Almost a Fairytale
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
/0/24352/coverbig.jpg?v=5bc7deca01d6d5e17d116dc5c0aaeb1b)
A Messed Up Fairytale
Syrus leaves his palace only because of his marriage. The queen forced him to marry a girl he never liked. After an year, at his marriage anniversary he returns with a mistress named Annabelle, making everybody furious except for his wife Myrtle who is supporting his action. Syrus is suspicious of h
/1/127968/coverbig.jpg?v=1a9ef56507cc7586be1c8a67b68e851c)
Almost Strangers
I never expected my past to become my boss. Fifteen years ago, Morgan Aries was my best friend. Then an accident took his mother, my mother went to prison, and our families were torn apart. I never saw him again. Now, at 26, I finally have a stable job at Morgan Technologies. I should be celebratin
/0/19855/coverbig.jpg?v=4ccddea4b26c94d5051024162f6d5a06)
Misleading Fairytale
People nowadays enjoy the freedom of choosing someone to marry. Well, Maureen Annaliese is the opposite. Being born in a family who own an empire, she needs to marry a man that her parents chose. She has no problem with it because she read many books, in where the arranged marriage became successful
/0/21570/coverbig.jpg?v=4a8ed403a49163d3f2628ce92bf3215b)
Musical Fairytale
MUSICAL FAIRYTALE Synopsis Ever attended the same school with top celebraties? Emily Brown is a simple girl from the countryside, she sings and plays the guitar One day, she got an admission notice from Rochester musical academy in New York, one of the best music school in the country....
/0/94233/coverbig.jpg?v=c33ef6e266b71b0b1bcb52b3c3f481ce)
My Fairytale Was A Cruel Lie
I was the scholarship kid at Westbrook University, dating the star quarterback, Gage Barton. Everyone on campus thought I was living a fairytale, the brilliant girl from the wrong side of the tracks who had captured the prince's heart. My roommate, Cayden, was my best friend, the one I trusted with
/0/78850/coverbig.jpg?v=24d43a73a1d252698af17c97b5f1a322)
ALMOST MINE, ALREADY HIS
Gregory William, a charming playboy billionaire, had never grasped the true meaning of life-until he met Camila. She isn't as beautiful or classy as the women revolving around him. But Camila has something none of them do: an effortless ability to make him laugh, even in his darkest moments. To Greg
/0/44209/coverbig.jpg?v=67692a39c510de4d745dbf96b9191921)
MY FAIRYTALE Love Story
Leonardo DiCaprio is the CEO of DiCaprio Global Inc. He is a 28-year-old arrogant, proud, and handsome playboy, residing in Rome, Italy. However, his carefree lifestyle comes to an end when his grandfather forces him to marry a 23-year-old Nigerian lady.
/0/20635/coverbig.jpg?v=1a343afbb0575dee0ced41dc3e298834)
Not The Usual Fairytale
Combination of two romantic/tragic stories that combine reality and fantasy in a perfect blend. Who's The One? Stacy takes a walk down the memory lane when she is asked about how she met Derin, the love of her life and how much she loves him. As the conversation progress and some dark and unsettlin
/0/83024/coverbig.jpg?v=4ae60c0ddf62bc1232768e16d5a10825)
Beyond the Fairytale Facade
My fiancé, tech mogul Ethan Reed, and I were the epitome of New York City's fairytale romance. For ten years, our "perfect love story" graced billboards and magazine covers, culminating in the highly anticipated "wedding of the decade." But my world shattered when I saw him. Through a discreet on
/0/80250/coverbig.jpg?v=8134a3c5078ef028df7bc4ea67380226)
The Day My Fairytale Died
My life with Ethan Hayes was a true New York fairytale. He was devastatingly handsome, a brilliant tech CEO, and our engagement was the stuff of lifestyle blogs and glittering society columns. I poured my heart into our eight years together, building a perfect future, a "Golden Couple" image people
/0/99062/coverbig.jpg?v=8972c798a2911be862f59b59e3f1997d)
The things we almost were
"Kaelin, this feels wrong... we shouldn't be doing this," he muttered, his voice shaky, eyes darting away like he wasn't sure if he should even be here. "Relax... just trust me," I said quietly, trying to ease the tension in his shoulders. He sighed, still looking conflicted. "But I'm not gay," he
/0/83138/coverbig.jpg?v=40eea7c1b366dbddc45d9ef6a28dcc64)
The Malice of the Almost-In-Laws
A romantic getaway, a beautiful Texas hotel, my fiancé Kevin by my side—it should have been perfect. I thought our future was set. Then searing pain hit. A ruptured ovarian cyst, internal bleeding. I was dying. Kevin? He ignored my pleas, focused on a non-refundable hotel, dismissing my agony
/1/102297/coverbig.jpg?v=44d29525e0fea1f93432ef922c92f05e)
The Woman He Almost Killed Lives
I spent three years as the perfect girlfriend to Silicon Valley's "Ice King," August Armstrong, only to overhear him call our entire relationship a "training exercise" to win back my estranged stepsister, Caroline. He used me, then cast me aside, framing me for attacking Caroline at their engagemen
/0/99655/coverbig.jpg?v=4bfd563373f3d23740276c2744a96e6b)
The Toxic Love That Almost Destroyed Me
For five years, I was Broadway's golden girl, and my powerful CEO boyfriend, Brennan, was my anchor. Our love felt invincible, a modern fairytale written across city marquees. Then he met Aimee, a struggling musician he claimed saved his life in a car crash. He gave her the vintage guitar he'd pro
/0/94187/coverbig.jpg?v=c89730b5be82aece6ac696d7040f5621)
My Fairytale Shattered: His Cruel Betrayal
For nine years, my marriage to tech titan Julian Gallegos was a fairytale. He was the powerful mogul who adored me, and I was the brilliant architect who was his world. Our love was the kind people whispered about. Then, a car crash stole it all. He woke up with the last nine years of his memory er
/1/106927/coverbig.jpg?v=de13db828942ff2147de846f6aad7087)
Forever Yours, Almost. Whitmere Family Legacy Book 1
A Whitmere Family Romance Ten years ago, Sloane Hart ran from the only man she ever loved. Not because she stopped loving him- but because loving Rhett Whitmere meant risking everything. Now she's back in Whitmere County, standing inside the luxury hotel he built from heartbreak, legacy, and a lo
/0/18576/coverbig.jpg?v=07a169456462b70d479b089dac411b53)
Make You Mine
An accident compels their destinies to get intertwined. Lily had saved James when he was ruthlessly kidnapped seven years ago. However, it seemed as if fate had other plans for them. When James woke up, he had already gotten out of the country. He'd been sent abroad to seek treatment for his legs.
/0/86862/coverbig.jpg?v=e0ff9f6a6e1568384cd225691e061983)
A Compass, A Betrayal, A Life
The first sign was a hotel receipt I didn' t recognize, crumpled in my husband' s suit pocket, for an "Ocean View Suite" for two. He was supposed to be at a tech conference that night. The next evening, I followed him. He left his office building with a woman, his new assistant, Chloe Davis. They
/0/86750/coverbig.jpg?v=5463e176f66f421f672eb1bfc022fd59)
A Wife, A Placeholder, A Lie
The frantic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound as my son, Leo, struggled for every breath. Anaphylactic shock, the doctors said. A severe, unexpected allergic reaction. My world reeled as the nurse cried, "We need O-negative blood, now! The blood bank is running low." Just as despair
/0/99383/coverbig.jpg?v=05762784debc6d42575a94b69db64e36)
A Pawn, A Son, A Forced Marriage
Two years ago, my fiancé, Connor, tossed the only life jacket to his mistress, Ilene, and watched me drown. I was pregnant with his child. He found me living a quiet life as a fisherman's wife on a remote island, dragged me back to his world, and revealed a shocking truth: our son, the one I though
