Platform Seven

At my father’s funeral, my childhood friend Larry drove his SUV straight through my father’s portrait, screaming, “Your father deserved to die!” A week later, I smashed his mother’s urn on the docks and told him, “So did yours.” He stole the money meant to save my mother’s life. I blinded his sister in one eye. For nine long years, we tore into each other, clawing and ripping until nothing was left but exhaustion. In the end, he fled to Northern Myanmar. I stayed behind as the city’s top bounty hunter—codename “Moon Goddess.” … The day of my father’s funeral, Larry roared up in a black SUV like a madman. He plowed through rows of white funeral wreaths, shattered my father’s black-and-white portrait, and finally—amid the screams—slammed hard into the coffin. The heavy casket lurched with a sickening scrape. My mother fainted on the spot. Standing in the wreckage in my black mourning clothes, I watched coldly as the red-eyed boy behind the wheel rolled down his window and gave me a cruel smile. “Ellie,” he spat. “Your father deserved to die.” I didn’t speak. I just stood there, calm, as his bodyguards dragged him out and pinned him to the ground, where he thrashed and roared like a trapped animal. A week later, his mother’s ashes were to be interred. I went to the docks alone. When no one was looking, I snatched the rosewood urn. Under Larry’s furious, wide-eyed stare, I ran to the windiest spot on the pier and hurled it down. *Crash.* Gray-white powder scattered, caught by the sea wind, vanishing instantly into the murky water. I looked straight at him and said, slow and clear, “Larry. So did yours.” That day, he tried to kill me. If his father’s men hadn’t held him back, I’d be fish food at the bottom of the sea. And so began our nine-year war. I’d denied his mother peace in death. In revenge, when my mother lay critically ill and desperate for money, he pulled the rug out from under us—stealing every last cent that could have saved her. I blinded his half-sister in one eye. So he arranged a car accident that put my mother in a wheelchair for life. We were like wild beasts, tearing into each other with the sharpest claws, leaving nothing but ruin and blood behind. Nine years. The war only paused when I was twenty-eight—the year he fled to Southeast Asia. I stayed in Seaport City and became its top shadow operator: the bounty hunter called “Moon Goddess.” On the surface, I ran a little dessert shop named Moonlight. And Larry? Once the golden boy of Seaport City, he remade himself as the most ruthless arms dealer in the gunfire and chaos of Southeast Asia. I thought we’d never see each other again. Until the Seaport City news reported that the infamous Mr. Larry—the man who’d raised hell across Southeast Asia—was coming home in style, fiancée in tow.

Chapters

Chapter 3

Richard’s face paled. Stepping forward, he lowered his voice, trying to intervene. “Larry, not today—it’s—”

“Shut up!”

Larry cut him off sharply, his bloodshot eyes locked on me, waiting—for my breakdown, my rage, my hysteria.

Nine years ago, that’s exactly how I would have reacted.

But he didn’t know. Over the past nine years, I had ground every last emotion down to nothing and buried it in the deepest trench of the sea.

I even laughed. Picking up the black card, I spun it slowly between my fingers.

“Mr. Larry certainly isn’t shy about throwing his money around.”

I walked over to the freshly made tiramisu. Right in front of them, I used the card’s hard edge to scrape off a thick chunk of cream dusted with cocoa powder.

Then I stopped in front of Larry.

His eyes widened in shock. Lunging forward, I grabbed his chin and shoved the cream-smeared card straight into his mouth.

“Taste it,” I leaned in, my voice a low, icy whisper. “Is cake bought with your dirty money especially sweet?”

Time seemed to freeze.

Everyone stood stunned.

Linda let out a sharp, choked gasp.

Richard’s jaw went slack.

Larry’s face was streaked with cream. On his tongue, the bitterness of cocoa clashed with the cloying sweetness of the frosting. A furious tempest darkened his gaze.

He probably never imagined that nine years later, this would be my answer to his provocation.

“You’re asking for death!”

Shoving me away violently, he wiped the cream from his face. His glare was ferocious, as if he wanted to tear me apart with his bare hands.

One of the bodyguards behind him immediately stepped forward, reaching for me.

My gaze hardened. In one fluid motion, I snatched the offset spatula from the counter and, without even looking, pressed its metal edge precisely against the guard’s throat.

“Get out.”

A single word.

The guard froze, a cold sweat breaking on his forehead. He could feel the chill of the metal against his skin—and the unmistakable, unrestrained threat she radiated. The quiet, deadly promise of someone who had truly seen blood.

“Ellie!”

Larry roared.

I didn’t even glance his way. My focus shifted to Linda, whose face had gone sheet-white.

*Slap!*

A crisp, sharp sound echoed through the dessert shop.

I’d put my full strength into it. Linda’s delicate cheek flushed and swelled instantly.

Clutching her face, she stared at me in disbelief, tears welling in her eyes. “How… how dare you hit me?”

“I dare,” I retracted my hand, my voice cold as ice, “because you shouldn’t have brought the person I hate most into my space. You’ve dirtied it.”

“And,” I looked at Larry, my lips twisting into a faint, bitter smile, “I dare because you look a little too much like I used to.”

The words pierced him—venomous and precise.

His face turned a shade paler than death.

Yes, Linda. Eighteen. Fresh-faced. With those two shallow dimples when she smiles.

So much like… so much like the Ellie from nine years ago, before hatred consumed her.

Larry, keeping a replica like this by your side… who exactly are you trying to punish? And who are you really torturing?

Continue to next part

My father gave me an ultimatum: marry a man I despise or lose my entire inheritance. I chose to run, boarding a private jet with no intention of looking back. But his reach is absolute. The phone buzzed before we even left New York airspace. "Send me a picture with Sterling now," his voice barked, "or I'm calling your pilot to turn that jet around." I faked the photo and fled to Las Vegas, my last resort. My mission was simple: find my father's illegitimate son, the one secret that could break his hold over me. My only lead was a grainy picture of a ruthless fixer, a man who cleaned up my father's messes. I found him in a desolate diner, a giant of a man surrounded by a wall of guards. I gambled everything on a single coin toss for the information I needed. He saw right through my desperate bluff. He leaned in close, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. "In my city, the house always wins." I was left standing there, humiliated and defeated. But as he turned to leave, he glanced over his shoulder. "But you're lucky. Today, I'm just curious what Howard Bright's daughter is doing so far from home." He had seen me not as a threat, but as a curiosity. I had lost the battle, but I wasn't done yet. I was no longer running. I was hunting.

Action Billionaire Modern

8.8

El hijo de la reina de la mafia

8.8

Trilogía Carluccio: Libro 1. Una madre para mi hijo. Libro 2. El padre de mis hijos. Libro 3. El hijo de la reina de la mafia. Alexandre Carluccio regresa a Italia después de veinte años, con el único objetivo de vengar a todos aquellos que intentaron asesinar a su abuelo, sin imaginar que en medio de esta guerra que se ha desatado por obtener el poder, encontrará algo más que venganza. Yelizaveta Belucci, es en apariencia una chica frágil que necesita ser protegida por todos aquellos que se cruzan con ella, nadie imagina que debajo de esos ojos verdes se esconde una mujer peligrosa y tan despiadada como su padre, uno de los más grandes capos de Italia. Un amor tierno y pasional que pondrá en peligro la vida de ambos, pero que los llevará a conocer el amor verdadero.

Action Mafia Romance

7.2

Give Me Your Life, My Beloved Wife

7.2

She is a cunning princess. She accidentally binds the wrong person, causing the devil to come. He is a ruthless business leader. A contract imprisons her, and a game called revenge begins. He hated her, but he refused to kill her... Love is a poison. Although it was highly toxic, Alice still looked up and drank it. Her life has three memories. They only cry for that man and laugh for that man.

Action Modern Romance

8.5

I Married My Ex-Fiancé's Ruthless Older Brother

8.5

I was a Vitiello, sold to the Morettis to secure an alliance. For five years, I quietly loved Dante, counting down the minutes until our wedding at St. Patrick's Cathedral. But it ended with a single text three minutes before the ceremony. "Stay at the apartment. Sofia is awake. Don't make a scene." His ex-girlfriend, the love of his life, had woken from a coma with no memory. Just like that, I was erased. For thirty days, I waited in the shadows while Dante played hero to a woman who didn't remember him. He told me he was protecting her fragile mind. But then I found the truth. I stood outside the doctor's office and heard Dante refuse a treatment that would restore Sofia's memory. "If she remembers, she might leave again," Dante told the doctor. "Elena will wait. She's a good soldier. Let me have my fantasy." He wasn't protecting her. He was keeping her broken to feed his ego, banking on my submission. He thought I was furniture he could put in storage. He was wrong. I didn't go back to the apartment. Instead, I dialed a number every made man in New York feared. "Matteo," I said to Dante's lethal older brother, the King of the underworld. "I am done waiting. I want to be a Moretti bride. But not Dante's."

Action Modern Romance

8.4

Marriage for Revenge

8.4

"How can you smile like that when neither of your fathers are here at your own wedding reception?" Pond asked, eyeing Dunk, who stood in the gallery, smiling towards his newly-wedded husband. Dunk's smile didn't waver, but his eyes darkened. He turned to Pond, voice sharp, "Do you think I don't care? That I'd go against them on purpose?" Pond responded without hesitation, "Aren't you doing exactly that?" "No, I'm not," Dunk snapped. His voice dropped lower, colder. "I'm standing here for my pride-the same pride he crushed. I'm not a child who goes crying to his parents. He destroyed me, P'Pond. Now it's my turn. I'm going to destroy his life-completely." Pond looked shaken. "You can't marry someone for revenge, Dunk. I told you-I'm here for you. I'll never let anyone from the Guthithanan family hurt you again." Dunk's voice cracked as he exploded, "But he crossed the line that night!" He scanned the room and quickly pulled Pond into a quieter corner. His voice was low and furious. "He shattered everything I had. And now, with this marriage, I'm going to make him live with the consequences. He's trapped with me now-forever. I won't let him walk away so easily." His gaze flicked across the room-directly to Joong, who stood beside Sarawat, calmly speaking to a business partner. Joong caught Dunk's stare and instinctively looked his way. Dunk raised his champagne glass with a mocking smile. A toast to war. Joong clenched his jaw, returning the gesture coolly-but his burning eyes slid to Pond, full of rage and warning.

Action LGBT+Modern Romance

7.7

The Forbidden Alpha's Mate

7.7

Five years of war, three peace summits. One rule that never changed. Ray Carter and Levi Morgan stay on opposite sides, until the night fate decides otherwise. Ray feels nothing, rules everything and answers to no one. He built his empire on control and his reputation on fear, and he has never once lost either. Then Levi walks into the room. His enemy, his rival. The heir of the pack that took everything from him, his mate. One bond, two men on opposite sides of a war neither of them started. Laws older than their bloodlines demand they reject each other, walk away, and pretend it never happened. But the bond doesn't care about laws and neither, it turns out, does Ray. Someone already knows their secret and someone who has been waiting for exactly this moment. The question isn't whether Ray and Levi can survive each other. It's whether either of them will survive what's coming and who exactly wants them to find out the hard way?

Action LGBT+Romance Werewolf

Platform Seven

Chapter 3

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