What Year Was 'Harrison Bergeron' Published?

My sister, Judy Easton, skipped school and started dating way too early, but our parents sent me, the straight-A kid, to a juvenile behavioral correction center, saying it was to teach her a lesson. "Judy, take a good look at William. Act up again, and you're going there, too." My family showed up to visit every so often. The first year, an instructor blew out my eardrum. I was covered in blood, gripping the bars, begging for help. Dad pointed at me while talking to Judy. "Look at him. Still can't follow simple instructions. If you don't listen to us, you'll end up just like him." The second year, the instructor broke both my legs. My parents stood over my bed and said, "Look at you, lying there like a useless wimp. We came all this way to see you, and this is the welcome we get? How ungrateful." The third year, the instructor pumped me full of hormones. I swelled up like a whale. The instructor smirked. "That's probably shot now. Let's see how you go after girls now." Judy stood outside the cage holding her acceptance letter to a top college. The whole family looked pleased. "William, Judy got into a top college. You did your part. I'm taking you home." I blinked, my vision hazy, trying to make sense of it. "Who's William? They all call me Runt."

Harper Vance is stuck in a debt in blood—or marry the man who fired her in front of his entire boardroom three years ago. Xavier Hart needs a wife within thirty days, or he loses the empire his grandfather spent eighty years building. Not love. Not romance. Just a signature, and a woman desperate enough to give it to him. She hates him. He doesn't care. It should have been simple. “The offer's still on the table, Harper,” he murmurs, his breath warm against her ear. “Sign the contract, and I pay these men off right now. You walk out with all your fingers intact, and we start saving your father's estate. Refuse, and I leave you to your business partners.” “You absolute monster.” “It's called leverage. And right now, you have none.” Bound by paper, divided by hate, they strike a deal meant to last exactly 365 days—and not one heartbeat longer. But fake touches have a way of stopping being fake. And someone out there is willing to burn the whole arrangement down rather than let it become real.

For a full decade, my billionaire husband and my best friend were locked in a vicious feud. Jordan Skinner had deliberately run Giselle Parson over with his car, shattering her leg. In retaliation, Giselle had smashed a baseball bat into his head, leaving him deaf in one ear. I rushed around to care for them and bitterly pleaded with them to stop fighting. Ironuton's high society laughed about it behind our backs—the all-powerful CEO and the proud heiress tearing the city apart, with pathetic little me trapped helplessly in the middle. After yet another heated argument, they abandoned me on a remote mountain during a camping trip. A passing drifter found me and brutally assaulted me. When they finally located me, Jordan flew into a rage and broke the man's legs, while Giselle crushed his groin. They held me tightly and wept, swearing a truce on the spot. From then on, they joined forces to spoil me, turning me into the happiest woman in Ironuton. On our third anniversary, I prepared chicken soup and carried it to Jordan's office. Through the narrow crack, I saw Giselle straddling him, moving with raw desire. "These past few years... I only ever feel anything when it's with you, Jordan," she said, her voice dripping with lust. "That night, when Jane was being tortured by that drifter on the mountain, we were down in the valley cabin using this same position, weren't we?" Jordan smacked her backside, warning, "Shut up, Giselle. We owe her. If you let her find out the truth, I'll show you no mercy." The thermos slipped from my fingers and crashed to the floor. Jordan froze mid-motion and looked up to see me standing there.

When I returned to the Costello family as the long-lost daughter, I was dressed in my adoptive sister's hand-me-downs, and the family driver came only for her. Still, they felt guilty toward the daughter they had raised in my absence. So when the government rolled out the Fairness System, they registered the whole family before I could blink. My father exhaled with relief. "With this system enforcing absolute equality, Brittany won't ever have to suffer again." My mother took my hand, her voice leaving no room for argument. "You came home and stole everything that belonged to her. That's not fair to Brittany." My brother didn't bother hiding his contempt. "I only acknowledge one sister. You already got more than you deserve. Don't push your luck." I ate leftovers while she had private chefs. I sweated in a closet while she slept in a custom-designed suite. I almost laughed. When the system went live, they were the ones who fell apart.

Seven years ago, I swap my heart with Orion Gifford, the cyborg replica of me that my sister, Mildred Gifford, creates. However, my heart frequently gives him chest pains because of organ rejection. Mildred blames everything on me. She believes I have hidden a preexisting heart condition and have given away a defective human heart in exchange for a mechanical heart worth millions. So, she sues me for fraud and sends me a court summons. But on the day of the hearing, I don't show up. To force me out of hiding, she publicly announces to the media that she is officially taking Orion as her younger brother and leaving all her assets to him. When I still fail to appear, Mildred loses her patience and goes to the workplace address I leave behind. She steps into a sketchy factory and grabs a random worker to ask, "Do you know Zachary Gifford?" My factory supervisor, Greg Mathews, stares at her in shock and says, "Zachary? He died three years ago from sudden cardiac arrest. It was awful! His body got pulled into one of the machines. There was basically nothing left of him."

SEQUEL TO A PUBLICIST'S PLIGHT Lies. Betrayal. Secrets. Corruption. Just your average day in an American corporation. Sebastian Harrison has successfully secured his spot as Harrison Incorporated's Chief Executive Officer. And although the goal has been achieved, it is only the beginning. With him and Leslie King on rocky ground and his father still trying to influence the future of Sebastian's company, Sebastian feels caught between doing the right thing and the safe thing. But when Leslie begins to show interest in Colombian Bachelor, Alejandro Quintanilla - nephew to Salvador Quintanilla, an important partner to Harrison Inc. - Sebastian struggles to put his money where his mouth is. And when it comes to Leslie whose budding new love interest and family intrusions have kept her busy, it's hard for Sebastian to step back and accept what never became. However, time can only conceal for so long, and in the midst of Sebastian's new position and Leslie's new relationship, it is inevitable that the past will come find it's way seeping through the cracks of the locked chest. Especially when this said chest has secrets being kept for each other's own good. **