Love Forged in Flames of Hate

Love Forged in Flames of Hate

Gavin

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The fire consumed everything. It wasn' t an accident. I lit it myself, watching the flames devour the apartment where I' d cried for so many nights, wiping away the misery. Across the room, Tiffany Chen, my former roommate and so-called friend, was tied to a chair, her eyes wide with terror, her expensive clothes torn and dirty. She was the one who lured me, a naive college kid struggling with tuition and rent, into her family' s predatory online loan scheme. She promised quick cash, easy approval, a solution to all my problems. Instead, the money never materialized, the interest rates ballooned to illegal levels, and the "online loan" turned into a hundred-thousand-dollar nightmare. When I couldn't pay, she forced me into her family' s "club" -a hellhole where rich men paid to do whatever they wanted, and I was just another girl forced to endure their hands. But that wasn't enough. She released photos and videos of me online, sending them to my university and my quiet hometown. The shame broke my parents; my father died of a heart attack, and my mother drowned herself a week later. With nothing left to lose, I found Tiffany, doused her apartment in gasoline, and watched her scream as the flames reached her. Then, a blinding light, a jolt, and I gasped awake, not in a burning apartment, but in my old dorm room. Tiffany Chen sat at her desk, putting on makeup, looking young, happy, and completely innocent. "Bad dream?" she asked, with the same smile that started my nightmare. The date on her digital clock confirmed it: I was back at the very beginning. This time, I was ready to play a different game.

Introduction

The fire consumed everything.

It wasn' t an accident. I lit it myself, watching the flames devour the apartment where I' d cried for so many nights, wiping away the misery.

Across the room, Tiffany Chen, my former roommate and so-called friend, was tied to a chair, her eyes wide with terror, her expensive clothes torn and dirty.

She was the one who lured me, a naive college kid struggling with tuition and rent, into her family' s predatory online loan scheme.

She promised quick cash, easy approval, a solution to all my problems.

Instead, the money never materialized, the interest rates ballooned to illegal levels, and the "online loan" turned into a hundred-thousand-dollar nightmare.

When I couldn't pay, she forced me into her family' s "club" -a hellhole where rich men paid to do whatever they wanted, and I was just another girl forced to endure their hands.

But that wasn't enough. She released photos and videos of me online, sending them to my university and my quiet hometown.

The shame broke my parents; my father died of a heart attack, and my mother drowned herself a week later.

With nothing left to lose, I found Tiffany, doused her apartment in gasoline, and watched her scream as the flames reached her.

Then, a blinding light, a jolt, and I gasped awake, not in a burning apartment, but in my old dorm room.

Tiffany Chen sat at her desk, putting on makeup, looking young, happy, and completely innocent.

"Bad dream?" she asked, with the same smile that started my nightmare.

The date on her digital clock confirmed it: I was back at the very beginning.

This time, I was ready to play a different game.

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In New York, everyone knew Grady Allen lived for me, Emely Harrison. He was my shadow, my protector, my world, and our future seemed inevitable. But as I lay dying from ALS, I overheard him whisper, "Emely, my duty to you is done. If there is a next life, I pray I can be with Kandy." My world shattered. His lifelong devotion wasn't love, but guilt for Kandy Paul, a woman who had taken her own life after he' d left her. Reborn, I found Grady with amnesia, deeply in love with Kandy. To give him the happiness he truly desired, I concealed my own early-onset ALS diagnosis and broke off our engagement, telling his parents, "I won't chain him to a dying woman out of a sense of duty he doesn't even remember." Despite my efforts, Kandy' s insecurity led her to frame me, accusing me of throwing her engagement ring and setting fire to the mansion. Grady, believing her, threw me into a muddy pit and later choked me, snarling, "You're not even as good as a dog. At least a dog is loyal." During a kidnapping, I saved Kandy, nearly dying myself, only to wake in a hospital to learn Grady had spared no expense for her, while I lay abandoned. Why did he choose her, even when his body instinctively reached for me? Why did he believe her lies? I had given him everything, even my life, to set him free. Now, I would truly be free. I married my brother, Jeremiah, who had always loved me, and left Grady behind, whispering, "Be happy, Grady. We're even now. I'll never see you again."

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