Operating Systems: Internals And Design Principles Novels & Stories

My husband, an anesthesiologist, deliberately increases the sedative dosage on an accident victim so he can get a new heart for his first love, Selena Quigley. After her operation, he cares for her and celebrates her rebirth. He only remembers to contact me after she's recovered. "It's been three months since we saw each other, honey. You shouldn't be mad anymore, right? Why don't you book a flight for tomorrow so you can come home? I'll pick you up at the airport." I won't be going home anymore, though. Not now, not forever. I've already died on his operating table.

My daughter, Annabelle Turner, was diagnosed with hereditary heart disease. I spent the past five years searching for a compatible heart donor for her. Now, I finally found one. Right before Annabelle is sent into the surgery room, my husband and renowned cardiologist, Gabriel Turner, tearfully makes me a promise. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll make sure Annabelle gets a shot at life again." Yet halfway through the surgery, Gabriel suddenly leaves in a hurry without giving any explanation. I stumble into the surgery room and see Annabelle lying on the operating table, covered in blood. Her chest is cut wide open, laid bare for all to see. Tyler Rotwell, Gabriel's assistant, stammers out, "Dr. Turner said… that Anna can still hold on a little longer, but Ms. Byron's son can't. "Dr. Turner took the heart that was meant for Anna and left…" I immediately break down and repeatedly call Gabriel's number, but Gabriel never answers a single call, not even when Anna's blood has completely dried… While settling my daughter's post-mortem affairs, I happen to see a newly posted update on Gabriel's childhood friend, Suzanne Byron's social media. "Turns out it was just a misdiagnosis," was what the caption read. "In that case, let's give this useless little thing to our good boy Oscar as a treat!" The video attached depicts Suzanne's dog Oscar tearing into the heart that was supposed to be donated to Annabelle. As I turn to look at Annabelle's cold body, the last shred of love I have for Gabriel starts crumbling apart. By the time Gabriel finally remembers Annabelle, whom he left on the operating table, only an empty bedroom and an urn containing her ashes would greet him…

I was the exclusive seller of a special type of medicine. It had saved many cancer patients’ lives. After working hard for a year, I thought that I would have earned the patients’ gratitude. To my surprise, Peter Lorden, a doctor who also happened to be my rival, slandered me online and said that I was a pharmacist with no principles and scammed cancer patients. The patients who had once expressed their gratitude to me came forward as his witnesses and demanded compensation from me. My reputation was ruined overnight, and I was canceled by everyone online. So, I calmly terminated the distributorship for the special medicine and shut down my pharmacy to open a mini market instead. When their supply ran out, the lung cancer patients, who needed the medicine to stay alive, and Peter both called me while in tears. “Mr. Zimmerman, please continue selling the special medicine!”

Think of this as a cyberpunk Bridget Jones’ Diary, if Bridget were a self-destructive tech refugee with a cocaine habit and a holographic archangel for a conscience. This is adarkly comedic character studyset in a near-future that feels just a few software updates away. It’s a story about addiction, both chemical and digital, and the messy, painful, and sometimes hilarious struggle to reclaim your own messy life from the algorithms designed to “optimize” it. At its heart, it’s the story of the most dysfunctional friendship imaginable: between a woman who is her own worst enemy, and the godlike AI she reprogrammed to be her partner-in-crime. It’s raw, it’s visceral, and it explores whether real connection can be found once you’ve burned all your bridges, and broken your operating system.

My mother had a rare disease. After months of dead ends, I found one person in the country who could treat her. She told me there was a price. She said she needed a husband. I agreed. For my mother, I agreed. For six years I was her ATM. I bought her the bags. I bought her the watches. It got worse. She used my money to keep a kept man. She brought him into our bed. The day my mother had her last surgery, she walked out of the operating room halfway through to go celebrate her lover's birthday. The moment they pronounced my mother dead, I decided there and then, she was paying for that with her life.

Serena gave everything to the man she loved—her trust, her devotion, her future. But betrayal shattered it all. Pregnant and full of hope, she walked in on her husband tangled in bed with another woman. What followed was worse: the slow, agonizing loss of her baby… and then her own life, bleeding out on an operating table, heartbroken and alone. But fate wasn’t finished with her. Reborn with every memory intact, Serena wakes in the past—stronger, colder, and no longer naive. This time, she’s ready to rewrite her story. This time, she’ll make them pay. Because the girl they destroyed… came back for revenge. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll find something worth living for too.

Betrayed by the husband and the cousin she once trusted, Dr. Harper Reeves finds herself strapped to an operating table—moments away from being dissected alive. Only then does the truth finally surface: Her marriage was a lie. Her suffering was engineered. And Phoebe—her doctor, her blood, her own cousin—was the one who planned it all. As the scalpel rises to carve her open, Harper does the unthinkable. She fights back. One death. One chance. One whispered wish as her life bleeds away: If I could live again… I wouldn’t endure. I wouldn’t bow. I would destroy anyone who dared to use me. And I would burn their world to the ground.

After failing my mission, I was about to be erased by the system—completely wiped from this world. In the final twenty-four hours before my deletion, I agreed to donate a kidney to my younger sister. My husband, overjoyed, held me tightly and said he would not divorce me anymore. When my sister stole my design draft, I voluntarily admitted I was the plagiarist. My parents nodded in satisfaction, saying I had finally become sensible. At last, I became the good wife and good daughter they had always wanted. But later, when they saw my corpse, they all lost their minds.

After moving to Italy to leave her troubled past, Mykaela pursues a modeling career while living with Miles, her best friend. All seems well and routine until unforeseen circumstances ruin her career plans and force her back to New York. Miles Falco, an artist enjoying the Italian countryside, must choose between the simple life he loves and being successor to a clan of influential businessmen contending for power in all of Italy. Can he escape his predetermined fate? A life of deceit, chaos, and deadly encounters with the mafia? Will they survive the odds that threaten their future together? ◆ PG-16 ◆ cover design: mzmauve

My husband's true love developed acute kidney failure, and I was the only matching donor. To save her life, he forced me to terminate my pregnancy at six months. Despite his gentle tone, he said the most heart-wrenching words, "Can't you be a little kinder? You're just losing a child, but she's losing her life." I resisted with every fiber of my being, but he threatened his own life to force my hand. On the operating table, both my child and I died. Meanwhile, his true love's transplant was a success, and she lived. Although the outcome was exactly what he wanted, he spiraled into madness upon hearing news of my death.