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One-Cut Queen

One-Cut Queen

Gavin

5.0
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11
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My name is Eli Vance, and in my world, everything has a price. I lived in a small, sagging house that perpetually smelled of stale beer and disappointment, a stark contrast to the academic potential I desperately cultivated. Every cent I secretly earned from doing other kids' homework was a deliberate step away from a future my parents had already planned for me: a grueling factory job. My younger brother, Cody, was their sole focus, their "lottery ticket," and his mediocre athletic career consumed every last ounce of their hope and meager funds. Then, one evening, they finally showed me attention-enough to deliver their verdict. "You're sixteen now," my father grunted, avoiding my gaze. "The plant is hiring full-time," my mother chimed in, her voice sharp, "You can quit school. We need the money for Cody's gear and his camp fees." My heart turned into a cold, hard stone in my chest as their words extinguished my last flickering hope for a different life. "What do you have? Books?" my mother sneered, dismissing my intelligence, my ambition, everything I was. My father sealed it with a flat gaze: "You'll do what you're told," effectively erasing my future to fund a pair of football cleats. The suffocating injustice burned a hole within me-this town, this school, my own family; it was all the same oppressive system. They saw me as a burden, a cost, a ready-made sacrifice, but I refused to accept that. How could they demand I relinquish my education, my only path to escape, for a futile dream that wasn't even mine? I couldn't fight my parents head-on, not yet, but watching the cafeteria manager's blatant favoritism, I knew exactly how to break a smaller, visible cog in this unfair machine. The battle for my freedom, and my future, had just begun-a ruthless, calculated game where I would stop at nothing to change the rules.

Introduction

My name is Eli Vance, and in my world, everything has a price.

I lived in a small, sagging house that perpetually smelled of stale beer and disappointment, a stark contrast to the academic potential I desperately cultivated.

Every cent I secretly earned from doing other kids' homework was a deliberate step away from a future my parents had already planned for me: a grueling factory job.

My younger brother, Cody, was their sole focus, their "lottery ticket," and his mediocre athletic career consumed every last ounce of their hope and meager funds.

Then, one evening, they finally showed me attention-enough to deliver their verdict.

"You're sixteen now," my father grunted, avoiding my gaze.

"The plant is hiring full-time," my mother chimed in, her voice sharp, "You can quit school. We need the money for Cody's gear and his camp fees."

My heart turned into a cold, hard stone in my chest as their words extinguished my last flickering hope for a different life.

"What do you have? Books?" my mother sneered, dismissing my intelligence, my ambition, everything I was.

My father sealed it with a flat gaze: "You'll do what you're told," effectively erasing my future to fund a pair of football cleats.

The suffocating injustice burned a hole within me-this town, this school, my own family; it was all the same oppressive system.

They saw me as a burden, a cost, a ready-made sacrifice, but I refused to accept that.

How could they demand I relinquish my education, my only path to escape, for a futile dream that wasn't even mine?

I couldn't fight my parents head-on, not yet, but watching the cafeteria manager's blatant favoritism, I knew exactly how to break a smaller, visible cog in this unfair machine.

The battle for my freedom, and my future, had just begun-a ruthless, calculated game where I would stop at nothing to change the rules.

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The Unwilling Wife

The Unwilling Wife

Short stories

5.0

The organ music swelled, painting my white wedding dress in shades of blood red. I was marrying Julian Thorne, a man who despised me, believing the lies that had ruined my reputation. This wasn't a marriage; it was a sentence, orchestrated perfectly by my stepsister, Sophia, who had always wanted Julian for herself. Everyone saw Eleanor Vance, the brilliant architect, as the luckiest woman alive, but my heart was a cold stone. As the word "I do" escaped my lips-a whispered surrender-a blinding white light engulfed me. I woke up in my old bedroom, the floral wallpaper still on the walls. My phone read October 12, 2014-ten years ago, the day of my first wedding, the one that never happened. Relief surged through me; I wasn't Julian Thorne's wife. But then dread set in as Sophia's text buzzed on my smaller, older phone: "Julian's family is coming for dinner tonight, you have to make a good impression!" It was all starting tonight, the very dinner where Sophia would introduce me to the Thornes, setting off the chain of events that would lead to my forced marriage. The contempt in Julian's eyes was already there, seeing me as a social climber, exactly the image Sophia had carefully crafted. I was trapped again, a ghost in my own life, burdened by a future I knew was coming: the Thorne family's imminent financial ruin, and my own career sacrificed to support them. But this time, I wasn't the naive girl to be manipulated. I knew all their secrets, and I would not spend another ten years as Eleanor Thorne. I would fight.

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