Fractured Fairy Tales

On Valentine's Day, I wait for my wife, Nancy Curtis, to get off work after preparing a candlelit dinner for our date. But she only texts me at 9:00 pm. "I have something going on at the company. There's no need to wait for me." Soon, I see a Facebook post made by Nancy's secretary, Derek Jones. "I'm on a business trip with my female boss on Valentine's Day. The thing is, the hotel's fully booked. Oops, this is getting awkward…" The photo in the post features a feminine silhouette standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling window while draped in a bathrobe. Everyone in the comment section compliments Derek for being lucky, seeing as the boss of his has a smoking hot figure and is extremely charming. Derek merely replies with a cheeky emoji. So, it turns out that Nancy's "business" is having fun with her own secretary, eh? I take a screenshot of Derek's post before uploading it to my own social media feed. I even include a smiley as a caption. Immediately, Nancy calls me on the phone and starts berating me. "Derek was just cracking a joke! Why are you being so petty, huh? And here I thought you were mature!" I end the call immediately before texting her, "Let's get a divorce."

Back when we were still in love, I heard from someone else that Charlie Grant had been getting unusually close to his secretary. He never offered an explanation. He let me dig for the truth on my own. Over the past five years, I quietly collected countless photos of them together—having lunch, leaving late-night meetings, even traveling for business—but none of them offered conclusive proof of cheating. Until the day he proposed to me. There was a giant screen set up. It was supposed to play a romantic video Charlie had prepared just for the proposal, but the screen suddenly cut to something else. A video of Charlie at a hospital, standing beside his secretary as she underwent a pregnancy check-up. In the video, the doctor clearly referred to Charlie as her husband… and the father of her child. His secretary burst into tears on the spot and apologized to me repeatedly. She sobbed as though she were the victim. Charlie, however, stood there with a cold expression and said flatly, "She's an unwed mother. She was helpless. I was just accompanying her for the checkup. The doctor must've misunderstood." Everyone braced for a dramatic scene. However, I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I only reached up and slowly removed the delicate flower hairpiece from my head. I set the hairpiece down. Then I looked Charlie in the eyes and spoke calmly. "You're right. It is sad that she’s pregnant and all alone. "This marriage proposal was meant for her. Not me." I gave a faint smile. "May you enjoy a blissful life. And… congratulations on the baby."

The day my husband, Caleb Vale, buries his first love, Layla Shaw, he stands in front of me and throws our wedding ring into the sea. For the next 12 years, the breakfasts I bring him go straight into the trash, and the scarf I stay up all night knitting is tossed into the fire and burned to ash. The cruelest moment is when he looks me in the eye and says, "Aurora, if you really want to please me, you might as well go die." But when a mugger comes at me with a knife, Caleb still steps in front of me without a second's hesitation. As he lies dying in my arms, he uses the very last of his strength to force out a few broken words. "Go... I hope I never see you again in my next life." At the funeral, Helena Rogers sobs until she faints. "This is all my fault. I never should've arranged your marriage..." Everyone around us pities him and resents me. They whisper that I'm a jinx and wonder why I'm not the one who died. And honestly, I wonder the same thing. Why not me? After Caleb is lowered into the ground, I climb to the top floor of the building and jump. As I hover on the edge of death, a cold, mechanical voice echoes in my mind. "Binding complete. Wish detected. The system will now send you back 12 years."

Mommy, the book says that if a man sleeps for a long time and doesn’t wake up, his lover’s kiss would save him from the sleep. Mommy, you’re Daddy’s wife, quickly go and kiss him!” Aurora was speechless. Which book said that? It sounded like an unsuitable book for teenagers. “Okay,” Aurora said, “Wait a minute.” As she spoke, she walked to Alpha Kai’s bed, bent down, and prepared to kiss him on the lips. Aurora quickly lowered her head and kissed Alpha Kai’s pale face. “Look! He’s not awake.” Aurora said to Asher helplessly, “Don’t read too many fairy tales. No, you can read them, but don’t believe them. Fairy tales are dreamily beautiful, but the reality is not.” As soon as she finished speaking, she found that Alpha Kai’s big hand on the quilt seemed to have moved. Aurora was shocked. ***** Aurora was forced by her Aunt to be the substitute bride for Alpha Kai in place of her cousin Sophia. Against her wish, Aurora agreed so that her aunt will pay for her mother’s medical bills.

On the day of my wedding with Hannah Hawkes, her first love, Lucas Tate, sends his critical notice to her. He mentions that he wants to wear a wedding tuxedo one last time at a wedding before his death. In order to fulfill Lucas' wish, Hannah locks me up in a lounge and gets ready to attend the wedding with him. Her impatient voice echoes outside the door. "Why are you so cold-blooded? Lucas is about to die, you know! What's the harm in letting him have his way?" Some time after that, Freya Jensen, the young woman who lives next door, gets up to the rooftop and begs me to marry her. With red-rimmed eyes, Hannah asks pleadingly, "Are you going to give up on our seven-year relationship because of her?" I merely slap her hand away. "Am I supposed to watch Freya die? It's just a marriage registration. Stop being cold-blooded, will you?"

This is my second month trying to win over Lucian Moonshadow, the Alpha. Lucian smiled softly as he said, "Do you really think I would want an inferior Omega?" Later on, he was furious to find me with another wolf. "Didn't you say you wanted to be my Luna? You're nothing but a hustler, aren't you?" I chuckled angrily. "I'll be the Luna of whoever spends the night with me." Lucian uncovered the Alpha from another pack in bed and sent him away. "Leave right now. Ilyra belongs to me."

On my way back from a business trip, I scrolled past a video. A newborn was abandoned by the roadside, crying so hard. As a first time dad, I couldn’t help looking at the baby a little longer. I froze because that baby looked exactly like my son. I had booked the best confinement center in the city for my wife. I had checked them into a VIP suite. I had employed a nanny and a nursing team to look after my wife and my son full-time. I broke out in a cold sweat. My wife didn’t check her phone, so I immediately called the center's manager, Ms. Thompson. She laughed lightly. “Don’t worry, Mr. Smith. Your wife and baby are perfectly fine. They just fell asleep.” The next second, she sent me a photo of my sleeping baby. I stared at the tiny, unfamiliar face. In that instant, the blood in my body turned to ice. I was only gone for four days. So how was my son a different person?

I’ve loved him for as long as I can remember. But he never saw me that way. His eyes were always on her—not me. And when he chose her over me, marrying the girl who had always been his world, my heart shattered in ways I never thought possible. Then I found him. The one who makes me laugh, who makes the pain of heartbreak fade… but there’s a problem. He’s forbidden. Older, untouchable, and the brother of the man I once loved. I told myself it wasn’t serious. That I could keep my heart guarded. But as our connection grows, the walls I built begin to crumble. Now, I’m caught in a dangerous, irresistible pull—one I shouldn’t give in to, but can’t resist. Some loves are forbidden. Some desires are dangerous. And some hearts, once broken, refuse to stay silent.

They say that marriage is a happy ending to everyone's life. However, not all fairy tales end happily ever after. Charlotte Hayes, a top model in Los Angeles, married actor Jake Hayes for two years. He was as delightful as sweets in public, but he was abusive at home. "Have an affair with me," she told Damien Yves Étienne, a billionaire, after discovering his hidden identity as a mafia boss. "Don't you want me to keep quiet about your secret? Have an affair with me in exchange for silence." Sentimental tempers flare. A woman fleeing an abusive marriage and meeting the billionaire boss of her husband. Charlotte grows to love, and her husband discovers the valuable lesson that abusers do not win. With that, milady's affair begins.

"It was a cold winter's night as I walked home. A simple night, until it crossed my path: a wolf almost ten feet tall, with huge teeth and fur as black as the darkness. I never believed in fairy tales, but this was no hallucination, not even a misunderstanding. It was something I couldn't explain. And even less so when this creature turned out to be more like the man I loved than I could possibly realize. At that moment, I discovered that even in the most unlikely situations, we can feel pleasure. Even though he was a wolf, I could feel that my feelings wouldn't change, even if it meant my life would be turned upside down in a new world, involved in a war, and with creatures I didn't know existed."