The Day My Mother Opened Me Up

A young man suffers a brutal end at the hands of a sadistic killer while his parents, a forensic pathologist and a criminal investigator, celebrate his brother’s success. During the assault, the murderer uses the victim’s severed finger to answer a call from his father, only to hear a cold dismissal. When the parents eventually arrive at the horrific crime scene, they are consumed by professional rage at the killer's depravity, never suspecting the mutilated body is their biological child.

Chapters

Chapter 3

After gently telling Leo to get some rest, Mom picked up another call from Maeve.

She anxiously asked before Maeve could say a word, "When are you done with that work trip, Maeve? Your brother's waiting for you to watch his game."

When I first came home, Mom and Dad had been too busy comforting the sobbing Leo. It was Maeve who'd taken my hand and led me into the house, telling me not to be scared.

She was the only warmth I'd ever known in that house.

On the other end of the line, Maeve paused before asking in surprise, "Is it Bas's math competition? I thought it's next month…"

Mom angrily cut her off. "Not Bastian! It's Leo, the brother you grew up with!

"How many times do I have to tell you that Bastian came back from who knows where and is full of bad habits? He's not worthy of being a Hawkin!"

Maeve sighed softly as if she couldn't understand Mom's hostility. "You shouldn't always believe what Leo says, Mom. Bas is a good kid, and you'd see that if you'd just look closer.

"I called him earlier, but he didn't pick up. He didn't reply to my messages for several days either. Is he not home?"

Mom gave a dismissive snort. "He's got legs, and I can't chain him up, can I? He's probably off doing who knows what.

"Anyway, Leo's tennis match is tomorrow, and if you can't come, so be it."

She paused before delivering her ruthless final words. "Tell Bastian that if he dares skip Leo's tennis match tomorrow with another one of his disappearing acts, he shouldn't bother coming back at all. The family's better off without him anyway."

Ignoring Maeve's attempts to speak up for me, she hung up.

Just then, Dad returned with his team. Noticing her grim expression, he curiously asked, "Is that body giving you a hard time?"

Mom shook her head and grumbled, "It's Bastian. He probably called Maeve to complain again, and now she's helping him play this stupid missing act."

Dad sighed heavily. "What an insensible kid! He knows we're busy and still pulls this crap! I'll call and give him an earful right now!"

Yet despite his attempts to dial my number, he never received a reply.

"Ungrateful brat! Might as well have stayed lost when all he does is bring us trouble!"

The criminalistics expert, who'd been listening in, sighed. "I remember when you both took a whole year off to look for him when he was kidnapped, so why'd you treat him like a mortal enemy now that he's back?"

A bitter smile tugged at my lips, knowing the reason was that they wanted a polished, well-spoken son, not a scrawny kid lacking decent manners.

When I was brought home at 15, I found Mom and Dad in the grand living room, holding the sobbing Leo close and comforting him.

Dressed in patched clothes, I stared down awkwardly at the hole in my shoes, where my toe poked through the rubber.

When Leo spotted me, his cries halted abruptly. Then, he asked with feigned innocence, "Who's this little beggar?"

Mom and Dad's expressions darkened instantly, not at Leo's words, but at the sight of me. I did not match the picture of the son they'd had for years.

That was when an officer approached with a report in hand. "Garrett, Dr. Brandt, we checked the missing persons files. Nobody reported a young man missing these days."

"Didn't his family notice he was gone? Could it be that they weren't close?"

"I can't believe any parents could be this cold and not care about their kid!"

The hushed whispers around me cut deep, and a heavy, crushing sorrow wrapped so tightly around me I could barely breathe.

Mom and Dad grieved for strangers whose families didn't lodge a report soon enough, but they never once wondered if I was safe while I was gone for the past few days.

Back then, they dropped everything to search for me when I was kidnapped. But now, they suspected that my disappearance was a stunt for attention.

Perhaps they were right; I should never have returned to the Hawkins. That had always been Leo's home and not mine.

Leo had claimed those years when I might have mattered most to Mom and Dad. And now, all the love that should have been mine would never find its way to me again.

Continue to next part

I'm Sana. I once became a surrogate for Selina, the former Luna, as I desperately needed money to save my mother. After giving birth to Angela, Selina passed away, and I was bound by a three - year contract with Alpha Frank. During those years, I endured so much. Angela, influenced by Yulia, Selina's sister, treated me horribly. She stuck gum in my hair, threw stones at me, and put a dead rat in my bed. Alpha Frank, consumed by grief for Selina, used me as a stand - in, then cruelly rejected me. When the contract ended, I tried to leave, but was framed and thrown into a cellar. Finally, I escaped to Mountain Ridge Pack, my mother's home. There, I met Daniel, and we became close. When Alpha Frank and Angela found me, Angela apologized, but I refused to go back. Now, with Daniel by my side, I'm ready to embrace a new, happy life.

Action Fantasy Werewolf

7.9

Dear Ex-husband I Am Now Your Boss

7.9

Five years ago, Elena was framed for a crime she never committed and left to rot in prison by the billionaire husband who had used her as a surrogate. Now she's back as the world's most powerful anonymous venture capitalist, and she has one goal: dismantle his empire piece by piece. But she didn't return alone—she brought his "deceased" heir with her, a secret that will shatter everything he thought he knew. As Elena moves her pieces across the board, old betrayals resurface and new dangers close in. He wants her back. She wants him ruined. And the child between them changes everything.

Action Billionaire Modern Mystery Romance

8.3

I Destroyed My Husband's House

8.3

After seven years undercover on a secret mission, a government agent returns home to reunite with her family. Instead of a warm welcome, she witnesses a woman throwing her children down the stairs and unleashing vicious hounds on them. After neutralizing the threat, she discovers her children live in fear of their father's new partner. The protagonist must now confront Martin Gray to uncover how a stranger usurped her place and why her own children have become outcasts in their home.

Action Billionaire Modern Mystery

8.7

Luna Reclaims Her Power

8.7

Betrayed by her mate and stripped of her status, Luna faces a brutal exile that should have been her end. Instead, she awakens an ancient, dormant power that defies the laws of her pack. No longer a victim, she embarks on a relentless quest for justice and survival. As she masters her new abilities, Luna prepares to confront those who wronged her, reclaiming her destiny and rewriting the future of the werewolf realm through blood and fire.

Action Fantasy Werewolf

7.4

Married To The Wolf: My Ruthless Revenge

7.4

My fiancé Javen sent me to a yacht in the middle of a New York storm to finalize a high-stakes merger with Alfonse Wolfe, a billionaire rumored to have ice water in his veins. I did it for "us," shivering in a soaked evening gown and cutting my hand on broken glass just to get the signature that would save Javen’s company. But when I rushed back to the Doyle estate, the manor was blazing with lights for an unannounced engagement party. Javen wasn't waiting for me with open arms; he was standing on the dance floor with Blossom Vega, the daughter of his biggest competitor, announcing their union to the elite of New York. When I stepped forward, dripping blood and water onto the marble floor, Javen didn't try to protect me. He looked at me with pure disgust and told the gathered press that I was a "charity case" suffering from mental delusions. His mother laughed while calling me a cockroach, and his father claimed my family’s lost fortune was a hallucination. To ensure my silence, Javen leaned in and whispered that he would pull the plug on my disabled brother’s life-saving medical care if I didn't disappear. I was hauled away by security and locked in a dark storage room like a stain on his perfect evening. I lay there in the dust, unable to process how twelve years of love could be a calculated lie. How could the man I was supposed to marry use my brother’s breath as a bargaining chip after I had just sacrificed everything to save him? I escaped through a second-story window and went straight to the only predator powerful enough to tear the Doyles apart: Alfonse Wolfe. I didn't just ask for sanctuary; I demanded a marriage license to unlock my mother’s secret trust and protect my brother. Standing in a high-security vault as the new Mrs. Wolfe, I discovered a truth that changed the game. I didn’t just have the money to ruin Javen; the deed in my hand proved I now owned the very land beneath Alfonse’s mansion. "I’m not the prey anymore," I whispered, watching the Doyle stock plummet on my phone. "I'm the hunter."

Action Modern Romance

9.1

Proposal No. 101

9.1

Drew Myers has proposed ninety-nine times, but he always chooses his childhood friend, Tammy, over the protagonist. On his hundredth attempt, which falls on her birthday, he abandons her once more, insulting her military honor and demanding her silence. After enduring his verbal abuse and blatant infidelity, she finally finds the strength to walk away. Holding a special forces recruitment letter, she prepares to leave behind a toxic love for a life of duty and self-respect.

Action Modern Romance

The Day My Mother Opened Me Up

Chapter 3

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