Objects That Represent Yourself

On my birthday, the dining table was loaded with all my favorites. My mom had been cooking and baking the entire afternoon, insisting everything be perfect for when Mike got home from work so we could celebrate together. But then, he called and said his first love had been drugged at a bar, and he had to go help her. I stopped him and begged him not to go. Mike snapped at me. "Jesus, Em, don’t pull this jealous wife crap. She’s alone, defenseless, and unconscious—I can't let some random dude take advantage of her!" My mother heard those words and was so enraged that she had a heart attack. She died on the spot. Just like that, my mom died on my birthday. I called Mike, asking him to attend my mom's funeral. But before he could reply, I saw Cathy Miller's latest Instagram post, captioned: [Mikey… after all these years, it was always you.] Mike had liked it. My thumb moved before my brain caught up, typing out the only words that mattered: [A homewrecker and a lying bastard. Hope you rot together.]

My husband, Henry Luther, never loved me.He's always loved my younger sister instead.I chose to step aside and fulfill their love.But no one believed my sincere sacrifice..."Are you trying to act pitiful again?" Henry stared at me with a hostile look in his eyes.

On New Year's Eve, I prepare a feast. The clock strikes twelve, but my husband, Vincent Porter, still isn't home. My daughter, Lorelei Porter, tugs at my sleeve and holds up my phone. "Look Mommy, Daddy is at this lady's house!" Vincent has posted an update on Twitter. He is with Christine Snow, his childhood sweetheart. They are smiling at the camera, with a boy who looks about ten standing between them. In front of them sits a swan-shaped cake. The caption reads, "The most special day for the most special you." My heart sinks into my stomach. A marriage that came later in life can never compete with a pair of childhood sweethearts. I accept defeat.

After being reborn, the first thing I did was forge a medical report diagnosing chronic kidney disease. In my previous life, my nephew had been diagnosed with kidney failure, and he needed a transplant to survive. I rushed to get a matching test and donated one of my kidneys to him. But over time, my health deteriorated. At twenty, my body felt like it belonged to someone eighty. Even simple chores like sweeping the floor left me exhausted. I couldn't go out to work or earn a living, yet my brother and sister-in-law scolded me for "pretending to be sick." "It's just a kidney." my sister-in-law snapped. "Do you expect to leech off our family forever?" She even went so far as to buy a pair of fresh pig kidneys and smash them in my face. "Since we took one of yours, here's a new pair. Happy now?" Because I had lost a kidney, I died before the age of thirty, alone in a rented apartment. The next time I opened my eyes, I was back—before my nephew's diagnosis even came in.

When everything could possibly go wrong it does. She finds out that she’s in labor and her stepmother is forcing her to take her along with her. In the process because of the way that her stepmother had acted she ends up needing emergency surgery. That’s when her father accidentally found out through a blood test that he wasn’t her biological father. The stepmother finally has her revenge and manages to get the girl kicked out of the hospital that night. If it wasn’t for a handsome stranger coming to save her in the front of the hospital who knows what would’ve happened to her.

Hanggang saan ka dadalhin ng mga pangarap mo sa buhay? Si Gianna Camia Lopez o kilala bilang si Mia ay isang 21 years old 3rd year college student na nakipagsapalaran sa syudad upang makapaghanap ng trabaho at mapaaral ang kanyang sarili. Sa kagustuhang maabot ang kanyang mga pangarap at matulungan ang kanyang pamilya sa parehas na pagkakataon, ay pinasok ni Mia ang ika nga nila'y butas ng karayom. Naging dancer ito ng isang sikat na club, Alhambra kung tawagin. At kung saan ay makikilala niya ang lalaking magpapabago sa buhay niya. Isang naiibang lalaki ang makakaagaw sa atensyon ng dilag. The search for that one man begins after that one night in Alhambra.

On my birthday, my fiancé used his supermarket points to get me a pair of dishwashing gloves. But at an auction, he bought a five-million-dollar gem for his first love. I was mad, confronting him, but he called me a gold digger. "I've been giving you money to spend. Isn't it only right that you take care of me? This was supposed to be my final test for you. If you passed, we'd get married. You've let me down big time." I broke up with him. He turned around and proposed to his first love. Five years later, we ran into each other on a private vacation island. Alex Thompson saw me in the workers' uniform picking up trash on the beach. He mocked me on the spot. "You turned your nose up at the gloves I got you, and here you are, scavenging garbage. Now, even if you begged me, I wouldn't give you a second glance." I ignored him. My son's social studies project was to clean up the backyard with a parent. His dad had expanded the yard all the way to the beach. Cleaning it up was exhausting.

During the mandatory freshman orientation camp, my skin had flared up with a severe allergic reaction, so I didn't use the plastic washbasin the school handed out. Instead, I opened my suitcase and took out the custom silver basin I had brought from home. My roommate, Louisa Carter, immediately made a snide remark, drawling, "You're really something, huh? Kids from broke families like us are lucky to have any basin at all." I didn't bother responding. I simply pulled out my facial essence to do a cold compress, but she immediately rushed over, slapped the bottle out of my hand, and jabbed a finger at my face. "Bet you get tens of thousands a month for living expenses. You have a sugar daddy, don't you? Don't you feel guilty making your folks work their fingers to the bone back on the farm? People like you don't deserve to be at our school. I'm reporting you to the student counselor." I laughed in disbelief and slapped her. … The next morning, the family photo I'd left on my desk had been slashed to ribbons. Across the back, carved in ink, were the words: 'Daughter of a homewrecker. Go to hell.' I went straight to the police. While officers pulled the dorm security footage, our student counselor and the university president rushed in. The moment the president saw the man whose face had been cut apart in my photo, his legs nearly buckled. He almost dropped to his knees.

Shayla Hale learned young that love is the cruelest lie of all. When her father brought home his secret family, her world shattered. When college was supposed to be her fresh start, Grayson Cross destroyed that too...with his charming smile, his devastating lies, and a bet that would break her completely. Seven years later, she's rebuilt her life far from the ruins he left behind. She has her son, her best friend, and walls so high no one can hurt her again. She survived the worst betrayal of her life and built a new world far from the wreckage. A world where she's safe. Where her secrets stay buried. Where the man who destroyed her can never find her. Until the day she accepts a job as a personal assistant to a powerful CEO, and discovers her new boss is the last person she ever wanted to see again. Grayson Cross. Cold. Ruthless. Unforgiving. He doesn't know why she disappeared seven years ago. He doesn't know what he took from her. And he has no idea about the little boy with his eyes waiting at home. Some bets have consequences that last forever. Some lies can never be forgiven. And some men will destroy everything to get back what they lost. He ruined her once. But this time, she might just ruin him back.

Janine’s plan was simple: just one night. One night to earn enough money to ease the crushing weight of her mother’s medical bills and secure her brother’s future. She had no intention of staying. This job—this world—was a desperate detour, not a new path.But the moment she stepped into that room and locked eyes with the man sitting like royalty in the shadows, everything shifted.He wasn’t just any client.He was Theo Lucas Guevara III, the man she had only seen from afar—on TV screens, in headlines, in the hushed gossip of women who dreamed beyond their means. Powerful, untouchable, and dangerously magnetic.She thought he would take what he wanted and leave.But to her surprise, the billionaire didn’t just want one night.He wanted her.And he was willing to pay any price to keep her.