Familial Bond Countdown 단편 소설 & 소설

My husband, Severo Falcone, is the Don who rules Sicara's criminal underworld. His days are filled with high-stakes negotiations and bloody turf wars. So, over the years, I've grown accustomed to his absence from our lives. On our wedding anniversary, he was negotiating by the docks. When our daughter, Lucia Falcone, attended her first family gathering, he was called away to deal with a territorial dispute. Even on Lucia's fifth birthday, all he offers is a promise over the phone. "Something's come up tonight. I'll make it up to her when I'm done." I think nothing of it. Then, half an hour later, Ylenia Bianchi sends me a photo. At a private clinic, Severo is sitting by her bed, personally tending to her wounds. The message attached to her photo is just as brazen. "Whenever I need him, he will always show up." In that moment, everything falls into place. I've always believed the family business was keeping him away from us. Turns out, he's been spending that time with her all along. He isn't too busy. He simply prioritizes Ylenia over his own wife and daughter every single time. Holding back tears, I turn to Lucia after she blows out her birthday candles. "What did you wish for, Lucia?" Lucia flashes me a sweet, innocent smile. "I wish for the two of us to stay together forever! I want you to be happy every day, Mamma. I hope you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want!" I smile and kiss her forehead. "I'll make sure your wish comes true." That very night, I book two plane tickets to leave Sicara in seven days.

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.

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.]

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.

Three years after my Alpha brother banished me from Blackwood Pack, he donated one dollar to my PackAid fundraiser. His public message read: [Let me know when you actually die. I’ll pop the champagne.] Three years earlier, Serena—the orphan Adrian had brought home from the border—accused me of stealing her silver-purification protocol that had earned Blackwood’s only nomination to the Royal Healer Academy. Adrian never let me explain. He revoked my nomination, cut off my Pack sponsorship, and ordered me out of Blackwood territory before sunrise. [Admit what you did. Apologize to Serena. Then I’ll let you come home.] Then he sealed me out of the Pack mindlink. Overnight, I went from protected Alpha blood to a rogue no Pack dared accept. Three years later, Serena slept in my old room at the Alpha House, wore my mother’s jewelry, and smiled whenever Pack members called her the Alpha’s sister. I dug through trash outside the territory and scavenged scrap in an abandoned industrial district until silver dust poisoned my lungs. By then, my wolf was fading and the healer called it terminal Silver Lung. After reading Adrian’s comment, I called Moonrest Memorial Park. “Hold the cheapest grave you have.” His one-dollar donation had pushed my fundraiser to PackAid’s minimum withdrawal amount. I decided to give him exactly what he wanted.

My mother, Margaret Harper, carries the blood of a Word Witch. Once every lunar cycle, she can speak one blessing that fate itself is forced to obey. But all my life, the only thing she ever gave me was half a sentence. When I was eighteen, I received early admission to the Northern Royal Healers' Academy. My mother looked at the letter and said, "If you go north..." Her instincts had never been wrong, so I thought she'd seen danger waiting for me there. I turned the academy down with my own hands. Months later, she used her recommendation and a binding blessing to send my younger sister, Chloe, to the best healing school near our pack, even though Chloe had nowhere near my talent. After that, I stopped asking about my future. I started at the bottom of Black Pine Pack's medical system and fought my way up until the Northern Royal Pack appointed me Chief Healer. One month before I was due to leave, my mother saw the appointment letter and still offered me nothing but another unfinished warning. "Climbing too high might..." That same night, I heard her give Chloe the only blessing she could use that month. "You'll pass the senior healer examination. Your wolf will remain calm, and every examiner will recognize your ability." So that's the truth. My mother wasn't unable to finish a sentence. She simply never thought I was worth one. If every blessing she had belonged to Chloe, then Margaret didn't need to know that in one month, I would leave her house and Black Pine Pack for good.

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.

The day my sister Sophie got into the magnet high school, my parents threw her a huge celebration party. That same day, I got my SAT scores. 1580. Top fifty in the state. When a neighbor asked about my college applications, my mother smiled and said: "Renee's applying next year. Today is Sophie's day—don't steal her spotlight." She didn't even remember I'd already graduated high school. That night, the graduation gift money a neighbor gave me was taken by her too—to buy Sophie a new laptop. I didn't argue. I just went to my room and submitted my Stanford application on that old, slow laptop. A few weeks later, my parents moved close to Sophie's magnet school. They left me alone in the old house. When the Stanford offer arrived, I left it in the most visible spot in the living room. My mother covered it with Sophie's new bedsheets and said: "What's this junk mail? Throw it away." I took back my offer letter—and with it, the last shred of hope I had for them. They thought I'd stay behind, waiting for them to come back. They didn't know I was about to leave this house. For good.

On college decision night, my entire family crowded around my twin sister, Lily. My brother Ethan pulled up a map of Boston and compared the distance between her dorm and his campus. Ryan, my childhood best friend, gave up his place at McGill because Lily admitted she was scared to start college without someone familiar nearby. My parents couldn't have been happier. Now Lily would always have someone ready to take care of her. It took them most of the evening to remember that I had a decision to make too. "Nora has always been our independent one," Mom said, choosing for me without so much as looking up. "She can go to UMass Boston. It's close to Lily, so she can help out on weekends." No one asked which schools had accepted me. No one knew there was still an offer from Scotland sitting in my inbox. If they had never planned to let me have a life of my own, I no longer owed them updates about it. I turned my laptop away from them and accepted my place at the University of Edinburgh. For once, I chose the place farthest from all of them.

After the Silvermoon pack lost the war, the vampire prince demanded a noble she-wolf as the price of peace. Everyone knew what that meant. No she-wolf sent to the Blood Court had ever been allowed to return to her pack. Our Alpha had no daughter, so he ordered his Beta’s two daughters Evelyn and me to draw lots. Before the draw, my fiancé Rowan whispered to me, “I marked the safe parchment with a crescent moon. Choose that one.” I trusted him and I chose the crescent. But when I unfolded the parchment, two words stared back at me: VAMPIRE BRIDE. My mother pulled Evelyn into her arms in relief. “Thank the Goddess it wasn’t Evelyn.” My father showed no sympathy. “You’re the eldest. Protecting the pack is your duty.” Rowan wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You saved the Alpha’s life once. If anything happens, he’ll bring you home. Evelyn has no such protection.” They all thought I had a way back. They didn’t know I had already used the Alpha’s life debt three years ago to save Rowan from execution. The draw had never been fair. They had chosen me to be the daughter who never came home. Fine. I would leave and never return.

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.

After being rushed to the hospital and brought back from another relapse, I vaguely heard my family arguing. "This is already the second time this month. When will it end?! Why isn't he dead yet?!" "Mom, don't say that! I've decided, I'll start working right after graduation to earn money!" My dad scolded my older brother, "But you have such good grades. You've already secured a spot for postgraduate studies. You should keep studying, let us take care of the money!" I lay on the bed, crying silently. After three years of being tormented by illness, I couldn't keep going anymore. This time, I chose to let go.

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.

When my stepsister took my bedroom, my birthday party, and the sewing case my mother had left me, my father told me to be generous. A Moretti daughter could afford it, he said. My brother and Luca took me to a bakery that night. Between them, they bought the biggest strawberry cake in the window. “You still have us,” Luca promised. For nine years, I believed him. Then, just before our wedding, Matteo bought back my mother's missing pendant, and Luca found the bridal coat she'd made for me before she died. I thought they understood what those things meant. Until Valentina came downstairs wearing both. “I only wanted to see how it felt,” she said, her eyes filling. “I've never really belonged here.” My brother stepped between us before I could speak. Luca reached for my hand, already preparing to ask me to be kind. “You're going to be my wife, Emilia. She just needs to feel safe.” He loved me. I knew that. What I no longer knew was whether being loved by him would ever mean being chosen when it mattered. That evening, I canceled the wedding and accepted a job at my mother's struggling couture house in Paris. By the time the future Don came looking for his bride, I had returned the family ring—and left him no wedding to save.

My parents are music professors, and their university is always hosting these music salons and exchange events. But they never took me. After I graduated from college, I was desperate to see what it was like, so I begged my mother for a visitor's pass. She was busy helping my sister Ella fill out an application for one of those concerts, and she cut me off cold: "Everyone attending is a top-tier musician. You can't even read sheet music—walking in there, you'd just stick out like a sore thumb." A few days later, I stood in the freezing wind, listening to the applause rolling out from the auditorium. My sister stood at center stage, performing alongside a bunch of renowned musicians. That night, my mom posted a proud photo of Ella's performance on social media. Graceful. Composed. Radiant. The comments were all flattery—until one relative asked: [Why didn't you bring your Seraphina along to soak up some of the spotlight?] My mom replied: [She has zero musical talent. Too much of a philistine. Not her scene.] I stared at my phone, glancing at the six-figure offer from Wall Street, and let out a helpless laugh. My mom always favored the kid she thought was brilliant—never had a clue that I was shining somewhere else entirely. Three days left until I move out of Ohio for good. I'm taking everything she called "philistine" about me and walking out of her precious little music kingdom forever.

Everyone in the family can see the countdown above Eli Nash, my brother, so we all know he dies the day he turns 16 years old. Thus, Eli becomes the most pampered person in the family. He gets all the good food, the latest limited-edition sneakers, and even the bedtime stories from Mom and Dad. I feel very bad for him, yet I am jealous of all the love he receives. I finally make it to the eve of his 16th birthday. But Mom and Dad fear that I will cause trouble, so they lock me in a storage room while I am suffering from a high fever. I panic as I bang on the door. "Please let me out, Mom! I'm running a fever, and my head hurts so badly!" Mom snaps through gritted teeth, "That's enough, Ash! Eli is going to die tomorrow! Why can't you just put up with it?" "I feel really sick, though…" I start losing consciousness as the sounds outside the door die down.

My mafia family threw me in the slums for three years. I finally learned to obey. The day I returned, my fiancé, the Don Lucian, cornered me. By the driveway. His eyes were dark. A warning. “If you dare touch another hair on Chloe’s head, I will—” He didn’t finish. I stuck my right hand in the open car doorframe. I slammed the door on it with my left. A dull crack echoed in the cold air. My bones. He stared at my hand. Limp. Dripping blood. I used to be a violinist. These hands were my life. I didn’t even flinch. His cold, unbreakable mask. It cracked. For the first time. Back in the family estate, on the top-floor terrace. The orphan my parents adopted taunted me. “So what if you’re engaged to the Don? I’m the future Donna!” She sneered. Grabbed a brooch from the table. Slashed her own arm. Blood welled up. Then she screamed. “Seraphina! If you hate me that much, I’ll leave! Please, don’t hurt my baby!” My fiancé and my brother burst in. They saw it all. They slammed me to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. His hand was tight around my throat. “You’re hopeless!” Lucian roared. “If anything happens to Chloe or my heir, I'll put a bullet in your head myself.” I nodded obediently. I turned. Walked downstairs. Straight into the snow-covered backyard. No hesitation. I jumped. Straight into the ice-covered pool. My broken hand shattered the thin ice. The pool turned red. The freezing water swallowed me whole. My lungs filled with ice. I was choking again. My mother let out a shriek and fainted on the spot. My father, frantic, dove into the freezing water. He dragged me out. But my fiancé, the ever-cold Lucian, just stood there. Frozen. A flash of unbelievable panic crossed his face. His feet were lead. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Agony tore through me. The cold. The lack of air. I thought I was finally dying. And I smiled. The System had told me: Show absolute obedience until death. You will be rewarded with billions. And I will send you back to your real world.

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."

She cupped my face in her hands and said, slow and deliberate, "We're going to make a promise. Starting tomorrow, you'll draw one sun a day in your notebook. No skipping, no cheating—you have to fill it with thirty thousand suns. Only when you've drawn the last one can you come find me."

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.