Victories Greater Than Death

(COMPLETED) Krystal Hunter died with a broken heart, a knife in her back, and one regret—she finally won the damn lottery right before she died. Ten million dollars, untouched, deposited in the bank… wasted. Or so she thought. Because when Krystal wakes up in a hospital bed—very much not dead—the world has gone to economic hell. The global economy has collapsed, the dollar has depreciated into dust... and her forgotten bank account? Now worth one hundred billion. With the world burning and billionaires falling like flies, Krystal is no longer the girl they betrayed. She’s richer than empires, hungrier than ever, and back to collect what she’s owed—with interest. Ex-lovers, fake friends, and bloodthirsty siblings beware: She died once. She’s not dying quietly again. A deliciously savage romantic revenge comedy about wealth, power, payback, and kissing someone hot while the economy collapses.

Seraphine Hale, a genius musician, announces her return to the country. When a reporter asks whether she's back for her first love, she smiles icily. "Are you talking about that trash? It wouldn't be any of my business even if he were to drop dead tomorrow." What she doesn't know is that I've already been dead for close to a decade.

Five years ago, my family died in a car crash. My parents. My adopted sister, Liz. Everyone but me. They left behind grief, an empty house, and a debt so large it swallowed my life. When the collectors came, I turned to the only person I had left—my husband, Adrian. He told me he had cut ties with his own family to marry me and had nothing left. I believed him. For five years, I worked every job I could find, paid every dollar I earned, and told myself love was worth the suffering. When the balance dropped to its final $18,000, I signed up for a paid drug trial at a private clinic. They handed me a waiver, warned me about possible delayed reactions, and promised fast money if I swallowed the experimental dose. I thought it would buy us a new beginning. Instead, I came home early and heard Adrian on the phone. “Let Liz use the card. Evelyn still doesn’t know. She took away Liz’s money five years ago, so she has to earn every dollar back herself.” Then he laughed softly. “One more year, and her punishment is over.” That was how I learned the dead were alive. The debt was fake. My husband had never been poor. And the life I had fought so hard to survive was only a sentence they had given me.

After my mom, Margaret Hale, dies of a heart attack, she starts appearing in my sister Claire Dawson's dreams. In a dream, Mom tells Claire to climb Mount Mistwood before sunrise and burn the entrance ticket for her, or the other ghosts will bully her. Claire doesn't tell me anything. She packs a bag in the middle of the night and forces herself to the summit. While she's gasping her way up that mountain, I'm asleep at home when I suddenly go into cardiac arrest. I wake up in the emergency room with doctors shouting over me. I barely survive before Mom appears in Claire's dreams again. This time, she says skydiving is her last wish. If Claire doesn't do it for her, she won't rest in peace. Claire signs up right away, ignoring everything I say. But then, her parachute refuses to open, and she plummets toward the ground. Luckily, she gets snagged in a tree and walks away without a scratch. Meanwhile, I miss a step going downstairs, tumble to the bottom, end up covered in bruises, and break five ribs. While I'm recovering in the hospital, Mom shows up in Claire's dreams again. Now, she wants Claire to go to the South Pole for her, saying she can finally move on and be reincarnated once Claire completes the trip. Claire doesn't hesitate and books a tour on the spot. While she's taking pictures with penguins, I freeze to death back home during a 104-degree heatwave. Only after I die does it finally hit me that Mom's missions for Claire always end with me on death's doorstep. What I don't understand is how Mom keeps shifting the danger meant for Claire onto me instead. The next time I open my eyes, I'm back on the morning after Mom first appeared in Claire's dream.

After dying in a fire, Janelle Erwin and I open our eyes to see ourselves standing at a wedding venue. This time, Janelle chooses to marry her childhood friend, Lance Huff, who has just returned to the country. She's extraordinarily resentful of me, so she doesn't hesitate to kick me out of her company and let Lance take over my position there. "I will never marry a loser like Wesley! On top of that, he's just a mutt who belongs to the Erwin family!" But right after Lance takes over North Hill Corporation, the company keeps losing bids one after another. At one point, it was even dragged into a murder case. Janelle asks me for help again. But this time, she wants me to become the scapegoat for Lance's crimes. After witnessing my rejection, she starts using the deeds of kindness she's done for me in the past just to emotionally manipulate me. But I just guffaw in Janelle's face as I stare at her. "I've already paid the Erwins back for their benevolence in my past life! Now, you're the ones owing me in this life!"

My fated mate, Dexter, became the Alpha King when his brother died. He inherited the crown, the power… and his brother’s widowed mate, Jenica. All because I, a half-breed, had failed for years to give him a pureblood heir. He told me he had to mark Jenica, and the pain nearly shattered me. But he held me close, kissed my tears, and swore that his wolf, his fate, had chosen only me. That I would always be his one and only Luna. I believed him. And yet, he still spent every night in her bed. Then, Jenica became pregnant. While the pack celebrated, Dexter forced me from the Luna’s suite, all so her pup could be born into the pack’s purest lunar aura. As I felt our bond unravel thread by painful thread, I sent a final, coded message to a friend in the human world. “In four days, get me out.” That night, I made a choice. My time as his mate was over.

I had personally trained Damiano Vestri and brought him up the ranks to become the mafia’s Don. The family’s inner circle accepted him, and he was loyal only to me. Whenever bullets went flying, he would always shield me and take many of them for me. The night before our wedding, I waited for his return, but what I got was news of his death. A week later, I received an email with a pregnancy report and a photo. The photo showed Damiano caressing another woman’s belly. It turned out he had faked his death so that he could be with his first love. The due date for her pregnancy was approaching. I scoffed and clicked the safety off on my gun. If he wanted to fake his death, I would help him turn it into a real one.

Trevor didn’t start by loathing Sireen. Heck, he had always been nice to her. It all went downhill when Sireen’s sister—Trevor’s mate, Kylie, died in an attack, and a weak Sireen did nothing to save her. In his terms, she’s a murderer. Ignoring her trauma, Trevor became Sireen’s tormentor. Her bully. The bane of her very existence. So when he finds out at the start of second year that Sireen is his second chance mate, he definitely rejects her. But wait. Not before humiliating her in front of the entire school, exposing her guarded secret which was an outcome of watching her twin sister die. When Sireen and Trevor are forced to breathe the same air as each other and see each other in and out of school everyfreakingday, at least one person is set to Lose. Their. Sanity. How much torture can Sireen take? And just how long can Trevor stand his rejected mate’s presence? Delve in to find out!

My husband, who was a drug enforcement police officer, personally got me into rehab. My son was cheering on the side, saying that he no longer had to see me under the influence for a long time. After I was discharged, I discovered my husband moved in with his lover and our son. I begged him to come back and told him that someone would kill me. He did not believe me. Instead, he said coldly, “If you die, you better end up in a trash can. Otherwise, I’d have to deal with your body.” My son cheered at the side. “Mommy is finally gone!” After a week, I was dismembered. My body parts were found in multiple trash cans. He was the police in charge of the case.

My husband is the Don of the entire New York East Coast Mafia. For ten years, I dimmed my own light to be his perfect silent partner, the dutiful wife who gave him the perfect heir. I thought we were the lovers who wou ld die for each other. Then came a mere associat. My husband and son had formed an alliance with the woman who seem want to take my place. But they just said, "Elena, you have the crown and the kingdom. She has nothing but us. Be generous." So, to make her smile, my husband trampled on my dignity again and again. To please her, my son affectionately calls her "Mom." In their eyes, I was the iron wall, the woman who would swallow any insult for the sake of the family honor. Until the fire. My husband locked me inside the burning room, to let me "reflect" on my jealousy. He didn't know that the fire didn't kill me. But it burned away the last ash of my love for him.