Blaming Myself

With a bag of vegetables gifted by the previous tenant in hand, I was on my way to collect rent from the third household when I unexpectedly ran into someone at the entrance of the community. The man frowned, his eyes fixed on the vegetables I carried, as though he couldn't fathom how I had ended up like this after leaving him. Following his gaze, I instinctively shifted the vegetables behind my back. My eyes dropped to the muddy water on the pavement, and I never would have imagined bumping into my ex-boyfriend—the one who had grown up with a silver spoon—in this aging neighborhood. He noticed my movement, and for a moment, something flickered in his expression: a mix of pity and recognition. "Since you've already learned your lesson," he said, "come back with me." At his words, I instinctively stepped back half a pace. "Who said I'm going back with you?" My rejection seemed to sting, darkening his face. "I know you're still blaming me for giving Rachel a child," he muttered, "but it's been three years. Isn't it time to stop? As long as you come back, we can be the same as before." Three years, huh? How quickly time had passed. Thinking of my little girl at home, still babbling her first words, I couldn't help but smile and shake my head. "Let's leave it at that. Go home and live your life with Rachel. My daughter's waiting for me to go back and make her food."

I was the heiress switched at birth by a nanny. It was not until I turned eighteen that my biological parents finally found me, and traded me back for the girl they had raised and loved as their own. However, fate played a cruel joke that very same week. My parents died in a car accident. The family business collapsed. In one night, I lost everything. My older brother survived, but his kidneys failed. I did not hesitate. I gave him mine. However, grief broke something in him. Blaming me for our parents' deaths, he spiraled into madness. "You killed Mom and Dad! Why wasn't it you who died instead?" he screamed. I gave up college and took on three jobs a day just to pay for his treatment. Years passed. One day, while cleaning a mansion as a housekeeper, I saw her, the "sister" I was traded for, gliding through a lavish party, dressed in designer clothes and dripping in jewels. I froze when I heard the voices I had long thought silenced. My parents, alive, speaking to her as gently as ever: "Jasmine, you're so compassionate… agreeing to end Helen's punishment early." My brother, the one who should still be seeing a therapist, frowned and objected. "No. Not even a day less. Just because she suffers a little doesn't mean she deserves to live." I glanced down at the medical report still warm in my hands. For the first time in years, I smiled. "Perfect," I whispered. "Now I can finally die like I wanted to."

For five years, I let my husband’s mistress take whatever she wanted. My birthday. His time. His attention. The tenderness that used to belong to me. I even told myself I could survive watching my own son choose her over me, because a damaged family still had to be better than none at all. It wasn’t. This year, my husband took his mistress away for their birthday trip, and my son ran straight into her arms and called her Mom. That was the moment I finally understood something I should have learned five years ago: no matter how much of myself I gave to that family, I would never be the one they chose. So I filed for divorce. None of them believed I could really walk away. My husband thought I was bluffing. His mistress thought she had won. My son did not even look back. None of them believed I could really walk away. Then a call came from overseas: Matteo Bellandi’s wife was dead. This time, I left them with nothing but my ashes.

As the holiday began, I encountered an exhilarating affair. One day, on a double-decker tour bus, I found myself locked in a passionate moment with a beautiful woman on the upper deck, all while my official girlfriend was napping on the lower level. The woman gently placed her soft hand on my upper body, murmuring sweetly, “See you tonight, love…” And just like that, I was completely captivated.

I was seventeen the first time I saw him. He never looked at me twice. I spent years trying to forget a man who didn't even know I existed. I built my own life, my own money, my own name. I didn't need anyone. Then one night, everything I built fell apart at once. So I walked into a bar, and I let a stranger take me home. No names. No morning. Clean and simple. Except nothing about him was ever going to be simple. Because I walked into work the next day, and there he was. Sitting in the CEO's chair like he owned the world. Looking at me like he already owned me. I told myself it meant nothing. I told myself I could walk away. I've always been good at lying to myself. But there's one thing I never saw coming. One truth that was hiding right in front of me the whole time. And when it finally comes out — I don't know if what we have survives it.

My boyfriend didn’t just cheat. He did it with my twin sister. In my apartment. On our anniversary. And the worst part? They planned it. He dated me to destroy me. She gave him every secret I ever trusted her with. Just because she wants to ruin my future and my career. So I walked into a bar, ready to drink myself unconscious. But no one would serve me. Because of him. The hot, sexy stranger in the VIP lounge with cold eyes, a sharp voice, and a presence that made everyone move back without a word. In my delirious state, I confronted him. He didn’t care. Instead, he said: “If you want to forget everything, I’ll give you something worth remembering.” One night became two. Two became three. When I escaped his bed, I promised myself I would never see him again. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. On Monday, I was reported to the CEO’s office—my ex’s final attempt to destroy my job. I walked in trembling. And there he was.

Eli Gunnar has been on the run most of his life, after the Alpha of his pack killed his father, blaming him for the death of the Alpha and Beta heirs. Eli was banished at 12 by the Alpha. Less than a year later, attempting to save the only person kind to him in his banishment, Eli was found with a dead Luna Estella in his arms. He was blamed for her death and was hunted until her son, Liam caught him. Only because of Liam's mate, Angel, a Guardian with the gift of tasting deceit, was the real story believed. Liam let him go to start a new life. It's on this journey that he stumbles across his fated mate, only she doesn't have a wolf. Grace is the only child of Alpha Edgar and Luna Paige. For ten years she is spoiled, the darling of the pack. prepared to become the next Alpha, taking over for her father. However, when Grace does not get her wolf, her father changes, becoming angry and distant. When she still has no wolf on her 12th birthday, he banishes her from the pack. She and her mother leave the pack and Paige's mate. Living in the human world, Grace watches the ruptured mate bond slowly kill her mother, leaving her alone in the world at age 16. However, on her 18th birthday she not only awakens with a wolf, but a Guardian. Now, hunters are coming. They have heard of Guardians and their strength, and they want them dead. Grace will have to trust Eli as her mate and join forces with the other Guardians who she feels a strange connection to defeat this new foe and begin the life she was always meant to have – the leader of her own pack.

After a plane crash, I found myself on a deserted island. I had no knowledge of wilderness survival, nor did I have a Swiss Army knife. I started with nothing but my bare hands and a delicate woman by my side. The harsh nature, the despicable survivors, the savage primitive tribes, they all want me die? Be it nature, witchcraft, or elves, watch how I rebuild a civilization on this deserted island.

I have always been in love with my best friend, but I keeps it to myself and I'm just happy being around him and being able to be part of his life, then a girl comes into our story, she is also into the my best friend and she is my twin sister. Should I be able leave them be? Should I let my twin si