SEQUEL TO LIES YOU TELL After Graces world comes crashing down around her, she struggles to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and mend her shattered perception of life upon learning that the man she grew to love more than life itself was a cold and remorseless murderer. Landing the position as a criminologist on the NYPD homicide squad, she works hard to rebuild a new life for herself and leave the past in the past. After waiting four long years, Joseph finally gets put on a highly publicized trial and with the help of a well known criminal defense lawyer, the jury reaches a verdict that rocks the city of New York. During those four years being incarcerated, Joseph is forced to let go of the love of his life but upon his release their paths inevitably cross and now he has to fight for and work to earn her love and trust back. To do so, Joseph finally opens up to Grace about his dark past but opens up a can of worms in the process. Grace learns about history of her own family and uncovers dark secrets not even her mother knows which puts her in danger. In a dark twist of faith, Joseph learns who the true enemy is. Will Grace and Joseph finally get their happily ever after? Smoke and mirrors- the obscuring of the truth of a situation with misleading information. DISCLAIMER: This story is a work of pure fiction. Story has no association to photos in the story used to depict the characters in real life. Dec 2021

SEQUEL TO THE ART OF MANIPULATION Jonika thought the bullet ended everything-his empire, his hold on her heart, and the man she loved but was forced to betray. She tried to rebuild, to bury the grief under the illusion of a normal life. But grief doesn't stay buried. It claws. It festers. And some ghosts don't stay dead. When fate drags Jonika back into the shadows she thought she'd escaped, she finds herself hunted by the very man she once destroyed. His face is the same, his eyes colder, his love and fury tangled into something she can't escape. Now she doesn't know if he has returned to reclaim her heart... or claim her life.

She's a man-eater with a badge and a body count of broken hearts. As a DEA agent, Jonika's mastered the art of seduction, manipulation, and emotional detachment - using her beauty like a weapon and keeping her feelings locked behind armor no one gets past. But when her mission leads her straight into the arms of a dangerously magnetic man, the game changes. He's charming, calculated, and unknowingly the exact criminal she's been sent to take down. By the time she pieces together who he truly is, he's already slipped past her defenses - touching something real beneath the surface she swore no one would ever reach. Now, with a federal sting operation closing in, Jonika stands on a razor's edge: turn him in and complete the mission... or betray everything she's sworn to protect for the only man who ever made her feel something.

"I don't wanna be just a memory And I don't wanna feel your wings break free Because without you I'm lost in the breeze I gotta be strong now, I gotta show you how I'll love you like I've never, ever loved somebody I'll give you things you didn't even know you wanted Don't tell me that it's not enough My time is up, you're over us 'Cause I think I might do anything for you If you just let me ... " - Sinead Harnett