Paid in Love

Charmaine Michel was already that girl before the money ever touched her. Seventeen, fly, and Harlem-known. She moved with a glow that made heads turn and girls whisper. She wasn't pressed for attention, attention always found her. But when Alpo Martinez stepped into her world, everything changed.

Alpo wasn't just another hustler with a nice car. He was Harlem's golden boy. Loud, flashy, magnetic, and dangerous enough for his name to travel blocks ahead of him. When he chose Charmaine, he chose her loud, and the whole city saw it. Overnight, she went from the girl everybody admired to the one standing next to the man everybody feared.

What starts as luxury, love, and late-night drives becomes a life of diamonds, designer, Dapper Dan customs, and trips most girls her age could only dream about. But the higher Char climbs into Alpo's world, the more she learns the rules that come with loving a man built by the streets. Loyalty is currency, enemies sit close, and the line between love and survival is thin enough to bleed through.

As Harlem shifts under the weight of crack, money, betrayal, and rising bodies, Charmaine is forced to grow up fast. What began as a fairytale dipped in gold turns into a life where phone calls after midnight can change everything, trust can get you killed, and loving the wrong man too hard can cost more than your heart.

Paid in Love follows Charmaine's journey from a teenage "It Girl" to a woman navigating the cost of loyalty in a world where every gift has a price, and every choice has a consequence. It's a story of glamour and grit, love and lies, and a girl who learns that the streets don't just build kings, they claim their queens, too.