Tragic Love Romance-Kurzgeschichten & Hypocrisy Face Slapping-Kurzromane

Owen Gray and I get into an accident. I'm seven months pregnant, but I save him anyway. I end up in a coma. I wake up after three years. Owen has amnesia, and he's now my sister's husband. My child also calls her his mother. I try everything, but Owen doesn't remember me. Instead, his love for my sister grows deeper. Even our son blames me for waking him and ruining their happy lives. When I finally decide to let go, I overhear a conversation between Owen and someone else. "Shannon was willing to give up her life for you, Owen. If she finds out your amnesia is an act…" "There's only a week to go before my three-year agreement with her sister is over. I'll give Vivian the wedding she wants. Then, I'll act like I've recovered from my amnesia. Luca and I will return to Shannon's side." I'm stunned. I never would've expected Owen to be pretending to be an amnesiac. I look at the diagnosis report in my hands. It's too bad I can't even wait for a week.

By the time I got home from my business trip, it was already past midnight—and my husband wasn't there. A woman's blouse lay on the sofa. It wasn't mine. I called him. He said he was working late at the office. I didn't bother with pretense. "Whose blouse is on the sofa?" His tone was light and casual. "Who else would it be? It's obviously a gift for you. Try it on." Suspicious, I picked it up and held it against myself. The blouse was clearly one size too small. "Honey, this is a size S. I always wear M." My husband owns a clothing company. He handles all my clothes. He's even used my measurements to design women's wear. There's no way he doesn't know my size. On the phone, he froze for half a second, then spoke as if piecing something together. "This is a new women's line I'm launching. I ordered custom pieces for you and my sister. I must've grabbed the wrong one. I'll switch it tomorrow." A moment later, his voice softened with exhaustion. "Babe, you've been gone for days. Without you, I feel so tired… I miss you so much…" It was already late into the night. Hearing him sound vulnerable—something he rarely did—made my chest tighten. I blamed myself for overthinking. But the moment I hung up, realization struck. His sister has the same build as me. She always wears size M.

Pierce Harrington already knew I had severe claustrophobia before our wedding. He spent three years removing every lock in the house. Even the bathroom door was replaced with a curtain. For three years, he never closed the door when he slept, not even in winter when all the heat flew out of the room. I asked him once if he was cold. He pulled two blankets up to his chin and laughed. "As long as you're sleeping well, that's all that matters." One day, my best friend, Vanessa Ridley, came over to visit. She lured me into the storage room. The second the door locked from the outside, I collapsed. I pounded on the door, screamed, and curled up on the floor. The shock made me lose all control of my bladder. Fifteen minutes later, the door opened. Pierce stood on the other side, holding up his phone. Vanessa was laughing so hard her knees buckled to the floor. "Oh my God! She actually peed herself." Pierce held his phone out, his tone impossibly soft. "Nessa says it's exposure therapy. We'll lock you in a few more times, and you won't be scared anymore. Your brother said we should help you toughen up. A couple more rounds, and you'll be fine." My brother was on the other end of the video call. He said, "Look at yourself! You're so pathetic. And you call yourself a grown woman!" I was drenched, the stench of urine sharp in my nose. I was shaking so hard I could not stand. I stared at the storage room door, the lock freshly bolted back on. Then it hit me. Last month, it was Pierce who locked the bedroom door. Two weeks ago, he was the one who sealed the car windows. Every lock he had spent three years removing, he had put right back with his own hands. I stood up slowly. I did not cry. I did not make a scene. I did not need anyone to open this door for me anymore.

My mother-in-law, Lillian Pierce, gets into a car accident and needs a liver transplant from my wife, Elena Prescott. However, she is busy playing a murder mystery game with her first love, Ethan Bennett. In my previous life, I forcibly drag her away from the game and bring her to the hospital for the liver transplant. No one could have foreseen the tragedy that would happen. During this time, Ethan crosses paths with a deranged serial killer and ends up dead in an alley. After his tragic end, Elena doesn't show any reaction to his passing—until the anniversary of his death. On that day, she locks me in the basement and slices the flesh off my body piece by piece. "If it weren't for you, Ethan would never have died. Go down there and apologize to him!" Her smile is sinister, a tell-tale sign of the madness that has consumed her. When I open my eyes again, I am back to the day when Lillian gets into an accident. This time, I do not force Elena to do the liver transplant. She saves Ethan but loses her mother forever.

My best friend, Jake Lawson, caught his fiancée, Lyla Sterling, cheating right in the middle of their engagement party. Instead of apologizing, Lyla just sneered at Jake in front of the entire crowded room. "Oh, please. As if any other girl in the world would actually want you." Jake balled his hands into tight fists, his knees buckling like he was about to collapse. In a moment of pure, reckless impulse, I grabbed my own girlfriend’s hand and shoved it directly into his palm. "Who says nobody wants him?" I demanded, my voice ringing out across the hall. "Starting right now, she's his girlfriend." My girlfriend, Nora Mitchell, froze, totally stunned. A heartbeat later, she played along. She wrapped her arm tightly around Jake’s, and together, they walked straight out of the party. Late that night, the three of us knocked back drinks together, laughing it off. We all agreed it was just a one-time performance. However, Lyla wouldn't stop harassing Jake. Nora started stepping in as the fake girlfriend to keep Lyla away, accompanying him to parties and helping him navigate dinner with his parents. I never suspected a single thing. Until I stumbled across a post online. [Borrowed my best friend’s girlfriend to spite my cheating ex. Now I don’t want to give her back. What do I do?] The original poster said his best friend had handed the girl over with his own two hands. The first time they held hands was just for show. The first time they hugged was just an act. The first time she spent the night at his house, though, was completely real. People in the comments flamed him for being a backstabbing snake. He replied: [After that night, things happened between us. I'm taking responsibility for her.] I stared at the photo frame on our living room table, the three of us smiling back at me, as a sickening cold crept from my fingers all the way down to my toes. I only lent him a single night to save his dignity. They took that single night and turned it into forever.

I spent countless sleepless nights developing a breakthrough drug for a devastating illness, and I expected at least some recognition from my CEO girlfriend. Instead, she accused me of wasting the company research budget and promoted a newly hired young assistant to oversee the company finances. It was the middle of a brutal heatwave with temperatures that soared past ninety-eight degrees. The assistant locked the lab air-conditioning controls away so no one else could use them, while he shut himself inside his private office with the AC set to sixty degrees. He wrapped himself in a blanket and played video games. I complained to my girlfriend, and she brushed it off as part of building company culture. She claimed she gave him authority for my own good because she believed it would prepare me for a future management position. According to her, I was too narrow-minded to understand her intentions. She then shut off the lab main power supply and locked the control panel as if she wanted to teach me a lesson. The fans stopped working, and the heat grew worse. Several coworkers collapsed from heat exhaustion and were taken to the hospital. The assistant posted photos of himself and my girlfriend at an indoor ski resort. They wore winter jackets and ate ice cream together. The caption read, “Some people are sweeter than ice cream.” I finally understood everything. Her idea of company culture had never been anything more than an excuse to favor him. Everyone expected me to confront her or demand an explanation. I packed up my things instead. She mistook my silence for obedience. She believed her air-conditioning punishment had worked, and she promised that once she returned from closing her business deal, she might consider letting me enjoy the AC again. She did not know that when she shut down the lab power, the research equipment stopped running. The drug we had just finished developing became unstable, and the experimental data was destroyed. By the time the delivery deadline arrived, there would be no formula left to hand over. She would face a catastrophic breach-of-contract lawsuit and enormous financial penalties. Without access to the medication in time, she would also suffer permanent long-term complications from the illness we had tried to treat.

Ryan Becker's favorite phrase was always, "Just wait a little longer." I waited two years for his startup to stabilize so we could get married. I waited another three years for his mother to warm up to the idea of a wedding. On the night of his 30th birthday dinner, his mother slipped her emerald bracelet off her wrist in front of everyone. Passing down the heirloom was their old tradition for recognizing a daughter-in-law. I thought that this time, finally, I wouldn't have to wait anymore. "Give me your hand, dear." Yet Aurelie Becker reached right past me and smoothly fastened the bracelet around Sabine Hansen's wrist instead. The entire room fell dead silent. She patted the back of Sabine's hand warmly. "Sabine grew up with Ryan. We're all one family here, no distinctions between us." My hands were still resting on the table, my fingertips turning cold. Someone whispered, "What about Miss Solis?" Ryan leaned in close, lowering his voice. "My mom is just being sentimental. Don't take it to heart. I'll bring you a custom necklace from my business trip next month. Just wait a little longer, okay?" Sabine lifted her wrist, flaunting it right in front of my face with a provocative smile. "Look, Eliza, isn't it beautiful? Aurelie says it's an old-mine emerald." "It's beautiful," I said simply. Just then, the phone inside my bag vibrated. It was a text message that read: [Have you made up your mind? When are you coming to Phaelis?]

My girlfriend had spent three years chasing the one who got away. The night before our wedding, the two of them trashed her bride's dress together. I wanted to call it off. She just laughed it off. "I only wanted to make sure I wouldn't regret my youth. From now on I'm all yours, so can't you be a little generous about it?" So I turned around and prepared a grand gift for them instead, wishing them a lifetime of happiness. Later, she came back crying, begging me to forgive her. I held up my hand and let my wedding ring catch the light. "Sorry. I'm married."

The sole heiress of a wealthy family, Amanita Wallace, had seven prospective husbands, taken in from childhood to potentially wed her one day. All of them fulfilled her every wish, except Marcus Channing, who was cold and mean to her. Due to this, Amanita fell for him and even became his lapdog. Then, one day, she saw him pin his supposed sister against the wall and confess his feelings to her.

After falling into the sea and losing my memory, I spent five agonizing years trapped in a filthy, isolated fishing village. For half a decade, I survived by digging through dumpsters and wrestling stray dogs for scrap leftovers. I was barely human, living more like a ghost than a person. Then came the sixth year. A team of bodyguards tackled me on the beach and dragged me right to a woman’s feet. She took one look at the scaly, rotting skin on my cheek and pinched her nose in disgust. She claimed to be my wife. Claimed she’d spent the last six years searching everywhere for me. Yet there wasn't a single spark of joy in her eyes when she saw me. She didn't care that I was reduced to skin and bones. She didn't bother asking why I walked with a severe limp. All she cared about was shoving me onto a private jet as fast as possible. They flew me straight to an elite private hospital. Lying in the ICU was a young man who bore a strong resemblance to me. The second the doctor announced that my tissue was a perfect match, a smile finally broke across the woman’s face. I overheard her cold, sharp voice whispering in the hall, "Well, Aiden, I guess you're finally good for something." In that exact moment, my lost memories came flooding back like a violent tidal wave. She hadn't spent six years searching for me out of love or desperation. Tessa Laurent had spent six endless years hunting me down for one single reason: to rip out my healthy kidney and give it to my half-brother.

When the chandelier crashed down at my wedding, I shoved my best man, Evan Simmons, out of the way. I couldn't get clear in time. A metal support rod drove into my lower back and snapped, leaving a jagged piece embedded in the wound. Blood soaked into my dark military dress uniform, but the thick fabric and wide, rigid belt hid the injury. Evan, my parents' adopted son, had a clotting disorder. A shard of glass barely grazed his forehead, but blood was already running down his face. My bride, Sophia Russell, was an ER doctor. She rushed to Evan and held him against her. "His blood doesn't clot properly! Even a small cut can be life-threatening!" I caught her sleeve and pointed to my lower back, trying to get her to look at the wound. She knew what I was telling her, but she brushed my hand aside. "You don't even look hurt. Stop making a scene." My sister, Lila Bradford, was a fire captain. After checking the wreckage, she gave Evan the only available stretcher. "We accounted for all the broken pieces. Nothing could've stabbed you, and I don't see a wound." She looked at me sternly. "Kyle, being my brother doesn't mean you get priority over someone who's actually hurt." I staggered after them, but Mom, a head nurse, blocked me at the door. "Evan got hurt at your wedding. You need to stay and handle the guests, or people will say he ruined your big day on purpose. Do you want them blaming him for this?" They all left in the ambulance. I stood alone in front of a room full of wedding guests. The pain was unbearable. I opened my mouth to call for help, but no sound came out. Three years earlier, shrapnel from an explosion tore through my throat during a mission. I hadn't been able to speak since. Now the only people who understood my gestures were gone. No one else realized I was asking for help.

I had a habit. Whenever I had a meal, watched a movie, or took a cab ride, I would always save an empty seat next to me. I believed that Theo Anderson would suddenly appear in the city I lived in to surprise me. However, throughout our long-distance relationship for the past three years, he never visited me. Not even once. I hence prepared our wedding by myself, and I fell sick because of that. My hands were trembling when I sent him a text message. [I’m having a high fever, and I don’t have any medicine at home.] Half an hour later, he responded. [So? What do you want me to do? Do you want me to grow wings and fly over to your place with medicine? I’m still reviewing a proposal. You should just contact the delivery services.] I could not even lift my fingers because of the fever, so I slowly drifted into unconsciousness. When I woke up, I saw my best friend, Eleanor Reid, with teary eyes. She passed a glass of water and a pill to me. “You’re too patient with him, that’s why he’s bullying you. If it were me, I would’ve already thrown a fit.” Two weeks later, Eleanor also had a high fever, so I immediately wanted to rush over to take care of her. However, she posted a photo online, and there was a man’s hand holding a spoon in the photo. [I’m sick, but thankfully there is a knight in shining armor who flew over 500 miles to take care of me.] I recognized that hand. Theo was wearing a watch that I had bought him after saving up for six months. I suddenly understood that it was not because he was busy that he could not be by my side. It was because he did not want to come over. Since that was the case, I no longer had the need to save an empty seat for him anymore.

In the Blackridge Mountains there's an old tradition: a man may leave the mountains only seven times in his life. If he still can't get out of the mountains with the woman he loves after the seventh journey, he's expected to marry inside the mountain villages and stay there for good. Because of that tradition, I borrowed hair oil from Grandpa seven times, put on my best coat, and crossed ridge after ridge down to the town below, waiting each time for the woman who said she'd take me out of the mountains and marry me. All seven times, she never came. At the village, the chief sat smoking his pipe and said, "That's the seventh time you've gone down for marriage registration. And that young director of yours ran off to the next village again, to film the handsome boy who smiles for her camera. "Her heart hasn't been on you in a long time, Noah. What are you still waiting for?" In the four years since she came to these mountains, I crossed them for her seven times. But something always happened to the man named Ash, and every time, I was the one left behind. I looked at the village chief and shook my head. "I'm not waiting anymore. I'm getting married in three days."

When a massive hurricane headed toward our city, officials declared the entire area a high-risk zone and ordered everyone to evacuate. But my fiancée, Mabel Payne, refused to leave. Her adopted younger brother, Jason Payne, suffered from severe trauma, and he wouldn't budge. On the first day, Jason took a high-powered slingshot and shattered the expensive hurricane-resistant windows I had installed. On the second day, he flushed our entire supply of emergency medications down the toilet. On the third day, he opened the front door and let a pack of stray cats and dogs tear through all the emergency food I had spent so long stocking up on. With nearly everything we needed to survive the hurricane destroyed, I suggested hiring a professional evacuation team to get Jason and the rest of us to safety before the storm hit. Instead, Mabel flew into a rage. "Jason has PTSD! Taking him somewhere unfamiliar could trigger another episode! Are you trying to get him killed?" But when the hurricane finally hit, Mabel shoved me right out of the rescue helicopter, breaking my leg. "This is all your fault! You're taking up the space Jason needs for his things! You know he can't function without them! What if his condition gets worse? Just wait for the next rescue helicopter!" What she didn't know was that there wasn't going to be another helicopter. And without me, this one wasn't going anywhere.

According to our village's betrothal custom, unmarried men and women exchanged carved wooden tokens on Midsummer Eve. If the two tokens made a matching pair, it meant they had pledged their hearts to each other and could set a date to marry. Kat Michielsen and I had agreed to exchange rose carvings. But right before Midsummer Eve, when I went to find Kat to confirm our plans, I happened to overhear her talking with her grandmother, Sarah Michielsen. "Are you really going to swap your rose carving for a wild rose one and marry Jason? What about Nick? He's waited for you for seventeen years. Aren't you afraid he'll lose heart and end up matched with some other woman?" Kat ran her fingers over the piece of wild-rose wood in her hand, the corners of her lips curling into a faint smile. "He won't. The whole village knows we're in love. Nobody would dare exchange tokens with him. "Marrying me has been his obsession since we were kids. He's waited this long. Even if he finds out I lied to him, he won't leave. "Besides, I'm choosing Jason to comfort my sister's spirit. Once this year is over, I'll make Nick my husband." All of a sudden, the rose carving in my hand felt like it was covered in thorns. So her late sister's widower mattered more than me. My seventeen years of waiting had only made me the backup she'd settled on after weighing her options. In that case, there was no point in our union. I snapped the rose carving in two. And without a second thought, I accepted the century-old Stag and Swan Seal.

My husband, Matthew Lorenzo, dies unexpectedly. Soon after, my in-laws come to me with an outrageous suggestion. "Why not let Matthew’s twin brother take you in and look after you? After all, your child needs a father." My sister-in-law, Felicia Dare, furiously calls me a shameless woman. I turn to look at Matthew's brother, Michael Lorenzo. It's like staring at Matthew's face all over again. The grief hits me hard. Just as I'm about to talk my in-laws out of this ridiculous idea, I overhear a conversation behind the door between them and "Michael". "Michael was the one who died. Why did you lie and let everyone think it was you?" Matthew sighs. "The one I love is Felicia. Faking my death was the only way I could be with her openly. And as for this nonsense about taking Luna in and looking after her—drop it. "As for Luna, I gave her a child and a respectable marriage. I don't owe her anything." I turn around and see my daughter standing there with her eyes red. She asks, "Mommy, does Daddy not want us anymore?" I kneel down, gather her into my arms, and hold back the ache in my chest. "Sweetheart, your uncle just wants to protect the person he loves. We shouldn't disturb him; it's time we start our new life."

I'd lost count of how many times Ethan had turned me down when I asked to stay the night at his place. "Ethan, you're no fun at all." I grumbled. The day before, I'd noticed someone had left a mark by my front door, the kind that flags a woman living alone. It scared me, so I went to Ethan and asked if I could crash at his place for a few days. He said no. "I'll book you a hotel room for tonight." When he saw I was upset, he softened. "I just don't want to give up my own space this soon." "Give me a little time to get used to the idea, okay?" Three years together, and no matter how late our dates ran, he always drove me home. He never once asked me to stay. I wasn't happy about it, but I nodded and let it go. It wasn't that late yet, so I suggested we catch the new movie that had just come out. Ethan checked the time instead and hurried me off to the hotel, a little on edge. Alone in the room, I happened to scroll past the social media of a new coworker. "AC's broken at my place. Thank God I've got someone to run to, or I'd melt." The photo behind the caption showed the TV wall in Ethan's living room. My stomach dropped. I stared at the picture for a long time. By the time I came back to myself, my face was wet with tears. Then I slid off the engagement ring Ethan had given me. A love with something rotten stirred into it wasn't a love I wanted anymore.

I run into my former sister-in-law, whom I haven't seen in ages, during a prenatal checkup at the hospital. Wynne Jenkins glances at my belly. And just like she always does, her face crinkles with disdain as she starts nagging me. "Look at you, wandering around with a pregnant belly at your age," she hollers. "What if something happens to my baby nephew? Can't you be a little more sensible and stop making Sean worry all the time?" She must have forgotten. A year ago, Mom was gravely ill. Her only wish was to see me married with children. I staked everything and proposed to Sean Jenkins. On our big day, I waited from dawn until nightfall—only to receive a 30-second voice message from him. "I won't show up at the ceremony, and I won't marry you. This is what you get for bullying Lav." Mom was so enraged by Sean's recklessness that she suffered a heart attack and passed away. After taking care of her funeral, I erased every trace of myself. With what little I had left, I fled Horton—while Sean was still abroad, skiing with Lavender Quinn. And yet now, Wynne says, "Sean spends more than two weeks every month flying around looking for you. He's lost nearly 20 pounds in less than a year. "He's been waiting for you, Janelle. Now that you're back, please stay and build a family with him." I smirk and raise my hand, flaunting the ring on my finger. "Sorry, I like to keep a low profile. I'm already married, but we kept the ceremony simple. That's why you didn't know."

I was afraid of water. But my best friend, Elara Vance, and my boyfriend, Everett Langley, were both competitive swimmers. Whenever they got together, they never ran out of things to talk about. I could never get a word in. The day Everett won the state swimming championship, I forced myself to attend the pool party to celebrate his victory, even though I was terrified of the water. But Elara suddenly grabbed my ankle and dragged me toward the deep end. "Tessa, you've been afraid of water for years. Today, I'm going to help you get over it." Everett let out a helpless laugh. "She's been afraid of water since she was a kid. Go easy on her." I thrashed desperately, trying to grab the side of the pool, but Elara grabbed me and shoved my head underwater. "Don't be scared, Tessa. This is exposure therapy. A few more gulps, and you'll be cured." My lungs burned as I choked on the water. I reached desperately for Everett. He ignored my pleas and gently coaxed me, "I'm the state swimming champion, and you're my girlfriend, but you're too scared to even get in the water. How embarrassing would that be if people found out? Just hang in there. Once you learn, you'll be fine." Elara shoved me underwater again, laughing. "Look at her kicking! This is hilarious. Film this!" Everett pulled out his phone and pointed the camera at me as I thrashed in the water. "Let's save this. We can watch it together once you learn how to swim." The two of them kept laughing and fooling around. By then, I had already lost consciousness and was slowly sinking beneath the water.

When I went to return my engagement ring, the jeweler asked me why. Right in front of her, I slid it onto my finger. It caught at the second knuckle and wouldn't go any farther. "You can see for yourself. This isn't my size." The jeweler went pale and offered to resize it on the spot. I shook my head, my voice eerily calm. "You can fix the ring size. You can't fix the shoe size. And you definitely can't fix the wedding dress." Everything about my wedding to Charles Garth was mine in name only — my name was on the invitation as the bride, and that was as far as it went. Every time I asked him to come try on the dress with me, he'd keep his eyes on his laptop and answer without looking up. "I'm busy. I already know your measurements. I gave them to the boutique myself. "Just show up and be the bride. Everything's already handled." But three days before the wedding, what I got was a ring that wouldn't fit and a dress I couldn't wear. The shoes, the gloves, the garter — every single piece was sized for my best friend. Something I'd been holding onto for a long time finally gave out, and it left a hole in my chest. Charles frowned, still trying to talk me into it. "It's just a ceremony. You two are so close — would it really be so bad if Maia stood in for you at the altar?" I didn't say anything. I didn't refuse, either. I just thought — maybe it wouldn't be so bad to swap out the groom instead.