DANIELLE'S P.O.V.I sighed in exasperation, turning on my side to glare at the source of my irritation. The familiar tune of my ringtone, which was blaring through the speakers of the mobile device, caused another surge of vexation to swell in my chest. Deciding that I'd had enough of the disruption, I pulled my phone off of the bedside drawer where it was placed, and angrily silenced the call before placing the device on airplane mode to prevent any further disturbance of my peace.I then dropped the phone back on to the drawer and turned to the other side of the bed, closing my eyes and hoping that by doing so, I would finally return back to sleep. Unfortunately, I could do no such thing as the disturbance came in another form- in the form of a gentle rap of knuckles on my door. I let out a frustrated sigh, and rolled onto my back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in a gentle plea to those who lived high up on the heavens. I was desperate for my sleep, and these disruptions kept
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.With Jay at the wheel, the car moved smoothly along the tarred road, and I watched through the car window as the trees passed by swiftly. I could have tried counting them to take mind off the thoughts that soared in my head, unobstructed, but they moved too fast for me to be able to count. I let a sigh escape from my lips before placing my forehead on the cool glass of the car window. Seeing as I was unable to do anything to clear my mind, I guessed that I would have to allow those several thoughts take their course in my head.As I allowed my thoughts to have free reign over my mind, I recalled the last conversation that's I'd had the previous night which was the dialogue I had with Adrian right before I had gone to bed."You should have found a chance, or created one. There is no excuse, at all, for not telling me about those things, Danielle. It concerns me just as much as it concerns you, and need I remind you that the house in question is my own property?" I hea
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.The car drive back to the Valentino estate was silent; neither Jay nor I were used to speaking to one another whenever we were in the car together. The silence allowed for my numerous thoughts to permeate my head and I, once again, allowed them to have free reign over my mind. I thought back to the encounter that I'd had with Mason Haze who was my close friend and course mate, Melody Haze's twin brother; right before I entered the car which Jay had parked in the campus' parking lot and had been seating in wait for me.Why did he grab my arm the way that he did?I thought back to the way he held on to my arm to stop me from leaving, recalling the way his fingers wrapped around the skin of my arm; I recalled how his grip on my arm was firm enough to alter my movement but at the same time, gentle enough to avoid hurting me. I remembered his smile too- the way that he had flashed me a bright smile with his pearly white teeth seeming to sparkle underneath the sunlight.Wh
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.The days spent in the Valentino Mansion rolled by in a blur of early morning trips, with my new person driver, Jay, to the NYU campus in the heart of Manhattan; sometimes, dreary, and other times, fun days at school with my course mates and friends; silent car rides back to the estate with Jay; feasting, alongside my in-laws, on the chef, Etienne's, food for dinner; late night recaps with Alisia, my sister-in-law turned sister; and then finally, to end the day, heading to bed after the day had been quite well spent.Very soon, without even being fully aware of it, I had spent nearly three months at their estate. It was a long time to be around them, because even though they had become my family, they were still new and unfamiliar to me; but I could not quite complain about spending so much time with them as during my time with them, as much as I'd had sad and overwhelming moments, I'd also had my quite share of fun as well as merriment.During that time spent with th
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.While I was growing up, Dad and I lived in Houston Texas for about six years of my life, before we moved to the thriving city of New York were Dad kicked off his business and expanded his company. In Texas, Dad and I were surrounded by religious neighbors who either dragged Dad to church with them, or gaslighted him into attending their religious services and gatherings. Surrounded by these people, I learnt a lot about religion and the existence of a supreme being. I also learnt that apart from this supreme being, there was another who had craved and coveted the same powers that were characterized to that supreme entity, and him alone.This covetous being was later dethroned and deposed from his position as the second in command and eventually was sent away from the mighty and beautiful garden above to the very depths of the earth where ember and fires were the norm. The deposed being was called and referred to as the Devil, and he made it his life's mission to make
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.If there was one thing that I had come to learn over the years that I had spent around my best friends, the couple of months that I had spent with the Valentinos, and also the few months that I had spent knowing my course mates who had turned into friends and had fastly become an important part of my life; it was that no matter how much money one had, or how famous one was, or even how glamorous one was, he or she could never be able to do without friends and family.My life was a perfect example to refer to that statement with if ever one needed to refer to an example while talking about this as while growing up, I had it all; a super rich and famous Dad, pretty shoes, expensive purses, tons of make-up as soon as I was old enough to use them, a whole walk-in closet full of clothes, a driver that drove me to and from school everyday while I was still in middle and high school, and even while I was in college, a live-in chef who served as both a grandmother to me and
DANIELLE'S P.O.V."I'm so sorry, but it has to be done." Alisia said."What are you doing, Allie?" I asked, my eyes squinting in question."I'm sorry." she only repeated in answer.I was baffled by Alisia's consistent apologies- so surprised that I could not even properly comprehend what was going on. The surprise took me by storm and the only thing that I could do was to stay, rooted yo the spot that I was standing on by the surprise, and watch as my sister in-law slowly backed away from her place beside me, bolted out of the room, and closed the door; the sound of the heavy door slamming close reverberated in the room before being closely followed by the sound of the noisiness caused by the door's lock being turned.It was too late to do anything by the time I realized that I had just walked myself into a trap. To say that I was confused, by all that had happened and all that was going in that moment, would be an understatement. I was way past confused and the consequence of my bew
DANIELLE'S P.O.V.If there was one good thing about being locked in a room, it was that said room was the pantry which had been stocked full of various food items but most especially snacks. At least I would not be hungry while I bid my time in the room of apparently no escape.Through the aid of my phone, I had been regularly checking the number of minutes that Adrian and I had spent locked up in that room while hoping that my in-laws, Adrian's family, would decide that they had kept us in the sparsely ventilated room for too long and come to the agreement to release us. However, as the seconds rolled into minutes and those minutes in turn rolled into hours, I came to the realization that Adrian and I were going to be kept captive longer than wither one of them thought we were.I had tried several and various means of getting the both of us out of the room. These things included knocking profusely on the door in hopes of a passer by hearing, shouting at the top of my longs so as to c