Prologue ---

Prologue—

“Please don’t do this! Don’t ruin my reputation like this! Delete the picture…” Red with shame I cover my body with my hands and almost beg him.

“If you don’t want this to go viral, submit to me and do as I say! Don’t worry doll, I have no interest in you but nobody dares to do what you did! I can’t let a poor beggar girl spoil my image! Can I?” Adrian William Ford, the rich but spoiled jerk of a boy said shooting a disgusted look at me!

“Now, now..tell me what will you do? With one single tap on my mobile, this picture of your sexy boo*s will go viral, will be on every mobile, for show!” while holding his mobile on left hand and with his right hand finger pointed on the screen, he asked with a smug face!

I am trapped! There is no other way out than to submit to this jerk! Taking a deep breath and letting the single drop of tear to flow down my cheek, I close my eyes and say gritting my teeth, “Ok. I submit.”

He scoffs and then whispers bringing his face dangerously close to mine, “Good. Good that you have learnt your place! Now remember this girl, I have the ticking bomb right in my mobile! Now get the f*ck out of my sight and be available on call!”

--

Wiping my tears I quickly walk to the washroom, dodging several curious eyes as much as possible! Four buttons of my shirt are torn and through the gap, the view of my private part is very clear!

As soon as I walk inside the bathroom, I slam the door behind, locking it tightly. I quickly run the water of the wash basin to supress the sound of my cry. Yes, I sit on the tiled floor pressing my back against the bathroom door and cry my heart out loud!

“Why? Why me?”

I wish I could just erase the past couple of days from my life! I wish the memories never came into my mind haunting me! I wish I didn’t have those dreams! I wish I didn’t have a past……a long ….long past! I wish I never came to Odessa, I wish I never got the scholarship, because it all started after that!

--

(Flashback two weeks ago----)

It is a winter evening and I am walking out of the ‘The Neons’ Club after spending three hours with my friends from high school. Tonight is my last night here in New York, the place where I have spent seventeen years of my life since birth and tomorrow I will be leaving with Mom for Odessa, a small town away from here.

“Emily!” I turn around hearing the familiar voice that always makes me smile. It is my BFF Linda!

Linda runs to catch up with me and then we both walk through the streets to my home.

“So, are you sure you won’t be coming with us?” I ask Linda as we keep walking through the silence of the late evening.

“Yeah…I am sure! But don’t worry, I have booked the car and once you and Mrs Miller reach the airport, the driver will pick you up and take you to the house in Odessa. I will be coming after a couple of days!” Linda says wrapping an arm around me from the side.

“You know, you didn’t have to do all this! And….about the house….I wanted to talk to you!” I sigh and tell her. Linda has already rented a place and though I have told her that I will contribute, still the rented car, house and all….it is a lot she is doing for me, as a friend and I always feel guilty and bad about it. It makes me feel as if I am using our friendship to my advantage and I have tried to explain it to her but she won’t listen at all.

And as expected she stops abruptly and crossing her arms over her chest she says firmly, “No! There is nothing to talk! You are going to study in William Fords and I am also going to study there; we are both leaving town and shifting to a new place! It is convenient if we stay together. Besides I am not doing you any favour! My dad rented the house for me to stay, anyways. You and Mrs Miller staying with me will only be additional advantage for me! I won’t have to stay alone, my parents won’t have to worry about me and I will always have good homemade food to eat!”

I shake my head and roll my eyes, “We both can go on for hours on this topic Lin……but neither can you convince me, nor can I ……”

Before I could finish the sentence, I start having another episode of headache and my head feels dizzy and slowly everything around me fades and becomes black!

In the darkness and absolute silence, I hear a faint voice calling me. The sound echoes from somewhere far away….. and though the name the voice calls for, is not ‘Emily’….yet I somehow know that he is calling for me!

I try to look hard in the darkness and slowly a faint light appears at the end of a black and dark tunnel. I move towards the faint light with undecipherable feelings and a scared and thumping heart, following the sound…

“Clara! No..No…stop!” the voice is so warm and familiar. It calls to me…comforts me and yet confuses me completely.

“Hee…Hee…Hee….” I hear myself giggling and saying, “Edward! You can’t run from me….”

As I reach the end of the tunnel, I find myself in a beautiful meadow covered with colourful flowers and a young man running away from the small stream that flows through the meadow, with his back towards me! I see myself chasing him through the woods and soon I catch him and we both fall on the grassy ground laughing together as we lay closely catching our breath.

Edward slowly turns over me and brushes a strand of my hair that fell on my face and crashes his lips on mine without warning! His green eyes boring through me as if reading all my thoughts.

I get up pushing him slightly and stand on my feet. He also stands up and wraps his arms around me from behind and places kisses on my earlobe making me shiver! I laugh and suddenly I turn and push him hard laughing and mocking, “Now, You can’t catch me Edward!”

He stumbles back but regaining his balance he looks at me menacingly and runs after me!

“I will get you Clara! Nothing can keep you away from me! Not you! Not the Universe! Not the Gods!”

I feel him soon behind me. His both hands have caged me and pinned me against a huge banyan tree, the same tree, on which he has curved a heart and inside my name ‘Clara’. I take deep breathes as his touch electrifies me! He manages to captivate my heart every time he is near me, even after so many years of our relationship! 

“I love you Clara! You are my life!” – Edwards says in a deep and intense voice! 

I turn towards him, narrow my eyes and try to see him close to me, but suddenly, the surrounding changes! Thunder roars in the sky as it quickly grows dark and speedy wind starts to howl. Edward’s eyes are horror struck and slowly he steps back and back, away from me!

I freeze in horror as I meet the most beautiful pair of green orbs I have ever known to exist that looks now sad and scared. Suddenly he extends his hand towards me and screams as he falls back into a whirlpool of darkness!

“C- L- A- R- A……!!!!”

“E-D-W-A-R-D!!!!!!”

I run and somehow manage to catch hold of his hand but slowly he slips away into the darkness, screaming, “COME TO ME!! CLARAAAAAA!!!!!”

“ED…..!!!  NOOOO!!!” I wake up screaming to find myself on the bed, sweating and panting and within a second both Linda and Mom rushes inside my room.

“It is ok Emily! You are home! It was just a nightmare!” Mom sits beside me on the bed and rubs my back trying to calm me down. “You had an episode on the street and luckily you were close to home with Linda by your side! She brought you here with the help of a kind gentleman.”

“Mom!! It was the same….same nightmare….!” I cry frantically curling up in her chest!

“Shhh…Shhh…You are fine..you are fine!” My mom hushes me and it takes a few minutes but finally I calm down. I have been having this nightmare and a few similar ones since I was five years old and in each of them I see the young man Edward calling to Clara who somehow I know is me…in the dream and I yet I can’t decipher what it means!

I have seen a therapist and after several sessions I concluded nothing much actually changed! Only that earlier I couldn’t sleep most of the nights and used to be very scared! But the therapy helped me to sleep and also come out of excess fears, though I am still the sighed and quiet type!

---- 

It is my first day in Odessa, a small town away from New York. I have spent seventeen years of my life in New York with my Mom and now had to shift because of the scholarship I received to study in the dream institute ‘Williams Ford Academy’.

Many of my friends like many others from across the world have applied for scholarship but only five students get scholarships every year and this year luckily I am one among them!

If you ask, ‘So Emily, are you sad?’…I would say not much! Yeah, it must sound weird but I am not sad because despite being the big city gal, I am usually always very shied and quiet type and love to utilise my time on studying hard, so that I can become a great fashion designer some day and support my mother who works really hard to meet the ends!

Also, another reason is that my best friend Linda, who is the only daughter of a multimillionaire, has convinced her Dad and has taken admission in the same institute and hence I will still be having her besides me all the time!

Now, my goal in this new small town Odessa, is only to complete my studies with best grades, have a lot of fun with my best friend and not to draw too much of attention so as to avoid being judged every time because of my family’s weak financial condition!

“You don’t want to focus finding a guy?” – Linda had asked me when I told her, what I want to do next three years and to that I have smiled and replied, “Nah! I don’t think I will ever have a boy in my life! That’s not the plan anyways!”

What I said was an honest reply and I really believed so, until he came into my life like a storm and changed everything, in ways…good…..and ….also….….. not…so …….good!

Dear Readers,

Greetings to you all! I am Apsia, a new writer on this platform! I am from India and love writing Thriller and Fantasy. I hereby present an original Romance Thriller to you all and I would really love to see your comments!! 

This book is not edited yet so kindly ignore small errors.and Please! Please add the book to your library, follow me if you like my story and also would appreciate if we can be friends on facebook! Yes, I have created a new facebook account just for my readers. You may check me here:https://www.facebook.com/apsia.w.7. You may also find my publishing schedule there!

Shall look forward to know you all better!

:)Love

Apsia

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