Who Coined The Phrase 'Zero Non Sum' Originally?

My dad has died in a car crash when I'm seven years old. So, my mom marries her first love, Robert Hayes, and integrates me into his family. During the first meal with my new family, Robert announces a newly instated family rule. "From now on, we have to split the bills in this family." Once I eat a piece of steak, Robert tells me to pay him 300 dollars for the meal. I just look at my stepsister, Harper Hayes, who's digging into her meal happily. "Harper ate steak as well. Why didn't you ask her to pay you back, Dad?" "That's because Harper's my biological daughter. I love her, and she has the bloodline privileges," Robert answers. Then, I glance at Mom. So, Robert adds, "Your mom is my wife. I love her, which means she has privileges as well. But in your case, we're not related by blood, nor do we have any ties of affection with each other. I'm not obligated to raise you at all, Maddie."

I grew up abroad. My mother feared I might marry a foreign man, so she arranged an engagement for me with a talented and handsome man in Flodon. She insisted that I return home to get engaged. I came back and started shopping for an engagement dress at a luxury boutique. I selected an off-white strapless gown and decided to try it on. Suddenly, a woman nearby glanced at the dress in my hand and told the saleswoman, “That’s a unique design. Let me try it.” The saleswoman immediately yanked it out of my hands. I protested indignantly, “Excuse me, I was here first. Don’t you understand the principle of ‘first come, first served’? Or do you just not care about common decency?” The woman scoffed and retorted, “This dress costs $188,000. Do you really think a broke nobody like you can even afford it? “I’m Lucas Goodwin’s sister in all but blood. He’s the chairman of Goodwin’s Group. In Flodon, the Goodwin family sets the rules.” What a coincidence! Lucas Goodwin was my fiance! I immediately called him and said, “Hey, your ‘sister in all but blood’ just stole my engagement dress. Do something about it.”

【Two Male Leads + Power Dynamics + Slow Burn Romance + Corporate Warfare + 1v1】 "You came to kill me, didn't you?" "That was the original plan, but I've changed my mind." "Oh, what an honor that is." In game theory, when the sum of gains and losses among participants always equals "zero," it's known as a "zero-sum game," where cooperation between the parties is not possible. In the game of love, however, two initially opposing individuals repeatedly break the norms and find their way to each other. A mission sparks their complex relationship, with one falling first, and the other soon succumbing to the fall as well... *Dual-faced, affectionate mastermind ✖️ Undercover agent playing coy *1v1

​In a society governed by the "Fated System," Kit Holloway is a biological glitch. Scentless, infertile, and deemed "defective," he has turned his flaw into a fortress. Working as a high-end adult performer, he lives a life of carefree rebellion, fueled by a deep-seated hatred for the Alphas who see his kind as nothing more than breeding stock. ​Then there is Maksim Sokolov. At 34, Maksim is the CEO of the very tech giant that maintains the compatibility system. He is a Dominant Alpha of such overwhelming power that his presence is a physical weight—a "Molecular Pressure" that makes others tremble, bleed, or faint. He lives in a golden cage of isolation, surrounded by a world that is too "loud" and too fragile to touch him. ​When the national database runs their profiles and returns a 0.0% Compatibility Match, the world calls it a catastrophic biological error. When his fate meets with Kit Holloway The system says they are the most incompatible pair in history. ​The world calls it a Mistake. The Alpha calls it A System Error.....

She didn't disappear because she was in danger. She disappeared because she was done. Veira Ashcroft spent years being brilliant, underestimated, and quietly indispensable to people who never once asked what she wanted. A forensic financial analyst with instincts no one could explain, she had built a careful, sufficient life in Edinburgh, until she found a document with her name in it seventeen times. Not one mention was a question. So she left. What no one told her, what no one knew, was that the entire supernatural world had been running on her. Five ancient bloodlines. One invisible network. And she was the only thing holding it together. Now the wolves are going blind in the dark. A three-hundred-year-old vampire can no longer feel his bloodline across Europe. A probability genius is watching his models dissolve into noise. A woman who moves financial markets with her instincts alone is losing her sense of direction. And the man who has spent eight years secretly arranging her life from the shadows is the one tasked with finding her. They have sixty days before the collapse becomes permanent. She has no interest in being found. Bloodline Zero is a slow-burn paranormal romance told in two timelines — the world unraveling without her, and the story of exactly why she left. Dark secrets, hidden identities, reverse harem tension, and a heroine who doesn't need saving. She needs an apology. Several, actually. Tags: paranormal romance · reverse harem · hidden identity · betrayal · chasing her back · second chance · billionaire · supernatural · strong female lead · slow burn

Mom had one rule, and she never let it go: one good deed a day. When I was little, I saved my allowance for an entire year to buy a doll. Then some girl beside me whispered that she wanted one too, and Mom ripped it out of my arms. "Do one good deed a day. Give her the doll." Later, I barely made it into the best high school in the county. I didn't even get to be happy before Mom told me she'd already signed me up for trade school. "Do one good deed a day. The girl who just missed the cutoff is poor. Give her your spot." Later, at trade school, my roommates stole every cent I had for food and rent. I called Mom, sobbing. "Do one good deed every day. Giving them your money still counts as doing something good." Later, I got a part-time job and ended up sold as a bride to some family way out in the sticks. I texted Mom, begging her to save me. Her reply popped up a second later. [Marriage means sticking it out. Give them a healthy baby boy, and that should cover ten years of good deeds.]