From Pantry To MIT: Their Regret

My parents left me to freeze to death on a mountain just to save their adopted daughter. When I dragged my broken body back home days later, my father didn't hug me. Instead, he frowned and asked why I was making such a scene over a "simple accident." For eighteen years, I was the Corbett family's dirty secret. Despite being their biological child, I slept in a pantry and scrubbed their floors while Angelique, their "chosen" one, lived like a princess. They erased my existence, starved me, and when I finally packed my bags to leave forever, they accused me of being an ungrateful gold-digger. Even my childhood protector, Asher, looked at me with disgust, claiming my survival was hurting "delicate" Angelique. I severed all ties, but they wouldn't let me go. When they cornered me at my new school to save their plummeting stock prices, I didn't cower. I exposed every scar, every unpaid bill, and every crime to the principal, getting them banned from campus. Now, as I head to MIT on a full ride, the Corbett empire is burning to the ground. And I' m the one holding the match.

Chapters

Chapter 5

Catrina POV

I turned, my jaw tight. Dozier Corbett stood there, a phantom from a past I had desperately tried to outrun.

"Who's that?" Maya whispered, nudging me playfully. Her brow furrowed then. "He looks... familiar. Is he famous?"

My expression remained cold, unyielding. "Who? Him?" I scoffed, forcing a laugh. "Never seen him before in my life. You must have me confused with someone else."

Dozier flinched as if struck. Before I could say another word, he closed the distance between us in a few hurried strides. "Catrina, please, can we talk? Privately?" His eyes were bloodshot, his face pale and drawn. He looked nothing like the arrogant Ivy League bully from just a few weeks ago. The usual sneer was gone, replaced by a desperate anxiety that made his features almost unrecognizable.

I turned away, annoyance bubbling within me. "I have nothing to say to you, Dozier." My voice was flat, devoid of emotion. "What is it this time? Is Angelique feeling neglected again? Did she need another one of my projects to pass off as her own? Or are you here to frame me for another nonexistent crime?" I finally looked back at him, my gaze piercing. "Because I'm tired. I'm so incredibly tired of your games. Unless you're here to confess to the police, I suggest you leave."

My voice, though calm, carried across the quad. A few students nearby paused their conversations, their gazes shifting curiously towards us. Maya, my usually bright-eyed friend, looked from Dozier to me, her jaw slightly agape.

Dozier visibly recoiled, his face draining of what little color it possessed. "Catrina, please," he pleaded, his voice a hoarse whisper. "I'm so sorry. I... I messed up. I know I did. Just give me a chance to explain."

I let out a short, humorless laugh. "Sorry? Sorry for what, precisely, Dozier? Are you sorry for abandoning me on that mountain? Sorry for calling me a thief, a liar, an ungrateful bitch? Sorry for ransacking my room and destroying my belongings? Sorry for standing by as Angelique tormented me, day in and day out? Which one of your myriad acts of cowardice are you apologizing for?" I needed him to grovel, not for my satisfaction, but for him to truly confront the depth of his betrayal. I wouldn't let him off the hook with a generic apology.

He stammered, his eyes wide and lost, like a fawn caught in headlights. "I didn't... I didn't know what you were going through. I just... Angelique told me things, and Mom and Dad..."

I finished his sentence for him, my voice devoid of warmth. "And you believed them. You always believed Angelique. The fragile, beautiful lie. You chose to believe a fabricated narrative over your own flesh and blood, over the girl you once called your sister. That tells me everything I need to know about your character."

I turned to Maya. "Come on. We'll be late for class."

As I started to walk away, a hand clamped around my arm. Dozier's grip was surprisingly strong. "Wait! Please! Mom and Dad... they're not doing well. The company stock is plummeting because of all the rumors. They want to see you. They want to fix this."

I stopped dead, my gaze slowly drifting down to his hand on my forearm, then up to his face. My eyes felt like shards of ice. He flinched, pulling his hand back as if burned. "Fix this?" I repeated, my voice dangerously soft. "You think this is about stock prices and rumors, Dozier? Eighteen years of neglect, of spiritual and emotional abuse, of being left to die on a freezing mountain, and you think a few dropped stock points are the 'problem'?" I shook my head, a bitter smile touching my lips. "You Corbetts are even more pathetic than I imagined."

I turned, leaving him standing there amidst the whispers of curious students. Maya, wide-eyed, hurried to catch up, her steps echoing mine. I didn't look back, but I felt his desperate gaze boring into my back. His regret was palpable, a tangible weight in the air. But it was too late. His apologies were meaningless. The damage was done.

A few days later, just as I was heading to my robotics club meeting, Ms. Goodman, my science teacher, caught up with me. "Catrina, the principal would like to see you in his office." Her voice was kind, but her expression held a hint of concern. "He said you have some family visiting."

Family. The word tasted like ash in my mouth. I knew who it was. They wouldn't give up so easily. They never did. They clung to power, to control, like a drowning man clings to a life raft. I steeled myself, plastering on a neutral expression. Let them come. I was ready. I pushed open the principal' s door.

Cordell Corbett, his face alight with a horrifyingly fake smile, lunged forward.

Continue to next part

Apex Bloom This is the definitive "Rags to Riches" journey of a woman who was treated as disposable, only to return and conquer the most dangerous man in the underworld. Apex Bloom isn't just a title; it is Franco's survival game-a lethal, high-stakes gauntlet designed to chew up the weak and spit out the broken. Lolita wasn't supposed to survive it; she was supposed to be another casualty. Instead, she broke the game and took the man who created it. The Disposal Lolita begins as a woman discarded. Betrayed by her husband, Lyle, she is stripped of everything and thrown into the gutters of London. She is left with nothing but her wits in a world designed to erase her. Lyle didn't just leave her; he disposed of her like a spent asset, assuming she would quietly disappear. He was wrong. Entering the Game: Franco Rossi In the wreckage of her life, Lolita is forced into the Apex Bloom-the brutal survival game orchestrated by Franco Rossi. Franco is the underworld's apex predator, a man who believes in a world of absolute Darwinian ruthlessness. His game is designed to test the limits of human endurance, and he expects Lolita to be a pawn, a victim, or a fleeting distraction. Breaking the Architect Lolita doesn't just play Franco's game; she dismantles it. Using her brilliant mind and a newfound, weaponised confidence, she turns the Bloom into her own instrument of ascent. But her most calculated victory is over Franco himself. Through an intoxicating display of dominant power and erotic prowess, Lolita targets the man behind the machine. She doesn't just win; she breaks Franco's stoic, masculine code, forcing a full surrender of his will. She seduces the power away from the enforcer, turning the architect of the game into her most devoted subject. She proves that her dominance isn't just about force-it's about a total, soul-deep conquest that leaves the city's most dangerous man kneeling at her feet. The Rags to Riches Ascent The journey from a discarded wife to the Queen of the Apex Bloom is paved with the ruin of those who underestimated her. Lolita uses her sexuality and her intellect as twin blades, seizing the wealth and the territories of the men who thought they were players. By the time the dust settles, she has achieved unimaginable riches and undisputed authority, standing at the head of an empire built on the shattered remains of Franco's former life. The Final Sovereignty The book concludes with Lolita standing at the absolute summit. Her marriage to Franco in the Cotswolds is the ultimate victory lap-a coronation where the man who once ran the game now serves its new Queen. They are bound by blood and law, but it is Lolita who holds the reins. The story ends with The Syndicate, the global masters of the underworld, watching in shock. They thought they were dealing with another street-level syndicate; instead, they have found a woman who took the most lethal survival game in existence and made it her own.

Adventure Mafia Romance

9.3

Bound To The Exiled S-Class Monster

9.3

Halie woke up to a sharp pain and a terrifying reality. She was in a new body, her face covered in a hideous web of scars, and her spiritual power reduced to a pathetic D-Class. Before she could even process the memories of being framed, her bedroom doors were violently kicked open. Her sister Seraphina sauntered in with a venomous sneer, followed closely by Halie's S-Class fiancé, Jett. "Look at the disgrace of the Avila family. What a waste," Seraphina mocked, throwing a mirror at her bed. "I can't be tied to a cripple. As an S-Class, I have to break our engagement," Jett added, his gaze full of disgust. The nightmare didn't stop there. Her father called, screaming about how she had shamed the family name. He officially stripped her of her inheritance, froze all her accounts, and exiled her to the decaying Southern District to rot. To make matters worse, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed in her skull, warning her of an impending genetic collapse. Without an immediate energy infusion, she would face total organ failure in thirty days. A ruined face, a treacherous family, a world that wanted her dead, and a literal death clock ticking in her brain. The original owner had died in absolute despair, a tragic victim of sheer cruelty. But if they thought she would just sit there and die, they were severely mistaken. Armed with a mysterious system and her brilliant scientist mind from her past life, Halie packed her bags. She chose the craziest survival quest: head to the slums, find the exiled, sterile S-Class "madman" Coleman, and cure him to harvest his life energy. It was time to start her counterattack.

Adventure Horror LitRPG Modern Sci-Fi

8.6

Bound To The Silent Laborer's Bed

8.6

I was the youngest Paladin in history, the absolute pride of the Azure Blade. But after a disastrous mission in the snow, I was falsely accused of slaughtering my own squad. Grand Master Bernardo Rowe didn't just exile me; he surgically severed my connection to the magic Aether, turning me into a crippled mortal. Desperate to survive, I tried to climb the Holy Stairs to reclaim my legendary sword, "Rebellion." Instead of answering my call, my own blade shrieked in absolute rejection and blasted me down the thousand stone steps. My bones snapped like dry twigs, and I was left in a pool of my own blood. The pilgrims laughed at me. The guards declared me a lost cause and left me to rot in the dirt. I should have died there, betrayed by the Order and the holy magic I once served. But a silent, massive laborer named Cato Sims dragged my mangled body into the shadows. He healed my shattered skeleton in mere days with impossible skill, yet he allowed lowly servants to spit on him and beat him just to keep my presence hidden. I didn't understand why my holy sword had abandoned me, and I understood even less why this stranger was protecting a condemned criminal. When I finally snapped and demanded to know his price for saving my life, he didn't ask for money or my body. "The mountain does not forget its debts. I am reclaiming what was taken from it." Staring into his unyielding eyes, I realized my exile wasn't the end, but the beginning of a terrifying truth.

Adventure Fantasy LGBT+

9.0

Crave Me; Big Brother

9.0

"I can't let you go, Rain. Not now. Not when we're old and they put us both in the earth. You are mine until the grave closes over us both." Rain spent years loving Colt Walden, surviving every breakup and betrayal with the hope that one day he'd finally choose her. Instead, he shatters her world by announcing his engagement-to the woman he always claimed was his cousin. Drunk on heartbreak and fury, Rain finds herself in the arms of Rhysand-magnetic, dangerous, and nothing like her ex. One reckless night turns into chaos when she learns the truth: Rhysand is Colt's estranged older brother. Her past and future collide. Rhysand wants more than a mistake. More than one night. He wants her. Entirely. Obsessively. Permanently. And he's not afraid to say it. Colt, realizing what he's lost, suddenly wants her back. Now Rain is caught between the man who broke her for years... and the man who would burn the world to keep her. One offers familiarity. The other offers a devotion that borders on dangerous. Rain must choose which brother she'll walk toward- and which storm she's willing to survive.

Adventure Mystery Romance

8.6

Exposed After Six Failed Assassinations of the Alpha

8.6

I'm an assassin for the Snicker pack, cold and relentless. My mission? Kill Alpha Ronan of a rival pack in three months. Five attempts. Five failures. All thanks to my incompetent partner. One time, he even gave me an overtime drug. Pathetic. The deadline was here, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. "I won't do it. Just let me die instead," I told my partner. Silence. Days passed with no reply. Then, on the final day, I found it-a secret buried deep in the mission......

Action Adventure Werewolf

7.2

Marked By The Alpha I Was Meant To Kill

7.2

She was sent to ki⁠ll him. He was the Alpha of the pack. But when Lyra infi⁠ltrates Kael‍'s t‌erritory to avenge her best‍ f⁠riend, she discovers that da⁠nger isn‍'t only⁠ in the rival packs⁠-it‌'s in th‌e magnetic pull of the Alpha himself. Sec‌rets, suspense, and a forbidden bond ign⁠ite as enemies an‍d desire collid‌e.‍ Can she com⁠plete her mission w‌it⁠hout l‍osing her heart... or will the Alpha m‌ar‌k her in ways‌ she never expected⁠?‍

Adventure Fantasy Werewolf

From Pantry To MIT: Their Regret

Chapter 5

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