《The Billionaire’s Kept Woman》The Billionaire's Kept Woman
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Last night, Johanna and Conrad had been searching for Bonnie starting from her apartment. And then, they reported that she was missing. Conrad had men who started investigating before the police. Johanna asked him to start searching before they reported it. And Johanna was paying for everything. She's doing it for free and for Keira that's why she insisted on coming with Conrad. She also hasn't discussed it with Keira.
Now, they are having lunch with their bodyguards and Vanessa. Everyone looked happy with the dishes on the table. Keira and Alessandro were laughing with them as their bodyguards made jokes about their experiences as a bodyguard and security. Conrad didn't say much but he was making jokes enough to make Vanessa fall in love. During his days as a bodyguard, he always chatted with Vanessa.
"Are you married?" Vanessa asked. Conrad raised his left finger.
"You don't see any ring, right?" He winked at Vanessa who giggled.
"You can always remove the ring," Vanessa said.
"I'm not married or committed to anyone." He said to make it sure for Vanessa.
"So, who are you interested in at the moment?" Keira asked as Alessandro pinched her sides.
"I am interested with," he eyed the lobster. "That lobster." He grinned.
Keira snorted.
"I'm serious."
Conrad laughed and took the lobster that was already separated from the shell.
"Your lunch here was always good," Conrad said. "I think I should stay and extend my contract, Mr. De Alegre."
Alessandro laughed and nodded.
"Sure, don't mess it up," Alessandro said.
After their lunch, Conrad followed Johanna to Keira's office while Alessandro left a while ago. Keira was rummaging in her closet as Johanna dictates her schedule for the afternoon.
"I already set up a meeting with the board next Wednesday, also you have a seminar at Tagaytay with your husband. That would be on Friday."
"Yes," Keira said. "They take my husband as one of the speakers."
"Also," Johanna exhaled. "I'll tell you other details later."
"Alright."
Keira went to the recording room, looking like a trainer with a messy hair bun, big eyeglasses, no make-up, and a casual shirt with a cello printed on it and high-waist jeans. She looked more like a teenager.
"Hi, Vincent." Keira extended her hand toward Vincent. "I'm your trainer and the one who entrusted that composition to you."
"Hello," he shook her hand as he kept glancing at her.
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"Let's start with vocal exercise."
Vincent has been practicing the composition for an hour as he read the notes and planted them on his head. It's a beautiful song and it already gives him that last song syndrome. The woman exercises it for him and he never thought that she's familiar with the song. He already had this big admiration toward Keira.
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Johanna kept locating their investigators that were finding Bonnie. She didn't mention it to Vanessa since she's only accountable for sorting the documents, assisting Keira with clothes, foods, and schedules. She was the one who did lots of errands for them. Besides, she didn't want her to get involved or her life would be at risk.
"So," Conrad bent down as he held at the back of her swivel chair with his other hand on the desk to cornered her. "What did you find?"
She sighed and pushed him.
"Nothing."
"We can go for another adventure tonight." He grinned at her.
"Okay, stop messing around, Conrad."
Johanna knew that he's only doing it so that her mind stopped thinking that she nearly died a while ago.
"Oh, by the way. I'm hungry. Can you order me something?" He pouted at him.
"Ask Vanessa. It's her job to feed you and the bodyguards."
"You are so harsh," Conrad mumbled as he left her office and went outside to Vanessa's table. She watched as Conrad flirted with Vanessa as the girl flirted back. She shook her and just realized that he's just too friendly to everyone.
She stood when Keira came back with the female bodyguard that always accompanied her. The female bodyguard was quiet but Conrad knew her well as he teased her. The woman was always serious and she was there when Johanna almost got killed. She also pointed a gun toward the man who took their envelope. She's like Conrad too.
"Don't you want to have a snack?" Keira asked Agent MJ.
"No, ma'am. I'll have to get back to you as soon as possible before you leave the premises."
"Alright."
Johanna remembered that the female bodyguard didn't stick with Keira after she was escorted back home. However, there's a female rider that Conrad spoke with last night. Could it be MJ? Conrad entered her office with a sandwich in his hands and he gestured it to her. She shook her head and signed him to come closer.
"What is it, boss?" He asked.
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"It was MJ from last night, right?"
Conrad only nodded.
"She hasn't reported it to Keira?"
He shook his head.
"Okay." She stood and took her tablet.
"You don't want to snack?"
"No." She answered coldly as she went directly to Keira's office. She knocked first and went to her desk while Keira was reading a few documents. "We confirmed that Bonnie was the one who feeds information to the killers." She said that made Keira stop reading. She put down the document and looked up at Johanna. "But she's been kidnapped. We are searching for her."
"Oh, crap," Keira mumbled. "What else?"
"I heard from Conrad that Nancy was trying to take Louise's money from her lawyer."
Keira froze as she smirked and reached her fountain pen.
"You don't have enough sleep, Jo." She said.
"I~I can't sleep."
"Mom might be already in your penthouse." Keira stood. "Leave it to Conrad and MJ. They know what to do."
"But, Keira…" Johanna insisted on getting involved.
"A while ago, I thought that I was going to lose you. I'll lose my shit too, Johanna. I will blame myself for not protecting you. All of these happened because of me." Keira paused and clenched her fist. "Stop dealing with them. I am doing this to protect you."
"After you were hospitalized and stayed in the States, dad asked me something."
"What?" Keira became more serious.
"He asked me to protect you and mom. He knew that I was the only one that could do it. So, I trained myself, my mind, and my body to be strong. Keira, I am older than you and I am your big sister although not by blood. And I will do everything to protect you."
"Jo," Keira's eyes started becoming cloudy. "I don't want to lose you too." She said softly.
"Keira, you already hired a bodyguard for. It's enough."
"Don't be stubborn!" She exclaimed and stood.
Johanna walked around, put her tablet on the table, and scooped her face.
"I'll hunt Wendy down for you too." Johanna kissed her forehead. "I have Conrad with me and since I know Nancy and Bonnie, it'll be easy for us to find a lead. Let me be."
Keira was speechless.
"Don't worry about it, Keira. I promise not to die. I'm leaving early, okay? Make sure that you are safe."
Keira nodded. Johanna took her tablet and left her office. Then, she went back to her office and organized her things. Conrad was busy sipping on the coffee while watching something from his phone.
"We are leaving early." She said as she locked her drawers and put the keys to her bag.
"Why?" Conrad asked.
"Mom will stay at the penthouse and we have to visit someone else's place. Also, we are using your bike."
"Fine with me." Conrad shrugged. "Where are we going?"
"To find Bonnie."
Conrad stopped.
"Are you sure about this? It'll be boring."
"You are telling me that investigating is boring?" She raised her brows. He chuckled and finished his coffee and threw it in the bin.
"Alright," He nodded.
"I'm going to change clothes first." She went to her cabinet where she had a personal wardrobe as she took her jeans and shirt.
"You can undress here." He teased. She frowned and turned to him.
"Why won't you go out and strip in front of them? I'll play something nice for you."
Conrad roared in laughter as he stood and stretched his arms.
"Want me to dance right now?" He teased back.
"I'm not interested."
She went to her bathroom and changed her clothes quickly. When he came out, she found him already flirting with Vanessa. Well, he must be known as a playboy. She changed her bag into a small backpack and brushed her hair. She needed to make sure that they would find Bonnie. If not, it'll be hard if they find her that she's already dead.
They went to the parking lot and he gave her a bulletproof jacket. She didn't complain since he's probably worried about her safety like the last time.
"Wrapped your arms around my hot body." Conrad teased.
"When are you going to stop teasing me?" She asked as she bent down and hugged his waist.
"Maybe if you stop being expressionless." He said as he started his bike. She was a little scared of big bikes but he was a careful driver. "And don't sleep." He added. She glanced at Nancy's car as they passed by it. Then, she came out with a smile as she spoke to someone over the phone.
Nancy was one of their suspects about Louise's death and she wondered about Nancy's involvement.
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In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
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Weak 'Heroes'
James and his class mates were transferred over into a fantasy world! The king expects them to slay the Demon King? How can they do that when the so called 'Heroes' are unbelievably weak! "I'm in a fantasy world expected to kill a Demon King in 11 years, except everyone is disgustingly weak? What in the fuck this isn't how novels are supposed to go! GET ME OUT". "I just want to be a Teacher". James sniffles uncontrollably. Follow James and his friends uncover mysteries of this new world and to become strong enough to slay the Demon King.
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As a rule of nature, breaking a wave before it peaks halts and disperses built-up energy. Unfortunately, Fate doesn't play by the rules of nature. The cost of a Fourth war: an equal number of lives, a thousand thousand generations of lost futures, and one infinitely unspeakably tortured soul of a child never given chance to be one. Or, the one where some power-hungry immorals decided to put the words "bijuu," infinite," "natural energy," and "psuedo" together in one sentence, not necessarily in that order. Naruto Fanfiction, please excuse the tags. AU ANBU OC, 3/4th Hokage era. Originally posted on Fanfiction.net Current release rate: 1 per week until caught up to Fanfiction.net Goal release rate: 1 per 1-2 months Actual release rate: 1 per 2+ months Explanation: average word count per chapter ~10,000+
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Rank Zero: Cyberlinks Book 1 (LitRPG)
After an assassination goes wrong inside a cyberpunk VRMMO, pro gamer Alec Rye decides it's time to start anew and hold friends over profit. But when his in-game client tracks him down in the real world, he'll have to ruin someone else's gaming career, or lose all hope of escaping his desolate future on Mars.
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Two hundred fifty years ago, a meteor landed on the war-filled land of Nuria. Shards landed everywhere contaminating the fauna over time and awakening creatures. Now in the present time, something dark is rising up and it's up to a group of five to avenge what has been taken from them and stop the seeds of darkness from blooming. Map of Nuria
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Sustaining the King's Life
On a secluded mountain situated upon a kingdom known as Feuersturm, resides a seemingly trifling cabin with an unlikely duo as its inhabitant—a witch, and her apprentice who presumably comes from a clan sought after by slave traders. Faustina is a sixteen-year-old girl who fled the slave market with the help of a sickly witch named Eula, who later on trained her as an apprentice for the span of seven years. Plagued with a mysterious disease for several years, Eula died despite the efforts Faustina had exerted to cure her; in her last breath, she left an odd request behind. "Sustain the king's life. This is your duty. Do not adhere to the prophecy." To which the odd plea shadowed a bizarre series of events, a consequential sentence, similar to that of a premonition. The same night the phrase was muttered, the chain of events followed: A warlock's intrusion to their home, with a peculiar yearning to resurrect Eula from the dead... and the king himself, asking for Faustina’s aid. ** 1-2 chapters a day (GMT+8) ** (The artwork belongs to me. Visit more of STKL artwork on my twitter: @chains_lock
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