gambar karma akabane

I was scrolling through reddit when I came across a post seeking advice. The poster said he had HIV but was hiding it from his fiancée. The post had tens of thousands of likes. Intrigued, I clicked to read more. As I went through the details, I realized—why did his description of the fiancée sound so much like me?

The kindergarten was engulfed in flames. My four-year-old daughter was trapped inside. I pleaded desperately with my firefighter husband, "Nina is upstairs!" He snapped impatiently, "You're just trying to stop me from saving Dana's daughter. How could you be so cruel? Dana is fragile. If she loses her child, it will destroy her. She won't survive this." That night, he emerged from the fire carrying Dana's daughter, instantly becoming a hero. Even at midnight, when I wept by the side of our daughter's ashes, he was still with Dana. "Samuel Leif, you'll pay for this!"

In the fifth year of Gwyneth Payne's marriage to Asher Crowe, he tells her thrice that he wants to bring Liana Quayle along with them when they migrate. Gwyneth puts down the dishes she's just prepared and asks him why. He's frank with her. "I don't want to keep this from you anymore. Liana lives in the residential area beside ours. She's spent nine years with me, and I owe her too much. I must bring her with me when we migrate." Gwyneth doesn't cry or kick up a fuss. Instead, she books a ticket for Liana on their flight. Asher thinks she's finally seen sense. On the day they leave the country, Gwyneth watches Asher and Liana board the flight. Then, she turns and boards another flight that will take her back to her parents' home.

Timothy Giannato is a twenty-nine-year-old Italian multimillionaire who no longer believes in love, not since his girlfriend of more than a year of relationship, was unfaithful with a co-worker. Now Timothy prefers to live life on his own terms, no strings attached, no love, no suffering. Melody Redford is a twenty-two-year-old young woman, an animal and book lover, in her fifth semester of college studying veterinary medicine. Thanks to a night of drinking and partying, she became unexpectedly pregnant and her boyfriend Richard did not admit it and urged her to get rid of the problem. Melody’s family was no help either and forced her to make the most difficult decision any woman could make: to abort her child or to leave home and raise her child alone. Melody refused to have an abortion, so she was only three months pregnant when she moved in with her friend Lucy and got a job at a coffee shop to pay for doctor’s appointments and prenatal pills. That’s how she realized that it was going to be impossible for her to sustain a decent life for when her child was born. She was willing to do anything to avoid going back to her parents for help, let alone calling Richard. What neither of them imagined was that fate had an awfully bad joke for both of them, and it would show them that it is never too late to trust again.

When life turns its back at you, all you can do is turn your back and run. Emerald Dubrow did that just well, choosing a university far from home, but life’s more than a decision. All effort seems aborted when she meets an obnoxious ex in the same school just when she's putting herself out there. What’s worse; he wants her back. Caught in between a hot, sorry ex and shiny brown eyes that rolled his jeans way up to his ankles, Emerald must make a quick decision.

Dr. Kit Johnson has just landed herself in two mysteries. She needs to figure out one to save her live and the other to find her fated love from lifetimes before. Matthew Anderson only wants one thing for her to be his again. He will stop at nothing to make that happen and keep her safe until that does.

Lena Clermont fell hard for her dad's friend, Andrew Rohan—twelve years older. The first time she saw him, he was all sharp suits and broad shoulders, effortlessly standing out. He smiled, patted her head, and handed her a princess dress. Fast forward to twenty. He got drugged at a banquet. She wore that same dress, offering herself as the cure.

After being bullied to death at school, I was reborn as a newborn baby. And then I realized my mother was the same person who had tormented me. Now she was whispering to me sweetly, “Oh, my precious baby.” Precious baby? I immediately started thrashing in her arms, trying to jab my tiny fingers into her eyes. From this day forward, this ‘precious baby’ would be out for revenge!

My husband, Mark Thompson, and I went hiking. After eating some wild berries I picked, he was poisoned and died. When I got home, a woman named Sarah Miller and her son, Tommy Miller, showed up at my door. It turned out Mark had given them our house and car. On top of that, he owed them a huge amount of money. I ended up giving them all the savings I had. To care for my sick mother-in-law, Judith Thompson, I worked three jobs. I was surviving on basic meals like bread and butter. After years of exhausting work, I collapsed in the hospital. Judith told the doctors to stop my treatment. Just as I was about to die, Mark walked into the ward with Sarah and Tommy in his arms. He tossed five dollars at me. “Thanks for taking care of my mom all these years.” That was when I realized Mark had faked his death just to be with Sarah and their love child. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day we went hiking together.

Calvin and I had been married for seven years. While packing up some clothes, I found a cheap lighter in the pocket of his jacket. Everything he wore, from the inside out, had been carefully chosen by me to highlight his refined taste and status. However, in that girl’s Twitter photos, he looked like a college boy, dressed in cheap clothes and wearing a digital watch that cost only a few dollars while kissing her. Using a throwaway account, I casually liked the post and commented, "A perfect match." Then, I turned to Calvin and said, "How did I never realize you had such a thing for bargains?"