It was one awful night already for Penelope to come home after her terrible job. But, the situation got worsen by the appearance of a naked handsome man sleeping in her room. Who is he? And what will happen between them?
"Beautiful! Hey, come sit here first, keep us company hahaha ...." The tallest boy among his friends shouted at Penelope.
It had been more than half an hour since the girl had tried to cover her ears from the catcalling and flirting of the boys in the cafe. Penelope rolled her eyes and focused on wiping down the tables. The smell of liquor was everywhere.
The girl covered her nose with one hand until the table was wiped clean. "Excuse me, can we speed things up? We're tired of standing here," said a customer about her mother's age, waiting behind the girl's back.
Penelope apologized and quickly excused the patron who had been standing waiting for a table, then bustled around taking and delivering orders.
"Hufh ...." She grunted rudely, feeling that the contents of her head were no different in noise from the café where she worked. The music from the live band, the buzz of people talking and laughing, and the calls from customers and colleagues, made Penelope's chest feel tight.
She staggers back from the kitchen to the main room of the cafe. Her limbs felt tired. In the middle of winter, even without heating, the café is already making Penelope hot.
"Ah, why are you selling so expensive? What's your name, Pen who?" That flirtatious young man again really provoked the emotions of the café's servant girl. He had already stood up and grabbed Penelope's hand who was busy carrying a tray.
Automatically, the girl's steps stopped and she raised her head. Penelope swallowed, she was very reluctant to deal with all of them. The caramel-haired girl had only worked four hours at a café in the center of the city where she lived after the course, but it felt like her body was breaking down. Especially that night, because there was a group of young men celebrating their basketball team's victory.
One of them kept flirting with Penelope, which of course she ignored. "Sorry, I'm busy." Penelope looked at him from head to toe. According to her father's teachings, if she wanted to fight someone brave, she had to make him wonder about his self-worth by looking at him like
"Could you please let go of my hand? I don't want to drop these glasses and hurt the other patrons," Penelope added coldly.
"Wuooooo...," the basketball team members roared, responding to one of their friends being flat-out rejected by the café waitress she'd been flirting with.
The face of the young man who had flirted with Penelope was crimson with embarrassment. He released his hold on the girl. However, he still held a grudge against Penelope for the way she had treated him.
The young man walked past the pretty cafe waitress who was still standing there and deliberately slammed his arm into Penelope's shoulder. As a result, the young punk spilled the drinks on the tray onto Penelope's shirt.
"Aaah!" squealed Penelope who was gaping at her pathetic situation.
The basketball team ended up clapping as if they were proud of the boy who had teased Penelope. Luckily, the girl always wore an undershirt, so that her cafe uniform didn't show through and become a target for the Heavy's gang.
Penelope was forced to put her tray on the bar table and told her friend to take her place to deliver the order. Then she returned with a mop and bucket in hand.
The girl tried to keep her emotions in check and mopped the floor, which was wet from the drinks. She was already very grateful that no glass had been broken that night. However, when she bent down, her gut feeling told her that there would be a worse scene.
A second later, someone touched her ass. Immediately, Penelope slammed down her mop and turned around. Her eyes bugged out as the same young man who had been teasing her stood there with a wide-eyed look on his face.
Without thinking, Penelope smashed her fist into his jaw, knocking him to the ground. She then untied the apron around her waist and handed it to her friend behind the bar. "Sorry for the mess tonight and thank you for being my friend."
After that, Penelope quickly exited the café and ran with all her might in the opposite direction of where she lived. She realized she had made one of the riskiest moves ever. Not only had she lost her job, but she had also put her own life in danger.
Penelope continued to run down the farthest route to her home, occasionally looking back. It wasn't the first time the girl had come out of her part-time job with problems with unruly patrons. However, that night she was outnumbered. She calculated that even if they all chased after her, they wouldn't find where she lived, since she had veered off into the rat race.
Once he entered the forest's outskirts, he felt safe. It was strange that the location that gave her goosebumps a few months ago now felt much more reassuring than the crowded city. Penelope slowed her pace and began to catch her breath.
Living on the outskirts of this forest made Penelope no longer afraid of anything, except humans. Because she had already met the worst of them.
He shook his head remembering the annoying incident that night. "Ugh ...." Penelope's body ached in every joint. She dragged her feet to her house. She had a lot of visitors that night, and with the incident and the running around, her energy was practically drained.
"So tired... it's not even the weekend. Hufh... at least I won't have to deal with drunken punks anymore after this, but I'll have to find a new job soon," the girl complained as she banged her shoulders and arms once she arrived in front of her house. Penelope reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her keys.
"I just want to throw myself on the bed, but ugh... this alcohol smell...," Penelope whined inwardly, as she couldn't stand the physical exhaustion and the headache-inducing smell.
That night, Penelope thought it best to strip off her alcohol-smelling clothes in the living room first, so as not to bring the smell of her booze into the bedroom. Only in the last few weeks, the girl and her mother had moved into a small flat downstairs.
Since they only have one bedroom, Penelope changes in the living room, aka the multipurpose room. Sometimes it's the dining room, the living room, or even the dressing room like that moment when someone was in the bedroom.
Penelope quickly took off her work uniform and dumped it in the living room even though it was pitch black. "Tsk ...." She chuckled, as her throat felt barren.
She needed water to drink, so she needed to turn on the light. The girl stood combing the walls until her fingers found the light switch. Click!
As soon as the room became bright, she found a handsome man sleeping there. "Aaaaa!" Suddenly, Penelope screamed and fell backward in a half-naked position.
"Papa, this is not the life I want to live!" cried Bianca, the only daughter the Capo of Mafia in Sicilia has. Bianca ran away on her birthday night and lived in disguise as an ordinary girl. She left everything behind, including her luxurious lifestyle and someone who secretly harboured his feeling for years towards her. "No … no … no … please don't die! Stay with me as you promised since I was kid boohoo …" On the day her secret love passed away for protecting her, Bianca got the love confession. "I will be the one who always protect you from now on." said the tanned skin athletic young man. Bianca had many people love her but also many secrets she hid. Would anyone accept her secret to be by her side? Would she have her own life she always wants to live? Read her fun adventure to conquer love and revealed her secrets in this novel!
After hiding her true identity throughout her three-year marriage to Colton, Allison had committed wholeheartedly, only to find herself neglected and pushed toward divorce. Disheartened, she set out to rediscover her true self-a talented perfumer, the mastermind of a famous intelligence agency, and the heir to a secret hacker network. Realizing his mistakes, Colton expressed his regret. "I know I messed up. Please, give me another chance." Yet, Kellan, a once-disabled tycoon, stood up from his wheelchair, took Allison's hand, and scoffed dismissively, "You think she'll take you back? Dream on."
Janet was adopted when she was a kid -- a dream come true for orphans. However, her life was anything but happy. Her adoptive mother taunted and bullied her all her life. Janet got the love and affection of a parent from the old maid who raised her. Unfortunately, the old woman fell ill, and Janet had to marry a worthless man in place of her parents' biological daughter to meet the maid's medical expenses. Could this be a Cinderella's tale? But the man was far from a prince, except for his handsome appearance. Ethan was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family who lived a reckless life and barely made ends meet. He got married to fulfill his mother's last wish. However, on his wedding night, he had an inkling that his wife was different from what he had heard about her. Fate had united the two people with deep secrets. Was Ethan truly the man we thought he was? Surprisingly, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the impenetrable wealthiest man in the city. Would he find out that Janet married him in place of her sister? Would their marriage be a romantic tale or an utter disaster? Read on to unravel Janet and Ethan's journey.
"There will be no falling in love, we will only act as a loving couple when we are in public, we will share a room to make it believable, but no intimacy, touching is off-limits. We'll only have sex once a month, and that's solely to produce an heir. You won't interfere in my business, and I won't interfere in yours. You will be my wife in every sense and you will not be involved with any other man," he said, arrogance seeping from every word. I watch his mouth move, I'm not ready to fall in love with any man, especially not one as arrogant and egoistic as him. I can handle acting as a loving couple, and as for intimacy once a month. I can agree to that just to satisfy my sexual cravings with no strings attached. "Where can I sign?" I asked since I had nothing to lose. *** Nadine's wedding dreams turned to nightmares when she caught her sister and fiancé cheating! With a secret recording, she's ready for revenge. But then mysterious billionaire Logan West offers a deal: A Contract Marriage to take down her ex's empire. But what Nadine doesn't know is her life is getting complicated as she takes her chance to get revenge or risks everything for a chance at love?"
After two years of marriage, Sadie was finally pregnant. Filled with hope and joy, she was blindsided when Noah asked for a divorce. During a failed attempt on her life, Sadie found herself lying in a pool of blood, desperately calling Noah to ask him to save her and the baby. But her calls went unanswered. Shattered by his betrayal, she left the country. Time passed, and Sadie was about to be wed for a second time. Noah appeared in a frenzy and fell to his knees. "How dare you marry someone else after bearing my child?"
For ten years, Daniela showered her ex-husband with unwavering devotion, only to discover she was just his biggest joke. Feeling humiliated yet determined, she finally divorced him. Three months later, Daniela returned in grand style. She was now the hidden CEO of a leading brand, a sought-after designer, and a wealthy mining mogul—her success unveiled at her triumphant comeback. Her ex-husband’s entire family rushed over, desperate to beg for forgiveness and plead for another chance. Yet Daniela, now cherished by the famed Mr. Phillips, regarded them with icy disdain. "I’m out of your league."
The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?