AURORA'S POV "My goodness, Tinder, how did you get this hurt?" I bent down and gently touched the big cut on his knee. We spent the day together, just the two of us. Morgana and Herold went to a charity event and decided to only take Tree, the "normal" child, the one who didn’t make any funny noises or get attention. Morgana looked guilty when she asked if I could tutor Tinder by myself today. I knew the decision to leave him behind wasn’t hers. I couldn’t help but feel upset with her for not standing up for her principles. For her son. If I could go against one of the strongest men in Boston, a man I loved, why couldn’t she fight for her boy to be treated the same as his brother? I promised myself I would make it a special day for Tinder. A fun day, not a punishment. We went to Mia Sterling’s fancy diner for breakfast, ate pancakes and waffles, then relaxed by Charles River, watching the clouds while I told him stories from Greek mythology, just like Auntie Tia used to do with m
AURORA'S POV I couldn’t stop thinking about the time Herold shook his son when Tinder had trouble talking. “No.” Tinder picked the salt off his pretzel without thinking. “One time, after a party where I made him mad, he put my head in a sink full of water. In and out, in and out. He-He-He said he would only stop if I stopped acting weird. Bu-but it worked because I stopped for a whole week.” I couldn’t blink,swallow or even breathe. It felt like my world crashed down on me and suddenly, everything made sense. I had stepped into a mess Aiden was trying to keep me away from. I found out a secret I wasn’t supposed to know. “Does your daddy treat your mommy and brother like this too?” “No. He loves Tree and says he will send him to a fancy school in England. I th-think he loves Mommy too. Even if sometimes he pushes her around. He never pushes too hard.” Tinder stopped and frowned, thinking hard. “Only once he pushed her off the railings and she fell down the stairs but she fell o
AURORA'S POV When Daniel knocked on the door, I pulled him inside really fast. He was wearing a black shirt, jeans, and had his usual serious face. “His laptop will probably have a password,” I said, still holding the door, my heart beating fast. I never broke the law. Not for anything or anyone. I didn’t even cross the street when the light was red. My love for my husband was making me crazy. Daniel walked past the living room without looking at the boy and went up the stairs. I followed him and pointed at Herold’s office. Daniel put on some gloves, took a tool from his backpack, and opened the locked door easily. We both went inside. I kept thinking about Tinder, who was downstairs watching TV, waiting for me. I felt very bad. I was about to change his life forever. Even though I knew it was the right thing because of his bad father, I also knew Tinder might hate me for it. “So Aiden was right,” Daniel said with no feeling, turning on the laptop and sitting in Herold’s chair.
AURORA’S POV"I can't believe you'd stoop so low. Cheating on me with my own cousin is disgusting and gambling our savings away is just cruel" my heart breaking with each word. Sign these divorce papers now." I said flinging the divorce papers in his face then walked out the room with tears streaming down my face. Those were the last words I told my ex husband eight months ago when I found him in bed with my cousin. EIGHT MONTHS LATERThe stones on the sidewalk hurt my feet as I parked my bike in the park . It was dark outside and the weather looked like it was about to rain. I hoped it wouldn't start until I got home . I just got back from my babysitting job because I needed the money.After my divorce from that scumbag, I moved in with my sister, Annabelle. I’ve been working overtime for months, trying to save enough money to get my own place. My ex husband gambled away our savings. I know I was stupid to trust him, but I was young and thought I was in love. I ran to my door and
AURORA'S POV The door clicked shut behind the two men. They hurried to a black car parked across the street, jumped in, and sped away, heading back to wherever they belonged. I climbed the stairs to my sister’s apartment slowly. I had been living with Annabelle ever since Thomas disappeared seven months ago. My hands trembled as I slid the key into the lock and pushed the door open. I didn’t pay rent. Annabelle thought Thomas had taken the money we saved for a house and run off. She was right about that. What she didn’t know was that he had also gambled away all of my savings at an illegal casino, leaving me drowning in debt. “Aurora? Seriously? It’s pouring out there,” Annabelle said, rubbing her eyes and stretching out on the couch. She was wearing an oversized T shirt, watching a Korean drama on TV. A bag of peanut butter pretzels rested on her stomach. She looked so calm and relaxed, and for a moment, I felt jealous. She didn’t have to scrape by every week, working a humiliat
AURORA'S POV "With what money?" I sighed. "And don't even think about offering me another loan. I'm just going to say no." Annabelle worked as a club promoter at one of Boston's most popular club. She was incredible at her job, bringing in high-paying clients that made the owners ecstatic, but she wasn’t rich. Plus, she was saving up to help fund the club's upcoming renovation project so she could become a partner. "If you’re too proud to take money from mey your own sister, no less you should ask Sandy for a loan," Annabelle said, her voice filled with frustration. "The Kings have more money than they know what to do with. Sandy wouldn’t even notice it missing. She’d lend it to you without interest, and she knows you’d pay it back eventually." "I can’t," I said, shaking my head. "Why not?" Annabelle placed a slice of pizza on a paper plate and walked back to the couch, setting it in my lap. "Eat, Aurora. You’re so thin, Mom thinks you have an eating disorder." "I don’
AIDEN'S POVHenry made the announcement at the dinner table. "We’re having a baby.”His grin was smug, and I wanted to smack it off his face maybe with a punch, or worse. Breathe, Aiden. Just breathe. I try to calm myself. Sandy, his wife, touched her stomach. She didn’t seem like the motherly type. Honestly, none of them seemed fit to take care of anything, not even a goldfish. “We’re eight weeks in. Still early, but we wanted you to know.”I kept my face calm, cracking my knuckles under the table. Their timing was terrible. Mother jumped from her chair, squealing as she hugged and kissed them both. Ariella, my younger sister, couldn’t stop talking about how excited she was to be an aunt. She was about to finish med school, so it made me question her life goals for a moment. Alex, our father, shook Henry’s hand like he’d just closed a big deal. In a way, he had. Our father had always said he expected us to have kids. The family name, the company, and the fortune had to stay i
AURORA'S POV Days passed slowly. I was anxious, restless, and barely able to take a deep breath. Ever since I walked out of Aiden’s office with nothing, I hadn’t been able to eat or sleep. Even looking at myself in the mirror made me feel sick. My mind kept replaying two things: Aiden turning me down and the terrifying thought of Peter and his sidekick throwing my body into a river. At work, I was a mess. I forgot the words to songs during circle time and almost gave mac and cheese to a lactose intolerant student. I spilled an entire can of paint on the floor and had to stay late to clean it up. By the time I got home, the sky was dark and heavy with rain. Holding my bag tightly, I jogged from my bike to the door. I reminded myself I had pepper spray and a Taser, and that there was no way Peter would find me here. But the fear wouldn’t leave. As I entered the building, I reached for the light switch but froze. The lights were already on. Before I could react, someone grabbed
AURORA'S POV When Daniel knocked on the door, I pulled him inside really fast. He was wearing a black shirt, jeans, and had his usual serious face. “His laptop will probably have a password,” I said, still holding the door, my heart beating fast. I never broke the law. Not for anything or anyone. I didn’t even cross the street when the light was red. My love for my husband was making me crazy. Daniel walked past the living room without looking at the boy and went up the stairs. I followed him and pointed at Herold’s office. Daniel put on some gloves, took a tool from his backpack, and opened the locked door easily. We both went inside. I kept thinking about Tinder, who was downstairs watching TV, waiting for me. I felt very bad. I was about to change his life forever. Even though I knew it was the right thing because of his bad father, I also knew Tinder might hate me for it. “So Aiden was right,” Daniel said with no feeling, turning on the laptop and sitting in Herold’s chair.
AURORA'S POV I couldn’t stop thinking about the time Herold shook his son when Tinder had trouble talking. “No.” Tinder picked the salt off his pretzel without thinking. “One time, after a party where I made him mad, he put my head in a sink full of water. In and out, in and out. He-He-He said he would only stop if I stopped acting weird. Bu-but it worked because I stopped for a whole week.” I couldn’t blink,swallow or even breathe. It felt like my world crashed down on me and suddenly, everything made sense. I had stepped into a mess Aiden was trying to keep me away from. I found out a secret I wasn’t supposed to know. “Does your daddy treat your mommy and brother like this too?” “No. He loves Tree and says he will send him to a fancy school in England. I th-think he loves Mommy too. Even if sometimes he pushes her around. He never pushes too hard.” Tinder stopped and frowned, thinking hard. “Only once he pushed her off the railings and she fell down the stairs but she fell o
AURORA'S POV "My goodness, Tinder, how did you get this hurt?" I bent down and gently touched the big cut on his knee. We spent the day together, just the two of us. Morgana and Herold went to a charity event and decided to only take Tree, the "normal" child, the one who didn’t make any funny noises or get attention. Morgana looked guilty when she asked if I could tutor Tinder by myself today. I knew the decision to leave him behind wasn’t hers. I couldn’t help but feel upset with her for not standing up for her principles. For her son. If I could go against one of the strongest men in Boston, a man I loved, why couldn’t she fight for her boy to be treated the same as his brother? I promised myself I would make it a special day for Tinder. A fun day, not a punishment. We went to Mia Sterling’s fancy diner for breakfast, ate pancakes and waffles, then relaxed by Charles River, watching the clouds while I told him stories from Greek mythology, just like Auntie Tia used to do with m
AIDEN'S POV Thomas shook his head. “I don’t know what to think. All I know is that Aurora and I had a good thing going. I fucked up, but she’s a good girl. She could still forgive me.” That meant she hadn’t forgiven him yet. My heart slowed for the first time since I saw him enter her apartment. I grabbed the leather gloves from my back pocket, slapped them over my thigh, and put them on. His throat moved as he swallowed. Good. He needed to know I wasn’t afraid to get dirty to make my point. “Don’t mistake Aurora’s goodness for being naive,” I warned. “She’s past forgiving you.” “You don’t know her like I do.” He shook his head. “What I do know is that you tried to pay Peter Vory with her as a deal, and that’s why I’m here. Now, you’re going to listen closely and follow my every word, and I’ll let you keep your miserable life. If you go off track, I’ll make sure you crash into a ten-ton truck and feed whatever’s left of you to the hyenas. Got it so far?” He grabbed the ed
AIDEN'S POV Thomas Reynolds’ temporary place to stay was just a small room in the back of a shady poker club in Southie. From the look of the old two story building outside, he was probably sleeping on a dirty cot made of trash, hair, and diseases. Instead of knocking, I kicked the weak screen door down and walked right in. Three tables full of men with dirt and oil on their faces looked up at me, their eyes leaving their cards. “Thomas Reynolds,” I said in a low voice. No need for anything else. The room went silent.I knew showing off my fancy suit and clean haircut would cause trouble, but I didn’t care. Then I pulled out my wallet, and held up a hundred-dollar bill between my fingers, waving it around. “I’ll ask again, where’s Thomas Reynolds?” The men must have noticed the crazy look in my eyes because they shifted in their chairs nervouslyblooking at each other. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, we don’t even know him, why are we protecting him? He’s in the back room!” one man
AIDEN'S POV Yes, I wanted to know if I was really losing Aurora, but that was beyond Daniel’s skills. "Just do your fucking job." I turned around and walked up the stairs back to my office. I cursed again but this time, no one was shocked. I was starting to come apart, break, crack, and fall to pieces. I was changing, developing feelings and I hated it so, I spent the rest of the day pretending to be there, pretending to work, pretending not to care. I went to meetings, yelled at workers, checked our quarterly reports, and had lunch with Devon, where we talked about how to fight Green Living in court. "I should not have eaten the pasta. It made my stomach hurt," I said when we left the restaurant. Devon laughed loudly. "The pasta was fine. The bad feeling in your stomach is longing. Is Aurora still living in her Commonwealth apartment?" I didn’t even answer him. Longing was something teenage girls felt for Armie Hammer. The only long thing about me was between my legs. At si
AIDEN'S POV "You dumb piece of cock sucking shit." I punched Daniel Sterling in the face the second he walked through my door, hitting his nose that had already been broken three times. I had texted Sterling at five in the morning, telling him if he didn’t show up at my house in fifteen minutes, I would buy every building in Southie, both government and private and tear down every place he loved growing up, just to ruin his day. He got to my house in nine minutes and didn’t even look tired. I, on the other hand, went from saying no bad words to saying only bad words. "Good morning to you, too," he said calmly, pushing his nose back into place without even flinching, even as blood poured out. The crack of the bone was enough to make anyone but the two of us want to throw up. "Why the warm welcome?" "Because you’re a bullshit private investigator and a terrible fucking friend. You messed up. Guess how my wife spent her night yesterday?" I pushed him against the front door and
AURORA'S POV My ex husband wasn’t just crazy, he was also as stupid as a string. I tried to remember what I saw in him at first, beyond his Instagram model looks. The answer was simple and embarrassing, he was the rebound. The fix for Aiden’s refusal and the thing I tried that almost ruined me. “We’re happily divorced. I married someone else.” I showed him my wedding finger, with an engagement ring with a diamond the size of his face shining back at him. I never took it off. Even when I knew I should. Thomas jumped up and rushed over to me. Maybe it was because he wasn’t like Aideny not as tall, broad, or powerful or maybe it was just because he wasn’t Aiden, but his presence bothered me. “I get it, babe. You’re angry and hurt. You have every right to be but you’re not fooling anyone. Your marriage isn’t real.” He stood in front of me, holding my arms, wanting to shake me. “Ours wasn’t real, either. Honestly, I have something to confess too.” I broke free from his grip, stepping
AURORA'S POV The lie was so bad that I almost started laughing. Thomas kept talking like he didn’t notice."Our goodbye was never meant to be forever. I always planned to come back. You were smart, careful, and strong. I just needed you to help me out a little. When I saw the news about you marrying Aiden King, I wanted to kiss you. I thought, ‘that’s my girl.’ I was starting to worry that Peter Vory would really try to sell and pimp you out and I was about to step in."He put a hand on his chest. He looked like a terrible actor in a bad soap opera. The kind who wins a worst-actor award every year and still shows up happy to get it.My whole body vibrated with anger. I wanted to punch him in the nose, and I had never hurt anyone before."You knew they were following me?" I asked, trying hard to stay calm.He nodded. "I was watching you the whole time. I made sure you were safe. I worried about you so much, Aurora.""I wasn't safe," I said."You should give yourself more credit, babe.