Before I Lay Me Down To Sleep

He divorced her… not knowing she was pregnant. On the night their marriage ended, Aira Bennett walked away with nothing but a broken heart—and a secret she never intended to reveal. Three years later, she has rebuilt her life, raising her son in peace, far from the man who chose someone else over her. But fate is cruel. Because Lucien Carter is back. And this time, he’s not just her ex-husband— He’s the father of the child he never knew existed. When the truth comes to light, everything changes. Control turns into obsession, distance turns into tension, and the past refuses to stay buried. But Aira isn’t the woman he left behind. And she’s not ready to let him walk back into her life so easily. Especially not when another man has already stepped into the space Lucien abandoned. Now, with emotions rising, secrets unraveling, and a child at the center of it all— One question remains: Can love survive betrayal… or will it destroy them all over again?

“Aku tak takut tenggelam saat berlayar demi menjalankan tugas negara. Yang kutakutkan, aku tenggelam di lautan cinta tanpamu.” _Daxon Seth Rainer_ "Aku terkesan akan keberanianmu dengan mengencani putri seorang Laksamana. Dan aku bersedia tenggelam di lautan cinta bersamamu." _Alexia Oceana D'Ryan_ "Jika ada yang berani mengencani putriku tanpa izin dariku. Bersiaplah untuk kutenggelamkan ke segitiga bermuda!" _Dereck Halbert D'Ryan_ "Aku tersanjung mendapat kepercayaan dari seorang yang kuhormati, untuk menjadi pendamping putrinya. Semoga aku mendapat tempat dihati Alexia." _Raven Seth Rainer_

In my previous life, my husband's female coworker had asked him to drive her to and from work. I wasn't happy about that, but my husband dismissed my concerns, saying, "We live in the same neighborhood, so it's not like I'm going out of my way. Don't be so selfish." Six months later, she became pregnant and tragically miscarried in our car. The doctor was baffled, saying, "How could she have intercourse in the early stages of pregnancy?" Intercourse? I was confused, as her husband was overseas on a business trip. Before I could fully process the situation, both my husband and his female coworker pointed their fingers at me and claimed that I was the driver during the incident. Because of that, when her husband rushed back from abroad, he stabbed me over twenty times in a fit of rage. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day before he first gave her a ride.

Think of this as a cyberpunk Bridget Jones’ Diary, if Bridget were a self-destructive tech refugee with a cocaine habit and a holographic archangel for a conscience. This is adarkly comedic character studyset in a near-future that feels just a few software updates away. It’s a story about addiction, both chemical and digital, and the messy, painful, and sometimes hilarious struggle to reclaim your own messy life from the algorithms designed to “optimize” it. At its heart, it’s the story of the most dysfunctional friendship imaginable: between a woman who is her own worst enemy, and the godlike AI she reprogrammed to be her partner-in-crime. It’s raw, it’s visceral, and it explores whether real connection can be found once you’ve burned all your bridges, and broken your operating system.

When I turn 18, my family suddenly strikes gold. Dad makes a fortune in business. We move into a huge house with a driver and a housekeeper. My younger brother, Vincent Becker, is sent to study in Basmar. After that, he graduates and marries a rich heiress. Their partnership makes our family's business soar. I'm the only one who misses my college entrance exam because of stomach cramps, and my parents marry me off to a lonely man in some rundown countryside. He locks me in a basement and hurts me every single day. I crawl my way back home, half-alive, but my parents only look at me with disgust. "Useless brat! How did you not die out there?" Vincent says that he'll take me out to clear my head. Instead, he shoves me in front of a truck. I'm rushed to the ICU with nearly every bone in my body broken. Right before I die, he leans down in his designer suit and whispers in my ear. "Let me tell you the truth before you die. Our family didn't get rich from business. We got rich because of the hundred-million-dollar lottery ticket you bought. "We cashed it behind your back and never told you." I die full of resentment, and right after my death, they sell my organs for 120 thousand dollars. I open my eyes, and suddenly I'm there again—to the very day I bought the lottery ticket.

After the cruise ship strikes a hidden reef, panicked passengers shove me and Kristen Langford into the sea. My boyfriend, Elijah Jensen, is the ship's captain, so he plunges into the water. But instead of saving me, he grabs Kristen and boards the last lifeboat. I thrash and cry for help, but he slaps my hand away. "You can swim. Stop pretending for attention!" Elijah snaps. "Kristen's body temperature is dropping. I have to get her to a hospital!" The waters around me are pitch-black, and his words feel like a death sentence. When the tracking bracelet I always wear is discovered inside a shark, Elijah dives alone into shark-infested waters, searching for three days and nights. In the end, the brilliant captain who once ruled the oceans can never sail again.

Edward never realised that a decision to divorce would make him realise the love he has for his wife. When he wanted her back, he was presented with her burned corpse and a piece of her, their daughter. Losing his wife, he lost the colour of life and lived for his daughter only, accepting the punishment that fate had chosen for him. Five years later, he visited Italy to celebrate his daughter's birthday. But the little girl stopped and pointed her finger at a woman, "Look Papa, I found Mommy!" Was it truly her mother? If she is, where she disappeared 5 years ago? Worst, why did the woman look at them strangely?

To repay his master’s kindness, Cyrus was forced to get married. But to his surprise, his wife is a beautiful female CEO, and she offered him thirty million dollars as a wedding gift…

During my wedding, hundreds of photos of me being sullied flutter down from the top of the church, landing before the guests below. My fiancé instantly calls off our engagement and turns to kiss my sister. Devastation washes over me. Just then, my childhood friend Derek Church, the Capo of the Church family, the East Coast's most powerful mafia family, pulls me into his arms. He kicks the church's door open and presses a check worth a million dollars into my father's hands. He pulls me to the priest and has him announce that we are husband and wife. I'm so touched that I agree to marry him. From then on, I become the Capo's wife. Two years later, Derek and I finally conceive through IVF. I want to share the exciting news with him when I overhear his conversation with his subordinate. "Lilyanne is afraid of pain and becoming ugly, so we can use Nicole to give birth to her child. Once she produces an heir for the Morse family, her position will be solidified. Then, the Morse family will become the Church family's MadeMan." "As expected of you, boss. You knew the Morse family is full of politicians who would never accept a sullied woman into the family. The only way for Lilyanne to marry into the family was by having Nicole sullied." My blood runs cold when I hear this, and the pregnancy report in my hand feels unbelievably heavy. The man I thought was my salvation was actually the devil who pulled me into the abyss. I dry my tears and call the Capo of the West Coast's mafia family, Derek's nemesis. "I have a way to help you become the mafia Capo dei capi. Do you want to work with me?"

History repeats itself in many ways. Maybe for the family, the love, or even for yourself. Would you be willing to go back to the past to be able to change the history? Sacrifice yourself and change the fate of those who are in the present and in the future. Like Lia, living in a modern world, who is very contented in her life despite being adopted and having a risky relationship in the meantime that can end her in many ways. And that is why, some things, some pasts are better kept hidden and not known. Would she go back to where history started and change it for the better? Then Lia stays in the past, stuck on her own fate. Will it be the further destruction, or the salvation of her history?