No Other Choice: An Autobiography

What begins as a seemingly ordinary love story evolves into a journey of love, betrayal, resilience, and self-discovery. For years, Lela believed she was living the life she had always wanted—a loving marriage, a family, and a future built on trust. But behind the scenes, financial struggles, hidden truths, and years of deception slowly began to unravel the foundation of everything she thought she knew. As cracks in her marriage deepen, Lela is forced to confront painful realities about the man she loves and the life they built together. Looking back, she traces her journey from the unexpected first date that changed her life, through the highs of building a family, the challenges of marriage, and the devastating revelations that would ultimately test her strength and character. When long-buried secrets come to light and years of sacrifices seem overshadowed by betrayal, Lela finds herself at a crossroads. Faced with heartbreak, uncertainty, and the responsibility of protecting her children, she must learn to rebuild not only her future but also her sense of self-worth. Told with honesty, humor, and raw emotion, this memoir explores the complexities of love, the warning signs we often ignore, and the courage it takes to start over when the life you've known begins to fall apart. At its heart, this is a story about survival, forgiveness, and discovering that even after life's greatest disappointments, it is possible to find strength, purpose, and hope again.

Right after the SAT results dropped, the admissions representatives from Blackridge University practically fought over me so fiercely it felt like they'd set the whole room on fire. They made an outrageous offer just to win me over, claiming that I could bring one friend along with full admission. As the clock reset, I chose no one this time around because I'd already lived through it once. In my last life, I didn't hesitate to pick my childhood best friend, Shawn Hooper. I gave him a ticket into a world he could never hope to reach without my help. And what did I get for it? A look of pure disgust. "You're pathetic," he sneered. "It's laughable that you'd dare use something like this to drive a wedge between Madison and me." Madison Cole was our class president. She was the golden girl and everyone's favorite girl. She couldn't handle losing both the guy she loved and the future she thought was hers. So, she jumped from the roof of a building. Shawn found her final message and lost his mind. He told me the class was having one last bonfire party just outside town. It was a lie. He took me there to torture me before leaving me to die. Our entire class covered for him. Every last one of them told the police I'd slipped near the ravine and fallen by accident. … A week after my death, my parents died in a supposed highway pileup. My soul never moved on, and that was how I discovered the truth—Shawn had orchestrated everything. When I reopened my eyes, I quickly realized I was back on the day when Blackridge University fought to recruit me. I wouldn't choose anyone this time. No, the only one I would choose was myself.

She did the unthinkable for love and paid for it with eight years of silence. Evelyn married Anthony knowing his heart belonged to someone else. She told herself it was enough to be near him, to be his wife in name and raise their son. Meanwhile she forgot that love without being loved back is a slow kind of poison, and Evelyn has finally run out of time to pretend. The divorce papers are signed. The chapter is closed. Anthony spent eight years blaming Evelyn for the life he never wanted. He lost Sylvia, the woman who owned every corner of his heart, because of a single night he cannot take back. Now, with the ink barely dry on their divorce, Sylvia is back in the city, and Evelyn is suddenly a stranger wearing a cold, unreadable face he has never seen before. When Anthony reaches for the past he lost, a gunshot rings out at a memorial gathering, and a secret buried eight years ago begins to claw its way to the surface. A secret so ugly such that it will force every single person in this story to question what they thought they knew. Who really destroyed this family? Who has been lying from the very beginning? And when the truth finally breaks open, will Anthony choose the woman his heart never forgot, or the woman he never truly saw? Shattered by Choice is a gripping tale of betrayal, buried love, second chances, and the dangerous cost of choosing wrong. A story about the lie we call sacrifice, the truth we call love, and the day the two collide.

On the day I was supposed to try on wedding dresses with Charles Jaspier, the mafia leader I had loved for seven years, I walked into the boutique carrying a pregnancy test report—my heart full of hope. Instead, I overheard a conversation that shattered everything. "Registering the marriage with Ellis Olsen was a temporary measure," he said calmly to his closest confidant. "My brother died in a shootout. She's carrying the Jaspier family's only heir. Without a legal status, neither she nor the child would survive in this family." "Everyone would bully them." A cigar rested between his fingers. His voice was cold, edged with resignation. "Zoey Qandor can't have a title—but I can give her everything else. My love. My money. This must never reach her ears." I clenched the pregnancy report, my heart turning to ash. With my best friend's help, I created a new identity—one that ensured Charles would never find me again—and disappeared from his world. If he could not give me and my child a complete family, then this love—built on responsibility and lies—was better cut cleanly, once and for all.

Sapphire is from a rich and well-known family, but little does the public know that Sapphire's family has a secret; their secret, Sapphire's family abuses Sapphire. Sapphire is abused for wanting to be an Author because being an Author is not part of the family business. Brock and Grant, Sapphire's older brothers, and their friends, Tom, Nate, and Drew bully Sapphire and her only friend, Diamond, at school. Two of the boys have a crush on Sapphire and Diamond, but don't show it because of who they are friends with. After all the years of abuse, will the girls forgive the boys and fall in love with them, or will the girls crush the boys' hearts? Will Sapphire get away from her abusive family, or will she stay with them? What will happen to Sapphire's future?

By the seventh year of my engagement to Tristan, he postponed our wedding for the third time. The reason was simple. His childhood sweetheart, Gabriella, had returned to the country. She had just gone through a divorce and was emotionally unstable. Tristan personally retrieved every invitation we had sent out, his tone calm and steady. "Gabby has no one by her side right now. I can't upset her at a time like this." I held the ring that had already been resized twice and asked, "What about me?" Tristan glanced at me. "You're different. You're sensible." I had been hearing that word for seven years. Sensible. When his startup failed, I sold the old house my grandmother had left me to help him pay off his debts. When he suffered a gastric hemorrhage, I stayed at the hospital for three days straight and missed my own promotion defense. When his mother said my background was too ordinary for him, he only rubbed his temples and said, "Tori, don't make this difficult for me." Every time, I nodded. He once told me that no matter how thick the fog became, he would always leave a light on for me. Until the day Gabriella stood in front of the mirror wearing my wedding dress and smiled as she asked, "Victoria, you don't mind, do you? Tristan said your wedding's being postponed anyway." Tristan stood behind her. He did not deny it. He even reached out and adjusted her veil for her. The fog lamp he had given me with his own hands sat by the display window of the bridal shop. It was still lit, illuminating someone else in the white dress I had waited seven years to wear. Only then did I realize that some roads were not lost because the fog was too thick. It was because he had never planned to come for me at all.