Familial Bond 단편 소설 & Bias Countdown 소설

Nine months ago, my younger sister Bianca and I were kidnapped at the Chicago docks. She saved me from an attacker. But when she woke in the hospital, she couldn't remember who she was. Instead, she believed my fiancé, Adrian De Luca, was the man she loved. My family begged me to play along until she recovered. “It's only an act,” Adrian promised. “Once she's better, everything goes back to normal.” Because Bianca had saved my life, I agreed. Then our engagement trip to Sicily became her recovery trip with Adrian. She moved into the lakefront safe house Adrian and I had chosen for our marriage. My fingerprint access was erased, our bedroom was redecorated for her, and my clothes disappeared from the closet. Everyone made the same promise: once Bianca’s memory returned, they would give back everything that belonged to me. Nine months later, she walked down the aisle at the Blackstone Hotel in the ivory wedding gown made for me. Adrian stood waiting at the altar, and the De Luca family crest bracelet he had given me was fastened around her wrist. My mother leaned close. “It’s only a wedding staged for her treatment. Don’t make a scene.” I looked at the bracelet. Someone had resized it to fit Bianca perfectly. That was when I understood. No one intended to give me my life back. I didn’t argue or cry. I opened the London partnership offer I had rejected nine times and accepted it. My flight left in four days. This time, they would learn how to live without me.

The day I married Santino Connor, he went from the infamous heir of a mafia fortune to a broke nobody. When he handed me a plastic ring in a shabby basement and asked if I would start from scratch with him, I looked at the man I had loved since I was a girl and nodded without a second thought. "Santino, as long as it was with you, I would do anything." For him, I worked more than ten hours a day until my stomach bled from the stress. Our son, from the moment he could walk, trailed me from one odd job to the next. I thought my love could eventually build us a life in the sun. Until, at a lavish banquet where I was serving the elite, he showered me with cash from his seat at the head of the table. "What's that thing crawling on the floor? It's blocking my view!" "Take the money and get out of my sight!" When I saw the woman by his side, her face an eerie copy of my own, I finally understood. To him, this was just a game, and I was the only one playing for keeps. If he was going to go to such lengths to deceive me, then it was time for his game to end. What he didn't know was that one month later, he would be tearing the world apart to find me.

My mother, Elena, was a System host. After completing her mission, she left this world, leaving me in the care of my four adoptive fathers in the mafia. Dad Theodore was the cold-blooded Don of the Family, the man who ruled this city's underworld. Dad Harrison was a movie star, the darling of the red carpet. Dad Gabriel was a top surgeon in the underground medical network; his hands could save a life as easily as they could take one. And Dad Zane was a ruthless mercenary leader. For sixteen years, these four fathers spoiled me like the Family's one and only princess. If I wanted the moon, they would have found a way to pluck it from the sky. That was, until three years ago, when Zoe, the daughter of their first love, was brought back from Sicily. From that day on, my four fathers believed only her, never me. Zoe framed me, claiming I'd mocked her for looking like a street rat, so my fathers kicked me out of the princess suite and threw me into a storage room by the garage. Zoe showed them fake bruises on her arms, so my adoptive fathers smashed my phone, cut off all my social connections, and put me under house arrest for three months. Zoe cried again, claiming I'd hired thugs to harass her, so Dad Zane dragged me straight to the Family's dungeon beneath the estate. They starved me for three days and three nights, saying it was to teach me "some manners." I leaned against the dark, damp wall, my vision fading to black in waves. Just as I was about to pass out, I heard someone call my name. "Hazel, do you want to go to your mother?"

From the age of ten, every dollar my parents spent on me became a debt. Tuition. Clothes. Food. Even medical bills. By eighteen, I had signed one hundred and ninety-nine promissory notes. But Camilla—the daughter of the man who died protecting my parents—received everything for free. They gave her my bedroom, my inheritance bracelet, a Manhattan apartment, a Maserati, and eventually even the attention of my fiancé, Nick. My parents called it repaying her father’s sacrifice. They called my suffering “heir training.” On the eighteenth birthday Camilla and I shared, I was seriously injured in a car accident. While my family celebrated her aboard a Caribbean yacht, I begged them for three thousand dollars to pay for emergency surgery. They accused me of inventing the accident to ruin her party. Then Mom told me to sign another promissory note. That became number two hundred. I finally understood that no amount of obedience would make them choose me. So I gave myself seven days to repay every cent, surrender the DeLuca name, and end my engagement.

In the Blackthorn Pack, every wolf born into an Alpha bloodline received a moonstone after their first shift. At eighteen, during the Pack Recognition Ceremony, the Alpha set it into a ceremonial collar, marking their official place in the Pack. A week before my twin sister Sienna and I turned eighteen, my brother Rowan brought home our ceremonial collars. Sienna’s glittered with two moonstones. “Why does she have my moonstone?” I asked. Rowan shrugged. “Sienna wanted hers to look more special.” Then he handed me an old ceremonial collar pulled from the Pack vault. It was tarnished, with half the moonstone missing. Mother sighed. “You’re still being recognized as an Alpha’s daughter, Aria. Does the collar really matter that much?” All my life, I had been expected to give up one thing after another for Sienna. I thought the Recognition Ceremony would finally prove that I had a place in this Pack too. I was wrong. They took my moonstone and gave it to her. My phone vibrated with Moonridge University’s final admission deadline—the most prestigious university in the werewolf world. the most prestigious university in the werewolf world, nearly three thousands miles from my pack. This time, I pressed ACCEPT. They could celebrate Sienna as the daughter they wanted. I was done fighting for a place in a Pack that had never made room for me.

After graduating from high school, my twin sister, Ella, and I were both accepted to Newland University. My parents put eighty thousand dollars in Ella's college fund and gave her a three-thousand-dollar monthly allowance, but put only eight thousand in mine and gave me three hundred a month. They took it for granted that I would move to Newland to look after her. The day the whole family threw a graduation party for my sister, I boarded a flight to the West Coast with a single suitcase and a full scholarship to one of the country's top engineering schools. What they didn't know was that the reporter who showed up that afternoon to interview "the outstanding Ashford graduate" had never been looking for my sister. The person they wanted was me, the daughter they'd already pushed out the door.

It was Christmas Eve. Once again, my parents left me alone at home, chasing triple pay at work. However, after twenty years of the same lonely holiday, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t want to sit in the quiet house by myself again, so I packed up some sandwiches and went to them. What I didn’t expect was to see them stepping out of a luxury car, arms linked with a boy who looked about my age, laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world, heading straight into a five-star hotel. “Mom, Dad, is it okay to leave Suzie all alone at home like that?” My mom waved it off and said, “It’s fine. She’s used to it.” My dad just brushed it off with a chuckle. “She’s nothing like you. You're our real treasure.” Upon hearing that, I turned and walked away. They'd been pretending to be broke all these years, lying to me about working overtime, about scraping by. Well, fine. If they don’t want me, I’m done wanting them, too.

On my birthday, my father posted a roulette to the family group chat. He said the prizes would be given on the spot. I was nervous as I'd been very much looking forward to the Syldan trip. My brother smiled. "You first, birthday girl." I spun the wheel, and it stopped at "Stay at home". Everyone else got "Flight ticket to Syldan". Claire Zimmer, my adopted sister, murmured quietly, "Can I give Theodora my ticket, Dad?" My brother interrupted, "No. Rules are rules. Besides, you've been looking forward to this! You can't miss it!" My mother smiled. "You're a good girl, Theodora. Stay home. We'll bring some gifts for you." I said it was okay. After all, it was just my luck. Then, my father took out four tickets from his pocket and gave them to everyone with a smile. The tickets already had their names on them. I froze. It was then that I remembered that the same thing had happened during the room split three years ago. Claire got the main bedroom, while I got the dark and humid storage room. As a result, I'd been in frail health since then. I knew right then that I didn't have rotten luck. The roulette was rigged so I would never ever get the good prizes. There was no point spinning any more wheels. I quietly went back to my room and texted my mentor, "I'm up for the four-year secret project in the Gaulian Sands, professor."

In the Valenti Family, you're born with a chip. It's fused into the bio-watch on your wrist, its digital face counting down every second you have left to live. Everyone could see the numbers ticking down on my twin sister's watch. And on mine. They all knew she would die on our 18th birthday. So Vivian became the untouchable princess of our brutal world. Every diamond-stitched gown was hers. The rarest jewels were hers. Even our father's last shred of humanity was hers. That single sliver of warmth he showed only after his gun was holstered. I used to pity her. Her time was running out. But God, I envied her. She had everything I never did: our parents' love. Then, the night of her 18th birthday party. My parents worried I'd make a scene. That I'd piss off the Don of an allied Family. So they locked me in the cellar. Damp. Cold. While a deadly fever burned through me. I pounded on the heavy oak door, my voice cracking. "Mamma, please! Let me out! I'm burning up. My head is splitting open…" Outside, my mother's voice was a steel trap. "Enough, Sienna! Today is your sister’s 18th birthday. Her last day alive! Stop the theatrics! Can't you suffer in silence for the Family's honor?" "But I'm really sick..." Her footsteps clicked away, fading into nothing. Then the darkness swallowed me whole. And on my wrist, the bio-watch was flashing a critical alert. CRITICAL ALERT: Vital signs mismatch. Paired chip data incompatible. Please verify user.

I was four months pregnant with the Alpha’s heir when my best friend, Ariana, slammed into me. She called it an “accident.” I lost the pup. My brother, Liam, tried to expose her to the pack elders. But he was framed for treason, stripped of his Beta title, and thrown in the pack dungeons. I ran to my mate, Alpha Byron, begging for help. He held me close and swore he'd save Liam. The next day, I found Liam in the dungeons, chained in silver, barely alive. Heartbroken, I went to Byron again, searching for a way to prove Liam's innocence. That's when I overheard him talking to his right-hand man. “Alpha, if the Luna finds out you let them frame Liam… she will hate you.” Byron’s voice was laced with exhaustion and suppressed pain. “I know what she’s like. This was the only way to make her forgive Ariana at the Blood Moon ceremony. Ariana saved my life. I won’t let this destroy her.” He paused, his voice completely cold. “As for Sandra… I’ll more than make it up to her. She will never know the truth. Ever. Right now, she just needs… to obey.” The mate I trusted with my life… He threw my family to the wolves. All to protect the woman who killed our child. My heart shattered. Shaking with a fury I’d never known, I called the one person I hadn't spoken to in seven years. My father, Alpha Caden. [Father, I'll accept the strategic alliance. The marriage you wanted. But I have one condition. I need your help… to burn the Blackwood Pack to the ground.]

The summer after the college entrance exams, my parents promise to take me on a beach vacation. I start packing my suitcase one month in advance, including a pair of swim trunks, sunscreen, my camera, and a detailed travel itinerary that I stay up late every night preparing. The night before we leave, my younger brother, Oscar McCreery, suddenly announces that he wants to invite my childhood best friend, Celia Ruginis. Dad glances at the airline tickets and frowns. "We don't have enough rooms." My chest tightens. The next second, Mom snatches my passport out of my hand. "You can sit this one out, Nate. Your brother and Celia just made up. They need this." My older sister, Michelle McCreery, picks up my suitcase and sets it down beside Oscar. "Nate's already packed everything. You can just take this," she says to him. I turn to Celia. She once told me that we'd go to see the ocean together after my college entrance exams. But now, she just reaches for the suitcase. "Ozzy has always been terrified you'd steal everyone away. Just let him have his peace of mind this time." Oscar's eyes redden as his voice chokes with emotion. "Nathan, I just really want one family trip." A family trip. What a joke. Apparently, they're only a family without me around. Departure alerts flood my phone screen. There are only three hours left until boarding. I stand in the entryway, watching my suitcase disappear into the distance. That's when it hits me. For the past few years, I've been like excess baggage to them. They bring me along when I'm useful and leave me behind when I become inconvenient. The ocean breeze never even reaches me, but somehow, I have no desire to see the sea anymore.

My family is democratic. Every decision is always settled by a family vote. Mom, Dad, my older brother, and my little sister each get one vote. I get one vote too. But the problem is that four votes always beat one. I never win. When I'm a sophomore in high school, my brother, Jonathan Hayes, wants a new computer. The vote passes four to one. The money I'd spent three years saving for college course fees disappears overnight. During senior year, I earn an early admission offer from North City University. My little sister, Jasmine Hayes, bursts into tears, saying she doesn't want me to move so far away. So, the family holds another vote. Dad places an application form on the table and says, "The majority has spoken. You'll attend the local teachers college." I argue that I've worked myself to the bone to get into North City University. Mom frowns. "Why are you so stubborn? If you stay here, you'll be able to help Jon later and also keep an eye on Jas. Wouldn't that be better for everyone?" Then, when Jonathan's startup business runs into financial trouble, Dad picks up my admission letter and announces that my tuition money will be loaned to Jonathan first. Jasmine links her arm through mine and says with a smile, "Josh, everyone has already voted. You can't be upset just because you lost." Looking at the admission letter that's decided by their votes, I suddenly find it absurd. So, this is what they call democracy—four of them legally deciding what I should lose. That night, I don't argue. I go online and fill in an application to a classified research program in the Northwest Podin Desert. From then on, the only vote that matters is my own.

My Alpha Mate, Damon Ashford, missed our son Finn's sixth birthday—because he was too busy tending to his adopted sister's pup. That night, while packing up Finn's room, I found a recording in his mechanical wolf toy. A tiny, childish whisper. "Little wolf, my daddy's not here. Will you stay and grow up with me instead?" The next day at the pack school, the instructor casually asked why Finn's father hadn't shown up for the ceremony. Finn gripped his crayon and answered softly: "Daddy's busy. He's the pack's Alpha." "His time belongs to his work. It belongs to Aunt Serena, because she needs his care. But it doesn't belong to me." The parents nearby shifted, at a loss for words. But I felt nothing. Just the quiet, final snap of disappointment. A month later, Damon finally remembered. He wanted to make up for the missed birthday. He walked into the pups' room and saw Finn sorting through identity cards. Finn slipped the card with Damon's face into the "Pack Members" slot. Then left the "Family" column completely empty. Damon reached for it, but Finn looked up, eyes distant and cold. "Alpha Ashford. Please don't put the card in the wrong place." "Dad belongs in the family. You only belong to the pack." The color drained from Damon's face. Instantly.

Seven years ago, the Vitale family and the Alberti family forged an alliance through marriage. But on the day of the wedding, my older sister ran away with a cobbler. To keep the two families from turning on each other then and there, my father disowned her on the spot. Then he shoved me, still dressed in my bridesmaid gown, into the dressing room. Half an hour later, I walked out in my sister’s wedding dress and married Jonathan Alberti, the Alberti family heir, a man notorious throughout Sicily for his ruthlessness from a young age. And yet, in the seven years that followed, he never treated me badly. Whenever I got myself into trouble, he cleaned up the mess. Once, someone mocked me at a party for being the bride who had taken my sister’s place. The next day, that man’s body was found floating in the Mediterranean. I thought seven years was long enough for a man to forget the woman he had once intended to marry. Little by little, I fell for him too. Until the day my sister appeared at the gates of the estate, disheveled and desperate, with a six-year-old boy beside her. “My husband is dead. I…” She never even had to finish asking. All the resentment Jonathan had carried over her running away vanished with a few tears. That very night, my sister and her son moved into the estate. Jonathan stood outside her door, watching her. And from the turn of the staircase, I stood watching him. I gave a bitter smile and made a phone call. Now that my sister was back, it was time for the stand-in bride to step aside.

I secretly married my husband for six years, and then his first love came back. I decide to leave with my child and let his first love take her rightful place.

Mom wakes from a coma, but the nurse stops me at the ICU entrance because she has asked to see my younger sister. I think Mom has just woken up and doesn't understand what's going on, so I quickly explain that I'm her older daughter and have been taking care of her these past few days. The nurse tells me Mom already knows. Mom was in a car accident a week ago. The moment I got the call at work, I rushed to the hospital before I even had time to request leave. I sign the paperwork, pay the bills, call in every favor I can, and find the best surgeon available. For seven days, I don't go home once. I sleep on a folding cot in the hallway when I'm exhausted, barely manage to eat, and repeatedly ask the doctors for updates on Mom's condition. My younger sister only comes once, on the first day. She stays for less than ten minutes, then complains about the hospital smell and leaves. Yet after Mom is finally out of danger, the person she wants to see most is still my sister. I suppress my hurt and call her, but she impatiently tells me she's busy and will come another day. With no other choice, I ask the nurse to speak to Mom again. I explain that my sister can't come right now and ask if Mom will let me visit first. A few minutes later, the nurse returns. Mom says that if the visitor isn't her younger daughter, she doesn't want to see anyone else.

To teach me independence, my parents enforced a fifty-fifty rule from the time I was little. Half the rent for my room. Half the cost of a breakfast sandwich. Even when a high fever sent me to the ER, they added half the bill to my debt and reminded me, "Get a summer job. Don't make a habit of owing people money." I always believed they just wanted me to become independent. Then my younger sister, Chloe, was born. Whenever she broke something and owed Mom money, all she had to do was give her a kiss. "All right, sweetheart. Debt paid." When Chloe wanted piano lessons, she made Dad breakfast once, and he happily paid for an entire year. But every dollar spent on me went straight into the family ledger. On my eighteenth birthday, I looked at the cake and quietly asked Mom, "Can I mow the lawn to cover my share?" She frowned. "Sophie, you pay what you owe. Don't look for shortcuts." "You still owe us $1,704.08 from last month. When are you going to pay it back?" I didn't answer. I only tightened my grip on the letter in my pocket offering me a full scholarship to New York University. Soon. Once I paid it off, my debt to this family would be settled. After that, I would never owe them another cent.

Just before the wedding starts, Mom suddenly clutches her chest and collapses. I drop everything and rush her to the hospital. The moment we pull up to the emergency room, my phone buzzes with a text in the family group chat. "Davian's at the hospital. I lured him away. You guys can start the wedding now." A second later, Dad replies, "Good. Kayden's already up on the main stage." Then my sister, Elaine Burke, chimes in, "Kayden's waited ten years for this. Now he can finally marry Leah out in the open." Within seconds, all three messages are deleted from the chat. Then my best friend, Simon Cohen, accidentally drops a video clip of the ceremony right into the group. In the video, my younger brother, Kayden Burke, is wearing the tuxedo I had handpicked for myself. My fiancee, Leah Hunter, stands at the end of the aisle, slipping the ring meant for me onto his finger. The same friends and relatives who cheered for me yesterday are now chanting in unison, "Kiss her! Kiss her!" Mom lunges from the hospital bed and snatches the phone out of my hands. The agony on her face is gone, replaced by pure panic at being caught. "Davian, Kayden's waited so long for Leah. He just wants a wedding of his own. You've had Leah for seven years. Just let him have this one time, okay?" I look at the ECG patches still stuck to her chest and let out a cold laugh. Everyone else gets to play the hero in their little drama, and I'm the only fool left in the dark, performing for their amusement.

When my parents divorced, their lawyers drafted a custody agreement. My sister and I would live with separate parents, then switch homes at the start of every school year. The handoff happened every August at La Serata, the Moretti family's restaurant. Every year, my parents fought over who got more time with Sofia. "Come to St. Barts with me for Thanksgiving," Mom coaxed. Dad's face hardened. "Sofia is with me this year. She spends the holidays with me." Mom pulled up her calendar. "You dumped her on me for nineteen extra days last year. I get those days back. Every single one." "Two of those days were school overnights. They don't count." Sofia rested her chin on one hand and gave them the helpless smile of a princess burdened by too much devotion. "If only there were two of me." Half an hour later, my parents compromised by booking the trip together. Only then did Sofia glance my way. "What about Emilia?" Dad picked up his water and looked past me. "She's not my responsibility this year." Mom finally met my eyes. "The hotel group closes an acquisition next month. I don't have time for this. St. Gabriel still has rooms in the senior dorm. You'll board there." They had just counted every hour Sofia had spent away from them. When it came to me, they could hand off an entire year without blinking. Under the table, I smoothed the napkin I had crushed in my fist. My phone lit up. [Ms. Harper: Your record puts several top East Coast schools within reach. Westbridge Institute's research scholarship would also be a great fit. Which one is your first choice?] I looked at California on the other side of the map and typed my answer. [Westbridge.] Three thousand miles ought to be far enough to leave my family for good.

My parents, Dennis and Sandra Ford, always said the wiring in our old house was too outdated to power more than three air conditioners. My sister, Beth Ford, practiced her violin in her room all day, so she needed one. My brother, Monty Ford, had been sickly since he was little and couldn't stand even a little heat, so he needed one too. The last unit went to the master bedroom. I didn't say anything. I stuck to my old, creaking fan and got through twenty-two stifling summers in Battisata City. I thought that if I stayed quiet enough, obedient enough, my family would eventually notice me. Then came the day I borrowed Monty's air-conditioned room for the final online interview at a major company. Right in the middle of it, the door kept swinging open. Beth's singing drifted in from the living room, and my dad poked his head in for the fourth time. "Still not done? Don't forget to make your brother his honey-glazed fish tonight." The interviewer on the screen frowned. "Sorry, we don't need employees with an attitude problem." The second the screen went dark, I sat frozen in my chair, cold sweat soaking the hair at my forehead. "Hurry to the market once you're finished. The fish won't be fresh if you wait too long." Their nagging kept going, and that was the moment it hit me. What I'd lost over the years wasn't just a working air conditioner or a hard-won job. It was my entire family.