“With mom interrogating every single girl down there like she’s picking a suitable wife for you, you can see why it’s a little difficult to consider.”“Is she really doing that?” I cringed. It shouldn’t be surprising to know she was using this opportunity to hunt for a suitable daughter-in-law for her, but I wished she would rest it for the sake of Nathan. After all, it was his day. It should be about him and not me.“I just saw her sitting down with a girl and asking her opinion on marriage and kids,” but he didn’t seem to care because he was laughing his head off.I turned around to face him, letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry, little brother. I’ll tell mom to stop the nonsense right away. It’s your and Nadine’s day. You should both be the centre of attraction. Not me.”“You should have thought about that before provoking that one hell of a woman,” I could see he was still adamant to know what her deal was, why Zara Fisher would pour the entire glass of wine on my head, the brother of t
[ZARA]“I like this one,” after devoting the entire day to checking out one apartment to another, I finally found the one conforming to my suitability. Well, more like my affordability, but you know what I mean.“It’s an excellent choice,” the real estate agent—a woman in her late thirties and hair so red I had to blink multiple times to adjust my eyes—agreed enthusiastically. And even though she had been muttering similar lines for almost every apartment that we had been to, it still made me a little pleased to know that she acknowledged it. “Oh, you should check out the balcony. Wonderful view. It’s open and spacious. You can even put a cute table and some chairs. A perfect setup for morning and evening tea. And the neighbours are also lovely people. You’ll have no problem adjusting,” she gushed out, her chirpy voice getting more and more excited every minute.“Well, it’s a little distant from my workplace,” sauntering over to the balcony and glancing around the animated neighbourho
I frowned. “What do you mean?”“Come on. I’ll show you my cabin. It has an even better view,” with an arm around my back, Brandon ushered me down the hallway and towards his cabin. Though when he opened the door, I wasn’t expecting to come face-to-face with the person in the room.“Armonica?” Shock bolted through me, leaving my eyes wide and mouth open.What was she doing here? Did she come here to give Brandon a hard time? After Maddox Richmond turned out to be her asshole cousin, she was another reason I felt so guilty. Brandon was crushing so hard on her. And by doing what I did, I was afraid I screwed up any prospect of their happily ever after together.To my surprise, however, when Armonica’s gaze landed on me, a wider smile grazed her lips. She shot up from her seat at lightning speed and dashed over to pull me into a hug.Wait. What?Didn’t Brandon say her father was his client? Then what was she doing here?And why the hell was she so happy to see me? Was she OK?Did she forg
[MADDOX]“I’ve got some leads from Europe,” Jade explained through the other side of the phone as I yanked the door of my car open and slid inside, tossing the briefcase in the backseat. “Already booked a flight. Hopefully, it wouldn’t end up with another dead end.”“Jade, whatever happens. If he’s the right person, you know better than to make direct contact,” I told her, clenching the steering wheel tight, hoping she wouldn’t ignore my advice like she often did. “You’re only there to confirm his identity. And once that happens, you’ll leave everything to me. Do you hear me?”“Loud and clear,” she muttered, but I could practically imagine her rolling her eyes at me. Not that I cared. Her safety was more important than anything.“He is dangerous, Jade.”“I know, Maddox.”“If you know that much, then you’ll fucking keep your distance. If he even got the whiff of what we're up to, we can’t even imagine what he would do. He might hurt you. Like he did to—”“Don’t worry about me,” she sig
[ZARA]When I revealed to mom about the new place I had planned to buy, mom was ecstatic. Although Brandon seemed a little sore at the disclosure. He grumbled about being used to home-cooked food and that he wasn’t sure if moving out this soon was a good idea.But I knew it was more than that.After completing his graduation, the first thing Brandon did was leave his home. Despite his parents’ best efforts to call him back, he stubbornly refused to step back into their house. Not many people knew, but Brandon’s parents had fallen out of love long before he turned twelve. He didn’t like to talk much about them, but I had seen him growing frustrated and reluctant to return home after school.He used to stay at our place for as long as possible and always ate whatever mom fed him. I tried to talk to him about his problems, but he always brushed me off or circled the topic back at me. He was good at distracting, and because I was the person who ran more on emotions than my brain cells, I
My first reaction was to check the time.It was almost one in the morning. Who in the world could be outside my door? Could it be Brandon? Did he forget something? But why would he drive all the way back when he could always collect it in the morning? It made no sense. Did Armonica forget something? Now, that was a possibility worth contemplating. Then again, I had already cleaned the room and found nothing that could belong to her.The bell rang again.Ugh. Should I ignore it?No. What if it’s one of the neighbours in need of help? God, I hoped that wasn’t the case.When the bell rang for the third time, I almost screamed and stomped over to the door.After one brief glimpse through the peephole, I realized the person indeed was the neighbour. I met him this morning. He lived across the hall. But what was he doing here so late at night?Anyway, now that I knew it was safe to open the door, I lugged in a deep breath and unlocked the door. A guy in his late twenties came into view.“Di
[MADDOX]“To a new beginning.” I raised the toast. “Cheers!” And took a sip, grinning to myself and watching her as the look on her face turned from annoyed to skeptical, before a small glimpse of panic shone in her baby-blue eyes.By the time I put the glass back on the small dining table where I stood presently, she had already taken a step back.“Why exactly are you here, Maddox?” she asked, slightly panicked, mostly suspicious.It did not slip my mind that it was the first time she called me by my first name. I decided at that moment that I quite liked it that way. My name on her soft plump lips. As I remembered the way they tasted that night at her place, in her bedroom, on her bed, blood prompted in the south.God, this woman could make a man horny just by saying his name.“Why don’t you make an educated guess?” I hummed nonchalantly and shifted my gaze from her to the rest of the room around.It was a decent two-bedroom apartment.The walls were bland. No paintings. No picture
[ZARA]If only I hadn’t been so careless…God, why did I leave the album out there in the open? After making sure Armonica or Brandon didn’t get their hands on it, I stupidly left it on the dining top after cleaning up the room. How dumb could I be?Then again, it wasn’t like I was expecting company.Maddox Richmond just dropped by uninvited.The asshole. The bane of my existence. The jerk who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.I thought in exchange for the album, he was probably trying to get his way with me. It wasn’t rocket science to read him, the kind of creep that he was.He wasn’t doing an outstanding job of hiding the lust and want from his eyes. I could practically see the reel of that night playing in his mind, in the way the corner of his lips twitched to the side, the way he held me close and breathed in my scent and the shudder that travelled down his chest.All the signs were there.Except, it wasn’t as if with him in the same room I could think of something else eithe
[ZARA]I play with the button on his shirt and grin. “What if I told you, it wasn’t exactly our first meeting?”He looks puzzled. “What do you mean? Have we met before? When?”“Five months before we met in your office.”“Are you serious?” Sitting straighter, he adjusts me on his lap while I move my arms around his round shoulder. “When? And why don’t I remember anything?”“In the restaurant where I used to work. You know, the one you had me fired from?” I arch an eyebrow, still pissed at what he did.He’s quick to apologize, his warm fingers exploring the expanse of my back. “I think we already established the fact that I was a dick then. Can we move on? Please?”“Alright.” I roll my eyes and laugh when he tickles my sides. “You were there with a few of your employees, and as luck would have it, we were also running low on staff. So, I came up to take your order.”“You did what?” He looks so shocked, it makes me grin wider. “What the hell was I doing?”I shrug. “I don’t know? You were
“With contacts like him, dad found me within an hour. I was in the hospital. Badly beaten and bruised. Yet, the first thing dad did when he saw me in the hospital bed was to throw everyone out of the room and slap me hard. He told me I was lucky to be outside because if we were at home, he would have broken my legs if that’s what it took to stop me from being a brat.”“But…” a small smile curled at the corner of his lips. “Little did he know we weren’t alone in that room. When he tried to hit me again, a notebook smacked the side of his face.”“What?” Did I hear him right? “Who did that?”Maddox looked at me before turning his gaze back to the warm fire. “A little girl. Not over nine. She was so tiny and yet so fierce in front of my dad. She even shouted at him to leave me alone. Dad was furious. Oh, you should have seen his face. He literally turned red. Before dad could react, another man stepped into the room. He was the father of that little girl and later I came to know they were
*ONE MONTH LATER*[ZARA]There’s a knock on the door and the first thing I do is look up at the time.It’s five past midnight. That can only mean two things.One: The person outside is in a grave emergency.Two: Someone is here to rob us, but has the decency to announce his presence so we could prepare for the worst.But when I step out of my room and look through the peephole, breath hitches in my throat for an entirely different reason.Maddox stands outside with a sweeping backdrop of snow.I don’t think twice before unlocking the door and pulling it open. A flurry of chilly nights whips me in the face, shooting a blunt shiver down my spine.“What are you doing here?” There had to be a good reason for him to show up at this godawful hour of the night. “Is Louis, okay?”It’s only been a month since we all learned of Nadine’s brutal death. News that took everyone by surprise and the whole media by storm. Even after a month had passed, we could find people on the streets, in shops and
Ten minutes later, Zachary, Kevin and Zara walk out of the house, too. They are still in some sort of conversation when Zara finally notices me and holds my gaze for a little longer than I expected. I’m the first one to look away and instantly feel like a fucking coward.Every cell—every bone—in my body screams at me to make this right, to bring her back home no matter what it takes. But a huge part of me is as clueless as a newborn baby. It doesn’t know what to say or what to do to convince her to come back into my life—to give me another chance. Do I even deserve a second chance? It’s because of me she had to endure so much that only became her fate because I couldn’t let go. I didn’t know how to.“Are you ready to go?” I hear Kevin ask as he made his way over to where I stand near their car. He looks around. “Where’s Nathan?”“He left.” I fill him in. “Something came up. I hope it’s alright if I tag along.”“Are you kidding me?” For the first time, he doesn’t look like he’s about t
[MADDOX]It’s odd how often I have driven by her house, but never really cared to turn my head and look. But now that I stand in front of it, I know why she fought so hard to take it back.The house is nothing out of a fairy tale. It’s decently constructed, has only one floor and is yellow. Not just any yellow but the one that makes you question why someone would do that to their house. Do they not love it? Is that supposed to be a punishment for the eyes of the beholder? How could a house be so yellow? It’s literally tormenting.But maybe it’s because I have known Zara long enough that I can tell you for sure this is just her way of showing a middle finger to the world. A message in capital letters that she doesn’t care about and can’t be bothered by the opinions of others. She’s gonna be herself no matter what and the rest of the world can simply fuck themselves.If one can look past the yellowness of the house, one would see the details that make this house a home. There’s a picket
“Thanks for coming on such short notice. Mr Gracias. Mr Richmond.” Officer Newman greeted us, gesturing us to take seats.Zachary and I took seats across from him while Nathan and Kevin decided to wait outside.“It’s no problem, officer. How can we help?” I asked.“Well, as we conversed over the phone, we found some bodies. They are, as expected, burnt and impossible to recognize. The face, that is. And because, Mr Gracias, your sister is still missing, we were hoping you will be willing to go through the accessories and clothes we found on the victims. This will help us narrow down our options and decide what the next course of action should be.”“Of course.” Zachary said, and for the first time, I caught the strain in his voice.“Great.” Officer Newman said and retrieved three transparent packets from the desk behind him. Carefully, he laid them all on the table and stood up. “I’ll give you guys a minute.”’Once the officer left us alone in the room, I turned to face Zachary. “Do yo
[MADDOX]“How long are you gonna sulk?” Nathan asked, and the whim to throw him out of the car was exhausting.“I’m NOT sulking.” Without saving him a single glance, I told him as calmly as possible. I looked outside the window instead and searched for a familiar face.Five minutes ago, we pulled up outside the police headquarters. Zachary and his brother, Kevin, were supposed to meet us here. For now, all I could see were cops and irrelevant people moving in and out of the building. No sign of the Gracias family.“And not growing any younger, either.” Nathan deadpanned, and I finally decided to fix him whatever glare.“Did you just make a joke about my age?” That should be hardly any concern to me. Especially when mom did it all the time. But since the moment I woke up this morning, I hadn’t been in the mood to take anyone’s shit. It might have had something to do with the fact Zara ended everything between us yesterday and left for good. Actually, fuck that! My mood was spoiled beca
“It’s not true.” He retorted, but when I gave him a pointed look, he shut his mouth and let me finish.“That what you think, what you say and what you do is best for everyone. That you have the right to decide for everyone because, in your head, no one is more capable than you are. You’re so controlling that you don’t even care how suffocating that could be for someone. In fact, not just me, for anyone at all. You make the rules and expect everyone to follow them without question. You are so deep in your head that you’ve become delusional. No one can reason with you because you don’t listen and neither do you trust. You know of whom you remind me?”There was a beat of silence before he spoke, the crease across his forehead tightening. “I am NOT like Richard.”“No. You aren’t. But you’re no different either. You are just as tyrannical, if not less.”He peered down at his hands and shook his head. “I…I don’t know how that happened.” A look of surprise crossed his face, water glistening
[ZARA]I woke up in a dark room.For a second, I thought I was back in that hellhole.I sat up with a jolt, so fast my head swayed and the entire room spun. A dark figure loomed near the foot of the bed and fear hijacked my mind.I whimpered, feeling something hard against my back, stuck in the middle of a shadow of the man and something that barred me from crawling backwards. Panic prickled the back of my neck, chewing at the little sanity I still had intact. But it was only when the shadow moved and took a step closer, I screamed like hell.“Zara!” Someone called. It came from the dark figure. “Calm down. It’s me.” He said and took another, cautious step in my direction. The shaft of light sneaking from the cracks between the curtains struck his face. My shoulders dropped, and panic melted when it hit me who he was.“Brandon?” It really was him. But…“Shit! I didn’t know you could screech like that.” He said and I could tell he was trying to act all cool while from the inside he was