gaharutree
ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
STORY BY gaharutree
WONDERING WONDERLAND
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Nabi grew up in a poor village. She married young, then went to Singapore as a migrant domestic worker at fourteen, her age falsified on her documents. Her employer, Madam Isabel, allowed her to attend school, a door to a world she had never imagined. But Isabel's husband, Christopher, a man about twice her age, slowly turned small kindnesses into a snare. He groomed Nabi, exploiting her youth and dependence. She even became pregnant. A child treated as an adult, and no one named what was happening to her.When the affair was discovered, Christopher bore no consequences. Nabi was the one removed. After finishing high school at eighteen, she was sent to Batam under the pretext of attending university. On arrival, she learned she had been reported to the police for theft, as well as for being an illegal worker with falsified age documents. Christopher had carefully disposed of the only person who could testify against him.Alone and betrayed, Nabi fell into deep depression. Her mind became trapped in a memory loop: fragments of the past overlapping without order until names, faces, and whole years were lost. Still, she survived. She finished university and rose through a Japanese company, Steel Lamiere, working with painful discipline until, at twenty-eight, she became Vice President of the Batam branch. People whispered that she was a kept woman, an heiress, or involved in black magic, because the true story was too heavy to believe.At the peak of her career, Nabi lives with a secret she does not fully understand. She cannot assemble eyes, nose, and mouth into a face. She recognizes people by their accessories, perfume, voices, and hands. Her secretary, Juda, prepares data and photos so she never appears lost. She fills the gaps in her memory by rereading files, like a student studying for an exam that never ends.Into this world of weighing smiles comes Tanuja Eares Duff, CEO of Steel NZ and heir to a seven-generation New Zealand steel dynasty. To Nabi, and to the reader, he seems a kind business partner. In truth, he has known her for a long time, but Nabi, trapped in her loop, does not remember him, just as she does not remember Christopher. His small kindnesses, a cheap Kopiko candy, a band-aid for a blistered heel, a wine glass quietly swapped for soda, are his way of drawing close without demanding anything.Her mentor, Mrs. Saitako, urges her to move to the head office in Japan. Nabi nods, as she nods at everything life hands her, because refusing was always a luxury she could not afford.The turning point comes one Sunday morning, when Tanuja asks Nabi to help him repair his broken glasses. She already has an appointment at an eye center, and he comes along. There, for the first time, she says her secret aloud: her eyes are normal, but she cannot recognize faces. The referrals go from eye doctor to MRI to psychiatrist. The scan is normal, and the doctor points to prosopagnosia rooted in trauma. All day, Tanuja waits, carries her bag, shares vending-machine sandwiches, and never pushes. In the psychiatrist's office, Nabi asks to be recorded. She fears she may be a criminal and admits her memory seems to stop around 2016. She came not to learn whether she is the perpetrator, but who the victim is.Results in Indonesia are inconclusive, so Tanuja accompanies her to Malaysia for a second opinion. There, doctors conclude that her evidence and mental state point to a serious crime committed against her, and advise bringing Christopher before the High Court of Singapore. A third opinion in Japan confirms it: Nabi experienced something terrifying that remains locked in her mind, causing the memory loop and the loss of faces. What once felt like a personal defect is now recognized as a wound inflicted by someone else.Tanuja sends his company's lawyers to Singapore, and the authorities move faster than expected. Evidence and testimony are pieced back together. Christopher and Madam Isabel are tried and sentenced. Nabi's name is cleared. She is no longer a thief or an illegal worker in anyone's records, but a victim, legally recognized.Afterward, Tanuja and Nabi marry in Japan and move to New Zealand, where the Eares Duff family has forged steel for centuries. There, Nabi no longer needs to memorize faces from photographs. She lives with someone who chose to wait rather than press, and who knew her even when she could not know herself.
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THE GOVERNOR’S SECRET SIDE CHICK
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THE GOVERNOR’S SECRET SIDE CHICKSome loves are forbidden. Others are too dangerous to end.Hari was never meant to belong to the world of aristocracy. Born the daughter of a factory laborer in the Dutch East Indies, she grew up alongside Jan Reynier and Jun, two boys whose futures had already been shaped by their noble lineage.At twenty, Hari returns to the Netherlands under Governor Willem’s orders to assist Jun in diplomatic affairs. Fluent in Dutch and French, she soon becomes Jun’s trusted companion. But her growing closeness to Jan awakens feelings neither of them can afford to pursue. Jan is destined to marry Paris, while Hari has accepted a proposal from Leiden, a promising young doctor.Despite their arranged futures, Hari and Jan begin a secret affair. When Hari discovers Jan showing affection toward another woman, heartbreak drives her to leave for France. Jun helps conceal her whereabouts, protecting her even from his own family.Three years later, Hari returns to the Dutch East Indies, hoping to build a peaceful life with her father and prepare for marriage. But her past catches up with her when Jan, now governor, accuses her of being a Japanese spy and confines her to his private residence.Angry at Hari’s disappearance and the secrets she kept, Jan refuses every attempt to secure her release. Even Willem, Hari’s aunt, and Jun fail to change his mind. Yet as Jan visits her night after night, resentment begins to blur into the love they once tried to bury. Their forbidden relationship rekindles, and Hari becomes pregnant—a secret known only to Jan.Jan eventually marries Paris, while Hari returns to the East Indies with Jun and his wife. When Jan later assumes the governorship there, their affair begins again, hidden beneath the surface of aristocratic respectability. Hari becomes his mistress and falls pregnant once more, while Leiden continues fighting for her freedom.Everything changes when Paris arrives in the East Indies and discovers the affair. The revelation shocks both families, especially when Jan calmly reveals that he has already prepared divorce papers. Meanwhile, Jun learns the truth about his closest friend and brother’s relationship from Marijke.Bound by desire, betrayal, and the weight of their social positions, Hari and Jan must face the consequences of a love that has haunted them since childhood.For Hari, Jan Reynier is more than a forbidden love. He is the past she tried to escape, the present she cannot deny, and a future that may cost her everything.
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DOA
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Doa never imagined that a narrow passage would lead her away from the world she knew. Thrown into the distant past, she finds herself in Malalani, a mysterious realm, before entering Hutanomu, a forbidden land where supernatural beings exist beyond the boundaries of the human world. In this strange and dangerous place, Doa encounters Gagang, a small creature from the Acergrowt people, and Gawon, a warrior from the Majapahit era whose life she once saved. But when the Great Holy Master fails to read Doa’s fate, she discovers that her existence is an anomaly, one that has no place in the natural order. Now, Doa must survive in an era that does not belong to her, uncover the secrets of space and time, and find a way home. Yet amid the dangers and mysteries of the past, one question haunts her above all else: will she ever see her mother again?
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