Chapter 1

Amber Fields trudged through the snow wearily. She was shivering and her breath came in short gasps. Her chest heaved as well as she struggled under the weight of her grocery bag, but she was happy. She had just picked up her paycheck from the departmental store where she worked after school and she was excited to be able to contribute to the upkeep of her foster family, the Bryces’. Sheincreased her steps as she imagined the look of amazement on her foster parent’s face when she showed up at the dinner table with the groceries.

Suddenly, the screech of car tires jolts her out of her reverie and she hears a loud cackle. “Amber Bunny, walking home alone from work as usual?” the voice taunts. Amber froze for a moment then resumed walking really fast. She knew the voice all too well and nothing good ever came from the owner. The voice belonged to Hilary Bryce, the school’s cheer leading captain and her foster sister. She was the biological daughter of Mr and Mrs Bryce, her foster parents and she was a bully. Even though she was younger than Amber by 2 years, she always bullied her, calling her names like “fat”, “greasy” and “unloved” because she was a foster kid. She took special delight in reducing Amber to tears at every opportunity.

“You’re not going to ignore me, are you?” Hilary taunted. “You know how much that gets me upset..”

Amber paused nervously wishing Hilary would just leave her alone. “Hi, Hilary…” she responds quietly.

Hilary parked the car and slammed the door shut. “So you were just going to ignore me?”

Amber shivered, “No, of course not. I was just in a hurry to get home.”

“Indeed…what have you got there, huh?”

Amber fidgets a little, she didn’t want Hilary to try anything stupid. “Nothing, just a few groceries.”

Hilary reaches out and smacks the bag out of Amber’s hands. “You don’t deserve to eat, Amber! Can’t you see how fat you are?”

Amber’s lips tremble and she starts to shake. “ Please, Hilary, I just want to get home…”

“Home?”, Hilary cackles, “YOU don’t have a home, remember? You have nobody! Your parents never wanted you! That’s why you ended up in the foster system…!”

Amber sinks to her knees and tries to block out the mean words coming from Hilary’s mouth. “…you are just another paycheck for my parents, and a pretty lousy one at that because you’re so sickly!”

Tears fall down Amber’s face as she tries to pick up the fruits and groceries from the snow. “You are the reason I couldn’t go on the holiday I wanted! You just had to fall sick, didn’t you? And there was no way Mom and Dad could leave you behind, could they? You are a pathetic leech!” screamed Hilary.

“It’s not my fault I have a bad heart, Hilary, and I'm so sorry for ruining your holiday. I didn’t mean to do so.”

“Of course, you can’t help being sick. You're a defective product. Your biological mother must have taken one look at your face and seen how much trouble you would bring!” sneered Hilary. Amber sobbed quietly, each statement from Hilary cut her deeply and she could no longer bear it. She grabbed what was left of the groceries and fled into the night as Hilary’s loud cackles follow her. She pauses for breath and inhales sharply as she realizes she was in unfamiliar territory. Looking around in fear, she tries to make sense of where she was. All she saw was unfamiliar trees and hedges. It looked like a lonely spot off the major road. Sniffing loudly, she backtracks and tries to follow the trail back to somewhere familiar.

She had barely taken a few steps when blinded by her tears, she runs into the path of an oncoming truck. The driver brakes suddenly and mutters curse words.

Damien Knight was in an incredibly foul mood.

Earlier that day, he discovered that his super model girlfriend had been cheating on him with her high school sweetheart. She had repeatedly swore nothing was going on between them, but the niggling doubt in his mind kept him up at night. He finally succumbed and had one of his guys tail her. After just three days,he caught them in a hotel on the outskirts of town.

Damien smirked to himself as he remembered the punishment he had ordered to be given to the two of them. First, he cleared out his girlfriend’s bank account then re possessed her car. As for her lover, he got his I.T guys to hack into all his social media accounts and leak compromising emails and correspondence with his company's major business rival. It was only a matter of time before the backlash sends him into chronic depression.

That was the kind of man Damien Knight was. Ruthless, unforgiving and cold. Having successfully destroyed these two people’s lives, he decided to clear his mind by taking a drive to an unfamiliar part of town.

It was snowing hard but driving always cleared Damien's mind, besides the silver Ford was fitted with excellent snow tires, so he hit the road at 50 miles per hour with his bodyguard following in a silver mustang.

He was barely an hour into his drive when from nowhere, a figure stumbled into his path. He hit the brakes and swerved sharply in order to avoid hitting the pedestrian.

“What the h***?!”

He jumped out of the truck and rushed to inspect his bumper. “What the h***!” he swore again. The bumper was broken. It had hit the side of the road when he swerved. With rage in his eyes, he turned to the trembling figure in the middle of the road that caused the accident.

All Amber could whisper was a weak “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you coming.” She was still in obvious shock at how she narrowly missed losing her life just seconds agao.

“You must have a death wish!” screamed Damien. “Are you insane? How dare you run into the road like that?”

His shouting upset Amber further, coupled with the surge of adrenaline that flowed through her body as a result of what she had just experienced, Amber snapped back.

“That’s enough mister! I said I was sorry! You have no business driving with such speed in this weather!”

Damien did a double take. How dare this total stranger speak to him in such manner? Without thinking, he shot his arm out to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. Upon contact with her body however, he instantly realized how cold she was. Why, she was practically shaking! He did a double take; his initial anger evaporated and then took a good look at her.

Short, red hair framed her oval face and fell forward in waves. She had a plump body ripe with curves in all the right places and eyes as green as the purest of emeralds. Right at that moment though, those eyes were blazing indignation. Taken aback by her veiled beauty, he pulled himself together while noting that she wore an old parka jacket which did nothing to protect her from the cold.

“I beg your pardon Miss. May I offer you my jacket? You seem a bit cold?”

Amber is surprised by his change in attitude, and tries to retort when yet another car pulls to a stop besides his. Two muscular heavy weights spill out of the car and bound across the snow to Damien.