Butts On Things

My husband, Oliver Dawson, "forgot" everything in a car crash—and somehow fell for me all over again. After getting out of the hospital, he said he wanted to date me from scratch. Moved out, made it all romantic. People thought we were couple goals. I figured he just wanted that first-date spark back. Then I overheard him with his best friend. "The amnesia was a lie. I only moved out to take care of Katy. She's pregnant. Cecelia's never wanted kids. I'm not going childless." I glanced down at my barely-there bump and booked a hospital appointment. Then I found the memory-erasing pill Mom left me—and took it. Oliver had no clue I'd forget him in seven days. Completely.

Being the only daughter of the Calhoun family, a mafia family in Merovia, I am doted on like a princess. This changes when I turn 18, when Mom dies. On the way back from a family meeting, the car blows up, and Mom shields me beneath her. Even as she lies in a pool of blood, her gaze is tender as she says to me, "Don't blame yourself, sweetheart. I love you." Still, after Mom's death, everyone in the family starts blaming me for what happened, including Dad and my older brother, William Calhoun. I go from being the princess of the family to the jinx that everyone hates. Soon after that, Dad brings home a new adopted daughter, Juliet Calhoun. William favors her and detests me. Even my childhood sweetheart, Shawn Kramer, takes a liking to her and ignores me. Dad says his new adopted daughter is way better than his biological one. They all agree to attend my college graduation ceremony. But on the day, they end up taking Juliet onto our family's yacht and holding a cocktail party out on the water to celebrate the official addition of a new family heir. This is the 100th time they ditch me for her. Unable to stop myself from an emotional breakdown, I cry out, "I'm the one who's related to you by blood!" Dad shields Juliet, who backs away from me out of fear. Then, he slaps me on the face. "I wish I'd never had you." "Who wants to have a younger sister like you? I wish you'd died with Mom!" William roars in contempt. This time, I've decided to let it all go. I call Aunt Marissa, Mom's sister. She's the founder and a therapist at MindCare Treatment Center. "Come here. This is your home now." I know that Mom's death was a conspiracy. This isn't just me leaving, but withdrawing myself from the family entirely. I hope that the next time I meet the Calhouns, there won't be tears on my end. Instead, judgment will befall them.

When Asher Terrell's family crumbled into bankruptcy, I stood steadfast by his side. We lived in a dank basement, where I toiled through three jobs to help clear their crushing debts. He bounced back and proposed, promising me a true home. Three years into our marriage, I discovered the deed to our house bore the name of his first love. "This is what I owe her," he confessed. Swallowing my pain, I nodded and pushed forward a photo from back when we were crammed in that basement, with a whole table piled high with debt notices. "You've paid your debt to her with our house," I said. "But what about the debt you owe me?"

The maid's daughter, who grew up in my home, had the nerve to act like an heiress. On her birthday, she invited every kid from school for a full-on rager at my family's villa. When I suggested they take it to a hotel, she lost it. "You don't get to tell me what to do! My friends can party wherever they want!" She added, "The ten-layer cake my parents ordered for me is on the way. Why don't you park yourself by the door and wait for it, huh?" Her crew circled up, laughing and pointing at me. But I'd lived through this before. Nothing about her little act rattled me. I turned to the butler and told him to lock the gate. Then, I went to Rambo's cage. "Hey, buddy," I said, opening it up. "See those trespassers?" I pointed at the crowd. "I'm counting to three. If they're still here, don't let a single one get away."

After I'm abducted, I call my mother, a policewoman, for help. However, she hangs up on me and stays by my adoptive sister's side. "Go to hell if you're so keen on it!" she snaps. I calmly watch as the abductors pluck my nails and torment me until none of my skin is left unharmed. In my past life, my mother actually came to my rescue. She left my adoptive sister by the roadside, and the latter ended up being violated and murdered. From then on, I became a criminal in my mother's eyes. She received an anonymous text on my adoptive sister's death anniversary. "I bet a good girl like you wouldn't want your mother to know you hired us to abduct you, right?" She thought I orchestrated the abduction because I wanted to vie for her attention. She thought that was the cause of my adoptive sister's death. "I've saved people all my life. I never would've expected my flesh and blood to be such a shameless monster! You should go to hell as atonement for killing Charlene!" She sewed my mouth shut, shattered every bone in my body, and threw my ashes into a junkyard. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back to the day my mother makes her choice.

“And?” Olivia asked, her brow furrowed. “I will pay off all your debts, cover your brother’s hospital bills, and send him abroad for the best medical treatment,” Alpha Enzo made an offer he knew Olivia wouldn’t reject. Olivia raised her brow as she stared at the man she hated with passion. Just as she was about to reject his offer, she paused and thought of it. Not only would he help in clearing her huge debts, but he would also send her brother abroad, and she would have the best opportunity to carry out her revenge on him. “I accept,” she blurted out, making Alpha Enzo smirk victoriously. “Yes, I accept to be your submissive for the next three months.” *************************** On her fourteenth birthday, Olivia watched her family being murdered by a masked man with a scorpion tattoo on his right wrist. Six years later, burdened by her comatose brother's hospital bills, Olivia works at a BDSM club. There, she encounters Alpha Enzo, who bears the same tattoo in the exact spot. Determined to avenge her family, she agrees to his offer to clear her debts in exchange for becoming his submissive for three months. But as Olivia spends more time with Alpha Enzo, she finds herself developing feelings for the man she was supposed to kill. To make matters worse, she discovers he harbors many dark secrets and a troubled past.

On my wedding night, Sean Boswell was with his first love when I suffered a miscarriage as my kidnappers tortured me. I begged endlessly for him to save me, only for him to laugh, "You were just demanding a divorce in the morning, and now you're faking a kidnapping so that I'd come back? Is that the only thing you can do?" Eventually, when I gave up and stopped clinging on being Mrs. Boswell, he chased me to the airport, pleading with a crack in his voice, "Just stay, Anna. Let's make things how it used to be."

My husband's true love, Yvonne Sullivan, requests to operate on me when I'm due for a kidney transplant surgery. I'm vehemently against it, but my husband, Charles Gunner, still allows Yvonne to practice on me. My artery bursts during the operation, but she can't handle it. She panics. The hospital wants Charles to take over, but he objects. "Don't pressure Yvonne too much. Anyway, the patient won't die. If she does, I'll sign an agreement stating that the hospital has no fault in this." After the surgery, I display major signs of rejection, prompting an emergency rescue alert throughout the hospital. However, Charles is celebrating with Yvonne. He doesn't answer his phone. I'm lying in the ICU when I receive a text from him. "I'm guiding Yvonne on her dissertation at home. Don't come back when you wake up—I don't want you to disturb us."

For the seven years after our marriage, I spend whole nights in the prayer room before he will even touch me. Eric Compton says it is to atone for what I owe Monica Lynch. When his mother, Barbara Lane, pushes me to fulfill my wifely duties again, I overhear Eric's friends laughing. "Let me think. How many rounds of IVF has Avery done this year? She's trying very hard to get pregnant." "She probably doesn't know there's no way she's ever getting pregnant with Eric's kid." Eric scoffs. "Every time we're done, I give her a glass of milk. After all these years of birth control, it'd be a miracle if she got pregnant." He adds, "Everything she's suffered through is just payback for driving Monica away." I smile bitterly and send the recording to Richard Compton. "I'm not the lucky one meant to carry on the Compton name. Can I go now?"

Elena Halloway. Perfect by all means, be it in looks, virtues and talent. Unrivalled by all, she was happy. She had accomplished her dream, stood at the top of the entertainment world and was loved by all. But soon, that all came crashing down. "Why...? Did I do something wrong? Am I the reason for all of this?" Driven by despair, she couldn't help but sink to the floor. "Why? Did I ask for any of this? Why me of all people?" "Why? That's a question you should ask yourself." And with that, he left. That was the very moment she realised, the world put on a facade. Deceiving themselves and her as well. In the face of the accident, she was left with nothing but trauma and pain. Thrown away like a broken doll, she was left to be played with by fate. Twisting and contorting her limbs, hung on a string. She was powerless. They were all slave to fate. But when fate decided to give her a saving grace, she decided to make the best of it. After all, who could've imagined that she would be able to achieve redemption?