Fifty years

Modern

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Literature

The Memories of Fifty Years by William H. Sparks

Romance

At seventy, my body failed, but my mind was sharp with the bitterness of a fifty-year marriage to a woman I was certain never loved me back. My final words, a rasping confession of lifelong regret, were, "If I could do it all over again, I would never love you." Then, darkness, a profound silence,

Literature

Fifty Years In The Northwest by William Henry Carman Folsom

Literature

The Americanization of Edward Bok is an autobiography, told in the third person, that shares the life of a little Dutch boy unceremoniously set down in America unable to make himself understood or even to know what persons were saying; his education extremely limited, practically negligible; and yet

Literature

Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey

Literature

Gilbert Parker was a late 19th and early 20th century politician and novelist who wrote prodigiously. The British-Canadian's works are still popular in the 21st century.

Literature

Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago / Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarian by Canniff Haight

Modern

"That will be two dollars and fifty cents," the ice cream vendor chirped, a cheerful end to a warm afternoon. My daughter, Lily, beamed up at me, eyes wide for a rainbow-sprinkled cone. But before my fingers found my wallet, a cold voice cut through the air. "What do you think you' re doing, Av

Billionaires

I just won fifty million dollars, enough to finally shed my quiet librarian life and embrace true freedom. Bursting with generosity and eager to share the news, I rushed back to my childhood home, the beautiful house my deceased mother had left to me. But instead of a warm welcome, my stepbrother

Literature

The Bungalow Boys North of Fifty-Three by Dexter J. Forrester

Romance

It all starts with a lie for Stephanie and that lie leads her to live two lives. Her story is full of pretences, heartbreak and love.

Literature

A structure of enlightenment is to be built in this land, which to finish, every man of intellectual power must contribute. The structure which I refer to, is the structure of "SPIRITUAL LIBERTY," as the spiritual part of man must have room to expand and grow the same as any other God-given privi

Billionaires

My husband, David, and I had been married for ten years, a perfect New York power couple on the outside, a carefully constructed lie within. I used his money, he had his affairs, even a secret child. Our lives ran on parallel tracks, never interfering. It was a cold, silent agreement. Then the scho

Romance

"We...shouldn't be doing this," Stacey moaned as she felt Noah's lips kiss the side of her neck. "Tell me to stop, and I will," he whispered. "I'm twelve years older than you; what would the world say?" "I don't care what the damn world says. The only thing I care about is the woman in front of m

Romance

On my 30th birthday, I stood in a grand gala, believing I was celebrating twelve years with Ethan, the man I loved, and his big project win. But my "celebration" was a pathetic banner and a wilting cupcake, while the main stage projected a smiling tribute to Ethan and his "brilliant protégé" – his

Literature

Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom by Louis Hughes. Louis Hughes was born in Virginia (1832), but was sold (1844) in the Richmond slave market to a cotton planter and his wife who lived on the Mississippi River. Later, he traveled with them to their new home in Memphis, Tennessee, and spe

Romance

For seven years, sous-chef Mark diligently poured his life savings into a "joint fund" with his girlfriend, Sophia, meticulously saving for their future and, more crucially, for his younger brother Leo' s escalating cystic fibrosis treatments. He even recently proposed, believing in their shared l

Romance

For eight years, I, Chloe Davis, lived in the shadows, pouring my soul into Liam Stone's music, ghostwriting his hits, and supporting his every dream. I was his secret girlfriend, enduring hidden holidays and hushed dinners, all for the promise that one day, he' d reveal me as the woman he loved. To

Modern

On the day Brett Graham threw his big victory celebration, he held my hand and told everyone I was his destiny. Even though we were already divorced. He declared to the whole room that he didn't regret his life-or-death decision, especially since his wife had been among the captives. Too ba

Literature

Redmanship in Kentucky for Fifty Great Suns by Frank L. Smith