Atoning

re·pent /rəˈpent/ verb feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin. Haven is your average Christian young woman. She attends church, always reads her bible, and is the leader of her church's Youth Group. She even has the perfect Christian boyfriend, who she's sure she'll marry. Tristian is your average trouble maker. He drinks, smokes, and has no interest in religion. He's been sent to live with his religious grandmother harboring a lot of guilt and a horrible secret. When Haven meets Tristian, he turns her Christian world upside down and offers to show her a life outside of God. Her faith wavers as she falls in love with him and sets down a passionate, sinful path. She tells herself God will forgive her if she repents. But repentance means nothing when you're not sorry for what you've done.

When I was ten, I bugged my brother to come home for my birthday. He died in a plane crash that day. They never found his body. After that, my parents saw me as a total screw-up. They blamed me for his death. Every year on his memorial day, they forced me to kneel at the cemetery and repent my mistakes. I did that for eight years. I figured I'd spend my whole life paying for it. But on my 18th birthday, some creep stalked and murdered me. Right before I died, I tried calling for help. But my mom chewed me out. "I bet you're just dodging your duty to make up for James. You're full of crap. If you hadn't forced him to come back, he would have been alive. This is what you deserve." She hung up, leaving me staring at the dead screen. My last hope was dashed. She was right. Someone like me meant nothing but bad luck to those around me. I didn't deserve to exist. But then, eight years after his death, James showed up with his pregnant wife. When they heard I was gone, they fell apart.

Alexander Morrison doesn't love me, nor does he love our daughter. The only person he loves is his first love, Charlotte Clarke. To maintain his perfect image in Charlotte's eyes, he only allows our daughter to call him "Uncle Alex". This continues until Charlotte becomes pregnant and goes abroad to marry someone else. Alexander drinks himself into oblivion and finally decides to marry me. When he comes home, our daughter gives him 100 forgiveness coupons. I tell him that once those 100 coupons are used up, I'll take our daughter and leave him forever. He holds us both tightly in his arms, swearing he will never make us sad again. During the initial few years of our secret marriage, he indeed does exceptionally well, as not a single coupon is used. That is, until Charlotte returns to the country with her daughter. Every time he abandons me and our daughter for Charlotte and her child, I tear off one forgiveness coupon. Now, only three coupons remain.

My brother had bonded with an Academic Prodigy System, and its mission was simple: get into Northbridge for graduate school. If he failed, the system would erase his intelligence and leave him permanently disabled. To save him, my parents told me, "Aaron, you're smart. You still have options, but your brother doesn't." So they secretly switched my guaranteed admission file and gave my place to him. My fiancee, Vivian Harkins, a professor at the university, personally helped him forge the records. She touched my face with the same tenderness she always used. "Aaron, everything has an optimal solution. Sacrificing one year of your time to protect this family is worth it." My brother held the admission letter with his own name on it and became the star of the celebration banquet. I stood in the corner and watched the system panel in front of me as the [Hope Value] hit zero. The cold voice in my head asked, [Host, you have reached the threshold for extreme injustice. Confirm activation of the death program?] I watched Vivian, with her own hands, fasten the pair of cuff links she had once promised me onto my brother's sleeve. I smiled, swallowed the taste of blood rising in my throat, and said, "Confirm." "Use my life to trade for the rest of theirs... beyond redemption."

She was the temptation they prayed against—and the salvation they didn’t see coming. The story centers on a woman who’s done playing nice. After a betrayal that shattered everything she thought she knew—marriage, motherhood, self-worth—she sheds her shame, steps into her desire, and discovers power in places she was once told were sinful. Her past doesn’t define her. Her pleasure doesn’t shame her. And she’s not asking for permission anymore.

Valencia Amara Nightingale III was trapped—engaged to a powerful, ruthless prime minister with a hidden agenda, forced to endure his cruelty for five long years. A princess in name only, she had no power, no choices, just a future of helpless submission. Until the day she was murdered. But as fate would have it, death wasn’t the end for Valencia. In the same dark forest, at the exact same time, another life was lost—Anastasiya Constantine. A fighter, An agent , a woman forged in the harshest streets, Anastasiya was known for her fiery spirit and sharp mind. The world thought she was out of control, a lost cause, but her death was the catalyst for something unimaginable. God, it seemed, had other plans. Anastasiya is resurrected in Valencia’s body— now a young royal with the face of innocence, but the heart of a warrior. Gone is the meek, kind princess. In her place is a woman driven by vengeance and a hunger for power. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Anastasiya begins her quest for revenge—against the man who destroyed Valencia’s life, and against the corrupt world that betrayed her. Her ultimate target? Aslanov Moroz Vladislav, the most powerful businessman in the world. Seduction, submission, and a ruthless drive for revenge will lead her to sell her soul to him, use his empire and influence to take control of a life that is no longer hers by choice—but will be by force. One woman. Two lives. And a debt forged in blood. Vengeance? Lol. She was out for Retribution.