue building the future she'd fought so hard for. The only complication... Julian Mercer. The powerful, devastatingly handsome and infuriating Don of New York, a man she should stay far away from. A man her sister can't stand. A man she hasn't seen since the night she left the city. Unfortunately for her, Julian Mercer has never forgotten a debt or Anna. What starts as a favor quickly becomes stolen moments, lingering glances, and a connection neither of them seem capable of walking away from. The problem? Julian is a man built from secrets and Anna has spent the last two years burying her own. When a string of brutal murders rocks the city-random, violent, and seemingly unconnected-every road somehow leads back to one person. Anna. As detectives begin circling, asking questions she can't answer and digging for secrets she can't share, Anna finds herself caught between the life she's carefully built and a past determined to drag her back. And the closer the danger gets, the harder it becomes to ignore the man she's spent two years trying to forget. Because Julian Mercer has always been dangerous. The difference is that now Anna has something to lose. Not her safety. Not her freedom. But her heart.

Aurelia and Elara - the youngest twins and the only daughters of the De Santis family - were once the heart of their household. Inseparable, gentle, adored. Where one went, the other followed. Their parents cherished them. Their brothers protected them. But everything shattered the night eight-year-old Elara was found bleeding on the floor... and Aurelia stood over her, a knife in her hand. Blamed for a crime she didn't commit, Aurelia was sent away to a strict boarding school for "troubled children." Her parents believed discipline would straighten her out. What they never imagined was the truth - the cruelty hidden behind the school's walls, the sadistic methods used to "teach," and the horrors Aurelia was forced to endure. Now sixteen, after a devastating incident inside that school, Aurelia is brought back to the De Santis mansion. But it's not a homecoming. It's an obligation. A reminder that she is unwanted, distrusted, and viewed as a threat by the very family she once loved. Follow Aurelia as she relearns how to exist in a home that no longer feels like hers. Uncover the truth of what happened that night, what really happened to her within the school, and whether the De Santis family will ever face the truth of what Aurelia had to endure and do to survive. ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── "What should I ache for? The childhood that slipped away? The silence that became my companion? Or the pieces of myself that I will never get back? Maybe pain isn't a phase-- it's just who I am." ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── "How many graves will I need, to bury everything that died inside of me?" ❁Naya Aknis❁