Mistress Romance の短編小説 & Regret 小説

My fingerprint had never been given a permanent place in Haiden Buckley's smart lock. He always registered it as temporary access. Whenever he set it up again, he gave me the same reassuring promise. "Come by whenever you want. You're always welcome here." His words sounded generous, yet the result never changed. Whenever I returned to his house, the scanner rejected me with the same message—fingerprint not registered. That day was no different. I stood outside Haiden's front door, watching the scanner flash red after rejecting my fingerprint once again. After staring at it for a moment, I pulled out my phone and called him. Haiden answered almost immediately. His apology came easily, as though this were nothing more than a minor inconvenience. "Sorry. My friend was playing around with the lock yesterday and accidentally removed your fingerprint." He continued before I could respond. "Wait there for now. I'll register it again the next time I'm home." There it was again. Another promise for next time. My fingers tightened around my phone as memories of all the previous incidents returned. Two times ago, Haiden had blamed a system update for wiping out my access. Somehow, Kendall Hatfield's fingerprint had remained perfectly intact. Last time, he claimed the lock was faulty and that he needed to replace the entire control panel. But the truth had been much simpler. Kendall had casually remarked, "Keeping too many fingerprints in the system isn't safe." Soon afterward, mine had been removed. Haiden always had an explanation that sounded reasonable enough on the surface. Somehow, every convenient accident ended the same way. He gave Kendall exactly what she wanted, leaving her as the only woman with unquestioned access to his home. Haiden was still trying to reassure me over the phone. "Just stay there. I'll open the door for you when I get back." The call ended. A second later, a sharp click came from the other side of the door. I knew that sound. Someone inside had turned the deadbolt. Kendall knew I was right outside, yet she had deliberately locked the door anyway. I remained still for a few seconds before slowly getting to my feet. I brushed the dust from my pants and looked at the door one last time. 'Forget it. I don't want to go inside anymore.'

After saving money with Justin Pierre for five years, we finally went to view a house. My best friend, Maria Houston, came along too. "The master bedroom needs a walk-in closet. Can we knock down this wall?" she asked Justin while pointing at the floor plan I had been looking at for the past six months. "I'll get a designer to take a look tomorrow. You can change it however you want." The two of them discussed everything, from the direction the apartment faced to the tiles, from the floor-to-ceiling windows to the bathtub. Meanwhile, I stood in the corner, unable to get a word in. When it was time to sign the papers, he seemed to suddenly remember I was here and said, "We'll put this place under Maria's name for now. She's here all by herself, so consider it a company benefit. The company is a little tight on cash lately. You can keep renting for another two years." However, I had also left my hometown behind to build a life with him from nothing five years ago. Back then, we had squeezed into a tiny apartment without even air-conditioning, and he had made me a promise with absolute certainty. "Once the company takes off, the first thing I'll do is give you a home." Now that the company had finally succeeded, the first home he bought was for someone else. I stared at the two signatures side by side on the contract and realized there was no place for my name. Since he had already planned a future that did not include me, I was not going to wait for him anymore. Thinking about it, I opened the page to terminate my lease and confirmed it.

My buddy, Jayden Jenkins, has come over to my place again to mooch a free meal. It is scorching hot outside, and I am sweating over the stove in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Jayden is lounging in the air-conditioned living room. After biting the tip off a strawberry, he pulls my wife, Willow Simpson, into his arms and casually pops the rest into her mouth. "Here, Willow. Help me finish it," he says with a wicked grin. "It's rare enough that this cheap bastard Caius finally buys strawberries. Now he'll complain that I wasted one if I don't finish it." I wipe the sweat from my forehead and glance toward the living room, just in time to see Willow swallow the half-eaten strawberry. The thing is, she is a serious germaphobe. We've been married for years, and even kissing me is something she rarely allows. I remember another sweltering evening. After playing basketball, I bought a Coke and offered her the half-finished cup. "Willow, you must be thirsty. Here, take a sip. It's nice and cold. It'll cool you down." She slapped the cup away and snapped, "Caius, do you have any idea how many kinds of bacteria are in saliva? Don't ever do something that disgusting again." On that crowded field, people stared at our exchange, some barely hiding their amusement. I froze, my hand still hovering near her forehead as I tried to wipe away her sweat. I knew I would never forget the humiliation I felt in that moment. But I told myself she was simply distant and hard to please. Again and again, I reminded myself not to be so sensitive and to respect her boundaries. Turns out, that wasn't the case. She can set aside her fear of germs. She just isn't willing to do it for me.

Lucien Arden took the throne. He crowned Rosalind Hartwell empress. And Evelyn Hartwell—the principal wife who had fought at his side all the way from embattled prince to emperor—was given only the rank of Imperial Consort. The day the decree came down, Silverleaf Palace was completely silent. Every servant kept their head lowered and hardly dared to breathe, afraid that Evelyn would weep, or throw things, or come apart the way any consort does when the emperor's favor leaves her. Evelyn simply accepted the decree, calmly. “I thank His Majesty for his generosity.” There was no movement in her voice and nothing in her face. Even her beautiful eyes held not the slightest trace of grief. She turned, went back into the inner rooms, and picked up her book where she had left it. As though the decree that had just stripped her of her place as his principal wife had nothing whatever to do with her.

"Your Highness, are you really going to secretly take blood from Miss Jerryton's heart and treat Miss Mullery with it?" The elderly imperial physician's hand that held the dagger trembled. The candlelight reflected the cold sweat on his forehead. Arrisa Jerryton lay on the bed. Her thin body sank into the luxurious quilt, and her face was as white as the first snow of winter. Louis Xavier spoke in a tone colder than the snow outside the palace. "Yes. I already fed her anesthetic powder. She is in a coma and will not wake up. Hurry up."

After divorcing my unfaithful husband, Yale Gibson, I end up completely miserable. So when we remarry, I become the perfect wife he always wanted. When rumors swirl about him and Willow Leeds, I step forward to clear his name. When Willow falsely accuses me, he turns a blind eye while I immediately take the blame and apologize. Even when I'm set up and brought to the police station, I refuse to call him to bail me out. I simply tell the officers I have no family, letting them lock me up for an entire week. Seven days later, the heavy gates of the police station clang open at dusk. A sleek black Cullinan screeches to a halt right in front of me. Yale strides over, his brow furrowed slightly. "Sarah, why didn't you call me when you ran into trouble?" he asked. I give a faint, distant smile. "It's nothing serious. I didn't want to bother you." A flicker of unease crosses Yale's eyes. He replies, "I was overseas with Willow the past couple of days and didn't check my messages." He pauses, then lowers his voice. "I'm sorry." "It's fine," I say smoothly. "I wasn't expecting you to come anyway. Just focus on what you have to do." Yale stares at me for a moment before suddenly grabbing my wrist. "Why aren't you upset?" he asks. He keeps his eyes on me, confusion flickering in them, along with a hint of unease. I find it almost funny and reply, "Why would I be upset? You gave me an explanation, and I accepted it. There's nothing to be upset about." "Yale…" I look at the man in front of me, completely confused. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"

When I turned eighteen, I awakened my wolf. That was also when a strange System appeared in my mind. It told me that if I won over Matthew Reed and survived his betrayal-and-groveling arc, I would receive $32 billion. That was the only reason I agreed to keep our marriage secret. But the night Matthew won Best Actor, he posted a photo on Instagram of himself feeding Hellfire Wings to his childhood sweetheart, Layla Bennett. The caption read: [After all this time, this is still the flavor I crave most.] Immediately afterward, he exposed our secret marriage and posted evidence that I had paid him to mark me against his will. The trending page crashed on the spot. My hands shook as I reached for him through our mind-link, but Matthew didn't sound sorry at all. "Layla's been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. This is her last wish. "She can't be labeled a homewrecker. You've had me for three years. Can't you show a little compassion for a dying woman?" The entire internet called me a homewrecker who was destroying their true love. Some of his fans even made black-and-white memorial photos of me and plastered them across my front door. They demanded that I, the "vicious mate," break our bond and step aside for his true love. I sat there in silence, tears running down my face, when the System suddenly roared inside my head: [Hostile betrayal by target detected. Host bears no responsibility. Groveling Protocol disabled.] [Mind-link backlash blocked. Switching to: Maximum Savage Comeback Mode!] The moment the System fell silent, my head snapped up, every trace of tears gone. I went live to the entire internet, grabbed a megaphone, and planted myself right outside Layla's VIP hospital room. "Terminal stomach cancer, and she's still stuffing her face with Hellfire Wings? Is she trying to die even faster?"

To help my husband, Julian Parker, pay off the debt from his stock-market losses, I agreed to sell one of my kidneys. But on the day of the surgery, our six-year-old daughter, Ella Parker, ran to the clinic all by herself and frantically called Julian for help. Julian sounded conflicted. "Mom's only having one kidney removed. It'll get Dad out of this mess for good. But if she doesn't do it, Dad's whole future is ruined." Ella kept begging him to stop the surgery, but Julian simply hung up. Then he hurried toward a private hospital suite nearby, his face filled with worry. Inside lay Claire Morgan, the woman he'd never gotten over. Her face was deathly pale. "Don't worry. We've got a kidney for you. You're going to be fine." He lowered his voice. "And don't feel guilty. I'm the one who chose to lie to her. She's still young. She can live just fine with one kidney." Claire's transplant was a success. Julian was in such a good mood afterward that, for once, he even suggested taking Ella and me on a trip, calling it a belated honeymoon. But he had no idea I was already dead. After my kidney was removed, I couldn't even afford $9.90 for the antibiotics I needed. The wound became infected, and I died. And Ella finally gave up on her father, too.

In my third year as a blind massage therapist, Henry Young took his employees on a company retreat. By sheer coincidence, he ended up booking me. When he saw me, he remained perfectly composed, so much so that even his breathing did not falter. I served him the same way I treated every other client. Then his phone rang. My hands paused for a moment as my own voice, young and girlish, came through his phone speaker. His employees immediately started teasing him. Henry simply explained in a gentle voice, “My wife recorded that when she was young and didn’t know any better.” Just as he was leaving, Henry suddenly turned around. “Anya Walt, I’ve never forgotten you. “Are you really going to keep living this hard life, with my child by your side?” I rubbed my fingertips again and again, but said nothing. It seemed he still had no idea. Back then, I kept our child and delivered the baby. But the baby was stillborn.

Serena Sutton was my fiancee, but she wanted to marry my bodyguard, Evan Brooks. The man was a cheat. I didn't want her taken in, so I took her to see for herself what he really was. While the two of them were fighting, a car came through at speed and killed him. And Serena hated me for it with everything in her. In the third year of our marriage, she killed our son. I was in so much pain I was coughing up blood, and she put a knife in me. "Adrian, this is what you owe me for Evan." Only then did I learn that she had never forgotten him. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the second before I meant to expose him. This time, I'm staying out of it.

At an alumni reunion, my husband's business rival Vanessa Graves stands up in front of everyone and raises three toasts to him. "The first is for the time you risked your life to save me from a group of thugs and ended up with broken bones and spent six months in the hospital. "The second is for the five years we were together, and every bit of love and devotion you gave me. "The third is for putting everything behind you and coming here tonight to see me." She finishes her drink and looks at my husband, Russell Grayson, with teary eyes filled with affection. The whole table erupts in whispers, every pair of eyes locked on her and Russell. "No wonder the campus queen has been single all these years. She's been waiting for Russell Grayson." "They were everyone's golden couple back in the day. After they broke up, he was a wreck for the longest time before someone else swooped in. Are they about to get back together?" Under the weight of everyone's loaded stares, I smile and slide Russell's glass away from him. "No drinking if you're driving, honey. I have a prenatal appointment this afternoon. Why don't you come with me?"

My undercover mission goes wrong, and I'm captured, only to discover that the man I've loved for years is the heir to a powerful crime family. Desperate to keep me alive, Caspian hides me on a remote island. "Be good and stay here, Elowen. Once I convince my father to let you go, I'll come back for you." Only later do I learn the truth. The island is where the Hale family banishes its enemies and traitors. For an entire year, I fight to survive, coming close to death more times than I can count. When I finally escape, I return to the Hale residence to find my identical twin sister nestled in Caspian's arms. "Caspian, Elowen and I were both captured a year ago. Why did you save me and leave her behind?" He pauses, then looks at her with a tender smile. "My father only let me save one of you. You're too fragile. How could I ever leave you somewhere like that?" Something inside me goes cold. I turn to leave and walk straight into the arms of a stranger. "Ms. Vale, how would you feel about making a deal?" The man smiles lazily down at me. I recognize him immediately—Lucian Hale, Caspian's uncle and the man who rules the island. "Alright." Caspian, you're going to regret this.

When a car struck me and sent me flying, blood sprayed everywhere. It resulted in ruptured organs, so I begged my wife, Lucy Hathaway, to take me to the hospital. But she told me to endure it because her younger uncle, Alan Cooper, had surgery that day. To stop me from applying to a foreign institution, Lucy went so far as to lock me in a cold storage room kept at negative twenty degrees Celsius. “The chance to travel abroad has to go to Alan. He has nothing, while you already have all of my love. You should give him your future! “The chill in the storage room will help with your wounds. After Alan finishes his surgery and submits his application, you can go to the hospital.” The pain from my wounds drove me to the brink of death. I even gave up my dignity and begged Lucy to take me to the hospital. Instead, she kicked me to the ground. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to pull. Aren’t you pretending to be seriously injured so that you can go to the hospital and stop Alan’s surgery? That way, he’ll lose his eligibility to apply for the institution. “How could you be so despicable?! You’re willing to hurt yourself just to put on an act and compete with Alan. You made your bed, so lie in it!” I tried to explain to her weakly, “I’m not pretending. The car accident came out of nowhere. I never wanted to go abroad in the first place. I just want to live a good life with you. I swear. Please save me.” Lucy pulled her pant leg out of my desperate grip and snorted. “You’re so full of schemes. Who knows if you’re trying to manipulate me again? I’ll come back for you after Alan finishes his surgery and submits his application.” After Lucy had had enough of staring into and admiring Alan’s eyes as he regained his sight, she accompanied him to submit his application. She finally remembered me again after all that and ordered her secretary to take me to the hospital. However, her secretary said through gritted teeth, “Mr. Fisherman has passed away from the car accident…”

At the company’s annual dinner party, the front desk receptionist, Laila Nachtman, lost a game and had to randomly select a man to kiss as her penalty. She blushed and cautiously looked at Leonard Griffin. “Mr. Griffin, could you maybe—” Before she could finish, Leonard briefly said, “Scram.” The entire room erupted in laughter and mockery at her being so ridiculously oblivious. Everyone in their circle knew that he doted on me, his wife. Over the years, he had never given a second glance to anyone except me. His phone password had always been my birthday, and he reported his itinerary to me every time he traveled for work. He even kept a video call with me running while showering. Laila was foolish to throw herself at someone so untouchable. Just then, my phone rang. When I answered, the person on the other line claimed to be myself ten years in the future. She said while laughing mockingly, “Iris, the real fool here is you. That little nobody you look down on has been having an affair with Leonard for five years. “She used those pitiful tricks to steal everyone around you, leaving you with nothing and no one. “Fighting back destroyed your whole family. Leonard had you locked up in a psychiatric hospital, where you were imprisoned until your death.” When I heard the bitter laugh at the end of the line, a chill ran down my spine as my mind went blank. As I was about to hang up, that voice warned me again, saying, “Don’t believe me? Go ahead and open that private room door behind you and see for yourself.”

My wife's student, Talon Palmer, hired someone to stab me, leaving me critically injured. In six years as an attorney, my wife Audrey Taylor had never lost a case. Yet she stayed up all night compiling nearly a hundred pages of trial materials, all to prove Talon innocent. I stood in the doorway for six straight hours, torturing myself as I watched her work. Finally, I asked hoarsely, "Why?" She didn't even look up. "You accused Talon of being the other man. All he did was ask that thug to pretend to be his brother and scare you. Everything that happened afterward was the thug's own doing. It had nothing to do with Talon." I shook my head in disbelief. Hysterical, I rushed forward and tried to tear the documents on her desk to pieces, but Audrey caught my wrist in a cold, unyielding grip. "Stop it, honey. If you absolutely have to decide who's to blame here..." Audrey's gaze met mine. I was devastated and furious, but all I saw in her eyes was cruel pity. "Then I guess you can only blame yourself for being too weak to fight back. And for having the kind of arrogant face that makes people hate you."

Liam Brooks and his older twin brother, Noah, looked exactly alike, but their lives couldn't have been more different. Noah was the CEO of Brooks Group. Liam was an ordinary office worker. All because Liam was the son his family had cast aside. We met when neither of us had much, supported each other through the hard times, and eventually married. During our three years of marriage, Liam kept telling me he could never measure up to his brother or give me a better life. He was afraid I'd look down on him. I told him I didn't care if we lived in a rental apartment forever, as long as our hearts were together. He gave me all his money and all his love, and I thought that was what happiness looked like. Then, by accident, I found his other phone. It was the latest iPhone. On it, another woman called him "sweetheart" and "Noah", and complained that the newest designer bag still hadn't arrived. I didn't know why she was calling him Noah, but I knew one thing: Liam had lied to me. He'd enjoyed a better life all along. He'd simply left me out of it. If his heart had already strayed, it was time to leave a marriage I'd been the only one believing in.

The night before the Global Finals, my boyfriend, our team captain, handed my starting spot to an academy trainee just to indulge her. Every question I got wrong, I had to hand over a piece of gear that had carried me through championships. But every answer had been rigged from the start. In the end, he pulled my account key and gave my Finals seat to the trainee. "Just let her play one match. You're twenty-six, stop being so petty." I snapped my account card in half on the spot and signed the termination papers they'd drawn up. The whole team expected me to crawl back to base. But when the Finals lineups took the stage, I was wearing our rivals' starting jersey, standing on the other side. They still had no idea who had really been carrying whom to those three straight championships.

The night Justin Lane proposed to his first love, I stood on the terrace of the thirty-third floor, holding a report that diagnosed me with late-stage stomach cancer. Through the windows, I watched him kneel and slide the pink diamond ring that had once belonged to me onto another woman's finger. I endured the excruciating pain and stayed out on the terrace beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows so I wouldn't disturb their beautiful moment. Then Justin saw me. There was no panic or guilt in his eyes. There was only disgust. From the other side of the glass, he sneered and pointed toward the edge of the terrace. Then, he mouthed the words to me. "If you want to jump, then jump. Enough with the disgusting act already. "If you really have the nerve to die, I'll believe that you weren't lying." At that moment, the last spark of my will to live was finally extinguished. I looked at him, at the man I had loved for a decade… And I finally smiled. It was the smile of someone who had finally found peace. I turned around and climbed onto the railing. You're free, my dear Justin. Get ready to accept this last gift of mine.

On our wedding day, the officiant asked, "Do you agree to spend the rest of your life with the man standing before you?" Bianca, the woman I had loved for ten years, hesitated. In the end, she shook her head as she clutched her phone and said, "I don't." Then, she grabbed my younger brother, who had just slit his wrists, and ran out of the venue, tearing off her wedding gown as she fled. She never once spared a thought for my dignity the entire time. Heck, she didn't even look at me. Afterward, she simply said, "We'll just make new wedding arrangements. There was an emergency that day. Someone's life was on the line. I couldn't just ignore it, especially when he was your brother." However, I didn't want to make any new arrangements. Then again, she didn't know that I registered my marriage with someone else after her dramatic escape.

Sophie Jordan and her boyfriend, Carter Jennings, had been in a long-distance relationship for four years while studying at different universities. During the semester break, Sophie took an eight-hour train ride to North Capital University to see Carter, but he was not around. The resident advisor looked her up and down with a smile. "Are you here for Carter Jennings? He isn't here for the semester break. He won't be back for a few days." Sophie's grip on her luggage tightened. "Is there some kind of mistake? He just told me that he's in his dorm." Sophie had texted Carter just minutes ago, and he told her he was tired and wanted to take a nap in his dormitory. "I have no reason to lie. Look, he wrote a note about it." The resident advisor showed her the note. "He left for Southern University to see his girlfriend. He always visits her during the holidays, rain or shine. "Carter Jennings loves his girlfriend a lot. Every guy in his dorm knows that! Look, his roommates are right there." His roommates were speaking about him. "Too bad Carter isn't around this long holiday. If he were here, we could’ve formed a team for that big competition!" "All he thinks about is his girlfriend. He's always with her during the holidays." "It takes five hours to travel to Southern University from here, but he doesn't find it tiring at all. When I asked him why his girlfriend doesn't come here to visit him instead, he said he didn't want to exhaust her with all the travelling. Dang, he must really love her!" The boys laughed as they walked past Sophie, and she heard everything they said. Her grip tightened gradually on her luggage as her excitement turned to fear. Southern University? She was not studying there. Who had her boyfriend been meeting without fail every semester break?