4th July Joke

On New Year’s Eve, a poolside party was held at the hospital. There, my fiancee Valerie Charlton’s medical prodigy junior colleague, Cyrus Zeigler, drew the wildcard in a party game. His task was to select a woman from the attendees and enact an explicit scene in front of everyone. He scanned the crowd, and his gaze landed on Valerie. “Valerie, you’re about to get married. I know I can’t have you. So let me have this one time. Okay?” Valerie’s eyes welled up, and she was about to nod. I scoffed and tossed the unsigned medical equipment purchase contract onto the table. “You’d better think carefully. Either he gets lost, or your family’s hospital shuts down for good. Your choice.” Cyrus glared at me angrily when he saw that Valerie was torn with indecision. “Is it that Mr. Everest can’t take a joke? He’s already controlling everything you do before the wedding. After you get married, he’ll probably keep you in a cage.” Valerie calmed down. Then, she turned to me and said scornfully, “You are a grown man. Have some grace. What era are we living in? Do you have to flaunt your masculinity all the time?” I watched calmly as they walked toward the pool. Then, I turned and made a phone call. “Since she doesn’t care about this marriage, she can watch the Charlton family crumble.”

During an ambush, I risked everything to save Matthew, but in doing so, I lost the ability to stand—my legs were permanently damaged. Matthew was devastated. Holding me close, he swore he would love me forever and never betray me. Overwhelmed with emotion, I agreed to marry him. In secret, I sought medical treatment, and after a long, gruelling journey, the day finally came when the doctor told me I could walk again. Overjoyed, I rushed home, eager to share the incredible news with him. However, the moment I pushed open the door, my world collapsed. Matthew was fooling around with his female assistant—right there in our home. On our bed. Wrapped in each other's arms, they kissed passionately, completely lost in the moment. As things heated up, the woman gazed at him and murmured, "Matt, why don't you just leave that cripple? She can't satisfy you at all." "Don't you love the thrill of sneaking around? It wouldn't be nearly as exciting if I left her." A wave of icy rage surged through me. So that was what our marriage meant to him—nothing more than a twisted game, a joke between him and his mistress. Drained and heartbroken, I turned and walked out. That night, I booked a flight back to my hometown. I was done with this city. Let Matthew live with his regret.

Born as an Omega, Riley was treated with little respect by the pack and worked like a slave to survive. Like a joke made by the Moon Goddess, she was fated to be the mate of the young Alpha, thereby becoming the pack’s Luna. Riley has been the perfect Luna for the Green Creek Pack, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to everyone’s well-being. Everyone except herself. Jude promised to love her as if they were fated mates, because he understood her, appreciated her, and cherished her. However, after a few years of separation, Jude returned with another woman, Ruth, claiming she was his fated mate. He insisted that Ruth wouldn’t affect their relationship, but that was the beginning of Riley’s nightmare. Though she had been fated to be his mate, Jude never considered Riley a proper Luna for the pack, or accepted her as his mate. He used her, exploited her, and gave her the false hope of a better life. What awaited her was a shattered heart and twisted truths to be silenced till the day she died. An evil trap closed in on her like a wild beast, ready to devour her alive. Heartbroken and torn, how will she escape the claws of these shameless people and rise from the ashes like a phoenix? How will she make them regret losing her and ensure they face the consequences they deserve? Will it eventually be her betraying husband who redeems himself and wins her back, or will she find another man who truly deserves her trust and love?

I had been Silas Sterling's mate for seven years. We decided to get tattoos of each other's names. This was a Binding Tattoo that represented eternal love in the Moonstone Wolf pack. It had the power to bind mates eternally. When I got the tattoo, I realized the malicious words 'Public Male Amenity' had been tattooed on my chest. It chilled me to the bone. My adopted sister, Greta Pound, was the one who tattooed me. She covered her mouth as she laughed. "Don't you always enjoy attracting the attention of all the male werewolves by dressing so skimpily in the pack, Freya? I'm just helping you to publicize this." Greta was a female werewolf I had saved. Why was she treating me this way when I treated her like my sister? I grabbed her hair angrily, but Silas pushed me violently to the side as he pulled Greta protectively into his arms. He frowned as he berated me unhappily, "Greta was just joking with you. Why are you so mad about it?" I stared at his bare chest where my name should be tattooed. However, the name 'Greta' was there instead. She looked up at me from Silas' arms and smiled innocently yet tauntingly at me. "Silas said our names rhymed, Freya, so I played a joke by tattooing my name on him. You aren't mad about this, are you?"

After I married Riccardo, the Don of the Moretti family, he paraded a string of mistresses in front of me. He never gave me a second glance. But on our tenth anniversary—right after my father’s death—he suddenly promised me half of his empire. The catch? In return, he planned to seize control of all my family’s arms-dealing routes. That pissed off his favorite mistress. She cornered him on his yacht, demanding he take his words back. Then she fell overboard and died. An “accident.” After she died, Riccardo went insane. He took it all out on me. He tied me to the back of his yacht. He dragged me through the sea, a human anchor, until the rocks shattered my legs, crippling me for life. I became the family’s shame. Then, as I lay helpless, he finished the job with poison. Then I opened my eyes. I was back on the day Angelo Marino—the head of our rival family—proposed to me. In my last life, my family forced me to say no. He came for me, a one-man army. He killed Riccardo, but died in the process. This time, I looked at his kind face and nodded. Yes. But as we embraced, Riccardo appeared. He ripped me from Angelo's arms and claimed me as his own. That’s when I realized the cruelest joke of all. My monster was back, too.

After being cheated by her beloved boyfriend, Joan Green decided to revenge him. She slept with his uncle, her future uncle-in-law, Noah Hugo, the last kid in the Hugo family, almost the same age with her Ex-boyfriend Fletcher. He was a top and outstanding billionaire in the entire state, having women by his side or sleeping with them was never his desire. Work and Women, are his whole world. Joan contacted and seduced Noah via her private account but she was rejected because Noah knew who she was. 「Wanna F?」 「Pretty. But I don’t fuck my nephew’s girl.」 Joan was furious when she saw his reply, but she didn’t expect that Noah would drink with her at the same pub.She was embarrassed and wanted to escape from him. But he asked her the same question「Wanna F?」 and then... Joan slept with him all night. After she wake up, she just found out that Noah knew her full name. He even knew her cousin Karen Green. That meant Noah knew Joan’s ex-boyfriend betrayed her? Or did he also play trick on her and regard her as a joke!? Joan was in a rage and delete him directly! What if Noah was a scum like Fletcher, then he would never contact Joan again and showed everyone that Joan was a stupid woman. But why? Noah's message was lying on her list again: 「Give me one more chance.」

"What's an Omega like you doing here?" he sneered. "Don't you belong in the slum, or something?" His friends snickered at his cruel joke, and I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I tried to ignore them and head to the empty table, but Eric wouldn't let it go. "Look at her, pretending to be a real wolf," Eric sneered. "As if an Omega could ever be anything more than a loser." *********************** Shannon’s life has always been hard as an Omega. She is bullied and abused by the pack members everyday. She has only one wish: to find her true love on her eighteenth birthday and runaway with him. But her hopes are shattered when she finds out she is mated to Alpha Eric, the most desired Alpha in school. Eric rejects her blatantly and taunts her publicly for being weak. She moves to a different pack, hoping to start afresh but things are not quite different there. She has new stepbrothers, the Alphas triplet sons, who turn out to be her worst bullies. They hate Shannon and her mom for trying to take their dead mother’s place. But what happens when they find out that they are all mated to the girl they humiliate constantly? There’s a struggle for her, each one desiring to have her for himself. But Shannon can only choose one of them but must she? Will she end up with all three brothers and how will she navigate her complex relationship with them?

At the Colonetti family banquet in New York, I stood in the center of the grand hall with more than a dozen girls from different families, all of us waiting to be chosen. Victor, the heir of the Colonetti family, was supposed to announce his fiancée tonight. Along with that announcement, he would present her with the family heirloom, a lily brooch. As an illegitimate daughter of the family, I understood that if I didn’t receive that brooch tonight, it meant I would be sent to Chicago for an arranged marriage. Victor, who had once promised to marry me, changed his mind without warning. With a smile, he pinned the lily brooch onto the chest of the woman standing beside me instead. Then, he leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Let your sister Emily have her moment today. She’s also an illegitimate daughter like you, and she’s also never been valued growing up. Don’t worry. With me here, no one will force you into an arranged marriage.” Even as I looked at him with pleading eyes, he reached out and let Emily take his arm. “Emily is kind and gracious,” he said. “She deserves the lily brooch.” Those words—kind and gracious—turned me into the joke of the entire evening. The next day, I boarded a flight to Chicago alone, but Victor panicked. He used every connection he had and managed to ground every flight heading to Chicago.

We were on our way to celebrate our son’s birthday when we got into a car crash. When I woke up, I looked at my family gathered around my hospital bed and cracked a joke: “Sorry, but who are you guys?” I held back a smile, curious to see how they'd humor their "amnesiac" patient. Would my mother grab my hand in a panic? Would my husband look at me with worry? Would my son rush over, crying and calling me Mom? What I didn't expect was for them to freeze for a moment—and then, almost in unison, let out sighs of relief. My mother was the first to speak, her tone unmistakably lighter, as if a huge weight had been lifted. "If you don’t remember, it’s probably for the best. This is Lindsay—your sister, she’s my daughter. You were adopted." My husband then pointed at me and said to our son, "You should call her Aunt Wendy." Before the shock could even sink in, I watched the child I'd fought so hard to protect turn and throw himself into the arms of Lindsay. "Mom! I played outside all day. I missed you so much!" So that was the truth. My amnesia was exactly what they'd been hoping for. In that case, I didn't need this made-up life anymore.

Eight years into marriage, and Fabian's mom finally gave me and my son her stamp of approval. Invited us to spend Christmas in his hometown. My son—Luca--and I were hyped. We picked out a gift for her and hit the road with Fabian. Right as we pulled into the village, Fabian's old friend called—crying, claiming she'd crashed her car. Fabian panicked. Left me and Luca in some random snowy mountain town and sped off. It was pitch black. Snow dumping down. Then Luca screamed. He'd stepped on a trap and dropped into a pit. Blood everywhere. I called Fabian, totally panicked. He goes, "Stella, Roxana's in a wreck. I need to be with her. Stop making everything a competition." Then he hung up. Blocked me. No time to fall apart. I wiped my face, called an ambulance. Too far out. By the time they got there, Luca was already gone. Cold. Broken. Gone. I held him and screamed until my lungs gave out. Meanwhile, Roxana's posting in the social media. All smiles in Fabian's arms. His face soft. Loving. [Highway jam turned into truth or dare. One word—"accident"—and he came flying. So happy.] I exhaled. Tagged Fabian. [Let's get a divorce.] This joke of a marriage should've ended forever ago.