Calling Mom

We were on our way to celebrate our son’s birthday when we got into a car crash. When I woke up, I looked at my family gathered around my hospital bed and cracked a joke: “Sorry, but who are you guys?” I held back a smile, curious to see how they'd humor their "amnesiac" patient. Would my mother grab my hand in a panic? Would my husband look at me with worry? Would my son rush over, crying and calling me Mom? What I didn't expect was for them to freeze for a moment—and then, almost in unison, let out sighs of relief. My mother was the first to speak, her tone unmistakably lighter, as if a huge weight had been lifted. "If you don’t remember, it’s probably for the best. This is Lindsay—your sister, she’s my daughter. You were adopted." My husband then pointed at me and said to our son, "You should call her Aunt Wendy." Before the shock could even sink in, I watched the child I'd fought so hard to protect turn and throw himself into the arms of Lindsay. "Mom! I played outside all day. I missed you so much!" So that was the truth. My amnesia was exactly what they'd been hoping for. In that case, I didn't need this made-up life anymore.

“I was her past but not her future.” Some say that our past is the reflection of our future, but what if your past is not part of your future? Living with her stepdad and battered mom, Mia dreamed of a safe life for her mother and brother. Struggling to her feet, she worked hard and planned for their escape until she stole a notebook from her best friend’s house one day and freed a curse Lycan King, which changed her life forever. Where the past meets the future, which love will she bind her heart, the past of the future? “Please, don’t leave! Help me!” I woke up hearing the strange voice calling me, crying and pleading for help. I tried to ignore it, but the voice was dragging my feet in his direction. The voice stops, and everything becomes quiet…. “Hi, I am Davon Maddox.” “Holy shit! You are the curse werewolf guy!”

My mother-in-law, Daisy Rothbart, gets pregnant around the same time I do. We even give birth to baby boys via cesarean sections on the same day. However, her infant dies later, and that's when she suddenly starts showering my son, Casey Dyson, with all her love and attention. After Casey officially takes over the family business one day, my husband, Jerome Dyson, and I die in an accident out at sea. However, my spirit remains close to Casey even after my death, and that's when I find out that he starts calling Daisy "Mom" while crying in relief. It is only then that I learn that the son I'd been bringing up for 20 years had been secretly switched at birth by none other than Daisy. When I open my eyes again, I realize that I'd traveled back in time to the day when Daisy and I were both scheduled to undergo cesarean sections at the hospital.

I had moved out of our house, but my boyfriend—the one I had given up everything to run away with—had no idea. Neither did his possessive younger brother, the one who used to knock on my door calling for me. My boyfriend's first love had taken up all their attention. They no longer listened when I played the piano. They even forgot about my cat fur allergy and brought that woman's cat home. My boyfriend, Ian Blake, had snapped, "If anyone's leaving, it's you. There's no way Eva's cat is going anywhere." His brother, Sebastian, had said, "Sienna, Eva is my girlfriend. How could I give up her cat for you?" When I woke up in the hospital after going into anaphylactic shock from my allergy, I decided to leave them. Back home, I made my first call to my mother. "Mom, I'm ready to accept the arranged marriage."

My brother-in-law passed away in an accident. Out of pity for his widow, my husband decided to be the breadwinner for both families. After that, my husband and son both gave all their love to my widowed sister-in-law. On her birthday, my husband and son reserved a restaurant in town for her party. I was plucking corn in the field when I started bleeding, a sign that I was miscarrying. I called my husband, begging him to come home and take me to the hospital. However, he scolded me angrily, calling me a liar. “What the hell are you talking about? I haven’t touched you in months! How could you be pregnant?” My son grabbed the phone impatiently as well. “Mom, the teacher said lying is wrong! Aunt Laura’s blowing out the candles now, bye!” We had been married for seven years, yet they had completely forgotten that today was my birthday too. Despairing, I dialed another number. “Mother, I changed my mind. I’m going back to inherit the clinic.”

Leah and Abigail are separated at birth at the request of their mom, Amber. Leah stays with her mom and Abigail goes to live with her aunt, Emerald, calling her mother. Caleb is Leah’s best friend and finds out that he is part of a lineage of werewolves who promised to protect Leah’s lineage of witches. Caleb is taken into his father's old pack by Seth, one of his father's dearest friends. Caleb meets Hope who has her heart set on mating with him, but his heart belongs to Leah. Hope is relentless in her pursuit and Caleb. Emerald is extremely jealous of Leah and Abigail's powers, both being more powerful than she. She will stop at nothing to keep the girls in check, even turning to the dark arts. Emerald knows that she is angering the Goddess by turning to the dark arts but is willing to take her chances. She enlists her familiar, Silden a shapeshifting Raven, to spy on Leah and report back on her progress. Silden can no longer take the pressure of spying on poor Leah and she reveals herself to her. They hatch a plan to fool Emerald by making her believe that Leah isn't as powerful as she thinks she is. Caleb teaches Leah how to fight, making sure that she not only focuses on her magic to keep her safe. She is a quick student and easily picks it up. Leah is bitten when in a fight with a rogue pack of wolves from a neighboring pack and becomes a hybrid. Wracked with jealousy Emerald hatches a plan to try to steal Abigail's powers, but Leah and Caleb find her just in time to stop her and rid their family of the evil within.

One day, after getting rear-ended outside my office, I, Maeve Dahlman, call out for help, but Austin Cooper, who is simply passing by with Carmen Holt, merely glances at me impatiently, annoyed that I've disrupted their lunch plans. Instead of helping, he has his assistant take me to his private club and lock me in a room, accusing me of being paranoid and dramatic. "I'll give you three days to calm down," he says before walking away and leaving me in isolation. Eventually, I escape and call the police. An ambulance rushes me to the hospital, where doctors diagnose me with a brain injury that requires immediate surgery. I keep calling Austin, only to realize that he has blocked my number. Then, I see Carmen's latest post online, gushing about a romantic luxurious dinner with him. After I'm discharged, I cancel the wedding, destroy all the invitations, and finally call my mother. "Mom," I say, "I've made up my mind. I'm ready to meet him."

Noah sat beside me. He lit a cigarette. I didn't understand why I was here. But it was true, I'd almost forgotten about Anthony, replaced by fear and curiosity. "What are we going to do?" I asked. "I mean. You said you'd help me with my problem." "Your problem? You're just heartbroken. Not a serious issue. You just need to get revenge." "How?" Noah took a drag from his cigarette. He was handsome, but the vibe he gave off made me scared. "Send him the same kind of video he made with that other woman." "I have to hook up with a stranger just to get revenge?" This was a crazy idea. "No way." "Then just deal with it and accept the fact that you're not more interesting than your boyfriend's side chick." What the hell was that?! I wanted to get even, but I didn't want to do something insane. I grew even more agitated. My phone rang again. I looked at the screen. My mom was calling me. This was bad. She couldn't know I was with Noah, or she'd kill me.

After Mom passed, it was just me and Dad, depending on each other. I’ve always had poor health, and people used to taunt me, calling me a “sickly, doomed child.” He kneeled by my bedside, making a promise. “I swear, I’ll get you the best treatment, no matter what. You’ll never suffer again!” Eventually, he became a powerful CEO, going so far as to buy an entire private villa just so I could recover in peace. However, his assistant assumed I was his mistress.  She came in with a group of security guards and surrounded me. “So, you’re the cripple who’s been seducing Mr. Johnson?” “Let’s see if you can still act high and mighty after I’m done with you!” She kicked over my wheelchair, yanked me by the hair, scratched up my face, and finally cut off my hand. Barely clinging to life, I lay there until Dad came back. She held up my severed hand, presenting it to him. “Mr. Johnson, this was a spy sent by a rival company. I took care of her for you.”

When I was ten, I bugged my brother to come home for my birthday. He died in a plane crash that day. They never found his body. After that, my parents saw me as a total screw-up. They blamed me for his death. Every year on his memorial day, they forced me to kneel at the cemetery and repent my mistakes. I did that for eight years. I figured I'd spend my whole life paying for it. But on my 18th birthday, some creep stalked and murdered me. Right before I died, I tried calling for help. But my mom chewed me out. "I bet you're just dodging your duty to make up for James. You're full of crap. If you hadn't forced him to come back, he would have been alive. This is what you deserve." She hung up, leaving me staring at the dead screen. My last hope was dashed. She was right. Someone like me meant nothing but bad luck to those around me. I didn't deserve to exist. But then, eight years after his death, James showed up with his pregnant wife. When they heard I was gone, they fell apart.