The Woman I Was Before Novels & Stories

He restored her faith in herself. "I finally got here," she said quietly. "I will not let everything you have done for me go to waste. I promise you, I will succeed." She lowered the picture frame and drank a glass of red wine that had been prepared for her. "I wonder how they will react when they see me again." She made a sheepish grin as she looked at her reflection in the glass window. The woman on the mirror was so different from the woman that she used to be. There was no trace of her old naive self now. Everything about her was powerful and strong. One look at her and you'd know that she wasn't someone to mess with.

“You aren’t part of what I forgot.” “No,” it replied—finally, with a voice so calm it made her stomach knot. “I am what you were before.” Before the Gate. Before the Spiral. Before the first time she bent instead of broke. “Before what?” she asked, her voice smaller now. “Before you chose to survive.”

The girl I used to be had been broken by rejection. The woman I was becoming… was built from something harder.

“Thank you… really.” He looked at me for a long moment, his green eyes beaming with kindness. “You know what, Veronica? You’re not a mess. You’re just a very intelligent, capable woman who got sidetracked — who forgot who she used to be.” I blinked, his words echoing in my head. Who was I before all this? Before Chase. Before my father’s expectations crushed me! “I was in college,” I began quietly, staring at the waves outside the window. “Graduating in computer science. I used to be a techie — coding, designing, creating things that made sense. I even ran workshops on graphic design, built prototypes, little projects…”

"Gelato it is. But first, let's watch the sunset." We stood together in the gold‑pink light, the sea stretching endlessly before us. I thought of the girl who had followed Lorenzo to Sicily, believing in love and loyalty. She was a stranger now, someone I had left behind in a fake marriage, in a penthouse full of lies. The woman I had become was forged in betrayal, but she was not defined by it. She was defined by the empire she had reclaimed, the family she had chosen, and the future she would build, not for any man, but for herself.

Zoe rubbed off part of her smooth thighs while flashing an asymmetrical smile as her green irises were met with the man's grey bead in front of her Hugo smiled, then shook his head. Five seconds later he fixed his sitting position, putting on a serious look with an expressionless flat look. "Miss Zoe Waisglass —" Hugo deliberately paused his sentence. The bald-headed man again leaned his backside on the backrest of the sofa, then folded his hands across his chest —replying to the asymmetrical smile Zoe had previously given him. "Don't you miss yourself when you were a girl named Selene Williams?" asked Hugo to the point.

What none of them knew was that my clothes had been custom-designed, chosen by someone my mate, Ryder Weyland, hired, with my pregnancy in mind—every thread tailored for comfort. During my pregnancy, I had grown used to going without makeup. Yet to them, I was still the she-wolf in thick lipstick, trying to catch August's eye. Three years ago, I walked away from August. I had bonded with a werewolf who saw me for who I was and loved me, not as a trophy, but as a mate. That werewolf was Ryder Weyland, also known as the lycan chairman. Clearly, the "Mrs. Weyland" they'd all been waiting for was me. But not one of them had realized it yet.

“I thought that the woman lied to me and pointed me to the wrong person. I was so mad, you know? But I found out later that the girl was your real daughter, and we treated her ‘really nicely’. “Judging by your expression, I feel it was much better than killing you! Hahaha!” My father stared at All Stars. “Who’s that woman?” “Don’t you know? We caught one woman before your daughter. She said that she was tortured while under your care and hates you. She said that if we let her go, she’d help us catch you. “But she lied to me. Still, we managed to kill your daughter, and that’s still great. It feels much better making you live in the eternal pain of losing your only remaining family.

She can insult me and talk about my past all she wants but for the first time in years, I am ready to move past it. The old woman smiles at me and I honestly consider the fact that she may be insane. However, it’s true that her words spark something inside of me. I really don’t have to be that broken girl who barely wanted to live. I want to be more. I want to be with him. its then that I know that I loved him before he gave me his heart. I’ve wanted him from the very beginning.

But the grief stayed quiet. This girl had been happy. The smiles were careless. The way she leaned into people looked easy. She looked loved. I smiled before I noticed I was doing it. Whatever happened three years ago had not created me. It had erased me. This girl existed long before Evie. I closed the album, then dropped it on the bed. The door was pushed open. I looked toward it because I did not hear a knock. An older woman stepped into the room and stopped short when she saw me. She stood frozen, with her eyes wide. Her mouth opened, then closed.