𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩. 𝙎𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡, 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙. "Why you keep talking 'bout yourself in such a bad way?" Rhylin muttered, laying on her bed next to him. He glanced at her. "You so pure." Then he turned his head back toward her again. "You really too fuckin' nice, mama." She frowned, her eyebrows pulling together when he still ain't answer her question. Rolling over onto her stomach, she closed the tiny inch of space separating them. "The way you ignored my question is crazy." She rolled her eyes at him, though the look on her face stayed soft. He chuckled, gently caressing her cheek. "Why you love me so much, ma? Why you with me knowin' hella shi I done did?" She took a few seconds to think before answering, leaning in to kiss his lips first. "'Cause I'm nobody to judge you. God love all of us, no matter what we done or been through. He created us in His image, to reflect His love, grace, and mercy onto others." The more she spoke, the more he felt himself fall for her all over again. She was so well educated and religious without being like them other judgmental church people, (aka her family.) She finished with a grin, "And I love your bowlegged self." A little chuckle left her mouth as he kissed his teeth, passing his hands over her face playfully. "Mane, fuck up." He laughed softly after it.

Mylaina "Lai" Sade makes a living cleaning up death. As a crime scene cleaner in Chicago, she's used to blood, bullet holes, body outlines, and rooms most people couldn't stand in for more than five minutes. Her job is simple: show up after the police clear the scene, clean what's left behind, and ask no questions. Until one cleanup feels wrong. The call came through the official police line. The paperwork looked real. Everything said Lai was supposed to be there. Still, something about the scene won't leave her alone, and her questions lead her straight to the biker bar where Romell "Reaper" Cross and his crew are known to be. Reaper is Chicago trouble in black leather. A biker, an enforcer, and the kind of man people warn you about before lowering their voice. When Lai walks into his world looking for answers, he clocks her immediately, takes her to the back, questions who sent her, and keeps her ID as a warning. Lai thinks Reaper is the problem. But the real danger is Tobias Lewis, a dirty cop working both sides. After Tobias tries to double-cross Reaper, one of Reaper's brothers catches on and gets killed for it. Then Tobias drags Lai deeper into the mess by taking her twelve-year-old brother and forcing her to clean the blood he left behind. Now the man she swore was the villain might be the only one willing to burn Chicago down to bring her brother home.

Our vows were spoken before our hearts had a chance to catch up. Formally, "ARRANGED HEARTS"

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄. banners + cover by @-laysdiary They had one rule. Don't involve the media. No pictures. No posting. No feelings. Kylan Westbrook just got drafted to the Miami Dolphins, rookie year going crazy, his name everywhere, life moving fast. Aja Tejada already had her own buzz, her own money, her own name. She wasn't impressed by athletes, and he wasn't looking for nothing serious. So it stayed what it was. Late nights. Quiet links. Nobody knowing nothing. Until he switched up. Texts slowed down. Calls stopped. Then he was just gone like it never even happened. Aja ain't chase him. Ain't post about him. Ain't say nothing. She just went quiet and kept working. New music, new look, baggy clothes, then she disappeared off the internet completely. When she came back, she didn't explain nothing. She just dropped a video. And at the end of it, her hand was on her stomach. Pregnant. The internet went crazy trying to figure out who the father was, whole time Kylan still living his life, doing interviews, playing games, not knowing he left more than just a situation behind. Until one night, they in the same room again. One question. Is it mine. And just like that, everything they kept quiet gets loud. Now the media watching, their teams in their ear, and the only way to control the story is to lie. Act like they been together. Act like they happy. Act like this was always the plan. Playing house for the cameras is easy. Doing it for real is where it gets complicated. 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄.

Halo Watters didn't know anything about the streets. He knew the stories people told in church. The prayer requests whispered after service. The names mentioned when someone asked the congregation to pray for a family that lost a son. But Halo had never stood in a room where guns were part of a conversation. Never watched men settle problems with fear instead of words. His world had always been built around faith, patience, and the belief that people could change if they wanted to. He believed in forgiveness. In grace...In second chances. Princess Midnight didn't know anything about that world. Not the way Halo did. Church to her was something people went to when they wanted to feel better about things they had already decided to do. Faith sounded nice in theory, but in the world she grew up in, survival mattered more than sermons. Kingston Midnight didn't raise her to believe someone else would save her. He raised her to protect herself. To control situations before they got out of hand. To make decisions quickly. To never show hesitation in a room full of men waiting for a sign of weakness. Halo believed people deserved mercy. Princess believed mercy could get you killed.

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟒 𝐒𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦 "𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫" 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐈𝐭 : All their lives, people have sworn they've seen them both somewhere before. Two Girls. Different neighborhoods. Different schools. Different lives. But nearly the same face. At first it feels like a simple coincidence. Then it starts happening too often to ignore. When the two girls finally come face to face, the resemblance is impossible to deny. What begins as confusion quickly turns into anger and suspicion as buried secrets begin to surface. Years ago, their mother gave birth to semi-identical twin girls, she was told one of them died during delivery. But the truth is far darker. One baby didn't die. She was kidnapped at birth. As the girls dig deeper into the past, they uncover a web of lies, stolen identities, and a truth that should have never stayed buried. Learning they are twins is only the beginning. Trust doesn't come easy between two strangers forced into sisterhood, and the bond they're trying to build is tested by resentment, jealousy, and the painful realization of everything that was stolen from them. But blood has a way of pulling people back together and when the truth finally comes out, the sisters will have to decide whether the life they lost is worth fighting for... or if the family they found in each other is enough. [ 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 >> 𝟐𝟓-𝟑𝟎 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒. ]