Santa Muerte Prayer Card

On the day before New Year's Eve, I didn't shut the window all the way, and my little sister sneezed. My parents kicked me out and ordered me to collect firewood in the dark. Inside, the family crowded around her, laughing as they handed her presents. I didn't cry or make a scene. Instead, I slung the basket onto my back before heading into the mountains through the wind and snow. I didn't find any firewood. I found a man instead. His leg was wedged in a crack between rocks, bloody enough to scare me. When he saw me, he said in a hoarse voice, "Get me out of here, girl. I can give you whatever you want." I looked up at him, my eyes finally focusing. "Really? Then I want you to be my dad."

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.

Joyce Stone, the beautiful and rich campus belle, often puts the tab on my account whenever she uses her card on any transactions. When she helps a low-income student with their financial problems, the money I save up from thrifting and working part-time jobs for the month is instantly depleted. When she treats the whole class to lunch, the prize money I won from my physics competition is drained right away. I try to argue with Joyce, only to hear the whole class calling me jealous of her beauty and kindness. Only my boyfriend, Lucas Zimmer, still trusts me. We work together to come up with all sorts of solutions to stop Joyce from using my money. But no matter what I do, my money keeps getting funneled from my account. Before the final exams, Joyce suddenly suggests that we all attend an auction and buy whatever we want there. The million-dollar funds that I've gathered from selling my house in order to treat my mom's illness vanishes from my account immediately. Mom ends up dying from her illness. Since I no longer have money in my account, my life force is the one getting depleted when Joyce keeps spending with her card. In the end, I've died as well. Before I close my eyes, I notice a video of Lucas and Joyce kissing on my phone. He looks at Joyce lovingly before saying, "Melanie gets jealous far too easily. If I don't pretend to trust her, I'm worried that she might go berserk and hurt you." When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Joyce is about to use her card to pay for everyone's expenses. Before she can open her mouth, I dig out my bank card right away. "Let me treat all of you to whatever you want today."

My husband lies to me about working late on Christmas Day. I know he wants to give me a surprise—I saw a jewelry set worth millions of dollars in his pocket. However, all I receive is the news of him pretending to be Santa Claus as he delivers a gift to his female secretary. She flaunts it on social media. "You're the most precious Christmas gift I've gotten." My husband changes the background photo on his social media to a photo of them together. I smile and like the post. Later, the secretary comes to me and smugly says she's pregnant. Meanwhile, I pull out a diagnosis report verifying that my husband is sterile. "Checkmate!" She visibly panics.

As I grit my teeth and buy the last box of discounted shrimp, a young woman dressed head to toe in designer brands is picking out imported seafood beside me. She glances at me and casually drops a king crab into my cart. "It's the holidays. Treat yourself better," she says with a carefree smile. "I'll pay for everything you buy today." I am shocked when I see the five-figure price tag. I quickly try to decline her by waving my hands frantically. She pulls out a black card and shrugs. "It's fine. My sugar daddy gives me more money than I can spend. If I don't use it, he'll get mad." I force a laugh. "Sounds like he's really generous to you." "He's alright, I guess. I can't spend money as fast as he earns it," she says nonchalantly. After a slight pause, she goes on, "Speaking of which, his girlfriend is pretty dumb. She works nonstop for years just to help him pay off a debt that doesn't even exist. When I say I want him to cook on New Year's Eve, he immediately ditches his girlfriend to come be with me." I freeze for a moment. My boyfriend, Eric Sterling, is in debt. Just as I am thinking it can't be that much of a coincidence, my phone buzzes with a message from Eric. He texts, "Anne, the company assigned me to an extra shift tonight. I get triple the pay. Buy yourself something nice to eat. I'll be home tomorrow."

Deck the halls with daddy issues and scream "yes, Santa" until the neighbors complain. She sold herself to save her mother. He bought her to settle a score. Neither expected twelve days of captivity to feel like coming home. Ten years ago, Evangeline Rose fled Willow Creek and the cruel boy who made her life hell. Now she’s back with a new name, a new body, and one desperate choice: enter the town’s secret Christmas auction where wealthy men bid on willing women. When the hammer falls at five hundred thousand dollars, Eva expects a stranger. Instead, she gets Grayson Holt—her former tormentor, now a devastatingly dangerous man in a half-open Santa jacket who just bought twelve uninterrupted nights with the virgin he once swore no one would ever want. She should be terrified. He's the reason she hid in bathroom stalls and cried herself to sleep. But the first time he kisses her, his hands shake. The first time she fights back, he groans her name like a prayer. And somewhere between the firelight and the snow and the silk ribbons around her wrists, they both realize the ugly truth: He didn't buy her to break her. He bought her because he's been broken without her. The boy who spray-painted "fat ugly bitch" on her locker is the same man who falls to his knees in the snow on the last morning and begs her not to leave. The girl who swore she'd never forgive him is the same woman who has to choose: walk away free, or stay with the monster who finally admitted he's been in love with her since the day he made her cry. Eva spent a decade learning to hate Grayson Holt. Turns out she's been loving him the whole damn time.

Yvonne Larson, my housekeeper, has always been punctual, but she ends up being late today. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Carter. Dinner's not ready yet. I hope you won't mind. I had no choice. I waited for over half an hour, but no one got the door for me. I even called Mrs. Carter a few times, but she didn't take my calls. That's why I ended up running late." Halfway through changing into my house slippers, I pause and frown. "Yvonne, didn't Susanna give you the access card to the apartment?" Yvonne looks confused. "The access card? Mrs. Carter never gave me any card." "Never?" "That's right," Yvonne confirms timidly while wiping the sweat off her brow. "For the past month, I've always had to call Mrs. Carter and ask her to open the door for me. She wasn't picking up her phone today, so I had to wait outside…" That's strange. I've checked the logs before. The access card has been used multiple times throughout the past month.

I never really cared about the concept of virginity. All I wanted was to get fucked but the question now is by who? Her, him or both? There’s one person I’ve wanted my whole life. The problem? I’m not supposed to want her. This summer someone wants to destroy me. Good, let them try. Now it’s time to flip the tables. I guess we’ll never know but all I know is that this time around? I’ll be fucking reborn. Some girls lose their innocence. I’m about to lose everything… while enjoying every second of it.

During the company’s celebration party, Zenia Andrews, my girlfriend, declared in front of everyone that she was going to get married. Everyone turned to look at me with teasing smiles. “Not bad, Felix; you’re finally tying the knot with Zenia.” However, their smiles stiffened the very next second, because Zenia announced that she was not marrying me, but her assistant. I showed no sign of anger or sadness. I just dug out a wad of cash and threw it in her face. “Get someone else to be his bridegroom. Here’s five hundred dollars. Split it evenly between you two.” Zenia ran over and said airily to me, “Don’t get jealous so easily! I already told you that we’re just going through the motions. He’s a foreigner and wants to get a green card. The easiest way for him to do so is by marrying me. The moment he gets it, we’ll get divorced. Then, I’ll marry you right away, okay? He even prepared a wedding gift for you to repay you!” I just smiled as I listened to her. When she saw that I was not behaving strangely, she nodded in relief and returned to the banquet hall. She trampled all over my love like it was worth nothing. How could I possibly let her trample all over it again? My next reaction was to call our rival company. “We’ll do as we promised last time. I’ll bring all the core patents when I join you.”

As the project lead, I was supposed to receive an annual bonus of $28,000. However, my wife transferred all the money to her newly hired male assistant and simply tossed me a supermarket gift card instead. “There’s $30 on this card. Buy whatever you want. I’m pretty generous, aren’t I?” I was stunned. “Joy, my mother needs that money for her surgery. You can’t be serious!” She sneered and said, “Why waste money on someone who’s dying anyway? At most, I’ll give you $700 to pick out a nice coffin.” Looking at her smug face, I smiled as well. Joy probably forgot that although she held all the company shares, the core patents of the company were registered under my personal name. I immediately sent a message to my lawyer. [Starting today, I’m releasing all patents in my name for free!]