The Afflicted Real Story

My best friend was a "mistress breakup consultant". I had lent her money to start her business, and her very first job turned out to be breaking up my own marriage. "Jessie, what's the point of a loveless marriage? You've wasted Harold's time for five years. Are you really going to keep clinging to him and making him miserable for the rest of his life?" my best friend asked. I laughed at the self-righteous nonsense she was spouting and had security escort her out. She came right back, though, this time with a so-called "Anti-Mistress Alliance", live-streaming the chaos as they broke into my company. "The one who isn't loved is the real intruder!" "Fight for love at all costs!" They chanted while smashing up my office. I watched them calmly, waiting until they wore themselves out before pulling out a contract. "The 100,000 dollars you borrowed from me has been overdue for six months. If you don't repay it soon, I'll be forced to take legal action. "And, the lab equipment you've destroyed is valued at 5,550,000 dollars. You'll need to compensate me at full price. "Otherwise, I'll see you in court."

As the male lead, Henry Johnston, forces himself on me, a row of comments suddenly appears before my eyes. "Henry is about to misunderstand and think Aria drugged him! The angst is about to begin!" "I'm thrilled just thinking about Henry regretting dearly after Aria dies!" "Keep up the act, Henry. After she dies, you'll be hugging her corpse and crying every day." That is when I realize that I am the tragic female lead in a story where I am destined to be tormented until I die. The readers treat my death as a highlight to push the plot forward. They are counting down to my death. As I look at Henry, who is panting on top of me, anger courses through me. I grab a table lamp and smash it into him, killing him on the spot. Who says that the one who dies in a toxic romance story must always be the female lead?

My dad is a fan of tough love parenting. When I was a kid, there was a time when I obtained full marks on two subjects. But he told me, "Your grades don't mean anything in life. If you were a true man, you'd leap down five floors without batting an eyelash." Some time later, I was awarded for my act of bravery. But Dad scoffed in my face. "Not even a hair is harmed on your head. Why should you be awarded anyway?" I thought Dad wanted me to go through more training in life. On Christmas Eve, he ditched me on a snowy mountain under the guise of wanting me to go through more training. He didn't give me a tent or a lighter. Later on, Dad even brags about his parenting method to his relatives and friends. "A real man should survive and thrive in a desperate situation! I told Julian that he can forget about being my son if he can't even make his way back to the summit!" But the red dot on the GPS tracker installed in his phone hasn't moved for the past three hours. The truth is, I've already frozen to death in the mountains. Trapped in my fist is a crumpled, torn scrap of paper. Meanwhile, my soul is currently floating above the dining table while watching Dad brag about his tough love parenting.

I masterminded a half-billion-dollar art auction to wash money for Miles’s family. But at the celebration party, Miles gave all the credit to Rebecca. His childhood friend. The daughter of the family’s consigliere. I stormed into his study. “Miles, head curator was Rebecca? Are you sure about that?” He looked up from a cloud of smoke, pulling me into his arms. His voice was a low, soothing rumble. “Valerie, I know you want to prove yourself, but this was all Rebecca. Especially the Caravaggio. The real one, worth three hundred million. She’s the one who pulled it off.” His lips brushed my forehead, his breath hot. “I don’t love you because you can fix some old paintings. You’re my queen, always. My girl. You don’t have to worry about her.” I almost laughed. The anger was choking me. “She can’t tell the difference between oil and acrylic. How the hell would she know a real from a fake?” “Enough!” Miles cut me off, his tone leaving no room for argument. “I know what Rebecca can do. Don’t make a scene just because you’re jealous.” His hands tightened, trapping me in his smoky embrace. “Don’t disappoint me, Valerie.” But he already had. When I’d had enough of his favoritism and his blindness, I walked. And that's when he went crazy. Scoured the earth looking for me. Begging me to come back, saying he was blind, that he’d been wrong about everything.

Sienna was Alpha Landon’s fated mate, yet she could only stand by as her own son called another woman “Mommy.” She gave them everything but they never cared. Shattered by their betrayal, Sienna walked away from the pack, her mate bond, and the life that destroyed her. Years later, she has risen from the ashes as a powerful businesswoman, returning to the capital to expand her empire. But fate throws her into an alliance with the man nobody would expect: the new Alpha King, Arthur, the ruler of the entire werewolf world. He doesn’t want a mate. Neither does she. They swear they’ll never fall for each other. But why does his touch calm her raging wolf? And why does his heartbeat stutter every time she says his name? And why does it feel like the real danger isn’t their enemies— but the bond they’re trying so desperately to deny?

I used to be the perfect daughter for my father, marrying Alpha Alexander for the benefit of my home pack, even though Alexander refused to mark me and insisted our marriage was merely a contract. I then became the perfect Luna for my Alpha husband, still hoping I could win his affection one day and we would be real husband and wife. But everything changed the day I was told that my wolf had gone dormant. The doctor warned me that if I didn’t mark or reject Alexander within a year, I would die. However, neither my husband nor my father cared enough to help me. In my despair, I made the decision to stop being the docile girl they wanted me to be. Soon, everyone called me crazy, but that was exactly what I wanted—rejection and divorce. What I didn’t expect was that my once arrogant husband would one day beg me not to leave…

It was the climactic moment of my game, but the enemy's flash bang blinded me. After I reopened my eyes, I found myself in the world of the post-apocalyptic underdog comeback story I'd ranted about to my friend the day before. No, I wasn't the protagonist with a cheat for a system. Instead, I was the cannon fodder who suffered the worst fate. He also had my name. I found myself locked outside the armored vehicle while a swarm of high-level zombies had surrounded me. 'Blast,' I thought. 'All this just because I flamed them? And I just made a pentakill after my 8-win streak!' I told myself to calm down and let my mind do its work, but then the laughter of this body's wife echoed from the walkie-talkie. "Stop covering for him, gunners! We're livestreaming to the whole camp. My husband's going to rip these Tier Six zombies to shreds!" Then, the woman's useless male best friend buzzed with excitement. "I'll have a permanent spot in the inner city if he distracts the horde and they rip him apart in the process, babe!" If this went the way of the original story, I'd beg for help only to get no answer and be ripped apart by the zombies. Fortunately, I wasn't the same coward this guy used to be. The woman kept egging me on. I sneered. I didn't spend years playing competitive games for nothing. And so, I grabbed a high-frequency concussion grenade that could get the attention of every single zombie in a 3-mile radius, smashed the ventilation valve of the armored vehicle, and hurled the grenade inside.

Victoria died with hatred in her heart—slaughtered by the very family she once trusted, her inheritance stolen, her daughter condemned to a cruel fate, and her name dragged through the dirt. In her final moments, she made a vow… If she ever had another chance, she would destroy them all. When she opens her eyes again, Victoria finds herself ten years in the past—back to the moment where everything first went wrong. Back to the house that broke her. Back to the people who ruined her life. But this time, she isn’t the naïve, obedient girl they once controlled.

“I, Ryker Voss, future Alpha of Silver Ridge, reject you, Elara Vance, as my mate. My pack needs a Queen, not a biological defect. I choose your sister.” Elara was the true-born daughter of the Alpha, but in the eyes of her parents, she was a mistake. They replaced her with Kaelith, an adopted Alpha-born prodigy, turning Elara into a servant in her own home. She waited for her mating bond to save her, only for her fated mate to choose her sister’s power over their soul-bond. Left for dead in the treacherous Dead Lands, Elara is found by the Shadow Vanguard. Under the brutal mentorship of Alpha Varick, she realizes she isn't a weak Omega, she is a "Wraith," a rare wolf who thrives in the dark. When her old pack faces a threat that even Kaelith’s strength can’t stop, they beg the Vanguard for help. They find Elara. She’s no longer the girl who cried in the kitchens. She is the Vanguard’s deadliest weapon, she is Alpha Varick’s equal, and she is coming to reclaim the crown they told her she was too weak to wear.

I lucked out, securing a guaranteed admission spot at Westbridge University—the one the real heiress throws away. Nicole Stewart drops out for love and runs off with the school's bully, shattering what should've been her perfect life. Meanwhile, I'm branded a thief, accused of stealing her place. However, I fight my way up to become a powerhouse in business and even marry her childhood sweetheart, Spencer Lowe. Yet, at the peak of it all, I open my eyes to find myself back to graduation day of senior year, right when I'm filling out my choices of colleges. A live barrage of comments flashes before my eyes. "That fake heiress, Gloria Stewart, is nothing but a thief. She stole Nicole's life!" "In her last life, Nicole actually dropped out of school to start a business with some school bully. She even gave her childhood sweetheart, who was her fiance, to someone else! Ugh, she's so stupid and pathetic." "Good thing Nicole gets a second chance. This time, the real heiress has awakened, so let's just see how miserable that fake heiress who stole her life becomes!" I just smile at the scrolling insults. Sorry, but I carve my own path. Nicole can be reborn a hundred times, and she still can't stop me from rising to the top.