Contos e Romances de Familial Bond

On the day I got married, my father-in-law personally fastened an obsidian bead bracelet around my wrist. He looked at me and said, "Moses, from today on, you're one of the family. I'll treat you like my own." I had grown up in an orphanage and had never truly had a family of my own. Because of those words alone, I willingly married into the Zeigler family and wore that bracelet for six straight years. Even after it rubbed my wrist raw—leaving it swollen, ulcerated, and oozing with pus—I still could not bear to take it off. Everything changed the day I stopped by my childhood friend's antique and jewelry appraisal studio for a small get-together. The moment he saw my wrist, he turned grim. "Moses," he said sharply. "Take it off." I froze. "My father-in-law gave this to me. It's a Zeigler family heirloom. I can't." His eyes reddened as he enunciated every word. "That's no obsidian. It's something that's going to kill you."

I guided 3,600 souls across the River Styx. I endured the fires of Hell 3,600 times on behalf of the rich and powerful. I turned down 3,600 offers from the King of Hell to be reborn into a life of wealth and privilege. Finally, after I earned enough merit, the King of Hell allowed me to return to the day of my father’s wedding. I shoved my way through the guests and screamed until my voice gave out. “Dad! Don’t marry her!”

After Mom left our world, Dad poured his entire fortune into researching a way to establish a link to another dimension. He bought me a caretaker robot to look after me. But Sophie, Dad’s best friend, had set it to Pet Mode. Every day, it fed me only ten pieces of cat kibble. I was so weak from hunger that I could barely speak, so I called Dad for help. But he always said, “Can’t you stop being so difficult? You useless little brat. You couldn’t even keep your mother alive!” “Didn’t I ask Sophie to check on you every day? Who taught you to lie?” I hung up in fear and curled up inside the closet. Mom’s scent still lingered there. As I lay on the brink of death, an unfamiliar voice whispered in my ear. [Would you give up your life to bring your mother back?] I nodded faintly. Yes, I would. As long as Mom and Dad could be happy, that was all I wanted.

When the Russo family—the most notorious mafia empire in America—brought me, their long-lost true blood, back to the estate, I set three rules: One: Don't compare me to Chloe, the perfect adopted daughter. Two: Don't give her my things as charity, and don't dump her hand-me-downs on me. Three: Stay out of my private life. The man she was supposed to marry is hers. Our father—the Don—agreed. Chloe and I barely kept a fake peace. But when the marriage alliance came up, the rules went out the window. Her fiancé Marcello chose me—a street-wild girl covered in motor oil. My father was furious. My mother, bitter. My oldest brother, the Underboss, looked at me with pure disgust. Chloe was convinced I seduced her fiancé in bed. But God as my witness, I never touched him. I stormed into his private cigar club, demanding he clear things up. Marcello blew out a puff of smoke and sneered. "The Vitiello family's marriage pact was always with the true Russo blood. We have no intention of taking a fake." As he said it, his sharp dark eyes slid toward a trembling Chloe. A cruel, almost sick thrill flashed in them. It took me a long time to get it. He had too much wildness in his bones to marry a smiling puppet. And I—a foul-mouthed, reckless street girl—became his perfect pawn to rebel against his entire family. I was forced to become Marcello's wife. Three years later, he got bored. He threw a divorce agreement in my face. Filled with my unbearable "sins": "Too stubborn. Zero feminine, in bed or out." "Always showing your face at that biker shop. A disgrace. Unfit for the title of Donna." I stared at him. I remembered why he dumped Chloe—he hated her submissive elegance. Now, what he hated most was that I wasn't submissive, and I wasn't elegant. I flicked the ash from my cigarette and said, dead calm: "Fine. I'll sign."

The night I was kidnapped, I made one last phone call to my dad, police captain Marcus Harper. "Dad, save me!" "Grace, even your jealous tantrums should have better timing." On the other end of the line, he was celebrating his adopted daughter's birthday. His voice dripped with impatience. "Today is Annie's eighteenth birthday. Pushing her down the stairs wasn't enough for you? Now you have to lie and make a scene too?" I cried and told him I hadn't done it. All I got in return was a dismissive chuckle. "Grace, either come home right now and apologize to Annie, or don't ever come back." I never made it back. Three months later, a girl's body was unearthed at an abandoned slaughterhouse on the edge of the city. Dad led the team to the scene. He pulled back the blue tarp covering the body and saw the red cord around my wristbone, the one with "Stay Safe" engraved on its silver tag. The man who had saved countless missing children finally lost his mind.

On my sixth birthday, my mother is suddenly diagnosed with depression. There are no warning signs and no apparent cause. The only explanation is a message her best friend, Heather Reed, sends Dad. "Don't ever let anyone hurt her." From that moment on, that message changes everything. What I never expect is that one day, it will cost me my life.

My elder sister, Alice, was a white wolf. A witch had foretold that my power would devour hers, that the moment I shifted during our coming-of-age ceremony, she would die. The only way to save her was to suppress my power, let her shift first at the ceremony, and break the curse. To save her, my parents spent eighteen years breaking me. And the night before our ceremony, they followed the witch's orders and locked me in the basement with silver-banded iron chains. "Be good, Maria. The silver will only delay your shift. Just get through tomorrow, and your sister lives. Then we can all stop suffering." The chains pressed against my chest. I could barely breathe. But something was wrong. My shift was starting, early. I slammed my fists against the door. "Mom, it's starting. I'm shifting now—" "Don't lie to me." Her voice cut through, sharp and loud. "The witch said both of you shift on ceremony day. Or are you really that eager to watch your sister die?" Footsteps faded down the hall. The pain hit, searing, ripping through every bone. I curled into the corner, feeling my wolf slip away.

I was born to be my sister's blood bag. She needed a constant supply of fresh blood, so I stayed on call twenty-four hours a day. No junk food. No getting sick. My whole body was kept in perfect condition, all for her sake. The day I turned eighteen, they dragged me into an operating room to donate my bone marrow to her. Half-conscious, with no one watching over me, I died right there in the hospital. I thought that once I was gone, the three of them could finally live together happily as a family. But after I died, they stopped loving her too.

At the university Ball, Ada ripped my necklace from my throat in front of everyone. Emeralds skittered across the floor. She planted her hand on her hip and jabbed a finger in my face. "Elena, you thief! How dare you steal my necklace? My brothers had it custom-made for me. You had no right to touch their gift!" The ballroom went silent. Her favorite lackey, Louise Parker, swept toward me with her chin high. "Ada is the Costa brothers' little sister. You're dead this time!" A collective gasp rippled through the crowd. "The Costa family? The one that controls the weapons pipeline along the entire Eastern Seaboard?" "Everyone knows the three Costa brothers guard their sister like their lives depend on it. The last guy who tried to get close to her supposedly had his arms and legs cut off before they threw him into an underground fighting pit full of starving wolves." "She's really their sister? Elena is in serious trouble this time!" I stared at the emeralds scattered across the floor, and a disbelieving laugh escaped me. The Costa brothers did have a cherished younger sister. That was me, Elena Costa.

A witch prophesied that the stronger I became, the closer my twin sister, Elara, would come to death. To save her, my parents suppressed my wolf spirit for eighteen years. They forced me to hide my gifts and apologize for every success. The werewolf academy selection trial at eighteen was my only chance to escape this family. But on the day of the trial, they confiscated my token and locked me inside the winter store behind a silver door. “You know Elara could die because of you, and you still want to take the trial?” The silver walls suppressed my wolf spirit, leaving me helpless as the room grew steadily colder. I pounded on the door and begged for help. Mother replied coldly, “Stop pretending. The cooling system isn’t even on.” At that moment, I finally understood. As they left with Elara, the truth became clear. No matter how many times I gave in, they would always demand one more sacrifice. Blood ran from my forehead and slowly froze against my training uniform. I curled up in the darkness and stopped pounding on the door. They thought destroying my future would save Elara. When they returned, Elara was still alive. I was already dead.

We have an old rule in our town. Any family with twins must choose one to make an example out of. That is the way to discipline one’s children and ensure they grow up well. Born four minutes before my brother, I became that example. When my brother snuck out to swim in the river, Mom didn’t scold him. Instead, she pressed my head into the river again and again. She finally stopped when my brother cried, yelling that he would never go to the river again. When my brother forgot to switch on the rice cooker, Mom came back home from work only to realize that the rice was still uncooked in the pot. She then served me two bowls of uncooked rice. “Finish them and don’t leave a single grain behind.” Chewing on the hard rice filled my mouth with blood. She stared at my brother throughout the entire ordeal. When he finally cried, she took the bowls away. I was made an example for 16 years. Until that day when our town received a red alert for an incoming hurricane. Everyone had to evacuate overnight. My brother only came back at dawn after playing a fool with his friends the entire night. He was completely drenched when he came back, smiling gleefully. Mom stuffed him into an evacuation vehicle before turning to look at me, saying very calmly, “Stay here. After the hurricane, your brother will learn his lesson and come home earlier.” Everyone in town left. Roof tiles started flying in the wind. Mom, you like to make an example out of me. This time, I'll die because of that. Are you happy now?

To save my daughter, I collected 50,000 plastic bottles. Day after day, I dug through trash, carried them home, and traded them for scraps of hope. However, when I finally hauled them all to the recycling center, I learned their selling price had dropped. The 50,000 bottles were worth only enough to buy my daughter a better urn. Desperate, I held my feverish daughter in my arms as she suffered a seizure. I called my actress wife for help. Her answer was ice-cold. “$5,000 for a fever? Do you think I’m some kind of charity?” The irony was that she had spent $50 million building a private hospital for her screen partner’s dog just hours earlier.

I was the most famous lawyer in the city, with a constant stream of clients. However, my career took a hit after I adopted my daughter — all because of her toxic, rebellious nature. When I took a child abuse case, she told the victim’s family, “My father loves taking cases with little girls, because he loves little girls.” When I hosted a seminar online, she barged into the camera and said, “Don’t believe my father! He uses his work to harass victims.” Today, I joined a speech competition on behalf of my law firm. The audience was filled with VIPs. I told her again and again not to act up. She promised, then turned to wail at the national panel of judges. “My father said he’ll send me back to the orphanage because I won’t let him molest me. Are you sure you want him to represent you?” I looked up at her triumphant, vicious gaze and stayed silent. This time, however, she would soon regret it.

My grandfather was a thief. He stole my grandmother’s name and the opportunity that could have taken her out of the backwoods, then left with another woman by his side. One of them became a prominent law professor, standing at the front of lecture halls talking about fairness and justice. The other became a renowned fine artist, speaking in front of news cameras about art and integrity. Meanwhile, my grandmother was trapped in the backwoods her entire life, enduring pointed fingers and malicious insults everywhere she went. She died with her eyes wide open, refusing to rest in peace. Fifty years passed. I owed everything to the sacrifices of my grandmother and mother. Thanks to them, I made my way out of the backwoods and became a partner at a top-tier law firm. During recruitment season, I sat in the head interviewer's chair. The young man sitting across from me was bright, handsome, and the star graduate of a top-tier law school. I flipped through his resume, scanning page after page. When I reached the family background section, my fingers froze. I stared at that name for a long time. Finally, I lifted my eyes, looked straight at him, and spoke without a trace of emotion, "You didn't make the cut."

In my family, everything was decided by a blind box draw. Even on the day my twin sister and I were born, my parents used a blind box to decide who would be the older and younger sibling. My sister, who was born four minutes before me, drew 'The Beloved Little Daughter'. I drew 'The Responsible Elder Sister'. For 18 years, my parents would place two blind boxes in front of us for everything—from picking our bedrooms and clothes to deciding who got the chicken drumstick. I always ended up drawing things like 'Clean the Entire House' or 'Eat the Chicken Wing Tips'. Meanwhile, my sister always got 'The Latest Princess Dress' or 'Secret Edition: Family Vacation'. Whenever I felt upset, my parents would always say, “That’s fate. Whatever the blind box gives you, you have to accept.” That was until my 18th birthday. My parents brought out the blind boxes again. This time, I drew 'The Right to Attend College'. My younger sister, the girl who had been spoiled and cherished her entire life, drew 'Work in a Factory'.

To prove she was fair, Valerie forced me into the family's live-fire drill. She knew I had a severe heart condition. She knew I couldn't stand the sight of blood. Three hours under the blistering sun. My hands shook wildly. I stared at the trembling rabbit tied to the target, terrified to pull the trigger. "You can't even kill a freaking rabbit? How are you supposed to lead this family?" Valerie's icy voice lashed at me from behind. Tears filled my eyes. I finally pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through the rabbit. Blood spattered everywhere. The smell and all that red triggered my blood phobia instantly. Everything went pitch black. Chloe, the intern medic, walked over and grabbed me roughly. Her eyes were full of pure malice. "Underboss, her vitals are totally fine. Is she faking it just to escape training?" Valerie looked down at my pale face. Disgust and disappointment covered her face. "Gemma, is this how I raised you? Everyone else finished. You don't get special treatment." "You finish this drill today—even if it kills you!" Then, my chest stopped moving. Dead silence. My soul floated into the air. I looked down at Mom, filled with guilt and despair. I'm sorry, Mom. This time, I really couldn't hold on.

After we get married, my husband places his assistant, Penelope Sanders, in complete control of our household finances. Whether I need money for groceries or a new car, every expense has to go through her entire review and approval process before she releases the money. Then, my mother-in-law, Margery Torres, is injured in a car crash and desperately needs 300,000 dollars for emergency surgery. When I can't reach my husband, I have no choice but to ask Penelope for access to our funds. However, she calmly paints her nails as she says, "You want the money? Fine, but you'll have to follow procedure. Submit a written request, and I'll review it." I've heard plenty about Penelope. She barely does any work at the office and spends most of her time making everyone else's job harder. However, Margery is waiting for the surgery that could save her life, so I immediately draft the request, while repeatedly emphasizing that it's a life-or-death emergency and that every minute matters. Penelope rejects it without even glancing at the page. "How do you expect me to approve 300,000 dollars based on this flimsy request? Who are you trying to fool? You're asking for 300,000 dollars, not 30 dollars. Denied." My voice trembles with desperation. "Ms. Sanders, the request clearly states that the money is for emergency surgery. Please make an exception!" Even so, Penelope remains completely unbothered as she slowly brushes glitter over her nails. "Rules are rules. Requests for major expenses must be at least two thousand words. Don't come back until you've written enough. If you want to save her life, write a request that actually meets the requirements."

When I practice standing at attention during the freshman orientation program, my mom, Jasmine Miller, decides to lock me up in a car with fully sealed windows just because I'm the first one who wipes sweat off her brow. "You were never able to stand properly ever since you were a kid! How dare you embarrass me in front of everyone with that slump of yours! In that case, you might as well reflect on yourself in the car!" The temperature in the car soon rose to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. I could only grip my throat, which is closing up rapidly, as I bang on the car window and plead to Mom to let me out. But she merely glances at the temperature shown on the monitor inside the car before locking all the doors with a jab of the remote control. "It's only 96.8 degrees inside the car! Heck, it's even a degree lower than the temperature outside! Keep putting on that act of yours, why don't you?" But what Mom doesn't know is that the car's system has already gotten disconnected from the Internet a long time ago. Seeing as the temperature inside the car is still increasing, I have no choice but to ask my orientation leader, Edwin Styke, for help. But he actually agrees with Mom's approach to things. "If every parent were as strict as Ms. Miller, none of the youngsters would grow up fragile and whiny!" Driven by sheer despair, I can only slump in the backseat. Soon, my consciousness fades away completely. Some of my peers try to plead on my behalf, only to witness the way Mom tosses her car key into the dumpster. "Kate really is enjoying her break, huh? Now that she's lying inside the car, she refuses to even move a muscle! Well then, she can lie there all she wants!" But Mom, I don't need you to free me anymore. After all, I can feel myself ascending slowly from the car. Finally, I'm free from this sauna! As I stare at Mom's furious face, I can only grip the hem of my sweat-soaked shirt uneasily. I'm sorry for embarrassing you in front of everyone again, Mom…

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.

On the day of our family trip, I wake up early, only to find the house empty. As I wonder what is going on, a message from my younger twin brother, Carson Smyth, suddenly pops up in the family group chat. "Oh, no! I forgot to update in this group chat that the departure time has been moved forward!" The very next second, the message is deleted. I stare blankly at the empty chat, my eyes stinging. So they have another group chat—one that doesn't include me. Still reeling, I get a call from Mom. "I'm sorry, Caleb. The departure time was moved up by an hour, and I forgot to tell you. Hurry and take a cab here! You might still be able to catch up—" My older sister, Carina Smyth, cuts her off and says quietly, "Since Caleb isn't here, let's just forget about him. Carson has always wanted to have the whole family's attention to himself. Let's consider this his wish coming true." I sniff and force down the ache in my chest. "I'll give it a miss. Have a great trip." After hanging up, I immediately change my train ticket from Sereia to Marevia. Maya Bingham, my childhood friend, and I have already made plans to visit Marevia's vast grasslands. Now, I finally have the chance to make that trip happen. For the past 18 years, my family has always favored Carson for being smart and handsome. Maya is the only one who has never looked down on me for being ordinary, quietly staying by my side all these years. Excited to tell her the good news, I get on my phone, and the first thing I see is a social media post from her. It is a photo of her posing intimately with Carson on the high-speed train to Sereia. The caption says, "Off to chase the waves with my prince!" The last shred of hope in me shatters completely. I get on my computer and change my choice on the university application from a local university, which Maya and I had planned to attend together, to a university in the south, more than 600 miles away. Then, clutching my newly changed train ticket, I take a cab to the station alone. If no one cares about me, then I'll go searching for my own happiness alone.