Novel-novel oleh Skarlet-Rosé

Present day.Autumn sat down calmly at the dining table, her good hand resting flat on her forehead as she massaged her temples, trying to push a forthcoming headache away. For the last few days, she had spent almost every single waking moment sitting in front of the screen, painstakingly redoing everything she had remembered, every single detail, every hidden account number, and every ledger entry she had lost when her tablet shattered.A few figures she hadn’t been able to recall perfectly. She was still human, after all, but the vast majority of the data she had remembered with clarity. She only had a small problem remaining: all she needed to do now was cross-check her written notes against the files she had gotten them from. But the second question stared right in the face: ‘how’ Was she going to cross-check them?She doubted Nigel would hand her his computer again to let her copy the files he held on Miranda's will. Trying to cross-check her notes with his files without authoriz

A few days ago.As soon as the finalized divorce certificate was placed in his hand, Eric had stormed out of her hospital room without a single backward glance, his heavy footsteps echoing furiously down the quiet corridor with Gabriel trailing closely behind him.“Is the plane ready for New York?” Eric asked, his voice sharp and clipping through the cold hallway air.“Yes, sir,” came Gabriel's curt reply, keeping pace beside him.Gabriel held his tongue, but his mind was racing. He had vividly seen Eric’s utterly distraught state when he first landed at Heathrow, thinking something terrible had happened to her. So it came as a profound shock to see Eric act with such coldness toward Autumn in that room even going as far as to personally initiate the divorce proceedings and fast-track them within twenty-four hours. Gabriel had honestly thought his boss loved her above everything else. He had seen the terrifying madness that took over Eric when she had left without a word five years ag

The bedroom remained pitch-black and silent, except for a thin sliver of light that cut through the cracked doorway, cutting across the floorboards like a blade.Autumn lay motionless on the mattress. Her limbs felt heavy, anchored by a physical tiredness, but her eyes were wide awake and unblinking in the dark. She stared fixedly at the window pane, her gaze never straying from the glass. Images from her life stretching from her earliest childhood memories back home, through her rise, to this exact moment flashed behind her eyes in a rapid montage. The faint hum of the city outside filtered through the glass, distant car horns and the occasional siren blending into a drone.Dark circles marred the skin underneath her eyes, a telltale sign of both her total lack of sleep and the marrow-deep exhaustion of the past forty-eight hours. Her good hand rested on her stomach, fingers occasionally pressing against the tender scar there as if to hold herself together.“I should probably get out

The car stopped in front of the apartment building she had been temporarily residing in during her fight with Eric. Looking up at the concrete through the window, it felt more like a premonition of her entire future than anything else.She stood in front of the building as the heavy silence of the street seemed to mock her. Taking slow, agonizing steps, she walked inside the lobby accompanied by the driver, who helped her carry the heavy luggage through the doors. The lobby smelled of damp concrete and stale air freshener. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, one flickering and casting erratic shadows across the scuffed tile floor. Her footsteps echoed too loudly.The ride up to her floor was just silence as they rode the elevator upward, a heavy, suffocating silence she wanted to just bury herself in. In the mirrored walls, her reflection stared back, eyes hollow, skin drawn tight. She looked away.The elevator doors opened with a ding as she stepped out into the hallway, walking hers

The taxi stopped in front of the gates of the estate. The once beautiful place she had, once upon a time, called home just felt strange to look at now. It was like looking at somewhere not her own, a monument to a life that had vanished.She paid for the taxi with her right hand and took her remaining belongings with her. Balancing the heavy cardboard box carefully with her one good arm, she stepped up and knocked firmly on the iron gate.Standing outside waiting on the pavement felt humiliating, but it also clarified her stance to herself. She was stripped of the Kingston title now; she was still that exact same girl from way back then, before the money.The gates were cracked open from the inside. A stoic bodyguard stepped aside, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead, most likely letting her pass due to specific instructions given to him by Eric or Gabriel. She walked inside the grounds, her body protesting with every single step she took across the gravel path. The physical strain

Autumn lay flat on her back, staring blankly outside through the large glass window. Her entire body felt completely hollowed out both from the agonizing physical pain radiating from her injuries, the dull throbbing pain from her surgery, and the feeling of suffocating hopelessness she felt from the discovery of the destroyed tablet.She was mentally and physically exhausted from everything that had happened over the last two weeks. Her mind was in constant turmoil, relentlessly spinning in circles and making her feel terrible for the choices that had brought her here.“I sacrificed my child for this,” a single tear slipped silently from her eyes as she spoke aloud to the empty room, her voice a cracked whisper. “I sacrificed Eric...” She tightly gripped the rough hospital bedsheets with her one good hand as she quickly wiped her eyes, forcing her expression to harden.A soft, rhythmic knock suddenly brought her snapping back to the present.“Good day, Mrs. Kingston,” the attending d

I knelt down on the damp gravel, the small stones biting into my knees. Earlier during my stay at the manor, I had asked Madame Vivienne to clean up the old headstones behind the house. Now, the moss and grime were gone, leaving the names more clearer. I reached out, my fingers gently tracing the letters etched into the stone that belonged to Serene. Sitting here in the graveyard, I couldn't help but reminisce about the past two years. So much had changed. The world we lived in today looked different from the one I had been dragged into. "Hey," I whispered, biting back the surge of emotion that tightened my throat as I stared at the marker. "How are you? I know, that's a dumb question. You're dead, so you can't exactly feel anything." A chuckle escaped my lips, echoing softly in the open air. "I'm sure you're already familiar with everything that's been going on," I continued, leaning closer to the stone. "Lucien... Lucien and I finally did what you always wanted. We broke the cy

I opened my eyes for the second time, but instead of the white void or the pitch black from its scattered pieces, I was met with the ceiling of what looked like a house.My mind was still swirling from what happened a few moments ago. Serena was gone.The thought made me sad. I was still half expecting her to chastise me for thinking something so absurd about her, but it seems that this was the reality of everything now.A few stray tears leaked from my eyes and slid into my hair.“Being sad about it wouldn’t bring her back,” I said, wiping my eyes. I looked down and saw I was in cotton pajamas.Where am I? That was the only thing that rang in my head. I stood up, dragging the bedsheets aside, and slipped out of bed to see where I was.As I walked out of the room, I couldn’t help but remember the last thing that happened before I fell unconscious. Finding Mom, the talk we had, Hugo, and then the ambush. The ambush.I didn’t know what came over me, but I started to run. Catching Mom’s

I woke up to a white, stark light. It was blinding that I had to snap my eyes closed again instantly to prevent myself from going blind. The glare burned straight through my eyelids, making my head throb It took me a long moment to realize where I even was. I tried to move my arms, but my body felt heavy, like I was buried under sand. I just groaned out loud from how tired I was, my voice sounding flat in the empty space. “You are finally awake,” I heard a voice say. It was the unmistakable voice of Serena. It sounded right next to me, close by. I forced my eyes open against the glare, turning my head to where the sound came from. I saw her sitting right beside me on the white floor. She was looking down at me and smiling. Smiling? The sight shook me. I stood up abruptly, scrambling backward to get some distance between us. My chest was heaving. Why the f*ck was she smiling at me? “Calm down,” she said. She moved toward me smoothly, reaching out and pressing her palm flat against

“My apologies, Your Majesty. I should probably bow,” he said with a mocking tone before proceeding to bow toward Lucien in a mock gesture.He rose back up to his feet and casually straightened his tailored attire. From the crisp lines and quality of his outfit, it was obvious he wasn’t just some lowly man working at the facility. He looked like someone important. Someone wealthy.“What do you want, Hugo?” Lucien growled, his body shifting into a defensive stance.Wait. Hugo? That was my cousin. Now that I was looking at him directly, I could see he shared similar features with my mother when she was younger. There was a slight, undeniable family resemblance in the cut of his nose and the set of his eyes.“Oh, nothing, Your Majesty. I was simply informed of my dear aunt having a visitor, and I wanted to come down and see exactly who they were,” he explained smoothly. I watched as his cold eyes flicked away from Lucien and moved directly toward me.

"Aurelien?” she asked, her voice dropping as she was trying to make sense of the words she had just heard. “Like Eugene Aurelien?” She questioned him directly, her eyes wide as she tried to clarify if she had heard the name correctly. Lucien gave her a firm nod at her words. “Yes, ma'am—” Before Lucien could even finish speaking, my mother moved with a sudden speed. She was right in front of me, throwing her small frame forward to block his view of me. “You demon!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. The sheer volume of her voice startled us both, echoing loudly off the bare walls of the room. “You came here to kill my daughter just like you had done to my husband! All of you from that family are demons!” ‘Very true. Couldn't have said it better myself,’ Serene hummed in agreement. “Ma'am, you are misunderstanding—” Lucien tried to explain again, keeping his

“Mom,” I repeated again, my voice trembling in the quiet, sterile room. I saw her entire body tense up at the sound. Slowly, she started to turn around to face me. She looked just the same as the picture Lucien had shown me in the car, only a bit older now, with faint wrinkles tracing the corners of her eyes and mouth. I watched her face circle through multiple emotions in a matter of seconds—confusion, disbelief, and shock—before finally settling into a profound sadness. “Angelica,” she whispered. The name came out so softly it was barely a breath. “Angelica, my baby.” She walked toward me on unsteady feet, her eyes instantly glossing over with tears. She reached out, her hands trembling as her fingers brushed against my face, tracing my features as if she were trying to see if I was real or just a ghost. Before I could say anything, she leaned in and pulled me into a tight hug.

We kissed for what felt like hours, our lips woven together, intertwined so tightly it was like neither of us wanted to let the other pull away even for a second. His hands were everywhere in my hair, on my face, sliding down my back, gripping my waist like he was trying to map out every inch of me he’d been missing since that night.“God, I need to take a shit,” I heard somebody say from the stairs, followed by heavy footsteps coming closer.I pulled back immediately, heart pounding. “Somebody’s coming,” I whispered to Liam, panic clear in my voice.He was silent for a few seconds, listening. “Sounds like Uncle Joe,” he sighed. Without wasting another moment, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a bedroom, locking the door behind us. From the sports posters and jerseys on the walls, I guessed this was his room. “Now… where were we?” he said, immediately pressing his lips to my neck, biting and sucking hard enough to make me weak in the knees.I was too lost in the feeling to even c

“Can we talk about that?” Liam said more insistently, walking further into my personal space until he was standing barely a hair's length away.“There is nothing for us to talk about,” I said through gritted teeth. I was already annoyed by his persistence, and the air in my lungs suddenly felt like it wasn’t flowing properly under his intense gaze.“Well, I do,” he replied, not backing down at all. “I was not comfortable with you leaving like that after what we shared that night.” He craned his head downward, trying to catch my eyes.“It was just a one-night stand,” I shot back, physically shoving him away just to get some actual air back into my lungs. “Grow up, Liam. It was just sex,” I added, shooting him a harsh glare.“Well, I don’t consider it just sex,” he said quietly.His words shocked me, leaving me momentarily speechless.I recovered quickly, a frown forming on my lips. “Are you a child?” I asked. A sudden thought passed through my mind. “Don’t tell me you actually caught f

It was yet another Sunday, the only day I actually got to kick back and relax and I was spending it at Arya’s family gathering. Fun. I mentally rolled my eyes at the mere thought of sitting out in this stifling June heat, listening to Arya’s fake, obnoxious relatives pretend to be something they were not.The only reason I even attended these things was because her mom, Elizabeth, felt guilty about me being all alone in the city. My own family lived out of state and I wasn’t exactly close to them. If not for Elizabeth and her intense desire to make me feel included, I would currently be binging a show in my beautifully air-conditioned apartment while eating an entire tub of ice cream. Honestly, I bet I could still do exactly that if I managed to slip away early.Pressing the doorbell, I waited to be let inside while carefully balancing a homemade dish in my hands.“Dear, what are you doing knocking?” Elizabeth said the moment she opened the door. She used that exact same affectionate

Sarah POV Me and Arya were at a crowded club celebrating a much-needed girls' night out. The venue was packed to the brim with people. The music was booming so loud that you could literally feel the bass vibrating through every single part of your body. It felt so incredibly good to finally de-stress after the grueling week I had been dealing with so far. Honestly, nothing calms my mind quite like the taste of liquor burning its way down my windpipe.All around us, the dance floor was a sea of people grinding against each other and completely losing themselves to the beat, just letting go and having fun. Shots of all colors were being poured straight down people's throats.I gulped down another shot of tequila, the fiery liquid instantly burning my throat with its familiar acidity.“Hey, Arya! I need to go use the restroom!” I yelled over the noise, trying to notify her of my departure.“What did you say?!” she shouted back, gesturing wildly toward the speakers.I saw that she hadn’t

The next day at the office, I was a bit late because of everything that happened yesterday. My body hurt in that deep, good kind of way a constant reminder of how thoroughly Greg had fucked me all night. He had left early this morning after taking me again before he went, leaving me sore and satisfied in a way I still couldn’t fully process.I wore a mini skirt this time. Shorter than the one from yesterday. Something to tease him. Something to get under his skin the same way he kept getting under mine. I was hunched over my desk arranging some documents when I felt a firm squeeze on my backside. I gasped in surprise.“You little minx,” Greg’s voice whispered hotly in my ear, his warm breath fanning against my skin. “Was the fucking I gave you last night not enough? You had to wear this tiny skirt to seduce other men at work?” He tsked, his hand still gripping my ass possessively. “Or did you wear it hoping I would fuck you right here?”His arm wrapped around my waist like a vice, pr

I had already come hard from the first and second round, but Greg wasn’t done with me yet.He pulled me across his lap until I was straddling his thigh, my soaked pussy pressed against the hard muscle. He lifted me up like I weighed nothing, lining his thick cock right at my entrance. I was still sensitive and dripping from before, but I didn’t hesitate. I sank down onto him completely, letting my full weight rest on his cock.“Fuck…” I gasped. He felt so much deeper in this position. The stretch was intense, almost too much, but so fucking good. I had to take a moment just to breathe, my forehead pressed against his shoulder.He didn’t give me long.His hands gripped my hips tightly and he started dragging me up and down his cock, forcing me to ride him. Every time I sank back down, he bottomed out so deep I felt it in my stomach. The wet, filthy sound of my pussy taking him filled the room.“I can’t…” he rasped, voice wrecked. “I don’t think I’m gonna last much longer, sweet girl.”