A Life Well Lived Novels & Stories

Be sensible. Every word carried a commanding tone. He clearly believed I would react the same way I always had—no matter how he mocked or humiliated my feelings, I'd eventually crawl back, apologizing just to stay by his side. Not this time. I gave a small shrug and tossed the phone straight into the trash can—along with the pathetic life I'd once lived. There was nothing left in this town to miss. My gambling father died years ago. I'd sold the house, and now, with my mother healthy again, we were heading overseas to start anew.

Carrying this weight all day plus the cannulas is something I do every day and I have gotten used to it, but it is still tedious not being able to move around as much as I would like. I toss and turn in bed looking for a comfortable position, when I finally find it I close my eyes and the last thought that crosses my mind before falling asleep is only one, and it is the one that has remained during all these years. I don't want to die, not yet. Please...

Now I live in Hawaii, where I own several properties and have various businesses in motion. Life has smiled on me in the best possible way, and I am very satisfied with everything. Andrés, my adoptive father, would be very proud of the woman he created. My father did a good job, but he didn’t have the empire I built myself. I’m a businesswoman, intelligent and shrewd. No man measures up to me, and they certainly can’t win me over with expensive gifts and tired lines. There isn’t a man on this earth for me; I feel great being alone. Besides, love makes you weak, so anything that makes me feel weak and vulnerable is discarded.

She creased her brow and bit her lip. "See, even someone as smart as you are, have to think it over when the answer is so obvious. You get the one you like; it's the one that will give you the most pleasure. If you concentrate on what the enemy has or is doing, you lose yourself in them. Every situation in life is different. The one common denominator is you. That means, in all things, be true to yourself. The best defense in life is doing and being who you want to be, not what someone else forces on you, and never waver." She seemed to be giving my words some thought. "What if I like the Bugatti Type 40?"

She would never go back to that, but they were grown now and she had the right to go out for a picnic and enjoy herself! “What is your problem, Sean! I didn’t intentionally upset any of you. I just got back from a life-altering event! Jack understands what I’ve been through. Have you ever been on the brink of death like that. On the side of a mountain, clinging to life? This can’t be equated to drug addiction!” Though she herself had thought them similar when she was trying to survive.

Maybe the only fun I had there was flying with swords. Then the future galactic world? Honestly, out of all my ninety-nine reincarnations, I didn’t reach that kind of world yet or even some apocalyptic world, and I’m thankful for that. [11:59 pm] It really felt like I am having some sort of a countdown for New Year. But in my case, it's a countdown for my New Life. Yes, let's just call it new life and not death. It sounded depressing to call it like that.

**This chapter is dedicated to Jom Oyel for your amazing review and feedback. They are appreciated ♥️ Anna You know that saying, when you're experiencing pain that later leads to death, your life flashes in front of you. You see the life you ought to have lived. The life you longed for, the beautiful scenes you wanted, and the memories you wished to live through.

But underneath all of those things, at the very centre of what the second book was, there was something simpler. "It says that what remains is everything," she said. "That the life you build after the fire — the ordinary, daily, imperfect, chosen life — is not the lesser thing. It's the whole thing. The fire was necessary and the fire was real and the fire cost everything it cost and it also produced this. The kitchen and the table and the mornings and the evenings and the children and the writing and the friendship and the marriage that is honest and real and ours." She paused. "It says that staying — in yourself, in your own life, in the truest version of who you are — is not the compromis

And me? I learned that survival is not the same as living. Survival sharpens you. Living softens you. For a long time, I mistook one for the other. I thought if I stayed alert, stayed ready, stayed strong, that meant I was alive. But strength without peace is just endurance. Living is different. Living is letting your shoulders drop. Living is trusting joy. Living is allowing yourself to imagine tomorrow without rehearsing catastrophe. One evening, much later, I stood in the doorway of the living room and simply watched.

“More of this. Living. Loving. Being present.” “That’s it? After everything, we just… exist?” “Not just exist. Choose how to exist. Every day, we choose love over power. Connection over achievement. “Sounds almost boring.” “Boring is underrated. After years of crisis, boring sounds perfect.” He was right. The dramatic battles were over. Now came the work of living well—being good parents, good partners, good humans. “I’m proud of us,” I said. “Of what we built. Of who we became.”