Cerita Pendek & Novel Homewrecker Reborn

On the day of my tenth wedding anniversary, my best friend, Jordan Price, shows up at my doorstep with a cancer diagnosis. He informs me he only has a month left to live, and his dying wish is to have my wife, Renee Myers, be his bride for a day to complete a non-binding wedding ceremony. In my previous life, I find the whole idea absurd. I tell him it isn't appropriate and turn him down. That night, he leaves a suicide note and jumps into the ocean. Jordan had been orphaned at a young age, and Mom takes him in and raises him as her own. When my son, Oliver Hall, is five years old, Jordan even risks his life to rescue him from a blazing building. Consequently, my entire family concludes that my sins are unforgivable and that I've driven him to his grave. Mom disowns me, and my younger brother, Philip Hall, cuts off all contact with me. Every year, Renee will wear her wedding gown and go to the beach to mourn him. My wife and son loathe me for a decade. … On the day of Oliver's wedding, he sets Jordan's memorial portrait at the head table and publicly declares that he wants nothing to do with me, his father, who supposedly killed the man who saved his life. Later on, after I suffer a stroke and end up paralyzed, Renee frames me as mentally unstable and has me committed to a mental asylum. On the day I breathe my last, I receive a video. Jordan, who is supposed to have been dead for a decade, has his arm around my wife. He's all smiles as he tells me he doesn't have cancer, and he never actually killed himself. … When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day Jordan hands me his cancer diagnosis. Renee's eyes are brimming with tears as she takes off her wedding ring. "Jordan only wants me to be his bride for a day. Can't you grant him this one wish?" Everyone expects me to refuse. However, I take the ring from her and casually toss it into the trash. "I can. Sign the divorce agreement today, and I'll walk you down the aisle tomorrow."

On the night we celebrated my husband's company going public, a woman covered in burn scars blocked my way and begged me not to enter the ballroom. Only I could see her. Her face was identical to mine, and the fingers on her right hand were twisted and broken. She said she was my future self. She'd clung so hard to a marriage that had fallen apart that, in the end, even her own father died at her husband's hands. She broke down, tears running over the scars on her face. "Evelyn, don't take the flowers in! He never really loved you. Your husband is the one who's going to destroy you!" I refused to believe it. Eight years ago, Noah Reed was just a broke student juggling two jobs at a diner. I stood by him as he fought his way up and built his company. I used the trust fund my mother left me to back him, and Dad even mortgaged his own house to help him get a startup loan. We'd been married for three years, and he'd always been so thoughtful. I'd been sure nothing could break us. He used to say I was the one he believed in, his rock, his only safe harbor in the world. But when I pushed open the heavy doors of the ballroom with a bouquet of white roses in my arms, Noah was under the spotlight, holding another woman's hand. "If it weren't for Claire, I wouldn't be who I am today." In that moment, I quietly handed back the apartment keys and revoked his authority over my personal assets. He had changed, and his love had turned out to be nothing but a lie. I decided to leave all of it behind. But afterward, Noah was like a man possessed, willing to do anything to win me back.

The day I announced I was quitting writing, the entire internet celebrated. Everyone except my girlfriend's rumored boyfriend, the famous mystery author, Bryan Vega. In a short video, he looked genuinely regretful. "This is all a misunderstanding. I’ve always admired Kobi’s work, and I hope he’ll come back for the sake of his readers." I turned off my phone and ignored him completely. In my previous life, the web novel I wrote was identical to the mystery novel he published. People online called me a plagiarist and wished death on my whole family. I tried to defend myself, posting my drafts, outlines, and timestamps. Yet, it didn't matter. The last edit timestamp on his document was ten minutes earlier than mine. Just those ten minutes destroyed me. The messages never stopped. Strangers flooded my inbox with insults. Some even showed up at my house and threw paint on the walls. Years of nonstop harassment dragged me into depression. My parents tried to clear my name, but obsessed fans hunted them down and murdered them using methods copied straight from his novel. In the end, on the very day his book won a major award, I sealed my windows and burned charcoal, ending my life. And then, I opened my eyes again. I had returned to the day my new book was supposed to be released.

My wife, Anne Brighton, gives me a gray parrot. Every single day, it looks me in the eye and screeches, "Go to hell!" I send it to a parrot rehabilitation center, where they place it in a mirrored cage and play "I'm a good bird" on loop, three thousand times a day. Here's the thing—I've been reborn. In my past life, that parrot came into our home knowing only two phrases—"So ugly" and "Go to hell". At first, I believed it was merely mimicking what it had heard. But then my body began to fail. Sleep was the first to go. Every night, the same nightmare returned, and the same voice echoed through it, repeating those words over and over. "Go to hell." My appetite disappeared, and I wasted away until I was nothing but bones. In the end, my organs gave out. I didn't find out the truth until I was dying. The parrot I thought it was wasn't one at all. It was Ian Sawyer—my best friend, who had been dead for years, trapped inside that bird the whole time.

On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, I must choose a fiancé from among the heirs of three great families. Everyone believes I will choose Dario Morandi—the man I have pursued for years. Instead, I pick up the photograph of his older brother, Cassiano Morandi. Cassiano is known as the lunatic who was kidnapped by enemies at the age of five and thrown into an underground fighting pit. He survived on his own for ten years before the Morandis brought him back. No one thinks he is worthy of me, the Vito family's Principessa. In my previous life, I choose Dario. On our wedding day, Lina Greco—the daughter of Papa's chauffeur—shows up in a white wedding dress with her pregnant belly on display, crying as she claims the child is Dario's. Enraged, I have her thrown out. But amid the chaos, she suffers a miscarriage. Dario smiles and goes through with the wedding. But in the third year of our marriage, he steals classified intelligence and hands it over to my famiglia's enemies. I die that very night. Now that I have a second chance at life, I decide to fulfill his wish and let him be with Lina. What I never expect is that he has been reborn as well.

The century-long war was over. My sister and I were the Alpha's daughters. The strongest pack in the North. We were forced into a marriage alliance with the Evernight vampire kingdom. A witch prophesied a powerful hybrid would be born to our family. A child destined to be king. Soon, my sister and I were both pregnant. I didn't care about giving birth to the prophesied ruler. I just wanted my child to be safe and healthy. But I never expected what happened. My sister, Liliana, gave birth to the hybrid king. Her mate, the first prince, Damien, was immediately named Crown Prince. And me? I gave birth to a monster. A beast born in its feral wolf form, all fangs and fury. I was branded unclean. My mate, the second prince Kael, was executed for my "sin." Burned to ash. Only in my last moments did I learn the truth. The monster my sister had swapped for mine? It was hers. It was all a scheme. A plot she and Damien hatched to hide a defect in his bloodline and steal the throne. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back before everything went to hell. And my sister was walking toward me, a smile on her face, a glass of juice in her hand…