A Matter Of Time

After Raven Fuentes's Childhood sweethearts Lyra Ross is taken by rogue wolves, Raven Fuentes hates me with everything he has. He'd rather spend his nights patrolling in the cold and drinking himself numb than face me, his mate. I care for him, try to please him, do everything I can… but all I get in return is his icy rejection. "The one you wronged is Lyra. If anyone should've been taken, it should've been you—not her." His words crush me. My heart breaks completely. And yet, when I'm attacked by a pack of rogues, it's Raven who throws himself into the fray to save me. He dies under their savage claws. Even in his final moments, he won't look at me. "If I had a choice, I'd never want to be tied to you again." At the funeral, Raven's mother faints on the stone platform holding his body, sobbing uncontrollably. "I should've never forced him into a mate bond with you. I would've rather he ended up with Lyra!" His father strokes his face one last time, his voice shaking with rage and grief. "He saved your life three times! This time, it cost him his own. You owe him three lives, and not even death can repay that debt!" Raven was the captain of the protection force. He spent his life shielding others. Everyone calls him a hero. The only tragedy, they say, is that he married me. And honestly, I agree. They forbid me from attending his funeral. They won't even let me say goodbye. Not long after, I hear the Silvermoon Pack has developed a time-travel device. Without hesitation, I pay the price so that I can go back in time. This time, I'll do what everyone wishes I had done. I'll cut all ties with Raven and stay far away from everyone.

I married the same man nine times. And each time, he left me for his first love, divorcing me nine times as well. The first time we parted, I lost control and threw all his belongings out the door. By the fourth divorce, I begged him to leave his luggage behind out of fear he might never return. The eighth time, I had learned to obediently pack his things, careful not to upset him. My breakdowns, my pleas, and my obedience always brought him back to me. Each time, he honored his promises. And each time, we divorced again, just like before. Until this time. This time, I packed my own things and left without telling him. A month from now, I will be gone for good.

When my husband Joshua dragged his student Linda Moore into our apartment, I didn't even blink—I gave up the bed. Last time, it'd been pouring when he showed up with her in the middle of the night. Told me to crash on the floor with my daughter Mia and gave Linda the bed like it was nothing. I lost it. Fought with him, snapped at her. She bolted, slipped into a ditch, and supposedly drowned. Joshua said nothing. Then, one night, with the storm going wild outside, he pried open a manhole and dumped me and Mia in like trash. "Linda's my mentor's daughter. She's dead—how am I supposed to face him? You two can apologize yourselves." We didn't even get to scream before that freezing, disgusting water swallowed us whole. Turns out, Linda faked the whole thing. Just a twisted joke to punish me. Joshua moved her in right after, like nothing happened. Now, thunder cracked again as the door opened—and there he was, Linda right behind him.

After being missing for 18 years, Mom and Dad finally found me. Jillian Swain, the fake heiress, crumples to the floor and starts sobbing. "Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Thanks for taking care of me all these years. But now that Wanda is home, I'm sure you don't have any use for me anymore." Mom and Dad hug her, completely heartbroken. "Sweetheart, don't talk like that! You're our only real daughter, now and always!" Even Harvey Schumer, the guy I was promised to as a kid, declares his love for her. "Forget who you really are. You're the only one I love." They're all tripping over each other to fuss over Jillian. They even throw a birthday celebration for her dog while I'm barely hanging on after a car crash. So I pack up my things, accept the space agency's offer, and slip away into a five-year confidential satellite research project. But the whole family freaks out the second I'm gone, turning the country upside down, searching for me.

My adoptive brother, Don Cassian. I loved him. The rival family drugged him. He had me pinned down. His hands on my breasts. He was hard, his eyes filled with a desperate hunger for me. But I shoved him off. Ran out the door. And called my best friend, Camilla. "Cassian's in the master bedroom. Get here. Now." I locked myself in the bathroom, letting the cold water wash away the fire he’d started in me. I remembered the last time. In my past life, when Cassian kissed me, I didn't say no. We made love all night. I thought my ten-year crush was finally mine. Then came St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Vitelli family's sapphire ring, passed down for three generations. The blessing of the Elders. I had everything I ever wanted. But the day after the wedding, I got the news. My best friend, Camilla, was dead. An overdose of antidepressants in her apartment. I was on the phone, crying for her, when a knife went through my chest from behind. I turned. It was Cassian, his face twisted with hate. "If you hadn't blackmailed me with those ledgers—if you hadn't forced your way into my bed—Camilla would still be alive. You have to pay for this!" That's when I understood. He never married me for love. It was all because of a whisper from Camilla: "Aurora controls the family's money. She can ruin you with a phone call." And a warning from the Elders: "Don, you must marry her. She knows too much." So this time, I stepped aside. I let them have each other. But why? Why did he come after me, his eyes red, looking like he'd lost his mind? "Aurora," he begged. "Why don't you love me anymore?"

"Going back to heal and be gone." I thought the flow of my story will be the same in the future, just like how I am living with my life now, a normal living. Lahat ng iyon ay nagbago, when the future me came! Just what exactly happened to my future why she came here hurting and wanted me to change OUR future?

A group of high school girls was in the middle of doing their sacrificial rite to their make belief goddess when Audrey barged right into the scene and freed their 'sacrificado'. The ritual-gone-bad incident eventually led the girl to fall to her early demise. But to her utter surprise, when she opened her eyes again, she found herself transcending into a different world. Eventually, her complicated fate forced her to cross-dress and live with five young men under the same roof. But would she be able to hide her identity until the end?

I wasn’t even pregnant, yet I ended up popping abortion pills like they were candy. It was all because in my past life, the moment my widowed sister-in-law got pregnant, every single side effect of her pregnancy became mine. She strutted around happily with her big belly, consuming spicy tamales, while I was rushed to the hospital for violent nausea and stomach pain; she showed off her flawless skin in crop tops every day, while my stomach broke out in hideous stretch marks. When I told my husband what was happening, he just shoved me away impatiently. “Enough with the jealousy! My brother’s dead, and she’s carrying his only child. Of course, I should look out for her. Do you really have to put on such an act?” After that, my sister-in-law went even further. She kept testing her limits during pregnancy and even ate a mango she was allergic to. And me? I went into anaphylactic shock, landed in the hospital, and nearly died. Doctors couldn’t explain it. They just brushed it off, saying I was overly jealous and it was all psychological. Later, my sister-in-law tried to brand herself as a “hot single mom”. She went live, belly and all, to show off her weight-loss workouts. She jumped around for three straight hours. And me? My uterus literally gave out, and I hemorrhaged to death. When I opened my eyes again, it was the exact day she first announced her pregnancy.

"Let’s get married as soon as possible," said my fiancee, Clementine Knaupper, out of nowhere during dinner. I froze with the spoon in hand. Over the last three years, I proposed to get married seven times, and she turned me down all seven times with all sorts of reasons. Then, she told me with a shifty look in her eyes, "I… I’m two months pregnant. The pregnancy is going to start showing soon." I set aside my spoon and stared intently at her. "You were on a business trip two months ago, weren’t you?" She gulped before stating in a troubled voice, "The baby… is my assistant, Stanley Brickley’s. I had too much to drink that night, and I thought it was you. "The doctor says if I get an abortion, it will be difficult for me to have children again. After we get married, we can announce my pregnancy. We can tell people it’s our baby. "Then, I will send Stanley and the baby away. They won’t come back after that." I looked at the woman I had loved for seven years, and for the first time, I felt like I was looking at a stranger. "Clementine, let’s call off our engagement."

Sebagai jurnalis, Kirania Sakti Raffardan harus memburu berita-berita sensasional. Ditambah rasa ingin tahunya yang besar, menjadikan Kiran acapkali bersinggungan dengan bahaya. Bahkan, ia sampai bertemu Demitrio Atmanegara--polisi berdedikasi negeri ini--yang sering berseteru dengannya karena kode etik profesi keduanya berseberangan! Lantas bagaimana kisah keduanya? Terlebih, cinta timbul di antara Kiran dan Demitrio kala mengungkap kasus-kasus ganjil yang dibungkam pihak-pihak luar biasa.....