Novel & Cerita Not A Happy Family Summary

At nineteen, I uncovered a secret that should have gotten me killed. Silas Kingston’s empire isn’t built on wealth... It’s built on blood, power, and the kind of secrets people vanish over. Now I’m trapped inside his world... caught between a man obsessed with control and a son ruthless enough to burn the world for what he desires. Every look feels like ownership. Every secret drags me deeper. And the longer I stay, the more I realize the real danger isn’t them... It’s how badly I want to belong to their darkness.

I've gotten bound to the exchange system three times in a row. In my previous lifetime, when Mom found out about it, she demanded that I swap my healthy body with Erica Jenkins, my disfigured younger sister. During my high school years, I threw myself into my studies while forced to endure the pressure caused by my partial blindness and my classmates' mockery. Even after I managed to become the top student of the state with my SAT scores, Mom forced me to swap my results with Erica. Some time later, Mom tricked me into exchanging my identity with a rich scion who had committed atrocious crimes. Because of that, I was imprisoned and later on, sentenced to death. Meanwhile, Mom and Erica lived happily ever after thanks to the wealth they had accumulated from my exchanges. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I get bound to the exchange system.

The enemies of my adopted sister's parents mistook me for her and kidnapped me. Before the rogues killed me, they gave me three phone calls for help. If anyone was willing to give me three hundred dollars, I could live. For the first call, I dialed my father. Father didn't listen to a word I said. He immediately unleashed a torrent of curses. "Where the hell are you? Get your ass back home right now for your sister's birthday!" For the second call, I dialed my brother. My brother listened silently to my plea for help, then hung up with a cold snort. "You're never around when the pack needs you. Who's going to fall for this act now?" For the third call, I dialed my fiancé. He didn't even answer. When I called again, I'd been blocked. The rogue wolf laughed at me. "Looks like being the eldest daughter of the Ashwood family doesn't mean much, does it?" After he tortured me to death, he stuffed my body into a suitcase and threw it in the river.

During spring break, my family's housekeeper's son, Ethan Shaw, steals my black card and takes the entire class on a luxury trip to Norkin. He books out an entire fireworks show to impress my girlfriend, Claire Sanders. Then, he treats everyone to first-class tickets for the cruise while basking in the spotlight. But when I discover he's using my card and confront him, he teams up with my girlfriend to twist the story. They accuse me of being jealous of him. Cornered on the deck, I'm about to pull out my phone to prove it when Ethan suddenly shoves me over the railing. I'm left hanging by one desperate hand. His voice is ice-cold. "Lucas is just picking a fight because he's after my money. I can't sleep soundly with him around." On Ethan's signal, his lackey crushes my fingers one by one until my grip fails. I fall into the open sea, ending as food for the fish. When I open my eyes, I find myself back on the day Ethan is booking the fireworks show. Watching him revel in the spotlight, I take out my phone and call the bank to cancel the card. This time, I want to see just how he plays the lavish big shot.

Mom, Dad, and Jesse—my younger sister—went out to sea on a trip, but they were caught in a tsunami, and all three perished in the accident. I was left all alone—just as I was about to start university—burdened with nothing but a mountain of debt. In the end, everything I had saved for my university tuition, along with the house Mom and Dad had left me, was taken by debt collectors. I was then forced to work in a shady factory, laboring 16 hours a day, sleeping in a shabby ten-person dorm, and surviving on nothing but thin, flavorless broth. I finally cleared the last of the debt when I accidentally discovered that Jesse—who was supposed to be dead—had appeared on television and become a famous dancer. Mom and Dad even gave an interview about her success. It turned out they had taken out a massive loan and faked their deaths to flee to Pravia for Jesse's dance studies, leaving the entire debt for me to deal with just as I was supposed to start university. I went to confront them, demanding the truth, but they threw me out like trash. I was then hit and killed by a speeding truck at the side of the road. "How could Lorraine be such a nuisance, not even having the decency to die far away from our doorstep?" I have been given another chance, reborn on the day they faked their deaths.

My son and daughter-in-law suddenly returned home after living abroad for more than a decade. They spoke with my granddaughter in Datrenan the entire time during dinner. My granddaughter said, "Dad, Grandma's ugly and dumb. She's embarrassing!" My son just laughed. "What can we do? Country people are like that." I didn't understand what they were talking about, so I simply smiled and placed a chicken wing into my granddaughter's bowl, trying to please her. However, she threw it in my face instead. "Gross! It's all your fault that Grandpa and Kasey can't be here!" I was stunned. My husband died decades ago, and… who was Kasey?

My name is Elena, and I died at twenty-two. My parents forced me to take my foster sister’s place and traded me for a territorial alliance. My mate was the most volatile heir of the wolf packs. Beaten bloody and fading fast, I made my eighth call for help. At my adopted sister Seraphina’s birthday party, she played the recording of my final, groveling plea—and laughed. My parents listened to those desperate calls with nothing but irritation, dismissing each one as theatrics, an inconvenience unworthy of their time. My brother snarled over the phone, “Then just die already!” So I did. In the end, it was my three-year-old daughter who made the final call—using her smartwatch to video my mother, live-streaming the freezer where my severed head lay. Now, my spirit watches from above as they all, one by one, begin to unravel.

I was the princess of the Moretti family, but in my past life, I ended up with my hands and feet bound, tossed to the bottom of a river. All because my parents, my brothers, and even my fiancé were obsessed with Fiona—the sweet-faced, manipulative bitch they’d adopted. My oldest brother, Lorenzo, would say, “Stay away from Fiona. She’s not like you—savage and vicious.” My second brother, Marco, would say, “This couture gown is for Fiona. It would be a waste on you.” And my fiancé, Albert Falcone, told me, “I love Fiona’s soul. This engagement with you? It’s just business.” But I was reborn. On the night of my engagement party with Albert. And this time, I got a “Slap-Back System.” 【The moment the host effectively strikes back against her bullies, achieving a true slap-down, she will be rewarded with billions in wealth and supreme power.】 I laughed. And with one shove, I sent the towering champagne pyramid crashing to the floor. “This whole ‘mafia princess’ gig? I’m done with it.”

I’d been dead a month before my family even noticed. It wasn’t concern that brought them to that realization. It was my silence after the so-called “dinner” with Adam Rossi, the infamous mafia boss. My father scoffed like always,“She probably shacked up with that bastard. Too busy spreading her legs to pick up the damn phone.” My sister texted me a photo of them smiling under the Christmas tree, ornaments twinkling like nothing was wrong. Bitch, she wrote. You better talk Mr. Rossi into working with Dad, or you might as well be dead already. And my mother—once the softer one—was now colder than the frost on their windows. “I told you, we should’ve sent Gia to charm Mr. Rossi. Serena always screws things up.” They didn’t think I would die. Not until they found my body—broken, rotten, and forgotten—in Adam Rossi’s basement.

Lauren thought her life was perfect until a Valentine’s Day dinner turned into a nightmare. Accused of pushing her mother-in-law down the stairs, she quickly realizes it’s a setup. Sylas, her husband, and her own sister Taylor orchestrated the whole thing to trap her and end their marriage. With nowhere to go, Lauren runs straight to the one person she never expected: Enzo, her mysterious and ruthless neighbor, the Mafia King everyone fears. As she starts plotting revenge, she uncovers a shocking truth: Sylas is involved with a rival mafia family, and she’s been dragged into a war that could destroy everything she knows. But things get even more complicated when Enzo reveals he’s hunting for a set of rare paintings that hold the key to a hidden vault of untold wealth. Intrigued, Lauren agrees to help him, even though she knows it could drag her deeper into the mafia’s deadly world. As Lauren navigates this treacherous new reality, she must decide whether to use Enzo and the growing attraction between them to exact her revenge, or risk losing herself in the chaos. Will she expose the lies and take back control, or will she be consumed by the very world that betrayed her?