Before We Drowned

For our college graduation trip, I spent a whole week glued to various travel apps, finally snagging a half-price couples' train package. I was just about to share the good news with my boyfriend and call it a night when his message came through. "Anna's going through a breakup. She needs to get away and clear her head. We're gonna use those tickets." "See if you can grab yourself another single ticket. It's not that much anyway - like five or six hundred bucks." For a moment, I was speechless. Before he received the scholarship my dad’s pack had specifically established for him, five or six hundred dollars used to be his entire monthly allowance. After a moment of silence, I picked up my phone: “Dad, prepare a private jet for me. I want to take a trip alone before graduation.”

What can a woman do when her husband lost his memory and was now in love with another woman? Three years ago, I lay in a coma for a year after a car accident. When I woke up, not only didn’t my husband remember me, but he loves another woman, Ashlyn.  But I didn’t give up on us. Two months ago we got drunk, and we slept together for the first time in two years. But the next morning, Jayden was angrier than ever. He was convinced that he was drugged which was just another scheme of mine to win him back… I can’t forget the image of him staring at me with no emotions in his eyes and hands me the Divorce Agreement. Then I find out I was pregnant. The tiny life growing inside me made me stronger. Now it’s been three years and slowly each day got better. I started a little firm as a marketing and financial advisor, putting my education to use. My business partner, Phillip, has been helping me grow the company and we have grown very close. Phillip was so overwhelmed with emotion today since we are signing our biggest deal; his lips are on mine before I can stop him. When I turn around, the man standing at our glass door, glaring in at me and Phillip, is my ex-husband Jayden Brennan himself. Is there jealousy in his eyes? What does he want now?

My mother-in-law, Barbara Morris, insisted that a load-bearing wall was blocking our home's good energy. She even hired someone to tear it down for a panoramic floor-to-ceiling window. The contractor, Peter Stone, kept refusing. "Ma'am, we really can't do this. If we take this wall down, the whole building will collapse." In my past life, I fought desperately to stop them, even getting on my knees and begging them not to touch this wall that held the entire building together. My husband, Tom Williams, thought I was embarrassing him. He slapped me so hard that my left ear went deaf, and he forced them to demolish the wall anyway. That night, the entire building suffered a catastrophic structural failure. I was trapped under the rubble for seven days and nights with ruptured internal organs. Right before I died, I heard Tom shouting at the rescue team. "Save my mom first! That other woman has insurance. If she dies, we'll get the payout and buy a new place!" At that moment, the resentment inside me hardened. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment when the construction crew had just arrived. Looking at that thick load-bearing wall and Tom's hand about to rise up and strike me, I smiled and handed him the eighty-pound sledgehammer nearby. I said, "Mom's absolutely right. Once we knock down this wall, our place will turn into a luxurious river-view apartment. Anyone who tries to stop us is a complete idiot."

I set up a company cafeteria for employees with an abundant meal daily worth 150 dollars per person. Meals are prepared by a world-renowned master chef. Every day, I only ask my employees to contribute a token of one dollar. Instead of gratitude, all I get is their envy of the neighboring company. "I wish we had that. Their healthy lunches cost them nothing, and the company covers everything." "Yeah. Free salads always seem to taste the best." Before long, this chatter spreads through the office, and the new hires carry it into the company's group chat. "Mr. Shaw, can we switch things up? All this rich, heavy food is just too much for us!" A few of the senior employees quickly jump in. "Yes, Mr. Shaw! We're not asking for anything extravagant. We only want something like the healthy lunches the other company gives out for free!" Perfect. They ignore my lavish 150-dollar meals that cost them almost nothing, yet they pine over the neighboring company's modest lunches. I scroll through the chat, feeling nothing but sharp irony. I immediately send a company-wide email. "Attention, everyone! By popular demand, and so you can all experience a truly free lunch, the cafeteria's daily meal is reduced from abundant to simple starting today. "Snacks and fruit options are discontinued and replaced with the same healthy lunch set offered by the neighboring company. The company will cover the full cost. Enjoy your meal!"

A month before the wedding, my fiancé had an unexpected encounter at an auto repair shop with his ex-girlfriend, the one he had broken up with regretfully. The suppressed emotions quickly spiraled out of control. He took her back to his place to celebrate, from the couch to the balcony, and finally to the bedroom. He told all his friends that this was the best gift life had given him before the wedding. "I may not be able to forget Winona, but Julia's family background is more suitable for me. She'll never know what happened between Winona and me. We're going to get married. She loves me, and I'm the best choice for her." His voice was full of confidence, as though nothing could change his mind. But he was never my top candidate. After a serious illness, I followed my family's wishes and switched to a new groom.

Kitten being smuggled, that's the truth of our cold word it happened before, it happens even now, but when they crossed my lines, they signed their death certificate. I saved her, I killed them, but now I have a baby kitten to take care of, one that I have no plans on giving up...not ever! Alpha Eric, the boss of this pack, I'm mated to three of the most powerful wolves in the pack, and now we have her along. This is a CGL story, you've been warned. Apologies for any misspelling or grammar mistakes.

"Who are you?" she whispers, tears of pain and fear mixing. "Please, don't kill me. Where's Adam? My fiancé." Damon looks up, his dark eyes showing a hint of surprise. "Adam," he says, his voice a deep rumble that shakes her, "sold you to me for ten million dollars." The words hit her like a blow. "He didn't mention an engagement." Before her shattered mind can react, he stands, his tone firm. "Get dressed. We are getting married tonight.".

My husband has asthenospermia, so we decide to try IVF. Before the embryos are combined, I catch my husband switching my ovum out for his true love's. I don't say anything and switch them back. At the same time, I switch my husband's sample out for my ex-boyfriend's. 25 years later, my husband's true love comes knocking. She holds my daughter's hands and weeps while saying, "I'm your mother, my darling!"

"How about your actions when you sexually h... Uhmm, I mean you harassed him?" "Harassed him? Me? When did I?" "You tore off his clothes and tried to take advantage of him... Should I remind you more?" Swallowing hard, she tilted her head to the right in embarrassment. 'Celeste. Oo, Celeste. What did you do? How come he is everywhere? If he is really the man I married then he is very dangerous, there's no way I will survive if I stay near him. Death won't be my only choice either, he might want to torture me like some criminal...' ***** A beautiful wedding dress, a simple ring and a tiara, with her family members present and with the man she loved always... Celeste Banks imagined such a wedding so many times but they say, we don't always get what we wish for. Finding her boyfriend cheating was not enough, she was forced to accept a marriage proposal from an old baldie. When Celeste finds out that it was a conspiracy against her to get married, she runs away from her wedding. To save herself from getting caught, she uses a mysterious man as a shield and not only that, she even rips apart his expensive black shirt then makes an escape only to end up as his bride. ***** "We were checking the cctv footage to find out about Mrs. Weston, then we saw that... That woman actually escaped before the wedding. We have got the surveillance footage of her escaping, she was already in the flight during the wedding." "Then the woman..." Celeste's voice resounded in his head as he remembered the time of the wedding, trying to imagine how she looked. "Who is the woman I got married to?"

Don Fiorenzo Ricci saved me and brought me home, raising me for seven years. During the day, he was refined and restrained, treating me the way a true father would. At night, he was endlessly inventive, making me his and his alone. I drowned myself in this twisted love, naively believing I was the only one for Fiorenzo. Then he turned around and married another woman, made her the Madre of the mafia family, and forced me to watch them together. I was done being a piece in their twisted games. The first time I ran, he nearly killed the maid who helped me. The second time I ran, he shot the gardener dead on the spot. The third time, and the last, I jumped into the ocean right in front of him. I did it all for freedom, even if it was only the freedom of my soul after death.