Tragic Love の短編小説 & Hypocrisy Face Slapping 小説

The Sanders family has one rule: if a daughter attends her debutante ball without a partner, the family gets to decide whom she marries. And as the Sanders family's unwanted adopted daughter, I know no one will ask me. Desperate to escape an arranged marriage, I finally work up the courage to ask Jonathan Bale, the man I've secretly loved for years, to be my partner. He smiles, ruffles my hair, and says yes. But that night, Jonathan arrives at the ball with Raine Sanders, the family's real daughter, on his arm. I beg him not to do this to me, but he only seems annoyed. "Stop making such a big deal out of it. If you're that worried, I can just marry you tomorrow," he jokes. "Don't worry. You're not even a real Sanders anyway. Who else is going to want you?" Laughter erupts around us, and I slowly let go of his sleeve. And just like that, I stop fighting it. The next day, Jonathan actually shows up at our house with a marriage proposal in hand. He has come to ask for my hand. But Dad looks at him with a complicated expression. "She was sent to the Fairmont family before dawn," Dad says. "She's about to get married."

Cancer was killing me, and my husband worked through every night building a human cryonics program to save my life. Before they put me under, he held the baby I had nearly died giving birth to, and said through tears: "Lina Virga, our son and I will wait together for the day you can wake up. Seven years from now, a drug that can treat my illness exist, and the hospital brings me back. When the nurse asked me to settle the bill, I stared at her blankly and asked her to call my husband for me. "Contact Vito Ranieri of the Lucchese family. Tell him his wife is awake." But the nurse laughed under her breath. "Please, don't joke. Mr. Ranieri and Miss Bellini have a son who's seven years old. Everyone in Sicily knows they’re a devoted couple. "I'll have the neurologist come by and evaluate you shortly." I assumed she was teasing me. I didn't give it another thought. Then Nora Bellini arrived, hired as a photographer to document me, the medical miracle. Vito's interview was playing on the television, and I said it with pride. "That's my husband. The best researcher there is." Nora's brows lifted in surprise, and the corners of her mouth dipped. "As far as I'm aware, Vito has exactly one wife. Me. "So how is it I've never heard about anyone else?"

I've been able to smell people's emotions since I was a child. Affection smells sweet. Sorrow smells bitter. Disgust and anger smell spicy. I'd been with Bruce Dawson for ten years, and the scent that clung to him had never changed. It was always sweet, cloyingly so. The only thing that ever shifted was the day my older sister left the country. That night, when he came home late, his scent had turned bitter enough to make me frown. But I never connected the two. Not until three years later, when my sister came home to get married. That day, his scent was bitter laced with something spicy, a mix I'd never smelled on him before. It struck me as strange. Without thinking, I followed him when he stepped away from the reception, and outside in the stairwell I heard his voice, low and pained. "That's enough, Jasmine! You'd rather marry a stranger just to make me give up on you?" My sister's voice cracked as she cried back at him. "What else can I do? You're my brother-in-law. Rosalie is my sister. We can't keep doing this to her!" I froze in the doorway, my whole body shaking with shock, my heart wrung out like a fist closing around it until I couldn't breathe. That was when my phone lit up with a reminder: my wedding to Bruce was next week. I stood there blank for two seconds. Then I called the hotel and canceled the wedding.

My boyfriend, Javon Hickman, and my best friend, Abbie Cote, get into a car accident on their way to see me, leaving Javon with amnesia. After looking at the couple's suite and our honeymoon itinerary, Javon decides Abbie is the woman he is proposing to. "The second I lay eyes on Abbie, I know she's the one," he insists. Our friends try to set him straight. "Dude, Abilene's your girlfriend! You said you'd marry her when she got pregnant! You seriously don't remember?" Javon turns to scan me, his gaze full of contempt. "My taste isn't that bad. Why would I ever date her? You guys are pulling my leg, right?" Heartbroken by his coldness, I sprint out of the hospital room, only to hear our friends showering him with praise from inside. "Javon, brilliant move! You get to score with your dream woman and drop the dead weight all in one shot. Genius!" Javon lets out a snicker. "If you idiots hadn't gotten the wrong contact three years ago, I wouldn't have been forced to stick with her in the first place. Besides, Abilene's pregnant. She won't walk away. Once I've had my fun, I'll just win her back." My heart sinks at those words. His memory loss is a total act. And he actually thinks he can just come crawling back whenever he's done playing around. Gently touching my belly, I book an abortion right then and there. I'm done waiting.

Everyone around us knows I'm in love with Ryland Wood. But from his 21st birthday on, he despises me. It takes three years and my accidental death for him to finally be free of me. When I open my eyes again, I find myself reborn, right back on the day of his 21st birthday. This time, I choose to run. Now, I refuse to be the lovesick fool, and I refuse to cling to him.

Drugged by my fiancé and my best friend. Dragged into the penthouse of New York’s most ruthless Mafia Don. But instead of panicking, my tight nerves finally let go. I'm finally home. My fiancé thought the drugs fried my brain. He grabbed my jaw roughly. "Listen up, bitch. Our gang's port smuggling route depends entirely on tonight!" "Word is Cassian's been looking for a woman with a specific butterfly birthmark. The one on your collarbone should fool him." "Serve him like the slut you are. Make him happy. Once the deal is done, I'll even toss you a few stacks of cash." My best friend stroked her red lips and giggled. "Yeah! Getting into the Don's bed is a blessing. Don't act like a prude. Once we get the smuggling route, you'll be our hero. Maybe I'll even let you serve drinks at our wedding." The drugs boiled in my blood. They shoved me roughly through the heavy doors. No one noticed the mocking smirk on my face as I leaned against the sofa. I knew exactly whose territory this was. The unpredictable, violent Mafia tyrant they were talking about? The one who treated women like toys? He's my blood brother. Today, out of pure greed, they hand-delivered me straight into his territory. Tomorrow, they’ll learn that staying alive can be far worse than going to hell.

For the fourth time, Sienna stood me up at the marriage registry to take care of her adopted younger brother. “Kane, Ryan’s mental stability index is nearing critical levels again. I’m the only one who can stabilize him. Can you wait a little longer for me?” I glanced at the clock on the wall. The registry office would close in fifteen minutes. This time, I said nothing. I simply tossed our registration form into the void behind me. In an age when mutated beasts ravaged the world and two-pilot mechas ruled the battlefield, I was the only person in the entire Alliance capable of piloting one alone. Yet for ten years, I had willingly served as Sienna’s personal co-pilot, risking my life through countless battles and lifting her to the pinnacle of power. But no matter how much I sacrificed for her, I could never compare to Ryan—the sickly orphan her father had adopted, whom she had always treated as her helpless little brother. I earned a high-grade armored suit with my military merits, only for Sienna to hand it to Ryan without a second thought. “Kane, you’re strong enough without it. Ryan is frail. For my sake, can’t you let him have it?” I spent countless nights developing a tactical program, only for her to give that to Ryan as well. “He scares easily, so he needs something foolproof. You’re a genius. You can operate the mecha manually, can’t you?” Sienna was certain I would never leave her. What she didn’t know was that the Alliance’s iron-willed female governor had been waiting a long time for my answer to her marriage proposal.