MASON – TEN YEARS AGO“Sir, Miss Hayley is here to see you.” I look up from the mass of papers on my desk to find my secretary leaning against the door.“Excuse me?”“Miss Hayley. She just arrived. Should I send her in?”I lean back in my seat, waiting for the stroke of excitement that usually fills me whenever I hear her name… but I feel nothing this time. My heart is cold and empty and the thought of Hayley coming here just fills me with unease.Apparently noticing my sour expression, my secretary hurriedly backtracks.“Sir, I could inform her that you’re in a meeting. That is if…”I give her an odd look. I appreciate her concern but I do not like my secretary harbouring thoughts that she can help my situation in any way.“No, Rachel. I wouldn’t want you to lie to my best friend. Send her in.”Rachel lowers her head, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment and I instantly feel like the greatest of all jerks. The poor woman was only trying to help me and I threw it back in her face.M
MIRAI’m pretty sure Mason has gone psycho ever since my “little admission” a few hours ago. I’m currently huddled under a blanket in his living room with Vanessa, while Mason and Damon are both staring at us like we’re atomic bombs waiting to explode.“Hayley is dead… I just know it.” Damon mutters, frustration evident in his tone.“Well, where’s her goddamn body then?” Vanessa asks. “I’m telling you that Mira is definitely right in her suspicions. That bitch, Halloway is hiding something, and I can vouch for the weird queen we saw sitting beside her in that torture room. I saw her with my own eyes! And she had a scar on one half of her face. She also had an uncanny resemblance to Halloway. Can someone please explain that?”Mason stops his pacing and leans across the bar, those intense blue orbs fixed intensely on me, making my insides melt.He hasn’t touched me nor even looked at me since Vanessa and Damon got here. And weirdly, I want him to.I did not envision him being halfway a
MIRA Rage. Yes, that’s the only way I can deal with this pain. That’s the only way I want to deal with it.Tears cascade down my cheeks as I run to the master bedroom. My heart is full and heavy. I feel broken, completely shattered.Just when I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel for us, Mason has done it again. I laid myself bare. I cut myself open for him and all he did was continue to take that bitch’s side. My heart twists and burns with hatred…and something darker. Something so potent, so venomous, I nearly choke from it.I slam the room door closed, brushing impatiently at the tears that blur my vision. The combination of pain, rage and sorrow within me makes it almost difficult to breathe.I do not even realise when I fall on my knees. I lift my head to the heavens and open my mouth in a silent scream, hoping the anguish within me can escape as well.It doesn’t work. Nothing works. Instead, my bruised heart only tightens further.I look around the room, not s
ANONYMOUS The end is near. I can feel it. I stare at my reflection in the broken, cracked mirror, unable to recognize the black eyed woman who stares back at me.My fingertips hover over the curve of my scar and my heart tightens with poisonous, venomous rage.I shut my eyes and hot, scalding tears slide down my cheeks as memories of the last time I saw them assail my poor, abused brain.He was with her. They were laughing. They looked happy. He looked happy… genuinely happy. My eyes fly open and without thinking, I punch my fists through the mirror, the rage shooting through my veins making it difficult to feel the sharp pain that shoots up my arm.“Mason Lachlan,” I say into the quiet darkness, “I’m coming for you. I will ruin you just like you ruined me. I’m coming for you… and I promise that I will hit you so hard, you will never recover.”
MIRA“Mason! Mason, listen to me. Step away from the mirror right now.”His back heaves with effort and gleams with beads of sweat as he goes completely still. He turns away from the mirror and my heart tightens when I see his empty, tortured expression.His gaze falls to my still bleeding palm and I hurriedly try to move it out of his line of sight.Heart thumping, I stretch a hand out to him.“Mason. Come here. Please, come to me.”After what feels like forever, he shakes his head, his gaze still focused on my dripping hand.“I hurt you.” His voice is husky and emotionless. It scares the living hell out of me.“Mason, we’ll get through it together. Please, just step away from the mirror and come to me.”His gaze finds mine once more and he steps back.“Why do I always do that? No matter how hard I try, no matter how careful I am, you always end up getting hurt one way or the other. Why?”I can sense the atmosphere in the room grow tense as Mason’s temper begins to aggravate.“Why do
MIRAAfter that raw, emotional moment, neither of us speak.Mason lifts my limp body into his arms and I go willingly, curling myself against the strong warmth of his chest.We remain silent as we move past the broken shards of glass in the bedroom. Mason walks through the silent suite until we get to the kitchen. He sets me down on the cold counter and parts my thighs, moving to stand between them.Then he takes my face in his hands and leans forward to drop a soft, tender kiss on my forehead.“Don’t do that to me again, baby. Please. Don’t ever hurt yourself again because of me.”I hold his intense stare with a determined one of my own.“And how about you? Will you keep smashing your fists through mirrors? Because if you will, then I guess I will, too.”His eyes widen in surprise at my slightly sharp tone but I refuse to back down. Seeing that I will not be deterred, Mason takes one quick look at my bloodied hands and shakes his head immediately.“I won’t smash my fists through any
MIRA“So…what’s the plan?” I ask as I try to make myself more comfy on Vanessa’s couch. We’d all agreed to meet here because Damon and Vanessa spent the night here and apparently, he doesn’t want his pregnant girlfriend walking around and stressing too much.Even if he tries to act all tough sometimes, I’m pretty sure Vanessa has him wrapped around her little finger.“We follow her, of course. We find out all the places she frequents, where her house is, where she does her ducking nails…then we set a trap for her. When she falls into our trap, we kidnap her.” Vanessa garbles between bites of her second chocolate flavored donuts. “Oh, and we need to scare the bitch well enough to get her to spill her guts. What do you guys think?”My gaze instinctively falls on Mason. He’s leaning against one wall with his legs crossed. His expression is shuttered so I cannot read him, but I can see the stiffness of his shoulders from where I’m standing.My stomach tightens at the thought that he mig
MIRAWe monitor Halloway for three days. During this time, Vanessa and I take note of all her activities. She no longer goes to the warehouse during her lunch breaks. Now, she spends that time taking long walks at Central Park…which, I must confess, is a bit odd.I never pegged Halloway as a “take-walks-on-my-lunch-break” kinda girl. I rather thought she was a “get-my-hair-done-or-watch-innocent-gay-men-get-tortured-during-my-lunch-break” kinda girl.Vanessa and I started writing those letters and I must confess, Vanessa is one nasty, little she-demon. That lady can definitely give Medusa a run for her money.Of course she was in charge of writing the letters. She’s the most sadistic of the both of us.We’ve written Halloway three letters in total for the three days we’ve stalked her. We usually wait until she’s gone for her walk before I swing into action and tape the envelope to her side mirror or windscreen.We wear gloves while writing, of course, to avoid leaving crumbs that co
SNEAK PEAK OF MY UPCOMING DARK ROMANCE NOVELTITLE: AUCTIONED TO THE RUTHLESS, ITALIAN DAREDEVIL.***He is Edoardo Vicenzo, son of Dante Vicenzo.They called him the most dangerous man in Italy, the boss of all bosses, the leader and owner of men.He had everything he could ever want… money, cars, women. Everything. While I, on the other hand, had absolutely nothing to my name.All I had was my pride. And my beloved sister.When my sister came home from school one day, crying that she was almost raped by one of his men, I lost it. I ran crazy. I became unhinged.My father warned us to keep quiet about it because he was obviously benefiting from the evil reign of Edoardo’s father in the city, but my name is Annachiara Giovanni, and I’ve never been known to keep silent.My blood boiling with rage, I went to fight for my sister that night and ended up nearly being forced into a sex battle. One thing I did not realise was that my sister wasn’t just assaulted by one of Edoardo’s men… she
THREE YEARS LATER... MIRA “Hello, beautiful.” I look up from the cake batter before me and my heart literally sings with joy as I watch my husband come in through the back door of our Victorian home. His handsome face breaks into a full blown smile and those smoky gray orbs shine as bright as the midday sun. I drop the whisk in my hand into the bowl and open my arms wide, beckoning at him with a grin of my own. Without hesitation, Mason covers the distance between us and wraps his strong arms around my waist. He lifts me off the floor and twirls in a half circle, eliciting giggles of delight from my throat. He finally puts me down and buries his face in my neck. “Mmm, you smell delicious. Did you miss me?” I whisper against his chest. “Yes, baby. I missed you so, so much.” My heart warms at those words, but I can’t help but tease him. “You saw me just twenty minutes ago.” He holds me tighter and breathes in the scent of my hair. “It doesn’t matter. The last twenty minut
MIRAI nearly sag from the force of relief that spirals through my veins.My lips stretch in a smile and before long, my pregnancy hormones kick into action and I’m crying all over the place. “Mira!” I hear my sister scream behind me. “He’s awake! Mason has finally woken up!”She wraps her arms around me from behind and I lean into her and shut my eyes, soaking in her love and relief as I sob against her chest.Before long, Vanessa also wraps her arms around us and we stay like that for a long, long time. Anna pats my hair and whispers.“I knew he’d wake up. I just knew it.”I lift my head slowly and stare at her through my tears.“How did you know?”She shrugs.“After he rescued Dutch and I from Halloway and her evil sister, he promised that he’ll always protect us. Mason always keeps his promises.”My tears fall faster and I cup her cheek, trying to smile.“He does, doesn’t he?”“Come on, pregnant lady. You need to sit down.” Vanessa chirps in.With Anna and Vanessa on both my side
LILYTHREE WEEKS LATER…“So, Mrs. Lachlan, what do you plan on doing with your husband’s ashes? Have you thought about that yet?”I sit before the therapist, totally swathed in a feeling of numbness. I’ve felt numb for the past three weeks. The only emotion that has kept me company during this dark time is pain… venomous, excruciating pain. “I don’t know yet.” I whisper, patting my swollen tummy absentmindedly.I don’t want to be here but Vanessa and Damon forced me to come after my third failed suicide attempt. They don’t understand. How can they? How can they understand that I might’ve lost my reason to wake up every morning? How can they understand that Mason is gone and I cannot live without him?How will they understand that I do not believe I have the strength to raise these children on my own?How will they understand that when the doctors pronounced him dead, I wanted to die, too?The therapist, a petite Korean lady, clears her throat and shifts closer.“Mrs. Lachlan, don’t
MASONWhile I’m still trying to deal with my shock, Scuderi’s hold on my neck tightens, blocking out any form of air from passing through my windpipe. My vision becomes increasingly blurry and my head starts to spin.“Get a hold of yourself!” My subconscious screams when I’m on the verge of passing out.At the last minute, I decide that I’m not gonna die like this. I promised Mira that I’ll come home. And I always keep my promises.Just when my uncle thinks he’s winning, I muster the last dregs of my energy and shoot up my free arm, striking him square on the jaw and dislodging him from my body immediately.“Fuck!” He snarls, falling to the side with a pained grunt. A greater part of me just wants to lie there and catch my breath, but deep down, I know that if I waste even a second here, I might not make it out alive.I quickly jump to my feet and pick up the nearest object I can use as a weapon — a baseball bat. When I turn to my uncle, he’s trying to crawl away like the coward he
MIRAThe moment I open my eyes in the morning, I know something has gone horribly wrong. I feel Mason’s side of the bed and it’s cold. Very, very cold. Dread crawls up my spine as I hurriedly sit up, trying to understand what the hell is going on.“Mason?” I call, pulling the covers aside and getting to my feet. “Mason, where are you? Are you in the bathroom?” Silence greets me. Stone cold silence.I pad barefoot to the bathroom, my stomach tightening with fear as I go. Ten minutes later, I’ve searched the entire room and even the closet, but he’s still nowhere to be seen. Now, I really begin to panic.I pull the door open with the intention of searching the rest of the house for him and standing just outside with two papers in her hand and tears streaming down her cheeks is Vanessa.I freeze, horrific images already swirling through my tired brain.“Nessa, what happened? Why are you crying? What are these papers?”She walks past me and climbs onto the bed, her shoulders tremblin
MIRAMy cheeks redden in embarrassment as I quickly look down at my bare feet. I raise my head slowly, already dreading the anger I’ll see in Mason’s eyes.However, when our gazes meet, all I see is worry and concern. He cups my heated cheeks with his palm and murmurs;“What happened, baby? Did you need something?”I’m about to reply when someone slams the table behind us and sneers.“What is this, Mason? Can’t your wife see that we’re in a meeting? How dare she interrupt us? And you’re just going to stand there and do absolutely nothing about it?”I whirl in the direction of the voice to find a stout, middle aged man glaring at us with fire in his eyes. Mason stiffens against me moments before he growls.“What did you just say to me?”The man tries to repeat himself but Damon places a hand on his arm and tries to force him back into his seat.“You do not want to get on his bad side, my friend. Especially when it comes to his wife.”The man looks from Damon to Mason and finally lowe
MIRAWe’ve been back in New York for a week now and Mason seems to grow more overprotective with every passing second. He doesn’t let me do anything… and I mean, anything at all. Sometimes, it’s a real struggle to convince him that I can brush my teeth on my own. Sheesh.I swear, if I didn’t love him too much, I’d have dumped his overbearing arse down the Himalayas mountain by now. Today is one of those days I dread very, very much. It’s one of those days when I have to convince Mason to let me step a foot outside.“But please, oh please…” I beg. “I promise we’re just going skinny dipping in the pool. We’ll be back before you know it.”“Absolutely not.” He says firmly as he knots his immaculate blue tie.I huff and flop on the bed.“Be careful.” He calls from his position in front of the mirror.I finally snap. “What?!”He turns to me, looking gorgeous and edible as ever.“Don’t hit yourself on the bed too hard. Lie down softly.”A incredulous laugh escapes me.“I shouldn’t hit mys
MIRAMason and I hurry through our bathroom niceties and five minutes later, we’re walking into the living room.“Wait for me here.” He says, motioning at a sofa. “I’ll handle them.”“No.” I retort as gently as I can. “I’m coming with you.”He lifts a brow.“There might be a possible threat out there, baby girl. Sit still while I handle it.”In response, I walk past him and gesture at the door.“Isn’t it great that I have you here in case of such threats?” I argue coyly. “Besides, haven’t you been taught never to argue with a pregnant woman?”His face is hard and unyielding for a second and I fear that he might force me to remain inside. To my surprise, his lips tilt in one of those sexy half smiles and he covers the distance between us with two long strides. Mason leans forward and places a soft kiss on my forehead.“I didn’t know stubbornness came with pregnancy as well. Fine, you can come. But you’ll stay behind me at all times. Understood?”I nod eagerly. I even salute and everyt