Short Stories & Novels

The day before the wedding, my fiancé did not show up for the rehearsal. That night, I received a few text messages from him: [Ruby is pregnant. The child isn’t mine.] [But I have to marry her first so that the baby can be registered properly.] [Let’s postpone the wedding for another three years. Don’t contact me during this time.] [Figure out how to explain it to both our families. Whatever you do, don’t damage Ruby’s reputation… Just tell everyone you don't want to get married for now.] I only replied with one word: [Okay.] I no longer wanted this marriage anyway.

My sister Emily and I were both given a Destiny System, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change our futures. In our first life, Emily chose the Beauty System. She thought beauty would make every powerful man fall at her feet. Instead, it only made her a pretty toy for rich heirs to admire and discard. When she failed to earn genuine love before the deadline, the system took everything back. Her beauty vanished, her admirers disappeared, and she ended up broke, abandoned, and bitter. I chose the Elite Athlete System. I trained until my body nearly broke, became America’s youngest Olympic champion, shattered records, and built a legendary career. Fame, fortune, and success were all mine. Even Ethan Walker, the heir to one of the country’s most powerful old-money families, chased after me. Emily hated me for it. So she rammed her car into mine and killed me. When I opened my eyes again, we were both sixteen, standing before the Destiny System on the very day we first made our choices. This time, Emily shouted before I could speak. “I choose the Elite Athlete System!” She looked at me with a smug smile. “Olivia, this time I’ll be the one everyone admires.” I looked at the Beauty System now drifting toward me and smiled. Emily thought she had stolen my golden future. She had no idea that every gift fate offers comes with a price.

At a class reunion, my husband, Sebastian Smith, played a "how well do we know each other" game with Hanna Rodgers, the prettiest girl in our class. They answered twenty questions correctly in a row. The room erupted with cheers, and everyone urged them to drink from the same glass. Tears filled my eyes when I saw the two of them blush. Another classmate gave me a side eye. "Why are you upset? He didn't even know you didn't like cilantro. They're a handsome couple and have secretly loved each other for years. They're destined to be together. Let me give you a piece of advice. Stop fawning over him. It's beneath you." I glanced at them and kept quiet. Were they destined to be together? But Sebastian and I had been secretly married for three years. I was going to announce our marriage to the group. But before I could, Sebastian turned around and drank with another woman. The cheers stopped, and Sebastian texted me. "Honey, don't be mad. I'm here for a business deal. It's all just for show. I will make our relationship public when I get the chance later." I smiled. He saw me and smiled too. But I no longer needed him to make anything public. I had had enough of this life of hiding.

My grandmother, Gabriella Lorne, begs my uncle, Daniel Saldano, and his family to take me in after Mom and Dad pass away in an accident. To repay Grandma's kindness, I take care of her for seven years after she develops dementia and breaks her leg. I tell myself that I can't die when I'm lying in the emergency room after getting into a serious car accident. Grandma still needs me to take care of her. I hear the doctor's anxious voice coming from outside the door. "The patient is in critical condition. You're his family. You need to pay for his medical bills as soon as possible!" "We're not going to save him!" Grandma exclaims energetically in the next second. "We don't have the money to pay the bills." "Let's contact Mr. Anderson as soon as Jasper breathes his last breath," my lazy cousin, Ashton Saldano, chimes in excitedly. "He's been looking to buy a corpse for 100 thousand dollars. That's more than enough for me to buy a marital home and find myself a wife!" Grandma scoffs and says, "Pretending to be demented for the last seven years is finally paying off. The shaman told me that I'll be able to absorb this jinx's vitality once he's dead. He should feel honored that his death will fund Ashton's new home." My heart throbs painfully. It turns out that my beloved and respected Grandma is nothing more than a "man-eating" monster!

On my first day at a new hospital, I treated a pregnant woman in critical condition. With the nurses’ help, we stabilized her condition and safely delivered her baby. As soon as she could speak, she reached for her phone. Her voice was filled with pride as she said, “Honey, I gave birth to a son!” The voice that came through the speaker made me freeze. “Baby, you’re amazing!” Those few words were enough to send me spiraling into despair. I had known that voice for ten years. It belonged to my husband, Liam Stretton.

I attend Don Vittorio Moretti's celebration banquet in a white evening gown that once belonged to his late wife. But his seven-year-old daughter, Sofia Moretti, shoves me into the sea. As I plunge into the water, my ankle gets slashed by a jagged iron piling. The scent of blood instantly draws a frenzy of sharks. Above me, Sofia stands on the dock, clapping and laughing. The cruelty in her eyes is identical to the way Vittorio looks at me. Sofia points at me and screams, "Do you really think wearing my Mamma's dress makes you worthy of becoming the Donna of the Moretti family? "You're nothing but my Papa's mistress. If I tell him to throw you out, he'll do it." I thrash against the freezing waves, and with every kick, every bone in my body howls in pain. By the time they pull me ashore, I'm shivering beneath a shawl. I look at Sofia, waiting for an explanation. Instead, she simply lifts her chin and spits in my face. Whatever remained of my hope for the little girl I'd raised for seven years vanishes in that instant. "You don't have to wait for your Padre to throw me out. I'll leave on my own tomorrow."

Today is Morgan Franklin's 30th birthday. It also marks the day he brings up divorce in front of me for the 99th time. He doesn't sound guilty and tentative anymore, unlike his demeanor when he mentioned divorce for the first time. Instead, he has a cigarette dangling between his lips while looking at me mockingly. "I've already called the ambulance for you, Milana. Have you thought about how you're going to commit suicide this time? Are you slitting your wrist or overdosing on pills?" Everyone in the private room bursts out laughing. "I bet she's going down the sleeping pill route! She did that the last time, and she had to get her stomach pumped for three hours!" "Hell no! She's definitely jumping off a building this time! But she'll just wait for the firemen to lay out the safety mat before pretending to jump! She's not going to die at all!" "Nah… Ms. Brook is very creative when it comes to suicide. Every time she commits suicide, she always uses a different method!" Everyone is curious as to which suicide method I will use in order to get Morgan to stay this time. But when I notice the smiles on everyone's faces, I suddenly feel exhaustion weighing down on my soul. The anger that has been sustaining me for so long finally dissipates. I lower my gaze before stating calmly, "I'm not doing any of that. This time, I shall grant you your freedom."

I break up with my childhood sweetheart, Daphne Hogan, right outside my dorm. She doesn't even look up from her phone. "Just because I ditched you for him at dinner the other night?" "Yes." Daphne figures I'm just throwing a tantrum. Her fingers fly across her screen as she replies to a freshman's texts. Whatever message he sends makes her rush off. Before leaving, she gives me a fond, exasperated sigh. "Don't be silly. Get some sleep tonight. You have a hiking drill tomorrow. I'll be there." Daphne walks away without looking back, completely missing the finality in my eyes. It's time to put an end to this childhood romance.

After marrying the woman I had been pining for for ten years, Nelissa Ford, I thought that my sincerity could melt the ice around her heart. However, she exposed my undercover mission to her first love, Jared Hiller, who was a journalist, just to give him a sensational story and boost his career. Her actions ultimately pushed me into the abyss. Later, I was retaliated against by a drug trafficking gang, stabbed multiple times, and died tragically. I was dumped on the street. Seeing the news, Nelissa finally lost her mind.

I took my newborn son to my husband’s mafia compound for his christening. His ten-year-old niece, Bianca—the Family’s spoiled little princess—pushed my baby’s stroller straight into the deep end of the freezing pool. My son sank to the bottom. The clinking of champagne glasses drowned out his final struggles. I dove in like a madwoman. But I only pulled out a cold, lifeless body. Because Bianca was "Family blood," the murder was ruled a tragic accident. My father-in-law, the Don, handed me a limitless black card as "compensation." But I didn't want money. I wanted my son. I wanted my Nico! I dropped to my knees. I begged my husband, Matteo, to avenge our baby. Instead, he just held his crying niece and looked at me with dead eyes. "Mandy, she’s just a child. Are you going to destroy one life over a mistake?" Denied my vengeance, I wasted away in our penthouse that long winter, dying a broken woman. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the christening. My husband’s arm was wrapped around my waist. His hot kisses trailed down my neck. "Our boy will be blessed by the priest today." I shoved him away instantly. I called my personal guards. I had them rush my son safely to my family's estate. But later that day, a tiny body still floated in the pool.

Do you have any dark secrets? I do. No matter how hot it gets, Mom never allows me to look unkempt in front of other people. Even after I start college, she still makes me wear undershirts when I go swimming. A classmate who can't stand me steals my undershirt and mocks me, saying I look like some pretty boy, all flimsy and effeminate. I refuse to take that lying down and want to duke it out with him. But when he looks at me, it's like he sees something terrifying. He whirls around and bolts. Later, he applies for a leave of absence. My dorm mates plan to visit him and ask me to go along. But the moment I reach the doorway, he grabs a broom and drives me away. "Get out, you freak! You're a monster!" he roars. Then, he turns to my dorm mates. "You'd better stay away from him. Otherwise, you'll be dead before you even figure out how it happened!" What he says completely baffles me, yet his words come true before long. Right before sitting for the grad school entrance exams, one of my dorm mates asks me out to blow off some steam. I go with him and end up drunk. When I wake up, I find him lying in the bathtub, the water dyed red with his blood. His body is already cold.

Lately, my lunch buddy at work, Kaia Watson, always sits there grinning at her phone. Whenever I ask what she's watching, she snaps impatiently, "It's just my lunchtime entertainment. Mind your own business." But before long, I notice everyone in the office staring at their phones during lunch as well. They're completely engrossed, and they break into mocking laughter every few moments. Finally, during one lunch break when no one is around, I take a peek at the video on her phone. It's an AI-generated pornographic video. To my horror, the woman seductively posing in it has my face. Before I can react, Kaia returns to her desk and snatches the phone out of my hands. Seeing my face turn pale with anger, she lets out a dismissive laugh and says, "What? Don't tell me you're about to accuse us of spreading fake rumors about you? If you didn't do it, you wouldn't be so afraid of people talking. "You sneak into the boss' office every day to take your lunch break. I don't think I need to spell out what kind of woman that makes you." Only then do I realize that my colleagues have known all along that I go into that office surreptitiously every day to take a nap. What they don't know is that my father is the owner of the company.

My mate Alpha Rowan's childhood friend got pregnant by a rogue. To save her from burning at the stake by the Elders, Rowan claimed the pup was his. I asked him in disbelief what would happen to me and our pup. Rowan just hugged me tight, his eyes full of pain. "They'll kill Tessa, Gwen! Pack law only lets an Alpha pardon his own blood. I'm doing this to save her! You're my only mate. Why can't you understand?" Rowan had no clue. My Omega body simply couldn't handle his powerful Alpha blood. The pup inside me was draining me dry, eating me alive. My wolf was dying. Without my mate's scent and soothing day and night, I wouldn't survive the pregnancy. And I had no one else in this pack. Later, my bloodline-obsessed mother-in-law sneered at me. She said my wolf was weak because I was carrying a rogue's bastard. And Rowan? He was still playing house with his childhood friend. Through my tears, the truth finally hit me. He chose her over me. He chose duty over his mate. So I went to the Head Healer. I lay on the cold operating table and let them remove the pup that was killing me. Since my Alpha couldn't give me the protection I needed to survive, I had to save myself. Even if it meant losing our flesh and blood. But when he finally arrived and saw the blood-soaked surgical tray, he completely lost his mind.

Xavier Galvan's first love, Winter Singleton, happens to return to the country on the same day our daughter, Tina Galvan, is diagnosed with a heart condition. I wait helplessly with my five-year-old Tina at the hospital for her results. Meanwhile, Xavier drives to the airport to pick up Winter and her son, Ian Becker, just so that he can feel like he has a father to pick them up. I sign the surgery consent form alone while sitting by Tina's hospital bed. Meanwhile, Xavier takes Winter shopping at the mall and even picks out a birthday present for his newly-appointed "godson". On the day of Tina's surgery, just before she's wheeled into the theater, she grabs Xavier's sleeve tightly, refusing to let go. "I'm scared, Daddy. Can you please stay here with Mommy and wait for me?" He agrees. However, a split moment later, Winter calls him. "Xav? Ian's looking for his 'daddy' everywhere at the birthday party. Can you please come over?" Xavier doesn't even hesitate as he pries Tina's fingers, one by one, from his sleeve, and says, "It's just a small surgery, Tina. There's nothing to be afraid of. "Winter needs Daddy now, but I'll be back soon afterward, okay?" Then, Xavier turns to leave. Tina doesn't cry. However, the first thing she does after coming back out of the surgery is to refer to him by a different address. "I don't want Uncle Xavier as my daddy anymore, Mommy."

My little brother, Rylan, wanted to go to the park. However, Dad told me to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't wander off. So, Rylan said he wanted to play hide-and-seek at home with me, and I agreed. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him after he hid. I searched everywhere for him. I looked through all three floors of the house and even searched the yard. At the time, I just thought that Rylan had found an incredible hiding spot. It wasn't until that evening that our neighbor brought him home with the police. Only then did I realize that Rylan had slipped out of the house while I'd been counting with my eyes covered. Terrified that Dad would find out he'd snuck off to play, Rylan threw his arms around Dad's leg and burst into tears. "Dad, Caleb threw me out of the house!" Dad flew into a rage and slapped me across the face. "How could you be so cruel? Your brother is only five years old! You told me he was playing hide-and-seek with you. You rotten liar!" But Dad... I was only seven. I tried to explain, but Dad never believed another word I said. From that day on, I ranked lower than even the chauffeur in our house. Every day, I was fed spoiled leftovers and forced to sleep in the doghouse. When I was 12, a bad woman kidnapped me and made me call Dad for ransom money. All I got in return was his furious voice yelling over the phone. "You rotten liar! You really will say anything for money, even something like this. If they won't let you live without it, then go ahead and die." The woman was so furious that she kicked me off the unfinished balcony of an abandoned building. I hit the ground, and my body was splattered beyond recognition. Before I even had a chance to feel the pain, I found myself drifting upward. Dad… I hadn't been lying.

The night before our big offline meetup, my roommate took one look at my internet boyfriend's photo and declared it was a fake. "Using a stolen photo for an online romance? He's definitely insecure and too ugly to show his real face!" The next day, my boyfriend texted: [Sorry, something came up at the last minute. Can you wait half an hour?] I breathed a sigh of relief because I had just been notified about an exclusive expert lecture on campus. Word was, the speaker was an academic powerhouse, and the university had paid a fortune to secure him. I snagged a seat in the front row. But the moment I looked up at the podium, my stomach dropped. Why did this famous scholar look so much like my boyfriend in the "stolen photo"?

I was arranged to marry the Mafia Don Silas Monroe. I thought our marriage would be cold and boring. Instead, after the wedding, he became impossible to resist—distant and unreadable by day, but heated and possessive by night. I thought that secret side of him belonged only to me. Until one night, while his mouth was on my skin, a man with my husband’s exact face stepped into the room. The man behind me only smiled against my shoulder. “Be quiet, Anna. You wouldn’t want Silas to find out you’re sleeping with his brother, would you?” That was when I realized the man in my bed was never my husband. It was his twin brother, Eric Monroe.

I was the lowest-born black serpent in the Serpent Clan, yet the Dragon Court's most honored crown prince chose me as his bride. He gave up his betrothal to my sister, surrendered his place as heir, and walked away from the Dragon Court for me. I was moved beyond words and became his wife. But after I gave birth to only a black serpent, he flew into a rage. He crushed our baby beneath his foot, then killed me with a single strike of his sword. As I was dying, I saw hatred burning in his eyes. "If I'd known you were this useless, I should've married your sister!" Only then did I learn the truth. I was the woman of fate named in the Dragon Court's forbidden book, the one born with primordial blood. If I gave birth to a primordial child, he would be able to secure the dragon throne. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day of the bride selection. This time, Adrian chose my sister, the woman who had given birth to a golden dragon in our previous life, without the slightest hesitation. I laughed and chose a lowly worm servant instead. Adrian didn't know that I truly did carry primordial power. He was simply born with a broken essence. Without me, he was meant to die childless. In this life, I would give birth to the true primordial child. And I would make sure he never inherited the Dragon Court.

I ran my fingers over the bite mark on my neck, the one that still ached faintly. “Julian, let's sever the bond.” He pressed a hand down on my shoulder, the fire in his eyes almost spilling over. “Seraphina Hale, what are you throwing a fit about now? I only felt sorry for Daisy, so I kept her company for one night.” “That hurts.” His hand loosened on reflex, and I shook myself free of him. Ever since Daisy's engagement was broken off and she came back to the pack, Julian's heart hadn't belonged to me. One frown from Daisy and he'd be so anxious he could barely hold himself together. “Julian, you don't love me at all.” I looked at him, steady, but he only turned angry. “Seraphina Hale, you think you could even stay alive without me?” Three years together, and he had spent every one of them looking down at me from somewhere far above. All because I'd been struck by the wolfsbane curse, and every full moon I needed him to sink his teeth into my neck and hold me through the night. Otherwise the pain would drag me down until I blacked out. But I had never once said he was my only choice. I opened my contacts and tapped the name of the one person who reached out to me every single year without fail. [I'm willing to let you mark me.] The reply came back in a heartbeat. [I'm coming for you.] Julian's three years were already behind me.

After I Took Three Bullets For Him, He Said He Was Just My Uncle I took three bullets for Don Lorenzo Moretti, the man I called my uncle. The last one nearly killed me. Only then did the family elders agree to name me Donna. But in the two weeks I lay unconscious, Lorenzo announced his engagement to Ava, the daughter of a family benefactor. The Rocci, my family, lost its power when I was ten. Ever since Lorenzo, a close friend of my father's, brought me to the Moretti estate, I was certain he would one day be my husband, despite our age gap. He always told me to find men my own age, but I just let it go. In my previous life, I crashed their engagement party, a decision that led to a miscarriage and my own violent death. But this is my second chance, and I have learned my lesson. I will reclaim the token of my love, accept my destiny as Donna, and offer myself in a marriage alliance far away in Sicily. Uncle, I finally understand. A young man is far more entertaining than an old one like you.