Historias cortas de Feel-Good Story y novelas con Scumbag ambientadas en Karma

My brother Christopher owned a boutique on Fifth Avenue. I'd gone in, picked out a few pieces, grabbed a silk scarf on the way, and was heading for the door. The clerk behind the register stopped me. "Ma'am, we'll need you to settle this now." I looked up. Her name tag said Yvonne. Unfamiliar face. Probably new. I didn't think much of it. "Just put it on the owner's account," I said politely. "He knows who I am." She gave a little snort through her nose, eyes raking from my hair down to my shoes. "We don't run accounts here. You might have the wrong store." She pushed an itemized bill across the counter. Four hundred thousand dollars. I scanned the line items. Personal Style Consultation. Premium Fitting Service. VIP Client Private Service. Every single charge cost more than the clothes themselves. I let out a short laugh. "I'm a Whitfield. Christopher's my brother. Whatever this is, he can deal with it at home." Her smile got uglier. "Anyone can claim to be a Whitfield, sweetheart. Are you trying to skip out on the bill, or are you just trying to embarrass yourself?" I didn't bother arguing. I pulled out my phone and texted Christopher: [Fire the clerk named Yvonne in the next ten minutes, or I pull every dollar I have in this store.]

The hotel called, politely reminding me that the condoms used last night were unpaid and had been charged to my membership card. I was stunned. I'd been working late until midnight and hadn't set foot in any hotel. I confronted my husband, the only person who knew my card code. Nathan Phelps looked at me, bewildered. "Honey, that hotel costs over $10,000 a night. I'd never go there. It's probably a system error. Someone must have mistyped the card number. I'll file a complaint tomorrow." Unconvinced, I called my best friend, who managed the hotel. "Tracy, check who Nathan was with at the hotel last night. I'm catching him red-handed."

It was only after my boyfriend, Julian Mercer, received his HIV diagnosis that he finally understood what his childhood friend, Luna Sullivan, truly meant by "life and death together". In my previous life, after Julian collapsed from anemia, Luna insisted on donating blood to him. I fought with everything I had to stop it. I told him that Luna had already contracted HIV. If she donated blood to him, he would be infected as well. He refused to believe me. Luna cried and swore that she had never even had a boyfriend. To prove her innocence, she climbed onto the rooftop and pretended she was going to jump to her death. However, she slipped. She missed her footing and fell to her death from the building. To avenge her, Julian conspired with our classmates to kidnap me. He strangled me with his own hands. I still remember his furious roar. "This is all because of your slander! You killed Luna! I will make you pay for her life!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the blood transfusion. I watched as Julian lay there, already receiving blood from his beloved Luna. I smiled faintly. HIV? Fine.

The new intern had a habit of calling my husband "Daddy." "Daddy, I am having the worst luck today. Could you please go buy me some feminine products?" "Daddy, I cannot get the zipper on my dress unstuck. Can you help me?" "Daddy, why do you not have my hair tie around your wrist? I think you deserve a punishment. Wear two. Pink ones, okay?" I frowned as irritation simmered beneath the surface. My husband waved it off with a casual smile. "She is just being playful. Do not take it seriously. She is young and enjoying the novelty. She will get over it soon enough." I said nothing. I waited until the night of the company’s annual gala. She suddenly stumbled in front of everyone and fell straight into my husband’s arms. Her eyes glistened with tears as she looked up at him. Her voice sounded soft and pitiful. "Daddy, my foot hurts so badly. I think I twisted my ankle." To my disbelief, my husband crouched down in front of the entire room, slipped off her high heels, and gently massaged her ankle. The room fell silent. No one seemed to know where to look. A few people turned toward me with clear sympathy in their eyes. I rose from my seat in a calm and unhurried manner. "Since everyone is here, I have an announcement to make." I looked around the room before I delivered the words that stopped every conversation. "As of tonight, the company will have a new CEO." The intern shot to her feet. "What?" She stared at me in disbelief. Her expression twisted with anger. "You are nothing but his wife. What makes you think you have the right to take Daddy’s position?" I smiled. I turned toward my husband, who had remained silent throughout the entire exchange. "Seth Hawkins. "Tell her. "Do I have the right?"

My coming-of-age ceremony was supposed to be a celebration. My father, the Alpha of Alphas, had invited every powerful pack in the land. His goal: for me to choose a mate from the land's strongest Alphas. I chose the most powerful of them all, Alpha Lukas. But my sister Lyla, my father's bastard, was only allowed a lowly beta. She was slaughtered in the forest. After her death, Lukas and I crafted 99 soul crystals in her memory. I thought he did it for me, to honor my fallen sister. But then he killed me in battle. With his bare hands. "You bitch! If you hadn't chosen me, Lyla would have been my mate!" Only then did I learn the truth. He had only ever loved Lyla. He hated me for stealing the life that should have been hers. Those 99 soul crystals… they weren't for her memory. They were for my penance. I died in a sea of despair. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of my ceremony. Facing the most powerful Alphas in the world, I walked past them all and chose the one no one wanted. The half-breed outcast despised by all. Salome.

I'm Isa Borgia, the daughter of the most powerful Don in Corvina. My father worries I'll marry the wrong man on a whim, so he arranges for me to be engaged to Luca, the rising heir of the Marino family. It's an arranged marriage, but that doesn't mean I've lost all my say. The very least I can do is choose a ring I genuinely like. So, I go to the mafia auction. When the diamond ring appears as the final jewel of the night, I lift my paddle. Just before the gavel falls, an arrogant voice comes from behind me. "A country bumpkin like you thinks you can compete with me? Do yourself a favor and leave." The auction hall goes quiet for a few seconds. The only sound comes from the camera shutters clicking around the hall. I turn and see a woman in a gold couture gown. Her mouth curves in a casual smile, as if she owns the place. Before I can say a word, the auctioneer rushes to close the bid.
"Sold! Congratulations to Ms. Sofia Lopez for winning the final lot, the Eternal Star!" My brows pull tight, and a hot spike of anger rises in my chest. "You ended the bidding early! Do you even follow the rules here?" Sofia turns around and gives me a once-over, her gaze sharp as a blade. 
"Rules?" She lets out a cold laugh. "Come on. I'm Luca Marino's favorite godsister. Around here, I make the rules!" I can't help but laugh. What a coincidence. So, she's my fiance's godsister. I pull out my phone and call him. "Luca, your godsister just snatched the engagement ring I picked out. How are you going to handle this?"

Hayden Baxter's sidepiece comes up to me and throws yet another tantrum. "I love Hayden too much. Can't you let me have him?" Hayden sits quietly on one side but texts me, "Just say yes and humor her for a bit." I do as I am told, then wordlessly begin to pack up my stuff so I can move out of the home I share with Hayden. On my way out, I hear his friends jesting, "Elena is surprisingly obedient. Does this mean she'll abort her baby if you ask her to, Hayden?" Hayden raises a brow, looking nonchalant. "Want to place a bet on it? "I bet she'd whine and throw a fit at the hospital entrance in a week, only to give in and do as she's told." I don't argue. Instead, I quietly tap on my conversation with someone else. "Will you marry me?" "Yes."

Before our marking ceremony, Alpha Theodore Pierce let his childhood sweetheart, Eliana Vale, throw me into a walk-in freezer for a pre-wedding test. I have cold agglutinin disease. Prolonged exposure to cold can trigger acute hemolysis. The pack's chosen best man and maid of honor stood outside the freezer. They held up their phones and started a livestream. "If you want to be our Luna, kneel and beg Eliana." "Promise that once you accept the mate bond, you won't come between her and Alpha Theodore." Half an hour later, the freezer door finally opened. I was on my knees on the ice, my fingertips frozen blue-black. I no longer had the strength to lift my head. Jeering comments flooded the livestream. Theodore ignored my pain. Instead, he shrugged off his coat and draped it around Eliana. All because she had complained of the cold when the freezer door opened. "You know she has a soft heart. Is that why you put on this act, so she would pity you?" Theodore held the list of pre-wedding tests, never imagining I had read every item. Hiding my emergency medication, sabotaging the radiant heat at home, staging a rogue kidnapping, causing me to fall through the ice of a frozen river... Each time they completed one, he checked it off. The freezer challenge was number eleven. Eliana had invented it. The final test was scheduled for the day of the marking ceremony. Stage his death and test the Luna's loyalty. So that was it... Every time I woke in the medical wing after almost dying, it signaled the start of their next game. Theodore lifted my chin with the toe of his shoe. "Show up on time to the marking ceremony tomorrow, and I'll consider keeping tonight's video private." I stood, removed the pack Luna's crest, and dropped it at Eliana's feet. "I'm done playing." "From this moment on, I reject you as my mate. As far as you're concerned, I died in that freezer!"

On the day of mafia families' annual gathering, my mother and I sat in the back of a Lincoln, heading toward the Falcone estate. I was adjusting my dress when my phone buzzed with a video from my fiancé's secretary. The footage showed a middle-aged woman being dragged by her hair across a marble floor. Her cheek was already swelling, red and angry. The secretary's sharp voice cut through the audio as she delivered slap after slap. "Gianna, you pathetic gold-digger! Did you really think you could fool Don Falcone into marrying you, and then let your thieving mother wander into the estate to lift his mother's jewelry? Please." Another slap. The woman's head snapped to the side. "I'm doing Don Falcone a favor by handling this trash." I lowered the phone. My mother sat beside me, checking her watch with a slight frown. When she felt my gaze, she looked up and smiled, then reached over to fold my hand between both of hers. "The Falcone family is struggling with the new casino licensing, but we can help them with that since Don Falcone is your fiancé," she said lightly, "He is a striking man, sweetheart. Once the alliance is sealed, your father and I can help straighten things out." I frowned and replayed the video. Long dark hair pulled back loosely. Warm brown eyes filled with pain. A small scar on her left eyebrow. Oh God. The injured woman was none other than Anthony's mother! I called the secretary immediately. "Lilian, you idiot. That's Anthony's mother!" She let out a vicious laugh. "Please, I know exactly who you are, Gianna. A nobody his father pushed onto him. Don Falcone doesn't give a damn about you, so why would he care about your family?"

My father was Enzo Moretti, the godfather of one of New York’s most powerful mafia families. And I was his princess—his most cherished treasure. He hid me from his world to protect me, but he didn’t want me left alone, so he arranged a marriage for me. The groom was Leon Scott—the son of New York’s richest man. Handsome, loaded, and a rising star in the business world. On paper, he was perfect. For our wedding, my father had a custom gown flown in from a designer in Milan. Today was my fitting appointment. When I walked into the bridal boutique, my heart stopped. Nicole Hill, Leon’s childhood sweetheart, was wearing my wedding dress. When she saw me, a smug little smile curled her lips. Then she grabbed a cheap white polyester bridesmaid’s dress from the table and shoved it into my arms. “Put this on,” she said, lifting her chin like she owned the place. “You can wear this for the ceremony.” I looked down at the flimsy fabric in my hands, then back up at her. My voice dropped low. “I’m the soon-to-be bride. And you’re telling me to wear this?” She let out a laugh, sharp and mean. “Just do what you’re told and don’t make this difficult. Leon already gave the word. I’m walking down the aisle in your place. And you? You just stand there like a good little bridesmaid and go through the motions.” For a few seconds, I couldn’t speak. Then I pulled out my phone and dialed Leon’s number. It rang twice before he picked up. “Leon, about Nicole taking my place at the altar. Don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”