Plot Twists の短編小説 & Independence Revenge 小説

My husband, worried I might be lonely, gifted me a little female cat. I turned around and found 50 feral toms to breed her with, making her birth litter after litter until she was utterly spent. It was all because I had been reborn. In my past life, I adored this little cat so much I could hardly put her down. I wanted to eat and sleep right beside her. In just one short month, I aged rapidly into an 80-year-old woman, and the child in my womb withered and died along with me. No medicine could save me, and I simply died of old age. After death, my soul lingered. I saw that the sickly, frail mistress in our household had somehow become radiant and glowing, and pregnant on top of it all. I overheard her chatting in bed with my husband. "Thank goodness I bound myself to the Life-Drain System. I separated my soul, possessed the little cat, and sucked away Leah's life force. That's the only reason I survived." "She should count it as a blessing that you could drain her at all. It's better that she's dead. This way, the position of first wife is yours." I was reborn into a new life, and I smiled. Selling off a mistress would get me accused of treating human life carelessly. But she was merely a cat now, and surely it was perfectly reasonable to breed her for eight or ten litters and produce a hundred-some kittens.

The year I turned fourteen, Grandma and I were crammed into a beat-up trailer on the edge of a desert town. She couldn't afford paint, so she mixed colors from the cheapest red clay pigment at the general store. When a frame broke, she hammered it back together herself. When canvas tore, she patched the back with old cloth and sealed it with a paste she boiled from leftover church wax and cheap resin. Grandma never went to school. She painted out of pure love, and she kept at it for thirty years. Then one summer, a gallery owner named Evelyn Hart crawled into Grandma's leaky shed and examined every painting, flipping each one over to study both sides. The next day, every last painting was gone. Finished oils, sketches, pigment records, old photographs, frames. Everything cleared out overnight. Three months later, Grandma walked into Evelyn's gallery and saw her own painting, Madonna of the Red Rock, hanging in the brightest spot. But the brass nameplate beside it bore Evelyn's name. She lunged for the painting. The security guards pried her fingers loose and dragged her out the door. That night, a blizzard sealed off the roads. She pounded on the glass, but no one came. The next morning, when I found her outside the gallery, her body was already frozen solid. After the funeral, I went to clean out what was left of the burned shed. Inside the lining of an old brush pouch, I found a small scrap of painted canvas. It was a piece Grandma had trimmed off while repairing Madonna of the Red Rock. The thief had missed it. I tucked it away and kept it. For twenty years. Twenty years later, I was the compliance director at an international art marketplace. A young woman submitted an auction application for a series of paintings. The Desert Madonna Series was about to be sold to collectors and private museums around the world. The collection was valued at more than $150 million. I opened the file. In the artist field, I stared at the name for a long time. "Application denied."

Right before the SAT, our scatterbrained airheaded group favourite, the school belle, Priscilla Ashford, volunteers herself to safeguard everyone's admission tickets. My firm refusal of her offer earns me the displeasure of my childhood sweetheart, Justin Kylemark. "You're picking on her again," he says. I ignore his rebuke. On the exam day itself, I personally double-checked every single admission ticket to make sure nothing could go wrong. However, the moment Priscilla gets hers from me, she burst into tears, claiming that I lost her ticket. Justin snatched my admission ticket and tore it to shreds. I run until my legs give out, barely managing to get it reissued before the bus leaves. However, my classmates all kicked me off the bus together. "You lost Priscilla's admission ticket. Do you think you deserve to sit for the exam?" They carry with them the exam prediction I had prepared for them. Thanks to that, they each achieve excellent scores. I have no choice but to repeat the year and become the top scorer. By then, Justin and my other classmates, who are already in prestigious universities and colleges, all return together. They produce fake evidence, accusing me of cheating in the exam. Unable to defend myself, a candidate who flunked the exam poured gasoline on me and set me on fire. When I open my eyes once more, I see myself handing the admission tickets over to Priscilla… except for my own.

In the seven years that I have been bound to my Alpha heir mate Garrett, he had slept with every single friend around me. I pretended I saw nothing. I kept fulfilling my duties as the future Luna. Until the day I gave birth, his new mistress led rogue wolves straight to me. Their claws pierced through my belly with cruel precision. My mother was even killed by them when she tried to save me. In that desperate moment, I used the mind link to contact Garrett and begged him to save us. "Aria, when did you learn to pull these tricks? Don't think your pathetic acting will make me care about you." After saying that, he shut down the mind link. But he did send a car—to pick up his new mistress. By the time the patrol found me and rushed me to the hospital, the baby in my belly had been clawed out. My mother died too. The rogue wolves' poison coursed through her wounds until her body gave up. When I woke up, I stared numbly at Garrett's grandfather, the current Alpha of the Shadowmoon Pack. "Let me go," I said flatly. "Whatever I owed your pack, I've paid it back with my life."

Our city-state is a thousand miles from Mount Olympus. But we have a custom. One that can never be broken. Every girl about to be married… her fiancé must enter the Temple of Hera. Led by her father. To ask for the goddess’s blessing. If he walks out unharmed, it means the gods approve. A lifetime of happiness. At twenty, my two younger sisters wore their bridal crowns. They married the knights of their dreams. But I'm thirty. And still unmarried. Because every fiancé who enters that temple… breaks our engagement the moment he comes out. They even draw their swords. They try to kill me. My newest fiancé was a noble knight from the capital. He scoffed at the superstitions of our remote city. He insisted on going in. My father, the High Priest, led him into the temple. But when he walked out… his eyes were completely gone. He tackled me. His hands crushed my throat. I don't understand. What is hidden inside the sacred Temple of Hera? What could corrupt a noble soul in an instant? My father knows. He knows every man who goes in will want me dead. So why does he keep leading them into that temple?

For five years, Julia Foster keeps me hidden in the kitchen because she is ashamed to have me represent Lockhart's Kitchen, so I take my cooking to her biggest rival. Whenever customers rave about the food, she sends William Hayes out to take the credit. Yet, whenever something goes wrong, she blames me without a second thought. William is the restaurant's public face, so he can't afford to make a single mistake. The truth is, he can't even tell coriander from cumin. When the food festival comes around, Julia sends me home on indefinite leave because she doesn't want me stealing William's spotlight. After finding out that she's planning to take the Lockhart's Kitchen trademark away from me and give it to William, I head straight to her biggest rival, Sullivan's Kitchen.

Six months later, Carlo, who once terrorized Port San Vito and forced us to pay protection money, knelt in the muddy water and blocked my path. Red-eyed, he begged me to bring the Moretti convoys back. "Ms. Moretti, if you come back, there'll be no protection money and no parking fees... I'll even pay you." I regarded him coldly and remembered how, six months earlier, he had flicked ash onto my financial statements and looked down at me as he said, "Pay, or get out of Port San Vito."

Five years ago, the Franco family threw cash in my face, forced me to break up with their daughter, and ran me out of Blackhaven like a stray dog. Five years later, I came back as the Don of the Raven Syndicate, the most powerful mafia organization in Europe. But the Franco family had already been set up and destroyed, their old stronghold burned to the ground. In an abandoned slaughterhouse, blood ran across the floor. Isaac, the insufferable prince of the rising Leoni family, tilted Marcella Franco's chin up with the toe of his expensive leather shoe. "Franco trash. Kneel and beg me. Be my plaything, and I'll toss you a scrap of food." Marcella's hair was a mess and her clothes had been torn open, but she clutched the Zippo lighter—my lighter—to her chest and refused to give an inch. "Get away. Don't put your filthy hands on what Gian left me." Isaac flew into a rage and slapped her. "You're still mooning over that disowned bastard? "He was blacklisted and cast out years ago. He's probably hauling crates on some dock right now!" He motioned for his thugs to tear off Marcella's clothes. At that instant, an armored Humvee tore the slaughterhouse's iron door off its hinges. I crossed the broken glass, went straight for Isaac, and knocked him off his feet with one punch. "You lay hands on my woman? Who the hell do you think you are?"

I was in the living room, handling some work, and casually asked the smart assistant to play some music. "Alexa, play some jazz." "Sure. By the way, just a reminder—four days from now, at ten in the morning, you're scheduled to accompany Sienna to her prenatal checkup." My hand froze midair. My name is Victoria. And I'm not pregnant. Jonathan was walking out of the bathroom, towel-drying his hair. He saw the look on my face and pulled me into his arms. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" I casually darkened my phone screen and smiled. "Nothing. Just a little tired." Jonathan kissed my forehead, his eyes tender and full of love. "Go get some sleep. Don't miss your birthday party tomorrow—you're the star of the night. I can't wait to spend it with you." I leaned into his chest, my lips curling into a cold little smile. My dear husband, you'd better not have done anything to betray me. Otherwise, you're about to find out exactly what it costs to betray the daughter of a mafia family.

My husband, Xylo Green, fell in love with the locust tree in our yard. At night, he would wrap his arms around it and kiss it. One day, my dad decided to plant vegetables in the yard, so he cut the tree down. The tree died in the morning, and by midnight, our whole family was gone. Suddenly, I was reincarnated to the day when Xylo was passionately chasing after me. He looked at me lovingly and said, “Olivia, can I be yours?” I smiled flatly. I did not want him anymore, but I would definitely take his life!

On a holiday-weekend business trip, I fronted $13,000 for the company. The company's Gen Z finance intern had rolled out a new AI finance system, and it approved exactly one dollar of my claim. I laid the invoices, the itinerary, and the client's signed confirmation on the table. The intern glanced at them and threw the paperwork in my face. "The system approves what it approves. AI doesn't make mistakes. One dollar is all you get." "The client changed the hotel at the last minute. The flight was booked to close an eighty-million-dollar deal. "The system read it wrong. Do a manual review." She scoffed. "A manual review? AI is way more reliable than you. Who's more believable—a slick old-timer like you, or the system's data?" The conference room went silent. That $13,000 was on my personal credit card. And right then, the client was still at the airport, waiting for me to sign the last page of the contract. The intern opened the company-wide chat and posted a screenshot of my claim. [AI determination: textbook improper expense claim. All departments take note.] I started recording on my phone and stared at her. "Let me confirm one more time. The system got it wrong, and Finance won't review it or take responsibility. Correct?" "AI isn't wrong. If there's a problem, the problem is you." I hit save and made a call. "Hi, Dad. A company that trusts AI over finance professionals with actual expertise—are you sure it can keep its books straight?"

I’ve always felt the child that I’ve cared for the past three years was not mine. My mother-in-law told me I was overthinking and was just tired. However, I remember it clearly. My child had a birthmark on their left arm.   Even my husband said it was nothing more than a dream I had after passing out during labor.   Still, I began to suspect that my in-laws swapped my child at birth.  

When we were eight, Kaelen burned down an entire pack territory just to save me. He swore an oath before the Moon Goddess to be with me forever, to never leave my side. Not even his own father could keep us apart. Then, a pregnant human girl reeking of his scent strutted into my office, a smug smirk on her face. "He says you're old and boring," she gloated. "That your scars turn his stomach." He seems to forget that he's the reason I have every last one of them. And I am not some weak woman he can just humiliate.

After our eighty-eighth canceled wedding, I called my business partner. "I'm taking the Haviana market project." There was a beat of stunned silence. "Seriously? That's ten years overseas. You just got married—well, weren't you? Does your husband even know? What about your parents? You always said staying close to them was everything." I glanced around the empty church and let out a sharp laugh. "There was no wedding. No husband. And my parents? They've got Cindy. That's all they need." Another pause. "Alright. Pack your bags. You leave tomorrow." After the call, I ran a hand down my wedding dress. One last tear slipped out, quiet and pointless. Cindy had another "episode" today. Claimed she'd off herself. Andrew canceled—again. I'd looked at him, drained. "It's the eighty-eighth time." He dropped his head, guilt all over him. "Just a little more time, Viv. She's been off since the accident. I'm scared she'll actually do it. I swear, I'll talk to her. For real this time. Then we'll get married. Promise." My parents didn't hesitate. "Vivian, let Andrew go. If Cindy hadn't gotten kidnapped trying to save you, she wouldn't have these breakdowns. Are you really putting a wedding over your sister's life?" "How could you be so selfish?" I'd heard it all before. Used to fight it. Not this time. If neither my fiancé nor my parents wanted me around, then fine. I'd leave.

On the day my parents file for bankruptcy, my adopted brother and fake heir, Oliver Bilson, is also diagnosed with leukemia. To earn enough money to pay his medical bills, I brave the snow and winds and continue working even on New Year's Eve. When I hand over the food delivery to the scion, Charlie Jetton, he suddenly knocks the cake over. "Why weren't you more careful when making the delivery?" he demands. "Don't you know that Mr. Bilson spent a million dollars to specifically order this cake for Olly?" I'm about to make a retort when I hear three voices that I'm intimately familiar with coming from within the warm villa. "It's okay. It's the thought that counts, Mom and Dad." The voice belongs to none other than Oliver! Dad, who claims that our family has gone bankrupt and is saddled with a mountain of debt, proudly says, "You're so mature, Olly. I'm going to give you an island to reward you!" Mom, who has always been frugal, gently adds, "My one and only, precious son is so understanding. I'll give you my golf club in Masonila, so don't be angry, alright?" My phone chimes just as the cake lands next to my feet, informing me that I have received a bad review. Later, I cut ties with them and leave with my advisor, Richard Dyer. However, when Mom and Dad find out that I'm leaving, they fall to their knees and frantically beg me to stay as if they have completely lost their minds.

I was a retired powerhouse from the Transmigration Agency. My points had reached the maximum, so the system specially approved my vacation in a perfect world. I selected a world where I was the heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, blessed with extraordinary luck. My parents spoiled me endlessly, and my fiancé was the heir to a financial empire. I had the perfect life of a born winner. Just when I was admiring how comfortable retirement was. The system alarm suddenly blared. A glaring red warning box appeared before my eyes. [Attention, host! The world line has collapsed! The villain is about to enter the story!] [In ten minutes, your hypocritical aunt will take you to the private lake to feed the swans, then push you in!] [Your cousin will pretend to rescue you, move into your home, and steal everything from you!] [That isn’t all. She will seduce your fiancé and join forces with him to drive your parents to their deaths.] [In the end, you will be locked in a basement and abused by her every day.] I smiled. My retirement had finally stopped being boring. The next second, my aunt walked over with her daughter, holding her hand and beaming. "Oh, my sweet niece. Come on. Shall we go over there and feed the swans?" I immediately dropped onto the ground and grabbed a handful of mud mixed with dog feces. Then I smeared it all over her precious daughter’s limited-edition princess dress. I pointed at her and wailed at the top of my lungs: "Bad! Push! Water!" You want me dead? I’ll send your entire family to the grave first!

I've gotten reborn on the night before Christmas. The first thing I do is send my boss, Jack Davenport, a resignation letter. Then, I board the next flight to Coral Bay for my vacation. In my previous lifetime, my colleague, Julie Trent, had called me when I was on vacation. She told me that the numbers on the account ledgers wouldn't add up, and the IRS would be conducting its audit soon. That was why she pleaded with me to save her. After hearing Julie's pleas, I boarded the earliest flight back to the city before hurrying back to my company. There, I double-checked all the accounts, leading to the discovery of the deficit in the accounts. So, I used my own money to pay off the deficit, allowing the company to pass the IRS' audit process. Even so, the submission of our accounts went past the deadline, resulting in the company receiving a fine. Julie decided to pin the blame on me. "There's a deficit in the accounts because Annie wanted to secretly embezzle the company's funds!" I quickly explained everything to Jack. But the very same boss, who used to be understanding and rational, just looked at me. "I thought you were on a vacation, Annie. Why did you return to the company all of a sudden? Did you plan on making the company suffer from a deficit in the accounts right before the IRS audit just because you're about to switch companies? "Anyway, you're the one causing the financial loss, to begin with. That's why you must compensate the company for the loss!" Later on, Jack hired the best lawyer and took me to court, completely disregarding whatever relationship we had as employer and employee. In the end, I lost the lawsuit, which meant I had to pay double the compensation to my company. On top of that, Jack even spread the word so that no one in the same industry would hire me. After that, I sold all of my assets, yet I still couldn't gather enough money to clear the debt. So, I could only take on the grungiest and lowliest of all jobs. As I couldn't eat my fill for a long period of time while having to take on huge amounts of work, I ended up dying from exhaustion in the end.

I've just gotten back from a business trip when my wife, Lisa Irwin, steps onto the windowsill. She looks at me, tears streaming down her face, and whispers, "I'm so sorry, honey." Then she jumps in front of me. Our three-month-old daughter, Ariah Conner, lies silent in her crib. She's not breathing, and her skin has turned a deep purple. Beside her, our nanny, Aunt Caitlin, lies unconscious with blood pooling from a head wound. The police tell me Lisa was sexually assaulted before she died, and Ariah suffocated. The security cameras were down. There was no sign of forced entry. In a single day, my whole world shatters. Every clue points to a phantom who doesn't exist. I spend five years hunting for answers. Yet even on my deathbed, I never catch the monster who ruined my life. As I close my eyes, one final thought haunts me. If I get another shot, I'll die before I let anything happen to Lisa and Ariah again. When I open my eyes, I'm back to the morning of the tragedy. I walk right out of my meeting and dial Lisa's number. "Don't open the door for anyone. Set up extra cameras around the house, and stay put until I get home!"

On the night of my tenth wedding anniversary with my billionaire husband, his female secretary called him. Ignoring the fact that I was completely naked, he pulled away and started to leave. I couldn't stop myself from confronting him. He sighed, yet his tone was inexplicably relaxed. "So you finally figured it out. Elowen is young and insecure. She's afraid I'll fall in love with your body again. "She's adorable. Now that I've tasted something young and vibrant, why would I ever settle for what’s withered and spent?" A chill spread through my body, and I stood there frozen. "Silas, that's not a funny joke." He didn't answer. He merely shot me a look of disgust. "She's underestimating herself. "You're nothing but an ambitionless wife, a parasite content to live off me. "I only married you because my family pressured me. Now that everything is going well, I haven't felt anything for you in a long time. "Good thing she called. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known how to end this." As I watched him leave without the slightest hesitation, my entire body trembled. When Silas's company was in crisis, no one wanted to marry a man who was about to take on millions in debt. I was the one who chose him without hesitation and used my own money to help him start over. Yet this was how he repaid me. My heart went cold. I picked up my phone and made a call. "Dad, I'll put the Sicily project in your hands in one week."

My mom is a woman who takes frugality very, very seriously. When I suffer from a high fever, she feeds me moldy chicken noodle soup. In fact, I can only wear my older sister's hand-me-downs since I was a little girl. After working hard for so long, I finally qualify for the final interview of a top-500 company. I keep telling my mom repeatedly to not cause any trouble for me. Alas, my monitor winks out when I've reached the most critical point of my interview. At the same time, the router has lost access to the internet. I rush out of my room hurriedly, only to see my mom flipping off the main switch in the darkness. "Why did you leave the lights on at night? Imagine how much money you'll have to pay! I've already calculated everything for you. If we turn off the lights, we get to save a few pennies per night!" Thanks to those pennies, I end up losing my job that can guarantee an annual salary of a million dollars. Later on, my older sister, Andrea Fletcher, is diagnosed with a kidney disease. In order to latch onto Andrea's rich husband, Kirk Herrera, my mom forces me to work overtime at a shady factory just to gather enough money for Andrea's medical bills. Even when I'm about to die, my older brother, Anthony Fletcher, and my dad keep blaming me. "You can't even get hired at a proper factory! You really are useless, Alice! Your mom went through all those frugal nonsense just to raise you for nothing!" When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I'm about to attend the online interview. I just chuckle coldly as I look at Andrea, who has just found out about her kidney disease and is waiting for me to earn enough money for her kidney transplant. Then, I toss her expensive, specialized medication into the trash can. "What use is there for you to take the medicine, Andrea? What a waste! Mom already stated many times that being frugal is the way of life! "You should drink more water instead. Once your rich husband finds out how good you are at saving money, he'll definitely compliment us for knowing how to balance our finances!"