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1. In the delivery room of Boston General Hospital, the shadowless lights were so glaring that it was impossible to keep one's eyes open. Nora Shaw lay on the surgical table, her consciousness drifting in and out with waves of blinding pain. She could hear the sharp, frantic beeping of the heart monitor and feel the warm rush of blood leaving her body, staining the white sheets red. "Dr. Martinez, she's lost over 1500 ccs of blood! BP is 70/40 and dropping!" "Get blood prepped! Call the bloo

I first noticed something was wrong with Ayla during our third video call. The image was perfect. Every single one of her eyelashes was there. When she pursed her lips, that slightly asymmetrical curve at the corner of her mouth was exactly how I remembered it. What was wrong was her left ear. That day, she was wearing a silver earring. The light was coming from the right side. The earring should have cast a shadow to the left on her earlobe. But that shadow―it was on the right. A real pers

The driver’s daughter sold my family’s European estate and framed me for running an escort ring inside it. My mother and brother despised me for it. Even my childhood sweetheart believed the vicious rumors and dumped me on the spot. Cast out and abandoned by everyone, I was dragged to a shady medical facility after the driver’s daughter claimed I had a fatal, rotting infection. I was tortured to death in that hospital bed. When I opened my eyes again, I was right back to the day my estate wa

The movie I invested in became a massive box office hit, making me fifty million dollars. Around the same time, my brother lost his job, and my sister-in-law had no income due to her pregnancy. To protect their pride, I pretended that my business had gone under and that I was completely broke. When I got home, no one gave me a warm welcome. They refused to let me sit at the dinner table and kicked me out to sleep on the living room sofa. My nephew shot me with a squirt gun, calling me a wor

1. "My urologist confirmed it. An accident left me permanently sterile. So, Evelyn, that baby in your belly… who does it belong to?" At the Sterling family's annual charity gala, my husband, Damian, the designated heir to the empire, held up a medical report from Mount Sinai for everyone to see. Every word was a cold scalpel, slicing through the perfect life I had so carefully built. The room fell dead silent. Then, it was drowned by a tsunami of whispers. Looks of contempt, curiosity, and

1 I dated Ethan because I owed his family a debt. It took three years to finally feel accepted by that possessive, obsessive man. I married him at twenty, unexpectedly got pregnant, and had Evan. Even after seven years, there was still no wedding. He was always insecure, constantly testing my boundaries, needing constant reassurance that I loved him. And Evan, mimicking his father, never learned to respect me. Then, Mom died. I handled the cremation alone and dragged myself home, exhausted. On

After developing face blindness, I could only recognize the face of my boyfriend, Jaxon. On my birthday, he played a twisted game with his friends. They all hid in a massive VIP club and made me find him by his voice alone. If I picked the wrong man, the rule was that I had to spend the night with him. I listened with everything I had and finally found him in a dark booth, begging him to take me home. He gave a soft, dark chuckle. "Willa is such a good girl. I'll take you home right now."

At my own wedding ceremony, my bride, a high-ranking Commander, forced me to kneel in front of everyone just to comfort her crying 'childhood friend'. When I refused, she didn't hesitate. She ordered her subordinates to drag me out of the gala hall like a common criminal. To the sound of the guests' cheers, she took the wedding ring that was supposed to be mine and slid it onto his finger instead. Someone whispered to her, suggesting she should stop the drama and bring me back before it was t

Vianna Sterling, the supposedly pure and impoverished scholarship student, swatted away the Ivy League offer Gideon Vance held in his hand. "Don't use your privilege to insult me!" she cried. I was even poorer than her. I picked up the admission letter that had fallen at my feet and carefully handed it back to the wealthy heir. Gideon looked me up and down. "If you can get Vianna to accept this spot, I'll recommend you for admission too," he said. Afraid I might actually take the spot, Vian

My wife is a high-profile psychologist. She specializes in adolescent mental health and developmental issues. But because her first love's son has a psychological block regarding women, she decided to step in. She wanted to be his first sexual awakening teacher. I refused to agree to such madness. She just sneered at me, saying, "You're so backwards. I'm a professional, and this is medical treatment." Eventually, she ignored my pleas and went to him anyway. That was the moment I filed for div

The year we were most in love, Lexington Sterling, the heir to the city's biggest fortune, stood outside my door. He shoved stack after stack of property deeds through the gap, 108 pounds of real estate in total. All he wanted was for me to open the door and say one word to him. Five years into our marriage, he was known as the "Perfect Husband." I loved fireworks, so he bought out the entire city's supply and set them off all night. They formed a massive glowing sign in the sky: "Misha, Ma

It was late at night, and the baby in 404 wouldn't stop crying. Our building's group chat was blowing up. Then, a message from the owner of 404 popped up: "I'll strangle him right away. Promise it won't bother you guys anymore." ... 1 Silence. Dead silence. And then, just as suddenly, the crying stopped. A few minutes later, hesitant messages trickled in. 302: "Dude, seriously? Don't joke about stuff like that, it's creepy AF." 504: "Yeah, just soothe the baby, no need to get all worked u

1 I had been dead for nine years when Gale Montgomery, the disabled boyfriend I once threw away like trash, finally returned to the city. His first move upon his return was to hunt me down and make me pay. Because I had once slapped him, he hired thugs to crush my father's hands until the bones were powder. I once forced him to his knees in the mud, so he drove his sleek car straight over my mother's legs, shattering them forever. I once made him eat scraps from a dog's bowl, so he used a j

On my wedding night, my “crippled” husband was sitting in his wheelchair. He was carefully sticking fake scars onto his face in front of the mirror. I pretended to be cooking in the kitchen while checking my phone. The International Deep Web rankings had just been updated. My ID was ranked second, right under “The Faceless.” For three years, The Faceless was the only person I couldn't hack. I glared at that name until I noticed something terrifying. His login port was using the exact same IP a

It was my birthday on Thanksgiving. My wife, Rosalind, brought her lover home like it was the most natural thing in the world. She expected me to serve them and cater to their every whim. Because I spilled a drop of wine while pouring, she humiliated me in front of all the guests. She called me a pathetic loser who couldn't do anything right. In the past, I would have started a massive screaming match with her. But this time, I just took the verbal abuse in silence. I turned around and wa

Vera and I had been married for forty years, living a calm, respectful life. Everyone in Seattle thought we were the happiest couple around. Until Vera was diagnosed with terminal cancer at seventy years old. On her deathbed, she finally confessed a dark secret to me. "Carter, Mason and Liam aren't your biological sons." "Kyle Lucas is their real father. I'm sorry for lying to you for all these years." My mind went completely blank. I spent forty years pouring my heart into raising two bo

On our sixth trip to City Hall, Roxanne and I still walked away without a marriage certificate. Over the three years following our divorce, this was our sixth attempt to remarry. Every single time on the day we picked, she always had an emergency and left. I watched our names flash on the screen and tried to hold her back. "It is almost our turn. It will only take a couple of minutes." "Is your thing really that urgent? You do not even have time to sign the papers?" Roxanne looked at me wi

A blizzard caught us halfway up the mountain. My fiancé, Lukas, his colleague CeCe, and I were trapped in the freezing peaks of the Rockies. I woke up in the middle of the night, trembling from the bone-chilling cold. My high-end sleeping bag, rated for forty below zero, was gone. In its place was a thin, flimsy summer blanket. My body felt like it was turning into a block of ice. By the dim light, I saw CeCe. She was wrapped tightly in my professional sleeping bag, sleeping soundly in Lukas'

1. Halfway through my birthday dinner, Orion’s phone buzzed on the table. The screen lit up―he’d forgotten to lock it. I caught a glimpse of the photo: a cheap chapel in Las Vegas, dated one year ago. Orion and Chloe, smiling in a tacky wedding dress and tux, standing before an Elvis impersonator. Honestly? I was relieved. While he was in the restroom, I picked up my own phone and replied to Professor Evans. “Thank you, Professor Evans. I accept the offer for the exchange program at the Lo

1 During those eight terrifying seconds when the plane went into a sudden freefall, my vision went completely black. My first and only thought was how devastated Valerie would be if I never walked out of the terminal. Yet, after surviving that brush with death and landing safely, my relief was shattered. The moment I opened my phone, I saw her new social media post featuring a hiking selfie with her childhood best friend, Chase. Her caption read: "Hope I can still be this wild with you when