BROKEN PRODIGY I Following the passing of their mother, the now orphaned Di Genova siblings found themselves slowly unravelling. With a distrusting mafia empire to run and personal heartbreak to mend, all attention to the youngest Di Genova disappeared leaving the distraught six-year-old to fend for herself. After two long years of unexplained cold shoulders, cruel dismissals and general abandonment from her siblings, child prodigy Dakoda Reese Di Genova finally reached her breaking point. At the tender age of eight, she made the difficult decision to leave behind her family and Italian roots, embarking on a new journey not as the Dakoda her family knew but as the Reese they did not. Fast forward a decade, Reese had cemented her place in history. As the anonymous CEO of the biggest technology company in the world and sole Heir to the American mafia empire, she had buried the past in the same grave she had buried her heartbreak. She had moved on. Her four brothers hadn't. And it was going to take a lot more than them spewing out the same apologies she too had once offered, in order for her to forgive their everlasting betrayal.

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.

The girl trapped in the torture of her mind and the boy burdened with the guilt of living. ~~ "I'm surprised you even remember that day, Howard." "I remember most things when it comes to you, Preston." I give him a steely look, our noses almost grazing, "Would you ever stop with these lines?" "Will you ever fall for these lines?" ~~ Edith Preston: the head girl and first ranked student in Thorn Academy. Everyone in school knows her as the cold, unbothered girl, a school director's daughter. She doesn't try to change their image of her, but she can't stop it from hurting either, and with everything going on at home, Edith may turn to ways that aren't healthy. Grayson Howard: the head boy and the academic rival of Edith Preston, the girl he is head over heels for. Everyone in school knows him as the handsome, smiling boy, an orphan who only has eyes for one girl. He jokes and plays around, but when night comes, he can't escape the guilt and fear he's hiding deep inside. Everyone can see that the two of them were meant to be, but will they be able to overcome their issues to try and be with each other? Or will life interfere causing them to be apart even when they want to be together?

Valda Giordano has been living her life as Amara Williams because that was who she was because she didn't know there was a Valda. She grew up with her mother and stepfather, everything was perfect until her mother became pregnant and her once-loving stepfather left them with nothing. Now caring for her 6-month-old baby brother and a mother with postpartum psychosis. Struggling with school and two jobs to care for her brother and afford her mother's treatments. Her mother becomes someone else she doesn't know, and she is lost. And Amara also has to deal with a life-threatening condition. After her mother's tragic death, leaving her and her baby brother, she finds out her mother kept a whole other family from her. Now with 5 brothers and a father she didn't know existed. She has to navigate through her new life and trauma that she is desperate to keep hidden. And learn how to be Valda Giordano that she used to be, all in order to keep her baby brother safe. Turns out she isn't the only one with secrets. Follow Valda and her family through the dangers that follow them. Running from death that wants them in its grasp, but nothing can happen to a Giordano, right? Started: 02/05/2025 Finished: ??? This is a lost sister story, xx #1 Father-daughter #7 family issues #14 brothers #26 Family

Eden Callahan has spent her thirteen years trapped by chronic illness, medical trauma, her mother's death, and the abuse of her ruthless stepfather. When she escapes, she finally tastes freedom, but she is quickly thrown into a dangerous world she barely understands. On the run, she must navigate the protective, but often infuriating Blake, the seasoned paramedic; Luka, loyal, yet unpredictable and carrying shadows from a troubled past; and Cayden, who tries to keep the fractured group together. Facing the relentless obsession of Richard Ackerman, Eden must fight not just for survival, but for control of her own life. And every choice could cost her everything. (TRIGGER WARNING: THIS STORY AND ITS CONTENTS MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS. READ IT AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.) impressive rankings: #1 anxiety #2 medical #2 chronic illness #2 roadtrip #1 phobia

Raised to be holy. Born into something far more dangerous. Seventeen year old, Evienne Ellery spent her life preparing for heaven. Sent away to a secluded boarding school in the Swiss Alps by distant, unfeeling adoptive parents, she was raised by nuns and priests to be obedient, submissive and small. Behind stone chapels and cold classrooms, Evienne learned early that love was conditional, punishment was holy, and suffering was something to be endured quietly Her future was simple: be good, be faithful, and one day do her duty-marry a man who would secure her family's interests. Her life was planned. Controlled. Perfect. Until it wasn't. When everything she knows collapses, Evienne is torn from the only world she has ever known and sent to live with her biological family-six brothers who are loud, vulgar, violent, and unapologetically criminal. They don't pray. They don't obey. And they certainly don't believe in God the way she was taught. They believe in blood. With them, she learns the truth of who she really is: The lost princess of one of the most powerful mafia families in the world. Her brothers have been searching for her for years, and now that they've found her, they refuse to lose her again. In their world of power, crime, and betrayals, Evienne learns that love doesn't always look gentle-and protection often comes with a body count. But as old family feuds resurface, enemies close in, and the past she was hidden from begins to reach for her, Evienne is forced to confront an impossible question: What happens when the people you love will never be welcome in heaven-and you're no longer sure you want to go without them?

Caught between the family she's just found, the gang she can't abandon, and the shadows of a violent past, Darcy must decide who to trust-and what she's willing to risk to survive. In a world where loyalty can kill and love can betray, Darcy will discover that family is never just the people you know, but the ones who fight for you when it matters most.

She's a wild, free spirit who sees the good in everyone, and he's the hardened, bad-tempered loner who wants nothing to do with her-yet no matter how hard he tries to push her away, she's the one temptation he can't escape. *** He's never met someone with such a bubbly personality. Not to mention the wildness and odd phrases she says every five minutes. He hates it. He hates how he can't stay away from it. He hates what she does to him; it's not like him to chase after some girl. She gets under his skin like no other. She's never met someone with such a bad attitude. He's ill-mannered and menacing. The glare never seems to leave his face. Considering it all, she can't help but feel the attraction toward him. Dangerous attraction toward a seemingly dangerous man. Maybe it's the tattoos on his arm that gets her attention. Or maybe it's because she can tell there's hope for good under his rough exterior. And she's about to find it, whether he likes it or not. It's no secret that the two of them are complete and total opposites. *** "You like being called Sugar, don't you?" I tease, placing my toothbrush back after finishing. He does the same and gives me a side-eyed scowl. He grips my chin harshly and kisses me. My body temperature raises a good ten degrees and my right leg goes all wiggly. He pulls away. "You like it when I kiss you, don't you?" He teases the same way I did to him and I'm left blubbering. "I think both of our questions are rhetorical," I lower my voice up at him. His lip curls up into a smirk. *** #1 in Young Adult #9 in Badboy #1 in Cold #3 in Goodgirl #1 in Sweetheart #14 in Love *** *Warning* This story contains mature themes (language, scenes)

Betrayal is nothing new to the Łabanowski siblings. Neither is abandonment. So when the eldest two disappear on the triplets' tenth birthday, it really shouldn't take them by surprise. Five years later: the remaining eight are all grown up and trying to move on with their lives when, suddenly, it is announced that the family will be reuniting. No one will be welcoming the brothers home with open arms, that's for sure, but when threats become reality and lives are at stake, they will be forced to put aside their differences once and for all. (Previously known as The Lost)

❝We are never going to be family.❞ • • • Three half-siblings, living in different situations, with enough hate to kill each other. By some joke of the universe, they find themselves in the same city. Meeting again under shitty circumstances, with a lot of shitty issues, they get themselves into more trouble than they are ready for. What happens when everything goes to hell in one single night and they run into each other on the corner of sixth street at half-past three? Well, gasoline never did go well with a raging fire, but they never did care if the world burned. ▫▫▫▫ ▫▫▫▫ ▫▫▫▫ Cover is made by me. Copyright © 2021 Josie Marie Any relation to other stories or characters is entirely coincidental and not intentional. Any credit for the #olderbrother trend goes to its appropriate writers/creators. All of my work is original, inspired by the #olderbrother trend.