Quietly Hostile

When Zack Davis went bankrupt, I used all my savings of 20 thousand dollars to buy him. “You’re willing to buy me even if I don’t love you?” he asked indifferently. My heart raced as I replied quietly, “Yes.” After that, we got married, paid back his debts, and founded another company. It only took Zack three years for his company to become a new star in the Asterfield. Everything seemed to have gone smoothly. He also only belonged to me. However, what I didn’t know was that he hated me. He hated me for destroying all his pride and for buying him with only 20 thousand dollars. When I decided to let go and divorce Zack, he went crazy. He knelt down in front of me with pleading eyes. “Anna, you still love me, right?”

After being reborn, I quietly cut all ties with my husband, Nathaniel Cole. I go to work alone. I watch movies alone. Even when I cook, I only make enough for one. All because in my last life, I had married him only to be neglected for 40 years. At the very end, he coldly pulled the oxygen tube from me, spitting out words filled with hatred. "If I had a choice, I never would've married you!" I died in pain, filled with resentment. When I open my eyes again, my mother is speaking to me and my sister. "According to the marriage agreement, one of you has to marry Nathaniel. Which one of you will it be?" I'm just about to refuse when my sister, Catherine Brown, steps forward. She shoots me a contemptuous glance and says, "Mom, I'll marry him."

In our galaxy, there are at least twenty billion Earth-like planets able to sustain life. My name is Skye. I am eighteen years old. Our astronautic scientists discovered a planet within our galaxy with human life similar to ours. By probing this planet’s satellite systems, they have learnt that wars have wracked this world over many millennia, where various zealots strive for dominance. Before setting out on a twenty-year expedition to visit this planet, our group has spent a year being educated in the various languages of this alien world and acquiring the skills to survive in any hostile environment we may find ourselves in. OUR DESTINATION IS EARTH. SKYE is the first book in a trilogy. It is a coming-of-age adventure of Skye, a young alien girl, and her fight to survive in a post-apocalyptic world governed by fundamentalists. After surviving a meteoroid tsunami, her spaceship crash lands in the Mexican wilderness. One of the survivors, Judah, a gifted physician from a superior technological civilization, is discovered in the desert and taken to Texas. Judah is promoted as the new Messiah by a right-wing extremist known as ‘The Preacher’. The Preacher’s propaganda machine convinces America’s devastated survivors that it was the sins of the world’s population that, as prophesized in the Bible, brought down the wrath of God. Judah is exploited to restore the people’s faith in the divinity of God as decreed by the Preacher’s tyrannical interpretation. The Preacher aims to reverse the emancipation achieved by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and bring about a dictatorship through the reunification of America. Skye must put her trust in a member of the Preacher’s security team to rescue Judah from this new confederacy.

When I was 14, my brother, Cole Maxwell, brought home an orphan girl, Jennifer Burke, to repay a debt of gratitude. From that moment on, my life had always taken a backseat to hers. After Jennifer falsely accused me of intending to ruin her reputation and forcing her to commit suicide, Cole slapped me hard across the face before driving me out of the house. "Get out! I don't have a sister like you!" He even gave her the job that was supposed to be mine and the only heirloom our parents left me, just to make her smile. The more I argued with him, the colder he became towards me. When Cole took Jennifer to visit the city without telling me, I chose to say nothing this time, leaving quietly with nothing but a suitcase. When he learned I'd been accepted into Brightmoor Aeronautical University and would never return, he fell apart.

On the day of the wedding, the bride Elina only wore a veil, a wedding dress, quietly sat in the car and went to her husband's house. No banquet tables, no close friends, no joyful atmosphere… This wedding was inherently just a cover, as well as a transaction, but the person who pushed her to this path was her biological mother. In order to treat her sister's illness, she directly sold her to the rich, but everyone knows how fierce and dangerous these powerful families are. She pushed her into a place full of snakes and would rather kill her. She married him – Levi Simon. A silly young master of the Levi family. I thought life would live in the dark, but it's all just the beginning. "I'll protect you from now on." Absolutely not letting her suffer, he stretched out his arms to hug an abandoned daughter like her in his arms. The fool who was sold. They come together to give each other the so-called love.

Nia’s world shatters in a single night of betrayal. Drugged and manipulated by her best friend, she wakes up in the arms of a stranger. Her marriage of two years crumbles as her husband, Caleb, casts her out in public shame. With nowhere to go, she’s approached by the enigmatic billionaire Damien Aldridge, who offers her a chance at revenge and redemption. Their secret marriage blooms quietly, surrounded only by Damien’s family, who soon accept Nia as their own. As Damien’s kindness heals her wounds, their bond grows into a fierce, undeniable passion. Together, they face the venom of her past — a best friend who won’t stop scheming and an ex-husband consumed by regret. In a lavish showdown, Damien reveals the truth: Nia was framed all along. With her enemies exposed and their power stripped away, Nia finds freedom at last. In Damien’s arms, she discovers a love worth fighting for — a new chapter that promises healing, passion, and the sweet taste of victory.

The day I agree to marry James Hunt, he is eager to announce our love to the whole world. Later, when I get pregnant, he even acquires a hospital so that I can rest easy and focus on the baby. But during a checkup in my sixth month, I overhear a chilling conversation. "Mr. Hunt, the baby's developing well, but it's too large. The delivery could put the mother's life at risk." James only laughs, cold and unbothered. "So what if she dies? I only married her to give me children." The smile on my face freezes, and it feels like I have been plunged into ice. His next words cut me even deeper. "She pushed Natasha into the water, and now Natasha can never have children. This is nothing but her retribution." The perfect happiness I think I have is nothing more than a lie. So, I quietly register at another hospital and schedule an abortion. James, I hope you live to regret this.

The year my boyfriend is dead broke, I leave him. Later, he becomes a mafia boss and uses every means at his disposal to marry me. Everyone says that I am the first love he can never forget, the wife he cares about the most. However, he then starts bringing home a different woman every night, making me a laughingstock. Still, I don't cry or make a fuss. I quietly stay in my own room, never interrupting his affairs. Elton Carter is furious. He pins me beneath him, kisses me harshly, and growls, "Aren't you jealous?" He has no idea that I'm gravely ill. He could buy half the city with violence, threats, and money. He could buy my freedom, my marriage… and each night bring a different woman home, oblivious to the truth. Little does he know, I have just seven days left to live.

"Let's get divorced." Layla said quietly but firmly. She couldn't take it anymore. Her marriage with Nate has been a facade, constructed solely to fulfill her father's dying wish. Even though Layla used to think she could his heart through time, she finally gave it up seeing his ex-girlfriend coming back. She should be the one to stand beside Nate. After all, she has always been the one in his heart. That's why Nate never laid his hand on her throughout their entire marriage, wasn't it? Layla was a girl with dignity. If Nate didn't show any interest in her, she didn't want to be the wrong person to occupy him, even if it hurt to let go. However, why didn't Nate just accept it and move on? Seeing the divorce paper, he said to Layla coldly, "as long as the paper is not signed, you are still my wife and no other man can lay his hands on you."

On our fifth anniversary, I came across the Instagram page of a stranger named Serena Reed. The girl lay sideways on a hospital bed, her bandage-wrapped hand intertwined with a man's larger hand. On the man's ring finger was a moonstone ring, with Vincent Carter's name and my own name clearly engraved on the band. Below the photo, the girl had written: "It's just a tiny scratch, but he was so worried he insisted I stay in the hospital. Being loved like this feels incredible!" An hour earlier, Vincent had apologized to me over the phone. "Nina, there's an urgent matter with the patrol team. Don't wait for me for dinner. When I come back, I'll bring you a gift." He was not coming home for our anniversary because he was with another woman. I silently melted down the moonstone ring and sent it to Vincent as a gift. Then I packed all my belongings, including the pup in my womb, and left the Shadow pack quietly, never to return.