BEVERLY’S POVA bleak world greets my eyes the moment they open, followed by an onslaught of pain in every part of my body. A groan follows the realization that I can’t move any of my limbs as it seems like they have been forced tightly together by the force of a rope that can break through skin to
He crouches in front of me and lets his fingers graze the skin at my ankles that is all red and angry from the rope tightened around it. I shiver at his touch, whimpering at the memory of the terrible things it has done to me in the past. He sighs. The psychopath fucking sighs like he empathizes wi
LESLIE'S POVHeartbreak doesn’t begin to describe this feeling inside of me. No, it is not enough to quantify the depths of the pain I am going through. It hurts, badly. Not the false sense of security I was lulled into; not the lies told to my face and the secrets kept from me. It is how weak my
LESLIE’S POVOf all the things that already don’t make sense, this very one tops the charts and breaks the scale–this one where I am being told I am siblings with a man I have never seen in my life. A man that looks nothing like the one lying unconscious on that bed, save for the color of his eyes.
“Excuse me?” My eyes snap to his.He shrugs, “Did he really look around the entire country and beyond for you?” “He did and then he found me and–” “Correction, you found,” he points to me and then to my unconscious father, “Him.” This man is getting in my head and I can’t even stop him. “What d
BEVERLY'S POV(TRIGGER WARNING: ABUSE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT)I must have blacked out again. Because when I wake up this time, it’s in the trunk of a car so small my entire body is curled into a ball to fit into it. The acute pain on one side of my head signifies that my abductors didn’t consider druggi
“Stupid bitch.” He grunts. He doesn’t stop. Roman hits me over and over again, until my lips burst and my mouth bleeds. “You’re not going to beg for your life? You are not going to fall to your knees and ask me to spare your life?” He asks after dealing me another blow to the face. “Just…kill…me.
LESLIE'S POVIn just a matter of hours, my entire life was turned upside down. Life as I knew it suddenly changed and a man I had never met until yesterday is at the center of it all–with a signed document that I still can’t bring my brain to comprehend its existence. It was just yesterday but it f
CHAPTER 18 [ Intern Sophie] ~SOPHIE~ Until a few days ago, the sound of my alarm filled me with nothing but thrill. All it does now is make me bury my head into the pillow with pure irritation while rethinking every single one of my life choices. “Turn that off and get your ass in the shower, So
CHAPTER 17 [The Path Of Heartbreak] ~TRAVIS~ “You asked to see me, sir.” Sophie Summers. I could never get used to her presence, not even when I was the one who requested it. “Sit.” I ordered, barely looking at her. Knowing how defiant she can be, I expected some sort of retort but she quiet
CHAPTER 16 [ A Tangled Mess] ~SOPHIE~ I pushed the door open with a sigh, the familiar weight of the day’s events pressing on me. My head still throbbed, a dull reminder of last night’s recklessness. As I stepped inside the apartment, the soft scent of lavender and the comforting hum of the refr
CHAPTER 15 [Not Her Type] ~SOPHIE~ "Who’s this, Sophie?" Sebastian’s voice slithered through the hallway, his smirk widening when his eyes landed on Travis. "Your new boyfriend?" I was still trying to gather myself together after running into Travis so suddenly. I had questions about how he was
CHAPTER 14 [The Man Who Was Never Mine] ~SOPHIE~ The nausea hadn’t subsided. I sat at the edge of the bed in my childhood room, staring at the peeling wallpaper and the dusty, forgotten trinkets that once made this space my sanctuary. It had been hours since I’d woken up with the hangover poundi
CHAPTER 13 [In Her Absence] ~TRAVIS~ The absence was the first thing I noticed. It wasn’t the missing coffee on my desk—although I’d gotten far too accustomed to finding it there, piping hot and prepared just the way I liked it. Nor was it the lack of a sticky note, usually plastered on the edge
CHAPTER 12 [A Return To The Shadows] ~SOPHIE~ The dull throb in my head woke me before anything else. It pulsed behind my eyes like a relentless drumbeat, making it impossible to open them fully. I groaned, rolling over and burying my face into the pillow, hoping to escape the nausea curling in m
CHAPTER 11 [Kill-Joy] TRAVIS I wasn’t sure what annoyed me more: Sophie Summers’ audacity or the fact that I had actually turned around and come back. Sitting in the backseat of my car, I stared out the tinted window at the pub just across the street from my company. I had never step foot there bu
CHAPTER 10 [The Sophie Effect] ~TRAVIS~ If chaos had a face, it would undoubtedly wear Sophie Summers’ unrelenting smile. For the past few days, she had inserted herself into every corner of my life at my textile company, leaving me to wonder how someone so seemingly innocent could wreak such calc