To A New Life

I gave my husband everything—my love, my loyalty, my future. But to him, I was just a fool to be used, a wife to be discarded. The night he threw me out in the rain, pregnant and broken, his mistress smirked as the door slammed shut. And when my baby died from the cruelty of their betrayal, I made a vow over that tiny coffin: I would bury them both beside my child. Then I met Rolin McCarty—the most dangerous man in the country. Ruthless. Powerful. Who is willing to help me burn my husband’s world to the ground. Alex thought he broke me. But he only awakened something worse. And now? Now, he’ll wish he’d killed me when he had the chance.

My younger sister and I unlocked our systems on the same day? The setting? The nation decades ago. She went for the learning system and married an intellectual. I had no choice but to go with the useless storage space system. Then, I was forced to marry a thug. A very rude and crass one at that. Thanks to the storage space system, I got through a famine and became the village's richest person. My sister's learning system was useless, and she almost died of starvation. Driven by jealousy, my sister seduced my husband and slept with him. To get my wealth, they came up with a plan and pushed me down a cliff. When I came to, I realized we'd returned to the day we awakened our systems. My sister shoved me away and picked the useless storage space system. "Move, you bitch! Now I have your system! I'll survive the famine and get rich! You'll live in my shadow forever, as you should!" She was so smug. She was gloating. I took the learning system and smiled to myself. Unbeknownst to my sister, I got rich during the famine, not because of the system, and my dream was to score high on the exam and get into a good college. My sister managed to mess up her life even when she had the better system. Now she took the useless one. I could practically see the misery waving at her down the path.

As she had wished, I succumbed to sickness in that rented apartment. Fortunately for me, I woke up again to the day I first sponsored Janice.

Tony Gambino never forgave me. His childhood sweetheart died saving my life, and for seven years, his hatred was a constant, silent burn. I fasted. I prayed. I begged for absolution. He met my penance with a cold sneer. "I'll only forgive you when you're dead." The words were a knife to the heart. So why, when we were both poisoned, did he shove the only antidote down my throat? As the poison claimed him, blood trickling from his lips, he choked out his last words, "Scarlett... in our next life, let's never meet." Later, I tried to visit his grave. His sworn brother and Consigliere, Richard Bruno, blocked my path. He pressed a gun to my forehead. "I don't know how you have the nerve to show your face here, Scarlett. He'd be alive if he hadn't saved you. "I should never have let him give up Elma for you. You're a curse. Everyone who gets close to you gets destroyed." Their eyes were unanimous in their blame. And they were right. So I watched his gravesite from a distance, my own guilt a heavier stone than any marker. Not long after, I was killed in a gang crossfire. When I opened my eyes, I was seven years in the past. This time, I made a different choice: I let Tony go—so that everyone might live.

At twenty, she was taken to a night club for the first time. Now, at twenty six, she meets with the one man she has ever slept with. Christopher Allen. She had taken his money and ran. She always hoped to never come across him again. Now, he appears and wants to take his daughter or they get married. Yes, she had a child after just one night. One night of reckless abandon. Her first time. {"You make me laugh, I am here for what belongs to me and I think you know what that is," he said. My heart dropped to my feet immediately after he said that. I know he would want his money and I hope that is what he is talking about. "What do you want, your money?" I asked hoping he will say yes. "You are very funny... I want what belongs to me and you know very well what that is, yes, you took my money but, that's not what I am talking about... I WANT MY DAUGHTER!" } He had come demanding and she had no choice. She either agrees to be his wife or never sees her beloved daughter again. That was what bound her to him for life. A night had led to being his forever.

On the day of my wedding, I stood on the stage, while my fiance, Jake Stevens, passionately kissed his assistant, Chloe Xanders, in front of everyone. He held her in his arms and said earnestly, “Chloe, don’t worry. Even though you’re not my bride, you’ll always have a place in my heart.” Chloe, who was overwhelmed with emotion, threw herself into his arms and wept as she said to me, “Lily, Jake and I are deeply in love, but fate just didn’t work out for us in this life. Please take good care of him.” Gossip instantly spread around us. Just as I was feeling helpless, my fiance humiliated me further and called me nothing more than a doormat. Watching the two of them clinging to each other, I could not take it anymore. I canceled the wedding on the spot and left for abroad the same night to join my best friend. The next time I met Jack, I had already moved on with someone new. When he saw me interlocking my fingers with my new love and kissing him passionately, his eyes instantly filled with burning jealousy.

I make my final phone call to my boyfriend when a murderer is hunting me down. He thinks I'm messing with him and hangs up on me. That destroys the final sliver of hope I have for survival. He's celebrating his childhood friend's birthday when I'm being murdered. Later, as a restorative embalmer, he receives a body to restore. He loses his mind when he restores my shattered skull and realizes the body is mine.

After a full week of night shifts, I make a fatal mistake—injecting my son, Ricky Lambert, with phenobarbital, mistaking it for an antibiotic. The injection stops his breathing instantly, and the hospital soon declares him brain-dead. My husband, Terence Lambert, completely falls apart when he hears the news. The only thing that calms him is holding his nephew, Ryan Lambert, who looks so much like Ricky. So, I give up my transfer to Harborstone to Wendy Larson, my brother-in-law's wife. I even agree to adopt her son. Because of that mistake, I work hard and endure Terence's coldness day after day without a word of complaint. Ten years later, when Wendy returns home a success, that's when I accidentally overhear her speaking with Terence. "Back then, to help me get residency at Harborstone, you swapped the medicine and killed your own son. Do you really not regret it?" Terence sneers. "Of course not. I promised I'd help you rise above the rest. And I know Rosalie too well. If she knows there is a chance to go back to Harborstone, she'll fight you for it to the bitter end. "I have to use Ricky's death to trap her for good. It also gives me the perfect excuse to make her raise our son, so you can focus on your career without any burden." I can't believe what I'm hearing. I run out the door and accidentally fall into a raging river. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the very day the hospital declares Ricky dead.

My husband's true love had kidney cancer 30 years ago. He gave up his fortune so she could participate in a cryogenic freezing experiment. He even tricked me into signing an organ donation consent form. "You're contributing to the country's scientific research!" Today, technology is much more advanced. My husband decides to revive his true love and treat her cancer. He also asks me to have my kidney transplanted in her body. After I say no, my son frowns. "How can you be so selfish? It's just a kidney." My husband is furious. "You're already dying, but her life will restart once she's revived from the cryogenic freezing!" My family forces me into the operation theater. My husband's even the one who handles the surgery. What he doesn't know is that I've already donated a kidney for the sake of his career. He loses his mind once he slices my abdomen open.

"What's your name?" He asked, making the managers go shut at once. They followed his gaze and it landed on Mallory. Mallory felt her soul being pierced. Did he just ask for her name? Her Wilder didn't even know her name? "Uh... her name is..." "Let her speak for herself, Arlo" Wilder raised his hand at his cousin who zipped up at once. Then, reluctantly, Mallory muttered: "I'm Mallory Harrington." Wilder said nothing, his gaze on her unreadable. Then, she asked. "Don't you... remember me?" "Am I... supposed to know you?" Wilder asked with an unfeigned doubt. This broke Mallory even more. How can her Wilder not recognize her? Her next breath came raggedly, she had to drop her teary gaze to the floor. "How can you not remember me?" She winced. "We were..." ********** What happens when Mallory goes to work one morning and discovers the new CEO who was the soon-to-be heir to one of the richest companies in the world was her ex-husband who had been missing for seven years? How does she tell him she used to be married to him before he went missing? How does she tell him she was still very much in love with him and wanted him back in her life, even if there was someone else? How does she tell him she had twins at home that looked like him? How does she tell him any of these when he couldn't recognize her and acted very cold towards her? What happened to her Wilder?