Novels by enobong sampson

Edwin’s POVThe hotel suite smelled like rain and cedarwood and the faint metallic edge of desperation that always clung to Daniel when he was trying not to fall apart.I stood in the doorway for a long moment after the elevator doors closed behind me, keycard still warm in my palm from the front desk. The room was dim , only the bedside lamps on and the city lights bleeding through the floor-to-ceiling windows, painting long silver stripes across the dark carpet and the wide king bed. No overhead lights. No staff. Just the two of us and the quiet hum of the storm outside.Daniel was already there.He stood at the window wall, back to me, hands in the pockets of his dark trousers, shoulders tight under the white dress shirt. He hadn’t changed out of the suit he’d worn to the last emergency board call. His tie was gone, top button open, hair slightly messy like he’d run his hands through it too many times. He looked exhausted. Haunted. Like the man who had held me through Mom’s funeral

Edwin's POV The decision to leave the family apartment didn't come lightly.I had stood in the doorway of my bedroom for nearly twenty minutes before I even reached for the duffel bag on the top shelf of the closet , the battered olive-green one I'd used for weekend trips and forgotten about for years. Pulling it down felt like an admission, and I wasn't sure I was ready for that. But my hands moved anyway, as though some quieter, braver part of me had already made the decision and was simply waiting for the rest of me to catch up.As I packed, I felt a strange mixture of relief and dread moving through me in slow alternating waves. The silence in the apartment was deafening , no more shouting, no more accusations, no more of Victor's voice cutting through the rooms like something designed to wound. No more stifling tension pressing against my chest like a heavy weight I'd grown so accustomed to carrying that I'd stopped noticing it was there. But the silence also felt hollow, emptie

Edwin's POV The tension in the room was so thick I could barely breathe. Every second stretched into something unbearable, and I stood frozen, the chaos of it all swirling around me like a storm I couldn't outrun. Voices rose, sharp and heated, bouncing off the sterile walls, but the words kept blurring in my mind. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt, each beat a reminder of how close to the edge everything had come.It had started with something small. It always did.Victor's voice cut through the noise first, venomous and terrifyingly steady. "You're just playing me. You think I don't know what you're hiding?"I clenched my fists at my sides, my knuckles going white. I had told myself I was prepared for this. I had rehearsed it in my head a hundred times, what I would say, how I would hold myself together. But standing here now, with his eyes on me like that, none of my preparation meant anything."You don't know what you're talking about," I said. My voice came out smaller than

Daniel's POV The weight of the secret pressed heavily on my chest as I sat alone in my apartment, staring at the blinking cursor on my phone screen. I had just left Victor’s office an hour ago, and my mind was racing in every direction. The truth was out now, more than just a whisper or a guarded secret. Victor had everything: Edwin’s full sex-work history, every detail, every client, every transaction. And he had used it to manipulate, to threaten, to control.But what haunted me most wasn’t just the fact that he knew. It was that I’d kept silent all this time. That I’d known from the very beginning, and I hadn’t told Edwin. I’d buried the knowledge deep, pretending it didn’t matter, convincing myself that it was better to keep the peace, to protect him from the fallout. But now, knowing what Victor could do, what he was capable of, I realized I’d been a coward.I stared at the screen, my fingers trembling as I debated whether I should call Edwin or go straight to him. Instead, I to

Victor's POV The dim glow of my office lamp cast long shadows across the room as I sat back in my chair, fingers steepled beneath my chin. The air was thick with anticipation, my favorite kind of game. I had been waiting for this moment, the perfect opportunity to leverage what I knew against Daniel. And now, it was finally here.The door creaked open quietly, and Daniel stepped inside. His face was tense, eyes flickering with suspicion and something else I couldn’t quite place, fear, maybe. He knew he was walking into the lion’s den, but that didn’t stop him from trying to appear composed.“Victor,” he greeted cautiously, closing the door behind him. “You wanted to see me?”I gestured toward the chair across from my desk. “Yes. Have a seat.”He hesitated for a moment, then obliged, settling into the chair with an air of guardedness. I watched him carefully, studying every line of his face, trying to gauge his state of mind, his weaknesses.“Daniel,” I began softly, a smile curling a

Edwin’s POVThe apartment smelled like burnt toast and the faint lavender ghost of Mom’s detergent that still clung to the curtains even after three weeks of trying to wash it out. I stood in the kitchen, staring at the toaster like it had personally betrayed me, the blackened bread sitting on the plate like a bad omen. Ruby was at the table behind me, knees drawn up, scrolling through her phone with the kind of intense focus that usually meant she was avoiding something.I scraped the worst of the char into the trash and dropped two fresh slices in. The toaster clicked. The smell of bread warming filled the small space, and for a second it almost felt normal , like Mom was still in her room, humming off-key while she folded laundry, and Daniel was going to walk through the door any minute with takeout and that quiet smile he saved just for us.But Mom was gone.Daniel was… somewhere. Distant. The board meeting had come and gone, Victor’s contract had been terminated, but the distance