Venom in the Orchards
By @john1208
Beatrys Vossen stands at the rainy funeral of the woman who destroyed her life, wearing a bright pink raincoat and a vacant, bubbly smile. On a spontaneous whim for her thirtieth birthday, she abandons the city of Goudhaven for a quiet countryside farm stay at Rustenveld. Everyone assumes the cheerful airhead is simply fleeing her grief. In reality, Beatrys is setting a cold-blooded trap. Her true target is Maartin Kest, a ruthless CEO hiding out in the exact same pastoral retreat, attempting to escape his own suffocating life. Amidst morning apple harvests and the watchful eyes of Ouma Hessel - the farm’s elderly proprietor with a hidden agenda - Beatrys meticulously lays the groundwork to dismantle Maartin's world. It is a slow, quiet dance of rural escapism and hidden daggers. But as a deep, genuine bond forms between them, Beatrys leaves to execute her final strike, only to realize she completely misunderstood the rules of the farm. Rustenveld was never a neutral sanctuary; it was a psychological trap designed by Ouma to test the heirs of Goudhaven. Returning a year later to find Maartin waiting for her in the orchards, Beatrys must ask: who was truly playing who?
4
The Orchard's Alibi
By @john1208
I closed my eyes in a bustling train station bathroom, desperate to escape the flashing cameras of my highly publicized, humiliating breakup. I woke up hours later smelling crushed lemons and old wood, tucked into a quilt in an impossible place: a rustic farm stay in the remote valley of Ouzari. In a moment of sheer madness, I had swapped tickets and identities with a crying stranger. Now, I am Jihan, a quiet botanist on retreat. Here, away from the vicious media cycle of Marzanna, I spend my days harvesting citrus and my evenings mesmerized by Ozan, a gentle, mysterious musician who plays at the local taverna. His melodies mend the shattered pieces of my heart. But beneath my sweet, healing exterior, I am quietly and ruthlessly dismantling my ex’s empire from my laptop. As the slow, tender days turn into a deep, unspoken bond with Ozan, my carefully orchestrated revenge nears its climax, threatening to pull me back to the city. When the dust settles and my true identity is revealed, will the man who helped me heal in the sun drop everything to follow me into the storm?
2