Bias

I found out my husband, Logan Atkinson, had quietly added his secretary's number to our family plan. [Dear customer, the number ending in 8848 has been successfully added to your family plan. Effective immediately, all calls between plan members are free.] I held up my phone and looked straight at Logan. "You're treating her like family. What does that make me?" He sounded annoyed. "Regina said staying on the phone with me every night was getting expensive. If she's on the family plan, it doesn't cost anything. She's just used to saving money. Don't read into it." Regina said she had severe depression and couldn't fall asleep, so Logan stayed on the phone with her every night for at least seven hours. I stared at the call logs in the family plan. Even on our wedding anniversary, when I closed my eyes, wishing we would make it through another ten years and grow old side by side… He was still on the phone with Regina Dittman, coaxing her to sleep. When I didn't say anything, Logan looked a little surprised. "Wow. Quiet today? Finally learned how to be the bigger person?" I just didn't feel like arguing with them anymore. All those fights before had only proven one thing: he always chose Regina. After ten years in a broken marriage, it was time to set things straight.

I am Nicholas Greene's assistant and also his secret girlfriend of ten years. At the age of 29, I bring up marriage with him. He responds coldly, "I can give you love, but I can’t give you marriage. If you are desperate to get married, I can introduce you to another man to deal with your parents." I accept calmly. A few months later, he stops me at the door. His eyes are bloodshot as he questions, "Didn’t I tell you to just pretend? How did you end up actually getting a marriage certificate with him?"

I manage to drag Jared Sheppard from death's door. Since then, I've accompanied him from his poorest times all the way to the current moment, when he's now worth tens of millions of dollars. On the day his company goes public, he gets engaged to another woman. "Gabrielle, she's different from you. She's an actual princess of the elite. I need to give her an official title, so I can't fool around with you anymore." I never bothered defending myself. It's time for this farce to end, anyway. After all, there's still a man waiting for me at home, who's been calling me his princess since I was a little girl.

My husband's first love, Annie Quinn, suffers from a nosebleed. He decides to stuff me into the fridge and make me write a letter of apology in order to punish me. "Tie up the entire fridge with a coil of rope and leave it in the wine cellar. Let her atone for her sins there quietly." I keep pounding against the fridge door with all my might, even as it makes me bleed all over the place. I hope Nathan Grayson, my husband, can let me out. Instead, Nathan takes Annie on a trip to Arci where they have fun skiing and watching the penguins waddle about. One week later, Nathan opens the fridge after returning from his trip. The moment he lays eyes on my rotten corpse, he loses his mind on the spot.

On the fifth year of my marriage with Stefano Calderone, his older brother, Don Giovanni Calderone, sacrificed himself to protect him during an ambush. When Stefano inherited Giovanni's position as the next Don, he also inherited Giovanni's widowed wife, Camilla Bianchi. Every night, after leaving Camilla's room, he'd embrace me and say, "Alessandro, you're my actual lover. Once Camilla gets pregnant, I'll register our marriage once again and ensure that you and our son will have proper positions in the Calderone family." For the next six months, he slept with Camilla 200 times in a row. At first, he'd only spend one night with her per week. But gradually, it shifted into a regular schedule of nightly visits in her room. After their 201st coupling, the news of Camilla being pregnant gets spread throughout the villa. Soon after, news of Stefano and Camilla getting married breaks out. My son, Niccolo Calderone, grips the hem of my clothes while asking me innocently, "Mommy, didn't Daddy tell us that he'd give us a home? Why is he marrying another woman, then?" I just ruffle his hair in return. "Daddy no longer belongs to us. But it's okay, Niccolo. Mommy will take you back to our real home." Stefano will never find out that I'm not as alone as he thinks in this world. The truth is, I'm the principessa of another powerful mafia family in Sirelia. I never wanted the position of the Calderones' Donna, to begin with.

My promised mate, August Sterling, fell in love with my sister, Anna Morgart. However, I was supposed to be his fated mate. Yet, he held no feelings for me. Time and again, he put off our mating ritual. Due to the delays, the mate bond wrecked my body with incredible agony. Still, August turned his back on me. His eyes were only fixated on the tiniest cut on Anna’s hand. On the 99th scheduled ceremony, August once again abandoned me for Anna. He simply said, “Anna’s in a foul mood today. I need to cheer her up at the amusement park. The ritual can wait until next week.” As August walked away, I gritted my teeth and fought back the brewing turmoil within. August had one more chance. The Moon Goddess promised that by the 100th time August decided to move the ceremony away, I would be granted the choice to sever the mate bond.

Ten years ago, I was the main culprit of the 715 explosion that shocked the entire country. Everyone believed that I took huge bribes from a corporation and tampered with safety data. In the end, I ended up burning myself to death out of guilt. Today marks the tenth year after my death. My former fiancé, Brody Pierce, extracts my soul from the particle database. However, he isn't doing it to clear my name. Instead, he wants to put my soul on trial in public. The courtroom is in an uproar. "Laura Quinn is a criminal! She is utterly heartless! Every cent of the dirty money she took is stained with our family's blood." "She even betrayed her own fiancé. There is nothing she wouldn't do for money!" "Mr. Pierce is a righteous man. He's personally putting that wicked woman on trial." The crowd rages, wishing they could annihilate my soul particles. Amid the overwhelming curses, the quantum soul analyzer begins to activate. Yet, when the pure white soul that represents absolute goodness appears, everyone is stunned into silence.

Three years ago, my fated mate, Rex Hemmond, had personally signed the auction contract, resulting in me getting delivered onto the auction stage in the black market. That night, I was injected with aphrodisiacs, leading to me revealing my most debauched side in front of everyone. That was how I became the most hated harlot in the Moonshade pack. My sister, Daisy Russell, could be seen nestling into Rex's arms. She was smiling as she watched me fall into the abyss. During the years of my exile, I spent countless nights beneath bridges. Most of the time, I was chased around by others who wanted to beat me up. Eventually, I started earning money by slaving away in underground cage fights as a fighter so that I could buy back the estate that my dad had left me with. Three years later, Rex tracks me down with bloodshot eyes. "Come back with me and apologize to Daisy." I respond by punching him in the face. "That'll be 100 dollars per punch. If you're still unsatisfied, you can keep punching me." When Rex takes Daisy's hand at the estate's gateway and claims that it will be hers from now on, I finally fire a text message to an unknown number. "I need you." The moment that wolf steps into the Moonshade pack, Rex questions me with red-rimmed eyes, "Since when did you get together with him?" I just smile in return. "He was the one who saved me on the night you signed the auction contract."

I've been working for five years now. This is the first time my mom takes the initiative to call me to go home for the holidays. So I travel home with heaps of luggage. Still, I manage to free one hand to produce an envelope filled with cash and give it to my mom. A grin blooms on her face instantly. But when she realizes that there's only ten thousand dollars in the envelope, her grin starts to falter. "Oh, it only makes sense that you're the most manipulative out of the bunch after all these years." I pause momentarily as I'm about to go through the front door. "You've been working for quite a few years now, and yet you only bring home ten thousand bucks. Meanwhile, Sabrina gave us 100 thousand dollars in her first year of working a nice job. Having a bachelor's degree definitely pays off a lot!" Upon noticing how stunned I look, my mom yanks the gifts over right away. "Don't go around looking as though we owe you a life debt, Regina! See, Sabrina has better grades than you, and she doesn't have the intention of hiding anything from us. The gifts she always brings us are top-end supplements, so you should stop bringing us cheap stuff like this." I can only grip the hems of my shirt tightly. But the thing is, I'm the one with better scores back then…

I've been dating my enemy, Sean Thompson, for four years. At first, I intended to lurk by his side and find an opportunity to get my revenge. But little do I know that a medical report with my cancer diagnosis is capable of shattering my life's plans in an instant. Since then, I've quit my job and broken up with Sean. Now that I no longer give a damn about everything, I lash out at everyone who dares approach me. Everyone is weirded out by my behavior. They all wonder what made my personality go through such a huge change to the point that I'm easily triggered by the slightest inconvenience. My family is already ruined to begin with. My parents are dead, my family has gone bankrupt, and now I'm on the verge of death. My only wish is that I can screw Sean over so that my older brother, Adrian Price, can get released from prison as soon as possible. But I can't do anything about my wish at all. At that moment, my childhood friend stands by my side, consequences be damned. He takes good care of me and cares for me as he always does. When Sean finds out that I have terminal cancer, he actually agrees to help fulfill my wish. Half a year later, Adrian is released from prison. Sean also returns the company to my family. My wish is fulfilled. Everyone wants me to keep fighting for my life and continue receiving treatment for my cancer. I know that I need to keep going for their sake, even if it means extending my life for a day or even a month longer.