How Does 'Hattie Big Sky' End?

While packing Ethan's flight bag, I found a custom solo wings pin. The engraving on the back read: For Lark, to celebrate your first solo. Beneath the box sat the receipt for Skyler's flight school tuition, paid in full by Ethan, along with a photograph. In the photo, she was sitting in the pilot's seat. Ethan's gloved hand rested over hers on the control yoke. Seven years ago, I had sat in that same seat. Back then, I was one step away from my first solo flight, but Ethan talked me out of it again and again, always claiming it was "for my own good." He said flying was dangerous, that someone had to stay home and take care of things. I put down my logbook, pressed the wrinkles out of every one of his captain's uniforms, and spent seven years living by his flight schedule. Only now did I finally understand. It wasn't that he didn't want to take anyone flying. He just didn't want to take me. What made it even more absurd was that the night Skyler first flew through the clouds, I was alone in a hospital, losing our baby. I called him over a dozen times. At three in the morning, he finally called back, his voice flat and indifferent. "I just took Lark through the clouds. Next time something comes up, give me a heads-up." I put the wings pin back exactly where I found it, then pulled the crumpled ultrasound printout from the bottom of the drawer and tucked it inside the logbook that had been gathering dust for seven years. This time, I wasn't going to wait for him to look back. He convinced me to leave the pilot's seat, then turned around and put another woman in the sky. So I would leave him and take back the sky that had always been mine.

Hannah always knew she was different. A childhood trauma not only made her family aware of her abilities, but it also set her on a path to Gabriel. A man with a past of his own. It doesn't take long for these two to realize that they were destined to find each other, but what does fate have in store for Hannah and Gabriel? Who else is destined to cross their path and at what end?

After five years of marrying into the Loween City in place of my sister, the Gambling King finally passed away. My son and my ex-husband—at long last—gave me permission to fake my death and return to them. But they laid down three conditions. First: kneel before Vivian Gray, apologize for framing her all those years ago, and surrender my place as Mrs. Hartwell. Second: work as a live-in maid for my own son for five years, and never show up at his school in my former identity as the reigning queen of the nightlife scene—lest I embarrass him. Third: drink an abortifacient to destroy my fertility forever, as recompense for the infertility I once caused Vivian. "My lady, you've endured five whole years just to earn your freedom—how dare they humiliate you like this?" My maid's eyes were red, burning with indignation on my behalf. But I just tipped my head back and swallowed the death-faking pill, letting the servants toss my "corpse" into the overgrown brambles beyond the city limits. Then, from the mud and weeds, I crawled back to the Hartwell mansion—one knee at a time. Day one, I knelt as ordered and signed over custody of my son without a fight. Day three, I locked myself in the storage closet and stopped showing up at school to pick my son up like I used to. I also stopped pestering him to call me "Mom." Even when Vivian—knowing full well I'm terrified of the dark—deliberately trapped me in the basement, I bore it in silence. By the time my ex-husband Nathan Hartwell saw me again, I was barely hanging on. For the first time, a flicker of panic crossed his face as he carried me out of that basement. But my son just sneered. "It's just another stunt to win our sympathy." When he caught the tears welling in Vivian's eyes, Nathan coldly dropped me to the ground. "Always scheming against Vivian with your dirty tricks—aren't you tired of it?" Right then, the system chimed in my ear: [Please proceed to the "disposable ex-wife death node" to complete the story line and return to your original world.] I let out a quiet laugh. "Not tired at all." And with that, I turned and dove straight into the swimming pool beside me.

Five years of loyalty earned Summer Hart nothing but betrayal. She gave up her dreams to become the perfect wife, helping her husband, Mattias, build his empire from nothing. In return, she was humiliated by his family, ignored by the man she loved, and forced to watch another woman slowly take her place. The final blow comes when she catches Mattias in bed with his so-called best friend, Nora—the woman everyone believes is the heiress to one of the world's most powerful families. Summer signs the divorce papers without looking back. To Mattias, she's just another ordinary woman he'll easily replace. He's about to make the biggest mistake of his life. When the city's most feared billionaire, Harden Blackwood, unexpectedly offers her a marriage contract, Summer accepts. What begins as a cold business deal soon becomes an alliance built on trust, dangerous attraction, and a shared enemy. But the deeper Harden investigates Summer's past, the more impossible it becomes to believe she's the helpless woman everyone thinks she is. She has a secret powerful enough to shake the business world. And someone has spent years making sure that secret never comes to light. Now the woman they betrayed is coming back stronger than ever. Mattias wants a second chance. Nora will do anything to destroy her. Powerful enemies are closing in. And when the truth is finally revealed... Everyone who underestimated Summer Hart will regret it. Because this time, the good girl isn't coming back.

She gave everything to the man she loved: her ideas, her dreams, her future. She thought he loved her too. Until it all fell apart. Lucia Hale is a brilliant woman who devotes her life to building her husband's dreams. When she is diagnosed with cancer, everything comes crashing down: including the life she had built with Jack Hale. The man she loved had been slowly poisoning her for years, all while building a secret life with her best friend. When Lucia crashes her car and wakes up in a hospital, she learns the most shocking truth of all: her name is Elara Harrington, sole heir to one of the most powerful dynasties in the country. And she is very much alive. With a new name, a new empire and a dangerously charming ally in the cold but annoying Atlas Steele, Elara rises from the ashes of the life that was stolen from her. But revenge is a game with more players than she knows…and someone far closer has been pulling the strings all along. The heiress is coming home. And this time, she's burning everything down.

For our graduation trip, the three of us traveled to Iceland to watch the aurora borealis. During the trek, my best friend Chloe Bennett’s scarf was swept away by the howling wind. Without a second thought, my boyfriend Valen Vance stripped off his own heavy scarf and wrapped her up tight in it. Turning to me, he said, “Hurry up and help Chloe fetch it. You know that’s her favorite scarf.” I braved the biting, freezing wind alone, chasing it for a long time. By the time I finally retrieved the scarf and turned around, the northern lights had already vanished from the sky—and Valen and Chloe were no longer where I left them. My phone buzzed with a text from him: “You were taking too long. Chloe is afraid of the cold, so I brought her back to the hotel first.” Stranded in a foreign country, I stood at the crossroad for six grueling hours, waving down over twenty passing cars. Finally, someone took pity on me and gave me a ride. When I stumbled back into the hotel well past midnight, shivering and entirely frozen to the bone, I found them curled up under a thick blanket, huddled close together as they looked over the photos they had taken that day. They were laughing and chatting about photography and the northern lights—a conversation I was permanently locked out of. Noticing me, Valen merely frowned. “What took you so long? I made a mug of hot tea for you over there. Go warm yourself up.” I wrapped my numb fingers around the mug. The tea inside had gone ice-cold hours ago. At that moment, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion settled deep into my chest. Fine, then. I booked the earliest flight out, canceled the rest of our hotel reservations, and decided right then to leave. The northern lights I spent a lifetime chasing were never meant for me. There was no need to chase them anymore.