Cerita Pendek & Novel

I was sent abroad to work. After three years, I finally helped my fiancee secure a highly challenging and significant client. When I returned home, she drove me out of the house. Her eyes gleamed with disdain as she looked at me while carrying a child. “I’ve got a husband and a child. You went abroad and left me all alone for three years. How could you come back to me? You’d better come to your senses and resign from the company tomorrow!” She trampled upon my dignity and love. Then, I realized that our five-year romance had come to an end.

My sister and I were reborn on the very day we were to be sent to the Demons as sacrificial vessels. That day, our husbands, the God of Water and the God of Fire, came to rescue us. However, this time, without any discussion, we made the same choice. We refused their rescue and willingly offered ourselves to the Demons. In our previous life, after they saved us, the Demons captured the God of Water's young apprentice as a replacement. In the end, she was flayed and had her bones torn out, dying a brutal and tragic death. Because of that, the God of Water and the God of Fire came to hate my sister and me deeply. They spread rumors that we were the Twin Blossoms of Ruin, destined to destroy the world, and forced us to the point where our souls were completely annihilated. When I opened my eyes again, my sister and I had returned to the moment when the Demons first captured us. We exchanged a glance and then announced in front of everyone, "We are willing to become the sacrificial vessels of the Dark Lord and the Demon King. Take us with you." The God of Water and the God of Fire left with their young apprentice, who was completely unharmed. They were relieved that they had finally protected the one they truly cared about. Only later did they realize their mistake, but by then, they were consumed with regret.

On the night of the SAT exam, my childhood sweetheart, Walter Sterling, eagerly coaxed me into sleeping with him. At the height of passion, his wild and unrestrained motions hurt me. Later, thanks to a ten-points difference on the exam score, we ended up in a four-year-long-distance relationship. Walter spent all his allowance on flight tickets to see me. Whenever we got together, he would physically live out the words, “absence made the heart grow fonder.” On his birthday, I bought a flight ticket and carried a cake to surprise him. But when I entered his rental apartment, I saw him and a strange girl intensely doing the deed. The cake in my hand fell to the floor with a thud. Then, I ran out crying. Walter’s expression changed dramatically. He chased after me like a madman. To keep me, he deleted all her contact information in front of me and even dropped out of school. My heart softened, and I forgave him. After we got married, he treated me even better than before. The improvement was so drastic that I was constantly on cloud nine. But when I became pregnant, I once again saw the girl he had completely cut ties with. She was his new secretary.

In this life, I refuse Ray Leger's suggestion to go live in the south with him. Instead, I go to the north alone and devote myself to the national translation service. It is because in my previous life, I leave my hometown and follow him to a southern city. In the end, I become nothing more than a cash cow supporting him and Shannon Cross. I work during the day and take on translation jobs at night. Eventually, I collapse and cough up blood from exhaustion, only to hear Ray's disgusted remark. "Nora Spencer, you really are useless. It has only been ten years, and you've already outlived your usefulness!" I lift my head in a daze, and what I see are the mocking expressions on his and Shannon's faces. Just before I die, I learn that our marriage certificate is fake. It is just Ray's excuse to trick me into going to the south with him. When I open my eyes again, I see Ray trying to lure me with marriage once more. "Nora, as long as you come to the south with us, I will register our marriage right away!"

The first day I return to the country, my future mother-in-law, Sophia Damer, smacks a check against my face and says, "Here's five million dollars. Leave my son alone. The Simpsons cannot accept a gold-digging nobody like you!" Before I can even explain myself, the young woman in a white dress hiding behind her says, "Please don't do this, Sophia. If this young lady treats Jay well enough, I don't mind caring for him with her, too." I chuckle. So, Sophia and Crystal Richmond, my half-sister, think that I'm the evil mistress who tried stealing her man away from her, when Jayson Simpson was my boyfriend the entire time. And yet, Crystal still thinks that she's the legitimate one instead. However, seeing that Crystal still doesn't know who I really am, I pick up the check without even looking at it and stuff it into her V-neck dress. "Nice acting. Here's your reward." Then, I take out a black card and fling it onto the table. "Here's ten million dollars, lady. Tell your son to stay away from me and stop bothering me. I find him disgusting! "Oh, and by the way," I say, pointing at Crystal, who is still being shielded behind Sophia's body. "Might I remind you that this young woman you're protecting is just the bastard kid my dad brought home last year. "If you're thinking of using her to get close to the Richmonds, I'm afraid that you're barking up the wrong tree!"

My name is Brandon Westin, and I'm Carlisle Grayson's secretary and secret lover. No matter how cold he acts toward me, how much he humiliates me, or how often he "lends" me off to other people, I still choose to stick with him without any remorse or complaints. His friends call me a shameless lapdog. Carlisle calls me a twink, often blaming me for "turning him gay" and thus ruining his life. However, when I finally choose to leave him, he looks at me with red-rimmed eyes and asks, "How can you say that you don't love me?"

My boyfriend's one true love, Winnie Lynch, lost a wager on the open seas and she was going to be fed to the tiger sharks in the shark tank soon. As the ship's pirate captain watched, my boyfriend, Hank Smith, yanked me up as I was scrubbing the deck and said, "Winnie is sickly and she can't handle the shock. You're a cleaner who works hard labor every day and has great stamina. You should go in there and hold your breath for five minutes for her." Everyone around us burst out laughing. I wiped the soap bubbles from my hands and sighed helplessly. "Both of you thought this through? You really want me to go?" None of them knew that the two leaders of the pirates who were sitting on the main seats, men who were feared across the open seas, were kids I had trained myself a long time ago!

One week before the wedding, I accidentally came across a copy of my girlfriend's abortion procedure report. She always insisted she was uninterested in being intimate, yet behind my back, she had secretly aborted another man's baby. Instead of questioning her, I quietly put the report back where I found it. For the next week, I went along with the wedding planning, picking out the outfits and rings. But on the day of the wedding, the bride, waiting endlessly for the groom who never came, lost her mind.

I think Giselle Foster, the fake heiress of my family, has gotten reborn. Not only does she stop my parents from choosing one of us to stay with them, but she also secretly tells my mom that the apocalypse is coming, and that the zombies will take over the world. My biological parents choose to believe Giselle. Soon, they start borrowing money from all sources and stock up on everything as much as possible. As Giselle stands in the indestructible safe house, she looks at me smugly. "You didn't just fail to win Mom and Dad over—you'll always be inferior to me as well!" I merely smirk at her in return. After that, I pass the antidote for the zombification virus to the military. Idiots will forever be idiots even after they get reborn. Now that the apocalypse is no longer coming, I'd like to see just how these idiots are going to pay off the loan sharks.

On the night of our wedding, my wife, Carol Lockhart, leaves me and goes to stay at a hotel instead. It's because she's an aloof, arrogant young woman who has always been in love with my younger brother, Thomas Shaffer. Over the next ten years of our marriage, I treat her as sincerely as possible and give her my entire heart, but the only response I get in return is her mockery. "Marcus Shaffer, I would rather be a nun for the rest of my life than fall in love with you!" However, when a heavy truck comes skidding toward me, the woman who has hated me all her life suddenly throws herself at me and shoves me away, saving my life. Before passing out, I see her grabbing the doctor's hand, while blood flows from her mouth, begging, "Don't tell that idiot that I was the one who saved him… "And don't let my parents blame him for my death…" My eyes fill with tears. I finally understand now that she wasn't the only one who made the wrong decision during our wedding. After I'm reborn and given a second chance at life, I decide to join the International Peacekeeping Forces and head out into the war as a frontliner. Since I can no longer live out the rest of my life with her, I wish her a lifetime of happiness, and I hope that we will never meet again.

Kaelan noticed I hadn't filed a single medical or living expense request in the pack’s resource channel for a week. He must have thought I’d finally kicked my greedy human habits. At dinner, he tossed a black card at me. It cut a cold arc through the air, landing beside my plate. “Your father’s treatment for next month. The wolf gene serum, the lab fees—it’s all approved.” His voice was pure Alpha command. An order, not a suggestion. “Bringing you and your father here was a risk. I fought the Elders for you. You are my mate. Stop begging for pack funds like a common stray. It’s a bad look.” He didn’t know my fingers were ice-cold when I picked up the card. The papers to sever our mate bond were already signed. So was my will. The hoodie I wore when I left was a faded thing he’d tossed at me three years ago. No one would believe it. The fated mate of an Alpha who ran a corporate empire… had to send a photo of a $10 painkiller receipt to a Beta assistant for approval. All because he thought a fragile human like me was a leech who couldn’t be trusted with cash. But a week ago, when my father’s lupus caused his organs to fail, I needed $50,000. He needed a dose of pure gene repair serum, synthesized in the pack’s high-tech med-bay. I begged him on my knees. His childhood friend, Seraphina, just laughed. She froze my request, saying she was helping me break my bad habit of “cashing in on my mate status.” Kaelan never knew I endured that humiliation just so my father could stay alive in his top-tier medical lab. Now, my father was dead. The medicine was cut off, and his ashes were already in the ground. I didn’t need to be his obedient little pet anymore.

On the eve of my wedding, my wife, Sharon Moonstone, drugged me and knocked me unconscious. She let her first love, Aaron Miller, take my place as the groom, standing beside her as they held the wedding that was supposed to belong to both of us. By the time I finally found them, they had already gone into the bridal suite and consummated their marriage. When I demanded answers, Sharon did not show a trace of guilt. "You live off me. You'd better behave. Make a scene, and we'll divorce." My heart went cold. I handed her the divorce papers, but she barely looked at them. "Looks like you've improved," she said lightly. "At least you know a performance should be convincing from start to finish."

In my past life, I was trafficked and gave birth to a son. When Noah Barrett turns six, I plan to take him and escape from the mountains. On my first attempt, I map out the route in advance and prepare to flee with him. But in the morning, my mother-in-law, Ruth Whitaker, blocks me at the door. She ties me up and locks me inside the shed. Then, she starves me for three days. On my second try, I secretly buy sleeping pills from an unlicensed village doctor and slip them into dinner. At the table, Ruth flips the table without hesitation and beats me until I am half dead. The third time, I take advantage of a village meeting and escape with Noah again. We hide in a concealed mountain cave. Neither of us makes a sound, yet Ruth finds us with ease. I am dragged back and locked away in the pigpen. Ruth takes a shovel and strikes me with it again and again. "You filthy bitch. You dare run off with my precious grandson!" Her eyes are bloodshot. With the final blow, she uses all her strength and smashes the shovel into my head. I collapse to the ground. My consciousness fades. My blood drains away, and I die. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day I plan to escape the mountains with Noah. Suddenly, I can hear Noah's thoughts, his voice clear and dripping with viciousness. "Mom can't be allowed to run. Grandma says Mom is our family's slave. She's supposed to serve us for her whole life."

My husband, Lawrence Ashford, loved me—or so I thought. For ten years, he chose a childfree marriage to protect my health. However, he confessed that he had another family outside our marriage on his birthday. He even told me that he had a child with his mistress. We had been married for ten years. Yet, six of them were filled with deception and lies. I broke free from the shackles of my failed marriage and chose to start anew. On my journey, I found true love once more, only for my ex-husband to say he regretted everything.

At 11:00 pm, I've just locked my car and am about to walk away when rows of bright red comments appear right in front of my eyes. "Warning! Your husband, whom you're still in a 30-day cooling-off period with, wants to kidnap you! He'll take nudes of you while livestreaming the entire process before mutilating you into chunks and flushing you down the sewers!" "Well, this gold digger keeps swindling money from her husband while toying with his feelings relentlessly. Now, she even wants a portion of his assets by getting a divorce from him. Serves her right for being a target of revenge!" I'm left feeling shell-shocked. After all, I'm single as a Pringle. How the heck did I even have a husband, to begin with?

The day I win a brand-new BMW, I suddenly receive a call from myself, ten years in the future. "Kieran will ask to borrow your car in a bit. And whatever you do, do not lend it to him. He intends to use it to pay off his gambling debt." Even with such an impossibility happening to me, I do not doubt a thing. When Kieran asks for my keys, I shut him down at once. That very night, he drives his old beater car to visit our parents. Along the way, he loses control of the car and collides with another vehicle. Just like that, he slips into a coma. The guilt hit me so hard that I eventually pass out. Mom and Dad stay by my side day and night until I can stand on my own two feet again. But the future version of me sounds cold when she calls again. "They only want to push you onto an operating table. They want your heart to save him!" Growing suspicious, I check their bags and find a donor report. Rage burns through me. I immediately block them on all platforms and throw them out of my home. When news that Kieran dies from blood loss arrives, I learn that they only ever needed my blood—not my heart. I try to find them to tell them the truth and apologize for my mistake. But the mysterious phone rings again. "They hate you because Kieran died. If you go to them now, they will drag you into a suicide pact." I freeze at the revelation, then tell my future myself that I will wait until they calm down. Later, I learn that a thief breaks into their home and kills them. I try to rush over and see them one last time, but a truck hits me and kills me on the spot. I die without ever understanding why the version of me from ten years in the future wanted me dead. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day I won the prize.

Kate Horton tries to comfort a depressed patient with suicidal tendencies to make herself look good. However, all she does is aggravate the patient so much that he jumps off the building. Kate cries and says, "I only wanted him to know how much his mother loved him…" To help her get away with it, my boyfriend and professor conspire to make me her scapegoat. I'm cyberbullied, fired, and betrayed by everyone I know. In the end, the patient's family even push me off the balcony. When I open my eyes again, I'm back to the day when Kate tries to save the patient. I'm going to stop her—she's the one who deserves to die, not innocent others!

My family sold one of their properties to put me through school abroad. Nathan Kingsley and I had been together three years. Two of those were long-distance. Through those two years of me alone overseas, he never broke contact — airport pickups, long phone calls, every anniversary remembered. I'd never once doubted him. I thought distance hadn't beaten us. The day I flew home, he was waiting at Arrivals with a bouquet of flowers. He smiled and said, "Finally." We set the engagement date. We picked out the dress. We booked the reception. The day the wedding march began and I stood at the top of the aisle looking at him, I thought — these three years were worth every minute. Then the doors behind me opened. My sister walked into the chapel, in a white dress, and slid her arm through his. She smiled at me. "Sorry, sis. Those airport pickups? I'm the one who sent him. For the last three years, he's been mine the whole time."

My wife, Charlene Weber, has taken me to the Scumbag Court. If I'm found guilty, all my assets will be taken from me, and I'll face 10 years of imprisonment. Charlene, on the other hand, will get to marry her ideal man—Joel Quinlan—as she wishes. If I'm acquitted of all charges, Charlene will be made to divorce me without alimony. She'll also be cursed with bad luck and disfigured so badly she'll be the ugliest woman in the world. Conversely, I'll be given 10 million dollars in reparations and gain a lifetime's worth of good luck. Everyone is advising me to admit to my mistakes, but only because Charlene has always been a virtuous, devoted wife in their eyes. They think that there must surely be some complicated grievances between us at the moment. However, they are unaware that I've been reborn. This time, I'm going to tear off Charlene's mask of hypocrisy.

Just as Kellen and I were about to have our bonding ceremony, his brother died in an accident. Kellen inherited the position of Beta of the Silver Moon Pack, along with the responsibility of caring for his late brother’s mate, Selah. She wanted to know how much I mattered to Kellen—so she sent a rogue after us. When I was gravely wounded by the rogue’s silver dagger and clinging to life, Kellen turned to protect Selah—who only had a scratch. “Selah’s fragile—this has terrified her. Just hold on a little longer, Celia!” I didn’t even have the strength to beg for help. I could only watch as he carried Selah in his arms and walked away, leaving me alone in the forest to die. The next time we met, he said, “If word gets out that you sent a rogue after Selah and hurt her, the Alpha will banish you from the pack. To calm her down, I have no choice but to hold a bonding ceremony with her! Once she bears the Beta heir, I’ll make it up to you.” I shook my head gently. No need to make it up to me. I was about to have a new mate anyway...