Short Stories & Novels

The police officer turned the tablet screen around and held it in front of me. I stared at it for several seconds and read the information again and again. The household registration system showed my family status: divorced, one child. Child’s name: Luke Zane. Date of birth: June 1, 2019. My name was Maya Delaney. I was female, unmarried. "Miss Delaney." The officer frowned. "The child got separated from his family at the mall. As his only legal guardian, how can you deny that you ever gave birth to him?" On June 1, 2019, I worked as an exhibition planner and flew all over the country. I spent nearly 300 nights a year in budget hotels or curled up in plastic airport chairs. On Children’s Day, my ride‑hailing records showed my exhausted trip at 3 o’clock in the morning from the international expo center to the airport. I was so busy I barely had time to find a boyfriend. I could not have had a child. So then, whose child was the five‑year‑old boy who sat on the police station bench and cried his eyes out?

On the first day I returned to the Schmidt family, my parents told me, "Christina, you may be our biological daughter, but Jenny has been part of this family for fifteen years. She's a daughter of the Schmidt family too. "A biological daughter and an adopted daughter are both our daughters. We love you both equally." To make sure no one could accuse them of favoring either of us, they said every important decision from then on would be made by drawing lots. A red stick meant the better outcome, and a white stick meant the worse one. It was fair and impartial. Over the past three years, we drew lots 47 times for matters big and small, but not once did I draw a red stick. I truly believed I was just unlucky. It wasn't until the 48th drawing. This time, the Schmidt family had to send one person to the countryside. Whoever drew the white stick would be sent to the countryside, and whoever drew the red stick would stay in the city and start working there. As I passed the study, I overheard Mom speaking to Dad. "Don't forget to replace tomorrow's sticks with two white ones. Jenny's body is too weak. She can't endure the hardship of being sent to the countryside. "Christina spent fifteen years in the countryside. She's used to it." I stood outside the door while still holding the glass of warm milk I had just prepared for myself. The glass felt hot in my palm, yet no warmth could reach the chill that had settled deep inside my heart. It turned out nothing had been fair over the last three years.

I'm the ultimate soft touch. My dirt-poor roommate used to survive by digging through trash cans for food. Pity got the better of me, so I covered his tuition, his living expenses, and slipped him fifty dollars a day out of my own pocket. My only condition: he had to tag along whenever I went to my private tutoring sessions. I thought he was grateful for it. Then, junior year, he strutted into the classroom head to toe in designer labels and hurled fifty coins in my face in front of the whole class. "Fifty a day, and you treated me like your personal slave for three years—dragged me along to sit through lectures I couldn't even follow, humiliated me every step of the way! "Well, guess what? My real father just tracked me down. He's a billionaire, and he handed me a black card with no spending limit. Here's your fifty back. I'm done being your errand boy. "And I'll never turn into some arrogant jerk just because I've got a little money—unlike you!" Then he handed out luxury bags to everyone in the class except me. The whole room fell for it instantly, chanting, "Long live Elmer!" I stared at the forty-three purchase notifications that had just popped up on my phone and went quiet. I checked again. My black card—the one my father had given me—was gone. Everything clicked into place. The rich long-lost father? All fake. He'd simply stolen my black card, played dress-up as a billionaire's son, and stomped on me on his way up. Without a word, I made one phone call. And transferred the black card into his name. He'd clearly watched too many soap operas—he thought a black card was some kind of savings account. He had no idea it was just a credit card with a higher limit, and every cent he spent on it, he'd owe back.

I was in the middle of a shift when my coworker, Denise Sutton, popped up out of nowhere and slapped me on the shoulder. "Next week is Gerald's birthday, and your family happens to run a seafood restaurant. So here's the plan — I'll chip in ninety-nine dollars, and we'll all go over to your place for a feast to celebrate." Denise counted off the menu on her fingers. "We need lobster and king crab, the fish has to be live-caught grouper, don't skimp on the appetizers, and stock up on beer and soda. Gerald's got gout, so go easy on the shellfish for him. Make sure everything's perfect — don't embarrass our department." She gave me a playful nudge, waggling her eyebrows. "Once Gerald's happy, he'll cut you a bonus worth a few thousand. Won't that make you happy?" "You get paid, you get noticed, and the boss ends up in a good mood. Amy, you'd better be properly grateful to me." I just stared at her, baffled. My family ran a breakfast counter that sold meat pies. Where exactly was the seafood supposed to come from? I turned Denise down flat. Denise just rolled her eyes and walked off. That night, a sign-up thread went out in the work group chat. "Gerald's birthday party is Saturday. I'm treating everyone to a seafood feast, all you can eat, and you can bring family. Reply if you're coming!" The chat erupted in cheers. In under ten minutes, more than fifty people had signed up. [My dad's never even had lobster. Guess he's finally getting cultured, thanks to Denise!] [My kid's obsessed with tuna. Get extra servings for her.] Denise agreed to everything without hesitation, dropped a location pin in the chat, and sent me ninety-nine dollars. Denise: [Amy, hold onto the money. The ingredients better be fresh — don't you dare shortchange your own coworkers.] I looked at the pinned location and smiled. It was the upscale seafood restaurant next door to my family's shop — owned by a man who'd gone straight a few years back after a rougher life, with tattoos running all the way up to his chin. The last person who'd tried to dine and dash there still hadn't gotten out of bed.

My name is Kayla Robinson, and I'm an OB-GYN. I have just finished three emergency surgeries. Not long after I step out of the hospital, my phone rings. My best friend Isabella White's name pops up on the screen. When I answer, her shrill voice comes through the phone. "Kayla, my water just broke, and my stomach hurts like hell! Come to the hospital right now! I want you to deliver my baby yourself!" I instinctively turn around to head back inside when lines of text suddenly flash before my eyes. [Don't go into the operating room.] [Isabella already lost the baby. She doesn't want you to deliver the baby. She just wants a scapegoat.] [Her mafia husband will fly into a rage and snap your neck with his bare hands.] [You won't be the only one to die. Your entire family will suffer his wrath!] I freeze in my tracks. A few moments later, I decide to trust those warnings. After all, my parents' lives are on the line. I can't afford to take the chance.

When my parents got divorced, they fought viciously over my younger brother and avoided me as if I were a burden. In the end, the court placed me with my mother. My biological father held my brother's hand and watched with satisfaction as Mom slapped me. "Hit him harder! If you kill him, you won't have to support him. Think how much money you'll save!" My new stepfather walked in, helped me off the floor, and said, "From now on, I'm your dad. Do you understand?" Years later, I bought my stepfather a luxury car and a beautiful house. Then the biological father who had vanished from my life lay crying in a hospital bed, begging me to save him. I smiled as I peeled his fingers from my hand. "You can stop worrying now, Mr. Lennox. Go ahead and die."

I had been in a contract marriage with an incubus CEO for three years, in name only. The day I asked for a divorce, he agreed without emotion. But then floating comments suddenly flashed above his head. "That psycho. He already had the basement chains and little toys custom-made to the villainess' measurements, and he is still pretending to be a gentleman." "Girl, the second you sign, the next time you wake up, you are going to be way too close to the man you hate." "Here we go. The captivity arc is finally starting. This hate-love setup is insane. His true incubus form apparently has barbs too. The villainess did every bad thing in the book, so that blank stare is what she deserves..." "Girl, you are so stupid. If you had shown the second male lead even the tiniest bit of kindness these past few years, this lovesick lunatic would have dropped to his knees and worshipped you like a dog. Then he would not have twisted himself into this hate-filled monster..." My hand trembled around the pen. I looked at the expressionless man in front of me. "Actually... maybe we should not get divorced yet."

For three years, I worked for my coworkers for free—designing, covering for their mistakes, cleaning up their messes. They used my work to get promoted, to win awards, even to run side jobs on the sly, and I never took a cent for any of it. Then I single-handedly landed the hardest client project the company had ever taken on and walked away with a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus. That was the day everyone lost their minds. The same people who'd leeched off me the hardest led the charge, cornering me at my desk and tearing into me in front of the whole office. "The whole concept for that project was a team effort. What gives you the right to keep the bonus for yourself?" "Your work has always been garbage. That free labor of yours was never worth anything anyway!" Worse, they spent the whole night digging up old grievances, stitching together every minor slip-up they could find, and spreading rumors through the entire company—that I'd stalled projects, that my work was worthless, that I'd tanked the department's numbers. Finally, they gave me an ultimatum. "Either split the entire bonus with the department, or pay us two hundred thousand dollars for our trouble. Take your pick." Even the department manager tried to smooth things over, telling me, "We're all colleagues here. You've already got a big bonus—taking a small loss won't kill you. Don't be so difficult about it." Wonderful. So three years of quietly covering for everyone had just produced a pack of lazy, credit-stealing backstabbers. Since they wanted to gang up on the one person who'd always played fair, fine. I was going to lay out three years of original files, timestamps, and proof of exactly who'd done the work—all of it, all at once. And what none of them knew was that the special project behind my bonus was an AI system built to replace every single one of them.

My mother was a control freak of the highest order. To keep a tighter grip on me, she created a burner account, posed as a sympathetic older-sister type, and became the person I confided in online. She even started a thread about it, practically glowing with pride. [He sends me his bank passwords and private photos of his crush all on his own! Once he gets into a top school, I'm applying as his dorm supervisor. When he gets married, I'm hiding under their bed!] I scrolled through the comments. Tons of people were ripping her to shreds. I laughed. She thought she had total control. She had no idea I was feeding her exactly what I wanted her to see. The bank password I sent two days ago was fake. The 'private photos of my crush' were stock images I pulled off the internet. I took my time typing out a message: [Hey, my dad brought a woman home last night. They were making out on the couch. I secretly recorded it. Want to see?] A scream ripped through the wall from the next room. I put my headphones on and leaned back. The show was just getting started.

After my dad has retired, I give him 5,000 dollars for his living expenses every month. Coupled with his monthly pension of 2,000 dollars, I thought Dad would be living a great life back in our hometown. Little do I know that the hospital calls me the next day, telling me that Dad has fainted from low blood sugar due to starvation, which leads to him getting sent to the ER. I'm stunned, to say the least. How can Dad starve to the point of getting hospitalized when he's living off 7,000 dollars per month? So, I rush back to my hometown overnight. In the ward, Dad is all skin and bones. He's lost so much weight that his cheekbones can be seen protruding. The moment he sees me entering the ward, he tries to get out of bed. "I want to get discharged! I'm not staying in the hospital! I don't have any money to get hospitalized!" I quickly stop Dad. "Dad, you get 7,000 dollars per month! Why don't you have any money at all?" He glares at me hatefully. "I don't have 7,000 dollars per month! Every month, you give me 200 dollars! You even stole my pension from me! As if I have any money to get hospitalized right now! "If not for the fact that I got up early just to rummage for junk over the past few years, I'd have died of starvation a long time ago!" Everyone in the ward turns to look at me. Meanwhile, my mind goes blank. The thing is, I do give Dad 5,000 dollars every month. I really want to explain the truth to Dad, but he's already crying about how I've kept his money for myself. He also claims that I don't care about him when he gets sick, and that I'm a total ingrate. Someone has recorded the whole outburst. Naturally, the tagline "Ungrateful Son Keeps Father's Money All to Himself" goes viral the next day. My name, my workplace, and my address are quickly dug up by the angry Internet users. Someone even goes so far to splash red paint onto my front door. Because of that, I get fired from my workplace. My landlord doesn't hesitate to kick me out as well. Feeling very dazed, I walk on the street, only to get hit by an incoming truck. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I transfer the 5,000 dollars to Dad.

The day after our wedding, Justin Hudson and I are finally about to leave for our honeymoon. A trip that's supposed to be just for the two of us. But as we're about to board our flight, his mother, Karen Cruz, shows up beside him with a suitcase and a warm smile. "I'm not here to get in your way," she says. "I'm just tagging along." I freeze. Justin simply takes my hand and tries to reassure me. "My mom raised me all by herself. It wasn't easy. If she wants to come, let her. Don't start acting selfish the minute we're married." The entire trip, the two of them sit together, reminiscing about relatives I've never met and sharing stories I've never heard. Karen even jokes that the neighbor's daughter used to insist she'd only ever marry Justin. Justin laughs as he peels an orange for her. "Mom, don't start." He never even looks at me. When we arrive at the hotel, the front desk informs me that the honeymoon suite I booked has been changed to a family room. Karen immediately takes my hand. "Zoe, I was just trying to save you two some money. We're family. Why pay for two rooms?" That night, she complains that the air conditioning is too cold, the shower is too loud, and my perfume gives her a headache. By the end of the night, she's called Justin over to sit beside her bed. He stays there until dawn. Only then does he finally turn to me. "My mom's getting older. Just let her have this." I stare out at the pale gray ocean. And in that moment, I finally understand. This honeymoon gives the two of them exactly what they want. As for me, I'm nothing more than the extra bride in their story.

My older sister, Miranda McQueen, forced me onto the operating table so she could give my kidney to the fake heir. She pinned down my struggling hand, her expression cold. "Evan, don't blame me for being cruel. In your past life, you pushed Lucas down the stairs and damaged his kidney. You regressed to make amends. You owe him this kidney." For three years, I had tried to atone for the sins Miranda claimed I had committed in my past life. I had taken a knife for Lucas McQueen, tested experimental drugs for him. And now, I was about to lose a kidney to him. As the anesthesia flowed into my veins and my mind began to fade, I saw Miranda gently wipe the sweat from Lucas's forehead. Lucas chuckled. "Miranda, that regression story you made up worked perfectly. He actually believed it. That idiot spent three years as my personal sacrifice." Miranda smiled at him indulgently. "As long as you can stay alive, I won't stop at one kidney. If you ever need his life, I'll give you that too." The heart monitor beeped. I gritted my teeth as a tear rolled out from the corner of my eye. There had never been a past life or any sin to atone for. Miranda had lied to me from the very beginning, all for the sake of her fake brother.

I'm a man of principle who doesn't curse someone else without good reason. Even if I do curse them, the curse is only active for three days. In elementary school, my seatmate steals my eraser. When I flippantly tell him that he'll slip and fall in the next three days, he falls into a cesspool on the third day. The class representative accuses me of cheating during an exam during middle school. When I say that the entire school will learn something humiliating about him in the next three days, his love letter to another female student is pasted on the notice board. A bully kicks my desk during high school. When I tell him that his family will fall to ruins in the next three days, his father is arrested for embezzlement on the third day. When my boss, Frank Gordon, refuses to pay me after forcing me to work overtime, I calmly say, "You'll become bankrupt in the next three days." Frank scoffs indignantly before he grabs my resignation letter and tears it to pieces. "Get out of my sight! Either you continue working, or you can kiss your salary for this month goodbye!" He scatters the shredded paper over my head and continues, "I'm curious to see what will happen in the next three days. Will my company fall? Or will you starve to death first?" I lick my lips and say, "You must pay me within the next three days, Mr. Gordon—" However, Frank kicks me out of his office before I can finish my sentence.

The day I was admitted to Crownstone College, my parents threw a thirty-table banquet to celebrate my younger brother, Jason. There was a banner across the hall. [Congratulations to Jason on getting into vocational school. You've brought honor to the family.] When it was time to cut the cake, Jason made a wish in front of all the guests. "I hope my sister gets married soon and stops wasting the family's money." The relatives raised their glasses and praised him for being so sensible. Dad beamed with pride. "A boy who learns a trade has a solid future. Unlike a girl, no matter how much she studies, she'll end up getting married anyway." I sat alone in the corner. The doctor had diagnosed me with severe depression and warned that I couldn't handle any more emotional shocks. My parents said I was bad luck. They told me not to have another episode and ruin my brother's celebration. I nodded, picked up my medical report, and walked to the rooftop of the hotel. Right then, my phone rang. On the other end were my parents from eighteen years ago. My young Dad laughed through tears. "It's a girl! We have a daughter!" My young Mom's voice trembled. "Sweetheart, I just gave birth to you. "Did our child grow up feeling loved by us throughout all eighteen years?" Listening to the applause from the banquet hall below, I laughed until I could barely breathe. "Yeah, you loved your child very much. "It just wasn't me." "What do you mean? Jess, don't scare me–" I smiled in relief but didn't answer her. I could hear fireworks from below. It sounded like they were celebrating my disappearance from this family. I closed my eyes, leaned forward, and jumped.

In the chaotic aftermath of a devastating earthquake, I frantically tore through the rubble in search of my missing daughter. Amidst the panic, my phone rang. To my shock, it was my husband calling me from five years in the future. "Valerie, you have to listen to me carefully," Brent Serrano said. "I am the only one who can save the girl." Without a single shred of doubt, I directed the rescue team straight to the coordinates he detailed. Within minutes of digging, the faint, muffled cries of a child echoed from beneath the heavy concrete slabs. Overjoyed, I sobbed into the receiver, "Thank God, Brent! I found her!" On the other end of the line, Brent let out a soft, distant chuckle. "Good. I'm finally fixing my greatest regret." But when the rescue crew hoisted the massive wall of concrete, the one they pulled from the debris wasn't our daughter. It was Zoe—the daughter of his late best friend's widow, whom Brent had taken under his care. As I stood frozen in horror, he breathed a sigh of relief across the timeline. "In my timeline, Madelin was shattered when Zoe died in this disaster. She had no one left but me, and that was the night we finally crossed the line and fell into each other's arms. "I'm sorry, Valerie. I had to use this call to rewrite history for Madelin. Our daughter is trapped on the opposite side of the mall. Hurry, you can still save her." By the time I raced to the other end of the ruins, Brent's voice returned, brimming with smug pride. "See? Told you she'd be here." I lost my voice, staring down at Juliet's cold, lifeless body. Numb with a grief that swallowed the world, I hung up the phone.

To cash in on a massive life insurance policy, my wife Vanessa Rowe pushed me into the Demon Pit. She had been seeing someone behind my back for a long time, and killing me had been her way to buy her lover a gold sports car. I stood at the edge of the abyss and looked at her one last time. “You are sure about this? Killing me for him. No regrets?” Vanessa laughed and held on to Troy Merritt’s arm. “Regrets? Why would I have regrets? Troy is one of the Demon King’s most trusted men. He only has to put in a word for me, and I get to stay young forever. “You are only a mortal. You age, you get sick, you die. What made you think you ever deserved me?” She shoved me over the edge without a second thought. She did not know that I had been the Demon King. The Demon Pit had been my domain. As for this so‑called trusted man of mine, I had never heard of him.

I was the man Empress Seraphina once swore she would marry. But on the eve of our wedding, she believed my brother's slander and cast me down to the mortal realm with a wave of her hand, condemning me to suffer through ten lifetimes of reincarnation. After endless torment, I finally returned to the Celestial Realm. Yet the moment I met her cold eyes, terror seized me, and I apologized again and again. "Your Majesty, I am a sinner. I know my wrongs. "I should never have defied my brother. You and my brother belong together. I only love a pig demon from the mortal realm..." Later, I severed my immortal core and willingly entered the Underworld. But Empress Seraphina, who supposedly hated me to the bone, lowered herself and brought the immortals of all three realms to the Underworld, begging me to return to the Celestial Realm.

In my past life, when Mom and Dad divorced, they made my sister and me choose. My younger sister, Keira McKellen, didn't hesitate—she picked our rich father, certain she'd become a wealthy young lady and inherit a fortune. But Dad already had another woman, and once his mistress gave birth to a son, Keira went from heiress to nothing overnight. Worse, the woman drove her out of the house entirely, and she was left to wander with nowhere to go. I chose Mom, and ended up living the charmed life instead: I got into a top university, married into a powerful family, and went from ugly duckling to swan—the very top of the world. My sister's envy of me curdled into madness, and on the day my whole family gathered to celebrate my birthday, she burned every one of them alive. When I opened my eyes again, it was the day of my parents' divorce, all over from the start. I saw her rush to choose Mom before I even could, and I knew—she'd been reborn too. What she doesn't know is that living with Dad is miserable, sure, but Mom is broke and out of her mind, and life with her is even worse.

My dad, Angus Helman, always said I did not seem like a man. I would start panting after running two steps, and whenever I was in physical education class, I always sat crouched in a corner. I could not even open a water bottle. My mom, Diana Helman, snuck me to see a doctor. We were told that I had a heart condition and could not do strenuous exercise. At home, Mom showed Dad the diagnosis. He did not even finish reading it before he threw it on the table. “What nonsense is this?! No one in the past three generations of the Helman family has had any heart issues! Don’t trick me with this! He’s just lazy! You spoiled him rotten! He’s lazing about at home all day. Who wouldn’t get sick from that?” I got into the best university in the city. Dad became a teacher and was in charge of the school’s orientation program. He said that this was fate and that he could “remake” me. He would wake me up at 5 a.m. and make me run. He would deny me food if I could not finish my push-ups. If I could not run, he would hit me with his belt. I did not want to get hit or disappoint him. I started keeping my heart medication in my pocket and popped in a couple of pills when my chest felt tight. On the last day of orientation, Dad made me do push-ups in front of the entire school. I gritted my teeth and prayed to be able to make it through, just this once. At the fiftieth push-up, my vision went dark. I fell on the ground, and Dad kicked me. “Get up! Don’t keep huffing and puffing like a girl! Stay there if you dare!” My face was plastered on the hot running track as my vision went dark. I really could not get back up at all.

After working as a dishwasher abroad for five years, I've finally paid off all the debts my wife, Nora Palmer, owes. I'm thinking of going back home to give Nora a surprise. But when I get home with our son, Rick Moore, I realize that our rented apartment is worn-down and locked. A neighbor who's passing by asks in shock, "Didn't you break up with Nora? What are you doing here?" I immediately head to Nora's office, but the receptionist stops me. "Are you looking for Ms. Palmer? It's her child's sip-and-see party today, so she's not at work." A notification rings on my phone, and the contents show up on the screen. "CEO of Palmer Group, Nora Palmer, drops millions of dollars on her child's extravagant sip-and-see party, and the couple looks completely in love!" Just then, I receive a voice message from Nora. "Honey, I bought some clothes on discount for Rick online, and they're getting delivered to your place today. Remember to pick up the package, okay?" In the background, I can hear the grin in a man's voice as he says in a teasing tone, "The bet is already over. How much longer are you going to fool Adam with that fake marriage certificate? You've been pretending to be poor for years. Haven't you had enough?" I have had my doubts before, but this confirms it. All this while, I'm the only one who's actually penniless. Turns out, after all that hassle, I have turned into the homewrecker instead.