The Book Choices Novels & Stories

It's come to my notice that I actually do that to him a lot. "Rica wait!" he's voice boomed through out the library. I turned back and gave him a look like he was crazy, I mean he might have as well been, didn't he know the librarian Mrs Agboola was a no nonsense woman, she could banned us permanently from the Library. Dili probably might have not cared about that but I strongly did. The library was my only form of safehaven in school, and I was very determined to keep it that way. "I don't think the people at Zuma rock heard you well, why not be a little louder ehn" I whispered sarcastically with yet another eye roll.

Every time he looked at me, like I was precious, not owned, not bartered, but precious, it made something break loose in my chest. Maybe that was what love was supposed to feel like. Not a cage. Not a bargain. But a choice, wrapped in gentle laughter. Lucian. The name popped up in my head, and I shoved it back down. Not today. After the bookstore, Benjamin took me to a small café for sandwiches and juice. We found a seat by the window, sunlight catching on his hair. I watched him as he read through my shopping receipts, double-checking them with that calm, methodical way of his.

In my last life, I chose to marry Julian, the man I’d adored for years. He betrayed me and tormented me until my dying day. Reborn, I found myself back at the moment the Don asked for my choice. Without hesitation, I pointed to Damien, the man rumored to be a sickly cripple. "The choice has been made." I walked out of Don Alistair’s study, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind me. The candlelight in the hallway flickered, casting eerie shadows on the walls.

Only choice. The word sat heavy in Ava's mind. She had thought she understood it, had believed that her decisions throughout this crisis had been freely made. But looking back, she saw the architecture of necessity that had shaped every move, the invisible constraints that had narrowed her options until only one path remained visible. True choice required more than the absence of obvious coercion. It required the presence of genuine alternatives, each with its own legitimacy, each demanding its own sacrifice.

"I said I'd accept you as my mate. Three days—the bonding ceremony will happen. Play nice. Accept Allison, and we'll all get along fine. Otherwise—I can make history repeat itself." My heart seized. My hand drifted to my belly without thinking. So he remembered too. Damian was also reborn. Luna Queen tried to stop him, but he walked out without a backward glance. Abandoned at my own Choosing Ceremony. The pity in everyone's eyes was suffocating. But I didn't rage. I smiled. Then I turned to Luna Queen. "Luna Queen, the pact was simple. I had to choose between your two sons. I never said I had to pick Damian."

He thought of Avery, the girl who was built to need and was learning to want, and he chose her again, in the silence of the library, in the space between performance and becoming. "Let them watch," he said. "Let them report. Let Dante build his archive and Chelsea hers. This—" He raised their joined hands, visible, undeniable. "This is ours. Not negotiation. Not data. Just—" He searched for the word, found it. "Just boring. Just real. Just chosen." Avery smiled. The glow, controlled but present, the becoming he was witnessing without architecting. "Just chosen," she agreed. They stayed until the bell rang, until the library emptied, until their choice had been observed and catalogued and wou

The monastery’s walls seemed to breathe as the golden light dimmed, casting elongated shadows that danced like specters. The single word—Choose—hung heavy in the air, a demand that felt as immovable as the stones around them. Aria stepped closer to Lucian, her eyes fixed on the ancient book. “What exactly are we choosing?”

"The graduate school one. The one you finished tonight." "What about it." "What did you write about," I said. "The true version." He was quiet for a moment. "About choosing," he said. "About the specific moment when a person understands that the comfortable choice and the right choice are going in different directions and they have to decide which one to follow." He paused. "About what it costs. And what the cost is worth." He looked at me sideways. "I wrote about a girl who noticed eleven empty chairs." I looked at him.

"Adrian entered the Chamber of Stories." The next page... was completely blank. Adrian looked up. "It hasn't been written." "No." The stranger answered. "It hasn't been chosen." The words echoed through the endless library. Adrian slowly closed the book. "So history isn't fixed?" The mysterious man smiled. "History is fixed." "Choices are not." He walked toward another enormous shelf. This one contained hundreds of books. Every one bore Adrian's name. Some books were burned. Some were soaked in water. Some were stained with blood.

That child. 'What was I going to do' I covered my ears crying out loud and in a flash I was back in the bathroom in tears... "What just happened to me... What did I just see" I cried "THE BOOK HAS SEEN THE FUTURE AND HAS WARNED YOU... YOU ARE LUCKY THE BOOK HAS TAKEN A LIKING TO YOU... THE BOOK DOESN'T WORK FOR ANYONE BUT THE CHOSEN ONE... NOW HURRY AND LET NOT BE IN VAIN. SAVE YOURSELF"