CHLOE & JAKE * Dual POV * Chloe has built her life around control, control of her business, her boundaries, her heart. Jake is the one mistake she never meant to make. What started as unexpected comfort became something real: something that felt safe, like home. Jake was patient. Chloe was guarded. Until the lie. Until the betrayal that shattered everything. Chloe learns that sometimes the worst kind of heartbreak isn't caused by an enemy It's caused by the person who swore they'd never hurt you TW: Childhood emotional abuse Perceived cheating

When Emi's husband forgets his phone one morning, it only takes a few messages for everything to fall apart. She returns the phone in the middle of a board meeting and walks away from the life that she thought was happy and secure. But after the fallout comes reality. The money isn't there. The stability wasn't real. And starting over with two kids in her mother's one-bedroom apartment is a lot harder than leaving was. As Emi rebuilds from nothing, turning a quiet passion for ikebana into something more, she begins to understand that just like the flowers, she needs space, support, and patience to come into her own. Her husband thinks she'll come back because there's no way she can do it all alone. But, he's wrong, about more than one thing.

I always thought we were destined to be together. A decade together and what seemed like the perfect love story. Until one day, it slowly started to unravel at the seams. I realized our "perfect" love story only looked so perfect because I was being complacent. Once I started to speak up for myself, the facade crumbled and it all came crashing down. This is my story.

What happens when a FWB arrangement turns into something it shouldn't have? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .( Not Edited)

I knew my best friend since childhood loved me. I knew it. And when I got back from my business trip, I was going to tell him how I felt, especially when he told me he had something exciting to tell me. But it wasn't that he loved me. He'd gotten married while I was on an overseas business trip to my worst enemy.

He made me his ol' lady. I thought it was because he'd finally seen me as more than my brother's little sister. Until I heard him talking with his ex, I didn't realize he was with me out of guilt, that he'd promised to protect me. So I ran and didn't look back...until I had to go back to find him waiting for me.

My husband missed our daughter's birth because he was too busy with work. Story of our lives. And the four other women in his life -- his ex-wife, his PA, his mother and his sister -- all hate me. So, I didn't think he'd care when I served him with divorce papers. Well, that got his attention.

Eight years ago, Bailey ran from the small town that broke her heart. She left behind a love that once felt unbreakable, a boy who chose rumors over trust, and a town that turned its back on her when lies painted her as a sinner. Now she's back-pulled home by a will she never expected and a past she tried to forget. Ashton, the mayor's golden son, has moved on. He's successful. Respected. And engaged to the best friend who betrayed her. What no one knows is the secret Bailey carried with her when she left. A child. Ashton's child. In a town where gossip never dies and forgiveness comes at a cost, Bailey must face old wounds, buried truths, and the question she's been avoiding for years. Can first love survive betrayal... or is some damage permanent? Some love stories don't end...they wait.

Ilory Benson was an uninteresting introverted person, who didn't care about fitting anywhere but her little apartment, or in her books. Especially, in her well-respected family, and not many people knew the fact that she was the youngest daughter of a known personality in the Political World, now the Vice President of the US. People never bothered getting to know her and she didn't care, she was always behind the curtains and off the screen, while her four siblings were just as successful as her parents. Most of the time llory was invisible to people, but there was one particular person who avoided her like sugar on a diet. Her brother-in-law, Emmanuel Savelli. She had never let people's behaviour bother her, but if she could come close to hating anyone that would be him. Therefore, when a call in the middle of the night had her rushing to Washington she was in shock, the place and people she left for her peace of mind were now calling her. But this return brought a whole lot of responsibilities and immediate decisions. One of them particularly concluded on marrying Emmanuel which was also her sister's dying wish. To step in for the sixteen months old baby her sister left behind, after suffering because of Cardiovascular Disease. There are times when you make a decision and it turns out to be the worst or perfect decision of your life. It was time for Ilory and Emmanuel to make one.