*Dancing*–failed! *Painting*–failed! *Drawing*–failed…partially. No drawing of clothing designs, Leslie. Just no. *Yoga*–failed! *Crocheting*–failed! Failed! Failed! Failed! Might as well be the poster girl for failure. *Sightseeing*–success! It’s fun going on tours but my purse doesn’t exac
LESLIE’S JOURNAL ENTRIES 002 ******* Thinking about designing again was a spontaneous decision. I am not sure I have what it takes to start from scratch or to even succeed. So, I’m ruling it off as one of those new year resolutions that you never get around to doing. My savings is dwindling. I h
LESLIE’S JOURNAL ENTRIES 003******It’s been exactly a year since I left my old life behind. It hits hard because today is the very day I walked away and didn’t look back. I thought I’d finally moved on. I thought I finally found myself but I guess finding a part of me doesn’t mean I entirely lose
LESLIE’S JOURNAL ENTRIES 004*******Just when I thought Cole has given up on the idea of ‘investing’ in me, he starts to hover around me again. I run into him a lot these days. At the mall, at convenience stores, at the hallway and even when dumping garbage. I have a feeling those meetings aren’t c
Trent and I had a talk while everyone else was busy listening to Cole’s adventurous stories. He bought me a drawing book and some colored pencils for my designs. I think I teared up a little as I took the gifts from me. He wanted to take me for changing their lives. He’d been worried he would have
LESLIE’S POV*THREE YEARS LATER*(Note: The three year period covers the events contained in Leslie’s journal and a little after that. Or you can look at it this way: the next events that are about to happen starting from this chapter are three years after she decided to leave her old life behind.)
LESLIE'S POVI open the door and Cole stands there, a smug look on his face. “Cole? What are you doing here?” Cole ignores my question and steps close to me with barely an inch separating us and then he smirks. “I knew it! Your eyes are red and puffy. You cried!” I scowl at his childish antics,
KIAN’S POVI’m falling deep into a dark abyss. It seems endless, taking forever to let the darkness swallow me whole. I’m reaching out but there’s no one to pull me up and nothing to hold on to. Just when I am about to get swallowed into the abyss, I jerk awake. It’s the same dream, again. I am at
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