Not A Happy Family: A Novel

Terrance Burgess slapped me in front of the entire company, all because I accidentally knocked over his assistant's vase. My five-year-old son, Claude Burgess, stood off to the side, clapping like it was something worth cheering for. Afterward, the assistant walked up to me while holding the bouquet the father and son had given her, showing it off right in my face. "So what if you're the wife? The one who isn't loved is the real outsider." I looked at her calmly. "Then you'd better watch yourself. If he can have you on the side, he can just as easily find someone else after you." I used to think I had a happy, complete family. Until Terrance's assistant came along and made me realize it had all been in my head. The love from that father and son had already moved on to someone else. That was the moment something in me went completely still. I called a number I hadn't contacted in years. "Dad, I want to come home and take over the family business."

Shane realized that his family is in trouble and he has less than a year to find the money to solve the problem. However, he has to go to college and he made up his mind to follow his childhood crush to the college she will go to. However, will things work out the way he wants it to? And will he still feel the same way about her when he goes to college? After all, he will be surrounded by a lot of beautiful women.

On the outside, everyone sees a perfect family. Gorgeous home. Loving parents with great jobs. Beautiful clothes. However, Deanna's life and family are anything but perfect. Luckily, she has found a smart and amazing man, who wants to marry her and give her the perfect family that she has always wished she had. There is just one last thing left to do before the big day, her bachelorette party. Her best friend insists that this is a once in a lifetime event which should be celebrated in its full glory. So, she plans a Vegas trip for the night, but will one too many drinks lead to something that can ruin Deanna's future plans? Will the old saying hold true? What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?

Melody Sullivan's ex-husband had always been a cold, distant man. By day, she worked as his secretary. By night, she was his wife. In their two years of marriage, she never received even a hint of real affection from him. The day his childhood sweetheart returned to the country, they calmly signed the divorce papers. No one expected that six months later, Melody would find out she was pregnant. She had loved him in secret for years, but now she was done. Without hesitation, she left with his kid and cut him out of her life. He made his relationship with his childhood sweetheart public? That had nothing to do with her. He proposed to her? Melody congratulated them and wished them a happy life together, But then, the man rumored to be getting married showed up outside the delivery room the very day she gave birth. He asked to get back together! Melody shook her head repeatedly. "Mr. Hunt, the baby isn't yours." Caleb Hunt looked at her, his voice firm. "Even if the kid isn't mine, I still want both of you."

The train to Centraford was about to depart. That was the ride we'd spent our entire life savings—30 thousand bucks—to get a ticket for. I was gripping my mate, Byron Reynolds's, hand tightly, trying to pull him onto the last train to Centraford. This was the chance I'd waited three long years for. Once we entered Centraford, we could rise from being low-tier civilian werewolves to official Silvren Talons workers—registered, salaried, and numbered. If we missed this train, we'd be stuck forever in Sidersville, a chaotic melting pot, never able to enter the heart of the werewolf city-state. But Byron held us back, refusing to leave without Lisa Peters, who was still down by the river, washing her face. In the very last second before the train took off, I had our friends forcibly drag Byron aboard. We made it to Centraford and became Silvren Talons workers. But Lisa missed her chance. She was left behind in Sidersville and became a rogue, a plaything passed around by countless men. A few years later, she was tortured to death. Byron looked fine on the surface. But on the day of our marking ceremony, he drove a silver blade into my stomach, killing the pup growing inside me, and tore out my heart. His eyes burned red as he growled through clenched teeth, "This is all your fault. You're the reason Lisa never made it to Centraford. "She suffered so much before she died. Why do you get to be happy?" After killing me, he chopped my body up and fed it to the stray dogs. Then I opened my eyes—and found myself right back at the train station, before it departed. This time, I'd wait with him for the woman he loved so much. And I'd make him pay for everything he did to me and my pup.

I gave Michael the best two years of my life, but in return he handed me the divorce papers the moment my sister came out of the coma. ┈┈┈┈․° ☣ °․┈┈┈┈ Since the moment my sister was born, it had always been about her, never me.... Everyone, including our parents adored and favored my sister, Seraphina over me. Even Michael, the man I had been in love with since I was a teenager, only had eyes for my sister. He loved her, dreamt of marrying only her and also starting a family with her. But circumstances forced Michael to take me as his wife instead and my sister fell into depression and tried to commit suicide in which I was held responsible for. I was only supposed to be his contract wife, but along the line I felt Michael had started to love me but that illusion shattered the very moment his love for my sister reawakened after she woke up from the two years coma. I agreed to walk away with a broken heart after granting him the divorce. And just when I was about to move on from Michael, he suddenly showed up at my doorstep to make things more difficult for me because he said he couldn't let me go and he's obsessed with me. That was the bitter truth - My sister was the love of his life while I was only his obsession and the object of his desire.

Albert Roosevelt was the crush I was never meant to have. Like an idiot, I believed loving someone meant giving them everything, even if they didn't care about you. So, I trailed after him like a desperate puppy, bending over backward to meet his every whim. When he couldn't afford tuition, I begged Dad to fund him, sending him to the best schools. When his worn-out clothes made him a laughingstock, I pitied him and showered him with designer labels. And what did he do? He used what I gave him to chase after a gold-digging campus belle. To keep up appearances, he blew through money like it grew on trees. He even spread rumors that he was the real heir to the Roosevelts. To him, I was just an ATM. "Your family's loaded. It's not like you'll miss a few hundred grand. If you're gonna be stingy, maybe you should stop following me around," he said when his wallet ran dry. And like a fool, I believed that if I kept paying, someday, he'd love me back. After graduation, I funded his startup. The second it took off, he married the campus belle. He had the nerve to claim he earned everything through nothing but hard work. So, I crashed his wedding, and he buried a knife in my chest. "Only when you're dead, Eve Roosevelt. Only then will my pathetic past stay buried." When I opened my eyes again, I was face-to-face with a scowling Albert. "You can't scrape together a few hundred thousand dollars? It's Bianca's birthday. Are you trying to humiliate me?" I looked around the room and rolled my eyes. "Sure, I'll pay. But first? Kneel. You look pretty enough. Consider it charity, peasant."

Nathaniel Lee, a janitor, never complained about the insults and mistreatment he received from his wife's family. There was a reason for that. It wasn't that he didn't have the courage or ability to retaliate. He just had to wait for the right moment. Why did he have to go to such lengths to endure all that unpleasant treatment? What was it about his past that he kept secret, even from his wife?

After I got pregnant, I witnessed my boyfriend's grandmother's death. She left behind a secret, and now, everyone who knows that secret is dead. First, it was my boyfriend's father who died. My boyfriend's mother followed soon after. Lastly, my boyfriend died too. He ended his life by overdosing right before my eyes. The media went wild. They dug obsessively for the truth. Again and again, the police summoned me for questioning. Online hate toward me was overwhelming. Everyone wants to know what the secret is. People claim I cursed my boyfriend's entire family to death, just to keep the secret to myself. I stay silent, never saying a word in defense of myself. On the seventh day after my boyfriend had passed, I spot someone at his funeral. At that moment, I place my hand on my swollen belly. I am utterly calm and at peace. It is time for me and my child to die too.

Though Micheal loved me deeply, When he was deceived by Ruby's lies,He lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. He believed that I had killed his grandfather for the inheritance and that I had slept with other men and was pregnant with that man's child.So he cruelly subjected me to humiliation again and again. When he personally pushed me into the abyss, all the love turned to ashes—never to return in this lifetime...