[PUBLISHED UNDER LIB] #3. "If I won't have you then might as well kill me, attorney."

[PUBLISHED under LIB] #2. "If liking you is a crime then why don't you convict me, attorney?"

Started: 04/27/2021 Ended: 08/24/2021 Ang hirap palang tumanda. Ang hirap magbayad ng bills. Ang hirap suportahan ng pamilyang akala ay isang milyon ang suweldo mo. Ang hirap ngumiti sa nanay na mataas ang tingin sa'yo pero hindi ka kayang ipagtanggol. Ang hirap tabihan sa hapagkainan ng tatay na pinag-uubusan mo ng pera pero hindi ka maalala. Ang hirap mag-abot ng tulong sa kapatid na baon sa utang. Ang hirap intindihin ng hipag na nakakapagpa-rebond pa kahit kapos na kapos na. Ang hirap pakisamahan ng bunsong halos ilahad ang mga palad tuwing makikita ka. Ang hirap ngitian ng mga taong tanong nang tanong kung bakit hindi ka pa nakakapag-asawa. Ang hirap humarap sa mundong isasampal sa'yo na mag-isa ka. Tulong, bigay, utang. Isang iling mo lang, madamot ka na. Kasama mo sila kapag may maibibigay ka, pero hindi mo sila mahahanap kapag wala na. Ikaw ang kakayod, sila ang tutuka. Ikaw ang iiyak sa pagod, sila ang magtatamasa. Iyon ang summary ng buhay ko. Sobra-sobra ang naririnig na paghingi, kulang na kulang ang naririnig na pasasalamat. Sobra-sobra ang pagpapasensya, kulang na kulang ang natatanggap na pagpapahalaga. Sobra-sobra ang binabayaran, kulang na kulang sa kasiyahan. Kaya nang dumating sa buhay ko ang nag-iisang lalaking hindi ako nakita bilang naglalakad na alkansya, ang nag-iisang lalaking nakinig sa mahabang listahan ko ng problema, ang nag-iisang lalaking nagbigay sa akin ng kakaibang saya, ipinangako ko sa sarili na sa gitna ng hirap ng pagtanda, magtitiis ako basta't siya ang kasama. Kahit pa ang kapalit noon ay pagtalikod sa minahal na pamilya. Kahit pa ang kapalit noon ay paglaban sa mundong pinatatakbo ng kapangyarihan at pera. Kahit pa ang kapalit noon ay ang pagdurusa't pag-iisa. Siya ang ginhawa, pahinga, at kasiyahan ko. Dumating man ang araw na tanaw ko na ang dulo. Dumating man ang araw na wala na kaming sagot sa lahat ng bakit at paano. Dumating man ang araw na pareho na kaming talo.

Anna never thought she'd have a stepfather. She definitely never thought she'd walk in on him touching himself. Now she can't unsee it. And Steve can't pretend nothing happened. What follows is a dangerous pull neither of them meant to feel, a slow unraveling of boundaries inside a house that suddenly feels too small, too hot, and far too forbidden.

Seventeen-year-old Aria Castellano thought she knew who she was - a scholarship student, a good daughter, a girl with simple dreams and a mother who made the world feel safe. But when her mother dies in a car accident, the life Aria knew unravels overnight. A letter. A name. A father she's never met. Now she's flying across the country to New York - to a mansion with guards at every gate, brothers who don't know what to make of her, and a father still struggling to accept the daughter he didn't know existed. Her stepmother is kind, her new home beautiful... but nothing about it feels right. At St. Augustine's Academy, power hums beneath every smile and secret. The students there were born into legacies - families bound by alliances older than the school itself, until betrayal tore them apart. Those old rivalries still live on in the halls she walks now, and Aria's arrival is stirring them all back to life. One boy in particular seems to hate her most. He's untouchable, cruel in that effortless way only someone raised in power can be. But behind the sharp words and colder eyes is something else - something that pulls her closer even when she knows she shouldn't look twice. As Aria begins to uncover the truth her mother died protecting, she learns that some secrets were buried for a reason... and that even in a world built on bloodlines and betrayal, the most dangerous thing of all might be the way he looks at her. "Some secrets don't stay buried forever. And Aria Castellano's name might be the one that brings them all back to the light"

A youthful, carefree, and romantic one-shot story of Chin and Troy's first child, Trevor Justice Dela Paz. Inksteady ©️ 2022