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
LESLIE’S POVI haven’t even fully processed the realization when the mansion door opens and maids troop out with more of my belongings. They freeze the moment they see me and immediately avert their gazes but not before I see the guilt on their faces. It was clear even before I saw them that they we
When I made the decision to keep my mother’s last name and also to stop my father from announcing me as his heiress, I had no idea it was going to come back to bite me in the butt this way. Helplessness, that all too familiar feeling suddenly makes its grand appearance again and it takes so much wi
LESLIE’S POVTravis told me to stay put. Technically he only mentioned the hospital and the house, he said nothing about the company so it doesn’t feel to me like a broken promise when I leave the hotel the next morning to go to work for the first time since my father got admitted to the hospital.
LESLIE’S POV“You!”I swear I don’t think, I just lunge forward, rage driving me. I don’t get close enough to claw that stupid smile off his face because a big burly man steps in my way. I bounce off his rock-hard chest and it causes me to stagger backward, narrowly escaping a hard fall to the groun
LESLIE'S POV“Travisssss,” I call drunkenly, freeing myself from his hold so I can grab his cheeks, “It’s you.” “Christ, Leslie. Just how much did you drink?” He mutters with a silent curse. I let go of his cheeks so I can count my fingers, “Five….no, six. Oh, it’s seven. Or was it eight?” I shrug
LESLIE’S POV I join Kian’s mother outside the room, closing the door behind me. She is still stewing in anger, face red with rage that’s waiting to be unleashed. Usually, I would do anything to pacify her so I wouldn't be at the receiving end of that unbridled rage. Now? Irritation is all I feel at
LESLIE’S POV (One Week Later) “If the police show up again, spray them in the face with the fire extinguisher or something.” Cole’s irritated voice filters through my phone’s speaker and it makes me crack a smile for the first time in a week. “Pretty sure I would get arrested for that.” “Not
LESLIE’S POV My reflexes work faster than they ever have. Fast enough to help me roll away, and bump into Beverly in the process. Mike relentlessly stalks towards me and that’s when I get a good look at his affected leg. I time his movement and before he can take another angry swing of his weapon
LESLIE’S POV Seconds after Beverly crumples to the ground, my breath is still caught in my throat. I’m still trembling as I watch her sprawled on the floor, body jerking uncontrollably. I’m amazed at my strength to still remain standing despite the traumatising scene in front of me. To still grip t
LESLIE’S POV Our hearts are already in our mouths before we see what jumped at us—a ginormous rat, every bit as scared as us. It runs at full speed and scurries into the nearby bush. “All clear.” She mutters and we both step into the shed using her phone’s flashlight. It’s a full shed; a bunch of
LESLIE’S POV We’re barely two minutes away from the abandoned school gate when the engine starts to sputter, the entire truck shaking with the intensity. “No…no…no…no, not now!” Beverly lets out a panicked groan. I am preoccupied with looking behind us to make sure we’re not being followed but at
LESLIE’S POV Kian doesn’t know it—the name of Mike’s sister. I can tell from the way his entire face has gone even paler than it was before. Earlier, it had been pale from the pain of the injuries from the accident that I still don’t know the extent of. Now, he has turned ashen from something m
LESLIE’S POV The sound of my name reaches me from somewhere distant. The sound is repeated just like the throbbing ache in my head. When I finally manage to pry open my eyes, the feeling of deja vu washes over me. My hands and legs are bound tightly just like three years ago in that warehouse.
BEVERLY’S POV The familiar beeping sound that comes from my phone causes me to jerk upright. My eyes train on the screen, following the movement of a blinking red dot on the map. He’s on the move. I slam a couple of bills on the coffee table before hurrying out of the cafe where I had been havi