Smiling But Crying

Warn️ing! 18+, harsh word, mental illnes, bloody scenes, carried away, crying and emotional Ini tentang seorang pemuda yang kesepian. Dia yang takut kehilangan, yang takut ditinggalkan lagi. Tentang dia yang selalu memendam segalanya sendirian: lalu ketika ia menemukan sandaran yang tepat, melepaskan adalah hal yang paling mustahil. Di sisi lain, seorang gadis hidup dalam bayang-bayang masa lalu yang kelam. Dalam perjuangannya melawan rasa cemas, di akhir itu, dia menemukan Juna. Namun, tanpa sebuah alasan yang pasti-rasa cemas itu kembali datang dan dia memutuskan untuk hidup dalam kepura-puraan. asteroid, 2021

"I want you back, Cali." I utter, looking at her eyes. "What?" Shock written in her face. "I want you back," She scoffs, "You must be gone crazy." "I'm serious. I want you back. I still love you, Cali..." She slaps me. "You want me back? Then you are a jerk! You left me. You left me here when you already made a promise that we'd always be together." The sounds of her crying and her broken voice broke my heart into pieces. "Sorry. I'm sorry, " After all, this is all I can say. My tears started to fell on my cheeks.

It was a national holiday and we decided to drive back to my husband's hometown to spend the holidays. One day before we left, my husband's childhood crush came crying to him that she had not managed to buy train tickets home. My husband immediately decided to let her have my seat in the car and insisted that I take the train instead. I looked at him in disbelief. There was shock in my eyes. Even my son insisted I take the train. "Mommy, Aunt Rosie is so pretty. How could you make her take the train?" I did not argue. I booked my train ticket right in front of them. However, it was to my own hometown. I no longer wanted a biased husband and a disloyal son.

•••[Excerpt]••• "Stop... Stop!" Rosana's voice quivered as tears of fright brimmed her vision. She had been crying for hours, but not because she was leaving the beautiful life she had planned with her fiance behind. She was crying because her newly wedded husband had tortured and murdered a man mercilessly on their wedding night. "Stop, please..." He ignored her. "No... Stop touching me. Take your bloody hands off me!" Indeed, his hands were covered with the blood of the man he had killed earlier. But he didn't care. "S... Stop touching me!" He grabbed her neck and she gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "You shouldn't make me do this on our wedding night, Bambolina. You are mine and I will take whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, and however I want, till death do us part, Mi Amor" ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Rosana Marcello was already living the life she had dreamt about. With her boyfriend-turned-fiance by her side, nothing could be more perfect. Some weeks before the wedding, she was called back home by her parents and welcomed with devastating news. She had been betrothed since when she was a little girl but never knew. Now, he has come to claim what is rightfully his. With or without her approval. He is deadly, He is evil, He is the ruthless Sergio De Niro, known by everyone. Rosana can't escape this. She can't run away from him because he will comb the world and kill everyone in it, just to find her. She is now his possession, his property. It's either she tames him and melts his cold heart or he breaks her into a thousand pieces. Will she succeed or get consumed by his burning hell?

Three months after fleeing my wedding, I unexpectedly ran into my ex-fiancé at a high-society gathering in the capital. Out of the blue, someone asked me, "Teresa, I saw on social media that you're getting married again?" "Ms. Carter, when can we celebrate your big day?" Smiling confidently, I replied, "Next month." In an instant, everyone began congratulating me and Daniel. After all, everyone knew he had been my fiancé. After the party, Daniel cornered me, his tone sharp. "You're the one who ran away from the wedding, and now you're the one rushing to get married? Do you think this is funny?" I found his reaction amusing. Fixing him with an icy stare, I said with a faint smirk: "Who said my new groom is you?"

My fiancé, Owen Lockhart, came from old money. He kept a canary in a gilded cage, spoiling her rotten. Just as I was about to break off the engagement with him, a barrage of comments suddenly popped up in my mind. [What did Owen do wrong? He just wanted to get your attention.] [Don't break up with him. All you need to do is shed a few tears, and he'll give you everything.] I turned my head, and through the window, I saw the canary in her high-end jewelry, smiling brightly as she hooked her arm around Owen's. He lazily lowered his eyes, yet his expression held a hint of indifference mixed with a subtle affection. I smiled bitterly, replying to the lawyer's message: [Go on with drafting the engagement annulment agreement.]

I trusted her. I trusted him. Big mistake. When I caught my husband and my best friend tangled in betrayal, my world shattered. And my daughter? She chose her as her new mom. Me? Just a housewife. Just the ‘overbearing mom’ who cared too much. Done. I walked away, leaving their apologies and tears in the dust. My husband dropped to his knees, begging, “Please, come back. We can fix this.”My daughter clung to me, crying, “Mom, don’t leave me.” I laughed: “Fix it? Don’t leave? Too late. You had your chance. I don’t need either of you anymore.”

Everyone knew Peter was crazy about me. But five years into our marriage, he knocked up his mentor's daughter. Crying, Cindy grabbed his hand. "I won't let Yuna know." Peter just stared her down. "You'd better not. I'm only helping you because I owe your dad. Don't get any bright ideas." She had the baby on my birthday. Peter looked at the kid like he was already in love. Then Cindy, all smug, texted me: [Ms. Zander, don't you think my baby deserves a dad with a real title?] I signed the divorce papers and caught a flight to Hampsburg.

I’d been dead a month before my family even noticed. It wasn’t concern that brought them to that realization. It was my silence after the so-called “dinner” with Adam Rossi, the infamous mafia boss. My father scoffed like always,“She probably shacked up with that bastard. Too busy spreading her legs to pick up the damn phone.” My sister texted me a photo of them smiling under the Christmas tree, ornaments twinkling like nothing was wrong. Bitch, she wrote. You better talk Mr. Rossi into working with Dad, or you might as well be dead already. And my mother—once the softer one—was now colder than the frost on their windows. “I told you, we should’ve sent Gia to charm Mr. Rossi. Serena always screws things up.” They didn’t think I would die. Not until they found my body—broken, rotten, and forgotten—in Adam Rossi’s basement.

The Devil You Called Grimace. Hunger. Love like a curse. They say some doors open only once. She opened hers with three red candles, a drop of blood, and a whisper. Lonely nights, overdue rent, and a heart too heavy to carry — that’s all it took to call him through. Malik. The man made of smoke, shadow, and everything her prayers forgot to protect her from. He came smiling, with promises sweet as sin — protection, money, revenge. Every favor he gave her tasted like salvation until she realized he was feeding on her, one piece at a time. A memory here. A dream there. Her laughter swallowed whole. Now he’s the warmth in her sheets and the whisper in her nightmares. The devil she named, the lover she can’t unmake. Because Malik wasn’t summoned. He was chosen. And love — the kind that burns red under candlelight — always demands a body to keep it alive.