Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey Into The Science Of Attachment

Because her precious Jeremy needed a lab rat, Harper shipped me off to Bendora Mental Health Institute after my surgery. I got electroshocked until I was drooling and twitching, and she? She just slapped her hand over Jeremy's eyes like, "Ew, babe, don't look." Jeremy scored a Research Award nomination off that mess. Harper celebrated with fireworks so loud they could've woken the dead. Meanwhile, I was lying there in the dark, staring up at the sky while they took my leg. To keep it quiet, Jeremy slapped on a prosthetic and threatened me if I ever opened my mouth. He told Harper I just got "a little banged up" in the trial. Numb, I boxed up my leg in a freezer box. Seven days later, at Jeremy's big gala night, guess who would unwrap it like a party favor? Yeah. Harper.

There are no grown men in our village. When girls turn 18, they participate in a coming-of-age ceremony in the ancestral hall. Dressed in ceremonial clothes, they line up to enter, and when they come out, their faces show a mix of pain and joy. When my eldest sister turned 18, Grandma forbade her from attending. However, one night, she snuck into the hall. When she came out, she was limping, and blood was dripping between her legs.

Rosita and Clifford have been married for 3years now without kids. Rosita faced a lot of pressure and mockery from Clifford's mother. Just when all hope is lost, luck smiled on them. Rosita got pregnant and gave birth to a bouncing baby girl and named her Riley. They lived happily and were satisfied with their lives but just when they thought their happiness have been fulfilled, the unexpected happened. Their young girl was kidnapped. How will Rosita take this news? Will they be able to find their baby? Will Rosita's joy be complete? Read more to find out what happened in the novel.Stay tuned for the trills and turns.

Parting had never been so painful for lovers whose connections was so strong and whose bond was simply unbreakable. When Tristan, a simple man whose life was filled with plans and steady waves that never shook him had to leave his beloved Danica when a mighty wave had taken him off balance and pushed him into being a coward, he thought it was going to simply be as simple as it had always been. Danica would remain in the dark and wouldn’t hate him and he would never return to his dark life. It was a simple plan, he would leave, get settled and bring his beloved Danica with him where he would not be found by the beast of a man who was targeting to take his blood, his peace and his life along side. The universe had a different plan when running away simply was not enough and his beloved Danica got tangled up with the mafia boss of San Diego, his younger brother. And it was no longer as easy as he wanted. Not just because he was so far away, or because Danica was tangled with his brother, it became difficult when Danica’s revenge scheme instantly took hold of her heart and pushed her into doing the very thing that would tear them apart. “Its simply a part of the plan,” she had said when he had confronted her about the relationship she had with his brother. But it was more, it was more because love, blood and revenge tangled them together. Where Danica had to either choose to take revenge for her father’s death and harm the men she loved the most or simply forget, pick one of the brothers and love him while her father’s murderer move around freely?

My mother was the best portrait artist in the police station. She had a strong sense of justice and brooked no evil. However, all I got was a sharp retort when I called her to save me. "You know it's your sister's coming-of-age celebration today, and you're cursing her? Kidnapped, are you? Fine, the kidnappers can kill you for all I care." She assumed it was a prank call. So, she refused to go to the police station and do her job. I wasn't saved in time and was tortured to death. When the DNA report came out, she came to the scene all wobbly. She drew a portrait of me with my bones as reference, her hand trembling all the way. "Jessica? It can't be her. This is a mistake!" She tried again and again. Yet, it didn't matter how many times she redid it as the portrait showed my face. My mother, who had hated me my whole life, teared up.

My mom believed in one thing above all else: being number one. To achieve that, she created a strict daily schedule and even developed a monitoring app that required us to submit reports every day. Anyone who failed to rank first according to the app's evaluation would be tied to a chair and severely punished. No matter how difficult the task was, my younger brother, Jason Hunt, could always complete it and receive a perfect score. Even when he actually ranked last, the monitoring software would still display him in first place. As for me, a single misspelled word was enough to trigger a failing warning from the app, followed immediately by my mom's harsh punishment. At first, I tried to explain. Later, I stayed silent. In the end, I could only kneel and beg. My mom remained unmoved. "Trash doesn't deserve sympathy," she said coldly. "You'll thank me when you become successful in the future." On the first day of the New Year, my mom took Jason out to visit our relatives and exchange greetings. I, meanwhile, was burning with a high fever and could not even finish the day's assignments. Ignoring my illness, my mom dragged me into a bathtub filled with ice. "If you're trying to escape studying, you don't deserve to live," she said. "Pretending to be sick? If you've got the guts, then just die already." She forced my head underwater and raised a rod, smashing it against my skull again and again. I begged desperately for mercy, but it was futile. My mom left with Jason, and I curled up alone on the floor. She was right. Only those who work hard deserve to live.