Safeguarding Isla

Modern

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Romance

Sophia Anderson was adopted by an old woman and grew up in the countryside. At she was 18 years old, her original family found her and got her back to the city. However, she was looked down upon by other family members, especially her stepmother and stepsister. At that time, she was so stupid that s

Modern

Aurora didn't cry when Grayson dumped her; she vanished after his line, "Wherever I am, you can't show up." Three years on, she returned as the city's star anchor; he watched nightly, haunted. Five years on, free of his family's leash, he staged a dinner to win her back. She met him like a strange

Romance

It was the worst blind date Violet had ever been on. But instead of putting up with him, she rebuked him right back. Terence, the man at the table beside them, was intrigued by her attitude and subconsciously followed her to the bar. Their mutual attraction and the copious amount of alcohol led the