Mga Maiikling Kuwento at Nobelang Bias After Death

I collapsed during my shift at the diner. That was how I found out I was pregnant. The doctor said my pup was dying. Five thousand dollars for the medicine to save him. But my Alpha mate only had fifty bucks to his name. He fought in underground rings to rebuild his pack. Came home bruised and broken, and the money was barely enough. His Beta friend, shoved a packet of pills into my hand. Her voice was pure ice. "If it wasn't for you, you pathetic rogue Omega, he wouldn't be in this mess. No money? Use this. That weak little pup will just… disappear." I looked at my Alpha. He looked back at me… and nodded. "Alina, just this one last time. When I get my pack back, I'll give you the world." I didn't blame him. This past year, his pack went bankrupt. Kicked out of the Alliance. Buried in debt. I stayed. Washed dishes sixteen hours a day. I gave him every penny. He was going through enough. While he was out, I poured the pills down the drain. Then I drank the vial of liquid silver I'd hidden under the bed. The fastest poison. A second later, my mate walked in—wearing the black uniform of a supreme Alpha. "Congratulations, Alina. You passed my test. My pack was never bankrupt. And you… you're about to become the Luna of Crestmoon. The most powerful pack in North America." He pulled me into a tight hug, voice trembling with excitement. "I knew you didn't love me for my money! Marry me. Our pup will be the noblest heir." So that was it. Everything I fought for was all just a test. As the silver burned through my veins, my consciousness faded. I smiled and shook my head. "No. I won't marry you. This time, the pup and I… we won't be your burden anymore."

While the criminal was brutally killing me, my dad, the head of the criminal investigation division, and my mom, the chief forensic pathologist, were attending my sister Lily Lambert’s match. In a bid for revenge, the criminal, who had once been captured by my dad, cut out my tongue and used my phone to call him. My dad only said one thing before hanging up. "No matter what’s going on, Lily’s match is the top priority today!" The criminal sneered, "Seems I’ve kidnapped the wrong person. I thought they would love their biological daughter more!" At the crime scene, my parents were shocked by the brutal state of the body and condemned the cruelty of the killer. However, they did not realize that the horrifically mutilated corpse was their own daughter.

My husband secretly swapped the transplant recipient, giving the kidney that was meant for our daughter to the daughter of the woman he had always loved. Not long after, our daughter's condition worsened. The doctors tried to save her, but it was no use. She didn't make it. At the same time, the other girl's surgery was a success. My husband was so overjoyed that he handed out little gifts to the entire hospital in celebration. Rage and grief overwhelmed me, and I collapsed. When I came to, the doctors told me I had cancer. Late-stage. My time was running out. With nothing left to hold on to, I walked out of the hospital, clutching the urn that held my daughter's ashes. In the cold, empty house, I sat alone and drafted the divorce papers.

When I was three years old, during a car accident, I was struck in the head by a car while trying to protect Mom. After that, the doctors said something inside my head had broken, and I'd never be quite right. Everyone back home called me the slow one. Late at night, I'd see her crying alone. On my seventh birthday, Mom took me to Manhattan, and that was when I discovered that she had a second home and another daughter, Charlotte. In front of strangers, she wouldn't claim me. She only let me call her Miss Eleanor. On the third night, She sat down at her vanity. On the table was a small black box. I thought it was a present. She opened the box and took out a black silicone bracelet, with a little light embedded in the clasp—small, dark, switched off. "This is called a TruthBand. It's something a company in California makes. The light turns green when you tell the truth, and red when you lie. If you wear this, Mommy will always know." She fastened it around my wrist. Tight. The little light blinked green. I thought that if I was good enough, she would love me the way she loved my sister. But then she made me do ski practice with Charlotte. Charlotte was a junior champion. "You're both my daughters. I don't play favorites. Whoever falls, gets punished." Charlotte never fell. I couldn't even keep my skis straight. Every single run, I was the one Mama dragged off the mountain and locked in the cellar. On Thanksgiving Day, Mama spent the whole afternoon cooking. I wanted to help. I dropped a bowl. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were red. She grabbed a little pill bottle off the counter, tipped my chin up, and forced something between my teeth. "Dumb as a rat. Are you happy now? Did you finally embarrass me enough? " I lay on the kitchen floor, gasping. While she wasn't looking, I scraped up three little pink pellets that had spilled and tucked them into my fist. Mommy, I told myself, I'll be good now, and then you'll be happy. Right?

My husband Ezra Thorne had suddenly developed a mental illness, so I put every scheduled appearance on hold and spent three months with him at a private residential treatment center. After he fell ill, he flew into rages over the smallest things. The constant torment kept me awake night after night, yet I cared for him without complaint. That changed today, when he flew into another rage and said he hated the roof railing. He insisted I fix it. He shoved me out of the room, and I had no choice but to grab the toolbox and climb up to the roof. The rooftop was dangerously slippery. I crawled on my knees, inching forward as carefully as I could, but I still kept falling. After yet another fall, I grabbed the railing to pull myself up, only for it to give way beneath my hand. I plummeted straight off the roof. In the split second I fell, I caught a glimpse through the corridor window: Ezra and my sister, locked in an embrace, with my parents standing right beside them. Then I crashed into the bushes below and heard Ezra's voice drifting down from the window. "I've spent the past few days pretending to be crazy to make her pay for bullying you. Every opportunity she gave up is yours." I closed my eyes, too drained to call for help. So it had all been an elaborate performance staged to punish me. But what he didn't know was that my final curtain was about to fall for real.

Before the mate ceremony was supposed to begin, my fiancé's childhood friend Blair said she had a surprise for me. Ethan and Luke quickly wheeled out a six-tier cake for her. Snow-white frosting, dark green ribbon, and the Black Pine Pack's twin-wolf emblem standing at the top. Blair grinned and held up her phone. "A human bride marrying an Alpha—that doesn't happen every day. We have to leave some special memories, right?" Before I could react, she grabbed the back of my head and shoved my face straight into the cake. Laughter exploded around me. A sharp pain pierced my left eye. My whole body convulsed. I struggled desperately. But Noah clamped a hand around my wrist. "Emma, it's just a joke. Don't get so worked up." Ethan and Luke pressed down on my shoulders too. "Blair spent all morning on this." "Just play along. It's not going to kill you." They were werewolves who'd trained together since childhood. They didn't even need to try. I couldn't move an inch. I fought to lift my head, but I couldn't even cry for help. It wasn't until I stopped moving completely that they finally let go. Blair lowered her phone and asked quietly, "Is she mad?" Noah's face darkened. "Here we go again." "The ceremony's about to start. Let her cool off by herself." The others turned and left. No one knew the clear plastic support rod inside the cake had already pierced my eye socket. Humans don't have a werewolf's healing ability. I had already stopped breathing. It wasn't until the entrance music started and the elder officiating the ceremony called for the bride that they realized I still hadn't come. Noah finally pushed the door open in irritation. "Emma, the wedding's already started. Are you marrying me or not?!" I floated above them, staring at him. The wedding probably wasn't happening. Change of plans. Make it a funeral. Everyone's already here.

The doctor said I had a hundred days left. I didn't want a miracle. I just wanted one real family portrait. One where I sat dead center, impossible to cut out. I searched through every album in the house. My sister, Yvonne Miller, had her professional glamor shots. My brother, Daxton Miller had his milestone baby portraits. My parents had their framed wedding photo. There wasn't a single picture of just me. I remembered our old family photo from primary school. Mom told me I blinked, so she creased the paper down the middle and folded my side back. After that, I was always placed on the far left or the far right. It made it easier to crop me out. I saved up and booked time at a downtown photo studio. I even bought a navy silk dress, the most expensive thing I had ever owned. The night before the shoot, Mom smoothed out the fabric, folded it carefully, and handed it to my sister. "Your sister has a dinner date tomorrow with a barrister," Mom said. "It’s a big deal. Let her borrow it first." Dad didn't even look up from his paper. "Your brother has his regional final tomorrow anyway. We’ll reschedule the shoot. Once you're feeling better, I'll take you back and we'll do ten portraits." "What if I don't get better?" I asked. Silence filled the room. Daxton kept mashing buttons on his controller in the lounge. Yvonne was in her bedroom, admiring herself in my dress. I folded the studio receipt and slipped it into my coat pocket. The next morning, I went to the studio alone. I sat straight on the wooden stool in the middle of the backdrop. "Should we wait for the rest of your family?" the photographer asked, adjusting his lens. "And give me a smile?" "No need to wait," I replied softly. "And no need to smile." No one would have to crop me out anyway.

When Matteo Ricci threatens to end our engagement for the 100th time unless I take Lydia Capone's place in the famiglia's drug trial, I don't cry or make a scene. I just sign my name on the engagement termination agreement and calmly hand over the man I've loved for eight years to my twin sister. A few days later, Lydia storms the mafia summit like she owns the room, insulting the Pirelli family and daring anyone to stop her. I'm forced to step in and bear the full weight of her chaos. And now they're saying Lydia's body can't handle the trial after all, so they want me, the older sister, to take her place. The moment I agree, my parents smile at me for the first time in years. Even Matteo, who barely notices me, hovers nearby and murmurs, "Don't be afraid. The trial isn't lethal. When you get out, I'll take you for your favorite spaghetti alla Napoletana." But he has no idea that there's a late-stage stomach cancer diagnosis tucked inside my pocket. No matter what horrors the trial holds, he will never witness me walk out alive.

My husband, Mason Crawford, is a renowned obstetrician-gynecologist with more thank-you greeting cards from patients than I can count. But when I start bleeding during my first trimester and rush to the hospital to see him, he kicks me out. "Family doesn't get special treatment. Hospital rules. You have to register and wait in line like everyone else." I take his words to heart. I never bother him, not once, for any of my prenatal checkups. That is, until his first love, Vivian Werner, who married and moved abroad, comes back pregnant. That's when everything changes. When Vivian comes in for her prenatal checkups, he personally pulls strings to arrange a VIP room for her. And the checklist of tests he draws up for her is even more detailed than the one he gave me. Vivian says she's scared something might happen to her baby, so he brings in the best medical team to watch over her 24/7. I find this unfair, so I complain to him about it a lot. But Mason simply wipes away my tears gently. "She's divorced and pregnant. She's already got it hard enough. Do you really have to be jealous over this, too?" Since I can't think of a comeback, I have no choice but to bite my tongue and bottle up my feelings. Then, on my way to get a fetal heart-rate monitoring test, I get into a car accident. I call him countless times, but he never comes to sign the consent forms. The surgery ends, and I hold our stillborn baby in my arms. I want him to come see our daughter one last time, but he still doesn't pick up. It isn't until the sun goes down that his buddy calls me with the "good news". "Leah, Vivian's given birth. It's a boy. I've never seen Mason's hands shake like that before. You should go get a gift and bring it here as soon as possible. Mason says he wants to become the baby's godfather." So this is why he hasn't picked up. He's busy delivering his ex-girlfriend's baby.

After I was taken into the mountains, I became the whole town's slave. If one field remained unharvested or one family's firewood went uncut, they beat my face bloody. They avoided my arms and legs only because they expected twice as much work from me the next day. On New Year's Eve, I finally decided I couldn't survive another day and went to the river to end my life, only to hear two people whispering behind the trees. "Watch yourself. He is still the Hawthornes' biological son. They sent him to Red Willow Hollow to learn discipline, not for you to use however you want." "Biological son? His parents haven't asked about him in years. They already have another boy, the polished young heir who visited last time. The difference between them is night and day. "If anything happens, we'll blame him. Mrs. Hawthorne said that a boy without manners doesn't deserve to be her son. He may as well die out here." I stood frozen above the river, forgetting even why I had come. My mother always boasted that her family came from old money. She said a gentleman's most important quality was proper conduct. So why, after seeing my body, did she abandon every rule of dignity she had ever demanded from me?

After swallowing my fourth painkiller, I spent the entire morning sitting in my hotel room in the wedding dress Curtis Bradford had picked out for me. The car that was supposed to take me to the ceremony never showed up. Instead, I came across a livestream of a wedding that had gone viral around town. On-screen, Curtis slipped the pink diamond ring I had begged him for onto the bride's finger. The bride was Shannon Cobb, my biological sister who had disappeared ten years ago. Curtis looked straight into the camera. "Leslie, I know you're watching. "Ten years ago, you lost Shannon and put her through hell. I only let you believe I was going to marry you because I wanted you to know what it feels like to be abandoned." The camera panned to my parents and my brother, Richard Cobb, who were supposed to be helping set up my new home. Richard looked into the camera and said, "You've had ten years of our love and attention. Give back everything that should've been Shannon's, and we'll consider your debt paid." I stared at the happy family on the screen, completely numb. Then I closed the livestream and threw the keepsake I had gotten for Curtis into the trash, along with my wedding ring and veil. None of them knew I had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer the month before. Even with painkiller injections, I could barely stay on my feet that day. All I wanted was to marry Curtis before I died and let my parents and Richard see me happy one last time. But that wasn't going to happen anymore. I only had three days left. I might as well find somewhere quiet and wait for the end.

When I'm five, my parents move to the city so my younger sister can go to preschool. They leave me behind in a mountain village with my grandma, who has dementia. Before they go, Dad orders me to take care of Grandma, even though she barely knows where she is, and to look after the house and the yard. Mom tells me I'm the big sister, so I need to be a good girl. She promises that once they have money, they'll bring me to the city too. I don't want them to go, so I cling to Mom's leg and beg her with everything I have. "Mom, please, I don't want to be away from you." Tears and snot run down my face, smearing across her 400-dollar dress. She scolds me for being a brat, spanks me until my bottom swells, and then slaps me hard enough to make my face bleed. In the end, they don't give in, and they never come back. Three months later, when I'm close to starving, I call Mom and beg her for something to eat. She snaps at me, irritated. "All you ever do is whine about being hungry. What kind of girl acts like that? Why don't you just starve to death? How can there be nothing to eat out in the country? "Your dad and I are under so much pressure here in the city. Can't you be a little more grown-up?" Her words come true, and I starve to death in the bitter cold of that December. Five years later, Mom pushes open the rotting front door. "Elsie, I'm home."

The day my boyfriend, Ashton Grant, ends up in the hospital, I find his will. Or rather, 214 of them. They're written on different dates, but every single one names the same beneficiary. And it isn't me. It's his first love. My hands go cold. I can't even confront him because Ashton is lying unconscious in a hospital bed. "Mr. Grant is addicted to extreme sports. The more dangerous, the better," his assistant explains. "He writes a new will before every trip. But only the most recent one was ever made official through his lawyer." I already know the answer before I ask. "And I'm still not in it, am I?" The assistant falls silent. After six years together, Ashton still disappears for weeks at a time, leaving me terrified that he won't come home one day. And all this time, whenever he risks his life, he's making sure that another woman is taken care of if he dies. His first love. If she's the one he thinks about when he might not make it home, then why should I be the one waiting and worrying when he leaves?

Mom always said my sister was the little princess of our family, while I was a tough little monkey who could take anything. So whenever my sister caused trouble, I was the one who got punished. When she refused to eat vegetables, Mom made me skip dinner for three days. When she played on her tablet instead of doing homework, Mom smashed my favorite Star Ranger figure. When she climbed onto the windowsill to retrieve a toy, Mom made me stand outside in the sun all day. Mrs. Parker from downstairs always praised her. "You're such a wonderful mother. Most parents would have scolded their daughter." Mom would tap my forehead and answer as though it were obvious. "Boys are tougher. A little punishment won't hurt him, but my Lily should never have to suffer." One Saturday, my sister and I were home alone. She turned on the stove because she wanted to toast marshmallows. Mom came home just as the burner clicked on. Without asking a single question, she shoved me into the kitchen, opened a burner valve without lighting it, and told my sister, "Lily, the next time you touch the stove, I'll punish your brother again. Let this teach you a lesson." I pounded on the door and begged Mom to let me out. The door never opened. The rotten-egg smell grew stronger and stronger. And my eyelids grew heavier and heavier...

During summer break, I worked part-time at a bungee-jumping site, where my best friend deliberately hid behind me and cut my safety line. I scrambled out of the way, but my boyfriend hugged my sobbing best friend and accused me instead. "All I did was comfort Vivi a little when she got scared while bungee jumping. Did you really have to damage your own rope and frame her deliberately?" I stayed away from them to protect myself instead of trying to explain. Then a typhoon suddenly struck, leaving the bungee platform swaying dangerously. My boyfriend was in charge, yet he gave the only spare safety rope to Vivian, who had already retreated to safety. “You’re the safety officer, and you’re certified in high-angle rope rescue. A little wind can’t hurt you. "Vivi isn't trained for this. She's a visitor who's afraid of heights. I have to get her out first." When I said nothing, he snorted and locked the bungee platform's gate. "Are you really going to act jealous at a time like this? Fine. Stay here and cool your head in the wind!" He even evacuated the other staff members before leaving with my best friend, supposedly so I could reflect properly. What he didn't know was that my safety rope was already damaged and could not withstand such powerful winds. He had no idea that as soon as he left, the system’s cold notification echoed in my mind. [The target has abandoned you for the ninth time. Would you like to leave this world?] I watched his figure gradually disappear and calmly nodded. "Yes."

After my parents die in a car accident, I tear up my college acceptance letter and give up my future to pay off their debts and put my younger brother, Cedric Vossmere, through school. Mom always told me I was adopted. "Your brother was kind enough to share his parents with you. You should be grateful we took you in. Don't make us regret it." I work in a freezing warehouse until I've worn through two pairs of shoes just to cover one semester of Cedric's tuition. To pay his monthly living expenses, I spend my nights caring for patients and my early mornings washing dishes at a diner. When the pain in my chest first gets so bad that I pass out, the doctor tells me I need to be hospitalized immediately. Instead, I send Cedric the money meant for my treatment and tell him it's an inheritance from our parents. I keep promising myself I'll get help once I've put him through college. Four years later, I finally pay off the last debt, and Cedric gets his college acceptance letter. But just as I leave the bank, Mom, who's supposedly been dead for four years, appears with a birthday cake. "Happy birthday! Your gratitude test is officially over!" She cheerfully explains that the car accident was staged, and so were the debts. She only wanted to see whether I'd steal the family's money and abandon Cedric once she and Dad were gone. Then she hands me my birth certificate. "You're actually my biological daughter. Cedric is the one we adopted. I lied because I was afraid you'd use your status as our biological daughter as an excuse not to give way to him." She takes my hand and promises we'll never be separated again. I hide the notice warning that my condition is critical inside my sleeve and smile back. "Okay." Mom thinks we have the rest of our lives to start over. But mine is almost over already.

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.

On our way home, a truck carrying silver ore loses control. It overturns as it passes my car, trapping my adopted sister, Lina Muhl, and me inside the crushed vehicle. If the enforcement squad rescues Lina first, I'll be in greater danger, and it'll be harder to get me out too. The enforcement squad members set their tools against the metal panel of my car when Kevin Green, my older brother and the captain of the squad, raises his hand to stop them. "Get Lina out first. She scares easily." Wayne Aston, my mate and the enforcement squad's deputy captain, blocks our mind-link. "Your brother's right. You're my mate too. If I save you first, others will say we're playing favorites." My chest is crushed, and I can't even move. "But… something's pinning my abdomen. I find it hard to breathe too. We can't drag this out any longer." Wayne immediately looks up at me before sighing in relief. "Stop exaggerating. You're still conscious. It's just a little blood. That means you're fine." Kevin keeps his stern gaze fixed on the car without even sparing me a glance. "Leia, you're our family. You should know the rules. "If you ever ask me to make an exception for you again, I'll no longer consider you my sister. You've always been the healthy one. Can you stop being selfish for once and let Lina get the help she needs?" But Wayne and Kevin don't know that I have silver dust all over my wounds. My blood can't even clot properly. The bent steering wheel is digging into my abdomen, and several of my ribs are broken. I'm hanging on by a thread.

When I found out I was suffering from heart failure, I was given ten days left to live. For the first time in my life, I smiled because I could finally repay Don Santos for taking me in. To repay Frank Santos' debt, I became his daughter's personal maid in private for 12 years, although I was his adopted daughter in name. I willingly endured all of Principessa Jackie Santos' tantrums. Jenny made me stay in the dark, damp basement and never allowed me to share the table when the family had their meals. On several trips that I had accompanied her on, Jenny left me behind on the outskirts on purpose and made me walk back on my own. I snapped out of the memories and dragged my exhausted body to see Don Santos for one last wish. I hoped to be buried with my real parents after my death, but when I arrived at the door, I heard the Donna, Marie Delgado, speaking to him. "Jenny has suffered enough for all these years. Isn't it time for us to tell her the truth?" What truth was she talking about? I was about to knock on the door, but I stopped when I heard their conversation. "Jackie is our adopted daughter, after all, and she has a sensitive soul. If we aren't hard on Jenny now, what should we do if she bullies Jackie by flaunting her status as our real daughter? "Now that she has labored away for Jackie for so many years, we'll let her return to her rightful place as our Principessa two weeks later, on her birthday." I was stunned. I was their real daughter, but they had watched me be abused for 12 years just to protect the feelings of their adopted daughter! "I can't wait for two weeks…" I would not live long enough to see that day.

My adopted sister, Clara, framed me. She claimed I forced beast blood down her throat. The terror, she said, gave her a heart attack. So my three beloved vampire brothers sealed me away. They trapped me in the observatory in the highest tower, bound by a blood curse. I pounded on the door, helpless, explaining and begging them to let me out. Damien, my eldest brother, the head of our family, pierced me with a look of cold disappointment. Then he turned his back on me. "There's a limit to your selfishness, Lilith. Clara is a fragile human. She has a heart condition! Did you force that filth on her? Were you trying to kill her? I don't want to see this cruel side of you again. Stay in here and think about what you've done." Ethan, the rock star, and Julian, the gothic architect, couldn't even look at me. Their voices were tight with anger and exhaustion. "We put up with your tantrums, but not so you could hurt our family! You've let us down, Lilith. Stay in there and figure out what you did wrong." Then they carefully lifted the "unconscious" Clara and disappeared down the hall. But they didn't know. The observatory was only meant to open at night. But it malfunctioned. When morning came, the dome didn't close. Deadly sunlight streamed straight in. My power evaporated. My screams turned to silence. I burned to ash. Three days later, my brothers returned with a "recovered" Clara. Only then did they remember me. They had no idea the sun had already executed me.