Laura Weeks had passed since Jason had become the majority owner of Hextec, so he had made some drastic changes to the company, such as moving the company's facilities to Manhattan and giving me the position of chief executive of the company. “This company is more yours than mine; I don't see who
Laura “From the security cameras, Miss Annie went towards the gym, and then no one saw her again,” said the principal of the school Annie attended. I had just called them to see if my daughter was there but got a negative response. “We are responsible for the care of your daughter; if she has disap
Laura The room was a dark, dimly lit place, the furniture was rustic, and there were hunting artifacts on the walls: a stuffed fagot's head hanging on the wall and a long, old shotgun that I was hoping was just a decoration. Annie was sitting at the table with a scared and lost look. When she saw m
I gasped, hearing Annie whimpering in fear in front of me, breaking my heart. “Look at the mess you made here, Laura. For God's sake,” he said, taking a towel and wiping up the spilled wine on the table. “Will I always be cleaning up your mess? Why can't you take care of yourself alone? Honestly,” h
Suzy I hadn't gone home that night. As I staggered back to the car with the two heavy bags of money, I stood there watching Richard drive his expensive car with the poor child in the back. I thought for a while at that opportune moment that it would be wiser if I drove to my apartment, grabbed my
“Your friend Clary called me; is it true that you are pregnant?” A voice nervously asked. “Did Clary call you?” I asked in response, shocked. Why had she called Terrence and told him that? “She said you need money and are willing to sell this child to me in exchange for good fortune,” he explain
Laura “If you want to hit someone, hit me and not her,” I challenged him with my eyes still in fury still holding his arm. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt my daughter, not when I was still breathing. “You bitch!” He yelled at me and slapped me hard across the face, so hard that he knocked me to
“I will give you anything you want, but please let me have my daughter,” I begged again. I couldn't bear to hear my daughter crying, not really. He clicked his tongue as if it wasn't relevant to him. “She's a tantrum child, soon she'll stop crying and go to sleep,” he said, dismissing my request.
“Why do you keep hanging out with them, Abby?” he asked, and now there was a note of concern that annoyed me even more. “You know Madison’s not good for you. She uses you, and you let her.” “It’s none of your business,” I shot back, my voice sharp. “I do what I want, Caleb. Bye.” I hung up before h
Abby POV It was a lazy Sunday, and I was at the mall’s food court, waiting at the counter to pick up snacks for myself and the “new friends” I’d managed to latch onto. The smell of grease and cheap coffee filled the air, and the hum of conversations mixed with the muffled pop music from the speaker
Caleb, Abby, Madison, Nadia—they all spun through my head like a broken carousel. I wanted to tell my parents everything, collapse and ask for help, but the thought of seeing disappointment in their eyes—or worse, them trying to intervene at Oxwell to “save” me—made me swallow the words. I had to fi
Annie POV It was the weekend, and I was at home, trying to take deep breaths and pretend everything was okay. The Oxwell campus was a few hours away, giving me temporary relief from the chaos my life had become. Here, with my parents and the twins, I could at least try to be the old Annie—the exc
Max POV Walking beside someone who’d once meant so much to me felt strange. I couldn’t stop thinking that our breakup had been a waste, couldn’t stop remembering how happy I’d been with this guy, only to ruin it all because of my ego, because of a toxic fixation I had on Albert. Conrad Adams walke
Max POV was stunned when Albert told me that, my mouth even went dry because I wasn’t expecting to hear it. Conrad Adams was back. He was my boyfriend in my early twenties. I met him through Albert, who was close friends with him during the dark days of his family’s company. Conrad was a good guy
Max POV I was driving through the city with the radio on low, just a background murmur to keep the silence from swallowing me whole, when my phone buzzed on the dashboard. Zoey. Of course it was her. The girl had already wormed her way into my house like a high-heeled parasite, and now, apparently,
Annie POV After the moment at the mall, I returned to the dorm with a tight chest, carrying the bags with the blue dress Summer had insisted I buy. The plan was to distract myself, but Madison’s words—“racist,” “canceled piece of trash”—spun in my head like a broken record, mingling with Nadia’s re
When I met her last week at a council meeting, I could tell she’d be a challenge—confident, charismatic, the type who knew how to play the game. “Ugh, Madison Goodwin is here too. What a rotten day,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. Of course Abby would get close to Madison—she was her adopted cousin.