Mga Maiikling Kwento tungkol sa Tragic Love at mga Nobela ng Bias na may Countdown

During a family trip to a private island, we agreed to leave at four thirty to watch the sunrise. I waited alone for half an hour before discovering that my parents, my brother, and my fiancé, Leon, had already left with my adopted sister, Selena. At the cliffs, they posed for a family photograph. Mom adjusted Selena’s wrap. Dad pinned my family insignia to her coat. Leon stood behind her with his hands on her waist. No one noticed me. Leon posted the picture: [The people I’ll protect for the rest of my life.] His fiancée wasn’t in it. For years, I waited for my family to choose me and for Leon to remember the woman he planned to marry. That morning, I stopped waiting. I took the first ferry to New York, canceled the wedding, and left them on that cliff behind me.

The Black Wolf Pack and the Snow Wolf Pack had entered into a mating alliance. My father had only two daughters, Susan and me, so he decided our fate by drawing lots. When Susan drew the lot that would send her into the alliance, all the color drained from her face. Having been reborn, however, I turned to my father of my own accord. “I’ll go to the Snow Wolf Pack in Susan’s place.” Everyone was stunned. Logan, my fated mate, and I had been betrothed for years, and I had once even sworn that he would be the only man I would ever allow to mark me. The Snow Wolf Pack lay far to the north, where the land was bitterly cold and its Alpha was rumored to be ruthless and cruel. But I alone knew what had happened in my previous life. Only after Logan and I became bonded mates did I realize that the woman he had loved all along was Susan. By then, she had already gone to the Snow Wolf Pack, only to die there less than a year later, worn down by misery. Logan became convinced that I had switched the lots so I could stay with him, and from that day on, he hated me for the rest of my life. No matter how hard I tried to please him, he never responded. Yet when I fell ill with wolf-wasting sickness and was barely clinging to life, he stayed by my side and cared for me without leaving. Before I died, his eyes reddened as he fed me my favorite raspberries. “I’m the one who wronged you in this life. If there’s another life, please let Susan and me go.” After my death, he went to my grave and chose to leave this world with me. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn. This time, I would accept the alliance myself and give him the life he had always wanted.

3 years ago, the Southern witch sealed the mate bond between Dylan and me with her spell. She said that if we still truly loved each other after 3 years, the bond would remain. Otherwise, it would be broken. During these years, I helped him become the Alpha of our pack as his Luna. But in his heart, there was someone else, his childhood sweetheart, Eleanor. When Eleanor found out that we had started our mate bond, she chose to leave with another werewolf. Dylan was drunk and cried out her name in my arms. His wolf claws scratched me. At that moment, my arm was bleeding, so was my heart. But I believed that he would gradually fall in love with me as time went on. I thought 3 years would be quite enough for that. When the 3 years are almost up, Eleanor returned. Dylan dropped an important meeting to meet with her. We lost $2 billion because of that. Dylan started being by her side every day, just like before. I used to be so afraid that when the time came, we wouldn’t be in love, and that I might lose Dylan. 7 days later, our mate bond would be gone. This time, I didn’t care anymore. It was just a countdown for me to become the Alpha Queen of my own pack.

"System, I want to go home." The system responds to Tabitha Samson immediately. "Understood, Tabitha. Exit procedures are now activated. You'll be able to leave this world in half a month." Weirdly enough, the system, which has always followed its own programming, pauses for a few seconds. It soon brings up a question, its tone slightly confused. "You have a husband who dotes on you and a son who always takes your side, Tabitha. Isn't this your home? These people are your family, you know." The moment Tabitha hears the word "family", her gaze slowly fixes on the TV before her.

The day I got my terminal cancer diagnosis, I stumbled upon a hidden album on my mafia husband’s phone. One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six intimate photos. All of the same woman. None of me. Three years into our marriage, all of New York still feared Damian Moretti. Even as his only legal wife, I never dared ask about the blood on his cuffs—or the stranger’s perfume clinging to his skin late at night. I used to think he was simply born cold-blooded. Until I saw her on his screen, wearing his shirt in a secret penthouse I didn’t know existed, smiling freely in his arms. The cruelest part? The timestamp on the last photo was from two hours ago—the exact moment I was sitting alone at the hospital, signing my own Do-Not-Resuscitate form. When Damian walked out of the bathroom, he caught me staring at the screen. No guilt. No panic. He just walked over, took the phone from my frozen hand, and hit delete without a flicker of emotion. “Stay out of things that don’t concern you,” he said flatly. “Forget what you saw.” Before the screen could even go dark, it lit up again with a text message: Damian, you left your shirt in my bed again. Whatever was left inside me finally shattered. I pushed the prepared divorce papers toward him. “Sign them,” I said quietly. “I’m setting you free.” Damian’s gaze turned lethal. In one swift motion, he pinned my wrist against the headboard, the heavy Moretti signet ring on his right hand digging brutally into my bone. “Don’t test my limits, Vivian,” he murmured, leaning over me, his voice low and merciless. “Moretti marriages only end with a funeral.” I met his icy stare and didn’t say another word. He had no idea I only had three months left to live. The funeral he asked for was already on its way.

I can see how much time people have left to live, so I warn my wife, Kayla Jebb, that her first love, Sebastian Miller, is about to die. She calls me a jinx and knocks my teeth out herself, making sure I'll never speak again. With my mouth full of rotting flesh, I beg her to help me, but she walks away, satisfied with the outcome. Instead, she heads to the hospital to take care of a sickly Sebastian. A month later, Kayla returns to the villa with a fully recovered Sebastian, as if to prove how foolish I was. When I see that Kayla has only one day left to live, I say nothing and simply smile.

Three days before our bonding ceremony, my mate—Adrian Carson, the Alpha of the Nightfall Pack—placed two velvet boxes on the table. The first box was deep blue. Inside was a set of moonstone jewelry he'd paid a fortune for at an auction. The other contained nothing more than a black leather bracelet that had come free with his auction purchase. It didn't match my dress at all. For the first time, I pointed to the jewelry before anyone else could. "Can I choose first this time?" Adrian gently stroked my cheek. His voice was cool as he spoke beside my ear, "Your sister has always had to be first in everything. If she's not the first choice, she doesn't want it. And you don't care about these things anyway. You'll be fine with whatever's left." I looked at Adrian's matter-of-fact expression and said nothing. I simply felt something inside me disappear. Ever since I was little, I'd always been the shadow behind my sister, Nora Rose—quiet, unnoticed, never fighting for anything. I even had to wait for Nora to blow out the candles on the birthday cake first. Even our bonding ceremony three days from now had been postponed several times for Nora's sake. I pushed the leather bracelet back across the table. "Give both of them to Nora." For the first time, I didn't want to be the one who was left with the leftovers.

The day before our marking ceremony, a vengeful witch laid a curse on me. Over the next seven days, I would slowly forget the man I loved. For the two hours it took Adrian Blackwood to return to the packhouse, I rehearsed a dozen different ways to tell him. After all, he had once defied the Elders to make me—an Omega—his Luna. But before I could say a word, Adrian took my hand, his features hardening with urgency. “Evelyn, we may have to postpone tomorrow’s ceremony.” “Serena is back from the Frostlands Pack. She’s been diagnosed with Wolf-Soul Wasting. Her dying wish is to experience a complete marking ceremony before she goes.” “You and I have the rest of our lives. Once she returns to the Moon Goddess, I’ll hold another ceremony and make you my Luna. All right?” He looked at me with the same quiet hope he had worn the night he asked me to be his mate. Only now, he was asking my permission to hold a marking ceremony with another woman first. I held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “All right,” I whispered. “You have my blessing.” Within seven days, I would not even remember the man I had given it to.

I put on a wedding dress six times. Six times, I was left standing at the ceremony. The first time, Leah, the girl Cade always paid extra attention to, threw a tantrum and ran away from home. He abandoned a room full of guests and drove out of the city in the middle of the night to find her. The second time, Leah came down with a fever. He sat by her bed for three days and three nights straight. ... The sixth time, Leah wanted to go on a date with Daniel Carter and insisted Cade come along to vet him. Once again, he left me behind. Before the seventh ceremony, I was diagnosed with cancer. Late stage. When Cade came to see me, I begged him with red eyes. "I'm dying. Just this once, please don't leave me again. Okay?" Before I could finish, Leah's assistant came running in, out of breath. "Mr. Russell, Leah's engagement is today and she's so nervous she can barely function. She wants you to come be with her." Cade didn't hesitate for a second. He turned to me. "Celine, being mad is one thing, but don't go cursing yourself." "Go wait for me at the ceremony. I'll be right back." For the first time, I asked the question I'd been hiding for three years, too afraid to say out loud. "Cade, do you really love Leah that much?" Cade blinked, then shook his head firmly. "Celine, I don't love Leah." "But she saved my life. I made her a promise back then. Until she was truly settled, whatever she needed, I'd be there." "Now that it's out in the open, stop being upset. Once Leah's wedding is finalized, the promise is done. After that, it's just you and me." So Cade did love me after all. He just assumed we had all the time in the world. That I'd be standing there in my wedding dress, same spot, waiting for him to come back. Just like the first six times. But this time, I wasn't going to the ceremony to wait for him.

The night before graduation, Cassian Nightborne, heir to the Blood Throne I had loved for years, finally asked me to be his girlfriend. My three other childhood friends—Dante, Julian, and Adrian, cheered as confetti burst around us. Then Cassian placed four Ravenwood applications in front of me. “Come with us to the Ravenwood, Avery. Once we get there, I’ll make my blood vow to you.” I didn’t hesitate to sign the Ravenwood application, even though the academy was five thousand miles away, deep in human territory. I thought the five of us were going together—until the acceptance letters came. “Four fake applications. That’s all it took to get Avery to Ravenwood.” “Once she’s gone, Mira can finally have her place.” “Cassian’s the one making the real sacrifice. He has to keep dating Avery until she leaves.” The truth was, they couldn’t bear to send Mira, who had only recently returned to her royal vampire family, into the human world. I was strong enough to survive Ravenwood, so they decided I should go instead. And while they sent me away, all four of them chose to go to Nocturne with Mira. They thought I’d cry, throw a fit, and forgive them eventually. What they didn’t know was that I had signed a classified five-year research program at Ravenwood. The moment I left Blood Thorn, my blood signature would vanish from the Blood Registry, and no bloodstone could trace me. By the time they realized I wasn’t coming back, they could search heaven and earth and still never find me. I was leaving them behind for good.

A week before our marking ceremony, I told Ethan Stormwind I wanted to break up at his friend's party. Everyone laughed. They all knew that for the past six years, my life's goal had been to become his marked Luna. With only a week left until the ceremony, how could I possibly want to break up? Even Ethan thought I was being unreasonable. "Just because I need to take Selene to the healer for her follow-up on our ceremony day, you're throwing a tantrum about breaking up?" "We're both adults. Can you act more mature? You could just reschedule the ceremony. Why do you insist on that specific day? I don't have time for your jealous games." I nodded silently. Yes, something needed to be changed. But it wasn't the ceremony date. It was him. I was going to accept someone else's mark instead.

My older sister, Bianca, fled with her lover the night before she was supposed to marry Adrian Vescari. The marriage secured a truce between two Mafia families. If Bianca failed to appear, the Bellandis would lose the Commission’s protection—and might not survive the winter. Because Bianca and I looked almost identical, my father forced me into her wedding dress. Adrian recognized me the moment he lifted my veil. “You’re not Bianca.” I expected him to expose the deception. Instead, he said, “Since you’re already here, stay.” So I stayed for seven years. Adrian protected me, cared for me, and made me believe I was more than Bianca’s replacement. I gave up traveling with my camera and devoted myself to his estate, trusts, and family, waiting for the day I could finally stand beside him under my own name: Mara Bellandi. Then Bianca came home. She claimed she had been forced to flee on the eve of the wedding because someone was trying to kill her, and that she had spent the past seven years in hiding. Adrian believed every word, carried her into our home, stayed at her bedside, and said he owed her everything she had lost. As Bianca began reclaiming her inheritance, her place in the family, and pieces of my marriage, I returned to the Bellandi cemetery. There, I found my own grave. My parents had declared Mara Bellandi dead on the night I married Adrian. While I lived as his wife, the world believed I no longer existed. If everyone needed Mara Bellandi to disappear, I would give them exactly what they wanted. This time, I would arrange my own death. When I woke again, Mrs. Vescari would be gone.

On the first day of our honeymoon, Dante Moretti, the Mafia Don I had just married, and his childhood sweetheart left me at a gas station. They had driven for twenty minutes before realizing I wasn’t in the car. When he called, panic filled his voice. “Ariana, why didn’t you get back in? I thought you were in the back seat.” Bianca’s voice came clearly through the phone. “She isn’t a child, Dante. You don’t have to turn around for her.” I laughed bitterly. I had lost count of how many times he had left me behind for his childhood sweetheart. When I remained silent, irritation crept into his voice. “Don’t start, Ariana. I’ve sent one of the guards to pick you up. Just wait for the guard.” In the past, I would have forgiven him and waited. But this time, I didn’t want to. I canceled the rest of our honeymoon and removed the wedding ring I had worn for less than three days. Then I called my father for the first time in five years. “Father, I want to come home.” His voice trembled. “Ariana, the Bellini family has been waiting for you.”

I've been married for eight years, but my husband won't let our daughter call him "Dad" because his childhood sweetheart's son struggles with severe depression. After he missed our daughter's parent-teacher meeting again because he was with Susan Lawson and her son, I decided to leave. I prepare the divorce papers and decide to leave with my daughter. I go to her school and find her homeroom teacher, Laura Anderson. "Ms. Anderson, I'd like to apply for a school transfer." She looks surprised. "Why the sudden decision to transfer?" I reply calmly, "Her dad has been working out of town, but he's finally settled down and wants us to move there." Laura sighs. "Well, that's not bad. I always thought you were a single mom." I smile. I'm not, for now. But I'll be one very soon.

On our anniversary, I stood in the doorway holding the diamond ring I'd just bought, waiting for Crystal Linley to finish her video call. She casually took the ring box, set it aside without a glance, and checked her watch. "The client wants last-minute changes to the proposal. Go ahead and eat without me." I sat down at the table alone. The food tasted like nothing. At midnight, her childhood friend posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, out on a yacht. Crystal was wearing the dress I'd given her, leaning against his shoulder with a glass of champagne in her hand. The caption read: [She said if I ever come back to her, she'll drop everything and run to me.] I calmly liked the Instagram post. A second later, my phone lit up. "Don't get the wrong idea!" Crystal's voice was frantic. "I swear, next anniversary..." I let out a long breath. "There won't be a next anniversary."

On our fourth anniversary, Renzo Romano, my boyfriend, who happens to be the Don of the Romano famiglia, personally comes to pick me up and take me back to the manor. Noticing the 99 red roses in the back seat of the car, I naively think he's finally going to propose to me. The villa's decorated in a romantic fashion, filled with scores of our friends. My heart hammers against my ribcage, and I'm about to say "I do" when I see him hand the bouquet of roses to his childhood sweetheart, Simona Visconti. Fireworks light up the sky outside the window, while drones form Simona's name above us. "Happy birthday, Mona!" My mind goes completely blank, and I freeze in place. "Are you throwing her a birthday party?" Renzo, who's busy presenting Simona with her birthday gift, casually responds, "Yeah. Mona just returned from abroad. We didn’t have time to make arrangements, so I decided to hold her birthday party at the manor." The very next second, he notices my pale face, and a hint of confusion flashes through his eyes. "What's wrong? Is there some other special occasion today?" He vividly remembers his childhood sweetheart's birthday, yet he doesn’t remember our anniversary. I compose myself and plaster an elegant and graceful smile on my face. "It's nothing. I hope she has a happy birthday." Right after saying that, I lower my head and book a flight on my phone for three days from now. Since he doesn't care about me, there's no reason for me to care about him either. It's about time I dump him.

Claire Aniston had been in love with Calvin Bennett for a decade. In all that time, he had blown hot and cold, but she never minded. She was certain that someday, he would see how much she truly cared. That faith shattered on the night of their engagement party. Claire found him wrapped up with Iris Aniston. "Once I marry Claire and get control of the shares, I'll divorce her and marry you," she heard him tell Iris. So that was the truth. He wasn't just guarded—he didn't love her at all. Worse, he had been using her from the start. With cold resolve, Claire went straight to the head of the Bennett family. "Grandpa George, I've made up my mind. Calvin doesn't love me, and I won't force him into this. I'm not going to marry him." The old man was shocked. "But…you've loved him all these years. Did he do something wrong? Don't worry, you will always be the one I want for my grandson." "Grandpa George, the wedding date doesn't need to change. I will still marry into the Bennett family—but I'm choosing a different groom. "On the day of the wedding, seven days from now, I will draw lots among all the eligible male heirs of the Bennett family. Whoever is chosen will become my husband." After all, things couldn't possibly get any worse.

On my birthday, My wife told me there was an emergency at the hospital and she couldn’t come home. She sent me five hundred dollars with a note: Happy birthday. Love you. Ten minutes later, her young resident, Evan Hayes, posted a screenshot of a transfer. Fifty thousand dollars. Congratulations on becoming an attending. I’ll be there for every milestone from now on. Seven years ago, Claire lost both her parents and was buried in debt. I gave up a senior architect position overseas, stayed by her side, and helped her through medical school, residency, and every exam that stood between her and the life she wanted. The first time she put on a white coat, she held me and said, “Adrian, I wouldn’t be here without you.” Years later, she gave someone else the time, patience, and care she once gave me. That night, I didn’t argue. I accepted the London offer I had turned down three times, took off the ring I had worn for seven years, and left. Claire wasn’t worried. “He loves me too much. He’ll come back.” A month later, she called in tears. “I’ll give you everything. Just come home.” She still didn’t understand. I never left because Evan got more. I left because the woman I spent seven years lifting up had finally made my love feel worthless.

The day I'm diagnosed with cancer happens to be the birthday of my wife's adopted son, Logan Smith. Before the party starts, I end up coughing up blood and ruining the cheerful atmosphere. My wife, Rosalie Smith, doesn't take me to the hospital. Instead, she locks me up in the basement. She looks down at me bleeding out on the ground and says coldly, "Xander Kastel, you really know how to pick your timing. Of all days, you had to cough up blood on Lolo's birthday. How dare you do it today?" I beg her to take me to the hospital, but she says she has already consulted the doctor and knows that early-stage cancer can't cause me to cough up blood. She's convinced I'm deliberately putting on an act to get back at Caleb Anderson, her first love. I pleaded desperately. "I am your husband! Rosalie, please take me to the hospital. I promise I'll never show up again." Rosalie's face darkens, and she grabs me by the throat. "Don't play these push-and-pull games with me. As long as you stay here quietly until midnight passes and Lolo's birthday is over, of course, I'll take you to the hospital. Once you've recovered, you'll still be the Smith family's live-in son-in-law." I keep screaming from the agonizing pain I'm in. Rosalie thinks I'm being annoying, so she takes Caleb and Logan to a hotel to celebrate instead. Some time later, she suddenly thinks of me, so she asks her secretary if my surgery has gone well. Her secretary's face pales as he answers in a trembling voice, "Mr. Kastel has… has left with Ms. Kastel."

After we'd had a fight, my childhood sweetheart, Adrian Hale, deliberately agreed to take a sophomore named Sienna Reed to Beach House Week on Cape Cod. He was certain I'd do what I always did: get jealous, start a fight, then swallow my pride and beg him to come home. But when he returned to Kingsley University with Sienna a week later, he found me unexpectedly easy to deal with. He gave Sienna my lead creator slot in the National Robotics Challenge. I didn't quit. I organized her test data and rewrote her presentation for her. He backed Sienna in the student council election and picked apart my work during the public debate. I didn't argue. I admitted I could have prepared better and calmly watched her take my seat. Then he tried to hand Professor Moretti's recommendation to her too. I still didn't lose my temper. I even delivered a neatly organized application checklist to Sienna myself. Smug with victory, she told him, "See? You can't keep spoiling a woman like Claire. Give her the cold shoulder, knock her down a peg, and she'll learn to behave." Adrian agreed. He told her she understood people better than anyone. Afterward, he came to see me alone. He promised he'd secure me a direct-entry PhD position at Kingsley and, in an astonishing show of generosity, said he'd propose in front of everyone at graduation. But Adrian had forgotten one small detail. While he was busy entertaining Sienna at Beach House Week, he'd personally approved my transfer to Zurich. I packed the commemorative pin, old records, and love letters he'd given me into a box and sent them back. The Hale family ring he'd planned to propose with would never touch my finger. I was headed for a much bigger world, and I wasn't coming back.