Reborn Marriage 단편 소설 & 소설

When the wildfire reached the door to my room at the treatment center, I heard my husband, Lucas Vale, order them to save Serena Cole first. There was only one seat left on the helicopter. He gave it to the girl I'd treated like a little sister my whole life, and he wouldn't even have anyone unlock my door. "Keep her calm. She's emotionally unstable right now. She can't leave the ward without authorization." Seven months pregnant, I gripped the receiver in one hand and cradled my belly with the other. Two hours earlier, he'd wiped away my tears and told me he'd sent me here to protect me. I'd begged him to let me see a lawyer and to look into the money diverted from the foundation. Instead, they took my phone, and I heard the lock click shut. As smoke poured in, someone in the hallway started slamming into my door and shouting my name over and over. It was Adrian Vale, my husband's older brother, who hadn't come home in years. I didn't last long enough to see that door open. When I opened my eyes again, Lucas was sitting beside me, pushing me to sign a voting proxy. The wedding was six weeks away. Once I signed, the shares my father had left me would become his leverage in the fight to take over the company. In my last life, I signed. I thought we were about to be family, so there was no need to keep things so separate. Serena walked in carrying a stack of wedding catalogs and smiled as she urged me to sign. "He's just trying to take some weight off your shoulders." This time, I closed the folder. "I'm taking this home to have an independent lawyer review it." Lucas frowned. "We're getting married in six weeks. You really want to treat me like an outsider now?" Right in front of him, I revoked the temporary proxy and walked out with the unsigned document. The lobby TV showed Adrian returning to Northern California. As the camera followed him, I heard the voice from the fire again. I texted him: Adrian, I want to see you.

On the eighth day after being kidnapped, Serena Spencer still hadn't been rescued by Marvin Grant. She'd been reborn, only to find herself trapped in the same nightmare. Her body was covered in blood from days of torture. Even as one of her kidnappers grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against a pillar, she gritted her teeth and held on. “Trust me.” “He'll come and save me. I know he will.” Serena was certain of it. After all, when the same thing had happened in her previous life, Marvin had dropped everything to rescue her. He'd thrown himself into danger without a second thought, willing to sacrifice his own life to get her away from her kidnappers. He'd even lost both his legs saving her. His love had been so extraordinary that everyone said Serena must have done something wonderful in a past life to deserve a man who loved her that much. But she'd never imagined that this time would be different. Eight days had already passed. And Marvin still hadn't come to save her.

I once believed that saving my vampire fiancé from the hunters was the best thing I had ever done. At that banquet, I drew the hunters away from him. A bullet struck my shoulder. But when I woke in the hospital, everyone said my cousin Sophia Ashford was the one who had saved him. Cassian Vale wanted to repay her by breaking off our engagement and marrying her instead. I tried to explain, again and again, but no one believed me. They all assumed I was lying to keep my place as his vampire bride. The dispute went before the Elder Council, but Cassian's plan was rejected because Sophia lacked a pure human noble bloodline. In the end, I married Cassian after all. Not because he believed me, but because of my bloodline. Because I could bear him a powerful half-blood child. Soon after, Sophia was married off to the North, where she fell ill and died. From that day on, Cassian was convinced that my jealousy had killed her. After our wedding, hunters attacked again. In the chaos, I threw myself in front of a bullet meant for him and lost my baby when I was eight months pregnant. Still, he regarded me with nothing but coldness. In the months before I died, wasting away from illness, he never came to see me. Not once. I opened my eyes again. I was back on the day Sophia claimed the credit for saving his life. This time, I did not explain. I simply took off the ring. "Cassian, I agree to end the engagement."

I had always been the one who kept my husband, Julian Whitmore, in line. After the car accident, I finally stopped. Julian threw a party with his friends to celebrate. "Elena's finally off my back. Now I can mess around like the rest of you." He even brought Chloe Marsh, his pregnant secretary, back to our home. Chloe was gorgeous and she knew it. But around Julian, she turned sweet and helpless. She'd stroke her flat stomach and talk to me like we were best friends. Julian pulled her close and dropped another bombshell. "Once Chloe gives birth, you'll adopt the baby. He'll be your son." "You can't have children anyway. I'm willing to let her baby call you Mom. That's more than fair to you." He didn't know I had found out I was pregnant after the accident. He also had no idea that while I was unconscious, I'd seen exactly how my life with him would end. In the dream, I lost my baby. I got my parents and my best friend killed. And in the end, I couldn't even find a place to bury my child. When I woke up, I made one choice. Leave Julian and take my child home.

During a thunderstorm on the border, my fiancee, Eleanor Ashby, covers my retreat and falls down a cliff. The search and rescue team spends three months searching through flash floods without finding a trace of her. Everyone concludes she's dead. I refuse to give up and spend another two years looking for her. Eventually, I find her at a small clinic in a remote mountain village. But she's become the wife of the clinic's caregiver, Dylan Foster. That's when I learn she's lost her memory and fallen in love with someone else. In my previous life, I ignore her wishes and force a renowned neurosurgeon to use a high-risk treatment to restore her memories. The day her memories return, the man who has cared for and protected her for the past two years throws himself into the river in despair. Later, during an earthquake rescue mission, Eleanor and I are trapped beneath a collapsed mountainside. There's only one narrow escape route wide enough for one person. She forcibly pushes me out. Moments later, a second collapse buries her beneath a massive boulder. With her dying breath, she reaches through a crack in the rocks and grips my hand. She says in a hoarse voice, "Callum Pierce, these ten years we've spent together is repayment for the debt I owed you from the ten years before. We're even now. Neither of us owes the other anything anymore. "If there's a next life, don't let me remember the past. Please... let me be with him." Tears blur my vision. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day I find Eleanor. This time, I choose to respect her decision and let go of the life she's forgotten.

Lamond, the current Don of the Catani family, once promised that no matter which son I chose to marry in the future, that son would become his successor. But on the day I picked my husband, I did not pick Luca, to whom I had confessed my feelings ninety-nine times. Instead, I picked his quiet illegitimate son, Marco. Everyone was stunned. The entire Catani family knew that I was obsessed with Luca and believed that he was going to be their next Don. In the previous timeline, I had indeed married Luca. However, after our marriage, he started staying out all night. When he came back, he would come home smelling of Cecilia's perfume, his childhood friend's. Luca said I was overthinking things, and I believed him. I did, until the day I caught him and Cecilia in an intimate embrace on our marital bed. In order to show his support for me, Lamond punished him and sent Cecilia to a far-away country. I was not expecting that the first thing Luca would do after becoming Don was to bring Cecilia back to his side. Then, Cecilia shut me in a room for seven days. I could not even ask for help when I started delivering my baby. In the end, both my baby and I died. Once I returned to the past, I decided to right my previous mistake and cut ties with Luca. To my surprise, Luca ended up regretting it.

As the college entrance exams approached, I paid the top student in our class to tutor me. But the day she came over, she brought along her childhood sweetheart and insisted that he join our study sessions. I declined her request politely, and she did not press the matter further. The boy left my house in defeat and was struck by a car, suffering injuries so severe that they left him crippled. He could no longer continue his education and was forced to drop out, taking on grueling manual labor to survive. The girl continued tutoring me nonetheless. We both gained admission to the same university, grew close over time, fell in love, got married, and started a family. But on the night of our wedding anniversary, Sharon slipped poison into my soup and watched impassively as I began to convulse and vomit blood, the crimson stain spreading slowly across the floor. "This is what you owe Harry," she said with cold venom. "Taste what it's like to lose all hope." It turned out that she had harbored resentment toward me for all those years. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day she first came to my house with her friend.

The night Maya Winehouse and I slept together, she was drunk and had just broken up with her now ex-boyfriend, Daniel Carter. She had no choice but to marry me. Our marriage was quiet and stable. I once thought it would last forever… Until Daniel passed away from his sickness. When Maya went to pay her respects, she learned that he had left her for good because he had found out what happened between us that night. At that same time, she discovered the diary that I had written about my secret love for her. She became convinced I had ruined their relationship on purpose, and she hated me to the bones. She divorced me and threw me out with nothing. She also made sure to make my life difficult whenever she could. As I lay dying, her cold voice echoed in my ears. "Your love disgusts me, Nolan Winehouse." When I opened my eyes again, I had regressed back to that night. It was two hours before everything that would have happened, when Maya had just broken up with Daniel and gone out drinking intending to get drunk. I took my coat and ran out of my room. Then, I knocked on Daniel's door…

Alpha Evan Scott, who once loved me beyond all reason, stopped loving me overnight. Because he had chosen the wrong wolf. What he never realized was that, on that very same day, I awakened too. If, in his eyes, I was nothing but an imposter who had occupied Julia Lawson's place for all these years, then it was time to return what was never meant to be mine. I followed fate's design all the way to my death. Only after that did Evan sink to his knees beside my corpse, his cries filled with unbearable regret. At last, I remembered. The truth was, he had come for me.

The day my husband, Stellan Montclair, was killed in battle, my cousin, Daphne Langford, wept and declared she would follow him in death. No one asked for my opinion. By the time I arrived, they had already decided everything. In seven days, Daphne would be laid to rest alongside my husband in the Montclair family crypt, bearing the title of his lawful wife. When I stepped into the chapel, I found Daphne reclining on a cushioned chair with a damp cloth pressed to her forehead while my mother-in-law, Vivienne Prescott, personally spoon-fed her warm broth. Meanwhile, my son, Ansel Montclair, had been kneeling before the coffin for six hours straight, both legs so swollen that they were trembling. No one told him to get up. No one offered him a cushion to kneel on. Vivienne glanced up at me. "You're back. Daphne's being interred in the Montclair crypt as the lawful wife in seven days. See to the arrangements." In my previous life, I did not dare disobey. The entire capital praised Daphne for the depth of her devotion. Vivienne called her a woman of honor. The moment I so much as furrowed my brow, countless mouths stood ready to call me petty and small-hearted. Yet seven days later, Stellan came back from the dead. Only then did I learn that he had taken a death-feigning potion so that he could openly and rightfully marry Daphne. I was cast from wife to concubine and spent the rest of my life crushed under Daphne's thumb. My son was stripped of his status as the legitimate heir, barred from the family title, and left to scrape by among commoners for the rest of his days. This time, though, I was living it all over again. I crouched down and lifted Ansel from the cold stone floor. Then, I looked at Vivienne. "If her devotion runs that deep, let her be buried with him today."

After the war between humans and vampires ended, both sides agreed that vampires would rule the world. Vampire families would provide humans with military protection and financial support, and in return, humans would help vampire families produce heirs. Under the agreement, marriages between human and vampire families would be arranged once every century. The first hybrid child born in each generation would become the next ruler of the alliance between vampires and humans. In my previous life, I had chosen Eli Valtore, the eldest son of the Valtore family. His family was wealthy and powerful, and a rule they had passed down for a millennium was faithfulness to their partners. I was the first to bear him a son, and he was exceptionally gifted. So, he was named the alliance's next ruler, giving my husband immense influence. My younger sister, Clara, chose differently. Vain and seduced by Lucas Morven's handsome looks, she married into the Morven family. However, her fate was far less fortunate. Lucas was a notorious playboy. Later, he contracted a serious illness that left him unable to have children. Jealous and resentful, Clara set fire to the building we were in and burned my young son and me alive. When I opened my eyes again, it was the day of the marriage ceremony between humans and vampires. This time, Clara was quicker. Before I had a chance, she had already climbed into bed with Eli, the Valtore heir. That was when I realized she was also reborn. What she didn't know was that Eli was cruel and violent by nature. He worshiped bloodshed, not love. He had never been a partner I could trust.

All men in the Sherwood family will go through a mutation when they hit 25 years old, where they will develop heavy breasts and wombs of their own, just like regular women. The only way to break the curse is to marry a blessed woman. In my previous life, Mason Sherwood wanted to marry my younger sister, Winnie Lowe. But I knew the truth, so I did everything I could to stop him. In the end, he was forced to marry me. On our wedding night, Winnie left a suicide note behind before jumping off a cliff. In that note, she accused me of stealing her true love from her. My parents lashed out at me for being a vile woman, whereas Mason hated my guts. One week after Winnie's death, Mason ordered his men to hang me off a helicopter and flew me around. With a ferocious expression, Mason cut the rope, causing me to fall from an extremely high altitude. All that remained of me was a huge puddle of flesh. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day the Sherwoods visit my home and ask for Winnie's hand in marriage. This time, I'd like to see how Winnie, who has lost her blessing, can save Mason's life!

Three years into their marriage, Vivian Cole was thrown into the basement for the ninety-ninth time. Half her face was swollen, and a bruise darkened the corner of her eye. Before she could struggle, a bodyguard roughly forced her into a chair. “Last month, you sneaked into bars three times and went street racing once. You ended up bedridden for a week. Haven’t you learned your lesson?” Disappointment weighed heavily on Alexander Blackwood’s face. “When will you finally learn to behave and become a proper Mrs. Blackwood?” Vivian glanced at the restraints wrapped around her arms and gave him a faint smile. “So this is how a Mrs. Blackwood is supposed to be treated? I’m living worse than a stray dog on the street.” His expression darkened, and his chest heaved with anger. “If you hadn’t kept breaking the rules, I wouldn’t have had to lay a hand on you! “You’re my wife! You’re the face of the Blackwood family, not some woman out on the street who can do whatever she pleases!” “Rules, rules, rules! I’m sick of hearing about those stupid rules!” she snarled, her usually delicate face contorted with fury. “I just want to live as myself! I don’t want to be some puppet whose only purpose is to obey the Blackwood family’s rules!” Alexander stared at her with cold, unreadable eyes for a long moment. “Anyone could be Mrs. Blackwood. You could be, or any other woman.” Just as he turned to leave, Vivian spoke in a desperate, pleading voice. “Fine. Just don’t leave me. I’ll try harder to become the perfect Mrs. Blackwood.” From that day on, Vivian gave up street racing, stopped going to bars, followed every rule, and studied proper etiquette. But at a formal gala, she lost her temper and struck a woman who had been openly mocking her. Then her father, Thomas Cole, addressed that very woman as his daughter. Vivian froze. Alexander’s expression stiffened as well. The words on his lips shifted, and his face gradually settled into an impassive mask. “She has always been rebellious and poorly mannered. Her lack of discipline is my fault. “Get on your knees and apologize to her.” Vivian felt as though she’d been struck by lightning. After making sure he was truly ordering her to apologize, she stumbled backward in disbelief. Three years of marriage and five years of love. With just one sentence, he had reduced all her efforts to nothing. Dazed and heartbroken, she ran out into the street, failing to notice the truck approaching from the roadside. She was killed on the spot. But when she opened her eyes again, she realized she’d been given a second chance at life. She had returned to the days before her wedding.

The first thing I did after rebirth was follow my husband, Franklin Wallace, to the island for his military deployment. In my previous life, as a spoiled rich heiress from a wealthy family, I looked down on Franklin, the commander my family had arranged for me to marry. We fought constantly, huge arguments every few days, small quarrels in between. After having children, I grew to resent our two kids simply because they carried Franklin's blood. Later, when Franklin was ordered to be stationed on the island, I was the first to stand up and object to going with him. Since I opposed it, Franklin did not force me. He took our two kids and his widowed sister-in-law, Elsie Faulkner, to the island instead. Meanwhile, my spoiled and rebellious self could not wait to throw myself into the arms of my first love, Reuben Sandoval, once Franklin left. However, it did not take long before I discovered Reuben was nothing but a gold-digging scumbag who only wanted my money and body. He gave me an STI and drained my family fortune completely. When Franklin returned from the island with our children, they no longer recognized me as their mother and affectionately called Elsie "Mommy" instead. He even told me he had fallen in love with Elsie during their time together on the island. Eventually, I ended up homeless on the streets and starved to death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day Franklin was about to leave for his island deployment.

On my way home after a night shift, my wife, Lilian Jones, the associate chief of neurosurgery, suddenly called. "Honey, Garrett Lowe in Room 9 has suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. You're the only surgeon in the hospital who can perform this operation. Come back now!" In my previous life, I did not hesitate. I made a U-turn and sped back to the hospital. However, by the time I burst into the operating room, Garrett was already dead on the table. Right in front of his family and the entire surgical team, Lilian slapped me across the face and insisted that my surgical error had cost Garrett his life. The hospital immediately suspended me from clinical duties, stripped me of my position as an attending neurosurgeon, and suspended my medical license for six months. Three days later, Garrett's family ambushed me outside the emergency department and stabbed me to death in broad daylight. Only after I died did I learn the truth. To give surgical resident Ethan Smith a chance to gain hands-on experience, Lilian violated hospital protocol and allowed him to take the lead in the operation. His inexperience cost Garrett his life, and I was nothing more than the scapegoat they sacrificed to cover it up. Less than a week after my funeral, the two of them moved in together openly. A few years later, they even became the hospital's model couple, admired and envied by everyone. "The patient's already under anesthesia, and the OR is fully prepped. Where are you?" Lilian's voice came through the phone again in this life, her barely concealed panic impossible to miss. I fell silent for a moment before answering in a hoarse voice, "Okay. I'll be right there."

On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, the old Alpha King laid the names of several heirs before me and told me to choose my future mate. Because I was the only pureblood heiress of the Redmoon Pack. For generations, Redmoon Pack had bound itself to the Alpha King’s line through bond. Only my bloodline could bear true pureblood heirs, and whoever formed a bond with me would stand closest to becoming the next Alpha King. This was never just a bond. Even so, I chose without hesitation. Kaelan, the fourth heir. Everyone present was stunned. Everyone across the packs knew that I, Sia, the pureblood heiress of Redmoon Pack, had loved Raine, first heir to the Alpha King’s line, since I was young. I had once declared before the gathered packs that I would bond with no one but him. In my previous life, I got exactly what I wanted. I bonded with Raine. But three days after our bond was sealed, he told me he intended to bring my half-sister, Veya, into his household and keep her by his side. My mother refused, and Veya was instead promised to one of my father’s young retainers. Raine hated me for it. He believed I had torn him and Veya apart. After that, one she-wolf after another appeared at his side, and every one of them resembled Veya in some way. He let them humiliate me, torment me, and grind me down until I died on the day he took the title of Alpha King. Now that I had lived again, I wanted only one thing: to stay far away from him, leave him to Veya, and spare myself. But when the old Alppha King’s bond pact finally came down, the same Raine who had once wanted me dead lost control on the spot and openly defied it.

To the public, Maggie Sinise and I are a golden married couple who have lived peacefully with each other for over four decades. But when Maggie is on her deathbed, she grips my hand tightly while pleading to me, "Aaron, if there ever is a next life, please… please let me and Scotty be together…" I feel as though I've gotten struck by lightning. The shock lasts for a long time. But since this is Maggie's death wish, I nod in agreement. "Okay." Upon hearing the answer she's been yearning for, Maggie closes her eyes in satisfaction. What I don't expect is that both of us have actually returned to the timeframe that's set 40 years ago. Just as I'm trying to wrap my mind around the question as to why Maggie has gotten reborn as well, I hear her stating firmly, "I will never marry Aaron! In this lifetime, Scotty is the only man I will ever marry!" I'm not mad at all. I'm just curious about one thing, though. How will Maggie ever rebuild Sinise Group and make it great again without my help this time?

Adrian Quirrel, the heir to the Quirrel family, had been in poor health since childhood. Guided by the old superstition that marriage could restore his health, his family had taken in four young women, with only one to be chosen as his bride. On the selection day, they invited a renowned astrologer to read our birth charts. As soon as he said I carried a healing energy and could bear healthy heirs, the Quirrels decided on the spot that I would be Adrian's bride. Three months later, his health miraculously improved, and I soon found myself pregnant with twins—a boy and a girl. The family elders were ecstatic and even promised that my son would become the Quirrels' future heir. But on the night of the christening, Adrian locked me and the babies in the basement. I broke down and demanded an explanation. He sneered and replied, "If it weren't for your so-called 'healing energy,' Emily would've been my wife. "She wouldn't have jumped to her death at such a young age if she hadn't been pushed to that point. Tonight, I want you and your children to accompany her in death." He grabbed a nearby iron rod and savagely brought it down onto our babies. I threw myself over the babies, but Adrian kicked me aside. Blood splattered across the walls and floor, and my babies' breathing gradually weakened until it stopped. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day Adrian chose his bride.

I was twenty-two when my luck went bad. A flowerpot came off a third-floor ledge while I was walking under it. My brother Julian shoved me clear and took it on the head. Wolves heal from almost anything. The doctors told my parents he would never wake up. A month later, my sister Felicity rode with me to visit him. A truck ran the light. Her leg was crushed in four places, and it never healed right. A witch passing through Greyridge took one look at me across the pack meeting and told my Alpha father, in front of everyone, that I would bury whoever stood closest to me. He threw me out that same night. But my fiancé did not give up on me. The most powerful witch in the entire country said that as long as I remained alone on the island, I would not be affected by the curse. So he bought me an island. Five years. Nothing bad happened to me in all that time. The only thing was, Dominic had a pack to run, so I got him two or three days a month. I tried to go to him. But the boat docked fine. A car hit mine on the way to the airport and I spent two weeks in a hospital bed. "Mer, I'm scared every time you leave this island." His voice was shaking. "I can't lose you. I'll come more often. I swear." I missed him so much I couldn't sleep. I told myself to be good about it anyway. This year, he said a project would keep him away on his birthday. So I got on a boat without telling anyone. I wanted to see his face. The crossing was smooth. When I reached the Stonecrest pack house, the main doors opened. My sister walked in, wearing a couture gown, holding Dominic's arm. Felicity. On both legs. Two she-wolves beside my pillar were watching them too. "Five years mated, a three-year-old pup, and look at them. Still like that." "Alpha Cross never so much as looks at another woman. You won't find another one like him in any pack." A little boy in a tiny copy of Dominic's suit came running through the doors with his arms up. "Daddy! Happy birthday!" My hands went cold. Every accident had been bought. Every witch had been paid. Even my mating certificate was a fake. So I walked out of that hospital alone, got on the first plane I could find, and had every trace of me erased. Three years later, I walked into a ballroom wearing nine figures around my neck, under a name he'd never heard. Dominic Cross crushed a glass in his fist and begged for one more chance.

Over three years, I called the police on Julian Prescott 188 times to force him to marry me. When he left me burning with fever to see his first love, I reported him missing. When that same woman summoned him to fix her plumbing in the middle of the night, I tipped off the vice squad. After the last trip to the police station, I asked whether he'd finally had enough of me. He was silent for a long time before answering. "I promised my father I'd take care of you. I'm going to keep that promise." Then came the day we climbed a snowy mountain together. An avalanche trapped us, and Julian shielded me with his body. A boulder crushed half of him. Feverish and close to death, I looked at him, half-dead after everything I'd put him through, and suddenly laughed. "You must hate me, Julian. I got you killed, and I tore you away from Sophie." He met my eyes, his voice calm. "Do you want the truth? I've been sick of you for years." My heart lurched. Before I could even react, he cut his wrist and pressed it to my lips, forcing me to swallow enough blood to keep me conscious. "But I'm not letting you die. Willa, I don't owe you anything anymore. In our next life, please let me go." Only after my rescue did I learn that he'd dragged his broken body through the snow, leaving a plea for help written in his own blood. I sank into severe depression. Lost in a haze, I eventually died in a car accident. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I would have made my 189th desperate attempt to force a wedding. Julian, this time, you'll get what you asked for.