Cerita Pendek Bittersweet Imagination & Novel Mistress

For ten years, I raised the finest bodyguard money could buy, and for a nanny's daughter, he turned his blade on me. I didn't spare a thought for the years between us. I had his tendons cut, his skills stripped away, and I threw him out of Meridian City. The live comments practically caught fire. [Somebody help, Celeste Ward has gone too far! Julian protected her for ten years, and the one time he didn't put her first, she's going to ruin him?] [This is the kind of love that terrifies me — if she can't have him, she'd rather destroy him. What did Julian even do wrong, trying to save the woman he loves?] [Run, Julian! A viper like her doesn't deserve your loyalty. Go to Amber — she's the one who can actually save you!] Me? Going too far? A traitor who turns on his own mistress for an outsider — if anything, I went easy on him. I gave a cold laugh, tore up his lifetime contract in front of everyone, and had every last one of his belongings burned. Then I went straight to the underground fight club and picked out the meanest, most reckless guy I could find. A month later, word reached Julian. He fought his way through every guard at my gate, half-dead by the time he made it to the door. He dropped to his knees in front of me, eyes rimmed red, clutching the hem of my skirt. "Miss Ward," he said, "that mongrel covered in tattoos — what does he have that I don't?"

My boyfriend, Hayden Klein, has just finished grilling my favorite chicken wings when his childhood friend, Sophie Miller, walks over and takes a bite. "You know me the best, Hayden," she says approvingly. Before I can react, I hear an angry voice getting closer. "Ugh! That awful woman is about to drink that jerk's drink again." As those words fall, Sophie really does pick up Hayden's cup. "Mom, don't be such a pushover this time around. Otherwise, you'll get so angry you'll end up dying of breast cancer." Confused, I look around. My dog, Daisy, is baring her teeth at Sophie. Was it... my dog? I cautiously take a bite of my boyfriend's handsome best friend's chicken wing. "Way to go, Mom! This time, you have to end up with Oliver instead. Don't choose that jerk again!" Daisy wags her tail so hard that it practically resembles a helicopter rotor. "Oliver is ready to become 'the other man' for love. Mom is the most charming woman ever!"

When my husband, Robert Bowen, takes his assistant, Bianca Strickland, to a prenatal checkup, I'm being kissed by his 18-year-old version in a corner. "You're already 30 years old, yet why do you smell so nice and taste so kissable? I love you so much, honey! "By the way, where did my 30-year-old self go? Why didn't he come pick you up after work?" I push the 18-year-old Robert away helplessly, only to meet the icy gaze of his 30-year-old self from afar. "You already have a young side piece, and yet you still can't bear to get a divorce from me? Don't make me look down on you, Kaitlyn Hudson." As I watch Robert leaving the hospital with his arm around Bianca, his 18-year-old self begins throwing a temper tantrum in my arms. "That idiot! How dare he speak to my wife in such an arrogant manner! I might as well commit suicide right now so that he'll disappear from this world permanently!"