Eyes Wide Open

My throat burned as he wrapped his hand around it, his grip was firm but not crushing—cold steel pressed against my neck, the knife. I gasped, my bag slipping from my shoulder. It hit the ground with a dull thud, spilling open, and my book tumbled out. He glanced down, bent, picked it up, and flipped it open. His eyes skimmed the page. Then his mouth curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile, a dark smirk, like he knew exactly what I had been reading. And worse, he saw the notes. My handwriting in the margins, messy lines of ink: God, I wish someone would ruin me like this. I shouldn’t like it, but I do. Imagine the knife on me instead. Heat exploded in my face. I wanted the ground to swallow me. His eyes lifted back to mine, and I couldn’t breathe. ***** I was just a college freshman, lost in dark romance novels and fantasies of forbidden love. But my life took a deadly turn when I stumbled upon a mafia boss's secret in a dimly lit alley. Little did I know, the killer I witnessed would become my professor, and my obsession would become my downfall. Now, I'm trapped in a game of cat and mouse, where the stakes are higher than I ever imagined. My obsession grows with every passing moment, and I'm forced to confront the shadows within myself. But not everything is what it seems. What begins as an obsession may turn into something far more dangerous….. like revenge.

He’s a ruthless, powerful, and undefeated Alpha. She’s a weak omega with no family or rights, a slave. Could the moon goddess have made a mistake? In the history of this infamous race, there has never been a divine mating between an Alpha and an Omega. Power and weakness do not mix. Aurora, an omega with no memory of her past, has done well to live quietly and hidden in a pack that merely tolerates her. Damon Bane, one of the strongest Alphas to ever grace the battlefield has returned from war. He’s to conquer a list of other alphas in battle and become the Alpha king. But first, he needs a Luna to be qualified. He has no interest in love or matrimony. So he agrees to have his Luna chosen for him. Then the unbelievable happens. Aurora, a slave and omega in the pack, is chosen for the Alpha. Aurora’s quiet life is driven into chaos when the Alpha rejects her. She has nowhere else to go. Especially with the dark secret that haunts her. Will the moon goddess’ choice make or break the Silvercrest pack? Or can Aurora prove to her Alpha what she’s worthy and melt his cold, lonely heart? And when she finds out his secret, a deep truth hidden from all, will he be able to trust her with his legacy? *** “Damn the moon goddess. Never will I bed a pathetic, little omega, or make her my Queen! She has nothing to offer and is worth less.” His eyes glowed blood red when he turned to her, his exposed fangs stamping his disgust. “If I ever set my eyes on you again, I’ll rip your throat open with my teeth and send you to the goddess.”

Is he trying to insert that thing in my… I fought back and wiggled my body to avoid his big pet when he tried to rub our sensitive part. "Aaargh!" he softly groaned. "Stop resisting me, Susana! We f*cking did this a lot of time!" he growled at me. "I'm not Suzanne! I-I'm her twin sir! Please don't!” I begged him. "Stop lying! Our f*cking son!” He stopped for a moment and looked into my eyes. "You f*cking abandoned him just because you're a slut! Don't f*cking fool me, Susana! Because you'll never fool me again!" he shouted at me, making me close my eyes. "I'm not the woman you're looking for, Mr. I have a twin. Maybe you're talking about her! Her name is Suzanne! I don't even know you, Mr. Believe me I'm not her! I'm her twin!" I insist. "Bullsh*t! Stop lying!” I caught my breath when I felt him enter my hole. I felt like I was stabbed in that part. I couldn't breathe immediately because of the pain at his first entrance. *G*damn it!" he whispered with regret. "I-I told you… I’m not her." I murmured before closing my eyes. I closed my eyes tightly and I was shaking before my vision completely darkened. But before I could open my eyes, I heard one last word he spoke. "F*ck! Shit! Call the f*cking doctor now!”

The first thing I do after being reborn is dump my devoted boyfriend and immediately say yes to the obsessive man's pursuit. In my past life, my so-called best friend, Sarah Cole, bound herself to an app that could transfer all of my boyfriend's love for me to her. My boyfriend was Luke Spencer. The golden roses he prepared for me ended up with her. The hotel he bought for me suddenly had her name on the deed. The way he looked at me shifted from fierce desire to cold disdain, but when he turned to her, his eyes overflowed with the tenderness I once knew so well. When I cried and demanded to know why Luke had changed, he just looked at me with disgust as he spat, "We broke up a long time ago. Leave my girlfriend alone!" On my birthday, Sarah went live online, flaunting how Luke had rented out the entire amusement park for her. Fireworks lit up the sky behind her in a blaze of color. And me? They worked together to have me thrown into a mental hospital. They called me a crazy woman obsessed with someone who never loved me back, and in endless rounds of electroshock therapy and forced medication, I died in despair. When I open my eyes again, I'm reborn. This time, I no longer feel anything real for my ex-boyfriend. Instead, I play along with Ethan Grant. I find it funny when Sarah opens the app again, siphoning away every drop of Ethan's overwhelming love. I really want to know if she can handle it.

We're releasing balloons on Christmas Eve when Milton Jenning's lover deliberately sets off fireworks. They explode on me, burning me severely. My back, already torn and raw from skin grafts for her, becomes even more of a bloodied mess. However, I don't ask Milton for help. Instead, I shield a recently reunited heir of a wealthy family beneath me, risking everything to save him. In my past life, Milton kicked me in the back and told me not to stand in the way of him taking his lover to the hospital. "Is it funny to you to use a child as a cover, Larissa? Even if you're pregnant, you and your baby are just walking skin providers for Rita! I must've spoiled you—how dare you do something as heinous as this!" I was blacklisted by all hospitals and ended up dying while pregnant. My heart was filled with hatred as I breathed my last breath. When I open my eyes again, I see Rita Atkinson secretly aim fireworks at the night sky and set them off. I hear her laugh manically as she says, "You and your child can die together!"

Brody Lewis, my fiance, said that I had a rare form of transient global amnesia, which was a sudden, temporary memory loss. Every seven days, I would open my eyes and become the twenty-five-year-old Riley Taylor again. My memories were forever stuck in the past. In my pen drive were videos of Brody taking me on trips, bringing me for treatment, and proposing to me. Everything seemed great between us, but I remembered none of it. “Riley’s still around. Can’t you keep your hands to yourself?” “Don’t worry. It’s Monday tomorrow. After she wakes up, she’ll remember none of it,” Brody said, and my heart sank. “Isn’t this more exciting?” Brody embraced my best friend, and they made out brazenly in front of me. They were not shy about it at all. I wondered just how many times this had happened over the past two years. I ran as tears blurred my vision. When I arrived at a tattoo shop, I grabbed the tattoo artist like a drowning man holding on to a log. Then, I asked the tattoo artist to tattoo these words on my arm in my handwriting. [Leave him.]

When I return to the day I discover my husband, David Stone, is cheating on me, I immediately switch shifts with my colleague. In my previous life, David had been fooling around with my best friend, Roxanne Lane, in his car when they got into an accident and were rushed to the hospital. When I received the news, I hurried there at once and saw them tangled together, naked, in the aftermath of the wreck. My colleague operated on them, and both of them survived. However, the shock was too much for me, and I passed out. When I woke up, David sent me divorce papers, demanding that I leave the marriage empty-handed. Citing his affair, I demanded half of his assets. In response, he sneered, "Me? Cheating? Where's the evidence?" That was when I remembered that I had fainted before taking any photos. The hospital's surveillance cameras happened to be down that day, leaving me without a shred of proof. I lost the case and walked out with nothing. On the day of the divorce, broke and numb, I stumbled out of the courthouse and was hit by a car. Now, the moment I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day David and Roxanne are taken to the hospital.

I have just secured a massive ten-million-dollar deal during the Black Friday Sales. I have endured several days of hectic work, yet I still find myself unable to turn down my girlfriend, Charlotte Ward. We spend the night in passionate abandon and finally fall into a heavy, restful sleep. The next morning, a loud thud jolts me awake. When I open my eyes, I realize that it's my luggage. Charlotte suddenly says, "This is the end for us, Robert. It's time for you to move out. I've already wired the money for your past services, along with your salary. So get going." I find myself caught in a daze and about to move to question her, but she stops me dead, jabbing her fingers into my chest. "Know your place, Robert. You're nothing but a gigolo to me. I might, maybe, let you keep your job in Ward Group if you beg." I almost reach out to grab her wrist but stop myself. Instead, I smile broadly and say, "You've got it all wrong. Your company wouldn't survive without me, Charlotte."

A rich kid offers to pay anyone who'll be his companion to a ball ten thousand dollars. My roommate stops me from responding. "He's just a rich guy fishing for fun—he's using money to play around with women! Are you going to offer yourself to him for money? We can't be gold diggers!" My mother is sick, though. She needs my scholarship money to save her life. To my devastation, my roommate latches onto a school board member and takes away my scholarship. She even mocks me. "With your looks, you could've sold yourself for money. Here's a hundred bucks to compensate you." That's not all—an AI face-swapped picture of me are posted online. Countless people harass me because of them. My mother doesn't want to drag me down, so she takes her life. I break down and choose to jump off a building. When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to the first day of the semester. The rich kid is looking for a female companion. I immediately say, "I'm the companion you've been looking for, sir!"

I was a top-tier heart surgeon. The kind they gave a government-issued black SUV with diplomatic plates—armored, red-light-skipping, cleared-for-anything kind of ride. I parked it at my fiancé Marco Varonetti's place so he could keep it in shape. Bad call. One day, I got an emergency call: heart transplant for the Chancellor—yeah, that Chancellor, the one with state secrets ticking inside him. I rushed over to Marco's to grab the car. Right as I was about to leave, some rando slid into the back seat like she owned it. "Mall first. I need a mani," she barked. "Then get the ice cream Marco ordered. If it melts, I'll kill you." Excuse me? "This is my car," I said, trying to stay chill. "I've got a critical airport run. You need to get out." She rolled her eyes. "You're just the driver. Open those eyes and check the plate." Then the maid chimed in. "Everyone knows Mr. Varonetti takes Ms. Caro out in this car. Nobody says a word." I froze. Marco used my federally issued SUV... to chauffeur her? This wasn't just messy. This was criminal.