Why Does Men We Reaped: A Memoir Focus On Loss And Grief?

Those words defined Claire Reid's entire life—and her death. At twenty-eight, she dies in a hospital bed surrounded by the family she sacrificed everything for: the father who forced her to quit school, the sister who took everything she had, the husband who treated her like an inconvenience, and the mother who demanded endless gratitude for their abuse. As her heart stops, Claire sees their relief and realizes the devastating truth: she wasted her life loving people who never loved her back. Then she wakes up. One year earlier. One month before her family frames her for theft. This time, Claire refuses. Refuses to give money. Refuses to stay silent. Refuses to be grateful for crumbs. Armed with knowledge of their betrayals and a fury born from her wasted first life, she systematically dismantles their manipulations, exposes their schemes, and reclaims her identity. But when she tries to leave her cold, arranged marriage, something unexpected happens.

My wife, Sarah, died unexpectedly. My in-laws made an absurd request. "Why not have Stella play both roles? After all, Luke can't be without a mother." My brother-in-law, Greg, yelled at me, calling me shameless, and stormed out in anger. I looked at my sister-in-law, Stella, who looked exactly like my late wife. I could hardly conceal my grief. I was about to urge them to abandon their ridiculous idea, when I accidentally overheard a conversation between her and her parents. "It was Stella who died, so why did you lie and claim it was you?" Sarah sighed. "I love Greg. I staged my death so I could be with him legitimately. As for asking me to play both roles, don't even bring it up again. As for Michael, I have already given him a child and a respectable marriage. I owe him nothing." Turning around, I saw Luke with reddened eyes, asking me softly, "Daddy, does that mean that Mommy no longer wants us?" I bent down and pulled him into my arms, forcing myself to soothe him. "Your Aunt Stella wants to protect the person that she loves. We shouldn't bother her. It's time for us to prepare a new life."

The tale of a widow's harrowing journey through grief and peril into the cold remnants of a dead world. Damon Sharpe had in part found victory, he believed, in his battle to unearth a truth obscured by time. By autumn, he was dead, leaving to his wife Anne a house of unfulfilled wishes, remnants, and the key to the enigma of his obsession, the Mourner’s Cradle. A journey through grief and peril delivers Anne Sharpe from her home in St. Charles to the faraway skeletons of a long-dead civilization where she will find the desperate answers she seeks…or die trying. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Eight years into marriage, and Fabian's mom finally gave me and my son her stamp of approval. Invited us to spend Christmas in his hometown. My son—Luca--and I were hyped. We picked out a gift for her and hit the road with Fabian. Right as we pulled into the village, Fabian's old friend called—crying, claiming she'd crashed her car. Fabian panicked. Left me and Luca in some random snowy mountain town and sped off. It was pitch black. Snow dumping down. Then Luca screamed. He'd stepped on a trap and dropped into a pit. Blood everywhere. I called Fabian, totally panicked. He goes, "Stella, Roxana's in a wreck. I need to be with her. Stop making everything a competition." Then he hung up. Blocked me. No time to fall apart. I wiped my face, called an ambulance. Too far out. By the time they got there, Luca was already gone. Cold. Broken. Gone. I held him and screamed until my lungs gave out. Meanwhile, Roxana's posting in the social media. All smiles in Fabian's arms. His face soft. Loving. [Highway jam turned into truth or dare. One word—"accident"—and he came flying. So happy.] I exhaled. Tagged Fabian. [Let's get a divorce.] This joke of a marriage should've ended forever ago.

The three Cavalli heirs once acted as if I were the center of their world. They fought over me, made enemies for me, and swore no one would ever force me into a marriage I did not want. For years, I believed them. Then I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The surgeons warned me that saving my life might cost me my memories. I was terrified of forgetting the three men I had loved for so long, yet when I needed them most, all I got back was anger. Later, Viola sent me a video of fireworks bursting over the coast, her name written across the sky, while the three silver saint medals I had once begged for in their names gleamed at her throat. That was when I finally let go. I left the country, had the surgery, and built a life that did not include them. Much later, three strangers ended up on their knees outside my door, begging me to remember them.

I was the most spoiled little princess in the shifter world, because I had four powerful daddies. Darius is the head of the Dragon clan, and the King who rules over the entire shifter world. The other three are the heads of the Lion clan, the Serpent clan, and the Eagle clan. Everyone fears their power. My mother was their childhood sweetheart. When she was killed by rogue wolves, they found me still barely breathing inside her, and saved my life. The four of them spoiled me rotten. Whatever I looked at twice, it would be sitting in front of me by the next morning. Every girl in the shifter world envied me. Until the year I turned sixteen, when Vivian came back. She was the daughter of their first love. From that day on, my four daddies were completely different. Vivian cried to Daddy Darius and said I'd pushed her down the stairs. Without a single question, he threw me in a cell, bound my wrists in silver chains, and made me kneel on broken silver shards for seven straight days. Then she went to Daddy Orion and said I'd stolen the necklace her mother left her. So Daddy Orion melted down the only ring my mother ever left me and had it remade into a necklace for her. The last time, Vivian stabbed herself and cried that I'd tried to kill her. Daddy Rex didn't even ask. He just sentenced me to four years in the silver prison. The silver prison holds the worst criminals in the shifter world. The guards whipped me with silver every day, forced me to wash everyone's clothes, and some weeks I went days without a bite of food. Today, when my door got kicked open again, I was huddled in the corner shaking. I hadn't eaten in two days. Then I heard the Moon Goddess's gentle voice. “Child, do you want to leave here and go back to your mother?”