Chapter 7 Into The Wild Novels & Stories

On the night I get dismembered, my girlfriend, Victoria Hewitt, announces her marriage to the world. Clad in the wedding dress that I've personally designed, she soon marries her first love, Joseph Danford, happily. When Victoria receives the news of my death, she merely smiles before claiming that I'm a pathological liar. But what she doesn't know is that I've died for her sake. Later on, Victoria constructs a sculpture out of my bones. She develops a habit of hugging it every day since then.

Every year on the day the SAT results are released, I spend the entire day kneeling at my mother's grave. Three years ago, I fell for a phone scam and transferred all of the tuition money she had saved through years of diligently saving up to the scammers. Unable to take the sudden blow, Mom suffered a fatal heart attack. After she passed away, debt collectors began showing up at our door. Only then did I learn how much money she had borrowed just to keep us afloat. I have no choice but to give up my admission offer from Jaloria College. Working five jobs a day, I finally repay every last debt today. On the subway ride to the cemetery, I suddenly come across a streamer whose voice sounds strangely familiar. She blabs, "How do you teach kids the value of earning money? In my experience, extreme circumstances work the best. I deliberately created a scenario for my daughter where both her parents are supposedly dead, and she inherited a million dollars of my debt. "She's almost finished paying it off now. Tell me, can your kids do that?" Someone in the comments section questions her methods, saying it is too insane. She only grows more smug as she gloats, "So what? She's the one who was stupid enough to get scammed. I was just teaching her a lesson. As a reward for doing so well, I'll tell her the truth on her birthday five days from now. Any sensible child will understand their parents' good intentions." As she gestures animatedly, a crescent-shaped birthmark on her wrist comes into view. It's identical to my mom's. My hands tremble as I create a new account. I switch the profile picture to a man in a suit and change the background to luxury cars and mansions. Then, I send her an expensive virtual gift. While she excitedly thanks me, I leave a comment. "You're absolutely right, ma'am. If only I had a smart woman like you around to help me raise my children."

Three years into Olivia Reed's relationship with Cedric Jamison, he decides to propose to her. But Olivia ends up finding out that this is all just a plot cooked up by Cedric just to get revenge on her during her happiest moment. She watches as Cedric repeatedly sets up traps meticulously while listening to him using shoddy excuses just to fool her. Instead of exposing him, she merely watches his poor performance. Once Olivia has finally cleared all traces of their relationship and ensures that Cedric no longer has any ounce of control over her, she calmly vanishes from his life. At the engagement party that the future bride will never attend, Cedric finds out the truth. His eyes redden out of panic. "Olivia, I've already gotten rid of everything related to the scheme! I never wanted to hurt you, to begin with! "Olivia, you're the only woman I've ever loved!" … To Olivia, Ezra Slater is the bigshot in the elite society and a business magnate in the business world. He's noble-looking, cold, and very distant from people. That is, until he sheds his disguise and corners Olivia when he gets drunk. Only then does she find out that she's actually his secret crush. When Olivia and Cedric reunite once again at a banquet, Ezra's jealousy overwhelms him instantly. "Olivia Reed, I'm your actual husband here!"

A major pharmaceutical company offered me a position, on one condition. I had to transfer my membership to their pack. While I was still on the fence, my boyfriend urged me to take it and promised to leave the pack with me. But the day before I submitted my withdrawal papers, he changed his mind. Outside a private room at the bar, I overheard him talking with his buddies. "You're really leaving with Serena Frost? Your Alpha father just acknowledged you. You've got a real shot at succeeding him. You'd throw all that power and status away for a woman?" Xander Blackwood let out a cold laugh. "Of course not. I've been lying to her the whole time. You know how powerful Vivienne's family is. Keeping her happy is my only shot at becoming Alpha." "I can't have Serena finding out and making a scene that wrecks my plan. Talking her into leaving the pack was the only way." Hearing it all, I felt the pain cut me wide open. Five years I had loved this man, and he had betrayed me. I turned and walked away from that room. The moment I was out the door, I reached for my father, the Alpha, through the mind-link. "Dad, I want you to pull every investment we have in Xander Blackwood's pack."

Diana Murry is a girl with an unhappy life; her childhood was filled with fear. There has never been a peaceful day in her past. She has been abused and beaten by her stepfather for many years. He was a gambler, a smoker and an alcoholic. And, of course, Diana's mother was also a gambler. Because of this, her parents divorced when she was eight. The climax was when Kirk almost raped her and was about to sell her to gangsters to pay his debt. While on the run, she met Steven. He was like a lifesaver for her to cling to, the last hope she had of being able to escape this hell. Although he saves Diana from gangsters, he doesn't have a good impression of her. Steven thinks she is a spoiled, playboy girl like his ex. Because of those prejudices, Steven has often paid attention to Diana; from time to time, he has been attracted to this lovely and pitiful girl. Later, he discovers Diana's traumatic past and realizes that Diana is a good and honest girl. Her honesty touched Steven's, cold heart. Steven once swore that he would never fall in love again because the blind love for the one he loved made Steven lose faith and everything he treasured, leaving only pain, guilt and a broken heart. But when Steven meets Diana, his heart, once hurt by love, is once again healed and shaken before Diana. However, when Steven realized his feelings for Diana were deepening, Diana decided to leave him because he had hurt her heart deeply. Will the two's hearts be healed after difficulties and events? In the face of Diana's escape, what will Steven do to get her love back so that they both have faith in a full love?

I decide to propose to Rebecca Milton, now that we've been in a relationship for five years. But I end up overhearing her conversation with her childhood friend, Tobias Wright, outside a private room in the clubhouse. "Seriously, Rebecca? Are you still hooked on the idea of pretending to be a poor student? All this just so you can win a bet of wooing Sebastian Grant, the business genius, and making him yours? "The Grants are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy. Heck, Sebastian has also cut ties with his family just so he can be with you. Don't tell me you seriously plan on marrying him!" Every cell in my body freezes upon hearing Tobias' words. Then, I hear Rebecca responding to him flippantly. "Marry him? As if! All I have to do is wait for him to propose to me, then I can expose the truth of the bet to him on the spot! Oh, the expression he's wearing must be amazing!" Tobias chuckles lightly in return. "You are in a five-year relationship with Sebastian at the end of the day. Are you sure you don't have feelings for him?" Rebecca scoffs back. "I was just playing with him, you know? Whoever puts their heart on the line loses this game." Then, she gazes at Tobias tenderly. "Don't you know very well who I'm truly in love with?" It turns out that the girlfriend I'm head over heels for, as well as the relationship that I view as my prized treasure, is nothing but the product of a bet. I call my parents on the spot. "I will go along with the marriage alliance."

I'm a nationally certified animal trainer running the Lion King, Caesar's final assessment. I've barely stepped into the enclosure corridor when the steel guillotine door slams down behind me. My wife's laughter crackles over the loudspeaker. "Everyone, we're doing the ultimate challenge today! We're locking the so-called number-one animal trainer in the Lion King's enclosure and taking bets on whether he wets himself in ten minutes!" Caesar crouches low and rumbles a warning. I reach for my tranquilizer gun but stop cold. The liquid isn't the right color. In a phony sing-song voice, the veterinarian, Hugh Archer, says, "Lucian, I forgot to mention, I swapped your tranquilizer darts for pepper spray so you won't hurt Caesar by mistake. "You two are so close. Just win him over with love!" I look at Caesar, his eyes bloodshot from the stimulant, and it clicks. Hugh still resents that I stopped him from touching a tiger with his bare hands a few days ago. I tune out the trash blaring over the loudspeaker, pull a remote from my pocket, and hit the button. It's the master switch for the electric fence gates around every predator enclosure in the zoo. If I don't make it out, no one does.

Three years ago, my rich boyfriend, Steven Delaney, went into bankruptcy. He decided to break up with me so that he wouldn't drag me down. As I looked at his broken expression, I steeled my heart and ripped the overseas college application I had just received. "I'll stay with you. Together, we can rebuild your legacy." Everyone told me that I was nuts. Still, I decided to move into a damp basement room with Steven. After that, I took on a job out in the streets that allowed me to earn money the fastest, which was promoting beer to the customers. One day, when I'm delivering beer to the customers, one of them calls out to me. "Hey, this lady looks like you!" There are two screens being shown on a livestream, that's being replayed. The left screen shows me crouching at the doorway of the basement while washing shirts for Steven. It's so cold that my fingers have gone completely red. The right screen shows him all dressed up in a smart-looking suit. He has an arm wrapped around a beautiful and well-dressed woman, and they're both sitting in a luxury car. Steven smiles at the camera and says, "This is my third year lying to my girlfriend about my financial situation. Till now, she still hasn't realized the truth! She really is a pathetic idiot!" The live comments keep popping up on the side. "You really know how to make things interesting, Mr. Delaney! I can't believe you're capable of coming up with the whole 'pretending to be broke in order to test your girlfriend's humanity' act!" "What exactly is that lady aiming for, honestly? She's just someone who sells beer! Does she seriously think she's in a romance drama?" "Oh, this is hilarious! That penniless girlfriend of his is even washing underwear for him! The truth is, the underwear belongs to the Delaney family's household staff!"

After I married Riccardo, the Don of the Moretti family, he paraded a string of mistresses in front of me. He never gave me a second glance. But on our tenth anniversary—right after my father’s death—he suddenly promised me half of his empire. The catch? In return, he planned to seize control of all my family’s arms-dealing routes. That pissed off his favorite mistress. She cornered him on his yacht, demanding he take his words back. Then she fell overboard and died. An “accident.” After she died, Riccardo went insane. He took it all out on me. He tied me to the back of his yacht. He dragged me through the sea, a human anchor, until the rocks shattered my legs, crippling me for life. I became the family’s shame. Then, as I lay helpless, he finished the job with poison. Then I opened my eyes. I was back on the day Angelo Marino—the head of our rival family—proposed to me. In my last life, my family forced me to say no. He came for me, a one-man army. He killed Riccardo, but died in the process. This time, I looked at his kind face and nodded. Yes. But as we embraced, Riccardo appeared. He ripped me from Angelo's arms and claimed me as his own. That’s when I realized the cruelest joke of all. My monster was back, too.

The company had been losing money for two consecutive years. That year, with our biggest client suddenly going out of business, we lost nearly ten million dollars in receivables. On New Year's Eve, I sent out a company-wide apology email after much deliberation. The email stated, "At this moment, I regret to inform that we can only increase each employee's monthly salary by 20 dollars this year." An intern named Ingrid Little took a screenshot of the email and posted it online. In no time, her post started trending. The entire internet criticized me for being fake and pretending to be poor. They said that my shameless act was a blatant insult to my employees' hard work. "20 dollars doesn't even cover commuting!" "Why hasn't this garbage company gone under yet?" Ingrid replied to each comment with the same line: "I don't care about the money. I just feel insulted. I'm quitting tomorrow." The next day, I walked into the office with bloodshot eyes and turned on the company-wide broadcast. I announced, "Since some people believe I've insulted their dignity, you may submit your resignation immediately. However, you will no longer be entitled to the year-end bonus of 20 thousand dollars." Everyone gasped in disbelief. Ingrid turned completely pale, and some workers even rushed into my office impulsively. "Boss, this has nothing to do with me! I stand with the company!" After all, my company had increased salaries for 37 consecutive years and given an average raise of over 2,000 dollars each time. They wouldn't find a company like mine elsewhere.