Independence Novels & Stories

-ADRIAN POV- I've built my career on the principle that control is everything. It's the only thing that separates the people who succeed from the people who get swept away by circumstance and emotion. Control is knowing exactly what will happen before it happens. Control is building systems that work regardless of external chaos. Control is keeping the world at arm's length so nothing can touch what I've carefully constructed. And I'm very, very good at control. Which is why the assignment Marcus just handed me is simultaneously the most strategic opportunity of my career and the most genuinely irritating thing that's happened to me in months.

He said with a determination on his face. At that moment, I didn't even know what to say, I just stood up from my seat and made my way to the door. If I'm to go just like this, nothing will change but I have to let them know their stand this time around. So I turned around to face my father "Daddy, I don't understand what's going on with you parents, but I beg the four of you in the name of God, please leave us alone. We're old enough to make our own decisions. You got us married, fine, but please don't keep us married"

"No, get off, I don't want you to mark me" Confused I get up, first, she's upset because I haven't marked her then she says she doesn't want me to mark her, confused is an understatement. She then sits on my lap and wraps her legs around my waist and says "I like your way better, I want you to make our marking special and yes I will be your wife, your love , your everything and if your good I'll even be your whore in the bedroom and just for the record I'm a virgin too"

“This will help. And try to stay calm—Lila needs you.” “Not as much as I need her. She’s stronger than I am.” Jack shook his head. “When it comes to you, Lila is the weakest woman on the planet.” I blinked at him. Fuck. He had a point. We were so codependent on each other that it was almost debilitating to even think of life without the other.

Get money to buy the necessary things in the house. Like soap, grease, salt, or clothes for the children on Tet (new year holiday) or at the beginning of the school year. In the mountainous areas, people rarely trade and trade like in the lowlands and cities. All of them live in a self-sufficient way. What to eat and what to wear is not a concern. But children go to school, death anniversary. No money. As a result, the couples always argue, even fight. The atmosphere at home is always stuffy. No one thinks that is important. To everyone is a normal thing in their life.

The phrasing was exquisite. It wasn’t obedience he was asking for. It was courage through coordination. Adrian watched from the side of the room and understood the brilliance of it with something like dread. “He’s making dependence sound noble,” Adrian murmured. Malcolm didn’t look at him. “Dependence is what people call interdependence when they resent needing others.” Back in Iceland, Charlotte made the decision before the hall could fracture further. “We intervene,” she said. No triumph in it. No rhetoric. Just fact.

Why was it okay for her to help them but not okay for them to help her? Why couldn’t independence and dependence go hand in hand? Interdependence was what made humanity strong. Nothing great was built by one person alone. Every ecosystem had tens of thousands of interconnections. It was not weak to need people it was nature. Needing someone was not the same as taking money or favors which there was an obligation to repay. It was mutually beneficial, symbiotic, and completely normal.

“Ain’t your parent’s super rich? Why are you ‘saving’ for your own wedding?” “Tsk,” Yhannie rolled her eyes on me. “Because I’m trying this new thing called being independent. I haven’t been home in years. I’m still keeping in touch with them but I wanted to be independent, you know. I want to be able to prove to them that I can do it by myself, that I can be an independent woman in this world filled with men. I want to earn my own shit without their help.” Yhannie went on and I really felt how she was truly serious with whole independency thing.

he said seriously, but with a little smile hidden in the corner. "You can't make me do this, I don't feel anything for him... damn daddy, I don't love him!" I screamed and let some tears fall. Dad walked over to me and stroked my face. "Honey, you had to think about that when you had sex with that boy. I love you my daughter, but I think it's the right thing to do right now, this child will need a father present in her..." I interrupted him. "We are in the 21st century, this marriage thing when a girl 'loses' her innocence no longer exists and the world is different now, women are more independent now and even raise their children alone." I said.

“In asymmetrical relationships, it operates through control of essential resources — housing, funding, safety. The illusion of choice becomes the most dangerous form of leverage.” Langford’s eyes sharpened. “An interesting position,” he said. “But what if both parties are willingly interdependent? Does that not create a new, stabilized form of consent?” The question hit too close. I felt Shawn shift behind me. His tension was palpable. Before I could answer, Charles’s voice cut smoothly from the back row. “Interdependence is only stable when it is chosen,” he said, “not when it is engineered.” Langford raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”