When Flanders Failed Novels & Stories

I'm a coward—someone who gets bullied and never fights back, who only swallows the humiliation in silence. That is, until the year I turned twenty. A well-dressed, elegant couple found me and told me I was their long-lost son. Overjoyed, I followed them back to their castle-like home, convinced that I was finally about to live a better life. But on the very first day, the fake heir made it clear—I would never know a moment's peace. I didn't dare say a word. Cowardly as ever, I could only think about ending my life. The first time, I slit my wrists. They saved me. The second time, I tried to jump off a building. My sister dragged me back. The third time, I drank an entire bottle of pesticide—and still didn't die. … My family finally saw through the fake heir's true color. "So it was you, pulling the strings all along!" My sister plead, "Brother dear, I'm begging you—please don't kill yourself."

Vincent is often misunderstood. His reserved and seemingly rude demeanor hides a sensitive soul—especially when it comes to Jason. Jason, the charming, outgoing guy who is loved by everyone, couldn't be more different. He's never afraid to speak his mind, while Vincent keeps his feelings buried deep. Despite their differences, something undeniable simmers between them. Vincent’s secret crush on Jason is a constant struggle, but Jason’s fearless approach to life and to Vincent begins to break down the walls Vincent has spent so long building. As their relationship shifts from constant friction to something more complicated, Vincent must decide whether to let his guard down or keep hiding beneath the surface of his own feelings.

For three years of marriage, she—Camelia Collyn—was merely a wife on paper. Calvin Ashford—her husband—had never touched her, nor had he ever loved her. When the truth was revealed—that she was only a substitute, and that her husband had been saving himself for his first love—she knew the end of this marriage had already been decided. Calvin Ashford intended to divorce her. Of course, it was all for the sake of returning to Samantha Rose (Tata)—his first love who had come back. However, one mistake on the final night changed everything. Camelia left, leaving behind the divorce papers, and strangely, instead of feeling happy about Camelia’s departure, it was quite the opposite. Why was that so?

Julian Hayes spent eight years climbing from first officer to captain of the most coveted international routes. I stood beside him for every mile of that climb. For him, I walked away from the Valenti family, the most feared Mafia name on the East Coast. I buried Elena Valenti, and became Lina Vale, the girl who smiled in the cabin while he ruled the cockpit. The day I left, my father stood on the marble steps of our estate and said, "Elena, if you walk out that gate for him, don’t come crawling back." Julian never knew. To him, I was a woman with no real family, no real power, and no life worth asking about. I was the one who memorized his flight schedule, packed his stomach pills, and kept dinner warm until midnight. Once, I asked him, "Can you take me into the sky the way you see it? Just once." He didn’t even put down his fork. "The cockpit is a workplace, Lina. Not a theme park." I said okay and never asked again. Then one sleepless dawn, I found the encrypted album on his phone. More than forty cockpit photos: cloud seas, blood-red sunsets, double rainbows after storms, the Milky Way over the Atlantic. Every one had been sent to the same contact. A teddy bear emoji. The newest photo showed half a sun hanging off the wingtip. His caption read, [Next time you’re off, I’ll put you in the observer seat. Sit on the right. That’s where the whole sky opens up.] She replied, [I’ll hold you to that.] I put the phone back. I didn’t change the password, didn’t delete the album, didn’t wake him up to beg for an explanation. At dawn, I brewed his coffee like always, sat alone at the kitchen island, and drank mine in silence. Then I sent my resignation letter and called a number I hadn’t touched in eight years. I watched the first flight of the morning rise beyond the Manhattan skyline and said, "Papa, I’m coming home." When the line connected, my father’s voice was colder than a gun barrel. "Have you thought it through?"

She was about to share her wonderful news, but he beat her to it with a revelation of his own: “I think we should get a divorce.” In an instant, her entire world crumbled. “Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll divorce you.” --- Because she had used her family’s influence to force Parawee into a marriage he never wanted, he had spent three years merely enduring her. But now, Nicha—the woman he had always loved with all his heart—was back. “Let’s get a divorce.” He finally made his move to end it, expecting a clean break and a fresh start. --- Kajarin had been in love with Wee for as long as she could remember. She had begged her family to do whatever it took to make him hers, even though she knew his heart was already occupied. “I have some good news for you.” She had been ready to tell him, but his sudden demand for a divorce changed everything. Now, she had no choice but to bury her secret as deep as it would go. “Let’s head to the district office. I’ll give you the divorce you’ve been waiting for.” She was done. Truly, utterly done with it all. --- While driving his favorite yellow ride, Thamnithi was suddenly flagged down by a woman in a cream mini-dress. She looked like she was running from something, and moved by a sense of kindness, he decided to pick her up. But that one good deed was about to become a moment he would never forget for the rest of his life. “Damn it, Tham! What have you gotten yourself into?!”

A curse is cast upon everyone in this village, reducing us to mutes. But once a villager's lover takes three laps around the back mountain and marries said villager successfully, the curse on that villager will be broken. My childhood friend, who's the same age as me, has already gotten married and embraced his life as a regular person. Even my cousin, who's just turned 18 years old, has her curse broken as well. I, on the other hand, am about to turn 30 years old soon, and yet I'm still a mute. Whenever I'm about to get married, all of my ex-fiances, who kept telling me that they'd love me with all their hearts, would do anything just to terminate our engagements right after they came out of the back mountain. In order to proclaim his deep love for me, my tenth fiance, Isaac Jameson, tells me confidently that he'd definitely marry me once he's done with his laps around the mountain. But as soon as his words fall, his expression changes the moment he sets foot into the mountain. To my horror, Isaac picks up an axe from the ground and begins hacking at me with it. "Why are you still alive in this world? Why can't you just die already?" I can only lie on the ground while suffering from intense pain. I have no idea what's in the back mountain and why the same outcome will happen every time. Why is it that the entire village can break their curse so easily, and yet I can never get married despite having gone through it ten times in a row?

I'm dying, and so is Sean Quinton. He still has hope, though. I don't. Why? Because once I die, my body will become the first to have passed due to a special infection. It'll be dissected and researched to help cure Sean. So, his daily task becomes urging me to die. Unfortunately for him, I'm unwilling to save him another time, so I die not because of the infection but because of carbon monoxide poisoning. It's enough to destroy the symptoms my body shows and ruin their plans to research my corpse.

At a class reunion, I ended up getting together with my high school crush. However, one evening, as I was scrolling through a social media platform, I was suddenly bombarded with mentions tagging me in a shocking post. The content left me seeing stars. "My girlfriend has a car, a house, a great degree, and she's stunning. Yet, somehow, she's into me! Haha!" "To be honest, she's too exceptional, and it's kind of killing my sense of masculinity. Once I manage to get my hands on her assets, I'll have her give me two kids and then live life on my own terms. She won’t be able to control me then." "You guys can stay jealous. Not like you know her anyway, so what can you even do to me?"

When I'm pulling an overnight shift at midnight, I receive a text from my boyfriend of five years, Robert Howell. "I've already ended the rental agreement on our previous apartment. I'm sending you our new address now." After glancing at the address, realization dawns on me immediately. "Is this because of Daisy again?" Daisy Baldwin is the so-called delicate yet strong-willed young woman, whom Robert has mentioned to me. This is our third time moving apartments in just half a year. We've moved from a high-end apartment located in the boisterous city all the way to a residential area in the rural slums. All this… just so Robert can get closer to Daisy. I must have exposed Robert's true intentions, for he sounds quite humiliated and furious. "Can you stop being so petty? Dee Dee was stalked after she got off her overtime shift! You're a woman as well; how is it that you don't have any trace of empathy for her?" As I look out the window and see the night sky, I feel a wave of exhaustion hitting me all of a sudden. Honestly, I don't remember how many times Robert and I have argued over Daisy. At first, I was enraged and aggrieved. Now, I'm just speechless. "I can't be bothered to waste my breath on you. I'm going to pick Dee Dee up from work now." Robert ends the call before I can respond. The thing is, Robert has never asked me if I wanted to move right from the start. He also never asks me if I need a ride home since it's already this late at night. That's why I drop my signature on the overseas assignment agreement that has been left on my desk for a week without consulting Robert at all.

NOTE: This book is emotionally intense with psychological stakes. Noah Hayes was supposed to be starting over. A full scholarship and a future built on talent, not survival. As one of the university’s rising ice hockey stars, everything in his life should finally be falling into place, instead, it starts falling apart on day one when Chase Voss notices him. Beautiful. Cruel. Dangerous in a way that doesn’t need to be hidden. But Noah had bigger problems than a campus king’s grudge. Drowning in debt and desperation, Noah takes a job he knows will cost him, but the man he stole from isn’t just powerful, he’s dangerous. Adrian Voss. Now Noah belongs to him, trapped in a world he never wanted. By day, he’s the university’s ice hockey star, by night, he moves product for a man who owns his life. What started as hatred between Chase and Noah turns into obsession. What should be a rivalry turns into something neither of them can control. Chase falls hard and reckless, but Noah knows better than to trust something that feels like a weakness. And if Chase Voss wants him, then Noah will use him. Play him. Survive him. But the deeper they get, the harder it becomes to tell what’s real and what’s manipulation. And in a world built on power and blood, love is the most dangerous mistake of all, because loving the wrong person could destroy everything, but walking away might be even worse.