Harbinger Of Glory - Chapter 52: Against The Run Of Play.

“Block him.”“He's technically still my boss.”“Then block him with dignity.”The call ended again.And then started again.I let out a sound somewhere between a growl and a sob, then finally answered with the enthusiasm of a snail crawling through salt.“Yes, Mr. Walton?”“Have you changed your mind yet?”I collapsed onto the towel and gazed at the sky as though it might consume me entirely if I pleaded sweetly enough.“Do you ever take a break?” I asked, shielding my eyes with one hand.“You're avoiding the question.”“Because it's a dumb question.”He exhaled, the sound sharp and irritated even over phone. “It's not a dumb question. It's a business offer.”“It's a weird offer-one that I already said no to.”There was a brief pause, and I could practically hear him clenching his jaw through the speaker.“You are acting unreasonably.”“ Unreasonable?” I sat up. “I'm not the one drafting fake girlfriend contracts like it's a normal Tuesday.”“Isabella-”“Certainly not, Mr. Walton.” I mimicked his tone perfectly. “I told you I'm not doing it. You need to find someone else to play pretend with.”SYNOPSISIsabella Miller thought saying no to her boss’s fake dating offer was the end of the story.But Adrien Walton doesn’t take no—especially not when he’s convinced she’s a gold digger.Suddenly, her student loans are piling up, her father’s vet clinic is on the brink of eviction and her brother is about to be kicked out of college. Coincidence? She thinks not.Adrien Walton is calm, calculating—and he's just pulled every string to corner Isabella into the perfect position.Now she’s stuck choosing between pride and survival.So she agrees to his offer: be his fake girlfriend.No feelings attached. No drama. Just business.Or so she thought.“Conference Room B. Fifteen minutes,” he said, passing by without a glance.The folder he pushed across the table landed with a thud.I opened it. The contract. All of it.---Enemies to lovers? Check.Slow burn? Hmmnyea.Banter so sharp it might file your nails? Yes.Delicious workplace tension? Of course.Tension that could melt steel?Absolutely.Smut?? Wanna find out?Welcome to corporate romance warfare. There’s no escaping this contract.

As the original heroine in the novel, Lin Yueqi’s life was made a complete mess by the traitorous female side leads: her top millionaire husband wanted to divorce her, her daughter became a villain, and the internet users wanted her to leave the entertainment industry.

Female side lead #1 brought her own magnificent and beautiful traitorous persona. Female side lead #2 transmigrated over and became the villain’s mother.

Female side lead #3 was even more extreme… In the end, her career and family were ruined and she died from excess of anger.

Lin Yueqi transmigrated to before the nightmares began, but she only had her memory up to when she was 17! She was dumbstruck. As an unfavorable heroine, Lin Yueqi found it more important to survive. She decided to give up her daughter and her top millionaire husband and retreat to being a stranger, staying far away from the goldfinger female side leads!

She spread rumors of her loveless marriage with her husband and how she picked up a child in order to swindle herself into a marriage. She decided to squander her luck with strangers and believed that she could almost successfully retreat from the heroine position when the negative news about her on the internet were cleared!

Her husband, Lu Ting, came looking for her with their daughter, saying sternly, “Madame Lu, we have a loveless marriage? That’s not what you were saying when we were in bed.”

Her daughter pursed her lips and sobbed, patting her stomach with her chubby hands. “Mummy, you said that you picked me up! This bun’s heart is aching!”

Lu Yueqi glanced at the little girl who hugged her stomach while crying, causing her heart to ache as well.

Heh. How could she have given birth to such… a cunning little girl?! She must’ve picked her up! She refused to be the stepmother!

[COMPLETE] Can a royal Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?

Ayleth, Princess of Zenithra, is secretly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and collects swear words she doesn't know how to use. During the Festival of Peace, in which every royal son on the continent will be at the castle for a month, she is instructed by her parents to find a husband. Yet, Ayleth has never even been kissed—until the very first ball, when she meets the man in the Lion mask.

Etan is a seasoned warrior, and the Prince of Summitras. He attends the Festival hoping to find a powerful wife who will help him conquer the dark sorcery of their bloodsworn enemies, the Kingdom of Zenithra. But at the very first ball, he discovers the masked woman who captures his heart is the Heir to the evil empire.

Ayleth and Etan face an impossible battle. Will their love survive? Or will their parents' dark dealings keep them apart forever?

[Mature content. No sexual violence.]

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“You…” She stepped back. Then back again, her mouth dropped open. “You… You cannot be…”

“I am,” Etan said, and his hair raked back as he pushed his mask off his handsome face. So handsome her heart raced.

His hair was ebony black, his skin a warm brown that threatened to fade in in the winter months. He stared at her with glittering green eyes, over high cheekbones and a noble nose, his jaw tight and shadowed this late in the day. His chin was high over the pillar of his neck that she’d just touched with its hard lines and steel strength, so different to her own. And his chest... She gasped and covered her eyes. She’d humiliated herself revealing her stupid, childish curiosity.

“No, Ayleth. This changes nothing.”

“How can you say that? It changes everything!” She was horrified to realize she was crying.

“Ayleth, please.” His voice cracked on the plea and she stared at him, shoving her mask up and off, despite how it would pull her hair out of the beautiful twist the maid had managed for her.

His eyes locked on hers and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

She had met her One. And he was the son of her bloodsworn enemy.

She stared at him as he stepped forward again, offering both hands, palm up. “Touch me,” he whispered. “Hold my hands. This is real, Ayleth. I don’t know how it happened, but this is real. Please don’t deny it.”

She couldn’t resist. She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, letting her palm catch on the scruff of his jaw. He blew out a breath and put his hand over hers, and that jolt that happened whenever they touched shivered through her again.

“Please, Ayleth.”

“I cannot deny it,” she whispered.

Yeho is a distant relative to a king in a small kingdom. Even though he is a distant relative, his house was very poor, and his mother was addicted to gambling. One day North Empire asked for Princess Sooyoung to be a concubine of an old Emperor because she was known for her beauty. But the king really loved his daughter so instead he ordered Yeho’s older sister to disguise as Princess Sooyoung and marry the old Emperor.

Yeho told his sister to run away with her lover, and his sister had to leave her younger brother alone with his mother. After she ran away, Yeho asked his mother to give the things back to the king that she got for trying to sell her daughter, but his mother already used the gifts to pay off her gambling debt. He was trying to give the gifts back to the king to take away his order, but now he can’t do that anymore. He tells his mother to run away, and he disguises as his sister to go to North Empire.

After he got there, he was trying to tell the Emperor the truth and take away his life, but the Emperor went out for few days to look around his empire. When the emperor came back, he wasn’t as old as he thought.