First Time Knot

In life, you don't know if you're always on top. Hindi mo alam kung kailan ka mananalo o matatalo-kung kailan ka paglalaruan ng tadhana. Destiny is our greatest enemy. Parang lahat kasi ng mangyayari sa buhay natin, nakatadha na-at wala kang magagawa kundi tanggapin ito. I have always been on top. All the people I know are proud of me-look up at me because I am good at everything. Pero tama nga silang hindi ka laging nasa taas. Sino bang mag-aakala na isang beses lang akong babagsak pero sobra iyon? Sobra-sobrang nahatak ako sa baba ng malaking trahedya sa buhay ko at hindi ko alam kung paano ako aahon. Mabuti na lang, bumalik siya. Siya ulit. Siya lang ang nag-iisang taong nagmamahal sa akin nang lubos kahit iniwan ko. It's always him. Walang iba.

When the criminal tortured me to death, I was three-month pregnant. But my husband Mark - the city's most prominent detective - was at the hospital with his first love Emma, accompanying her for her medical checkup. Three days ago, he demanded me to donate my kidney to Emma. When I refused, telling him I was two months pregnant with our child, his eyes had turned cold. "Stop lying," he had snarled. "You're just being selfish, trying to let Emma die." He pulled over on the dark highway. "Get out," he ordered. "Walk home since you're so heartless. " I stood there in the darkness and was kidnapped by the vengeful criminal, whom Mark had once imprisoned. He cut out my tongue. With cruel satisfaction, he used my phone to call my husband. Mark's response was brief and cold: "Whatever it is, Emma's medical checkup is more important! She needs me right now." The criminal let out a dark chuckle. "Well, well... Seems like the great detective values his ex's life more than his current wife's." When Mark arrived at the crime scene hours later, he was horrified by the brutality inflicted on the corpse. He angrily condemned the murderer for treating a pregnant woman so cruelly But he didn't recognize that the mutilated body before him was his own wife - me.

When Charlotte Knight runs out of options, she reluctantly agrees to her parents’ outrageous plan of marrying a complete stranger. To her, it feels less like taking responsibility for her actions and more like being sold off like a commodity, but just when she thinks things can’t get worse, they do. At the wedding venue, Charlotte is stunned to find her supposed groom exchanging vows with another woman. Humiliated and overwhelmed, Charlotte acts on impulse, kissing the cab driver who brought her there. To her surprise, the cabman is none other than Liam Blackwood, and he makes her an unexpected offer of getting married to her instead. Knowing this could work in her favor, Charlotte agrees. But is it truly to her advantage? When reality sets in and she’s faced with choices she never anticipated, can she find redemption? Or, will love bloom in the ruins of betrayal?

***This book contains violence, cursing, sexual content, and talk of suicide, enjoy at your discretion.*** I was walking through an unknown foggy forest when I spotted a field of wildflowers. My feet had a mind of their own as they led me to wander through the flowers. I nonchalantly dragged my hands over the flowers. It was a beautiful and serene sight. I deeply inhaled the sweet scent of the flower and gave a little shudder of bliss. I closed my eyes and just absorbed the moment wanting to remember it. Suddenly the sounds of paws hitting the forest floor overwhelmed me. Then the forest was ignited with flames. Everything glowed vibrant oranges and reds as heavy smoke smothered me from above. I threw myself to the ground desperate for any trace of clean air. As I attempted to crawl out of the flowers a new sound harmonized with the thunder paws, screams and howls for help terrorized me. I clawed at the ground desperate to escape the menacing choir. Fire licked my skin and I screamed for help. Sobs escaped my lips as flaming branches fell on me from above. The smell of burning flesh was the only thing that consumed me as everything went dark.

The year was 1934; I was twenty-two years old. I never thought of myself as anything special. I was barely making it through the Great Depression. There were many days I lived off of scraps. I was the king of odd jobs, just enough to get by. I had done it all, from being a field hand to a miner. It all changed one night when I stumbled across a traveling circus, Cirque du Lune. I had never seen such a sight. Instead of the usual menagerie, this circus was overrun with wolves. There was one performer who caught my eye; it was as if an angel had descended from heaven on a silk ribbon.

Everyone is envious of me for having someone like Dominic Cruz, who's love-brained, as a husband-to-be. He's rich, handsome, and highly educated. I smile without saying anything, but I nod happily. However, on the day I'm misdiagnosed, he goes missing. He's so engrossed in his secret lover that he forgets all about me. So, I jilt him before he can do it to me. I turn him into the city's laughingstock. Later, I hear that he drinks the bar dry every night. He scours Marina City but fails to find his missing bride.

My husband's childhood sweetheart is a fake heiress. She and I are abducted at the same time. But when my husband, a doctor, arrives at the scene of the abduction with a medical team, he chooses to save her first. My legs have been broken, and I struggle to stay afloat in the ocean. I'm on the brink of death, and I beg him to save me and the child in my belly. He merely looks at me. Before leaving, he almost generously helps me call 911. Then, he says, "It's disgusting that you're lying about being pregnant just to save yourself. I've repaid you for saving my life—come to the hospital later today to sign the divorce papers." After listening to his words, I remove the hearing aid from my right ear with a trembling hand.

When the yacht was sinking, and only one spot was left on the lifeboat, Hendrix Zuckerman chose me. I was rescued, but Yana Bridgeton didn’t make it. She couldn’t wait for the second lifeboat and drowned in the ocean, her body lost forever. Hendrix pretended not to care and went through with our wedding as planned. For five years after our marriage, he trampled me into the dirt, blaming me for Yana's death. When I couldn't take it any longer and wanted a divorce, he decided to die with me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the yacht accident happened. This time, I’ve decided to give the chance to survive to the one he loves most.

On the day I discovered I was pregnant, my husband's first love—who also happened to be my half-sister—returned.

When I had only three months left to live after taking the cursed blade meant for my husband Lucian, his first love Lily returned. When I endured the pain and prepared a dinner to commemorate our anniversary, he did not come back, he was having a steamy car session with Lily. When I went to the hospital alone to buy medicine, he was accompanying Lili for her pregnancy check-up. I pretended not to have noticed, I just silently played the role of a perfect wife, and wrote him four letters as a gift for our anniversary. After I die, he saw the gifts I left behind and went completely insane.