2nd Times A Charm

Having dated for five years and been married for seven, she had never missed his birthday in the past 12 years. The 12 gifts from previous years were carefully placed in the storage closet. However, this year's birthday gift...

"F-Fine," she said and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'll do it." To keep her job and pay her nephew's hospital bills, Evelyn agreed to a one night stand with a casino client. In the dim corridor with red lights, someone grabbed her waist, the evil chuckle hot against her ear. No. She didn't want this. That smelly man! She didn't want him! There was a door right before her and she squinted her eyes. What did it say? The wordings looked too long to be the 'exit'. "Stay still," the man growled behind her and started to pull her away. "That's the presidential suite. Our room is right-" She elbowed him with all her strength that he yelped and let go of her. Panic set in her heart as she ran to the exit room right in front of her. She grabbed the door handle and was about to push it open when it was suddenly yanked open. Evelyn lost her footing and fell face first into a hard brick! What kind of wall was warm and smelled so sweet, enough to keep her temperature cool?

My mother was the best portrait artist in the police station. She had a strong sense of justice and brooked no evil. However, all I got was a sharp retort when I called her to save me. "You know it's your sister's coming-of-age celebration today, and you're cursing her? Kidnapped, are you? Fine, the kidnappers can kill you for all I care." She assumed it was a prank call. So, she refused to go to the police station and do her job. I wasn't saved in time and was tortured to death. When the DNA report came out, she came to the scene all wobbly. She drew a portrait of me with my bones as reference, her hand trembling all the way. "Jessica? It can't be her. This is a mistake!" She tried again and again. Yet, it didn't matter how many times she redid it as the portrait showed my face. My mother, who had hated me my whole life, teared up.

Three years into our marriage, Chris Davis doted on me deeply. But I accidentally discovered that he had been cheating on me for two years. In front of that woman, everything he said showed his disdain towards me. "Who would marry a cripple?" "She's like a dead fish in bed." "She's just a deaf person who makes me want to throw up now." Later, I took the initiative to file for divorce. But he went crazy. Kneeling in front of me, every word was filled with regret...

On the day the male influencer patient was discharged, he posted a tearful video accusing my chaste, principled doctor wife of sexually assaulting him. In the clip, he cowered in a corner of the hospital, trembling, his clothes disheveled. With a terrified cry of "Dr. Shelby," he abruptly cut the footage. Overnight, my wife became a monster in a white coat—public enemy number one across the internet. We begged him, again and again, to come forward and clarify the truth. Instead, he posted an injury assessment report and wept about being bullied by his doctor. My wife had no way to defend herself. She was suspended pending investigation—and in the end, she leapt from the thirtieth floor. I endured humiliation and waited for the truth to surface. When it finally did, I obtained a reexamination report that proved her innocence. But by then, no one cared about the truth anymore. And I, consumed by despair, died of cancer. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day that patient was first admitted. This time, I begged my wife to take leave—I wanted to take her away from this doomed fate. But my gentle wife wrapped her arms around me, her eyes red, and said, "Don't be afraid, honey. This time… I won't run away."

The great prince who acquires immense supernatural powers hopelessly fell in love with his best friend. At the age of five, they swore to be by each others side but fate has other plans for them.

In the second year of my marriage to Jeffery Sadler, he brought a young woman home. When his eyes met mine, Jeffery smiled carelessly and said, "Naomi, perhaps you should try it too." He added, "After all, young and energetic people are truly different." I knew he was only testing me; he had always enjoyed tormenting and toying with me. But what he didn't know was that this time, I was genuinely tempted. Later, as he stared at the fresh scratch marks on the "young person's" waist and abdomen, his eyes blazed red with anger. "Naomi Sloan," he growled, “Who gave you the audacity to actually take this seriously?”

The emergency center I worked in went haywire as the typhoon closed in on our town. That night, my husband’s first love made seven emergency calls in a row to me. However, she did not say anything when I picked up. By the eighth call, I thought it was a prank caller, so I gave them a piece of my mind. Then, I heard my husband’s angry voice. “Melinda! This is the eighth time Sadie's called you for help! Haven’t you made her suffer enough?!” After that fiasco, he decided to avenge Sadie by taping my mouth, tying my wrists and legs up, and throwing me into our basement for three whole days, despite it being flooded with seawater, I begged for mercy, but it was to no avail. “You knew Sadie couldn’t talk because she hurt her throat, yet you still hung up on her! I'm going to make sure you feel the same hopelessness she felt!" Those three days left me with a collection of severe infections. I ended up having to remove my kidney. Even after all that, that man still had the gall to kneel by my bed and beg me to give him another chance.

"Marry me," he said, his deep voice with a hint of command. "Are you talking to me?" Mia asked, her eyes darting around the exclusive office, then her nose flared up in disbelief. "You're sick! The nerves you have to abduct me here. And this?" "You owe me," his grey eyes bore into hers, his hands tucked in his suit pants. Mia glared at him, "I'll never marry you Xavier Singh. You're arrogant! And rude! And grum.." "Your mother's surgery bills," he cut her off. "I'll take care of it" Her lips clamped shut at his words and her eyes widened. ******** Mia Lopez, a 24-year old aspiring actress, will do anything to get into the entertainment industry, without using her body. Her plans were simple, "Get famous, rich and save my sick mom." After an hate-at-first meet with Xavier Singh, CEO of X-World Entertainment, Mia will get married to the arrogant billionaire. In exchange for her mother's surgery, she'll help him take over his family's empire, the wealthiest conglomerate in California. Will this one-year marriage contract signed with no strings attached become a love story? *********** "Do not fall in love with me." "Don't try touching me also, pervert." Mia fired back, and he raised an eyebrow, letting out a low chuckle. "You should get a mirror, you do not attract a man, like me."

When I died with a smile on my face, right before my brother's eyes, he looked as if the anguish might tear him apart. Yet, for twenty-one years, he hadn't stopped wishing I would meet this exact end. It all traced back to my fifth birthday—the day I had innocently hoped our parents would come home from their business trip to celebrate with me. They rushed back that night but never made it. A car accident took both their lives. From that moment on, my brother resented me, despised me. He didn't just stand idly by as our cousin snatched up my work as her own; he encouraged it. And when my landlord threw me out, it wasn't a random cruelty—it was my brother pulling the strings. All he had ever wanted, from the very beginning, was to see me die a miserable death. But when he finally got his wish… why did he cry, pleading for me to come back, begging me to call him 'brother' one last time?