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2024-10-29 19:42:56DOWNTOWN DINER WAS deserted once again the next day. It made me speculate whether the customers had decreased since I was now working here. Surely, I wasn't that bad.
Or maybe it was because of the intense cold which threatened to freeze my skin off. I could almost imagine it snowing. The hollow and icy wind was howling in the streets replacing the usual sound of
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All Things Lovely 43
"WHY?"I was expecting a lot of questions– maybe a series of rapid and exasperated and angry ones– but not that one simple word. Yet that one word hung so heavily in the air, the most important question of all."What do you mean why?" I was stalling for no good reason and it was obvious. I wo
All Things Lovely 44
I WAS ABOUT to go to bed when I remembered that Justin may still be mad at me. I'd cooled off and decided to give him a chance to speak. I didn't want to be on bad terms with him or go back to when we both didn't really care for each other that much. He was just worriedI had told myself.I knocked on his door, loud enough for him to hear but soft enough not to wake him if he was asleep. He wasn't.
All Things Lovely 45
DOWNTOWN DINER WASdark and cold – not to mention, it looked like a set from a horror movie which was no doubt where someone would end up dying because they had chosen to seek out the source of an eerie sound.Dan and Cassie had not even bothered to show up. They were probably still in their houses where the heater actually worked (unlike Downtown Diner which was turning me into a popsicle) and inviting, flu
All Things Lovely 46
I DREW A deep, chilly breath as I sunk further into the couch in the living room where there was a convention taking place–obvious from the looks of all the maps spread out on the coffee table. "You're sure you're ready? I mean, we've still got, like, two weeks."Soon after I had talked to Shane, I closed the diner for the day and raced home, hands still shaking.This will all come to end soon, I had told myself,
All Things Lovely 47
"EARTH TO AUTUMN?"I snapped out of my reverie, blinking furiously. "Huh? What?"I was still very much lost in thought about what Justin had said last night. In fact, I h
All Things Lovely 48
I COULDN'T BELIEVEwhere I was standing. Couldn't believe where I was standing, and that I didn't want to be here.The Shade Mansion. A place I had once called home but was now was just a standing reminder of betrayal and lies. I was once as proud of this business as my father was, but now that I knew what happened inside, how lives were ruined, I wanted nothing to do with it.
All Things Lovely 49
JUSTIN THOUGHT QUICKLY and opened the door, pulling me inside with him into the darkness. The door clicked shut just as voices were heard.The two men were now talking just outside the door, and it was nerve-wracking. Every word of theirs seemed dragged, like a YouTube video playing at 0.75 speed. They could open the door at any time—which really wasn't helping my anxiety.The closet was dark and musty with a slight reek. It was almost pitch dark—I was only just able to see Justin's silhouette from where I stood a few feet away from him."It'll be alright," he said, and although people usually lied when they said that, I believed him for a blissful second.I hadn't noticed, but I was breathing hard, almost gasping. I ran my hands along the wall to look for a light switch, and when I found one, I flicked it on immediately, leaning against the wall. The people were still outside.The bulb was faulty and only sputtered light unsteadily, but I would take what I could get to shove away the
All Things Lovely 50
SNEAKING OUT HAD been very stressful. Especially when Parker decided that it would be wise to stand in the middle of a wide and commonly used hallway to admire the smoothness of the walls."I'm telling you," he had said seriously, "it's unnatural for walls to be this smooth."After a series of failed explanations on how we didn't have time to look at walls, Justin ended up losing it and dragged Parker behind him by the collar.I thought about it-about the incident in the closet and came to the conclusion that I had wanted him to kiss me. It was the first time I had acknowledged it.Then I found myself wondering if it was the right thing. I wanted it, but it wouldn't be right. It would make things messy, and I didn't want to start anything that ended in heartbreak. I couldn't see a future in whatever what going on with us. If I managed to score my dream job, I would have to work hard-I would even have to travel, if necessary.But I couldn't have Justin next to me through all that. I und
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All Things Lovely 63
I WATCHED AS Justin's face fell. He knew it was pointless to fight further."Okay," was all he said.The look on his face in this moment would haunt me forever. It was plain, undiluted sadness that reflected on his fa
All Things Lovely 62
I FROZE INplace, paralyzed from shock.He's here. Right in front of me.He was lounged on a chair, unmoving, eyes fixed on
All Things Lovely 61
THE MORNING WASchaotic.Al tripped over his feet multiple times before he reached the door, mumbling about having to meet someone somewhere, and beingincrediblylate. Shocker.
All Things Lovely 60
WE JUST SAT there on my bed, holding each other until my chest stopped heaving with heavy breaths."You don't have to hold on to this. It's not your duty. It was wrong of your father to do this to you," Lola reminded me."I know, but I want to try," I said. I wante
All Things Lovely 59
AFTER A WHOLE day of meetings, I fell onto my bed, exhausted and ready to go to sleep, but Lola had other plans for me.She barged into my room at midnight, her hair unbound and swishing. She looked nowhere close to sleepy. Her dress was still wrinkle-free after a whole day of work, and I wondered how she pulled that off.She shut the door excruciatingly slowly, and I had a feeling this was going to be bad."Um, what happened?" I asked her. Lola no longer came over at this time at night.When she turned to me and away from the door, I almost fell off the bed when I saw the fire in her eyes. I had done something majorly wrong.She took a deep breath. "Al told me," she said, and I immediately regretted not telling her before. I was pretty sure that Al had also gloated because I'd told him first. If Lola hated anything, it was being told about something second. They always had been petty when it came to each other. Always competing."Oh," was all I said."Oh my god, Auttie!" she exclaime
All Things Lovely 58
2 MONTHS LATERDRESSING PROPERLY WAS the hardest part of being the new CEO of Shade Enterprises.No more loose shirts and jeans because a meeting apparently required you to be dressed in a 'civilized' manner, whatever that was supposed to mean.I, Autumn Shade, who hardly owned a single dress, now had a cupboard full of them along with various suits. I didn't know if I was ready for a sacrifice of this magnitude. The heels were the worst part.Managing the company for just a couple of months was already weighing heavily on me. I didn't know how my father did this for such a long time.When the police had finally reached the Shade Mansion and announced that Christopher Shade would be taken into custody, my father didn't look surprised or angry.He only looked for me."Where is she? Where is my daughter? Is she safe?" was all that he had asked, and for a moment I had forgotten about everything he had done wrong. I wanted to fall to my knees and beg him to forgive me for what a horrible d
All Things Lovely 57
WHEN A BLACK Mercedes that I knew all too well pulled up in the driveway at an alarming speed which was likely to leave tire marks, I got in before the driver could get out.Al stared at me for a good minute and when he finally opened his mouth to say something, I cut him off."Just drive. We have to be quick." One of them may come home soon.He must have sensed the urgency in my tone because he immediately started driving away from that cabin-like house that I'd started to consider my safe haven. I looked at it until the last of the brown wood it was made of was camouflaged into trees.That's what I liked about Al—he saved the questions for later because he trusted me, and it made me feel worse about not telling him about all this.He drove at top speed for a few minutes before he pulled up at the side of the road; curiosity brimming."What happened?" he asked, looking ahead. He must have anticipated that it was something bad. "Did they hurt you? Because if they did—""No," I whisper
All Things Lovely 56
WHITE WAS A depressing color, I'd decided. It was too empty, too constricted. It wasn't the best color to be around when someone wanted to know something for certain. The entire hospital was white, and the longer I stared, the more I thought—something I really didn't want to do now because my thoughts were my safe place no longer.I was at the verge of losing my mind and running out of the hospital screaming when Justin finally came around the corner. He was still wearing the same clothes, although they were crumpled now. His blue eyes looked dull and tired."She's fine," he said hollowly. He even sounded tired. He sat down in the chair next to me, which was also frustratingly white.The relief that flowed through me was like a drug—calming, numbing and decreasing the pressure in my chest until it was only a dull throb of dread for what I knew I had to do next. "I need to talk to you," I said, voice low enough to not be heard by the people seated around us.Justin sensed it—the strai
All Things Lovely 55
HE GOT OFF of the couch he had planted himself on, wincing as his feet touched the ground, which usually happened when you'd been sitting for too long, and I suspected that part of the reason he didn't want me to see what was on that drive was that it would require him to go retrieve it.I sat down in his spot just to taunt him."What does it have? Files? Emails?" I questioned Parker, my curiosity getting the best of me when Drake hadn't come back for a long time.Justin chuckled like he knew I would crack, and I elbowed him. Parker spared a curious glance before turning his attention back to what I asked."It's CCTV footage. Blurry, but evidence indeed," he said.I wondered why my father would have committed murder knowing he would be captured on a camera. He couldn't have been that stupid. Even if there were cameras, he would have seen to it that the footage was completely obliterated.Parker seemed to catch onto the silent question, because he answered, "William had set the cameras
