Published date: May 1, 2021
Finished: -
"When lies feel like the truth, who do you believe?"
In the vibrant heart of Cebu City, where Spanish colonial architecture meets modern chaos, Naomi-a principled investigative journalist-unearths a series of anomalies behind a powerful real estate conglomerate's sudden rise. Her search for truth is personal; her brother disappeared two years ago after working for the same company.
Craig, a former intelligence operative turned cyber security expert, arrives in Cebu for a quieter life-but peace eludes him when he crosses paths with Naomi. She's persistent, sharp, and in over her head. Against his better judgment, Craig agrees to help her decode a web of lies involving hacked records, corporate espionage, and a trail of missing persons.
As their investigation deepens, Naomi and Craig are pulled into a dangerous game where every truth has a price, and every ally might be a traitor. Amid jeepney rides, Sinulog festivals, and secret meetings in candlelit cafés, they uncover a conspiracy that could shake the city to its core.
But in a world where deception is currency, how do you know what's real-when even your own memories are in question?
Duchess Andreya Marivatan was murdered at the age of twenty-two. It was during the hours the pool of night was deepest, Andreya soundlessly asleep in silk sheets behind the curtains of her elegant canopy bed. By the time she awoke to a noise, the deed had already been done and her sheets dripped with a deep vermillion stain.
That was the first time Andreya met death, and it would not be the last.
The death that knew everyone did not know Andreya - not even so much as her name - and because of it Andreya could not die. So she survived and forgot, the stains on her bedsheets becoming naught but a dream. It took many years for Andreya to realize she had not grown a day older since she had died, however, and that in a society where status is dictated by age, it would not be long before she had visitors on her doorstep asking questions she did not know how to answer. The reason behind her youthful features. The explanation behind her lack of scars.
Andreya Marivatan was an impossible woman who wanted nothing more than to have died the night she was killed, and Andreya Marivatan was determined to get her wish.
❉ ❉ ❉
- First draft: COMPLETE & EDITING (all suggestions welcome :>)
- Shortlister in the Open Novella Contest 2021: prompts 22, 57, 62, 66, 71, and 87. Main prompt 66.
- Featured Ambassador's pick: @WattpadDarkFantasy "Dark Desires" list
- Highest ranking: 64 in #darkfantasy, 4/26/2021
- 1st place in Historical Fiction, Coral Awards 2021