Life's Work: A Memoir

The day my parents divorced, the rain wouldn’t stop. Two agreements sat on the table. One meant staying in the old Eastwood District with my gambling-addicted father, Alexander Clark, drowning in debt. The other meant leaving for Silverstrand Coast with my mother, Charlotte Hayes, who was remarrying into wealth. In my last life, my younger brother, Mathias Clark, cried and clung to Mom while I quietly packed my things and chose to stay with Dad. Later, he quit gambling and struck it rich during a redevelopment boom. He poured everything into raising me right. Meanwhile, Mathias was trapped in his stepfather’s house—isolated, controlled, never allowed outside—until depression took his life. But this time, everything changed. Mathias snatched the cigarette from Dad’s hand and hugged him tightly, refusing to let go. "Tyler, I feel bad for Dad. You go enjoy the good life over there. I’ll stay and take care of him for you." Dad froze for a moment, then smiled with relief and patted his shoulder. I said nothing. I simply picked up the train ticket to the coast. What he didn’t know was that… In my last life, the reason Dad was able to quit gambling was because I had a brain tumor. I worked myself to the brink of coughing up blood just to repay his debts. I traded my life… for his redemption.

Those words defined Claire Reid's entire life—and her death. At twenty-eight, she dies in a hospital bed surrounded by the family she sacrificed everything for: the father who forced her to quit school, the sister who took everything she had, the husband who treated her like an inconvenience, and the mother who demanded endless gratitude for their abuse. As her heart stops, Claire sees their relief and realizes the devastating truth: she wasted her life loving people who never loved her back. Then she wakes up. One year earlier. One month before her family frames her for theft. This time, Claire refuses. Refuses to give money. Refuses to stay silent. Refuses to be grateful for crumbs. Armed with knowledge of their betrayals and a fury born from her wasted first life, she systematically dismantles their manipulations, exposes their schemes, and reclaims her identity. But when she tries to leave her cold, arranged marriage, something unexpected happens.

The day Joe Tanner’s parents died and his classmates cornered him in cruel bullying, I was the one who jumped into the river to save him—and lost my heart to him in that moment. For the next ten years, I poured everything I had into him. I hid my own admission letter to Great Eastern University. I washed dishes until my hands cracked, hauled bricks until my shoulders bled, even sold the pocket watch my mother left me—all so he could study without worry. I watched him rise from a ridiculed illegitimate child to a celebrated professor at the very peak of academia. All I ever wanted in return was a home we could call ours. But the day he achieved success, he forgot the woman who had built his world. So, I made my choice— If he could abandon my love, then I would walk away without looking back.

On their wedding day, a handsome groom and his beautiful bride said, "I Do." Their hearts were fluttering with pure joy! They had married the love of their life! Is this what I experience? No, this is not that story. You see, love didn't become apparent until after my divorce. I can't wait to tell you how it all transpired. It's a riveting sweet romance novel. No cliffhangers, but a good read! Happy ending? You'll have to read it to find out.

On her birthday night, inside her family’s five-star restaurant, she realizes her marriage is already over. While she waits alone, her husband chooses another woman.. again. Humiliated, heartbroken, she makes a reckless decision… unaware that a powerful billionaire has been watching her from the shadows. He knows her pain. He knows her family's secrets. And he wants to free her from the man who never loved her. But nothing ever unfolds that simply—especially not when fate has already decided to complicate it. Resentment turns into obsession, and truth bleeds into revenge. Soon, the cost of freedom begins to rise beyond divorce… beyond love… beyond mercy. And when buried histories ignite, what begins as rescue threatens to become destruction — where old flames are rekindled in fire, blood, and ruin.

Jaimee is about to go on the journey of a lifetime, but she must leave behind the first man who has ever shown her love and the family they have built. Memories of her life and adventures flood the story as she makes her journey and finds out what is truly important!