Raising Ryland

My husband's parents are dead. He says I'm now his sister's mother figure and need to care for her like she's my daughter. I work myself to the bone to feed her and pay for her expenses, but she's not happy with that. "My classmates drive to school and have trips abroad, Lorey. Can't you work a little harder?" She takes my car away and treats me like a maid. That's still not enough for her, though. When she finds out that I'm pregnant, she threatens to take her life. "You said you would care for me like I'm your daughter. I won't let you give someone else what's supposed to be mine!" I curse her in my heart. Who gave her the nerve to act like this?

Elena, a defiant and eccentric witch living in the Forbidden Forest, has witnessed the empire crumble under the reign of Kael, a once-promising disciple corrupted by darkness. Kael, once a bright-eyed orphan and a disciple of her very own enemy, was twisted into the empire's destroyer, abandoned and manipulated. In the face of the silver sword of her sworn enemy held by Kael, she makes a gamble against time and fate. Using forbidden magic, she strikes a deal with the timekeeper and plunges back into the past, 10 years before impending destruction. Faced with a chance to rewrite her destiny, she targets Kael and intends to make his master pay for neglecting his disciple. This time, she won't just stand by as the world crumbles; she will be his unlikely guardian, shaping him into a beacon of light instead of a harbinger of doom. Can Elena rewrite destiny? Or will the karma prove too strong for a witch to clash against the inevitable pull of fate?

My nephew, Jason, came to live with my family for three years while he went to high school in the city. I took care of him the best I could, never once thinking it was a burden. The day he got accepted into a top-ranked university, he went live online. He told thousands of strangers about his miserable life living under someone else's roof. "I know I shouldn't say this, but I really suffered through it. "Those days of depending on others… I never want to think about them ever again. "I just want all parents to know this. No matter how poor you are, keep your kids with you. Even eating scraps together is better than watching another family of three enjoy a feast while you sit alone in the corner." He became an overnight sensation, so did I. The people on the internet dug up everything about me. My name, my job, my address. I was doxxed. I died depressed from the online bullying. However, I somehow got to do it all over again. This time, I was not going to be the saint anymore.

Raising your own child was natural. But raising another’s child was totally different. When Hannah wholeheartedly played the mommy and daddy role to Elisha, it had been her greatest fear to one day have the child’s real parents knocking on her door to take their unwanted baby back. But for four years, Hannah and Elisha managed to live peacefully. Just when Elisha’s real parents, Olive and Nate were about to tie the knot, Olive was found pregnant with another man. To be able to have her freedom, she told Nate, who surprisingly had no knowledge that he fathered a child, about Elisha. Furious that his daughter was kept secret from him for years, Nate took Elisha from Hannah. But up to what lengths could a mother go to keep her child? Even if Hannah didn’t give birth to Elisha, she’d do everything in her capacity to fight for her daughter. Even if it would mean going against the heartless and dangerous Billionaire, Nate Sarmiento in the process. Even if it seemed like she didn’t have a right, Hannah still raised his child and that’s an irreversible fact. But would Hannah survive the harsh treatment before she could even see Elisha again? If she would, what about from Nate’s charms? Could her inexperienced heart handle the danger of falling in love with a man who loves someone else?

I was reborn. Right back to the day I adopted Peter. The wind cut sharp, baby cries slicing through the cold. That's when it hit me—this was the day Stuart Pete, my oh-so-loving husband, dumped his illegitimate child right in my path after work. He knew me too well. The second I picked the kid up, he'd spin it into an adoption, making the boy ours. Last time, I fell for it. This time? I walked away without a second thought. Later, I heard the kid got pneumonia from being left out in the freezing cold—fever so bad, it wrecked him for life. I laughed until my stomach hurt. What I didn't see coming? Peter was reborn too—about to experience the life he was meant to have.

In my last life, my in-laws "died," and my so-called DINK husband, Eric, begged me to raise his sweet little "brother," Luca. Seven years flew by. That scrawny kid turned into a total cutie and blew up online—pulling in tens of thousands a month. Then one night, boom—Eric's parents came back from the dead. And with them? Tammy. Eric's first love. She clung to Eric with one hand, Luca with the other, all smug as hell. "I've been traveling for seven years. I'm tired. And wow, what a perfect son—thanks for raising him." Eric's parents didn't even pretend to care. "You couldn't give Eric a kid, but at least you were useful this once." "Sign the divorce papers. Make room for Tammy." I walked out of that law firm wrecked—and right into the path of a speeding car. Tammy was behind the wheel, smiling like she won. Next thing I knew, I woke up on the same day Eric's parents had "died."