Chapter 7 All Quiet On The Western Front

My mom is a pathological liar who enjoys making herself seem like the victim. Unfortunately, I'm always the scapegoat. When I was little, there was one time when she went out to play poker with her friends. As a result, she forgot to go home and prepare dinner on time. After that, she slapped me in front of the entire family. "This brat ran off to god knows where earlier! I went out looking for her, which is why dinner got delayed!" Because of that lie, I had to kneel in the courtyard throughout the night. When I was studying, I had to take an extremely important exam. My teacher repeatedly reminded the parents to prepare all materials required for their children. But my mom didn't even prepare anything for me. After that, she even said in front of everyone, "I've already prepared the materials for her. She was the one who threw them away when she was on her way to school because she didn't want to take the exam at all!" Since then, all of my classmates ostracized me throughout my entire school life. After I came of age, my mom kept crying to me in the middle of the night. "Your father has been abusing me for so many years. I had to endure everything for your sake, you know!" I advised her to get a divorce, only for her to tell an exaggerated version of what I said to my father. "Your daughter egged me on to divorce you! She said she doesn't need a useless father like you! I couldn't stand it anymore, so I'm telling you this!" He flew into a fit of rage on the spot, which led to him accidentally pushing me down the stairs. I died on the spot from the fall. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day my mom cries to me about my dad for the first time.

Walter Stone has built a utopia for his private brothel with a ton of money with the proclamation that he wants to collect 100 wives. After kidnapping and forcing himself on 99 women, Walter has his eye on me, Caleb Ingram's pregnant wife. On the day I'm supposed to be sent to Walter, my housekeeper sinks down to her knees and pleads for me. "Please think your decision through, Mr. Ingram! I heard that Mr. Stone Senior is very brutal when it comes to bedroom matters! If Mrs. Ingram were to be sent to him, I'm afraid that she wouldn't be able to protect her unborn baby…" But Caleb remains cold and aloof. "Since Mr. Stone Senior has personally asked for Nala, she has to go to him no matter what. If she loses the baby, then that's that. At most, I won't file for a divorce from her. Once she returns, she'll still remain as the missus of the Ingram family. We can have another baby in the future." In my previous life, I refused to travel to Walter's residence. In the end, Caleb's private assistant, Sadie Riverson, offered to go in my place. But the moment she came back, she slit her wrist and died. The coroner's autopsy report showed that she was pregnant as well. Caleb kept his emotions bottled up since then. But on the day I gave birth to my baby, he walked to the rooftop of the hospital and threw our newborn down the building. Only then did I realize that he had been hating my guts the whole time since Sadie's death. Now that I've gotten reborn, I no longer resist against the chains of fate. Instead, I get into the luxury car Walter has sent for me coolly.

When Matthew Sinclair accused me of selling company secrets, I expected my girlfriend to stand by me. Instead, Selena Oxford told me to apologize. To the man who framed me. That was the moment I understood that trust was not something you pleaded for. You either had it, or you did not. I resigned the same day, cut every tie, left a ring on the table that she would never wear, and walked out of her life without looking back. I believed we would never cross paths again. Eight years later, at a black-tie banquet, Selena spotted me across the crowd. I was dancing with another woman, moving through the room as if I belonged there. In front of everyone, now known as a corporate powerhouse, she met my gaze with red-rimmed eyes and asked, "Was it for her? Is that why you left me eight years ago?"

Vienna Carter’s life is a living hell and her home is Earth’s chapter of Tartarus. But when her husband goes on a month-long business trip, she seizes the opportunity to know something other than her world of pain. She joins the passengers on Queen Odette, a cruise ship that promises her the best month of her life. As she takes in the elegance of the ship and is pampered by their first-class services, she starts to believe that the promise will be fulfilled. But her hopes of a perfect vacation are thrown overboard when she finds out the man staying in the suite next to hers is none other than the love of her life,Ex-boyfriend and reason for all her suffering. Only a psychopath would choose to be hunched over a desk, working for hours on end over the deckchairs of a luxurious cruise ship, watching the sunset on the Atlantic Horizon. Hans Griffin is that psychopath. He craves his office’s cold glass walls and despises his luxurious suite aboard Queen Odette and is beginning to despise his best friend for convincing him to do this. Work helped him forget his demons but this ship is made to tear down the walls he spent the last two years rebuilding and after meeting the woman staying in the suite next to his, he fears those walls might be reduced to nothing but piles of rubble before the month is over. How will Hans endure one month with just a wall separating him and the woman who scarred him? How will Vienna keep her distance from the one man she’s forbidden to be with when she’s stuck on this cruise with him? But most importantly, what secrets will be revealed before the thirty days are over?

At the dinner table, my wife's best friend suddenly speaks to her in Lytian. "Three years ago, you married Julian in a grand wedding just to help Jace get Julian's letter of forgiveness. Over the years, I've seen Julian fall more and more deeply in love with you. Yet, you're still lying to him. "You gave him sterilization pills but passed them off as his depression medication. Aren't you afraid that he'll fall apart if he finds out the truth?" My wife, Erica Inman, briefly shows a conflicted expression on her face. She then gives a bitter smile and says, "A child unwanted by their mother has no reason to be born. As long as Julian doesn't stand in the way of Jace's happiness, I will keep my promise and stay by his side for the rest of his life." No one knows that I've learned Lytian to keep up with Erica. I stand in the living room and look at the fresh kiss mark on my neck. As I glance at the medication I take regularly for my depression, my whole body turns cold. It turns out that all of Erica's affection toward me was fake. What I thought was my salvation turns out to be nothing but a carefully planned deception. Since that's the case, I'll do my part to make sure they all get what they want.

When my body is sealed behind a wall, he's busy celebrating his true love's birthday. Everyone says Jayden Stone and I are a match made in heaven, but he hates me to the bone. When news of my death reaches him, he kicks over my corpse with a sneer. "Officer Austen, your revenge is complete…" Later, someone finally tells him that I was the one who saved his life. He shows up at my grave, his eyes swollen from crying. He begs like a madman for me to come back...

Some lessons aren't meant to be learned. They're meant to be survived. Ava Sterling thought her final year at Crestmore University would be simple: ace her classes, protect her scholarship, and stay out of trouble. But everything spirals when she walks into class and sees the man she slapped at a club the weekend before—now standing at the front of the room as her new professor. Dr. William Reid. Brilliant. Intense. Completely off-limits. Twice her age. And married. Worse? He hasn’t forgotten their first encounter… and he refuses her apology. Instead, he promises to make her fail. Desperate and reckless, Ava makes a bold offer—herself. And shockingly, he doesn’t refuse. What should have been a one-time mistake on his desk becomes a dark, consuming arrangement. Now, they’re entangled in a web of lust, lies, and obsession. Careers are on the line. Reputations. Lives. Because in the end, it’s not just Ava’s grades at risk— it’s her heart.

My wife's childhood best friend returned from overseas with a child. To protect his reputation and secure the boy's future, she told everyone that she was the child's mother. And my child? She claimed that my daughter was the bastard I had brought home after fooling around behind her back. When I finally broke down and demanded an explanation, she remained as calm as ever. "Bryan has always had it hard at home," she said. "And his son cannot grow up without a mother. I have to help them." That day, I looked at the woman I had loved for seven years and decided that I would never love her again.

In my seventh year of trying to win the favor of mafia Don Ethan Larsen, the system declared my mission a failure. I was set to be erased in one month. I did not cry or make a scene. I accepted the death countdown with calm detachment and started a livestream called "My Last Wishes Before I Die." The first thing I did was throw the multimillion-dollar wedding ring into the drain, right in front of Ethan and his first love, just to hear it clatter out of sight. Ethan's expression hardened. "Nina, what kind of trick are you trying to pull this time? You begged me in order to wear that ring and stood there for three days." I smiled, lifted my middle finger, and replied, "Pfft… As if you deserve it."

People used to say Pierce Voss, my husband, also the boss of the largest mafia in Kingsburg, and I were the kind of couple others envied. He once lit fireworks across the entire coastline just to celebrate my birthday. He bought me a private island because I mentioned loving the ocean. He made the entire mafia respect me as the most esteemed woman in the world. He shut every woman out of his world so I would never feel insecure. I thought our love was unbreakable. After ninety-nine rounds of IVF, I finally got a positive result. I was so happy I couldn’t sleep the whole night, planning to surprise him at our tenth-anniversary party the next day. But instead, I cut into our wedding cake and found Lena Young’s pregnancy report hidden inside. She fell to her knees in front of everyone, sobbing. “Serena… I have cancer. I don’t have long. Please… let me stay with Pierce for whatever time I have left. Give my child a name.” The room erupted, with gasps, whispers, cruel amusement. And in an instant, the woman Pierce Voss had supposedly adored became the laughingstock of the entire Kingsburg city. The love I had been so proud of shattered like cheap glass. Clutching my own pregnancy report, I held back my tears and prepared to walk away with my baby, far from his world, far from the lies. But before I could escape, someone framed me for harming her. I was thrown into detention for three days. And in those three days, I lost my child. Pierce Voss lost me, and every last piece of love I ever had for him. No matter how desperately he begs later, there is no returning to who we used to be.