Chapter 1

19 years ago

"Your nothing but a piece of shit." He snarls at me his large, calloused hand tightly gripping my small chin. 

I stay still like a stick in the mud not wanting to make any sudden movement that would enrage him even more.

"Please don't hurt her, she hasn't done anything wrong. It was me!" My mother, Elizabeth, cries while frantically attempting to remove his grip from my chin with her frail hands covered in faint bruises. 

"I don't care who it was. Get out of MY house with YOUR daughter." He yells his thunderous voice causing my body to shake in crippling fear. 

In his other hand, his fingers curl tightly around the bottle of alcohol as my mom pulls me away from him and pushes me behind her, attempting to create distance between us. 

"Where...where will we go? I don't have enough money to feed her rather than to find a place to live!" Elizabeth sobs. 

"GET OUT!" He yells throwing the bottle of alcohol right at my mom's face.

As she hunches over in pain, I see blood oozing down from her cheek and landing on her clean white maxi skirt, staining it red. Despite desperately wanting to help her, I remain frozen in my spot in fear of not striking more reasons for him to want to hurt her. 

Slowly getting back up, she wipes away her tears and the blood from her cheek with the back of her hand. Without wasting another second, she takes my small hand in hers and we both walk out of the house leaving our belongings and painful memories behind.

I didn't care that we were leaving my father, Marc Garwood, behind. He always beat and threatened my mom. He would force her to work while he lounged around drinking and bringing other women home. If we didn't listen to what he said, he would punish us in unimaginable ways.

The Denver spring sunshine casts a warm light on us as we exit the doors of our apartment building. Spring is supposed to be a time of new growth and rebirth and I wonder if we'll ever experience that ourselves. 

"It's okay hun, mommy will get us to a safe place." Elizabeth says bending down to hug me and I wrap my arms tightly around her as if she might be taken away from me any second. 

"You're bleeding mommy." I whimper pulling back from her unable to take my eyes away from her deep cut.

Cars zoom by and people walk by as they continue with their business. Of the people who actually take notice of us, they only shoot questioning glances and continue on with their journey not once stopping to ask if everything is okay. Don't they see that she needs help?

"It's okay we'll go to the hospital and then mommy will be all better." She smiles her soft hands wiping the tears that stream down my face.

"Mommy, will daddy hurt us again?" I ask curling a strand of her dark mocha brown hair that fell out of her messy bun.

The warm wind blows her hair onto her face, and I continue to move her hair out of the way not liking how it wraps around her face. It reminds me of his beastly like hands and how they would clench my mom's jaw tightly when he would be mad.

"No, my darling, he won't. I promise." She says kissing my forehead.

"I promise he won't hurt you either." I sniff laying my head into her shoulder.

I was seven years old when I wholeheartedly made that promise to myself and to her, but little did I know that I wasn't able to keep that promise as an adult.

Today

"Aaliyah could you please contact Mrs. Black and let them know that their divorce papers are ready." I say hitting save on my completed case brief for another case. 

"Sure thing Sarah!" Smiles Aaliyah and walks out of my office, her long black natural curls bouncing with every step.

Aaliyah Jones is my personal assistant and my best friend. We met when we were in our first year at New York University. I told her how I wanted to be a lawyer and she told me she wanted to be a paralegal, and that no matter where I ended up working, she was going to work with me.

And we've never left each others side ever since.

Printing out the case brief and placing it into my folder, I gaze outside the window taking in the dark grey clouds that encompass the busy city. It's definitely getting ready to rain.

I work in downtown New York's finest and most prestigious law firms, Rollins Law. During law school, I had a high GPA and a bag of scholarships and internships. As soon as I passed the bar exam, I had many firms reaching out to me wanting me to work for them but Mr. Rollins, owner of Rollins Law and one of America's top lawyers, beat them to it by contacting me before my bar exam. He wanted me to work for him and despite me saying that I don't know if I'll pass, he had full faith in me that I would, and here I am today. 

As a family lawyer my job pays well, and I am living an affluent lifestyle. However, the one thing I learnt along my profession was no matter how much money you had it could not give you inner peace, not until you dealt with your demons.

I love my career because it allows me to help families who are on a brink of breaking to be able to take on a fresh new start, like my mom and I were able to do. The day that my mom and I left my dad, it was like a fresh new canvas was handed to us where it was only us painting the colors this time. My past has definitely influenced my career choice, and to be able to help others going through the same thing we did is a reward that I would never want to change.

I look at my tired warm complexion in the small mirror that rests on my desk. My straight dark brown hair tied in a high and sleek ponytail is starting to hurt my scalp and my cheeks are slightly pink in exhaustion. It's been a long ten-hour workday for me. 

Happy for the day to be over, I pack my stuff, put on my coat, and grab my handbag, and head out of my room.

"Aaliyah, I'm leaving! I'll see you tomorrow!" I say as I approach her office door. 

Everyone had already gone home on our floor and Aaliyah and I were the only one's here.

"Bye Sarah! Oh, just to let you know I called Mrs. Black and she'll be here tomorrow morning. She sounded really happy." Aaliyah says leaning against her desk. 

"Of course, she would be." I laugh. "They can finally start to live their own lives now."

"True." She pauses. "Sarah, I don't understand how two people who love each other so much can suddenly start to hate the other person's guts."

"I don't get it either. This is why I stay away from love." I point out.

Flashbacks of my mom and dad start to come forth. Although my dad never really liked my mom, my mom loved my dad. I don't know what she saw in him. I don't think I ever saw a moment where he would treat her with love unless it was her pay day and only so he could get her cheque.

The Blacks' were friends with Aaliyah's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Black fell in love when they were in high school and were married for about twenty years. They didn't have any kids but two cute dogs to keep them company.

When Aaliyah brought this case to me, I was surprised that Mrs. Black didn't even want her husband to be talked about in a good manner. But here we are today, she'll be coming in tomorrow for the last time as the divorce gets settled.

"Oh well, if their happy at the end I guess that's all that matters." Aaliyah whispers holding Mrs. Black’s file close to her chest.

"I agree." I state.

Just as I'm about to turn around to leave, Aaliyah rushes towards me with a huge smile on her face taking out her phone from her pink blazer pocket. 

"Oh my gosh I totally forgot to tell you!" She exclaims. "Guess who was on tv today!"

"Um...Robert Downey Jr.?" I guess remembering how much she loves him.

"Ugh I wish but no. It was Alexander Adair!" She grins her green eyes full of admiration and her tanned complexion glowing with love. 

I shake my head and smile at her new obsession. Ever since Aaliyah saw him on a magazine during her dentists visit, he's been her new crush. She kept those magazines of him and sent me pictures of him because she needed someone to gush to about her new crush.

"Aren't you lucky." I chuckle.

"Wait, I made a video of it. Look!" She exclaims shoving the phone into my hand. 

Playing the video, a handsome tall muscular man dressed in a well polished navy suit talks about his new partnership with some Italian CEO named Leonardo Roth. 

"And this really had to be on the news?" I ask in bewilderment. 

They really have nothing else to report about now days. 

"Yes! Like who wouldn't want to know that Alexander Adair, CEO of Adair Consolidated, richest and hottest man on the planet, is forming a new partnership!" She shrieks in excitement nearly dropping the file on the ground.

"Ah no one?" I say handing the phone back to her. 

"Oh Sarah, I think everyone. Now that is what you call a man." She sighs taking the phone and staring at the paused screen of his perfectly sculpted face. 

I burst out laughing. He definitely is handsome, but sometimes the handsomest people can have the shittiest of personalities and the media hasn't said much good about him either.

"You're crazy." I laugh giving her a hug. 

"That's for sure." She laughs hugging me back.

Who knew one man could have that much of an effect someone? I will never let him, or any man in a matter of fact, have that effect on me.