Novels by Amedrianne Stories

The silence after Lanc left was heavier than before, filled with the echo of his monstrous confession. *She was weak.* The words were branded onto my soul. Dr. Sapiera helped me to the couch, his hands gentle, his face a mask of horrified sympathy.“I need to get you ice for that,” he murmured, looking at the welt rising on my cheek.“Later,” I said, my voice hoarse but steady. The shock was receding, burned away by a cold, focused fury. I pointed to the crumpled file on the floor. “We need that.”He retrieved it, carefully smoothing out the pages. The evidence was all there, a roadmap of betrayal signed by Stella’s brother. It was a weapon, but as Lanc had so clearly demonstrated, a useless one against his power and influence. He’d swat any legal challenge away like a gnat.“He’s right, you know,” I said, more to myself than to the doctor. “Going public, going to the police… it’s what he expects. He’s already prepared for it. He’ll paint me as a hysterical, grieving widow, and you as

The name Elara hung in the air around me, a spell that had broken Stella’s smug facade and now seemed to hum with its own power. Elara. It was elegant, unusual. Not a common name. Not like Eva. It was a real clue.I drove back to my apartment in a daze, the priest’s warning a faint echo in the back of my mind. The past can be a dangerous thing to dig up. But the present was a graveyard, and the future was a war. I needed this weapon.My apartment felt different. It was no longer just a hiding place. It was a command center. I booted up my laptop, the glow of the screen the only light in the dim room. I typed “Elara” into the search bar, adding “missing person,” “disappeared,” and the name of the city. The results were a scattered mess—mythology, astronomy, a few random social media profiles that led nowhere.Frustration gnawed at me. Lanc had billions and a team of investigators. I had a laptop and a desperate, bleeding heart.My phone buzzed, shattering the silence. A number I didn’t

The click of the penthouse door closing behind Doña Caridad was the most satisfying sound I’d heard in weeks. The air she left behind still felt cold, but the fear was gone. In its place was a razor-sharp clarity. I had a weapon now. Not just the rabbit, but the Arcony family’s terror of their secrets seeing the light of day.I didn’t waste a second. I tucked Angela’s journal into my bag and headed straight for the one place I knew I could find answers, the one place Lanc’s money and influence hadn’t completely sanitized: the old neighborhood where he’d been attacked.The drive was a descent into another city, one Lanc had risen far above. The sleek glass towers gave way to cramped buildings with rusted fire escapes and bodegas with bright, handwritten signs. This was where his myth began. This was where I would start to end it.I parked my unassuming sedan and started walking, feeling eyes on me. I was an outsider here, my grief and anger poorly disguised by my jeans and sweater. I n

The scent of bleach still hung in the air, a sharp, clean smell that did little to cleanse the memory of his violation. Dr. Sapiera’s words echoed in the new silence of my apartment. It was never you.The anger was still there, a cold, hard knot in my stomach, but now it had a purpose. A direction. A white rabbit with one chewed ear.It was a ludicrous clue. A needle in a haystack of a city. But it was all I had. Lanc, with all his billions and private investigators, had never found her. But he’d been looking for a fantasy, a ghost. I was looking for a woman. A real person who owned a chewed-up toy.My first stop was the past. Our old penthouse. Lanc would be at the office, and I still had the codes. I needed something from Angela’s room.The silence in the penthouse was different from the silence in my apartment. It was heavy, opulent, and dead. It smelled of expensive polish and emptiness. I didn’t let myself look at the couch where we’d once curled up for movies, or the dining tabl

The darkness behind my eyes felt like a terrifying car crash at night. I was in the back of an ambulance, holding Angela’s small, cold hand. Her face was pale, a stark contrast to the dark blood matting her hair.“Daddy’s coming, baby,” I whispered, my voice cracking with a lie I desperately wanted to believe. “He’s coming. He has the special blood. He’s going to make it all better.”Her eyelids fluttered. “He promised… he’d read me a story…”In the nightmare, I could feel the life seeping out of her, a slow, terrible leak. I chafed her hands, pulled my coat tighter around her, trying to keep her warm. “Stay with me, Angela. Stay with Mommy. Please.”The hospital. The frantic rush. The doctor’s grim face.“We need to operate now. She’s lost too much blood. We need the transfusion. Where is Mr. Arcony? We’ve paged him six times.”My own voice, shrill with panic. “He’s not answering! He’s at dinner! Please, you have to find him!”But he was unreachable. Seated at a candlelit table, laug

The silence in my new apartment was a balm. It was mine. It was quiet. It held no trace of joy turned bitter, no reminder of broken promises. For the first time in days, I could breathe without the scent of Lanc’s cologne, without the oppressive weight of his presence, choking me.I’d changed my number. I’d left the penthouse with nothing but a single suitcase of my own clothes and the urn. He could keep his gilded cage. I was finally free.A sharp, incessant pounding on the door shattered the peace. My heart hammered against my ribs. I knew that knock. It was the sound of entitlement, of a man who had never been told ‘no’.“Gwen! Open this door. I know you’re in there.”It’s Lanc. Of course. I considered not answering. But he would likely break the door down. I swung it open, my body blocking the entrance. “What do you want, Lanc?”He looks irritated and not even the slightest remorseful. There was no sign of any grief on his face. He was still in his work suit, his hair perfectly