Contos e Romances sobre Familial Bond com Bias

At the reunion dinner, my adopted brother, Isaac Johnson, whispers in my ear, "The Johnson family only needs one son. You're just a country bumpkin. We don't need you here." I think he's right. So, I run straight into traffic at the intersection. My family is terrified. They rush over and manage to pull me back from the road. My sister, Rebecca Johnson, turns pale with anger and warns me not to upset Isaac again. I obediently nod. Then, late that night, I turn on the gas and leave a suicide note. "It's my fault for upsetting Isaac. I'll take the whole family to heaven with me. None of us will ever have to suffer again." My family stares at me as if I've gone mad. Later, at a party, Isaac and his friends push me into the pool. But I don't struggle. I simply let myself sink slowly to the bottom. Isaac panics and has no choice but to jump in and pull me out again. "Idiot! What if you really drowned? Mom and Dad would hate me! Couldn't you at least struggle?" What he doesn't know is that I've fought back before. But every time, it only ended with me dying a horrible death. This is my tenth time being reborn. This time, I just want to die.

In my past life, my wealthy parents, Josiah Gunther and Yvonne Jackson, found me and brought me back into the family. I tried so hard to play the part of a sweet, dutiful son just to make them happy, but in the end, they wrongfully pinned a crime on me and drove me to my death. After being reborn, I stop holding back and show Josiah and Yvonne just how ruthless I can be. I completely change their perception of me, so they never dare to boss me around or talk down to me again. The moment I return home, I pick a fight with Mabel Gunther, my biological sister, and Nicholas Gunther, my adopted brother. After that, I deliberately provoke Mabel into striking me, resulting in me driving a knife through her palm. Later on, I seize the chance to bash open Nicholas' bedroom door and expose the sick truth about him drugging and raping Mabel. Josiah and Yvonne are forced to get rid of Nicholas to save the Gunther family's reputation. But that doesn't stop me from locking Mabel up in a psychiatric ward. In the end, I successfully seize control of everything in the Gunther family.

At the engagement party, my fiancee, Emily Carter, and my parents, Nathan Morgan and Jennifer Williams, set up a table filled with mystery boxes. My younger brother, Freddie Morgan, playfully tugs on Emily's sleeve. "There are so many boxes here. Richard can't possibly open them all. Can I open three?" Emily smiles and affectionately pats the back of his hand. "Your playful nature hasn't changed a bit since the day your brother and I met." My parents laugh warmly. "Freddie has always been lucky. Maybe he'll win a big prize." Freddie eagerly grabs three boxes and opens them one after another. The first contains a card announcing a ten-day honeymoon trip to the Azure Isles. The second holds the card announcing the winner will get all of Richard's wedding gifts. The third box reveals a picture of a blue diamond ring, the Carter family's heirloom. Then I open mine. But when I lift the lids, every box contains the same slip of paper: "Better luck next time." Freddie slings an arm around my shoulders with a wide grin. "Richard, looks like your luck hasn't changed. A bet's a bet. I'll take Emily to the Azure Isles for you." He then gives me a teasing smirk. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on her. I won't let some handsome guy sweep her off her feet." I freeze, assuming it's just another one of their jokes. Then Emily speaks. "Richard, a bet's a bet." She looks at me and holds out her hand. "Take off the ring my grandmother gave you and give it to Freddie."

After I came of age, I entered the Gallo family's trial period. Only those who passed the family's trials within five years would earn the right to wear the family crest. Anyone who failed would be sent to the shooting range as a live target. This year's trial was to seize a weapons shipment at the port. I was the first to locate the weapons cache, but when Vera blundered into the ambush, I had to stay behind and clean up the mess to save her. After the fierce gunfight, my team's casualties ended up exactly one more than Vera's. At the crest ceremony, my mother Carmela once again pinned the family crest to Vera Gallo's chest, smiling with satisfaction. "Vera brought back the weapons with the fewest casualties. She passes the trial again this year, without question. "Not that the crest needs to be awarded twice, but Elsa, you really aren't as capable as Vera. Better luck next time." Better luck next time. I'd been hearing those exact words for four years straight. Ever since Vera was brought back four years ago, I, the adopted orphan, had become the most unwelcome person in the house. Because she claimed everything I had should have been hers. The moment she heard that Carmela had treated me well, she'd spiral into hysterics and threaten to kill herself. From then on, I waited four years and never once received the crest from Carmela's hands. This time, I was done waiting. I was going home. My real home.

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?"

I'm a daughter of the Rayne family, part of the Black Dragon Clan, and I have a twin sister. Our family is about to hold an investiture ceremony for my sister Cecilia and me. We would each receive our own title and domain. The Elders argued for an equal split, but my brother insisted on giving all the domains, mines, and guards to Cecilia, leaving me with nothing but an empty title stripped of land and power. Lorne, the boy I'd grown up with, was the first to agree. My parents went along with it. All because Cecilia was prettier than me, better at charming everyone. In their eyes, she deserved everything. What they didn't know was that although my dragon soul had awakened later than Cecilia's, I carried the oldest bloodline of all! This time, I would never be Cecilia's stepping stone again.

Mom always said she loved my younger brother Derek and me equally, but she had selective hearing. I've been gluten intolerant since I was little. I told her over and over not to make sandwiches, but she never listened. At every meal, she made Derek's favorite sandwiches. When Derek and I both came down with fevers, she couldn't hear me mumbling deliriously through a high fever, but the second he whimpered, she stayed at his bedside all night. When we were both living away from home, she turned a blind eye to me pinching pennies in a cramped apartment. But the moment Derek complained that he "needed a better space for networking," she didn't hesitate to make the down payment on a luxury condo for him. My heart went cold, and I learned my own kind of selective hearing. I used to hand over most of my paycheck for what she called the "family fund" and to cover Derek's bills. Now, I couldn't hear her hinting that I should keep bankrolling the family. The only thing I could hear was whether my dog was hungry. All the money that used to go toward Derek's bills went straight to the dog instead. This time, the one who lost it was Mom.

When my sister and I were born, a witch prophesied that once my wolf awakened, it would kill my sister. To protect her, my parents had the witch place a curse on me. As long as my body temperature stayed above 102°F, my wolf could never awaken. For eighteen long years, I suffered through burning fevers every single day. On my eighteenth birthday, my wolf was on the verge of awakening. To prevent any chance of it happening, they kicked me into the heat chamber. I cried and begged them to let me out. But my father said, "Are you trying to awaken behind our backs? You know your wolf will kill your sister. Is that what you want? To drive her to her death?" The chamber was scorching, searing down to my bones. I pounded on the door with everything I had. "Mom, it's so hot in here! I'm in so much pain! Please let me out!" "Oh, stop putting on an act." My mother's voice was sharp and cutting. "Just tough it out and the awakening will pass! Your wolf can't awaken, and then your sister will finally be safe. Why are you always so selfish?" Footsteps faded into the distance. Sweat poured from my forehead, dripping onto my clothes, only to be quickly baked dry by the heat. I curled up in a corner, wrapped in waves of heat and pain. Eventually, my mind went dark, my body gave out, and my breathing stopped.

My mother is a powerhouse, but she somehow ends up with me, a coward with claustrophobia. "What claustrophobia? You're just being dramatic!" In order to help me "desensitize," she builds a pitch-black, soundproof room in the house. In elementary school, I scream and cry in terror the first time she locks me inside, and she punishes me by not letting me eat for three days. In middle school, I try harder to hold it together and only let out a few quiet whimpers, but she makes me kneel in the snow for a full day and night. I tough it out all the way through senior year, telling myself that getting into college and leaving home will fix everything. But on the day of my acceptance party, she decides to show off the results of her desensitization in front of all the guests and locks me straight into the dark room. "Mom!" I drop to my knees, crying and begging as my dignity gets shredded to pieces. "My claustrophobia is gone, I swear. I'm begging you, please don't lock me in there." The look in her eyes is almost unhinged. "No! If you don't go in, you'll never go to college." But eventually, I really am cured. So Mom, why can't you smile anymore?

On the day of her daughter Nina’s funeral, before the pastor could finish the eulogy, Rosalind answered Samson’s phone call. “Change of plans. Let’s meet earlier. I’m on my way now.” Ethan held the small cremation urn in his arms. His knuckles turned white from gripping it too tightly. Nina had been critically ill with leukemia. Only Samson’s bone marrow matched hers. Driven to the brink, Ethan desperately begged Rosalind to go along with Samson’s request. She promised that she would only be playing pretend and would not fall for Samson. However, as time passed, she eventually fell for Samson and indulged him in every way. On the night when Nina needed the transplant the most, Ethan called her, frantic. However, she was unreachable because she was camping deep in the mountains. Ethan helplessly watched the three-year-old die in the emergency room. Later, Rosalind even protected Samson and let him stomp on Nina’s cross necklace. She even forcibly confined Ethan to a sanatorium and forced him to donate blood to Samson. It was not until Rosalind learned that Samson had deceived her from the very beginning that she felt piercing regret. She gave him fifty percent of her shares, knelt for hours at the cemetery, and tried to make amends wherever she could. However, no amount of regret could bring back the man she had deeply wounded.

My older brother was always my parents' favorite child. Victor had been sickly since birth, and from the time we were little, I was expected to absorb every misfortune meant for him. When his kidneys failed, my parents took one of mine and gave it to him. By then, my own body was already failing, yet when I begged them to treat me a little better, they only glared at me and cursed. "If you hadn't taken everything from your brother in the womb, why would he have suffered all these years? You owe this family. Pay it back." With untreated kidney disease worsening inside me, I died after Victor deliberately locked me inside his basement. It was painful, and it was bitter. But this life. I've given it back to you.

While on a car trip, our car is struck by falling rocks and breaks down on a remote mountain road. My sister, Renee Olsen, is terrified. We wait three hours before a passing vehicle finally comes. The driver rolls down the window. "I can only fit three people in my car. How many of you are there?" My mom, Penny Ziegler, lets out a relieved sigh and smiles. "Great, there are three of us." My dad, Leonard Olsen, immediately shifts slightly to the side, completely blocking me from view as I cower in the back seat. They get into the car with Renee and leave. Ten minutes later, Mom sends me a message. "Renee is in shock. We're bringing her to the hospital for a check-up first. You stay right there with the car and wait for us to pick you up." I glance at my leg that is bleeding from cuts caused by shattered glass and reply, "Okay." I wait from day into night until my phone battery dies, yet my parents never return. They never pick up my calls or reply to my messages. A team conducting geological surveys nearby discovers me, barely conscious. They arrange for a tow truck and rush me to the hospital, as I'm burning up with a fever. The doctor frowns when he sees my leg. "Why did you wait until now to come in? Young lady, your wound is infected. You need surgery to debride it. Where is your family? Get them here quickly to sign it." I slowly unclench my stiff fingers and take the surgical consent form. Calmly, I pick up the pen and sign my name. "I can sign it myself. They've already forgotten about me."

In my fifth year of climbing the mountains to search for my wife's remains, I fell into an ice crevasse by accident. As the cold dragged me toward unconsciousness, I opened my phone to Maddie Paisley's silent, years-untouched messenger thread, meaning to record a final goodbye. Instead, a wedding invitation popped up on the screen. [Ten years of devotion, and at last we've found our happy ending. We warmly invite our friends and family to join us as we marry!] [Groom: Jace Lowe] [Bride: Maddie Paisley] The background photo was a wedding portrait. My foster brother held her against his chest, his smile bright and tender. After I was pulled off the mountain, I ignored my frostbitten legs and sprinted for the hotel like a madman. The moment I pushed through the doors, I froze in place. My sister, Ashlyn Lowe, who had begged me with red eyes just the night before to give up the search, was cheering as she pulled the cord on a confetti cannon. "Jace, you finally won Maddie over. If you ever wrong her, I swear I won't let you off easy!" Below the stage, my parents sat in their formal wear, eyes brimming with proud tears. A voice spoke up behind me. "What are you doing here?" I turned and saw my childhood friend. My hand trembled as I reached toward him, ready to pour out how absurd all of this was. Instead, he just sighed. "Ronnie, go home. Everyone's tired of playing along with this. "Maddie faked her death just to get away from you. Jace waited five years for her, and that wasn't easy either. "It's their wedding today. Don't force your way in and play the homewrecker. You'll only embarrass everyone." With that, he walked past me, smiling as he crossed to the stage and handed the newlyweds a huge bouquet of flowers. "Jace, Maddie, congratulations!" Streamers rained down over my head. As I listened to the emcee up on stage shout for the groom to kiss the bride, my tears fell without a sound. So this was it. During the five years I had spent desperately searching for Maddie, she had been in love with another man the whole time. Everyone had known. They had all just chosen to hide it from me.

On the night the real Shepherd heir is welcomed back to the wealthy family, my sister, Savannah Shepherd, kicks me out and dumps me at an orphanage. Overnight, my pampered, smooth-sailing life takes a 180-degree turn. The delinquents at the orphanage make my life a living hell. One day, they pin me in a cesspit, and I nearly suffocate. The next, they're whipping me raw until I can't even drag myself out of bed. I cry and beg the orphanage's director, Dee Juarez, to save me, but she only sneers at me with contempt. "If you weren't so cruel, why would your family have thrown you out? You brought this on yourself!" Her silent approval allows the delinquents to escalate their abuse, tormenting me until I'm barely a shell of myself. Then, on the night before New Year's Eve, they strip me naked and throw me out into a snowstorm. Only after my entire body is frozen rigid am I rushed to the emergency room. Through the haze of consciousness, Dee's mocking laugh fills the room. "Rich people sure know how to have fun. She kicked out her own brother just to keep her adopted brother from being bullied, and she even dumped a truckload of money on us just to teach him a lesson and smooth out his rough edges." Dee clicks her tongue. "Have you seen the news? His parents are spoiling that adopted boy rotten, while his sister has practically devoted herself to him. "Who knows if Ms. Shepherd will even bother showing up when I call? Either way, we're definitely not footing his medical bill." So that's the truth. As it turns out, all my suffering is nothing more than a twisted game Savannah engineered for Joey Shepherd's entertainment. My hands clutch the diagnosis report the doctor hands me—terminal bone cancer—and I laugh until tears stream down my face. Wonderful. Very soon, Joey really will be the only brother Savannah has left.

Everyone said my wife, Zoey Harper, was an amazing wife and mom who'd do anything for me and our son, Leo. Leo's doctor warned us three times that he might not make it. Then he died. Zoey claimed she was overseas for work. She wasn't. She'd invited Peter Cole—the first love she'd never gotten over—and his family to our apartment for dinner. I came home carrying Leo's urn, ready to confront her. Instead, she tossed my luggage into the hall. "We have guests, and we're out of rooms. Go stay somewhere else for a few days."

The day Grandma died, my parents, both of whom had remarried, began arguing over who would have to take me. In the original timeline, I had been concerned about Dad working himself so hard and chose to live with him so that I could be there for him. I even picked the numbers on the lottery ticket that won him a multimillion-dollar jackpot. After he became rich, he bought a nice place and luxury cars for my stepmother and their children. Yet he would not spend a cent on my pain medication. By the time doctors found the tumor in my brain, I could only lie in bed and endure the pain until it killed me. In the new timeline, Dad frowned and sighed again and again. “Your mom married a wealthy businessman. You’ll have a much better life with her. “I already have too many children at home. There just isn’t room for you.” Mom fiddled with her freshly manicured nails and replied indifferently, “That’s not fair. More children just make a home livelier. “My husband runs a very strict household, and the twins from his first marriage are impossible to deal with. “She has always done whatever she wants. They’ll eat her alive if she comes home with me.” Their attempts to push me toward each other no longer stirred any feelings in me. When they finally lost patience and demanded that I choose, I quietly picked up my suitcase and walked over to Mom. Her face immediately darkened. Dad, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief. He was unable to suppress a pleased little smile. However, he did not know that without me there to intervene, my stepmother would toss the winning lottery ticket into the washing machine and reduce it to a pile of soggy scraps. Having traveled back in time, I only wanted to live comfortably during whatever time I had left.

After my last exam, I spotted Mom waiting in the distance in a bright red dress. I was about to run to her when my twin sister, Rosie, beat me to it and threw herself into Mom's arms. "Sweetheart, you must be exhausted." Mom stroked Rosie's hair while Grant handed her an ice-cold juice and took her backpack. I stood where I was and watched the three of them climb into the family car, with Mom and Grant fussing over Rosie from either side. Just as the car was about to pull away, Rosie suddenly said, "Wait. We're missing someone." For one foolish second, I thought she meant me. I hurried toward them. Instead, Rosie waved at someone behind me. "Ethan! Over here!" Only after Ethan Cole climbed into the car did everyone finally notice me standing beside the open door. "Vivi? What are you doing here?" "Aren't you a year behind Rosie?" Because of my health, I'd started school a year later than my twin. Once I recovered, though, all their attention shifted to Rosie. They never even realized I'd skipped a grade. I looked at their confused faces and smiled. "I just came to wish Rosie luck." "That's sweet of you." Mom pulled two dollars from her purse. "Do you have enough for the bus? I can give you more if you need it." I looked at the two dollars in her hand, lowered my head, and whispered, "It's enough." The car door shut without hesitation. By the time I looked up again, even the exhaust had disappeared. I sniffed, pulled out my phone, and typed a question into the search bar: [Can you start college early?]

When our whole family saw the death timer for my sister will end on her sixteenth birthday, she became the most important person in the family. She suddenly took priority in everything, from food to dresses, and even bedtime stories. I felt for her, but I was also jealous that she was given everything. However, a day before her sixteenth birthday, my parents locked me up in the storeroom in fear that I would make a mess of things. I kept hammering the door, crying, "Mom, let me out! I'm having a fever, and my head hurts!" Mom didn't believe me. "Just stop! Your sister will die in just a day, and you're playing sick to gain our sympathy?! Don't you understand anything?!" "No…" I tried my best to argue, only to hear my parents comforting my sister. Eventually, my consciousness blurred, and I heard nothing…

The day Dad moved into the new house with my stepmother Paula and my stepbrother Connor, they left me behind in the old apartment, all alone. I called him and told him the door lock was broken and the gas alarm inside wouldn't stop going off. Paula just sneered in the background. "Funny how the lock works every other day, but breaks the moment we're celebrating Connor's move, isn't it?" Dad was silent for a few seconds, then hung up on me. Then he texted me the new address. "You're twenty-four. Stop pulling these stunts for attention." "Deal with it yourself, then come over. Don't make your brother feel unwelcome!" When I tried calling again, it went straight to voicemail. He'd blocked my number. That night, my stepbrother unwrapped presents in the new house. Dad turned the room that was supposed to be mine into a gaming room and told the relatives I had a temper and refused to come. The next day, when he found out I hadn't shown up for work, all he did was post one line in the family group chat: "Threatening your family by going missing is childish." What he didn't know was that I would never see that message.

The year my parents "divorced," I was twelve. My twin sister, Lily Reed, and I were split up between them. Lily left for California with our mother, Rachel Reed. I moved with our father, Grant Reed, into a moldy basement in Newark. Dad got hooked on gambling and buried himself in debt. Every day after school I washed dishes at a restaurant, and even my free school lunch had to be split into two meals. Six years later, Lily sent me a link out of nowhere. "Here's an eighteenth birthday present for you, sis." It was a paid livestreaming platform for the rich. The hottest stream on the homepage was called "Raised Poor vs. Raised Rich: Which Child Turns Out Better?" The screen was split in two. On the left, I sat in the leaky basement, doing homework by a broken desk lamp. On the right, my parents sat with their arms around Lily on the couch of a mansion in Alpine, cutting into a birthday cake. [The sister still has no idea, right? Her parents never divorced.] [The gambling debts and debt collectors are fake too. It's all for the show.] Lily looked into the camera and smiled sweetly. "See, sis?" "This is our real home."