Operating Systems: Internals And Design Principles Novels & Stories

One day, at work, there was an emergency surgery. As the doctor in charge, I reassigned the hospital’s only remaining dose of a highly sought-after specialty drug. The moment I stepped out of the operating room, I was escorted away by the Office of Medical Affairs and Governance. They accused me of improperly authorizing the use of a restricted medication and informed me that my medical license could be revoked. As I struggled to defend myself, a new intern hired by the chief of my department sent me a message. [Dr. Britton, how could you reassign a restricted medication without approval? Dr. Guzman worked incredibly hard to secure that drug for the department. You can’t just take it because you feel like it! I have a responsibility to help the chief keep things running smoothly, so I reported you to Medical Affairs. Doctors are supposed to put patients first. Someone like you doesn’t deserve to wear a white coat. From now on, every medication request in this department will require both my review and signature!] I could not help but laugh when I read it. That intern had only been in the department for a month. Seeing how approachable and easygoing the department chief was, she had apparently decided that it was her job to police everyone else. What she did not know was that my grandfather owned the hospital. That imported miracle drug everyone had been fighting to obtain? I had led the research team that developed it. In fact, I held the patent. Even the eight-hundred-dollar monthly stipend she received as an intern came from the funding allocated to my research program. How could using a drug I myself had invented ever constitute a protocol violation?

Everyone called Mia a shameless whore. However, the one trailing behind her was the youngest don of the Yorick family, James. He hand-washed her lace camisoles, broke three ribs for her, and even with his face covered in blood from a beating, he could still smile at her. One night, after too much drinking, the underboss he trusted most leaned down beside him. His face was full of disdain. “Boss, Mia is a disgrace to all of us! A woman like that, how could she ever be worthy of you?” James suddenly laughed. His eyes went terrifyingly blank. The cigar between his fingers glowed faintly in the dark. “Back then, before I secured my position, I was young, greedy for power. To get my sister-in-law that antique necklace she wanted, I took advantage of Mia being drunk and took pictures of her myself… “Ten dollars a copy. I sold thirty thousand of them. Things blew way out of control… I owe her.” James took a long drink of whiskey while his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Thankfully… she will never know. I will spend my whole life making it up to her, treating her twice as well.” He did not see the private room door quietly close the moment he said those words. Mia turned around with a blank expression on her face and walked into a small clinic on the corner. She laid down on the operating table. He would never deserve to know that he had once been a father, if only for a moment. That whole lifetime he planned to spend making it up to her, she did not want it anymore.

Claimed as the Wrong Bride: Tripicity Book One Octavia Maddox is a grey zone artist living rough in Tripicity, selling her work to survive. When mob boss Bastien Leclair arranges a contract marriage with Olivia Maddox to secure a political alliance against his rival Corporal, Olivia refuses and doesn't show up. A gallery mix-up, possibly deliberate, puts Occy in the wrong room at the right moment. She signs a contract she doesn't fully understand in exchange for a number that covers the warehouse she's been saving for. Bastien comes to collect. What follows is a chase through the grey zone, a count system of punishments for running, a fever that lands her in hospital, and a slow negotiation of trust between two people who don't trust easily. He moves her to the Alderton, his building, his world, and builds her a studio with north-facing light. She migrates to his bed without deciding to. They fall into something neither of them names. Meanwhile Corporal, operating as Mrs. Santoro, has been watching Occy through a hacked security feed and commissions a painting from her. The three-way power structure of the city tightens around Occy without her knowing it. The Meridian overstep begins destabilising the grey zone she built her life in. Bastien's attempt to secure her position legally through a Maddox family adoption explodes when he tells her without asking her first. She walks out. He sits in the room she left. Coming: the grey zone war, the Maddox meeting with Occy, Corporal's escalation, the truth about who engineered the signing, and whether Occy chooses to stay. Not because she has to, but because she wants to.

"You taste of another wolf's territory, Draven. Wash his scent from your skin, or do not dare demand my submission tonight." For three agonizing winters, omega wolf Lardon Vexley played the flawless, hidden lodge master to the brutal Alpha-Prime, Draven Calder. He endured the pack's cruelty, silenced his own roar, and sacrificed his elite status as a Skyfang Rift Engineering scholar—all to secure a secret mating bond with a beast who treats him like a glorified kennel keeper. But when Draven ignites the sacred crest flares for his high-born lover, Mireya Duskrell, Lardon realizes his silent devotion has earned him nothing but a broken pack-vow and a terminal case of silver-rot eating through his ribs. With his remaining moons numbered, Lardon chooses to reclaim his wild instincts. He signs the dissolution scrolls, strips off his collar, and walks into the cold wilderness to resurrect his buried dreams at Nighthowl Systems, guided by his former childhood protector turned powerful rogue, Aziel Crowbane. But an Alpha-Prime does not surrender his property so easily. When Draven tracks his runaway mate down to a dark, secluded den, the confrontation burns with years of unspoken, toxic fixation. "You think a piece of signed parchment severs what is etched into your bones, Lardon?" Draven growled, his powerful claws pinning the omega against the rough stone wall, his tongue forcefully tracing the sensitive, throbbing skin of Lardon's unbitten neck. "Scream your defiance all you want, but your wolf still slicks the furs the moment my shadows wrap around your thighs. Let me feel how desperate you are to be ruined by my fangs again." Will Lardon survive the lethal decay in his bloodline, or will the predatory obsession of two dominant Alphas tear his world to shreds?

At my own wedding, I find out the woman behind the veil isn't even the one I'm supposed to be marrying. Instead of getting mad, I give her the wedding of the century. It's all because of what happened in my past life. I'd exposed that she wasn't my bride in front of everyone and blew up the whole ceremony. That forced Jessie Clarke, who'd been at the hospital with her childhood sweetheart, Oliver Grant, to rush over reluctantly so we could still get married. Because of that, Oliver refused treatment and died on the operating table. When I heard he was gone, I told Jessie she should see him one last time, but she refused. All she said was, "Blame it on his bad luck." After we got married, we acted just as in love as before. I kept getting money from my family to save her company every time it was on the verge of collapse. But on the anniversary of Oliver's death, Jessie shoved me off the top floor of her company. I hit the ground hard enough to end up a broken, bloody mess. As I fell, I caught one last look at her face, streaked with tears. "If you hadn't forced me back to marry you, Oliver wouldn't have died! You get to keep me, but I lost him for good! Why do you get to live a happy life?" So that was it. She'd blamed me for Oliver's death from the start. She'd never loved me at all. The next time I opened my eyes, I was back at our wedding ceremony.

After my husband topped the wealth rankings, he hired his first love as his personal housekeeper at a high salary. “Quincy, you hail from humble beginnings. I don’t want you embarrassing me in high society, so I specifically brought in Vivian to teach you the rules. From now on, everything you do must be reported to her for approval.” From that moment on, in public, I was the glamorous Mrs. Lane. However, behind closed doors, to even enjoy simple marital moments with my husband I had to write a thousand-word application seeking Vivian’s approval. Then, my adoptive father had a heart attack. I dropped to my knees, begging her to transfer me five hundred thousand dollars. She laughed coldly. “What kind of surgery costs half a million? Stop making excuses to pad your family’s finances.” “This isn’t a small sum. Write a 10,000-word application, and this time it’s denied.” Rage coursed through me, my body trembling uncontrollably as I spun toward Tyler and fell to my knees, begging him to save my father’s life. There wasn’t even a flicker of emotion on his face. “Vivian did nothing wrong. I know you’re still clinging to your old poor habits even after getting rich, but my money doesn’t grow on trees.” “This time, your father’s medical treatment will be put on hold as a lesson. Next time, don’t blame me if he’s kicked out of the VIP ward.” In the end, my adoptive father died on the operating table due to the delay in treatment. Completely disheartened, I finally asked Tyler for a divorce.

I saved the life of Don Stefano Marino of the Marino family. The moment a bullet was about to strike him, I was the one who shielded him from it. Because of the life debt he owed me, Stefano decided that I would be the one marrying him instead of my older sister, Anna Costa, in the marriage alliance. But on our wedding night, Stefano would rather drink himself into a stupor somewhere in the city than consummate our marriage with me. Like a naive fool, I thought that I'd be able to melt his heart of ice someday with my love. But it had been less than five years when Stefano brought a kid, who resembled him, and Anna back. "Anna has suffered tremendously during her time overseas while trying to raise her child on her own. I need to make it up to her." Then, Stefano passed the divorce agreement to me. "You've hogged the position as the Donna for so many years. It's time for you to give it back to her." Only then did I find out that Stefano had actually spent the night with Anna on the night of our wedding. I pulled out the pregnancy report that I had meant to surprise Stefano with, only for him to rip it into shreds. "I don't need another child." Once those icy words fell, I was sent into the operating theater by force, where I suffered from heavy bleeding afterward, resulting in the deaths of me and my unborn baby. When I woke up again, I saw Stefano, who was about to get shot. This time, I shoved Anna in his direction.

I had already bought the house we were supposed to build our future in, and over the years, I had carefully set aside a substantial wedding fund. I could not wait to spend the rest of my life with my girlfriend, Jeannie Cooperd. Jeannie had always seemed delicate and timid. Even a simple remark would leave her eyes red with tears. For two years, I spoiled her shamelessly, giving in to her every whim. Every plan I made, every dollar I saved, and every dream I held revolved around our wedding and the life we would share together. Then, I received the kidney compatibility report. The moment I saw the results, my heart turned icy. The woman who normally shrank from pain was now gripping my shoulders with surprising strength, determined to push me toward the operating room. "You're healthy! What's the big deal about living with one kidney?" she cried. "Elliot is dying!" Elliot. The name alone was enough. He was the first love she had never truly let go of, the one she had kept hidden in the deepest corner of her heart. Just yesterday, he was diagnosed with complete kidney failure. To pay for his treatment and cover the debts he had accumulated, Jeannie secretly canceled our wedding, drained every cent from the wedding fund and savings we had built together, and poured it all into Elliot's medical bills and endless financial problems. That was not enough. With sweet words and carefully crafted lies, she coaxed me into coming to the hospital and persuaded me to undergo compatibility testing.

My mate Alpha Rowan's childhood friend got pregnant by a rogue. To save her from burning at the stake by the Elders, Rowan claimed the pup was his. I asked him in disbelief what would happen to me and our pup. Rowan just hugged me tight, his eyes full of pain. "They'll kill Tessa, Gwen! Pack law only lets an Alpha pardon his own blood. I'm doing this to save her! You're my only mate. Why can't you understand?" Rowan had no clue. My Omega body simply couldn't handle his powerful Alpha blood. The pup inside me was draining me dry, eating me alive. My wolf was dying. Without my mate's scent and soothing day and night, I wouldn't survive the pregnancy. And I had no one else in this pack. Later, my bloodline-obsessed mother-in-law sneered at me. She said my wolf was weak because I was carrying a rogue's bastard. And Rowan? He was still playing house with his childhood friend. Through my tears, the truth finally hit me. He chose her over me. He chose duty over his mate. So I went to the Head Healer. I lay on the cold operating table and let them remove the pup that was killing me. Since my Alpha couldn't give me the protection I needed to survive, I had to save myself. Even if it meant losing our flesh and blood. But when he finally arrived and saw the blood-soaked surgical tray, he completely lost his mind.

My daughter, Nina Camollo, who was badly injured in a car accident, died in the operating room after life-saving measures failed. Before I could recover from the shock of her death, I received the horrifying news that all her organs had been removed. Devastated and desperate, I threw all my energy into uncovering the truth. Only then did I discover that the consent form I had signed—given to me by the lead surgeon Avelina Bianchi—had a voluntary organ donation clause hidden in it. Moreover, Nina hadn't been in critical condition at all. She was still alive when all her organs were harvested. Enraged, I showed my husband, Arturo Camollo, all the evidence and declared that Avelina must suffer. Yet, three months later, I see Arturo holding Avelina's daughter in his arms at the mall with Avelina herself leaning against him affectionately. When I storm over to confront him, I learn that Avelina was Arturo's childhood best friend. Nina's heart had long been transplanted into Avelina's daughter, who suffered from a heart condition. Faced with my accusations, Arturo insists that Nina has always been kind-hearted. He believes that Nina would have agreed to it if she knew that her life could save so many others. Amid my struggle with them, a speeding car runs over me, killing me on the spot. When I open my eyes again, I find myself reborn to the day Avelina hands me the critical condition notice and consent form.